Page:Poems - Southey (1799) volume 2.djvu/55

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Mock'd at his patients, and did often pourAshes upon them, and then bid them sayTheir prayers aloud, and then he louder laughed:For these were Hypocrites, on earth reveredAs holy ones, who did in public tellTheir beads, and make long prayers, and cross themselves,And call themselves most miserable sinners,That so they might be deem'd most pious saints;And go all filth, and never let a smileBend their stern muscles, gloomy, sullen men,Barren of all affection, and all thisTo please their God, forsooth! and therefore ScornGrinn'd at his patients, making them repeatTheir solemn farce, with keenest railleryTormenting; but if earnest in their prayer,They pour'd the silent sorrows of the soulTo Heaven, then did they not regard his mocksWhich then came painless, and HumilitySoon rescued them, and led to Penitence,That She might lead to Heaven.
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