Flew open, and a pair of lusty Boys
Appeared, confusion checking their delight.
Not brothers they in feature or attire,
But fond companions, so I guessed, in field,
And by the river's margin-whence they come,
Keen anglers with unusual spoil elated.
One bears a willow-pannier on his back,
The boy of plainer garb, whose blush survives
More deeply tinged. Twin might the other be
To that fair girl who from the garden-mount
Bounded: triumphant entry this for him!
Between his hands he holds a smooth blue stone,
On whose capacious surface see outspread
Large store of gleaming crimson-spotted trouts ;
Ranged side by side, and lessening by degrees
Up to the dwarf that tops the pinnacle.
Upon the board he lays the sky-blue stone

With its rich freight; their number he proclaims;
Tells from what pool the noblest had been dragged ;
And where the very monarch of the brook,

After long struggle, had escaped at last—
Stealing alternately at them and us

(As doth his comrade too) a look of pride;
And, verily, the silent creatures made
A splendid sight, together thus exposed;
Dead-but not sullied or deformed by death,
That seemed to pity what he could not spare.

But O, the animation in the mien
Of those two boys! yea in the very words
With which the young narrator was inspired,
When, as our questions led, he told at large
Of that day's prowess! Him might I compare,
His looks, tones, gestures, eager eloquence,
To a bold brook that splits for better speed,
And at the self-same moment, works its way
Through many channels, ever and anon
Parted and re-united: his compeer
To the still lake, whose stillness is to sight
As beautiful--as grateful to the mind.
-But to what object shall the lovely Girl
Be likened? She whose countenance and air
Unite the graceful qualities of both,

Even as she shares the pride and joy of both.

My grey-haired Friend was moved; his vivid eye Glistened with tenderness; his mind, I knew,

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Was full; and had, I doubted not, returned,
Upon this impulse, to the theme-erewhile
Abruptly broken off. The ruddy boys

Withdrew, on summons to their well-earned meal;
And He to whom all tongues resigned their rights
With willingness, to whom the general ear
Listened with readier patience than to strain

Of music, lute or harp, a long delight

That ceased not when his voice had ceased-as One

Who from truth's central point serenely views

The compass of his argument-began

Mildly, and with a clear and steady tone.

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BOOK NINTH

DISCOURSE OF THE WANDERER, AND AN
EVENING VISIT TO THE LAKE

ARGUMENT

WANDERER asserts that an active principle pervades the Universe, its noblest seat the human soul.-How lively this principle is in Childhood.Hence the delight in old Age of looking back upon Childhood.-The dignity, powers, and privileges of Age asserted.-These not to be looked for generally but under a just government.-Right of a human Creature to be exempt from being considered as a mere Instrument.-The condition of multitudes deplored.-Former conversation recurred to, and the Wanderer's opinions set in a clearer light.-Truth placed within reach of the humblest.-Equality. -Happy state of the two Boys again adverted to.-Earnest wish expressed for a System of National Education established universally by Government.Glorious effects of this foretold.-Walk to the Lake.-Grand spectacle from the side of a hill.-Address of Priest to the Supreme Being-in the course of which he contrasts with ancient Barbarism the present appearance of the scene before him.-The change ascribed to Christianity.-Apostrophe to his flock, living and dead.-Gratitude to the Almighty.-Return over the Lake. -Parting with the Solitary.-Under what circumstances.

"T

O every Form of being is assigned,'

Thus calmly spake the venerable Sage,
'An active Principle: howe'er removed
From sense and observation, it subsists
In all things, in all natures; in the stars
Of azure heaven, the unenduring clouds,
In flower and tree, in every pebbly stone
That paves the brooks, the stationary rocks,
The moving waters, and the invisible air.
Whate'er exists hath properties that spread
Beyond itself, communicating good,
A simple blessing, or with evil mixed;

ΤΟ

Spirit that knows no insulated spot,

No chasm, no solitude; from link to link
It circulates, the Soul of all the worlds.
This is the freedom of the universe;
Unfolded still the more, more visible,

The more we know; and yet is reverenced least,//
And least respected in the human Mind,

Its most apparent home. The food of hope
Is meditated action; robbed of this

ކ

Her sole support, she languishes and dies.
We perish also; for we live by hope
And by desire; we see by the glad light
And breathe the sweet air of futurity;
And so we live, or else we have no life.
To-morrow-nay perchance this very hour.
(For every moment hath its own to-morrow!)
Those blooming Boys, whose hearts are almost sick
With present triumph, will be sure to find
A field before them freshened with the dew
Of other expectations;-in which course
Their happy year spins round. The youth obeys
A like glad impulse; and so moves the man
'Mid all his apprehensions, cares, and fears,-
Or so he ought to move. Ah! why in age
Do we revert so fondly to the walks

Of childhood—but that there the Soul discerns
The dear memorial footsteps unimpaired

Of her own native vigour; thence can hear
Reverberations; and a choral song,

Commingling with the incense that ascends,
Undaunted, toward the imperishable heavens,
From her own lonely altar?

