 Book four of the excursion by William Wordsworth. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Book four, despondency corrected. Here closed the tenet of that lonely veil. His mournful narrative commenced in pain. Commenced and ended without peace. Yet tempered not unfrequently with strains of native feeling. Grateful to our minds and yielding surely some relief to his, while we sat listening with compassion due. A pause of silence followed. Then with a voice that did not falter, though the heart was moved, the wanderer said. One adequate support for the calamities of mortal life exists. One only. An assured belief that the procession of our fate, how air sad or disturbed, is ordered by a being of infinite benevolence and power, whose everlasting purposes embrace all accidents converting them to good. The darts of anguish fix not where the seat of suffering has been thoroughly fortified by acquiescence in the will supreme for time and for eternity. By faith, faith absolute in God, including hope and the defense that lies in boundless love of his perfections, with habitual dread of ought unworthily conceived, endured impatiently, ill done or left undone to the dishonor of his holy name. Soul of our souls and safeguard of the world, sustain thou only canst the sick of heart, restore their languid spirits and recall their lost affections unto thee and thine. Thus, as we issued from that covert nook, he thus continued, lifting up his eyes to heaven. How beautiful this dome of sky and the vast hills in fluctuation fixed at thy command. How awful! Shall the soul, human and rational, report of thee even less than these? Be mute who will, who can, yet I will praise thee with impassioned voice. My lips that may forget thee in the crowd cannot forget thee here, where thou hast built for thy own glory in the wilderness. Me didst thou constitute a priest of thine in such a temple as we now behold reared for thy presence. Therefore am I bound to worship here and everywhere, as one not doomed to ignorance though forced to tread from childhood up the ways of poverty, from unreflecting ignorance preserved and from debasement rescued. By thy grace the particle divine remained unquenched, amid the wild weeds of a rugged soil, thy bounty caused to flourish deathless flowers from paradise transplanted. Wintery age impends, the frost will gather round my heart. If the flowers wither, I am worse than dead. Come, labor when the worn out frame requires perpetual sabbath. Come disease and want and sad exclusion through decay of sense. But leave me unabated trust in thee and let thy favor to the end of life inspire me with ability to seek repose and hope among eternal things, father of heaven and earth, and I am rich and will possess my portion in content. And what are things eternal? Powers depart, the gray haired wanderer steadfastly replied, answering the question which himself had asked. Possessions vanish, and opinions change, and passions hold a fluctuating seat. But by the storms of circumstance unshaken and subject neither to eclipse nor wane, duty exists. Immutably survive for our support the measures and the forms which in abstract intelligence supplies, 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 dreadsource 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 might hold on earth communion undisturbed, who from the anarchy of dreaming sleep, or from its death like void with punctual care and touch as gentle as the morning light restores us daily to the powers of sense, and reasons steadfast rule. Thou, thou alone art everlasting, and the blessed spirits which thou includest as the sea her waves, for adoration thou endorsed, endure for consciousness the motions of thy will, for apprehension those transcendent truths of the pure intellect that stand as laws submission constituting strength and power even to thy being's infinite majesty. This universe shall pass away a work glorious because the shadow of thy might, a step or link for intercourse with thee. Ah, if the time must come in which my feet no more shall stray where meditation leads by flowing stream through wood or craggy wild love haunts like these, the unemprisoned mind may yet have scoped a range among her own, her thoughts, her images, her high desires. If the dear faculty of sight should fail, still it may be allowed me to remember what visionary powers of eye and soul in youth were mine. When stationed on the top of some huge hill, expectant I beheld the sunrise up, from distant climbs returned darkness to chase and sleep, and bring the day his boundious gift, or saw him toward the deep sink with a retinue of flaming clouds attended. Then my spirit was entranced with joy exalted to beatitude. The measure of my soul was filled with bliss and holiest love, as earth see air with light with pomp with glory with magnificence. Those fervent raptures are forever 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 through sinful choice or dread necessity on human nature from above imposed. Tis by comparison an easy task earth to despise, but to converse with heaven this is not easy. To relinquish all we have or hope of happiness and joy, and stand in freedom loosened from this world I deem not arduous, but must needs confess that tis a thing impossible to frame conceptions equal to the soul's desires, and the most difficult of tasks to keep heights which the soul is competent to gain. Man is of dust. Ethereal hopes are his, which when they should sustain themselves aloft want due consistence, like a pillar of smoke that with majestic energy from earth rises, but having reached the thinner air melts and dissolves and is no longer seen. From this infirmity of mortal kind sorrow proceeds, which else were not, at least if grief be something hallowed and ordained if in proportion it will be just and meet. Yet through this weakness of the general heart is it enabled to maintain its hold in that excess which conscience disapproves. For who could sink and settle to that point of selfishness so senseless who could be as long and perseveringly to mourn for any object of his love removed from this unstable world if he could fix a satisfying view upon that state of pure imperishable blessedness which reason promises and holy writ ensures to all believers. Yet mistrust is of such incapacity, he thinks, no natural branch, despondency far less, and least of all is absolute despair. And if there be whose tender frames have drooped even to the dust apparently through weight of anguish unrelieved and lack of power and agonizing sorrow to transmute, deem not that proof is here of hope withheld when wanted most, a confidence impaired so pitiably that having ceased to see with bodily eyes they are borne down by love of what is lost and perish through regret. Oh no, the innocent sufferer often sees too clearly, feels too vividly, and longs to realize the vision with intense and over constant yearning. There, there lies the excess by which the balance is destroyed. Two to contracted are these walls of flesh, this vital warmth too cold, these visual orbs, though inconceivably endowed too dim for any passion of the soul that leads to ecstasy. And all the crooked paths of time and change disdaining takes its course along the line of limitless desires. I speaking now from such disorder free nor wrapped nor craving but in settled peace, I cannot doubt that they whom you deplore are glorified, or if they sleep shall wake from sleep and dwell with God in endless love. Hope below this consists not with belief in mercy, carried infinite degrees beyond the tenderness of human hearts. Hope below this consists not with belief in perfect wisdom guiding mightiest power that finds no limits but her own pure will. Here then we rest, not fearing for our creed the worst that human reasoning can achieve to unsettle or perplex it, yet with pain acknowledging and grievous self reproach, that though immovably convinced, we want zeal and the virtue to exist by faith as soldiers live by courage, as by strength of heart the sailor fights with roaring seas. Alas, the endowment of immortal power is matched unequally with custom time and domineering faculties of sense in all. In most with super-added foes, idle temptations, open vanities, ephemeral offspring of the unblushing world, and in the private regions of the mind ill-governed passions, ranklings of despite, immoderate wishes, pining discontent, distress, and care. What then remains? To seek those helps for his occasions, ever near who lacks not will to use them. Vows renewed on the first motion of a holy thought, vigils of contemplation, praise and prayer, a stream which from the fountain of the heart issuing however feebly nowhere flows without access of unexpected strength. But above all, the victory is most sure for him who seeking faith by virtue strives to yield entire submission to the law of conscience, conscience reverenced and obeyed as God's most intimate presence in the soul and his most perfect image in the world. Endeavour thus to live, these rules regard, these helps solicit, and a steadfast seat shall then be yours among the happy few who dwell on earth, yet breathe imperial air, suns of the morning. For your nobler part, air disencumbered of her mortal chains, doubt shall be quelled and trouble chased away. With only such degree of sadness left as may support longings of pure desire and strength and love rejoicing secretly in the sublime attractions of the grave. While in this strain the venerable sage poured forth his aspirations and announced his judgments, near that lonely house we paced a plot of greensward, seemingly preserved by nature's care from wreck of scattered stones and from encroachment of encircling heath, small space, but for reiterated steps smooth and commodious as a stately deck which to and fro the mariner is used to tread for pastime talking with his mates, or happily thinking of far distant friends while the ship glides before a steady breeze. Stillness prevailed around us and the voice that spake was capable to lift the soul toward regions yet more tranquil. But me thought that he whose fixed despondency had given impulse and motive to that strong discourse was less upraised in spirit than abashed. Shrinking from admonition like a man who feels that to exhort is to reproach. Yet not to be diverted from his aim the sage continued. For that other loss, the loss of confidence in social man by the unexpected transports of our age carried so high that every thought which looked beyond the temporal destiny of the kind to many seemed superfluous as no cause could air for such exalted confidence exist. So none is now for fixed despair. The two extremes are equally disowned by reason. If with sharp recoil from one you have been driven far as its opposite. Between them seek the point whereon to build sound expectations. So doth he advise who shared at first the illusion, but was soon cast from the pedestal of pride by shocks which nature gently gave in in woods and fields, nor unreproved by providence thus speaking to the inattentive children of the world. Vain glorious generation, what new powers on you have been conferred? What gifts withheld from your progenitors have ye received fit recompense of new dessert? What claim are ye prepared to urge that my decrees for you should undergo a sudden change and the weak functions of one busy day reclaiming and extirpating perform what all the slowly moving years of time with their united force have left undone? By nature's gradual processes be taught, by story be confounded. Ye aspire rashly to fall once more, and that false fruit which to your overweening spirits yields hope of a flight celestial will produce misery and shame. But wisdom of her sons shall not the less though late be justified. Such timely warning, said the wanderer, gave that visionary voice, and at this day when a tartarian darkness overspreads the groaning nations, when the impious rule