Than later days allowed; carried about me,
  With less alloy to its integrity,
  The experience of past ages, as, through help 335
  Of books and common life, it makes sure way
  To youthful minds, by objects over near
  Not pressed upon, nor dazzled or misled
  By struggling with the crowd for present ends.

    But though not deaf, nor obstinate to find 340
  Error without excuse upon the side
  Of them who strove against us, more delight
  We took, and let this freely be confessed,
  In painting to ourselves the miseries
  Of royal courts, and that voluptuous life 345
  Unfeeling, where the man who is of soul
  The meanest thrives the most; where dignity,
  True personal dignity, abideth not;
  A light, a cruel, and vain world cut off
  From the natural inlets of just sentiment, 350
  From lowly sympathy and chastening truth;
  Where good and evil interchange their names,
  And thirst for bloody spoils abroad is paired
  With vice at home.  We added dearest themes—­
  Man and his noble nature, as it is 355
  The gift which God has placed within his power,
  His blind desires and steady faculties
  Capable of clear truth, the one to break
  Bondage, the other to build liberty
  On firm foundations, making social life, 360
  Through knowledge spreading and imperishable,
  As just in regulation, and as pure
  As individual in the wise and good.

    We summoned up the honourable deeds
  Of ancient Story, thought of each bright spot, 365
  That would be found in all recorded time,
  Of truth preserved and error passed away;
  Of single spirits that catch the flame from Heaven,
  And how the multitudes of men will feed
  And fan each other; thought of sects, how keen 370
  They are to put the appropriate nature on,
  Triumphant over every obstacle
  Of custom, language, country, love, or hate,
  And what they do and suffer for their creed;
  How far they travel, and how long endure; 375
  How quickly mighty Nations have been formed,
  From least beginnings; how, together locked
  By new opinions, scattered tribes have made
  One body, spreading wide as clouds in heaven. 
  To aspirations then of our own minds 380
  Did we appeal; and, finally, beheld
  A living confirmation of the whole
  Before us, in a people from the depth
  Of shameful imbecility uprisen,
  Fresh as the morning star.  Elate we looked 385
  Upon their virtues; saw, in rudest men,
  Self-sacrifice the firmest; generous love,
  And continence of mind, and sense of right,
  Uppermost in the midst of fiercest strife.