And when unable to forsake the Town, In the blind Courts he sate desponding down Always alone; then feebly would he crawlONA Compell❜d to hear the Reasoning of the Poor; "Yes," in his better moments, he replied, "Of sinful Avarice and the Spirit's Pride ;"While yet untempted, I was safe and well, "Temptation came; I reason'd and I fell: "To be Man's Guide and Glory I design'd, "A rare Example for our sinful kind ; "But now my Weakness and my Guilt I see, "And am a Warning-Man be warn'd by me." He said, and saw no more the human Face; LETTER XX. THE POOR OF THE BOROUGH. ELLEN ORFORD. Patience and sorrow strove Who should express her goodliest. Shakspeare. Lear. No charms she now can boast,'-'tis true, But other charmers wither too; And she is old,”—the fact I know, And old will other heroines grow: Fill'd her pure mind with awe and dread, No cruel uncle kept her land, No tyrant father forc'd her hand; With gibe and sneer and taunt. But heroine then no more, She own'd the fault, and wept and pray'd, And humbly took the parish aid, And dwelt among the poor. ELLEN ORFORD. The Widow's Cottage.-Blind Ellen one.-Hers not the Sorrows or Adventures of Heroines.-What these are, first described.— Deserted Wives; rash Lovers; courageous Damsels: in desolated Mansions; in grievous Perplexity.-These Evils, however severe, of short Duration.-Ellen's Story.-Her Employment in Childhood.-First Love; first Adventure; its miserable Termination.-An idiot Daughter.-An Husband.— Care in Business without Success.-The Men's Despondency and its Effect. Their Children: how disposed of.-One particularly unfortunate.-Fate of the Daughter.-Ellen keeps a School and is happy.-Becomes blind: loses her School.Her Consolations. LETTER XX. THE POOR OF THE BOROUGH. ELLEN ORFORD. OBSERVE I've often marvel'd, when by night, by day, * The lad's or boy's love of some counties is the plant Southerwood, the Artimisia Abrotanum of Botanists. |