And patient listening, thanks accept from me. Affections seated in the mother's breast,
Life, death, eternity ! momentous themes

And in the lover's fancy; and to feed
Are they, and might demand a seraph's tongue, The sober sympathies of long-tried friends.
Were they not equal to their own support ;

By these itinerants, as experienced men,
And therefore no incompetence of mine

Counsel is given ; contention they appease Could do them wrong. The universal forms With gentle language; in remotest wilds, Of human nature, in a spot like this,

Tears wipe away, and pleasant tidings bring ;
Present themselves at once to all men's view : Could the proud quest of chivalry do more?”
Ye wish'd for act and circumstance, that make “ Happy,” rejoined the wanderer, “they who
The individual known and understood :

gain
And such as my best judgment could select A panegyric from your generous tongue !
From what the place afforded have been given ; But, if to these wayfarers once pertained
Though apprehensions cross'd me that my zeal Aught of romantic interest, 'tis gone ;
To his might well be liken'd, who unlocks Their purer service, in this realm at least,
A cabinet with gems or pictures stored,

Is past for ever. An inventive age
And draws them forth-soliciting regard

Has wrought, if not with speed of magic, yet To this, and this, as worthier than the last, To most strange issues. I have lived to mark Till the spectator who a while was pleased A new and unforeseen creation rise More than the exhibiter himself, becomes

From out the labours of a peaceful land, Weary and faint, and longs to be released. Wielding her potent enginery to frame But let us hence! my dwelling is in sight, And to produce, with appetite as keen And there--"

As that of war, which rests not night or day, At this the solitary shrunk Industrious to destroy! With fruitless pains With backward will: but, wanting not address Might one like me now visit many a tract That inward motion to disguise, he said

Which, in his youth, he trod, and trod again, To his compatriot, smiling as he spake;

A lone pedestrian with a scanty freight, “ The peaceable remains of this good knight Wish'd for, or welcome, wheresoe'er he came, Would be disturbed, I fear, with wrathful scorn, Among the tenantry of Thorpe and Ville ; If consciousness could reach him where he lies

Or straggling burgh, of ancient charter proud, That one, albeit of these degenerate times, And dignified by battlements and towers Deploring changes past, or dreading change Of some stern castle, mouldering on the brow Foreseen, had dared to couple, e’en in thought, Of a green hill or bank of rugged stream. The fine vocation of the sword and lance

The footpath faintly mark'd, the horse-track wild With the gross aims and body-bending toil

And formidable length of plashy lane, Of a poor brotherhood who walk the earth

(Prized avenues ere others had been shaped Pitied, and where they are not known, despised. Or easier links connecting place with place) Yet, by the good knight's leave, the two estates Have vanished,-swallow'd up by stately roads Are traced with some resemblance. Errant those, | Easy and bold, that penetrate the gloom Exiles and wanderers--and the like are these ; Of Britain's farthest glens. The earth has lent Who with their burden, traverse hill and dale, Her waters, air her breezes ;* and the sail Carrying relief for nature's simple wants.

Of traffic glides with ceaseless interchange, What though no higher recompense they seek Glistening along the low and woody dale, Than honest maintenance, by irksome toil

Or on the naked mountain's lofty side. Full oft procured, yet such may claim respect, Meanwhile, at social industry's command, Among th' intelligent, for what this course How quick, how vast an increase! From the germ Enables them to be, and to perform.

Of some poor hamlet, rapidly produced Their tardy steps give leisure to observe,

Here a huge town, continuous and compact, While solitude permits the mind to feel;

Hiding the face of earth for leagues—and there, Instructs and prompts her to supply defects Where not a habitation stood before, By the division of her inward self,

Abodes of men irregularly mass'd For grateful converse ; and to these poor men Like trees in forest,--spread through spacious (As I have heard you boast with honest pride)

tracts Nature is bountiful, where'er they go;

