Morality Poem by William Bell Scott

I.
The watcher watching from within!
To know him well, we scarce can win,
Because the eye looks out, not in.
Call him Soul or what you will,
This watcher watching from within,
From his involved and secret cell
Can oftentimes but faintly tell
What is the wrong and what the right,
What may be good, what may be ill,
Which is the sin and which the crime;
Life moves between these, Ill and Good
Can interchange, well understood,
As angel Day and dæmon Night
Divide for us our earth-born time.


II.
Besides, 'twas God's progressive plan
Before we straightened up to Man,
The instincts ruled in place of mind:
And even now, although consigned
The late born reasoning soul to serve,
They obey the Sympathetic Nerve,—
Inherited anatomies still
Ordering our acts against our will.