I do not pretend to claim the character of a devout man; but there are feelings that visit me in a country church, amid the beautiful serenity of nature, which I experience nowhere else; and if not a more religious, I think I am a better man on Sunday, than on any other day of the seven.

5a

But in this church I felt myself continually thrown back upon the world by the frigidity and pomp of the poor worms around me. The only being that seemed thoroughly to feel the humble and prostrate piety of a true Christian was a poor decrepit old woman, bending under the weight of years and infirmities. She bore the traces of something better than abject poverty. The lingerings of decent pride were visible in her appearance. Her dress, though humble in the extreme, was scrupulously clean. Some trivial respect, too, had been awarded her, for she did not take her seat among the village poor, but sat alone on the steps of the altar. She seemed to have survived all love, all friendship, all society; and to have nothing left her but the hopes of heaven. When I saw her feebly rising and bending her aged form in prayer; habitually conning her prayerbook, which her palsied hand and failing eyes would not per

Poems and Private Ejaculations". Das erwähnte Gedicht ist das beste der Sammlung; es lautet (Chambers's Cyclop. Part. I, p. 231):

5a) lingering (to linger zum ags. Compararativ lengra von lang = long, wie das deutsche ver-längern vom Comparat. länger von lang) = a delaying; a remaining long, das Verweilen; hier der plur., etwa = die Spuren.

6) pålsied gelähmt v. pålsy Lähmung entstellt aus fr. paralysie v. d. gr. napálvois Auflösung. Daneben existiert als medicinischer Ter

mit her to read, but which she evidently knew by heart; I felt persuaded that the faltering voice of that poor woman arose to heaven far before the responses of the clerk, the swell of the organ, or the chanting of the choir 8.

I am fond of loitering about country churches, and this was so delightfully situated, that it frequently attracted me. It stood on a knoll, round which a small stream made a beautiful bend, and then wound its way through a long reach of soft meadow scenery. The church was surrounded by yew-trees, which seemed almost coeval with itself. Its tall Gothic spire shot up lightly from among them, with rooks and crows generally wheeling about it. I was seated there one still sunny morning, watching two labourers who were digging a grave. They had chosen one of the most remote and neglected corners of the churchyard; where, from the number of nameless graves around, it would appear that the indigent and friendless were huddled into the earth. I was told that the new-made grave was for the only son of a poor widow. While I was meditating on the distinctions of worldly rank, which extend thus down into the very dust, the toll of the bell announced the approach of the funeral. They were the obsequies of poverty, with which pride had nothing to do. A coffin of the plainest materials, without pall or other covering, was borne by some of the villagers. The sexton 10 walked before with an air of cold indifference. There were no mock mourners in the trappings of affected woe; but there was one real mourner who feebly tottered after the corpse. It was the aged mother of the deceased the poor old woman whom I had seen seated on the steps of the altar. She was supported by a humble friend, who was endeavouring to comfort her. A few of the neighbouring poor had joined the train, and some children of the village were running hand in hand, now shouting with unthinking mirth,

minus technicus das direct aus dem gr. lat. entnommene paralysis in derselben Bedeutung.

7) clerk (spr. das e = dtsch. a) v. lat. clericus a scholar; a man that can read; a layman who leads the responses in the church service Cantor, Vorsänger.

8) choir (spr. quire) Chor, fr. chœur, lat. chorus, gr. xooós; im Englischen erscheint dasselbe Wort noch in unveränderter lat. Form chorus und wieder aus d. franz. chœur völlig angeeignet altengl. queer, quier, quere, neuengl. quire.

9) meadow scenery

10) sexton Küster, altengl. sextein, secristoun; Entstellungen des fr. sacristain, vergl. das mlat. sacrista sacrorum custos.

and now pausing to gaze, with childish curiosity, on the grief of the mourner.

As the funeral train approached the grave, the parson issued from the church-porch, arrayed in the surplice, with prayer-book in hand, and attended by the clerk. The service, however, was a mere act of charity. The deceased had been destitute, and the survivor was penniless. It was shuffled through, therefore, in form, but coldly and unfeelingly. The well-fed priest moved but a few steps from the church-door; his voice could scarcely be heard at the grave; and never did I hear the funeral service, that sublime and touching ceremony, turned into such a frigid mummery of words 11.

I approached the grave. The coffin was placed on the ground. On it were inscribed the name and age of the deceased

,,George Somers, aged 26 years." The poor mother had been assisted to kneel down at the head of it. Her withered hands were clasped, as if in prayer, but I could perceive by a feeble rocking of the body, and a convulsive motion of the lips, that she was gazing on the last relics of her son, with the yearnings of a mother's heart.

The service being ended, preparations were made to deposit the coffin in the earth. There was that bustling stir which breaks so harshly on 12 the feelings of grief and affection; directions given in the cold tones of business; the striking of spades into sand and gravel; which at the grave of those we love, is, of all sounds, the most withering. The bustle around seemed to waken the mother from a wretched reverie. She raised her glazed eyes, and looked about with a faint wildness. As the men approached with cords to lower the coffin into the grave, she wrung her hands and broke into an agony of grief 13. The poor woman who attended her took her by the arm, endeavouring to raise her from the earth, and to whisper something like consolation nay, now don't take it so sorely to heart." She could only shake her head and wring her hands, as one not to be comforted 14.

