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"Heaven might vouchsafe its gracious miracle ; "Or silly heretic, whose erring thoughts,

"Monstrous and vain, perchance might stray beyond

"All reason, and conceit strange dreams and signs

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Impossible. Say, woman, from thy youth

"Hast thou, as rightly mother Church demands, "Confess'd to holy Priest each secret sin, "That, by the grace vouchsafed to him from Heaven, "He might absolve thee ?"

Father," she replied,

"The forms of worship in mine earlier years

"Wak'd my young mind to artificial awe,

"And made me fear my GOD. Warm with the glow "Of health and exercise, whene'er I pass'd "The threshold of the house of prayer, I felt

"A cold damp chill me, I beheld the flame "That with a pale and feeble glimmering "Dimm'd the noon-light, I heard the solemn mass, "And with strange feelings and mysterious dread "Telling my beads, gave to the mystic prayers

"Devoutest meaning. Often when I saw

"The pictur'd flames writhe round a penanced soul, "Have I retired, and knelt before the cross,

"And wept for grace, and trembled, and believed "A GOD of Terrors. But in riper years,

"When as my soul grew strong in solitude, "I saw the eternal energy pervade

"The boundless range of nature, with the sun "Pour life and radiance from his flamy path, "And on the lowliest flowret of the field

"The kindly dew-drops shed. And then I felt "That HE who form'd this goodly frame of things "Must needs be good, and with a FATHER's name "I call'd on HIM, and from my burthen'd heart "Pour'd out the yearnings of unmingled love. "Methinks it is not strange then, that I fled

"The house of prayer, and made the lonely grove

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My temple, at the foot of some old oak

Watching the little tribes that had their world

"Within its mossy bark; or laid me down

"Beside the rivulet whose murmuring

"Was silence to my soul, and mark'd the swarm "Whose light-edged shadows on the bedded sand "Mirror'd their mazy sports; the insect hum,

"The flow of waters, and the song of birds "Making a holy music to mine ear:

"Oh! was it strange, if for such scenes as these "Such deep devoutness, such intense delight "Of quiet adoration, I forsook

"The house of worship? strange that when I felt
"How GOD had made my Spirit quick to feel
"And love whate'er was beautiful and good,

"And from ought evil and deform'd to shrink
"Even as with instinct; father! was it strange
"That in my heart I had no thought of sin
"And did not need forgiveness ?"

As she spake

The Doctors stood astonish'd, and some while

They listen'd still in wonder. But at length

A Priest replied,

"Woman, thou seem'st to scorn

"The ordinances of our holy Church;

"And, if I rightly understand thy words,
"Thou say'st that Solitude and Nature taught

"Thy feelings of religion, and that now

"Masses and absolution and the use

"Of mystic wafer, are to thee unknown.

"How then could Nature teach thee true religion, "Deprived of these? Nature can teach to sin, "But 'tis the Priest alone can teach remorse,

"Can bid St. Peter ope the gates of Heaven, "And from the penal fires of purgatory

"Absolve the soul. Could Nature teach thee this? "Or tell thee that St. Peter holds the keys, "And that his successor's unbounded power "Extends o'er either world? Altho' thy life "Of sin were free, if of this holy truth "Ignorant, thy soul in liquid flames must rue "Its error."

VOL. 1.

Thus he spake; the applauding look

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Went round. Nor dubious to reply the Maid

Was silent.

"Fathers of the holy Church,

"If on these points abstruse a simple maid "Like me should err, impute not you the crime "To self-will'd reason, vaunting its own strength "Above the eternal wisdom. True it is

"That for long time I have not heard the sound "Of mass high-chaunted, nor with trembling lips "Partook the mystic wafer: yet the bird "Who to the matin ray prelusive pour'd

"His joyous song, methought did warble forth "Sweeter thanksgiving to Religion's ear

"In his wild melody of happiness,

"Than ever rung along the high-arch'd roofs

"Of man:...

•yet never from the bending vine "Pluck'd I its ripen'd clusters thanklessly,

"Or of that God unmindful, who bestow'd

"The bloodless banquet. Ye have told me, Sirs,

"That Nature only teaches man to sin!

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