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diff --git a/old/16550.txt b/old/16550.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bed560f --- /dev/null +++ b/old/16550.txt @@ -0,0 +1,52166 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Prose Works of William Wordsworth +by William Wordsworth + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Prose Works of William Wordsworth + For the First Time Collected, With Additions from + Unpublished Manuscripts. In Three Volumes. + +Author: William Wordsworth + +Editor: Alexander B. Grosart + +Release Date: August 19, 2005 [EBook #16550] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PROSE WORKS OF WILLIAM *** + + + + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Chuck Greif and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + +THE PROSE WORKS OF WILLIAM WORDSWORTH. + +FOR THE FIRST TIME COLLECTED, + +_WITH ADDITIONS FROM UNPUBLISHED MANUSCRIPTS_. + +Edited, with Preface, Notes and Illustrations, + +BY THE REV. ALEXANDER B. GROSART, ST. GEORGE'S, BLACKBURN, LANCASHIRE. + +IN THREE VOLUMES. + +VOL. I. + +POLITICAL AND ETHICAL. + +LONDON: EDWARD MOXON, SON, AND CO. 1 AMEN CORNER, PATERNOSTER ROW. + +1876. + +AMS Press, Inc. New York 10003 1967 + +Manufactured in the United States of America + + + + +TO THE QUEEN. + +MADAM, + +I have the honour to place in your Majesty's hands the hitherto +uncollected and unpublished Prose Works of + +WILLIAM WORDSWORTH + +--name sufficient in its simpleness to give lustre to any page. + +Having been requested thus to collect and edit his Prose Writings by +those who hold his MSS. and are his nearest representatives, one little +discovery or recovery among these MSS. suggested your Majesty as the one +among all others to whom the illustrious Author would have chosen to +dedicate these Works, viz. a rough transcript of a Poem which he had +inscribed on the fly-leaf of a gift-copy of the collective edition of +his Poems sent to the Royal Library at Windsor Castle. This very tender, +beautiful, and pathetic Poem will be found on the other side of this +Dedication. It must 'for all time' take its place beside the living +Laureate's imperishable verse-tribute to your Majesty. + +I venture to thank your Majesty for the double permission so +appreciatively given--of this Dedication itself and to print (for the +first time) the Poem. The gracious permission so pleasantly and +discriminatingly signified is only one of abundant proofs that your +Majesty is aware that of the enduring names of the reign of Victoria, +Wordsworth's is supreme as Poet and Thinker. + + Gratefully and loyally, ALEXANDER B. GROSART. + + Deign, Sovereign Mistress! to accept a lay, + No Laureate offering of elaborate art; + But salutation taking its glad way + From deep recesses of a loyal heart. + + Queen, Wife, and Mother! may All-judging Heaven + Shower with a bounteous hand on Thee and Thine + Felicity that only can be given + On earth to goodness blest by grace divine. + + Lady! devoutly honoured and beloved + Through every realm confided to thy sway; + Mayst Thou pursue thy course by God approved, + And He will teach thy people to obey. + + As Thou art wont, thy sovereignty adorn + With woman's gentleness, yet firm and staid; + So shall that earthly crown thy brows have worn + Be changed for one whose glory cannot fade. + + And now, by duty urged, I lay this Book + Before thy Majesty, in humble trust + That on its simplest pages Thou wilt look + With a benign indulgence more than just. + + Nor wilt Thou blame an aged Poet's prayer, + That issuing hence may steal into thy mind + Some solace under weight of royal care, + Or grief--the inheritance of humankind. + + For know we not that from celestial spheres, + When Time was young, an inspiration came + (Oh, were it mine!) to hallow saddest tears, + And help life onward in its noblest aim? + +W.W. + +9th January 1846. + + + + +PREFACE. + + +In response to a request put in the most gratifying way possible of the +nearest representatives of WORDSWORTH, the Editor has prepared this +collection of his _Prose Works_. That this should be done _for the first +time_ herein seems somewhat remarkable, especially in the knowledge of +the permanent value which the illustrious Author attached to his Prose, +and that he repeatedly expressed his wish and expectation that it would +be thus brought together and published, _e.g._ in the 'Memoirs,' +speaking of his own prose writings, he said that but for COLERIDGE'S +irregularity of purpose he should probably have left much more in that +kind behind him. When COLERIDGE was proposing to publish his 'Friend,' +he (WORDSWORTH) had offered contributions. COLERIDGE had expressed +himself pleased with the offer, but said, "I must arrange my principles +for the work, and when that is done I shall be glad of your aid." But +this "arrangement of principles" never took place. WORDSWORTH added: "_I +think my nephew, Dr. Wordsworth, will, after my death, collect and +publish all I have written in prose_...." "On another occasion, I +believe, he intimated a desire that his _works in Prose should be edited +by his son-in-law, Mr. Quillinan_."[1] Similarly he wrote to Professor +REED in 1840: 'I am much pleased by what you say in your letter of the +18th May last, upon the Tract of the "Convention of Cintra," and _I +think myself with some interest upon its being reprinted hereafter along +with my other writings_ [in prose]. But the respect which, in common +with all the rest of the rational part of the world, I bear for the DUKE +OF WELLINGTON will prevent my reprinting the pamphlet during his +lifetime. It has not been in my power to read the volumes of his +Despatches, which I hear so highly spoken of; but I am convinced that +nothing they contain could alter my opinion of the injurious tendency of +that or any other Convention, conducted upon such principles. _It was, I +repeat, gratifying to me that you should have spoken of that work as you +do, and particularly that you should have considered it in relation to +my Poems, somewhat in the same manner as you had done in respect to my +little volume on the Lakes_.'[2] + +[1] 'Memoirs,' vol. ii. p. 466. + +[2] Ibid. vol. i. p. 420. + +It is probable that the _amount_ of the Prose of WORDSWORTH will come as +a surprise--surely a pleasant one--on even his admirers and students. +His own use of 'Tract' to describe a goodly octavo volume, and his +calling his 'Guide' a 'little volume' while it is a somewhat +considerable one, together with the hiding away of some of his most +matterful and weightiest productions in local and fugitive publications, +and in Prefaces and Appendices to Poems, go far to explain the +prevailing unacquaintance with even the _extent_, not to speak of the +importance, of his Prose, and the light contentment with which it has +been permitted so long to remain (comparatively) out of sight. That the +inter-relation of the Poems to the Prose, and of the Prose to the +Poems--of which above he himself wrote--makes the collection and +publication of the Prose a duty to all who regard WILLIAM WORDSWORTH as +one of the supreme intellects of the century--as certainly the glory of +the Georgian and Victorian age as ever SHAKESPEARE and RALEIGH were of +the Elizabethan and Jacobean--will not be questioned to-day. + +The present Editor can only express his satisfaction at being called to +execute a task which, from a variety of circumstances, has been too long +delayed; but only delayed, inasmuch as the members of the Poet's family +have always held it as a sacred obligation laid upon them, with the +additional sanction that WORDSWORTH'S old and valued friend, HENRY CRABB +ROBINSON, Esq., had expressed a wish in his last Will (1868) that the +Prose Works of his friend should one day be collected; and which wish +alone, from one so discriminating and generous--were there no other +grounds for doing so--the family of WORDSWORTH could not but regard as +imperative. He rejoices that the delay--otherwise to be regretted--has +enabled the Editor to furnish a much fuller and more complete collection +than earlier had perhaps been possible. He would now briefly notice the +successive portions of these Volumes: + + + + +VOL. I. + +I. POLITICAL. + +(a) _Apology for the French Revolution_, 1793. + + +This is from the Author's own MS., and is published _for the first +time_. Every reader of 'The Recluse' and 'The Excursion' and the 'Lines +on the French Revolution, as it appeared to Enthusiasts at its +Commencement'--to specify only these--is aware that, in common with +SOUTHEY and the greater COLERIDGE, WORDSWORTH was in sympathy with the +uprising of France against its tyrants. But it is only now that we are +admitted to a full discovery of his youthful convictions and emotion by +the publication of this Manuscript, carefully preserved by him, but +never given to the world. The title on the fly-leaf--'Apology,' &c., +being ours--in the Author's own handwriting, is as follows: + + A + LETTER + TO THE + BISHOP OF LANDAFF + ON THE EXTRAORDINARY AVOWAL OF HIS + POLITICAL PRINCIPLES, + CONTAINED IN THE + APPENDIX TO HIS LATE SERMON: + BY A + REPUBLICAN. + +It is nowhere dated, but inasmuch as Bishop WATSON'S Sermon, with the +Appendix, appeared early in 1793, to that year certainly belongs the +composition of the 'Letter.' The title-page of the Sermon and Appendix +may be here given; + +A SERMON PREACHED BEFORE THE STEWARDS OF THE WESTMINSTER DISPENSARY, AT +THEIR ANNIVERSARY MEETING, CHARLOTTE STREET CHAPEL, APRIL 1785. + +WITH AN APPENDIX, BY R. WATSON, D.D. LORD BISHOP OF LANDAFF. + +LONDON: PRINTED FOR T. CADELL IN THE STRAND; AND T. EVANS IN PATERNOSTER +ROW. + +1793 [8vo]. + +In the same year a 'second edition' was published, and also separately +the Appendix, thus: + +STRICTURES ON THE FRENCH REVOLUTION AND THE BRITISH CONSTITUTION, AS +WRITTEN IN 1793 IN AN APPENDIX TO A SERMON PREACHED BEFORE THE STEWARDS +OF THE WESTMINSTER DISPENSARY, AT THEIR ANNIVERSARY MEETING, CHARLOTTE +STREET CHAPEL, APRIL 1785, + +BY R. WATSON, D.D. LORD BISHOP OF LANDAFF. + +_Reprinted at Loughborough, (With his Lordship's permission) by Adams, +Jun. and Recommended by the Loughborough Association For the Support of +the Constitution to The Serious Attention of the Public_. + +Price Twopence, being one third of the original price, + +1793 [small 8vo], + +The Sermon is a somewhat commonplace dissertation on 'The Wisdom and +Goodness of God in having made both Rich and Poor,' from Proverbs xxii. +2: 'The rich and poor meet together, the Lord is the Maker of them all.' +It could not but be most irritating to one such as young +WORDSWORTH--then in his twenty-third year--who passionately felt as well +with as for the poor of his native country, and that from an intimacy of +knowledge and intercourse and sympathy in striking contrast with the +serene optimism of the preacher,--all the more flagrant in that Bishop +Watson himself sprang from the very humblest ranks. But it is on the +Appendix this Letter expends its force, and, except from BURKE on the +opposite side, nothing more forceful, or more effectively argumentative, +or informed with a nobler patriotism, is to be found in the English +language. If it have not the kindling eloquence which is Demosthenic, +and that axiomatic statement of principles which is Baconian, of the +'Convention,' every sentence and epithet pulsates--as its very +life-blood--with a manly scorn of the false, the base, the sordid, the +merely titularly eminent. It may not be assumed that even to old age +WILLIAM WORDSWORTH would have disavowed a syllable of this 'Apology.' +Technically he might not have held to the name 'Republican,' but to the +last his heart was with the oppressed, the suffering, the poor, the +silent. Mr. H. CRABB ROBINSON tells us in his Diary (vol. ii. p. 290, 3d +edition): 'I recollect once hearing Mr. WORDSWORTH say, half in joke, +half in earnest, "I have no respect whatever for Whigs, but I have a +great deal of the Chartist in me;"' and his friend adds: 'To be sure he +has. His earlier poems are full of that intense love of the people, as +such, which becomes Chartism when the attempt is formally made to make +their interests the especial object of legislation, as of deeper +importance than the positive rights hitherto accorded to the privileged +orders.' Elsewhere the same Diarist speaks of 'the brains of the noblest +youths in England' being 'turned' (i. 31, 32), including WORDSWORTH. +There was no such 'turning' of brain with him. He was deliberate, +judicial, while at a red heat of indignation. To measure the quality of +difference, intellectually and morally, between WORDSWORTH and another +noticeable man who entered into controversy with Bishop WATSON, it is +only necessary to compare the present Letter with GILBERT WAKEFIELD'S +'Reply to some Parts of the Bishop of Landaff's Address to the People of +Great Britain' (1798). + +The manuscript is wholly in the handwriting of its author, and is done +with uncharacteristic painstaking; for later, writing was painful and +irksome to him, and even his letters are in great part illegible. One +folio is lacking, but probably it contained only an additional sentence +or two, as the examination of the Appendix is complete. Following on our +ending are these words: 'Besides the names which I.' + +That the Reader may see how thorough is the Answer of WORDSWORTH to +Bishop WATSON, the 'Appendix' is reprinted _in extenso_. Being +comparatively brief, it was thought expedient not to put the student on +a vain search for the long-forgotten Sermon. On the biographic value of +this Letter, and the inevitableness of its inclusion among his prose +Works, it cannot be needful to say a word. It is noticed--and little +more--in the 'Memoirs' (c. ix. vol. i. pp. 78-80). In his Letters (vol. +iii.) will be found incidental allusions and vindications of the +principles maintained in the 'Apology.' + +_(b) Concerning the Relations of Great Britain, Spain, and Portugal, to +each other and the common Enemy, at this Crisis; and specifically as +affected by the Convention of Cintra: the whole brought to the test of +those Principles, by which alone the Independence and Freedom of Nations +can be Preserved or Recovered_. 1809. + +As stated in its 'Advertisement,' two portions of this treatise (rather +than 'Tract'), 'extending to p. 25' of the completed volume, were +originally printed in the months of December and January (1808-9), in +the 'Courier' newspaper. In this shape it attracted the notice of no +less a reader than Sir WALTER SCOTT, who thus writes of it: 'I have read +WORDSWORTH'S lucubrations[3] in the 'Courier,' _and much agree with +him_. Alas! we want everything but courage and virtue in this desperate +contest. Skill, knowledge of mankind, ineffable unhesitating villany, +combination of movement and combination of means, are with our +adversary. We can only fight like mastiffs--boldly, blindly, and +faithfully. I am almost driven to the pass of the Covenanters, when they +told the Almighty in their prayers He should no longer be their God; and +I really believe a few Gazettes more will make me turn Turk or +infidel.'[4] + +[3] Lucubrations = meditative studies. It has since deteriorated in +meaning. + +[4] Lockhart's 'Life of Scott,' vol. iii. pp. 260-1 (edition, 1856). + +What WORDSWORTH'S own feelings and impulses were in the composition of +the 'Convention of Cintra' are revealed with unwonted as fine passion in +his 'Letters and Conversations' (vol. iii. pp. 256-261, &c.), whither +the Reader will do well to turn, inasmuch as he returns and re-returns +therein to his standing-ground in this very remarkable and imperishable +book. The long Letters to (afterwards) Sir CHARLES W. PASLEY and +another--_never before printed_--which follow the 'Convention of Cintra' +itself, are of special interest. The Appendix of Notes, 'a portion of +the work which WORDSWORTH regarded as executed in a masterly manner, was +drawn up by De Quincey, who revised the proofs of the whole' ('Memoirs,' +i. 384). Of the 'Convention of Cintra' the (now) Bishop of Lincoln +(WORDSWORTH) writes eloquently as follows: 'Much of WORDSWORTH'S life +was spent in comparative retirement, and a great part of his poetry +concerns natural and quiet objects. But it would be a great error to +imagine that he was not an attentive observer of public events. He was +an ardent lover of his country and of mankind. He watched the progress +of civil affairs in England with a vigilant eye, and he brought the +actions of public men to the test of the great and lasting principles of +equity and truth. He extended his range of view to events in foreign +parts, especially on the continent of Europe. Few persons, though +actually engaged in the great struggle of that period, felt more deeply +than WORDSWORTH did in his peaceful retreat for the calamities of +European nations, suffering at that time from the imbecility of their +governments, and from the withering oppression of a prosperous +despotism. His heart burned within him when he looked forth upon the +contest, and impassioned words proceeded from him, both in poetry and +prose. The contemplative calmness of his position, and the depth and +intensity of his feelings, combined together to give a dignity and +clearness, a vigour and splendour, and, consequently, a lasting value, +to his writings on measures of domestic and foreign policy, qualities +that rarely belong to contemporaneous political effusions produced by +those engaged in the heat and din of the battle. This remark is +specially applicable to his tract on the Convention of Cintra.... +Whatever difference of opinion may prevail concerning the relevance of +the great principles enunciated in it to the questions at issue, but one +judgment can exist with respect to the importance of those principles, +and the vigorous and fervid eloquence with which they are enforced. If +WORDSWORTH had never written a single verse, this Essay alone would be +sufficient to place him in the highest rank of English poets.... Enough +has been quoted to show that the Essay on the Convention of Cintra was +not an ephemeral production, destined to vanish with the occasion which +gave it birth. If this were the case, the labour bestowed upon it was +almost abortive. The author composed the work in the discharge of what +he regarded a sacred duty, and for the permanent benefit of society, +rather than with a view to any immediate results.'[5] The Bishop adds +further these details: 'He foresaw and predicted that his words would be +to the public ear what midnight storms are to men who sleep: + +[5] 'Memoirs,' as before, vol. i. pp. 383, 399. + + "I dropp'd my pen, and listen'd to the wind, + That sang of trees uptorn and vessels tost-- + A midnight harmony, and wholly lost + To the general sense of men, by chains confined + Of business, care, or pleasure, or resign'd + To timely sleep. Thought I, the impassion'd strain, + Which without aid of numbers I sustain, + Like acceptation from the world will find. + Yet some with apprehensive ear shall drink + A dirge devoutly breath'd o'er sorrows past; + And to the attendant promise will give heed-- + The prophecy--like that of this wild blast, + Which, while it makes the heart with, sadness shrink, + Tells also of bright calms that shall succeed."[6] + +It is true that some few readers it had on its first appearance; and it +is recorded by an ear-witness that Canning said of this pamphlet that he +considered it the most eloquent production since the days of Burke;[7] +but, by some untoward delays in printing, it was not published till the +interest in the question under discussion had almost subsided. Certain +it is, that an edition, consisting only of five hundred copies, was not +sold off; that many copies were disposed of by the publishers as waste +paper, and went to the trunkmakers; and now there is scarcely any volume +published in this country which is so difficult to be met with as the +tract on the Convention of Cintra; and if it were now reprinted, it +would come before the public with almost the unimpaired freshness of a +new work.'[8] In agreement with the closing statement, at the sale of +the library of Sir James Macintosh a copy fetched (it has been reported) +ten guineas. Curiously enough not a single copy was preserved by the +Author himself. The companion sonnet to the above, 'composed while the +author was engaged in writing a tract occasioned by the Convention of +Cintra, 1808,' must also find a place here: + + 'Not 'mid the world's vain objects that enslave + The free-born soul--that world whose vaunted skill + In selfish interest perverts the will, + Whose factions lead astray the wise and brave-- + Not there; but in dark wood and rocky cave, + And hollow vale which foaming torrents fill + With omnipresent murmur as they rave + Down their steep beds, that never shall be still, + Here, mighty Nature, in this school sublime + I weigh the hopes and fears of suffering Spain; + For her consult the auguries of time, + And through the human heart explore my way, + And look and listen--gathering where I may + Triumph, and thoughts no bondage can restrain.'[9] + + +_(c) Letter to Major-General Sir Charles W. Pasley, K.C.B., on his +'Military Policy and Institutions of the British Empire,' with +another--now first printed--transmitting it_. + +[6] 'Poems dedicated to National Independence and Liberty,' viii. + +[7] Southey's 'Life and Correspondence,' vol. iii. p. 180; 'Gentleman's +Magazine' for June 1850, p. 617. + +[8] 'Memoirs,' as before, vol. i, pp. 404-5. + +[9] 'Poems dedicated to National Independence and Liberty,' vii. + +The former is derived from the 'Memoirs' (vol. i. pp. 405-20). In +forwarding it to the (now) Bishop of Lincoln, Sir CHARLES thus wrote of +it: 'The letter on my "Military Policy" is particularly interesting.... +Though WORDSWORTH agreed that we ought to step forward with all our +military force as principals in the war, he objected to any increase of +our own power and resources by continental conquest, in which I now +think he was quite right. I am not, however, by any means shaken in the +opinion then advanced, that peace with Napoleon would lead to the loss +of our naval superiority and of our national independence, ... and I +fully believe that the Duke of Wellington's campaigns in the Spanish +Peninsula saved the nation, though no less credit is due to the Ministry +of that day for not despairing of eventual success, but supporting him +under all difficulties in spite of temporary reverses, and in opposition +to a powerful party and to influential writers.' The letter +transmitting the other has only recently been discovered on a +reexamination of the Wordsworth MSS. Both letters have a +Shakespearian-patriotic ring concerning 'This England.' It is inspiring +to read in retrospect of the facts such high-couraged writing as in +these letters. + +_(d) Two Addresses to the Freeholders of Westmoreland_, 1818. + +The 'Mr. BROUGHAM' of these 'Two Addresses' was, as all the world knows, +the (afterwards) renowned and many-gifted HENRY, Lord BROUGHAM and VAUX. +In his Autobiography he refers very good-humouredly to his three defeats +in contesting the representation of Westmoreland; but there is no +allusion whatever to WORDSWORTH. With reference to his final effort he +thus informs us: 'Parliament was dissolved in 1826, when for the third +time I stood for Westmoreland; and, after a hard-fought contest, was +again defeated. I have no wish to enter into the local politics of that +county, but I cannot resist quoting an extract from a letter of my +esteemed friend Bishop BATHURST to Mr. HOWARD of Corby, by whose +kindness I am enabled to give it: "Mr. BROUGHAM has struggled nobly for +civil and religious liberty; and is fully entitled to the celebrated +eulogy bestowed by Lucan upon Cato-- + + 'Victrix causa Diis placuit, sed victa Catoni.' + +How others may feel I know not, but for my own part I would much rather +be in his situation than in that of the two victorious opponents; +notwithstanding the cold discouraging maxim of Epictetus, which is +calculated to check every virtuous effort--[Greek: Aniketos einai +dunasai, ean ouk eis medena agona katabaines, ou ouk estin epinikesai] +[=You may be invincible if you never go down into the arena when you are +not secure of victory: Enchiridion, cxxv.]. He will not, I hope, suffer +from his exertions, extraordinary in every way. I respect exceedingly +his fine abilities, and the purpose to which he applies them" (Norwich, +July 10, 1826). As Cato owed Lucan's panegyric to the firmness he had +shown in adhering to the losing cause, and to his steadfastness to the +principles he had adopted, so I considered the Bishop's application of +the lines to me as highly complimentary' ('Life and Times,' vol. ii. pp. +437-8). It seemed only due to the subject of WORDSWORTH'S invective and +opposition to give _his_ view of the struggle and another's worthy of +all respect. Unless the writer has been misinformed, WORDSWORTH and +BROUGHAM came to know and worthily estimate each other when the +exacerbations and clamours of provincial politics had long passed away, +and when, except the 'old gray head' of WELLINGTON, none received more +reverence from the nation than that of HENRY BROUGHAM. In the +just-issued 'Memoirs of the Reigns of George IV. and William IV.' by +GREVILLE, BROUGHAM and WORDSWORTH are brought together very pleasingly. +(See these works, vol. iii. p. 504.) + +The Author's personal relations to the Lowthers semi-unconsciously +coloured his opinions, and intensified his partisanship and glorified +the commonplace. But with all abatements these 'Two Addresses' supply +much material for a right and high estimate of WORDSWORTH as man and +thinker. As invariably, he descends to the roots of things, and almost +ennobles even his prejudices and alarms and ultra-caution. There is the +same terse, compacted, pungent style in these 'Two Addresses' with his +general prose. Bibliographically the 'Two Addresses' are even rarer and +higher-priced than the 'Convention of Cintra.' + + +_(e) Of the Catholic Relief Bill_, 1829. + +To the great names of EDMUND SPENSER and Sir JOHN DAVIES, as Englishmen +who dealt with the problem of the government of Ireland, and found it, +as more recent statesmen have done, to be in infinite ways 'England's +difficulty,' has now to be added one not less great--WILLIAM WORDSWORTH. +If at this later day--for even 1829 seems remote now--much of the +present letter to the Bishop of London (BLOMFIELD) is mainly of +historical noticeableness, as revealing how 'Catholic Emancipation' +looked to one of the foremost minds of his age, there are, nevertheless, +expressions of personal opinion--_e.g._ against the Athanasian Creed in +its 'cursing' clauses, and expositions of the Papacy regarded +politically and ecclesiastically in its domination of Ireland, that have +a message for to-day strangely congruous with that of the magnificent +philippic 'Of the Vatican Decrees,' which is thundering across Europe as +these words are written. As a piece of vigorous, masculine, and o'times +eloquent English, this letter may take its place--not an inch +lower--beside a 'View of the State of Ireland,' and the 'Discoverie of +the True Cavses why Ireland was never entirely subdued, nor brought +under obedience of the Crowne of England, untill the beginning of his +Maiestie's happie raigne;' while the conflict with Ultramontanism in +Germany and elsewhere and Mr. Gladstone's tractate give new significance +to its forecastings and portents. + +The manuscript, unlike most of his, is largely in WORDSWORTH'S own +handwriting--the earlier portion in (it is believed) partly Miss +WORDSWORTH'S and partly Mrs. WORDSWORTH'S. In the 'Memoirs' this letter +is quoted largely (vol. ii. pp. 136-140). It is now given completely +from the manuscript itself, not without significant advantage. It does +not appear whether this letter were actually sent to the Bishop of +London. There is no mention of it in Bishop Blomfield's 'Life;' and +hence probably it never was sent to him. In his letters there are many +references to the present topics (cf. vol. iii. pp. 258-9, 263-4, &c.). + + +II. ETHICAL. + +I. _Of Legislation for the Poor, the Working Classes, and the Clergy: +Appendix to Poems_, 1835. + +This formed one of WORDSWORTH'S most deliberate and powerful Appendices +to his Poems (1835), and has ever since been regarded as of enduring +worth. It has all the Author's characteristics of deep thinking, +imaginative illustration, intense conviction and realness. Again, accept +or dissent, this State Paper (so to say) is specially Wordsworthian. + +It seems only due to WORDSWORTH to bear in recollection that, herein and +elsewhere, he led the way in indicating CO-OPERATION as _the_ remedy for +the defects and conflicts in the relations between our capitalists and +their operatives, or capital and labour (see the second section of the +Postscript, and remember its date--1835). + + +II. _Advice to the Young_. + +(_a_) Letter to the Editor of 'The Friend,' signed Mathetes. + +(_b_) Answer to the Letter of Mathetes, 1809. + +'Mathetes' proved to be Professor JOHN WILSON, 'eminent in the various +departments of poetry, philosophy, and criticism' ('Memoirs,' i. 423), +and here probably was the commencement of the long friendship between +him and WORDSWORTH. As a student of WILSON'S, the Editor remembers +vividly how the 'old man eloquent' used to kindle into enthusiasm the +entire class as he worked into his extraordinary lectures quotations +from the 'Excursion' and 'Sonnets' and 'Poems of the Imagination.' Among +the letters (vol. iii. p. 263) is an interesting one refering to 'Advice +to the Young;' and another to Professor WILSON (vol. ii. pp. 208-14). + + +III. OF EDUCATION. + +(_a_) On the Education of the Young: Letter to a Friend, 1806. + +(_b_) Of the People, their Ways and Needs: Letter to Archdeacon +Wrangham, 1808. + +(_c_) Education: Two Letters to the Rev. H.J. Rose, 1828. + +(_d_) Education of Duty: Letter to Rev. Dr. Wordsworth, 1830. + +(_e_) Speech on laying the Foundation-stone of the New School in the +Village of Bowness, Windermere, 1836. + +In these Letters and the Speech are contained WORDSWORTH'S earliest and +latest and most ultimate opinions and sentiments on education. Agree or +differ, the student of WORDSWORTH has in these discussions--for in part +they have the elaborateness and thoroughness of such--what were of the +substance of his beliefs. Their biographic importance--intellectually +and spiritually--can scarcely be exaggerated, _(a), (b), (c), (d)_ are +from the 'Memoirs;' (_e_) is from the local newspaper (Kendal), being +for the first time fully reprinted. + + + + +VOL. II. + + +AESTHETICAL AND LITERARY. + + +I. _Of Literary Biography and Monuments_. + +(_a_) A Letter to a Friend of Robert Burns, 1816. + +(_b_) Letter to a Friend on Monuments to Literary Men, 1819. + +(_c_) Letter to John Peace, Esq., of Bristol, 1844. + +These naturally group themselves together. Of the first (_a_), perhaps +it is hardly worth while, and perhaps it is worth while, recalling that +WILLIAM HAZLITT, in his Lectures upon the English Poets, attacked +WORDSWORTH on this Letter with characteristic insolence and uncritical +shallowness and haste. Under date Feb. 24th, 1818, Mr. H. CRABB ROBINSON +thus refers to the thing: 'Heard part of a lecture by HAZLITT at the +Surrey Institution. He was so contemptuous towards WORDSWORTH, speaking +of his Letter about Burns, that I lost my temper. He imputed to +WORDSWORTH the desire of representing himself as a superior man' (vol. +i. p. 311, 3d ed.). The lecture is included in HAZLITT'S published +Lectures in all its ignorance and wrong-headedness; but it were a pity +to lose one's temper over such trash. His eyes were spectacles, not +'seeing eyes,' and jaundice-yellow, (_b_) and (_c_) are sequels to +(_a_), and as such accompany it. + + +II. UPON EPITAPHS. + +(_a_) From 'The Friend.' (_b_ and _c_) From the Author's MSS., for the +first time. + +Of (_a_) CHARLES LAMB wrote: 'Your Essay on Epitaphs is the only +sensible thing which has been written on that subject, and it goes to +the bottom' (Talfourd's 'Final Memorials,' vol. i. p. 180). The two +additional Papers--only briefly quoted from in the 'Memoirs' (c. xxx. +vol. i.)