All works which I was wont to do alone Before I knew thy face.-Heaven bless thee, Boy! Thy heart these two weeks has been beating fast With many hopes-it should be so-ycsyes I knew that thou could'st never have a wish When thou return'st, thou in this place wilt see The Shepherd ended here; and Luke stoop'd. down, And as his Father had requested, laid Next morning, as had been resolv❜d, the Boy That follow'd him till he was out of sight. A good Report did from their Kinsman come, The prettiest letters that were ever seen. To slacken in his duty, and at length There is a comfort in the strength of love; Twill make a thing endurable, which else Would break the heart:-Old Michael found it so. I have convers'd with more than one who well And listen'd to the wind; Perform'd all kinds of labour for his sheep, There, by the Sheep-fold, sometimes was he seen Sitting alone, with that his faithful Dog, Three years, or little more, did Isabel, Survive her Husband: At her death the estate Was sold, and went into a Stranger's hand. The Cottage, which was nam'd the Evening Star, Is gone, the ploughshare has been through the ground On which it stood; great changes have been wrought In all the neighbourhood, yet the Oak is left That grew beside their door; and the remains Of the unfinish'd Sheep-fold may be seen Beside the boisterous brook of Green head Gill, NOTE to the THORN, V. I. p. 95. This Poem ought to have been preceded by an introductory Poem, which I have been prevented from writing by never having felt myself in a mood when it was probable that I should write it well.The character which I have here introduced speaking is sufficiently common. The Reader will perhaps have a general notion of it, if he has ever known a man, a Captain of a small trading vessel for example, who being past the middle age of life, had retired upon an annuity, or small independent income, to some village or country town of which he was not a native, or in which he had not been accustomed to live. Such men having little to do become credulous and talkative from indolence; and from the same cause, and other pre-disposing causes by which it is probable that such men may have been affected, they are prone to superstition. On which account it appeared to me proper to select a character like this, to exhibit some of the general laws by which superstition acts upon the mind. Superstitious men are almost always men of slow faculties and deep feelings, their minds are not loose but adhesive; they have a reasonable share of imagination, by which word mean the faculty which produces impressive effects out of simple elements; but they are utterly destitute of fancy, the power by which pleasure and surprise are excited by sudden varieties of situation, and by accumulated imagery. It was my wish in this Poem to shew the manner in which such men cleave to the same ideas; and to follow the turns of passion, always different, yet not palpably different, by which their conversation is swayed. I had two objects to attain; first, to represent a picture which should not be unimpressive yet consistent with the character that should describe it; secondly, while I adhered to the style in which such persons described, to take care that words, which in their minds are impregnated with passion, should likewise convey passion to Readers who |