Of Compensation. Equal is the government of heaven in allotting pleasures among men, Or the straitened appetites of man drink more than their fill of luxury? Also, though penury and pain be real and bitter evils, I would reason with the poor afflicted, for he is not so wretched as he seemeth. What right hath an offender to complain, though others escape punish ment, If the stripes of earned misfortune overtake him in his sin? Wherefore not endure with resignation the evils thou canst not avert? For the coward pain will flee, if thou meet him as a man: Consider, whatever be thy fate, that it might and ought to have been worse, And that it lieth in thy hand to gather even blessing from afflictions; Bethink thee, wherefore were they sent? and hath not use blunted their keenness ? Need hope and patience, and courage, be strangers to the meanest hovel? And these be as precious ore, that waiteth the skill of the coiner: Despise not the blessings of adversity, nor the gain thou hast earned so hardly, And now thou hast drained the bitter, take heed that thou lose not the sweet. Power is seldom innocent, and envy is the yoke-fellow of eminence; The poor man counteth not the cost at which such wealth hath been purchased; He would be on the mountain's top, without the toil and travail of the climbing. But equity demandeth recompense: for high-place, calumny and care; For state, comfortless splendour eating out the heart of home: For warrior fame, dangers and death; for a name among the learned, a spirit overstrained; For honour of all kinds, the goad of ambition; on every acquirement, the tax of anxiety. He that would change with another, must take the cup as it is mixed: A bold man or a fool must he be, who would change his lot with another; Just, and strong, and opportune is the moral rule of God; Ripe in its times, firm in its judgments, equal in the measure of its gifts: Yet men, scanning the surface, count the wicked happy, Nor heed the compensating peace, which gladdeneth the good in his afflictions. They see not the frightful dreams that crowd a bad man's pillow, Like wreathed adders crawling round his midnight conscience; They hear not the terrible suggestions, that knock at the portal of his will, Provoking to wipe away from life the one weak witness of the deed; pose; The warm and gushing bliss that floodeth all the thoughts of the religious. Many a beggar at the cross-way, or grey-haired shepherd on the plain, Hath more of the end of all wealth, than hundreds who multiply the means. Moreover, a moral compensation reacheth to the secrecy of thought; For if thou wilt think evil of thy neighbour, soon shalt thou have him for thy foe: And yet he may know nothing of the cause that maketh thee distasteful to his soul, The cause of unkind suspicion, for which thou hast thy punishment: By luxury, or rashness, or vice, the member that hath erred suffereth,-- Alike to the slave and his oppressor cometh night with sweet refreshment, And half of the life of the most wretched is gladdened by the soothings of sleep. Pain addeth zest unto pleasure, and teacheth the luxury of health; There is a joy in sorrow, which none but a mourner can know: Madness hath imaginary bliss, and most men have no more; Sickness, and poverty, and pain, and guilt, and madness, and sorrow; For, habit, and hope, and ignorance, and the being but one of a multi tude, And strength of reason in the sage, and dullness of feeling in the fool, And the light elasticity of courage, and the calm resignation of meekness, And the stout endurance of decision, and the weak carelessness of apathy, And helps invisible but real, and ministerings not unfelt, Angelic aid with worldly discomfiture, bodily loss with the soul's gain, Secret griefs, and silent joys, thorns in the flesh, and cordials for the spirit, (-Short of the insuperable barrier dividing innocence from guilt,-) Go far to level all things, by the gracious rule of Compensation. 1 Of Judirect Jufluences. Dace thy foe in the field, and perchance thou wilt meet thy master, battle; But find him when he looketh not for thee, aim between the joints of his harness, And the crest of his pride will be humbled, his cruelty will bite the dust. So shalt thou conquer the strong, thyself triumphing in weakness. The weakness of accident is strong, where the strength of design is weak: And a casual analogy convinceth, when a mind beareth not argument. Will not a man listen? be silent; and prove thy maxim by example: Never fear, thou losest not thy hold, though thy mouth doth not render a reason. Contend not in wisdom with a fool, for thy sense maketh much of his conceit; And some errors never would have thriven, had it not been for learned refutation: Yea, much evil hath been caused by an honest wrestler for truth, Dints, shrewdly strown, mightily disturb the spirit, |