Stoop thy pale vifage through an amber cloud, In double night of darkness and of shades ; Of some clay habitation, vifit us With thy long level'd rule of ftreaming light, 2 BRO. Or if our eyes Be barr'd that happiness, might we but hear 335 349 345 Count the night watches to his feathery dames, 350 Or 'gainst the rugged bark of fome broad elm Or, while we speak, within the direful grasp Of favage hunger, or of favage heat? 1 BRO. Peace, Brother, be not over-exquifite To caft the fashion of uncertain evils: For grant they be fo, while they reft unknown, K 3 360 What What need a man forestall his date of grief, I do not think my Sifter so to seek, Or fo unprincipled in virtue's book, And the fweet peace that goodness bosoms ever, 365 (Not being in danger, as I trust she is not) 370 Could ftir the conftant mood of her calm thoughts, Virtue could fee to do what virtue would By her own radiant light, though fun and moon Were in the flat fea funk. And wifdom's felf 375 Where with her beft nurse contemplation She plumes her feathers, and lets grow her wings, Were all too ruffled, and fometimes impair'd. Benighted walks under the mid-day fun; 2 BRO. 'Tis most true, 380 385 That mufing meditation most affects The penfive fecrecy of defert cell, Far from the chearful haunt of men and herds, And fits as fafe as in a fenate house; For who would rob a hermit of his weeds, 390 His His few books, or his beads, or maple dish, Or do his gray hairs any violence? But beauty, like the fair Hefperian tree Laden with blooming gold, had need the guard Of dragon-watch with uninchanted eye, 395 To fave her bloffoms, and defend her fruit You may as well fpread out the unfunn'd heaps Of mifers' treasure by an out-law's den, 400 And tell me it is fafe, as bid me hope I fear the dread events that dog them both, 405 Left fome ill-greeting touch attempt the person Of our unowned Sifter. I BRO. I do not, Brother, Infer, as if I thought my Sifter's state Secure without all doubt, or controversy: Yet where an equal poife of hope and fear 410 That I incline to hope, rather than fear, My Sifter is not fo defenseless left As you imagin; she' has a hidden strength 415 Which you remember not. 2 BRO. What hidden ftrength, Unless the strength of Heav'n, if you mean that? 1 BRO. I mean that too, but yet a hidden strength, K4 Which Which if Heav'n gave it, may be term'd her own: She that has that, is clad in cómplete steel, Yea there, where very defolation dwells, By grots, and caverns fhagg'd with horrid shades, Be it not done in pride, or in presumption. 420 425 430 435 Antiquity from the old schools of Greece To testify the arms of Chastity? 440 Hence had the huntress Dian her dread bow, Fair filver-fhafted queen, for ever chaste, 445 Fear'd her ftern frown, and fhe was queen o'th' woods. What was that fnaky-headed Gorgon fhield, That wife Minerva wore, unconquer'd virgin, Wherewith Wherewith the freez'd her foes to congeal'd stone, But rigid looks of chafte aufterity, 450 And noble grace that dafh'd brute violence With fudden adoration, and blank awe ? 455 460 And turns it by degrees to the foul's effence, Till all be made immortal but when luft, By unchafte looks, loofe geftures, and foul talk, 465 Lets in defilement to the inward parts, The foul grows clotted by contagion, Such are thofe thick and gloomy fhadows damp 2 BRO. How charming is divine philosophy ! Not harsh, and crabbed, as dull fools fuppofe, But mufical as is Apollo's lute, 4.70 475 And |