XXX LIFE OF 



And yield its narrow house another tenant, 



Ere the moist flesh had mingled with the dust. 



Ere the tenacious hair had left the scalp, 



Exposed to insult, lewd, and wantonness ? 



No, I will lay me in the village ground ; 



There are the dead respected. The poor hir.d, 



Unlettered as he is, would scorn to invade 



The silent resting-place of death. I've seen 



The labourer returning from his toil, 



Here stay his steps and call his children round. 



And slowly spell the rudely sculptured rhymes, 



And, in his rustic manner, moralize, 



I've mark'd •«viUi what a silent awe he'd spoken, 



"With head uncovered, his respectful manner, 



And all the honours which he paid the grave, 



And thought on cities, where even cemeteries. 



Bestrew "d with all the emblems of mortality, 



Are not protected from the drunken insolence 



Of wassailers profane, and wanton havoc. 



Crrant, Heaven, that here my pilgrimage may close ! 



Yet, if this be denied, where'er mj"- bones 



ilay lie — or in the city's crowded bounds, 



Or scatter'd wide o'er th.e huge sweep of waters, 



Or left a prey on some deserted shore 



To the rapacious cormorant, — ^yet still, 



(For why should sober reason cast away 



A thought which soothes the soul?)— yet still my spirit 



Shall wing its way to these my native regions. 



And hover o'er this spot. Oh, then I'll think 



Of times when I was seated 'neath this yew 



In solemn rumination ; and will smile 



"With joy that I have got my long'd release. 



His friends are of opinion that he never thoroughly 

 recovered from the shock which his constitution had sus- 

 tained. Many of his poems indicate that he thought 

 himself in danger of consumption ; he was not aware 

 that he was generating or fostering in himself another 

 disease, little less dreadful, and which threatens intellect 

 as well as life. At this time youth was in his favour, 

 and his hopes, which were now again renewed, produced 

 perhaps a better effect than medicine. MrDashwood ob- 

 tained for him an introduction to Mr Simeon, of Kincj's 