by will or by established ordinance, their own dire agents and constrain the good to acts which they abhor. Though I bewail this triumph, yet the pity of my heart prevents me not from owning that the law by which mankind now suffers is most just. For by superior energies more strict afiance in each other, faith more firm in their unhallowed principles, the bad have fairly earned a victory or the weak, the vacillating inconsistent good. Therefore not unconsoled I wait, in hope to see the moment when the righteous cause shall gain defenders zealous and devout as they who have opposed her, in which virtue will to her efforts tolerate no bounds that are not lofty as her rights, aspiring by impulse of her own ethereal zeal. That spirit only can redeem mankind, and when that sacred spirit shall appear, then shall our triumph be complete as theirs. Yet should this confidence prove vain, the wise have still the keeping of their proper peace, are guardians of their own tranquility. They act or they recede, observe, and feel. Knowing the heart of man is set to be the center of this world, about the which those revolutions of disturbances still roll, where all the aspects of misery predominate, whose strong effects are such as he must bear, being powerless to redress, and that unless above himself he can erect himself, how poor a thing is man. Happy is he who lives to understand not human nature only, but explores all natures, to the end that he may find the law that governs each, and where begins the union, the partition where that makes kind and degree among all visible beings, the constitutions, powers, and faculties which they inherit cannot step beyond and cannot fall beneath, that do assign to every class its station and its office, through all the mighty commonwealth of things, up from the creeping plant to sovereign man. Such converse, if directed by a meek, sincere, and humble spirit, teaches love, for knowledge is delight, and such delight breeds love, yet suited as it rather is to thought and to the climbing intellect, it teaches less to love than to adore, if that be not indeed the highest love. Yet, said I, tempted here to interpose, the dignity of life is not impaired by thought that innocently satisfies the humbler cravings of the heart, and he is still a happier man who, for those heights of speculation not unfit, descends. And such benign affections cultivates among the inferior kinds, not merely those that he may call his own, and which depend as individual objects of regard upon his care, from whom he also looks for signs and tokens of a mutual bond, but others, far beyond this narrow sphere, whom, for the very sake of love, he loves. Nor is it a mean praise of rural life and solitude, that they do favor most, most frequently call forth and best sustain these pure sensations, that can penetrate the obstreperous city, on the barren seas are not unfelt, and much might recommend how much they might in spirit and in dear the loneliness of this sublime retreat. Yes, said the sage, resuming the discourse again directed to his downcast friend. If with the froward will and groveling soul of man offended liberty is here, an invitation every hour renewed to mark their placid state, who never heard of a command which they have powered a break, or rule which they are tempted to transgress, these with a soothed or elevated heart, may we behold their knowledge register, observe their ways, and free from envy find complacence there. But wherefore this to you? I guess that welcome to your lonely hearth the red breast ruffled up by winter's cold into a feathery bunch feeds at your hand, a box per chance is from your casement hung for the small ren to build in, not in vain the barriers disregarding that surround this deep abiding place before your sight mounts on the breeze, the butterfly, and soars, small creature as she is, from earth's bright flowers into the dewy clouds. Ambition reigns in the waste wilderness, the soul ascends drawn towards her native firmament of heaven, when the fresh eagle in the month of May, upborn at evening on replenished wing that's shaded valley leaves, and leaves the dark and purple hills, conspicuously renewing a proud communication with the sun, low sunk beneath the horizon. List, I heard from yawn, huge breast of rock a voice sent forth as if the visible mountain made the cry. Again, the effect upon the soul was such as he expressed, from out the mountain's heart the solemn voice appeared to issue, startling the blank air, for the region all around stood empty of all shape of life, and silent, safe for that single cry, the unanswered bleat of a poor lamb left somewhere to itself the plaintive spirit of the solitude. He paused, as if unwilling to proceed, through consciousness that silence in such place was best, the most affecting eloquence. But soon his thoughts returned upon themselves, and in soft tone of speech thus he resumed. Ah, if the heart too confidently raised, perchance too lightly occupied, or lulled too easily, despise or overlook the vassalage that binds her to the earth, her sad dependence upon time, and all the trepidations of mortality, what place so destitute and void, but there the little flower her vanity shall check, the trailing worm reprove her thoughtless pride. These craggy regions, these chaotic wilds, does that benignity pervade that warms the mole contented with her darksome walk in the wall cold ground, and to the emet gives her foresight an intelligence that makes the tiny creatures strong by social league, supports the generations, multiplies their tribes till we behold a spacious plain or grassy bottom all with little hills, their labor covered as a lake with waves, thousands of cities in the desert place built up of life, and food and means of life. Nor wanting here to entertain the thought, creatures that in communities exist, less as might seen from general guardianship, or through dependence upon mutual aid, than by participation of delight and a strict love of fellowship combined. What other spirit can it be that prompts the gilded summer flies to mix and weave their sports together in the solar beam, or in the gloom of twilight hum their joy? More obviously, the self-same influence rules the feathered kinds, the field fairs, pensive flock, the cawing rooks, and sea muse from afar hovering above these inland solitudes, by the rough wind unscattered at whose call up through the trenches of the long-drawn veils their voyage was begun, nor its power unfelt among the sedentary fowl that seek yon pool, and there prolong their stay in silent congress, or together roused take flight with their clang the air resounds, and overall in that ethereal vault is the mute company of changeful clouds, bright apparition suddenly put forth the rainbow smiling on the faded storm, the mild assemblage of the starry heavens, and the great sun, earth's universal lord. How bountiful is nature, he shall find who seeks not, and to him who hath not asked large measures shall be dealt. Three Sabbath days are scarcely told, since on a service bend of mere humanity you clone those heights, and what a marvelous and heavenly show was suddenly revealed. The swains moved on, and he did not, you lingered, you perceived and felt deeply as living man could feel. There is a luxury in self-dispraise, and inward self-disparagement affords to meditative spleen a grateful feast. Trust me, pronouncing on your own dessert, you judge unthankfully, distempered nerves infect the thoughts, the languor of the frame depresses the soul's vigor. Quit your couch, cleave not so fondly to your moody cell, nor let the hallowed powers that shed from heaven stillness and rest with disapproving eye look down upon your taper, through a watch of midnight hours unseasonably twinkling in this deep hollow like a sullen star dimly reflected in a lonely pool. Take courage, and withdraw yourself from ways that run not parallel to nature's course. Rise with the lark, your matins shall obtain grace, be their composition what it may, if but with hers performed. Climb once again, climb every day those ramparts, meet the breeze upon their tops, adventurous as a bee that from your garden thither soars to feed on new-blown heath. Let yon commanding rock, be your frequented watchtower, roll the stone in thunder down the mountains, with all your might chase the wild goat, and if the bold red deer fly to those harbors driven by hound and horn, loud echoing, add your speed to the pursuit, so wearied to your hut shall you return and sink at evening into sound repose. The solitary lifted toward the hills a kindling eye, accordant feelings rushed into my bosom, whence these words broke forth. Oh, what a joy it were in vigorous health to have a body, this our vital frame with shrinking sensibility endued in all the nice regards of flesh and blood, and to the elements surrender it as if it were a spirit. How divine the liberty for frail, for mortal man to roam at large among unpeopled glens and mountainous retreats, only trod by devious footsteps, regions consecrate to oldest time, and reckless of the storm that keeps the raven quiet in her nest be as a presence or emotion, one among the many there, and while the mists flying and rainy vapors call out shapes and phantoms from the crags and solid earth as vast as a musician scatters sounds out of an instrument, and while the streams as at a first creation and in haste to exercise their untried faculties descending from the region of the clouds and starting from the hollows of the earth more multitudinous every moment, rend their way before them. What a joy to roam and unequal among mightiest energies, and happily sometimes with articulate voice amid the deafening tumult scarcely heard by him that utters it, exclaim aloud, rage on ye elements, let moon and stars their aspects lend and mingle in their turn with this commotion, ruinous though it be from day to night, from night to day prolonged. Yes, said the wanderer, taking from my lips the strain of transport, who so air in youth has through ambition of his soul given way to such desires and grasped at such delight shall feel congenial stirrings late and long in spite of all the weakness that life brings, its cares and sorrows. He, though taught to own the tranquilizing power of time, shall wake, wake sometimes to a noble restlessness, loving the sports which once he gloried in. Compatriot friend, remote are Gary's hills, the streams far distant of your native Glen, yet it is their form and image here expressed with brotherly resemblance. Turn your steps wherever fancy leads, by day, by night, are various engines working, not the same as those with which your soul and youth was moved, but by the great artificer endowed with no inferior power. You dwell alone, you walk, you live, you speculate alone, yet doth remembrance like a sovereign prince for you a stately gallery maintain of gay or tragic pictures. You have seen, have acted, suffered, traveled far, observed with no incurious eye, and books are yours within whose silent chambers treasure lies preserved from age to age, more precious far than that accumulated store of gold and orient gems, which for a day of need the Sultan hides deep in ancestral tombs. These hordes of truth you cannot lock at will, and music waits upon your skillful touch, sounds which the wandering shepherd from these heights hears and forgets his purpose, furnished thus how can you droop if willing to be upraised. End of book four part one of The Excursion by William Wordsworth. Book four part two of The Excursion. