Page:The Prelude, Wordsworth, 1850.djvu/94

72 If these thoughts

Are a gratuitous emblazonry

That mocks the recreant age we live in, then

Be Folly and False-seeming free to affect

Whatever formal gait of discipline

Shall raise them highest in their own esteem—

Let them parade among the Schools at will,

But spare the House of God. Was ever known

The witless shepherd who persists to drive

A flock that thirsts not to a pool disliked?

A weight must surely hang on days begun

And ended with such mockery. Be wise,

Ye Presidents and Deans, and, till the spirit

Of ancient times revive, and youth be trained

At home in pious service, to your bells

Give seasonable rest, for 'tis a sound

Hollow as ever vexed the tranquil air;

And your officious doings bring disgrace

On the plain steeples of our English Church,

Whose worship, 'mid remotest village trees,

Suffers for this. Even Science, too, at hand

In daily sight of this irreverence,

Is smitten thence with an unnatural taint,

Loses her just authority, falls beneath

Collateral suspicion, else unknown.