His mind was a thanksgiving to the power That made him; it was blessedness and love! 220 225 A Herdsman on the lonely mountain tops, Such intercourse was his, and in this sort Was his existence oftentimes possessed. O then how beautiful, how bright, appeared The written promise! Early had he learned To reverence the volume that displays The mystery, the life which cannot die; But in the mountains did he feel his faith. All things, responsive to the writing, there Breathed immortality, revolving life And greatness still revolving; infinite: There littleness was not; the least of things 230 Seemed infinite; and there his spirit shaped Her prospects, nor did he believe, he saw. What wonder if his being thus became Sublime and comprehensive! Low desires, Low thoughts had there no place; yet was his heart Lowly; for he was meek in gratitude, 235 Oft as he called those ecstasies to mind, And whence they flowed; and from them he acquired Wisdom, which works thro' patience; he learned In oft-recurring hours of sober thought 240 245 So passed the time; yet to the nearest town He duly went with what small overplus His earnings might supply, and brought away The book that most had tempted his desires While at the stall he read. Among the hills He gazed upon that mighty orb of song, His School-master supplied; books that explain The In lines and numbers, and, by charm severe, These occupations oftentimes deceived Though yet he knew not how, a wasting power 265 In all things that from her sweet influence hues, 270 Her forms, and with the spirit of her forms, He clothed the nakedness of austere truth. While yet he lingered in the rudiments Of science, and among her simplest laws, His triangles-they were the stars of heaven, The silent stars! Oft did he take delight To measure the altitude of some tall crag That is the eagle's birth-place, or some peak 275 Familiar with forgotten years, that shows Inscribed upon its visionary sides, The history of many a winter storm, Or obscure records of the path of fire. And thus before his eighteenth year was told, Accumulated feelings pressed his heart 280 With still increasing weight; he was o'erpowered 285 By Nature; by the turbulence subdued When they were silent: far more fondly now 290 That live in darkness. From his intellect Amid the roar of torrents, where they send 295 300 In dreams, in study, and in ardent thought, Thus was he reared; much wanting to assist The growth of intellect, yet gaining more, And every moral feeling of his soul Strengthened and braced, by breathing in content 305 The keen, the wholesome, air of poverty, 310 A village-school-but wandering thoughts were then A misery to him; and the Youth resigned 315 319 That stern yet kindly Spirit, who constrains The Savoyard to quit his naked rocks, The free-born Swiss to leave his narrow vales, (Spirit attached to regions mountainous Like their own stedfast clouds) did now impel His restless mind to look abroad with hope. -An irksome drudgery seems it to plod on, Through hot and dusty ways, or pelting storm, vagrant Merchant under a heavy load A Bent as he moves, and needing frequent 325 rest; Yet do such travellers find their own delight; And their hard service, deemed debasing now, Gained merited respect in simpler times; When squire, and priest, and they who round them dwelt In rustic sequestration-all dependent 330 Upon the PEDLAR's toil-supplied their wants, brought. 335 340 He wandered far; much did he see of men, That, 'mid the simpler forms of rural life, 345 And speak a plainer language. In the woods, His heart lay open; and, by nature tuned 355 360 To all that was enjoyed where'er he went, 365 He had no painful pressure from without came That in our best experience he was rich, 375 How they had prospered; how they were o'erthrown By passion or mischance, or such misrule 7 |