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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75652 ***
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Frontispiece: "And I also shall go home." Page 31]
+
+
+
+  THE
+
+  OLD MAN'S HOME.
+
+
+  BY THE REV. WILLIAM ADAMS, M. A.
+
+  AUTHOR OF "THE SHADOW OF THE CROSS,"
+  AND "THE DISTANT HILLS," ETC.
+
+
+  With Engravings from Original Designs,
+  BY WEIR.
+
+
+
+  NEW-YORK:
+  GENERAL PROT. EPISCOPAL S. S. UNION,
+  DANIEL DANA, Jr., AGENT,
+  Depository 20 John Street.
+  1848.
+
+
+
+
+---------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+ENTERED according to act of Congress, in the year 1847, by JOHN W.
+MITCHELL, (as TREASURER of the General Protestant Episcopal Sunday
+School Union,) in the Office of the Clerk of the United States
+District Court for the Southern District of New York.
+
+---------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+  TO
+
+  JOHN ADAMS,
+
+  Serjeant at Law,
+
+  AS A MARK OF FILIAL GRATITUDE
+
+  And Affection,
+
+  THIS VOLUME IS INSCRIBED
+
+  BY
+
+  THE AUTHOR.
+
+
+
+
+  FOR THEY
+
+  THAT SAY SUCH THINGS
+
+  DECLARE PLAINLY
+
+  THAT THEY SEEK A COUNTRY.
+
+  HEB. xi, 14.
+
+
+
+
+The Old Man's Home.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+  Each in his hidden sphere of joy or woe,
+   Our hermit spirits dwell and range apart;
+  Our eyes see all around in gloom or glow--
+   Hues of their own, fresh borrow'd from the heart
+                            CHRISTIAN YEAR.
+
+
+There is a scene on the coast of the Isle of Wight with which I have
+long since become familiar, but which never fails to exercise a
+soothing influence on my mind.  It is at the eastern extremity of the
+landslip.  Large portions of the cliff have fallen away, and formed a
+dell so broken and irregular, that the ground has the appearance of
+having at one time been agitated by an earthquake.  But Nature has
+only suffered the convulsion to take place, in order that afterwards
+she might bestow her gifts upon this favoured spot with a more
+unsparing hand.  The wild and picturesque character of the landscape
+is now almost lost sight of in its richness and repose.  The new soil
+is protected from the storms of winter by the cliff from which it has
+fallen, and, sloping towards the south, is open to the full warmth
+and radiance of the sun.  In consequence of this, the landslip has as
+it were, a climate of its own; and often when the more exposed parts
+of the country still look dreary and desolate, is in the enjoyment of
+the blessings of an early spring.  Such was the season at which I
+first visited it.  The grey fragments of rock which lay scattered on
+the ground are almost hid by the luxuriance of the underwood, and
+countless wild flowers were growing beneath their shade.  Below, the
+eye rested upon a little bay, formed by the gradual advance of the
+sea; and all was so calm and peaceful, that as I watched the gentle
+undulation of the waters, I could fancy them to be moving to and fro
+with a stealthy step, lest they should disturb the tranquillity of
+the scene.
+
+I have said that a visit to this favoured spot never fails with me to
+have a soothing influence.  I feel as though I were treading on
+enchanted ground, and the whole scene were allegorical; for it
+reminds me that, in like manner, the wreck of all our earthly hopes
+and plans may but lay open our hearts to the influence of a warmer
+sunshine, and enrich them with flowers which the storms of life have
+no longer power to destroy.  But I cannot now tell whether these
+thoughts have their origin in the scene itself, or in an incident
+that occurred the first time I visited it.
+
+It was on the evening of the 18th of April, 1843.  I had been long
+gazing upon it, and had imagined that I was alone, when my attention
+was arrested by a sigh from some one near me.  I turned round, and
+saw a venerable old man seated upon a fragment of the fallen cliff,
+beneath which the violets were very thickly clustering.  His hair was
+white as silver; his face deeply furrowed, and yet pervaded by a
+general expression of childish simplicity, which formed a strong
+contrast to the lines which must have been indented upon it by care
+and suffering, no less than the lapse of years.  I cannot recall the
+words of the chance observation which I addressed to him; but it
+related to the lateness and inclemency of the season, and I was at
+once struck by the singularity of his reply: "Yes, yes," he said,
+musingly, "the winter has indeed been very long and dreary; and yet
+it has been gladdened, from time to time, by glimpses of the coming
+spring."
+
+I now observed him more closely.  There was a strangeness in his
+dress which first excited my suspicion, and I fancied that I could
+detect a restlessness in his light blue eye which spoke of a mind
+that had gone astray.  "Old man," I said, "you seem tired; have you
+come from far?"
+
+"Ah, woe is me," he replied, in the same melancholy tone as before;
+"I have indeed travelled a long and solitary journey; and at times I
+am weary, very weary; but my resting-place now must be near at hand."
+
+"And whither, then," I asked, "are you going?"
+
+"Home, sir, home," he replied; and while his voice lost its sadness,
+his face seemed to brighten and his eye grow steady at the thought;
+"I hope and believe that I am going home."
+
+I now imagined that I had judged him hastily, and that the answers
+which I had ascribed to a wandering intellect proceeded in truth from
+depth of religious feeling.  In order to ascertain this, I asked:
+"Have you been long a traveller?"
+
+"Four score and thirteen years," he replied; and observing my look of
+assumed wonder, he repeated a second time, more slowly and sadly than
+before, "Four score and thirteen years."
+
+"The home," I said, "must be very far off that requires so long a
+journey."
+
+"Nay, nay, kind sir, do not speak thus," he answered: "our home is
+never far off; and I might perhaps have arrived at it years and years
+ago.  But often during the early spring I stopped to gather the
+flowers that grew beneath my feet; and once I laid me down and fell
+asleep upon the way.  And so more than four score and thirteen years
+have been wanted to bring me to the home which many reach in a few
+days.  Alas! all whom I love most dearly have long since passed me on
+the road, and I am now left to finish my journey alone."
+
+During this reply, I had become altogether ashamed of my former
+suspicion, and I now looked into the old man's face with a feeling of
+reverence and love.  The features were unchanged; but instead of the
+childish expression which I had before observed, I believed them to
+be brightened with the heavenliness of the second childhood, while
+the restlessness of the light blue eye only spoke to me of an
+imagination which loved to wander amid the treasures of the unseen
+world.  I purposely, however, continued the conversation under the
+same metaphor as before.  "You have not, then," I said, "been always
+a solitary traveller?"
+
+"Ah, no," he replied: "for a few years a dear wife was walking step
+by step at my side; and there were little children, too, who were
+just beginning to follow us.  And I was so happy then, that I
+sometimes forgot we were but travellers, and fancied that I had found
+a home.  But my wife, sir, never forgot it.  She would again and
+again remind me that 'we must so live together in this life, that in
+the world to come we might have life everlasting.'  They are words
+that I scarcely regarded at the time, but I love to repeat them now.
+They speak to me of meeting her again at the end of our journey."
+
+"And have all your children left you?" I asked.
+
+"All, all," he replied.  "My wife took them with her when she went
+away.  She stayed with me, sir, but six years, and left me on the
+very day on which she came.  It seems strange now that I could have
+lived with them day after day without a thought that they were so
+near their journey's end, while I should travel onward so many
+winters alone.  It is now sixty years since they all went home, and
+have been waiting for me there.  But, sir, I often think that the
+time, which has seemed so long and dreary to me, has passed away like
+a few short hours to them."
+
+"And are you sure, then," I said, "that they are all gone home?"  It
+was a thoughtless question, and I repented the words almost before
+they were spoken.  The tears rose quickly in the old man's eyes, and
+his voice trembled with emotion, as he replied: "Oh! sir, do not bid
+me doubt it.  Surely, every one of them is gone home; one, at least,
+of the number is undoubtedly there; and they all went away together,
+as though they were travelling to the same place; besides, sir, my
+wife was constantly speaking to them of their home; and would not
+their journey as well as my own have been prolonged, if their home
+had not been ready for them?  And when I think of them, I always
+think of home; am I not, then, right in believing that all of them
+are there?"
+
+There were allusions in this answer which I did not at the time
+understand; but the old man's grief was too sacred for me to intrude
+further upon it.  I felt, also, that any words of my own would be too
+feeble to calm the agitation which my thoughtless observation had
+caused.  I merely repeated a passage from holy Scripture, in reply,
+"Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord, even so saith the Spirit,
+for they rest from their labours."
+
+The old man's face again brightened, and as he wiped away the tears,
+he added, "And 'Blessed,' also, 'are they that mourn, for they shall
+be comforted.'  There is not only a blessing for those who have been
+taken to their rest, but there is the image of that blessing to cheer
+the old man who is left to pursue his solitary journey."
+
+At this moment, the sun, which had been obscured by a passing cloud,
+suddenly shone forth, and its rays were reflected by a path of gold
+in the silent waters.  The old man pointed to it with a quiet smile;
+the change was in such harmony with his own thoughts, that I do not
+wonder at the metaphor it suggested to him.  "There," said he, "is
+the blessing of the mourner!  See! how it shines down from the heaven
+above, and gilds with its radiance the dreary sea of life."
