"Long wished-for sight, the Western World appeared; And, when the ship was moored, I leaped ashore Indignantly--resolved to be a man, Who, having o'er the past no power, would live No longer in subjection to the past, With abject mind--from a tyrannic lord 875 Inviting penance, fruitlessly endured: So, like a fugitive, whose feet have cleared Some boundary, which his followers may not cross In prosecution of their deadly chase, Respiring I looked round.--How bright the sun, 880 The breeze how soft! Can any thing produced[274] In the old World compare, thought I, for power And majesty with this gigantic stream, Sprung from the desert?[DQ] And behold a city 884 Fresh, youthful, and aspiring![DR] What are these To me, or I to them? As much at least As he desires that they should be, whom winds And waves have wafted to this distant shore, In the condition of a damaged seed, Whose fibres cannot, if they would, take root. 890 Here may I roam at large;--my business is, Roaming at large, to observe, and not to feel And, therefore, not to act--convinced that all Which bears the name of action, howsoe'er Beginning, ends in servitude--still painful, 895 And mostly profitless. And, sooth to say, On nearer view, a motley spectacle Appeared, of high pretensions--unreproved But by the obstreperous voice of higher still; Big passions strutting on a petty stage; 900 Which a detached spectator may regard Not unamused.--But ridicule demands Quick change of objects; and, to laugh alone, At a composing distance[275] from the haunts Of strife and folly, though it be a treat 905 As choice as musing Leisure can bestow; Yet, in the very centre of the crowd, To keep the secret of a poignant scorn, Howe'er to airy Demons suitable, Of all unsocial courses, is least fit[276] 910 For the gross spirit of mankind,--the one That soonest fails to please, and quickliest turns Into vexation. "Let us, then, I said, Leave this unknit Republic to the scourge Of her[277] own passions; and to regions haste, 915 Whose shades have never felt the encroaching axe, Or soil endured a transfer in the mart Of dire rapacity. There, Man abides, Primeval Nature's child. A creature weak In combination, (wherefore else driven back 920 So far, and of his old inheritance So easily deprived?) but, for that cause, More dignified, and stronger in himself; Whether to act, judge, suffer, or enjoy. True, the intelligence of social art 925 Hath overpowered his forefathers, and soon Will sweep the remnant of his line away; But contemplations, worthier, nobler far