Wherefore watch the stars so nicely,
To know how to avoid inevitable woe;
Or how, in future times, our fate will go;
To make us, in the midst of pleasure, sad,
Or with predicted evil, drive us mad,
Convert all blessings into curses dire?
Is this the knowledge to which we aspire,
Is it an error or a crime thus to believe
That future destiny can thus be known?
In place of star-gazing above our head,