"The fulgent head
Star-bright appears."
Wordsworth appropriately places the birth of such a being in a humble dwelling in the Highlands of Scotland.
"Among the hills of Atholl he was born;
Where on a small hereditary farm,
An unproductive slip of barren ground,
His parents, with their numerous offspring, dwelt;
A virtuous household, though exceeding poor."
His childhood was nurtured at home in Christian love and truth—and acquired other knowledge at a winter school; for in summer he "tended cattle on the hill,"—
"that stood
Sole building on a mountain's dreary edge."
And the influence of such education and occupation among such natural objects, Wordsworth expounds in some as fine poetry as ever issued from the cells of philosophic thought.
"So the foundations of his mind were laid."
The boy had small need of books—
"For many a tale
Traditionary, round the mountains hung,
And many a legend, peopling the dark woods,