Add also, that, among the multitudes Of that huge city, oftentimes was seen Affectingly set forth, more than elsewhere Is possible, the unity of man,

One spirit over ignorance and vice
Predominant, in good and evil hearts;
One sense for moral judgments, as one eye
For the sun's light. The soul when smitten thus
By a sublime idea, whencesoe'er

Vouchsafed for union or communion, feeds
On the pure bliss, and takes her rest with God.

Thus from a very early age, O Friend!
My thoughts by slow gradations had been drawn
To human-kind, and to the good and ill
Of human life: Nature had led me on;
And oft amid the "busy hum" I seemed
To travel independent of her help,
As if I had forgotten her; but no,

The world of human-kind outweighed not hers
In my habitual thoughts; the scale of love,
Though filling daily, still was light, compared
With that in which her mighty objects lay.

VOL. VII.

BOOK NINTH.

RESIDENCE IN FRANCE

RESIDENCE IN FRANCE.

EVEN as a river-partly (it might seem)
Yielding to old remembrances, and swayed
In part by fear to shape a way direct,

That would ingulf him soon in the ravenous sea
Turns, and will measure back his course, far back
Seeking the very regions which he crossed
In his first outset; so have we, my Friend!
Turned and returned with intricate delay.
Or as a traveller, who has gained the brow
Of some aerial Down, while there he halts
For breathing-time, is tempted to review
The region left behind him; and, if aught
Deserving notice have escaped regard,
Or been regarded with too careless eye,
Strive, from that height, with one and yet one

more

Last look, to make the best amends he may:
So have we lingered. Now we start afresh,
With courage, and new hope risen on our toil.
Fair greetings to this shapeless eagerness,