Page:The Excursion, Wordsworth, 1814.djvu/218

192 Mysterious union with its native Sea.

Even such a Shell the Universe itself

Is to the ear of Faith; and there are times,

I doubt not, when to You it doth impart

Authentic tidings of invisible things;

Of ebb and flow, and ever-during power;

And central peace, subsisting at the heart

Of endless agitation. Here you stand,

Adore, and worship, when you know it not;

Pious beyond the intention of your thought;

Devout above the meaning of your will.

—Yes, you have felt, and may not cease to feel.

The estate of Man would be indeed forlorn

If false conclusions of the reasoning Power

Made the Eye blind, and closed the passages

Through which the Ear converses with the heart.

Has not the Soul, the Being of your Life

Received a shock of awful consciousness,

In some calm season, when these lofty Rocks

At night's approach bring down the unclouded Sky,

To rest upon their circumambient walls;

A Temple framing of dimensions vast,

And yet not too enormous for the sound