 | The Poetical Works of Aubrey De Vere |  |
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XVII. THE LAWLESS RACE.
The Scriptures of the Unjust thus prophesy:‘The Gentiles we! your Christian Good is Ill:
We, faithless styled, to Babel faithful still,
Build as she built and laws save hers defy:
No difference we concede 'twixt Truth and Lie
Save what the nations fashion. Each at will
Some Faith should license; fools dissentient kill:
Best creed is ‘Unbelief, in Unity.’
But what is written? ‘This shall be the lot
Of all who war, Jerusalem, on thee:
Within their mouth the tongue dried up shall rot;
The eye drop out, that eye which would not see;
And, shivering as they stand, from off their bones
Their flesh shall melt and rot upon the stones.’
| The Poetical Works of Aubrey De Vere | |