Page:The Prelude, Wordsworth, 1850.djvu/250

228 An idler among academic bowers,

Such was my new condition, as at large

Has been set forth; yet here the vulgar light

Of present, actual, superficial life,

Gleaming through colouring of other times,

Old usages and local privilege,

Was welcome, softened, if not solemnised.

This notwithstanding, being brought more near

To vice and guilt, forerunning wretchedness,

I trembled,—thought, at times, of human life

With an indefinite terror and dismay,

Such as the storms and angry elements

Had bred in me; but gloomier far, a dim

Analogy to uproar and misrule,

Disquiet, danger, and obscurity.

It might be told (but wherefore speak of things

Common to all?) that, seeing, I was led

Gravely to ponder—judging between good

And evil, not as for the mind's delight

But for her guidance—one who was to act,

As sometimes to the best of feeble means

I did, by human sympathy impelled:

And, through dislike and most offensive pain,

Was to the truth conducted; of this faith