Page:The Prelude, Wordsworth, 1850.djvu/132

110 And their high privilege of lasting life,

From all internal injury exempt,

I mused, upon these chiefly: and at length,

My senses yielding to the sultry air,

Sleep seized me, and I passed into a dream.

I saw before me stretched a boundless plain

Of sandy wilderness, all black and void,

And as I looked around, distress and fear

Came creeping over me, when at my side,

Close at my side, an uncouth shape appeared

Upon a dromedary, mounted high.

He seemed an Arab of the Bedouin tribes:

A lance he bore, and underneath one arm

A stone, and in the opposite hand a shell

Of a surpassing brightness. At the sight

Much I rejoiced, not doubting but a guide

Was present, one who with unerring skill

Would through the desert lead me; and while yet

I looked and looked, self-questioned what this freight

Which the new-comer carried through the waste

Could mean, the Arab told me that the stone

(To give it in the language of the dream)

Was "Euclid's Elements;" and "This," said he,

"Is something of more worth;" and at the word

Stretched forth the shell, so beautiful in shape,