Page:The Excursion, Wordsworth, 1814.djvu/85

59 Lonesome and lost: of whom, and whose past life,

(Not to forestal such knowledge as may be

More faithfully collected from himself,)

This brief communication shall suffice.

Though now sojourning there, he, like myself,

Sprang from a stock of lowly parentage

Among the wilds of Scotland; in a tract

Where many a sheltered and well-tended plant,

Upon the humblest ground of social life,

Doth at this day, I trust, the blossoms bear

Of piety and simple innocence.

Such grateful promises his youth displayed:

And, as he shewed in study forward zeal,

All helps were sought, all measures strained, that He,

By due scholastic discipline prepared,

Might to the Ministry be called: which done,

Partly through lack of better hopes—and part

Perhaps incited by a curious mind,

In early life he undertook the charge

Of Chaplain to a Military Troop

Cheered by the Highland Bagpipe, as they marched