like stars,
  Through every magnitude distinguishable,
  Shone mutually indebted, or half lost
  Each in the other’s blaze, a galaxy
  Of life and glory.  In the midst stood Man, 485
  Outwardly, inwardly contemplated,
  As, of all visible natures, crown, though born
  Of dust, and kindred to the worm; a Being,
  Both in perception and discernment, first
  In every capability of rapture, 490
  Through the divine effect of power and love;
  As, more than anything we know, instinct
  With godhead, and, by reason and by will,
  Acknowledging dependency sublime.

  Ere long, the lonely mountains left, I moved, 495
  Begirt, from day to day, with temporal shapes
  Of vice and folly thrust upon my view,
  Objects of sport, and ridicule, and scorn,
  Manners and characters discriminate,
  And little bustling passions that eclipse, 500
  As well they might, the impersonated thought,
  The idea, or abstraction of the kind.

  An idler among academic bowers,
  Such was my new condition, as at large
  Has been set forth; [n] yet here the vulgar light 505
  Of present, actual, superficial life,
  Gleaming through colouring of other times,
  Old usages and local privilege,
  Was welcome, softened, if not solemnised.

  This notwithstanding, being brought more near 510
  To vice and guilt, forerunning wretchedness
  I trembled,—­thought, at times, of human life
  With an indefinite terror and dismay,
  Such as the storms and angry elements
  Had bred in me; but gloomier far, a dim 515
  Analogy to uproar and misrule,
  Disquiet, danger, and obscurity.

  It might be told (but wherefore speak of things
  Common to all?) that, seeing, I was led
  Gravely to ponder—­judging between good 520
  And evil, not as for the mind’s delight
  But for her guidance—­one who was to act,
  As sometimes to the best of feeble means
  I did, by human sympathy impelled: 
  And, through dislike and most offensive pain, 525
  Was to the truth conducted; of this faith
  Never forsaken, that, by acting well,
  And understanding, I should learn to love
  The end of life, and every thing we know.

  Grave Teacher, stern Preceptress! for at times 530
  Thou canst put on an aspect most severe;
  London, to thee I willingly return. 
  Erewhile my verse played idly with the flowers
  Enwrought upon thy mantle; satisfied
  With that amusement, and a simple look 535
  Of child-like inquisition now and then
  Cast upwards on thy countenance, to detect
  Some inner meanings which might harbour