Love Abused.

What is there in the vale of life     Half so delightful as a wife,     When friendship, love, and peace combine     To stamp the marriage-bond divine?     The stream of pure and genuine love     Derives its current from above;     And earth a second Eden shows,     Whereer the healing water flows:     But ah, if from the dykes and drains     Of sensual natures feverish veins,     Lust, like a lawless headstrong flood,     Impregnated with ooze and mud,     Descending fast on every side,     Once mingles with the sacred tide,     Farewell the soul-enlivening scene!     The banks that wore a smiling green,     With rank defilement overspread,     Bewail their flowery beauties dead.     The stream polluted, dark, and dull,     Diffused into a Stygian pool,     Through lifes last melancholy years     Is fed with overflowing tears:     Complaints supply the zephyrs part,     And sighs that heave a breaking heart.