Page:The Excursion, Wordsworth, 1814.djvu/45

19 In the adjoining Village; but the Youth,

Who of this service made a short essay,

Found that the wanderings of his thought were then

A misery to him; that he must resign

A task he was unable to perform.

That stern yet kindly spirit, Who constrains

The Savoyard to quit his naked rocks,

The free-born Swiss to leave his narrow vales,

(Spirit attached to regions mountainous

Like their own stedfast clouds)—did now impel

His restless Mind to look abroad with hope.

—An irksome drudgery seems it to plod on,

Through dusty ways, in storm, from door to door,

A vagrant Merchant bent beneath his load!

Yet do such Travellers find their own delight;

And their hard service, deemed debasing now,

Gained merited respect in simpler times;

When Squire, and Priest, and they who round them dwelt

In rustic sequestration, all, dependant

Upon the 's toil—supplied their wants,

Or pleased their fancies, with the wares he brought.

Not ignorant was the Youth that still no few