Page:The works of Anna Laetitia Barbauld volume 1.djvu/131



to soothe distress and lighten care, Lively as soft, and innocent as fair! Blest with that sweet simplicity of thought So rarely found, and never to be taught; Of winning speech, endearing, artless, kind, The loveliest pattern of a female mind; Like some fair spirit from the realms of rest, With all her native heaven within her breast; So pure, so good, she scarce can guess at sin, But thinks the world without like that within; Such melting tenderness, so fond to bless, Her charity almost becomes excess.