Page:The Prelude, Wordsworth, 1850.djvu/143

BOOK V. Meanwhile old grandame earth is grieved to find

The playthings, which her love designed for him,

Unthought of: in their woodland beds the flowers

Weep, and the river sides are all forlorn.

Oh! give us once again the wishing cap

Of Fortunatus, and the invisible coat

Of Jack the Giant-killer, Robin Hood,

And Sabra in the forest with St. George!

The child, whose love is here, at least, doth reap

One precious gain, that he forgets himself.

These mighty workmen of our later age,

Who, with a broad highway, have overbridged

The froward chaos of futurity,

Tamed to their bidding; they who have the skill

To manage books, and things, and make them act

On infant minds as surely as the sun

Deals with a flower; the keepers of our time,

The guides and wardens of our faculties,

Sages who in their prescience would control

All accidents, and to the very road

Which they have fashioned would confine us down,

Like engines; when will their presumption learn,

That in the unreasoning progress of the world

A wiser spirit is at work for us,