O pleasant exercise of hope
and joy! [C] 105
For mighty were the auxiliars which then
stood
Upon our side, us who were strong in love!
Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive,
But to be young was very Heaven! [D] O
times,
In which the meagre, stale, forbidding
ways 110
Of custom, law, and statute, took at once
The attraction of a country in romance!
When Reason seemed the most to assert
her rights
When most intent on making of herself
A prime enchantress—to assist
the work, 115
Which then was going forward in her name!
Not favoured spots alone, but the whole
Earth,
The beauty wore of promise—that
which sets
(As at some moments might not be unfelt
Among the bowers of Paradise itself)
120
The budding rose above the rose full blown.
What temper at the prospect did not wake
To happiness unthought of? The inert
Were roused, and lively natures rapt away!
They who had fed their childhood upon
dreams, 125
The play-fellows of fancy, who had made
All powers of swiftness, subtilty, and
strength
Their ministers,—who in lordly
wise had stirred
Among the grandest objects of the sense,
And dealt with whatsoever they found there
130
As if they had within some lurking right
To wield it;—they, too, who
of gentle mood
Had watched all gentle motions, and to
these
Had fitted their own thoughts, schemers
more mild,
And in the region of their peaceful selves;—135
Now was it that both found, the
meek and lofty
Did both find helpers to their hearts’
desire,
And stuff at hand, plastic as they could
wish,—
Were called upon to exercise their skill,
Not in Utopia,—subterranean
fields,—140
Or some secreted island, Heaven knows
where!
But in the very world, which is the world
Of all of us,—the place where,
in the end,
We find our happiness, or not at all!
Why should I not confess that
Earth was then 145
To me, what an inheritance, new-fallen,
Seems, when the first time visited, to
one
Who thither comes to find in it his home?
He walks about and looks upon the spot
With cordial transport, moulds it and
remoulds, 150
And is half pleased with things that are
amiss,
’Twill be such joy to see them disappear.
An active partisan, I thus
convoked
From every object pleasant circumstance
To suit my ends; I moved among mankind
155
With genial feelings still predominant;
When erring, erring on the better part,
And in the kinder spirit; placable,
Indulgent, as not uninformed that men
See as they have been taught—Antiquity