Page:The Prelude, Wordsworth, 1850.djvu/390

368 That by endowments not from me withheld

Good might be furthered—in his last decay

By a bequest sufficient for my needs

Enabled me to pause for choice, and walk

At large and unrestrained, nor damped too soon

By mortal cares. Himself no Poet, yet

Far less a common follower of the world,

He deemed that my pursuits and labours lay

Apart from all that leads to wealth, or even

A necessary maintenance insures,

Without some hazard to the finer sense;

He cleared a passage for me, and the stream

Flowed in the bent of Nature.

Having now

Told what best merits mention, further pains

Our present purpose seems not to require,

And I have other tasks. Recall to mind

The mood in which this labour was begun,

O Friend! The termination of my course

Is nearer now, much nearer; yet even then,

In that distraction and intense desire,

I said unto the life which I had lived,

Where art thou? Hear I not a voice from thee

Which 'tis reproach to hear? Anon I rose

As if on wings, and saw beneath me stretched