206  Notes  and  Illustrations  of  the  Poems,

woman  may  surpass  in  talent,  in  knowledge,  and  culture  of
mind,  those  with  and  among  whom  she  lives,  and  yet  fall  below
them  in  Christian  virtues  of  the  heart  and  spirit.  It  seemed
almost,  and  I  say  it  with  grief,  that  in  proportion  as  she  excelled
in  the  one,  she  failed  in  the  other.  How  frequently  has  one  to
observe  in  both  sexes  the  same  thing,  and  how  mortifying  is  the
reflection !

As  on  a  sunny  bank  the  tender  lamb. — The  story  that  follows
was  told  to  Mrs.  Wordsworth  and  my  sister,  by  the  sister  of  this
unhappy  young  woman.  Every  particular  was  exactly  as  I  have
related.  The  party  was  not  known  to  me,  though  she  lived  at
Hawkshead ;  but  it  was  after  I  left  school.  The  clergyman  who
administered  comfort  to  her  in  her  distress  I  knew  well.  Her
sister,  who  told  the  sto^,  was  the  wife  of  a  leading  yeoman  in
the  Vale  of  Grasmere,  and  they  were  an  affectionate  pair,  and
greatly  respected  by  every  one  who  knew  them.  Neither  lived
to  be  old ;  and  their  estate,  which  was,  perhaps,  the  most  con-
siderable then  in  the  Yale,  and  was  endeared  to  them  by  many
remembrances  of  a  salutary  character,  not  easily  understood  or
sympathised  with  by  those  who  are  born  to  great  affluence,  past
to  their  eldest  son,  according  to  the  practice  of  these  Vales,  who
died  soon  after  he  came  into  possession.  He  was  an  amiable
and  promising  youth,  but  was  succeeded  by  an  only  brother,  a
good-natured  man,  who  fell  into  habits  of  drinking,  by  which  he
gradually  reduced  his  property,  and  the  other  day  the  last  acre
of  it  was  sold,  and  his  wife  and  children,  and  he  himself  still
surviving,  have  very  little  left  to  live  upon  ;  which  it  would  not,
perhaps,  have  been  worth  while  to  record  here,  but  that  through
all  trials  this  woman  has  proved  a  model  of  patience,  meekness,
affectionate  forbearance,  and  forgiveness.  Their  eldest  son,
who  through  the  vices  of  his  father  has  thus  been  robbed  of  an
ancient  family  inheritance,  was  never  heard  to  murmur  or  com-
plain against  the  cause  of  their  distress,  and  is  now,  deservedly,
the  chief  prop  of  his  mother's  hopes.