,,Nay, now

As they lowered the body into the earth, the creaking of the cords seemed to agonize her; but when, on some accidental obstruction, there was a justling in the coffin, all the tenderness

11) mummery of words dtsch. etwa Wortgepränge.

12) to break harshly on rauh eingreifen in.

13) überliess sich dem äussersten Schmerz.

14) vergl. Matth. Cap. 2, v. 18: Rachel weeping for her children and would not be comforted.

of the mother burst forth; as if any harm could come to him who was far beyond the reach of worldly suffering!

I could see no more

15

my heart swelled into my throat1 my eyes filled with tears I felt as if I were acting a barbarous part in standing by and gazing idly on this scene of maternal anguish. I wandered to another part of the churchyard, where I remained until the funeral train had dispersed.

When I saw the mother slowly and painfully quitting the grave, leaving behind her the remains of all that was dear to her on earth, and returning to silence and destitution, my heart ached for her 16. What, thought I, are the distresses of the rich! they have friends to soothe pleasures to beguile a world to divert 1 and dissipate their griefs. What are the sorrows of the young! Their growing minds soon close above the wound their elastic spirits soon rise beneath the pressure

17

18

their

green 19 and ductile affections soon twine around new objects. But the sorrows of the poor, who have no outward appliances to soothe the sorrows of the aged, with whom life at best is but a wintry day, and who can look for no after-growth of joy the sorrows of a widow, aged, solitary, destitute, mourning over an only son, the last solace of her years; these are indeed sorrows which make us feel the impotency of consolation.

It was some time before I left the churchyard. On my way homeward I met with the woman who had acted as comforter:

15) my heart swelled into my throat: to swell = anschwellen, emporschwellen von dem, wodurch das Herz belastet wird (hier von Mitgefühl, Mitleid) into my throat wörtlich in meine Kehle hinein, bis in meine Kehle hinauf; deutsch in anderem Bilde etwa: es schnürte mir die Kehle zu, es drückte mir das Herz ab. Zu swell in dieser Bedeutung vergl. Shakspere, Othello Act II, Scene 3: Swell, bosom, with thy fraught, wozu Delius bemerkt: ,,Wie von Natterbissen die Wunde anschwillt, so soll Othellos Brust anschwellen von dem, was sie belastet.

16) my heart ached for her betrübt.

= mein Herz war um ihretwillen

17) to divért hier im eigentlichen Sinne to turn off from any course, direction, or intended application; to turn aside; abziehen, ablenken, ableiten.

18) to grow (Stammwort von green zu lat. crescere, ahd. cruon, gruojan, mhd. grüejen) wachsen, werden to become greater or larger, to increase in bulk, stature, quantity, or degree, vergl. Shakspere, Sonnet 32, v. 10: Had my friend's Muse grown with this growing age; hier etwa = sich entwickeln, sich entfalten.

19) green (zur Etymol. vergl. die vor. Anm.) = full of life and vigour; fresh and vigorous; fresh, new, young; vergl. a green manhood, a green wound frisch.

she was just returning from accompanying the mother to her lonely habitation, and I drew from her some particulars connected with the affecting scene I had witnessed.

The parents of the deceased had resided in the village from childhood. They had inhabited one of the neatest cottages, and by various rural occupations, and the assistance of a small garden, had supported themselves creditably and comfortably, and led a happy and blameless life. They had one son, who had grown up to be the staff and pride of their age. -,,Oh, Sir!" said the good woman, „he was such a comely lad, so sweettempered, so kind to every one around him, so dutiful to his parents! It did one's heart good to see him of a Sunday, dressed out in his best, so tall, so straight, so cheery, supporting his old mother to church for she was always fonder of leaning on George's arm than on her good man's; and, poor soul! she might well be proud of him, for a finer lad there was not in the country round."

23

Unfortunately, the son was tempted 20, during a year of scarcity and agricultural hardship 21, to enter into the service of one of the small craft 22 that plied 28 on a neighbouring river. He had not been long in this employ when he was entrapped by a press-gang, and carried off to sea. His parents received tidings. of his seizure, but beyond that they could learn nothing. It was the loss of their main prop. The father, who was already infirm, grew heartless 24 and melancholy, and sunk into his grave. The widow, left lonely in her age and feebleness, could no longer support herself, and came upon the parish. Still there was a kind feeling toward her throughout the village, and a certain respect, as being one of the oldest inhabitants. As no one applied for the cottage, in which she had passed so many happy days, she was permitted to remain in it, where she lived solitary and almost helpless. The few wants of nature were chiefly supplied from the scanty productions of her little garden, which

20) to be tempted (mit stumm. p) sich verleiten lassen. 21) during a year o. s. etc. dtsch. etwa: in einem Jahre, als Theurung herrschte, und die Landwirthschaft darnieder lag.

22) craft und small craft collectiv small vessels, such as are generally used in trading = kleine Fahrzeuge.

28) to ply (zu fr. plier, ployer, lat. plicare, gr. hexɛv mit ähelicher Begriffsentwickelung wie das lat. tendere) falten, biegen, sich anstrengen, dann to make regular trips hin- und herfahren as, a vessel plies between the two places.

24) heartless nicht bloss das dtsch. herzlos, sondern auch muthlos; so hier,