Page:The Excursion, Wordsworth, 1814.djvu/267

241 "From out their substance issuing, maintain

"Herbage that never fails; no grass springs up

"So green, so fresh, so plentiful, as mine!"

See, in this well conditioned Soul, a Third

To match with your good Couple that put forth

Their homely graces on the mountain side.

But thinly sown these Natures; rare at least

The mutual aptitude of seed and soil

That yields such kindly product. He—whose bed

Perhaps yon loose sods cover, the poor Pensioner

Brought yesterday from our sequestered dell

Here to lie down in lasting quiet—he,

If living now, could otherwise report

Of rustic loneliness: that grey-haired Orphan—

So call him, for humanity to him

No parent was—could feelingly have told,

In life, in death, what Solitude can breed

Of selfishness, and cruelty, and vice;

Or, if it breed not, hath not power to cure.

—But your compliance, Sir! with our request

My words too long have hindered."

Undeterred,

Perhaps incited rather, by these shocks,