From the full river in the vale below,
Ascending! For on that superior height
Who sits, is disencumbered from the press
Of near obstructions, and is privileged
To breathe in solitude, above the host
Of ever-humming insects, 'mid thin air

That suits not them. The murmur of the leaves
Many and idle, visits not his ear:

This he is freed from, and from thousand notes
(Not less unceasing, not less vain than these,)
By which the finer passages of sense

Are occupied; and the soul, that would incline
To listen, is prevented or deterred.

"And may it not be hoped, that, placed by age
In like removal, tranquil though severe,
We are not so removed for utter loss;
But for some favour, suited to our need?

What more than that the severing should confer
Fresh power to commune with the invisible world,
And hear the mighty stream of tendency
Uttering, for elevation of our thought,

A clear sonorous voice, inaudible

To the vast multitude; whose doom it is
To run the giddy round of vain delight,

Or fret and labour on the plain below."

"Alas! what differs more than man from man! And whence that difference? Whence but from himself?

For see the universal race endowed

With the same upright form! The sun is fixed,
And the infinite magnificence of heaven
Fixed, within reach of every human eye;
The sleepless ocean murmurs for all ears;
The vernal field infuses fresh delight

Into all hearts. Throughout the world of sense,
Even as an object is sublime or fair,
That object is laid open to the view

Without reserve or veil; and as a power
Is salutary, or an influence sweet,

Are each and all enabled to perceive

That power, that influence, by impartial law.
Gifts nobler are vouchsafed alike to all ;

Reason, and, with that reason, smiles and tears;
Imagination, freedom in the will;

Conscience to guide and check; and death to be
Foretasted, immortality conceived

By all, a blissful immortality,

To them whose holiness on earth shall make
The spirit capable of heaven, assured.

The primal duties shine aloft, like stars;
The charities that soothe, and heal, and bless,
Are scattered at the feet of Man, like flowers.
The generous inclination, the just rule,

Kind wishes, and good actions, and pure thoughts;
No mystery is here! Here is no boon

For high, yet not for low; for proudly graced,
Yet not for meek of heart. The smoke ascends
To heaven as lightly from the cottage-hearth
As from the haughtiest palace.
Ponders this true equality, may
The fields of earth with gratitude and hope."

He, whose soul

walk

"O for the coming of that glorious time
When, prizing knowledge as her noblest wealth
And best protection, this imperial realm,
While she exacts allegiance, shall admit
An obligation, on her part, to teach

Them who are born to serve her and obey;
Binding herself by statute to secure

For all the children whom her soil maintains
The rudiments of letters, and inform

The mind with moral and religious truth,
Both understood and practised,—so that none,
However destitute, be left to droop

By timely culture unsustained; or run

Into a wild disorder; or be forced

To drudge through a weary life without the help Of intellectual implements and tools;

A savage horde among the civilised,

A servile band among the lordly free!"

While from the grassy mountain's open side
We gazed, in silence hushed, with eyes intent
On the refulgent spectacle, diffused

Through earth, sky, water, and all visible space,
The priest in holy transport thus exclaimed:

"Eternal spirit! universal God! Power inaccessible to human thought,

Save by degrees and steps which thou hast deigned.
To furnish; for this effluence of thyself,
To the infirmity of mortal sense

Vouchsafed; this local transitory type
Of thy paternal splendours, and the pomp
Of those who fill thy courts in highest heaven,
The radiant cherubim ;-accept the thanks
Which we, thy humble creatures, here convened,
Presume to offer; we, who—from the breast
Of the frail earth, permitted to behold
The faint reflections only of thy face-
Are yet exalted, and in soul adore!"

INDEX TO FIRST LINES

A barking sound the shepherd hears .

A book came forth of late, called PETER BELL
A dark plume fetch me from yon blasted yew
A famous man is Robin Hood .

Affections lose their object; time brings forth
A flock of sheep that leisurely pass by
Age! twine thy brows with fresh spring flowers
A humming bee, a little tinkling rill
Almost at the root

A love-lorn maid, at some far distant time.
Ambition-following down this far-famed slope

Amid a fertile region green with wood

PAGE

440
196
357
225
464

195

231

595

621

359

300

383

Amid the smoke of cities did you pass

66

Amid this dance of objects sadness steals
Among the dwellings framed by birds

280

92

Among the mountains were we nursed, loved stream!

403

An age hath been when earth was proud

449

A narrow girdle of rough stones and crags
And is this Yarrow? This the Stream

69

An Orpheus! an Orpheus! yes, faith may grow bold
A pen, to register; a key.

A plague on your languages, German and Norse !

A Poet! He hath put his heart to school .

A point of life between my parent's dust
Army of clouds! ye winged host in troops
A rock there is whose homely front

A Roman master stands on Grecian ground
Around a wild and woody hill
Art thou a statesman in the van

As indignation mastered grief, my tongue
A slumber did my spirit seal

A thought is with me sometimes, and I say

253

I 12

453
428

203

403

180

176

267
282
430

ΙΟ

341

IIO

537

A trouble, not of clouds, or weeping rain

At the corner of Wood Street, when daylight appears
Avaunt all specious pliancy of mind
Avon, a precious, an immortal name!

A winged goddess, clothed in vesture wrought

PAGE

372
III

270

384
416

278

A weight of awe not easy to be borne

By antique fancy trimmed, though lowly bred

By Art's bold privilege warrior and war-horse stand

288

204

Call not the royal Swede unfortunate
Calm is all nature as a resting wheel.
Calm is the fragrant air, and loth to lose
Calvert ! it must not be unheard by them

Change me, some God, into that breathing rose!"
Child of loud-throated war! the mountain stream
Child of the clouds ! remote from every taint
Clarkson! it was an obstinate hill to climb
Clouds, lingering yet, extend in solid bars.
Companion! by whose buoyant spirit cheered
Complacent fictions were they, yet the same

Dark and more dark the shades of evening fell
Days passed, and Monte Calvo would not clear
Dear child of Nature, let them rail !

.

Dear Fellow-travellers! think not that the muse.
Dear native regions, I foretell

Dear to the loves, and to the graces vowed.
Degenerate Douglas! oh, the unworthy Lord
Departing summer hath assumed

Discourse was deemed man's noblest attribute

Dishonoured rock and ruin! that, by law

Doomed as we are our native dust

Doubling and doubling with laborious walk

Earth hath not anything to show more fair.
Enough of garlands, of the Arcadian crook

Dread hour! when, upheaved by war's sulphurous blast

269

3

391

199

352

223

349

268

268

314

326

200

328
164

274

3

404

228

451

439

376

283

378

289

202

377

Ere the brothers through the gateway

Ere yet our course was graced with social trees

465

351