Book 6, Part 1 of the Excursion. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. The Excursion by William Wordsworth. Book 6, The Churchyard Among the Mountains. 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 can join with this a salutation as devout, made to the spiritual fabric of her church. Founded in truth by blood of martyrdom cemented, by the hands of wisdom reared in beauty of holiness with ordered pomp, decent, and unreproved. The voice that greets the majesty of both shall pray for both, that mutually protected and sustained, they may endure long as the sea surrounds this favored land, or sunshine warms her soil. And oh ye swelling hills and spacious plains, besprint from shore to shore with steeple towers, and spires whose silent finger points to heaven, nor wanting at wide intervals the bulk of ancient minister lifted above the cloud of the dense air, which town or city breeds to intercept the sun's glad beams. May nare that true succession fail of English hearts, who with ancestral feeling can perceive what in those holy structures ye possess of ornamental interest, and the charm of pious sentiment defused afar, and human charity, and social love. Thus never shall the indignities of time approach their reverent graces unopposed, nor shall the elements be free to hurt their fair proportions, nor the blinder rage of bigot zeal madly to overturn. And if the desolating hand of war spare them, they shall continue to bestow upon the thronged abodes of busy men, depraved and ever-prone to fill the mine exclusively with transitory things, an air and mean of dignified pursuit of sweet civility on rustic wilds. The poet, fostering for his native land such hope, entreats that servants may abound of those pure altars worthy, ministers detached from pleasure, to the love of gain superior, insusceptible of pride, and by ambitious longings undisturbed, men whose delight is where their duty leads or fixes them, whose least distinguished day shines with some portion of that heavenly luster which makes the Sabbath lovely in the sight of blessed angels pitting human cares. And as on earth it is the doom of truth to be perpetually attacked by foes open or covert, be that priesthood still for her defense replenished with a band of strenuous champions in scholastic arts thoroughly disciplined, nor if in course of the revolving world's disturbances cause should recur which righteous heaven avert to meet such trial, from their spiritual sires degenerate, who constrained to wield the sword of disputation, shrunk not, though assailed with hostile din, and combating in sight of angry umpires partial and unjust. And did thereafter bathe their hands in fire, so to declare the conscience satisfied, nor for their bodies would accept release, but blessing God and praising him bequeathed with their last breath from out the smoldering flame, the faith which they by diligence had earned, or through illuminating grace received for their dear countrymen and all mankind. O high example, constancy divine! Even such a man inheriting the zeal and from the sanctity of elder times not deviating, a priest the like of whom if multiplied and in their stations set would o'er the bosom of a joyful land spread true religion and her genuine fruits, before me stood that day. On holy ground, fraught with the relics of mortality, exalting tender themes by just degrees to lofty raised, and to the highest last, the head and mighty paramount of truths, immortal life in never fading worlds for mortal creatures conquered and secured. That basis laid those principles of faith announced as a preparatory act of reverence done to the spirit of the place. The pastor cast his eyes upon the ground, not as before like one oppressed with awe, but with a mild and social cheerfulness, then to the solitary turned and spake. At mourn or eve in your retired domain, perchance you not unfrequently have marked a visitor in quest of herbs and flowers, two delicate employs would appear for one who, though of drooping mean, had yet from nature's kindliness received a frame robust as ever rural labor bread. The solitary answered, such a form full well, I recollect, we often crossed each other's path. But as the intruder seemed fondly to prize the silence which he kept, and as I willingly did cherish mine, we met and passed like shadows. I have heard from my good host that being crazed in brain by unrequited love he scaled the rocks, dived into caves, and pierced the matted woods in hope to find some virtuous herb of power to cure his malady. The vicar smiled. Alas, before tomorrow's sun goes down, his habitation will be here, for him that open grave is destined. Died he then of pain and grief, the solitary asked? Do not believe it, never could that be. He loved, the vicar answered, deeply loved, loved fondly, truly, fervently, and dared at length to tell his love, but sued in vain, rejected, yea, repelled, and if withscorn upon the haughty maidens' brow tis but a high prized plume which female beauty wears in wantonness of conquest, or puts on to cheat the world, or from herself to hide humiliation when no longer free. That he could brook and glory in, but when the tidings came that she whom he had wooed was wedded to another, and his heart was forced to rend away its only hope, then pity could have scarcely found on earth an object worthier of regard than he in the transition of that bitter hour. Lost was she lost, nor could the sufferer say that in the act of preference he had been unjustly dealt with, but was gone, had vanished from his prospects and desires, not by translation to the heavenly choir who have put off their mortal spoils. Ah, no! She lives another's wishes to complete. Joy be their lot in happiness he cried, his lot in hers as misery must be mine. Such was that strong concussion, but the man who trembled trunk and limbs like some huge oak by a fierce tempest shaken soon resumed the steadfast quiet natural to a mind of composition gentle and sedate, and in its movement circumspect and slow. To books and to the long forsaken desk or which enchained by science he had loved to bend, he stoutly readdressed himself, resolved to quell his pain, and searched for truth with keener appetite if that might be in closer industry. Of what ensued within the heart no outward sign appeared till a betraying sickliness was seen to tinge his cheek, and through his frame it crept with slow mutation unconcealable. Such universal change as autumn makes in the fair body of a leafy grove discolored then divested. Tis affirmed by poets skilled in nature's secret ways that love will not submit to be controlled by mastery, and the good man lacked not friends who strove to instill this truth into his mind, a mind in all heart mysteries unversed. Go to the hills, said one, remit a while this baneful diligence. At early morn court the fresh air, explore the heaths and woods, and leaving it to others to foretell by calculations sage the ebb and flow of tides, and when the moon will be eclipsed. Do you for your own benefit construct a calendar of flowers, plucked as they blow where health abides and cheerfulness and peace? The attempt was made to his needless to report how hopelessly, but innocence is strong and an entire simplicity of mind, a thing most sacred in the eye of heaven that opens for such sufferers, relief within the soul, fountains of grace divine, and doth commend their weakness and disease to nature's care, assisted in her office by all the elements that round her way to generate, to preserve, and to restore, and by her beautiful array of forms shedding sweet influence from above, or pure delight exhaling from the ground they tread. Imputed not to impatience if, exclaimed the wanderer, I infer that he was healed by perseverance in the course prescribed. You do not err. The powers that had been lost by slow degrees were gradually regained, the fluttering nerves composed, the beating heart in rest established, and the jarring thoughts to harmony restored. But yawned dark mold will cover him in the fullness of his strength, hastily smitten by a fever's force. Yet not with stroke so sudden as refused time to look back with tenderness on her whom he had loved in passion, and to send some farewell words with one but one request, that from his dying hand she would accept of his possessions that which most he prized, a book upon whose leaves some chosen plants, by his own hand disposed with nicest care, in undecaying beauty were preserved, mute register to him of time and place and various fluctuations in the breast, to her a monument of faithful love conquered and in tranquility retained. Close to his destined habitation lies one who achieved a humbler victory, though marvelous in its kind, a place there is high in these mountains, that allured a band of keen adventurers to unite their pains in search of precious ore. They tried, were foiled, and all desisted, all save him alone. He taking counsel of his own clear thoughts and trusting only to his own weak hands, urged unremittingly the stubborn work, unseconded, uncountenanced, then as time passed on while still his lonely efforts found no recompense, derided, and at length by many pitied as insane of mind, by others dreaded as the luckless thrall of subterranean spirits feeding hope by various mockery of sight and sound, hope after hope, encouraged and destroyed. But when the lord of seasons had matured the fruits of earth through space of twice ten years, the mountains entrails offered to his view and trembling grasp the long deferred reward. Not with more transport did Columbus greet a world his rich discovery, but our swain, a very hero till his point was gained, proved all unable to support the weight of prosperous fortune. On the fields he looked with an unsettled liberty of thought. Wishes and endless schemes by daylight walked giddy and restless, ever and anon quaffed in his gratitude, immoderate cups, and truly might be said to die of joy. He vanished, but conspicuous to this day the path remains that linked his cottage door to the mine's mouth. A long and slanting track upon the rugged mountain's stony side worn by his daily visits to and from the darksome center of a constant hope. This vestige, neither force of beating rain nor the vicissitudes of frost and thaw, shall cause to fade till ages pass away, and it is named in memory of the event the path of perseverance. Thou from whom man has his strength exclaimed the wanderer, O, do thou direct it? To the virtuous grant the penetrative eye which can perceive in this blind world the guiding vein of hope, that like this laborer such may dig their way unshaken, unseduced, unterrified. Grant to the wise his firmness of resolve. That prayer were not superfluous, said the priest. Amid the noblest relics, proudest dust that Westminster for Britain's glory holds within the bosom of her awful pile ambitiously collected. Yet the sigh which wafts that prayer to heaven is due to all wherever laid who living fell below their virtue's humbler mark, a sigh of pain if to the opposite extreme they sank.  