My thoughts by slow gradations had been drawn To human-kind, and to the good and ill Of human life: Nature had led me on; And oft amid the "busy hum" I seemed [s] 680 To travel independent of her help, As if I had forgotten her; but no, The world of human-kind outweighed not hers In my habitual thoughts; the scale of love, Though filling daily, still was light, compared 685 With that in which _her_ mighty objects lay. * * * * * VARIANTS ON THE TEXT [Variant 1: ... which ... MS. letter to Sir George Beaumont, 1805.] [Variant 2: Is yon assembled in the gay green field? MS. letter to Sir George Beaumont, 1805.] [Variant 3: ... family of men, Twice twenty with their children and their wives, And here and there a stranger interspersed. Such show, on this side now, ... MS. to Sir George Beaumont, 1805.] [Variant 4: Sees annually; if storms be not abroad And mists have left him ... MS. to Sir George Beaumont, 1805.] [Variant 5: It is a summer Festival, a Fair, The only one which that secluded Glen Has to be proud of ... MS. to Sir George Beaumont, 1805.] [Variant 6: ... heat of noon, Behold! the cattle are driven down, the sheep That have for this day's traffic been call'd out MS. to Sir George Beaumont, 1805.] [Variant 7: ... visitant! The showman with his freight upon his back, And once, perchance, in lapse of many years MS. to Sir George Beaumont, 1805.] [Variant 8: But one is here, ... MS. to Sir George Beaumont, 1805.] [Variant 9: ... orchard, apples, pears, (On this day only to such office stooping) She carries in her basket and walks round MS. to Sir George Beaumont, 1805.] [Variant 10: ... calling, ... MS. to Sir George Beaumont, 1805.] [Variant 11: ... rich, the old man now (l. 44) Is generous, so gaiety prevails Which all partake of, young and old. Immense (l. 55) MS. to Sir George Beaumont, 1805.] [Variant 12: ... green field: MS. to Sir George Beaumont, 1805.] [Variant 13: ... seem, Their herds and flocks about them, they themselves And all which they can further ... MS. to Sir George Beaumont, 1805.] [Variant 14: The lurking brooks for their ... MS. to Sir George Beaumont, 1805.] [Variant 15: And the blue sky that roofs ... MS. to Sir George Beaumont, 1805.] * * * * * FOOTNOTES ON THE TEXT [Footnote A: Dorothy Wordsworth alludes to one of these "Fairs" in her Grasmere Journal, September 2, 1800. Her brothers William and John, with Coleridge, were all at Dove Cottage at that time.