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 440
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, 445
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, 450
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 455
Is that deluded one, who, of the mass
Unheeding, and the Church's saving power,

"Deems