"Such timely warning," said the Wanderer, "gave That visionary voice; and, at this day, When a Tartarean darkness overspreads The groaning nations; when the impious rule, By will or by established ordinance, Their own dire agents, and constrain the good 300 To acts which they abhor; though I bewail This triumph, yet the pity of my heart Prevents me not from owning, that the law, By which mankind now suffers, is most just. For by superior energies; more strict 305 Affiance in each other; faith more firm In their unhallowed principles; the bad Have fairly earned a victory o'er the weak, The vacillating, inconsistent good. Therefore, not unconsoled, I wait--in hope 310 To see the moment, when the righteous cause Shall gain defenders zealous and devout As they who have opposed her; in which Virtue Will, to her efforts, tolerate no bounds That are not lofty as her rights; aspiring 315 By impulse of her own ethereal zeal. That spirit only can redeem mankind; And when that sacred spirit shall appear, Then shall _our_ triumph be complete as theirs. Yet, should this confidence prove vain, the wise 320 Have still the keeping of their proper peace; Are guardians of their own tranquillity. They act, or they recede, observe, and feel; 'Knowing[328] the heart of man is set to be[EG] The centre of this world, about the which 325 Those revolutions of disturbances Still roll; where all the aspècts of misery Predominate; whose strong effects are such As he must bear, being powerless to redress; _And that unless above himself he can 330 Erect himself, how poor a thing is Man_!'[EH] "Happy is he who lives to understand, Not human nature only, but explores All natures,--to the end that he may find The law that governs each; and where begins 335 The union, the partition where, that makes Kind and degree, among all visible Beings; The constitutions, powers, and faculties, Which they inherit,--cannot step beyond,-- And cannot fall beneath; that do assign 340 To every class its station and its office, Through all the mighty commonwealth of things Up from the creeping plant to sovereign Man. Such converse, if directed by a meek, Sincere, and humble spirit, teaches love: 345 For knowledge is delight; and such delight Breeds love: yet, suited as it rather is To thought and to the climbing intellect, It teaches less to love, than to adore; If that be not indeed the highest love!" 350