Ossian Collection > Gaelic bards

OLD MEMORIES. 259
Yea, and I thought the dead were well,
Or they who ne'er were born ;
Since they had passed away, or ne'er
This fleshly robe had worn.
To see the meek man trodden down,
And the deserving lost
In the huge crowd of hypocrites,
Who the right pathway cross'd.
To see good truths forgotten quite.
And errors multiform
In human hearts, in human words.
In human homage swarm.
To hear them in the pulpit speak,
To see them wield the pen.
And point the glance, and rule the tongue,
And darken light in men.
Making them dex'trous to o'erlook
The glorious mint of heaven,
And quick to join the loud applause
To counterfeits is given.
I marvelled if there ever will.
Or ever can arise,
Some simple, blissful truths to reign
Beneath our bent blue skies.
OLD MEMORIES.
How they o'erflow my memory.
The sweeping gusts, the waning light,
On a bare moorland by the sea,
Grey with the drift of the autumn night !