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And, on the shape of that unmoving man, And named of St. Bartholomew; there,

His steadfast face and sightless eyes,

I gazed,

As if admonished from another world.

Though reared upon the base of outward things, 650 Structures like these the excited spirit, mainly

see

A work completed to our hands, that

lays,

680

If any spectacle on earth can do,
The whole creative powers of man asleep!--
For once, the Muse's help will we implore,
And she shall lodge us, wafted on her
wings,

Builds for herself; scenes different there Above the press and danger of the crowd,
Upon some showman's platform. What

are,

Full-formed, that take, with small internal

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Of the wide area, twinkles, is alive 690 With heads; the midway region, and above,

Is thronged with staring pictures and huge scrolls,

Dumb proclamations of the Prodigies; With chattering monkeys dangling from their poles,

And children whirling in their roundabouts; 695

With those that stretch the neck and strain the eyes,

And crack the voice in rivalship, the crowd

Inviting; with buffoons against buffoons Grimacing, writhing, screaming,-him who grinds

The hurdy-gurdy, at the fiddle weaves, Rattles the salt-box, thumps the kettledrum,

701

And him who at the trumpet puffs his cheeks,

o times, when half the city shall break The silver-collared Negro with his timbrel,

out

ll of one passion, vengeance, rage, or fear?

executions, to a street on fire, obs, riots, or rejoicings? From these sights 675 ke one,-that ancient festival, the Fair, olden where martyrs suffered in past time,

Equestrians, tumblers, women, girls, and
boys,
Blue-breeched, pink-vested, with high-
towering plumes.--

705

All moveables of wonder, from all parts,
Are here-Albinos, painted Indians,
Dwarfs,

The Horse of knowledge, and the learned
Pig,

The Stone-eater, the man that swallows fire,

Giants, Ventriloquists, the Invisible Girl, The Bust that speaks and moves its goggling eyes,

711 The Wax-work, Clock-work, all the marvellous craft

Of education, nor with least delight
On that through which I passed. At-
tention springs,

And comprehensiveness and memory flow,
From early converse with the works of
God

Among all regions; chiefly where appear

Of modern Merlins, Wild Beasts, Puppet- Most obviously simplicity and power.

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Think, how the everlasting streams and woods,

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Stretched and still stretching far and wide, exalt

The roving Indian, on his desert sands: What grandeur not unfelt, what pregnan show

Of beauty, meets the sun-burnt Arab eye:

And, as the sea propels, from zone

zone,

Its currents; magnifies its shoals of life Beyond all compass; spreads, and send aloft

Armies of clouds,-even so, its powers and aspects

Shape for mankind, by principles as fixed
The views and aspirations of the soul 73
To majesty. Like virtue have the forms
Perennial of the ancient hills; nor less
The changeful language of their co
tenances

Quickens the slumbering mind, and
the thoughts,
However multitudinous, to move
With order and relation. This, if stil
As hitherto, in freedom I may speak,
Not violating any just restraint,
As may be hoped, of real modesty,-
This did I feel, in London's vast

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BOOK EIGHTH.

RETROSPECT.-LOVE OF NATURE LEADING TO LOVE
OF MAN.

HAT Sounds are those, Helvellyn, that | A lame man or a blind, the one to beg, are heard

The other to make music; hither, too,

p to thy summit, through the depth of From far, with basket, slung upon her air scending, as if distance had the power

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Of

arm, hawker's wares-books, pictures,

combs, and pins

Some aged woman finds her way again, 30
Year after year, a punctual visitant!
There also stands a speech-maker by rote,
Pulling the strings of his boxed raree-

show;

owd seems it, solitary hill to thee,
ough but a little family of men,
epherds and tillers of the ground-be-
times
sembled with their children and their Whose wonders in a covered wain lie
*wives,

And in the lapse of many years may come
Prouder itinerant, mountebank, or he 35

hid.

ad here and there a stranger inter- But one there is, the loveliest of them spersed.

ey hold a rustic fair-a festival,

ΙΟ

all,

Some sweet lass of the valley, looking out ch as, on this side now, and now on For gains, and who that sees her would

that,

peated through his tributary vales, dvellyn, in the silence of his rest, sannually, if clouds towards either

ocean

15

wn from their favourite resting-place,

or mists

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And with the ruddy produce she walks round

Among the crowd, half pleased with, half ashamed

solved, have left him an unshrouded Of her new office, blushing restlessly.

head.

lightful day it is for all who dwell this secluded glen, and eagerly

by give it welcome. Long ere heat of

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The children now are rich, for the old to

day

Are generous as the young; and, if content

45 With looking on, some ancient wedded pair

Sit in the shade together, while they gaze, › penned in cotes; the chaffering is “A cheerful smile unbends the wrinkled begun.

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To him who slept at noon and wakes at eve 1."

A sumptuous dream of flowery lawns, with domes

Of pleasure sprinkled over, shady dells i

Thus gaiety and cheerfulness prevail,
Spreading from young to old, from old to For eastern monasteries, sunny mounts
With temples crested, bridges, gondolas

young,

And no one seems to want his share. Rocks, dens, and groves of foliage taught

Immense

55

Is the recess, the circumambient world Magnificent, by which they are embraced: They move about upon the soft green turf:

to melt

Into each other their obsequious hues, Vanished and vanishing in subtle chase, 30 Too fine to be pursued; or standing forta In no discordant opposition, strong

How little they, they and their doings, And gorgeous as the colours side by sida Bedded among rich plumes of trope birds;

seem,

And all that they can further or obstruct! Through utter weakness pitiably dear, 61 As tender infants are: and yet how great!

For all things serve them; them the morning light

Loves, as it glistens on the silent rocks; And them the silent rocks, which now from high

65

Look down upon them; the reposing clouds;

And mountains over all, embracing all: And all the landscape, endlessly enriched With waters running, falling, or asleep

But lovelier far than this, the paradi Where I was reared; in Nature's priz tive gifts

Favoured no less, and more to e

sense

Delicious, seeing that the sun and sky,

The wild brooks prattling from invisible The elements, and seasons as they chant

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Fulfilling (could enchantment have done Which they embosom, all without reg

more?)

1 From the Malvern Hills of Joseph Cottle.

As both may seem, are fastening on

heart

Insensibly, each with the other's help

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nd occupations which her beauty adorned,

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The times, too sage, perhaps too proud,
have dropped

nd Shepherds were the men that pleased These lighter graces; and the rural ways
me first;
And manners which my childhood looked

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eft, even to us toiling in this late day,
bright tradition of the golden age;
ot such as, 'mid Arcadian fastnesses
questered, handed down among them-
selves

licity, in Grecian song renowned; 135
or such as-when an adverse fate had
driven,

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Forms;

165 Of this I heard, and saw enough to make Imagination restless ;) nor was free Myself from frequent perils; nor were tales

Wanting, the tragedies of former times, om house and home, the courtly band Hazards and strange escapes, of which whose fortunes

the rocks

tered, with Shakspeare's genius, the Immutable, and everflowing streams, wild woods

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170

Where'er I roamed, were speaking monu

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