'
It was, as he says, an 'ordinary sight,' but
'Colours and words that are unknown to man'
would have failed him
'To paint the visionary dreariness'
which invested what he saw.
Years afterwards, when he revisited the spot, the 'loved one at his
side,' there fell on it
'A spirit of pleasure and youth's golden gleam;
And think ye not with radiance more sublime
For these remembrances, and for the power
They had left behind? So feeling comes in aid
Of feeling, and diversity of strength
Attends us, if but once we have been strong.'
This was the experience, then, of 'distinct pre-eminence' in whose
recollection his mind was 'nourished and invisibly repaired.' It is
in such a moment that the soul's strength is shown; when common
objects evoke what he calls the imagination, the reality, of which
they are a suggestion. Although he expands here and elsewhere he
does not elaborate. He stops where the fact ends and shuns
abstractions.
'So taught, so trained, we boldly face
All accidents of time and place;
Whatever props may fail,
Trust in that sovereign law can spread
New glory o'er the mountain's head,
Fresh beauty through the vale.
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