An active partisan, I thus convoked' called up From every object pleasant circumstance
155 To suit my ends; I moved among mankind With genial feelings still' predominant; always When erring, erring on the better part, And in the kinder spirit; placable,' forgiving Indulgent, as not uninformed that men
160 See as they have been taught, and that Antiquity4 Gives rights to error; and aware no less That throwing off oppression must be work As well of licence as of liberty; And above all, for this was more than all,
165 Not caring if the wind did now and then Blow keen upon an eminence' that gave elevated ground Prospect so large into futurity;
In brief, a Child of Nature, as at first, Diffusing only those affections wider
170 That from the cradle had grown up with me, And losing, in no other way than light Is lost in light, the weak in the more strong.
In the main outline, such, it might be said, Was my condition, till with open war
175 Britain opposed the Liberties of France;5 This threw me first out of the pale' of love, bounds Soured, and corrupted, upwards to the source, My sentiments; was not,6 as hitherto, A swallowing up of lesser things in great;
4. Tradition, long use. against France. 5. On February 11, 1793, England declared war 6. I.e., there was not (in my sentiments).
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37 6 / WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
180 But change of them into their contraries; And thus a way was opened for mistakes And false conclusions, in degree as gross, In land more dangerous. What had been a pride Was now a shame; my likings and my loves
185 Ran in new channels, leaving old ones dry, And hence a blow that in maturer age Would but have touched the judgement, struck more deep Into sensations near the heart; meantime, As from the first, wild theories were afloat
190 To whose pretensions sedulously urged7 I had but lent a careless ear, assured That time was ready to set all things right, And that the multitude so long oppressed Would be oppressed no more.
But when events
195 Brought less encouragement, and unto these The immediate proof of principles no more Could be entrusted, while the events themselves, Worn out in greatness, stripped of novelty, Less occupied the mind; and sentiments
200 Could through my understanding's natural growth No longer keep their ground, by faith maintained Of inward consciousness, and hope that laid Her hand upon her object; evidence Safer, of universal application, such
205 As could not be impeached, was sought elsewhere. But now, become Oppressors in their turn, Frenchmen had changed a war of self-defence For one of Conquest, losing sight of all Which they had struggled for:8 and mounted up, 210 Openly in the eye of Earth and Heaven, The scale of Liberty.9 I read her doom With anger vexed, with disappointment sore, But not dismayed, nor taking to the shame Of a false Prophet. While resentment rose, 215 Striving to hide, what nought could heal, the wounds Of mortified presumption, I adhered More firmly to old tenets, and, to prove1 Their temper, strained them more; and thus, in heat Of contest, did opinions every day 220 Grow into consequence, till round my mind They clung, as if they were its life, nay more, The very being of the immortal Soul. This was the time when, all things tending fast To depravation, speculative schemes 225 That promised to abstract the hopes of Man Out of his feelings, to be fixed thenceforth
7. Diligently argued for. 9. I.e., the desire for power now outweighed the 8. In late 1794 and early 1795, French troops had love of liberty. successes in Spain, Italy, Holland, and Germany? 1. Test. The figure is that of testing a tempered even though, in the constitution written in 1790, steel sword, they had renounced all foreign conquest.
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THE PRELUDE, BOOK THIRTEENTH / 377
For ever in a purer element, Found ready welcome.2 Tempting region that For Zeal to enter and refresh herself,
230 Where passions had the privilege to work, And never hear the sound of their own names: But, speaking more in charity, the dream Flattered the young, pleased with extremes, nor least With that which makes our Reason's naked self3
235 The object of its fervour. * 4 *
[CRISIS, BREAKDOWN, AND RECOVERY]
I summoned my best skill, and toiled, intent
280 To anatomize0 the frame of social life, dissect Yea, the whole body of society Searched to its heart. Share with me, Friend! the wish That some dramatic tale indued with shapes Livelier, and flinging out less guarded words
285 Than suit the Work we fashion, might set forth What then I learned, or think I learned, of truth, And the errors into which I fell, betrayed By present objects, and by reasonings false From their beginnings, inasmuch as drawn
290 Out of a heart that had been turned aside From Nature's way by outward accidents, And which was thus confounded more and more, Misguided and misguiding. So I fared, Dragging all precepts, judgments, maxims, creeds,
295 Like culprits to the bar;? calling the mind, courtroom Suspiciously, to establish in plain day Her titles4 and her honors, now believing, Now disbelieving, endlessly perplexed With impulse, motive, right and wrong, the ground 300 Of obligation, what the rule and whence
The sanction, till, demanding formal proof And seeking it in every thing, I lost All feeling of conviction, and, in
