Page:The Prelude, Wordsworth, 1850.djvu/257

BOOK VIII.] One sense for moral judgments, as one eye

For the sun's light. The soul when smitten thus

By a sublime idea, whencesoe'er

Vouchsafed for union or communion, feeds

On the pure bliss, and takes her rest with God.

Thus from a very early age, O Friend!

My thoughts by slow gradations had been drawn

To human-kind, and to the good and ill

Of human life: Nature had led me on;

And oft amid the "busy hum" I seemed

To travel independent of her help,

As if I had forgotten her; but no,

The world of human-kind outweighed not hers

In my habitual thoughts; the scale of love,

Though filling daily, still was light, compared

With that in which her mighty objects lay.