“What I call God’s hand,—you, perhaps,—this chance
“Of the true instinct of an old good man
“Who happens to hate darkness and love light,—
“In whom too was the eye that saw, not dim,
“The natural force to do the thing he saw,
“Nowise abated,—both by miracle,—
“All this well pondered,—I demand assent
“To the enunciation of my text
“In face of one proof more that ‘God is true (600)
“‘And every man a liar’—that who trusts
“To human testimony for a fact
“Gets this sole fact—himself is proved a fool;
“Man’s speech being false, if but by consequence
“That only strength is true; while man is weak,
“And, since truth seems reserved for heaven not earth,
“Should learn to love what he may speak one day.
“To mirth or pity, as I move the mood,—
“A friar who glide unnoticed to the grave, (610)
“Bare feet, coarse robe and rope-grit waist of mine,—
“I have long since renounced your world, ye know:
“Yet weigh the worth of worldly prize foregone,
“Disinterestedly judge this and that
“Good ye account good: but God tries the heart.
“Still, if you question me of my content
“At having put each human pleasure by,
“I answer, at the urgency of truth,
“As this world seems, I dare not say I know
“—Apart from Christ’s assurance which decides— (620)
“Whether I have not failed to taste some joy.
“For many a dream would fain perturb my choice—
“How love, in those the varied shapes, might show
“As glory, or as rapture, or as grace:
“How conversancy with the books that teach,
“The arts that help,—how, to grow great, in fine,
“Rather than simply good, and bring thereby
“Goodness to breathe and live, nor, born i’ the brain,
“Die there,—how these and many another gift
“May well be precious though abjured by me. (630)
“But, for one prize, best meed of mightiest man,
“Arch-object of ambition,—earthly praise,
“Repute o’ the world, the flourish of loud trump,
“The softer social fluting,—Oh, for these,
“—No, my friends! Fame,—that bubble which, world-wide
“Each blows and bids his neighbour lend a breath,
“That so he haply may behold thereon
“One more enlarged distorted false fool’s-face,
“Until some glassy nothing grown as big
“Send by a touch the imperishable to suds,— (640)
“No, in renouncing fame, the loss was light,
“Choosing obscurity, the chance was well!”
As the man’s own bubble, let alone its spite?
What’s his speech for, but just the fame he flouts—
How he dares reprehend both high and low?
Else had he turned the sentence “God is true
“And every man a liar—save the Pope
“Happily reigning—my respects to him!”
—So, rounded off the period. Molinism (650)
Simple and pure! To what pitch get we next?
I find that, for first pleasant consequence,
Gomez, who had intended to appeal
From the absurd decision of the Court,
Declines, though plain enough his privilege,
To call on help from lawyers any more—
Resolves the liars may possess the world,
Till God have had sufficiency of both:
So may I whistle for my job and fee!
If law be an inadequate machine,
And advocacy, so much impotence,
We shall soon see, my blatant brother! That’s
Exactly what I hope to show your sort!
For, by a veritable piece of luck,
True providence, you monks round period with,
All may be gloriously retrieved. Perpend!
Whereto the Court consigned Pompilia first,
—Observe, if convertite, why, sinner then, (670)
Or where the pertinency of award?—
And whither she was late returned to die,
—Still in their jurisdiction, mark again!—
That thrifty Sisterhood, for perquisite,
Claims every paul where of may die possessed
Each sinner in the circuit of its walls.
Now, this Pompilia, seeing that by death
O’ the couple, all their wealth devolved on her,
Straight utilised the respite ere decease
By regular conveyance of the goods (680)
She thought her own, to will and to devise,—
Gave all to friends, Tighetti and the like,
In trust for him she held her son and heir,
Gaetano,—trust to end with infancy:
So willing and devising, since assured
The justice of the Court would presently
Confirm her in her rights and exculpate,
Re-integrate and rehabilitate—
Station as, through my pleading, now she stands.
But here’s the capital mistake: the Court (690)
Found Guido guilty,—but pronounced no word
About the innocency of his wife:
I grounded charge on broader base, I hope!
No matter whether wife be true or false,
The husband must not push aside the law,
And punish of a sudden: that’s the point!
Gather from out my speech the contrary!
It follows that Pompilia, unrelieved
By formal sentence from imputed fault,
Remains unfit to have and to dispose (700)
Of property, which law provides shall lapse:
Wherefore the Monastery claims its due.
And whose, pray, whose the office, but the Fisc’s?
Who but I institute procedure next
Against the person of dishonest life,
Pompilia, whom last week I sainted so?
I, it is, teach the monk what scripture means,
And that the
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