Page:The Excursion, Wordsworth, 1814.djvu/244

218 For, from this pregnant spot of ground, such thoughts

Rise to the notice of a serious Mind

By natural exhalation. With the Dead

In their repose, the Living in their mirth,

Who can reflect, unmoved, upon the round

Of smooth and solemnized complacencies,

By which, on Christian Lands from age to age

Profession mocks Performance. Earth is sick,

And heaven is weary, of the hollow words

Which States and Kingdoms utter when they talk

Of truth and justice. Turn to private life

And social neighbourhood; look we to ourselves;

A light of duty shines on every day

For all; and yet how few are warmed or cheered!

How few who mingle with their fellow-men

And still remain self-governed, and apart,

Like this our honoured friend; and thence acquire

Right to expect his vigorous decline,

That promises to the end a blest old age!"

"Yet," with a smile of triumph thus exclaimed

The Solitary, "In the life of Man,

If to the poetry of common speech