The Brothers met who many a year had past Since their last meeting, and that seem’d their last; They had no parent then or common friend Who might their hearts to mutual kindness bend; Who, touching both in their divided state, Might generous thoughts and warm desires create; For there are minds whom we must first excite And urge to feeling, ere they can unite; As we may hard and stubborn metals beat And blend together, if we duly heat. 10 The elder, George, had past his threescore years, A busy actor, sway’d by hopes and fears Of powerful kind; and he had fill’d the parts That try our strength and agitate our hearts. He married not, and yet he well approved The social state; but then he rashly loved; Gave to a strong delusion all his youth, Led by a vision till alarm’d by truth. That vision past, and of that truth possest, His passions wearied and disposed to rest, 20 George yet had will and power a place to choose, Where Hope might sleep, and terminate her views. He chose his native village, and the hill He climb’d a boy had its attraction still; With that small brook beneath, where he would stand, And stooping fill the hollow of his hand, To quench th’ impatient thirst--then stop awhile To see the sun upon the waters smile, In that sweet weariness when, long denied, We drink and view the fountain that supplied 30 The sparkling bliss--and feel, if not express, Our perfect ease in that sweet weariness. The oaks yet flourish’d in that fertile ground, Where still the church with lofty tower was found; And still that Hall, a first, a favourite view, But not the elms that form’d its avenue; They fell ere George arrived, or yet had stood, For he in reverence held the living wood, That widely spreads in earth the deepening root, And lifts to heaven the still aspiring shoot; 40 From age to age they fill’d a growing space, But hid the mansion they were meant to grace. It was an ancient, venerable hall, And once surrounded by a moat and wall; A part was added by a squire of taste, Who, while unvalued acres ran to waste, Made spacious rooms, whence he could look about, And mark improvements as they rose without: He fill’d the moat, he took the wall away, He thinn’d the park, and bade the view be gay. 50 The scene was rich, but he who should behold Its worth was poor, and so the whole was sold. Just then our merchant from his desk retired, And made the purchase that his heart desired-- The Hall of Binning, his delight a boy, That gave his fancy in her flight employ. Here, from his father’s modest home, he gazed, Its grandeur charm’d him, and its height amazed, Work of past ages; and the brick-built place