Page:The Excursion, Wordsworth, 1814.djvu/279

253 If multiplied, and in their stations set,

Would o'er the bosom of a joyful Land

Spread true Religion, and her genuine fruits)

Before me stood that day; on holy ground

Fraught with the relics of mortality,

Exalting tender themes, by just degrees

To lofty raised; and to the highest, last;

The head and mighty paramount of truths;

Immortal life, in never-fading worlds,

For mortal Creatures, conquered and secured.

That basis laid, those principles of faith

Announced, as a preparatory act

Of reverence to the spirit of the place;

The Pastor cast his eyes upon the ground,

Not, as before, like one oppressed with awe,

But with a mild and social chearfulness;

Then to the Solitary turned, and spake.

"At morn or eve, in your retired Domain,

Perchance you not unfrequently have marked

A Visitor—intent upon the task

Of prying, low and high, for herbs and flowers: