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Storms & tempests have left
their blight & desolation upon it –
Deserts of snow & of sand condemn
to eternal barrenness millions
of its broad acres.

Mountains & rocks – briers & thorns,
moors & marshes – what vast tracts
to they usurp for their own
fruitless dominion. And
over the fairest Earthly scene
the storm will sweep & decay
will come.

It avails naught to say these are the fall-
-ing parts of a beautiful arch – – why was
not the beauty made eternal, & something
better offered than eternal change?