6 | https://dickenssearch.com/items/show/6 | 'A Word in Season' | | Published in <em>The Keepsake</em> (1844). | Dickens, Charles | | | <a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=40&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=1844">1844</a> | | | | | | <a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Poem">Poem</a> | 1844_The_Keepsake_A_Word_In_Season | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Dickens, Charles. 'A Word in Season.' <em>The Keepsake</em> (1844). <em>Dickens Search.</em> Eds. Emily Bell and Lydia Craig. Accessed [date]. <a href="https://dickenssearch.com/verse/1844_The_Keepsake_A_Word_In_Season">https://dickenssearch.com/verse/1844_The_Keepsake_A_Word_In_Season</a>. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | <a href="https://dickenssearch.com/teibp/dist/content/1844_The_Keepsake_A_Word_In_Season.xml" target="_blank" rel="noopener">'A Word in Season.' <em>The Keepsake </em>(1844).</a> | | <a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=94&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Periodical">Periodical</a> | <a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=93&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=%3Cem%3EThe+Keepsake%3C%2Fem%3E"><em>The Keepsake</em></a> | | | | | They have a superstition in the East, That ALLAH, written on a piece of paper, Is better unction than can come of priest, Of rolling incense, and of lighted taper; Holding, that any scrap which bears that name, In any characters, its front imprest on, Shall help the finder through the purging flame, And give his toasted feet a place to rest on. Accordingly, they make a mighty fuss, With ev’ry wretched tract and fierce oration, And hoard the leaves – for they are not, like us, A highly civilized and thinking nation: And, always stooping in the miry ways, To look for matter of this earthy leaven, They seldom, in their dust-exploring days, Have any leisure to look up to Heaven. So have I known a country on the earth, Where darkness sat upon the living waters, And brutal ignorance, and toil, and dearth Were the hard portion of its sons and daughters: And yet, where they who should have ope’d the door Of charity and light, for all men’s finding, Squabbled for words upon the altar-floor, And rent the Book, in struggles for the binding. The gentlest man among these pious Turks, God’s living image ruthlessly defaces; Their best high-churchman, with no faith in works, Bowstrings the Virtues in the market-places: The Christian Pariah, whom both sects curse (They curse all other men, and curse each other), Walks thro’ the world, not very much the worse – Does all the good he can, and loves his brother. | 18440101 | | | | | | | | https://dickenssearch.com/files/original/3/A_Word_in_Season/1844_A_Word_in_Season.pdf | |