Of rustic loneliness: that grey-haired Orphan-- 885 So call him, for humanity to him No parent was--feelingly could[499] have told, In life, in death, what solitude can breed Of selfishness, and cruelty, and vice; Or, if it breed not, hath not power to cure. 890 --But your compliance, Sir! with our request My words too long have hindered." Undeterred, Perhaps incited rather, by these shocks, In no ungracious opposition, given To the confiding spirit of his own 895 Experienced faith, the reverend Pastor said, Around him looking; "Where shall I begin? Who shall be first selected from my flock Gathered together in their peaceful fold?" He paused--and having lifted up his eyes 900 To the pure heaven, he cast them down again Upon the earth beneath his feet; and spake:-- "To a mysteriously-united pair[500] This place is consecrate; to Death and Life, And to the best affections that proceed 905 From their conjunction; consecrate to faith In him who bled for man upon the cross; Hallowed to revelation; and no less[501] To reason's mandates; and the hopes divine Of pure imagination;--above all, 910 To charity, and love, that have provided, Within these precincts, a capacious bed And receptacle, open to the good And evil, to the just and the unjust; In which they find an equal resting-place: 915 Even as the multitude of kindred brooks And streams, whose murmur fills this hollow vale, Whether their course be turbulent or smooth, Their waters clear or sullied, all are lost Within the bosom of yon crystal Lake, 920 And end their journey in the same repose!