70 
CAPE COD. 
may use this expression where there was nothing but 
emptiness, — and we obtained the long-wished-for in¬ 
sight. Though we thought at first that it was a hope¬ 
less case, after several minutes’ steady exercise of the 
divine faculty, our prospects began decidedly to brighten, 
and we were ready to exclaim with the blind bard of 
Paradise Lost and Regained,” — 
“ Hail, holy Light! offspring of Heaven first born, 
Or of the Eternal co-eternal beam, 
May I express thee unblamed? ” 
A little longer, and a chimney rushed red on our sight 
In short, when our vision had grown familiar with the 
darlmess, we discovered that there were some stones and 
some loose wads of wool on the floor, and an empty fire¬ 
place at the further end ; but it was not supplied with 
matches, or straw, or hay, that we could see, nor “ ac¬ 
commodated with a bench.” Indeed, it was the wreck 
of all cosmical beauty there within. 
Turning our backs on the outward world, we thus 
looked through the knot-hole into the Humane house, 
into the very bowels of mercy ; and for bread we found 
a stone. It was literally a great cry (of sea-mews out¬ 
side), and a little wool. However, we were glad to sit 
outside, under the lee of the Humane house, to escape 
the piercing wind; and there we thought how cold is 
charity ! how inhumane humanity ! This, then, is what 
charity hides ! Virtues antique and far away with ever 
a rusty nail over the latch ; and very difficult to keep in 
repair, withal, it is so uncertain whether any will ever 
gain the beach near you. So we shivered round about, 
not being able to get into it, ever and anon looking 
through the knot-hole into that night without a star, until 
we concluded that it was not a humane house at all, but 
