Doubt was on his daily path; and duties shewed not certain:
Until, in an hour of enthusiasm, stung with secret fears,
He pinned the safety of his soul on some false prophet's sleeve.
And then, that sure word failed; and with it, failed his faith;
It failed, and fell; O deep and dreadful was his fall in faith!
He could not stop, with reason's rein, his coursers on the slope,
And so they dashed him down the cliff of hardened unbelief.
With overreaching grasp he had strained for visionary treasures,
But a fiend had cheated his presumption, and hurled him to despair.
So he lay in his blood, the victim of a credulous false faith,