"Behold a cabinet for sages built, Which kings might envy!"--Praise to this effect 75 Broke from the happy old Man's reverend lip; Who to the Solitary turned, and said, "In sooth, with love's familiar privilege, You have decried the wealth which is your own.[218] Among these rocks and stones, methinks, I see 80 More than the heedless impress that belongs To lonely nature's casual work: they bear A semblance strange of power intelligent, And of design not wholly worn away. Boldest of plants that ever faced the wind, 85 How gracefully that slender shrub looks forth From its fantastic birth-place! And I own, Some shadowy intimations haunt me here, That in these shows[219] a chronicle survives Of purposes akin to those of Man,[CU] 90 But wrought with mightier arm than now prevails. --Voiceless the stream descends into the gulf With timid lapse;--and lo! while in this strait I stand--the chasm of sky above my head Is heaven's profoundest azure; no domain 95 For fickle, short-lived clouds to occupy, Or to pass through; but rather an abyss In which the everlasting stars abide; And whose soft gloom, and boundless depth, might tempt The curious eye to look for them by day.[CV] 100 --Hail Contemplation! from the stately towers, Reared by the industrious hand of human art To lift thee high above the misty air And turbulence of murmuring cities vast; From academic groves, that have for thee 105 Been planted, hither come and find a lodge To which thou mayst resort for holier peace,-- From whose calm centre thou, through height or depth, Mayst penetrate, wherever truth shall lead; Measuring through all degrees, until the scale 110 Of time and conscious nature disappear, Lost in unsearchable eternity!"[CW]