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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 they seek
Than honest maintenance, by irksome toil
Full oft procured, yet Such may claim respect,
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
By the division of her inward self,
For grateful converse: and to these poor Men
(As I have heard you boast with honest pride)
Nature is bountiful, where'er they go;
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 exal

Affections 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,
Tears wipe away, and pleasant tidings bring,
Could the proud quest of Chivalry do more

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"Happy," rejoined the Wanderer, "they who gain
A panegyric from your generous tongue!
But, if to these Wayfarers once pertained
Aught of romantic interest, 'tis gone;
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 labors 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
Which, in his youth, he trod, and trod again,
A lone Pedestrian with a scanty freight,
Wished for, or welcome, wheresoe'er he came,
Among the Tenantry of Thorpe and Vill;
Or straggling Burgh, of ancient charter proud,
And dignified by battlements and towers
Of some stern Castle, mouldering on the brow
Of a green hill or bank of rugged stream.
The foot-path faintly marked, the horse-track wile
And formidable length of plashy lane,
(Prized avenues ere others had been shaped

visit many a tract

Or easier links connecting place with place)
Have vanished, swallowed up by stately roads
Easy and bold, that penetrate the gloom

Of Britain's farthest Glens. The Earth has lent
Her waters, Air her breezes; and the Sail
Of traffic glides with ceaseless interchange,
Glistening along the low and woody dale,
Or on the naked mountain's .ofty side.
Meanwhile, at social Industry's command,
How quick, how vast an increase! From the germ
Of some poor Hamlet, rapidly produced
Here a huge Town, continuous and compact,
Hiding the face of earth for leagues—and there,
Where not a Habitation stood before,

Abodes of men irregularly massed

Like trees in forests, spread through spacious tracts,
O'er which the smoke of unremitting fires
Hangs permanent and plentiful as wreaths
Of vapor glittering in the morning sun.
And, wheresoe'er the Traveller turns his steps,
He sees the barren wilderness erased,

Or disappearing; triumph that proclaims
How much the mild Directress of the plough

Owes to alliance with these new-born Arts!

- Hence is the wide Sea peopled, hence the Shores Of Britain are resorted to by Ships

Freighted from every climate of the world

With the world's choicest produce. Hence that sum Of Keels that rest within her crowded ports

Or ride at anchor in her sounds and bays;

That animating spectacle of Sails

Which, through her inland regions, to and fro
Pass with the respirations of the tide,
Perpetual, multitudinous! Finally,

Hence a dread arm of floating Power, a voice

Of Thunder, daunting those who would approach
With hostile purposes the blessed Isle,
Truth's consecrated residence, the seat
Impregnable of Liberty and Peace.

"And yet, O happy Pastor of a Flock
Faithfully watched, and, by that loving care
'And Heaven's good providence, preserved from taint!
With You I grieve, when on the darker side

Of this great change I look; and there behold
Such outrage done to Nature as compels

The indignant Power to justify herself;
Yea, to avenge her violated rights,

For England's bane. When soothing darkness spreads
O'er hill and vale," the Wanderer thus expressed
His recollections, "and the punctual stars,

While all things else are gathering to their homes,
Advance, and in the firmament of heaven
Glitter—but undisturbing, undisturbed ;
As if their silent company were charged
With peaceful admonitions for the heart
Of all-beholding Man, earth's thoughtful Lord;
Then, in full many a region, once like this
The assured domain of calm simplicity
And pensive quiet, an unnatural light
Prepared for never-resting Labor's eyes,
Breaks from a many-windowed Fabric huge,
And at the appointed hour a bell is heard,

Of harsher import than the Curfew-knoll

That spake the Norman Conqueror's stern behest A local summons to unceasing toil!

Disgorged are now the ministers of day;

And, as they issue from the illumined Pile,

A fresh Band meets them, at the crowded door

And in the courts and where the rumbling Stream,

That turns the multitude of dizzy wheels,
Glares, like a troubled Spirit, in its bed
Among the rocks below. Men, Maidens, Youths,
Mother, and little Children, Boys and Girls,
Enter, and each the wonted task resumes
Within this Temple, where is offered up
To Gain the master Idol of the Realm-
Perpetual sacrifice. Even thus of old
Our Ancestors, within the still domain
Of vast Cathedral or Conventual Church,
Their vigils kept; where tapers day and night
On the dim altar burned continually,

In token that the House was evermore
Watching to God. Religious Men were they;
Nor would their Reason, tutored to aspire
Above this transitory world, allow

That there should pass a moment of the year,
When in their land the Almighty Service ceased.

Triumph who will in these profaner rites
Which We, a generation self-extolled,
As zealously perform! I cannot share
His proud complacency; yet I exult,
Casting reserve away, exult to see
An Intellectual mastery exercised
O'er the blind Elements; a purpose given,
A perseverance fed; almost a soul

Imparted

to brute Matter. I rejoice,

Measuring the force of those gigantic powers, That by the thinking Mind have been compelled To serve the will of feeble-bodied Man.

For with the sense of admiration blends.

The animating hope that time may come

When, strengthened, yet not dazzled, by the might Of this dominion over Nature gained,

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