Sails in smooth weather by the placid coast
On homeward voyage, what-if wind and wave,
And hardship undergone in various climes,
Have caused her to abate the virgin pride,
And that full trim of inexperienced hope
With which she left her haven-not for this,
Should the sun strike her, and the impartial
breeze

Play on her streamers, fails she to assume
Brightness and touching beauty of her own,
That charm all eyes. So bright, so fair, appeared
This goodly Matron, shining in the beams
Of unexpected pleasure. -Soon the board
Was spread, and we partook a plain repast

Here, resting in cool shelter, we beguiled
The mid-day hours with desultory talk;
From trivial themes to general argument
Passing, as accident or fancy led,
Or courtesy prescribed. While question rose
And answer flowed, the fetters of reserve
Dropping from every mind, the Solitary
Resumed the manners of his happier days;
And in the various conversation bore
A willing, nay, at times, a forward part;
Yet with the grace of one who in the world
Had learned the art of pleasing, and had now
Occasion given him to display his skill,
Upon the stedfast 'vantage-ground of truth.
He gazed, with admiration unsuppressed,
Upon the landscape of the sun-bright vale,
Seen, from the shady room in which we sate,
In softened perspective; and more than once
Praised the consummate harmony serene
Of gravity and elegance, diffused

Around the mansion and its whole domain;
Not, doubtless, without help of female taste
And female care.-"A blessed lot is yours!"
The words escaped his lip, with a tender sigh
Breathed over them: but suddenly the door
Flew open, and a pair of lusty Boys
Appeared, confusion checking their delight.
-Not brothers they in feature or attire,
But fond companions, so I guessed, in field,
And by the river's margin-whence they come,
Keen anglers with unusual spoil elated.
One bears a willow-pannier on his back,
The boy of plainer garb, whose blush survives
More deeply tinged. Twin might the other be
To that fair girl who from the garden-mount
Bounded-triumphant entry this for him!
Between his hands he holds a smooth blue stone,

On whose capacious surface see outspread
Large store of gleaming crimson-spotted trouts;
Ranged side by side, and lessening by degrees
Up to the dwarf that tops the pinnacle.
Upon the board he lays the sky-blue stone
With its rich freight; their number he pro-
claims;

Tells from what pool the noblest had been dragged:

And where the very monarch of the brook,
After long struggle, had escaped at last-
Stealing alternately at them and us
(As doth his comrade too) a look of pride:
And, verily, the silent creatures made
A splendid sight, together thus exposed;
Dead-but not sullied or deformed by death,
That seemed to pity what he could not spare.

But O, the animation in the mien

Of those two boys! yea in the very words
With which the young narrator was inspired,
When, as our questions led, he told at large
Of that day's prowess! Him might I compare,
His looks, tones, gestures, eager eloquence,
To a bold brook that splits for better speed,
And at the self-same moment, works its way
Through many channels, ever and anon
Parted and re-united: his compeer
To the still lake, whose stillness is to sight
As beautiful-as grateful to the mind.

-But to what object shall the lovely Girl
Be likened? She whose countenance and air
Unite the graceful qualities of both,

Even as she shares the pride and joy of both.

My grey-haired Friend was moved; his vivid

DISCOURSE OF THE WANDERER, AND AN EVENING VISIT TO THE LAKE. ARGUMENT.

Wanderer asserts that an active principle pervades the Universe, its noblest seat the human soul-How lively this principle is in Childhood-Hence the delight in old Age of looking back upon Childhood-The dignity, powers, and privileges of Age assertedThese not to be looked for generally but under a just government-Right of a human Creature to be exempt from being considered as a mere Instrument-The condition of multitudes deplored-Former conversation recurred to, and the Wanderer's opinions set

in a clearer light-Truth placed within reach of the humblest-Equality-Happy state of the two Boys again adverted to-Earnest wish expressed for a System of National Education established universally by Government-Glorious effects of this foretold-Walk to the Lake-Grand spectacle from the side of a hill-Address of Priest to the Supreme Being-in the course of which he contrasts with ancient Barbarism the present appearance of the scene before him- The change ascribed to Christianity-Apostrophe to his flock, living and dead-Gratitude to the Almighty Return over the Lake-Parting with the Solitary Under what circum

stances.