O'er which the smoke of unremitting fires Kind nature's various wealth is all their own. Hangs permanent, and plentiful as wreaths Versed in the characters of men: and bound, Of

vapour glittering in the morning sun. By ties of daily interest, to maintain

And wheresoe'er the traveller turns his steps, Conciliatory manners and smooth speech;

He sees the barren wilderness erased,
Such have been, and still are in their degree,
Examples efficacious to refine

* In treating this subject, it was impossible not to re

collect, with gratitude, the pleasing picture, which, in his Rude intercourse : apt agents to expel,

poem of the Fleece, the excellent and amiable Dyer has By importation of unlook 'd-for arts,

given of the influences of manufacturing industry upon Barbarian torpor, and blind prejudice;

the face of this island. He wrote at a time when machiRaising, through just gradation, savage life

nery was first beginning to be introduced, and his beneTo rustic, and the rustic to urbane.

volent heart prompted him to augur from it nothing but

good. Truth has compelled me to dwell upon the baneWithin their moving magazines is lodged

sul effects arising out of an ill-regulated and excessive Power that comes forth to quicken and exalt

application of powers so admirable in themselves.

Or disappearing ; triumph that proclaims

That there should pass a moment of the year, How much the mild directress of the plough When in their land th' Almighty's service ceased. Owes to alliance with these new-born arts !

“ Triumph who will in these profaner rites Hence is the wide sea peopled,—hence the shores Which we, a generation self-extoll'd, Of Britain are resorted to by ships

As zealously perform! I cannot share
Freighted from every climate of the world His proud complacency ; yet I exult,
With the world's choicest produce. Hence that sum Casting reserve away, exult to see
Of keels that rest within her crowded ports, An intellectual mastery exercised
Or ride at anchor in her sounds and bays;

O’er the blind elements ; a purpose given,
That animating spectacle of sails

A perseverance fed ; almost a soul Which, through her inland regions, to and fro Imparted—to brute matter. I rejoice, Pass with the respirations of the tide,

Measuring the force of those gigantic powers, Perpetual, multitudinous ! Finally,

That by the thinking mind have been compellid Hence a dread arm of Noating power, a voice To serve the will of feeble-bodied man. Of thunder daunting those who would approach For with the sense of admiration blends With hostile purposes, the blessed isle,

The animating hope that time may come Truth's consecrated residence, the seat

When strengthen'd, yet not dazzled, by the might Impregnable of liberty and peace.

Of this dominion over nature gain'd, “And yet, О happy pastor of a flock

Men of all lands shall exercise the same
Faithfully watch'd, and, by that loving care In due proportion to their country's need;
And Heaven's good providence, preserved from Learning, though late, that all true glory rests,
taint!

All praise, all safety, and all happiness,
With you I grieve, when on the darker side Upon the moral law. Egyptian Thebes,
Of this great change I look ; and there behold Tyre by the margin of the sounding waves,
Such outrage done to nature as compels

Palmyra, central in the desert, fell ;
Th’indignant power to justify herself;

And the arts died by which they had been raised. Yea, to avenge her violated rights,

Call Archimedes from his buried tomb For England's bane. When soothing darkness Upon the plain of vanish'd Syracuse, spreads

And feelingly the sage shall make report
O'er hill and vale," the wanderer thus express'd How insecure, how baseless in itself,
His recollections, “ and the punctual stars, Is the philosophy, whose sway depends
While all things else are gathering to their homes, On mere material instruments; how weak
Advance, and in the firmament of heaven

Those arts, and high inventions, if unpropp'd Glitter-but undisturbing, undisturbid;

By virtue. He with sighs of pensive grief, As if their silent company were charged

Amid his calm abstractions, would admit With peaceful admonitions for the heart

That not the slender privilege is theirs Of all be holding man, earth's thoughtful lord; To save themselves from blank forgetfulness !" Then, in full many a region, once like this

When from the wanderer's lips these words had Th'assured domain of calm simplicity

fall’n, And pensive quiet, an unnatural light

I said, “ And, did in truth these vaunted arts Prepared for never-resting labour's eyes,

Possess such privilege, how could we escape
Breaks from a many-window'd fabric huge ; Regret and painful sadness, who revere,
And at the appointed hour a bell is heard,

And would preserve as things above all price, Of harsher import than the curfew-knoll

The old domestic morals of the land,
That spake the Norman conqueror's stern behest, Her simple manners, and the stable worth
A local summons to unceasing toil !

