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 feed1

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 me-and '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."

1 1827.

which feed

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1

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 house—Solitary disinclined to comply-rallies the Wanderer-and playfully3 draws a comparison between his itinerant profession and that of the Knighterrant 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 worth1-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-mill-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 (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 5 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 2

To this, and this, as worthier than the last,
Till the spectator, who awhile was pleased

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

My zeal to his would liken, who unlocks
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

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1832.

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.

Yet, by the good Knight's leave, the two estates
Are graced with some resemblance. Errant those,
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 claim respect,2
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 to supply defects 1
By the division of her inward self

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,*
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
With gentle language; in remotest wilds,

1

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2

1836.

And doth instruct her to supply defects

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

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