Page:The Excursion, Wordsworth, 1814.djvu/242

216 Remorseless punishment; and so retreads

The inevitable circle: better far

Than this, to graze the herb in thoughtless peace,

By foresight or remembrance, undisturbed!

Philosophy! and thou more vaunted name

Religion! with thy statelier retinue,

Faith, Hope, and Charity—from the visible world

Choose for your Emblems whatsoe'er ye find

Of safest guidance and of firmest trust,—

The Torch, the Star, the Anchor; nor except

The Cross itself, at whose unconscious feet

The Generations of Mankind have knelt

Ruefully seized, and shedding bitter tears,

And through that conflict seeking rest—of you,

High-titled Powers, am I constrained to ask,

Here standing, with the unvoyageable sky

In faint reflection of infinitude

Stretched overhead, and at my pensive feet

A subterraneous magazine of bones

In whose dark vaults my own shall soon be laid,

Where are your triumphs? your dominion where?

And in what age admitted and confirmed?