Page:Poems of Sentiment and Imagination.djvu/149

Rh Brings such a painful feeling, as but now,

Poisoned the pure emotions she had felt

Toward the suffering stranger whom she had

Striven to render happy. Evermore

I will be coy and careful, never giving

To any but my parent the warm love

That does pervade my being; keeping all

Love's tender attributes and natural cares,

In one deep, ceaseless channel of affection;

Leaning alone for tenderness and counsel

Upon one natural trust—the only one

Nature has given me—a father's love.

Her. I have been very wrong to poison thus

Thy innocent trustfulness; for there is not

A more heart-troubling spirit haunting man,

Dwelling in gloom, and shadowing the soul

With a wing blacker than the wing of hate;

There is not in all man's grievous torments

A darker, gloomier, or more hideous form

Of human ill than sullen, black suspicion!

I would not teach thee distrust; 'tis the bane

Of all life's sweetness; I would but have said

Beware of seeming virtues; yet this much

Shall be retracted, since it pains thee so

To bear the imputation of a fault not meant,

And really not existing but in seeming.

If this man be not the veriest villain

That darkens earth with impotence of virtue,

He will but love thee for thy ignorance

Of the world's sinful wisdom. I do so;

Thou art to me far loftier than the best

Earth's royalty can boast; and thy pure soul

Hath radiance only borrowed from the skies.

Azlea. Wert thou not who thou art—a holy teacher—

I should suspect from what thyself hath said

That thou wert uttering in mere idleness