He lived not till his locks were nipped by seasonable frost of age, nor died before his temples prematurely forced to mix the manly ground with silver-gray, gave obvious instance of the sad effect produced when thoughtless folly hath usurped the natural crown that sage experience wears. Gay, volatile, ingenious, quick to learn to exhibit all that he possessed or could perform, a zealous actor hired into the troop of mirth, a soldier sworn into the lists of giddy enterprise. Such was he, yet as if within his frame two several souls alternately had lodged, two sets of manners could the youth put on. And fraught with antics as the Indian bird that writhes and chatters in her wiry cage was graceful when it pleased him, smooth and still is the mute swan that floats down the stream or on the waters of the unruffled lake anchors her placid beauty. Not a leaf that flutters on the bow, lighter than he, and not a flower that droops in the green shade more winningly reserved. If he inquire how such consummate elegance was bred amid these wilds, this answer may suffice. To his nature's will, who sometimes undertakes for the reproof of human vanity, art to outstrip in her peculiar walk. Hence, for this favorite, lavishly endowed with personal gifts and bright instinctive wit, while both embellishing each other stood yet farther recommended by the charm of fine demeanor and by dance and song and skill and letters, every fancy-shaped fair expectations. Nor went to the world's capacious field forth went the adventurer. There were he and his attainments overlooked or scantily rewarded. But all hopes cherished for him he suffered to depart like blighted buds or clouds that mimicked land before the sailor's eye or diamond drops that sparkling decked the morning grass or ought that was attractive and hath ceased to be. Yet when this prodigal returned the rites of joyful greeting were on him bestowed, who by humiliation undeterred sought for his weariness a place of rest within his father's gates. Whence came he clothed in tattered garb from hovels where abides necessity the stationary host of vagrant poverty from rifted barns where no one dwells but the wide-staring owl and the owl's prey from these bare haunts to which he had descended from the proud saloon he came the ghost of beauty and of health the wreck of gaiety. But soon revived in strength and power refitted he renewed his suit to fortune and she smiled again upon a fickle ingrate. Thrice he rose, Thrice sank as willingly for he whose nerves were used to thrill with pleasure while his voice softly accompanied the tuneful harp by the nice finger of fair ladies touched in glittering halls was able to derive no less enjoyment from an abject choice. Who happier for the moment? Who more blithe than this fallen spirit? In those dreary holds his talents lending to exalt the freaks of merry-making beggars nor provoke to laughter multiplied in louder peals by his malicious wit. Then all enchained with mute astonishment themselves to see in their own arts outdone their fame eclipsed as by the very presence of the fiend who dictates and inspires elusive feats for naivish purposes. The city, too, with shame, I speak it to her guilty bowers allured him sunk so low in self-respect as there to linger there to eat his bread hired minstrel of voluptuous blandishment charming the air with skill of hand or voice listen who would be wrought upon who might merely wretched hearts or falsely gay such the two frequent tenor of his boast in ears that relished the report but all was from his parents happily concealed who saw enough for blame and pitying love they also were permitted to receive his last repentant breath and closed his eyes no more to open on that irksome world where he had long existed in the state of a young fowl with one mother hatched though from another sprung different and kind where he had lived and could not cease to live distracted in propensity content with neither element of good or ill and yet in both rejoicing man unblessed of contradictions infinite the slave till his deliverance when mercy made him one with himself and one with them that sleep to strange observe the solitary strange it seems and scarcely less than pitiful that in a land where charity provides for all that can no longer feed themselves a man like this should choose to bring his shame to the parental door and with his size infect the air which he had freely breathed in happy infancy he could not pine through lack of converse no he must have found abundant exercise and thought and speech in his divisual being self-reviewed self-catechized self-punished some there are who drawing near their final home and much and daily longing that the same were reached would rather shun than seek the fellowship of kindred mold such happily here are laid yes said the priest the genius of our hills who seems by these stupendous barriers cast round his domain desirous not alone to keep his own but also to exclude all other progeny does sometimes lure even by his studied depth of privacy the unhappy alien hoping to obtain concealment or seduced by wish to find in place from outward molestation free helps to internal ease of many such could I discourse but as their stay was brief so their departure only left behind fancies and loose conjectures other trace survives for worthy mention of a pair who from the pressure of their several fates meeting a strangers in a petty town whose blue roofs ornament a distant reach of this far-winding veil remained as friends true to their choice and gave their bones in trust to this loved cemetery here to lodge with unaskuch and privacy interred far from the family vault a chieftain one by right of birth within whose spotless breast the fire of ancient Caledonia burned he with the foremost whose impatience hailed the Stuart landing to resume by force of arms the crown which bigotry had lost aroused his clan and fighting at their head with his brave sword endeavored to prevent Culloden's fatal overthrow escaped from that disastrous route to foreign shores he fled in the lenient hand of time those troubles had appeased he sought and gained from his obscured condition an obscure retreat within this nook of English ground the other born in Britain's southern tract had fixed his milder loyalty and placed his gentler sentiments of love and hate there where they placed them who in conscience prized the new succession as a line of kings whose oath had virtue to protect the land against the dire assaults of papacy and arbitrary rule but launch thy bark on the distempered flood of public life and cause for most rare triumph will be thine if, spite of keenest eye and steadiest hand the stream that bears thee forward proved not soon or late a perilous master he who oft beneath the battlements and stately trees that round his mansion cast a sober gloom had moralized on this and other truths of kindred import pleased and satisfied was forced to vent his wisdom with a sigh heaved from the heart in fortune's bitterness when he had crushed a plentiful estate by ruinous contest to obtain a seat in Britain's senate fruitless was the attempt and while the uproar of that desperate strife continued yet to vibrate on his ear the vanquished wig under a borrowed name for the mere sound and echo of his own haunted him with sensations of disgust that he was glad to lose slunk from the world to the deep shade of those untraveled wilds in which the Scottish Laird had long possessed an undisturbed abode here then they met two doubty champions flaming Jacobite and sullen Hanoverian you might think that losses and vexations less severe than those which they had severally sustained would have inclined each to abate his zeal for his ungrateful cause no, I have heard my reverend father tell that mid the calm of that small town and countering thus they filled daily its bowling green with harmless strife plagued with uncharitable thoughts the church and vexed the marketplace but in the breasts of these opponents gradually was wrought with little change of general sentiment such leaning towards each other that their days by choice were spent in constant fellowship and if at times they fretted with the yoke those very bickering made them love it more a favorite boundary to their lengthened walks this churchyard was and whether they had come treading their path in sympathy or social converse or by some short space discreetly parted to preserve the peace one spirit seldom failed to extend its sway over both minds when they a while had marked the visible quiet of this holy ground had breathed its soothing air the spirit of hope and saintly magnanimity that's spurning the field of selfish difference in dispute and every care which transitory things earth and the kingdoms of the earth create doth by a rapture of forgetfulness preclude forgiveness from the praise debarred which else the Christian virtue might have claimed their live who yet remember here to have seen their courtly figures seated on the stump of an old you their favorite resting place but as the remnant of the long-lived tree was disappearing by a swift decay they with joint care determined to erect upon its site a dial that might stand for public use preserved and thus survive as their own private monument for this was the particular spot in which they wished and heaven was pleased to accomplish the desire that undivided their remains should lie so where the molded tree had stood was raised yon structure framing with the ascent of steps that to the decorated pillar lead a work of art more sumptuous than might seem to suit this place yet built in no proud scorn of rustic homeliness they only aimed to ensure for it respectful guardianship around the margin of the plate where on the shadow falls to note the stealthy hours wines and inscriptive legend at these words thither we turned and gathered as we read the appropriate sense in Latin numbers couched time flies it is his melancholy task to bring and bear away delusive hopes and reproduce the troubles he destroys but while his blindness thus is occupied discerning mortal do thou serve the will of time's eternal master and that peace which the world wants shall be for thee confirmed smooth verse inspired by no unlettered muse exclaimed the skeptic and the strain of thought accords with nature's language the soft voice of yawn white torrent falling down the rocks speaks less distinctly to the same effect if then their blended influence be not lost upon our hearts not wholly lost I grant even upon mine the more are we required to feel for those among our fellow men who offering no obeisance to the world are yet made desperate by too quick a sense of constant infelicity cut off from peace like exiles on some barren rock their life's appointed prison not more free than sentinels between two armies set with nothing better in the chill night air than their own thoughts to comfort them say why that ancient story of Prometheus chained to the bear rock on frozen caucuses the vulture the inexhaustible repast drawn from his vitals say what meant the woes by tantalus entailed upon his race and the dark sorrows of the line of thieves fictions in form but in their substance truths tremendous truths familiar to the men of long past times nor obsolete in ours exchanged the shepherd's frock of native grave for robes with regal purple tinged convert the crook into a scepter give the pomp of circumstance and hear the tragic muse shall find apt subjects for her highest art amid the groves under the shadowy hills the generations are prepared the pangs the internal pangs are ready the dread strife of poor humanities afflicted will struggling in vain with ruthless destiny though said the priest in answer these be terms which a divine philosophy rejects we who's established an unfailing trust is in controlling providence admit that through all station human life abounds with mysteries for if faith