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They dwindled, Sir, sad sight to see! From ten to five, from five to three, A lamb, a weather, and a ewe ;—

And then at last, from three to two; And of my fifty, yesterday

I had but only one :

And here it lies upon my arm,

Alas! and I have none ;

To-day I fetched it from the rock;
It is the last of all my flock."

LINES

Left upon a seat in a YEW-TREE, which stands near the Lake of ESTHWAITE, on a desolate part of the shore,. yet commanding a beautiful prospec.

-Nay, Traveller! rest. This lonely Yew-tree stands
Far from all human dwelling: what if here
No sparkling rivulet spread the verdant herb ;
What if these barren boughs the bee not loves }
Yet, if the wind breathe soft, the curling waves,
That break against the shore, shall lull thy mind
By one soft impulse saved from vacancy.

-Who he was

That piled these stones, and with the mossy sod
First covered o'er, and taught this aged Tree
With its dark arms to form a circling bower,

I well remember.

No common soul.

He was one who owned

In youth by science nursed,

And led by nature into a wild scene

Of lofty hopes, he to the world went forth,
A favored being, knowing no desire

Which genius did not hallow, 'gainst the taint
Of dissolute tongues, and jealousy, and hate,
And scorn, against all enemies prepared,

All but neglect. The world, for so it thought,
Owed him no service: wherefore he at once
With indignation turn'd himself away

And with the food of pride sustained his soul
In solitude. Stranger! these gloomy boughs
Had charms for him; and here he loved to sit,
His only visitants a straggling sheep,
The stone-chat, or the glancing sand-piper;
And on these barren rocks, with juniper,
And heath, and thistle, thinly sprinkled o'er,
Fixing his down-cast eye, he many an hour
A morbid pleasure nourished, tracing here

An emblem of his own unfruitful life :
And lifting up his head, he then would gaze
On the more distant scene; how lovely 'tis
Thou seest, and he would gaze till it became
Far lovelier, and his heart could not sustain
The beauty still more beauteous. Nor, that time,
When Nature had subdued him to herself,
Would he forget those beings, to whose minds,
Warm from the labours of benevolence,

The world, and man himself, appeared a scene
Of kindred loveliness: then he would sigh
With mournful joy, to think that others felt
What he must never feel: and so, lost Man!
On visionary views would fancy feed,

Till his eye streamed with tears. In this deep vale

He died, this seat his only monument.

If Thou be one whose heart the holy forms

Of young imagination have kept pure,

Stranger! henceforth be warned; and know, that pride,,

Howe'er disguised in its own majesty,

Is littleness; that he, who feels contempt
For any living thing, hath faculties

Which he has never used; that thought with him
Is in its infancy. The man, whose eye

Is ever on himself, doth look on one,

The least of Nature's works, one who might move
The wise man to that scorn which wisdom holds
Unlawful, ever. O, be wiser Thou!
Instructed that true knowledge leads to love,
True dignity abides with him alone

Who, in the silent hour of inward thought,
Can still suspect, and still revere himself,
In lowliness of heart.

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