--were also intended for 'The Friend,' had COLERIDGE succeeded +in his announced arrangement of principles. These additional papers are +in every respect equal to the first, with Wordsworthian touches and +turns in his cunningest faculty. They are faithfully given from the MSS. + + +III. ESSAYS, LETTERS, AND NOTES ELUCIDATORY AND CONFIRMATORY OF THE +POEMS, 1798-1835. + +(_a_) Of the Principles of Poetry and the 'Lyrical Ballads' (1798-1802.) + +(_b_) Of Poetic Diction. + +(_c_) Poetry as a Study (1815). + +(_d_) Of Poetry as Observation and Description, and Dedication of 1815. + +(_e_) Of 'The Excursion:' Preface. + +(_f_) Letters to Sir George and Lady Beaumont and others on the Poems +and related Subjects. + +(_g_) Letter to Charles Fox with the 'Lyrical Ballads,' and his Answer, +&c. + +(_h_) Letter on the Principles of Poetry and his own Poems to +(afterwards) Professor John Wilson. + +(_a_) to (_e_) form appendices to the early and later editions of the +Poems, and created an epoch in literary criticism. COLERIDGE put forth +his utmost strength on a critical examination of them, oblivious that he +had himself impelled, not to say compelled, his friend to write these +Prefaces, as WORDSWORTH signifies. It is not meant by this that +COLERIDGE was thereby shut out from criticising the definitions and +statements to which he objected. + + +IV. DESCRIPTIVE. + +(_a_) A Guide through the District of the Lakes, 1835. + +(_b_) Kendal and Windermere Railway: two Letters, &c. + +These very much explain themselves; but of the former it may be of +bibliographical interest to state that it formed originally the +letterpress and Introduction to 'Select Views in Cumberland, +Westmoreland, and Lancashire,' by the Rev. JOSEPH WILKINSON, Rector of +East Wrotham, Norfolk, 1810 (folio). It was reprinted in the volume of +Sonnets on the River Duddon. The fifth edition (1835) has been selected +as the Author's own final text. In Notes and Illustrations in the place, +a strangely overlooked early account of the Lake District is pointed out +and quoted from. The 'Two Letters' need no vindication at this late day. +Ruskin is reiterating their arguments and sentiment eloquently as these +pages pass through the press. Apart from deeper reasons, let the +fault-finder realise to himself the differentia of general approval of +railways, and a railway forced through the 'old churchyard' that holds +his mother's grave or the garden of his young prime. It was a merely +sordid matter on the part of the promoters. Their professions of care +for the poor and interest in the humbler classes getting to the Lakes +had a Judas element in them, nothing higher or purer. + + +VOL. III. + + +CRITICAL AND ETHICAL. + + +I. _Notes and Illustrations of the Poems, incorporating_: + +(_a_) The Notes originally added to the first and successive editions. + +(_b_) The whole of the I.F. MSS. + +This division of the Prose has cost the Editor more labour and thought +than any other, from the scattered and hitherto unclassified +semi-publication of these Notes. Those called 'original' are from the +first and successive editions of the Poems, being found in some and +absent in other collections. An endeavour has been made to include +everything, even the briefest; for judging by himself, the Editor +believes that to the reverent and thoughtful student of WORDSWORTH the +slightest thing is of interest; _e.g._ one turns to the most commonplace +book of topography or contemporary verse in any way noticed by him, just +because it is WORDSWORTH who has noticed it, while an old ballad, a +legend, a bit of rural usage, takes a light of glory from the page in +which it is found. Hence as so much diamond-dust or filings of gold the +published Notes are here brought together. Added, and far exceeding in +quantity and quality alike, it is the privilege of the Editor to print +_completely and in integrity_ the I.F. MSS., as written down to the +dictation of WORDSWORTH by Miss FENWICK. These have been hitherto given +with tantalising and almost provoking fragmentariness in the 'Memoirs' +and in the centenary edition of the Poems--again withdrawn in the recent +Rossetti edition. In these Notes--many of which in both senses are +elaborate and full--are some of the deepest and daintiest-worded things +from WORDSWORTH. The I.F. MSS. are delightfully chatty and informal, and +ages hence will be treasured and studied in relation to the Poems by the +(then) myriad millions of the English-speaking races. + +Miss FENWICK, to whom the world is indebted for these MSS., is +immortalised in two Sonnets by WORDSWORTH, which surely long ere this +ought to have been included in the Poetical Works; and they may fitly +reappear here (from the 'Memoirs'): + + '_On a Portrait of I.F., painted by Margaret Gillies_. + + We gaze--nor grieve to think that we must die, + But that the precious love this friend hath sown + Within our hearts, the love whose flower hath blown + Bright as if heaven were ever in its eye, + Will pass so soon from human memory; + And not by strangers to our blood alone, + But by our best descendants be unknown, + Unthought of--this may surely claim a sigh. + Yet, blessed Art, we yield not to dejection; + Thou against Time so feelingly dost strive: + Where'er, preserved in this most true reflection, + An image of her soul is kept alive, + Some lingering fragrance of the pure affection, + Whose flower with us will vanish, must survive. + + WILLIAM WORDSWORTH. + + _Rydal Mount, New Year's Day, 1840_.' + + '_To I.F._ + + The star which comes at close of day to shine + More heavenly bright than when it leads the morn + Is Friendship's emblem, whether the forlorn + She visiteth, or shedding light benign + Through shades that solemnise Life's calm decline, + Doth make the happy happier. This have we + Learnt, Isabel, from thy society, + Which now we too unwillingly resign + Though for brief absence. But farewell! the page + Glimmers before my sight through thankful tears, + Such as start forth, not seldom, to approve + Our truth, when we, old yet unchill'd by age, + Call thee, though known but for a few fleet years, + The heart-affianced sister of our love! + + WILLIAM WORDSWORTH. + + _Rydal Mount, Feb. 1840_.' + +In addition to these Sonnets the beautiful memory of Miss FENWICK has +been reillumined in the 'Memoir and Letters of Sara Coleridge' (2 vols. +1873); _e.g._ 'I take great delight in Miss Fenwick, and in her +conversation. Well should I like to have her constantly in the +drawing-room, to come down to and from my little study up-stairs--her +mind is such a noble compound of heart and intelligence, of spiritual +feeling and moral strength, and the most perfect feminineness. She is +intellectual, but--what is a great excellence--never talks for effect, +never _keeps possession of the floor_, as clever women are so apt to do. +She converses for the interchange of thought and feeling, no matter +_how_, so she gets at your mind, and lets you into hers. A more generous +and a tenderer heart I never knew. I differ from her on many points of +religious faith, but on the whole prefer her views to those of most +others who differ from her' (ii. 5). Again: 'Miss FENWICK is to me an +angel upon earth. Her being near me now has seemed a special providence. +God bless her, and spare her to us and her many friends. She is a noble +creature, all tenderness and strength. When I first became acquainted +with her, I saw at once that her heart was of the very finest, richest +quality, and her wisdom and insight are, as ever must be in such a case, +exactly correspondent' (ibid. p. 397). Such words from one so +penetrative, so indeceivable, so great in the fullest sense as was the +daughter of _the_ COLERIDGE, makes every one long to have the same +service done for Miss FENWICK as has been done for SARA COLERIDGE and +Miss HARE, and within these weeks for Mrs. FLETCHER. Her Diaries and +Correspondence would be inestimable to lovers of WORDSWORTH; for few or +none got so near to him or entered so magnetically into his thinking. +The headings and numberings of the successive Notes--lesser and +larger--will guide to the respective Poems and places. The numberings +accord with ROSSETTI'S handy one-volume edition of the Poems, but as a +rule will offer no difficulty in any. The I.F. MSS. are marked with an +asterisk [*]: They are _for the first time_ furnished in their entirety, +and accurately. + + +II. _Letters and Extracts of Letters_. + +These are arranged as nearly as possible chronologically from the +'Memoirs,' &c. &c., with the benefit, as before, of collation in many +cases of the original MSS., especially in the Sir W.R. HAMILTON letters, +and a number are _for the first time printed_. The Editor does not at +all like 'Extracts,' and must be permitted to regret that what in his +judgment was an antiquated and mistaken idea of biography led the +excellent as learned Bishop of Lincoln to abridge and mutilate so very +many--the places not always marked. On this and the principle and +_motif_ which approve and vindicate the publication of the Letters of +every really potential intellect such as WORDSWORTH'S, the accomplished +daughter of SARA COLERIDGE has remarked: 'A book composed of epistolary +extracts can never be a wholly satisfactory one, because its contents +are not only relative and fragmentary, but unauthorised and unrevised. +To arrest the passing utterances of the hour, and reveal to the world +that which was spoken either in the innermost circle of home affection, +or in the outer (but still guarded) circle of social or friendly +intercourse, seems almost like a betrayal of confidence, and is a step +which cannot be taken by survivors without some feelings of hesitation +and reluctance. That reluctance is only to be overcome by the sense +that, however natural, it is partly founded on delusion--a delusion +which leads us to personify "the world," to our imagination, as an +obtuse and somewhat hostile individual, who is certain to take things by +the wrong handle, and cannot be trusted to make the needful allowance, +and supply the inevitable omissions. Whereas it is a more reasonable and +a more comfortable belief, that the only part of the world which is in +the least likely to concern itself with such volumes as these is +composed of a number of enlightened and sympathetic persons' (as before, +Preface, vii. viii.). The closing consideration ought to overweigh all +scruples and reserve.[10] + +[10] The charming 'Journal' in full of Miss WORDSWORTH has only within +the past year been published. The welcome it has met with--having +bounded into a third edition already--is at once proof of the soundness +of judgment that at long-last issued it, if it be also accusatory that +many have gone who yearned to read it. The Editor ventures to invite +special attention to WORDSWORTH'S own express wish that the foreign +'Journals' of Miss WORDSWORTH and Mrs. WORDSWORTH should be published. +Surely _his_ words ought to be imperative (vol. iii. p. 77)? + +There _is_ the select circle of lovers of WORDSWORTH--yearly +widening--and there are the far-off multitudes of the future to whom +WILLIAM WORDSWORTH will be the grand name of the 18th-19th century, and +all that SHAKESPEARE and MILTON are now; and consequently the letters of +one so chary in letter-writing ought to be put beyond the risks of loss, +and given to Literature in entirety and trueness. WORDSWORTH had a +morbid dislike of writing letters, his weak eyes throughout rendering +all penmanship painful; but the present Editor, while conceding that his +letters lack the charm of style of COWPER'S, and the vividness and +passion of BYRON'S, finds in them, even the hastiest, matter of rarest +biographic and interpretative value. He was not a great sentencemaker; +in a way prided himself that his letters were so (intentionally) poor as +sure to be counted unworthy of publication; and altogether had the +prejudices of an earlier day against the giving of letters to the world; +but none the less are his letters informed with his intellect and +meditative thoughtfulness and exquisiteness of feeling. It is earnestly +to be hoped that one of the Family who is admirably qualified for the +task of love will address himself to write adequately and confidingly +the Life of his immortal relative; and toward this every one possessed +of anything in the handwriting or from the mind of WORDSWORTH may be +appealed to for co-operation. The 'Memoirs' of the (now) Bishop of +Lincoln, within its own limits, was a great gift; but it is avowedly not +a 'Life,' and _the world wants a Life_. Collation of the originals of +these letters has restored sentences and words and things of the most +characteristic kind. Very gross mistakes have also been corrected.[11] + +[11] It may be well to point out here specially a mistake in heading two +of the WORDSWORTH letters to Sir W.R. HAMILTON: 'Royal Dublin Society,' +instead of 'Royal Irish Academy' (see vol. iii. pp. 350 and 352); also +that at p. 394 'of the' has slipped in from the first 'of the,' and so +now reads 'Of the Heresiarch of the Church of Rome,' for 'The Heresiarch +Church,' as in the body of the letter. + + III. _Conversations and Personal Reminiscences of Wordsworth_. + + From 'Satyrane's Letters;' Klopstock. + + Personal Reminiscences of the Hon. Mr. Justice Coleridge. + + Recollections of a Tour in Italy with Wordsworth. By H.C. Robinson. + + Reminiscences of Lady Richardson and Mrs. Davy. + + Conversations recorded by the Bishop of Lincoln. + + Reminiscences by the Rev. R.P. Graves, M.A., Dublin; on the Death + of Coleridge; and further (hitherto unpublished) Reminiscences. + + An American's Reminiscences. + + Recollections of Aubrey de Vere, Esq., now first published.[12] + + From 'Recollections of the Last Days of Shelley and Byron,' by E.J. + Trelawny, Esq. + + From Letters of Professor Tayler (1872). + + Anecdote of Crabbe and Wordsworth. + + Wordsworth's Later Opinion of Lord Brougham. + +[12] Will the Reader indulgently correct a most unfortunate oversight of +the printers in vol. iii. p. 497, l. 15, where 'no angel smiled' +(mis)reads 'no angle smiled'? + +These are included in the Prose inevitably, inasmuch as they preserve +opinions and sentiments, criticisms and sayings, actually spoken by +WORDSWORTH, of exactly the type of which Lord COLERIDGE, among other +things, wrote the Editor: 'I hope we shall have a transcript from you of +the thoughts and opinions of that very great and noble person, of whom +(as far as I know them) it is most true that "the very dust of his +writings is gold." Any grave and deliberate opinion of his is entitled +to weight; and if we have his opinions at all, we should have them whole +and entire.' + +The Editor has studied to give WORDSWORTH'S own conversations and +sayings--not others' concerning him. Hence such eloquent +pseudo-enthusiasm as is found in De Quincey's 'Recollections of the +Lakes' (Works, vol. ii.) is excluded. He dares to call it +pseudo-enthusiasm; for this book of the little, alert, self-conscious +creature, with the marvellous brain and more marvellous tongue--a monkey +with a man's soul somehow transmigrated into it--opens and shuts without +preserving a solitary saying of the man he professes to honour. That is +a measure of _his_ admiration as of his insight or no insight. There are +besides personal impertinencies, declarative of essential +vulgarity.[13] Smaller men have printed their 'Recollections,' or rather +retailed their gossip; but they themselves occupy the foreground, much +as your chimney-sweep introduces himself prominently in front of his +signboard presentment of some many-chimneyed 'noble house.' Even +Emerson's 'English Traits' (a most un-English book) belongs to the same +underbred category. The new 'Recollections' by AUBREY DE VERE, Esq., it +is a privilege to publish--full of reverence and love, and so daintily +and musically worded, as they are. + +[13] Possibly indignation roused by the 'Recollections' has provoked too +vehement condemnation. Let it therefore be noted that it is the +'Recollections' that are censured. Elsewhere DE QUINCEY certainly shows +a glimmering recognition of WORDSWORTH'S great qualities, and that +before they had been fully admitted; but everywhere there is an +impertinence of familiarity and a patronising self-consciousness that is +irritating to any one who reverences great genius and high rectitude. It +may be conceded that DE QUINCEY, so far as he was capable, did reverence +WORDSWORTH; but his exaggerations of awe and delays bear on the face of +them unveracity. + +Such is an account of the contents of these volumes; and it may be +permitted the Editor to record his hearty thanks to the Sons of the +Poet--WILLIAM WORDSWORTH, Esq., Carlisle, and the just dead Rev. JOHN +WORDSWORTH, M.A., Brigham--and his nephew Professor WORDSWORTH of +Bombay, for their so flattering committal of this trust to him; and +especially to the last, for his sympathetic and gladdening counsel +throughout--augury of larger service ultimately, it is to be hoped. To +the co-executor with WILLIAM WORDSWORTH, Esq.--STRICKLAND COOKSON, +Esq.--like acknowledgment is due. He cannot sufficiently thank AUBREY DE +VERE, Esq., for his brilliant contribution to the 'Personal +Reminiscences.' The Rev. ROBERT PERCEVAL GRAVES, M.A., of Dublin +(formerly of Windermere), has greatly added to the interest of these +volumes by forwarding his further reminiscences of WORDSWORTH and the +Hamilton Letters. Fifteen of these letters of WORDSWORTH, not yet +published, will be given in a Life of the great mathematician of +Ireland, Sir W.R. HAMILTON, towards whom WORDSWORTH felt the warmest +friendship, and of whose many-sided genius he had the most absolute +admiration. Mr. GRAVES, walking in the footsteps of FULKE GREVILLE, Lord +BROOKE, who sought that on his tomb should be graven 'Friend of Sir +Philip Sidney' (albeit he would modestly disclaim the lofty comparison), +regards it as his title to memory that he was called 'my highly esteemed +friend' by WORDSWORTH (vol. iii. p. 27). For the GRAVESES the Poet had +much regard, and it was mutual. A Sonnet addressed to WORDSWORTH by the +(now) Bishop of Limerick was so highly valued by him that it is a +pleasure to be able to read it, as thus: + + '_To Wordsworth_. + + The Sages of old time have pass'd away, + A throng of mighty names. But little power + Have ancient names to rule the present hour: + No Plato to the learners of our day + In grove of Academe reveals the way, + The law, the soul of Nature. Yet a light + Of living wisdom, beaming calm and bright, + Forbids our youth 'mid error's maze to stray. + To thee, with gratitude and reverent love, + O Poet and Philosopher! we turn; + For in thy truth-inspired song we learn + Passion and pride to quell--erect to move, + From doubts and fears deliver'd--and conceiving + Pure hopes of heaven, live happy in believing. + +_August_ 1833.' C.G. + +Lady RICHARDSON has similarly added to the value of her former +'Recollections' for this work. Very special gratitude is due to the Miss +QUILLINANS of Loughrigg, Rydal, for the use of the MS. of Miss FENWICK'S +Notes--one half in their father's handwriting, and the other half (or +thereabout) in that of Mrs. QUILLINAN ('DORA'), who at the end has +written: + + 'To dearest Miss Fenwick are we obliged for these Notes, every word + of which was taken down by her kind pen from my father's dictation. + The former portion was transcribed at Rydal by Mr. Quillinan, the + latter by me, and finished at the Vicarage, Brigham, this + twenty-fifth day of August 1843.--D.Q.' + +The MS., he it repeated, is now printed _in extenso_, nor will the least +acceptable be 'DORA'S' own slight pencillings intercalated. The Miss +COOKSONS of Grasmere were good enough to present the Editor with a copy +of the 'Two Letters to the Freeholders of Westmoreland', when he had +almost despaired of recovering the pamphlet. Thanks are due to several +literary friends for aid in the Notes and Illustrations. There must be +named Professor DOWDEN and Rev. E.P. GRAVES, M.A.,[14] Dublin; F.W. +COSENS, Esq., and G.A. SIMCOX, Esq., London; W. ALDIS WRIGHT, Esq., +M.A., Trinity College, Cambridge. + +[14] Mr. Graves has published the following on the Wordsworths: (_a_) +'Recollections of Wordsworth and the Lake Country'; a lecture, and a +capital one. (_b_) 'A Good Name and the Day of Death: two Blessings'; a +sermon preached in Ambleside Church, January 30, 1859, on occasion of +the death of Mrs. Wordsworth--tender and consolatory. (_c_) 'The +Ascension of our Lord, and its Lessons for Mourners'; a sermon (1858) +finely commemorative of Arnold, the Wordsworths, Mrs. Fletcher, and +others. + +One point only remains to be noticed. Every one who knows our highest +poetical literature knows the 'Lost Leader' of ROBERT BROWNING, Esq. +Many have been the speculations and surmises and assertions and +contradictions as to who the 'Lost Leader' was. The verdict of one of +the immortals on his fellow-immortal concerns us all. Hence it is with +no common thankfulness the Editor of WORDSWORTH'S Prose embraces this +opportunity of settling the controversy beyond appeal, by giving a +letter which Mr. BROWNING has done him the honour to write for +publication. It is as follows: + + '19 Warwick-crescent, W. Feb. 24, '75. + + DEAR MR. GROSART, + + I have been asked the question you now address me with, and as duly + answered it, I can't remember how many times: there is no sort of + objection to one more assurance, or rather confession, on my part, + that I _did_ in my hasty youth presume to use the great and + venerated personality of WORDSWORTH as a sort of painter's model; + one from which this or the other particular feature may be selected + and turned to account: had I intended more, above all, such a + boldness as portraying the entire man, I should not have talked + about "handfuls of silver and bits of ribbon". These never + influenced the change of politics in the great poet; whose + defection, nevertheless, accompanied as it was by a regular face + about of his special party, was to my juvenile apprehension, and + even mature consideration, an event to deplore. But just as in the + tapestry on my wall I can recognise figures which have _struck out_ + a fancy, on occasion, that though truly enough thus derived, yet + would be preposterous as a copy, so, though I dare not deny the + original of my little poem, I altogether refuse to have it + considered as the "very effigies" of such a moral and intellectual + superiority. + + Faithfully yours, + + ROBERT BROWNING.' + +The Editor cannot close this Preface without expressing his sense of the +greatness of the trust confided to him, and the personal benefit it has +been to himself to have been brought so near to WILLIAM WORDSWORTH as he +has been in working on this collection of his Prose. He felt almost +awed as he handled the great and good man's MSS., and found himself +behind the screen (as it were), seeing what he had seen, touching what +he had touched, knowing what he had known, feeling what he had felt. +Reverence, even veneration is an empty word to utter the emotion excited +in such communion; these certainly, but something tenderer and more +human were in head and heart. It was a grand, high-thoughted, +pure-lived, unique course that was run in those sequestered vales. The +closer one gets to the man, the greater he proves, the truer, the +simpler; and it is a benediction to the race, amid so many fragmentary +and jagged and imperfect lives, to have one so rounded and completed, so +august and so genuine: + + 'Summon Detraction to object the worst + That may be told, and utter all it can; + It cannot find a blemish to be enforced + Against him, other than he was a man, + And built of flesh and blood, and did live here, + Within the region of infirmity; + Where all perfections never did appear + To meet in any one so really, + But that his frailty ever did bewray + Unto the world that he was set in clay.' + +(Funeral Panegyric on the Earl of Devonshire, by Samuel Daniel.) + + ALEXANDER B. GROSART. + +_Park View, Blackburn, Lancashire_. + +NOTE.--It is perhaps right to mention, for Editor and present Printers' +sake, that WORDSWORTH'S own capitals, italics, punctuation, and other +somewhat antique characteristics, have been faithfully reproduced. At +the dates, capitals, italics, and punctuation were more abundant than at +present. _G_. + + + + +CONTENTS OF VOL. I. + + +*** A star [*] designates publication herein _for the first time_. G. + =PAGE= +The Dedication to the Queen v +*Poem addressed to her Majesty with a Gift-copy of the Poems. vi +The Preface vii-xxxviii + + +POLITICAL. + +*I. Apology for the French Revolution, 1793 1-23 + Appendix to Bishop Watson's Sermon 24-30 +II. The Convention of Cintra, 1809 31-174 + Appendix by De Quincey 175-194 +III. Vindication of Opinions in the Treatise on the 'Convention + of Cintra:' + (_a_) Letter to Major-General Sir Charles W. Pasley, + K.C.B., on his 'Military Policy and Institutions + of the British Empire,' 1811 195-200 + *(_b_) Letter enclosing the Preceding to a Friend + unnamed 206-209 +iv. Two Addresses to the Freeholders of Westmoreland, 1818 211-257 +*v. Of the Catholic Relief Bill, 1829 259-270 + + +ETHICAL. + +I. Of Legislation for the Poor, the Working Classes, and the + Clergy: Appendix to Poems, 1835 271-294 +II. Advice to the Young: + (_a_) Letter to the Editor of 'The Friend,' + signed 'Mathetes' 295-308 + (_b_) Answer to the Letter of 'Mathetes,' 1809 309-326 +III. Of Education: + (_a_) On the Education of the Young: Letter to a Friend, + 1806 327-333 + (_b_) Of the People, their Ways and Needs: Letter to + Archdeacon Wrangham, 1808 334-339 + (_c_) Education: two Letters to the Rev. H. J. Rose, + 1828 340-348 + (_d_) Education of Duty: Letter to Rev. Dr. Wordsworth, + 1830 349 + *(_e_) Speech on laying the Foundation-stone of the New + School in the Village of Bowness, Windermere, 1830 + 350-356 + +NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 357-360 + + + + +I. POLITICAL. + + + + +I. APOLOGY FOR THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 1793. + +NOTE. + +For an account of the manuscript of this 'Apology,' and details on other +points, see Preface in the present volume. G. + +APOLOGY FOR THE FRENCH REVOLUTION, 1793. + + +MY LORD, + +Reputation may not improperly be termed the moral life of man. Alluding +to our natural existence, Addison, in a sublime allegory well known to +your Lordship, has represented us as crossing an immense bridge, from +whose surface from a variety of causes we disappear one after another, +and are seen no more. Every one who enters upon public life has such a +bridge to pass. Some slip through at the very commencement of their +career from thoughtlessness, others pursue their course a little longer, +till, misled by the phantoms of avarice and ambition, they fall victims +to their delusion. Your Lordship was either seen, or supposed to be +seen, continuing your way for a long time unseduced and undismayed; but +those who now look for you will look in vain, and it is feared you have +at last fallen, through one of the numerous trap-doors, into the tide of +contempt, to be swept down to the ocean of oblivion. + +It is not my intention to be illiberal; these latter expressions have +been forced from me by indignation. Your Lordship has given a proof that +even religious controversy may be conducted without asperity; I hope I +shall profit by your example. At the same time, with a spirit which you +may not approve--for it is a republican spirit--I shall not preclude +myself from any truths, however severe, which I may think beneficial to +the cause which I have undertaken to defend. You will not, then, be +surprised when I inform you that it is only the name of its author which +has induced me to notice an Appendix to a Sermon which you have lately +given to the world, with a hope that it may have some effect in calming +a perturbation which, you say, has been _excited_ in the minds of the +lower orders of the community. While, with a servility which has +prejudiced many people against religion itself, the ministers of the +Church of England have appeared as writers upon public measures only to +be the advocates of slavery civil and religious, your Lordship stood +almost alone as the defender of truth and political charity. The names +of levelling prelate, bishop of the Dissenters, which were intended as a +dishonour to your character, were looked upon by your friends--perhaps +by yourself--as an acknowledgment of your possessing an enlarged and +philosophical mind; and like the generals in a neighbouring country, if +it had been equally becoming your profession, you might have adopted, as +an honourable title, a denomination intended as a stigma. + +On opening your Appendix, your admirers will naturally expect to find an +impartial statement of the grievances which harass this Nation, and a +sagacious inquiry into the proper modes of redress. They will be +disappointed. Sensible how large a portion of mankind receive opinions +upon authority, I am apprehensive lest the doctrines which they will +there find should derive a weight from your name to which they are by no +means intrinsically entitled. I will therefore examine what you have +advanced, from a hope of being able to do away any impression left on +the minds of such as may be liable to confound with argument a strong +prepossession for your Lordship's talents, experience, and virtues. + +Before I take notice of what you appear to have laid down as principles, +it may not be improper to advert to some incidental opinions found at +the commencement of your political confession of faith. + +At a period big with the fate of the human race I am sorry that you +attach so much importance to the personal sufferings of the late royal +martyr, and that an anxiety for the issue of the present convulsions +should not have prevented you from joining in the idle cry of modish +lamentation which has resounded from the Court to the cottage. You wish +it to be supposed you are one of those who are unpersuaded of the guilt +of Louis XVI. If you had attended to the history of the French +Revolution as minutely as its importance demands, so far from stopping +to bewail his death, you would rather have regretted that the blind +fondness of his people had placed a human being in that monstrous +situation which rendered him unaccountable before a human tribunal. A +bishop, a man of philosophy and humanity[15] as distinguished as your +Lordship, declared at the opening of the National Convention--and +twenty-five millions of men were convinced of the truth of the +assertion--that there was not a citizen on the tenth of August who, if +he could have dragged before the eyes of Louis the corpse of one of his +murdered brothers, might not have exclaimed to him: 'Tyran, voila ton +ouvrage.' Think of this, and you will not want consolation under any +depression your spirits may feel at the contrast exhibited by Louis on +the most splendid throne of the universe, and Louis alone in the tower +of the Temple or on the scaffold. But there is a class of men who +received the news of the late execution with much more heartfelt sorrow +than that which you, among such a multitude, so officiously express. The +passion of pity is one of which, above all others, a Christian teacher +should be cautious of cherishing the abuse when, under the influence of +reason, it is regulated by the disproportion of the pain suffered to the +guilt incurred. It is from the passion thus directed that the men of +whom I have just spoken are afflicted by the catastrophe of the fallen +monarch. They are sorry that the prejudice and weakness of mankind have +made it necessary to force an individual into an unnatural situation, +which requires more than human talents and human virtues, and at the +same time precludes him from attaining even a moderate knowledge of +common life, and from feeling a particular share in the interests of +mankind. But, above all, these men lament that any combination of +circumstances should have rendered it necessary or advisable to veil for +a moment the statues of the laws, and that by such emergency the cause +of twenty-five millions of people, I may say of the whole human race, +should have been so materially injured. Any other sorrow for the death +of Louis is irrational and weak. + +[15] M. Gregoire. + +In France royalty is no more. The person of the last anointed is no more +also; and I flatter myself I am not alone, even in this _kingdom_, when +I wish that it may please the Almighty neither by the hands of His +priests nor His nobles (I allude to a striking passage of Racine) to +raise his posterity to the rank of his ancestors, and reillume the torch +of extinguished David.[16] + +[16] See _Athalie_, [act i.] scene 2: + + 'Il faut que sur le trone un roi soit eleve, + Qui _se souvienne un jour_ qu'au rang de ses ancetres. + +You say: 'I fly with terror and abhorrence even from the altar of +Liberty, when I see it stained with the blood of the aged, of the +innocent, of the defenceless sex, of the ministers of religion, and of +the faithful adherents of a fallen monarch.' What! have you so little +knowledge of the nature of man as to be ignorant that a time of +revolution is not the season of true Liberty? Alas, the obstinacy and +perversion of man is such that she is too often obliged to borrow the +very arms of Despotism to overthrow him, and, in order to reign in +peace, must establish herself by violence. She deplores such stern +necessity, but the safety of the people, her supreme law, is her +consolation. This apparent contradiction between the principles of +liberty and the march of revolutions; this spirit of jealousy, of +severity, of disquietude, of vexation, indispensable from a state of war +between the oppressors and oppressed, must of necessity confuse the +ideas of morality, and contract the benign exertion of the best +affections of the human heart. Political virtues are developed at the +expense of moral ones; and the sweet emotions of compassion, evidently +dangerous when traitors are to be punished, are too often altogether +smothered. But is this a sufficient reason to reprobate a convulsion +from which is to spring a fairer order of things? It is the province of +education to rectify the erroneous notions which a habit of oppression, +and even of resistance, may have created, and to soften this ferocity of +character, proceeding from a necessary suspension of the mild and social +virtues; it belongs to her to create a race of men who, truly free, will +look upon their fathers as only enfranchised.