DAEMON: 
The wisdom 125
Of the old world masked with the names of Gods
The attributes of Nature and of Man;
A sort of popular philosophy.

CYPRIAN: 
This reply will not satisfy me, for
Such awe is due to the high name of God 130
That ill should never be imputed.  Then,
Examining the question with more care,
It follows, that the Gods would always will
That which is best, were they supremely good. 
How then does one will one thing, one another? 135
And that you may not say that I allege
Poetical or philosophic learning:—­
Consider the ambiguous responses
Of their oracular statues; from two shrines
Two armies shall obtain the assurance of 140
One victory.  Is it not indisputable
That two contending wills can never lead
To the same end?  And, being opposite,
If one be good, is not the other evil? 
Evil in God is inconceivable; 145
But supreme goodness fails among the Gods
Without their union.

NOTE: 
133 would transcr.; should 1824.

DAEMON: 
I deny your major. 
These responses are means towards some end
Unfathomed by our intellectual beam. 
They are the work of Providence, and more 150
The battle’s loss may profit those who lose,
Than victory advantage those who win.

CYPRIAN: 
That I admit; and yet that God should not
(Falsehood is incompatible with deity)
Assure the victory; it would be enough 155
To have permitted the defeat.  If God
Be all sight,—­God, who had beheld the truth,
Would not have given assurance of an end
Never to be accomplished:  thus, although
The Deity may according to his attributes 160
Be well distinguished into persons, yet
Even in the minutest circumstance
His essence must be one.

NOTE: 
157 had transcr.; wanting, 1824.

DAEMON: 
To attain the end
The affections of the actors in the scene
Must have been thus influenced by his voice. 165

CYPRIAN: 
But for a purpose thus subordinate
He might have employed Genii, good or evil,—­
A sort of spirits called so by the learned,
Who roam about inspiring good or evil,
And from whose influence and existence we 170
May well infer our immortality. 
Thus God might easily, without descent
To a gross falsehood in his proper person,
Have moved the affections by this mediation
To the just point.

NOTE: 
172 descent transcr.; descending 1824.

DAEMON: 
These trifling contradictions 175
Do not suffice to impugn the unity
Of the high Gods; in things of great importance
They still appear unanimous; consider
That glorious fabric, man,—­his workmanship
Is stamped with one conception.