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.
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 !

990

995

The vast Frame

1000

1005

"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 beautiful.
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,

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1015

1020

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 1 tenants out into the fields,
Like wild beasts without home!

1025

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 2 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.

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1035

1040

'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

1045

To outlive the kindly use and fair esteem

Of the poor calling which my youth embraced
With no unworthy prospect. But enough;

1050

-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."

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 house2-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 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-millIgnorance and degradation of Children among the agricul tural 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

IO

15

20

25

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

Of some rare gems, or pictures finely wrought,

My zeal to his would liken, who, possessed

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

My zeal to his would liken, who unlocks

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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.

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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 Than honest maintenance, by irksome toil Full oft procured, yet may they 2 claim respect,

1

50

A Cabinet with gems or pictures stored,
And draws them forth-soliciting regard

1827.

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.

1832.

they seek

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2 1836.

procured! Yet Such may

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