[17] + +[17] + + Dieu l'a fait remonter par la main de ses pretres: + L'a tire par leurs mains de l'oubli du tombeau, + Et de David eteint rallume le flambeau.' + +The conclusion of the same speech applies so strongly to the present +period that I cannot forbear transcribing it: + + 'Daigne, daigne, mon Dieu, sur Mathan, et sur elle + Repandre _cet esprit d'imprudence et d'erreur, + De la chute des rois funeste avant-coureur_!' + + + +I proceed to the sorrow you express for the fate of the French +priesthood. The measure by which that body was immediately stripped of +part of its possessions, and a more equal distribution enjoined of the +rest, does not meet with your Lordship's approbation. You do not +question the right of the Nation over ecclesiastical wealth; you have +voluntarily abandoned a ground which you were conscious was altogether +untenable. Having allowed this right, can you question the propriety of +exerting it at that particular period? The urgencies of the State were +such as required the immediate application of a remedy. Even the clergy +were conscious of such necessity; and aware, from the immunities they +had long enjoyed, that the people would insist upon their bearing some +share of the burden, offered of themselves a considerable portion of +their superfluities. The Assembly was true to justice, and refused to +compromise the interests of the Nation by accepting as a satisfaction +the insidious offerings of compulsive charity. They enforced their +right. They took from the clergy a large share of their wealth, and +applied it to the alleviation of the national misery. Experience shows +daily the wise employment of the ample provision which yet remains to +them. While you reflect on the vast diminution which some men's fortunes +must have undergone, your sorrow for these individuals will be +diminished by recollecting the unworthy motives which induced the bulk +of them to undertake the office, and the scandalous arts which enabled +so many to attain the rank and enormous wealth which it has seemed +necessary to annex to the charge of a Christian pastor. You will rather +look upon it as a signal act of justice that they should thus +unexpectedly be stripped of the rewards of their vices and their crimes. +If you should lament the sad reverse by which the hero of the +necklace[18] has been divested of about 1,300,000 livres of annual +revenue, you may find some consolation that a part of this prodigious +mass of riches is gone to preserve from famine some thousands of cures, +who were pining in villages unobserved by Courts. + +[18] Prince de Rohan. + +I now proceed to principles. Your Lordship very properly asserts that +'the liberty of man in a state of society consists in his being subject +to no law but the law enacted by the general will of the society to +which he belongs.' You approved of the object which the French had in +view when, in the infancy of the Revolution, they were attempting to +destroy arbitrary power, and to erect a temple to Liberty on its +remains. It is with surprise, then, that I find you afterwards presuming +to dictate to the world a servile adoption of the British constitution. +It is with indignation I perceive you 'reprobate' a people for having +imagined happiness and liberty more likely to flourish in the open field +of a Republic than under the shade of Monarchy. You are therefore guilty +of a most glaring contradiction. Twenty-five millions of Frenchmen have +felt that they could have no security for their liberties under any +modification of monarchical power. They have in consequence unanimously +chosen a Republic. You cannot but observe that they have only exercised +that right in which, by your own confession, liberty essentially +resides. + +As to your arguments, by which you pretend to justify your anathemas of +a Republic--if arguments they may be called--they are so concise, that I +cannot but transcribe them. 'I dislike a Republic for this reason, +because of all forms of government, scarcely excepting the most +despotic, I think a Republic the most oppressive to the bulk of the +people; they are deceived in it with a show of liberty, but they live in +it under the most odious of all tyrannies--the tyranny of their equals.' + +This passage is a singular proof of that fatality by which the advocates +of error furnish weapons for their own destruction: while it is merely +_assertion_ in respect to a justification of your aversion to +Republicanism, a strong _argument_ may be drawn from it in its favour. +Mr. Burke, in a philosophic lamentation over the extinction of chivalry, +told us that in those times vice lost half its evil by losing all its +grossness. Infatuated moralist! Your Lordship excites compassion as +labouring under the same delusion. Slavery is a bitter and a poisonous +draught. We have but one consolation under it, that a Nation may dash +the cup to the ground when she pleases. Do not imagine that by taking +from its bitterness you weaken its deadly quality; no, by rendering it +more palatable you contribute to its power of destruction. We submit +without repining to the chastisements of Providence, aware that we are +creatures, that opposition is vain and remonstrance impossible. But when +redress is in our own power and resistance is rational, we suffer with +the same humility from beings like ourselves, because we are taught from +infancy that we were born in a state of inferiority to our oppressors, +that they were sent into the world to scourge, and we to be scourged. +Accordingly we see the bulk of mankind, actuated by these fatal +prejudices, even more ready to lay themselves under the feet of _the +great_ than the great are to trample upon them. Now taking for granted, +that in Republics men live under the tyranny of what you call their +equals, the circumstance of this being the most odious of all tyrannies +is what a Republican would boast of; as soon as tyranny becomes odious, +the principal step is made towards its destruction. Reflecting on the +degraded state of the mass of mankind, a philosopher will lament that +oppression is not odious to them, that the iron, while it eats the soul, +is not felt to enter into it. 'Tout homme ne dans l'esclavage nait pour +l'esclavage, rien n'est plus certain; les esclaves perdent tout dans +leurs fers, jusqu'au desir d'en sortir; ils aiment leur servitude, comme +les compagnons d'Ulysse aimaient leur abrutissement.' + +I return to the quotation in which you reprobate Republicanism. Relying +upon the temper of the times, you have surely thought little argument +necessary to content what few will be hardy enough to support; the +strongest of auxiliaries, imprisonment and the pillory, has left your +arm little to perform. But the happiness of mankind is so closely +connected with this subject, that I cannot suffer such considerations to +deter me from throwing out a few hints, which may lead to a conclusion +that a Republic legitimately constructed contains less of an oppressive +principle than any other form of government. + +Your Lordship will scarcely question that much of human misery, that the +great evils which desolate States, proceed from the governors having an +interest distinct from that of the governed. It should seem a natural +deduction, that whatever has a tendency to identify the two must also in +the same degree promote the general welfare. As the magnitude of almost +all States prevents the possibility of their enjoying a pure democracy, +philosophers--from a wish, as far as is in their power, to make the +governors and the governed one--will turn their thoughts to the system +of universal representation, and will annex an equal importance to the +suffrage of every individual. Jealous of giving up no more of the +authority of the people than is necessary, they will be solicitous of +finding out some method by which the office of their delegates may be +confined as much as is practicable to the proposing and deliberating +upon laws rather than to enacting them; reserving to the people the +power of finally inscribing them in the national code. Unless this is +attended to, as soon as a people has chosen representatives it no +longer has a political existence, except as it is understood to retain +the privilege of annihilating the trust when it shall think proper, and +of resuming its original power. Sensible that at the moment of election +an interest distinct from that of the general body is created, an +enlightened legislator will endeavour by every possible method to +diminish the operation of such interest. The first and most natural mode +that presents itself is that of shortening the regular duration of this +trust, in order that the man who has betrayed it may soon be superseded +by a more worthy successor. But this is not enough; aware of the +possibility of imposition, and of the natural tendency of power to +corrupt the heart of man, a sensible Republican will think it essential +that the office of legislator be not intrusted to the same man for a +succession of years. He will also be induced to this wise restraint by +the grand principle of identification; he will be more sure of the +virtue of the legislator by knowing that, in the capacity of private +citizen, to-morrow he must either smart under the oppression or bless +the justice of the law which he has enacted to-day. + +Perhaps in the very outset of this inquiry the principle on which I +proceed will be questioned, and I shall be told that the people are not +the proper judges of their own welfare. But because under every +government of modern times, till the foundation of the American +Republic, the bulk of mankind have appeared incapable of discerning +their true interests, no conclusion can be drawn against my principle. +At this moment have we not daily the strongest proofs of the success +with which, in what you call the best of all monarchical governments, +the popular mind may be debauched? Left to the quiet exercise of their +own judgment, do you think that the people would have thought it +necessary to set fire to the house of the philosophic Priestley, and to +hunt down his life like that of a traitor or a parricide? that, deprived +almost of the necessaries of existence by the burden of their taxes, +they would cry out, as with one voice, for a war from which not a single +ray of consolation can visit them to compensate for the additional +keenness with which they are about to smart under the scourge of labour, +of cold, and of hunger? + +Appearing, as I do, the advocate of Republicanism, let me not be +misunderstood. I am well aware, from the abuse of the executive power +in States, that there is not a single European nation but what affords a +melancholy proof that if, at this moment, the original authority of the +people should be restored, all that could be expected from such +restoration would in the beginning be but a change of tyranny. +Considering the nature of a Republic in reference to the present +condition of Europe, your Lordship stops here; but a philosopher will +extend his views much farther: having dried up the source from which +flows the corruption of the public opinion, he will be sensible that the +stream will go on gradually refining itself. I must add also, that the +coercive power is of necessity so strong in all the old governments, +that a people could not at first make an abuse of that liberty which a +legitimate Republic supposes. The animal just released from its stall +will exhaust the overflow of its spirits in a round of wanton vagaries; +but it will soon return to itself, and enjoy its freedom in moderate and +regular delight. + +But, to resume the subject of universal representation, I ought to have +mentioned before, that in the choice of its representatives a people +will not immorally hold out wealth as a criterion of integrity, nor lay +down as a fundamental rule, that to be qualified for the trying duties +of legislation a citizen should be possessed of a certain fixed +property. Virtues, talents, and acquirements are all that it will look +for. + +Having destroyed every external object of delusion, let us now see what +makes the supposition necessary that the people will mislead themselves. +Your Lordship respects 'peasants and mechanics when they intrude not +themselves into concerns for which their education has not fitted them.' + +Setting aside the idea of a peasant or mechanic being a legislator, what +vast education is requisite to enable him to judge amongst his +neighbours which is most qualified by his industry and integrity to be +intrusted with the care of the interests of himself and of his +fellow-citizens? But leaving this ground, as governments formed on such +a plan proceed in a plain and open manner, their administration would +require much less of what is usually called talents and experience, that +is, of disciplined treachery and hoary Machiavelism; and at the same +time, as it would no longer be their interest to keep the mass of the +nation in ignorance, a moderate portion of useful knowledge would be +universally disseminated. If your Lordship has travelled in the +democratic cantons of Switzerland, you must have seen the herdsman with +the staff in one hand and the book in the other. In the constituent +Assembly of France was found a peasant whose sagacity was as +distinguished as his integrity, whose blunt honesty over-awed and +baffled the refinements of hypocritical patriots. The people of Paris +followed him with acclamations, and the name of Pere Gerard will long be +mentioned with admiration and respect through the eighty-three +departments. + +From these hints, if pursued further, might be demonstrated the +expediency of the whole people 'intruding themselves' on the office of +legislation, and the wisdom of putting into force what they may claim as +a right. But government is divided into two parts--the legislative and +executive. The executive power you would lodge in the hands of an +individual. Before we inquire into the propriety of this measure, it +will be necessary to state the proper objects of the executive power in +governments where the principle of universal representation is admitted. +With regard to that portion of this power which is exerted in the +application of the laws, it may be observed that much of it would be +superseded. As laws, being but the expression of the general will, would +be enacted only from an almost universal conviction of their utility, +any resistance to such laws, any desire of eluding them, must proceed +from a few refractory individuals. As far, then, as relates to the +internal administration of the country, a Republic has a manifest +advantage over a Monarchy, inasmuch as less force is requisite to compel +obedience to its laws. + +From the judicial tribunals of our own country, though we labour under a +variety of partial and oppressive laws, we have an evident proof of the +nullity of regal interference, as the king's name is confessedly a mere +fiction, and justice is known to be most equitably administered when the +judges are least dependent on the crown. + +I have spoken of laws partial and oppressive; our penal code is so +crowded with disproportioned penalties and indiscriminate severity that +a conscientious man would sacrifice, in many instances, his respect for +the laws to the common feelings of humanity; and there must be a strange +vice in that legislation from which can proceed laws in whose execution +a man cannot be instrumental without forfeiting his self-esteem and +incurring the contempt of his fellow-citizens. + +But to return from this digression: with regard to the other branches of +the executive government, which relate rather to original measures than +to administering the law, it may be observed that the power exercised in +conducting them is distinguished by almost imperceptible shades from the +legislative, and that all such as admit of open discussion and of the +delay attendant on public deliberations are properly the province of the +representative assembly. If this observation be duly attended to, it +will appear that this part of the executive power will be extremely +circumscribed, will be stripped almost entirely of a deliberative +capacity, and will be reduced to a mere hand or instrument. As a +Republican government would leave this power to a select body destitute +of the means of corruption, and whom the people, continually +contributing, could at all times bring to account or dismiss, will it +not necessarily ensue that a body so selected and supported would +perform their simple functions with greater efficacy and fidelity than +the complicated concerns of royalty can be expected to meet with in the +councils of princes; of men who from their wealth and interest have +forced themselves into trust; and of statesmen, whose constant object is +to exalt themselves by laying pitfalls for their colleagues and for +their country. + +I shall pursue this subject no further; but adopting your Lordship's +method of argument, instead of continuing to demonstrate the superiority +of a Republican executive government, I will repeat some of the +objections which have been often made to monarchy, and have not been +answered. + +My first objection to regal government is its instability, proceeding +from a variety of causes. Where monarchy is found in its greatest +intensity, as in Morocco and Turkey, this observation is illustrated in +a very pointed manner, and indeed is more or less striking as +governments are more or less despotic. The reason is obvious: as the +monarch is the chooser of his ministers, and as his own passions and +caprice are in general the sole guides of his conduct, these ministers, +instead of pursuing directly the one grand object of national welfare, +will make it their chief study to vary their measures according to his +humours. But a minister _may_ be refractory: his successor will +naturally run headlong into plans totally the reverse of the former +system; for if he treads in the same path, he is well aware that a +similar fate will attend him. This observation will apply to each +succession of kings, who, from vanity and a desire of distinction, will +in general studiously avoid any step which may lead to a suspicion that +they are so spiritless as to imitate their predecessor. That a similar +instability is not incident to Republics is evident from their very +constitution. + +As from the nature of monarchy, particularly of hereditary monarchy, +there must always be a vast disproportion between the duties to be +performed and the powers that are to perform them; and as the measures +of government, far from gaining additional vigour, are, on the contrary, +enfeebled by being intrusted to one hand, what arguments can be used for +allowing to the will of a single being a weight which, as history shows, +will subvert that of the whole body politic? And this brings me to my +grand objection to monarchy, which is drawn from (THE ETERNAL NATURE OF +MAN.) The office of king is a trial to which human virtue is not equal. +Pure and universal representation, by which alone liberty can be +secured, cannot, I think, exist together with monarchy. It seems madness +to expect a manifestation of the _general_ will, at the same time that +we allow to a _particular_ will that weight which it must obtain in all +governments that can with any propriety be called monarchical. They must +war with each other till one of them is extinguished. It was so in +France and.... + +I shall not pursue this topic further, but, as you are a teacher of +purity of morals, I cannot but remind you of that atmosphere of +corruption without which it should seem that courts cannot exist. + +You seem anxious to explain what ought to be understood by the equality +of men in a state of civil society; but your Lordship's success has not +answered your trouble. If you had looked in the articles of the Rights +of Man, you would have found your efforts superseded: 'Equality, without +which liberty cannot exist, is to be met with in perfection in that +State in which no distinctions are admitted but such as have evidently +for their object the general good;' 'The end of government cannot be +attained without authorising some members of the society to command, and +of course without imposing on the rest the necessity of obedience.' + +Here, then, is an inevitable inequality, which may be denominated that +of power. In order to render this as small as possible, a legislator +will be careful not to give greater force to such authority than is +essential to its due execution. Government is at best but a necessary +evil. Compelled to place themselves in a state of subordination, men +will obviously endeavour to prevent the abuse of that superiority to +which they submit; accordingly they will cautiously avoid whatever may +lead those in whom it is acknowledged to suppose they hold it as a +right. Nothing will more effectually contribute to this than that the +person in whom authority has been lodged should occasionally descend to +the level of private citizen; he will learn from it a wholesome lesson, +and the people will be less liable to confound the person with the +power. On this principle hereditary authority will be proscribed; and on +another also--that in such a system as that of hereditary authority, no +security can be had for talents adequate to the discharge of the office, +and consequently the people can only feel the mortification of being +humbled without having protected themselves. + +Another distinction will arise amongst mankind, which, though it may be +easily modified by government, exists independent of it; I mean the +distinction of wealth, which always will attend superior talents and +industry. It cannot be denied that the security of individual property +is one of the strongest and most natural motives to induce men to bow +their necks to the yoke of civil government. In order to attain this end +of security to property, a legislator will proceed with impartiality. He +should not suppose that, when he has insured to their proprietors the +possession of lands and movables against the depredation of the +necessitous, nothing remains to be done. The history of all ages has +demonstrated that wealth not only can secure itself, but includes even +an oppressive principle. Aware of this, and that the extremes of poverty +and riches have a necessary tendency to corrupt the human heart, he will +banish from his code all laws such as the unnatural monster of +primogeniture, such as encourage associations against labour in the form +of corporate bodies, and indeed all that monopolising system of +legislation, whose baleful influence is shown in the depopulation of the +country and in the necessity which reduces the sad relicks to owe their +very existence to the ostentatious bounty of their oppressors. If it is +true in common life, it is still more true in governments, that we +should be just before we are generous; but our legislators seem to have +forgotten or despised this homely maxim. They have unjustly left +unprotected that most important part of property, not less real because +it has no material existence, that which ought to enable the labourer to +provide food for himself and his family. I appeal to innumerable +statutes, whose constant and professed object it is to lower the price +of labour, to compel the workman to be _content_ with arbitrary wages, +evidently too small from the necessity of legal enforcement of the +acceptance of them. Even from the astonishing amount of the sums raised +for the support of one description of the poor may be concluded the +extent and greatness of that oppression, whose effects have rendered it +possible for the few to afford so much, and have shown us that such a +multitude of our brothers exist in even helpless indigence. Your +Lordship tells us that the science of civil government has received all +the perfection of which it is capable. For my part, I am more +enthusiastic. The sorrow I feel from the contemplation of this +melancholy picture is not unconsoled by a comfortable hope that the +class of wretches called mendicants will not much longer shock the +feelings of humanity; that the miseries entailed upon the marriage of +those who are not rich will no longer tempt the bulk of mankind to fly +to that promiscuous intercourse to which they are impelled by the +instincts of nature, and the dreadful satisfaction of escaping the +prospect of infants, sad fruit of such intercourse, whom they are unable +to support. If these flattering prospects be ever realised, it must be +owing to some wise and salutary regulations counteracting that +inequality among mankind which proceeds from the present _fixed_ +disproportion of their possessions. + +I am not an advocate for the agrarian law nor for sumptuary regulations, +but I contend that the people amongst whom the law of primogeniture +exists, and among whom corporate bodies are encouraged, and immense +salaries annexed to useless and indeed hereditary offices, is oppressed +by an inequality in the distribution of wealth which does not +necessarily attend men in a state of civil society. + +Thus far we have considered inequalities inseparable from civil society. +But other arbitrary distinctions exist among mankind, either from +choice or usurpation. I allude to titles, to stars, ribbons, and +garters, and other badges of fictitious superiority. Your Lordship will +not question the grand principle on which this inquiry set out; I look +upon it, then, as my duty to try the propriety of these distinctions by +that criterion, and think it will be no difficult task to prove that +these separations among mankind are absurd, impolitic, and immoral. +Considering hereditary nobility as a reward for services rendered to the +State--and it is to my charity that you owe the permission of taking up +the question on this ground--what services can a man render to the State +adequate to such a compensation that the making of laws, upon which the +happiness of millions is to depend, shall be lodged in him and his +posterity, however depraved may be their principles, however +contemptible their understandings? + +But here I may be accused of sophistry; I ought to subtract every idea +of power from such distinction, though from the weakness of mankind it +is impossible to disconnect them. What services, then, can a man render +to society to compensate for the outrage done to the dignity of our +nature when we bind ourselves to address him and his posterity with +humiliating circumlocutions, calling him most noble, most honourable, +most high, most august, serene, excellent, eminent, and so forth; when +it is more than probable that such unnatural flattery will but generate +vices which ought to consign him to neglect and solitude, or make him +the perpetual object of the finger of scorn? And does not experience +justify the observation, that where titles--a thing very rare--have been +conferred as the rewards of merit, those to whom they have descended, +far from being thereby animated to imitate their ancestor, have presumed +upon that lustre which they supposed thrown round them, and, prodigally +relying on such resources, lavished what alone was their own, their +personal reputation? + +It would be happy if this delusion were confined to themselves; but, +alas, the world is weak enough to grant the indulgence which they +assume. Vice, which is forgiven in one character, will soon cease to +meet with sternness of rebuke when found in others. Even at first she +will entreat pardon with confidence, assured that ere long she will be +charitably supposed to stand in no need of it. + +But let me ask you seriously, from the mode in which those distinctions +are originally conferred, is it not almost necessary that, far from +being the rewards of services rendered to the State, they should usually +be the recompense of an industrious sacrifice of the general welfare to +the particular aggrandisement of that power by which they are bestowed? +Let us even alter their source, and consider them as proceeding from the +Nation itself, and deprived of that hereditary quality; even here I +should proscribe them, and for the most evident reason--that a man's +past services are no sufficient security for his future character; he +who to-day merits the civic wreath may to-morrow deserve the Tarpeian +rock. Besides, where respect is not perverted, where the world is not +taught to reverence men without regarding their conduct, the esteem of +mankind will have a very different value, and, when a proper +independence is secured, will be regarded as a sufficient recompense for +services however important, and will be a much surer guarantee of the +continuance of such virtues as may deserve it. + +I have another strong objection to nobility, which is that it has a +necessary tendency to dishonour labour, a prejudice which extends far +beyond its own circle; that it binds down whole ranks of men to +idleness, while it gives the enjoyment of a reward which exceeds the +hopes of the most active exertions of human industry. The languid tedium +of this noble repose must be dissipated, and gaming, with the tricking +manoeuvres of the horse-race, afford occupation to hours which it would +be happy for mankind had they been totally unemployed. + +Reflecting on the corruption of the public manners, does your Lordship +shudder at the prostitution which miserably deluges our streets? You may +find the cause in our aristocratical prejudices. Are you disgusted with +the hypocrisy and sycophancy of our intercourse in private life? You may +find the cause in the necessity of dissimulation which we have +established by regulations which oblige us to address as our superiors, +indeed as our masters, men whom we cannot but internally despise. Do you +lament that such large portions of mankind should stoop to occupations +unworthy the dignity of their nature? You may find in the pride and +luxury thought necessary to nobility how such servile arts are +encouraged. Besides, where the most honourable of the Land do not blush +to accept such offices as groom of the bedchamber, master of the +hounds, lords in waiting, captain of the honourable band of +gentlemen-pensioners, is it astonishing that the bulk of the people +should not ask of an occupation, what is it? but what may be gained by +it? + +If the long equestrian train of equipage should make your Lordship sigh +for the poor who are pining in hunger, you will find that little is +thought of snatching the bread from their mouths to eke out the +'_necessary_ splendour' of nobility. + +I have not time to pursue this subject further, but am so strongly +impressed with the baleful influence of aristocracy and nobility upon +human happiness and virtue, that if, as I am persuaded, monarchy cannot +exist without such supporters, I think that reason sufficient for the +preference I have given to the Republican system. + +It is with reluctance that I quit the subjects I have just touched upon; +but the nature of this Address does not permit me to continue the +discussion. I proceed to what more immediately relates to this Kingdom +at the present crisis. + +You ask with triumphant confidence, to what other law are the people of +England subject than the general will of the society to which they +belong? Is your Lordship to be told that acquiescence is not choice, and +that obedience is not freedom? If there is a single man in Great Britain +who has no suffrage in the election of a representative, the will of the +society of which he is a member is not generally expressed; he is a +Helot in that society. You answer the question, so confidently put, in +this singular manner: 'The King, we are all justly persuaded, has not +the inclination--and we all know that, if he had the inclination, he has +not the power--to substitute his will in the place of law. The House of +Lords has no such power. The House of Commons has no such power.' This +passage, so artfully and unconstitutionally framed to agree with the +delusions of the moment, cannot deceive a thinking reader. The +expression of your full persuasion of the upright intentions of the King +can only be the language of flattery. You are not to be told that it is +constitutionally a maxim not to attribute to the person of the King the +measures and misconduct of government. Had you chosen to speak, as you +ought to have done, openly and explicitly, you must have expressed your +just persuasion and implicit confidence in the integrity, moderation, +and wisdom of his Majesty's ministers. Have you forgot the avowed +ministerial maxim of Sir Robert Walpole? Are you ignorant of the +overwhelming corruption of the present day? + +You seem unconscious of the absurdity of separating what is inseparable +even in imagination. Would it have been any consolation to the miserable +Romans under the second triumvirate to have been asked insultingly, Is +it Octavius, is it Anthony, or is it Lepidus that has caused this +bitterness of affliction? and when the answer could not be returned with +certainty, to have been reproached that their