CANTO iv. OF GOOD AND EVIL. 141 







Ah where can Sympathy reflecting find 

 One bright idea to console the mind? 

 One ray of light in this terrene abode 

 To prove to Man the Goodness of his GOD?" 



II. " HEAR, O YE SONS OF TIME!" the Nymph replies, 

 Quick indignation darting from her eyes; 

 44 When in soft tones the Muse lamenting sings, 

 And weighs with tremulous hand the sum of things; 

 She loads the scale in melancholy mood, 

 Presents the evil, but forgets the good. 140 



of mind not intirely to destroy their own happiness by their sympa- 

 thizing with too great sensibility with the numerous irremediable 

 evils, which exist in the present system of the world: as by indulging 

 that kind of melancholy they decrease the sum total of public hap- 

 piness ; which is so far rather reprehensible than commendable. See 

 Plan for Female Education by Dr. Darwin, Johnson, London, 

 Sect. XVII. 



This has been carried to great excess in the East by the disciples 

 of Confucius; the Gentoos during a famine in India refused to eat the 

 flesh of cows and of other animals to satisfy their hunger, and save 

 themselves from death. And at other times they have been said to 

 permit fleas and musquitoes to feed upon them from this erroneous 

 sympathy. 



