Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Thomas Humphry Ward, ed. The English Poets. 1880–1918.rnVol. III. The Eighteenth Century: Addison to Blake

John Byrom (1692–1763)

On the Origin of Evil

EVIL, if rightly understood,

Is but the skeleton of good

Divested of its flesh and blood.

While it remains, without divorce,

Within its hidden secret source,

It is the good’s own strength and force.

As bone has the supporting share

In human form divinely fair,

Although an evil when laid bare;

As light and air are, fed by fire,

A shining good while all conspire,

But, separate, dark raging ire;

As hope and love arise from faith

Which then admits no ill, nor hath,

But, if alone, it would be wrath;

Or any instance thought upon

In which the evil can be none

Till unity of good is gone:—

So, by abuse of thought and skill,

The greatest good, to wit, Free Will,

Becomes the origin of ill.

Thus when rebellious angels fell,

The very Heaven where good ones dwell

Became the apostate spirits’ hell;

Seeking against eternal right

A force without a love and light

They found, and felt its evil might.

Thus Adam, biting at their bait

Of good and evil, when he ate

Died to his first thrice-happy state,

Fell to the evils of this ball

Which, in harmonious union all,

Were Paradise before his fall,

And, when the life of Christ in men

Revives its faded image, then

Will all be Paradise again.