Page:The Prelude, Wordsworth, 1850.djvu/81

BOOK III.] Reflective acts to fix the moral law

Deep in the conscience, nor of Christian Hope,

Bowing her head before her sister Faith

As one far mightier), hither I had come,

Bear witness Truth, endowed with holy powers

And faculties, whether to work or feel.

Oft when the dazzling show no longer new

Had ceased to dazzle, ofttimes did I quit

My comrades, leave the crowd, buildings and groves,

And as I paced alone the level fields

Far from those lovely sights and sounds sublime

With which I had been conversant, the mind

Drooped not; but there into herself returning,

With prompt rebound seemed fresh as heretofore.

At least I more distinctly recognised

Her native instincts: let me dare to speak

A higher language, say that now I felt

What independent solaces were mine,

To mitigate the injurious sway of place

Or circumstance, how far soever changed

In youth, or to be changed in manhood's prime;

Or for the few who shall be called to look

On the long shadows in our evening years,

Ordained precursors to the night of death.

As if awakened, summoned, roused, constrained,