Page:The Excursion, Wordsworth, 1814.djvu/198

172 Their Town, and foodful Region for support

Against the pressure of beleaguring war.

Chaldean Shepherds, ranging trackless fields,

Beneath the concave of unclouded skies

Spread like a sea, in boundless solitude,

Looked on the Polar Star, as on a Guide

And Guardian of their course, that never closed

His steadfast eye. The Planetary Five

With a submissive reverence they beheld;

Watched, from the centre of their sleeping flocks,

Those radiant Mercuries, that seemed to move

Carrying through Ether, in perpetual round,

Decrees and resolutions of the Gods;

And, by their aspects, signifying works

Of dim futurity, to Man revealed.

—The Imaginative Faculty was Lord

Of observations natural; and, thus

Led on, those Shepherds made report of Stars

In set rotation passing to and fro,

Between the orbs of our apparent sphere

And its invisible counterpart, adorned