Or an unseen companionship—a breath
Of fragrance independent of the wind.
In all my goings, in the new and old,
Of all my meditations, and in this
Favourite of all, in this the most of all.
Probably warmer and more loving praise was never bestowed or more happily expressed than is contained in these lines, unless, indeed, it be in the following, in which the poet, again alluding to his sister, speaks of the beneficent character of their intercourse:—
She who dwells with me, whom I have loved
With such communion, that no place on earth
Can ever be a solitude to me….
Once more, recounting in the "Prelude" the master influences which had entered into his life, prominent place is given to that exerted by his sister:—