sufferings were imaginary? +The fact is that the King _and_ Lords _and_ Commons, by what is termed +the omnipotence of Parliament, have constitutionally the right of +enacting whatever laws they please, in defiance of the petitions or +remonstrances of the nation. They have the power of doubling our +enormous debt of 240 millions, and _may_ pursue measures which could +never be supposed the emanation of the general will without concluding +the people stripped of reason, of sentiment, and even of that first +instinct which prompts them to preserve their own existence. + +I congratulate your Lordship upon your enthusiastic fondness for the +judicial proceedings of this country. I am happy to find you have passed +through life without having your fleece torn from your back in the +thorny labyrinth of litigation. But you have not lived always in +colleges, and must have passed by some victims, whom it cannot be +supposed, without a reflection on your heart, that you have forgotten. +Here I am reminded of what I have said on the subject of +representation--to be qualified for the office of legislation you should +have felt like the bulk of mankind; their sorrows should be familiar to +you, of which, if you are ignorant, how can you redress them? As a +member of the assembly which, from a confidence in its experience, +sagacity, and wisdom, the constitution has invested with the supreme +appellant jurisdiction to determine the most doubtful points of an +intricate jurisprudence, your Lordship cannot, I presume, be ignorant of +the consuming expense of our never-ending process, the verbosity of +unintelligible statutes, and the perpetual contrariety in our judicial +decisions. + +'The greatest freedom that can be enjoyed by man in a state of civil +society, the greatest security that can be given with respect to the +protection of his character, property, personal liberty, limb, and +life, is afforded to every individual by our present constitution.' + +'Let it never be forgotten by ourselves, and let us impress the +observation upon the hearts of our children, that we are in possession +of both (liberty and equality), of as much of both as can be consistent +with the end for which civil society was introduced among mankind.' + +Many of my readers will hardly believe me when I inform them that these +passages are copied verbatim from your Appendix. Mr. Burke roused the +indignation of all ranks of men when, by a refinement in cruelty +superior to that which in the East yokes the living to the dead, he +strove to persuade us that we and our posterity to the end of time were +riveted to a constitution by the indissoluble compact of--a dead +parchment, and were bound to cherish a corpse at the bosom when reason +might call aloud that it should be entombed. Your Lordship aims at the +same detestable object by means more criminal, because more dangerous +and insidious. Attempting to lull the people of England into a belief +that any inquiries directed towards the nature of liberty and equality +can in no other way lead to their happiness than by convincing them that +they have already arrived at perfection in the science of government, +what is your object but to exclude them for ever from the most fruitful +field of human knowledge? Besides, it is another cause to execrate this +doctrine that the consequence of such fatal delusion would be that they +must entirely draw off their attention, not only from the government, +but from their governors; that the stream of public vigilance, far from +clearing and enriching the prospect of society, would by its stagnation +consign it to barrenness, and by its putrefaction infect it with death. +You have aimed an arrow at liberty and philosophy, the eyes of the human +race; why, like the inveterate enemy of Philip, in putting your name to +the shaft, did you not declare openly its destination? + +As a teacher of religion, your Lordship cannot be ignorant of a class of +breaches of duty which may be denominated faults of omission. You +profess to give your opinions upon the present turbulent crisis, +expressing a wish that they may have some effect in tranquillising the +minds of the people. Whence comes it, then, that the two grand causes of +this working of the popular mind are passed over in silence? Your +Lordship's conduct may bring to mind the story of a company of +strolling comedians, who gave out the play of _Hamlet_ as the +performance of the evening. The audience were not a little surprised to +be told, on the drawing up of the curtain, that from circumstances of +particular convenience it was hoped they would dispense with the +omission of the character of--Hamlet! But to be serious--for the subject +is serious in the extreme--from your silence respecting the general call +for a PARLIAMENTARY REFORM, supported by your assertion that we at +present enjoy as great a portion of liberty and equality as is +consistent with civil society, what can be supposed but that you are a +determined enemy to the redress of what the people of England call and +feel to be grievances? + +From your omitting to speak upon the war, and your general +disapprobation of French measures and French principles, expressed +particularly at this moment, we are necessarily led also to conclude +that you have no wish to dispel an infatuation which is now giving up to +the sword so large a portion of the poor, and consigning the rest to the +more slow and more painful consumption of want. I could excuse your +silence on this point, as it would ill become an English bishop at the +close of the eighteenth century to make the pulpit the vehicle of +exhortations which would have disgraced the incendiary of the Crusades, +the hermit Peter. But you have deprived yourself of the plea of decorum +by giving no opinion on the REFORM OF THE LEGISLATURE. As undoubtedly +you have some secret reason for the reservation of your sentiments on +this latter head, I cannot but apply the same reason to the former. Upon +what principle is your conduct to be explained? In some parts of England +it is quaintly said, when a drunken man is seen reeling towards his +home, that he has business on both sides of the road. Observing your +Lordship's tortuous path, the spectators will be far from insinuating +that you have partaken of Mr. Burke's intoxicating bowl; they will +content themselves, shaking their heads as you stagger along, with +remarking that you have business on both sides of the road. + +The friends of Liberty congratulate themselves upon the odium under +which they are at present labouring, as the causes which have produced +it have obliged so many of her false adherents to disclaim with +officious earnestness any desire to promote her interests; nor are they +disheartened by the diminution which their body is supposed already to +have sustained. Conscious that an enemy lurking in our ranks is ten +times more formidable than when drawn out against us, that the +unblushing aristocracy of a Maury or a Cazales is far less dangerous +than the insidious mask of patriotism assumed by a La Fayette or a +Mirabeau, we thank you for your desertion. Political convulsions have +been said particularly to call forth concealed abilities, but it has +been seldom observed how vast is their consumption of them. Reflecting +upon the fate of the greatest portion of the members of the constituent +and legislative assemblies, we must necessarily be struck with a +prodigious annihilation of human talents. Aware that this necessity is +attached to a struggle for Liberty, we are the less sorry that we can +expect no advantage from the mental endowments of your Lordship. + + + + +APPENDIX to Bishop Watson's Sermon. + +[It is deemed expedient to reprint here the Appendix to Bishop Watson's +Sermon, which is animadverted on in the preceding Apology. G.] + + +The Sermon which is now, for the first time, published, was written many +years ago; it may, perhaps, on that account be more worthy of the +attention of those for whose benefit it is designed. If it shall have +any effect in calming the perturbation which has been lately excited, +and which still subsists in the minds of the lower classes of the +community, I shall not be ashamed of having given to the world a +composition in every other light uninteresting. I will take this +opportunity of adding, with the same intention, a few reflections on the +present circumstances of our own and of a neighbouring country. + +With regard to France--I have no hesitation in declaring, that the +object which the French seemed to have in view at the commencement of +their revolution had my hearty approbation. The object was to free +themselves and their posterity from arbitrary power. I hope there is not +a man in Great Britain so little sensible of the blessings of that free +constitution under which he has the happiness to live, so entirely dead +to the interests of general humanity, as not to wish that a constitution +similar to our own might be established, not only in France, but in +every despotic state in Europe; not only in Europe, but in every quarter +of the globe. + +It is one thing to approve of an end, another to approve of the means by +which an end is accomplished. I did not approve of the means by which +the first revolution was effected in France. I thought that it would +have been a wiser measure to have abridged the oppressive privileges, +and to have lessened the enormous number of the nobility, than to have +abolished the order. I thought that the State ought not in justice to +have seized any part of the property of the Church, till it had +reverted, as it were, to the community, by the death of its immediate +possessors. I thought that the king was not only treated with unmerited +indignity, but that too little authority was left him to enable him, as +the chief executive magistrate, to be useful to the State. These were +some of my reasons for not approving the means by which the first +revolution in France was brought about. As to other evils which took +place on the occasion, I considered them certainly as evils of +importance; but at the same time as evils inseparable from a state of +civil commotion, and which I conceived would be more than compensated by +the establishment of a limited monarchy. + +The French have abandoned the constitution they had at first +established, and have changed it for another. No one can reprobate with +more truth than I do both the means and the end of this change. The end +has been the establishment of a republic. Now a republic is a form of +government which, of all others, I most dislike--and I dislike it for +this reason; because of all forms of government, scarcely excepting the +most despotic, I think a republic the most oppressive to the bulk of the +people: they are deceived in it with the show of liberty; but they live +in it under the most odious of all tyrannies, the tyranny of their +equals. With respect to the means by which this new republic has been +erected in France, they have been sanguinary, savage, more than brutal. +They not merely fill the heart of every individual with commiseration +for the unfortunate sufferers, but they exhibit to the eye of +contemplation an humiliating picture of human nature, when its passions +are not regulated by religion, or controlled by law. I fly with terror +and abhorrence even from the altar of Liberty, when I see it stained +with the blood of the aged, of the innocent, of the defenceless sex, of +the ministers of religion, and of the faithful adherents of a fallen +monarch. My heart sinks within me when I see it streaming with the blood +of the monarch himself. Merciful God! strike speedily, we beseech Thee, +with deep contrition and sincere remorse, the obdurate hearts of the +relentless perpetrators and projectors of these horrid deeds, lest they +should suddenly sink into eternal and extreme perdition, loaded with an +unutterable weight of unrepented and, except through the blood of Him +whose religion they reject, inexpiable sin. + +The monarch, you will tell me, was guilty of perfidy and perjury. I know +not that he was guilty of either; but admitting that he has been guilty +of both, who, alas, of the sons of men is so confident in the strength +of his own virtue, so assured of his own integrity and intrepidity of +character, as to be certain that, under similar temptations, he would +not have been guilty of similar offences? Surely it would have been no +diminution of the sternness of new republican virtue, no disgrace to the +magnanimity of a great nation, if it had pardoned the perfidy which its +own oppression had occasioned, if it had remitted the punishment of the +perjury of the king to the tribunal of Him by whom _kings reign and +princes decree justice_. + +And are there any men in this kingdom, except such as find their account +in public confusion, who would hazard the introduction of such scenes of +rapine, barbarity, and bloodshed, as have disgraced France and outraged +humanity, for the sake of obtaining--what?--Liberty and Equality. I +suspect that the meaning of these terms is not clearly and generally +understood: it may be of use to explain them. + +The liberty of a man in a state of nature consists in his being subject +to no law but the law of nature; and the liberty of a man in a state of +society consists in his being subject to no law but to the law enacted +by the general will of the society to which he belongs. And to what +other law is any man in Great Britain subject? The king, we are all +justly persuaded, has not the inclination, and we all know that if he +had the inclination, he has not the power, to substitute his will in the +place of the law. The House of Lords has no such power; the House of +Commons has no such power; the Church has no such power; the rich men of +the country have no such power. The poorest man amongst us, the beggar +at our door, is governed--not by the uncertain, passionate, arbitrary +will of an individual--not by the selfish insolence of an aristocratic +faction--not by the madness of democratic violence--but by the fixed, +impartial, deliberate voice of law, enacted by the general suffrage of a +free people. Is your property injured? Law, indeed, does not give you +property; but it ascertains it. Property is acquired by industry and +probity; by the exercise of talents and ingenuity; and the possession of +it is secured by the laws of the community. Against whom think you is it +secured? It is secured against thieves and robbers; against idle and +profligate men, who, however low your condition may be, would be glad to +deprive you of the little you possess. It is secured, not only against +such disturbers of the public peace, but against the oppression of the +noble, the rapacity of the powerful, and the avarice of the rich. The +courts of British justice are impartial and incorrupt; they respect not +the persons of men; the poor man's lamb is, in their estimation, as +sacred as the monarch's crown; with inflexible integrity they adjudge to +every man his own. Your property under their protection is secure. If +your personal liberty be unjustly restrained, though but for an hour, +and that by the highest servants of the crown, the crown cannot screen +them; the throne cannot hide them; the law, with an undaunted arm, +seizes them, and drags them with irresistible might to the judgment of +whom?--of your equals--of twelve of your neighbours. In such a +constitution as this, what is there to complain of on the score of +liberty? + +The greatest freedom that can be enjoyed by man in a state of civil +society, the greatest security that can be given him with respect to the +protection of his character, property, personal liberty, limb, and life, +is afforded to every individual by our present constitution. + +The equality of men in a state of nature does not consist in an equality +of bodily strength or intellectual ability, but in their being equally +free from the dominion of each other. The equality of men in a state of +civil society does not consist in an equality of wisdom, honesty, +ingenuity, industry, nor in an equality of property resulting from a due +exertion of these talents; but in being equally subject to, equally +protected by the same laws. And who knows not that every individual in +this great nation is, in this respect, equal to every other? There is +not one law for the nobles, another for the commons of the land--one for +the clergy, another for the laity--one for the rich, another for the +poor. The nobility, it is true, have some privileges annexed to their +birth; the judges, and other magistrates, have some annexed to their +office; and professional men have some annexed to their +professions:--but these privileges are neither injurious to the liberty +or property of other men. And you might as reasonably contend, that the +bramble ought to be equal to the oak, the lamb to the lion, as that no +distinctions should take place between the members of the same society. +The burdens of the State are distributed through the whole community, +with as much impartiality as the complex nature of taxation will admit; +every man sustains a part in proportion to his strength; no order is +exempted from the payment of taxes. Nor is any order of men exclusively +entitled to the enjoyment of the lucrative offices of the State. All +cannot enjoy them, but all enjoy a capacity of acquiring them. The son +of the meanest man in the nation may become a general or an admiral, a +lord chancellor or an archbishop. If any persons have been so simple as +to suppose that even the French ever intended, by the term equality, an +equality of property, they have been quite mistaken in their ideas. The +French never understood by it anything materially different from what we +and our ancestors have been in full possession of for many ages. + +Other nations may deluge their land with blood in struggling for liberty +and equality; but let it never be forgotten by ourselves, and let us +impress the observation upon the hearts of our children, that we are in +possession of both, of as much of both as can be consistent with the end +for which civil society was introduced amongst mankind. + +The provision which is made for the poor in this kingdom is so liberal, +as, in the opinion of some, to discourage industry. The rental of the +lands in England and Wales does not, I conjecture, amount to more than +eighteen millions a year; and the poor rates amount to two millions. The +poor then, at present, possess a ninth part of the landed rental of the +country; and, reckoning ten pounds for the annual maintenance of each +pauper, it may be inferred, that those who are maintained by the +community do not constitute a fortieth part of the people. An equal +division of land would be to the poor a great misfortune; they would +possess far less than by the laws of the land they are at present +entitled to. When we add to this consideration an account of the immense +sums annually subscribed by the rich for the support of hospitals, +infirmaries, dispensaries--for the relief of sufferers by fire, +tempests, famine, loss of cattle, great sickness, and other misfortunes, +all of which charities must cease were all men on a level, for all men +would then be equally poor,--it cannot but excite one's astonishment +that so foolish a system should have ever been so much as mentioned by +any man of common sense. It is a system not practicable; and was it +practicable, it would not be useful; and was it useful, it would not be +just. + +But some one may think, and, indeed, it has been studiously inculcated +into the minds of the multitude, that a monarchy, even a limited one, is +a far more expensive mode of civil government than a republic; that a +civil-list of a million a year is an enormous sum, which might be saved +to the nation. Supposing that every shilling of this sum could be saved, +and that every shilling of it was expended in supporting the dignity of +the crown--both which suppositions are entirely false--still should I +think the liberty, the prosperity, the tranquillity, the happiness of +this great nation cheaply purchased by such a sum; still should I think +that he would be a madman in politics who would, by a change of the +constitution, risk these blessings (and France supplies us with a proof +that infinite risk would be run) for a paltry saving of expense. I am +not, nor have ever been, the patron of corruption. So far as the +civil-list has a tendency to corrupt the judgment of any member of +either house of parliament, it has a bad tendency, which I wish it had +not; but I cannot wish to see the splendour of the crown reduced to +nothing, lest its proper weight in the scale of the constitution should +be thereby destroyed. A great portion of this million is expended in +paying the salaries of the judges, the interpreters of our law, the +guardians of our lives and properties; another portion is expended in +maintaining ambassadors at different courts, to protect the general +concerns of the nation from foreign aggression; another portion is +expended in pensions and donations to men of letters and ingenuity; to +men who have, by naval, military, or civil services, just claims to the +attention of their country; to persons of respectable families and +connections, who have been humbled and broken down by misfortunes. I do +not speak with accuracy, nor on such a subject is accuracy requisite; +but I am not far wide of truth in saying, that a fifth part of the +million is more than sufficient to defray the expenses of the royal +household. What a mighty matter is it to complain of, that each +individual contributes less than sixpence a year towards the support of +the monarchy! + +That the constitution of this country is so perfect as neither to +require or admit of any improvement, is a proposition to which I never +did or ever can assent; but I think it far too excellent to be amended +by peasants and mechanics. I do not mean to speak of peasants and +mechanics with any degree of disrespect; I am not so ignorant of the +importance, either of the natural or social chain by which all the +individuals of the human race are connected together, as to think +disrespectfully of any link of it. Peasants and mechanics are as useful +to the State as any other order of men; but their utility consists in +their discharging well the duties of their respective stations; it +ceases when they affect to become legislators; when they intrude +themselves into concerns for which their education has not fitted them. +The liberty of the press is a main support of the liberty of the nation; +it is a blessing which it is our duty to transmit to posterity; but a +bad use is sometimes made of it: and its use is never more pernicious +than when it is employed to infuse into the minds of the lowest orders +of the community disparaging ideas concerning the constitution of their +country. No danger need be apprehended from a candid examination of our +own constitution, or from a display of the advantages of any other; it +will bear to be contrasted with the best: but all men are not qualified +to make the comparison; and there are so many men, in every community, +who wish to have no government at all, that an appeal to them on such a +point ought never to be made. + +There are, probably, in every government upon earth, circumstances which +a man, accustomed to the abstract investigation of truth, may easily +prove to be deviations from the rigid rule of strict political justice; +but whilst these deviations are either generally not known, or, though +known, generally acquiesced in as matters of little moment to the +general felicity, I cannot think it to be the part, either of a good man +or of a good citizen, to be zealous in recommending such matters to the +discussion of ignorant and uneducated men. + +I am far from insinuating, that the science of politics is involved in +mystery; or that men of plain understandings should be debarred from +examining the principles of the government to which they yield +obedience. All that I contend for is this--that the foundations of our +government ought not to be overturned, nor the edifice erected thereon +tumbled into ruins, because an acute politician may pretend that he has +discovered a flaw in the building, or that he could have laid the +foundation after a better model. + +What would you say to a stranger who should desire you to pull down +your house, because, forsooth, he had built one in France or America, +after what he thought a better plan? You would say to him: No, sir--my +ancestors have lived in this mansion comfortably and honourably for many +generations; all its walls are strong, and all its timbers sound: if I +should observe a decay in any of its parts, I know how to make the +reparation without the assistance of strangers; and I know too that the +reparation, when made by myself, may be made without injury either to +the strength or beauty of the building. It has been buffeted, in the +course of ages, by a thousand storms; yet still it stands unshaken as a +rock, the wonder of all my neighbours, each of whom sighs for one of a +similar construction. Your house may be suited to your climate and +temper, this is suited to mine. Permit me, however, to observe to you, +that you have not yet lived long enough in your new house to be sensible +of all the inconveniences to which it may be liable, nor have you yet +had any experience of its strength; it has yet sustained no shocks; the +first whirlwind may scatter its component members in the air; the first +earthquake may shake its foundation; the first inundation may sweep the +superstructure from the surface of the earth. I hope no accident will +happen to your house, but I am satisfied with mine own. + +Great calamities of every kind attend the breaking up of established +governments:--yet there are some forms of government, especially when +they happen to be badly administered, so exceedingly destructive of the +happiness of mankind, that a change of them is not improvidently +purchased at the expense of the mischief accompanying their subversion. +Our government is not of that kind; look round the globe, and see if you +can discover a single nation on all its surface so powerful, so rich, so +beneficent, so free and happy as our own. May Heaven avert from the +minds of my countrymen the slightest wish to abolish their constitution! + +'Kingdoms,' observes Mr. Locke, 'have been overturned by the pride, +ambition, and turbulency of private men; by the people's wantonness and +desire to cast off the lawful authority of their rulers, as well as by +the rulers' insolence, and endeavours to get and exercise an arbitrary +power over the people.' The recent danger to our constitution was in my +opinion small; for I considered its excellence to be so obvious to men +even of the most unimproved understandings, that I looked upon it as an +idle and fruitless effort, either in foreign or domestic incendiaries, +to endeavour to persuade the bulk of the people to consent to an +alteration of it in favour of a republic. I knew, indeed, that in every +country the flagitious dregs of a nation were always ripe for +revolutions; but I was sensible, at the same time, that it was the +interest, not only of the opulent and powerful, not only of the +mercantile and middle classes of life, but even of honest labourers and +manufacturers, of every sober and industrious man, to resist the +licentious principles of such pestilent members, shall I call them, or +outcasts of society. Men better informed and wiser than myself thought +that the constitution was in great danger. Whether in fact the danger +was great or small, it is not necessary now to inquire; it may be more +useful to declare that, in my humble opinion, the danger, of whatever +magnitude it may have been, did not originate in any encroachments of +either the legislative or executive power on the liberties or properties +of the people; but in the wild fancies and turbulent tempers of +discontented or ill-informed individuals. I sincerely rejoice that, +through the vigilance of administration, this turbulency has received a +check. The hopes of bad men have been disappointed, and the +understandings of mistaken men have been enlightened, by the general and +unequivocal judgment of a whole nation; a nation not more renowned for +its bravery and its humanity, though justly celebrated for both, than +for its loyalty to its princes, and, what is perfectly consistent with +loyalty, for its love of liberty and attachment to the constitution. +Wise men have formed it, brave men have bled for it; it is our part to +preserve it. + +R. LANDAFF. + +_London, Jan. 25, 1793_. + + + + +II. THE CONVENTION OF CINTRA, + +1809. + +NOTE. + +On the 'Convention of Cintra' see Preface in the present volume. G. + +CONCERNING THE RELATIONS OF GREAT BRITAIN, SPAIN, AND PORTUGAL, TO EACH +OTHER, AND TO THE COMMON ENEMY, AT THIS CRISIS; AND SPECIFICALLY AS +AFFECTED BY THE CONVENTION OF CINTRA: + +_The whole brought to the test of those Principles, by which alone the +Independence and Freedom of Nations can be Preserved or Recovered_. + + * * * * * + + Qui didicit patriae quid debeat;-------- + Quod sit conscripti, quod judicis officium; quae + Partes in bellum missi ducis. + + * * * * * + +BY WILLIAM WORDSWORTH. + + * * * * * + +London: + +PRINTED FOR LONGMAN, HURST, REES, AND ORME, PATERNOSTER-ROW. + + * * * * * + +1809. + +Bitter and earnest writing must not hastily be condemned; for men cannot +contend coldly, and without affection, about things which they hold dear +and precious. A politic man may write from his brain, without touch and +sense of his heart; as in a speculation that appertaineth not unto +him;--but a feeling Christian will express, in his words, a character of +zeal or love. _Lord Bacon_. + +ADVERTISEMENT. + +The following pages originated in the opposition which was made by his +Majesty's ministers to the expression, in public meetings and otherwise, +of the opinions and feelings of the people concerning the Convention of +Cintra. For the sake of immediate and general circulation, I determined +(when I had made a considerable progress in the manuscript) to print it +in different portions in one of the daily newspapers. Accordingly two +portions of it (extending to page 25) were printed, in the months of +December and January, in the _Courier_,--as being one of the most +impartial and extensively circulated journals of the time. The reader is +requested to bear in mind this previous publication: otherwise he will +be at a loss to account for the arrangement of the matter in one +instance in the earlier part of the work. An accidental loss of several +sheets of the manuscript delayed the continuance of the publication in +that manner, till the close of the Christmas holidays; and--the pressure +of public business rendering it then improbable that room could be +found, in the columns of the paper, regularly to insert matter extending +to such a length--this plan of publication was given up. + +It may be proper to state that, in the extracts which have been made +from the Spanish Proclamations, I have been obliged to content myself +with the translations which appeared in the public journals; having only +in one instance had access to the original. This is, in some cases, to +be regretted--where the language falls below the dignity of the matter: +but in general it is not so; and the feeling has suggested correspondent +expressions to the translators; hastily as, no doubt, they must have +performed their work. + +I must entreat the reader to bear in mind that I began to write upon +this subject in November last; and have continued without bringing my +work earlier to a conclusion, partly from accident, and partly from a +wish to possess additional documents and facts. Passing occurrences have +made changes in the situation of certain objects spoken of; but I have +not thought it necessary to accommodate what I had previously written to +these changes: the whole stands without alteration; except where +additions have been made, or errors corrected. + +As I have spoken without reserve of things (and of persons as far as it +was necessary to illustrate things, but no further); and as this has +been uniformly done according to the light of my conscience; I have +deemed it right to prefix my name to these pages, in order that this +last testimony of a sincere mind might not be wanting. + +_May 20th_, 1809. + + + + +CONCERNING THE CONVENTION OF CINTRA. + + * * * * * + + +The Convention, recently concluded by the Generals at the head of the +British army in Portugal, is one of the most important events of our +time. It would be deemed so in France, if the Ruler of that country +could dare to make it public with those merely of its known bearings and +dependences with which the English people are acquainted; it has been +deemed so in Spain and Portugal as far as the people of those countries +have been permitted to gain, or have gained, a knowledge of it; and what +this nation has felt and still feels upon the subject is sufficiently +manifest. Wherever the tidings were communicated, they carried agitation +along with them--a conflict of sensations in which, though sorrow was +predominant, yet, through force of scorn, impatience, hope, and +indignation, and through the universal participation in passions so +complex, and the