often expressed his regret, after the war had continued some time, that he had not chosen the Naval instead of the East India Company’s Service, to which his family connection had led him.  He greatly valued moral and religious instruction for youth, as tending to make good sailors.  The best, he used to say, came from Scotland; the next to them from the north of England, especially from Westmoreland and Cumberland, where, thanks to the piety and local attachments of our ancestors, endowed, or, as they are called, free-schools abound.

439. *_The Force of Prayer_. [XXI.]

An appendage to ‘The White Doe.’  My friend, Mr. Rogers, has also written on the subject.  The story is preserved in Dr. Whitaker’s History of Craven, a topographical writer of first-rate merit in all that concerns the past; but such was his aversion from the modern spirit, as shown in the spread of manufactories in those districts of which he treated, that his readers are left entirely ignorant, both of the progress of these arts, and their real bearing upon the comfort, virtues, and happiness of the inhabitants.

While wandering on foot through the fertile valleys, and over the moorlands of the Apennine that divides Yorkshire from Lancashire, I used to be delighted with observing the number of substantial cottages that had sprung up on every side, each having its little plot of fertile ground, won from the surrounding waste.  A bright and warm fire, if needed, was always to be found in these dwellings.  The father was at his loom, the children looked healthy and happy.  Is it not to be feared that the increase of mechanic power has done away with many of these blessings, and substituted many evils?  Alas, if these evils grow, how are they to be checked, and where is the remedy to be found?  Political economy will not supply it, that is certain.  We must look to something deeper, purer, and higher.

440. *_A Fact and an Imagination_. [XXII.]

The first and last four lines of this poem each make a sonnet, and were composed as such.  But I thought that by intermediate lines they might be connected so as to make a whole.  One or two expressions are taken from Milton’s History of England.

441. *_A little Onward_. [XXIII.]

The complaint in my eyes which gave occasion to this address to my daughter first showed itself as a consequence of inflammation, caught at the top of Kirkstone, when I was over-heated by having carried up the ascent my eldest son, a lusty infant.  Frequently has the disease recurred since, leaving the eyes in a state which has often prevented my reading for months, and makes me at this day incapable of bearing without injury any strong light by day or night.  My acquaintance with books has therefore been far short of my wishes, and on this account, to acknowledge the services daily and hourly done me by my family and friends, this note is written.

442. Ode to Lycoris. [XXIV.]