ODE III. Against SUSPICION.

O Fly! 'Tis dire SUSPICION'S mien;
 And, meditating plagues unseen,
 The sorc'ress hither bends:
 Behold her torch in gall imbrued:
 Behold — her garments drop with blood
 Of lovers and of friends. 

Fly far! Already in your eyes
 I see a pale suffusion rise;
 And soon thro' every vein,
 Soon will her secret venom spread,
 And all your heart and all your head
 Imbibe the potent stain. 

Then come the hours of shame and fear;
 Then hints of horror seize your ear;
 While gleams of lost delight
 Raise the deep discord of the brain,
 As light'ning shines along the main
 Thro' whirlwinds and thro' night. 

No more can faith or candor move;
 But each ingenuous deed of love
 Which once you would applaud,
 Now, smiing o'er her dark distress,
 Malignant fancy longs to dress
 Like injury and fraud. 

Farewell to virtue's peaceful times!
 for soon you'll stoop to act the crimes
 You thus can stoop to fear:
 When vice begins her ugly train
 With wrongs of such unmanly stain,
 What horrors form the rear! 

'Tis thus, to work her baleful pow'r,
 SUSPICION waits the sullen hour
 Of fretfulness and strife,
 When care th' infirmer bosom wrings,
 Or EURUS shakes his gloomy wings
 To damp the seats of life. 

But come, forsake the scene unblest,
 Which first beheld your candid breast,
 To groundless fears a prey;
 Come, where with my prevailing lyre
 The skies, the streams, the groves conspire
 To charm your doubts away. 

Thron'd in the sun's descending car,
 What Pow'r unseen diffuses far
 This tenderness of mind? 
What Genius smiles on every flood? 
What GOD, in whispers from the wood,
 Bids every heart be kind? 

O thou, whate'er thy awful name,
 Whose breath awak'd th' immortal flame
 That moves my active veins;
 Thou, who by fair affection's ties
 Hast doubled all my future joys,
 And half disarm'd my pains;

Let universal CANDOUR still,
 Clear as yon heav'n-reflefting rill,
 Preserve my open mind;
 Nor THIS, nor THAT man's crooked views,
 One mean or cruel doubt infuse
 To injure human kind.