Cartas e Narrativas sobre o Convento (2)

Da obra "Letter written durind a Journey in Spain and a short residend in Portugal" - Carta XXVIII, por Robert Southey
(publicado em 1808)

"(...) Visitámos o Convento da Cortiça: onde me foi mostrada a Cova na qual um Eremita viveu doze anos; um pequeno buraco do tamanho de uma toca, no qual as penas passadas lhe garantiram um lugar no Céu, fazendo fé na inscrição:

Hic Honorius,
vitam finivit,
Et ideo cum Deo
vitam revivit.
obit 1596.

Uma inscrição como esta não seria, provavelmente, imprópria num país protestante.

Here, caverned like a beast, Honorius dwelt
In self-denial, solitude, and prayer,
Long years of penance. He had rooted out
All human fellings from his heart, and fled
With fear and loathing from all human joys
As from perdition. But the çaw of Christ
Enjoins not this. To aid the fatherless,
To heal the sick, to be the pooor man's friend,
And in the wounded heart pour gospel balm,
These are the active duties of the law
Which whoso keeps receives a joy on earth,
Calm, constant, still increasing, preluding
The eternal bliss of heaven. Yet! mock not thou,
Stranger, the anchorite's mistaken zeal!
He painfully his painful duties kept,
Sincere though erring. Stranger, dost thou keep
Thy better, easier law but half as well?