"So fails, so languishes, grows dim, and dies," The grey-haired Wanderer pensively exclaimed, "All that this world is proud of. From their spheres The stars of human glory are cast down; Perish the roses and the flowers of kings, Princes, and emperors, and the crowns and palms Of all the mighty, withered and consumed! Nor is power given to lowliest innocence Long to protect her own. The man himself Departs; and soon is spent the line of those Who, in the bodily image, in the mind, In heart or soul, in station or pursuit, Did most resemble him. Degrees and ranks, Fraternities and orders-heaping high New wealth upon the burthen of the old, And placing trust in privilege confirmed And re-confirmed-are scoffed at with a smile Of greedy foretaste, from the secret stand Of Desolation, aimed: to slow decline These yield, and these to sudden overthrow : Their virtue, service, happiness, and state Expire; and nature's pleasant robe of green, Humanity's appointed shroud, enwraps Their monuments and their memory. The vast Frame Her organs and her members with decay And by this law the mighty whole subsists: With an ascent and progress in the main; The courteous Knight, whose bones are here interred, Lived in an age conspicuous as our own For strife and ferment in the minds of men, He who had seen his own bright order fade, No just remembrance, scruple, or wise doubt? Save at worst need, from bold impetuous force, But Human-kind rejoices in the might Dancing around her, hinder and disturb Is the sure consequence of slow decay. Even," said the Wanderer, "as that courteous Knight, Bound by his vow to labour for redress Of all who suffer wrong, and to enact END OF THE SEVENTH BOOK. ARGUMENT. Page 291, Pastor's apology and apprehensions that he might have detained his Auditors too long, with the Pastor's invitation to his house-292, Solitary disinclined to comply-rallies the Wanderer-292, and playfully draws a comparison between his itinerant profession and that of the Knight-errant-294, which leads to Wanderer's giving an account of changes in the Country from the manufacturing spirit-295, Favourable effects-296, The other side of the picture, and chiefly as it has affected the humbler classes-298, Wanderer asserts the hollowness of all national grandeur if unsupported by moral worth-299, Physical science unable to support itself-300, Lamentations over an excess of manufacturing industry among the humbler Classes of Society-301, Picture of a Child employed in a Cotton-mill -303, Ignorance and degradation of Children among the agricultural Population reviewed-306, Conversation broken off by a renewed Invitation from the Pastor-307, Path leading to his House-307, Its appearance described-308, His Daughter309, His Wife-310, His Son (a Boy) enters with his Companion-311, Their happy appearance-312, The Wanderer how affected by the sight of them. |