"To a mysteriously-united pair 1
This place is consecrate; to Death and Life,
And to the best affections that proceed
From their conjunction; consecrate to faith
In him who bled for man upon the cross;
Hallowed to revelation; and no less 2
To reason's mandates; and the hopes divine
Of pure imagination ;-above all,

To charity, and love, that have provided,
Within these precincts, a capacious bed
And receptacle, open to the good

And evil, to the just and the unjust;

905

910

In which they find an equal resting-place :
Even as the multitude of kindred brooks

And streams, whose murmur fills this hollow vale,
Whether their course be turbulent or smooth,
Their waters clear or sullied, all are lost

915

Within the bosom of yon crystal Lake,

And end their journey in the same repose!

920

925

"And blest are they who sleep; and we that know, While in a spot like this we breathe and walk, That all beneath us by the wings are covered Of motherly humanity, outspread And gathering all within their tender shade, Though loth and slow to come! A battle-field, In stillness left when slaughter is no more, With this compared, makes 3 a strange spectacle! A dismal prospect yields the wild shore strewn With wrecks, and trod by feet of young and old

930

Wandering about in miserable search

Of friends or kindred,1 whom the angry sea

Restores not to their prayer! Ah! who would think That all the scattered subjects which compose Earth's melancholy vision through the space

Of all her climes these wretched, these depraved, To virtue lost, insensible of peace,

From the delights of charity cut off,

935

To pity dead, the oppressor and the opprest;
Tyrants who utter the destroying word,

940

And slaves who will consent to be destroyed-
Were of one species with the sheltered few,
Who, with a dutiful and tender hand,
Lodged, in a dear appropriated spot,2

945

This file of infants; some that never breathed

The vital air; others, which, though allowed 3
That privilege, did yet expire too soon,
Or with too brief a warning, to admit
Administration of the holy rite

950

That lovingly consigns the babe to the arms
Of Jesus, and his everlasting care.

These that in trembling hope are laid apart;
And the besprinkled nursling, unrequired
Till he begins to smile upon the breast
That feeds him; and the tottering little-one
Taken from air and sunshine when the rose

955

Of infancy first blooms upon his cheek;

The thinking, thoughtless, school-boy; the bold youth
Of soul impetuous, and the bashful maid
Smitten while all the promises of life

960

A rueful sight the wild shore strewn with wrecks
And trod by people in afflicted quest

Of friends and kindred,

1814.

Are opening round her; those of middle age,
Cast down while confident in strength they stand,
Like pillars fixed more firmly, as might seem,
And more secure, by very weight of all

965

That, for support, rests on them; the decayed
And burthensome; and lastly, that poor few
Whose light of reason is with age extinct;
The hopeful and the hopeless, first and last,
The earliest summoned and the longest spared-
Are here deposited, with tribute paid
Various, but unto each some tribute paid;
As if, amid these peaceful hills and groves,
Society were touched with kind concern,

1

And gentle Nature grieved, that one should die ;'*
Or, if the change demanded no regret,

Observed the liberating stroke-and blessed.

970

976

"And whence that tribute? wherefore these regards? †

Not from the naked Heart alone of Man

(Though claiming high 2 distinction upon earth

As the sole spring and fountain-head of tears,
His own peculiar utterance for distress

980

Or gladness)—No," the philosophic Priest
Continued, "'tis not in the vital seat
Of feeling to produce them, without aid

985

From the pure soul, the soul sublime and pure ;
With her two faculties of eye and ear,

The one by which a creature, whom his sins

* In a note to the edition of 1814, Wordsworth added to the above quotation Southey's Retrospect. See p. 388 of this volume.

In 1814 Wordsworth added to this line a prefatory note to his Essay

upon Epitaphs, and the Essay itself, for which see The Prose Works.

Have rendered prone, can upward 1 look to heaven;
The other that empowers him to perceive
The voice of Deity, on height and plain,

990

Whispering those truths in stillness, which the WORD,
To the four quarters of the winds, proclaims.
Not without such assistance could the use

Of these benign observances prevail :

995

Thus are they born, thus fostered, thus 2 maintained;
And by the care prospective of our wise

Forefathers, who, to guard against the shocks
The fluctuation and decay of things,

Embodied and established these high truths
In solemn institutions :-men convinced
That life is love and immortality,

1000

The being one, and one the element.
There lies the channel, and original bed,

From the beginning, hollowed out and scooped
For Man's affections-else betrayed and lost,
And swallowed up 'mid deserts infinite!
This is the genuine course, the aim, and end
Of prescient reason; all conclusions else
Are abject, vain, presumptuous, and perverse.
The faith partaking of those holy times,
Life, I repeat, is energy of love

Divine or human; exercised in pain,

In strife, in tribulation; and ordained,
If so approved and sanctified, to pass,

Through shades and silent rest, to endless joy.” *

1 1814.

1005

ΙΟΙΟ

1015

C.

2 1836.

upward can

and

1814.

* On the 1st of August 1849, during the last year of the poet's life, he transcribed the five lines beginning

Life, I repeat, is energy of love

on a presentation copy of his works, sent to Thomas Gough. It was one of the last things he ever wrote.-ED.

Book Sixth

THE CHURCH-YARD AMONG THE MOUNTAINS

ARGUMENT

Poet's Address to the State and Church of England-The Pastor not inferior to the ancient Worthies of the Church-He begins his Narratives with an instance of unrequited Love -Anguish of mind subdued, and how-The lonely Miner -An instance of perseverance—Which leads by contrast to an example of abused talents, irresolution, and weakness— Solitary, applying this covertly to his own case, asks for an instance of some Stranger, whose dispositions may have led him to end his days here-Pastor, in answer, gives an account of the harmonising influence of Solitude upon two men of opposite principles, who had encountered agitations in public life-The rule by which Peace may be obtained expressed, and where-Solitary hints at an overpowering Fatality-Answer of the Pastor-What subjects he will exclude from his Narratives-Conversation upon thisInstance of an unamiable character, a Female, and why given-Contrasted with this, a meek sufferer, from unguarded and betrayed love-Instance of heavier guilt, and its consequences to the Offender-With this instance of a Marriage Contract broken is contrasted one of a Widower, evidencing his faithful affection towards his deceased wife by his care of their female Children.1

HAIL to the crown by Freedom shaped-to gird
An English Sovereign's brow! and to the throne
Whereon he sits! Whose deep foundations lie
In veneration and the people's love;
Whose steps are equity, whose seat is law.
-Hail to the State of England! And conjoin
With this a salutation as devout,

1

Made to the spiritual fabric of her Church;

1827.

Second Marriage of a Widower prudential and happy.

5