Page:The Prelude, Wordsworth, 1850.djvu/224

202 From early converse with the works of God

Among all regions; chiefly where appear

Most obviously simplicity and power.

Think, how the everlasting streams and woods,

Stretched and still stretching far and wide, exalt

The roving Indian, on his desert sands:

What grandeur not unfelt, what pregnant show

Of beauty, meets the sun-burnt Arab's eye:

And, as the sea propels, from zone to zone,

Its currents; magnifies its shoals of life

Beyond all compass; spreads, and sends aloft

Armies of clouds,—even so, its powers and aspects

Shape for mankind, by principles as fixed,

The views and aspirations of the soul

To majesty. Like virtue have the forms

Perennial of the ancient hills; nor less

The changeful language of their countenances

Quickens the slumbering mind, and aids the thoughts,

However multitudinous, to move

With order and relation. This, if still,

As hitherto, in freedom I may speak,

Not violating any just restraint,

As may be hoped, of real modesty,—

This did I feel, in London's vast domain.

The Spirit of Nature was upon me there;