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org. The Excursion by William Wordsworth. Book four part two. A piteous lot it were to flee from man yet not rejoice in nature. He whose hours are by domestic pleasures uncorrest and unenlivened, who exists whole years apart from benefits received or done amid the transactions of the bustling crowd, who neither hears nor feels a wish to hear of the world's interests. Such a one hath need of a quick fancy and an active heart that for the day's consumption books may yield food not unwholesome. Earth and air correct his morbid humor with delight supplied or solace varying as the seasons change. Truth has her pleasure grounds, her haunts of ease and easy contemplation. Gay parters and labyrinthine walks, her sunny glades and shady groves in studied contrast, each for recreation leading into each. These may he range if willing to partake their soft indulgences and in due time may issue thence recruited for the tasks and course of service truth requires from those who tend her altars, wait upon her throne and guard her fortresses. Who thinks and feels and recognizes ever and on the breeze of nature stirring in his soul? Why need such man go desperately astray and nurse the dreadful appetite of death? If tired with systems each in its degrees substantial and all crumbling in their turn, let him build systems of his own and smile at the fond work demolished with a touch. If unreligious, let him be at once among ten thousand innocents enrolled a pupil in the many chambered school where superstition weaves her airy dreams. Life's autumn passed. I stand on winter's verge and daily lose what I desire to keep. Yet rather would I instantly decline to the traditionary sympathies of a most rustic ignorance and take a fearful apprehension from the owl or death watch, and as readily rejoice if two auspicious magpies crossed my way, to this would rather bend than see and hear the repetitious wearisome of sense, where soul is dead and feeling hath no place, where knowledge ill begun in cold remark on outward things with formal inference ends, or if the mind turned inward, she recoils at once, or not recoiling is perplexed, lost in a gloom of uninspired research. Meanwhile the heart within the heart, the seat where peace and happy consciousness should dwell, on its own axis restlessly revolving seeks, yet can nowhere find the light of truth. Upon the breast of new created earth man walked, and when and where so ere he moved alone or mated solitude was not. He heard, born on the wind, the articulate voice of God, and angels to his sight appeared crowning the glorious hills of paradise, or through the groves gliding like morning mist and kindled by the sun. He sat and talked with winged messengers, who daily brought to his small island in the ethereal deep tidings of joy and love. From those pure heights, whether of actual vision, sensible to sight and feeling, or that in this sort have condescendingly been shadowed forth communications spiritually maintained and intuitions moral and divine fell humankind. To banishment condemned that flowing years repealed not, and distress and grief spread wide, but man escaped the doom of destitution, solitude was not. Jehovah, shapeless power above all powers, single in one, the omnipresent God by vocal utterance or blaze of light or cloud of darkness localized in heaven. On earth enshrined within the wandering ark or out of Zion thundering from his throne between the cherry of him. On the chosen race showered miracles and ceased not to dispense judgment that filled the land from age to age with hope and love and gratitude and fear and with amazement smote. Thereby to assert his scorned or unacknowledged sovereignty and when the one ineffable of name, of nature indivisible withdrew from mortal adoration or regard, not then was deity engulfed nor man the rational creature left to feel the weight of his own reason without sense or thought of higher reason and a pure will to benefit and bless through mightier power. Whether the Persian zealous to reject alter an image in the inclusive walls and roofs of temples built by human hands to loftiest heights ascending from their tops with myrtle wreathed tiara on his brow presented sacrifice to moon and stars and to the winds and mother elements and the whole circle of the heavens for him a sensitive existence and a god with lifted hands invoked and songs of praise or less reluctantly to bonds of sense yielding his soul the Babylonian framed for influence undefined a personal shape and from the plain with toilaments upreared tower eight times planted on the top of tower that bellows nightly to his splendid couch descending there might rest upon that height pure and serene diffused to overlook winding Euphrates and the city vast of his devoted worshipers far stretched with their grove and field and garden interspersed their town and fruitful region for support against the pressure of beleaguering war Chaldean shepherds ranging trackless fields beneath the concave of unclouded skies spread like a sea in boundless solitude looked on the polar star as on a guide and guardian of their course that never closed his steadfast eye the planetary five with a submissive reverence they beheld watched from the center of their sleeping flocks those radiant mercuries that seemed to move carrying through ether in perpetual round decrees and resolutions of the gods and by their aspects signifying works of dim futurity to man revealed the imaginative faculty was lord of observations natural and thus let on those shepherds made report of stars and set rotation passing to and fro between the orbs of our apparent sphere and its invisible counterpart adorned with answering constellations under earth removed from all approach of living sight but present to the dead who so they deemed like those celestial messengers beheld all accidents and judges were of all the lively Grecian in a land of hills rivers and fertile plains and sounding shores under a cope of sky more variable could find commodious space for every god promptly received as prodigly brought from the surrounding countries at the choice of all adventures with unrivaled skill as nicest observation furnished hints for studious fancy his quick hand bestowed on fluent operations a fixed shape metal or stone idolatrously served and yet triumph nor this pompous show of art this palpable array of sense on every side encountered in despite of the gross fictions chanted in the streets by wandering rhapsodists and can contempt of doubt and bold denial hourly urged amid the wrangling schools a spirit hung beautiful region or thy towns and farms statues and temples and memorial tombs and emanations were perceived and acts of immortality in nature's course exemplified by mysteries that were felt as bonds on grave philosopher imposed and armed warrior and in every grove a gay or pensive tenderness prevailed when piety more awful had relaxed take running river take these locks of mine thus would the votaries say this severed hair my vow fulfilling do I here present thankful for my beloved child's return thy banks sephysis he again hath trod thy murmurs heard and drunk the crystal lymph with which thou dost refresh the thirsty lip and all day long moistened these flowery fields and doubtless sometimes when the hair was shed upon the flowing stream a thought arose of life continuous being unimpaired that hath been is and where it was and is there shall endure existence unexposed to the blind walk of mortal accident from diminution safe and weakening age while man grows old and dwindles and decays and countless generations of mankind depart and leave no vestige where they trod we live by admiration hope and love and even as these are well and wisely fixed in dignity of being we ascend but what is error answer he who can the skeptics someone hotly exclaimed love hope and admiration are they not mad fancies favorite vassals does not life use them full off as pioneers to ruin guides to destruction is it well to trust imagination's light when reason fails the unguarded taper where the guarded faints stoop from those heights and soberly declare what error is and of our errors which doth most debase the mind the genuine seats of power where are they who shall regulate with truth the scale of intellectual rank me thinks persuasively the sage replied that for this arduous office you possess some rare advantages your early days a grateful recollection must supply of much as exalted good by heaven vouchsafed to dignify the humblest state your voice hath in my hearing often testified that poor men's children they and they alone by their condition taught can understand the wisdom of the prayer that daily asks for daily bread a consciousness is yours how feelingly religion may be learned in smoky cabins from a mother's tongue heard while the dwelling vibrates to the din of the contiguous torrent gathering strength at every moment and with strength increase of fury or while snow is at the door assaulting and defending in the wind a sightless laborer whistles at his work fearful but resignation tempers fear and piety is sweet to infant minds the shepherd lad that in the sunshine carves on the green turf a dial to divide the silent hours and who to that report can portion out his pleasures and adapt throughout a long and lonely summer's day his round of pastoral duties is not left with less intelligence for moral things of gravest import early he perceives within himself a measure and a rule which to the son of truth he can apply that shines for him and shines for all mankind experience daily fixing his regards on nature's wants he knows how few they are and where they lie how answered and appeased this knowledge ample recompense affords for manifold privations he refers his notions to this standard on this rock rests his desires and hence in afterlife soul strengthening patience and sublime content imagination not permitted here to waste her powers as in the worldlings mind on fickle pleasures and superfluous cares and trivial ostentation is left free and poesant to range the solemn walks of time and nature girded by a zone that while it binds invigorates and supports acknowledge then that whether by the side of his poor hut or on the mountaintop or in the cultured field a man so bred take from him what you will upon the score of ignorance or illusion lives and breathes for noble purposes of mind his heart beats to the heroic song of ancient days his eye distinguishes his soul creates and those illusions which excite the scorn or move the pity of unthinking minds are they not mainly outward ministers of inward conscience with whose service charged they come and go appeared and disappear diverting evil purposes remorse awakening chastening an intemperate grief or pride of heart abating and when air for less important ends those phantoms move who would forbid them if their presence serve on thinly peopled mountains and wild heaths filling a space else vacant to exalt the forms of nature and enlarge her powers once more to distant ages of the world let us revert and place before our thoughts the face which rural solitude might wear to the unenlightened swains of pagan grease in that fair climb the lonely herdsmen stretched on the soft grass through half a summer's day with music lulled his indolent repose and in some fit of weariness if he when his own breath was silent chance to hear a distant strain far sweeter than the sounds which his poor skill could make his fancy fetched even from the blazing chariot of the sun a beardless youth who touched a golden loot and filled the illumined groves with ravishment the nightly hunter lifting a bright eye up towards the crescent moon with grateful heart called on the lovely wanderer who bestowed that timely light to share his joyous sport and hence a beaming goddess with her nymphs across the lawn and through the darksome grove not unaccompanied with tuneful notes by echo multiplied from rock or cave swept in the storm of chase as moon and stars glance rapidly along the clouded heaven when winds are blowing strong the traveler slaked his thirst from rill or gushing fount and thanked the nyad sunbeams upon distant hills gliding apace with shadows in their train might with a small help from fancy be transformed into fleet oreads