Have been laid open, needs must make me feel More deeply, yet enable me to bear

More firmly; and a comfort now hath risen

From hope that thou art near, and wilt be soon Restored to us in renovated health;

When, after the first mingling of our tears,

'Mong other consolations, we may draw

Some pleasure from this offering of

my love.

O yet a few short years of useful life, And all will be complete, thy race be run, Thy monument of glory will be raised;

Then, though (too weak to tread the ways of truth)

This age fall back to old idolatry,

Though men return to servitude as fast
As the tide ebbs, to ignominy and shame
By nations sink together, we shall still

Find solace, knowing what we have learnt to

know,

Rich in true happiness if allowed to be
Faithful alike in forwarding a day

Of firmer trust, joint laborers in the work
(Should Providence such grace to us vouchsafe)
Of their deliverance, surely yet to come.
Prophets of Nature, we to them will speak
A lasting inspiration, sanctified

By reason, blest by faith: what we have loved,
Others will love, and we will teach them how;
Instruct them how the mind of man becomes

A thousand times more beautiful than the earth On which he dwells, above this frame of things (Which, 'mid all revolution in the hopes

And fears of men, doth still remain unchanged) In beauty exalted, as it is itself

Of quality and fabric more divine.

NOTES

Page 16.

"How that one Frenchman," &c.

Dominique de Gourgues, a French gentleman who went in 1568 to Florida to avenge the massacre of the French by the Spaniards there.

Page 23.

"Wisdom and Spirit of the universe!" &c.

These lines, to page 24, line 15, have already been printed, Vol. I. p. 219.

Page 46.

"That one was by my side, a Friend," &c.

The late Rev. John Fleming, of Rayrigg, Windermere.

Page 82.

"Towards that sweet Valley, where I had been reared." Hawkshead.

Page 113.

"There was a Boy: ye knew him well, ye cliffs," &c.

See Vol. II. p. 117.

Page 147.

"The brook and road," &c.

See Vol. II. p. 125.

Page 155.

"Which met me issuing from the City's walls,"

The City of Goslar, in Lower Saxony.

66

Page 187.

A cheerful smile unbends the wrinkled brow," &c. These lines are from a descriptive Poem "Malvern Hills" -by one of Mr. Wordsworth's oldest friends, Mr. Joseph Cottle.

Page 202.

"Dear native Regions," &c.

See Vol. I. p. 1.

Page 208.

"Darkness ere day's mid course," &c.

From Milton, Par. Lost. xi. 204.

Page 232.

"But might nere, instead, repeat i tale."

See "Vaudraccur and Julia," Vol. I. p. 312.

Page 265.

"O pleasant exercise of hope and joy!" gs.