+
+"True," I replied; "and the sea of life would be no longer dreary, if
+it were not for the passing clouds which at times keep back from it
+the light of Heaven."  His immediate answer to this observation
+proved the image which he had employed, to be one long familiar to
+his own mind.  "There are indeed clouds," he said, "but they are
+never in Heaven; they hover very near the earth; and it is only
+because our sight is so dim and indistinct that they seem to be in
+the sky."
+
+A silence of some minutes followed this remark.  I was, in truth,
+anxious that the old man should pursue the metaphor farther.  But the
+gleam of light passed away as the sun sunk behind the western hills.
+His feelings appeared to undergo a corresponding change, and he
+exclaimed, hastily, "The day is fast drawing to a close; and the
+night must be near at hand: I must hasten onward on my journey.
+Come, kind sir, and I will show you where my friends are waiting for
+me."
+
+I was wondering whether he now spoke metaphorically or not, when my
+thoughts were suddenly turned into a new channel, and my former
+painful suspicions returned.  As the old man leant upon his staff,
+his wrists became exposed to view, and I saw that they were marked
+with deep blue lines, which could only have been caused by the
+galling of a chain in former years.
+
+The poor wanderer observed the look I gave them.  A sudden flush of
+shame overspread his countenance, and he hurriedly drew down his
+garment to conceal them.  It was, however, but a momentary impulse;
+he again exposed them to my view, and himself gazed sadly upon them,
+as he said, "Why should I try to hide them, when they are left there
+to remind me constantly of my true condition?  For in times past I
+have borne the pressure of more wearing bonds than those; and though
+I have been released from them now, no one can tell how dark and deep
+is the stain that they have left upon the soul."  Something more he
+added, but his eye was turned meekly towards Heaven, and it was only
+from the movement of his lips that I fancied I could trace the words
+of the prayer, "Though we be tied and bound with the chain of our
+sins, yet let the pitifulness of Thy great mercy loose us."
+
+He now began to move slowly forward.  The ground was rough and
+uneven, and his step so very feeble, that I expected every instant to
+see him fall.  He struck his foot against a stone, and I sprang
+forward to his assistance.  "Thank you, kind sir," he said, in his
+quiet way; "but do not fear for me; my own frail limbs could not
+support me for an instant: but I have a staff on which I lean; and
+though I may stumble at times, I cannot fall."
+
+Again I was in doubt whether to interpret his words literally or not;
+but my belief was that the old man almost unconsciously used the
+language of allegory.  Long habit had so taught him to blend together
+the seen and the unseen world, that he could not separate them.  Life
+was to him a mirror, and in the passing objects of sight and sense,
+he never failed to recognise the images of spiritual things.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+  So wanderers, ever fond and true,
+    Look homeward through the evening sky,
+  Without a streak of heaven's soft blue,
+    To aid affection's dreaming eye.
+                                  CHRISTIAN YEAR.
+
+
+At the conclusion of the last chapter I gave the opinion that I
+formed of the old man from the brief conversation I myself had with
+him.  The following incident cast, as it were, a shadow upon it, and
+robbed it of its brightness, but did not really alter it.  My
+intercourse with him was brought to a sudden and painful conclusion.
+It was at my persuasion that he crossed a stile which separated the
+wild scenery of the landslip from the public road leading to the
+little village of B----.  I thought it would be easier for him to
+walk along the more beaten track.  He had yielded with apparent
+reluctance to my request.  His unwillingness appeared to proceed from
+instinct rather than reason.  It may in part have arisen from a kind
+of natural sympathy which attracted him to that wild luxuriant spot;
+in part from an unconscious dread of the danger to which he actually
+became exposed.  He simply said, "This smooth way was not made for
+the like of me, kind sir; but under your protection I will venture
+along it."
+
+Alas!  I little thought of the kind of protection he required.  We
+had advanced but a few hundred yards, and had just reached the summit
+of the hill which commanded the first view of the village church.
+The old man had paused for a little while, and appeared to gaze upon
+it with a feeling of the most intense interest; I was afraid, even by
+a passing question, to interrupt the quiet current of his thoughts;
+when the silence was suddenly broken by the creaking of a cart-wheel,
+which grated harshly on my ear; and almost before I could look round,
+I heard a voice of rude triumph behind me, crying out, "There he
+is--there he is--there goes the old boy!  Stop him, stop him, sir! he
+is mad."
+
+I have no heart to describe the scene that followed: the poor
+wanderer shuffled forward, with a nervous, hurried step; but in a few
+seconds the cart was at his side; the driver immediately jumped out,
+and, seizing him by the collar, with many a rude word and coarse
+jest, tried to force him to enter it.  For a moment, surprise and
+indignation deprived me of speech, for I had began to regard the old
+man with such a feeling of reverent love, that it almost seemed to me
+like a profanation of holy ground.  When, however, he turned his eyes
+towards me, with an imploring look, I recovered myself sufficiently
+to demand by what authority he dared thus molest an inoffensive
+traveller on his journey.  In my inmost heart, I dreaded the answer I
+should probably receive; neither was my foreboding wrong; the man
+laughed rudely as he replied, "He has been mad, quite mad, for more
+than fifty years; he escaped this morning from the Asylum, and one of
+the keepers has been with me all day long scouring the country in
+search of him."
+
+It was in vain that I sought a pretext for disbelieving the truth of
+the story.  I could not help feeling that it did but confirm a
+suspicion which, in spite of myself, had kept crossing my own mind;
+for the bright colouring which was shed by faith on the thoughts and
+words of the old man was not alone a sufficient evidence that they
+were under the guidance of reason.  Yet, of one thing, at least, I
+felt sure, that, whatever were the state of his intellect, it could
+be no imaginary cause that now so strongly moved him.  My heart bled
+for him, as I listened to the pathetic earnestness with which he
+implored the protection that I was unable to afford.  He even forgot
+to use the language of metaphor in the agony of his grief.  "Indeed,
+indeed, sir," he said, "they call me mad, but do not believe them,
+for I am not mad now.  There, there," he added, pointing towards the
+church, "my wife and children are waiting for me.  It was on this
+very day that they went away, and we have now been parted sixty
+years.  I have travelled very far to join them once again before I
+die.  Oh, have pity upon me!  I only ask for one little half hour,
+that I may go on in peace to the end of my journey."
+
+Large drops of moisture trembled on his forehead as he uttered these
+words; his whole face became convulsed with emotion, and he clung
+with such intensity to my garment, that his rude assailant tried in
+vain to unloose his grasp.  The man himself was evidently frightened
+by the agitation which his own violence had caused, and appeared
+doubtful how to proceed, when the scene was fortunately interrupted
+by the arrival of his companion.
+
+He was the keeper who had been sent from the Asylum with the cart,
+but had left it in order to search the pathway which led through the
+landslip.  His look and manner afforded a striking contrast to those
+of the first comer, who proved to be merely the owner of the vehicle,
+which had been hired for the occasion.  Immediately on his arrival,
+he reprimanded him for his rude treatment of the old man, and
+insisted on his returning to the cart, and desisting from all farther
+interference.  My hopes were greatly raised by this, and I flattered
+myself that I should now have little difficulty in obtaining for the
+poor wanderer the indulgence which he sought.  But I soon found my
+mistake; and, under the irritated feelings of the moment, almost
+preferred the rude conduct of the first comer to the quiet
+determination with which his companion listened to my request.
+
+He merely smiled at the account I gave of my own interview with the
+old man; and when I suggested that it contained no evidence of
+insanity, shook his head, and replied, "You do not know poor Robin.
+His notions about home are the peculiar feature of his madness; but
+you are not the first person that has been deceived by them."
+
+He spoke in a low tone, as though he were anxious not to be
+overheard.  But the precaution seemed unnecessary; for, though the
+old man had mechanically retained his grasp on my garments, he was
+now looking eagerly towards the village church, and I could see, from
+the expression of his countenance, that his thoughts had passed away
+from the scene around him.
+
+When I found my arguments of no avail, I changed my ground, and
+besought as a favour that he would make the trial of letting the old
+man proceed to the end of his journey, and trust to his promise to
+return quietly from thence.  "Sir," he replied, in a louder voice, "I
+should have no more hesitation in trusting the word of poor Robin
+than your own.  He never deceived me; and, under ordinary
+circumstances, I would at once grant his request; but the hour is
+late, and, as it is, the night will close in upon us before we can
+get back to the town of N----.  The responsibility will rest upon me,
+if mischief should arise from any additional delay.  I am sure Robin
+himself would not desire it."  As he said this, he turned towards the
+old man, but his countenance was unchanged, his eye still fixed upon
+the church, and he either had not heard the words at all, or they had
+failed to convey any distinct impression to his mind.
+
+After a pause, I again renewed my entreaties, urging that it would at
+least be a better plan than having recourse to violence, which must
+eventually produce a far more serious delay.  "Of course," said the
+attendant, "anything is better than having recourse to violence."