sporting visibly the zeffers fanning as they passed their wings lacked not for love fair objects whom they wooed with gentle whisper withered boughs grotesque stripped of their leaves and twigs by hoary age from death the shaggy covert peeping forth in the low veil or on steep mountainside and sometimes intermixed with stirring horns of the live deer or goats depending beard these were the lurking satyrs a wild brood of games and deities or Pan himself the simple shepherds awe inspiring God the strain was aptly chosen and I could mark its kindly influence or the yielding brow of our companion gradually diffused while listening he had paced the noiseless turf like one whose untired ear a murmuring stream detains but tempted now to interpose he with a smile exclaimed tis well you speak at a safe distance from our native land from the mansions where our youth was taught the true descendants of those godly men who swept from Scotland in a flame of zeal shrine alter image in the massy piles that harbored them the souls retaining yet the churlish features of that after-race who fled to woods, caverns and jutting rocks in deadly scorn of superstitious rites or what their scruples construed to be such how, thank you, would they tolerate this scheme of fine propensities that tens if urged far as it might be urged to sow afresh the weeds of romish fantasy in vain uprooted would re-consecrate our wells to good St. Philan and to fair St. Anne and from long banishment recall St. Giles to watch again with tutelary love or stately Edinburgh thrown on crags a blessed restoration to behold the patron on the shoulders of his priests once more parading through her crowded streets now simply guarded by the sober powers of science and philosophy and sense this answer followed you have turned my thoughts upon our brave progenitors who rose against idolatry with a warlike mind and shrunk from vain observances to lurk in woods and dwell under impending rocks ill-sheltered and oft wanting fire and food why? for this very reason that they felt and did acknowledge where so where they moved a spiritual presence oft times misconceived by still a high dependence a divine bounty in government that filled their hearts with joy and gratitude and fear and love and from their fervent lips drew hymns of praise that through the desert rang though favored less far less than these yet such in their degree were those bewildered pagans of old time beyond their own poor natures and above they looked were humbly thankful for the good which the warm sun solicited and earth bestowed were gladsome and their moral sense they fortified with reverence for the gods and they had hopes that overstepped the grave now shall our great discoverers he exclaimed raising his voice triumphantly obtained from sense in reason less than these obtained though far misled shall men for whom our age unbaffled powers of vision hath prepared to explore the world without and world within be joyless as the blind ambitious spirits whom earth at this late season hath produced to regulate the moving spheres and weigh the planets in the hollow of their hand and they who rather dive than soar whose pains have solved the elements or analyzed the thinking principle shall they in fact prove a degraded race and what avails renown if their presumption make them such oh there is laughter at their work in heaven inquire of ancient wisdom go demand of mighty nature if it was ever meant that we should pry far off yet be unraised that we should pour and dwindle as we pour viewing all objects unremittingly and disconnection dead and spiritless and still dividing and dividing still break down all grandeur still unsatisfied with the perverse attempt while littleness may yet become more little waging thus an impious warfare with the very life of our own souls and if indeed there be an all-pervading spirit upon whom our dark foundations rest could he design that this magnificent effect of power the earth we tread the sky that we behold by day and all the pump which night reveals that these and that superior mystery are vital frames so fearfully devised and the dread soul within it should exist only to be examined pondered, searched, probe vexed and criticised accuse me not of arrogance unknown wanderer as I am if having walked with nature three score years and offered far as frailty would allow my heart a daily sacrifice to truth I now affirm of nature and of truth whom I have served that their divinity revolts offended at the ways of men swayed by such motives to such ends employed philosophers who though the human soul be of a thousand faculties composed and twice ten thousand interests do yet prize this soul and a transcendent universe no more than as a mirror that reflects to proud self-love her own intelligence that one poor finite object in the abyss of infinite being twinkling restlessly nor higher place can be assigned to him and his peers the laughing sage of France crowned he was if my memory do not air with laurel planted upon hoary hairs inside of conquest by his wit achieved and benefits his wisdom hath conferred his stooping body tottered with wreaths of flowers oppressed far less becoming ornaments than spring off twines about a moldering tree yet so it pleased the fond vain old man and a most frivolous people him I mean who penned to ridicule confiding faith this sorry legend which by chance we found piled in a nook through malice as might seem among more innocent rubbish speaking thus with a brief notice when and how and where we had aspired the book he drew it forth and courteously as if the act removed at once all traces from the good man's heart of unbeknown aversion or contempt restored it to its owner gentle friend herewith he grasped the solitary's hand you have known lights and guides better than these let not ought a miss within dispose of noble mind to practice on herself and tempt opinion to support the wrongs of passion what so air be felt or feared from higher judgment seats make no appeal to lower can you question that the soul inherits an allegiance not by choice to be cast off upon an oath proposed by each new upstart notion in the ports of levity no refuge can be found no shelter for a spirit in distress he who by willful disesteem of life and proud inses sensibility to hope affronts the eye of solitude shall learn that her mild nature can be terrible that neither she nor silence lack the power to avenge their own insulted majesty oh blessed seclusion when the mind admits the law of duty and can therefore move through each vicissitude of loss and gain linked in entire complacence within her choice when youth's presumptuousness is mellowed down and manhood's vain anxiety dismissed when wisdom shows her seasonable fruit upon the boughs of sheltering leisure hung and sober plenty when the spirit stoops to drink with gratitude the crystal stream of unapproved enjoyment and is pleased to muse and be saluted by the air of meek repentance wafting wallflower scents from out the crumbling ruins of fallen pride and chambers of transgressions now forlorn oh calm contented days and peaceful nights who when such good can be obtained would strive to reconcile his manhood to a couch soft as may seem but under that disguise stuffed with the thorny substance of the past for fixed annoyance and full off beset with floating dreams black and disconsolate the vapory phantoms of futurity within the soul a faculty abides and with interpositions which would hide and dark and so can deal that they become contingencies of pomp and serve to exalt her native brightness as the ample moon in the deep stillness of a summer even rising behind a thick and lofty grove burns like an unconsuming fire of light in the green trees and kindling on all sides their leafy umbrage turns the dusky veil into a substance glorious as her own yay with her own incorporated by power capacious and serene like power abides in man's celestial spirit virtue thus sets forth and magnifies herself thus feeds a calm a beautiful and silent fire from the encumbrances of mortal life from error disappointment nay from guilt and sometimes so relenting justice wills from palpable oppressions of despair the solitary by these words was touched with manifestist motion and exclaimed but how begin and whence the mind is free resolve the haughty mortals would say this single act is all that we demand alas such wisdom bids a creature fly whose very sorrow is that time hath shorn his natural wings to friendship let him term for sucker but perhaps he sits alone on stormy waters tossed in a little boat that holds but him and can contain no more religion tells of amity sublime which no condition can preclude of one who sees all suffering comprehends all wants all weakness fathoms can supply all needs but is that bounty absolute his gifts are they not still in some degree rewards for acts of service can his love extend to hearts that own not him will showers of grace when in the sky no promise may be seen fall to refresh a parched and withered land or shall the groaning spirit cast her load at the redeemer's feet in rueful tone with some impatientness mean he spake back to my mind rushed all that had been urged to calm the sufferer when his story closed I look for counsel as an unbending now but a discriminating sympathy stooped to this apt reply as men from men do in the constitution of their souls differ by mystery not to be explained and as we fall by various ways and sink one deeper than another self condemned through manifold degrees of guilt and shame so manifold and various are the ways of restoration fashioned to the steps of all infirmity and tending all to the same point attainable by all peace in ourselves and union with our God for you assuredly a hopeful road lies open we have heard from you a voice at every moment softened in its course by tenderness of heart have seen your eye even like an altar lit by fire from heaven kindle before us your discourse this day like the fabled lethy wish to flow in creeping sadness through oblivious shades of death and night has caught at every turn the colors of the sun access for you is yet preserved to principles of truth which the imaginative will uphold since seats of wisdom not to be approached by the inferior faculty that molds with her minute and speculative pains opinion ever changing I've seen a curious child who dwelt upon attractive inland ground applying to his ear the convolutions of a smooth lipped shell to which in silence hushed his very soul listened intensely and his countenance soon brightened with joy for from within were heared murmurings whereby the monitor expressed mysterious union with its native sea even such a shell the universe itself is to the ear of faith and there are times I doubt not when to you it doth impart authentic tidings of invisible things of ebb and flow and ever-during power and central peace subsisting at the heart of endless agitation here you stand adore and worship when you know it not pious beyond the intention of your thought devout above the meaning of your will yes you have felt and may not cease to feel the estate of man would be indeed forlorn if false conclusions of the reasoning power made the eye blind and closed the passages through which the ear converses with the heart has not the soul the being of your life received a shock of awful consciousness in some calm season when these lofty rocks at night's approach bring down the unclouded sky to rest upon their circumambient walls a temple framing of dimensions vast and yet not too enormous for the sound of human anthems choral song or burst sublime of instrumental harmony to glorify the eternal what if these did never break the stillness that prevails here if the solemn nightingale be mute and the soft woodlark here did never chant her vespers nature fails not to provide impulse and utterance the whispering air sends inspiration from the shadowy heights and blind recesses of