To The Utilitarians

These lines were written and sent in a letter to Henry Crabb Robinson, dated 5th May 1833.--ED.

Avaunt this œconomic rage! What would it bring?--an iron age, Where Fact with heartless search explored Shall be Imagination’s Lord, And sway with absolute controul The god-like Functions of the Soul. Not thus can knowledge elevate Our Nature from her fallen state. With sober Reason Faith unites To vindicate the ideal rights Of human-kind--the tone agreeing Of objects with internal seeing, Of effort with the end of Being.

Wordsworth added, in the letter to Robinson, “Is the above intelligible? I fear not! I know, however, my own meaning, and that’s enough for Manuscripts.”--ED.

1835