The Excursion

"Of blessed consolations in distress."

"The vision and the faculty divine; Yet wanting the accomplishment of verse."

"Strongest minds Are often those of whom the noisy world Hears least."

"The imperfect offices of prayer and praise."

"He gazed upon that mighty orb of song, The divine Milton."

"The good die first, And they whose hearts are dry as summer dust Burn to the socket."

"This dull product of a scoffer's pen."

"With battlements that on their restless fronts Bore stars."

"Wisdom is ofttimes nearer when we stoop Than when we soar."

"Wrongs unredressed, or insults unavenged."

"Monastic brotherhood, upon rock Aerial."

"The intellectual power, through words and things, Went sounding on, a dim and perilous way!"

"Society became my glittering bride, And airy hopes my children."

"And the most difficult of tasks to keep Heights which the soul is competent to gain."

"For by superior energies; more strict Affiance in each other; faith more firm In their unhallowed principles; the bad Have fairly earned a victory o'er the weak, The vacillating, inconsistent good."

"There is a luxury in self-dispraise; And inward self-disparagement affords To meditative spleen a grateful feast."

"Recognizes ever and anon The breeze of Nature stirring in his soul."

"Lost in a gloom of uninspired research."

"We live by Admiration, Hope and Love."

"Pan himself, The simple shepherd's awe-inspiring god!"

"I have seen A curious child, who dwelt upon a tract Of inland ground, applying to his ear The convolutions of a smooth-lipped shell; To which, in silence hushed, his very soul Listened intensely; and his countenance soon Brightened with joy; for from within were heard Murmurings, whereby the monitor expressed Mysterious union with its native sea."

"So build we up the being that we are."

"One in whom persuasion and belief Had ripened into faith, and faith become A passionate intuition."

"Spires whose "silent finger points to heaven.""

"Ah, what a warning for a thoughtless man, Could field or grove, could any spot of earth, Show to his eye an image of the pangs Which it hath witnessed,—render back an echo Of the sad steps by which it hath been trod!"

"Wild is the music of the autumnal wind Among the faded woods."

"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."

"Wisdom married to immortal verse."

"A man he seems of cheerful yesterdays And confident tomorrows."

"The primal duties shine aloft, like stars; The charities that soothe and heal and bless Are scattered at the feet of man like flowers."

"In a deep pool, by happy chance we saw A twofold image: on a grassy bank A snow-white ram, and in the crystal flood Another and the same!"