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22

V. Of Trouble and its Cure.

Nubibus atris
Condita nullum
Fundere possunt
Sidera lumen. &c.

Thu meaht be thære sunnan
Sweotole gethencean, &c.

Ye may learn by the stars and the sun
Shining on cities so bright,
If the welkin hangs dreary and dun,
To wait in the mist for the light.
So too, the calm sea, glassy-grey,
The southwind all grimly makes riot,
And whirlpools in strife stir away
The whale-pool that once was so quiet.
So also, outwelleth a spring,
All clear from the cliff and all cool,
Till midway some mountain may fling
A rock to roll into the pool.
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Then broken asunder will seem
The rill so clear-running before,
That brook is turn'd out of its stream,
And flows in its channel no more.
So now, in thy darkness of mind,
Thou willest my wisdom to spurn,
Withstanding, by trouble made blind,
The lessons thou never wilt learn.
Yet now, if ye will, as ye may,
The true and pure light clearly know,
Let go the vain joys of to-day,
The weal that brings nothing but woe.
And drive away bad unbelief,
The fears of the world and its care,
And be not thou given to grief,
Nor yield up thy mind to despair.
Nor suffer thou glad going things
To puff thee with over-much pride,
Nor worldliness lifting thy wings
To lure thee from meekness aside:
And let not, too weakly again,
Ills make thee despair of the good,
When hunted by peril and pain,
And haunted by misery's brood.
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For always the mind of a man
Is bound up with trouble below,
If riches or poverty can
Engraft it with sin or with woe.
Because the twin evils make dun
The mind in a misty swart shroud,
That on it eternity's sun
Is dim till it scatters the cloud.
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