BOOK IX., _towards conclusion_.
'While from the grassy mountain's open side We gazed.'
The point here fixed upon in my imagination is half-way up the northern side of Loughrigg Fell, from which the 'Pastor' and his companions are supposed to look upwards to the sky and mountain-tops, and round the Vale, with the Lake lying immediately beneath them.
'But turned, not without welcome promise given That he would share the pleasures and pursuits Of yet another Summer's day, consumed In wandering with us.'
When I reported this promise of the 'Solitary,' and long after, it was my wish, and I might say intention, that we should resume our wanderings and pass the borders into his native country, where, as I hoped, he might witness, in the society of the 'Wanderer,' some religious ceremony--a sacrament say, in the open fields, or a preaching among the mountains, which, by recalling to his mind the days of his early childhood, when he had been present on such occasions in company with his parents and nearest kindred, might have dissolved his heart into tenderness, and so done more towards restoring the Christian faith in which he had been educated, and, with that, contentedness and even cheerfulness of mind, than all that the 'Wanderer' and 'Pastor' by their several effusions and addresses had been enabled to effect. An issue like this was in my intentions, but alas!
----'mid the wreck of is and was, Things incomplete and purposes betrayed Make sadder transits o'er thought's optic glass Than noblest objects utterly decayed.'
Bydal Mount, June 24. 1843. St. John Baptist Day.
Of the 'Church' in the 'Excursion' (Book v.) we find this additional morsel in a letter to Lady Frederick Bentinck (_Memoirs_, i. 156): 'The Church is a very ancient structure; some persons now propose to ceil it, a project which, as a matter of taste and feeling, I utterly disapprove. At present, it is open to the rafters, and is accordingly spacious, and has a venerable appearance, favourable, when one first enters, to devotional impressions.'
514. _The Aristocracy of Nature_.
----'much did he see of men.' ['Excursion,' Book i. 1. 344.]
At the risk of giving a shock to the prejudices of artificial society, I have ever been ready to pay homage to the aristocracy of nature; under a conviction that vigorous human-heartedness is the constituent principle of true taste. It may still, however, be satisfactory to have prose testimony how far a Character, employed for purposes of imagination, is founded upon general fact. I, therefore, subjoin an extract from an author who had opportunities of being well acquainted with a class of men, from whom my own personal knowledge emboldened me to draw this portrait.
'We learn from Caesar and other Roman Writers, that the travelling merchants who frequented Gaul and other barbarous countries, either newly conquered by the Roman arms, or bordering on the Roman conquests, were ever the first to make the inhabitants of those countries familiarly acquainted with the Roman modes of life, and to inspire them with an inclination to follow the Roman fashions, and to enjoy Roman conveniences. In North America, travelling merchants from the settlements have done and continue to do much more towards civilising the Indian natives, than all the missionaries, Papist or Protestant, who have ever been sent among them.
'It is farther to be observed, for the credit of this most useful class of men, that they commonly contribute, by their personal manners, no less than by the sale of their wares, to the refinement of the people among whom they travel. Their dealings form them to great quickness of wit and acuteness of judgment. Having constant occasion to recommend themselves and their goods, they acquire habits of the most obliging attention, and the most insinuating address. As in their peregrinations they have opportunity of contemplating the manners of various men and various cities, they become eminently skilled in the knowledge of the world. _As they wander, each alone, through thinly-inhabited districts they form habits of reflection and of sublime contemplation_. With all these qualifications, no wonder that they should often be, in remote parts of the country, the best mirrors of fashion, and censors of manners; and should contribute much to polish the roughness, and soften the rusticity of our peasantry. It is not more than twenty or thirty years since a young man going from any part of Scotland to England, of purpose to _carry the pack_, was considered as going to lead the life and acquire the fortune of a gentleman. When, after twenty years' absence, in that honourable line of employment, he returned with his acquisitions to his native country, he was regarded as a gentleman to all intents and purposes.' _Heron's Journey in Scotland_, Vol. i. p. 89.
515. _Eternity_.
'Lost in unsearchable Eternity!' ['Excursion,' Book iii. 1. 112.]
Since this paragraph was composed, I have read with so much pleasure, in Burnet's _Theory of the Earth_, a passage expressing corresponding sentiments, excited by objects of a similar nature, that I cannot forbear to transcribe it.
'Siquod verÚ Natura nobis dedit spectaculum, in h‚c tellure, verË gratum, et philosopho dignum, id semel mihi contigisse arbitror; c˘m ex celsissim‚ rupe speculabundus ad oram maris Mediterranei, hinc aequor caeruleum, illinc tractus Alpinos prospexi; nihil quidem magÏs dispar aut dissimile, nec in suo genere, magÏs egregium et singulare. Hoc theatrum ego facilË praetulerim Romanis cunctis, Graecisve; atque id quod natura hÓc spectandum exhibet, scenicis ludis omnibus, aut amphitheatri certamiuibus. Nihil hÓc elegans aut venustum, sed ingens et magnificum, et quod placet magnitudine su‚ et qu‚dam specie immensitatis. Hinc intuebar maris aequabilem superficiem, usque et usque diffusam, quantum maxim˘m oculorum acies ferri potuit; illinc disruptissimam terrae faciem, et vastas moles variË elevatas aut depressas, erectas, propendentes, reclinatas, coacervatas, omni situ inaequali et turbido. Placuit, ex h‡c parte, Naturae unitas et simplicitas, et inexhausta quaedam planities; ex alter‚, multiformis confusio magnorum corporum, et insanae rerum strages: quas c˘m intuebar, non urbis alicujus aut oppidi, sed confracti mundi rudera, ante oculos habere mihi visus sum.