That dignified and cheer'd a low estate ?
Disgorged are now the ministers of day :

0! where is now the character of peace, And, as they issue from th' illumined pile,

Sobriety, and order, and chaste love,
A fresh band meets them, at the crowded door, And honest dealing, and untainted speech,
And in the courts—and where the rumbling stream, And pure good-will, and hospitable cheer;
That turns the multitude of dizzy wheels,

That made the very thought of country life
Glares, like a troubled spirit, in its bed

A thought of refuge, for a mind detain'd Among the rocks below. Men, maidens, youths, Reluctantly amid the bustling crowd? Mother and little children, boys and girls,

Where now the beauty of the Sabbath kept Enter, and each the wonted task resumes

With conscientious reverence, as a day Within this temple, where is offer'd up

By the almighty Lawgiver pronounced To gain-the master idol of the realm

Holy and blest ? and where the winning grace Perpetual sacrifice. E'en thus of old

Of all the lighter ornaments attach'd Our ancestors within the still domain

To time and season, as the year roll'd round?” Of vast cathedral or conventual church,

“ Fled !” was the wanderer's passionate reTheir vigils kept : where tapers day and night

sponse, On the dim altar burn'd continually,

“ Fled utterly! or only to be traced In token that the house was evermore

In a few fortunate retreats like this; Watching to God. Religious men were they ; Which I behold with trembling, when I think Nor would their reason, tutor’d to aspire

What lamentable change, a year--a monthAbove this transitory world, allow

May bring ; that brook converting as it runs

Or bounty tires, and every face that smiled With pure cerulean gravel from the heights Encouragement, hath ceased to look that way. Fetch'd by the neighbouring brook. Across the vale But, like the vagrants of the gipsy tribe,

The stately fence accompanied our steps ; These, bred to little pleasure in themselves, And thus the pathway, by perennial green Are profitless to others. Turn we then

Guarded and graced, seemed fashion’d to unite, To Britons born and bred within the pale

As by a beautiful yet solemn chain, Of civil polity, and early train'd

The pastor's mansion with the house of prayer. To earn, by wholesome labour in the field,

Like image of solemnity, conjoin'd The bread they eat. A sample should I give With feminine allurement soft and fair, Of what this stock produces to enrich

The mansion's self display'd; a reverend pile The tender age of life, ye would exclaim,

With bold projections and recesses deep; “Is this the whistling ploughboy whose shrill notes Shadowy, yet gay and lightsome as it stood Impart new gladness to the morning air !!

Fronting the noontide sun. We paused t'admire Forgive me if I venture to suspect

The pillard porch, elaborately emboss'd ; That many, sweet to hear of in soft verse, The low wide windows with their mullions old; Are of no finer frame: his joints are stiil;

The cornice richly fretted, of grey stone ; Beneath a cumbrous frock, that to the knees And that smooth slope from which the dwelling Invests the thriving churl, his legs appear,

rose, Fellows to those that lustily upheld

By beds and banks Arcadian of gay lowers The wooden stools for everlasting use,

And Rowering shrubs, protected and adorn'd; Whereon our fathers sate. And mark his brow! Profusion bright! and every flower assuming Under whose shaggy canopy are set

A more than natural vividness of hue, Two eyes, not dim, but of a healthy stare ; From unaffected contrast with the gloom Wide, sluggish, blank, and ignorant, and strange ; Of sober cypress, and the darker foil Proclaiming boldly that they never drew

Of yew, in which survived some traces, here
A look or motion of intelligence

Not unbecoming, of grotesque device
From infant conning of the Christ-cross-row, And uncouth fancy. From behind the roof
Or puzzling through a primer, line by line, Rose the slim ash and massy sycamore,
Till perfect mastery crown the pains at last. Blending their diverse foliage with the green
What kindly warmth from touch of fostering hand, of ivy, flourishing and thick, that clasp'd
What penetrating power of sun or breeze,

The huge round chimneys, harbour of delight Shall e'er dissolve the crust wherein his soul For wren and redbreast, where they sit and sing Sleeps, like a caterpillar sheath'd in ice?