+"Then," said I, "you accede to my request?"  "Only," replied he, with
+a provoking smile, "in case all other methods fail; but as the delay
+would be a real inconvenience to us, you must permit me first to try
+my powers of persuasion.  Let me now beg of you, whatever surprise
+you may feel, to be careful to express none."  He again lowered his
+voice as he said these words, and, in spite of the dislike inspired
+by the self-confidence of his manner, and of other stronger emotions,
+my curiosity was excited to know how he would proceed.  He placed
+himself opposite to the old man, so as to intercept his view of the
+village, and then, having fixed his eye calmly and stedfastly upon
+him, with an appearance of real interest, thus soothingly addressed
+him:--"I would gladly go on with you, Robin; but am sure you are
+under some mistake.  Your wife and children cannot be in yonder
+village,--they are not there, they are at home.  Come quietly with me
+now, and perhaps this evening you may go home also."
+
+These simple words touched some hidden chord in the old man's heart,
+and their effect was almost magical.  All other feelings passed away,
+and I forgot the presence of his companions, as I watched the change
+which they produced.  His features became composed, his hand relaxed
+its hold, and his voice resumed its former tranquil tone, as he
+slowly repeated: "They are not there, they are at home; they are not
+there, they are at home.  True, very true, they are not there, they
+are at home."
+
+Presently he raised his eyes to Heaven, and the attendants, no less
+than myself, were overawed by the solemnity of his manner.  There was
+a silence of a few seconds, during which he seemed to listen
+intently; and then, as though he had heard some echo from above,
+which confirmed the hope that had been held out to him, he
+confidently added: "And I also shall go home,--and this very evening
+I shall be there."
+
+While I was still pondering on these words, the old man had of his
+own accord quietly placed himself in the cart, and his companions had
+seated themselves by his side.  They were on the point of driving off
+before the thought occurred to me of offering him money.  I drew out
+my purse, half expecting him to refuse the proffered gift; and it was
+with a strong feeling of disappointment that I observed the look of
+satisfaction, almost amounting to eagerness, with which he took the
+silver from my hand.  I said within myself, "Can it be, then, that
+the taint of covetousness is to be found in a mind from which every
+earthly affection seems so entirely to have been withdrawn?"  But I
+wronged him by the thought.  The money was immediately taken from
+him, and he resigned it to another no less gladly than he had
+received it from me.  "It will not do," said the keeper, "to let him
+have it himself: he will merely give it away to the first beggar that
+he meets.  He has not the slightest notion of the real value of
+money.  It shall be laid out for his benefit; and till then it will
+be safe in my keeping."
+
+My countenance may have expressed dissatisfaction at the change,
+though, in truth, I had no objection to make to it.  But the old man
+himself interrupted me before I could reply, and said, "Do not be
+afraid, kind sir, whether it remain with me or him; your treasure
+will be safe, quite safe; it matters not now whether it remain with
+me or him;" and then added, in a more solemn tone, "safe 'where
+neither rust nor moth doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break
+through and steal.'  I will take it home with me; and when you also
+go home, you will find it there."  And I now understood how it was
+for my sake that he had so gladly welcomed the gift; and I thought,
+too, that if in truth money had a real value at all, it must be the
+one which was assigned to it by him.
+
+The men were in a hurry to depart, and I was now forced to bid adieu
+to the old man.  He appeared so sorry to leave me, that I promised on
+the morrow to come and see him.  I did not like to use the word
+Asylum, so I said at his dwelling-place.  The expression at once
+caught his ear, and re-awakened the train of thought which my gift
+had interrupted for a time.
+
+"Not in my dwelling-place," he said, "for to-morrow I shall not be
+there.  If you see me again, kind stranger, it must be at home.  May
+God bless you, and guide you on your way."  The cart was already in
+motion, but he looked back once more, and waved his hand as he said,
+"Good bye, sir.  Remember that we all are going home!"
+
+They were the last words I heard him speak, and it is perhaps from
+that cause that they made so strong an impression on my mind; for
+often since then, when I have been tempted to wander from the right
+path, or murmur as I walked along it, I have thought upon the old
+man's parting warning, and asked myself the question, "Am I not going
+home?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+  Two worlds are ours: 'tis only Sin
+    Forbids us to descry
+  The mystic heaven and earth within,
+    Plain as the sea and sky.
+                          CHRISTIAN YEAR.
+
+
+Very early on the following morning I proceeded on foot to the town
+of N----.  The scenery through which I passed was rich and beautiful,
+but it was lost upon me at the time; for there were busy thoughts
+within which would not suffer my eye to rest on any external object.
+I was on my way to visit the old man, and had a presentiment, almost
+amounting to conviction, that I should not find him alive.  The
+words, "I also shall go home, and this very evening I shall be
+there," in spite of myself, kept recurring to my mind.  It was to no
+purpose that I endeavoured to set them aside, as part of the
+wanderings of a disordered intellect: there was a solemnity in the
+look and manner of the poor wanderer, which gave a reality to their
+meaning; and I believed the shadow of the future to have been resting
+on his spirit at the time he spoke them.
+
+These fears gradually increased as I approached the Asylum.  At the
+entrance, there stood a little girl, weeping as though her heart
+would break.  A woman, who appeared to be her mother, was trying in
+vain to comfort her.  Her only reply to every caress, was a fresh
+burst of sobs and tears.  The scene was so in harmony with my own
+thoughts, that the very instant I saw her, I guessed the cause of her
+sorrow.  Nor was my conjecture wrong: the child had dearly loved the
+old man, and wept because he was no more.
+
+The father of this girl was the superintendent of the Asylum.  He
+also was standing by, and offered to accompany me through the
+building.  On the way, he proved very willing to gratify my curiosity
+concerning the stranger who had excited in me so singular an
+interest.  I soon found him to be an intelligent, kind-hearted man,
+who had entered instinctively into the thoughts and wishes of poor
+Robin, and yet had failed to appreciate what I may call the religion
+of his character.  His daily familiarity with the varied forms of
+insanity, may in part have been the cause.  He had at once regarded
+him as a patient labouring under a peculiar kind of mental delusion,
+without looking beyond.  In consequence of this, there was much in
+our conversation which grated harshly on my own feelings.  I loved
+better to think of the old man as I had first seen him, sitting in
+the midst of the picturesque scenery of the landslip, than confined
+within the gloomy walls of a pauper Asylum.  The close rooms through
+which we passed, the dull tones of the superintendent's voice, his
+conviction of poor Robin's insanity, and even the compassionate
+interest with which he spoke of him, all interfered with the
+brightness of the image which my own mind had previously formed.  It
+would have been more in harmony with my thoughts, to have heard from
+the child who was weeping for him, the simple narrative of the old
+man's life: but, perhaps, the contrast in the colouring of the
+picture only brings out the more strongly its intrinsic beauty; and,
+for this reason, I will still endeavour to trace it as it was first
+presented to my own view.
+
+The outline is soon drawn.  Poor Robin had, for more than half a
+century, been an inmate of the Asylum.  No one could tell from whence
+he had been brought there, or say anything with certainty of his
+previous history.  It was, however, generally believed that he had
+known better days, but that some very heavy affliction had brought on
+mental derangement; and that, in consequence of this, his property
+had gradually gone to ruin, until at length he was consigned to a
+pauper asylum.  He had been placed there under a very different
+system of treatment from that which now prevails.  It had even been
+thought necessary, in the first instance, to confine him with chains
+and handcuffs: and he would often struggle, in a paroxysm of passion,
+to set himself free.  But after a few years, all the more violent
+symptoms of his disorder had entirely disappeared, and he became so
+quiet and resigned, that the physician had considered it safe to
+release him from his bonds, and suffer him to wander at large within
+the precincts of the Asylum.
+
+"There can be no doubt of the facts, sir," continued my guide, "for
+the marks on poor Robin's wrists prove him to have, at one time,
+undergone a very rigorous confinement; and yet, when I came here, I
+found that he had been long in the enjoyment of comparative freedom.
+But it is a case that always perplexes me, when I think of it; for
+the general effect of harsh treatment is to render the patient more
+violent and intractable than before: and I cannot understand from
+what cause the change in poor Robin's conduct could in the first
+instance have arisen."
+
+"Do you not think," I asked, "that it may have been a sign of
+returning reason?"  He smiled at the question, as he replied, "So far
+from it, sir, that it was accompanied by a new and extraordinary
+delusion, which never afterwards entirely left him.  He fancied that
+the bonds which he felt and saw, were merely imaginary, and that
+there were other invisible chains which were the real cause of his
+confinement.  They say, that from the time this idea once gained
+possession of his mind, he made no farther effort to recover his
+freedom, but even thanked the attendants for the care they were
+taking of him, and became as gentle and submissive as a child."  Then
+I remembered the metaphor, which the old man had employed when the
+marks on his wrists had attracted my attention; and I said within
+myself that it was not indeed the return of reason, but a brighter
+and a far holier light, which had thus shone on the poor captive, and
+brought peace and resignation to his soul.
+
+After his partial release, the manners and language of Robin had soon
+excited observation, and strengthened the belief that he must at one
+time have known better days.  It was not, however, till the milder
+system of treatment was introduced generally into the Asylum, that
+the full beauty of his character had developed itself.  Since that
+time, he had gradually won the affection of many of the patients, and
+had become an object of deep interest to all visitors.  They had
+often come for the express purpose of talking with him.  "And,"
+continued my conductor, "I often listened with wonder to the various
+interpretations they put upon his answers.  Some would discover in
+them poetry; some, philosophy; some, religion; some, I know not what,
+according to the previous bias of their own minds."  I inquired in
+what light he himself was disposed to view them?  "As the wanderings
+of insanity," he replied; "for poor Robin was, undoubtedly, mad:" but
+presently added, more thoughtfully, "yet there was something in his
+peculiar kind of madness which I could never exactly fathom."
