220
  Was vested with attention or respect
  Through claims of wealth or blood; nor was it least
  Of many benefits, in later years
  Derived from academic institutes
  And rules, that they held something up to view 225
  Of a Republic, where all stood thus far
  Upon equal ground; that we were brothers all
  In honour, as in one community,
  Scholars and gentlemen; where, furthermore,
  Distinction open lay to all that came, 230
  And wealth and titles were in less esteem
  Than talents, worth, and prosperous industry. 
  Add unto this, subservience from the first
  To presences of God’s mysterious power
  Made manifest in Nature’s sovereignty, 235
  And fellowship with venerable books,
  To sanction the proud workings of the soul,
  And mountain liberty.  It could not be
  But that one tutored thus should look with awe
  Upon the faculties of man, receive 240
  Gladly the highest promises, and hail,
  As best, the government of equal rights
  And individual worth.  And hence, O Friend! 
  If at the first great outbreak I rejoiced
  Less than might well befit my youth, the cause 245
  In part lay here, that unto me the events
  Seemed nothing out of nature’s certain course,
  A gift that was come rather late than soon. 
  No wonder, then, if advocates like these,
  Inflamed by passion, blind with prejudice, 250
  And stung with injury, at this riper day,
  Were impotent to make my hopes put on
  The shape of theirs, my understanding bend
  In honour to their honour:  zeal, which yet
  Had slumbered, now in opposition burst 255
  Forth like a Polar summer:  every word
  They uttered was a dart, by counter-winds
  Blown back upon themselves; their reason seemed
  Confusion-stricken by a higher power
  Than human understanding, their discourse 260
  Maimed, spiritless; and, in their weakness strong,
  I triumphed.

               Meantime, day by day, the roads
  Were crowded with the bravest youth of France, [M]
  And all the promptest of her spirits, linked
  In gallant soldiership, and posting on 265
  To meet the war upon her frontier bounds. 
  Yet at this very moment do tears start
  Into mine eyes:  I do not say I weep—­
  I wept not then,—­but tears have dimmed my sight,
  In memory of the farewells of that time, 270
  Domestic severings, female fortitude
  At dearest separation, patriot love
  And self-devotion, and terrestrial hope,
  Encouraged with a martyr’s confidence;
  Even files of strangers merely seen but once, 275