And a few steps may bring us to the spot Where, haply, crowned with flowerets and green herbs, The mountain infant to the sun comes forth, Like human life from darkness."--A quick turn[215] 35 Through a strait passage of encumbered ground, Proved that such hope was vain:--for now we stood Shut out from prospect of the open vale, And saw the water, that composed this rill, Descending, disembodied, and diffused 40 O'er the smooth surface of an ample crag, Lofty, and steep, and naked as a tower. All further progress here was barred;--And who, Thought I, if master of a vacant hour, Here would not linger, willingly detained? 45 Whether to such wild objects he were led When copious rains have magnified the stream Into a loud and white-robed waterfall, Or introduced at this more quiet time. Upon a semicirque of turf-clad ground, 50 The hidden nook discovered to our view A mass of rock, resembling, as it lay Right at the foot of that moist precipice, A stranded ship, with keel upturned, that rests Fearless of winds and waves. Three several stones 55 Stood near, of smaller size, and not unlike To monumental pillars: and, from these Some little space disjoined, a pair were seen, That with united shoulders bore aloft A fragment, like an altar, flat and smooth: 60 Barren the tablet, yet thereon appeared[216] A tall and shining holly, that[217] had found A hospitable chink, and stood upright, As if inserted by some human hand In mockery, to wither in the sun, 65 Or lay its beauty flat before a breeze, The first that entered. But no breeze did now Find entrance;--high or low appeared no trace Of motion, save the water that descended, Diffused adown that barrier of steep rock, 70 And softly creeping, like a breath of air, Such as is sometimes seen, and hardly seen, To brush the still breast of a crystal lake.[CT]