+
+I asked, whether no friend or relative had come to inquire after the
+old man, during the long period of his confinement?  "No one,"
+answered my conductor; "and so far, it was a mercy that he had been
+deprived of his reason, since his madness prevented his being aware
+of his own solitary condition."
+
+"How do you mean?" I said; "surely he could not help feeling that he
+was alone?"
+
+"On the contrary," he replied, "he fully believed that he had a wife
+and children and home, and would speak, from day to day, of going to
+join them.  Poor fellow! at one time, those who had the care of him
+would argue with him, and endeavour to explain to him that he was
+under a delusion.  And the old man would soon get confused in his
+reasoning, and end by wringing his hands, in an agony of grief.  But,
+since I have come here, I have thought it best to humour him in the
+belief; and not only forbidden all contradiction on this subject, but
+encouraged the attendants to talk to him about his home, and promise,
+that if he behaved well, he should go there very soon.  You will
+hardly believe that I have seen tears of joy run down his cheeks at
+these simple words.  Yet some have said, that it was almost cruel to
+encourage a hope which must end in disappointment at last."
+
+"But did it end in disappointment?" I said, following my own
+thoughts, rather than addressing my companion.  He seemed struck by
+the remark, and, after a pause, replied, "Why, sir, one can hardly
+say that it did; for the hope seemed to grow stronger, instead of
+weaker, as year after year passed by; and he continued in the same
+happy delusion to the very hour of his death.  I have often thought
+that this imaginary home was a source of greater joy and comfort to
+him than the possession of any actual home could have been.  When
+anything vexed or disturbed him, he would say, that when at home, he
+should feel it no more.  When he felt dull and depressed, he would
+rouse himself by the thought that he was going home.  I myself have,
+at times, felt disposed to envy him his belief: and there was
+something very wonderful in the influence it gave him over his
+companions."
+
+I inquired, how this belief could influence others?  "Because," said
+he, "Robin was unable to separate the present from the future; and so
+it was part of his confusion of ideas to believe that those with whom
+he lived here, would live with him in his home also.  It is the only
+instance I have known of a person under the influence of insanity
+being able to impart his own views to his companions.  But there
+seemed to be a kind of infection in the old man's madness; and more
+than one patient, who had previously been plunged in hopeless
+despondency, was gradually led to take interest in Robin's home.  The
+effect has been so salutary with us, that I have often wished the
+same happy delusion could be introduced generally into other asylums."
+
+I was following the deep train of reflection awakened by this remark,
+and wondering how far it might indeed be possible to graft religion
+on the imagination, and so to soothe and cheer the dreams of insanity
+with the hope of Heaven; when my conductor again resumed the
+conversation.  "There was, sir," he said, "another delusion of the
+old man, scarcely less happy in its consequences than his belief
+about his home.  You might have fancied that, from having once known
+better days, he would have felt bitterly the degradation of his new
+condition; but the whole time that he was in the Asylum he seemed
+utterly unconscious that he was dependent on the parish for support."
+
+"Do you mean," I asked, "that he imagined something had been
+preserved from the wreck of his own property?"
+
+"Not in the least," he replied; "he was fully aware that his own
+property was gone; but he believed his daily wants to be supplied by
+a kind of miracle; and would often observe that he had gone on for
+more than fifty years without making provision for the morrow, and
+yet had never known what it was to be without clothing or food.  Of
+course, sir, I did everything in my power to encourage him in the
+belief: but, one day, I was greatly annoyed to find a visitor, who
+was not aware of the old man's peculiarities, endeavouring to explain
+to him that the parish was bound to find him support."
+
+"And did he," I asked, "appear much hurt at the discovery?"
+
+"Fortunately not, sir," he replied; "and this I own quite took me by
+surprise, for I greatly feared lest the consciousness of his
+dependence might destroy that feeling of self-respect, which, in all
+cases of insanity, it is so important to preserve.  But Robin was
+rather pleased than vexed at the idea of the parish providing for
+him.  Presently, however, he grew bewildered, and shook his head, and
+said, that, after all, the parish could not provide for him beyond a
+single day, and that, perhaps, to-morrow he might be at home.  The
+visitor was beginning to say something in reply; but Robin's home was
+with me sacred ground, and I would not suffer the argument to proceed
+further."
+
+Another pause of some minutes followed, until I broke it by inquiring
+whether the child that I had observed at the entrance were related to
+the old man.
+
+"Oh, no, sir," he replied, "little Annie is my own daughter, and many
+persons have wondered that I suffered her to be so constantly with
+him.  But I consider the society of children to be very beneficial to
+the insane; there is something in their ways and language which they
+can understand far better than our own; and this was peculiarly the
+case with poor Robin."
+
+"And do you suppose," I said, "that the child liked to be with him?"
+
+"Undoubtedly," he replied; "for the choice was her own.  I merely
+encouraged it.  But Robin had an inexhaustible stock of fairy tales,
+which made him a great favourite with children; and Annie would sit
+and listen to them for hours together."
+
+"Do you really mean," I asked, in some surprise, "that they were
+fairy tales?"
+
+"Why, sir, for that matter," he answered, "poor Robin himself
+believed them to be true, and it was that which gave a peculiar
+interest to his manner of telling them.  Some visitors have fancied
+them to be a kind of allegory; and I have often traced in the words a
+double meaning, of which the old man himself could hardly have been
+conscious.  But, however this may have been, it is clear that they
+were connected with his particular mental delusion, from the way in
+which his imaginary home formed the prominent feature of every story."
+
+I expressed a wish to hear one of them, and yet was hardly sorry when
+he confessed himself to be unable to comply with my request.  He told
+me that he had only heard them in detached portions, for the patients
+in the Asylum were too numerous to allow him to devote as much time
+to poor Robin as he might otherwise have done.  "But, sir," he
+continued, "little Annie knows them all by heart, though I am afraid
+to-day she is feeling too deeply the loss of her companion to be able
+to repeat one.  There certainly was something very singular in her
+fondness for the old man, and I have often been perplexed at the kind
+of influence he had over her.  She herself was sometimes a sufferer
+from his delusions, and yet always fancied poor Robin must be in the
+right, and would submit to his wishes without a murmur or complaint.
+On one occasion, I myself felt called upon to interfere."
+
+I begged him to relate the circumstance to which he referred.
+
+"It was, sir," he said, "on Annie's ninth birth-day, in November
+last.  I had given her in the morning a new Victoria half-crown, and
+she went immediately to exhibit her treasure to her friend.  She
+looked grave and thoughtful on her return; and, when I asked what
+purchases she had made with her present, she confessed that the old
+man had begged it of her, and she had given it him.  The next day, I
+told Robin how wrong he had been to take the poor child's money.  But
+he answered, with his usual strangeness, that he did not in the least
+want it, and had asked for it because he loved little Annie, and
+wished to do her a kindness.  Now, most people would have thought
+that this was rather a reason for giving her a present than for
+taking one away.  And yet the old man spoke the truth, for he knew no
+better.  It was one of his peculiarities to imagine that he was
+conferring a favour whenever he received one."
+
+There was a passage from Holy Scripture which this answer suggested
+to my mind.  I remembered "the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said,
+It is more blessed to give than to receive,"* and I repeated it
+rather to myself than to my companion.  The words, however, caught
+his ear, and he observed that it was very likely I had hit upon the
+truth; for the understanding texts of Scripture in their literal
+meaning, was one feature of poor Robin's insanity.
+
+
+* Acts xx. 35.
+
+
+With a view to pursuing the subject farther, I inquired whether the
+old man had restored the money.
+
+"No, sir," replied my guide; "and this is the most provoking part of
+the story.  I should not so much have minded if he had wished for it
+as a keepsake from the child; but he said he had lent it to some
+companion who had more need of it than himself.  He did not even so
+much as remember his name.  I told him he had much better have given
+it at once, as he had no chance of seeing it again.  His own mind,
+however, was perfectly at rest about it, and he assured me that it
+was only lent, and would undoubtedly be restored, if not sooner, at
+least when he went home.  Of course, sir, when he touched upon his
+home, I did not venture to press him farther.  But this was another
+of his delusions, which, though comparatively harmless while he was
+staying here, must of itself have entirely unfitted him for the
+management of his own affairs.  He would lend all that he had to his
+brother paupers, and, though no one ever thought of repaying him, was
+just as happy as if the things remained in his own possession."
+
+And another passage of Holy Scripture rose to my remembrance, "He
+that hath pity on the poor, lendeth unto the Lord; and look, what he
+layeth out, it shall be paid him again."  And I did not wonder that,
+with so sure a promise, the mind of poor Robin should have been at
+rest.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+  Ever the richest, tenderest glow
+    Sets round th' autumnal sun--
+  But there sight fails; no heart may know
+    The bliss when life is done.