Their slender ditties when the trees are bare. This torpor is no pitiable work

Nor must I leave untouch'd (the picture else
Of modern ingenuity; no town

Were incomplete) a relique of old times
Nor crowded city may be tax'd with aught Happily spared, a little gothic niche
Of sottish vice or desperate breach of law

Of nicest workmanship: that once had held
To which in after years he may be roused. The sculptured image of some patron saint,
This boy the fields produce: his spade and hoe Or of the blessed virgin, looking down
The carter's whip that on his shoulder rests On all who entered those religious doors.
In air high-towering with a boorish pomp,

But lo! where from the rocky garden mount
The sceptre of his sway; his country's name, Crown'd by its antique summer house, descends,
Her equal rights, her churches and her schools Light as the silver fawn, a radiant girl;
What have they done for him ? And let me ask, For she hath recognised her honour'd friend,
For tens of thousands uninform'd as he ?

The wanderer ever welcome ! A prompt kiss In brief, what liberty of mind is here ?”

The gladsome child bestows at his request;
This ardent sally pleased the mild, good man, And, up the flowery lawn as we advance,
To whom the appeal couched in its closing words Hangs on the old man with a happy look,
Was pointedly address'd : and to the thoughts And with a pretty, restless band of love.
That, in assent or opposition, rose

We enter, by the lady of the place
Within his mind, he seem'd prepared to give Cordially greeted. Graceful was her port :
Prompt utterance; but, rising from our seat, A lofty stature undepress'd by time,
The hospitable vicar interposed

Whose visitation had not wholly spared
With invitation urgently renew'd.

The finer lineaments of form and face ; We followed, taking as he led, a path

To that complexion brought which prudence trusts Along a hedge of hollies, dark and tall,

in Whose flexile boughs, descending with a weight And wisdom loves. But when a stately ship Of leafy spray, conceal'd the stems and roots Sails in smooth weather by the placid coast That gave them nourishment. When frosty winds On homeward voyage, what, if wind and wave, Howl from the north, what kindly warmth, me And hardship undergone in various climes, thought,

Have caused her to abate the virgin pride, Is here, how grateful this impervious screen ; And that full trim of inexperienced hope Not shaped by simple wearing of the foot

With which she left her haven, not for this, On rural business passing to and fro

Should the sun strike her, and the impartial breeze Was the commodious walk; a careful hand Play on her streamers, fails she to assume Had mark'd the line, and strewn the surface o'er Brightness and touching beauty of her own,

ARGUMENT.

That charm all eyes. So bright, so fair, appear'd To the still lake, whose stillness is to sight 'This goodly matron, shining in the beams

As beautiful, as grateful to the mind. Of unexpected pleasure. Soon the board

But to what object shall the lovely girl Was spread, and we partook a plain repast.

Be liken'd? She, whose countenance and air Here, resting in cool shelter, we beguiled Upite the graceful qualities of both, The midday hours with desultory talk;

E'en as she shares the pride and joy of both. From trivial themes to general argument

My gray-hair'd friend was moved: bis vivid eye Passing, as accident or fancy led,

Glisten'd with tenderness; his mind, I knew, Or courtesy prescribed. While question rose Was full; and had, I doubted not, return'd, And answer flow'd, the fetters of reserve

Upon this impulse, to the theme-erewhile Dropping from every mind, the solitary

Abruptly broken off.

