9.

The tears which o'er her infancy were shed
Profuse, resented not of grief alone :
Maternal love their bitterness allay'd,

And with a strength and virtue all its own
Sustain'd the breaking heart. A look, a tone,
A gesture of that innocent babe, in eyes
With saddest recollections overflown,

Would sometimes make a tender smile arise, Like sunshine opening thro' a shower in vernal skies.

10.

No looks but those of tenderness were found
To turn upon that helpless infant dear;
And as her sense unfolded, never sound
Of wrath or discord brake upon her ear.
Her soul its native purity sincere
Possess'd, by no example here defiled;

From envious passions free, exempt from fear,
Unknowing of all ill, amid the wild

Beloving and beloved she grew, a happy child.

11.

Yea, where that solitary bower was placed, Though all unlike to Paradise the scene, (A wide circumference of woodlands waste:) Something of what in Eden might have been Was shadow'd there imperfectly, I ween, In this fair creature: safe from all offence, Expanding like a shelter'd plant serene, Evils that fret and stain being far from thence, Her heart in peace and joy retain'd its innocence.

12.

At first the infant to Yeruti proved

A cause of wonder and disturbing joy. A stronger tie than that of kindred moved His inmost being, as the happy boy Felt in his heart of hearts without alloy The sense of kind: a fellow creature she, In whom when now she ceased to be a toy For tender sport, his soul rejoiced to see Connatural powers expand, and growing sympathy.

13.

For her he cull'd the fairest flowers, and sought
Throughout the woods the earliest fruits for her.
The cayman's eggs, the honeycomb he brought
To this beloved sister,... whatsoe'er,
To his poor thought, of delicate or rare
The wilds might yield, solicitous to find.
They who affirm all natural acts declare
Self-love to be the ruler of the mind,

Judge from their own mean hearts, and foully wrong mankind.

14.

Three souls in whom no selfishness had place
Were here: three happy souls, which undefiled,
Albeit in darkness, still retain'd a trace
Of their celestial origin. The wild
Was as a sanctuary where Nature smiled
Upon these simple children of her own,
And cherishing whate'er was meek and mild,
Call'd forth the gentle virtues, such alone,

The evils which evoke the stronger being unknown.

15.

What though at birth we bring with us the seed Of sin, a mortal taint,... in heart and will

Too surely felt, too plainly shown in deed,... Our fatal heritage; yet are we still

The children of the All Merciful; and ill

They teach, who tell us that from hence must flow God's wrath, and then his justice to fulfil,

Death everlasting, never-ending woe: O miserable lot of man if it were so!

16.

Falsely and impiously teach they who thus
Our heavenly Father's holy will misread!
In bounty hath the Lord created us,

In love redeem'd. From this authentic creed
Let no bewildering sophistry impede
The heart's entire assent, for God is good.
Hold firm this faith, and, in whatever need,
Doubt not but thou wilt find thy soul endued
With all-sufficing strength of heavenly fortitude!

17.

By nature peccable and frail are we,
Easily beguiled; to vice, to error prone;
But apt for virtue too. Humanity

Is not a field where tares and thorns alone

Are left to spring; good seed hath there been sown
With no unsparing hand. Sometimes the shoot
Is choked with weeds, or withers on a stone;
But in a kindly soil it strikes its root,

And flourisheth, and bringeth forth abundant fruit.

18.

Love, duty, generous feeling, tenderness,
Spring in the uncontaminated mind;

And these were Mooma's natural dower. Nor less
Had liberal Nature to the boy assign'd,
Happier herein than if among mankind

...

Their lot had fallen, oh, certes happier here! That all things tended still more close to bind Their earliest ties, and they from year to year Retain❜d a childish heart, fond, simple, and sincere.

19.

They had no sad reflection to alloy

The calm contentment of the passing day,
Nor foresight to disturb the present joy.
Not so with Monnema; albeit the sway

Of time had reach'd her heart, and worn away,
At length, the grief so deeply seated there,
The future often, like a burthen, lay

Upon that heart, a cause of secret care
And melancholy thought; yet did she not despair.

20.

Chance from the fellowship of human kind
Had cut them off, and chance might reunite.
On this poor possibility her mind

Reposed; she did not for herself invite

The unlikely thought, and cherish with delight The dream of what such change might haply bring; Gladness with hope long since had taken flight From her; she felt that life was on the wing, And happiness like youth has here no second spring.

21.

So were her feelings to her lot composed
That to herself all change had now been pain.
For Time upon her own desires had closed;
But in her children as she lived again,
For their dear sake she learnt to entertain

A wish for human intercourse renew'd;
And oftentimes, while they devour'd the strain,
Would she beguile their evening solitude
With stories strangely told and strangely understood.

22.

Little she knew, for little had she seen,

And little of traditionary lore

Had reach'd her ear; and yet to them I ween
Their mother's knowledge seem'd a boundless store.
A world it opened to their thoughts, yea more, .
Another world beyond this mortal state.
Bereft of her they had indeed been poor,

Being left to animal sense, degenerate,

...

Mere creatures, they had sunk below the beasts'

estate.

23.

The human race, from her they understood, Was not within that lonely hut confined, But distant far beyond their world of wood Were tribes and powerful nations of their kind; And of the old observances which bind People and chiefs, the ties of man and wife, The laws of kin religiously assign'd, Rites, customs, scenes of riotry and strife, And all the strange vicissitudes of savage life.