Of social nature changes evermore
Her organs and her members with decay
Restless, and restless generation, powers
And functions dying and produced at need, -
And by this law the mighty whole subsists:
With an ascent and progress in the main ;
Yet, oh! how disproportioned to the hopes
And expectations of self-flattering minds!
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 ;
Whence alteration in the forms of things,
Various and vast. A memorable age !
Which did to him assign a pensive lot,
To linger ’mid the last of those bright clouds
That, on the steady breeze of honour, sailed
In long procession calm and beautifuí.
He who had seen his own bright order fade,
And its devotion gradually decline,
(While war, relinquishing the lance and shield,
Her temper changed, and bowed to other laws)
Had also witnessed, in his morn of life,
That violent commotion, which o'erthrew,
In town and city and sequestered glen,
Altar, and cross, and church of solemn roof,
And old religious house-pile after pile ;
And shook their tenants out into the fields,
Like wild beasts without home! Their hour was

come;
But why no softening thought of gratitude,
No just remembrance, scruple, or wise doubt?
Benevolence is mild ; nor borrows help,
Save at worst need, from bold impetuous force,
Fitliest allied to anger and revenge.
But Human-kind rejoices in the might
Of mutability; and airy hopes,

Dancing around her, hinder and disturb
Those meditations of the soul that feed
The retrospective virtues. Festive songs
Break from the maddened nations at the sight
Of sudden overthrow; and cold neglect
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 By sword and lance the law of gentleness, (If I may venture of myself to speak, Trusting that not incongruously I blend Low things with lofty) I too shall be doomed To outlive the kindly use and fair esteem Of the poor calling which my youth embraced With no unworthy prospect. But enough; - Thoughts crowd upon meand 'twere seemlier

now

To stop, and yield our gracious Teacher thanks
For the pathetic records which his voice
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."

BOOK EIGHTH.

THE PARSONAGE.

ARGUMENT.

Pastor's apology and apprehensions that he might have detained his Auditors too long, with the Pastor's invitation to his houseSolitary disinclined to comply-rallies the Wanderer-and playfully 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 inanufacturing 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 Cottonmill.-Ignorance 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 (& Boy) enters with his Companion.—Their happy appearance.The Wanderer how affected by the sight of them,

THE PARSONAGE.

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 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—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
To this, and this, as worthier than the last,
Till the spectator, who awhile was pleased
More than the exhibitor himself, becomes
Weary and faint, and longs to be released.