These lines were written and sent in a letter to Henry Crabb Robinson,dated 5th May 1833.--ED.
Avaunt this œconomic rage!
What would it bring?--an iron age,
Where Fact with heartless search explored
Shall be Imagination's Lord,
And sway with absolute controul
The god-like Functions of the Soul.
Not thus can knowledge elevate
Our Nature from her fallen state.
With sober Reason Faith unites
To vindicate the ideal rights
Of human-kind--the tone agreeing
Of objects with internal seeing,
Of effort with the end of Being.
Wordsworth added, in the letter to Robinson, "Is the above intelligible? I fear not! I know, however, my own meaning, and that's enough for Manuscripts."--ED.
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THE POETICAL WORKS OF WILLIAM WORDSWORTH, VOL. 8 (Completed)
PoetryThe Poetical Works of William Wordsworth, Vol. 8. Edited by William Knight
