THE EXCURSION. BOOK THE FOURTH. DESPONDENCY CORRECTED. ARGUMENT. State of feeling produced by the foregoing Narrative-A belief in a superintending Providence the only adequate support under affliction -Wanderer's ejaculation-Account of his own devotional feelings in youth involved - Acknowledges the difficulty of a lively faithHence immoderate sorrow - Doubt or despondence not therefore to be inferred-Consolation to the Solitary-Exhortations - How received Wanderer applies his discourse to that other cause of dejection in the Solitary's mind - Disappointment from the French Revolution - States grounds of hope-Insists on the necessity of patience and fortitude with respect to the course of great revolutions - Knowledge the source of tranquillity-Rural Solitude favorable to knowledge of the inferior Creatures-Study of their habits and ways recommended-Exhortation to bodily exertion and communion with Nature-Morbid Solitude pitiable-Superstition better than apathy -Apathy and destitution unknown in the infancy of society - The various modes of Religion prevented it-Illustrated in the Jewish, Persian, Babylonian, Chaldean, and Grecian modes of belief-Solitary interposes- Wanderer points out the influence of religious and imaginative feeling in the humble ranks of society-Illustrated from present and past times-These principles tend to recall exploded superstitions and Popery - Wanderer rebuts this charge, and contrasts the dignities of the Imagination with the presumptive littleness of certain modern Philosophers - Recommends other lights and guides Asserts the power of the Soul to regenerate herself - Soli tary asks how — Reply - Personal appea! — Happy that the imagina. tion and the aTetons mitigate the evils of that in ellectual livery which the calculating un lerstan ling is apt to produce -Exhortation to activity of holy renewed - How to commune with NatureWanderer concludes with a legi imate union of the imagination, afections, understanding, and reascu- Effect of his discourseEvening-Return to the Cottage. HERE closed the Tenant of that lonely vale That did not falter though the heart was moved, "One adequate support For the calamities of mortal life Exists one only; an assured belief That the procession of our fate, howe'er Soul of our Souls, and safeguard of the world! Then, as we issued from that covert Nook, At thy command, how awful! Shall the Soul, Even less than those? Be mute who will, who can, My lips, that may forget thee in the crowd, Me didst thou constitute a Priest of thine, In such a Temple as we now behold Reared for thy presence: therefore, am I bound From unreflecting ignorance preserved, And from debasement rescued. By thy grace The particle divine remained unquenched; And let thy favor, to the end of life, Inspire me with ability to seek Repose and hope among eternal things - "And what are things Eternal?-Powers depart," But, by the storms of circumstance unshaken, For our support, the measures and the forms, Whose kingdom is, where Time and Space are not. Of other converse which mind, soul, and heart, Do with united urgency require, What more that may not perish? Thou, dread Source! Prime, self-existing Cause and End of all, That, in the scale of Being, fill their place, Above our human region, or below, Set and sustained; - Thou, who didst wrap the cloud Of Infancy around us, that Thyself, Therein, with our simplicity a while Mightest hold, on earth, communion undisturbed - For consciousness the motions of thy will; For apprehension those transcendent truths In youth were mine; when, stationed on the top The measure of my soul was filled with bliss, "Those fervent raptures are for ever flown; And, since their date, my Soul hath undergone Change manifold, for better or for worse: Yet cease I not to struggle, and aspire Heavenward; and chide the part of me that flags, |