Do not think

That good and wise ever will be allowed,
Though strength decay, to breathe in such estate
As shall divide them wholly from the stir
Of hopeful nature. Rightly it is said
That Man descends into the VALE of years;
Yet have I thought that we might also speak,
And not presumptuously, I trust, of Age,
As of a final EMINENCE though bare
In aspect and forbidding, yet a point
On which 'tis not impossible to sit
In awful sovereignty; a place of power,
A throne, that may be likened unto his,
Who, in some placid day of summer, looks
Down from a mountain-top,-say one of those

High peaks, that bound the vale where now we are.
Faint, and diminished to the gazing eye,
Forest and field, and hill and dale appear,
With all the shapes over their surface spread:
But, while the gross and visible frame of things
Relinquishes its hold upon the sense,

Yea almost on the Mind herself, and seems
All unsubstantialized, how loud the voice
Of waters, with invigorated peal
From the full river in the vale below,
Ascending! For on that superior height
Who sits, is disencumbered from the press
Of near obstructions, and is privileged
To breathe in solitude, above the host
Of ever-humming insects, 'mid thin air

That suits not them. The murmur of the leaves
Many and idle, visits not his ear:

This he is freed from, and from thousand notes
(Not less unceasing, not less vain than these,)
By which the finer passages of sense

Are occupied; and the Soul, that would incline
To listen, is prevented or deterred.

And may it not be hoped, that, placed by age In like removal, tranquil though severe,

We are not so removed for utter loss;

But for some favour, suited to our need?

What more, than that the severing should confer
Fresh power to commune with the invisible world,
And hear the mighty stream of tendency
Uttering, for elevation of our thought,

A clear sonorous voice, inaudible

To the vast multitude; whose doom it is
To run the giddy round of vain delight,
Or fret and labour on the Plain below.

'But, if to such sublime ascent the hopes
Of Man may rise, as to a welcome close
And termination of his mortal course;
Them only can such hope inspire whose minds
Have not been starved by absolute neglect;
Nor bodies crushed by unremitting toil;
To whom kind Nature, therefore, may afford
Proof of the sacred love she bears for all;
Whose birthright Reason, therefore, may ensure.
For me, consulting what I feel within

In times when most existence with herself

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Is satisfied, I cannot but believe,

That, far as kindly Nature hath free scope

And Reason's sway predominates; even so far,
Country, society, and time itself,

That saps the individual's bodily frame,
And lays the generations low in dust,

Do, by the almighty Ruler's grace, partake
Of one maternal spirit, bringing forth
And cherishing with ever-constant love,
That tires not, nor betrays. Qur life is turned
Out of her course, wherever man is made
An offering, or a sacrifice, a tool

Or implement, a passive thing employed
As a brute mean, without acknowledgment
Of common right or interest in the end;
Used or abused, as selfishness may prompt.
Say, what can follow for a rational soul
Perverted thus, but weakness in all good,
And strength in evil? Hence an after-call
For chastisement, and custody, and bonds,
And oft-times Death, avenger of the past,
And the sole guardian in whose hands we dare
Entrust the future.-Not for these sad issues
Was Man created; but to obey the law

Of life, and hope, and action. And 'tis known
That when we stand upon our native soil,
Unelbowed by such objects as oppress

Our active powers, those powers themselves become
Strong to subvert our noxious qualities:
They sweep distemper from the busy day,

And make the chalice of the big round year

Run o'er with gladness; whence the Being moves
In beauty through the world; and all who see
Bless him, rejoicing in his neighbourhood.'

'Then,' said the Solitary, 'by what force Of language shall a feeling heart express Her sorrow for that multitude in whom

We look for health from seeds that have been sown
In sickness, and for increase in a power
That works but by extinction? On themselves
They cannot lean, nor turn to their own hearts
To know what they must do; their wisdom is
To look into the eyes of others, thence
To be instructed what they must avoid :
Or rather, let us say, how least observed,
How with most quiet and most silent death,

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