'In singulis ferË montibus erat aliquid insolens et mirabile, sed prae caeteris mihi placebat illa, qu‚ sedebam, rupes; erat maxima et altissima, et qu‚ terram respiciebat, molliori ascensu altitudinem suam dissimulabat: qu‡ verÚ mare, horrend˙m praeceps, et quasi ad perpendiculum facta, instar parietis. Praetere‡ facies illa marina adeÚ erat laevis ac uniformis (quod in rupibus aliquando observare licet) ac si scissa fuisset ‡ summo ad imum, in illo plano; vel terrae motu aliquo, aut fulmine, divulsa.
'Ima pars rupis erat cava, recessusque habuit, et saxeos specus, euntes in vacuum montem; sive natur‚ pridem factos, sive exesos mari, et undarum crebris ictibus: In hos enim cum impetu ruebant et fragore, aestuantis maris fluctus; quos iterum spumantes reddidit antrum, et quasi ab imo ventre evomuit.
'Dextrum latus montis erat praeruptum, aspero saxo et nuda caute; sinistrum non adeÚ neglexerat Natura, arboribus utpote ornatum: et prope pedem montis rivus limpidae aquae prorupit; qui c˘m vicinam vallem irrigaverat, lento motu serpens, et per varios maeandros, quasi ad protrahendam vitam, in magno mari absorptus subito periit. Denique in summo vertice promontorii, commodË eminebat saxum, cui insidebam contemplabundus. Vale augusta sedes, Rege digna: Augusta rupes, semper mihi memoranda!' P. 89. _Telluris Theoria sacra, &c. Editio secunda_.
516. _'Of Mississippi, or that Northern Stream;' William Gilbert_. ['Excursion,' Book iii. l. 935.]
'A man is supposed to improve by going out into the _World_, by visiting _London_. Artificial man does; he extends with his sphere; but, alas! that sphere is microscopic; it is formed of minutiae, and he surrenders his genuine vision to the artist, in order to embrace it in his ken. His bodily senses grow acute, even to barren and inhuman pruriency; while his mental become proportionally obtuse. The reverse is the Man of Mind: he who is placed in the sphere of Nature and of God, might be a mock at Tattersall's and Brooks', and a sneer at St. James's: he would certainly be swallowed alive by the first _Pizarro_ that crossed him:--But when he walks along the river of Amazons; when he rests his eye on the unrivalled Andes; when he measures the long and watered savannah; or contemplates, from a sudden promontory, the distant, vast Pacific--and feels himself a freeman in this vast theatre, and commanding each ready produced fruit of this wilderness, and each progeny of this stream--his exaltation is not less than imperial. He is as gentle, too, as he is great: his emotions of tenderness keep pace with his elevation of sentiment; for he says, "These were made by a good Being, who, unsought by me, placed me here to enjoy them." He becomes at once a child and a king. His mind is in himself; from hence he argues, and from hence he acts, and he argues unerringly, and acts magisterially: his mind in himself is also in his God; and therefore he loves, and therefore he soars.'--From the notes upon 'The Hurricane,' a Poem, by William Gilbert.
The Reader, I am sure, will thank me for the above quotation, which, though from a strange book, is one of the finest passages of modern English prose.
517. _Richard Baxter_.
''Tis, by comparison, an easy task Earth to despise,' &c. ['Excursion,' Book iv. ll. 131-2.]
See, upon this subject, Baxter's most interesting review of his own opinions and sentiments in the decline of life. It may be found (lately reprinted) in Dr. Wordsworth's _Ecclesiastical Biography_.
518. _Endowment of immortal Power_.
'Alas! the endowment of Immortal Power,' &c. ['Excursion,' Ibid. ll. 206 _et seqq._]
This subject is treated at length in the Ode 'Intimations of Immortality.'
519. _Samuel Daniel and Countess of Cumberland_. ['Excursion,' _ibid._ l. 326.]
'Knowing the heart of Man is set to be,' &c.
The passage quoted from Daniel is taken from a poem addressed to the Lady Margaret, Countess of Cumberland, and the two last lines, printed in Italics, are by him translated from Seneca. The whole Poem is very beautiful. I will transcribe four stanzas from it, as they contain an admirable picture of the state of a wise Man's mind in a time of public commotion.
Nor is he moved with all the thunder-cracks Of tyrants' threats, or with the surly brow Of Power, that proudly sits on other's crimes; Charged with more crying sins than those he checks. The storms of sad confusion that may grow Up in the present for the coming times, Appal not him; that hath no side at all, But of himself, and knows the worst can fall.
Although his heart (so near allied to earth) Cannot but pity the perplexed state Of troublous and distressed mortality, That thus make way unto the ugly birth Of their own sorrows, and do still beget Affliction upon Imbecility; Yet seeing thus the course of things must run, He looks thereon not strange, but as foredone.
And whilst distraught ambition compasses, And is encompassed, while as craft deceives, And is deceived: whilst man doth ransack man, And builds on blood, and rises by distress; And th' Inheritance of desolation leaves To great-expecting hopes: He looks thereon, As from the shore of peace, with unwet eye, And bears no venture in Impiety.
Thus, Lady, fares that man that hath prepared A rest for his desire; and sees all things Beneath him; and hath learned this book of man, Full of the notes of frailty; and compared The best of glory with her sufferings: By whom, I see, you labour all you can To plant your heart! and set your thoughts as near His glorious mansion as your powers can bear.'
520. _Spires_.
And spires whose "silent finger points to Heaven."' ['Excursion,'