To think of one, blind and alone, advancing

Straight toward some precipice's airy brink![677]

But, timely warned, He would have stayed his steps,

Protected, say enlightened, by his ear;

And on the very edge[678] of vacancy

Not more endangered than a man whose eye

Beholds the gulf beneath.—No floweret blooms

Throughout the lofty range of these rough hills,

Nor[679] in the woods, that could from him conceal

Its birth-place; none whose figure did not live