O ye Northumbrian shades, which overlook The rocky pavement and the mossy falls Of solitary Wensbeck’s limpid stream; How gladly I recall your well-known seats Beloved of old, and that delightful time When, all alone, for many a summer’s day, I wandered through your calm recesses, led In silence by some powerful hand unseen. Nor will I e’er forget you; nor shall e’er The graver tasks of manhood, or the advice Of vulgar wisdom, move me to disclaim Those studies which possessed me in the dawn Of life, and fix’d the color of my mind For every future year.[372] But the great scene of Nature does not appear the same to all. It is only to the finer spirits that the true meaning of the outer world is revealed.[373] These nobler souls are all “naked and alive”[374] to the influences of Nature to which they respond as Memnon’s image to the touch of the morning.[375] Form, color, sound, motion, detain the enlivened sense, and soon the soul perceives the deep concord between these attributes of matter and the mind of man.[376] The passions are lulled to a divine repose. The intellect itself suspends its graver cares. Love and joy alone possess the soul Whom nature’s aspect, nature’s simple garb, Can thus command.[377] For the happy man whom neither sordid wealth nor the gaudy spoils of honor can seduce to leave the sweets of Nature, Each passing hour sheds tribute from her wings: And still new beauties meet his lonely walk, And loves unfelt attract him.... ... Nor thence partakes Fresh pleasure only; for the attentive mind, By this harmonious action on her powers, Becomes herself harmonious; wont so oft In outward things to meditate the charm Of sacred order, soon she seeks at home To find a kindred order, to exert Within herself this elegance of love.[378] If men feel themselves cramped by custom, by sordid policies, let them appeal to Nature, to the winds And rolling waves, the sun’s unwearied course, The elements and seasons. All these call us to beneficent activity. Thus the men Whom Nature’s works can charm, with God himself Hold converse; grow familiar, day by day, With his conceptions, act upon his plan, And form to his the relish of their souls.[379] But even the susceptible soul must come to Nature in an open, receptive mood. The sacred rites of the Naiads are sought in vain by the “eyes of care.” No vision is granted to the preoccupied guest.[380] There is also an independent life in Nature, or at least a spirit that is no reflection of man’s moods, but with qualities of its own whereby man is influenced. Throned in the sun’s descending car, What power unseen diffuseth far This tenderness of mind? What Genius smiles on yonder flood? What God, in whispers from the wood, Bids every thought be kind?[381]