Hath here delivered; words of heartfelt truth,
Tending to patience when affliction strikes ;
To hope and love; to confident repose
In God; and reverence for the dust of Man."

1055

Book Eighth

THE PARSONAGE

ARGUMENT

Pastor's apology and apprehensions1 that he might have detained his Auditors too long, with the Pastor's invitation to his house-Solitary disinclined to comply-rallies the Wanderer -and playfully 3 draws a comparison between his itinerant profession and that of the Knight-errant-which leads to Wanderer's giving an account of changes in the Country from the manufacturing spirit-Favourable effects-The other side of the picture, and chiefly as it has affected the humbler classes-Wanderer asserts the hollowness of all national grandeur if unsupported by moral worth*—Physical science unable to support itself—Lamentations over an excess of manufacturing industry among the humbler Classes of Society-Picture of a Child employed in a Cotton-millIgnorance and degradation of Children among the agricultural Population reviewed-Conversation broken off by a renewed Invitation from the Pastor-Path leading to his House-Its appearance described—His Daughter—His Wife -His Son (a Boy) enters with his Companion- Their happy appearance- The Wanderer how affected by the sight of them.

THE pensive Sceptic of the lonely vale

To those acknowledgments subscribed his own,
With a sedate compliance, which the Priest
Failed not to notice, inly pleased, and said :—
"If ye, by whom invited I began

These narratives 1 of calm and humble life,
Be satisfied, 'tis well,-the end is gained;
And in return for sympathy bestowed

And patient listening, thanks accept from me.
-Life, death, eternity! momentous themes
Are they 2—and might demand a seraph's tongue,
Were they not equal to their own support;
And therefore no incompetence of mine
Could do them wrong. The universal forms
Of human nature, in a spot like this,

Present themselves at once to all men's view:
Ye wished for act and circumstance, that make
The individual known and understood;
And such as my best judgment could select
From what the place afforded, have been given;
Though apprehensions crossed me that my zeal
To his might well be likened, who unlocks
A cabinet stored with gems and pictures-draws
His treasures forth, soliciting regard 3

To this, and this, as worthier than the last,

5

ΙΟ

15

20

25

Though apprehensions crossed me, in the course
Of this self-pleasing exercise, that Ye

My zeal to his would liken, who, possessed

Of some rare gems, or pictures finely wrought,

Unlocks his Cabinet, and draws them forth
One after one,-soliciting regard

1814.

My zeal to his would liken, who unlocks

Till the spectator, who awhile was pleased
More than the exhibitor himself, becomes
Weary and faint, and longs to be released.
-But let us hence! my dwelling is in sight,
And there”

At this the Solitary shrunk
With backward will; but, wanting not address
That inward motion to disguise, he said
To his Compatriot, smiling as he spake;

-“The peaceable remains of this good Knight
Would be disturbed, I fear, with wrathful scorn,
If consciousness could reach him where he lies
That one, albeit of these degenerate times,
Deploring changes past, or dreading change
Foreseen, had dared to couple, even in thought,
The fine vocation of the sword and lance
With the gross aims and body-bending toil
Of a poor brotherhood who walk the earth

Pitied, and, where they are not known, despised.

25

30

35

40

"Yet, by the good Knight's leave, the two estates
Are graced with some resemblance. Errant those, 45
Exiles and wanderers-and the like are these;
Who, with their burthen, traverse hill and dale,
Carrying relief for nature's simple wants.

-What though no higher recompense be sought 1
Than honest maintenance, by irksome toil
Full oft procured, yet may they 2 claim respect,

A Cabinet with gems or pictures stored,
And draws them forth-soliciting regard
Though apprehensions crossed me that my zeal
To his might well be likened, who unlocks
A Cabinet with gems or pictures stored,
And draws them forth-soliciting regard
1 1836.

1827.

1832.

they seek

1814.

2 1836.

procured! Yet Such may

1814.

50

Among the intelligent, for what this course
Enables them to be and to perform.

Their tardy steps give leisure to observe,
While solitude permits the mind to feel;
Instructs, and prompts her 1 to supply defects
By the division of her inward self

1

For grateful converse: and to these poor men
Nature (I but repeat your favourite boast)
Is bountiful-go wheresoe'er they may;2
Kind nature's various wealth is all their own.
Versed in the characters of men; and bound,
By ties of daily interest, to maintain
Conciliatory manners and smooth speech;
Such have been, and still are in their degree,
Examples efficacious to refine

Rude intercourse; apt agents to expel,4
By importation of unlooked-for arts,
Barbarian torpor, and blind prejudice ;
Raising, through just gradation, savage life
To rustic, and the rustic to urbane.

-Within their moving magazines is lodged
Power that comes forth to quicken and exalt
Affections 5 seated in the mother's breast,
And in the lover's fancy; and to feed
The sober sympathies of long-tried friends.
-By these Itinerants, as experienced men,
Counsel is given; contention they appease

1 1827.

1814.

And doth instruct her.

2 1836.

(As I have heard you boast with honest pride)
Nature is bountiful, where'er they go;

1814.

With gentle language; in remotest wilds,1
Tears wipe away, and pleasant tidings bring;
Could the proud quest of chivalry do more?"

80

85

"Happy," rejoined the Wanderer, "they who gain
A panegyric from your generous tongue!
But, if to these Wayfarers once pertained
Aught of romantic interest, it is gone.2
Their purer service, in this realm at least,
Is past for ever.-An inventive Age
Has wrought, if not with speed of magic, yet
To most strange issues. I have lived to mark

A new and unforeseen creation rise
From out the labours of a peaceful Land
Wielding her potent enginery to frame
And to produce, with appetite as keen
As that of war, which rests not night or day,
Industrious to destroy ! * With fruitless pains
Might one like me now visit many a tract
Which, in his youth, he trod, and trod again,
A lone pedestrian with a scanty freight,†
Wished-for, or welcome, wheresoe'er he came—

1 1827.

With healing words; and in remotest Wilds 2 1836.

'tis gone.

1814.

1814.

90

55

95

* "What follows in the discourse of the Wanderer, upon the changes he had witnessed in rural life by the introduction of machinery, is truly described from what I myself saw during my boyhood and early youth, and from what was often told me by persons of this humble calling. Happily, most happily, for these mountains, the mischief was diverted from the banks of their beautiful streams, and transferred to open and flat counties abounding in coal, where the agency of steam was found much more effectual for carrying on those demoralising works. Had it not been for this invention, long before the present time, every torrent and river in this district would have had its factory, large and populous in proportion to the power of the water that could there be commanded. Parliament has interfered to prevent the night-work which was carried on in these mills as actively as during the day-time, and by necessity, still more perniciously; a sad disgrace to the proprietors and to the nation which could so long tolerate such unnatural proceedings."—I. F.

In 1788, and again in 1794, Wordsworth visited Westmoreland and Cumberland as a pedestrian. Compare the sixth book of The Prelude, entitled " Cambridge and the Alps" (vol. iii. p. 228).—ED.