Page:Works of Voltaire Volume 36.djvu/53

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The Law of Nature.
35

Let's strive to lend each other kind relief,
We groan beneath a load of woes and grief:
Against our lives a thousand foes lay wait,
Our lives which we at once both love and hate:
Some guide, some prop our wavering hearts require,
With languor chilled, or burned with strong desire.
Tears by the happiest mortals have been shed,
All have their share of anxious care and dread.
If kind society her succors lend,
Her joys awhile our grief and cares suspend:
Yet even here a weak resource we find,
'Gainst grief that ever rankles in the mind.
Dash not the cup in which our comforts flow,
Do not corrupt the balm of human woe.
Felons, methinks, I in a dungeon spy,
Who at their fellows' throats with fury fly;
And though they could relieve each other's pains,
Forever jar and combat with their chains.

Part the Fourth.

Proves that it is the business of the government to put an end to the unhappy disputes of the schools, by which the peace of society is disturbed.

I oft have heard it from your lips august,
'Tis the grand duty, doubtless, to be just;
And the first blessing is the heart's repose.
How could you, where so many sects oppose,
Amidst incessant wrangling and debate,
Preserve a peace so lasting in the state?
Whence is it Calvin's sons, and Luther's, tell,
Deemed by the Papists Satan's offspring fell,
The Roman, Greek, who will not own the power
Of Rome; the Quaker, Anabaptist sour,