Oh that thou wert but with me!--but I grow The fool of my own wishes, and forget The solitude which I have vaunted so Has lost its praise in this but one regret; There may be others which I less may show;-- I am not of the plaintive mood, and yet I feel an ebb in my philosophy, And the tide rising in my altered eye.[ah] X. I did remind thee of our own dear Lake, By the old Hall which may be mine no more. _Leman's_ is fair; but think not I forsake The sweet remembrance of a dearer shore: Sad havoc Time must with my memory make, Ere that or thou can fade these eyes before; Though, like all things which I have loved, they are Resigned for ever, or divided far. XI. The world is all before me; I but ask Of Nature that with which she will comply-- It is but in her Summer's sun to bask, To mingle with the quiet of her sky, To see her gentle face without a mask, And never gaze on it with apathy. She was my early friend, and now shall be My sister--till I look again on thee. XII. I can reduce all feelings but this one; And that I would not;--for at length I see Such scenes as those wherein my life begun--[89] The earliest--even the only paths for me--[ai] Had I but sooner learnt the crowd to shun, I had been better than I now can be; The Passions which have torn me would have slept; _I_ had not suffered, and _thou_ hadst not wept. XIII. With false Ambition what had I to do? Little with Love, and least of all with Fame; And yet they came unsought, and with me grew, And made me all which they can make--a Name. Yet this was not the end I did pursue; Surely I once beheld a nobler aim. But all is over--I am one the more To baffled millions which have gone before. XIV. And for the future, this world's future may[aj] From me demand but little of my care; I have outlived myself by many a day;[ak] Having survived so many things that were; My years have been no slumber, but the prey Of ceaseless vigils; for I had the share Of life which might have filled a century,[90] Before its fourth in time had passed me by. XV. And for the remnant which may be to come[al] I am content; and for the past I feel Not thankless,--for within the crowded sum Of struggles, Happiness at times would steal, And for the present, I would not benumb My feelings farther.--Nor shall I conceal That with all this I still can look around, And worship Nature with a thought profound. XVI.