264 Notes and Reflections during a Tour. 



Iticern. It was an affecting sight to see the wife take her 

 husband's hand, and lead him, tottering, over the furrows, to 

 the trees ; and not less so, to see him attempting to make us 

 comprehend the manner of laying down the branches. His 

 voice had very much failed him ; and that circumstance, to- 

 gether with his patois, rendered it very difficult for us to 

 comprehend a word he said. From the woman, however, we 

 understood that they had had two sons in the army ; one had 

 been killed in the West Indies, and the other they presumed 

 to be dead, not having heard of, or from him for upwards of 

 twenty years. They had a daughter, also, of whom they had not 

 heard for nearly an equal period. As far as we could under- 

 stand, this couple were what would be called in England on the 

 parish ; and they were employed as gardes champetres. 



From the expressions used by the woman on receiving a 

 trifle, her only consolation seemed to be in the hopes held out 

 by religion : a happy provision of nature, under certain cir- 

 cumstances of mental cultivation, for the loss of all worldly 

 comforts. When every thing else is gone in this world, there 

 is always the world to come on which to anchor our wishes 

 and hopes. In all that regards the present, the condition of 

 this couple must be low indeed in the scale of human hap- 

 piness ; and if there were not a prospect that the progress of 

 civilisation would greatly ameliorate this class of society, one 

 might be tempted to ask whether it would not be better for a 

 man to lose his life in battle, or otherwise to be cut off in the 

 midst of his strength, than to live till the simple want of 

 ffood and sufficient food and clothing rendered existence a 

 matter of indifference, or perhaps a burthen. Fortunately for 

 human nature, there exists the principle of sympathy, which 

 impels all men not under the influence of diseased feeling 

 to desire that good for others which they possess them- 

 selves. Hence, one of the grand characteristics of civilisation 

 is respect for the infirmities of age. As society improves, the 

 condition of the aged poor will be improved also : and for 

 such a couple as we have just described, half a century hence 

 there will not, in Europe at least, be war to bereave them of 

 their sons ; nor will ignorance and difficulty of communica- 

 tion exist to such an extent as to prevent them from corre- 

 sponding with their daughter. Among people so generally 

 enlightened and so well governed as all the nations of Europe 

 must in the natural course of events soon be, it will be impos- 

 sible for any misery to exist that is not the result of positive 

 crime, natural disease, or accidental evil. 



(To be continued.) 



