Tradition, be thou mute! Oblivion, throw Thy veil in mercy o'er the records, hung Round strath and mountain, stamped by the ancient tongue On rock and ruin darkening as we go,-- Spots where a word, ghost-like, survives to show 5 What crimes from hate, or desperate love, have sprung; From honour misconceived, or fancied wrong, What feuds, not quenched but fed by mutual woe. Yet, though a wild vindictive Race, untamed By civil arts and labours of the pen, 10 Could gentleness be scorned by those[707] fierce Men, Who, to spread wide the reverence they claimed[708] For patriarchal occupations, named Yon towering Peaks, "Shepherds of Etive Glen?"[709] FOOTNOTES: [707] 1837. ... these ... 1835. [708] 1837. ... reverence that they claimed. 1835. [709] In Gaelic, _Buachaill Etive_.--W. W. 1835. XII SUGGESTED AT TYNDRUM IN A STORM[710] Enough of garlands, of the Arcadian crook, And all that Greece and Italy have sung Of Swains reposing myrtle groves among! _Ours_ couch on naked rocks,--will cross a brook Swoln with chill rains, nor ever cast a look 5 This way or that, or give it even a thought More than by smoothest pathway may be brought Into a vacant mind. Can written book Teach what _they_ learn? Up, hardy Mountaineer! And guide the Bard, ambitious to be One 10 Of Nature's privy council, as thou art, On cloud-sequestered heights, that see and hear To what dread Powers[711] He delegates his part On earth, who works in the heaven of heavens, alone. FOOTNOTES: [710] 1837. In 1835 the title was _At Tyndrum_. [711] 1837. ... Power ... 1835. XIII THE EARL OF BREADALBANE'S RUINED MANSION, AND FAMILY BURIAL-PLACE, NEAR KILLIN Well sang the Bard who called the grave, in strains Thoughtful and sad, the "narrow house."[712] No style Of fond sepulchral flattery can beguile Grief of her sting; nor cheat, where he detains The sleeping dust, stern Death. How reconcile 5 With truth, or with each other, decked remains Of a once warm Abode, and that _new_ Pile, For the departed, built with curious pains And mausolean pomp?[713] Yet here they stand Together,--'mid trim walks and artful bowers, 10 To be looked down upon by ancient hills, That, for the living and the dead, demand And prompt a harmony of genuine powers; Concord that elevates the mind, and stills. FOOTNOTES: [712] This phrase is used by James Graham, in _The Poor Man's Funeral_; by Southey, in _Joan of Arc_ (book viii.); by Ossian (frequently); and by Burns, in his _Lament of Mary Queen of Scots_ (l. 53). Wordsworth probably refers to Burns.--ED.