Page:The Excursion, Wordsworth, 1814.djvu/253

227 And which, once built, retains a steadfast shape

And undisturbed proportions; but a thing

Subject, you deem, to vital accidents;

And, like the water-lilly, lives and thrives;

Whose root is fixed in stable earth, whose head

Floats on the tossing waves. With joy sincere

I re-salute these sentiments, confirmed

By your authority. But how acquire

The inward principle, that gives effect

To outward argument; the passive will

Meek to admit; the active energy,

Strong and unbounded to embrace, and firm

To keep and cherish? How shall Man unite

A self-forgetting tenderness of heart

And earth-despising dignity of soul?

Wise in that union, and without it blind!"

"The way," said I, "to court, if not obtain

The ingenuous Mind, apt to be set aright;

This, in the lonely Dell discoursing, you

Declared at large; and by what exercise

From visible nature or the inner self

Power may be trained, and renovation brought