Far-stretching views into eternity,
Acknowledge that to Nature's humbler power Your cherished sullenness is forced to bend Even here, where her amenities are sown With sparing hand. Then trust yourself abroad To range her blooming bowers, and spacious fields, Where on the labours of the happy throng She smiles, including in her wide embrace City, and town, and tower,-and sea with ships. Sprinkled;-be our Companion while we track. Her rivers populous with gliding life;
While, free as air, o'er printless sands we march, Or pierce the gloom of her majestic woods; Roaming, or resting under grateful shade In peace and meditative cheerfulness; Where living things, and things inanimate, Do speak, at Heaven's command, to eye and ear, And speak to social reason's inner sense, With inarticulate language.
Who, in this spirit, communes with the Forms Of nature, who with understanding heart Both knows and loves such objects as excite No morbid passions, no disquietude,
hatred-needs must feel The joy of that pure principle of love So deeply, that, unsatisfied with aught Less pure and exquisite, he cannot choose But seek for objects of a kindred love In fellow-natures and a kindred joy. Accordingly he by degrees perceives His feelings of aversion softened down; A holy tenderness pervade his frame.
His sanity of reason not impaired,
Say rather, all his thoughts now flowing clear, From a clear fountain flowing, he looks round And seeks for good; and finds the good he seeks : Until abhorrence and contempt are things
He only knows by name; and, if he hear, From other mouths, the language which they speak, He is compassionate; and has no thought, No feeling, which can overcome his love.
And further; by contemplating these Forms In the relations which they bear to man, He shall discern, how, through the various means Which silently they yield, are multiplied The spiritual presences of absent things.
Trust me, that for the instructed, time will come When they shall meet no object but may teach Some acceptable lesson to their minds
Of human suffering, or of human joy.
So shall they learn, while all things speak of man, Their duties from all forms; and general laws, And local accidents, shall tend alike
To rouse, to urge; and, with the will, confer The ability to spread the blessings wide Of true philanthropy. The light of love Not failing, perseverance from their steps Departing not, for them shall be confirmed. The glorious habit by which sense is made Subservient still to moral purposes, Auxiliar to divine. That change shall clothe The naked spirit, ceasing to deplore The burthen of existence. Science then Shall be a precious visitant; and then,
And only then, be worthy of her name: For then her heart shall kindle; her dull eye, Dull and inanimate, no more shall hang Chained to its object in brute slavery; But taught with patient interest to watch The processes of things, and serve the cause Of order and distinctness, not for this Shall it forget that its most noble use, Its most illustrious province, must be found In furnishing clear guidance, a support Not treacherous, to the mind's excursive power. -So build we up the Being that we are; Thus deeply drinking-in the soul of things, We shall be wise perforce; and, while inspired By choice, and conscious that the Will is free, Shall move unswerving, even as if impelled By strict necessity, along the path
Of order and of good. Whate'er we see, Or feel, shall tend to quicken and refine; Shall fix, in calmer seats of moral strength, Earthly desires; and raise, to loftier heights Of divine love, our intellectual soul."
Here closed the Sage that eloquent harangue, Poured forth with fervour in continuous stream, Such as, remote, mid savage wilderness,
An Indian Chief discharges from his breast Into the hearing of assembled tribes,
open circle seated round, and hushed As the unbreathing air, when not a leaf Stirs in the mighty woods. So did he speak : The words he uttered shall not pass away Dispersed, like music that the wind takes up
By snatches, and lets fall, to be forgotten; No-they sank into me, the bounteous gift Of one whom time and nature had made wise, Gracing his doctrine with authority Which hostile spirits silently allow; Of one accustomed to desires that feed On fruitage gathered from the tree of life; To hopes on knowledge and experience built; Of one in whom persuasion and belief Had ripened into faith, and faith become A passionate intuition; whence the Soul, Though bound to earth by ties of pity and love, From all injurious servitude was free.
The Sun, before his place of rest were reached, Had yet to travel far, but unto us,
To us who stood low in that hollow dell, He had become invisible,-a pomp
Leaving behind of yellow radiance spread Over the mountain sides, in contrast bold With ample shadows, seemingly, no less Than those resplendent lights, his rich bequest; A dispensation of his evening power. -Adown the path that from the glen had led The funeral train, the Shepherd and his Mate Were seen descending :-forth to greet them ran Our little Page: the rustic pair approach; And in the Matron's countenance may be read Plain indication that the words, which told How that neglected Pensioner was sent Before his time into a quiet grave, Had done to her humanity no wrong: But we are kindly welcomed-promptly served
With ostentatious zeal.-Along the floor Of the small Cottage in the lonely Dell
A grateful couch was spread for our repose; Where, in the guise of mountaineers, we lay, Stretched upon fragrant heath, and lulled by sound Of far-off torrents charming the still night,
And, to tired limbs and over-busy thoughts, Inviting sleep and soft forgetfulness.
Farewell to the Valley-Reflections-A large and populous Vale described -The Pastor's Dwelling, and some account of him-Church and Monuments-The Solitary musing, and where-Roused-In the Churchyard the Solitary communicates the thoughts which had recently passed through his mind-Lofty tone of the Wanderer's discourse of yesterday adverted to-Rite of Baptism, and the professions accompanying it, contrasted with the real state of human life-Apology for the Rite-Inconsistency of the best men-Acknowledgment that practice falls far below the injunctions of duty as existing in the mind-General complaint of a falling-off in the value of life after the time of youth-Outward appearances of content and happiness in degree illusive-Pastor approaches--Appeal made to him-His answer-Wanderer in sympathy with him-Suggestion that the least ambitious enquirers may be most free from error-The Pastor is desired to give some portraits of the living or dead from his own observation of life among these Mountains-and for what purpose-Pastor consents-Mountain cottage-Excellent qualities of its Inhabitants-Solitary expresses his pleasure; but denies the praise of virtue to worth of this kind-Feelings of the Priest before he enters upon his account of persons interred in the Churchyard-Graves of unbaptized Infants-Funeral and sepulchral observances, whenceEcclesiastical Establishments, whence derived-Profession of belief in the doctrine of Immortality.
"FAREWELL, deep Valley, with thy one rude House, And its small lot of life-supporting fields,
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