166. Slender mite: An allusion to the widow's "two mites." (_Luke_
xxi, 1-4.)
168. The all-sustaining Beauty: The all-pervading spirit of God that
unites all things in one sympathetic whole. This divinity in humanity
is its highest beauty. In _The Oak_ Lowell says:
"Lord! all thy works are lessons; each contains
Some emblem of man's all-containing soul."
172. A god goes with it: The god-like quality of real charity, of
heart to heart sympathy. In a letter written a little after the
composition of this poem Lowell speaks of love and freedom as being
"the sides which Beauty presented to him then."