91631631"Think but how vile a spectacle it were
632632To view thy present trespass in another.
633633Men's faults do seldom to themselves appear;
634634Their own transgressions partially they smother.
635635This guilt would seem death-worthy in thy brother.
636636O, how are they wrapped in with infamies
637637That from their own misdeeds askance their eyes!"
92638638"To thee, to thee, my heaved-up hands appeal,
639639Not to seducing lust, thy rash relier.
640640I sue for exiled majesty's repeal;
641641Let him return, and flatt'ring thoughts retire.
642642His true respect will prison false desire
643643And wipe the dim mist from thy doting eyne,
644644That thou shalt see thy state and pity mine."
93645645"Have done," quoth he. "My uncontrollèd tide
646646Turns not but swells the higher by this let.
647647Small lights are soon blown out; huge fires abide
648648And with the wind in greater fury fret.
649649The petty streams that pay a daily debt
650650To their salt sovereign with their fresh falls' haste
651651Add to his flow but alter not his taste."
94652652"Thou art," quoth she, "a sea, a sovereign king,
653653And, lo, there falls into thy boundless flood
654654Black lust, dishonor, shame, misgoverning,
655655Who seek to stain the ocean of thy blood.
656656If all these petty ills shall change thy good,
657657Thy sea within a puddle's womb is hearsed,
658658And not the puddle in thy sea dispersed."
95659659"So shall these slaves be king, and thou their slave;
660660Thou nobly base, they basely dignified;
661661Thou their fair life, and they thy fouler grave;
662662Thou loathèd in their shame, they in their pride.
663663The lesser thing should not the greater hide;
664664The cedar stoops not to the base shrub's foot,
665665But low shrubs wither at the cedar's root."