A dismal prospect yields the wild shore strewn Of friends or kindred, whom the angry sea Restores not to their prayer! Ah! who would think That all the scattered subjects which compose From the delights of charity cut off, To pity dead, the oppressor and the opprest; This file of infants; some that never breathed That lovingly consigns the babe to the arms These that in trembling hope are laid apart; The thinking, thoughtless, school-boy; the bold youth Of soul impetuous, and the bashful maid Are opening round her; those of middle age, Cast down while confident in strength they stand, That, for support, rests on them; the decayed And whence that tribute? wherefore these Not from the naked Heart alone of Man The one by which a creature, whom his sins To the four quarters of the winds, proclaims. Of these benign observances prevail : Thus are they born, thus fostered, thus maintained; And by the care prospective of our wise Forefathers, who, to guard against the shocks The fluctuation and decay of things, Embodied and established these high truths In solemn institutions :-men convinced Through shades and silent rest, to endless joy." |