—Poetical Works of W. Wordsworth, 1889, p. 144.]
September 1, [1800]
The beards of thistle and dandelions flying about the lonely mountains like life—and I saw them through the trees skimming the lake like swallows.
["And, in our vacant mood,
Not seldom did we stop to watch some tuft
Of dandelion seed or thistle's beard,
That skimmed the surface of the dead calm lake,
Suddenly halting now—a lifeless stand!
And starting off again with freak as sudden;
In all its sportive wanderings, all the while,
Making report of an invisible breeze
That was its wings, its chariot and its horse,
Its playmate, rather say, its moving soul."
Ibid. p. 143.]
Luther—a hero, fettered, indeed, with prejudices—but with those very fetters he would knock out the brains of a modern Fort Esprit.
Comment. Frightening by his prejudices, as a spirit does by clanking his chains.