Nemesis, whose dreaded weight
Turns the scale of human fate;
On whose front black terrors dwell,
Daughter dire of Justice, hail!
Thou whose adamantine rein
Curbs the arrogant and vain.
Wrong and Force before thee die,
Envy shuns thy searching eye,
And, her sable wings outspread,
Flies to hide her hated head.
Where thy wheel with restless round
Runs along th' unprinted ground,
Humbled there, at thy decree
Human greatness bows the knee.
Thine it is unseen to trace
Step by step each mortal's pace:
Thine the sons of Pride to check,
And to bend the stubborn neck,
Till our lives directed stand
By the measure in thy hand.
Thou observant sit'st on high
With bent brow and stedfast eye,
Weighing all that meets thy view
In thy balance just and true.
Goddess, look propitious down,
View us, but without a frown,
Nemesis, whose dreaded weight
Turns the scale of human fate.