sense of power which this necessarily included--the +whole partook of the energy and activity of congratulation and joy. Not +a street, not a public room, not a fire-side in the island which was not +disturbed as by a local or private trouble; men of all estates, +conditions, and tempers were affected apparently in equal degrees. Yet +was the event by none received as an open and measurable affliction: it +had indeed features bold and intelligible to every one; but there was an +under-expression which was strange, dark, and mysterious--and, +accordingly as different notions prevailed, or the object was looked at +in different points of view, we were astonished like men who are +overwhelmed without forewarning--fearful like men who feel themselves to +be helpless, and indignant and angry like men who are betrayed. In a +word, it would not be too much to say that the tidings of this event did +not spread with the commotion of a storm which sweeps visibly over our +heads, but like an earthquake which rocks the ground under our feet. + +How was it possible that it could be otherwise? For that army had been +sent upon a service which appealed so strongly to all that was human in +the heart of this nation--that there was scarcely a gallant father of a +family who had not his moments of regret that he was not a soldier by +profession, which might have made it his duty to accompany it; every +high-minded youth grieved that his first impulses, which would have sent +him upon the same errand, were not to be yielded to, and that +after-thought did not sanction and confirm the instantaneous dictates or +the reiterated persuasions of an heroic spirit. The army took its +departure with prayers and blessings which were as widely spread as they +were fervent and intense. For it was not doubted that, on this occasion, +every person of which it was composed, from the General to the private +soldier, would carry both into his conflicts with the enemy in the +field, and into his relations of peaceful intercourse with the +inhabitants, not only the virtues which might be expected from him as a +soldier, but the antipathies and sympathies, the loves and hatreds of a +citizen--of a human being--acting, in a manner hitherto unprecedented +under the obligation of his human and social nature. If the conduct of +the rapacious and merciless adversary rendered it neither easy nor +wise--made it, I might say, impossible to give way to that unqualified +admiration of courage and skill, made it impossible in relation to him +to be exalted by those triumphs of the courteous affections, and to be +purified by those refinements of civility which do, more than any thing, +reconcile a man of thoughtful mind and humane dispositions to the +horrors of ordinary war; it was felt that for such loss the benign and +accomplished soldier would upon this mission be abundantly recompensed +by the enthusiasm of fraternal love with which his Ally, the oppressed +people whom he was going to aid in rescuing themselves, would receive +him; and that this, and the virtues which he would witness in them, +would furnish his heart with never-failing and far nobler objects of +complacency and admiration. The discipline of the army was well known; +and as a machine, or a vital organized body, the Nation was assured that +it could not but be formidable; but thus to the standing excellence of +mechanic or organic power seemed to be superadded, at this time, and for +this service, the force of _inspiration_: could any thing therefore be +looked for, but a glorious result? The army proved its prowess in the +field; and what has been the result is attested, and long will be +attested, by the downcast looks--the silence--the passionate +exclamations--the sighs and shame of every man who is worthy to breathe +the air or to look upon the green-fields of Liberty in this blessed and +highly-favoured Island which we inhabit. + +If I were speaking of things however weighty, that were long past and +dwindled in the memory, I should scarcely venture to use this language; +but the feelings are of yesterday--they are of to-day; the flower, a +melancholy flower it is! is still in blow, nor will, I trust, its leaves +be shed through months that are to come: for I repeat that the heart of +the nation is in this struggle. This just and necessary war, as we have +been accustomed to hear it styled from the beginning of the contest in +the year 1793, had, some time before the Treaty of Amiens, viz. after +the subjugation of Switzerland, and not till then, begun to be regarded +by the body of the people, as indeed both just and necessary; and this +justice and necessity were by none more clearly perceived, or more +feelingly bewailed, than by those who had most eagerly opposed the war +in its commencement, and who continued most bitterly to regret that this +nation had ever borne a part in it. Their conduct was herein consistent: +they proved that they kept their eyes steadily fixed upon principles; +for, though there was a shifting or transfer of hostility in their minds +as far as regarded persons, they only combated the same enemy opposed to +them under a different shape; and that enemy was the spirit of selfish +tyranny and lawless ambition. This spirit, the class of persons of whom +I have been speaking, (and I would now be understood, as associating +them with an immense majority of the people of Great Britain, whose +affections, notwithstanding all the delusions which had been practised +upon them, were, in the former part of the contest, for a long time on +the side of their nominal enemies,) this spirit, when it became +undeniably embodied in the French government, they wished, in spite of +all dangers, should be opposed by war; because peace was not to be +procured without submission, which could not but be followed by a +communion, of which the word of greeting would be, on the one part, +insult,--and, on the other, degradation. The people now wished for war, +as their rulers had done before, because open war between nations is a +defined and effectual partition, and the sword, in the hands of the good +and the virtuous, is the most intelligible symbol of abhorrence. It was +in order to be preserved from spirit-breaking submissions--from the +guilt of seeming to approve that which they had not the power to +prevent, and out of a consciousness of the danger that such guilt would +otherwise actually steal upon them, and that thus, by evil +communications and participations, would be weakened and finally +destroyed, those moral sensibilities and energies, by virtue of which +alone, their liberties, and even their lives, could be preserved,--that +the people of Great Britain determined to encounter all perils which +could follow in the train of open resistance.--There were some, and +those deservedly of high character in the country, who exerted their +utmost influence to counteract this resolution; nor did they give to it +so gentle a name as want of prudence, but they boldly termed it +blindness and obstinacy. Let them be judged with charity! But there are +promptings of wisdom from the penetralia of human nature, which a people +can hear, though the wisest of their practical Statesmen be deaf towards +them. This authentic voice, the people of England had heard and obeyed: +and, in opposition to French tyranny growing daily more insatiate and +implacable, they ranged themselves zealously under their Government; +though they neither forgot nor forgave its transgressions, in having +first involved them in a war with a people then struggling for its own +liberties under a twofold infliction--confounded by inbred faction, and +beleagured by a cruel and imperious external foe. But these remembrances +did not vent themselves in reproaches, nor hinder us from being +reconciled to our Rulers, when a change or rather a revolution in +circumstances had imposed new duties: and, in defiance of local and +personal clamour, it may be safely said, that the nation united heart +and hand with the Government in its resolve to meet the worst, rather +than stoop its head to receive that which, it was felt, would not be the +garland but the yoke of peace. Yet it was an afflicting alternative; and +it is not to be denied, that the effort, if it had the determination, +wanted the cheerfulness of duty. Our condition savoured too much of a +grinding constraint--too much of the vassalage of necessity;--it had too +much of fear, and therefore of selfishness, not to be contemplated in +the main with rueful emotion. We desponded though we did not despair. In +fact a deliberate and preparatory fortitude--a sedate and stern +melancholy, which had no sunshine and was exhilarated only by the +lightnings of indignation--this was the highest and best state of moral +feeling to which the most noble-minded among us could attain. + +But, from the moment of the rising of the people of the Pyrenean +peninsula, there was a mighty change; we were instantaneously animated; +and, from that moment, the contest assumed the dignity, which it is not +in the power of any thing but hope to bestow: and, if I may dare to +transfer language, prompted by a revelation of the state of being that +admits not of decay or change, to the concerns and interests of our +transitory planet, from that moment 'this corruptible put on +incorruption, and this mortal put on immortality.' This sudden elevation +was on no account more welcome--was by nothing more endeared, than by +the returning sense which accompanied it of inward liberty and choice, +which gratified our moral yearnings, inasmuch as it would give +henceforward to our actions as a people, an origination and direction +unquestionably moral--as it was free--as it was manifestly in sympathy +with the species--as it admitted therefore of fluctuations of generous +feeling--of approbation and of complacency. We were intellectualized +also in proportion; we looked backward upon the records of the human +race with pride, and, instead of being afraid, we delighted to look +forward into futurity. It was imagined that this new-born spirit of +resistance, rising from the most sacred feelings of the human heart, +would diffuse itself through many countries; and not merely for the +distant future, but for the present, hopes were entertained as bold as +they were disinterested and generous. + +Never, indeed, was the fellowship of our sentient nature more intimately +felt--never was the irresistible power of justice more gloriously +displayed than when the British and Spanish Nations, with an impulse +like that of two ancient heroes throwing down their weapons and +reconciled in the field, cast off at once their aversions and enmities, +and mutually embraced each other--to solemnize this conversion of love, +not by the festivities of peace, but by combating side by side through +danger and under affliction in the devotedness of perfect brotherhood. +This was a conjunction which excited hope as fervent as it was +rational. On the one side was a nation which brought with it sanction +and authority, inasmuch as it had tried and approved the blessings for +which the other had risen to contend: the one was a people which, by the +help of the surrounding ocean and its own virtues, had preserved to +itself through ages its liberty, pure and inviolated by a foreign +invader; the other a high-minded nation, which a tyrant, presuming on +its decrepitude, had, through the real decrepitude of its Government, +perfidiously enslaved. What could be more delightful than to think of an +intercourse beginning in this manner? On the part of the Spaniards their +love towards us was enthusiasm and adoration; the faults of our national +character were hidden from them by a veil of splendour; they saw nothing +around us but glory and light; and, on our side, we estimated _their_ +character with partial and indulgent fondness;--thinking on their past +greatness, not as the undermined foundation of a magnificent building, +but as the root of a majestic tree recovered from a long disease, and +beginning again to flourish with promise of wider branches and a deeper +shade than it had boasted in the fulness of its strength. If in the +sensations with which the Spaniards prostrated themselves before the +religion of their country we did not keep pace with them--if even their +loyalty was such as, from our mixed constitution of government and from +other causes, we could not thoroughly sympathize with,--and if, lastly, +their devotion to the person of their Sovereign appeared to us to have +too much of the alloy of delusion,--in all these things we judged them +gently: and, taught by the reverses of the French revolution, we looked +upon these dispositions as more human--more social--and therefore as +wiser, and of better omen, than if they had stood forth the zealots of +abstract principles, drawn out of the laboratory of unfeeling +philosophists. Finally, in this reverence for the past and present, we +found an earnest that they were prepared to contend to the death for as +much liberty as their habits and their knowledge enabled them to +receive. To assist them and their neighbours the Portugueze in the +attainment of this end, we sent to them in love and in friendship a +powerful army to aid--to invigorate--and to chastise:--they landed; and +the first proof they afforded of their being worthy to be sent on such a +service--the first pledge of amity given by them was the victory of +Vimiera; the second pledge (and this was from the hand of their +Generals,) was the Convention of Cintra. + +The reader will by this time have perceived, what thoughts were +uppermost in my mind, when I began with asserting, that this Convention +is among the most important events of our times:--an assertion, which +was made deliberately, and after due allowance for that infirmity which +inclines us to magnify things present and passing, at the expence of +those which are past. It is my aim to prove, wherein the real importance +of this event lies: and, as a necessary preparative for forming a right +judgment upon it, I have already given a representation of the +sentiments, with which the people of Great Britain and those of Spain +looked upon each other. I have indeed spoken rather of the Spaniards +than of the Portugueze; but what has been said, will be understood as +applying in the main to the whole Peninsula. The wrongs of the two +nations have been equal, and their cause is the same: they must stand or +fall together. What their wrongs have been, in what degree they +considered themselves united, and what their hopes and resolutions were, +we have learned from public Papers issued by themselves and by their +enemies. These were read by the people of this Country, at the time when +they were severally published, with due impression.--- Pity, that those +impressions could not have been as faithfully retained as they were at +first received deeply! Doubtless, there is not a man in these Islands, +who is not convinced that the cause of Spain is the most righteous cause +in which, since the opposition of the Greek Republics to the Persian +Invader at Thermopylae and Marathon, sword ever was drawn! But this is +not enough. We are actors in the struggle; and, in order that we may +have steady PRINCIPLES to controul and direct us, (without which we may +do much harm, and can do no good,) we ought to make it a duty to revive +in the memory those words and facts, which first carried the conviction +to our hearts: that, as far as it is possible, we may see as we then +saw, and feel as we then felt. Let me therefore entreat the Reader +seriously to peruse once more such parts of those Declarations as I +shall extract from them. I feel indeed with sorrow, that events are +hurrying us forward, as down the Rapid of an American river, and that +there is too much danger _before_, to permit the mind easily to turn +back upon the course which is past. It is indeed difficult.--But I need +not say, that to yield to the difficulty, would be degrading to rational +beings. Besides, if from the retrospect, we can either gain strength by +which we can overcome, or learn prudence by which we may avoid, such +submission is not only degrading, but pernicious. I address these words +to those who have feeling, but whose judgment is overpowered by their +feelings:--such as have not, and who are mere slaves of curiosity, +calling perpetually for something new, and being able to create nothing +new for themselves out of old materials, may be left to wander about +under the yoke of their own unprofitable appetite.--Yet not so! Even +these I would include in my request: and conjure them, as they are men, +not to be impatient, while I place before their eyes, a composition made +out of fragments of those Declarations from various parts of the +Peninsula, which, disposed as it were in a tesselated pavement, shall +set forth a story which may be easily understood; which will move and +teach, and be consolatory to him who looks upon it. I say, consolatory: +and let not the Reader shrink from the word. I am well aware of the +burthen which is to be supported, of the discountenance from recent +calamity under which every thing, which speaks of hope for the Spanish +people, and through _them_ for mankind, will be received. But this, far +from deterring, ought to be an encouragement; it makes the duty more +imperious. Nevertheless, whatever confidence any individual of +meditative mind may have in these representations of the principles and +feelings of the people of Spain, both as to their sanctity and truth, +and as to their competence in ordinary circumstances to make these +acknowledged, it would be unjust to recall them to the public mind, +stricken as it is by present disaster, without attempting to mitigate +the bewildering terror which accompanies these events, and which is +caused as much by their nearness to the eye, as by any thing in their +own nature. I shall, however, at present confine myself to suggest a few +considerations, some of which will be developed hereafter, when I resume +the subject. + +It appears then, that the Spanish armies have sustained great defeats, +and have been compelled to abandon their positions, and that these +reverses have been effected by an army greatly superior to the Spanish +forces in number, and far excelling them in the art and practice of war. +This is the sum of those tidings, which it was natural we should +receive with sorrow, but which too many have received with dismay and +despair, though surely no events could be more in the course of rational +expectation. And what is the amount of the evil?--It is manifest that, +though a great army may easily defeat or disperse another _army_, less +or greater, yet it is not in a like degree formidable to a determined +_people_, nor efficient in a like degree to subdue them, or to keep them +in subjugation--much less if this people, like those of Spain in the +present instance, be numerous, and, like them, inhabit a territory +extensive and strong by nature. For a great army, and even several great +armies, cannot accomplish this by marching about the country, unbroken, +but each must split itself into many portions, and the several +detachments become weak accordingly, not merely as they are small in +size, but because the soldiery, acting thus, necessarily relinquish much +of that part of their superiority, which lies in what may be called the +enginery of war; and far more, because they lose, in proportion as they +are broken, the power of profiting by the military skill of the +Commanders, or by their own military habits. The experienced soldier is +thus brought down nearer to the plain ground of the inexperienced, man +to the level of man: and it is then, that the truly brave man rises, the +man of good hopes and purposes; and superiority in moral brings with it +superiority in physical power. Hence, if the Spanish armies have been +defeated, or even dispersed, it not only argues a want of magnanimity, +but of sense, to conclude that the cause _therefore_ is lost. Supposing +that the spirit of the people is not crushed, the war is now brought +back to that plan of conducting it, which was recommended by the Junta +of Seville in that inestimable paper entitled 'PRECAUTIONS,' which plan +ought never to have been departed from, except by compulsion, or with a +moral certainty of success; and which the Spaniards will now be +constrained to re-adopt, with the advantage, that the lesson, which has +been received, will preclude the possibility of their ever committing +the same error. In this paper it is said, 'let the first object be to +avoid all general actions, and to convince ourselves of the very great +hazards without any advantage or the hope of it, to which they would +expose us.' The paper then gives directions, how the war ought to be +conducted as a war of partizans, and shews the peculiar fitness of the +country for it. Yet, though relying solely on this unambitious mode of +warfare, the framers of the paper, which is in every part of it +distinguished by wisdom, speak with confident thoughts of success. To +this mode of warfare, then, after experience of calamity from not having +trusted in it; to this, and to the people in whom the contest +originated, and who are its proper depository, that contest is now +referred. + +Secondly, if the spirits of the Spaniards be not broken by defeat, which +is impossible, if the sentiments that have been publicly expressed be +fairly characteristic of the nation, and do not belong only to +particular spots or to a few individuals of superior mind,--a doubt, +which the internal evidence of these publications, sanctioned by the +resistance already made, and corroborated by the universal consent with +which certain qualities have been attributed to the Spaniards in all +ages, encourages us to repel;--then are there mighty resources in the +country which have not yet been called forth. For all has hitherto been +done by the spontaneous efforts of the people, acting under little or no +compulsion of the Government, but with its advice and exhortation. It is +an error to suppose, that, in proportion as a people are strong, and act +largely for themselves, the Government must therefore be weak. This is +not a necessary consequence even in the heat of Revolution, but only +when the people are lawless from want of a steady and noble object among +themselves for their love, or in the presence of a foreign enemy for +their hatred. In the early part of the French Revolution, indeed as long +as it was evident that the end was the common safety, the National +Assembly had the power to turn the people into any course, to constrain +them to any task, while their voluntary efforts, as far as these could +be exercised, were not abated in consequence. That which the National +Assembly did for France, the Spanish Sovereign's authority acting +through those whom the people themselves have deputed to represent him, +would, in their present enthusiasm of loyalty, and condition of their +general feelings, render practicable and easy for Spain. The Spaniards, +it is true, with a thoughtfulness most hopeful for the cause which they +have undertaken, have been loth to depart from established laws, forms, +and practices. This dignified feeling of self-restraint they would do +well to cherish so far as never to depart from it without some +reluctance;--but, when old and familiar means are not equal to the +exigency, new ones must, without timidity, be resorted to, though by +many they may be found harsh and ungracious. Nothing but good would +result from such conduct. The well-disposed would rely more confidently +upon a Government which thus proved that it had confidence in itself. +Men, less zealous, and of less comprehensive minds, would soon be +reconciled to measures from which at first they had revolted; the remiss +and selfish might be made servants of their country, through the +influence of the same passions which had prepared them to become slaves +of the Invader; or, should this not be possible, they would appear in +their true character, and the main danger to be feared from them would +be prevented. The course which ought to be pursued is plain. Either the +cause has lost the people's love, or it has not. If it has, let the +struggle be abandoned. If it has not, let the Government, in whatever +shape it may exist, and however great may be the calamities under which +it may labour, act up to the full stretch of its rights, nor doubt that +the people will support it to the full extent of their power. If, +therefore, the Chiefs of the Spanish Nation be men of wise and strong +minds, they will bring both the forces, those of the Government and of +the people, into their utmost action; tempering them in such a manner +that neither shall impair or obstruct the other, but rather that they +shall strengthen and direct each other for all salutary purposes. + +Thirdly, it was never dreamt by any thinking man, that the Spaniards +were to succeed by their army; if by their _army_ be meant any thing but +the people. The whole people is their army, and their true army is the +people, and nothing else. Five hundred men, who in the early part of the +struggle had been taken prisoners,--I think it was at the battle of Rio +Seco--were returned by the French General under the title of Galician +Peasants, a title, which the Spanish General, Blake, rejected and +maintained in his answer that they were genuine soldiers, meaning +regular troops. The conduct of the Frenchman was politic, and that of +the Spaniard would have been more in the spirit of his cause and of his +own noble character, if, waiving on this occasion the plea of any +subordinate and formal commission which these men might have, he had +rested their claim to the title of soldiers on its true ground, and +affirmed that this was no other than the rights of the cause which they +maintained, by which rights every Spaniard was a soldier who could +appear in arms, and was authorized to take that place, in which it was +probable, to those under whom he acted, and on many occasions to +himself, that he could most annoy the enemy. But these patriots of +Galicia were not clothed alike, nor perhaps armed alike, nor had the +outward appearance of those bodies, which are called regular troops; and +the Frenchman availed himself of this pretext, to apply to them that +insolent language, which might, I think, have been more nobly repelled +on a more comprehensive principle. For thus are men of the gravest minds +imposed upon by the presumptuous; and through these influences it comes, +that the strength of a tyrant is in opinion--not merely in the opinion +of those who support him, but alas! even of those who willingly resist, +and who would resist effectually, if it were not that their own +understandings betray them, being already half enslaved by shews and +forms. The whole Spanish nation ought to be encouraged to deem +themselves an army, embodied under the authority of their country and of +human nature. A military spirit should be there, and a military action, +not confined like an ordinary river in one channel, but spreading like +the Nile over the whole face of the land. Is this possible? I believe it +is: if there be minds among them worthy to lead, and if those leading +minds cherish a _civic_ spirit by all warrantable aids and appliances, +and, above all other means, by combining a reverential memory of their +elder ancestors with distinct hopes of solid advantage, from the +privileges of freedom, for themselves and their posterity--to which the +history and the past state of Spain furnish such enviable facilities; +and if they provide for the sustenance of this spirit, by organizing it +in its primary sources, not timidly jealous of a people, whose toils and +sacrifices have approved them worthy of all love and confidence, and +whose failing of excess, if such there exist, is assuredly on the side +of loyalty to their Sovereign, and predilection for all established +institutions. We affirm, then, that a universal military spirit may be +produced; and not only this, but that a much more rare and more +admirable phenomenon may be realized--the civic and military spirit +united in one people, and in enduring harmony with each other. The +people of Spain, with arms in their hands, are already in an elevated +mood, to which they have been raised by the indignant passions, and the +keen sense of insupportable wrong and insult from the enemy, and its +infamous instruments. But they must be taught, not to trust too +exclusively to the violent passions, which have already done much of +their peculiar task and service. They must seek additional aid from +affections, which less imperiously exclude all individual interests, +while at the same time they consecrate them to the public good.