Book Fourth
DESPONDENCY CORRECTED
ARGUMENT
State of feeling produced by the foregoing Narrative—A belief in a superintending Providence the only adequate support under affliction—Wanderer's ejaculation[284]—Acknowledges the difficulty of a lively faith—Hence immoderate sorrow[285]—Exhortations—How received—Wanderer applies[286] his discourse to that other cause of dejection in the Solitary's mind—Disappointment from[287] the French Revolution—States grounds[288] of hope, and insists[289] on the necessity of patience and fortitude with respect to the course of great revolutions[290]—Knowledge the source of tranquillity—Rural Solitude favourable to[291] knowledge of the inferior Creatures; Study of their habits and ways recommended;[292] exhortation to bodily exertion and communion[293] with Nature—Morbid Solitude pitiable[294]—Superstition better than apathy—Apathy and destitution unknown in the infancy of society—The various modes of Religion prevented it—Illustrated[295] in the Jewish, Persian, Babylonian, Chaldean, and Grecian modes of belief—Solitary interposes—Wanderer[296] points out the influence of religious and imaginative feeling in the humble ranks of society, illustrated[297] from present and past times—These principles[298] tend to recal exploded superstitions and popery—Wanderer rebuts this charge, and contrasts the dignities of the Imagination with the presumptuous[299] littleness of certain modern Philosophers—Recommends[300] other lights and guides—Asserts the power of the Soul to regenerate herself; Solitary asks how[301]—Reply—Personal appeal[302]— Exhortation to activity of body renewed—How to commune with Nature—Wanderer concludes with a[303] legitimate union of the imagination, affections, understanding, and reason[304]—Effect of his discourse[305]—Evening; return to the Cottage.
HERE closed the Tenant of that lonely vale
His mournful narrative—commenced in pain,
In pain commenced, and ended without peace:
Yet tempered, not unfrequently, with strains
Of native feeling, grateful to our minds;
And yielding surely[306] some relief to his,