Indeed, Cobbett might almost be regarded as one of
the greatest prose poets of English real life.
NOTES
(1) Mungo Park declared that he was more affected by this incident
than by any other that befel him in the course of his travels. As
he lay down to sleep on the mat spread for him on the floor of the
hut, his benefactress called to the female part of the family to
resume their task of spinning cotton, in which they continued
employed far into the night. "They lightened their labour with
songs," says the traveller, "one of which was composed extempore,
for I was myself the subject of it; it was sung by one of the
young women, the rest joining in a chorus. The air was sweet and
plaintive, and the words, literally translated, were these: 'The
winds roared, and the rains fell. The poor white man, faint and
weary, came and sat under our tree. He has no mother to bring him
milk, no wife to grind his corn.' Chorus--'Let us pity the white
man, no mother has he!' Trifling as this recital may appear, to a
person in my situation the circumstance was affecting in the
highest degree. I was so oppressed by such unexpected kindness,
that sleep fled before my eyes."
(2)'Transformation, or Monte Beni.'
(3) 'Portraits Contemporains,' iii. 519.
(4) Mr. Arthur Helps, in one of his Essays, has wisely said: "You
observe a man becoming day by day richer, or advancing in station,
or increasing in professional reputation, and you set him down as
a successful man in life.
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