the caverned rocks the little rills and waters numberless inaudible by daylight blend their notes with the loud streams and often at the hour when issue fourth the first pale stars is heard within the circuit of this fabric huge one voice the solitary raven flying a thwart the concave of the dark blue dome unseen per chance above all power of sight an iron knell with echoes from afar faint and still fainter as the cry with which the wanderer accompanies her flight through the calm region fades upon the air diminishing by distance till it seemed to expire yet from the abyss is caught again and yet again recovered but descending from these imaginative heights that yield far stretching views into eternity acknowledge that to nature's humbler power your cherished sullenness is forced to bend even here where her amenities are sewn with sparing hand then trust yourself abroad to range her blooming bowers and spacious fields where on the labors of the happy throng she smiles including in her wide embrace city and town and tower and sea with ships sprinkled be our companion while we track her rivers populous with gliding life while free as air or printless sands we march or pierce the gloom of her majestic woods roaming or resting under grateful shade in peace and meditative cheerfulness where living things and things inanimate do speak at heaven's command to eye and ear and speak to social reasons intersense with inarticulate language for the man who in this spirit communes with the forms of nature who with understanding heart both knows and loves subjects as excite no morbid passions no disquietude no vengeance and no hatred needs must feel the joy of that pure principle of love so deeply that unsatisfied with ought less pure and exquisite he cannot choose but seek for objects of a kindred love and fellow natures and a kindred joy accordingly he by degrees perceives his feelings of aversion softened down a holy tenderness pervade his frame his sanity of reason not impaired say rather all his thoughts now flowing clear from a clear fountain flowing he looks round and seeks for good and finds the good he seeks until abhorrence and contempt are things he only knows by name and if he hear from other mouths the language which they speak he is compassionate and has no thought no feeling which can overcome his love and further by contemplating these forms in the relations which they bear to man he shall discern how through the various means which silently they yield or multiplied the spiritual presences of absent things trust me that for the instructed time will come when they shall meet no object but may teach some acceptable lesson to their minds of human suffering or of human joy so shall they learn while all things speak of man their duties from all forms and general laws and local accidents shall tend the life to rouse to urge and with the will confer the ability to spread the blessings wide of true philanthropy the light of love not failing perseverance from their steps departing not for them shall be confirmed the glorious habit by which senses made subservient still to moral purposes auxiliar to divine that change shall clothe the naked spirit ceasing to deplore the burden of existence science then shall be a precious visitant and then and only then be worthy of her name for then her heart shall kindle her dull eye dull and inanimate no more shall hang chain to its object in brute slavery but taught with patient interest to watch the processes of things and serve the cause of order and distinctness not for this shall it forget that its most noble use its most illustrious province must be found in furnishing clear guidance a support not treacherous to the mind's excursive power so we build up the being that we are thus deeply drinking in the soul of things we shall be wise per force and while inspired by choice and conscious that the will is free shall move unswerving even as if impelled by strict necessity along the path of order and of good whatever we see or feel shall tend to quicken and refine shall fix in calmer seats of moral strength earthly desires and raise to loftier heights of divine love our intellectual soul hear closed the sage that eloquent harangue poured forth with fervor and continuous stream such as remote mid-savage wilderness an indian chief discharges from his breast into the hearing of assembled tribes in open circle seated round and hushed as the unbreathing air when not a leaf stirs in the mighty woods so did he speak the words he uttered shall not pass away dispersed like music that the wind takes up by snatches and lets fall to be forgotten no they sank into me the boundiest gift of one whom time and nature had made wise gracing his doctrine with authority which hostile spirits silently allow of one accustomed to desires that feed on fruitage gathered from the tree of life to hopes on knowledge and experience built of one in whom persuasion and belief had ripened into faith and faith become a passionate intuition whence the soul though bound to earth by ties of pity and love from all injurious servitude was free the sun before his place of rest were reached had yet to travel far but unto us to us who stood low in that hollow dell he had become invisible a pomp leaving behind of yellow radiance spread over the mountain sides in contrast bold with ample shadows seemingly no less than those resplendent lights his rich bequest a dispensation of his evening power a down the path that from the glen had led the funeral train the shepherd and his mate were seen descending fourth to greet them ran our little page the rustic pair approached and in the matron's countenance may be read plain indication that the words which told how that neglected pensioner was sent before his time into a quiet grave had done to her humanity no wrong but we are kindly welcomed promptly served with ostentatious zeal along the floor of the small cottage in the lonely dell a grateful couch was spread for our repose here in the guise of mountaineers we lay stretched upon fragrant heath and lulled by sound of far-off torrents charming the still night and to tired limbs and over busy thoughts inviting sleep and soft forgetfulness end of book four part two of the excursion by william wordsworth book five of the excursion this is a libervox recording all libervox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit libervox.org the excursion by william wordsworth book fifth the pastor farewell deep valley with one rude house and its small lot of life supporting fields and guardian rocks farewell attractive seat to the still influx of the morning light open and day's pure cheerfulness but veiled from human observation as if yet primeval forests wrapped the round with dark impenetrable shade once more farewell majestic circuit beautiful abyss by nature destined from the birth of things for quietness profound upon the side of that brown ridge sole outlet of the veil which foot of boldest stranger would attempt lingering behind my comrades thus I breathed a parting tribute to a spot that seemed like the fixed center of a troubled world again I halted with reverted eyes the chain that would not slacken was at length snapped and pursuing leisurely my way how vain thought I is it by chance of place to seek that comfort which the mind denies yet trial and temptation oft are shunned wisely and by such tenure do we hold frail life's possessions that even they whose fate yields no peculiar reason of complaint might by the promise that is here be one to steal from active duties and embrace obscurity and undisturbed repose knowledge me thinks in these disordered times should be allowed a privilege to have her anchorites like piety of old men who from factions sacred and unstained by war might if so minded turn aside uncensured and subsist a scattered few living to God and nature and content with that communion consecrated be the spots where such abide but happier still the man whom furthermore a hope attends that meditation and research may guide his privacy to principles and powers discovered or invented or set forth through his acquaintance with the ways of truth in lucid order so that when his courses run some faithful eulogist may say he sought not praise and praise did overlook his unobtrusive merit but his life sweet to himself was exercised in good that shall survive his name and memory acknowledgements of gratitude sincere accompanied these musings fervent thanks for my own peaceful lot and happy choice a choice that from the passions of the world with true and fixed me in a still retreat sheltered but not to social duties lost secluded but not buried and with song cheering my days and with industrious thought with the ever welcome company of books with virtuous friendships soul sustaining aid and with the blessings of domestic love thus occupied in mind I paced along following the rugged road by sledge or wheel worn in the moorland till I overtook my two associates in the morning sunshine halting together on a rocky knoll from which the road descended rapidly to the green meadows of another veil here did our pensive host put forth his hand and sign a farewell nay the old man said the fragrant air its coolness still retains the herds and flocks are yet abroad to crop the dewy grass you cannot leave us now we must not part at this inviting hour he yielded though reluctant for his mind instinctively disposed him to retire to his own covert as a billow heaved upon the beach rolls back into the sea so we descend and winding around a rock attain a point that showed the valley stretched in length before us and not distant far upon a rising ground a gray church tower whose battlements were screened by tufted trees and towards a crystal mirror that lay beyond among steep hills and woods embosomed flowed a copious stream with boldly winding course here traceable there hidden there again to sight restored and glittering in the sun on the stream's bank and everywhere appeared fair dwellings single or in social knots some scattered over the level others perched on the hillsides a cheerful quiet scene now in its morning purity arrayed as mid some happy valley of the alps said I once happy air tyrannic power wantonly breaking in upon the swiss destroyed their unoffending commonwealth a popular equality reigns here save for yon stately house beneath whose roof a rural lord might dwell no feudal pomp or power replied the wanderer to that house belongs but there in his allotted home abides from year to year a genuine priest the shepherd of his flock or as a king is styled when most affectionately praised the father of his people such as he and rich and poor and young and old rejoice under his spiritual sway he hath vouchsafe to me some portion of a kind regard and something also of his inner mind hath he imparted but I speak of him as he is known to all the calm delights of unambitious piety he chose and learnings solid dignity though born of nightly race nor wanting powerful friends hither in prime of manhood he withdrew from academic bowers he loved the spot who does not love his native soil he prized the ancient rural character composed of simple manners feelings unsuppressed and undisguised and strong and serious thought a character reflected in himself with such embellishments as well besiems his rank and sacred function this deep veil winds far in reaches hidden from our sight and one a turreted manorial hall adorns in which the good man's ancestors have dwelt through ages patrons of this cure to them and to his own judicious pains the vicar's dwelling and the whole domain owes that presiding aspect which might well attract your notice statelier than could else have been bestowed through course of common chance on an unwealthy mountain benefits this said oft pausing we pursued our way nor reached the village churchyard till the sun traveling at steadier pace than ours had risen above the summits of the highest hills and round