‘A sudden illness seiz’d her in the strength Of life’s autumnal season. Shall I tell How on her bed of death the matron lay, To Providence submissive, so she thought; But fretted, vexed, and wrought upon—almost To anger, by the malady that griped Her prostrate frame with unrelaxing power, As the fierce eagle fastens on the lamb. She prayed, she moaned—her husband’s sister watched Her dreary pillow, waited on her needs; And yet the very sound of that kind foot Was anguish to her ears! “And must she rule Sole mistress of this house when I am gone? Sit by my fire—possess what I possessed— Tend what I tended—calling it her own!” Enough;—I fear too much. Of nobler feeling Take this example:—One autumnal evening, While she was yet in prime of health and strength, I well remember, while I passed her door, Musing with loitering step, and upward eye Turned tow’rds the planet Jupiter, that hung Above the centre of the vale, a voice Roused me, her voice;—it said, “That glorious star In its untroubled element will shine As now it shines, when we are laid in earth, And safe from all our sorrows.” She is safe, And her uncharitable acts, I trust, And harsh unkindnesses, are all forgiven; Though, in this vale, remembered with deep awe!’ We think it is pushing our love of the admiration of natural objects a good deal too far, to make it a set-off against a story like the preceding.