were left untried how could the might that lurks within her then be shown her glorious excellence that ranks among the first of powers and virtues proved our system is not fashioned to preclude that sympathy which you for others ask and I could tell not travelling for my theme beyond these humble graves of grievous crimes and strange disasters but I pass them by loath to disturb what heaven hath hushed in peace still less far less am I inclined to treat of man degraded in his maker's sight by the deformities of brutish vice for in such portraits though a vulgar face and a course outside of repulsive life and unaffecting manners might at once be recognized by all ah, do not think the wanderer somewhat eagerly exclaimed wish could be ours that you for such poor gain gain shall I call it, gain of what for whom should be the word tending to violate your own pure spirit not a step we look for in slight of that forbearance and reserve which common human heartedness inspires and mortal ignorance and frailty claim on this sacred ground if nowhere else end of book 6 part 1 of the excursion book 6 part 2 of the excursion by William Wordsworth this LibriVox recording is in the public domain true, said the solitary be it far from us to infringe the laws of charity let judgment here in mercy be pronounced this self-respecting nature prompts and this wisdom enjoins but if the thing we seek be genuine knowledge bear we then in mind how from his lofty throne the sun can fling colors as bright and exultations bred by weedy pool or pestilential swamp as by the rivulet sparkling where it runs or the pollucid lake small risk, said I, of such illusion do we here incur temptation here is none to exceed the truth no evidence appears that they who rest within this ground were covetous of praise or of remembrance even, deserved or not green is the churchyard, beautiful and green ridge rising gently by the side of ridge a heaving surface almost wholly free from interruption of sepulchral stones and mantled ore with aboriginal turf and everlasting flowers these dalesmen trust the lingering gleam of their departed lives to oral record and the silent heart depository's faithful and more kind than fondest epitaph for if those fail what boots the sepulchred tomb and who can blame who rather would not envy men that feel this mutual confidence if from such source the practice flow if thence or from a deep and general humility and death nor should I much condemn it if it spring from disregard of time's destructive power as only capable to pray on things of earth and human nature's mortal part yet in less simple districts where we see stone lift its forehead amulus of stone in courting notice and the ground all paved with commendations of departed worth reading where air return of innocent lives of each domestic charity fulfilled and sufferings meekly borne I for my part though with the silence pleased that here prevails among those fair recitals also range soothed by the natural spirit which they breathe and in the center of a world whose soil is rank with all unkindness compassed round with such memorials I have sometimes felt it was no momentary happiness to have one enclosure where the voice that speaks in envy or detraction is not heard which malice may not enter where the traces of evil inclinations are unknown where love and pity tenderly unite with resignation and no jarring tone intrudes the peaceful concert to disturb of amenity and gratitude thus sanctioned the pastor said I willingly confine my narratives to subjects that excite feelings with these accordant love, esteem, and admiration lifting up a veil a sunbeam introducing among hearts retired and covert so that he shall have clear images before your gladdened eyes of nature's unambitious underwood and flowers that prosper in the shade and when I speak of such among my flock as swerved or fell those only shall be singled out upon whose laps or error something more than brotherly forgiveness may attend to such while we restrict our notice else better by my tongue were mute and yet there are I feel good reasons why we should not leave wholly untraced a more forbidding way for strength to persevere and to support and energy to conquer and repel these elements of virtue that declare the native grandeur of the human soul are oft times not unprofitably shown in the perverseness of a selfish course truth every day exemplified no less in the gray cottage by the murmuring stream than in fantastic conquerors roving camp or mid the factious senate unappalled who air may sink or rise to sink again as merciless prescription ebbs and flows there said the vicar pointing as he spake a woman rests in peace surpassed by few in power of mind and eloquent discourse tall was her stature her complexion dark and Saturnine her head not raised to hold converse with heaven no yet depressed towards earth but in projection carried as she walked forever musing sunken more her eyes wrinkled and furrowed with habitual thought was her broad forehead like the brow of one whose visual nerve shrinks from a painful glare of overpowering light while yet a child she made the humble flowerettes of the veil towered like the imperial thistle not unfurnished with its appropriate grace yet rather seeking to be admired than coveted and loved even at that age she ruled a sovereign queen over her comrades else their simple sports wanting all relish for her strenuous mind had crossed her only to be shunned with scorn oh pang of sorrowful regret for those whom in their youth sweet study has enthralled that they have lived for harsher servitude whether in soul in body or estate such doom was hers yet nothing could subdue her keen desire of knowledge nor if face those brighter images by books impressed upon her memory faithfully as stars that occupy their places and though oft hidden by clouds and oft be dimmed by haze are not to be extinguished nor impaired two passions both degenerate for they both began an honor gradually obtained rule over her and vexed her daily life an unremitting avaricious thrift and a strange thralldom of maternal love that held her spirit in its own despite bound by vexation and regret and scorn constrained forgiveness and relenting vows and tears in pride suppressed in shame concealed to a poor dissolute son her only child her wedded days had opened with mishap whence dire dependence what could she perform to shake the burden off ah there was felt indignantly the weakness of her sex she mused resolved adhere to her resolve the hand grew slack in almsgiving the heart closed by degrees to charity heavens blessing not seeking from that source she placed her trust in ceaseless pains and strictest parsimony which sternly hoarded all that could be spared from each day's need out of each day's least gain thus all was reestablished and a pile constructed that sufficed for every end saved the contentment of the builders mind a mind by nature indisposed to ought so placid so inactive as content a mind intolerant of lasting peace and cherishing the pang her heart deplored dread life of conflict which I often compared to the agitation of a brook that runs down a rocky mountain buried now and lost in silent pools now in strong eddies chained but never to be charmed to gentleness its best attainment fits of such repose as timid eyes might shrink from fathoming a sudden illness seized her in the strength of life's autumnal season shall I tell how on her bed of death the matron lay to providence submissive so she thought but fretted vexed and wrought upon almost to anger by the malady that griped her prostrate frame with unrelaxing power as the fierce eagle fastens on the lamb she prayed she moaned her husband's sister watched her dreary pillow waited on her needs and yet the very sound of that kind foot was anguished to her ears and must she rule this was the death doomed woman heard to say in bitterness and must she rule and reign soul mistress of this house when I am gone tend what I tended calling it her own enough I fear too much one vernal evening while she was in prime of health and strength I well remember while I passed her door alone with loitering step and upward I turned towards the planet Jupiter that hung above the center of the veil a voice roused me her voice it said that glorious star in its untroubled element will shine as now it shines when we are laid in earth and safe from all our sorrows with a sigh she spake yet I believe not unsustained by faith and glory that shall far transcend ought by these perishable heavens disclosed to sight or mind nor less than care divine is divine mercy she who had rebelled was into meekness softened and subdued did after trials not in vain prolonged with resignations sink into the grave and her uncharitable acts I trust and harsh unkindnesses are all forgiven though in this veil remembered with deep awe the vicar paused and toward a seat advanced a long stone seat fixed in the churchyard wall part shaded by cool sycamore and part offering a sunny resting place to them who seek the house of worship while the bells yet ring with all their voices or before the last had ceased its solitary knoll beneath the shade we all sit down and there his office uninvited he resumed as on a sunny bank a tender lamb lurks in safe shelter from the winds of March screened by its parent so that little mound lies guarded by its neighbor the small heaps speaks for itself an infant their doth rest the sheltering hillock is the mother's grave if mild discourse and manners that conferred a natural dignity and humblest rank if glad some spirits and benign it looks that for a face not beautiful did more than beauty for the fairest face can do and if religious tenderness of heart grieving for sin and penitential tears shed when the clouds had gathered and disdain the spotless ether of a maiden life if these may make a hallowed spot of earth more holy to the sight of God or man then or that mold a sanctity shall brood till the stars sicken at the day of doom ah what a warning for a thoughtless man could field or grove could any spot of earth show to his eye and image of the pangs which it hath witnessed render back an echo of the sad steps by which it hath been trod there by her innocent babies precious grave and on the very turf that roofs her own the mother off was seen to stand or kneel in the broad day a weeping Magdalene now she is not the swelling turf reports of the fresh shower but of poor Ellen's tears is silent nor is any vestige left of the path worn by mournful tread of her who at her heart's light bidding once had moved in virgin fearlessness with step that seemed caught from the pressure of elastic turf upon the mountains gemmed with morning dew in the prime hour of sweetest sense and airs serious and thoughtful was her mind and yet by reconcilement exquisite and rare the form port motions of this cottage girl where such as might have quickened and inspired a Titian's hand addressed to picture forth Oryad or Dryad glancing through the shade what time the hunters earliest horn is heard startling the Golden Hills a widespread Elm stands in our valley named the joyful tree from dateless usage which our peasants hold of giving welcome to the first of May by dances round its trunk and if the sky permit like honors dance and song are paid to the 12th night beneath the frosty stars or the clear moon the queen of these gay sports if not in beauty yet in sprightly air was hapless Ellen no one touched the ground so deftly and the nicest