Page:The Excursion, Wordsworth, 1814.djvu/19

xiii Theme this but little heard of among Men,

The external World is fitted to the Mind;

And the creation (by no lower name

Can it be called) which they with blended might

Accomplish:—this is our high argument.

—Such grateful haunts foregoing, if I oft

Must turn elsewhere—to travel near the tribes

And fellowships of men, and see ill sights

Of madding passions mutually inflamed;

Must hear Humanity in fields and groves

Pipe solitary anguish; or must hang

Brooding above the fierce confederate storm

Of sorrow, barricadoed evermore

Within the walls of Cities; may these sounds

Have their authentic comment,—that, even these

Hearing, I be not downcast or forlorn!

—Come thou prophetic Spirit! that inspir'st

The human Soul of universal earth,

Dreaming on things to come; and dost possess

A metropolitan temple in the hearts

Of mighty Poets; upon me bestow

A gift of genuine insight; that my Song

With star-like virtue in its place may shine,

Shedding benignant influence,—and secure,

Itself, from all malevolent effect

Of those mutations that extend their sway

Throughout the nether sphere!—And if with this

I mix more lowly matter; with the thing

Contemplated, describe the Mind and Man

Contemplating; and who, and what he was,