IV.

"But of that conscious Cause—what next declare?
Must we attribute, by deduction fair.
But just so much of power for good or ill
To this mysterious Being's deed or will
As in the Universe we see displayed?
That were indeed to limit and degrade
All possible Existence to a. range
Lower and narrower (a conclusion strange)
Than what poor finite Mortals can conceive.
In spite of Hume—'tis harder to believe
He who has done so much can not do more,
And all the evil that exists retrieve
With compensating good somewhere in store—-
Than that the fault lies with the human Mind,
Too weak and narrow the true cause to find
Why from the first throughout the universe
The best has not excluded all the worse.
And more preposterous it is to dream
The Universe is an abortive scheme,
Worked by a Power unequal to its task,
Or to complete a plan it cannot mask,
page 57 Than to believe that Power—so great confest,
Spite of apparent flaws we seem to trace
In all its works—is far beyond the best
And mightiest our conceptions can embrace—
And therefore (though so much we take on trust)
Perfectly wise, good, powerful, loving, just."