“My duty bids me try that heart to mend,”
Replied the virgin; “we may be too nice
And lose a soul in our contempt of vice;
If false the charge, I then shall show regard
For a good man, and be his just reward:
And what for virtue can I better do
Than to reclaim him, if the charge be true?”
She spoke, nor more her holy work delay’d;
’Twas time to lend an erring mortal aid:
“The noblest way,” she judged, “a soul to win,