8 Was that of wandering on from day to day 130 Where I could meditate in peace, and cull Knowledge that step by step might lead me on To wisdom; or, as lightsome as a bird groves, 135 Which lacked not voice to welcome me in turn: There saw into the depth of human socks How little those formalities, to which And, when that pleasant toil had ceased With overweening trust alone we give to please, Converse with men, where if we meet a face The name of Education, have to do good search We almost meet a friend, on naked Proves to the most; and called to mak 140 bench, Or well-spring where the weary traveller rests. From judgments of the wealthy Few, Nor uninformed by books, good books, who see though few y artificial lights; how they debase 210 In Nature's presence: thence may I The Many for the pleasure of those Few; Effeminately level down the truth o Nature, and the power of human minds, 225 0 men as they are men within themselves. ow oft high service is performed within, Then all the external man is rude in show, select 245 Sorrow, that is not sorrow, but delight; are. Be mine to follow with no timid step 250 Where knowledge leads me: it shall be my pride That I have dared to tread this holy ground, Speaking no dream, but things oracular; Matter not lightly to be heard by those Who to the letter of the outward promise 255 Do read the invisible soul; by men adroit In speech, and for communion with the world Accomplished; minds whose faculties are then Most active when they are most eloquent, And elevated most when most admired. Men may be found of other mould than these, 261 Who are their own upholders, to themselves Encouragement, and energy, and will, ot like a temple rich with pomp and Expressing liveliest thoughts in lively gold, words 264 As native passion dictates. Others, too, There are among the walks of homely life Still higher, men for contemplation framed, Shy, and unpractised in the strife of phrase; Meek men, whose very souls perhaps Connected in a mighty scheme of truth, would sink Have each his own peculiar faculty, Beneath them, summoned to such inter- Heaven's gift, a sense that fits him to The thought, the image, and the silent joy: Words are but under-agents in their souls; When they are grasping with their great-An insight that in some sort he possesses, A privilege whereby a work of his, Proceeding from a source of untaught All objects from my sight; and lo! again Of those that crowd the giant wicke thrills The monumental hillocks, and the pomp Is for both worlds, the living and the dead At other moments-(for through that wide waste Three summer days I roamed) where'er That then and there my mind had exerthe Plain cised 355 Was figured o'er with circles, lines, or Upon the vulgar forms of present things, mounds, That yet survive, a work, as some divine, Shaped by the Druids, so to represent Their knowledge of the heavens, and image forth 341 The constellations-gently was I charmed Into a waking dream, a reverie That, with believing eyes, where'er I turned, Beheld long-bearded teachers, with white wands 345 Uplifted, pointing to the starry sky, Alternately, and plain below, while breath Of music swayed their motions, and the waste Rejoiced with them and me in those sweet sounds. This for the past, and things that may be viewed 350 Or fancied in the obscurity of years Pleased with some unpremeditated strains That served those wanderings to beguile, hast said The actual world of our familiar days, Yet higher power; had caught from them a tone, An image, and a character, by books then We were as strangers; and I may not speak Thus wrongfully of verse, however rude, power Both of the object seen, and eye that sees. BOOK FOURTEENTH. CONCLUSION. In one of those excursions (may they ne'er | His coiled-up prey with barkings tur Fade from remembrance!) through the lent. This small adventure, for even such it seemed In that wild place and at the dead night, 20 Being over and forgotten, on we wound. Thus might we wear a midnight b Ascending at loose distance each fr each, And I, as chanced, the foremost of t band; When at my feet the ground appeared brighten, Wan, dull, and glaring, with a dripping And with a step or two seemed bright Low-hung and thick that covered all the Nor was time given to ask or learn Thus did we breast the ascent, and by All over this still ocean; and beyond. myself Was nothing either seen or heard that checked 20 Those musings or diverted, save that once crags, Far, far beyond, the solid vapours stretc Into the main Atlantic, that appeared Had to his joy unearthed a hedgehog, Not so the ethereal vault; |