Better is the mass of men, Suspicion, than thy fears, Kinder than thy thoughts, O chilling heart of Prudence, Purer than thy judgments, ascetic tongue of Censure, In all things worthier to love, if not also wiser to esteem. Yea, let the moralist condemn, there be large extenuations of his verdict, Let the misanthrope shun men and abjure, the most are rather loveable than hateful. How many pleasant faces shed their light on every side, How many angels unawares have crossed thy casual way! How often, in thy journeyings, hast thou made thee instant friends, Found, to be loved a little while, and lost, to meet no more; Friends of happy reminiscence, although so transient in their converse, Liberal, cheerful, and sincere, a crowd of kindly traits. I have sped by land and sea, and mingled with much people, But never yet could find a spot, unsunned by human kindness; Some more, and some less,--but truly all can claim a little; And a man may travel through the world, and sow it thick with friendships. There be indeed, to say it in all sorrow, bad apostate souls, Deserted of their ministering angels, and given up to liberty of sin,-- And other some, the miserly and mean, whose eyes are keen and greedy, With stony hearts, and iron fists, to filch and scrape and clutch,-- And others yet again, the coarse in mind, selfish, sensual, brutish, Seeming as incapable of softer thoughts, and dead to better deeds; Such, no lover of the good, no follower of the generous and gentle, Can nearer grow to love, than may consist with pity. Few verily are these among the mass, and cast in fouler moulds, Few and poor in friends, and well-deserving of their poverty: Yet, or ever thou hast harshly judged, and linked their presence to disgust, Consider well the thousand things that made them all they are. Thou hast not thought upon the causes, ranged in consecutive necessity, Which tended long to these effects, with sure constraining power. For each of those unlovely ones, if thou couldst hear his story, Hath much to urge of just excuse, at least as men count justice: Foolish education, thwarted opportunities, natural propensities unchecked,-- Thus were they discouraged from all good, and pampered in their evil; And, if thou wilt apprehend them well, tenderly looking on temptations, Bearing the base indulgently, and liberally dealing with the froward, Thou shalt discern a few fair fruits even upon trees so withered, Thou shalt understand how some may praise, and some be found to love them.