maidens locks less gracefully were braided but this praise me thinks would better suit another place she loved and fondly deemed herself beloved the road is dim the current unperceived the weakness painful and most pitiful by which a virtuous woman in pure youth may be delivered to distress and shame such fate was hers the last time Ellen danced among her equals round the joyful tree she bore a secret burden and full soon was left to tremble for a breaking vow then to bewail a sternly broken vow alone within her widowed mother's house it was the season of unfolding leaves of days advancing toward their utmost length and small birds singing happily to mates happy as they with spirit saddening power wins pipe through fading woods but those Blythe notes strike the deserted to the heart I speak of what I know and what we feel within beside the cottage in which Ellen dwelt stands a tall ashtray to whose top most twig a thrush resorts and annually chance at morn and evening from that naked perch while all the undergrove is thick with leaves a time beguiling ditty for delight of his fond partner silent in the nest ah why said Ellen sighing to herself why do not words and kiss and solemn pledge and nature that is kind in woman's lust and reason that in man is wise and good and fear of him who is a righteous judge why do not these prevail for human life to keep two hearts together that began their springtime with one love and that have need of mutual pity and forgiveness sweet to grant or be received while that poor bird oh come and hear him thou who has to me been faithless hear him though a lowly creature one of God's simple children that yet know not the universal parent how he sings as if he wished the firmament of heaven should listen and give back to him the voice of his triumphant constancy and love the proclamation that he makes how far his darkness doth transcend our fickle light such was the tender passage not by me repeated without loss of simple phrase which I perused even as the words had been committed by forsaken Ellen's margin of a Valentine be dropped with tears will please you to be told that studiously withdrawing from the eye of all companionship the sufferer yet in lonely reading found a meek resource how thankful for the warmth of summer days when she could slip into the cottage barn and find a secret oratory there or in the garden under friendly veil of their long twilight poor upon her book by the last lingering help of the open sky until dark night dismissed her to bed thus did a waking fancy sometimes lose the unconquerable pang of despised love a kindlier passion opened on her soul when that poor child was born upon its face she gazed as on a pure and spotless gift of unexpected promise where a grief or dread was all that had been thought of joy fire livelier than bewildered traveler feels amid a perilous waste that all night long hath harassed him toiling through fearful storm when he beholds the first pale speck serene of dayspring in the gloomy east revealed and greets it with thanksgiving till this hour thus in her mother's hearing ellen spake there was a stony region in my heart but he at whose command the parched rock was smitten and poured forth a quenching stream hath softened that obduracy and made some looked for gladness in the desert place to save the perishing and henceforth I breathe the air with cheerful spirit for thy sake my infant and for that good mother dear who bore me and hath prayed for me in vain yet not in vain it shall not be in vain she spake nor was the assurance unfulfilled and if heart-renting thoughts would oft return they stayed not long the blameless infant grew the child whom ellen and her mother loved they soon were proud of tended it and nursed a soothing comforter although forlorn like a poor singing bird from distant lands or a choice shrub which he who passes by with vacant mind not seldom may observe fair flowering in a thinly peopled house whose window somewhat sadly it adorns through four months space the infant drew its food from the maternal breast then scruples rose thoughts which the rich are free from came and crossed the fond affection she no more could bear by her offence to lay a two-fold weight on a kind parent willing to forget their slender means so to that parent's care trusting her child she left their common home and undertook with dutiful content a foster mother's office tis perchance known to you that in these simple veils the natural feeling of equality is by domestic service unimpaired yet though such service be with us removed from sense of degradation not the less the ungentle mind can easily find means to impose severe restraints and laws unjust which hapless ellen now was doomed to feel for blinded by an overanxious dread of such excitement and divided as with her office would but ill accord the pair whose infant she was bound to nurse forbade her all communion with her own week after week the mandate they enforced so near yet not allowed upon that sight to fix her eyes alas it was hard to bear but worse affliction must be born far worse for tis heaven's will that after a disease begun and in three days space her child should die as ellen now exclaimed her own deserted child once only once she saw it in that mortal malady and on the burial day could scarcely gain permission to attend its obsequies she reached the house last of the funeral train and someone as she entered having chanced to urge unthinkingly their prompt nay she said with commanding look a spirit of anger never seen in her before nay you must wait my time and down she sat and by the unclosed coffin kept her seat weeping and looking looking on and weeping upon the last sweet slumber of her child until at length her soul was satisfied you see the infant's grave and to this spot the mother off to she was sent abroad however errant urged her steps hither she came here stood and sometimes knelt in the broad day a rueful magdalene so call her for not only she bewailed a mother's loss but mourned in bitterness her own transgression penitence and seer as ever raised to heaven a streaming eye at length the parents of the foster child noting that in despite renewed and could not but renew those visitations ceased to send her forth or to the garden's narrow bounds confined I failed not to remind them that they erred for holy nature might not thus be crossed thus wronged in woman's breast in vain I pleaded but the green stalk of Ellen's life was snapped and the flower drooped as every eye could see it hung its head in mortal languishment aided by this parent's eye at length prevailed and from those bonds released she went home to her mother's house the youth was fled the rash betrayer could not face the shame or sorrow which his senseless guilt had caused and little would his presence or proof given of a relenting soul have now availed for like a shadow he was passed away from Ellen's thoughts had perished to her mind for all concerns of fear hope or love save only those which to their common shame and to his moral being appertained hope from that quarter would I know have brought a heavenly comfort there she recognized an un-relaxing bond a mutual need there and as it seemed there only she had built her fond maternal heart had built a nest in blindness all too near the river's edge that work a summer flood with peace well had swept away and now her spirit longed for its last flight to heaven's security the bodily frame wasted from day to day meanwhile relinquishing all other cares her mind she strictly tutored to find peace and pleasure in endurance much she thought and much she read and brooded feelingly upon her own unworthiness to me as to a spiritual comforter and friend her heart she opened and no pains were spared to mitigate as gently as I could the sting of self reproach with healing words meek saint through patience glorified on earth in whom as by her lonely hearth she sat the ghastly face of cold decay put on a sun like beauty and appeared divine may I not mention that within those walls and do observance of her pious wish the congregation joined with me in prayer for her souls good nor was that office vain much did she suffer but if any friend beholding her condition at the site gave way to words of pity or complaint she stilled them with a prompt reproof and said he who afflicts me knows what I can bear and when I fail and can endure no more will mercifully take me to himself so through the cloud that pure and unknown world of love where injury cannot come and here is laid the mortal body by her infants side the vicar ceased and downcast looks made known that each had listened with his in most heart for me the emotion scarcely was less strong or less benign than that which I had felt when seated near my venerable friend under those shady elms from him I heard the story that retraced the slow heart sinking on the lonely heath with the neglected house to which she clung I noted that the solitary's cheek confessed the power of nature pleased though sad more pleased than sad the gray haired wanderer's sate thanks to his pure imaginative soul capacious and serene his blameless life his knowledge wisdom love of truth and love of humankind he was it who first broke the pensive silence saying blessed are they who sorrow rather is to suffer wrong than to do wrong albeit themselves have aired this tale gives proof that heaven most gently deals with such in their affliction ellens fate her tender spirit and her contrite heart call to my mind dark hints which I have heard of one who died within this veil by doom heavier as his offense was I pray you where are laid the bones of wilfred armth weight the vicar answered in that green nook close by the churchyard wall beneath yon hawthorne planted by myself in memory and for warning and in sign of sweetness where dire anguish had been known of reconcilment after deep offense there to the rest no theme his fate supplies for the smooth closings of the world nor need the windings of his devious course be here retraced enough that by mishap and venial error robbed of competence and her obsequious shadow peace of mind he craved a substitute in troubled joy against his conscience rose in arms and braving divine displeasure broke the marriage vow that which he had been weak enough to do was misery in remembrance he was in his inward thoughts and by the smiles of wife and children stung to agony wretched at home he gained no peace abroad ranged through the mountains slept upon the earth asked comfort of the open air and found no quiet in the darkness of the night no pleasure in the beauty of the day his flock he slighted his paternal fields became a clog to him whose spirit wished to fly but wither a gracious church that wears a look so full of peace and hope and love benign mother of the veil how fair amid her brood of cottages she was to him a sickness and reproach much to the last remained unknown but this is sure that through remorse and grief he died though pitied among men absolved by God he could not find forgiveness in himself nor could endure the weight of his own shame some other but from her I turn and from her grave behold upon that ridge that stretching boldly from the mountain side carries into the center of the veil its rocks and woods the cottage where she dwelt and where yet dwells her faithful partner left full eight years past the solitary prop of many helpless children I begin with words that might be prelude to a tale of sorrow but I feel no sadness when I