Such wantonness seems to his maturer reflection a sacrilege, and even the
boy was not insensible to the silent reproach of the "intruding sky."

TOUCH,--FOR THERE IS A SPIRIT IN THE WOODS. Many lines might be quoted
from Wordsworth to illustrate his theory of the personal attributes of
nature. In some of his more elevated passages nature in all her
processes is regarded as the intimate revelation of the Godhead, the
radiant garment in which the Deity clothes Himself that our senses may
apprehend Him. Thus, when we touch a tree or a flower we may be said to
touch God himself. In this way the beauty and power of nature become
sacred for Wordsworth, and inspired his verse at times with a solemn
dignity to which other poets have rarely attained.

The immanence of God in nature, and yet His superiority to His own
revelation of Himself is beautifully expressed in some of the later
verses of _Hart Leap Well_:

"The Being, that is in the clouds and air,
That is in the green leaves among the groves,
Maintains a deep and reverential care
For the unoffending creatures whom he loves."

Yet the life in nature is capable of multiplying itself infinitely, and
each of her manifold divisions possesses a distinctive mood; one might
almost say a separate life of its own. It is, in his ability to capture
the true emotional mood which clings to some beautiful object or scene in
nature, and which that object or scene may truly be said to inspire, that
Wordsworth's power lies.