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Was overcome by unexpected sleep,
In one blest moment. Like a shadow thrown
Softly and lightly from a passing cloud,
Death fell upon him, while reclined he lay
For noon-tide solace on the summer grass,
The warm lap of his Mother Earth: and so,
Their lenient term of separation past,
That Family (whose graves you there behold)
By yet a higher privilege, once more
Were gathered to each other."
Calm of mind
And silence waited on these closing words;
Until the Wanderer (whether moved by fear
Lest in these passages of life were some
That might have touched the sick heart of his Friend
Too nearly, or intent to reinforce
His own firm spirit in degree depressed
By tender sorrow for our mortal state)
Thus silence broke; "Behold a thoughtless Man
From vice and premature decay preserved
By useful habits, to a fitter soil
Transplanted, ere too late.—The Hermit, lodged
In the untrodden desart, tells his beads,
