Page:The Excursion, Wordsworth, 1814.djvu/190

164 An animated eye; and thoughts were mine

Which this ejaculation clothed in words—

"Oh! what a joy it were, in vigorous health,

To have a Body (this our vital Frame

With shrinking sensibility endued,

And all the nice regards of flesh and blood)

And to the elements surrender it

As if it were a Spirit!—How divine,

The liberty, for frail, for mortal man

To roam at large among unpeopled glens

And mountainous retirements, only trod

By devious footsteps; regions consecrate

To oldest time! and, reckless of the storm

That keeps the raven quiet in her nest,

Be as a Presence or a Motion—one

Among the many there; and, while the Mists

Flying, and rainy Vapours, call out Shapes

And Phantoms from the crags and solid earth

As fast as a Musician scatters sounds

Out of an instrument; and, while the Streams—

(As at a first creation and in haste

To exercise their untried faculties)

Descending from the region of the clouds

And starting from the hollows of the earth