Page:The Excursion, Wordsworth, 1814.djvu/48

22 How they had prospered; how they were o'erthrown

By passion or mischance; or such misrule

Among the unthinking masters of the earth

As makes the nations groan.—This active course,

Chosen in youth, through manhood he pursued,

Till due provision for his modest wants

Had been obtained;—and, thereupon, resolved

To pass the remnant of his days—untasked

With needless services,—from hardship free.

His Calling laid aside, he lived at ease:

But still he loved to pace the public roads

And the wild paths; and, when the summer's warmth

Invited him, would often leave his home

And journey far, revisiting those scenes

Which to his memory were most endeared.

—Vigorous in health, of hopeful spirits, untouched

By worldly-mindedness or anxious care;

Observant, studious, thoughtful, and refreshed

By knowledge gathered up from day to day;—

Thus had he lived a long and innocent life.

The Scottish Church, both on himself and those

With whom from childhood he grew up, had held