Page:Home; or, The unlost paradise (IA homeorunlostpara00palm).pdf/22

 Of times long past, when many an error reigned As yet unchallenged, blinding all alike To truths since seen as in the midday blaze. Beyond their fellows, keenly had they pierced Error's thick-veiling mists, and Truth discerned In her diviner forms; aside had flung Falsehoods long honored, maxims cherished long That mighty ills had wrought; the good, the right, In their great hearts they worshipped; these they sought, As misers search for gold, with deathless love; Clung to them found, as with the grasp of fate! What if perchance from ardor so intense Of quenchless earnestness, their zeal o'erglowed At times, and they—their vision not yet clear— There erred where all the world had erred till then? Ah! ye who meanly seek to tear away The honors thickly clustered round their brows, Yours—yours the lack of heavenly charity Ye charge on them; yours with far less defence! On you returned at last shall rest the shame;