Observations placeholder

Extract from The Excursion

But he had felt the power
          Of Nature, and already was prepared,
          By his intense conceptions, to receive
          Deeply the lesson deep of love which he,
          Whom Nature, by whatever means, has taught
          To feel intensely, cannot but receive.

            Such was the Boy--but for the growing Youth
          What soul was his, when, from the naked top
          Of some bold headland, he beheld the sun
          Rise up, and bathe the world in light! He looked--         200
          Ocean and earth, the solid frame of earth
          And ocean's liquid mass, in gladness lay
          Beneath him:--Far and wide the clouds were touched,
          And in their silent faces could he read
          Unutterable love.

Sound needed none,
          Nor any voice of joy; his spirit drank
          The spectacle: sensation, soul, and form,
          All melted into him; they swallowed up
          His animal being; in them did he live,
          And by them did he live; they were his life.               210
          In such access of mind, in such high hour
          Of visitation from the living God,
          Thought was not; in enjoyment it expired.

          No thanks he breathed, he proffered no request;
          Rapt into still communion that transcends
          The imperfect offices of prayer and praise,
          His mind was a thanksgiving to the power
          That made him; it was blessedness and love!