. .All these young souls were passengers
in the Durbeyfield ship—entirely dependent on the judgment of the two
Durbeyfield adults for their pleasures, their necessities, their health,
even their existence. If the heads of the Durbeyfield household chose
to sail into difficulty, disaster, starvation, disease, degradation, death,
thither were these half-dozen little captives under hatches compelled
to sail with them—six helpless creatures, who had never been asked if
they wished for life on any terms, much less if they wished for it on
such hard conditions as were involved in being of the shiftless house
of Durbeyfield. Some people would like to know whence the poet whose philosophy
is in these days deemed as profound and trustworthy as his song is breezy
and pure, gets his authority for speaking of “Nature’s holy plan.”
