172 NATURE IN DOWNLAND 



Note that this interpretation of Christ's teaching 

 is not quite the same as ours, in these times of plenty 

 This old poet's philosophy is founded on the parable, 

 literally taken, of Lazarus and Dives : you cannot have 

 your sumptuous fare and purple and fine linen both 

 here and hereafter. For all those whose portion in 

 this life was perpetual toil and want and misery, and 

 who bore it patiently (for patience was then the chiet 

 virtue), there was compensation after death. That was 

 the law of the parable — 



By the lawe he it claimeth. 



It was only natural that the author of the Vision, 

 living amid the conditions so hard for us to realise, 

 which he describes, should have held such a belief, 

 that it should seem " pure reson " to him. For He who 

 rules over all is just even to the " briddes and beasts " 

 and " wilde wormes in wodes." With winter He grieves 

 them and afterwards sends them summer; that is 

 their bliss, the vital beams that gladden the stonechat 

 and rabbit, and, piercing below the surface, unfreeze 

 the torpid adder's blood. So, too, for poor humanity 

 there is a glorious eternal summer after this life's 

 bitter winter. This is the teaching of the Vision — 

 poverty borne with patience is the best life, better 

 and blesseder than riches : — 



For though it be sour to suffre 

 Thereafter cometh swete ; 

 As on a walnut without 

 Is a bitter bark ; 



