7. 
’"Men say that they themselves have heard and seen,
Or known from others who have known such things,
A Shade, a Form, which Earth and Heaven between 3255
Wields an invisible rod—­that Priests and Kings,
Custom, domestic sway, ay, all that brings
Man’s freeborn soul beneath the oppressor’s heel,
Are his strong ministers, and that the stings
Of death will make the wise his vengeance feel, 3260
Though truth and virtue arm their hearts with tenfold steel.

8. 
’"And it is said, this Power will punish wrong;
Yes, add despair to crime, and pain to pain! 
And deepest hell, and deathless snakes among,
Will bind the wretch on whom is fixed a stain, 3265
Which, like a plague, a burden, and a bane,
Clung to him while he lived; for love and hate,
Virtue and vice, they say are difference vain—­
The will of strength is right—­this human state
Tyrants, that they may rule, with lies thus desolate. 3270

9. 
’"Alas, what strength?  Opinion is more frail
Than yon dim cloud now fading on the moon
Even while we gaze, though it awhile avail
To hide the orb of truth—­and every throne
Of Earth or Heaven, though shadow, rests thereon, 3275
One shape of many names:—­for this ye plough
The barren waves of ocean, hence each one
Is slave or tyrant; all betray and bow,
Command, or kill, or fear, or wreak, or suffer woe.

10. 
’"Its names are each a sign which maketh holy 3280
All power—­ay, the ghost, the dream, the shade
Of power—­lust, falsehood, hate, and pride, and folly;
The pattern whence all fraud and wrong is made,
A law to which mankind has been betrayed;
And human love, is as the name well known 3285
Of a dear mother, whom the murderer laid
In bloody grave, and into darkness thrown,
Gathered her wildered babes around him as his own.

11. 
’"O Love, who to the hearts of wandering men
Art as the calm to Ocean’s weary waves! 3290
Justice, or Truth, or Joy! those only can
From slavery and religion’s labyrinth caves
Guide us, as one clear star the seaman saves. 
To give to all an equal share of good,
To track the steps of Freedom, though through graves 3295
She pass, to suffer all in patient mood,
To weep for crime, though stained with thy friend’s dearest blood,—­

12. 
’"To feel the peace of self-contentment’s lot,
To own all sympathies, and outrage none,
And in the inmost bowers of sense and thought, 3300
Until life’s sunny day is quite gone down,
To sit and smile with Joy, or, not alone,
To kiss salt tears from the worn cheek of Woe;
To live, as if to love and live were one,—­
This is not faith or law, nor those who bow 3305
To thrones on Heaven or Earth, such destiny may know.