And seek through noiseless pains and moderation

The unblemished good they only can bestow.

Alas! with most, who weigh futurity

Against time present, passion holds the scales: 10

Hence equal ignorance of both prevails,

And nations sink; or, struggling to be free,

Are doomed to flounder on, like wounded whales

Tossed on the bosom of a stormy sea.

[161] This date was omitted in the edition of 1842.

[162] The three sonnets, At Bologna, in remembrance of the late Insurrections, 1837, are printed as a sequel to the Italian Tour of that year.—Ed.