But this is not my maxim: had it been,

Some heart-aches had been spared me: yet I care not—

I would not be a tortoise in his screen

Of stubborn shell, which waves and weather wear not:

'Tis better on the whole to have felt and seen

That which Humanity may bear, or bear not:

'Twill teach discernment to the sensitive,

And not to pour their Ocean in a sieve.