Observed, and with great benefit to my own heart, when I was a child.
Written at Racedown and Alfoxden in my 23d year. The political
economists were about that time beginning their war upon mendicity in
all its forms, and by implication, if not directly, on alms-giving also.
This heartless process has been carried as far as it can go by the
AMENDED Poor Law Bill, tho' the inhumanity that prevails in this measure
is somewhat disguised by the profession that one of its objects is to
throw the poor upon the voluntary donations of their neighbours, that
is, if rightly interpreted, to force them into a condition between
relief in the Union Poor House and alms robbed of their Christian grace
and spirit, as being forced rather from the avaricious and selfish; and
all, in fact, but the humane and charitable are at liberty to keep all
they possess from their distressed brethren.

491. _The Farmer of Tilsbury Vale_.

With this picture, which was taken from real life, compare the
imaginative one of 'The Reverie of Poor Susan,' and see (to make up the
deficiencies of the class) 'The Excursion' _passim_.

492. _Ibid._

The character of this man was described to me, and the incident upon
which the verses turn was told me by Mr. Pool, of Nether Stowey, with
whom I became acquainted through our common friend S.T.C. During my
residence at Alfoxden, I used to see a great deal of him, and had
frequent occasions to admire the course of his daily life, especially
his conduct to his labourers and poor neighbours. Their virtues he
carefully encouraged, and weighed their faults in the scales of charity.
If I seem in these verses to have treated the weaknesses of the farmer
and his transgression too tenderly, it may in part be ascribed to my
having received the story from one so averse to all harsh judgment.
After his death was found in his _escritoir_ a lock of gray hair,
carefully preserved, with a notice that it had been cut from the head of
his faithful shepherd, who had served him for a length of years. I need
scarcely add that he felt for all men as brothers. He was much beloved
by distinguished persons:--Mr. Coleridge, Mr. Southey, Sir H. Davy, and
many others, and in his own neighbourhood was highly valued as a
magistrate, a man of business, and in every other social relation. The
latter part of the poem, perhaps, requires some apology, as being too
much of an echo to the 'Reverie of Poor Susan.'

493. _The small Celandine_. [III.]