Page:Joan of Arc - Southey (1796).djvu/127

 All Beauty! In the greenwood's simple shade There is no vice that to the indignant cheek Bids the red current rush.—No misery there— No wretched mother, that with pallid face And famine-fall'n, hangs o'er her hungry babes, With such a look, so wan, so woe-begone, As shall one day, with damning eloquence, Against the mighty plead! Nature teach sin! O blasphemy against the Holy One, Who made us in the image of himself, Who made us all for Happiness and Love, Infinite happiness—infinite love, Partakers of his own eternity."

Solemn and slow the reverend Priest replied, "Much, woman, do I doubt that all-wise Heaven Would thus vouchsafe its gracious miracles On one fore-doom'd to misery; for so doom'd Is that deluded one, who, of the mass Unheeding, and the Church's saving power, "Deems