What tongue then may explain the various fate Which reigns o'er earth? or who to mortal eyes Illustrate this perplexing labyrinth Of joy and woe, through which the feet of man Are doom'd to wander? That Eternal Mind From passions, wants, and envy far estranged, Who built the spacious universe, and deck'd Each part so richly with whate'er pertains To life, to health, to pleasure, why bade he The viper Evil, creeping in, pollute 10 The goodly scene, and with insidious rage, While the poor inmate looks around and smiles Dart her fell sting with poison to his soul? Hard is the question, and from ancient days Hath still oppress'd with care the sage's thought; Hath drawn forth accents from the poet's lyre Too sad, too deeply plaintive; nor did e'er Those chiefs of human kind, from whom the light Of heavenly truth first gleam'd on barbarous lands, Forget this dreadful secret when they told 20 What wondrous things had to their favour'd eyes And ears on cloudy mountain been reveal'd, Or in deep cave by nymph or power divine, Portentous oft, and wild. Yet one I know. Could I the speech of lawgivers assume, One old and splendid tale I would record, With which the Muse of Solon in sweet strains Adorn'd this theme profound, and render'd all Its darkness, all its terrors, bright as noon, Or gentle as the golden star of eve. 30 Who knows not Solon,--last, and wisest far, Of those whom Greece, triumphant in the height Of glory, styled her fathers,--him whose voice Through Athens hush'd the storm of civil wrath; Taught envious Want and cruel Wealth to join In friendship; and, with sweet compulsion, tamed Minerva's eager people to his laws, Which their own goddess in his breast inspired?