think of what mine eyes see daily in that happy family bright garland form they for the pensive brow of their undrooping father's widowhood those six fair daughters butting yet not one not one of all the band a full blown flower depressed and desolate of soul as once that father was and filled with anxious fear now by experience taught takes away yet takes not half of what he seems to take or gives it back not to our prayer but far beyond our prayer he gives it the boon produce of a soil which our endeavors have refused to till and hope hath never watered the abode whose grateful owner can attest these truths even where the object nearer to our sight would seem in no distinction to surpass our expectations ye might think that it had sprung self raised from earth or grown out of the living rock to be adorned by nature only but if thither led ye would discover then a studious work of many fancies prompting many hands brought from the woods the honeysuckle twines round the porch and seems in that trim place a plant no longer wild the cultured rose their blossoms the roof high the wild pink crowns the garden wall and with the flowers are intermingled stones spirey and bright rough scatterings of the hills these ornaments that fade not with the year a hearty girl continues to provide who, mounting fearlessly the rocky heights her father's prompt attendant does for him all that a boy could do but with delight more keen and prouder daring yet hath she within the garden flowers and favorite herbs a space by sacred charter holden for her use these and whatever else the garden bears a fruit or flower permission asked or not I freely gather and my leisure draws a not-unfrequent pastime from the hum of bees round their sacred sheltered hives busy in that enclosure while the rill that sparkling thrids the rocks attunes his voice to the pure course of human life their flows on in solitude but when the gloom of night is falling round my steps then most this dwelling charms me I often stop short who could refrain and feed by stealth my sight with prospect of the company within laid open through the blazing window there I see the eldest daughter at her wheel spinning amane as if to overtake the never halting time or in her turn teaching some novice of the sisterhood that skill in this or other household work which from her father's honored hand herself while she was yet a little one had learned mild man he is not gay but they are gay and the whole house seems filled with gaiety thrice happy then the mother may be deemed the wife from whose consolatory grave I turned that in ye mind might witness where and how her spirit yet survives on earth end of book 6 part 2 recording by Bill Borscht book 7 part 1 of the excursion by William Wordsworth the churchyard among the mountains continued this LibriVox recording is in the public domain while thus from theme to theme the historian past the words he uttered and the scene that lay before our eyes awakened in my mind vivid remembrance of those long past hours when in the hollow of some shadowy veil what time the splendor of the setting sun lay beautiful on Snowden's sovereign brow on Cater Idris or huge Penmenmore a wandering youth I listened with delight to pastoral melody or war-like air drawn from the cords of the ancient British harp by some accomplished master while he sat amid the quiet in recess and there did inexhaustibly dispense an interchange of soft or solemn tunes tender or blithe now as the varying mood of his own spirit urged now as a voice from youth or maiden or some honored chief of his compatriot villagers that hung around him drinking in the impassioned notes of the time hallowed minstrel's re required for their hearts ease or pleasure strains of power were they seized and occupied the sense but to a higher mark than song can reach rose this pure eloquence and when the stream which overflowed the soul was passed away a consciousness remained that it had left deposited upon the silent shore of memory images and precious thoughts that shall not die and cannot be destroyed these grassy heaps lie amicably close said I like surges heaving in the wind along the surface of a mountain pool whence comes it then that yonder we behold five graves and only five that rise together unsociably sequestered and encroaching on the smooth playground of the village school the vicar answered no disdainful pride in them who rest beneath nor any course of strange or tragic accident have helped to place those hillocks in that lonely guise once more look forth and follow with your sight the length of road that from yon mountains base through bare enclosures stretches till its line is lost within a little tuft of trees then reappearing in a moment quits the cultivated fields and up the heathy waste mounts as you see in mazes serpentine led towards an easy outlet of the veil that little shady spot that sylvan tuft by which the road is hidden also hides a cottage from our view though I discern ye scarcely can amid its sheltering trees the smokeless chimney top all unembowered and naked stood that lowly parsonage for such in truth it is and appertains to a small chapel in the veil beyond when hither came its last inhabitant rough and forbidding were the choicest roads by which our northern wilds could then be crossed and into most secluded veils was no access for wane heavy or light so at his dwelling place the priest arrived with store of household goods in panniers slung on sturdy horses graced with jingling bells and on the back of more ignoble beast that with like birthing of effects most prized or easiest carried closed the motley train young was I then a school boy of eight years but still me thinks I see them as they passed in order drawing toward their wished for home rocked by the motion of a trusty ass two ruddy children hung a well poised freight each in his basket nodding drowsily their bonnets I remember wreathed with flowers which told it was the pleasant month of June and close behind the cumley matron road a woman of soft speech and gracious smile and with the ladies mean from far they came from northumbrian hills yet theirs had been a merry journey rich in pastime cheered by music prank and laughter stirring jest and freak put on and archward dropped to swell the cloud of fancy and uncouth surmise that gathered round the slowly moving train whence do they come and with what errand charged belong they to the fortune telling tribe who pitched their tents under the greenwood tree where they furnished to enact fair rosamond and the children of the wood and by that whiskered tabby's aid set forth the lucky venture of sage wittington when the next village hears the show announced by blast of trumpet plenteous was the growth of such conjectures over heard or seen on many a staring countenance portrayed of boar or burger as they marched along and more than once their steadiness of face was put to proof and exercise supplied to their inventive humor by stern looks and questions in authoritative tone from some staid guardian of the public peace checking the sober steed on which he rode in his suspicious wisdom often or still by notice indirect or blunt demand from traveller halting in his own despite a simple curiosity to ease of which adventures that beguiled and cheered their grave migration the good pair would tell with undiminished glee in hoary age a priest he was by function but his course from his youth up and high as manhood's noon the hour of life to which he was then brought had been irregular I might say wild by books unstudied by his pastoral care too little checked an active ardent mind a fancy pregnant with resource and scheme to cheat the sadness of a rainy day hands apt for all ingenious arts and games a generous spirit and a body strong to cope with stoutest champions of the bowl had earned for him sure welcome and the rights of a prized visitant in the Jolly Hall of Country Squire or at the state leader board of Duke or Earl from scenes of courtly pomp withdrawn to while away the summer hours in condescension among rural guests with these high comrades he had reveled long frolic industriously a simple clerk by hopes of coming patronage beguiled till the heart sickened so each loftier aim abandoning and all his showy friends for a life's stay slender it was but sure he turned to this secluded chapel re that had been offered to his doubtful choice by an unthought of patron bleak and bare they found the cottage their allotted home naked without and rude within with which the cure not long had been endowed and far remote the chapel stood remote and from his dwelling unapproachable save through a gap high in the hills and opening shadeless and shelterless by driving showers frequented and beset with howling winds yet cause was none what air regret might hang on his own mind to quarrel with the choice or the necessity that fixed him here apart from old temptations and trained to punctual labour in his sacred charge see him a constant preacher to the poor and visiting though not with saintly zeal yet when need was with no reluctant will the sicken body or distressed in mind and by a salutary change compelled to rise from timely sleep and meet the day with no engagement in his thoughts more proud or splendid than his garden could afford his fields or mountains the heathcock ranged or the wild brooks from which he now returned contented to partake the quiet meal of his own board where sat his gentle mate and three fair children plentifully fed though simply from their little household farm nor wanted timely treat of fish or fowl by nature yielded to his practised hand to help the small but certain comings in of that spare benefits yet theirs was a hospitable board and theirs a charitable door so days and years passed on the inside of that rugged house was trimmed and brightened by the matron's care and gradually enriched with things of price which might be lacked for use or ornament what though no soft and costly sofa there insidiously stretched out its lazy length and no vain mirror glittered upon the walls yet were the windows of the low road by shutter's weather fended which at once repelled the storm and deadened its loud roar there snow-white curtains hung in decent folds tough moss and long enduring mountain plants that creep along the ground with sinuous trail were nicely braided and composed a work like Indian mats that with appropriate grace lay at the threshold and the inner doors and a fair carpet woven of homespun wool but tinctured mentally with floored hues for seamliness and warmth on festal days covered the smooth blue slabs of mountain stone with which the parlor floor in simplest guise of pastoral homesteads had been long inlaid those pleasing works the housewife's skill produced meanwhile the unsedentary master's hand was busier with his task to rid, to plant, to rear for food, for shelter and a thriving covert and when wishes formed in youth and sanctioned by the riper mind restored me to my native valley here to end my days well pleased was I to see the once bare cottage on the mountain side screened from assault of every bitter blast while the dark shadows of the summer leaves danced in the breeze checkering its mossy roof time which had thus afforded willing help to beautify with nature's fairest growths this rustic tenement had gently shed upon its master's frame a wintry grace the comeliness of unenfeebled age but how could I say gently for he still retained a flashing eye a burning palm a stirring