Resistless force and immortality 350 Make but a lame, imperfect, deity: Tempests have force unbounded to destroy, And deathless being, even the damn'd enjoy; And yet Heaven's attributes, both last and first, One without life, and one with life accurst: But justice is Heaven's self, so strictly he, That could it fail, the Godhead could not be. This virtue is your own; but life and state Are one to Fortune subject, one to Fate: Equal to all, you justly frown or smile; 360 Nor hopes nor fears your steady hand beguile; Yourself our balance hold, the world's our isle. * * * * * FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 161: 'Solemn Sabbath:' Whit-Sunday.] [Footnote 162: 'Wondrous octave:' Trinity Sunday.] [Footnote 163: 'The Dragon:' alluding only to the Commonwealth party, here and in other places of the poem.] [Footnote 164: 'The travail:' see Rev. xii. 4.] [Footnote 165: 'Alcides:' Hercules.] [Footnote 166: 'Sign:' the sign of the cross, as denoting the Roman Catholic faith.] [Footnote 167: 'The moon:' the Turkish crescent.] [Footnote 168: 'Another Sylvester:' the Pope in James II.'s time is here compared to him that governed the Romish Church in the time of Constantine.] [Footnote 169: 'British line:' St Helen, mother of Constantine the Great, was an Englishwoman.] [Footnote 170: 'Fatal Ore:' the sandbank on which the Duke of York had like to have been lost in 1682, on his voyage to Scotland, is known by the name of Lemman Ore.] [Footnote 171: 'Fiends:' the malcontents who doubted the truth of the birth are here compared to the evil spirits that tempted our Saviour in the wilderness.] [Footnote 172: 'Æneas:' see Virgil; Æneid, I.] [Footnote 173: 'Edward:' Edward the Black Prince, born on Trinity Sunday.] [Footnote 174: 'Patron of our isle': St George.] [Footnote 175: 'Araunah's threshing-floor:' alluding to the passage in 1 Kings xxiv.] [Footnote 176: 'Unnamed as yet:' the prince was christened but not named when this poem was published.] [Footnote 177: 'Tetragrammaton:' Jehovah, or the name of God, unlawful to be pronounced by the Jews.] [Footnote 178: 'Rome was kept concealed:' some authors say, that the true name of Rome was kept a secret.] [Footnote 179: 'Crete:' Candia, where Jupiter was born and bred secretly.] [Footnote 180: 'Brain was born:' Pallas or Minerva, said by the poets to have sprung from the brain of Jove, and to have been bred up by hand, as was this young prince.] [Footnote 181: 'Sudden blast:' the sudden false report of the prince's death.] [Footnote 182: 'Moments grow:' those giants are feigned to have grown fifteen yards every day.] [Footnote 183: 'Shunamite:' see 2 Kings iv.] [Footnote 184: 'Ark their guard:' see 1 Sam. iv. 10.] [Footnote 185: 'Amalek can rout the chosen bands:' see Exod. xviii. 8.] [Footnote 186: Aristides, surnamed the Just.] * * * * *