Explore "The Collector Cleans his Picture" by Thomas Hardy on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Fili hominis, ecce ego tollo a te desiderabile oculorum tuorom in / plaga. -EZECH. xxiv. 16.
HOW I remember cleaning that strange picture! / I had been deep in duty for my sick neighbour- / His besides my own-over several Sundays, / Often, too, in the week; so with parish pressures, / Baptisms, burials, doctorings, conjugal counsel- / All the whatnots asked of a rural parson- / Faith, I was well-nigh broken, should have been fully / Saving for one small secret relaxation, / One that in mounting manhood had grown my hobby.