Page:Poems translated from the French of Madame De la Mothe Guion.djvu/75

 Such his folly—prov'd, at last,

By the loss of that repose

Self-complacence cannot taste,

Only Love divine bestows.

'Tis by this reproof severe,

And by this reproof alone,

His defects at last appear,

Man is to himself made known.

Learn, all Earth! that feeble man,

Sprung from this terrestrial clod,

Nothing is, and nothing can;

Life, and pow'r, are all in God.

"I love the Lord," is still the strain

This heart delights to sing;

But I reply,—your thoughts are vain,

Perhaps 'tis no such thing.

Before the pow'r of Love divine,

Creation fades away;

Till only God is seen to shine

In all that we survey.

In gulphs of awful night we find

The God of our desires;