Unkind Judging

To be thought ill of, worse than we deserve,
To have hard speeches said, cold looks displayed,

By those who should have cheered us when we swerve,-
Is one of Heaven's best lots, and may be made
A treasure ere we know it, a lone field
"Which to hot hearts may bitter blessings yield.
Either we learn from our past faults to shrink,
When their full guilt is kept before our eye,
And, thinking of ourselves as others think,
We so are gainers in humility:
Or the harsh judgments are a gloomy screen,
Fencing our altered lives from praise and glare;
And plants that grow in shades retain their green,
While unmeet sternness kindly chills the air.