circumstances permitted, freedom from care. They could not place reliance

on them, but turned with tenfold dependence to the succour and advice of

their equals. I resolved therefore to go from village to village, seeking

out the rustic archon of the place, and by systematizing their exertions,

and enlightening their views, encrease both their power and their use among

their fellow-cottagers. Many changes also now occurred in these spontaneous

regal elections: depositions and abdications were frequent, while, in the

place of the old and prudent, the ardent youth would step forward, eager

for action, regardless of danger. Often too, the voice to which all

listened was suddenly silenced, the helping hand cold, the sympathetic eye

closed, and the villagers feared still more the death that had selected a

choice victim, shivering in dust the heart that had beat for them, reducing

to incommunicable annihilation the mind for ever occupied with projects for

their welfare.

Whoever labours for man must often find ingratitude, watered by vice and

folly, spring from the grain which he has sown. Death, which had in our

younger days walked the earth like "a thief that comes in the night," now,

rising from his subterranean vault, girt with power, with dark banner

floating, came a conqueror. Many saw, seated above his vice-regal throne, a

supreme Providence, who directed his shafts, and guided his progress, and

they bowed their heads in resignation, or at least in obedience. Others

perceived only a passing casualty; they endeavoured to exchange terror for

heedlessness, and plunged into licentiousness, to avoid the agonizing

throes of worst apprehension. Thus, while the wise, the good, and the

prudent were occupied by the labours of benevolence, the truce of winter

358

The Last Man