Page:The Excursion, Wordsworth, 1814.djvu/418

392 To whom kind Nature, therefore, may afford

Proof of the sacred love she bears for all;

Whose birth-right Reason, therefore, may ensure.

For me, consulting what I feel within

In times when most existence with herself

Is satisfied, I cannot but believe,

That, far as kindly Nature hath free scope

And Reason's sway predominates, even so far,

Country, society, and time itself,

That saps the Individual's bodily frame

And lays the generations low in dust,

Do, by the Almighty Ruler's grace, partake

Of one maternal spirit, bringing forth

And cherishing with ever-constant love,

That tires not, nor betrays. Our Life is turned

Out of her course, wherever Man is made

An offering, or a sacrifice, a tool

Or implement, a passive Thing employed

As a brute mean, without acknowledgment

Of common right or interest in the end;

Used or abused, as selfishness may prompt.

Say, what can follow for a rational Soul

Perverted thus, but weakness in all good,