9. The tears which o'er her infancy were shed And with a strength and virtue all its own 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 From envious passions free, exempt from fear, 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 Judge from their own mean hearts, and foully wrong mankind. 14. Three souls in whom no selfishness had place 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 In love redeem'd. From this authentic creed 17. By nature peccable and frail are we, Is not a field where tares and thorns alone Are left to spring; good seed hath there been sown And flourisheth, and bringeth forth abundant fruit. 18. Love, duty, generous feeling, tenderness, And these were Mooma's natural dower. Nor less ... 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, Of time had reach'd her heart, and worn away, Upon that heart, a cause of secret care 20. Chance from the fellowship of human kind 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 A wish for human intercourse renew'd; 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 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. |