Page:The Excursion, Wordsworth, 1814.djvu/140

114 They, for the attempt, and for the pains employed,

Do, in my present censure, stand redeemed

From the unqualified disdain, that once

Would have been cast upon them, by my Voice

Delivering its decisions from the seat

Of forward Youth:—that scruples not to solve

Doubts, and determine questions, by the rules

Of inexperienced judgment, ever prone

To overweening faith; and is inflamed,

By courage, to demand from real life

The test of act and suffering—to provoke

Hostility, how dreadful when it comes,

Whether affliction be the foe, or guilt!

A Child of earth, I rested, in that stage

Of my past course to which these thoughts advert,

Upon earth's native energies; forgetting

That mine was a condition which required

Nor energy, nor fortitude—a calm

Without vicissitude; which, if the like

Had been presented to my view elsewhere,

I might have even been tempted to despise.

But that which was serene was also bright;