And, putting on the panoply of light,
Brought bright-eyed Truth from her secluded home
Amidst Himalaya's eternal snows
Back to his native plain, from whence she had
In terror fled, all scared by hateful rites
Revolting of a hellish superstition.
Filled with the learning of the East and West,
An intellectual Samson in the midst
Of Philistines grovelling in ignorance,
And fallen from their simple ancient faith,
He consecrated, with unflinching zeal,
His mighty mind with all its gifts and powers,
Its wealth of knowledge spoiled from hoary Time,
Its deepest thoughts, and fondest, brightest hopes,
To the sole service of his God and kind.
O! noble life with noble deeds replete!
'Twas thine the glory and the grace and joy
To save thy country's new-born buds from slaughter
On the altars of a fell idolatry,
And widowed female hearts all warm and throbbing
With full-blooded life from off the blazing pyre!
Thine the still higher glory to erect
God's church pure from abominations foul
On the strong rock of Nature's revelation,
Which ne'er deceiveth, understood aright.
III. DAVID HARE.
Next see he comes, with smiling looks benign,
The grand old man, who left his sea-girt home
In the far West, to spouse Philanthropy
In fair Bengala's grove of champac bright;
Who fondly, passionately clave to her,
And only her, thro' weal and woe, in health
And sickness, and thro' good report and evil,
Unchanged and changeless with the ceaseless whirl
