Page:The Prelude, Wordsworth, 1850.djvu/360

338 With settling judgments now of what would last

And what would disappear; prepared to find

Presumption, folly, madness, in the men

Who thrust themselves upon the passive world

As Rulers of the world; to see in these,

Even when the public welfare is their aim,

Plans without thought, or built on theories

Vague and unsound; and having brought the books

Of modern statists to their proper test,

Life, human life, with all its sacred claims

Of sex and age, and heaven-descended rights,

Mortal, or those beyond the reach of death;

And having thus discerned how dire a thing

Is worshipped in that idol proudly named

"The Wealth of Nations," where alone that wealth

Is lodged, and how increased; and having gained

A more judicious knowledge of the worth

And dignity of individual man,

No composition of the brain, but man

Of whom we read, the man whom we behold

With our own eyes—I could not but inquire—

Not with less interest than heretofore,

But greater, though in spirit more subdued—

Why is this glorious creature to be found

One only in ten thousand? What one is,