Would pick up fallen merc’ry from the floor;

If he pursue it, here and there it slides,

He would collect it, but it more divides;

This part and this he stops, but still in vain,

It slips aside, and breaks in parts again;

Till, after time and pains, and care and cost,

He finds his labour and his object lost.

But most it grieves me (friends alone are round),

To see a man in priestly fetters bound;

Guides to the soul, these friends of Heaven contrive,