 | Ballads for the Times
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To the same,
ON THE PUBLICATION OF THE SECOND EDITION.
Yet once again, not after many days
Since first I dared this voyage in the dark,
Borne on the prosperous gale of good men's praise
To the wide waters I commit mine ark,
And bid God speed thy venture, gallant bark!
For I have launch'd thee on a thousand prayers,
Freighted thee well with all my mind and heart,—
And if some contraband error unawares
Like Achan's wedge, lie hid in any part,
Stand it condemn'd, as it most justly ought:
Yet be the thinker spared, if not his thought;
For he that with a honest purpose errs
Merits more kind excuse than the shrewd world confers.
| Ballads for the Times
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