Page:The Excursion, Wordsworth, 1814.djvu/353

327 —Ah who (and with such rapture as befits

The hallowed theme) will rise and celebrate

The good Man's deeds and purposes; retrace

His struggles, his discomfiture deplore,

His triumphs hail, and glorify his end?

That Virtue, like the fumes and vapoury clouds

Through fancy's heat redounding in the brain,

And like the soft infections of the heart,

By charm of measured words may spread through fields

And cottages, and Piety survive

Upon the lips of Men in hall or bower;

Not for reproof, but high and warm delight,

And grave encouragement, by song inspired.

—Vain thought! but wherefore murmur or repine?

The memory of the just survives in heaven:

And, without sorrow, will this ground receive

That venerable clay. Meanwhile the best

Of what it holds confines us to degrees

In excellence less difficult to reach,

And milder worth: nor need we travel far

From those to whom our last regards were paid

For such example.

Almost at the root