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But these evils do not rise directly from the machinery which expedites labour, but from the blind desire of accumulation, the passion for sudden wealth, which that machinery has helped to pamper, and which first the ambition and then the necessities of the state have fostered and flattered. The right use of machinery is to enable men to produce what is necessary and comfortable for the body, at the least possible expense of time, labour, care, thought, and capital, and so far to free every man of every nation from the worky-day business of the world, that the poorest, while he looks forward with assurance to his morrow's meal, may have some leisure for rational enjoyment, mental cultivation, meditation, and devotion; that, whatever ranks, orders, honours, or dignities may subsist, and however the political functions of the commonweal may be distributed, there may be none who toil merely to eat, and eat to toil. Then, and not till then, will Freedom be more than a

name.

The Earth has lent

Her waters, Air her breezes; and the sail
Of traffic glides with ceaseless interchange,
Glistening along the low and woody dale,
Or on the naked mountain's lofty side.
Meanwhile, at social Industry's command,
How quick, how vast an increase! From the germ
Of some poor hamlet, rapidly produced

Here a large town, continuous and compact,

Hiding the face of earth for leagues-and there,
Where not an habitation stood before,

The abodes of men irregularly massed

Like trees in forests-spread through spacious tracts,
O'er which the smoke of unremitting fires
Hangs permanent, and plentiful as wreaths
Of vapour glittering in the morning sun.
And, wheresoe'er the traveller turns his steps,
He sees the barren wilderness erased,
Or disappearing; triumph that proclaims
How much the mild directress of the plough
Owes to alliance with these new-born arts!
-Hence is the wide sea peopled,—and the shores
Of Britain are resorted to by ships

Freighted from every climate of the world

With the world's choicest produce.

Hence that sum

Of keels that rest within her crowded ports,
Or ride at anchor in her sounds and bays;

That animating spectacle of sails

Which through her inland regions, to and fro
Pass with the respirations of the tide,
Perpetual, multitudinous! Finally,

Hence a dread arm of floating Power, a voice

Of Thunder, daunting those who would approach
With hostile purposes the blessed Isle,
Truth's consecrated residence, the seat
Impregnable, of Liberty and Peace.

Yet I exult,

Casting reserve away, exult to see

An Intellectual mastery exercised

O'er the blind Elements; a purpose given,
A perseverance fed; almost a soul

Imparted to brute Matter. I rejoice,

Measuring the force of those gigantic powers,

Which by the thinking Mind have been compelled

To serve the Will of feeble-bodied Man.

For with the sense of admiration blends

The animating hope that time may come

When strengthened, yet not dazzled, by the might
Of this dominion over Nature gained,

Men of all lands shall exercise the same

In due proportion to their Country's need;
Learning, though late, that all true glory rests,

All praise, all safety, and all happiness,
Upon the Moral law. Egyptian Thebes;
Tyre by the margin of the sounding waves;
Palmyra, central in the Desart, fell;

And the Arts died by which they had been raised.
-Call Archimedes from his buried Tomb

Upon the plain of vanished Syracuse,
And feelingly the Sage shall make report
How insecure, how baseless in itself,
Is that Philosophy, whose sway is framed
For mere material instruments :-how weak
Those Arts, and high Inventions, if unpropped
By Virtue. He with sighs of pensive grief,

Amid his calm abstractions, would admit
That not the slender privilege is theirs

To save themselves from blank forgetfulness!

WORDSWORTH'S EXCURSION.

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