Page:The Prelude, Wordsworth, 1850.djvu/389

BOOK XIV.] In hardy independence, to stand up

Amid conflicting interests, and the shock

Of various tempers; to endure and note

What was not understood, though known to be;

Among the mysteries of love and hate,

Honour and shame, looking to right and left,

Unchecked by innocence too delicate,

And moral notions too intolerant,

Sympathies too contracted. Hence, when called

To take a station among men, the step

Was easier, the transition more secure,

More profitable also; for, the mind

Learns from such timely exercise to keep

In wholesome separation the two natures,

The one that feels, the other that observes.

Yet one word more of personal concern—

Since I withdrew unwillingly from France,

I led an undomestic wanderer's life,

In London chiefly harboured, whence I roamed,

Tarrying at will in many a pleasant spot

Of rural England's cultivated vales

Or Cambrian solitudes. A youth—(he bore

The name of Calvert—it shall live, if words

Of mine can give it life,) in firm belief