 | Three Hundred Sonnets |  |
131
GOOD AND EVIL.
Good hath been born of Evil many times,As pearls and precious ambergris are grown—
Fruits of disease, in pain and sickness sown;
Nations have won their liberty through crimes,
And men true gain of losses: God alone,
Unreachable upon His holy throne,
Needeth not shade to illustrate His light,
Nor less to foil His greatest: but for man
The wrong must riot to awake the right,
And patience grow of pain, as day of night,
And wisdom end what woesome harm began:
And think not to unravel in thy thought
This mingled tissue, this mysterious plan,
This alchemy of good through evil wrought.
| Three Hundred Sonnets | |