ARGUMENT

Farewell to the Valley--Reflections--A large and populous Vale described--The Pastor's Dwelling, and some account of him--Church and Monuments--The Solitary musing, and where--Roused--In the Churchyard the Solitary communicates the thoughts which had recently passed through his mind--Lofty tone of the Wanderer's discourse of yesterday adverted to--Rite of Baptism, and the professions accompanying it, contrasted with the real state of human life--Apology for the Rite--Inconsistency of the best men-- Acknowledgment that practice falls far below the injunctions of duty as existing in the mind--General complaint of a falling-off in the value of life after the time of youth--Outward appearances of content and happiness in degree illusive--Pastor approaches-- Appeal made to him--His answer--Wanderer in sympathy with him-- Suggestion that the least ambitious enquirers may be most free from error--The Pastor is desired to give some portraits of the living or dead from his own observation of life among these Mountains--And for what purpose--Pastor consents--Mountain cottage--Excellent qualities of its Inhabitants--Solitary expresses his pleasure; but denies the praise of virtue to worth of this kind--Feelings of the Priest before he enters upon his account of persons interred in the Churchyard--Graves of unbaptized Infants--Funeral and sepulchral observances, whence-- Ecclesiastical Establishments, whence derived--Profession of belief in the doctrine of Immortality.