Page:The Prelude, Wordsworth, 1850.djvu/364

342 Without reserve to them, the lonely roads

Were open schools in which I daily read

With most delight the passions of mankind,

Whether by words, looks, sighs, or tears, revealed;

There saw into the depth of human souls,

Souls that appear to have no depth at all

To careless eyes. And—now convinced at heart

How little those formalities, to which

With overweening trust alone we give

The name of Education, have to do

With real feeling and just sense; how vain

A correspondence with the talking world

Proves to the most; and called to make good search

If man's estate, by doom of Nature yoked

With toil, be therefore yoked with ignorance;

If virtue be indeed so hard to rear,

And intellectual strength so rare a boon—

I prized such walks still more, for there I found

Hope to my hope, and to my pleasure peace

And steadiness, and healing and repose

To every angry passion. There I heard,

From mouths of men obscure and lowly, truths

Replete with honour; sounds in unison

With loftiest promises of good and fair.