"To every Form of being is assigned,"
Thus calmly spake the venerable Sage,
"An active Principle :-howe'er removed
From sense and observation, it subsists
In all things, in all natures; in the stars
Of azure heaven, the unenduring clouds,
In flower and tree, in every pebbly stone
That paves the brooks, the stationary rocks,
The moving waters, and the invisible air.
Whate'er exists hath properties that spread
Beyond itself, communicating good,
A simple blessing, or with evil mixed;
Spirit that knows no insulated spot,
No chasm, no solitude; from link to link
It circulates, the Soul of all the worlds.
This is the freedom of the universe;
Unfolded still the more, more visible,
The more we know; and yet is reverenced
least,

And least respected in the human Mind,
Its most apparent home. The food of hope
Is meditated action; robbed of this
Her sole support, she languishes and dies.
We perish also; for we live by hope
And by desire; we see by the glad light
And breathe the sweet air of futurity;
And so we live, or else we have no life.
To-morrow-nay perchance this very hour
(For every moment hath its own to-morrow!)
Those blooming Boys, whose hearts are almost
sick

With present triumph, will be sure to find
A field before them freshened with the dew
Of other expectations ;-in which course
Their happy year spins round. The youth
obeys

A like glad impulse; and so moves the man
'Mid all his apprehensions, cares, and fears,-
Or so he ought to move. Ah! why in age
Do we revert so fondly to the walks

Of childhood-but that there the Soul discerns
The dear memorial footsteps unimpaired
Of her own native vigour; thence can hear
Reverberations; and a choral song,
Commingling with the incense that ascends,
Undaunted, toward the imperishable heavens,
From her own lonely altar?

Do not think
That good and wise ever will be allowed,
Though strength decay, to breathe in such

estate

As shall divide them wholly from the stir
Of hopeful nature. Rightly is it said
That Man descends into the VALE of years;
Yet have I thought that we might also speak,
And not presumptuously, I trust, of Age,
As of a final EMINENCE; though bare
In aspect and forbidding, yet a point

On which 'tis not impossible to sit
In awful sovereignty; a place of power,
A throne, that may be likened unto his
Who, in some placid day of summer, looks
Down from a mountain-top,-say one of those
High peaks that bound the vale where now we

are.

Faint, and diminished to the gazing eye,
Forest and field, and hill and dale appear,
With all the shapes over their surface spread:
But, while the gross and visible frame of things
Relinquishes its hold upon the sense,
Yea almost on the Mind herself, and seems

All unsubstantialized,-how loud the voice
Of waters, with invigorated peal
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
We are not so removed for utter loss;
In like removal, tranquil though severe,
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.

But, if to such sublime ascent the hopes
Of Man may rise, as to a welcome close
And termination of his mortal course;
Them only can such hope inspire whose minds
Have not been starved by absolute neglect ;
Nor bodies crushed by unremitting toil;
To whom kind Nature, therefore, may afford
Proof of the sacred love she bears for all;
Whose birthright Reason, therefore, may en-

sure.

For me, consulting what I feel within

In times when most existence with herself
Is satisfied, I cannot but believe

That, far as kindly Nature hath free scope
And Reason's sway predominates; even so far,
Country, society, and time itself

That saps the individual's bodily frame,
And lays the generations low in dust,
Do, by the almighty Ruler's grace, partake
Of one maternal spirit, bringing forth
And cherishing with ever-constant love,
That tires not, nor betrays. Our life is turned
Out of her course, wherever man is made
An offering, or a sacrifice, a tool

