Classic Poem

Dark rose the walls, a church and prison joined,
Their kindred glooms to blend and intermix.
Dungeon'd in one, the unknown victim pined,
And in the other mid quaint candlesticks,
Sombre and weird arose a crucifix:
How fitly these portrayed the men who built
A house of God o'ershadowed by old Nick's —
Vain man, to thus offend thy Maker! wilt
Thou look on images to take away thy guilt!

LXVIII

How slight the transit superstition makes
From common crime to acts of righteousness!
E'en human life in willful hate she takes,
Makes earth a waste and desert of distress,
Where lust and rapine rival in excess;
Then from the smoke of some mysterious rite,
She shadows forth in all as if to bless!
And whose disputes must perish in her sight,
An heretic, an enemy of God and right!

LXIX

Man will hold some religion, most believe,
Mainly to hush the soul's rebuke of wrong;
They would their very conscious selves deceive,
By hearing God's will in an unknown tongue,
And recitals not understood and long.
Hence, from the conscience, they with ease appeal
To crime's high court, the mysteries among.
What then are human hearts? — earth's woe or weal
When man wrongs man, inspired divinely not to feel .