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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, "O'erwhelm 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."

od 2

LETTER XXII.

THE POOR OF THE BOROUGH

PETER GRIMES.

Was a sordid soul,

Such as does murder for a meed;
Who but for fear knows no control,
Because his conscience, sear'd and foul,
Feels not the import of the deed;
One whose brute feelings ne'er aspires
Beyond his own more brute desires.

Scott. Marmion.

Methought the souls of all that I had murder'd came to my tent, and every one diù

threat

The time hath been,

Shakspeare. Richard III.

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.

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 insipient 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

LETTER XXII.

THE POOR OF THE BOROUGH.

PETER GRIMES.

OLD Peter Grimes made fishing his employ,
His wife he cabin'd with him and his boy,
And seem'd that life laborious to enjoy:
To town came quiet Peter with his fish,
And had of all a civil word and wish.
He left his trade upon the sabbath-day,

And took young Peter in his hand to pray;
But soon the stubborn boy from care broke loose,
At first refus'd, then added his abuse:

His father's love he scorn'd, his power defied,
But being drunk, wept sorely when he died.

Yes! then he wept, and to his mind there came
Much of his conduct, and he felt the shame,-
How he had oft the good old man revil'd,
And never paid the duty of a child;
How, when the father in his bible read,
He in contempt and anger left the shed:
"It is the word of life," the parent cried;

This is the life itself,' the boy replied,

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