ARGUMENT. Images in the Valley - Another Recess in it entered and deWanderer's sensations Solitary's excited by the -- scribed Contrast between these - Despondency of the Solitary gently reproved― Conversation exhibiting the Solitary's past and present opinions and feelings, till he enters upon his own History at length - His domestic felicity - afflictions dejec roused by the French Revolution tion - Disappointment and disgust Voyage to America-disappointment and disgust pursue him his return His languor and depression of mind, from want of faith in the great truths of Religion, and want of confidence in the virtue of Mankind. 87 BOOK THE THIRD. A HUMMING Bee DESPONDENCY. - a little tinkling Rill — Was greeted, in the silence that ensued, When through the Cottage-threshold we had pass'd, The shade of discontent which on his brow Had gather'd, "Ye have left my cell, but see How Nature hems you in with friendly arms! But which way shall I lead you? —how contrive, In Spot so parsimoniously endow'd, That the brief hours, which yet remain, may réap So saying, round he look'd, as if perplex'd; And, to remove those doubts, my grey-hair'd Friend Said "Shall we take this pathway for our guide? Upward it winds, as if, in summer heats, Its line had first been fashion'd by the flock A place of refuge seeking at the root Of yon black Yew-tree; whose protruded boughs From which she draws her meagre sustenance. And a few steps may bring us to the spot Where, haply, crown'd with flowerets and green herbs, The mountain Infant to the sun comes forth, Like human Life from darkness." A quick turn Through a strait passage of encumber'd ground, Proved that such hope was vain: for now we stood Shut out from prospect of the open Vale, And saw the water, that composed this Rill, Descending, disembodied, and diffused And who, O'er the smooth surface of an ample Crag, Upon a semicirque of turf-clad ground, The hidden nook discover'd to our view A mass of rock, resembling, as it lay Right at the foot of that moist precipice, A stranded Ship, with keel upturn'd, — that rests In mockery, to wither in the sun, Or lay its beauty flat before a breeze, The first that enter'd. But no breeze did now Find entrance;· high, or low, appear'd no trace "Behold a Cabinet for Sages built, Which Kings might envy!" - Praise to this effect |