Where even the tempest, when its clouds hang low,

Passes in silence, and the lightning dies,--

If thou hast seen them, bitterly hath been

Thy heart wrung with the misery and despair

Of that dread vision!

Yet there is on earth

A woe more desperate and miserable,--

A spectacle wherein the wrath of God

Avenges Him more terribly. It is

A vain, weak people of faint-heart old men,