 | The Poetical Works of Robert Montgomery
|  |
|
XXIII.—INWARD MARTYRDOM.
Nature hath no monopolist like man
Unprincipled, to conscientious brute
Transform'd by juggleries of Jesuit-guile.
Through Her foul science for confessing hearts,
Crafty as hell, and cruel as the grave,
A very Sodom for the souls hath Rome
Created; and, with criminal excess
All crime exceeding, hath on Nature laid
An incubus of everlasting wrong.
True personality in mind inheres,
Lives in our thought, and when that thought is gained
The moral Person to the priest belongs
Who holds it. Thus, Confession drains and draws
The secret life-blood of a Spirit out
By science; melts it with persuasive skill
Into the mind of some mechanic priest,
Who to his own assimilates the same
By progress gradual, stealthy, sly and deep.
Thus, mind confess'd is through the mouth transferr'd
Into the Priesthood, which in turn reacts
With fearful magic on that mental wreck,—
Some whisp'ring martyr at his feet, unsoul'd!
| The Poetical Works of Robert Montgomery
| |
|