+                                CHRISTIAN YEAR.
+
+
+I have reserved for a separate chapter that part of my conversation
+within the walls of the Asylum, which led to a description of the
+closing scene of the old man's life.  I was still reluctant to admit
+his insanity, for it seemed to me that he had only so fully realized
+the presence of the unseen world, as to have forgotten altogether the
+things of sight in the things of faith.  I inquired, therefore, of my
+companion, whether any more decided symptoms of madness had ever
+exhibited themselves than those which he had already mentioned.  He
+appeared surprised at the question, but replied, that, though the old
+man was always more or less under the influence of the disorder,
+there undoubtedly were certain periodic returns of it, and that these
+uniformly occurred at the commencement of spring.
+
+"And did these," I asked, "render him for the time violent and
+intractable?"
+
+"Oh, no, sir," he answered; "ever since I have known him he has been
+the same quiet and inoffensive creature, and his madness used rather
+to assume a melancholy form.  He became sad and dejected, and refused
+to eat, and would pass whole days together in his own solitary cell.
+On one occasion, my wife sent little Annie, in the hope that she
+might cheer him; but he would not even admit the child; he told her
+that his father was then with him, and that he would not talk to her.
+I went myself when I heard this; but, upon opening the door, I found,
+as I expected, that he was alone."
+
+"Perhaps," said I, "he may have meant that he was praying to his
+Father in Heaven.
+
+"It is not unlikely," he replied; "for prayer was one way in which at
+these seasons his madness most frequently exhibited itself.  I mean,"
+he added, observing my look of surprise, "that he did not then pray
+like other people, but would often remain whole hours together upon
+his knees."
+
+And I remembered how the prophetess Anna was said to have served God
+with fastings and prayers night and day, and how our blessed Lord
+Himself had continued a whole night in prayer to God; but I made no
+farther reply.
+
+"The doctor," resumed my conductor, "considered the long solitude to
+be so bad for him, that for the last few days he had not suffered him
+to remain in his cell.  It was, perhaps, this circumstance which
+turned the current of his thoughts into another channel, and led to
+his wandering from the Asylum."
+
+I was not sorry to change the conversation, by inquiring how he had
+contrived his escape.
+
+"Nay," he replied, "it is hardly fair to speak of it as an escape.
+We were never very strict with the old man, and often suffered him to
+go beyond the boundaries.  On the present occasion, he had made no
+secret of his intention, and told one of the attendants that he was
+anxious to pay his wife and children a visit, and should soon be
+back.  I have no doubt myself that he intended to keep his word; but
+he probably started, in the first instance, in a wrong direction, and
+so lost his way."
+
+"What do you mean," I asked, "by his starting in a wrong direction?
+I thought you were ignorant from what part of the island he had been
+brought here."
+
+"True, sir," he replied; "but Robin himself always fancied that his
+home lay towards the East: the little window of the cell he occupied
+looked in that direction; and, though it was too cold for him in the
+winter months, we never could persuade him to change it for one with
+a southern aspect.  He always said that he did not feel the cold, as
+long as he could see his home.  Now, there is nothing but a small
+hamlet visible from the window, and, of course, when the old man did
+not return, I sent to it to inquire after him."
+
+"And had he been there?" I said.
+
+"No, sir," he replied; "and, after wasting many hours in the search,
+we at length heard that he had been seen walking along the road which
+led direct to the Undercliff.  It was this circumstance which enabled
+him to get so many miles from the Asylum before he was overtaken.
+But, as I said, I do not think that he intentionally misled us, but
+only missed his way."
+
+Now I knew full well that the village of B---- was not the home of
+which the old man had spoken; but, when I remembered the agony with
+which he had implored to be allowed to proceed thither, I could not
+believe that mere accident was the cause of his journey.  I resolved
+to return thither to prosecute my inquiries; but before I left the
+Asylum, asked to see the room which poor Robin had occupied.
+
+"This is it, sir," said my conductor, as he threw open the door of a
+low narrow cell.  "You will find it smaller and more comfortless than
+many others, but it is the one in which he was placed when he was
+first brought here; and he had become so fond of his little window,
+and the view towards the East, that it would have been a mistaken
+kindness to force him to change it."
+
+I scarcely heard the words of apology, for I felt a sudden thrill as
+I found myself ushered thus unexpectedly into the chamber of death.
+The old man was lying upon his narrow bed, and a stream of light
+through the open window fell upon his tranquil countenance.  A single
+glance was sufficient to tell me not only that he was indeed dead,
+but that his end had been full of peace.  There was no convulsion of
+the features, and the first symptoms of decay had not yet appeared.
+His eyes had been left unclosed, but the wandering light was no
+longer there, and the smile which from time to time had been wont to
+play across his lips, rested quietly upon them now.  The one idea
+that his look and posture alike conveyed to the mind was that of
+perfect tranquillity and repose.  I felt that his long journey had at
+length been finished, and that the old man was at rest in his home.
+
+My companion also seemed for awhile absorbed in thought.  He advanced
+softly to the bedside, and it was not until, with a gentle hand, he
+had closed the old man's eyes, that he broke the silence by
+observing, "Ah, sir, morning after morning I have found him lying
+thus, and gazing through the open window.  His sight was gradually
+becoming very weak from the glare of light, but he was unconscious of
+it himself.  And it was but yesterday he told me that in a little
+while he should be no longer dazzled by the brightness of his home.
+Poor fellow! when I came into the room a few hours since, and saw his
+eyes so calm and motionless, though the full rays of the sun were
+falling upon them, I knew that he must be dead, and could not help
+thinking how singularly his words had come true."
+
+There was something in the tone of voice in which this description
+was given, that proved the speaker to have some secret feeling of its
+allegorical meaning, though he himself would probably have been
+unable to define it.
+
+A Bible and Prayer-Book were lying on the table by the bedside.  I
+turned to the fly-leaf of the former, in the hope that I might at
+least gather from it the poor wanderer's name.  There was written in
+it, "Susan Wakeling; the first gift of her husband, April 18th,
+1776."  And when I remembered the old man's great age, I conjectured
+that the sacred volume must formerly have been his own wedding
+present to his bride.  I replaced it on the table, and it opened of
+its own accord at the eleventh chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews.
+The page was much worn, as though it had not only been often read,
+but many tears had fallen upon it.  My eye quickly rested on the
+passage, "These all died in faith .... and confessed that they were
+strangers and pilgrims on the earth.  For they that say such things
+declare plainly that they seek a country.  And, truly, if they had
+been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might
+have had opportunity to have returned.  But now they desire a better
+country, that is, an Heavenly."*  And while I read, it seemed as
+though I had found the text to the old man's history.
+
+
+* Heb. xi. 13-15.
+
+
+Another smaller volume was near them, which proved to be the
+Christian Year.  My conductor told me that it was the gift of the
+chaplain.  For a moment I wondered at his choice, for I knew that it
+contained much which poor Robin must have been unable to understand.
+But the hymn for Septuagesima Sunday, and many others, were marked
+with pencil.  And as my eye glanced over them, my wonder ceased.
+They were all in such perfect unison with the old man's own thoughts,
+that, however faint may have been the image which they conveyed, they
+could not have failed to exercise a soothing influence on his mind.
+
+I inquired whether the chaplain used to come often to see him.  "Very
+frequently," was the reply.  "He took great interest in poor Robin,
+and the old man was grateful for it."  "It certainly was singular,"
+he added, thoughtfully, "that on his return yesterday evening, he
+should have expressed so earnest a wish that the chaplain should be
+sent for."
+
+"And did you refuse?" I asked.
+
+"Fortunately not, sir," he replied.  "I hesitated at first, for it
+was very late, and poor Robin was evidently much exhausted with the
+fatigue and excitement of the day.  But he became so anxious about
+it, that my wife interceded for him, and told me she thought he would
+go to sleep more quietly after he had been here.  I well remember now
+the peculiar emphasis with which the old man repeated her words, and
+said, 'Yes, yes, I shall doubtless go to sleep more quietly after he
+has been here.'  It almost seemed as though he felt his end to be
+near at hand."
+
+I begged to know what passed at his interview with the chaplain.  My
+companion, however, could give me no information as to the first part
+of it, for the old man had desired to be left alone with him, and his
+wish had been at once indulged.  "But," he continued, "on our return
+to the room, we found him looking more light and cheerful than we had
+ever before seen him; and when I congratulated him, he said that it
+was no wonder, for a very heavy burthen had been taken away.  The
+chaplain then told us that he proposed to administer to him the Holy
+Communion, and invited my wife and myself to partake of it with him.
+It is a point on which I have always felt doubtful, for persons in
+the state of poor Robin must have very indistinct views of the real
+nature of a sacrament.  In this case the old man's own expression
+proved it; for, as he joined in the chaplain's request, he told us
+that he was going on a long journey, and might require the food to
+support him on the way."
+
+"Nay," I could not help observing, "surely his journey lay through
+the valley of the shadow of death, and he meant that his soul would
+be refreshed on its passage by the body and blood of Christ, even as
+the body is by bread and wine."
+
+My companion shook his head as he replied, "I believe, sir, Robin
+used the words literally, but the chaplain took the same view of them
+with yourself, and it was a point for him and not me to decide.
