Princess monologue (Act 3) — The Indian Princess; Or, La Belle Sauvage

O! 'tis from thee that I have drawn my being: Thou'st ta'en me from the path of savage error, Blood-stain'd and rude, where rove my countrymen, And taught me heavenly truths, and fill'd my heart With sentiments sublime, and sweet, and social. Oft has my winged spirit, following thine, Cours'd the bright day-beam, and the star of night, And every rolling planet of the sky, Around their circling orbits. O my love! Guided by thee, has not my daring soul, O'ertopt the far-off mountains of the east, Where, as our fathers' fable, shad'wy hunters Pursue the deer, or clasp the melting maid, 'Mid ever blooming spring? Thence, soaring high From the deep vale of legendary fiction, Hast thou not heaven-ward turn'd my dazzled sight, Where sing the spirits of the blessed good Around the bright throne of the Holy One? This thou hast done; and ah! what couldst thou more, Belov'd preceptor, but direct that ray, Which beams from Heaven to animate existence, And bid my swelling bosom beat with love!