 | Mercedes, and later lyrics |  |
87
A PREACHER.
Thus spake the Preacher: “O, my friends, beware!How ever smooth and tempting seems the path,
With bowers of cooling shade, the end is wrath:
Here 't is unsafe, that 's dangerous footing there;
But follow me and have no further care;
Make me your guide, for I am one that hath
Lived long and gathered in life's aftermath—
Experience. I bid you not despair.
Reach me your hands and cast away all doubt;
I'll lead you safe along the glacier's shelf:
You say 't is dark? 'T is noon-day, I insist;
88
I know each chasm”—just then the Preacher's self
Stumbled and plunged into eternal mist.
| Mercedes, and later lyrics | |