foot a head which beat at nights upon its pillow with a thousand schemes few likings had he dropped few pleasures lost generous and charitable prompt to serve and still his harsher passions kept their hold anger and indignation still he loved the sound of titled names and talked in glee of long past banquetings with high-born friends then from those lulling fits of vain delight uproused by recollected injury railed at their faults wazed disdainfully and often bitterness and with a threatening eye of fire incensed beneath its hoary brow those transports with staid looks of pure goodwill and with soft smile his consort would reprove she, far behind him in the race of years yet keeping her first mildness, was advanced far nearer in the habit of her soul to that still region wither all are bound him might we like into the setting sun as seen not seldom on some gusty day struggling and bold and shining from the west with an inconstant and unmelowed light was a soft attendant cloud that hung as if with wish to veil the restless orb from which it did itself imbibe a ray of pleasing luster but no more of this I better love to sprinkle on the sod that now divides the pair or rather say that still unites them praises like heavens do without reserve descending upon both our very first in eminence of years this old man stood the patriarch of the veil his unmolested mansion death had never come through space of forty years sparing both old and young in that abode suddenly then they disappeared not twice had summer scorched the fields, not twice had fallen on those high peaks the first autumnal snow before the greedy visiting was closed and the long privileged house left empty, swept as by a plague yet no rapacious plague had been among them a mental death, one after one with intervals of peace a happy consummation an accord sweet, perfect to be wished for save that here was something which to mortal sense might sound like harshness that the old gray-headed sire the oldest he was taken last survived when the meek partner of his age his son, his daughter and that late and high prized gift his little smiling grandchild all gone, all vanished he deprived and bare how will he face the remnant of his life what will become of him we said and mused in sad conjectures shall we meet him now haunting with rod and line the craggy brooks or shall we overhear him as we pass striving to entertain the lonely hours with music for he had not ceased to touch the harp or vial which himself had framed for their sweet purposes with perfect skill what titles will he keep will he remain musician gardener, builder mechanist, a planter and a rearer from the seed a man of hope and forward-looking mind even to the last such was he, unsubdued but heaven was gracious yet a little while and this survivor with his cheerful throng of open projects and his inward horde of unsunged griefs too many and too keen was overcome by unexpected sleep in one blessed moment like a shadow thrown softly and lightly from a passing cloud death fell upon him while reclined he lay for noontide salis on the summer grass the warm lap of his mother earth and so their lenient term of separation passed that family whose graves you there behold by yet a higher privilege once more were gathered to each other calm of mind and silence waited on these closing words until the wanderer whether moved by fear lest in those passages of life were some that might have touched the sick heart of his friend too nearly or intent to reinforce his own firm spirit in degree depressed by tender sorrow for our mortal state thus silence broke behold a thoughtless man from vice and premature decay preserved by useful habits to a fitter soil transplanted air too late the hermit lodged amid the untrodden desert tells his beads with each repeating its allotted prayer and thus divides and thus relieves the time smooth task with his compared whose mind could string that scantily bright minutes on the thread of keen domestic anguish and beguile a solitude unchosen unprofessed till gentlest death released him far from us be the desire too curiously to ask how much of this is but the blind result of cordial spirits and vital temperament and what to higher powers is justly due but you sir know that in a neighboring veil a priest abides before whose life such doubts fall to the ground whose gifts of nature lie retired from notice lost in attributes of reason honorably effaced by deaths and conquest over her dominion gained to which her forwardness must needs submit in this one man is shown a temperance proof against all trials industry severe and constant as the motion of the day stern self-denial round him spread with shade that might be deemed forbidding did not there all generous feelings flourish and rejoice forbearance charity indeed and thought and resolution competent to take out of the bosom of simplicity all that her holy customs recommend and the best ages of the world would prescribe preaching administering in every work of his sublime vocation in the walks of worldly intercourse between man and man and in his humble dwelling he appears a laborer with moral virtue girt with spiritual graces like a glory crowned doubt can be none the pastor said for whom this portraiture is sketched the great the good the well-beloved the fortunate the wise these titles emperors and chiefs have born honor assumed or given and him the wonderful our simple shepherds speaking from the heart deservedly have styled from his abode in a dependent chapelry that lies behind yon hill a poor and rugged wild which in his soul he lovingly embraced man having once espoused would never quit into its graveyard will ere long be born that lowly great good man a simple stone may cover him and by its help perchance a century shall hear his name pronounced with images attendant on the sound then shall the slowly gathering twilight close in utter night and of his course remain no cognizable vestiges no more than of this breath which shapes himself in words to speak of him and instantly dissolves the pastor pressed by thoughts which round his theme still lingered after a brief pause resumed noise is there not enough in doleful war but that the heaven-born poet must stand forth and lend the echoes of his sacred shell to multiply and aggravate the din pangs are there not enough in hopeless love and depression all too much of turbulence anxiety and fear but that the minstrel of the rural shade must tune his pipe insidiously to nurse the perturbation in the suffering breast and propagate its kind far as he may ah-hoo and with such rapture as befits the hallowed theme will rise and celebrate the good man's purposes and deeds retrace his struggles his discomfortures deplore and glorify his end that virtue like the fumes and vapory clouds through fancies heat rebounding in the brain and like the soft infections of the heart by charm of measured words may spread or the field hamlet and town and piety survive upon the lips of men in hall or bower not for reproof but high and warm delight and grave encouragement by song inspired vain thought but murmur or repine the memory of the just survives in heaven and without sorrow will the ground receive that venerable clay meanwhile the best of what lies here confines us to degrees in excellence less difficult to reach and milder worth nor need we travel far from those to whom our last regards were paid for such example almost at the root of that tall pine the shadow of whose bare and slender some while here I sit at eve oft stretches towards me like a long straight path traced faintly in the greensward there beneath the plain blue stone a gentle dalesman lies from whom an early childhood was withdrawn the precious gift of hearing he grew up from year to year in loneliness of soul and this deep mountain valley was to him soundless with all its streams the bird of dawn did never rouse the sparkling summons not for his delight the vernal cuckoo shouted not for him murmured the laboring bee when stormy winds were working the broad bosom of the lake into a thousand thousand sparkling waves rocking the trees or driving cloud on cloud along the sharp edge of yarn lofty crags the agitated scene before his eye was silent as a picture ever more were all things silent where so ere he moved the solace of his own pure thoughts upheld he dutiously pursued the round of rural labours the steep mountainside ascended with his staff and faithful dog the plow he guided and the scythe he swayed and the ripe corn before his sickle fell among the jockened reapers for himself all watchful and industrious as he was he wrought on neither field nor flock he owned no wish for wealth had place within his mind no husband's love nor father's hope or care though born a younger brother need was numb that from the floor of his paternal home he should depart to plant himself anew and when mature in manhood he beheld his parents laid in earth no loss ensued of rights to him but he remained well pleased by the pure bond of independent love an inmate of a second family the fellow labourer and friend of him to whom he had fallen nor deemed that his mild presence was a weight that pressed upon his brother's house for books were ready comrades whom he could not tire of whose society the blameless man was never satiated their familiar voice even to old age with unabated charm beguiled his leisure hours refreshed his thoughts beyond its natural elevation raised his introverted spirit and bestowed upon his life which all acknowledged the dark winter night the stormy day each had its own resource song of the muses sage historic tale science severe or word of holy writ announcing immortality and joy to the assembled spirits of just men made perfect and from injury secure thus soothed at home thus busy in the field to no perverse suspicion he gave way no langer, peevishness nor vain complaint and they who were about him did not fail in reverence or in courtesy they prized his gentle manners and his peaceful smiles the gleams of his slow bearing countenance were met with answering sympathy and love at length when sixty years and five were told a slow disease insensibly consumed the powers of nature and a few short steps of friends and kindred bore him from his home cottage shaded by the woody crags to the profounder stillness of the grave nor was his funeral denied the grace of many tears, virtuous and thoughtful grief heart sorrow rendered sweet by gratitude and now that monumental stone preserves his name and unambitiously relates how long and by what kindly outward aids and in what pure contentedness of mind the sad privation was by him endured the small pine tree whose composing sound was wasted on the good man's living ear hath now its own peculiar sanctity and at the touch of every wandering breeze murmurs not idly or his peaceful grave soul-charing light most bountiful of things guide of our way mysterious comforter whose sacred influence spread through earth and heaven we all too thanklessly participate thy gifts were utterly withheld from him his place of rest is near yon ivied porch yet of the wild brooks ask if he complained ask of the channeled rivers if they held a safer, easier more determined course what terror doth it strike into the mind to think of one blind and alone advancing straight towards some precipice's airy brink but timely warned he would have stayed his steps protected say enlightened by his ear at the edge of vacancy not more endangered than a man whose eye beholds