Page:The Excursion, Wordsworth, 1814.djvu/139

113 But for its absolute self; a life of peace,

Stability without regret or fear;

That hath been, is, and shall be evermore!

Such the reward he sought; and wore out Life,

There, where on few external things his heart

Was set, and those his own; or, if not his,

Subsisting under Nature's steadfast law.

What other yearning was the master tie

Of the monastic Brotherhood; upon Rock

Aerial, or in green secluded Vale,

One after one, collected from afar,

An undissolving Fellowship?—What but this,

The universal instinct of repose,

The longing for confirmed tranquillity,

Inward and outward; humble, yet sublime:—

The life where hope and memory are as one;

Earth quiet and unchanged; the human Soul

Consistent in self-rule; and heaven revealed

To meditation, in that quietness!

Such was their scheme:—thrice happy he who gained

The end proposed! And,—though the same were missed

By multitudes, perhaps obtained by none,—