Thou canst not climb to God, and short of Him is nothing;
There is no cause for aught we see, but in His present will.
Begin from the Maker, thou carriest down His attributes to reptiles,
The sharded beetle and the lizard live and move in Him:
Begin from the creature, corruption and infirmity mar thy foolish toil,
Heap Ossa on Olympus, how much art thou nearer to the stars?
It is easy running from a mountain's top down to the valleys at its foot,
But difficult and steep the laborious ascent, and feebly shalt thou reach it:
Yet man, beginning from himself, that first deluding mystery,
Hopeth from the pit of lies to struggle up to truth;