Wouldst mercy find? Show mercy, when men bow them low.90
The Jewish king reproached the fire: “O raging thing!
Thy all-destructive might, where is it? Where’s thy sting?
If thou wilt not consume, what quality hast thou?
Or has my fortune veered; and with it, thy dread glow?
Thou sparest not thy worshippers, the Magian race.
Whence comes it; these who spurn thee, Christians, meet with grace?
Thou never wast, O fire, for patience noted here.
Why burn’st thou not? What is there? Hast thou lost thy power?
Is this eye-binding?[131] Is it, rather, reason’s blind?