Of smiles spontaneous and mysterious fears (The first-born they of reason and twin-birth) Of tides obedient to external force, And currents self-determin'd, as might seem, Or by some central breath; of moments awful, Now in thy inner life, and now abroad, When power stream'd from thee, and thy soul received The light reflected as a light bestowed; Of fancies fair, and milder hours of youth, Hyblæan murmurs of poetic thought Industrious in its joy, in vales and glens Native or outland, lakes and famous hills! Or on the lonely highroad, when the stars Were rising; or by secret mountain streams, The guides and the companions of thy way; Of more than _fancy_--of the _social sense_ Distending wide, and man beloved as man, Where France in all her towns lay vibrating, Ev'n as a bark becalm'd beneath the burst Of Heaven's immediate thunder, when no cloud Is visible, or shadow on the main! For Thou wert there, thy own brows garlanded, Amid the tremor of a realm aglow, Amid a mighty nation jubilant, When from the general heart of human kind _Hope_ sprang forth, like a full-born Deity! Of that dear Hope afflicted, and amaz'd, So homeward summon'd! thenceforth calm and sure From the dread watch-tower of man's absolute self, With light unwaning on her eyes, to look Far on! herself a glory to behold, The Angel of the vision! Then (last strain) Of duty, chosen laws controlling choice, Action and Joy! _An Orphic song indeed, A song divine of high and passionate truths, To their own music chaunted!_
Indeed, through the whole of that Poem, [Greek: me Aura tis eisepneuse mousikôtatê]. This I considered as "The Excursion;"[134] and the second, as "The Recluse" I had (from what I had at different times gathered from your conversation on the Place [Grasmere]) anticipated as commencing with you set down and settled in an abiding home, and that with the description of that home you were to begin a _philosophical poem_, the _result_ and fruits of a spirit so framed and so disciplined as had been told in the former.