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Men are judged of, condemned, hanged, reviled, ruined, elevated, applauded, and rewarded upon less than a thousandth part of the real moral truth that is evident to the eye of the Almighty; and it too often happens, that what seems to be best ascertained by the united testimony of many soothfast witnesses, is after all little better than a lie, or an invention of men's minds, rolled up in the clouds of prejudice, selfishness, or hallucination.

O who by virtues great all highmost honours enhancest, Guard of Em�thia-land, most famous made by thine offspring, 325Take what the Sisters deign this gladsome day to disclose thee, Oracles soothfast told,—And ye, by Destiny followed, Speed ye, the well-spun woof out-drawing, speed ye, O Spindles.

Gladsome to me, O my life, this love whose offer thou deignest Between us twain lively and lusty to last soothfast.

Then spake the wise one, Healfdene's son, and all were gone silent: 1700 Lo that may he say, who the right and the soothfast Amid the folk frameth, and far back all remembers, The old country's warden, that as for this earl here Born better was he.

There as thou drawest thy sword, thou shalt think of the days that were, And the foul shall still seem foul, and the fair shall still seem fair; But thy wit shall then be awakened, and thou shalt know indeed Why the brave man's spear is broken, and his war-shield fails at need; Why the loving is unbelovèd; why the just man falls from his state; Why the liar gains in a day what the soothfast strives for late.