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Contended, happy tho' a sightless
band Dear friends, this evening we before you stand; We for a moment your attention claim And trust that boon will not be asked in vain. The varied scenes the rural landscape yields, The smiling meadows and the flowery fields, The boundless Ocean and the vaulted skies Must never, never glad these sightless eyes. But there's a lamp within, whose sacred light, Burns with a lustre ever pure and bright- 'Tis education, we have shown to you What by its rays illumed, the blind can do. Without it, life a dreary waste would be, With nought to break its long monotony- No sunny beams to light our cheerless way- Our vacant thoughts, ah! whither would they stray. But thanks to God, his sovereign care we own, He hath not left us friendless and alone, His pitying eye beheld the helpless blind And reared us friends affectionate and kind. Fain would I bear you to our happy home- Come then with me, on fancy's pinions roam, Where peace and love, twin sisters, fondly smile, And music's strains our cheerless hours beguile. When fair Aurora from the orient sky Bids night's celestial orb before her fly, We hail the opening day with vigor new, And with delight our various tasks pursue. But oh, while thus our moments sweetly glide. We think of those like us of sight denied Whose minds, enshrouded in a mental night. Sigh to behold instruction's a glorious light. Perchance some tender parent now is here Whose only child, perhaps a daughter dear, Of sight bereaved, doth tears of pity claim, Then why at home that darling one detain. Place, I entreat you, place your offspring there Where she, the blessing we enjoy may share; Where pruned by education's culturing hand Her intellect, long dormant, may expand. And she will bless you with affection's tears When she to you returns in after years- Will with her fingers trace the sacred page When o'er you steals apace declining age. |
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