the gulf beneath no flower-et blooms throughout the lofty range of these rough hills nor in the woods that could from him conceal its birthplace none whose figure did not live upon his touch the bowels of the earth enriched with knowledge his industrious mind the ocean paid him tribute from the stores lodged in her bosom and by science led his genius mounted to the plains of heaven me thinks I see him how his eyeballs rolled beneath his ample brow in darkness paired but each instinct with spirit and the frame of the whole countenance alive with thought fancy and understanding while the voice discourse of natural or moral truth with eloquence and such authentic power that in his presence humbler knowledge stood abashed and tender pity over-aud a noble and to unreflecting minds a marvelous spectacle the wanderer said beings like these present but proof abounds upon the earth that faculties which seem extinguished do not therefore cease to be and to the mind among her powers of sense this transfer is permitted not alone that the bereft their recompense may win but for remotor purposes of love and charity nor last nor least for this that to the imagination may be given a type and shadow of an awful truth how likewise under sufferance divine darkness is banished from the realms of death by man's imperishable spirit quelled unto the men who see not as we see futurity was thought in ancient times to be laid open and they prophesied and know we not that from the blind have flowed the highest holiest raptures of the liar and wisdom married to immortal verse end of book seven part one recording by bill borst book seven part two of the excursion by William Wordsworth the churchyard among the mountains continued this LibriVox recording is in the public domain among the humbler worthies at our feet lying insensible to human praise love or regret whose linements would next have been betrayed I guess not but a chance to that near the quiet churchyard where we sit a team of horses with a ponderous freight pressing behind a down a rugged slope whose sharp descent confounded their array came at that moment ringing noisily here said the pastor do we muse and mourn the waste of death and lo the giant oak stretched on his beer that massy timber wane nor fail to note the man who guides the team he was a peasant of the lowest class gray locks profusely round his temples hung in clustering curls like ivy which the bite of winter cannot thin the fresh air lodged within his cheek as light within a cloud and he returned our greeting with a smile when he had passed the solitary spake a man he seems of cheerful yesterdays and confident tomorrows with a face not worldly minded for it bears too much of nature's impress gaiety and health freedom and hope but keen with all and shrewd his gestures note and hark his tones of voice are all vivacious as his mean and looks the pastor answered you have read him well year after year is added to his store a silent increase summers winters past past or to come yay boldly might I say ten summers and ten winters of a space that lies beyond life's ordinary bounds upon his sprightly vigor cannot fix the obligation of an anxious mind a pride in having or a fear to lose possessed like outskirts of some large domain by any one more than by him who holds the land in fee its careless lord yet is the creature rational and dowed with foresight here's to every sabbath day the Christian promise with a tent of ear nor will I trust the majesty of heaven reject the incense offered up by him though of the kind which beasts and birds present in grove or pasture cheerfulness of soul from trepidation and repining free how many scrupulous worshipers fall down upon their knees and daily homage pay less worthy less religious even than his this qualified respect the old man's do is paid without reluctance but in truth said the good vicar with a fond half smile I feel at times a motion of despite towards one whose bold contrivances and skill as you have seen this part in works of havoc taking from these veils one after one their proudest ornaments full off his doings leave me to deplore tall ash tree sown by winds by vapors nursed in the dry crannies of the pendant rocks light birch aloft upon the horizon's edge a veil of glory for the ascending moon and oak whose roots by noom tide do were damped inaccessible the raven lodged in safety many a ship launched into morkham bay to him half owed her strong knee timbers and the mast that bears the loftiest of her pendants he from park or forest fetched the enormous axle tree that whirls how slow itself ten thousand spindles and the vast engine laboring in the mine content with meaner prowess must have lacked the trunk and body of its marvelous strength if his undaunted enterprise had failed among the mountain coves young household fur a guardian planted to fence off the blast but towering high the roof above as if its humble destination were forgot that sycamore which annually holds within its shade as in the stately tent on all sides open to the fanning breeze a grave assemblage seated while they shear the fleece encumbered flock the joyful elm around whose trunk the maidens dance in may and the Lord's oak would plead their several rites in vain if he were master of their fate his sentence to the axe would doom them all but green in age and lusty as he is and promising to keep his hold on earth less as might seem in rival ship with men than with the forests that are enduring growth his own appointed hour will come at last and like the haughty spoilers of the world this keen destroyer in his turn must fall now from the living pass we once again from age the priest continued turn your thoughts from age that often unlamented drops and mark that daisied hillock three spans long seven lusty sons a board of gold rill side and when the hope had ceased of other progeny a daughter then was given the crowning bounty of the whole and so acknowledged with a tremulous joy felt to the center of that heavenly calm with which by nature every mother's soul is stricken in the moment when her throws are ended and her ears have heard the cry which tells her that a living child is born and she lies conscious in a blissful rest that the dread storm is weathered by them both the father him at this unlooked for gift a bolder transport seizes from the side of his bright hearth and from his open door day after day the gladness is diffused to all that come almost to all that pass invited summoned to partake the cheer spread on the never empty board and drink health and good wishes from cups replenished by his joyous hand those seven fair brothers variously were moved each by the thoughts best suited to his years but most of all and with most thankful mind the hoary grand sire felt himself enriched a happiness that ebbed not but remained to fill the total measure of his soul from the low tenement his own abode wither as to a little private cell drawn from bustle care and noise to spend the sabbath of old age in peace once every day he dutiously repaired to rock the cradle of the slumbering babe for in that female infant's name he heard the silent name of his departed wife heart-stirring music hourly heard that name full blessed he was another margaret green oft did he say was come to gold-reel side oh pang unthought of as the precious boon itself had been unlooked for oh dire stroke of desolating anguish for them all just as the child could totter on the floor and by some friendly fingers help upstayed range round the garden walk while she per chance was catching at some novelty of spring ground flower or glossy insect from its cell drawn by the sunshine at that hopeful season the winds of march smiting insidiously raised in the tender passage of the throat viewless obstruction whence all unforewarned the household lost their pride and soul's delight but time hath power to soften all regrets and prayer and thought can bring to worst distress due resignation therefore though some tears fail not to spring from either parent's eye oft fear of sorrow like their own yet this departed little one too long the innocent trebler of their quiet sleeps in what may now be called a peaceful bed on a bright day so calm and bright it seemed to us with our sad spirits heavenly fair these mountains echoed to an unknown sound avali thrice repeated or the course let down into the hollow of that grave the red with naked mold ye rains of April duly wet this earth spare burning sun of midsummer these sods that they may knit together and there with our thoughts unite in kindred quietness nor so the valley shall forget her loss dear youth by young and old alike beloved as to me as precious as my own green herbs may creep softly creep over thy last abode and we may pass reminded less imperiously of thee the ridge itself may sink into the breast of earth the great abyss and be no more yet shall not thy remembrance leave our hearts thy image disappear the mountain ash no eye can overlook when mid a grove of yet unfaded trees she lifts her head decked with trees that outshine springs richest blossoms and ye may have marked by a brookside or solitary tarn how she her station doth adorn the pool glows at her feet and all the gloomy rocks are brightened round her in his native veil such and so glorious did this youth appear a sight that kindled pleasure in all hearts by his ingenuous beauty by the gleam of his fair eyes by his capacious brow by all the graces with which nature's hand had lavishly arrayed him as old bards telling their idle songs of wandering gods pan or Apollo veiled in human form yet like the sweet breathed violet of the shade discovered in their own despite to sense of mortals if such fables without blame may find chance mention on this sacred ground so through a simple rustic garb's disguise and through the impediment of rural cares in him revealed a scholar's genius shone and so not wholly hidden from men's sight in him the spirit of a hero walked our unpretending valley how the quite whizzed from the stripling's arm if touched by him the inglorious football mounted to the pitch of the lark's flight or shaped a rainbow curve aloft in prospect of the shouting field the indefatigable fox had learned to dread his perseverance in the chase with admiration would he lift his eyes to the wide-ruling eagle and his head was loath to assault the majesty he loved else had the strongest fastnesses prove weak to guard the royal brood the sailing glee'd the wheeling swallow and the darting snipe the sport of seagull dancing with the waves and cautious waterfall from distant climes fixed at their seat the center of the mirror were subject to young Oswald's steady aim and lived by his forbearance from the coast of France a boastful tyrant hurled his threats our country marked the preparation vast of hostile forces and she called with voice that filled her planes that reached her most shores and in remotest veils was heard to arms then for the first time here you might have seen the shepherd's gray to Marshall Scarlett changed that flashed uncouthly through the woods and fields ten hardy striplings all in bright attire and graced with shining weapons weekly marched from this lone valley to a voice of the surrounding district they might learn the rudiments of war ten hardy strong and valiant but young Oswald like a chief and yet a modest comrade led them forth from their shy solitude to face the world with a gay confidence and seemly pride measuring the soil beneath their happy