Page:Works of Voltaire Volume 36.djvu/52

Thou seest with joy God human beings frame,
To glut the devil and burn with endless flame.
Is it not enough that you at once consign
Montaigne and Montesquieu to wrath divine?
Shall Aristides, Socrates the sage,
Solon the guide and model of his age;
Aurelius, Trajan, Titus dear to fame,
Against whom you with bitterness declaim,
All be cast into the abyss of hell,
By the just Being whom they served so well?
And shall you be in heaven with glory crowned,
While crowds of cherubim your throne surround;
Because with monks a wallet once you bore,
In ignorance slept and greasy sack-cloth wore?
Be blest above, with souls no war I wage,
But why should Newton, wonder of his age,
Leibnitz profound, and Addison whose mind
With learning fraught was by true taste refined:
Locke who could spirits' properties explain,
And understanding's limits ascertain;
Men whom the God supreme deigned to inspire
Wherefore should these be doomed to penal fire?
In judging be more temperate and cool,
Teach not eternal wisdom how to rule;
To judge severely such great men beware,
And those who ne'er condemned you learn to spare.
Religion well observed will quell your rage,
And make you mild, compassionate and sage;
Drown others not, but try the port to find,
He's right who pardons but the angry blind.
Sons of one God, in these our days of woe
Let's live like brothers whilst we dwell below.