of dullards have sufficed
To make us wretched and the world enthrall.

LII.

_THE SOUL'S APOLOGY._

_Ben sei mila anni._

Six thousand years or more on earth I've been:
Witness those histories of nations dead,
Which for our age I have illustrated
In philosophic volumes, scene by scene.
And thou, mere mite, seeing my sun serene
Eclipsed, wilt argue that I had no head
To live by.--Why not try the sun instead,
If nought in fate unfathomed thou hast seen?
If wise men, whom the world rebukes, combined
With tyrant wolves, brute beasts we should become.
The sage, once stoned for sin, you canonise.
When rennet melts, much milk makes haste to bind.
The more you blow the flames, the more they rise,
Bloom into stars, and find in heaven their home.

LIII.

_TO GOD ON PRAYER._

_Tu che Forza ed Amor._

O Thou, who, mingling Force and Love, dost draw
And guide the complex of all entities,
Framed for that purpose; whence our reason sees
In supreme Fate the synthesis of Law;
Though prayers transgress which find defect or flaw
In things foredoomed by Thy divine decrees,
Yet wilt Thou modify, by slow degrees
Or swift, good times or bad Thy mind foresaw:
I therefore pray--I who through years have been
The scorn of fools, the butt of impious men,
Suffering new pains and torments day by day--
Shorten this anguish, Lord, these griefs allay;
For still Thou shalt not have changed counsel when
I soar from hence to liberty foreseen.

LIV.

_TO GOD FOR HELP._

_Come vuoi, ch' a buon porto._

How wilt Thou I should gain a harbour fair,
If after proof among my friends I find
That some are faithless, some devoid of mind,
Some short of sense, though stout to do and dare?
If some, though wise and loyal, like the hare
Hide in a hole, or fly in terror blind,
While nerve with wisdom and with faith combined
Through malice and through penury despair?
Reason, Thy honour, and my weal eschewed
That false ally who said he came from Thee,
With promise vain of power and liberty.
I trust:--I'll do. Change Thou the bad to good!--
But ere I raise me to that altitude,
Needs must I merge in Thee as Thou in me.

LV.

To Annibale Caraccioli,

_A WRITER OF ECLOGUES._

_Non Licida, ne Driope._

Lycoris, Lycidas, and Dryope
Cannot, dear Niblo, save thy name from death;
Shadows th