And many a legend, peopling the dark woods, 165 Nourished Imagination in her growth, And gave the Mind that apprehensive power By which she is made quick to recognise The moral properties and scope of things. But eagerly he read, and read again, 170 Whate'er the minister's old shelf supplied; The life and death of martyrs, who sustained, With will inflexible, those fearful pangs Triumphantly displayed in records left Of persecution, and the Covenant--times 175 Whose echo rings through Scotland to this hour! And there, by lucky hap, had been preserved A straggling volume, torn and incomplete, That left half-told[AE] the preternatural tale, Romance of giants, chronicle of fiends, 180 Profuse in garniture of wooden cuts Strange and uncouth; dire faces, figures dire, Sharp-kneed, sharp elbowed, and lean-ankled too, With long and ghostly shanks--forms which once seen Could never be forgotten! In his heart, 185 Where Fear sate thus, a cherished visitant, Was wanting yet the pure delight of love By sound diffused, or by the breathing air,[AF] Or by the silent looks of happy things,[AG] Or flowing from the universal face 190 Of earth and sky. But he had felt the power Of Nature, and already was prepared, By his intense conceptions, to receive Deeply the lesson deep of love which he, Whom Nature, by whatever means, has taught 195 To feel intensely, cannot but receive. Such was the Boy--but for the growing Youth What soul was his, when, from the naked top Of some bold headland, he beheld the sun[26] Rise up, and bathe the world in light![AH] He looked-- Ocean and earth, the solid frame of earth 201 And ocean's liquid mass, in gladness lay Beneath him[AI]:--Far and wide the clouds were touched, And in their silent faces could he read[27] Unutterable love. Sound needed none, 205 Nor any voice of joy;[AJ] his spirit drank The spectacle: sensation, soul, and form. All melted into him; they swallowed up His animal being; in them did he live, And by them did he live; they were his life. 210 In such access of mind, in such high hour Of visitation from the living God, Thought was not; in enjoyment it expired. No thanks he breathed, he proffered no request; Rapt into still communion that transcends 215 The imperfect offices of prayer and praise, His mind was a thanksgiving to the power That made him; it was blessedness and love!