Son of Heav'n and Earth, Attend: that thou art happy, owe to God; That thou continuest such, owe to thyself, That is, to thy obedience; therein stand.

And, when night Darkens the streets, then wander forth the sons Of Belial, flown with insolence and wine.

Apt words have power to suage the tumors of a troubled mind.

In dim eclipse, disastrous twilight sheds On half the nations, and with fear of change Perplexes monarchs.

The very essence of truth is plainness and brightness; the darkness and crookedness is our own. The wisdom of God created understanding, fit and proportionable to truth, the object and end of it, as the eye to the thing visible. If our understanding have a film of ignorance over it, or be blear with gazing on other false glitterings, what is that to truth?

Th' ethereal mould Incapable of stain would soon expel Her mischief, and purge off the baser fire, Victorious. Thus repuls'd, our final hope Is flat despair.

Prudence is the virtue by which we discern what is proper to do under various circumstances in time and place.