The Fıfth Part

Summary

Now be true reverence extolled:

Naught else remains,^a for all is told

Cynic and Author here are seen

Discussing: their debate is keen

‘WHO’, SAID THE CYNIC, ‘though one of avowed

Reverence,^b can of knowledge yet be proud?

Why in thy fables’ drift dost so rejoice

That like a trumpet thou must raise thy voice,^c

Nor art, here in my presence, overawed,

Fearing instead the word of God, thy Lord?^d

Whom would thy thoughts, uttered in such intense

Tone challenge?^e Nay, thou hast fond confidence

In Him thou fearest:^f fear no profit brings,

Just as from zeal for God no damage springs.

All must spell weariness, all things must end

As was decreed, and man cannot forfend

Nor tear his sentence up: prayer has no power

Nor fear of God to save, in evil's hour.^g

For all things from necessity proceed:

None may escape the lot of each decreed

In his nativity, his destined date

To meet; and whatsoever be his fate,

God prospers the event.^h Men's deeds do not,

Be they good, be they ill, alter a jot.^j

How should the stars, set in their course,^k elect

To swerve, each from his house? Men genuflect

Or supine lie, e’en as the stars direct.

No one can raise his head, or can incline,

Save as his predetermined luck design.^l

As for thee, ne’er again thy soul would quail

If thou wert made acquainted with the tale

About the stork and frog; whom heretofore

Thou hast revered, would hold no terrors^m more.’

‘How’, quoth the Moralist, ‘came this affair,

Whereat thy reason basks in such an air

Of splendid triumph?’ ‘On a time’, said he,

‘A stork did build her nest high in a tree—

Some pine, or firⁿ—near Egypt's eastern shore.

Wise was she,^o and endowed with secret lore;^p

Attending scholars’ words, she had addressed

Their constant service,^q on a mountain crest.r

Joy at her rank spread blooms of happiness

Rose-likes midst all the birds; princes, no less,

Rejoiced, and saints exulted^t that in her

Such quality was found. Her provender

Came from a swamp—hard by her nest she found

Frogs in their multitudes did there abound.

Thence daily she her appetite would slake

And for her household, too, enough would take.