NOBLE THOUGHT. 199 



In open sunshine, or we are unblest : 

 The wealthiest man among us is the best : 

 No grandeur now in nature or in book 

 Delights us. Rapine, avarice, expense, 

 This is idolatry ; and these we adore : 

 Plain living and high thinking are no more : 

 The homely beauty of the good old cause 

 Is gone ; our peace, our fearful innocence, 

 And pure religion breathing household laws." 



AMICUS. And, I would repeat to you, were I 

 not sure that you know it, the sonnet that 

 follows, addressed to Milton, one of that stirring 

 series dedicated to national independence and 

 liberty, not uncalled for at the time, a time 

 of inglorious peace, of prostration to despotic 

 power in the first Napoleon, not unlike that 

 witnessed at present in the person of his suc- 

 cessor. 



PISCATOR. And would that we had a like 

 poet to address us in the same stirring language, 

 to warn us of impending danger, and recall 

 our thoughts to better things than military 

 glory. But a truce to these reflections. Here 

 we are on the beaten turnpike, and there is 

 Dunmail-raise before us, arid there is Grrasmere 

 Church. You must see its interior; it is so 

 near that a quarter of an hour will suffice for 

 the deviation. 



o 4 