feet like youths released from labor and yet bound to most laborious service though to them a festival of unencumbered ease the inner spirit keeping holiday like vernal ground to Sabbath sunshine left oft have I marked him at some leisure hour stretched on the grass or seated in the shade among his fellows while an ample map before their eyes lay carefully outspread from the gallant teacher would discourse now pointing this way and now that here flows thus would he say the Rhine that famous stream eastward the Danube toward this inland sea a mightier river winds from realm to realm and like a serpent shows his glittering back be spotted with innumerable aisles here rains the Russian there the Turk observe his capital city thence along attractive libelier interest to his hopes and fears his finger moved distinguishing the spots where widespread conflict then most fiercely raged nor left unstigmatized those fatal fields on which the sons of mighty Germany were taught a base submission here behold a nobler race the switzers and their land veils deeper far than these of ours huge woods and mountains white with everlasting snow and surely he that spake with kindling brow it's a true patriot hopeful as the best of that young peasantry who in our days have fought and perished for Helvesia's rights ah not in vain or those who in old time for work of happier issue to the side of tell came trooping from a thousand huts when he had risen alone no braver youth descended from Judean heights to march with righteous Joshua nor appeared in arms the grove was felled and altar was cast down and Gideon blew the trumpet soul inflamed and strong in hatred of idolatry the pastor even as if by these last words raised from his seat within the chosen shade moved toward the grave instinctively his steps we followed and my voice with joy exclaimed power to the oppressors of the world is given a might of which they dream not hold the curse to be the wakener of divinist thoughts father and founder of exalted deeds and to hold nations bound in servile straits the liberal donor of capacities more than heroic this to be nor yet have sense of one conatural wish nor yet deserve the least return of human thanks winning no recompense but deadly hate with pity mixed astonishment with scorn when this involuntary strain had ceased the pastor said so providence is served the forked weapon of the skies can send illumination into deep dark holds which the mild sunbeam hath not power to pierce e-thrones that have defied remorse and cast pity away soon shall ye quake with fear for not unconscious of the mighty debt which to outrageous wrong the sufferer owes Europe through all her habitable bounds is thirsting for their overthrow who yet survive as pagan temples stood of your by horror of their impious rights preserved are still permitted to extend their pride like cedars on the top of Lebanon darkening the sun but less impatient thoughts and love all hoping and expecting all this outgrave demands where rests in peace a humble champion of the better cause a peasant youth so call him for he asked no higher name in whom our country showed as in a favorite son most beautiful in spite of vice and misery and disease spread with the spreading of her wealthy arts England the ancient and the free appeared in him to stand before my swimming eyes unconquerably virtuous and secure no more of this lest I offend his dust short was his life and a brief tale remains one day a summer's day of annual pomp and solemn chase from morning to sultry noon his steps had followed fleet of the fleet the red deer driven along its native heights with cry of hound and horn and from that toil returned with those weakened and relaxed this generous youth too negligent of self plunged mid a gay and busy throng convened to wash the fleeces of his father's flock into the chilling flood convulsions dire seized him that self same night and through the space of twelve ensuing days his frame was wrenched till nature rested from her work in death to him thus snatched away the reds paid a soldier's honors at his funeral hour bright was the sun the sky a cloudless blue a golden luster slept upon the hills and if by chance a stranger wandering there from some commanding eminence had looked down on this spot well pleased would he have seen a glittering spectacle but every face was pallid seldom hath that eye been moist with tears that wept not then nor were the few who from their dwellings came not forth to join in this sad service less disturbed than we they started at the tributary peel of instantaneous thunder which announced through the still air the closing of the grave and distant mountains echoed with a sound of lamentation never heard before the pastor ceased my venerable friend victoriously upraised his clear bright eye and when that eulogy was ended stood and wrapped as if his inward sense perceived the prolongation of some still response sent by the ancient soul of this wide land the spirit of its mountains and its seas its cities, temples, fields its awful power, its rights and virtues by that deity descending and supporting his pure heart with patriotic confidence and joy and at the last of those memorial words the pining solitary turned aside whether through manly instinct to conceal tender emotions spreading from the heart to his worn cheek or with uneasy shame for those cold humours of habitual spleen that fondly seeking in dispraise of man, solace and self-excuse had sometimes urged to self-abuse a not in eloquent tongue right toward the sacred edifice his steps had been directed and we saw him now intent upon a monumental stone whose uncouth form was grafted on the wall or rather seemed to have grown into the side of the rude pile as off times trunks of trees where nature works in wild and craggy spots are seen in corporate with the living rock to endure for eye the vicar taking note of his employment with a courteous smile exclaimed the sagist antiquarian's eye that task would foil then letting fall his voice while he advanced thus spake tradition tells that in Eliza's golden days a knight came on a war-horse sumptuously attired and fixed his home on this sequestered veil to his left untold if here he first drew breath or as a stranger reached this deep recess a pleasing thought I sometimes entertain that happily bound to Scotland's court in service of his queen or sent on mission to some northern sheaf of England's realm this veil he might have seen with transient observation and thence caught an image fair which brightening in his soul when joy of war and pride of chivalry languished beneath accumulated years had power to draw him from the world to make that paradise his chosen home to which his peaceful fancy oft had turned vague thoughts are these but if belief may rest upon unwritten story fondly traced from sire to son in this obscure retreat the knight arrived with spear and shield and born upon a charger gorgeously bedecked with broidered housings and the lofty steed his soul companion whom he in gratitude let loose to range infertile pastures was beheld with eyes of admiration and delightful awe by those untraveled dalesmen with less pride yet free from touch of envious discontent they saw a mansion at his bidding rise like a bright star amid the lowly band of their rude homesteads here the warrior dwelt and in that mansion children of his own or kindred gathered round him as a tree that falls and disappears the house is gone and through improvidence or want of love for ancient worth and honorable things the spear and shield are vanished which the knight hung in his rustic hall one ivy arch myself have seen a gateway last remains of that foundation in domestic care raised by his hands and now no traces left of the mild-hearted champion saved this stone faithless memorial and his family name born by yarn clustering cottages that sprang from out the ruins of his stately lodge these and the name and title at full length sir alfred earthing with appropriate words accompanied still extant in a wreath or posy girding round the several fronts of three clear sounding and harmonious bells that in the steeple hang his pious gift so fails so languishes grows dim and dies the gray-haired wanderer pensively exclaimed all that this world is proud of from their spheres the stars of human glory are cast down perish the roses and the flowers of kings princes and emperors and the crowns and palms of all the mighty withered and consumed nor is power given to the lowliest innocence long to protect her own the man himself departs and soon is spent the line of those who, in the bodily image in the mind, in heart or soul in station or pursuit did most resemble him degrees and ranks fraternities and orders heaping high new wealth upon the birthing of the old and placing trust in privilege confirmed and reconfirmed are scoffed at with a smile of greedy foretaste from the secret stand of desolation aimed to slow decline these yield and these to sudden overthrow their virtue, service, happiness and state expire and nature's pleasant robe of green humanities appointed shroud and wraps their monuments and their memory the vast frame of social nature changes evermore her organs and her members with decay restless and restless generation powers and functions dying and produced at need and by this law the mighty whole subsists with an ascent and progress in the main yet oh how disproportioned to the hopes and expectations of self flattering minds the courteous night whose bones are here interred lived in an age conspicuous as our own for strife and ferment in the minds of men once alteration in the forms of things various and vast a memorable age which did to him assign a pence of lot to linger mid the last of those bright clouds that on the steady breeze of honor sailed in long procession calm and beautiful he who had seen his own bright order fade and its devotion gradually decline while war relinquishing the lance and shield her temper changed and bowed to other laws had also witnessed in his mourn of life that violent commotion which or through in town and city and sequestered glen alter and cross and church of solemn roof and old religious house pile after pile and shook their tenants out into the fields like wild beasts without home their hour was come but why no softening thought of gratitude no just remembrance scruple or wise doubt benevolence is mild nor borrows help save at worst need from bold and petuous force fitliest allied to anger and revenge but humankind rejoices in the might of mutability and airy hopes dancing around her hinder and disturb those meditations of the soul that feed the retrospective virtues festive songs break from the maddened nations at the sight of sudden overthrow and cold neglect is the sure consequence of slow decay even said the wanderer as that courteous night bound by his vow to labor for redress of all who suffer wrong and to enact by sword and lance the law of gentleness if I may venture of myself to speak trusting that not congruously I blend low things with lofty I too shall be doomed to outlive the kindly use and fair esteem of the poor calling which my youth embraced with no unworthy prospect but enough thoughts crowd upon me and were seemlier now to stop and yield our gracious teacher thanks for the pathetic records which his voice hath here delivered words of heartfelt truth tending to patience when affliction strikes to hope and love to confident repose in God and reverence for the dust of man.