Page:The Excursion, Wordsworth, 1814.djvu/359

333 But each instinct with spirit; and the frame

Of the whole countenance alive with thought,

Fancy, and understanding; while the voice

Discoursed of natural and moral truth

With eloquence, and such authentic power,

That, in his presence, humbler knowledge stood

Abashed, and tender pity overawed."

"A noble—and, to unreflecting minds,

A marvellous spectacle," the Wanderer said,

"Beings like these present! But proof abounds

Upon the earth that faculties, which seem

Extinguished, do not, therefore, cease to be.

And to the mind among her powers of sense

This transfer is permitted,—not alone

That the bereft may win their recompence;

But for remoter purposes of love

And charity; nor last nor least for this,

That to the imagination may be given

A type and shadow of an awful truth,

How, likewise, under sufferance divine,

Darkness is banished from the realms of Death,

By man's imperishable spirit, quelled.