Alas! What Boots The Long Laborious Quest

ALAS! what boots the long laborious quest

Of moral prudence, sought through good and ill;

Or pains abstruse—to elevate the will,

And lead us on to that transcendent rest

Where every passion shall the sway attest

Of Reason, seated on her sovereign hill;

What is it but a vain and curious skill,

If sapient Germany must lie deprest,

Beneath the brutal sword?—Her haughty Schools

Shall blush; and may not we with sorrow say—

A few strong instincts and a few plain rules,

Among the herdsmen of the Alps, have wrought

More for mankind at this unhappy day

Then all the pride of intellect and thought?