Page:Tale of Paraguay - Southey.djvu/69

Rh

By the Great Spirit man was made, she said, His voice it was which peal'd along the sky, And shook the heavens and fill'd the earth with dread. Alone and inaccessible, on high He had his dwelling-place eternally, And Father was his name. This all knew well; But none had seen his face: and if his eye Regarded what upon the earth befell, Or if he cared for man, she knew not:—who could tell?

But this, she said, was sure, that after death There was reward and there was punishment: And that the evil doers, when the breath Of their injurious lives at length was spent, Into all noxious forms abhorr'd were sent, Of beasts and reptiles; so retaining still Their old propensities, on evil bent. They work'd where'er they might their wicked will, The natural foes of men, whom we pursue and kill.