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    pursuits of less refined minds . As he watched the stealthy approach of day till a shower of light from an opening cloud gleamed on a reach of the winding river , he remembered how often he had looked down from the heights of contemplation with a contemptuous pity on the sleeping world ; how self-complacent had been his feelings when he believed that his was

    the only waking eye which watched the approach of day , the only ear which was open to the greeting of the morning ; forgetting the purposes for which the alternations of light and darkness are ordained , and deaf to the lesson which they teach , that action is the law of happiness , and self-forgetfulness a prime condition of enjoyment . " IIT ** thought Helmer , ** I might justly congratulate myself on my sensibility to the beauty of nature , I should have

    gone abroad again at noon-day to learnjiumility . Wherever I should have seen a mother tending her infant , a father earning his children ' s bread by the sweat of his brow , the nurse humouring the waywardness of sickness , the wise condescending to the ignorant , the virtuous bearing with the follies and striving to remove the miseries of mankind , I might have interpreted a lesson of reproof . "

    In such a conviction as this , humbled , but certain of having gained a new insight into a familiar truth , Helmer closed the first day of his imprisonment in sleep . For many succeeding days , he was compelled to depend ^ on his own resources for the employment of his mind . No human facer dicThe ^ Behold but that of his ~ jailer , and no sound reached his ear but the periodical grating of his prison-door , and the gruff and brief replies to the questions he asked .

    He had now time for meditation on every subject of thought , and the worlds of matter and mind were ransacked for objects of speculation ; memory was adjured to yield up long-buried treasures of lore ; and imagination was indulged till the most beautiful of waking dreams became wearisome . Meanwhile , a most important change had begun to work . To Helmer himself it appeared strange that solitudeand anxiety should enlarge the mind and expand the affections . Yet so it was . The train of thought in which he hadfoeen first interested , was still the predominant one : and

    as all influences combine to feed a ruling passion , all circumstances have a tendency to recall and strengthen a prevailing association . While questioning his reason concerning the causes and tendencies of all events within the scope of his observation , he became more strongly convinced that the discipline to which he was now subjected was intended to rectify his estimate of human duty , and to transfer his religion from the imagination to

    the affections . He longed to consult once more the book of spiritual life ; but he was obliged to be content with the records which were preserved in his memory . He was amazed to find how scanty they were , while he perceived with equal wonder how deeply significant was every sacred aphorism , and how beautiful every fragment of evangelical wisdom . With greater astonishment still did he awaken to a sense of the nature of prayer , when

    used as a means of action , and not only as an excitement of sensibility . This was now his sole mode of exertion for others , and it was valued accordingly . When , wearied with anticipating his own fate , and dreading the effect of a concentration of his affections on himself , he looked round and saw himself cut off from communication with his kind , and felt that there was nothing for his hand to do or his voice to utter for the benefit of his race , prayer was an inestimable resource . If , as he might reasonably believe , his petitions were heard , many who never knew of his existence , may be enjoying the benefit of his intercessions ; and the ignorant , whose

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    Solitude and Society . n Tale . 445

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1830, page 445, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2586/page/13/