Pastoral Dialogue

Remember when you love, from that same hour

Your peace you put into your lover’s power;

From that same hour from him you laws receive,

And as he shall ordain, you joy, or grieve,

Hope, fear, laugh, weep; Reason aloof does stand,

Disabled both to act, and to command.

Oh cruel fetters! rather wish to feel

On your soft limbs, the galling weight of steel;

Rather to bloody wounds oppose your breast.

No ill, by which the body can be pressed

You will so sensible a torment find

As shackles on your captived mind.

The mind from heaven its high descent did draw,

And brooks uneasily any other law

Than what from Reason dictated shall be.

Reason, a kind of innate deity,

Which only can adapt to ev’ry soul

A yoke so fit and light, that the control

All liberty excels; so sweet a sway,

The same ’tis to be happy, and obey;

Commands so wise, and with rewards so dressed,

That the according soul replies “I’m blessed.”