Page:The Prelude, Wordsworth, 1850.djvu/358

336 By gratitude, and confidence in truth.

Long time in search of knowledge did I range

The field of human life, in heart and mind

Benighted; but, the dawn beginning now

To re-appear, 'twas proved that not in vain

I had been taught to reverence a Power

That is the visible quality and shape

And image of right reason; that matures

Her processes by steadfast laws; gives birth

To no impatient or fallacious hopes,

No heat of passion or excessive zeal,

No vain conceits; provokes to no quick turns

Of self-applauding intellect; but trains

To meekness, and exalts by humble faith;

Holds up before the mind intoxicate

With present objects, and the busy dance

Of things that pass away, a temperate show

Of objects that endure; and by this course

Disposes her, when over-fondly set

On throwing off incumbrances, to seek

In man, and in the frame of social life,

Whate'er there is desirable and good

Of kindred permanence, unchanged in form

And function, or, through strict vicissitude

Of life and death, revolving. Above all