How sad a welcome! To each voyager[913]
Some ragged child holds up for sale a store[914]
Of wave-worn pebbles, pleading on the shore[915]
Where once came monk and nun with gentle stir,
Blessings to give, news ask, or suit prefer. 5
Yet is[916] yon neat trim church[917] a grateful speck
Of novelty amid the sacred wreck
Strewn far and wide. Think, proud Philosopher![918]
Fallen though she be, this Glory of the west,[919]
Still on her sons, the beams of mercy shine; 10
And "hopes, perhaps more heavenly bright than thine,
A grace by thee unsought and unpossest,
A faith more fixed, a rapture more divine,
Shall gild their passage to eternal rest."[920]
FOOTNOTES:
[913] 1837.
With earnest look, to every voyager, 1835.
[914] 1837.
... his store 1835.
[915] 1835.
With outstretched hands, round every voyager
Press ragged children, each to supplicate
A price for wave-worn pebbles on his plate,
MS.