Page:The Excursion, Wordsworth, 1814.djvu/132

106 These were your words; and, verily, methinks

Wisdom is oft-times nearer when we stoop

Than when we soar."—

The Other, not displeased,

Promptly replied—"My notion is the same.

And I, without reluctance, could decline

All act of inquisition whence we rise,

And what, when breath hath ceased, we may become.

Here are we, in a bright and breathing World!

Our origin, what matters it? In lack

Of worthier explanation, say at once

With the American (a thought which suits

The place where now we stand) that certain Men

Leapt out together from a rocky Cave;

And these were the first Parents of Mankind!

Or, if a different image be recalled

By the warm sunshine, and the jocund voice

Of insects—chirping out their careless lives

On these soft beds of thyme-besprinkled turf,

Chuse, with the gay Athenian, a conceit

As sound; with that blithe race who wore ere-while

Their golden Grasshoppers, in sign that they

Had sprung from out the soil whereon they dwelt.