Doth find itself insensibly dispos'd
To virtue and true goodness. Some there are, By their good works exalted, lofty minds
And meditative, authors of delight
And happiness, which to the end of time
Will live, and spread, and kindle; minds like these, In childhood, from this solitary being,
This helpless wanderer, have perchance receiv'd, (A thing more precious far than all that books Or the folicitudes of love can do!)
That first mild touch of sympathy and thought, In which they found their kindred with a world Where want and sorrow were. The easy man Who sits at his own door, and like the pear Which overhangs his head from the green wall, Feeds in the sunshine; the robust and young, The prosperous and unthinking, they who live Shelter'd, and flourish in a little grove
Of their own kindred, all behold in him A silent monitor, which on their minds Must needs impress a transitory thought Of self-congratulation, to the heart Of each recalling his peculiar boons, His charters and exemptions; and perchance, Though he to no one give the fortitude And circumspection needful to preserve His present blessings, and to husband up The respite of the season, he, at least, And 'tis no vulgar service, makes them felt.
Yet further.Many, I believe, there are Who live a life of virtuous decency, Men who can hear the Decalogue and feel No self-reproach, who of the moral law Establish'd in the land where they abide Are strict observers, and not negligent,
Meanwhile, in any tenderness of heart
Or act of love to those with whom they dwell, Their kindred, and the children of their blood. Praise be to such, and to their slumbers peace! -But of the poor man ask, the abject poor, Go and demand of him, if there be here, In this cold abstinence from evil deeds, And these inevitable charities,
Wherewith to satisfy the human soul.
No-man is dear to man: the poorest poor
Long for some moments in a weary life
When they can know and feel that they have been Themselves the fathers and the dealers out
Of some small blessings, have been kind to such As needed kindness, for this single cause,
That we have all of us one human heart.
-Such pleasure is to one kind Being known
My Neighbour, when with punctual care, each week
Duly as Friday comes, though press'd herself By her own wants, she from her chest of meal Takes one unsparing handful for the scrip
Of this old Mendicant, and, from her door Returning with exhilarated heart,
Sits by her fire and builds her hope in heav'n.
Then let him pass, a blessing on his head! And while, in that vast solitude to which The tide of things has led him, he appears To breathe and live but for himself alone, Unblam'd, uninjur'd, let him bear about The good which the benignant law of heaven Has hung around him, and, while life is his, Still let him prompt the unletter'd Villagers To tender offices and pensive thoughts. Then let him pass, a blessing on his head! And, long as he can wander, let him breathe
The freshness of the vallies, let his blood Struggle with frosty air and winter snows, And let the charter'd wind that sweeps the heath Beat his grey locks against his wither'd face. Reverence the hope whose vital anxiousness Gives the last human interest to his heart. May never House, misnamed of industry, Make him a captive; for that pent-up din, Those life-consuming sounds that clog the air, Be his the natural silence of old age. Let him be free of mountain solitudes,
And have around him, whether heard or not, The pleasant melody of woodland birds.
Few are his pleasures; if his eyes, which now Have been so long familiar with the earth, No more behold the horizontal sun
Rising or setting, let the light at least
Find a free entrance to their languid orbs.
« PreviousContinue » |