+Certainly nothing could be more grave or attentive than the old man's
+manner during the whole ceremony.  And it may be that some glimmering
+of returning reason was sent to prepare him for the approach of
+death.  Such cases are not of uncommon occurrence."
+
+I could not help thinking that, in spiritual things, poor Robin had
+not needed its light; but I made no further reply; and my companion
+resumed his narrative.
+
+"When the service was over, the old man merely squeezed the
+chaplain's hand in parting, but did not speak to him.  I also soon
+afterwards went away, but my wife stayed for some time longer
+watching by his bedside.  He remained perfectly still and silent,
+though his eyes were open.  At length she asked him whether he did
+not feel tired, and wish to go to sleep?  And she tells me, that he
+smiled like a little infant as he replied, 'Oh no, not at all tired;
+for all that wearied me has been taken away.'  And then, after a
+pause, he added, 'But you may wish me good night now, for I shall be
+asleep very soon;--and tell dear Annie I am going home.'  He spoke in
+so cheerful a tone, that my wife little thought they were his last
+words, and she left him, as she fancied, to repose.  But it was a
+sleep from which he never woke again.  Ah, sir," he continued, "it
+seems a sad thing to die thus forsaken and alone; and yet, after all,
+many who have kind friends and relatives round their sick beds might
+envy poor Robin his peaceful end.  He went off so quietly at last,
+that those who slept in the room adjoining were not disturbed during
+the night by the slightest sound.  But early this morning, when I
+came to inquire after him, he was lying just as you now see him,
+quite dead!"
+
+The deep feeling with which these words were pronounced, convinced me
+that he was no less touched than myself by the contemplation of the
+outward tranquillity of the old man's death.  But who can realize the
+inward peace that must have been there when the body fell asleep, and
+the soul was released from its long imprisonment, and carried by
+angels on its Homeward journey!
+
+As we left the old man's room, I inquired whether there were many
+besides little Annie who mourned his loss.  A smile again crossed the
+features of my companion, as he replied, "There were many of the
+patients who loved him almost as dearly as the child herself, but I
+can scarcely speak of them as mourners now.  A report spread among
+them this morning that Robin was going home; I cannot tell from what
+quarter it arose, but when I came to them, they crowded round me to
+know if it were true."
+
+"And did you," I asked, "then tell them that he was dead?"
+
+"Not in so many words," he replied.  "I merely said that he was
+already gone home, and that they must not expect to see him here
+again.  And more than one voice exclaimed in reply, 'Happy, happy
+Robin, to be taken home!'"
+
+Still I observed that I had remarked on the countenance of many of
+the patients an expression of sadness.
+
+"True," he answered, "for with them the transition of feeling from
+joy to grief is very rapid.  They are not, however, sorrowing for
+poor Robin, but for themselves, because they have not been allowed to
+accompany him.  There were some, in the first instance, who were very
+loud in their complaints; but I soothed them by saying that it was
+right the old man should go first, because he had been here so long."
+After a pause, he continued: "It is my own wish, as well as the
+chaplain's, that many of them should attend the funeral, for I would
+gladly pay this tribute of respect to Robin's memory.  And yet I am
+half reluctant to give way to it: the remembrance of the scene might
+afterwards throw some gloom over the bright and happy notions which
+they have now formed of his home."
+
+I replied, that it might be so; "and yet," I added, "they would find
+in the thanksgivings and prayers of the Burial Service only the exact
+echo of their own joy and sorrow."  And as I said this, I could not
+help feeling that the scene after the old man's death had been in
+perfect harmony with his life, and that poor Robin was rightly
+rejoiced over and rightly mourned.
+
+My account of my visit to the Asylum has already far exceeded the
+limits which I had assigned it.  And yet, at the risk of being
+wearisome, I cannot refrain from adding one more fragment from my
+conversation within its walls, before I proceed to the more pleasant
+task that lies beyond.  With a view to prosecuting my inquiries in
+the village of B----, I asked my companion whether Robin had ever
+dropped a hint of his former calling.
+
+"Oh yes, sir," was the reply; "he used to say that he had enlisted as
+a soldier very early in life, and had at one time been made a
+prisoner.  I have seen the tears run down little Annie's cheeks at
+the piteous tale he would tell of the way in which his enemies had
+bound him hand and foot, and cast him into a dark and terrible
+dungeon, from which he had hardly escaped with his life.  But I
+believe the whole story to have been imaginary, and it is one that I
+have little difficulty in accounting for.  He doubtless referred to
+the hardships he had endured at the period of his first imprisonment
+in the Asylum.  No one can wonder that they should have taken so
+strong a hold on his imagination."
+
+"Did he, then," I asked, "believe that his warfare had long been at
+an end?"
+
+"No, sir," he replied.  "And perhaps it would be more correct to say
+that the treatment to which he had been exposed was the origin of his
+delusion, than that it accounted for it.  The idea that he was liable
+to the attacks of some secret enemy, seems from that time to have
+taken a fixed possession of his brain; and if any one assured him
+that he never could be subjected to the same ill usage again, his
+invariable answer was, that there was no safety for him except at
+home.  And then he would maintain that having once enlisted, he could
+never cease to be a soldier, and talk of treacherous foes and long
+watchings and doubtful conflicts.  You would have imagined him, from
+his conversation, to have been one who was fighting and struggling
+all day long, instead of the quiet, inoffensive character that he
+really was.  But this, sir, was not all; he would fancy that every
+one else was a soldier also.  He almost persuaded little Annie that
+she had enlisted in the same army with himself; and often made her
+sad by talking of the enemies who surrounded her, and the service she
+was required to perform."
+
+[Illustration: Page 76]
+
+I here interrupted him by asking whether the child had not been
+baptized.  He at once perceived the drift of the question, and
+replied, "I know what you mean, sir,--she was then made the soldier
+and servant of Christ."
+
+"Yes," I added, "and entered into a solemn engagement to fight
+manfully under His banner, against sin, the world, and the Devil."
+
+"True," he answered; "and it is very curious that it was the old man
+himself who first pointed out that passage in the Prayer-Book to me.
+I remember it struck me at the time that his peculiar notions about
+soldiers might, in some way, be connected with it.  And I think it
+far from improbable; for Robin's madness seemed principally to
+consist in his regarding metaphors as realities, and realities as
+metaphors.  The difference between him and ourselves would be, that
+he believed little Annie to be really a soldier, and not merely to be
+called one in the Prayer-Book."
+
+I made no further reply, for my own thoughts grew perplexed, as I
+tried to determine with myself what were truths and realities, and
+what merely shadows and metaphors, of the things pertaining to our
+present existence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+  Oh, bliss of child-like innocence, and love
+    Tried to old age! creative power to win,
+  And raise new worlds, where happy fancies rove,
+    Forgetting quite this grosser world of sin.
+                                        CHRISTIAN YEAR.
+
+
+The rooms of the Asylum were hot and close, and as the outer door
+opened, it.  was very pleasant to escape from them into the fresh,
+open air.  While we did so, my mind experienced a similar kind of
+relief, as the plaintive accents of childhood broke in on my
+prolonged conversation with the superintendent.
+
+In spite of the interest I took in his narrative itself, it was with
+a feeling of oppression that I had listened to it; and there was
+something very refreshing in the sudden change.  The sounds which I
+now heard proceeded from little Annie.  She was standing on the
+threshold, just as I had seen her when I entered, except that her
+grief was of a less quiet character than before, and something of
+impatience seemed to be mingled with it.
+
+"It is no use," said her mother, as we approached; "the poor child
+will fret herself into a fever, and I cannot persuade her to come
+away.  She does nothing but beg and entreat to be allowed to see poor
+Robin again.  I really believe it will be the best way to take her to
+his cell."
+
+"It must not be," replied her husband; "she has no idea of what death
+really is; and the sight of the body would rill her mind with strange
+fancies, and perhaps do her serious harm; for she herself is but a
+poor weakly thing.  You know I never refused her permission to visit
+him while he was alive, but I cannot suffer it now."  "It is
+singular," he added, turning to me with a look of vexation, "that I
+should have found less difficulty in quieting the complaints of all
+the mourners for poor Robin within the Asylum, than in soothing the
+grief of my own little girl.  I do not like to treat her with
+severity, and yet without it I see no hope of getting her away."
+
+All that I had heard of the child, inspired me with a lively
+compassion for her; and I asked to be allowed to try my powers of
+persuasion.  Permission was readily granted; and I instinctively had
+recourse to the old man's last message, as the easiest way of gaining
+access to her heart.  "Annie," I said, gently, "do you know where
+your friend is gone?"  The simple question checked her sobs, and she
+looked timidly in my face, but made no reply.  "Poor Annie!" I
+continued; "and did he indeed leave you without telling you whither
+he was going?"
+
+"Home, sir, home," she replied; and the accent, no less than the
+words, recalled to my mind the childlike old man: "he often told me
+that he was going home."
+
+"True," I replied; "and he is gone home now.  Do you really wish to
+see him again?"  She was silent; but the look of affection that
+beamed on every feature was a sufficient answer; so I continued: "And
+if you do see him again, Annie, where will it be?"  Her voice
+faltered, as she repeated the words, "At home;" and she again burst
+into tears.