--But the +enemy is in the heart of their Land! We have not forgotten this. We +would encourage their military zeal, and all qualities especially +military, by all rewards of honourable ambition, and by rank and dignity +conferred on the truly worthy, whatever may be their birth or condition, +the elevating influence of which would extend from the individual +possessor to the class from which he may have sprung. For the necessity +of thus raising and upholding the military spirit, we plead: but yet the +_professional_ excellencies of the soldier must be contemplated +according to their due place and relation. Nothing is done, or worse +than nothing, unless something higher be taught, _as_ higher, something +more fundamental, _as_ more fundamental. In the moral virtues and +qualities of passion which belong to a people, must the ultimate +salvation of a people be sought for. Moral qualities of a high order, +and vehement passions, and virtuous as vehement, the Spaniards have +already displayed; nor is it to be anticipated, that the conduct of +their enemies will suffer the heat and glow to remit and languish. These +may be trusted to themselves, and to the provocations of the merciless +Invader. They must now be taught, that their strength _chiefly_ lies in +moral qualities, more silent in their operation, more permanent in their +nature; in the virtues of perseverance, constancy, fortitude, and +watchfulness, in a long memory and a quick feeling, to rise upon a +favourable summons, a texture of life which, though cut through (as hath +been feigned of the bodies of the Angels) unites again--these are the +virtues and qualities on which the Spanish People must be taught +_mainly_ to depend. These it is not in the power of their Chiefs to +create; but they may preserve and procure to them opportunities of +unfolding themselves, by guarding the Nation against an intemperate +reliance on other qualities and other modes of exertion, to which it +could never have resorted in the degree in which it appears to have +resorted to them without having been in contradiction to itself, paying +at the same time an indirect homage to its enemy. Yet, in hazarding +this conditional censure, we are still inclined to believe, that, in +spite of our deductions on the score of exaggeration, we have still +given too easy credit to the accounts furnished by the enemy, of the +rashness with which the Spaniards engaged in pitched battles, and of +their dismay after defeat. For the Spaniards have repeatedly proclaimed, +and they have inwardly felt, that their strength was from their +cause--of course, that it was moral. Why then should they abandon this, +and endeavour to prevail by means in which their opponents are +confessedly so much superior? Moral strength is their's; but physical +power for the purposes of immediate or rapid destruction is on the side +of their enemies. This is to them no disgrace, but, as soon as they +understand themselves, they will see that they are disgraced by +mistrusting their appropriate stay, and throwing themselves upon a power +which for them must be weak. Nor will it then appear to them a +sufficient excuse, that they were seduced into this by the splendid +qualities of courage and enthusiasm, which, being the frequent +companions, and, in given circumstances, the necessary agents of virtue, +are too often themselves hailed as virtues by their own title. But +courage and enthusiasm have equally characterized the best and the worst +beings, a Satan, equally with an ABDIEL--a BONAPARTE equally with a +LEONIDAS. They are indeed indispensible to the Spanish soldiery, in +order that, man to man, they may not be inferior to their enemies in the +field of battle. But inferior they are and long must be in warlike skill +and coolness; inferior in assembled numbers, and in blind mobility to +the preconceived purposes of their leader. If therefore the Spaniards +are not superior in some superior quality, their fall may be predicted +with the certainty of a mathematical calculation. Nay, it is right to +acknowledge, however depressing to false hope the thought may be, that +from a people prone and disposed to war, as the French are, through the +very absence of those excellencies which give a contra-distinguishing +dignity to the Spanish character; that, from an army of men presumptuous +by nature, to whose presumption the experience of constant success has +given the confidence and stubborn strength of reason, and who balance +against the devotion of patriotism the superstition so naturally +attached by the sensual and disordinate to the strange fortunes and +continual felicity of their Emperor; that, from the armies of such a +people a more manageable enthusiasm, a courage less under the influence +of accidents, may be expected in the confusion of immediate conflict, +than from forces like the Spaniards, united indeed by devotion to a +common cause, but not equally united by an equal confidence in each +other, resulting from long fellowship and brotherhood in all conceivable +incidents of war and battle. Therefore, I do not hesitate to affirm, +that even the occasional flight of the Spanish levies, from sudden panic +under untried circumstances, would not be so injurious to the Spanish +cause; no, nor so dishonourable to the Spanish character, nor so ominous +of ultimate failure, as a paramount reliance on superior valour, instead +of a principled reposal on superior constancy and immutable resolve. +Rather let them have fled once and again, than direct their prime +admiration to the blaze and explosion of animal courage, in slight of +the vital and sustaining warmth of fortitude; in slight of that moral +contempt of death and privation, which does not need the stir and shout +of battle to call it forth or support it, which can smile in patience +over the stiff and cold wound, as well as rush forward regardless, +because half senseless of the fresh and bleeding one. Why did we give +our hearts to the present cause of Spain with a fervour and elevation +unknown to us in the commencement of the late Austrian or Prussian +resistance to France? Because we attributed to the former an heroic +temperament which would render their transfer to such domination an evil +to human nature itself, and an affrightening perplexity in the +dispensations of Providence. But if in oblivion of the prophetic wisdom +of their own first leaders in the cause, they are surprised beyond the +power of rallying, utterly cast down and manacled by fearful thoughts +from the first thunder-storm of defeat in the field, wherein do they +differ from the Prussians and Austrians? Wherein are they a People, and +not a mere army or set of armies? If this be indeed so, what have we to +mourn over but our own honourable impetuosity, in hoping where no just +ground of hope existed? A nation, without the virtues necessary for the +attainment of independence, have failed to attain it. This is all. For +little has that man understood the majesty of true national freedom, who +believes that a population, like that of Spain, in a country like that +of Spain, may want the qualities needful to fight out their +independence, and yet possess the excellencies which render men +susceptible of true liberty. The Dutch, the Americans, did possess the +former; but it is, I fear, more than doubtful whether the one ever did, +or the other ever will, evince the nobler morality indispensible to the +latter. + +It was not my intention that the subject should at present have been +pursued so far. But I have been carried forward by a strong wish to be +of use in raising and steadying the minds of my countrymen, an end to +which every thing that I shall say hereafter (provided it be true) will +contribute. For all knowledge of human nature leads ultimately to +repose; and I shall write to little purpose if I do not assist some +portion of my readers to form an estimate of the grounds of hope and +fear in the present effort of liberty against oppression, in the present +or any future struggle which justice will have to maintain against +might. In fact, this is my main object, 'the sea-mark of my utmost +sail:' in order that, understanding the sources of strength and seats of +weakness, both in the tyrant and in those who would save or rescue +themselves from his grasp, we may act as becomes men who would guard +their own liberties, and would draw a good use from the desire which +they feel, and the efforts which they are making, to benefit the less +favoured part of the family of mankind. With these as my ultimate +objects, I have undertaken to examine the Convention of Cintra; and, as +an indispensible preparative for forming a right judgment of this event, +I have already faithfully exhibited the feelings of the people of Great +Britain and of Spain towards each other, and have shewn by what sacred +bonds they were united. With the same view, I shall next proceed to shew +by what barrier of aversion, scarcely less sacred, the people of the +_Peninsula_ were divided from their enemies,--their feelings towards +them, and their hopes for themselves; trusting, that I have already +mitigated the deadening influences of recent calamity, and that the +representation I shall frame, in the manner which has been promised, +will speak in its true colours and life to the eye and heart of the +spectator. + +The government of Asturias, which was the first to rise against their +oppressors, thus expresses itself in the opening of its Address to the +People of that Province. 'Loyal Asturians! beloved Countrymen! your +wishes are already fulfilled. The Principality, discharging those duties +which are most sacred to men, has already declared war against France. +You may perhaps dread this vigorous resolution. But what other measure +could or ought we to adopt? Shall there be found one single man among +us, who prefers the vile and ignominious death of slaves, to the glory +of dying on the field of honour, with arms in his hand, defending our +unfortunate monarch; our homes, our children, and our wives? If, in the +very moment when those bands of banditti were receiving the kindest +offices and favours from the inhabitants of our Capital, they murdered +in cold blood upwards of two thousand people, for no other reason than +their having defended their insulted brethren, what could we expect from +them, had we submitted to their dominion? Their perfidious conduct +towards our king and his whole family, whom they deceived and decoyed +into France under the promise of an eternal armistice, in order to chain +them all, has no precedent in history. Their conduct towards the whole +nation is more iniquitous, than we had the right to expect from a horde +of Hottentots. They have profaned our temples; they have insulted our +religion; they have assailed our wives; in fine, they have broken all +their promises, and there exists no right which they have not violated. +To arms, Asturians! to arms!' The Supreme Junta of Government, sitting +at Seville, introduces its declaration of war in words to the same +effect. 'France, under the government of the emperor Napoleon the First, +has violated towards Spain the most sacred compacts--has arrested her +monarchs--obliged them to a forced and manifestly void abdication and +renunciation; has behaved with the same violence towards the Spanish +Nobles whom he keeps in his power--has declared that he will elect a +king of Spain, the most horrible attempt that is recorded in +history--has sent his troops into Spain, seized her fortresses and her +Capital, and scattered his troops throughout the country--has committed +against Spain all sorts of assassinations, robberies, and unheard-of +cruelties; and this he has done with the most enormous ingratitude to +the services which the Spanish nation has rendered France, to the +friendship it has shewn her, thus treating it with the most dreadful +perfidy, fraud, and treachery, such as was never committed against any +nation or monarch by the most barbarous or ambitious king or people. He +has in fine declared, that he will trample down our monarchy, our +fundamental laws, and bring about the ruin of our holy catholic +religion.--The only remedy therefore to such grievous ills, which are so +manifest to all Europe, is in war, which we declare against him.' The +injuries, done to the Portugueze Nation and Government, previous to its +declaration of war against the Emperor of the French, are stated at +length in the manifesto of the Court of Portugal, dated Rio Janeiro, May +1st, 1808; and to that the reader may he referred: but upon this subject +I will beg leave to lay before him, the following extract from the +Address of the supreme Junta of Seville to the Portugueze nation, dated +May 30th, 1808. 'PORTUGUESE,--Your lot is, perhaps, the hardest ever +endured by any people on the earth. Your princes were compelled to fly +from you, and the events in Spain have furnished an irrefragable proof +of the absolute necessity of that measure.--You were ordered not to +defend yourselves, and you did not defend yourselves. Junot offered to +make you happy, and your happiness has consisted in being treated with +greater cruelty than the most ferocious conquerors inflict on the people +whom they have subdued by force of arms and after the most obstinate +resistance. You have been despoiled of your princes, your laws, your +usages, your customs, your property, your liberty, even your lives, and +your holy religion, which your enemies never have respected, however +they may, according to their custom, have promised to protect it, and +however they may affect and pretend to have any sense of it themselves. +Your nobility has been annihilated,--its property confiscated in +punishment of its fidelity and loyalty. You have been basely dragged to +foreign countries, and compelled to prostrate yourselves at the feet of +the man who is the author of all your calamities, and who, by the most +horrible perfidy, has usurped your government, and rules you with a +sceptre of iron. Even now your troops have left your borders, and are +travelling in chains to die in the defence of him who has oppressed you; +by which means his deep malignity may accomplish his purpose,--by +destroying those who should constitute your strength, and by rendering +their lives subservient to his triumphs, and to the savage glory to +which he aspires.--Spain beheld your slavery, and the horrible evils +which followed it, with mingled sensations of grief and despair. You are +her brother, and she panted to fly to your assistance. But certain +Chiefs, and a Government either weak or corrupt, kept her in chains, and +were preparing the means by which the ruin of our king, our laws, our +independence, our liberty, our lives, and even the holy religion in +which we are united, might accompany your's,--by which a barbarous +people might consummate their own triumph, and accomplish the slavery of +every nation in Europe:--our loyalty, our honour, our justice, could not +submit to such flagrant atrocity! We have broken our chains,--let us +then to action.' But the story of Portugueze sufferings shall be told by +Junot himself; who, in his proclamation to the people of Portugal (dated +Palace of Lisbon, June 26,) thus speaks to them: 'You have earnestly +entreated of him a king, who, aided by the omnipotence of that great +monarch, might raise up again your unfortunate Country, and replace her +in the rank which belongs to her. Doubtless at this moment your new +monarch is on the point of visiting you.--He expects to find faithful +Subjects--shall he find only rebels? I expected to have delivered over +to him a peaceable kingdom and flourishing cities--shall I be obliged to +shew him only ruins and heaps of ashes and dead bodies?--Merit pardon by +prompt submission, and a prompt obedience to my orders; if not, think of +the punishment which awaits you.--Every city, town, or village, which +shall take up arms against my forces, and whose inhabitants shall rise +upon the French troops, shall be delivered up to pillage and totally +destroyed, and the inhabitants shall be put to the sword--every +individual taken in arms shall be instantly shot.' That these were not +empty threats, we learn from the bulletins published by authority of the +same Junot, which at once shew his cruelty, and that of the persons whom +he employed, and the noble resistance of the Portugueze. 'We entered +Beia,' says one of those dismal chronicles, 'in the midst of great +carnage. The rebels left 1200 dead on the field of battle; all those +taken with arms in their hands were put to the sword, and all the houses +from which we had been fired upon were burned.' Again in another, 'The +spirit of insanity, which had led astray the inhabitants of Beia and +rendered necessary the terrible chastisement which they have received, +has likewise been exercised in the north of Portugal.' Describing +another engagement, it is said, 'the lines endeavoured to make a stand, +but they were forced; the massacre was terrible--more than a thousand +dead bodies remained on the field of battle, and General Loison, +pursuing the remainder of these wretches, entered Guerda with fixed +bayonets.' On approaching Alpedrinha, they found the _rebels_ posted in +a kind of redoubt--'it was forced, the town of Alpedrinha taken, and +delivered to the flames:' the whole of this tragedy is thus summed +up--'In the engagements fought in these different marches, we lost +twenty men killed, and 30 or 40 wounded. The insurgents have left at +least 13000 dead in the field, the melancholy consequence of a frenzy +which nothing can justify, which forces us to multiply victims, whom we +lament and regret, but whom a terrible necessity obliges us to +sacrifice.' 'It is thus,' continues the writer, 'that deluded men, +ungrateful children as well as culpable citizens, exchange all their +claims to the benevolence and protection of Government for misfortune +and wretchedness; ruin their families; carry into their habitations +desolation, conflagrations, and death; change flourishing cities into +heaps of ashes--into vast tombs; and bring on their whole country +calamities which they deserve, and from which (feeble victims!) they +cannot escape. In fine, it is thus that, covering themselves with +opprobrium and ridicule at the same time that they complete their +destruction, they have no other resource but the pity of those they have +wished to assassinate--a pity which they never have implored in vain, +when acknowledging their crime, they have solicited pardon from +Frenchmen, who, incapable of departing from their noble character, are +ever as generous as they are brave.'--By order of Monseigneur le duc +d'Abrantes, Commander in chief.'--Compare this with the Address of +Massaredo to the Biscayans, in which there is the like avowal that the +Spaniards are to be treated as Rebels. He tells them, that he is +commanded by his master, Joseph Bonaparte, to assure them--'that, in +case they disapprove of the insurrection in the City of Bilboa, his +majesty will consign to oblivion the mistake and error of the +Insurgents, and that he will punish only the heads and beginners of the +insurrection, with regard to whom _the law must take its course_.' + +To be the victim of such bloody-mindedness is a doleful lot for a +Nation; and the anguish must have been rendered still more poignant by +the scoffs and insults, and by that heinous contempt of the most awful +truths, with which the Perpetrator of those cruelties has proclaimed +them.--Merciless ferocity is an evil familiar to our thoughts; but these +combinations of malevolence historians have not yet been called upon to +record; and writers of fiction, if they have ever ventured to create +passions resembling them, have confined, out of reverence for the +acknowledged constitution of human nature, those passions to reprobate +Spirits. Such tyranny is, in the strictest sense, intolerable; not +because it aims at the extinction of life, but of every thing which +gives life its value--of virtue, of reason, of repose in God, or in +truth. With what heart may we suppose that a genuine Spaniard would read +the following impious address from the Deputation, as they were falsely +called, of his apostate countrymen at Bayonne, seduced or compelled to +assemble under the eye of the Tyrant, and speaking as he dictated? 'Dear +Spaniards, Beloved Countrymen!--Your habitations, your cities, your +power, and your property, are as dear to us as ourselves; and we wish to +keep all of you in our eye, that we may be able to establish your +security.--We, as well as yourselves, are bound in allegiance to the old +dynasty--to her, to whom an end has been put by that God-like Providence +which rules all thrones and sceptres. We have seen the greatest states +fall under the guidance of this rule, and our land alone has hitherto +escaped the same fate. An unavoidable destiny has now overtaken our +country, and brought us under the protection of the invincible Emperor +of France.--We know that you will regard our present situation with the +utmost consideration; and we have accordingly, in this conviction, been +uniformly conciliating the friendship to which we are tied by so many +obligations. With what admiration must we see the benevolence and +humanity of his imperial and royal Majesty outstep our wishes--qualities +which are even more to be admired than his great power! He has desired +nothing else, than that we should be indebted to him for our welfare. +Whenever he gives us a sovereign to reign over us in the person of his +magnanimous brother Joseph, he will consummate our prosperity.--As he +has been pleased to change our old system of laws, it becomes us to +obey, and to live in tranquillity: as he has also promised to +re-organize our financial system, we may hope that then our naval and +military power will become terrible to our enemies, &c.'--That the +Castilians were horror-stricken by the above blasphemies, which are the +habitual language of the French Senate and Ministers to their Emperor, +is apparent from an address dated Valladolid,--'He (Bonaparte) carries +his audacity the length of holding out to us offers of happiness and +peace, while he is laying waste our country, pulling down our churches, +and slaughtering our brethren. His pride, cherished by a band of +villains who are constantly anxious to offer incense on his shrine, and +tolerated by numberless victims who pine in his chains, has caused him +to conceive the fantastical idea of proclaiming himself Lord and Ruler +of the whole world. There is no atrocity which he does not commit to +attain that end.... Shall these outrages, these iniquities, remain +unpunished while Spaniards--and Castilian Spaniards--yet exist?' + +Many passages might be adduced to prove that carnage and devastation +spread over their land have not afflicted this noble people so deeply as +this more searching warfare against the conscience and the reason. They +groan less over the blood which has been shed, than over the arrogant +assumptions of beneficence made by him from whose order that blood has +flowed. Still to be talking of bestowing and conferring, and to be happy +in the sight of nothing but what he thinks he has bestowed or conferred, +this, in a man to whom the weakness of his fellows has given great +power, is a madness of pride more hideous than cruelty itself. We have +heard of Attila and Tamerlane who called themselves the scourges of God, +and rejoiced in personating the terrors of Providence; but such monsters +do less outrage to the reason than he who arrogates to himself the +gentle and gracious attributes of the Deity: for the one acts +professedly from the temperance of reason, the other avowedly in the +gusts of passion. Through the terrors of the Supreme Ruler of things, as +set forth by works of destruction and ruin, we see but darkly; we may +reverence the chastisement, may fear it with awe, but it is not natural +to incline towards it in love: moreover, devastation passes away--a +perishing power among things that perish: whereas to found, and to +build, to create and to institute, to bless through blessing, this has +to do with objects where we trust we can see clearly,--it reminds us of +what we love,--it aims at permanence,--and the sorrow is, (as in the +present instance the people of Spain feel) that it may last; that, if +the giddy and intoxicated Being who proclaims that he does these things +with the eye and through the might of Providence be not overthrown, it +will last; that it needs must last:--and therefore would they hate and +abhor him and his pride, even if he were not cruel; if he were merely an +image of mortal presumption thrust in between them and the piety which +is natural to the heart of man; between them and that religious worship +which, as authoritatively as his reason forbids idolatry, that same +reason commands. Accordingly, labouring under these violations done to +their moral nature, they describe themselves, in the anguish of their +souls, treated as a people at once dastardly and _insensible_. In the +same spirit they make it even matter of complaint, as comparatively a +far greater evil, that they have not fallen by the brute violence of +open war, but by deceit and perfidy, by a subtle undermining, or +contemptuous overthrow of those principles of good faith, through +prevalence of which, in some degree, or under some modification or +other, families, communities, a people, or any frame of human society, +even destroying armies themselves can exist. + +But enough of their wrongs; let us now see what were their consolations, +their resolves, and their hopes. First, they neither murmur nor repine; +but with genuine religion and philosophy they recognize in these +dreadful visitations the ways of a benign Providence, and find in them +cause for thankfulness. The Council of Castile exhort the people of +Madrid 'to cast off their lethargy, and purify their manners, and to +acknowledge the calamities which the kingdom and that great capital had +endured as a punishment necessary to their correction.' General Morla in +his address to the citizens of Cadiz thus speaks to them:--'The +commotion, more or less violent, which has taken place in the whole +peninsula of Spain, has been of eminent service to rouse us from the +state of lethargy in which we indulged, and to make us acquainted with +our rights, our glory, and the inviolable duty which we owe to our holy +religion and our monarch. We wanted some electric stroke to rouse us +from our paralytic state of inactivity; we stood in need of a hurricane +to clear the atmosphere of the insalubrious vapours with which it was +loaded.'--The unanimity with which the whole people were affected they +rightly deem, an indication of wisdom, an authority, and a +sanction,--and they refer it to its highest source. 'The defence of our +country and our king,' (says a manifesto of the Junta of Seville) 'that +of our laws, our religion, and of all the rights of man, trodden down +and violated in a manner which is without example, by the Emperor of +the French, Napoleon I. and by his troops in Spain, compelled the whole +nation to take up arms, and choose itself a form of government; and, in +the difficulties and dangers into which the French had plunged it, all, +or nearly all the provinces, as it were by the inspiration of heaven, +and in a manner little short of miraculous, created Supreme Juntas, +delivered themselves up to their guidance, and placed in their hands the +rights and the ultimate fate of Spain. The effects have hitherto most +happily corresponded with the designs of those who formed them.' + +With this general confidence, that the highest good may be brought out +of the worst calamities, they have combined a solace, which is +vouchsafed only to such nations as can recall to memory the illustrious +deeds of their ancestors. The names of Pelayo and The Cid are the +watch-words of the address to the people of Leon; and they are told that +to these two deliverers of their country, and to the sentiments of +enthusiasm which they excited in every breast, Spain owes the glory and +happiness which she has _so long_ enjoyed. The Biscayans are called to +cast their eyes upon the ages which are past, and they will see their +ancestors at one time repulsing the Carthaginians, at another destroying +the hordes of Rome; at one period was granted to them the distinction of +serving in the van of the army; at another the privilege of citizens. +'Imitate,' says the address, 'the glorious example of your worthy +progenitors.' The Asturians, the Gallicians, and the city of Cordova, +are exhorted in the same manner. And surely to a people thus united in +their minds with the heroism of years which have been long departed, and +living under such obligation of gratitude to their ancestors, it is not +difficult, nay it is natural, to take upon themselves the highest +obligations of duty to their posterity; to enjoy in the holiness of +imagination the happiness of unborn ages to which they shall have +eminently contributed; and that each man, fortified by these thoughts, +should welcome despair for himself, because it is the assured mother of +hope for his country.--'Life or Death,' says a proclamation affixed in +the most public places of Seville, 'is in this crisis indifferent;--ye +who shall return shall receive the reward of gratitude in the embraces +of your country, which shall proclaim you her deliverers;--ye whom +heaven destines to seal with your blood the independence of your +nation, the honour of your women, and the purity of the religion which +ye profess, do not dread the anguish of the last moments; remember in +these moments that there are in our hearts inexhaustible tears of +tenderness to shed over your graves, and fervent prayers, to which the +Almighty Father of mercies will lend an ear, to grant you a glory +superior to that which they who survive you shall enjoy.' And in fact it +ought never to be forgotten, that the Spaniards have not wilfully +blinded themselves, but have steadily fixed their eyes not only upon +danger and upon death, but upon a deplorable issue of the contest. They +have contemplated their subjugation as a thing possible. The next +extract, from the paper entitled Precautions, (and the same language is +holden by many others) will show in what manner alone they reconcile +themselves to it. 'Therefore, it is necessary to sacrifice our lives and +property in defence of the king, and of the country; and, though our lot +(which we hope will never come to pass) should destine us to become +slaves, let us become so fighting and dying like gallant men, not giving +ourselves up basely to the yoke like sheep, as the late infamous +government would have done, and fixing upon Spain and her slavery +eternal ignominy and disgrace.' + +But let us now hear them, as becomes men with such feelings, express +more cheering and bolder hopes rising from a confidence in the supremacy +of justice,--hopes which, however the Tyrant from the iron fortresses of +his policy may scoff at them and at those who entertained them, will +render their memory dear to all good men, when his name will be +pronounced with universal abhorrence. + +'All Europe,' says the Junta of Seville, 'will applaud our efforts and +hasten to our assistance: Italy, Germany, and the whole North, which +suffer under the despotism of the French nation, will eagerly avail +themselves of the favourable opportunity, held out to them by Spain, to +shake off the yoke and recover their liberty, their laws, their +monarchs, and all they have been robbed of by that nation. France +herself will hasten to erase the stain of infamy, which must cover the +tools and instruments of deeds so treacherous and heinous. She will not +shed her blood in so vile a cause. She has already suffered too much +under the idle pretext of peace and happiness, which never came, and can +never be attained, but under the empire of reason, peace, religion, and +laws, and in a state where the rights of other nations are respected and +preserved.' To this may be added a hope, the fulfilment of which belongs +more to themselves, and lies more within their own power, namely, a hope +that they shall be able in their progress towards liberty, to inflict +condign punishment on their cruel and perfidious enemies. The Junta of +Seville, in an Address to the People of Madrid, express themselves thus: +'People of Madrid! Seville has learned, with consternation and surprize, +your dreadful catastrophe of the second of May; the weakness of a +government which did nothing in our favour,--which ordered arms to be +directed against you; and your heroic sacrifices. Blessed be ye, and +your memory shall shine immortal in the annals of our nation!--She has +seen with horror that the author of all your misfortunes and of our's +has published a proclamation, in which he distorted every fact, and +pretended that you gave the first provocation, while it was he who +provoked you. The government was weak enough to sanction and order that +proclamation to be circulated; and saw, with perfect composure, numbers +of you put to death for a pretended violation of laws which did not +exist. The French were told in that proclamation, that French blood +profusely shed was crying out for vengeance! And the Spanish blood, does +not _it_ cry out for vengeance? That Spanish blood, shed by an army +which hesitated not to attack a disarmed and defenceless people, living +under their laws and their king, and against whom cruelties were +committed, which shake the human frame with horror. We, all Spain, +exclaim--the Spanish blood shed in Madrid cries aloud for revenge! +Comfort yourselves, we are your brethren: we will fight like you, until +we perish in defending our king and country. Assist us with your good +wishes, and your continual prayers offered up to the Most High, whom we +adore, and who cannot forsake us, because he never forsakes a just +cause.' Again, in the conclusion of their address to the People of +Portugal, quoted before, 'The universal cry of Spain is, we will die in +defence of our country, but we will take care that those infamous +enemies shall die with us. Come then, ye generous Portugueze, and unite +with us. You have among yourselves the objects of your vengeance--obey +not the authors of your misfortunes--attack them--they are but a handful +of miserable panic-struck men, humiliated and conquered already by the +perfidy and cruelties which they have committed, and which have covered +them with disgrace in the eyes of Europe and the world! Rise then in a +body, but avoid staining your honourable hands with crimes, for your +design is to resist them and to destroy them--our united efforts will do +for this perfidious nation; and Portugal, Spain, nay, all Europe, shall +breathe or die free like men.'--Such are their hopes; and again see, +upon this subject, the paper entitled '_Precautions_;' a contrast this +to the impious mockery of Providence, exhibited by the Tyrant in some +passages heretofore quoted! 'Care shall be taken to explain to the +nation, and to convince them that, when free, as we trust to be, from +this civil war, to which the French have forced us, and when placed in a +state of tranquillity, our Lord and King, Ferdinand VII, being restored +to the throne of Spain, under him and by him, _the Cortes will be +assembled, abuses reformed_, and such laws shall be enacted, as the +circumstances of the time and experience may dictate for the public good +and happiness. Things which we Spaniards know how to do, which we have +done as well as other nations, without any necessity that the vile +French should come to instruct us, and, according to their custom, under +the mask of friendship, should deprive us of our liberty, our laws, &c. +&c.' + +One extract more and I shall conclude. It is from a proclamation dated +Oviedo, July 17th. 'Yes--Spain with the energies of Liberty has to +contend with France debilitated by slavery. If she remain firm and +constant, Spain will triumph. A whole people is more powerful than +disciplined armies. Those, who unite to maintain the independence of +their country, must triumph over tyranny. Spain will inevitably conquer, +in a cause the most just that has ever raised the deadly weapon of war; +for she fights, not for the concerns of a day, but for the security and +happiness of ages; not for an insulated privilege, but for the rights of +human nature; not for temporal blessings, but for eternal happiness; not +for the benefit of one nation, but for all mankind, and even for France +herself.' + +I will now beg of my reader to pause a moment, and to review in his own +mind the whole of what has been laid before him. He has seen of what +kind, and how great have been the injuries endured by these two nations; +what they have suffered, and what they have to fear; he has seen that +they have felt with that unanimity which nothing but the light of truth +spread over the inmost concerns of human nature can create; with that +simultaneousness which has led Philosophers upon like occasions to +assert, that the voice of the people is the voice of God. He has seen +that they have submitted as far as human nature could bear; and that at +last these millions of suffering people have risen almost like one man, +with one hope; for whether they look to triumph or defeat, to victory or +death, they are full of hope--despair comes not near them--they will +die, they say--each individual knows the danger, and, strong in the +magnitude of it, grasps eagerly at the thought that he himself is to +perish; and more eagerly, and with higher confidence, does he lay to his +heart the faith that the nation will survive and be victorious;--or, at +the worst, let the contest terminate how it may as to superiority of +outward strength, that the fortitude and the martyrdom, the justice and +the blessing, are their's and cannot be relinquished. And not only are +they moved by these exalted sentiments of universal morality, and of +direct and universal concern to mankind, which have impelled them to +resist evil and to endeavour to punish the evil-doer, but also they +descend (for even this, great as in itself it is, may be here considered +as a descent) to express a rational hope of reforming domestic abuses, +and of re-constructing, out of the materials of their ancient +institutions, customs, and laws, a better frame of civil government, the +same in the great outlines of its architecture, but exhibiting the +knowledge, and genius, and the needs of the present race, harmoniously +blended with those of their forefathers. Woe, then, to the unworthy who +intrude with their help to maintain this most sacred cause! It calls +aloud, for the aid of intellect, knowledge, and love, and rejects every +other. It is in vain to send forth armies if these do not inspire and +direct them. The stream is as pure as it is mighty, fed by ten thousand +springs in the bounty of untainted nature; any augmentation from the +kennels and sewers of guilt and baseness may clog, but cannot strengthen +it.