"Our nature," said the Priest, in mild reply,

"Angels may weigh and fathom: they perceive,

With undistempered and unclouded spirit,

The object as it is; but, for ourselves,

That speculative height we may not reach.

The good and evil are our own; and we

Are that which we would contemplate from far.

Knowledge, for us, is difficult to gain—

Is difficult to gain, and hard to keep—

As virtue's self; like virtue is beset