And as he sits with all these treasures nigh, (1) [This tale contains passages of great beauty and pathos. The story is simply that of a youth and a maiden in humble life, who had loved each other from their childhood, but were too poor to marry. The youth goes to the West Indies to push his fortune; but is captured by the Spaniards and carried to Mexico, where, in the course of time, though still sighing for his first love, he marries a Spanish girl, and lives twenty years with her and his children. He is then impressed, and carried round the world for twenty years longer, and is at last moved by an irresistible impulse, when old, and shattered, and lonely, to seek his native town, and the scene of his youthful vows. He comes and finds his Judith, like himself, in a state of widowhood; but still brooding, like himself, over the memory of their early love. She had waited ten anxious years without tidings of him, and then married: and now, when all passion and fuel for passion is extinguished within them, the memory of their young attachment endears them to each other, and they still cling together, in sad and subdued af fection, to the exclusion of all the rest of the world. The history of the growth and maturity of their earliest love is beautifully given. The sad and long-delayed return of the adventurer is described in a tone of genuine pathos, and in some places with such truth and force of colouring, as to outdo the efforts of the first dramatic representation. There is something sweet and touching, and in a high vein of poetry, in the story which Allen tells to Judith of all his adventures, and of those other ties, of which it still wrings her bosom to hear him speak. The close is extremely beautiful, and leaves upon the mind that impression of sadness which is both salutary and delightful, because it is akin to pity, and mingled with admiration and esteem.-JEFFREY.] TALE III. THE GENTLEMAN FARMER. Pause then, And weigh thy value with an even hand: If thou beest rated by thy estimation, Thou dost deserve enough. - Merchant of Venice. Because I will not do them wrong to mistrust any, I will do myself the right to trust none; and the fine is (for which I may go the finer), I will live a bachelor. -Much Ado about Nothing. Throw physic to the dogs, I'll none of it. - Macbeth. His promises are, as he then was, mighty; And his performance, as he now is, nothing. - Henry VIII VOL. JV. 195 TALE III. THE GENTLEMAN FARMER. GWYN was a farmer, whom the farmers all, They only knew, and they would not decide. Far different he from that dull plodding tribe Whom it was his amusement to describe Creatures no more enliven'd than a clod, But treading still as their dull fathers trod; Who lived in times when not a man had seen Corn sown by drill, or thresh'd by a machine: He was of those whose skill assigns the prize For creatures fed in pens, and stalls, and sties; And who, in places where improvers meet, To fill the land with fatness, had a seat; Who in large mansions live like petty kings, And speak of farms but as amusing things; Who plans encourage, and who journals keep, And talk with lords about a breed of sheep. Two are the species in this genus known; One, who is rich in his profession grown, Who yearly finds his ample stores increase, From fortune's favours and a favouring lease; Who rides his hunter, who his house adorns ; Who drinks his wine, and his disbursements scorns; Who freely lives, and loves to show he can This is the Farmer made the Gentleman. The second species from the world is sent, Or by a fashion; curious in his land; Now planning much, now changing what he plann'd ; And ever certain to succeed the next; This is the Gentleman, a Farmer made. Gwyn was of these; he from the world with drew Early in life, his reasons known to few ; Some disappointment said, some pure good sense, Forty and five his years, no child or wife Cross'd the still tenour of his chosen life; Much land he purchased, planted far around, And let some portions of superfluous ground |