Page:The Prelude, Wordsworth, 1850.djvu/254

232 Of past and present, such a place must needs

Have pleased me, seeking knowledge at that time

Far less than craving power; yet knowledge came,

Sought or unsought, and influxes of power

Came, of themselves, or at her call derived

In fits of kindliest apprehensiveness,

From all sides, when whate'er was in itself

Capacious found, or seemed to find, in me

A correspondent amplitude of mind;

Such is the strength and glory of our youth!

The human nature unto which I felt

That I belonged, and reverenced with love,

Was not a punctual presence, but a spirit

Diffused through time and space, with aid derived

Of evidence from monuments, erect,

Prostrate, or leaning towards their common rest

In earth, the widely scattered wreck sublime

Of vanished nations, or more clearly drawn

From books and what they picture and record.

'Tis true, the history of our native land,

With those of Greece compared and popular Rome,

And in our high-wrought modern narratives

Stript of their harmonising soul, the life

Of manners and familiar incidents,