I valued Florence's little visit very much. You and she will come again—will you not?—to your sister.
Letter to Frederic Harrison, 19th April, 1880.
I have found the spot in "The Prelude" where the passage I mentioned occurs. It is in book viii., "The Retrospect," towards the end:
"The human nature unto which I felt
That I belonged, and reverenced with love,
Was not a punctual presence, but a spirit
Diffused through time and space, with aid derived
Of evidence from monuments, erect,
Prostrate, or leaning towards their common rest
In earth, the widely scattered wreck sublime
Of vanished nations."
The bit of brickwork in the rock is
"With aid derived from evidence."
I think you would find much to suit your purpose in "The Prelude," such as—
"There is
One great society alone on earth:
The noble Living and the noble Dead."
Except for travelling, and for popular distribution, I prefer Moxon's one-volumed edition of Wordsworth to any selection. No selection gives you the perfect gems to be found in single lines, or in half a dozen lines which are to be found in the "dull" poems.
I am sorry Matthew Arnold has not included the sonnet beginning—