--It is not from any thought that I am communicating new information, +that I have dwelt thus long upon this subject, but to recall to the +reader his own knowledge, and to re-infuse into that knowledge a breath +and life of appropriate feeling; because the bare sense of wisdom is +nothing without its powers, and it is only in these feelings that the +powers of wisdom exist. If then we do not forget that the Spanish and +Portugueze Nations stand upon the loftiest ground of principle and +passion, and do not suffer on our part those sympathies to languish +which a few months since were so strong, and do not negligently or +timidly descend from those heights of magnanimity to which as a Nation +we were raised, when they first represented to us their wrongs and +entreated our assistance, and we devoted ourselves sincerely and +earnestly to their service, making with them a common cause under a +common hope; if we are true in all this to them and to ourselves, we +shall not be at a loss to conceive what actions are entitled to our +commendation as being in the spirit of a friendship so nobly begun, and +tending assuredly to promote the common welfare; and what are abject, +treacherous, and pernicious, and therefore to be condemned and abhorred. +Is then, I may now ask, the Convention of Cintra an act of this latter +kind? Have the Generals, who signed and ratified that agreement, thereby +proved themselves unworthy associates in such a cause? And has the +Ministry, by whose appointment these men were enabled to act in this +manner, and which sanctioned the Convention by permitting them to carry +it into execution, thereby taken to itself a weight of guilt, in which +the Nation must feel that it participates, until the transaction shall +be solemnly reprobated by the Government, and the remote and immediate +authors of it brought to merited punishment? An answer to each of these +questions will be implied in the proof which will be given that the +condemnation, which the People did with one voice pronounce upon this +Convention when it first became known, was just; that the nature of the +offence of those who signed it was such, and established by evidence of +such a kind, making so imperious an exception to the ordinary course of +action, that there was no need to wait here for the decision of a Court +of Judicature, but that the People were compelled by a necessity +involved in the very constitution of man as a moral Being to pass +sentence upon them. And this I shall prove by trying this act of their's +by principles of justice which are of universal obligation, and by a +reference to those moral sentiments which rise out of that retrospect of +things which has been given. + +I shall now proceed to facts. The dispatches of Sir Arthur Wellesley, +containing an account of his having defeated the enemy in two several +engagements, spread joy through the Nation. The latter action appeared +to have been decisive, and the result may be thus briefly reported, in a +never to be forgotten sentence of Sir Arthur's second letter. 'In this +action,' says he, 'in which the whole of the French force in Portugal +was employed, under the command of the DUC D'ABRANTES in person, in +which the enemy was certainly superior in cavalry and artillery, and in +which not more than half of the British army was actually engaged, he +sustained a signal defeat, and has lost thirteen pieces of cannon, &c. +&c.' In the official communication, made to the public of these +dispatches, it was added, that 'a General officer had arrived at the +British head-quarters to treat for terms.' This was joyful intelligence! +First, an immediate, effectual, and honourable deliverance of Portugal +was confidently expected: secondly, the humiliation and captivity of a +large French army, and just punishment, from the hands of the Portugueze +government, of the most atrocious offenders in that army and among those +who, having held civil offices under it, (especially if Portugueze) had, +in contempt of all law, civil and military, notoriously abused the power +which they had treasonably accepted: thirdly, in this presumed surrender +of the army, a diminution of the enemy's military force was looked to, +which, after the losses he had already sustained in Spain, would most +sensibly weaken it: and lastly, and far above this, there was an +anticipation of a shock to his power, where that power is strongest, in +the imaginations of men, which are sure to fall under the bondage of +long-continued success. The judicious part of the Nation fixed their +attention chiefly on these results, and they had good cause to rejoice. +They also received with pleasure this additional proof (which indeed +with the unthinking many, as after the victory of Maida, weighed too +much,) of the superiority in courage and discipline of the British +soldiery over the French, and of the certainty of success whenever our +army was led on by men of even respectable military talents against any +equal or not too greatly disproportionate number of the enemy. But the +pleasure was damped in the minds of reflecting persons by several +causes. It occasioned regret and perplexity, that they had not heard +more of the Portugueze. They knew what that People had suffered, and how +they had risen;--remembered the language of the proclamation addressed +to them, dated August the 4th, and signed CHARLES COTTON and ARTHUR +WELLESLEY, in which they (the Portugueze) were told, that 'The British +Army had been sent in consequence of ardent supplications from all parts +of Portugal; that the glorious struggle, in which they are engaged, is +for all that is dear to man; that the noble struggle against the tyranny +and usurpation of France will be _jointly_ maintained by Portugal, +Spain, and England.' Why then, it was asked, do we not hear more of +those who are at least coequals with us, if not principals, in this +contest? They appeared to have had little share in either engagement; +(_See Appendix A_.) and, while the French were abundantly praised, no +word of commendation was found for _them_. Had they deserved to be thus +neglected? The body of the People by a general rising had proved their +zeal and courage, their animosity towards their enemies, their hatred of +them. It was therefore apprehended, from this silence respecting the +Portugueze, that their Chiefs might either be distracted by factions, or +blinded by selfish interests, or that they mistrusted their Allies. +Situated as Portugal then was, it would argue gross ignorance of human +nature to have expected that unanimity should prevail among all the +several authorities or leading persons, as to the _means_ to be +employed: it was enough, that they looked with one feeling to the _end_, +namely, an honourable deliverance of their country and security for its +Independence in conjunction with the liberation and independence of +Spain. It was therefore absolutely necessary to make allowance for some +division in conduct from difference of opinion. Instead of acquiescing +in the first feelings of disappointment, our Commanders ought to have +used the best means to win the confidence of the Portugueze Chiefs, and +to induce them to regard the British as dispassionate arbiters; they +ought to have endeavoured to excite a genuine patriotic spirit where it +appeared wanting, and to assist in creating for it an organ by which it +might act. Were these things done? or, if such evils existed among the +Portugueze, was _any_ remedy or alleviation attempted? Sir Arthur +Wellesley has told us, before the Board of Inquiry, that he made +applications to the Portugueze General, FRERE, for assistance, which +were acceded to by General FRERE upon such conditions only as made Sir +Arthur deem it more advisable to refuse than accept his co-operation: +and it is alleged that, in his general expectations of assistance, he +was greatly disappointed. We are not disposed to deny, that such cause +for complaint _might_ exist; but that it _did_, and upon no provocation +on our part, requires confirmation by other testimony. And surely, the +Portugueze have a right to be heard in answer to this accusation, before +they are condemned. For they have supplied no fact from their own hands, +which tends to prove that they were languid in the cause, or that they +had unreasonable jealousies of the British Army or Nation, or +dispositions towards them which were other than friendly. Now there is a +fact, furnished by Sir Arthur Wellesley himself, which may seem to +render it in the highest degree probable that, previously to any +recorded or palpable act of disregard or disrespect to the situation and +feelings of the Portugueze, the general tenour of his bearing towards +them might have been such that they could not look favourably upon him; +that he was not a man framed to conciliate them, to compose their +differences, or to awaken or strengthen their zeal. I allude to the +passage in his letter above quoted, where, having occasion to speak of +the French General, he has found no name by which to designate him but +that of DUC D'ABRANTES--words necessarily implying, that Bonaparte, who +had taken upon himself to confer upon General Junot this Portugueze +title with Portugueze domains to support it, was lawful Sovereign of +that Country, and that consequently the Portugueze Nation were rebels, +and the British Army, and he himself at the head of it, aiders and +abettors of that rebellion. It would be absurd to suppose, that Sir +Arthur Wellesley, at the time when he used these words, was aware of the +meaning really involved in them: let them be deemed an oversight. But +the capability of such an oversight affords too strong suspicion of a +deadness to the moral interests of the cause in which he was engaged, +and of such a want of sympathy with the just feelings of his injured +Ally as could exist only in a mind narrowed by exclusive and overweening +attention to the _military_ character, led astray by vanity, or hardened +by general habits of contemptuousness. These words, 'DUKE OF ABRANTES +_in person_,' were indeed words of bad omen: and thinking men trembled +for the consequences. They saw plainly, that, in the opinion of the +exalted Spaniards--of those assuredly who framed, and of all who had +felt, that affecting Proclamation addressed by the Junta of Seville to +the Portugueze people, he must appear utterly unworthy of the station in +which he had been placed. He had been sent as a deliverer--as an +assertor and avenger of the rights of human nature. But these words +would carry with them every where the conviction, that Portugal and +Spain, yea, all which was good in England, or iniquitous in France or in +Frenchmen, was forgotten, and his head full only of himself, miserably +conceiting that he swelled the importance of his conquered antagonist by +sounding titles and phrases, come from what quarter they might; and +that, in proportion as this was done, he magnified himself and his +achievements. It was plain, then, that here was a man, who, having not +any fellow-feeling with the people whom he had been commissioned to aid, +could not know where their strength lay, and therefore could not turn it +to account, nor by his example call it forth or cherish it; but that, if +his future conduct should be in the same spirit, he must be a blighting +wind wherever his influence was carried: for he had neither felt the +wrongs of his Allies nor been induced by common worldly prudence to +affect to feel them, or at least to disguise his insensibility; and +therefore what could follow, but, in despite of victory and outward +demonstrations of joy, inward disgust and depression? These reflections +interrupted the satisfaction of many; but more from fear of future +consequences than for the immediate enterprize, for here success seemed +inevitable; and a happy and glorious termination was confidently +expected, yet not without that intermixture of apprehension, which was +at once an acknowledgment of the general condition of humanity, and a +proof of the deep interest attached to the impending event. + +Sir Arthur Wellesley's dispatches had appeared in the Gazette on the 2d +of September, and on the 16th of the same month suspence was put an end +to by the publication of Sir Hew Dalrymple's letter, accompanied with +the Armistice and Convention. The night before, by order of ministers, +an attempt had been made at rejoicing, and the Park and Tower guns had +been fired in sign of good news.--Heaven grant that the ears of that +great city may be preserved from such another outrage! As soon as the +truth was known, never was there such a burst of rage and +indignation--such an overwhelming of stupefaction and sorrow. But I will +not, I cannot dwell upon it--it is enough to say, that Sir Hew +Dalrymple and Sir Arthur Wellesley must he bold men if they can think of +what must have been reported to them, without awe and trembling; the +heart of their country was turned against them, and they were execrated +in bitterness. + +For they had changed all things into their contraries, hope into +despair; triumph into defeat; confidence into treachery, which left no +place to stand upon; justice into the keenest injury.--Whom had they +delivered but the Tyrant in captivity? Whose hands had they bound but +those of their Allies, who were able of themselves to have executed +their own purposes? Whom had they punished but the innocent sufferer? +Whom rewarded but the guiltiest of Oppressors? They had reversed every +thing:--favour and honour for their enemies--insult for their +friends--and robbery (they had both protected the person of the robber +and secured to him his booty) and opprobrium for themselves;--to those +over whom they had been masters, who had crouched to them by an open act +of submission, they had made themselves servants, turning the British +Lion into a beast of burthen, to carry a vanquished enemy, with his load +of iniquities, when and whither it had pleased him. + +Such issue would have been a heavy calamity at any time; but now, when +we ought to have risen above ourselves, and if possible to have been +foremost in the strife of honour and magnanimity; now, when a new-born +power had been arrayed against the Tyrant, the only one which ever +offered a glimpse of hope to a sane mind, the power of popular +resistance rising out of universal reason, and from the heart of human +nature,--and by a peculiar providence disembarrassed from the +imbecility, the cowardice, and the intrigues of a worn-out +government--that at this time we, the most favoured Nation upon earth, +should have acted as if it had been our aim to level to the ground by +one blow this long-wished-for spirit, whose birth we had so joyfully +hailed, and by which even our own glory, our safety, our existence, were +to be maintained; this was verily a surpassing affliction to every man +who had a feeling of life beyond his meanest concerns! + +As soon as men had recovered from the shock, and could bear to look +somewhat steadily at these documents, it was found that the gross body +of the transaction, considered as a military transaction, was this; +that the Russian fleet, of nine sail of the line, which had been so long +watched, and could not have escaped, was to be delivered up to us; the +ships to be detained till six months after the end of the war, and the +sailors sent home by us, and to be by us protected in their voyage +through the Swedish fleet, and to be at liberty to fight immediately +against our ally, the king of Sweden. Secondly, that a French army of +more than twenty thousand men, already beaten, and no longer able to +appear in the field, cut off from all possibility of receiving +reinforcements or supplies, and in the midst of a hostile country +loathing and abhorring it, was to be transported with its arms, +ammunition, and plunder, at the expence of Great Britain, in British +vessels, and landed within a few days march of the Spanish +frontier,--there to be at liberty to commence hostilities immediately! + +Omitting every characteristic which distinguishes the present contest +from others, and looking at this issue merely as an affair between two +armies, what stupidity of mind to provoke the accusation of not merely +shrinking from future toils and dangers, but of basely shifting the +burthen to the shoulders of an ally, already overpressed!--What +infatuation, to convey the imprisoned foe to the very spot, whither, if +he had had wings, he would have flown! This last was an absurdity as +glaring as if, the French having landed on our own island, we had taken +them from Yorkshire to be set on shore in Sussex; but ten thousand times +worse! from a place where without our interference they had been +virtually blockaded, where they were cut off, hopeless, useless, and +disgraced, to become an efficient part of a mighty host, carrying the +strength of their numbers, and alas! the strength of their glory, (not +to mention the sight of their plunder) to animate that host; while the +British army, more numerous in the proportion of three to two, with all +the population and resources of the peninsula to aid it, within ten days +sail of it's own country, and the sea covered with friendly shipping at +it's back, was to make a long march to encounter this same enemy, (the +British forfeiting instead of gaining by the treaty as to superiority of +numbers, for that this would be the case was clearly foreseen) to +encounter, in a new condition of strength and pride, those whom, by its +deliberate act, it had exalted,--having taken from itself, meanwhile, +all which it had conferred, and bearing into the presence of its noble +ally an infection of despondency and disgrace. The motive assigned for +all this, was the great importance of gaining time; fear of an open +beach and of equinoctial gales for the shipping; fear that +reinforcements could not be landed; fear of famine;--fear of every thing +but dishonour! (_See Appendix B_.) + +The nation had expected that the French would surrender immediately at +discretion; and, supposing that Sir Arthur Wellesley had told them the +whole truth, they had a right to form this expectation. It has since +appeared, from the evidence given before the Board of Inquiry, that Sir +Arthur Wellesley earnestly exhorted his successor in command (Sir Harry +Burrard) to pursue the defeated enemy at the battle of Vimiera; and +that, if this had been done, the affair, in Sir Arthur Wellesley's +opinion, would have had a much more satisfactory termination. But, +waiving any considerations of this advice, or of the fault which might +be committed in not following it; and taking up the matter from the time +when Sir Hew Dalrymple entered upon the command, and when the two +adverse armies were in that condition, relatively to each other, that +none of the Generals has pleaded any difference of opinion as to their +ability to advance against the enemy, I will ask what confirmation has +appeared before the Board of Inquiry, of the reasonableness of the +causes, assigned by Sir Hew Dalrymple in his letter, for deeming a +Convention adviseable. A want of cavalry, (for which they who occasioned +it are heavily censurable,) has indeed been proved; and certain failures +of duty in the Commissariat department with respect to horses, &c.; but +these deficiencies, though furnishing reasons against advancing upon the +enemy in the open field, had ceased to be of moment, when the business +was to expel him from the forts to which he might have the power of +retreating. It is proved, that, though there are difficulties in landing +upon that coast, (and what military or marine operation can be carried +on without difficulty?) there was not the slightest reason to apprehend +that the army, which was then abundantly supplied, would suffer +hereafter from want of provisions; proved also that heavy ordnance, for +the purpose of attacking the forts, was ready on ship-board, to be +landed when and where it might be needed. Therefore, so far from being +exculpated by the facts which have been laid before the Board of +Inquiry, Sir Hew Dalrymple and the other Generals, who deemed _any_ +Convention necessary or expedient upon the grounds stated in his letter, +are more deeply criminated. But grant, (for the sake of looking at a +different part of the subject,) grant a case infinitely stronger than +Sir Hew Dalrymple has even hinted at;--why was not the taste of some of +those evils, in apprehension so terrible, actually tried? It would not +have been the first time that Britons had faced hunger and tempests, had +endured the worst of such enmity, and upon a call, under an obligation, +how faint and feeble, compared with that which the brave men of that +army must have felt upon the present occasion! In the proclamation +quoted before, addressed to the Portugueze, and signed Charles Cotton +and Arthur Wellesley, they were told, that the objects, for which they +contended, 'could only be attained by distinguished examples of +fortitude and constancy.' Where were the fortitude and constancy of the +teachers? When Sir Hew Dalrymple had been so busy in taking the measure +of his own weakness, and feeding his own fears, how came it to escape +him, that General Junot must also have had _his_ weaknesses and _his_ +fears? Was it nothing to have been defeated in the open field, where he +himself had been the assailant? Was it nothing that so proud a man, the +servant of so proud a man, had stooped to send a General Officer to +treat concerning the evacuation of the country? Was the hatred and +abhorrence of the Portugueze and Spanish Nations nothing? the people of +a large metropolis under his eye--detesting him, and stung almost to +madness, nothing? The composition of his own army made up of men of +different nations and languages, and forced into the service,--was there +no cause of mistrust in this? And, finally, among the many unsound +places which, had his mind been as active in this sort of inquiry as Sir +Hew Dalrymple's was, he must have found in his constitution, could a bad +cause have been missed--a worse cause than ever confounded the mind of a +soldier when boldly pressed upon, or gave courage and animation to a +righteous assailant? But alas! in Sir Hew Dalrymple and his brethren, we +had Generals who had a power of sight only for the strength of their +enemies and their own weakness. + +Let me not be misunderstood. While I am thus forced to repeat things, +which were uttered or thought of these men in reference to their +military conduct, as heads of that army, it is needless to add, that +their personal courage is in no wise implicated in the charge brought +against them. But, in the name of my countrymen, I do repeat these +accusations, and tax them with an utter want of _intellectual_ +courage--of that higher quality, which is never found without one or +other of the three accompaniments, talents, genius, or +principle;--talents matured by experience, without which it cannot exist +at all; or the rapid insight of peculiar genius, by which the fitness of +an act may be instantly determined, and which will supply higher motives +than mere talents can furnish for encountering difficulty and danger, +and will suggest better resources for diminishing or overcoming them. +Thus, through the power of genius, this quality of intellectual courage +may exist in an eminent degree, though the moral character be greatly +perverted; as in those personages, who are so conspicuous in history, +conquerors and usurpers, the Alexanders, the Caesars, and Cromwells; and +in that other class still more perverted, remorseless and energetic +minds, the Catilines and Borgias, whom poets have denominated 'bold, bad +men.' But, though a course of depravity will neither preclude nor +destroy this quality, nay, in certain circumstances will give it a +peculiar promptness and hardihood of decision, it is not on this account +the less true, that, to _consummate_ this species of courage, and to +render it equal to all occasions, (especially when a man is not acting +for himself, but has an additional claim on his resolution from the +circumstance of responsibility to a superior) _Principle_ is +indispensibly requisite. I mean that fixed and habitual principle, which +implies the absence of all selfish anticipations, whether of hope or +fear, and the inward disavowal of any tribunal higher and more dreaded +than the mind's own judgment upon its own act. The existence of such +principle cannot but elevate the most commanding genius, add rapidity to +the quickest glance, a wider range to the most ample comprehension; but, +without this principle, the man of ordinary powers must, in the trying +hour, be found utterly wanting. Neither, without it, can the man of +excelling powers be trustworthy, or have at all times a calm and +confident repose in himself. But he, in whom talents, genius, and +principle are united, will have a firm mind, in whatever embarrassment +he may be placed; will look steadily at the most undefined shapes of +difficulty and danger, of possible mistake or mischance; nor will they +appear to him more formidable than they really are. For HIS attention is +not distracted--he has but one business, and that is with the object +before him. Neither in general conduct nor in particular emergencies, +are HIS plans subservient to considerations of rewards, estate, or +title: these are not to have precedence in his thoughts, to govern his +actions, but to follow in the train of his duty. Such men, in ancient +times, were Phocion, Epaminondas, and Philopoemen; and such a man was +Sir Philip Sidney, of whom it has been said, that he first taught this +country _the majesty of honest dealing_. With these may be named, the +honour of our own age, Washington, the deliverer of the American +Continent; with these, though in many things unlike, Lord Nelson, whom +we have lately lost. Lord Peterborough, who fought in Spain a hundred +years ago, had the same excellence; with a sense of exalted honour, and +a tinge of romantic enthusiasm, well suited to the country which was the +scene of his exploits. Would that we had a man, like Peterborough or +Nelson, at the head of our army in Spain at this moment! I utter this +wish with more earnestness, because it is rumoured, that some of those, +who have already called forth such severe reprehension from their +countrymen, are to resume a command, which must entrust to them a +portion of those sacred hopes in which, not only we, and the people of +Spain and Portugal, but the whole human race are so deeply interested. +(_See Appendix C_.) + +I maintain then that, merely from want of this intellectual courage, of +courage as generals or chiefs, (for I will not speak at present of the +want of other qualities equally needful upon this service,) grievous +errors were committed by Sir Hew Dalrymple and his colleagues in +estimating the relative state of the two armies. A precious moment, it +is most probable, had been lost after the battle of Vimiera; yet still +the inferiority of the enemy had been proved; they themselves had +admitted it--not merely by withdrawing from the field, but by proposing +terms:--monstrous terms! and how ought they to have been received? +Repelled undoubtedly with scorn, as an insult. If our Generals had been +men capable of taking the measure of their real strength, either as +existing in their own army, or in those principles of liberty and +justice which they were commissioned to defend, they must of necessity +have acted in this manner;--if they had been men of common sagacity for +business, they must have acted in this manner;--nay, if they had been +upon a level with an ordinary bargain-maker in a Fair or a market, they +could not have acted otherwise.--Strange that they should so far forget +the nature of their calling! They were soldiers, and their business was +to fight. Sir Arthur Wellesley had fought, and gallantly; it was not +becoming his high situation, or that of his successors, to treat, that +is, to beat down, to chaffer, or on their part to propose: it does not +become any general at the head of a victorious army so to do.[19] + +[19] Those rare cases are of course excepted, in which the superiority +on the one side is not only fairly to be presumed but positive--and so +prominently obtrusive, that to _propose_ terms is to _inflict_ terms. + +They were to _accept_,--and, if the terms offered were flagrantly +presumptuous, our commanders ought to have rejected them with dignified +scorn, and to have referred the proposer to the sword for a lesson of +decorum and humility. This is the general rule of all high-minded men +upon such occasions; and meaner minds copy them, doing in prudence what +they do from principle. But it has been urged, before the Board of +Inquiry, that the conduct of the French armies upon like occasions, and +their known character, rendered it probable that a determined resistance +would in the present instance be maintained. We need not fear to say +that this conclusion, from reasons which have been adverted to, was +erroneous. But, in the mind of him who had admitted it upon whatever +ground, whether false or true, surely the first thought which followed, +ought to have been, not that we should bend to the enemy, but that, if +they were resolute in defence, we should learn from that example to be +courageous in attack. The tender feelings, however, are pleaded against +this determination; and it is said, that one of the motives for the +cessation of hostilities was to prevent the further effusion of human +blood.--When, or how? The enemy was delivered over to us; it was not to +be hoped that, cut off from all assistance as they were, these, or an +equal number of men, could ever be reduced to such straits as would +ensure their destruction as an enemy, with so small a sacrifice of life +on their part, or on ours. What then was to be gained by this +tenderness? The shedding of a few drops of blood is not to be risked in +Portugal to-day, and streams of blood must shortly flow from the same +veins in the fields of Spain! And, even if this had not been the assured +consequence, let not the consideration, though it be one which no humane +man can ever lose sight of, have more than its due weight. For national +independence and liberty, and _that_ honour by which these and other +blessings are to be preserved, honour--which is no other than the most +elevated and pure conception of justice which can be formed, these are +more precious than life: else why have we already lost so many brave men +in this struggle?