CXIX. And here I leave them at their preparation Are things the turning of a hair or feather CXX. I leave them for the present with good wishes, Though doubts of their well doing, to arrange Another part of history; for the dishes Of this our banquet we must sometimes change; And trusting Juan may escape the fishes, Although his situation now seems strange, And scarce secure, as such digressions are fair, The Muse will take a little touch at warfare. DON JUAN. CANTO TIIE SEVENTH. (1) (1) ["The seventh and eighth Cantos contain a full detail (like the storm in Canto second) of the siege and assault of Ismail, with much of sarcasm on those butchers in large business, your mercenary soldiers. With these things and these fellows it is necessary, in the present clash of philosophy and tyranny, to throw away the scabbard. I know it is against fearful odds; but the battle must be fought; and it will be eventually for the good of mankind, whatever it may be for the individual who risks him. self." B. Letters, Aug. 8. 1822.] DON JUAN. CANTO THE SEVENTH. I. O LOVE! O Glory! what are ye who fly Of such transcendent and more fleeting flight. II. And such as they are, such my present tale is, Which flashes o'er a waste and icy clime. When we know what all are, we must bewail us, But ne'ertheless I hope it is no crime To laugh at all things-for I wish to know III. They accuse me-Me-the present writer of At human power and virtue, and all that; Good God! I wonder what they would be at ! I say no more than hath been said in Dante's Verse, and by Solomon and by Cervantes; IV. By Swift, by Machiavel, by Rochefoucault, V. Socrates said, our only knowledge was (1) "To know that nothing could be known;" a pleasant Science enough, which levels to an ass Each man of wisdom, future, past, or present. Newton (that proverb of the mind), alas! Declared, with all his grand discoveries recent, (1) ["Scrawled this additional page of life's log-book. One day more is over of it, and of me ; —but,' which is best, life or death, the gods only know,' as Socrates said to his judges, on the breaking up of the tribunal. Two thousand years since that sage's declaration of ignorance have not enlightened us more upon this important point. - B. Diary, 1821.] |