• 22.5 
Silence and Darkness ! mighty are your spells 
To search the spirit! Guilt, that walks by day 
With shameless front, and every fear repels, 
Trembles like sentenc’d victim ’neath your sway; 
For ye do tear each false disguise away, 
And summon forth from memory’s dread abyss 
Follies and crimes, a long and black array, 
Till, all unmask’d, he feels the thing he is,— 
One to whom cleaves that curse which shuts the soul 
from bliss! 
Not so with him whose heart is purified 
By heavenly grace; he loves your solemn reign; 
He joys to see the pomp of day subside, 
And trace your distant footsteps on the plain. 
By day he communes with his fellow-men, ‘ 
By night with God ! ’Tis then his spirit pours 
Its holiest sacrifice of prayer and praise; 
Like that fam’d tree, the pride of eastern bowers, 
Which keeps its choicest sweets for midnight’s stilly hours. 
Men call it sad—that fair and fragrant tree— 
Because it wakens while the forest sleeps; 
As false they deem of him who silently 
Through the still night his prayerful vigil keeps. 
Q 
