That neither she nor Silence lack the power To avenge their own insulted majesty. "O blest seclusion! when the mind admits 1035 The law of duty; and can therefore move[393] Through each vicissitude of loss and gain, Linked in entire complacence with her choice; When youth's presumptuousness is mellowed down, And manhood's vain anxiety dismissed; 1040 When wisdom shows her seasonable fruit, Upon the boughs of sheltering leisure hung In sober plenty; when the spirit stoops To drink with gratitude the crystal stream Of unreproved enjoyment; and is pleased 1045 To muse, and be saluted by the air Of meek repentance, wafting wall-flower scents From out the crumbling ruins of fallen pride And chambers of transgression, now forlorn. O, calm contented days, and peaceful nights! 1050 Who, when such good can be obtained, would strive To reconcile his manhood to a couch Soft, as may seem, but, under that disguise, Stuffed with the thorny substance of the past For fixed annoyance; and full oft beset 1055 With floating dreams, black and disconsolate,[394] The vapoury phantoms of futurity? "Within the soul a faculty abides, That with interpositions, which would hide And darken, so can deal that they become 1060 Contingencies of pomp; and serve to exalt Her native brightness. As the ample moon, In the deep stillness of a summer even Rising behind a thick and lofty grove, Burns, like an unconsuming fire of light, 1065 In the green trees; and, kindling on all sides Their leafy umbrage, turns the dusky veil Into a substance glorious as her own, Yea, with her own incorporated, by power Capacious and serene. Like power abides 1070 In man's celestial spirit; virtue thus Sets forth and magnifies herself; thus feeds A calm, a beautiful, and silent fire, From the encumbrances of mortal life, From error, disappointment--nay, from guilt; 1075 And sometimes, so relenting justice wills, From palpable oppressions of despair."