Thus men go wrong with an ingenious skill;

Bend the straight rule to their own crooked will:
And with a clear and shining lamp supplied,
First put it out, then take it for a guide.
Halting on crutches of unequal size,

One leg by truth supported, one by lies;
They sidle to the goal with awkward pace,
Secure of nothing-but to lose the race.

Faults in the life breed errours in the brain:

And these reciprocally those again.

The mind and conduct mutually imprint
And stamp their image in each other's mint:
Each, sire and dam, of an infernal race,
Begetting and conceiving all that's base.

None sends his arrow to the mark in view,
Whose hand is feeble, or his aim untrue.

For though, ere yet the shaft is on the wing,
Or when it first forsakes th' elastic string,
It err but little from th' intended line,

It falls at last far wide of his design:

560

571

So he, who seeks a mansion in the sky,

Must watch his purpose with a stedfast eye;
That prize belongs to none but the sincere,
The least obliquity is fatal here.

With caution taste the sweet Circean cup: 580 He that sips often, at last drinks it up.

Habits are soon assum'd; but when we strive
To strip them off, 'tis being flay'd alive.
Call'd to the temple of impure delight,
He that abstains, and he alone, does right.
If a wish wander that way, call it home;
He cannot long be safe, whose wishes roam.
But, if you pass the threshold, you are caught;
Die then, if pow'r Almighty save you not. 589
There hard'ning by degrees, till double steel'd,
Take leave of Nature's God, and God reveal'd;

Then laugh at all you trembled at before;

And, joining the freethinkers' brutal roar,

Swallow the two grand nostrums they dispense

That Scripture lies, and blasphemy is sense:

If clemency revolted by abuse

Be damnable, then damn'd without excuse.

Some dream, that they can silence, when they

will,

The storm of passion, and say, Peace, be still;

But "Thus far and no farther," when ad

To the wild wave, or wilder human breast,

Implies authority, that never can,

That never ought to be the lot of man.

600.

But, muse, forbear; long flights forebode a fall; Strike on the deepton'd chord the sum of all.

Hear the just law-the judgment of the skies! He that hates truth shall be the dupe of lies: And he that will be cheated to the last, Delusions strong as Hell shall bind him fast. But if the wand'rer his mistake discern, Judge his own ways, and sigh for a return, Bewilder'd once, must he bewail his loss For ever and for ever? No-the cross!

610

There and there only, (though the deist rave,
And atheist, if Earth bear so base a slave;)

There and there only is the pow'r to save.
There no delusive hope invites despair;

No mock'ry meets you, no deception there.
The spells and charms, that blinded you before,
All vanish there, and fascinate no more.

I am no preacher, let this hint suffice—

The cross once seen is death to ev'ry vice:
Else he that hung there suffer'd all his pain,

620

Bled, groan'd, and agoniz'd, and died, in vain. 624