What though the spicy breezes Blow soft o'er Ceylon's isle; Though every prospect pleases, And only man is vile: In vain with lavish kindness The gifts of God are strown; The heathen in his blindness Bows down to wood and stone.
'From Greenland's icy mountains' (1821 hymn). Heber later altered 'Ceylon's isle' to 'Java's isle'.
