Page:The Excursion, Wordsworth, 1814.djvu/396

370 Possess such privilege, how could we escape

Regret and painful sadness, who revere,

And would preserve as things above all price,

The old domestic morals of the land,

Her simple manners, and the stable worth

That dignified and cheered a low estate.

Oh! where is now the character of peace,

Sobriety, and order, and chaste love,

And honest dealing, and untainted speech,

And pure good-will, and hospitable cheer;

That made the very thought of Country-life

A thought of refuge, for a Mind detained

Reluctantly amid the bustling crowd?

Where now the beauty of the Sabbath kept

With conscientious reverence, as a day

By the Almighty Law-giver pronounced

Holy and blest? and where the winning grace

Of all the lighter ornaments attached

To time and season, as the year rolled round?"

"Fled!" was the Wanderer's passionate response,

"Fled utterly! or only to be traced

In a few fortunate Retreats like this;