“‘Hence the devices deemed so great
You copied, and did not create.’
“I feel the abbot’s words are just,
And that all thanks renounce I must.
“Can a man welcome praise and pelf
For hatching art that hatched itself? . . .
“So, I shall own the deft design
Is Heaven’s outshaping, and not mine.”
“What!” said she. “Praise your works ensure
To throw away, and quite obscure
“Your beaming and beneficent star?
Better you leave things as they are!
“Why, think awhile. Had not your zest
In your loved craft curtailed your rest—
“Had you not gone there ere the day
The sun had melted all away!”
—But, though his good wife argued so,
The mason let the people know
That not unaided sprang the thought
Whereby the glorious fane was wrought,