HOPKINS: CHARACTER AND OPINIONS OK WILLIAM LANGLAND. 259 



4>eiiei'ai ^^ the teaching of the whole poem may be reduced to a 



i>HtieN. word, man's duty is to love and labor. The duty of love 



and benevolence is constantly iterated, and its application is made 



specific in countless instances; while the duty of labor is the keynote 



struck in the beginning, and with all the author's power. Labor 



should be honest, and love should be according to law. For the rest, 



we may sum up Langland's teaching as that man's duty comprises the 



observance of the four cardinal virtues, and the avoidance of the 



seven deadly sins through the cultivation of their opposites (See C, 



, XXII., 274; also C, VI. and VII). Langland places especial stress 



upon temperance, economy, humility, honesty, and truth. 



. ^. , Attendance upon divine service upon Sunday is 



Ac 1 1 V e a II cl ' ^ -' 



Contemplative obligatory upon all (C, X., 221-245). Langland 

 ■** ^" believes in all the observances of the church, but 



good works towards one's fellowmen, and faith, are of even 

 greater value (C, II., 170-181; C, XII., 142-148). And one observ- 

 ance of the church, that of receiving windows commemorating the 

 giver, he disapproves in toto, and gives warning that good deeds are 

 not to be published (C, IV., 63-76). There are two kinds of life 

 that are acceptable to Christ, the active and the contemplative; and 

 both are blessed if lived in accordance with the law of God (B, VI., 

 249 ff. ). To the contemplative life belong prayer and the observ- 

 ances of the church, but it must be lived in self-sacrifice, not self- 

 seeking (C, II., T70-1S1); one may know Christ neither through 

 words nor works, but through will alone (B, XV., 204). The active 

 life may also be abused, as it is by Haukyn (C, XVI., 194 ff.), who 

 finds the task of providing for his temporal wants so great that he 

 lacks time to care properly for his own spiritual life; but if lived in 

 faith, love, temperance, and humility, it is worthy and sure of heaven 

 (B, XIV., 46-58). In another sense, the married life is active life, 

 and widowhood and virginity are two degrees of the contemplative 

 life (C, XIX., 71-83). The latter is perhaps the holier, if worthily 

 lived. 



The Poor. Langland, though he realizes the sins and short-com- 

 ings of the poor, provides them with all the consolation in his power, 

 the conclusions of his philosophy of life. Since they suiter so much 

 in this life, they shall surely be rewarded in the life to come, if they 

 are patient under suffering (C, XIII., 194). Thus the equipoise will 

 be restored; having winter here, they will have summer in heaven 

 (A, XIV., 160), and may claim heaven as it were by right (C, XVII. , 

 57, 103). The blessings of poverty in this life are also fully dis- 

 cussed (C, XIII., XIV., and XVII.; and B, XI). The poor are not 

 in danger of enemies as are the rich; the sins of pride, gluttony, and 



