Page:The Excursion, Wordsworth, 1814.djvu/257

231 Who, from their lowly mansions hither brought,

Beneath this turf lie mouldering at our feet.

So, by your records, may our doubts be solved;

And so, not searching higher, we may learn

To prize the breath we share with human kind;

And look upon the dust of Man with awe."

The Priest replied.—"An office you impose

For which peculiar requisites are mine;

Yet much, I feel, is wanting—else the task

Would be most grateful. True indeed it is

That They whom Death has hidden from our sight

Are worthiest of the Mind's regard; with these

The future cannot contradict the past:

Mortality's last exercise and proof

Is undergone; the transit made that shews

The very soul, revealed as it departs.

Yet, on your first suggestion, will I give,

Ere we descend into these silent vaults,

One Picture from the living.—

You behold,

High on the breast of yon dark mountain—dark

With stony barrenness, a shining speck