our path darted oppressive beams as chanced the portals of the sacred piles stood open and we entered on my frame at such transition from the fervid air a grateful coolness fell that seemed to strike the heart in concert with that temperate awe and natural reverence which the place inspired not raised in nice proportions was the pile but large and massy for duration built with pillars crowded and the roof upheld by naked rafters intricately crossed like leafless underbows in some thick wood all withered by the depth of shade above at monetary texts inscribed the walls each in its ornamental scroll enclosed each also crowned with winged heads a pair of rudely painted cherry of him the floor of naven aisle in unpretending guise was occupied by oaken benches ranged in seemly rows the chancel only showed some vain distinctions marks of earthly state by immemorial privilege allowed the withy in synchers special sanctity but ill according and heraldic shield varying its tincture with the changeful light imbued the altar window fixed aloft a faded hatchment hung and one by time yet undiscolored a capacious pew of sculptured oak stood here with drapery lined and marble monuments were here displayed thronging the walls and on the floor beneath sepulchral stones appeared with emblems graven and foot worn epitaphs and some with small and shining effigies of brass inlaid the tribute by these various records claimed duly we paid each after each and read the ordinary chronicle of birth office alliance and promotion all ending in dust of upright magistrates grave doctors strenuous for the mother church and uncorrupted senators alike to king and people true a brazen plate not easily deciphered told of one whose course of earthly honor was begun in quality of page among the train of the eighth henry when he crossed the seas his royal state to show and prove his strength in tournament upon the fields of france another tablet registered the death and praised the gallant bearing of a night tried in the sea fights of the second charles near this brave night his father lay entombed and to the silent language giving voice I read how in his manhoods earlier day he made the afflictions of intestine war and rightful government subverted found one only solace that he had espoused a virtuous lady tenderly beloved for her benign perfections and yet more in dear to him for this that in her state of wedlock richly crowned with heaven's regard she with a numerous issue filled his house who throw like plants uninjured by the storm that laid their country waste no need to speak of less particular notices assigned to youth or maiden gone before their time and matrons and unwetted sisters old whose charity and goodness were rehearsed in modest panegyric these dim lines what would they tell said I but from the task of puzzling out that faded narrative with whisper soft my venerable friend called me and looking down the dark some aisle I saw the tenant of the lovely veil standing apart with curved arm reclined on the baptismal font his pallid face upturned as if his mind were wrapped or lost in some abstraction gracefully he stood the semblance bearing of a sculptured form that leans upon a monumental urn in peace from morn to night from year to year him from that posture did the sexton rouse who entered humming carelessly attuned continuation happily of the notes that had beguiled the work from which he came with spade and mattock or his shoulder hung to be deposited for future need in their appointed place the pale recluse withdrew and straight we followed to a spot where sun and shade were intermixed for there abroad oak stretching forth its leafy arms from an adjoining pasture over hung small space of that green churchyard with a light and pleasant awning on the moss grown wall my ancient friend and I together took our seats and thus the solitary spake standing before us did you note the mean of that self-solaced easy-hearted churl death's hireling who scoops out his neighbor's grave or wraps an old acquaintance up in clay all unconcerned as he would bind a sheaf or plant a tree and did you hear his voice I was abruptly summoned by the sound from some affecting images and thoughts which then were silent but crave utterance now much he continued with dejected looks much yesterday was said in glowing phrase of our sublime dependencies in hopes for future states of being and the wings of speculation joyfully outspread hovered above our destiny on earth but stoop and place the prospect of the soul in sober contrast with reality and man's substantial life if this mute earth of what it holds could speak and every grave were as a volume shut yet capable of yielding its contents to eye and ear we should recoil stricken with sorrow and shame to see disclosed by such dread proof how ill that which is done accords with what is known to reason and by conscience is enjoined how idly how perversely life's whole course to this conclusion deviates from the line or the end stops short proposed to all at her aspiring outset mark the babe not long accustomed to this breathing world one that hath barely learned to shape a smile though yet irrational of soul to grasp with tiny finger to let fall a tear and as the heavy cloud of sleep dissolves to stretch his limbs be mocking as might seem the outward functions of intelligent man a grave proficient in abusive feats of puppetry that from the lap declare his expectations and announce his claims to that inheritance which millions drew that they were ever born to in due time a day of solemn ceremonial comes when they who for this minor hold in trust writes the transcend the loftiest heritage of mere humanity present their charge for this occasion daintily adorned at the baptismal font and when the pure and consecrating element hath cleansed the original stain the child is there received into the second arc Christ's church with trust that he from wrath redeemed therein shall float over the billows of this troublesome world to the fair land of everlasting life corrupt defections covetous desires are all renounced high as the thought of man can carry virtue virtue is professed a dedication made a promise given for due provision to control and guide and unremitting progress to ensure in holiness and truth you cannot blame here interposing fervently I said writes which attest that man by nature lies bedded for good and evil in a gulf fearfully low nor will your judgment scorn those services whereby attempt is made to lift the creature toward that eminence on which now fallen air while in majesty he stood or if not so whose top serene at least he feels to give it to him to describe nor without aspirations ever more returning and injunctions from within doubt to cast off and weariness in trust that what the soul perceives if glory lost may be through pains and persevering hope recovered or if hitherto unknown lies within reach and one day shall be gained I blame them not he calmly answered no the outward ritual and established forms with which communities of men invest these inward feelings and the aspiring vows to which the lips give public utterance are both a natural process and by me shall pass uncensured though the issue prove bringing from age to age its own reproach incongruous impotent and blank but oh if to be weak is to be wretched miserable as the lost angel by a human voice have mournfully pronounced then in my mind far better not to move at all then move by impulse sent from such elusive power that finds and cannot fasten down that grasps and is rejoiced and loses while it grasps the temps in boldens for a time sustains and then betrays accuses and inflicts remorseless punishment and so retreads the inevitable circle better far than this to graze the herb in thoughtless peace by foresight or remembrance undisturbed philosophy and thou vaunted name religion with I state their retinue of faith hope and charity from the visible world choose for your emblems what so air you find of safest guidance or firmest trust the torch the star the anchor nor accept the cross itself at whose unconscious feet the generations of mankind have knelt ruefully seized and shedding bitter tears and through that conflict seeking rest of you high titled powers am I constrained to ask here standing with the unvoyageable sky and faint reflection of infinitude stretched overhead and at my pensive feet a subterraneous magazine of bones in whose dark vaults my own shall soon be laid where are your triumphs your dominion where and in what age admitted and confirmed not for a happy land do I inquire Ireland or Grove that hides a blessed few who with obedience willing and sincere to your serene authorities conform but whom I ask of individual souls have you withdrawn from passions crooked ways inspired and thoroughly fortified if the heart could be inspected to its inmost folds by sight undazzled with the glare of praise who shall be named in the resplendent line of sages martyrs confessors the man whom the best might of faith wherever fixed for one day's little compass as preserved from painful and discreditable shocks of contradiction from some vague desire culpably cherished or corrupt relapse to some unsanctioned fear if this be so and man said I be in his noblest shape thus pitiably infirm then he who made and who shall judge the creature will forgive yet in its general tenor your complaint is all too true and surely not misplaced for from this pregnant spot of ground such thoughts rise to the notice of a serious mind by natural exhalation with the dead in their repose the living in their mirth who can reflect unmoved upon the round of smooth and solemnized complacencies by which on Christian lands from age to age profession mocks performance earth is sick and heaven is weary of the hollow words which states in kingdoms utter when they talk of truth and justice turn to private life and social neighborhood look we to ourselves a light of duty shines on every day for all and yet how few are warmed or cheered how few who mingle with their fellow men and still remain self-governed and apart like this our honored friend and then sequire right to expect his vigorous decline that promises to the end of blessed old age yet with a smile of triumph thus exclaimed the solitary in the life of man if to the poetry of common speech faith may be given we see as in a glass a true reflection of the circling year with all its seasons grant that spring is there in spite of many a rough untoward blast hopeful and promising with buds and flowers yet where is glowing summer's long rich day that ought to follow faithfully expressed and mellow autumn charged with bounteous fruit where is she imaged in what favored climb her lavish pomp and ripe magnificence yet while the better part is missed the worse in man's autumnal season is set forth with a resemblance not to be denied and that contents him bowers that here no more the voice of gladness less and less supply of outward sunshine and internal warmth and with this change sharp air and falling leaves foretelling aged winter's desolate sway how gay the habitations that bedeck this fertile valley not a house but seems to give assurance of content within embosomed happiness and placid love as if the sunshine of the day were met with answering brightness in the hearts of all who walk this favored ground but chance regards and notice forced upon in curious ears these if these only acting in despite of the encomiums by my friend pronounced on humble life forbid the judging mind to trust the smiling aspect of this fair and noiseless commonwealth the simple race of mountaineers by nature's self removed from foul temptations and by constant care of a good shepherd tended as themselves to tend their flocks partake man's general lot with little mitigation they escape perchance the heavier woes of guilt feel not the tedium of fantastic idleness yet life as with the multitude with them is fashioned like an ill