Therefore in silent reverence here,
Hearth of the dead! I stand,
Where joy and sorrow, smile and tear,
Have link’d one household band.
THE MINSTER.
Speak low! The place is holy to the breath
Of awful harmonies, of whisper’d prayer:
Tread lightly!—for the sanctity of death
Broods with a voiceless influence on the air,
Stern, yet serene!—a reconciling spell,