But I complain'd--'Let thy repinings cease, Oh! man of sin, for they thy guilt increase; It bloweth where it listeth;--die in peace.' - In peace, and perish?' I replied; 'impart Some better comfort to a burthen'd heart.' 'Alas!' the priest return'd, 'can I direct The heavenly call?--Do I proclaim th' elect? Raise not thy voice against th' Eternal will, But take thy part with sinners, and be still.' "Alas, for me! no more the times of peace Are mine on earth--in death my pains may cease. "Foes to my soul! ye young seducers, know What serious ills from your amusements flow; Opinions you with so much ease profess, Overwhelm the simple and their minds oppress: Let such be happy, nor with reasons strong, That make them wretched, prove their notions wrong; Let them proceed in that they deem the way, Fast when they will, and at their pleasure pray: Yes, I have pity for my brethren's lot, And so had Dives, but it help'd him not: And is it thus?--I'm full of doubts: --Adieu! Perhaps his reverence is mistaken too." {12} LETTER XXII. THE POOR OF THE BOROUGH. Methought the souls of all that I had murder'd Came to my tent, and every one did threat . . . SHAKESPEARE, Richard III. The time hath been, That, when the brains were out, the man would die, And there an end: but now they rise again, With twenty mortal murders on their crowns, And push us from our stools. SHAKESPEARE, Macbeth. ------------------------- PETER GRIMES. The Father of Peter a Fisherman--Peter's early Conduct--His Grief for the old Man--He takes an Apprentice--The Boy's Suffering and Fate--A second Boy; how he died--Peter acquitted--A third Apprentice--A Voyage by Sea: the Boy does not return--Evil Report on Peter: he is tried and threatened--Lives alone--His melancholy and incipient Madness--Is observed and visited--He escapes and is taken: is lodged in a parish-house: Women attend and watch him--He speaks in a Delirium; grows more collected--His Account of his Feelings and visionary Terrors previous to his Death.