306 DEAF, DUMB, AND BLIND GIHL
But who, with energy divine,
May tread that undiscover'd maze
Where Nature, in her curtain'd shrine,
The strange and new-born thought surveys ?
Where quick perception shrinks to find On eye and ear the envious seal ;
And wild ideas throng the mind,
That palsied speech must ne'er reveal ;
Where Instinct, like a robber bold, Steals sever'd links from Reason's chain,
And, leaping o'er her barrier cold, Proclaims the proud precaution vain.
Say, who shall, with magician's wand,
That elemental mass compose, Where young affections slumber fond,
Like genus unwak'd 'mid wintry snows ?
Who, in that undecipher'd scroll, The mystic characters may see,
Save He who reads the secret soul, And holds of life and death the key ?
Then on thy midnight journey roam, Poor wandering child of rayless gloom,
And to thy last and narrow home, Drop gently from this living tomb.
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