Critias, long since, I know 



(For Fate decreed it so), 

 Long since the world hath set its heart to live ; 



Long since, with credulous zeal 

 It turns life's mighty wheel, 



Still doth for labourers send 

 Who still their labour give, 



And still expects an end. 



Yet, as the wheel flies round, 



With no ungrateful sound 

 Do adverse voices fall on the world's ear. 



Deaf en' d by his own stir 

 The rugged labourer 



Caught not till then a sense 

 So glowing and so near 



Of his omnipotence. 



MATTHEW ARNOLD, The World and the Quietist. 



For the purged ear apprehends 



Earth's import, not the eye late dazed : 

 The Voice said, " Call my works thy friends ! 



At Nature dost thou shrink amazed ? " 



BROWNING, Asolando, 



