Page:The Excursion, Wordsworth, 1814.djvu/197

171 To benefit and bless, through mightier power:

—Whether the Persian—zealous to reject

Altar and Image and the inclusive walls

And roofs of Temples built by human hands,

The loftiest heights ascending, from their tops,

With myrtle-wreathed Tiara on his brows—

Presented sacrifice to Moon and Stars,

And to the winds and Mother Elements,

And the whole Circle of the Heavens, for him

A sensitive Existence, and a God,

With lifted hands invoked, and songs of praise:

Or, less reluctantly to bonds of Sense

Yielding his Soul, the Babylonian framed

For influence undefined a personal Shape;

And, from the Plain, with toil immense, upreared

Tower eight times planted on the top of Tower;

That Belus, nightly to his splendid Couch

Descending, there might rest; and, from that Height

Pure and serene, the Godhead overlook

Winding Euphrates, and the City vast

Of his devoted Worshippers, far-stretched;

With grove, and field, and garden, interspersed;