constructed tale that on the outset wastes its gay desires its fair adventures its enlivening hopes and pleasant interests for the sequel leaving old things repeated with diminished grace and all the labored novelties at best imperfect substitutes whose use and power events the want and weakness once they spring while in this serious mood we held discourse the reverent pastor toward the church gate approached and with a mild respectful air of native cordiality our friend advanced to greet him with a gracious mean was he perceived and mutual joy prevailed a while they stood in conference and I guess that he who now upon the mossy wall sat by my side had vanished if a wish could have transferred him to the flying clouds or the least penetrable hiding place in his own valley's rocky guardianship for me I looked upon the pair well pleased nature had framed them both and both were marked by circumstance with intermixture fine of contrast and resemblance to an oak hardy and grand a weather beaten oak fresh in the strength and majesty of age one might be likened flourishing appeared though somewhat past the fullness of his prime the other like a stately sycamore that spreads in gentle pomp its honey'd shade a general greeting was exchanged and soon the pastor learned that his approach had given a welcome interruption to discourse grave and in truth too often sad is man a child of hope do generations press on generations without progress made halts the individual air his hairs be gray perforce are we a creature in whom good preponderates or evil that the will acknowledge reasons law a living power is virtue or no better than a name fleeting as health or beauty and unsound so that the only substance which remains for thus the tenor of complaint at the run among so many shadows are the pains and penalties of miserable life doomed to decay and then expire in dust our cogitations this way have been drawn these are the points the wanderer said on which our inquest turns accord good sir the light of your experience to dispel this gloom by your persuasive wisdom shall the heart that frets or languishes bestilled and cheered our nature said the priest and mild reply angels may weigh in fathom they perceive with undistempered and unclouded spirit the object as it is but for ourselves that speculative we may not reach the good and evil are our own and we are that which we would contemplate from far knowledge for us is difficult to gain is difficult to gain and hard to keep as virtue self like virtue is beset with snares tried tempted subject to decay love admiration fear desire and hate blind where we without these though these alone are capable to notice or discern or to record we judge but cannot be in different judges spite of proudest boast reason best reason is to imperfect man and effort only and a noble aim a crown an attribute of sovereign power still to be courted never to be one look forth or each man dive into himself what sees he but a creature too perturbed that is transported to excess that yearns regrets or trembles wrongly or too much hopes rashly in disgust as rash recoils battens on spleen or molders and despair thus comprehension fails and truth is missed thus darkness and delusion round our path spread from disease whose subtle injury lurks within the very faculty of sight yet for the general purposes of faith in provenance for solace and support we may not doubt that who can best subject the will to reason's law can strictly is live and act in that obedience he shall gain the clearest apprehension of those truths which unassisted reasons utmost power is too infirm to reach but waving this and our regards confining within bounds of less exalted consciousness through which the very multitude are free to range we safely may affirm that human life is either fair and tempting a soft scene grateful to sight refreshing to the soul or a forbidding tract of cheerless view even as the same is looked at or approached thus when in changeful April fields are white with new fallen snow if from the sullen north your walk conduct you hither air the sun hath gained his noontide height this churchyard filled with mounds transversely lying side by side from east to west before you will appear an unillumined blank and dreary plain with more than wintry cheerlessness and gloom saddening the heart go forward and look back look from the quarter whence the lord of light of life of love and gladness doth dispense his beams which unexcluded in their fall upon the southern side of every grave have gently exercised a melting power then will a vernal prospect greet your eye all fresh and beautiful and green and bright hopeful and cheerful vanished is the pawl that overspread and chilled the sacred turf vanished or hidden and the whole domain to some too lightly minded might appear a meadow carpet for the dancing hours this contrast not unsuitable to life is to that other state more apposite death and its twofold aspect wintry won cold sullen blank from hope and joy shut out the other which the ray divine hath touched replete with vivid promise bright as spring we see then as we feel the wanderer thus with a complacent animation spake and in your judgment sir the minds repose on evidence is not to be ensured by act of naked reason moral truth is no mechanic structure built by rule and which once built retains a steadfast shape and undisturbed proportions but a thing subject you deem to vital accidents and like the water lily lives and thrives whose root is fixed in stable earth whose head floats on the tossing waves with joy sincere I resolute these sentiments confirmed by your authority but how acquire the inward principle that gives effect to outward argument the passive will meek to admit the active energy strong and unbounded to embrace and firm to keep and cherish how shall man unite with self-forgetting tenderness of heart and earth despising dignity of soul wise in that union and without it blind the way said I to court if not obtained the ingenuous mind apt to be said a right this in the lonely Dell discoursing you declared it large and by what exercise from visible nature or the inner self power may be trained and renovation brought to those who need the gift but after all is also certain as that man is doomed to breathe beneath a vault of ignorance the natural roof of that dark house in which his soul is pent how little can be known this is the wise man's sigh how far we air this is the good man's not unfrequent paying and they perhaps air least the lowly class whom a benign necessity compels to follow reasons least ambitious course such do I mean who unperplexed by doubt and uninsighted by a wish to look into high objects farther than they may pace to and fro from mourn till even tied the narrow avenue of daily toil for daily bread yes buoyantly exclaimed the pale recluse praise to the sturdy plough and patient spade praise to the simple crook and ponderous loom resounding while it holds body and mind in one captivity and let the light mechanic tool be hailed with honor which in casing by the power of long companionship the artist's hand cuts off that hand with all its world of nerves from a too busy commerce with the heart inglorious implements of craft and toil both ye that shape and build and ye that force by slow solicitation earth to yield her annual bounties sparingly delved forth with wise reluctance you would I extol not for gross good alone which ye produce but for the impertinent and ceaseless strife of proofs and reasons ye preclude in those who to your dull society are born and with their humble birthright rest content would I had nair renounced it a slight flesh of moral anger previously had tinged the old man's cheek but at this closing turn of self reproach it passed away said he that which we feel we utter as we think so have we argued reaping for our pains no visible recompense for our relief you to the pastor turning thus he spake have kindly interposed may I entreat your further help the mine of real life dig for us and present us in the shape of virgin or that gold which we by pains fruitless as those of airy alchemists seek from the torturing crucible there lies around us a domain where you have long watched both the outward course and inner heart give us for our abstractions solid facts for our disputes plain pictures say what man he is who cultivates yon hanging field what qualities of mine she bears who comes for mourn and evening service with her pale to that green pasture place before our sight the family who dwell within yon house fenced round with glittering laurel or in that below from which the curling smoke ascends or rather as we stand on holy earth and have the debt around us take from them your instances for they are both best known and by frail man most equitably judged epitomize the life pronounce you can authentic epitaphs on some of these who from their lowly mansions hither brought beneath this turf lie moldering at our feet so by your records may our doubts be solved and so not searching higher we may learn to prize the breath we share with humankind and look upon the dust of man with awe the priest replied an office you impose for which peculiar requisites our mind yet much i feel is wanting else the task would be most grateful true indeed it is that they whom death has hidden from our sight are worthiest of the minds regard with these the future cannot contradict the past mortality's last exercise and proof is undergone the transit made that shows the very soul revealed as she departs yet on your first suggestion will i give ere we descend into these silent vaults one picture from the living you behold high on the breast of yon dark mountain dark with stony barrenness a shining speck bright as a sunbeam sleeping till a shower brush it away or cloud pass over it and such it might be deemed a sleeping sunbeam but tis a plot of cultivated ground cut off an island in the dusky waist and that attractive brightness is its own the lofty sight by nature framed to attempt amid a wilderness of rocks and stones the tiller's hand a hermit might have chosen for opportunity presented thence far forth to send his wandering eye or land and ocean and look down upon the works the habitations and the ways of men himself unseen but none of us but no tradition tells that ever hermit dipped his maple dish in the sweet spring that lurks mid yon green fields and no such visionary views belong to those who occupy and till the ground high on that mountain where they long have dwelt a wedded pair in childless solitude a house of stones collected on the spot by rude hands built with rocky knolls in front backed also by a ledge of rock whose crest of birch trees waves over the chimney top a rough abode in color shape and size such as in unsafe times of border war might have been wished for and contrived to elude the eye of roving plunderer for their need suffices and unshaken bears the assault of their most dreaded foe the strong southwest in anger blowing from the distant sea alone within her solitary hut there or within the compass of her fields at any moment may the dame be found true as the stocked of to her shallow nest into the grove that holds it she beguiles by intermingled work of house and field the summer's day and winters with success not equal but sufficient to maintain even at the worst a smooth stream of content until the expected hour at which her mate from the far distant quarry's vault returns and by his converse crowns a silent day with evening cheerfulness in powers of mind and scale of culture few among my flock hold lower rank than this sequestered pair but true humility descends from heaven and that best gift of heaven hath fallen on them abundant recompense for every want stoop from your height ye proud and copy these who in their noiseless dwelling place can hear the voice of wisdom whispering scripture texts for the mind's government or tempers peace and recommending for