For magnanimity be found;
For faith, 'mid ruin'd hopes, serene?
Or whence could virtue flow?
Pain entered through a ghastly breach—
Nor while sin lasts must effort cease;
Heaven upon earth's an empty boast;
But, for the bowers of Eden lost,
Mercy has placed within our reach
A portion of God's peace.
The first stanza of this After-Thought was first published in the edition of 1832, as the beginning of the poem Composed in one of the Catholic Cantons, and the second stanza in the edition of 1837 when the After-Thought first appeared.—Ed.