What would he be? a trifle of no weight; 1090 Or stand, or fall; no matter which; he's gone. Because immortal, therefore is indulged This strange regard of deities to dust. Hence, Heaven looks down on earth with all her eyes; Hence, the soul's mighty moment in her sight: Hence, every soul has partisans above, And every thought a critic in the skies: Hence, clay, vile clay! has angels for its guard, And every guard a passion for his charge: Hence, from all age, the cabinet divine 1100 Has held high counsel o'er the fate of man. Nor have the clouds those gracious counsels hid, Angels undrew the curtain of the throne, And Providence came forth to meet mankind: In various modes of emphasis and awe, He spoke his will, and trembling Nature heard; He spoke it loud, in thunder and in storm. Witness, thou Sinai! whose cloud-cover'd height, And shaken basis, own'd the present God: Witness, ye billows! whose returning tide, 1110 Breaking the chain that fasten'd it in air, Swept Egypt, and her menaces, to hell: 1112 Witness, ye flames! th' Assyrian tyrant blew To sevenfold rage, as impotent, as strong: And thou, earth! witness, whose expanding jaws Closed o'er Presumption's sacrilegious sons:[38] Has not each element, in turn, subscribed The soul's high price, and sworn it to the wise? Has not flame, ocean, ether, earthquake, strove To strike this truth, through adamantine man? 1120 If not all-adamant, Lorenzo! hear; All is delusion; Nature is wrapt up, In tenfold night, from Reason's keenest eye; There's no consistence, meaning, plan, or end, In all beneath the sun, in all above (As far as man can penetrate), or heaven Is an immense, inestimable prize; Or all is nothing, or that prize is all.-- And shall each toy be still a match for Heaven, And full equivalent for groans below? 1130 Who would not give a trifle to prevent What he would give a thousand worlds to cure? Lorenzo! thou hast seen (if thine to see) All nature, and her God (by nature's course, And nature's course controll'd), declare for me: The skies above proclaim, "Immortal man!" And, "Man immortal!" all below resounds. The world's a system of theology, Read by the greatest strangers to the schools: If honest, learn'd; and sages o'er a plough. 1140 Is not, Lorenzo, then, imposed on thee This hard alternative; or, to renounce Thy reason, or thy sense; or, to believe? What then is unbelief? 'Tis an exploit; A strenuous enterprise: to gain it, man 1145 Must burst through every bar of common sense, Of common shame, magnanimously wrong: And what rewards the sturdy combatant? His prize, repentance; infamy, his crown. But wherefore infamy?--For want of faith,