He reflects that:

To sit on rocks, to muse o'er flood and fell,

To slowly trace the forest's shady scene....

To climb the trackless mountain all unseen

With the wild flock that never needs a fold,

Alone o'er steeps and foaming falls to lean,--

This is not solitude; 'tis but to hold

Converse with Nature's charms, and view her stores unroll'd.

But 'midst the crowd, the hum, the shock of men,

To hear, to see, to feel, and to possess,