372 JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER. 



" And listening, with his forehead bowed, 

 Heard the Divine compassion fill 

 The pauses of the trump and cloud 

 With whispers small and still." 



However, his actual belief may have been affected by the 

 immense growth of devout free thought about him, he never for 

 a moment faltered in faith that the inner light of the Friends 

 is real. On his sixty-fourth birthday he wrote : 



" God is, and all is well ! 



" His light shines on me from above, 

 His low voice speaks within, — 

 The patience of immortal love 

 Outicearying mortal siii,^' * 



And again, at seventy-eight : 



" By all that He requires of me, 

 I know what God himself must be. 



" No picture to my aid I call, 



I shape no image in my prayer ; 

 I only know in Him is all 

 Of life, light, beauty, everywhere."! 



In his last volume are some lines, that must have been written 

 about this time, concerning an outdoor reception, where some 

 young girls had pleased him: 



" But though I feel, with Solomon, 

 'T is pleasant to behold the sun, 

 I would not if I could repeat 

 A life which still is good and sweet; 

 I keep in age, as in my prime, 

 A not uncheerful step with time, . . . 

 On easy terms with law and fate. 

 For what must be I calmly wait. 

 And trust the path I cannot see, — 

 That God is good sufficeth me." J 



With less quotation I coald hardly have given the effect of 

 Whittier's personality that emerges from these self-expressive 



* " My Birthday," Poetical Works, Vol. II. p. 164. 



t " Revelation," Poetical Works, Vol. II. p. 343. 



t " An Outdoor Reception," Poetical Works, Vol. IV. p. 297. 



