Page:The Prelude, Wordsworth, 1850.djvu/321

BOOK XI.] As cause was given me afterwards to learn,

Not proof against the injuries of the day;

Lodged only at the sanctuary's door,

Not safe within its bosom. Thus prepared,

And with such general insight into evil,

And of the bounds which sever it from good,

As books and common intercourse with life

Must needs have given—to the inexperienced mind,

When the world travels in a beaten road,

Guide faithful as is needed—I began

To meditate with ardour on the rule

And management of nations; what it is

And ought to be; and strove to learn how far

Their power or weakness, wealth or poverty,

Their happiness or misery, depends

Upon their laws, and fashion of the State.

(13) O pleasant exercise of hope and joy!

For mighty were the auxiliars which then stood

Upon our side, us who were strong in love!

Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive,

But to be young was very Heaven! O times,

In which the meagre, stale, forbidding ways

Of custom, law, and statute, took at once

The attraction of a country in romance!