Or implement, a passive thing employed
As a brute mean, without acknowledgment
Of common right or interest in the end;
Used or abused, as selfishness may prompt.
Say, what can follow for a rational soul
Perverted thus, but weakness in all good,
And strength in evil? Hence an after-call
For chastisement, and custody, and bonds,
And oft-times Death, avenger of the past,
And the sole guardian in whose hands we dare
Entrust the future.-Not for these sad issues
Was Man created; but to obey the law
Of life, and hope, and action. And 'tis known
That when we stand upon our native soil,
Unelbowed by such objects as oppress
Our active powers, those powers themselves
become

Strong to subvert our noxious qualities:

"

And their immortal soul, may waste away.' The Sage rejoined, "I thank you-you have spared

My voice the utterance of a keen regret,
A wide compassion which with you I share.
When, heretofore, I placed before your sight
A Little-one, subjected to the arts
Of modern ingenuity, and made

The senseless member of a vast machine,
Serving as doth a spindle or a wheel;
Think not that, pitying him, I could forget
The rustic Boy, who walks the fields, un-
taught;

The slave of ignorance, and oft of want,
And miserable hunger. Much, too much,
Of this unhappy lot, in early youth
We both have witnessed, lot which I myself
Shared, though in mild and merciful degree:
Yet was the mind to hindrances exposed,
Through which I struggled, not without dis-

tress

And sometimes injury, like a lamb enthralled 'Mid thorns and brambles; or a bird that breaks

Through a strong net, and mounts upon the wind,

Though with her plumes impaired. If they, whose souls

Should open while they range the richer fields
Of merry England, are obstructed less
By indigence, their ignorance is not less,
Nor less to be deplored. For who can doubt
That tens of thousands at this day exist
Such as the boy you painted, lineal heirs
Of those who once were vassals of her soil,
Following its fortunes like the beasts or trees
Which it sustained. But no one takes delight
In this oppression; none are proud of it;
It bears no sounding name, nor ever bore;
A standing grievance, an indigenous vice
Of every country under heaven. My thoughts
Were turned to evils that are new and chosen,
A bondage lurking under shape of good,-
Arts, in themselves beneficent and kind,
But all too fondly followed and too far ;-
To victims, which the merciful can see
Nor think that they are victims-turned to

wrongs,

By women, who have children of their own,
Beheld without compassion, yea with praise!
I spake of mischief by the wise diffused
With gladness, thinking that the more it
spreads

The healthier, the securer, we become;
Delusion which a moment may destroy!
Lastly, I mourned for those whom I had seen
Corrupted and cast down, on favoured ground,
Where circumstance and nature had combined
To shelter innocence, and cherish love;
Who, but for this intrusion, would have lived,
Possessed of health, and strength, and peace of
Thus would have lived, or never have been

mind;

born.

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 vouehsafed 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.
Strange, then, nor less than monstrous, might
be deemed

The failure, if the Almighty, to this point
Liberal and undistinguishing, should hide
The excellence of moral qualities
From common understanding; leaving truth
And virtue, difficult, abstruse, and dark;
Hard to be won, and only by a few;
Strange, should He deal herein with nice re-
spects,

And frustrate all the rest! Believe it not:
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 gracedYet not for meek of heart. The smoke ascends To heaven as lightly from the cottage-hearth As from the haughtiest palace. He, whose

soul

Ponders this true equality, may walk
The fields of earth with gratitude and hope;
Yet, in that meditation, will he find
Motive to sadder grief, as we have found;
Lamenting ancient virtues overthrown,

Or bold adventure; promising to skill
And perseverance their deserved reward.

Yes," he continued, kindling as he spake, "Change wide, and deep, and silently per

formed,

This Land shall witness; and as days roll on,
Earth's universal frame shall feel the effect;
Even till the smallest habitable rock,
Beaten by lonely billows, hear the songs
Of humanised society; and bloom

With civil arts, that shall breathe forth their fragrance,

A grateful tribute to all-ruling Heaven.
From culture, unexclusively bestowed
On Albion's noble Race in freedom born,
Expect these mighty issues: from the pains
And faithful care of unambitious schools
Instructing simple childhood's ready ear:
Thence look for these magnificent results!
-Vast the circumference of hope-and ye
Are at its centre, British Lawgivers:
Ah! sleep not there in shame! Shall Wisdom's

voice

The brightness more conspicuous that invests The happy Island where ye think and act; Now, when destruction is a prime pursuit, Show to the wretched nations for what end The powers of civil polity were given."

