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 I. 
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 VIII. 
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If then that double death should prove thy lot,
Blame not the bowels of the Deity:
Man shall be bless'd as far as man permits.
Not man alone, all rationals Heaven arms
With an illustrious but tremendous power
To counteract its own most gracious ends;
And this of strict necessity, not choice:
That power denied, men, angels, were no more
But passive engines, void of praise or blame.
A nature rational implies the power
Of being bless'd, or wretched, as we please;
Else idle Reason would have nought to do;
And he that would be barr'd capacity
Of pain, courts incapacity of bliss.
Heaven wills our happiness, allows our doom;
Invites us ardently, but not compels;
Heaven but persuades, almighty man decrees;
Man is the maker of immortal fates.
Man falls by man, if finally he falls;
And fall he must, who learns from Death alone
The dreadful secret—that he lives for ever.