Viii

He serves the Muses erringly and ill, Whose aim is pleasure light and fugitive: O, that my mind were equal to fulfil The comprehensive mandate which they give-- Vain aspiration of an earnest will! Yet in this moral Strain a power may live, Belovèd Wife! such solace to impart As it hath yielded to thy tender heart.

RYDAL MOUNT, WESTMORELAND, April 20, 1815.

"Action is transitory--a step, a blow, The motion of a muscle--this way or that-- 'Tis done; and in the after-vacancy We wonder at ourselves like men betrayed: Suffering is permanent, obscure and dark, And has the nature of infinity. Yet through that darkness (infinite though it seem And irremovable) gracious openings lie, By which the soul--with patient steps of thought Now toiling, wafted now on wings of prayer-- May pass in hope, and, though from mortal bonds Yet undelivered, rise with sure ascent Even to the fountain-head of peace divine."[E]

"They that deny a God, destroy Man's nobility: for certainly Man is of kinn to the Beast by his Body; and if he be not of kinn to God by his Spirit, he is a base ignoble Creature. It destroys likewise Magnanimity, and the raising of humane Nature: for take an example of a Dogg, and mark what a generosity and courage he will put on, when he finds himself maintained by a Man, who to him is instead of a God, or Melior Natura. Which courage is manifestly such, as that Creature without that confidence of a better Nature than his own could never attain. So Man, when he resteth and assureth himself upon Divine protection and favour, gathereth a force and faith which human Nature in itself could not obtain."