They sit down very solemnly, · their brows fall in a trice.
“A question grave is this,” they say, · “and asks for labor nice;
To the Council it must go, · and much management implies.
“I think, perhaps, in time, · I can help you in the thing,
By dint of labor long · and grievous studying;
But other duties I must leave, · away all business fling,
Your case alone must study, · and to you alone must cling.”[162]
Somewhat farther on, when he speaks of justice, whose administration had been so lamentably neglected in the civil wars during which he lived, he takes his graver tone, and speaks with a wisdom and gentleness we should hardly have expected:—
True justice is a noble thing, · that merits all renown;
It fills the land with people, · checks the guilty with its frown;