their mutual need forgiveness patience hope and charity much was I pleased the gray eyed wanderer said when to those shining fields our notice first you turned and yet more pleased to have from your lips gathered this fair report of them who dwell in that retirement wither by such course of evil happen good as oft awaits a tired wayfaring man once I was brought while traversing alone yon mountain pass dark on my road the autumnal evening fell and night succeeded with unusual gloom so hazardous that feet in hands became guides better than mine eyes until a light high in the gloom appeared too high me thought for human habitation but I longed to reach it destitute of other hope I looked with steadiness as sailors look on the north star or watch towers distant lamp and saw the light now fixed and shifting now not like a dancing meteor but in line of never varying motion to and fro it is no night fire of the naked hills thought I some friendly covered must be near with this persuasion to the word my steps I turn and reach at last the guiding light joy to myself but to the heart of her who there was standing on the open hill the same kind matron whom your tongue hath praised alarm and disappointment the alarm ceased when she learned through what mishap I came and by what help had gained those distant fields drawn from her cottage on that airy height bearing a lantern in her hand she stood or paced the ground to guide her husband home by that unwirried signal kend afar an anxious duty which the lofty sight traversed but by a few irregular paths imposes when so air untoward chance detains him after his accustomed hour till night lies black upon the ground but come come said the matron to our poor abode those dark rocks hide it entering I beheld a blazing fire beside a cleanly hearth sat down and to her office with leave asked the dame returned or air that glowing pile of mountain turf required the builder's hand its wasted splendor to repair the door opened and she re-entered with glad looks her helpmate following hospitable fair frank conversation made the evening's treat needed bewildered traveller wish for more but more was given I studied as we sat by the bright fire the good man's form and face not less than beautiful an open brow of undisturbed humanity a cheek suffused with something of a feminine hue eyes beaming courtesy and mild regard but in the quicker turns of the discourse expression slowly varying that evinced a tardy apprehension from a found lost thought I in the obscurities of time but honored once those features and that mean may have descended though I see them here in such a man so gentle and subdued with all so graceful in his gentleness a race illustrious for heroic deeds humbled but not degraded may expire this pleasing fancy cherished and upheld by sundry recollections of such fall from high to low ascent from low to high as books record and even the careless mind cannot but notice among men and things went with me to the place of my repose roused by the crowing cock at dawn of day I yet had risen too late to interchange a morning salutation with my host gone forth already to the far off seat of his day's work three dark midwinter months pass said the matron and I never see save when the Sabbath brings its kind release my helpmate's face by light of day he quits his door in darkness nor till dusk returns and through heaven's blessing thus we gain the bread for which we pray and for the wants provide of sickness accident and helpless age companions have I many many friends dependence comforters my wheel my fire all day at the house clock ticking in my near the cackling hen the tender chicken brood and the wild birds that gather around my porch this honest sheep dogs countenance I read with him can talk nor blush to waste a word on creatures less intelligent and shrewd and if the blustering wind that drives the clouds care not for me he lingers around my door and makes me past time when our tempers suit but above all my thoughts are my support my comfort would that they were often or fixed on what for guidance in the way that leads to heaven I know by my redeemer taught the matron ended nor could I forbear to exclaim oh happy yielding to the law of these privations richer in the main while thankless thousands are oppressed and clogged by ease and leisure by the very wealth and pride of opportunity made poor while tens of thousands falter in their path and sink through utter want of cheering light for you the hours of labor do not flag for you each evening hath its shining star and every Sabbath day its golden sun yes said the solitary with a smile that seemed to break from an expanding heart the untutored bird may found and construct and with such soft materials line her nest fixed in the center of a prickly break that the thorns wound her not they only guard powers not unjustly likened to those gifts of happy instinct which the woodland bird shares with her species nature's grace sometimes upon the individual that confer among her higher creatures born and trained to use of reason and I own that tired of the ostentatious world a swelling stage with empty actions and vain passions stuffed and from the private struggles of mankind hoping far less than I could wish to hope far less than once I trusted and believed I love to hear of those who not contending nor summoned to contend for virtue's prize miss not the humbler good at which they aim blessed with a kindly faculty to blunt the edge of adverse circumstance and turn into their contraries the petty plagues and hindrances with which they stand beset in early youth among my native hills I knew a Scottish peasant who possessed a few small crafts of stone encumbered ground masses of every shape and size that lay scattered about under the moldering walls of a rough precipice and some apart in quarters unobnoxious to such chance as if the moon had showered them down in spite but he repined not though the plow was scared by these obstructions round the shady stones of fertilizing moisture said this way and gathers and is preserved and feeding dews and damps through all the droughty summer day from out there substance issuing maintain herbage that never fails no grass springs up so green so fresh so plentiful as mine but thinly sown these natures rare at least the mutual aptitude of seed and soil that yields such kindly product he whose bed perhaps yawn loose sods cover the poor pensioner brought yesterday from our sequester Dell here to lie down in lasting quiet he if living now could otherwise report of rustic loneliness that gray haired orphan so call him for humanity to him no parent was feelingly could have told in life in death what solitude can breed of selfishness and cruelty and vice or if it breed not hath not power to cure but your compliance sir with our request my words too long have hindered undeterred perhaps incited rather by these shocks in no ungracious opposition given to the confiding spirit of his own experienced faith the reverend pastor said around him looking where shall I begin who shall be first selected from my flock gathered together in their peaceful fold he paused and having lifted up his eyes to the pure heaven he cast them down again upon the earth beneath his feet and spake to a mysteriously united pair this place is consecrate to death and life and to the best affections that proceed from their conjunction consecrate to faith in him who bled for man upon the cross hallowed to revelation and no less to reasons mandates and the hopes divine of pure imagination above all to charity and love that have provided within these precincts a capacious bed and receptacle open to the good and evil to the just and the unjust in which they find an equal resting place even as the multitude of kindred brooks and streams whose murmur fills this hallow veil whether their course be turbulent or smooth their waters clear or sullied all are lost within the bosom of yon crystal lake and end their journey in the same repose and blessed are they who sleep and we that know while in a spot like this we breathe and walk that all beneath us by the wings are covered of motherly humanity outspread and gathering all within their tender shade though loath and slow to come a battlefield in stillness left when slaughter is no more with this compared makes a strange spectacle a dismal prospect yields the wild shore strewn with wrecks and trod by feet of young and old wandering about in miserable search of friends or kindred whom the angry sea restores not to their prayer who would think that all the scattered subjects which compose earth's melancholy vision through the space of all her climbs these wretched these depraved to virtue lost insensible of peace from the delights of charity cut off to pity dead the oppressor and the oppressed tyrants who uttered the destroying word and slaves who will consent to be destroyed were of one species with the sheltered few who with a dutiful and tender hand lodged in a dear appropriated spot this file of infants some that never breathed the vital air others which though allowed that privilege did yet expire too soon or with too brief a warning to admit administration of the holy rite that lovingly consigns the babe to the arms of Jesus and his everlasting care these that in trembling hope are laid apart and the besprinkled nursling unrequired till he begins to smile upon the breast that feeds him and the tottering little one taken from air and sunshine when the rows of infancy first blooms upon his cheek the thinking thoughtless schoolboy the bold youth of soul impetuous and the bashful maid smitten while all the promises of life are opening round her those of middle age cast down while confident in strength they stand like pillars fixed more firmly as might seem and more secure by very weight of all that for support rests on them the decayed and burdensome and lastly that poor few whose light of reason is with age extinct the hopeful and the hopeless first and last the earliest summoned and the longest spared are here deposited with tribute paid various but unto each some tribute paid as if amid these peaceful hills and groves society were touched with kind concern and gentle nature grieved that one should die or if the change demanded no regret observed the liberating stroke and blessed and whence that tribute wherefore these regards not from the naked heart alone of man though claiming high distinction upon earth as the soul spring and fountain head of tears his own peculiar utterance for distress or gladness no the philosophic priest continued tis not in the vital seat of feeling to produce them without aid from the pure soul the soul sublime and pure with her two faculties of eye and ear the one by which a creature whom his sins have rendered prone can upward look to heaven the other that empowers him to perceive the voice of deity on height and plain whispering those truths in stillness which the word to the four quarters of the winds proclaims not without such assistance could the use of these benign observances prevail thus they are born thus fostered thus maintained and by the care perspective of our wise forefathers who to guard against the shocks the fluctuation and decay of things embodied and established these high truths in solemn institutions men convinced that life is love and immortality the being won and won the element there lies the channel and original bed from the beginning hollowed out and scooped for man's affections else betrayed and lost and swallowed up mid deserts infinite this is the genuine course the aim and end of prescient reason all conclusions else are abject vain presumptuous and perverse the faith partaking of those holy times life I repeat is energy of love divine or human exercised in pain in strife and tribulation and ordained if so approved and sanctified to pass through shades and silent rest to endless joy end of book five of the excursion by William Wordsworth