BOOK VIII.

Retrospect.-Love of Nature leading to Love of Man. 205

BOOK I.

INTRODUCTION.

CHILDHOOD AND SCHOOL-TIME.

BOOK FIRST.

INTRODUCTION_CHILDHOOD AND SCHOOL-TIME.

O THERE is blessing in this gentle breeze,
A visitant that while it fans my cheek
Doth seem half-conscious of the joy it brings
From the green fields, and from yon azure sky.
Whate'er its mission, the soft breeze can come
To none more grateful than to me; escaped
From the vast city, where I long had pined
A discontented sojourner: now free,

Free as a bird to settle where I will.

What dwelling shall receive me? in what vale
Shall be my harbor? underneath what grove
Shall I take up my home? and what clear stream
Shall with its murmur lull me into rest?
The earth is all before me. With a heart

Joyous, nor scared at its own liberty,

I look about; and should the chosen guide
Be nothing better than a wandering cloud,
I cannot miss my way. I breathe again!
Trances of thought and mountings of the mind
Come fast upon me: it is shaken off,

That burthen of my own unnatural self,
The heavy weight of many a weary day

Not mine, and such as were not made for me.
Long months of peace (if such bold word accord
With any promises of human life),

Long months of ease and undisturbed delight
Are mine in prospect; whither shall I turn
By road or pathway, or through trackless field,
Up hill or down, or shall some floating thing
Upon the river point me out my course?

Dear Liberty! Yet what would it avail
But for a gift that consecrates the joy?
For I, methought, while the sweet breath of heaven.
Was blowing on my body, felt within

A correspondent breeze, that gently moved
With quickening virtue, but is now become
A tempest, a redundant energy,

Vexing its own creation. Thanks to both,

And their congenial powers, that, while they join