Our vital frame, so fearfully devised, 975 And the dread soul within it--should exist Only to be examined, pondered, searched, Probed, vexed, and criticised?[FR]--Accuse me not Of arrogance, unknown Wanderer as I am, If, having walked with Nature threescore years, 980 And offered, far as frailty would allow, My heart a daily sacrifice to Truth, I now affirm of Nature and of Truth, Whom I have served, that their DIVINITY Revolts, offended at the ways of men 985 Swayed by such motives, to such ends[386] employed; Philosophers, who, though the human soul Be[387] of a thousand faculties composed, And twice ten thousand interests, do yet prize This soul, and the transcendent universe, 990 No more than as a mirror that reflects To proud Self-love her own intelligence; That one, poor, finite object, in the abyss Of infinite Being, twinkling restlessly! "Nor higher place can be assigned to him 995 And his compeers--the laughing Sage of France.--[FS] Crowned was he, if my memory do[388] not err, With laurel planted upon hoary hairs, In sign of conquest by his wit achieved And benefits his wisdom had conferred; 1000 His stooping body tottered with wreaths of flowers[FT] Opprest, far less becoming ornaments Than Spring oft twines about a mouldering tree;[389] Yet so it pleased a fond, a vain, old Man, And a most frivolous people. Him I mean 1005 Who penned,[390] to ridicule confiding faith, This sorry Legend; which by chance we found Piled in a nook, through malice, as might seem, Among more innocent rubbish."--Speaking thus, With a brief notice when, and how, and where, 1010 We had espied the book, he drew it forth; And courteously, as if the act removed, At once, all traces from the good Man's heart Of unbenign aversion or contempt, Restored it to its owner. "Gentle Friend," 1015 Herewith he grasped the Solitary's hand, "You have known lights and guides better than these.[391] Ah! let not aught amiss within dispose A noble mind to practise on herself, And tempt opinion to support the wrongs 1020 Of passion: whatsoe'er be[392] felt or feared, From higher judgment-seats make no appeal To lower: can you question that the soul Inherits an allegiance, not by choice To be cast off, upon an oath proposed 1025 By each new upstart notion? In the ports Of levity no refuge can be found, No shelter, for a spirit in distress. He, who by wilful disesteem of life And proud insensibility to hope, 1030 Affronts the eye of Solitude, shall learn That her mild nature can be terrible;