He had observed the progress and decay 375 Of many minds, of minds and bodies too; The history of many families; How they had prospered; how they were o'erthrown By passion or mischance, or such misrule Among the unthinking masters of the earth 380 As makes the nations groan. This active course He followed till provision for his wants Had been obtained;--the Wanderer then resolved[51] To pass the remnant of his days, untasked With needless services, from hardship free. 385 His calling laid aside, he lived at ease: But still he loved to pace the public roads And the wild paths; and, by the summer's warmth Invited, often would he leave his home And journey far, revisiting the scenes 390 That to his memory were most endeared.[52] --Vigorous in health, of hopeful spirits, undamped[53] By worldly-mindedness or anxious care; Observant, studious, thoughtful, and refreshed By knowledge gathered up from day to day; 395 Thus had he lived a long and innocent life. The Scottish Church, both on himself and those With whom from childhood he grew up, had held The strong hand of her purity; and still Had watched him with an unrelenting eye. 400 This he remembered in his riper age With gratitude, and reverential thoughts. But by the native vigour of his mind, By his habitual wanderings out of doors, By loneliness, and goodness, and kind works, 405 Whate'er, in docile childhood or in youth, He had imbibed of fear or darker thought Was melted all away; so true was this, That sometimes his religion seemed to me Self-taught, as of a dreamer in the woods; 410 Who to the model of his own pure heart Shaped[54] his belief, as grace divine inspired, And[55] human reason dictated with awe. --And surely never did there live on earth A man of kindlier nature. The rough sports 415 And teasing ways of children vexed not him; [56]Indulgent listener was he to the tongue Of garrulous age; nor did the sick man's tale, To his fraternal sympathy addressed, Obtain reluctant hearing. Plain his garb; 420 Such as might suit a rustic Sire, prepared For sabbath duties; yet he was a man Whom no one could have passed without remark. Active and nervous was his gait; his limbs And his whole figure breathed intelligence. 425 Time had compressed the freshness of his cheek Into a narrower circle of deep red, But had not tamed his eye;[AR] that, under brows Shaggy and grey, had meanings which it brought From years of youth;[AS] which, like a Being made 430