point of the world's age--there was no difference in us; the name of

parent and child had lost their meaning; young boys and girls were level

now with men. This was all true; but it was not less agonizing to take the

admonition home.

Where could we turn, and not find a desolation pregnant with the dire

lesson of example? The fields had been left uncultivated, weeds and gaudy

flowers sprung up,--or where a few wheat-fields shewed signs of the

living hopes of the husbandman, the work had been left halfway, the

ploughman had died beside the plough; the horses had deserted the furrow,

and no seedsman had approached the dead; the cattle unattended wandered

over the fields and through the lanes; the tame inhabitants of the poultry

yard, baulked of their daily food, had become wild--young lambs were

dropt in flower-gardens, and the cow stalled in the hall of pleasure.

Sickly and few, the country people neither went out to sow nor reap; but

sauntered about the meadows, or lay under the hedges, when the inclement

sky did not drive them to take shelter under the nearest roof. Many of

those who remained, secluded themselves; some had laid up stores which

should prevent the necessity of leaving their homes;--some deserted wife

and child, and imagined that they secured their safety in utter solitude.

Such had been Ryland's plan, and he was discovered dead and half-devoured

by insects, in a house many miles from any other, with piles of food laid

up in useless superfluity. Others made long journies to unite themselves to

those they loved, and arrived to find them dead.

London did not contain above a thousand inhabitants; and this number was

418

The Last Man