Page:The Prelude, Wordsworth, 1850.djvu/270

248 Beat high, and filled the fancy with fair forms,

Old heroes and their sufferings and their deeds;

Yet in the regal sceptre, and the pomp

Of orders and degrees, I nothing found

Then, or had ever, even in crudest youth,

That dazzled me, but rather what I mourned

And ill could brook, beholding that the best

Ruled not, and feeling that they ought to rule.

For, born in a poor district, and which yet

Retaineth more of ancient homeliness,

Than any other nook of English ground,

It was my fortune scarcely to have seen,

Through the whole tenor of my school-day time,

The face of one, who, whether boy or man,

Was vested with attention or respect

Through claims of wealth or blood; nor was it least

Of many benefits, in later years

Derived from academic institutes

And rules, that they held something up to view

Of a Republic, where all stood thus far

Upon equal ground; that we were brothers all

In honour, as in one community,

Scholars and gentlemen; where, furthermore,

Distinction open lay to all that came,