The essence of a dank and misty day in late autumn has never been seized with more perfect truth than in these lines: "Cold grew the foggy morn, the day was brief, Loose on the cherry hung the crimson leaf; The dew dwelt ever on the herb; the woods Roar'd with strong blasts, with mighty showers the floods: All green was vanish'd, save of pine and yew, That still displayed their melancholy hue; Save the green holly with its berries red, And the green moss that o'er the gravel spread." The scheme of these detached Tales had served to develop one special side of Crabbe's talent.

The analysis of human character, with its strength and weakness (but specially the latter), finds fuller exercise as the poet has to trace its effects upon the earthly fortunes of the persons portrayed.

The Tale entitled _The Gentleman Farmer_ is a striking illustration in point.

Jeffrey in his review of the _Tales_ in the _Edinburgh_ supplies, as usual, a short abstract of the story, not without due insight into its moral.

But a profounder student of human nature than Jeffrey has, in our own day, cited the Tale as worthy even to illustrate a memorable teaching of St.Paul.The Bishop of Worcester, better known as Canon Gore to the thousands who listened to the discourse in Westminster Abbey, finds in this story a perfect illustration of what moral freedom is, and what it is often erroneously supposed to be: "It is of great practical importance that we should get a just idea of what our freedom consists in.