+
+"Yes, Annie," I said, after a short pause, "you cannot see him here,
+because he is gone away.  He is now happy in the enjoyment of his
+home, and you must wait till you can go to him there.  But, perhaps,
+your home is different from his.  Is it so, Annie?"
+
+"Oh, no," she answered, with unexpected earnestness, "we are all
+children of the same Father, and all travel to the same Home--that
+is," she added, looking down, and colouring deeply, "if we are
+careful to keep in the path that leads to it."
+
+"And what path is that, Annie?"
+
+"The path of trustful obedience, and quiet faith, and holy love," was
+her immediate reply.
+
+I knew at once that the words were not her own, but that she spoke
+from memory, and that I had accidentally led her to one of the old
+man's allegories.  I was anxious for my own sake to hear more of it,
+and it seemed to me that it might be good for her own sorrow to turn
+her thoughts for a little while into this channel; so I continued:
+"And is it a pleasant path, Annie, that leads us home?"
+
+"It is an up-hill path," she said; "but, as we walk along it, we can,
+if we will, awake soft notes of music beneath our feet, and there are
+whispering winds to cheer us on our way."
+
+"And what, Annie," I asked, "do you mean by the soft music and the
+whispering wind?"
+
+"The soft music is prayer," she replied, "and the whispering wind,
+the Holy Spirit of God."
+
+"And can we," I said, "have the soft music without the whispering
+wind?  I mean, can we pray without the assistance of God's Holy
+Spirit?"  But there was no need for me to have explained the
+question; the language of allegory was most familiar to the mind of
+the child, and she had recourse to it in her reply.  "No, sir," she
+said, "for the spirit of harmony dwells in the breeze; and it is the
+wind alone that gives life to the music, and bears it upward from
+earth to Heaven."
+
+I cannot tell how far she realized the deep meaning of these words,
+for I did not venture to examine her upon them.  I was afraid lest I
+should only render indistinct the image which they conveyed to her
+mind, by touching the colours with an unskilful hand.
+
+Presently I resumed:--"It must, Annie, I think, be a pleasant path
+along which the wind thus murmurs, and the music plays!"
+
+"It is a pleasant path," she replied, "and yet it is very thickly
+covered with thorns."  "But," she added, and from the smile which for
+a moment lit up her countenance, it seemed as though this were the
+metaphor which pleased her best, "they are all magic thorns; and if
+we look upward to the clear, blue sky, and tread firmly upon them,
+they keep changing into flowers."
+
+"And is there not another path," I said, venturing to guess at the
+conclusion of the allegory, "which leads away from home, and along
+which the flowers, as you tread upon them, keep changing into thorns?"
+
+But I was wrong in my conjecture, for she looked perplexed, and
+replied, "I do not know, sir, about the other paths; the old man
+never used to talk to me but of one."  And I felt ashamed of my
+question, as I said within myself, "Oh, happy child, to know as yet
+but of one path; and happy teacher, to have so shared the innocency
+of childhood as to have spoken to her but of one!"
+
+Presently, however, she continued, as though she observed my
+confusion: "But, sir, he said there were flowers which grow by the
+way-side.  When the wind blows softly upon them they perfume the air;
+and their fragrance is very sweet and pleasant to those who pass them
+by; but if we stop to gather them, then they become magic flowers,
+and keep changing into thorns.  And do you know, sir, why it is so?"
+
+"Not exactly," I replied; "I should like you to explain it to me."
+
+"Because, sir," she said, "when we gather them, we stoop down, and
+turn our eyes towards the earth, instead of gazing upward on the
+clear, blue sky."
+
+"But, Annie," I observed, "you have not yet told me what are the
+flowers which we gather, or the thorns on which we tread."
+
+"The thorns," she replied, "are the trials and afflictions which God
+sends us; the flowers are the pleasures and amusements which we make
+choice of for ourselves."
+
+"Then, Annie," I said, "the children who gather the magic flowers are
+those who follow their own will, while those who tread upon the magic
+thorns are such as submit themselves quietly to the will of God."
+
+Her countenance became grave, and I saw that she already guessed my
+meaning.  I thought her mind was now sufficiently prepared to allow
+me to apply directly to her own case the old man's allegory; and it
+seemed as though his spirit were resting upon me while I did so, and
+I used almost unconsciously the language of metaphor.
+
+"Annie," I continued, "a very sharp and piercing thorn was but
+yesterday placed in your path.  Your foot is young and tender, and I
+do not wonder that you should shrink from treading upon it."  She
+trembled violently at this direct allusion to her grief, and yet
+looked anxiously in my face, as though she wished me to say more.  My
+own voice began to falter, and I could only add, "But, believe me,
+your kind friend did not deceive you; the thorn of affliction lies on
+the path homewards; and if you have but courage to walk quietly on,
+there is none that with greater certainty will change into a flower.
+Go, Annie, and awaken the soft music, and you will be cheered by the
+whispering wind."
+
+One by one the tears trickled down her cheeks, as she turned to her
+mother, and said, "Forgive me for my impatience; I am ready now,
+dearest mother, to accompany you home; or I will go home directly
+myself, and you shall follow me."  She did not trust herself to pause
+an instant, or make any further reply, but expressed her gratitude to
+me by a look, and at once hastened away: and while she went, so vivid
+was the impression which the allegory had made on my own mind, that
+the wind which played with her garments seemed to possess some holy
+charm, and I could fancy that I was listening to strains of music, in
+the soft echo of her receding steps.
+
+The mother also was silent; but there was no mistaking the expression
+of her countenance.  The subdued smile on her lips, and the bright
+tears that trembled in her eyes, as she raised them to Heaven, told
+me that she was following the same solemn train of thought with
+myself, and treasuring yet more deeply in her heart the sayings of
+her child.
+
+There was a pause of some seconds, and the sound of little Annie's
+footsteps had just died away, when the stillness was again broken by
+her father's voice.  "You were fortunate, sir," he said, "in leading
+her to the story of the homeward path; many visitors have considered
+it the most beautiful of all that the old man told.  It was a great
+favourite with the child.  I have often heard her repeating detached
+portions of it to herself, though I was not aware that she had found
+in them so deep a meaning.--It is strange, very strange," he added,
+thoughtfully, "for I cannot even now tell who could have explained
+them to her.  I also have often looked back with wonder on the
+answers of the child.  But there is a passage from Holy Scripture,
+which seems to be their best interpreter, and they never fail to
+recall it to my mind: "I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and
+earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and
+hast revealed them unto babes."*
+
+
+* Luke x. 21.
+
+
+Poor Annie!  My conversation with her gave a ray of brightness to a
+visit which otherwise had in it enough of gloom.  Nor has this
+feeling been in any way changed by the early death of the child.
+There is still peace and joy in every thought connected with her,
+though within a few months of my first visit to the Asylum little
+Annie was laid in her quiet grave.  She laboured but one short hour
+in the vineyard, and then was taken to the same home with the old man
+who had borne so long and so patiently all the burthen and heat of
+the day.  Yet my own heart was a witness that even her little hour of
+labour had not been without its fruit.  A romantic story was told
+concerning the cause of her death.  It was said that she had never
+recovered the loss of her friend, but gradually pined away in
+consequence of it, and at length died of a broken heart.  But I
+believed not the tale; for little Annie did not sorrow as those
+without hope; and though, perhaps, the cord of affection, that united
+her so closely to the old man, may have hastened her progress to the
+home to which he was gone, I do not think that her bereavement was
+the cause of her death.  I had left her with the impression that she
+was not long for this world.  I cannot exactly describe from whence
+this feeling arose.  It was not merely because her cheek was wan, and
+her complexion delicate, and her little heart seemed to beat with too
+eager emotion for the frail prison in which it was confined; but
+there was something in her voice, look, and manner, which kept
+reminding me of the world of spirits; as though, in all her youth and
+innocence, she were walking on its very borders, and her gentle form
+might at any moment fade into the mist, and vanish from my view.
+
+The more I reflected on this, the more sure I became that little
+Annie had lived her time, and that no sudden shock had broken
+prematurely the thread of life.  I thought that this assurance might
+afford some comfort to her parents in their heavy affliction; for
+Annie was an only daughter.  But when I called upon them, the mother
+alone was at home; and I soon found that she needed no consolation
+which I could afford her.  She had her own secret store of treasure
+in every word that had fallen from her darling child.  I shall never
+forget the look with which she said to me, "Ah, sir, I understood
+very little of her words while she was alive; but the moment she was
+gone, it seemed as though a light was shining upon them from another
+world, and I can read them plainly now."  And then, after a pause,
+she added, "Do you remember, sir, on the very day you were with us,
+how she said, 'I will go home directly myself, and you shall follow
+me?'  I remembered it well; and she saw from my countenance that I
+guessed her meaning.  "Yes," she continued, as, in spite of every
+effort to suppress it, the big tear rolled down her cheek, "it was in
+order that her father and myself might learn to follow her, that
+little Annie was taken Home.  He too, sir, has become since then an
+altered man."
+
+A silent pressure of the hand was my only reply, for I felt that the
+afflicted mother had learnt more truly than I could teach her the
+lesson which was to be gathered from the death of her child.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+  Gently along the vale of tears
+    Lead me from Tabor's sunbright steep;
+  Let me not grudge a few short years
+    With thee toward Heaven to walk and weep.
