Page:The Excursion, Wordsworth, 1814.djvu/271

245 Cast down while confident in strength they stand,

Like pillars fixed more firmly, as might seem,

And more secure, by very weight of all

That, for support, rests on them; the decayed

And burthensome; and, lastly, that poor few

Whose light of reason is with age extinct;

The hopeful and the hopeless, first and last,

The earliest summoned and the longest spared,

Are here deposited, with tribute paid

Various; but unto each some tribute paid;

As if, amid these peaceful hills and groves,

Society were touched with kind concern,

And gentle "Nature grieved that One should die;"

Or, if the change demanded no regret,

Observed the liberating stroke—and blessed.

—And whence that tribute? wherefore these regards?

Not from the naked Heart alone of Man

(Though framed to high distinction upon earth

As the sole spring and fountain-head of tears,

His own peculiar utterance for distress

Or gladness) No," the philosophic Priest

Continued, tis not in the vital seat

Of feeling to produce them, without aid