CANTO IV. A TALE OF PARAGUAY, 18. 83 There on the altar was his image set, The lamp before it burning night and day, 19. But chiefly there the Mother of our Lord, The Babe Divine on whom she fix'd her sight; 20. To this great family the Jesuit brought His new-found children now; for young and old ... The saving mysteries in the creed enroll'd, But errors they have none to which they cleave, 21. Safe from that pride of ignorance were they That with small knowledge thinks itself full wise. How at believing aught should these delay, When every where new objects met their eyes To fill the soul with wonder and surprise? Not of itself, but by temptation bred, In man doth impious unbelief arise; It is our instinct to believe and dread, God bids us love, and then our faith is perfected. 22. Quick to believe, and slow to comprehend, And to the font at once he might have brought 23. Of this they reck'd not whether soon or late; Their faculties; and in this new estate Strange sights and sounds and thoughts well nigh opprest Their sense, and raised a turmoil in the breast Resenting less of pleasure than of pain ;. And sleep afforded them no natural rest, But in their dreams, a mixed disorder'd train, The busy scenes of day disturb'd their hearts again. 24. Even when the spirit to that secret wood Which late it left: strange faces were descried, All things that it had heard, and seen, and more than these. 25. For in their sleep strange forms deform'd they saw Of frightful fiends, their ghostly enemies, And souls who must abide the rigorous law Weltering in fire, and there with dolorous cries Blaspheming roll around their hopeless eyes; And those who doom'd a shorter term to bear In penal flames, look upward to the skies, Seeking and finding consolation there, And feel, like dew from heaven, the precious aid of prayer. 26. And Angels who around their glorious Queen In adoration bent their heads abased; And infant faces in their dreams were seen That made its hours of rest more restless than the day. 27. To all who from an old erratic course The new-reclaim'd unhurt this total change to bear. 28. All thoughts and occupations to commute, To change their air, their water, and their food, That their new way of life brought with it in its train. 29. On Monnema the apprehended ill Came first; the matron sunk beneath the weight Of a strong malady, whose force no skill In healing might avert, or mitigate. Yet happy in her children's safe estate Her thankfulness for them she still exprest; And yielding then complacently to fate, With Christian rites her passing hour was blest, And with a Christian's hope she was consign'd to rest. 30. They laid her in the Garden of the Dead; Was that fair spot, where every grave was spread Planted in stately colonnades appear, That all was verdant there throughout the unvarying year. 31. Nor ever did irreverent feet intrude Within that sacred spot; nor sound of mirth, Unseemly there, profane the solitude, Where solemnly committed earth to earth, Waiting the summons for their second birth, Whole generations in Death's peaceful fold Collected lay; green innocence, ripe worth, Youth full of hope, and age whose days were told, Compress'd alike into that mass of mortal mould. 32. Mortal, and yet at the Archangel's voice Shall one day make the sentient dust rejoice; |