"My own hope is, a sun will pierce

The thickest cloud earth ever stretched;

That, after Last, returns the First,

Though a wide compass round be fetched;

That what began best, can't end worst.

Nor what God blessed once, prove accurst."B

B: Apparent Failure.

It is the poet himself and not merely the sophistic aesthete of Fifine that speaks:—

"Partake my confidence! No creature's made so mean

But that, some way, it boasts, could we investigate,