Page:Complete Poetical Works of John Greenleaf Whittier (1895).djvu/71

Rh “Nay, not by me,” her master said,
 * “Shall sweet Kathleen be sold.

“We loved her in the place of one
 * The Lord hath early ta’en;

But, since her heart ’s in Ireland,
 * We give her back again!”

Oh, for that same the saints in heaven
 * For his poor soul shall pray,

And Mary Mother wash with tears
 * His heresies away.

Sure now they dwell in Ireland;
 * As you go up Claremore

Ye ’ll see their castle looking down
 * The pleasant Galway shore.

And the old lord’s wife is dead and gone,
 * And a happy man is he,

For he sits beside his own Kathleen,
 * With her darling on his knee.

The incident upon which this poem is based is related in a note to Bernardin Henri Saint Pierre’s Etudes de la Nature.

“We arrived at the habitation of the Hermits a little before they sat down to their table, and while they were still at church. J. J. Rousseau proposed to me to offer up our devotions. The hermits were reciting the Litanies of Providence, which are remarkably beautiful. After we had addressed our prayers to God, and the hermits were proceeding to the refectory, Rousseau said to me, with his heart overflowing, ‘At this moment I experience what is said in the gospel: Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. There is here a feeling of peace and happiness which penetrates the soul.’ I said, ‘If Fénelon had lived, you would have been a Catholic.’ He exclaimed, with tears in his eyes, ‘Oh, if Fénelon were alive, I would struggle to get into his service, even as a lackey!’ ”

In my sketch of Saint Pierre, it will be seen that I have somewhat antedated the period of his old age. At that time he was not probably more than fifty. In describing him, I have by no means exaggerated his own history of his mental condition at the period of the story. In the fragmentary Sequel to his Studies of Nature, he thus speaks of himself: “The ingratitude of those of whom I had deserved kindness, unexpected family misfortunes, the total loss of my small patrimony through enterprises solely undertaken for the benefit of my country, the debts under which I lay oppressed, the blasting of all my hopes,—these combined calamities made dreadful inroads upon my health and reason…. I found it impossible to continue in a room where there was company, especially if the doors were shut. I could not even cross an alley in a public garden, if several persons had got together in it. When alone, my malady subsided. I felt myself likewise at ease in places where I saw children only. At the sight of any one walking up to the place where I was, I felt my whole frame agitated, and retired. I often said to myself, ‘My sole study has been to merit well of mankind; why do I fear them?’ ”

He attributes his improved health of mind and body to the counsels of his friend, J. J. Rousseau. “I renounced,” says he, “my books.