Page:The Excursion, Wordsworth, 1814.djvu/183

157 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 aught that innocently satisfies

The humbler cravings of the heart; and He

Is a still 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 favour most,