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Set this thought before you: that largeness of soul and, so to speak, building it up to thegreatest possible height, which is most conspicuous in despising and looking down on pains,is the fairest thing of all, and all the fairer if it has no time for the public, seeks no applause,and still gives pleasure to itself. More, I think for my part everything more praiseworthywhich happens without advertisement and without the public as witness, not that it is to beshunned, all good deeds like to be set in daylight - but virtue can have no more importantaudience than a good conscience. (2 64) 22Wordsworth writes that:The mind beneath such banners militantThinks not of spoils or trophies, nor of aughtThat may attest its prowess, blest in thoughtsThat are their own perfection and reward –Strong in itself, (Prelude VI 543-7) 23These two earlier books of the Tusculans set the scene for the more focused study of theemotions themselves in Books 3 and 4, where Cicero develops his belief in the philosopher astherapeut. In the preface to Book 3, Cicero sets out the grounds for his argument according to Stoicbeliefs about the origin of the individual soul and its development. He describes the Stoic ‘cradleargument’ but then puts his own slant on the morals of his times by describing the manner in whichthe ‘sparks of the divinity’ are extinguished by ‘wrongful habits and beliefs’:Seeds of the virtues are inborn in our characters, and if they were allowed to mature, natureitself would lead us to perfect happiness. But as it is, no sooner are we born and received intothe family than we are surrounded by all kinds of corrupting influences, and the mostwrongheaded beliefs, so that it seems almost as if we had drunk in error along with the milk ofour wetnurses. (TD 3.2)Parents, teachers, and poets all, in turn, add the influence of their corrupted beliefs and the child’smind is soon steeped with erroneous perceptions that it assumes to be the true nature of things. Andthen society approves of these misguided beliefs, becoming the ‘greatest of all our teachers’:it is then that we become thoroughly infected with corrupt beliefs and secede from natureabsolutely. As a result we think the meaning of nature best understood by those who havemade up their mind that public office, military commands, and the glory of popularity are bestand most honourable goals a person can have. (TD 3. 3)22 Wordsworth followed this concern not to openly display his knowledge, or court public opinion, and has beenjudged by some earlier critics for his failure to do so. David Ferry’s conclusions about Wordsworth’s antisocialbehaviour are a case in point. But his attitude can be re-described as a virtue rather than a vice if hismotivation is fully understood.23 Interpretation of this passage has, since Geoffrey Hartman’s influential reading, tended to follow Hartman’sconcern with tracing the ‘dialectic between Imagination and Nature’, and Wordsworth’s lack of visionarypower. I suggest that Wordsworth was relating his experience to traditional representations of the topic of‘glory’ as discussed by Cicero and later re-worked by Dante. As Wordsworth’s describes his subsequentswift decent towards the dwellings of men he also describes the terrible (sublime) activities of Alpine nature(the ‘high realms of nature’), as representations - ‘types and symbols’ of divine powers at work. The divine ismanifest in nature’s works; it is not to be sought via a transcendent vision.211