The cairn

Chapter 132: The Hand of Heaven.

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About This Book

A compact miscellany of short essays, anecdotes, prayers, poems, and biographical sketches that collects reflections on grief, maternal love, benevolence, virtue, taste, and historical episodes. The pieces alternate personal memories, moral aphorisms, humorous and touching anecdotes, and brief portraits of public figures, often framed as letters, epitaphs, or short narratives. Recurring themes include the effects of sorrow and joy, domestic affection, charity, the vicissitudes of fortune, and the consolations of faith and art. The tone moves between intimate recollection and light moralizing, presenting varied, self-contained vignettes meant to instruct, console, and amuse.

The Hand of Heaven.

Despair, and suffering, and sorrow,

Had poured their bitterness on me;

Hope had no ray to gild the morrow,

And life was only misery.

Each coming day shed deeper sadness,

And health along with hope had fled;

Religion only saved from madness

This aching agonized head.

At length, when nature’s pulse was dying,

That Power, which brought religious balm

Gave back the life that seem’d fast flying,

With health, and hope, and peaceful calm.

Cease then, woe’s child, thy deep despairing;

Remember, Heaven’s hand can save,

Though every sorrow thou art sharing,

Though life seems hov’ring o’er the grave.