Page:The Excursion, Wordsworth, 1814.djvu/250

224 A crown, an attribute of sovereign power,

Still to be courted—never to be won!

—Look forth, or each man dive into himself,

What sees he but a Creature too perturbed,

That is transported to excess; that yearns,

Regrets, or trembles, wrongly, or too much;

Hopes rashly, in disgust as rash recoils;

Battens on spleen, or moulders in despair.

Thus truth is missed, and comprehension fails;

And darkness and delusion round our path

Spread, from disease, whose subtile injury lurks

Within the very faculty of sight.

Yet for the general purposes of faith

In Providence, for solace and support,

We may not doubt that who can best subject

The will to Reason's law, and strictliest live

And act in that obedience, he shall gain

The clearest apprehension of those truths,

Which unassisted reason's utmost power

Is too infirm to reach. But—waiving this,

And our regards confining within bounds

Of less exalted consciousness—through which