Injustice, idleness, lust, fury, fear,
    Beneath these three great plagues securely hide. 
Grounded on blind self-love, the offspring dear
    Of Ignorance, they flourish and abide:—­
    Wherefore to root up Ignorance I’m here!

VIII.

SELF-LOVE.

Credulo il proprio amor.

Self-love fools man with false opinion
    That earth, air, water, fire, the stars we see,
    Though stronger and more beautiful than we,
    Feel nought, love not, but move for us alone. 
Then all the tribes of earth except his own
    Seem to him senseless, rude—­God lets them be: 
    To kith and kin next shrinks his sympathy,
    Till in the end loves only self each one. 
Learning he shuns that he may live at ease;
    And since the world is little to his mind,
    God and God’s ruling Forethought he denies. 
Craft he calls wisdom; and, perversely blind,
    Seeking to reign, erects new deities: 
    At last ‘I make the Universe!’ he cries.

IX.

LOVE OF SELF AND GOD.

Questo amor singolar.

This love of self sinks man in sinful sloth: 
    Yet, if he seek to live, he needs must feign
    Sense, goodness, courage.  Thus he dwells in pain,
    A sphinx, twy-souled, a false self-stunted growth. 
Honours, applause, and wealth these torments soothe;
    Till jealousy, contrasting his foul stain
    With virtues eminent, by spur and rein
    Drives him to slay, steal, poison, break his oath. 
But he who loves our common Father, hath
    All men for brothers, and with God doth joy
    In whatsoever worketh for their bliss. 
Good Francis called the birds upon his path
    Brethren; to him the fishes were not coy.—­
    Oh, blest is he who comprehendeth this!

X.

EARTHLY AND DIVINE LOVE.

Se Dio ci da la vita.

God gives us life, and God our life preserves;
    Nay, all our happiness on Him doth rest: 
    Why then should love of God inflame man’s breast
    Less than his lady and the lord he serves? 
Through mean and wanton ignorance he swerves,
    And worships a false Good, divinely dressed;
    Love cannot soar to what it never guessed,
    But stoops its flight, and the thralled soul unnerves. 
Here too is man deceived.  He yields his own
    To spend on others.  Yet in vile delight
    God’s splendour still shines through love’s earthliness. 
But we embrace the loss, the lure alone
    Love fools us with.  That glimpse of heavenly light,
    That foretaste of eternal Good, we miss.

XI.

THE PHILOSOPHER.