+
+  But, oh! most happy, should thy call,
+    Thy welcome call, at last be given--
+  "Come, where thou long hast stor'd thy all!
+    Come, see thy place prepar'd in Heaven!"
+                                    CHRISTIAN YEAR.
+
+
+The recollection of little Annie has made me wander from my story,
+and I must now hasten to bring it to a conclusion.  I left the
+Asylum, pondering deeply on the things I had heard and seen.  My
+heart was sad within me; for I could not help giving way to a feeling
+of compassionate sorrow as I thought of the old man's solitary lot.
+
+His past history seemed, indeed, to be lost in almost hopeless
+oblivion.  But I knew that he must have been crushed and broken down
+by some terrible calamity in early youth; that he had been awakened
+from the stupor which it produced to the stern reality of bonds and
+chains, and then been doomed to a dull, unvaried captivity, not for
+days, weeks, or months, but for a long period of more than fifty
+years.  Thus reason kept drawing a melancholy picture of one without
+home, without friends, dependent on charity for his daily bread,
+whose whole existence was a dreary void, with no employment to
+beguile his thoughts, no hope to cheer him on his way.  It needed
+only the recollection of that peculiar solitude of mind, which is
+almost the certain offspring of insanity, to complete its gloom.
+
+And yet, after all, it was my own infirmity which made me sad; for,
+when I had strength to gaze on the same picture with the eye of
+faith, bright and beautiful were the images that I saw.  I then
+perceived that he was not without home, for his home was in the land
+of spirits beyond the grave; he was not without friends, for his wife
+and children were waiting for him there; while he remained upon
+earth, he was not dependent, for he felt his daily wants to be
+supplied by a Father's care; he never, for a single instant, was
+without occupation, for he had a long warfare to accomplish, a
+distant journey to perform; and still less was he uncheered by the
+blessing of hope, for he was able to rest in humble trust on his
+Saviour's promise, and go on, day after day, laying up treasures for
+himself, which neither moth nor rust could corrupt, nor thieves break
+through and steal.  Out of the loneliness caused by his affliction he
+had created a new world for himself, or rather, he had been drawn by
+it to live in that world which, though unseen, God has really created
+for us all.  And surely to him life could never have been dull and
+unvaried, while he was able to trace the types and emblems of
+spiritual things alike in the passing gleams of sunshine, and in the
+dark shadows that rested upon his path!
+
+Mingled with these conflicting emotions, the question from time to
+time arose in my mind, 'And was poor Robin really mad?'  And again it
+was only my own infirmity which caused me to shrink from the reply.
+It is hard indeed to define madness; and the state of his intellect
+probably varied from time to time.  Thus it may have been almost
+without a cloud when little Annie was his companion.  So, also,
+during my own brief interview with him, the stillness of the evening,
+and the unison of his own thoughts with the surrounding scene, may
+have breathed a soothing influence upon his mind.  And yet when I
+reflected calmly on that very interview, I felt that they were right
+in not suffering the old man to travel alone along the journey of
+life.
+
+His was the second childhood; simple, pure, and holy as the first,
+and yet, in his case, no less than the first, requiring a protector's
+care.  He spoke and thought as a child, and children could understand
+him; but the calm mirror of his mind quickly grew troubled in his
+intercourse with men, and he then lost the power of explaining his
+thoughts, or perhaps of himself distinguishing between the shadow and
+the substance, the things of sight and the things of faith.  Reason
+had resigned her sway during the mental conflict which had been
+caused by his calamities; and though peace and quietness had been
+restored, she never had attained sufficient vigour to resume it
+again.  Nay more; it may be that her lamp was the more dim and
+uncertain, on account of the brighter and clearer light which from
+that time burned unceasingly in his soul.  It is possible that he was
+slow in observing the different shades of colour that passed across
+earthly objects, because to his eye one unfading colour was resting
+upon them all; and that his mere intellectual faculties remained weak
+and palsied, because out of this very weakness he had been made
+strong, and he was at all times conscious of the presence of a surer
+support and a safer guide.
+
+And what matters it, if it were so?  Why may we not revere poor
+Robin, and love him, and learn from him, and yet not shrink from
+acknowledging that his reason had gone astray?  Surely there is no
+one who would not gladly leave the hard, dull road of life, if only
+they could wander with him along the same bright and happy paths!
+There is no one who would not give the choicest gifts of reason twice
+told, if only they could purchase for them the child-like faith of
+that simple-hearted man!
+
+I was half sorry when my arrival at the village of B---- made me
+change these silent meditations for the attempt to investigate the
+old man's connexions and history.  It was not, however, mere
+curiosity that prompted me to do so.  I was anxious, if it were
+possible, to save him from a pauper's grave.  For a long time my
+inquiries were in vain.  Some few, indeed, had heard of poor Robin,
+for his fame, as I have said, had spread beyond the walls of the
+Asylum; but the name of Wakeling was unknown to them; and they did
+not believe he had ever been connected with the parish of B----.
+They referred me, however, to the cottage of the oldest inhabitant of
+the village.  She was a widow, of very great age, having lived to see
+four generations around her.  A few years since, they said, she was
+able to speak distinctly of events that had happened more than half a
+century ago, but latterly her memory had become impaired.
+
+When I mentioned to her the name of Wakeling, the word at once
+awakened some recollection of the past.  She twice repeated it, and
+added, almost mechanically, "Good and excellent people, sir, and very
+kind to the poor."  But when I questioned her as to their occupation
+and history, and asked what had become of them, she shook her head,
+as though the thread of memory had been broken off, and she was
+unable to unite it again.
+
+As a last hope, I referred directly to the spring of 1783, and
+inquired whether it had been marked by any particular occurrence.
+"Ah, sir," she replied, "much of the past is now like a dream to me,
+but that is a period which I never can forget."  The tone of sadness
+in which these words were uttered, proved some deep sorrow to be
+connected with the remembrance of it; and on further questioning, I
+learnt that it was a season in which an infectious fever had raged in
+the village, and that whole families had been carried off by its
+ravages: she herself had then been left an orphan.  But though her
+recollection of the illness itself seemed as vivid as though it had
+occurred but yesterday, of the Wakelings she could say nothing with
+distinctness.  It may be that her mind was too absorbed with the
+remembrance of her own grief to allow her to recur to that of others;
+or it may be that, even at the time, in the general affliction the
+loss of an individual, however grievous, had been scarcely noticed,
+and soon forgotten.  At length she seemed to grow weary of my
+importunity, and said, "I cannot tell who may have lived, and who may
+have died: you must go, sir, to the churchyard, and there you will
+find the only certain history of that fatal spring."
+
+A new thought was suggested by these words, and I repaired thither in
+the hope that I might find that information which I had sought in
+vain from the living, among the silent records of the dead.
+
+The evening was now drawing on, and it was in truth the very hour at
+which but yesterday I had parted from the old man.  I was alone; and
+as I trod, with a cautious reverence upon the green sod, there was no
+sound to break the tranquillity of the scene, save the ripple of the
+waters at the edge of the cliff on which the churchyard stood.  Their
+restless motion only made me feel the more deeply the stillness of
+the hallowed ground itself; and I thought, that if the old man had
+been with me, he might have found in it an apt emblem of the quiet
+resting-place of the dead, lying on the very borders of the sea of
+life, and yet untroubled by its murmuring and sheltered from its
+storms.  I was not long in discovering the object which I sought.
+The rays of the setting sun at once directed me to a stone at the
+eastern extremity of the churchyard.  It was distinguished from those
+around by a simple cross; but in spite of the soft light that was now
+shed upon it, it was with difficulty that I deciphered the
+inscription which it bore.  For not only was the tomb itself thickly
+covered with moss and weeds, but my own eye grew dim with tears, as
+one by one the few sad words revealed to me the secret of the old
+man's history.  His restlessness during the spring, the object of his
+last solitary journey, and parts of his conversation with myself,
+which before had seemed obscure, were now fully explained.  The
+inscription was as follows:--
+
+  SACRED
+  TO THE MEMORY OF
+  SUSAN, WIFE OF ROBERT WAKELING,
+  WHO DIED
+  APRIL 18TH, 1783, AGED 28 YEARS.
+  ALSO OF THEIR CHILDREN,
+  ALICE, AGED 6 YEARS, HENRY, AGED 5 YEARS,
+  AND EDWARD, AN INFANT,
+  WHO SURVIVED HER ONLY A FEW DAYS.
+
+  "I SHALL GO TO THEM
+  BUT THEY SHALL NOT RETURN TO ME."
+  2 SAM. XII. 21
+
+
+There was room beneath the text from Holy Scripture for one name
+more, and it was there that I added the words:
+
+  ALSO OF ROBERT WAKELING,
+  WHO DIED
+  APRIL 18TH, 1843, AGED 93 YEARS.
+
+
+They remain as a simple record that the old man was indeed united at
+last, in body as well as spirit, to those whom he had so dearly
+loved, and mourned so long.
+
+
+
+
+[Transcriber's note: Odd and unusual spellings are as printed.]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75652 ***