Abruptly here, but with a graceful air, The Sage broke off. No sooner had he ceased Than, looking forth, the gentle Lady said, "Behold the shades of afternoon have fallen Upon this flowery slope; and see-beyondThe silvery lake is streaked with placid blue; As if preparing for the peace of evening. How temptingly the landscape shines! The

air

Breathes invitation; easy is the walk
To the lake's margin, where a boat lies moored
Under a sheltering tree."-Upon this hint
We rose together: all were pleased; but most
The beauteous girl, whose cheek was flushed
with joy.

Light as a sunbeam glides along the hills
She vanished-eager to impart the scheme
To her loved brother and his shy compeer.
-Now was there bustle in the Vicar's house
And earnest preparation.-Forth we went,
And down the vale along the streamlet's edge
Pursued our way, a broken company,
Mute or conversing, single or in pairs.
Thus having reached a bridge, that overarched
The hasty rivulet where it lay becalmed
In a deep pool, by happy chance we saw
A two-fold image; on a grassy bank
A snow-white ram, and in the crystal flood
Another and the same! Most beautiful,
On the green turf, with his imperial front

Shaggy and bold, and wreathed horns superb,
The breathing creature stood; as beautiful,
Beneath him, showed his shadowy counterpart.
And each seemed centre of his own fair world:
Each had his glowing mountains, each his sky,
Antipodes unconscious of each other,

Yet, in partition, with their several spheres,
Blended in perfect stillness, to our sight!

"Ah! what a pity were it to disperse,
Or to disturb, so fair a spectacle,
And yet a breath can do it !"

These few words The Lady whispered, while we stood and gazed Gathered together, all in still delight, Not without awe. Thence passing on, she said In like low voice to my particular ear, "I love to hear that eloquent old Man Pour forth his meditations, and descant On human life from infancy to age. How pure his spirit! in what vivid hues His mind gives back the various forms of things, Caught in their fairest, happiest, attitude! While he is speaking, I have power to see Even as he sees; but when his voice hath ceased, Then, with a sigh, sometimes I feel, as now, That combinations so serene and bright Cannot be lasting in a world like ours, Whose highest beauty, beautiful as it is, Like that reflected in yon quiet pool, Seems but a fleeting sun-beam's gift, whose

peace

The sufferance only of a breath of air!"

More had she said-but sportive shouts were heard

Sent from the jocund hearts of those two Boys,
Who, bearing each a basket on his arm,
Down the green field came tripping after us.
With caution we embarked; and now the pair
For prouder service were addrest; but each,
Wishful to leave an opening for my choice,
Thanks given for that becoming courtesy,
Dropped the light oar his eager hand had seized.
Their place I took-and for a grateful office
Pregnant with recollections of the time
When, on thy bosom, spacious Windermere!
A Youth, I practised this delightful art;
Tossed on the waves alone, or 'mid a crew
Of joyous comrades. Soon as the reedy marge
Was cleared, I dipped, with arms accordant, oars
Free from obstruction; and the boat advanced
Through crystal water, smoothly as a hawk,
That, disentangled from the shady boughs
Of some thick wood, her place of covert, cleaves
With correspondent wings the abyss of air.

"Observe," the Vicar said, " yon rocky isle With birch-trees fringed; my hand shall guide the helm,

While thitherward we shape our course; or

while

We seek that other, on the western shore;
Where the bare columns of those lofty firs,
Supporting gracefully a massy dome
Of sombre foliage, seem to imitate
A Grecian temple rising from the Deep."

"Turn where we may," said I, "we cannot

err

In this delicious region."-Cultured slopes, Wild tracts of forest-ground, and scattered groves,