The nation felt it in the extremest parts,
  With eyes o’erflowing, and with bleeding hearts;
  But most the poor, whom daily she supplied,
  Beginning to be such, but when she died. 
  For, while she lived, they slept in peace by night,
  Secure of bread, as of returning light;
  And with such firm dependence on the day,
  That need grew pamper’d, and forgot to pray: 
  So sure the doll, so ready at their call, 20
  They stood prepared to see the manna fall.

    Such multitudes she fed, she clothed, she nursed,
  That she herself might fear her wanting first. 
  Of her five talents, other five she made;
  Heaven, that had largely given, was largely paid: 
  And in few lives, in wondrous few, we find
  A fortune better fitted to the mind. 
  Nor did her alms from ostentation fall,
  Or proud desire of praise; the soul gave all: 
  Unbribed it gave; or, if a bribe appear, 30
  No less than heaven—­to heap huge treasures there.

    Want pass’d for merit at her open door;
  Heaven saw, He safely might increase His poor,
  And trust their sustenance with her so well,
  As not to be at charge of miracle. 
  None could be needy, whom she saw, or knew;
  All in the compass of her sphere she drew: 
  He, who could touch her garment, was as sure,
  As the first Christians of the apostles’ cure. 
  The distant heard, by fame, her pious deeds, 40
  And laid her up for their extremest needs;
  A future cordial for a fainting mind;
  For, what was ne’er refused, all hoped to find,
  Each in his turn; the rich might freely come,
  As to a friend; but to the poor ’twas home. 
  As to some holy house the afflicted came,
  The hunger-starved, the naked and the lame;
  Want and diseases fled before her name. 
  For zeal like her’s her servants were too slow;
  She was the first, where need required, to go; 50
  Herself the foundress and attendant too.

    Sure she had guests sometimes to entertain,
  Guests in disguise, of her great Master’s train: 
  Her Lord himself might come, for aught we know;
  Since in a servant’s form He lived below: 
  Beneath her roof He might be pleased to stay;
  Or some benighted angel, in his way,
  Might ease his wings, and, seeing heaven appear
  In its best work of mercy, think it there: 
  Where all the deeds of charity and love 60
  Were, in as constant method as above,
  All carried on; all of a piece with theirs;
  As free her alms, as diligent her cares;
  As loud her praises, and as warm her prayers.