shock 270
  Was given to old opinions; all men’s minds
  Had felt its power, and mine was both let loose,
  Let loose and goaded.  After what hath been
  Already said of patriotic love,
  Suffice it here to add, that, somewhat stern 275
  In temperament, withal a happy man,
  And therefore bold to look on painful things,
  Free likewise of the world, and thence more bold,
  I summoned my best skill, and toiled, intent
  To anatomise the frame of social life, 280
  Yea, the whole body of society
  Searched to its heart.  Share with me, Friend! the wish
  That some dramatic tale, endued with shapes
  Livelier, and flinging out less guarded words
  Than suit the work we fashion, might set forth 285
  What then I learned, or think I learned, of truth,
  And the errors into which I fell, betrayed
  By present objects, and by reasonings false
  From their beginnings, inasmuch as drawn
  Out of a heart that had been turned aside 290
  From Nature’s way by outward accidents,
  And which was thus confounded, more and more
  Misguided, and misguiding.  So I fared,
  Dragging all precepts, judgments, maxims, creeds,
  Like culprits to the bar; calling the mind, 295
  Suspiciously, to establish in plain day
  Her titles and her honours; now believing,
  Now disbelieving; endlessly perplexed
  With impulse, motive, right and wrong, the ground
  Of obligation, what the rule and whence 300
  The sanction; till, demanding formal proof,
  And seeking it in every thing, I lost
  All feeling of conviction, and, in fine,
  Sick, wearied out with contrarieties,
  Yielded up moral questions in despair. 305

  This was the crisis of that strong disease,
  This the soul’s last and lowest ebb; I drooped,
  Deeming our blessed reason of least use
  Where wanted most:  “The lordly attributes
  Of will and choice,” I bitterly exclaimed, 310
  “What are they but a mockery of a Being
  Who hath in no concerns of his a test
  Of good and evil; knows not what to fear
  Or hope for, what to covet or to shun;
  And who, if those could be discerned, would yet 315
  Be little profited, would see, and ask
  Where is the obligation to enforce? 
  And, to acknowledged law rebellious, still,
  As selfish passion urged, would act amiss;
  The dupe of folly, or the slave of crime.” 320