h Wordsworth the mood passed, and he
learned

"To look on Nature, not as in the hour
Of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentimes
The still, sad music of humanity,
Not harsh nor grating, but of amplest power
To chasten and subdue."

He would not question Nature in search of new and untainted pleasure,
but rests in her as inclusive of humanity. The secret of Wordsworth is
acquiescence; "the still, sad music of humanity" is the key-note of his
ethic. Byron, on the other hand, is in revolt. He has the ardour of a
pervert, the rancorous scorn of a deserter. The "hum of human cities" is
a "torture." He is "a link reluctant in a fleshly chain." To him Nature
and Humanity are antagonists, and he cleaves to the one, yea, he would
take her by violence, to mark his alienation and severance from the
other.]

[jg] _Of peopled cities_----[MS.]

[jh] {262}
----_but to be_
_A link reluctant in a living chain_
_Classing with creatures_----[MS.]

[ji] _And with the air_----[MS.]

[jj] _To sink and suffer_----[MS.]

[jk] ----_which partly round us cling._--[MS.]

[321] [Compare Horace, _Odes_, iii. 2. 23, 24--

"Et udam
Spernit humum fugiente penna."]

[jl] {263} ----_in this degrading form._--[MS.]

[jm] ----_the Spirit in each spot._--[MS.]

[322][The "bodiless thought" is the object, not the subject, of his
celestial vision. "Even now," as through a glass darkly, and with eyes

"Whose half-beholdings through unsteady tears
Gave shape, hue, distance to the inward dream,"

his soul "had sight" of the spirit, the informing idea, the essence of
each passing scene; but, hereafter, his bodiless spirit would, as it
were, encounter the place-spirits face to face. It is to be noted that
warmth of feeling, not clearness or fulness of perception, attends this
spiritual recognition.]

[jn] [_Is not_] _the universe a breathing part?_--[MS.]

[jo] {264} _And gaze upon the ground with sordid thoughts and
slow._--[MS.]

[323] [Compare Coleridge's _Dejection. An Ode_, iv. 4-9--

"And would we aught behold, of higher worth,
Than that inanimate cold world allowed
To the poor, loveless, ever-anxious crowd;
Ah! from the soul itself must issue forth
A light, a glory, a fair luminous cloud
Enveloping the earth."]

[jp] _But this is not a time--I must return._--[MS.]

[jq] _Here the reflecting Sophist_----.--[MS.]

[jr] {265}