In misery's darkest caverns known,
His useful care was ever nigh,
Where hopeless Anguish pour'd his groan,
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In misery's darkest caverns known,
His useful care was ever nigh,
Where hopeless Anguish pour'd his groan,
And lonely want retir'd to die.

A kind and gentle heart he had,
To comfort friends and foes;
The naked every day he read more

A kind and gentle heart he had,
To comfort friends and foes;
The naked every day he clad
When he put on his clothes.

Who gives himself with his alms feeds three,
Himself, his hungering neighbor, and me.

Who gives himself with his alms feeds three,
Himself, his hungering neighbor, and me.

Shut not thy purse-strings always against painted distress.

Shut not thy purse-strings always against painted distress.

It never was our guise
To slight the poor, or aught humane despise.

It never was our guise
To slight the poor, or aught humane despise.

Pity the sorrow of a poor old man,
Whose trembling limbs have brought him to your door.

Pity the sorrow of a poor old man,
Whose trembling limbs have brought him to your door.

Careless their merits or their faults to scan,
His pity gave ere charity began.

Careless their merits or their faults to scan,
His pity gave ere charity began.

He scorn'd his own, who felt another's woe.

He scorn'd his own, who felt another's woe.

Our sympathy is cold to the relation of distant misery.

Our sympathy is cold to the relation of distant misery.