XV111 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 



All heaven and earth are still though not in sleep, 

 But breathless as we grow when feeling most ; 

 And silent, as we stand in thoughts too deep : 

 All heaven and earth are still : from the high host 

 Of stars to the hilled lake and mountain coast, 

 All is concentred in a life intense, 

 Where not a beam, nor air, nor leaf is lost, 

 But hath a part of being, and a sense 

 Of that which is of all Creator and defence. 



Then stirs the feeling infinite, so felt 

 In solitude, when we are least alone, 

 A truth which through our being then doth melt 

 And purifies from self; it is a tone, 

 The soul and source of music, which makes known 

 Eternal harmony, and sheds a charm, 

 Like to the fabled Cytherea's zone, 

 Binding all things with beauty; 'twould disarm 

 The spectre Death, had he substantial power to harm, 



Not vainly did the early Persian make 

 His altar the high places, and the peak 

 Of earth-o'ergazing mountains, and thus take 

 A fit and unwalled temple, there to seek 

 The spirit, in whose honour shrines are weak, 

 Upreared of human hands. Come and compare 

 Columns and idol-dwellings, Goth or Greek, 

 With Nature's realms of worship, earth and air, 

 Nor fix on fond abodes to circumscribe thy prayer. 



CHILDE HAROLD, Canto iii. 



To particularize amongst our recent or living 

 poets those who have displayed a deep sense of the 

 beauty and power of Nature, would be to enume- 

 rate all who are by any means distinguished ; but 

 Scott, Southey, Coleridge, Campbell, and Rogers, 



