"Rapt into still communion that transcends The imperfect offices of prayer and praise, His mind is a thanksgiving to the Power That made him; it is blessedness and love." But to show how completely Wordsworth's system is a system of poetical Quakerism, I should be obliged to take his Excursion, and collate the whole with passages from the writings of the early Friends, Fox, Penn, Barclay, Pennington, and others. The Excursion is a very bible of Quakerism. Every page abounds with it. It is, in fact, wholly and fervently permeated by the soul of Quaker theology. The Friends teach that the great guide of life is "the light which enlighteneth every man that cometh into the world;" hence they were originally termed "children of light," till the nickname of Quakers superseded it. They declare this light to be "the infallible guide" of all men who will follow it. What says Wordsworth? "Early he perceives Within himself a measure and a rule, Which to the Sun of Truth he can apply, That shines for him, and shines for all mankind. * * * he refers His notions to this standard; on this rock Rest his desires; and hence in after-life, Soul-strengthening patience, and sublime content." The whole of the fourth Book, from which this extract is made, is no other than a luminous and vivid exposition of pure Quakerism. The Wanderer is its apostle. He shows how in all ages and countries men have been influenced by this voice of God in nature; and, not comprehending it fully, have mixed it up with the forms and phenomena of nature itself, and shaped religions out of it. Hence the Chaldean faith; hence the Grecian mythology. "They felt A spiritual Presence, ofttimes misconceived, But still a high dependence, a divine Beauty and government, that filled their hearts With joy and gratitude, and fear and love; And from their fervent lips drew hymns of praise, That through the desert rung. Though favored less, Far less than these, yet rich in their degree, Were those bewildered pagans of old time."--P. 169. So say the Friends; and to such a pitch do they carry their belief in their "universal and saving light," that they contend, that to the most savage nations, "having not law, it becomes a law," and that through it the spirit, if not the history of the Savior is revealed and made operative, and that thus the voice of salvation is preached in the heart where never outward gospel has been heard. The Friends contend that science and mere human wisdom most commonly tend to darken and weigh down this divine principle, to cloud this eternal luster in the soul. So says the eloquent Wanderer, the preacher of the Quakerism of poetry. He asks, Shall our great discoverers obtain less from sense and reason than these obtained?