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“To know her well,
“Prolonged, exalted, bound enchantment’s spell;
“For with affections warm, intense, refined,
“She mixed such calm and holy strength of mind,
“That, like Heaven’s image in the smiling brook,
“Celestial peace was pictured in her look;
“Her’s was the brow in trials unperplexed,
“That cheered the sad and tranquillized the vexed;
“She studied not the meanest to eclipse,
“And yet the wisest listened to her lips;
“She sang not, knew not Music’s magic skill,
“But yet her voice had tones that swayed the will.”
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“To paint that being to a grovelling mind
“Were like portraying pictures to the blind.
“’Twas needful even infectiously to feel
“Her temper’s fond, and firm, and gladsome zeal,
“To share existence with her, and to gain
“Sparks from her love’s electrifying chain,
“Of that pure pride, which, lessening to her breast
“Life’s ills, gave all its joys a treble zest,
“Before the mind completely understood
“That mighty truth—how happy are the good!
“Even when her light forsook him, it bequeathed
“Ennobling sorrow; and her memory breathed
“A sweetness that survived her living days,
“As odorous scents outlast the censer’s blaze.
“Or if a trouble dimmed their golden joy,
“’Twas outward dross and not infused alloy;
“Their home knew but affection’s look and speech,
“A little Heaven beyond dissension’s reach.
“But midst her kindred there was strife and gall;
“Save one congenial sister, they were all
“Such foils to her bright intellect and grace,
“As if she had engrossed the virtue of her race;
“Her nature strove th’ unnatural feuds to heal,
“Her wisdom made the weak to her appeal;
“And though the wounds she cured were soon unclosed,
“Unwearied still her kindness interposed.”