But there is one still deeper element in Wordsworth’s poetry. He tells us very clearly that the true liberty and grandeur of _mankind_ are to be found along the line of obedience to law and fidelity to duty. This is the truth which was revealed to him, slowly and serenely, as a consolation for the loss of his brief revolutionary dream. He learned to rejoice in it more and more deeply, and to proclaim it more and more clearly, as his manhood settled into firmness and strength. Fixing his attention at first upon the humblest examples of the power of the human heart to resist unfriendly circumstances, as in _Resolution and Independence_, and to endure sufferings and trials, as in _Margaret_ and _Michael_, he grew into a new conception of the right nobility. He saw that it was not necessary to make a great overturning of society before the individual man could begin to fulfil his destiny. “What then remains?” he cries— “To seek Those helps for his occasion ever near Who lacks not will to use them; vows, renewed On the first motion of a holy thought; Vigils of contemplation; praise; and prayer— A stream, which, from the fountain of the heart, Issuing however feebly, nowhere flows Without access of unexpected strength. But, above all, the victory is sure For him, who seeking faith by virtue, strives To yield entire submission to the law Of conscience—conscience reverenced and obeyed, As God’s most intimate presence in the soul, And his most perfect image in the world.” If we would hear this message breathed in tones of lyric sweetness, as to the notes of a silver harp, we may turn to Wordsworth’s poems on the Skylark,— “Type of the wise who soar, but never roam; True to the kindred points of Heaven and Home.” If we would hear it proclaimed with grandeur, as by a solemn organ; or with martial ardour, as by a ringing trumpet, we may read the _Ode to Duty_ or _The Character of the Happy Warrior_, two of the noblest and most weighty poems that Wordsworth ever wrote. There is a certain distinction and elevation about his moral feelings which makes them in themselves poetic. In his poetry beauty is goodness and goodness is beauty.