The ruddy boys Resumed the manners of his happier days; Withdrew, on summons, to their well-earn'd meal; And, in the various conversation, bore

And he, (to whom all tongues resign'd their rights A willing, nay, at times, a forward part:

With willingness, to whom the general ear Yet with the grace of one who in the world Listen’d with readier patience than to strain Had learn'd the art of pleasing, and had now Of music, lute or harp,-a long delight Occasion given him to display his skill,

That ceased not when his voice had ceased,) as one Upon the steadfast vantage-ground of truth. Who from truth's central point serenely views He gazed with admiration unsuppress'd

The compass of his argument--began
Upon the landscape of the sunbright vale,

Mildly, and with a clear and steady tone.
Seen, from the shady room in which we sate,
In soften'd pérspective; and more than once
Praised the consummate harmony serene

BOOK IX.
Of gravity and elegance-diffused
Around the mansion and its whole domain ;

DISCOURSE OF THE WANDERER, AND AN Not, doubtless, without help of female taste

EVENING VISIT TO THE LAKE.
And female care. "A blessed lot is yours !”
The words escaped his lip with a tender sigh

Wanderer asserts that an active principle pervades the Breathed over them; but suddenly the door

universe. Ils noblest seat the human soul. How lively Flew open, and a pair of lusty boy's

this principle is in childhood. Hence the delight in Appear'd, confusion checking their delight.

old age of looking back upon childhood. The dignity, Not brothers they in feature or attire,

powers, and privileges of age asserted. These not to

be looked for generally but under a just government. But fond companions, so I guess'd, in field,

Right of a human creature to be exempt from being And by the river's margin, whence they come,

considered as a mere instrument. Vicious inclinations Anglers elated with unusual spoil.

are best kept under by giving good ones an opportunity One bears a willow pannier on his back,

Lo show themselves. The condition of multitudes deThe boy of plainer garb, whose blush survives plored, from want of due respect to this truth on the More deeply tinged. Twin might the other be

part of their superiors in society. Former conversation

recurred to, and the wanderer's opinions set in a clearer To that fair girl who from the garden mount

light. Genuine principles of equality. Truth placed Bounded-triumphant entry this for him!

within reach of the humblest. Happy state of the two Between his hands he holds a smooth blue stone, boys again adverted 10. Earnest wish expressed for a On whose capacious surface see outspread

system of national education established universally Large store of gleaming crimson-spotted trouts ;

by government. Glorious effects of this foretold. Wan.

derer breaks off. Walk to the lake. Embark. DeRanged side by side, and lessening by degrees

scription of scenery and amusements. Grand spectacle Up to the dwarf that tops the pinnacle.

from the side of a hill. Address of priest to the Supreme Upon the board he lays the sky-blue stone

Being; in the course of which he contrasts with ancient With its rich freight:--their number he proclaims; barbarism the present appearance of the scene before Tells from what pool the noblest had been dragg’d;

him. The change ascribed to Christianity. Apostrophe And where the very monarch of the brook,

to his flock, living and dead. Gratitude to the Al

mighty. Return over the lake. Parting with the soli. After long struggle, had escaped at last

tary. Under what circumstances. Stealing alternately at them and us (As doth his comrade too) a look of pride; “ To every form of being is assign'd," And, verily, the silent creatures made

Thus calmly spake the venerable sage, A splendid sight, together thus exposed;

“An active principle:-howe'er removed
Dead—but not sullied or deform'd by death, From sense and observation, it subsists
That seem'd to pity what he could not spare. In all things, in all natures, in the stars
But 0, the animation in the mien

Of azure heaven, the unenduring clouds,
Of those two boys! yea, in the very words In flower and tree, in every pebbly stone
With which the young narrator was inspired, That paves the brooks, the stationary rocks,
When, as our questions led, he told at large The moving waters, and th’invisible air.
Of that day's prowess. Him might I compare,

Whate’er exists hath properties that spread
His look, tones, gestures, eager eloquence, Beyond itself, communicating good
To a bold brook that splits for better speed, A simple blessing, or with evil mix'd;
And, at the selfsame moment, works its way Spirit that knows no insulated spot,
Through many channels, ever and anon

No chasm, no solitude; from link to link
Parted and reunited: his compeer

It circulates, the soul of all the worlds.