progress be inevitably linked in our minds with struggle, yet
neither do we conceive of struggle as without a pause; there must be
prospect-places in the long ascent of souls; and the whole of this
earthly life--this one existence, standing we know not where among
the myriad that have been for us or shall be--may not be too much to
occupy with one of those outlooks of vision and of prophecy, when

In a season of calm weather
Though inland far we be,
Our souls have sight of that immortal sea,
Which brought us hither;
Can in a moment travel thither.
And see the children sport upon the shore.
And hear the mighty waters rolling evermore.




CHAPTER VII.


"HAPPY WARRIOR," AND PATRIOTIC POEMS.

The year 1805, which bereft Wordsworth of a beloved brother, brought
with it also another death, which was felt by the whole English
nation like a private calamity. The emotion which Wordsworth felt at
the news of Trafalgar,--the way in which he managed to intertwine
the memories of Nelson and of his own brother in his heart,--may
remind us fitly at this point of our story of the distress and
perplexity of nations which for so many years surrounded the quiet