And for the learned--even for the wise-- Another snare of false delusion lies; That rage for systems, which, in dreamy thought, Frames magic universes out of naught; Building ten errors on one truth's foundation. So he who taught the art of calculation, In one of these illusive mental slumbers, Foolishly sought the Deity in numbers; The first mechanic, from as wild a notion, Would rule man's freedom by the laws of motion. This globe, says one, is an extinguished sun; No, says another, 'tis a globe of glass; And when the fierce contention's once begun, Book upon book--a vast and useless mass--On Science's altar are profusely strewn, While Disputation sits on Wisdom's throne. And then, from contrarieties of speech, What countless feuds have sprung! For you may teach, In the same words, two doctrines different quite As day from darkness, or as wrong from right. This has indeed been man's severest curse; Famine and pestilence have not been worse, Nor e'er have matched the ills whose aggravations Have scourged the world through misinterpretations. How shall I paint the conscientious strife? The holy transports of each heavenly soul-- Fanaticism wasting human life With torch, with dagger, and with poisoned bow; The ruined hamlet and the blazing town, Homes desolate, and parents massacred, And temples in the Almighty's honor reared The scene of acts that merit most his frown! Rape, murder, pillage, in one frightful storm, Pleasure with carnage horribly combined, The brutal ravisher amazed to find A sister in his victim's dying form! Sons by their fathers to the scaffold led; The vanquished always numbered with the dead. Oh, God, permit that all the ills we know May one day pass for merely fabled woe!