Page:The Excursion, Wordsworth, 1814.djvu/80

54 Sad contrast! all too often smote his heart

With unavailing pity. Rich in love

And sweet humanity, he was, himself,

To the degree that he desired, beloved.

—Greetings and smiles we met with all day long

From faces that he knew; we took our seats

By many a cottage hearth, where he received

The welcome of an Inmate come from far.

—Nor was he loth to enter ragged Huts,

Wherein his charity was blessed; his voice

Heard as the voice of an experienced Friend.

And, sometimes, where the Poor Man held dispute

With his own mind, unable to subdue

Impatience, through inaptness to perceive

General distress in his particular lot;

Or cherishing resentment, or in vain

Struggling against it, with a soul perplexed,

And finding in itself no steady power

To draw the line of comfort that divides

Calamity, the chastisement of heaven,

From the injustice of our brother men;

To Him appeal was made as to a judge;

Who, with an understanding heart, allayed