O pleasant exercise of hope and joy! [C] 105
  For mighty were the auxiliars which then stood
  Upon our side, us who were strong in love! 
  Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive,
  But to be young was very Heaven! [D] O times,
  In which the meagre, stale, forbidding ways 110
  Of custom, law, and statute, took at once
  The attraction of a country in romance! 
  When Reason seemed the most to assert her rights
  When most intent on making of herself
  A prime enchantress—­to assist the work, 115
  Which then was going forward in her name! 
  Not favoured spots alone, but the whole Earth,
  The beauty wore of promise—­that which sets
  (As at some moments might not be unfelt
  Among the bowers of Paradise itself) 120
  The budding rose above the rose full blown. 
  What temper at the prospect did not wake
  To happiness unthought of?  The inert
  Were roused, and lively natures rapt away! 
  They who had fed their childhood upon dreams, 125
  The play-fellows of fancy, who had made
  All powers of swiftness, subtilty, and strength
  Their ministers,—­who in lordly wise had stirred
  Among the grandest objects of the sense,
  And dealt with whatsoever they found there 130
  As if they had within some lurking right
  To wield it;—­they, too, who of gentle mood
  Had watched all gentle motions, and to these
  Had fitted their own thoughts, schemers more mild,
  And in the region of their peaceful selves;—­135
  Now was it that both found, the meek and lofty
  Did both find helpers to their hearts’ desire,
  And stuff at hand, plastic as they could wish,—­
  Were called upon to exercise their skill,
  Not in Utopia,—­subterranean fields,—­140
  Or some secreted island, Heaven knows where! 
  But in the very world, which is the world
  Of all of us,—­the place where, in the end,
  We find our happiness, or not at all!

    Why should I not confess that Earth was then 145
  To me, what an inheritance, new-fallen,
  Seems, when the first time visited, to one
  Who thither comes to find in it his home? 
  He walks about and looks upon the spot
  With cordial transport, moulds it and remoulds, 150
  And is half pleased with things that are amiss,
  ’Twill be such joy to see them disappear.

    An active partisan, I thus convoked
  From every object pleasant circumstance
  To suit my ends; I moved among mankind 155
  With genial feelings still predominant;
  When erring, erring on the better part,
  And in the kinder spirit; placable,
  Indulgent, as not uninformed that men
  See as they have been taught—­Antiquity