Page:The Prelude, Wordsworth, 1850.djvu/369

BOOK XIII.] To consecrate, if we have eyes to see,

The outside of her creatures, and to breathe

Grandeur upon the very humblest face

Of human life. I felt that the array

Of act and circumstance, and visible form,

Is mainly to the pleasure of the mind

What passion makes them; that meanwhile the forms

Of Nature have a passion in themselves,

That intermingles with those works of man

To which she summons him; although the works

Be mean, have nothing lofty of their own;

And that the Genius of the Poet hence

May boldly take his way among mankind

Wherever Nature leads; that he hath stood

By Nature's side among the men of old,

And so shall stand for ever. Dearest Friend!

If thou partake the animating faith

That Poets, even as Prophets, each with each

Connected in a mighty scheme of truth,

Have each his own peculiar faculty,

Heaven's gift, a sense that fits him to perceive

Objects unseen before, thou wilt not blame

The humblest of this band who dares to hope

That unto him hath also been vouchsafed

An insight that in some sort he possesses,