Reginald Heber Quote

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'