Heard ye not the music of the spheres? Know ye not the melody of
celestial voices? On yonder silver-skirted cloud I see them come. It
turns its brilliant lining on the setting day. And these are the accents
of their worship. "Ye sons of women, such as ye are now, such once were
we. Through many scenes of trial, through heroic constancy, and
ever-during patience, have we attained to this bright eminence. Large
and mysterious are the paths of heaven, just and immaculate his ways. If
ye listen to the siren voice of pleasure, if upon the neck of heedless
youth you throw the reins, that base and earth-born clay which now you
wear, shall assume despotic empire. And when you quit the present narrow
scene, ye shall wear a form congenial to your vices. The fierce and
lawless shall assume the figure of the unrelenting wolf. The
unreflecting tyrant, that raised a mistaken fame from scenes of
devastation and war, shall spurn the ground, a haughty and indignant
horse; and in that form, shall learn, by dear experience, what were the
sufferings and what the scourge that he inflicted on mankind. The
sensual shall wear the shaggy vesture of the goat, or foam and whet his
horrid tusks, a wild and untame'd boar. But virtue prepares its
possessor for the skies.
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