--Why not submit at once, and let the Tyrant mount upon +his throne of universal dominion, while the world lies prostrate at his +feet in indifference and apathy, which he will proclaim to it is peace +and happiness? But peace and happiness can exist only by knowledge and +virtue; slavery has no enduring connection with tranquillity or +security--she cannot frame a league with any thing which is +desirable--she has no charter even for her own ignoble ease and darling +sloth. Yet to this abject condition, mankind, betrayed by an ill-judging +tenderness, would surely be led; and in the face of an inevitable +contradiction! For neither in this state of things would the shedding of +blood be prevented, nor would warfare cease. The only difference would +be, that, instead of wars like those which prevail at this moment, +presenting a spectacle of such character that, upon one side at least, a +superior Being might look down with favour and blessing, there would +follow endless commotions and quarrels without the presence of justice +any where,--in which the alternations of success would not excite a wish +or regret; in which a prayer could not be uttered for a decision either +this way or that;--wars from no impulse in either of the combatants, but +rival instigations of demoniacal passion. If, therefore, by the faculty +of reason we can prophecy concerning the shapes which the future may put +on,--if we are under any bond of duty to succeeding generations, there +is high cause to guard against a specious sensibility, which may +encourage the hoarding up of life for its own sake, seducing us from +those considerations by which we might learn when it ought to be +resigned. Moreover, disregarding future ages, and confining ourselves to +the present state of mankind, it may be safely affirmed that he, who is +the most watchful of the honour of his country, most determined to +preserve her fair name at all hazards, will be found, in any view of +things which looks beyond the passing hour, the best steward of the +_lives_ of his countrymen. For, by proving that she is of a firm temper, +that she will only submit or yield to a point of her own fixing, and +that all beyond is immutable resolution, he will save her from being +wantonly attacked; and, if attacked, will awe the aggressor into a +speedier abandonment of an unjust and hopeless attempt. Thus will he +preserve not only that which gives life its value, but life itself; and +not for his own country merely, but for that of his enemies, to whom he +will have offered an example of magnanimity, which will ensure to them +like benefits; an example, the re-action of which will be felt by his +own countrymen, and will prevent them from becoming assailants unjustly +or rashly. Nations will thus be taught to respect each other, and +mutually to abstain from injuries. And hence, by a benign ordinance of +our nature, genuine honour is the hand-maid of humanity; the attendant +and sustainer--both of the sterner qualities which constitute the +appropriate excellence of the male character, and of the gentle and +tender virtues which belong more especially to motherliness and +womanhood. These general laws, by which mankind is purified and exalted, +and by which Nations are preserved, suggest likewise the best rules for +the preservation of individual armies, and for the accomplishment of all +equitable service upon which they can be sent. + +Not therefore rashly and unfeelingly, but from the dictates of +thoughtful humanity, did I say that it was the business of our Generals +to fight, and to persevere in fighting; and that they did not bear this +duty sufficiently in mind; this, almost the sole duty which professional +soldiers, till our time, (happily for mankind) used to think of. But the +victories of the French have been attended every where by the subversion +of Governments; and their generals have accordingly united _political_ +with military functions: and with what success this has been done by +them, the present state of Europe affords melancholy proof. But have +they, on this account, ever neglected to calculate upon the advantages +which might fairly be anticipated from future warfare? Or, in a treaty +of to-day, have they ever forgotten a victory of yesterday? Eager to +grasp at the double honour of captain and negociator, have they ever +sacrificed the one to the other; or, in the blind effort, lost both? +Above all, in their readiness to flourish with the pen, have they ever +overlooked the sword, the symbol of their power, and the appropriate +instrument of their success and glory? I notice this assumption of a +double character on the part of the French, not to lament over it and +its consequences, but to render somewhat more intelligible the conduct +of our own Generals; and to explain how far men, whom we have no reason +to believe other than brave, have, through the influence of such +example, lost sight of their primary duties, apeing instead of +imitating, and following only to be misled. + +It is indeed deplorable, that our Generals, from this infirmity, or from +any other cause, did not assume that lofty deportment which the +character and relative strength of the two armies authorized them, and +the nature of the service upon which they were sent, enjoined them to +assume;--that they were in such haste to treat--that, with such an enemy +(let me say at once,) and in such circumstances, they should have +treated at all. Is it possible that they could ever have asked +themselves who that enemy was, how he came into that country, and what +he had done there? From the manifesto of the Portugueze government, +issued at Rio Janeiro, and from other official papers, they might have +learned, what was notorious to all Europe, that this body of men +commissioned by Bonaparte, in the time of profound peace, without a +declaration of war, had invaded Portugal under the command of Junot, who +had perfidiously entered the country, as the General of a friendly and +allied Power, assuring the people, as he advanced, that he came to +protect their Sovereign against an invasion of the English; and that, +when in this manner he had entered a peaceable kingdom, which offered no +resistance, and had expelled its lawful Sovereign, he wrung from it +unheard-of contributions, ravaged it, cursed it with domestic pillage +and open sacrilege; and that, when this unoffending people, unable to +endure any longer, rose up against the tyrant, he had given their towns +and villages to the flames, and put the whole country, thus resisting, +under military execution.--Setting aside all natural sympathy with the +Portugueze and Spanish nations, and all prudential considerations of +regard or respect for _their feelings_ towards these men, and for _their +expectations_ concerning the manner in which they ought to be dealt +with, it is plain that the French had forfeited by their crimes all +right to those privileges, or to those modes of intercourse, which one +army may demand from another according to the laws of war. They were not +soldiers in any thing but the power of soldiers, and the outward frame +of an army. During their occupation of Portugal, the laws and customs of +war had never been referred to by them, but as a plea for some enormity, +to the aggravated oppression of that unhappy country! Pillage, +sacrilege, and murder--sweeping murder and individual assassination, had +been proved against them by voices from every quarter. They had outlawed +themselves by their offences from membership in the community of war, +and from every species of community acknowledged by reason. But even, +should any one be so insensible as to question this, he will not at all +events deny, that the French ought to have been dealt with as having put +on a double character. For surely they never considered themselves +merely as an army. They had dissolved the established authorities of +Portugal, and had usurped the civil power of the government; and it was +in this compound capacity, under this twofold monstrous shape, that they +had exercised, over the religion and property of the country, the most +grievous oppressions. What then remained to protect them but their +power?--Right they had none,--and power! it is a mortifying +consideration, but I will ask if Bonaparte, (nor do I mean in the +question to imply any thing to his honour,) had been in the place of Sir +Hew Dalrymple, what would he have thought of their power?--Yet before +this shadow the solid substance of _justice_ melted away. + +And this leads me from the contemplation of their errors in the estimate +and application of means, to the contemplation of their heavier errors +and worse blindness in regard to ends. The British Generals acted as if +they had no purpose but that the enemy should be removed from the +country in which they were, upon _any_ terms. Now the evacuation of +Portugal was not the prime object, but the manner in which that event +was to be brought about; this ought to have been deemed first both in +order and importance;--the French were to be subdued, their ferocious +warfare and heinous policy to be confounded; and in this way, and no +other, was the deliverance of that country to be accomplished. It was +not for the soil, or for the cities and forts, that Portugal was valued, +but for the human feeling which was there; for the rights of human +nature which might be there conspicuously asserted; for a triumph over +injustice and oppression there to be achieved, which could neither be +concealed nor disguised, and which should penetrate the darkest corner +of the dark Continent of Europe by its splendour. We combated for +victory in the empire of reason, for strongholds in the imagination. +Lisbon and Portugal, as city and soil, were chiefly prized by us as a +_language_; but our Generals mistook the counters of the game for the +stake played for. The nation required that the French should surrender +at discretion;--grant that the victory of Vimiera had excited some +unreasonable impatience--we were not so overweening as to demand that +the enemy should surrender within a given time, but that they should +surrender. Every thing, short of this, was felt to be below the duties +of the occasion; not only no service, but a grievous injury. Only as far +as there was a prospect of forcing the enemy to an unconditional +submission, did the British Nation deem that they had a right to +interfere;--if that prospect failed, they expected that their army would +know that it became it to retire, and take care of itself. But our +Generals have told us, that the Convention would not have been admitted, +if they had not judged it right to effect, even upon these terms, the +evacuation of Portugal--as ministerial to their future services in +Spain. If this had been a common war between two established governments +measuring with each other their regular resources, there might have been +some appearance of force in this plea. But who does not cry out at once, +that the affections and opinions, that is, the souls of the people of +Spain and Portugal, must be the inspiration and the power, if this +labour is to be brought to a happy end? Therefore it was worse than +folly to think of supporting Spain by physical strength, at the expence +of moral. Besides, she was strong in men; she never earnestly solicited +troops from us; some of the Provinces had even refused them when +offered,--and all had been lukewarm in the acceptance of them. The +Spaniards could not _ultimately_ be benefited but by Allies acting under +the same impulses of honour, roused by a sense of their wrongs, and +sharing their loves and hatreds--above all, their _passion_ for justice. +They had themselves given an example, at Baylen, proclaiming to all the +world what ought to be aimed at by those who would uphold their cause, +and be associated in arms with them. And was the law of justice, which +Spaniards, Spanish peasantry, I might almost say, would not relax in +favour of Dupont, to be relaxed by a British army in favour of Junot? +Had the French commander at Lisbon, or his army, proved themselves less +perfidious, less cruel, or less rapacious than the other? Nay, did not +the pride and crimes of Junot call for humiliation and punishment far +more importunately, inasmuch as his power to do harm, and therefore his +will, keeping pace with it, had been greater? Yet, in the noble letter +of the Governor of Cadiz to Dupont, he expressly tells him, that his +conduct, and that of his army, had been such, that they owed their lives +only to that honour which forbad the Spanish army to become +executioners. The Portugueze also, as appears from various letters +produced before the Board of Inquiry, have shewn to our Generals, as +boldly as their respect for the British Nation would permit them to do, +what _they_ expected. A Portugueze General, who was also a member of the +regency appointed by the Prince Regent, says, in a protest addressed to +Sir Hew Dalrymple, that he had been able to drive the French out of the +provinces of Algarve and Alentejo; and therefore he could not be +convinced, that such a Convention was necessary. What was this but +implying that it was dishonourable, and that it would frustrate the +efforts which his country was making, and destroy the hopes which it had +built upon its own power? Another letter from a magistrate inveighs +against the Convention, as leaving the crimes of the French in Portugal +unpunished; as giving no indemnification for all the murders, robberies, +and atrocities which had been committed by them. But I feel that I shall +be wanting in respect to my countrymen if I pursue this argument +further. I blush that it should be necessary to speak upon the subject +at all. And these are men and things, which we have been reproved for +condemning, because evidence was wanting both as to fact and person! If +there ever was a case, which could not, in any rational sense of the +word, be prejudged, this is one. As to the fact--it appears, and sheds +from its own body, like the sun in heaven, the light by which it is +seen; as to the person--each has written down with his own hand, _I am +the man_. Condemnation of actions and men like these is not, in the +minds of a people, (thanks to the divine Being and to human nature!) a +matter of choice; it is like a physical necessity, as the hand must be +burned which is thrust into the furnace--the body chilled which stands +naked in the freezing north-wind. I am entitled to make this assertion +here, when the _moral_ depravity of the Convention, of which I shall +have to speak hereafter, has not even been touched upon. Nor let it be +blamed in any man, though his station be in private life, that upon this +occasion he speaks publicly, and gives a decisive opinion concerning +that part of this public event, and those measures, which are more +especially military. All have a right to speak, and to make their voices +heard, as far as they have power. For these are times, in which the +conduct of military men concerns us, perhaps, more intimately than that +of any other class; when the business of arms comes unhappily too near +to the fire-side; when the character and duties of a soldier ought to be +understood by every one who values his liberty, and bears in mind how +soon he may have to fight for it. Men will and ought to speak upon +things in which they are so deeply interested; how else are right +notions to spread, or is error to be destroyed? These are times also in +which, if we may judge from the proceedings and result of the Court of +Inquiry, the heads of the army, more than at any other period, stand in +need of being taught wisdom by the voice of the people. It is their own +interest, both as men and as soldiers, that the people should speak +fervently and fearlessly of their actions:--from no other quarter can +they be so powerfully reminded of the duties which they owe to +themselves, to their country, and to human nature. Let any one read the +evidence given before that Court, and he will there see, how much the +intellectual and moral constitution of many of our military officers, +has suffered by a profession, which, if not counteracted by admonitions +willingly listened to, and by habits of meditation, does, more than any +other, denaturalize--and therefore degrade the human being;--he will +note with sorrow, how faint are their sympathies with the best feelings, +and how dim their apprehension of some of the most awful truths, +relating to the happiness and dignity of man in society. But on this I +do not mean to insist at present; it is too weighty a subject to be +treated incidentally: and my purpose is--not to invalidate the authority +of military men, _positively_ considered, upon a military question, but +_comparatively_;--to maintain that there are military transactions upon +which the people have a right to be heard, and upon which their +authority is entitled to far more respect than any man or number of men +can lay claim to, who speak merely with the ordinary professional views +of soldiership;--that there are such military transactions;--and that +_this_ is one of them. + +The condemnation, which the people of these islands pronounced upon the +Convention of Cintra considered as to its main _military_ results, that +is, as a treaty by which it was established that the Russian fleet +should be surrendered on the terms specified; and by which, not only the +obligation of forcing the French army to an unconditional surrender was +abandoned, but its restoration in freedom and triumph to its own country +was secured;--the condemnation, pronounced by the people upon a treaty, +by virtue of which these things were to be done, I have +recorded--accounted for--and thereby justified.--I will now proceed to +another division of the subject, on which I feel a still more earnest +wish to speak; because, though in itself of the highest importance, it +has been comparatively neglected;--mean the political injustice and +moral depravity which are stamped upon the front of this agreement, and +pervade every regulation which it contains. I shall shew that our +Generals (and with them our Ministers, as far as they might have either +given directions to this effect, or have countenanced what has been +done)--when it was their paramount duty to maintain at all hazards the +noblest principles in unsuspected integrity; because, upon the summons +of these, and in defence of them, their Allies had risen, and by these +alone could stand--not only did not perform this duty, but descended as +far below the level of ordinary principles as they ought to have mounted +above it;--imitating not the majesty of the oak with which it lifts its +branches towards the heavens, but the vigour with which, in the language +of the poet, it strikes its roots downwards towards hell:-- + + Radice in Tartara tendit. + +The Armistice is the basis of the Convention; and in the first article +we find it agreed, 'That there shall be a suspension of hostilities +between the forces of his Britannic Majesty, and those of his Imperial +and Royal Majesty, Napoleon I.' I will ask if it be the practice of +military officers, in instruments of this kind, to acknowledge, in the +person of the head of the government with which they are at war, titles +which their own government--for which they are acting--has not +acknowledged. If this be the practice, which I will not stop to +determine, it is grossly improper; and ought to be abolished. Our +Generals, however, had entered Portugal as Allies of a Government by +which this title had been acknowledged; and they might have pleaded this +circumstance in mitigation of their offence; but surely not in an +instrument, where we not only look in vain for the name of the +Portugueze Sovereign, or of the Government which he appointed, or of any +heads or representatives of the Portugueze armies or people as a party +in the contract,--but where it is stipulated (in the 4th article) that +the British General shall engage to include the Portugueze armies in +this Convention. What an outrage!--We enter the Portugueze territory as +Allies; and, without their consent--or even consulting them, we proceed +to form the basis of an agreement, relating--- not to the safety or +interests of our own army--but to Portugueze territory, Portugueze +persons, liberties, and rights,--and engage, out of our own will and +power, to include the Portugueze army, they or their Government willing +or not, within the obligation of this agreement. I place these things in +contrast, viz. the acknowledgement of Bonaparte as emperor and king, and +the utter neglect of the Portugueze Sovereign and Portugueze +authorities, to shew in what spirit and temper these agreements were +entered upon. I will not here insist upon what was our duty, on this +occasion, to the Portugueze--as dictated by those sublime precepts of +justice which it has been proved that they and the Spaniards had risen +to defend,--and without feeling the force and sanctity of which, they +neither could have risen, nor can oppose to their enemy resistance which +has any hope in it; but I will ask, of any man who is not dead to the +common feelings of his social nature--and besotted in understanding, if +this be not a cruel mockery, and which must have been felt, unless it +were repelled with hatred and scorn, as a heart-breaking insult. +Moreover, this conduct acknowledges, by implication, that principle +which by his actions the enemy has for a long time covertly maintained, +and now openly and insolently avows in his words--that power is the +measure of right;--and it is in a steady adherence to this abominable +doctrine that his strength mainly lies. I do maintain then that, as far +as the conduct of our Generals in framing these instruments tends to +reconcile men to this course of action, and to sanction this principle, +they are virtually his Allies: their weapons may be against him, but he +will laugh at their weapons,--for he knows, though they themselves do +not, that their souls are for him. Look at the preamble to the +Armistice! In what is omitted and what is inserted, the French Ruler +could not have fashioned it more for his own purpose if he had traced it +with his own hand. We have then trampled upon a fundamental principle of +justice, and countenanced a prime maxim of iniquity; thus adding, in an +unexampled degree, the foolishness of impolicy to the heinousness of +guilt. A conduct thus grossly unjust and impolitic, without having the +hatred which it inspires neutralised by the contempt, is made +contemptible by utterly wanting that colour of right which authority and +power, put forth in defence of our Allies--in asserting their just +claims and avenging their injuries, might have given. But we, instead of +triumphantly displaying our power towards our enemies, have +ostentatiously exercised it upon our friends; reversing here, as every +where, the practice of sense and reason;--conciliatory even to abject +submission where we ought to have been haughty and commanding,--and +repulsive and tyrannical where we ought to have been gracious and kind. +Even a common law of good breeding would have served us here, had we +known how to apply it. We ought to have endeavoured to raise the +Portugueze in their own estimation by concealing our power in comparison +with theirs; dealing with them in the spirit of those mild and humane +delusions, which spread such a genial grace over the intercourse, and +add so much to the influence of love in the concerns of private life. It +is a common saying, presume that a man is dishonest, and that is the +readiest way to make him so: in like manner it may be said, presume that +a nation is weak, and that is the surest course to bring it to +weakness,--if it be not rouzed to prove its strength by applying it to +the humiliation of your pride. The Portugueze had been weak; and, in +connection with their Allies the Spaniards, they were prepared to become +strong. It was, therefore, doubly incumbent upon us to foster and +encourage them--to look favourably upon their efforts--generously to +give them credit upon their promises--to hope with them and for them; +and, thus anticipating and foreseeing, we should, by a natural +operation of love, have contributed to create the merits which were +anticipated and foreseen. I apply these rules, taken from the +intercourse between individuals, to the conduct of large bodies of men, +or of nations towards each other, because these are nothing but +aggregates of individuals; and because the maxims of all just law, and +the measures of all sane practice, are only an enlarged or modified +application of those dispositions of love and those principles of +reason, by which the welfare of individuals, in their connection with +each other, is promoted. There was also here a still more urgent call +for these courteous and humane principles as guides of conduct; because, +in exact proportion to the physical weakness of Governments, and to the +distraction and confusion which cannot but prevail, when a people is +struggling for independence and liberty, are the well-intentioned and +the wise among them remitted for their support to those benign +elementary feelings of society, for the preservation and cherishing of +which, among other important objects, government was from the beginning +ordained. + +Therefore, by the strongest obligations, we were bound to be studious of +a delicate and respectful bearing towards those ill-fated nations, our +Allies: and consequently, if the government of the Portugueze, though +weak in power, possessed their affections, and was strong in right, it +was incumbent upon us to turn our first thoughts to that government,--to +look for it if it were hidden--to call it forth,--and, by our power +combined with that of the people, to assert its rights. Or, if the +government were dissolved and had no existence, it was our duty, in such +an emergency, to have resorted to the nation, expressing its will +through the most respectable and conspicuous authority, through that +which seemed to have the best right to stand forth as its +representative. In whatever circumstances Portugal had been placed, the +paramount right of the Portugueze nation, or government, to appear not +merely as a party but a principal, ought to have been established as a +primary position, without the admission of which, all proposals to treat +would be peremptorily rejected. But the Portugueze _had_ a government; +they had a lawful prince in Brazil; and a regency, appointed by him, at +home; and generals, at the head of considerable bodies of troops, +appointed also by the regency or the prince. Well then might one of +those generals enter a formal protest against the treaty, on account of +its being 'totally void of that deference due to the prince regent, or +the government that represents him; as being hostile to the sovereign +authority and independence of that government; and as being against the +honour, safety, and independence of the nation.' I have already reminded +the reader, of the benign and happy influences which might have attended +upon a different conduct; how much good we might have added to that +already in existence; how far we might have assisted in strengthening, +among our Allies, those powers, and in developing those virtues, which +were producing themselves by a natural process, and to which these +breathings of insult must have been a deadly check and interruption. Nor +would the evil be merely negative; for the interference of professed +friends, acting in this manner, must have superinduced dispositions and +passions, which were alien to the condition of the +Portugueze;--scattered weeds which could not have been found upon the +soil, if our ignorant hands had not sown them. Of this I will not now +speak, for I have already detained the reader too long at the +threshold;--but I have put the master key into his possession; and every +chamber which he opens will be found loathsome as the one which he last +quitted. Let us then proceed. + +By the first article of the Convention it is covenanted, that all the +places and forts in the kingdom of Portugal, occupied by the French +troops, shall be delivered to the British army. Articles IV. and XII. +are to the same effect--determining the surrender of Portugueze +fortified places, stores, and ships, to the English forces; but not a +word of their being to be holden in trust for the prince regent, or his +government, to whom they belonged! The same neglect or contempt of +justice and decency is shewn here, as in the preamble to these +instruments. It was further shewn afterwards, by the act of hoisting the +British flag instead of the Portugueze upon these forts, when they were +first taken possession of by the British forces. It is no excuse to say +that this was not intended. Such inattentions are among the most +grievous faults which can be committed; and are _impossible_, when the +affections and understandings of men are of that quality, and in that +state, which are required for a service in which there is any thing +noble or virtuous. Again, suppose that it was the purpose of the +generals, who signed and ratified a Convention containing the articles +in question, that the forts and ships, &c. should be delivered +immediately to the Portugueze government,--would the delivering up of +them wipe away the affront? Would it not rather appear, after the +omission to recognize the right, that we had ostentatiously taken upon +us to bestow--as a boon--- that which they felt to be their own? + +Passing by, as already deliberated and decided upon, those conditions, +(Articles II. and III.) by which it is stipulated, that the French army +shall not be considered as prisoners of war, shall be conveyed with +arms, &c. to some port between Rochefort and L'Orient, and be at liberty +to serve; I come to that memorable condition, (Article V.) 'that the +French army shall carry with it all its equipments, that is to say, its +military chests and carriages, attached to the field commissariat and +field hospitals, or shall be allowed to dispose of such part, as the +Commander in Chief may judge it unnecessary to embark. In like manner +all individuals of the army shall be at liberty to dispose of _their +private property_ of _every_ description, with full security hereafter +for the purchasers.' This is expressed still more pointedly in the +Armistice,--though the meaning, implied in the two articles, is +precisely the same. For, in the fifth article of the Armistice, it is +agreed provisionally, 'that all those, of whom the French army consists, +shall be conveyed to France with arms and baggage, _and_ all their +private property of every description, no part of which shall be wrested +from them.' In the Convention it is only expressed, that they shall be +at liberty to depart, (Article II.) with arms and baggage, and (Article +V.) to dispose of their private property of every description. But, if +they had a right to dispose of it, _this_ would include a right to carry +it away--which was undoubtedly understood by the French general. And in +the Armistice it is expressly said, that their private property of every +description shall be conveyed to France along with their persons. What +then are we to understand by the words, _their private property of every +description_? Equipments of the army in general, and baggage of +individuals, had been stipulated for before: now we all know that the +lawful professional gains and earnings of a soldier must be small; that +he is not in the habit of carrying about him, during actual warfare, any +accumulation of these or other property; and that the ordinary private +property, which he can be supposed to have a _just_ title to, is +included under the name of his _baggage_;--therefore this was something +more; and what it was--is apparent. No part of their property, says the +Armistice, shall be _wrested from them_. Who does not see in these words +the consciousness of guilt, an indirect self-betraying admission that +they had in their hands treasures which might be lawfully taken from +them, and an anxiety to prevent that act of justice by a positive +stipulation? Who does not see, on what sort of property the Frenchman +had his eye; that it was not property by right, but their +_possessions_--their plunder--every thing, by what means soever +acquired, that the French army, or any individual in it, was possessed +of? But it has been urged, that the monstrousness of such a supposition +precludes this interpretation, renders it impossible that it could +either be intended by the one party, or so understood by the other. What +right they who signed, and he who ratified this Convention, have to +shelter themselves under this plea--will appear from the 16th and 17th +articles. In these it is stipulated, 'that all subjects of France, or of +Powers in alliance with France, domiciliated in Portugal, or +accidentally in the country, shall have their property of every +kind--moveable and immoveable--guaranteed to them, with liberty of +retaining or disposing of it, and passing the produce into France:' the +same is stipulated, (Article XVII.) for such natives of Portugal as have +sided with the French, or occupied situations under _the French +Government_. Here then is a direct avowal, still more monstrous, that +every Frenchman, or native of a country in alliance with France, however +obnoxious his crimes may have made him, and every traitorous Portugueze, +shall have his property guaranteed to him (both previously to and after +the reinstatement of the Portugueze government) by the British army! Now +let us ask, what sense the word property must have had fastened to it in +_these_ cases. Must it not necessarily have included all the rewards +which the Frenchman had received for his iniquity, and the traitorous +Portugueze for his treason? (for no man would bear a part in such +oppressions, or would be a traitor for nothing; and, moreover, all the +rewards, which the French could bestow, must have been taken from the +Portugueze, extorted from the honest and loyal, to be given to the +wicked and disloyal.) These rewards of iniquity must necessarily have +been included; for, on our side, no attempt is made at a distinction; +and, on the side of the French, the word _immoveable_ is manifestly +intended to preclude such a distinction, where alone it could have been +effectual. Property, then, here means--possessions thus infamously +acquired; and, in the instance of the Portugueze, the fundamental notion +of the word is subverted; for a traitor can have no property, till the +government of his own country has remitted the punishment due to his +crimes. And these wages of guilt, which the master by such exactions was +enabled to pay, and which the servant thus earned, are to be guaranteed +to him by a British _army_! Where does there exist a power on earth that +could confer this right? If the Portugueze government itself had acted +in this manner, it would have been guilty of wilful suicide; and the +nation, if it had acted so, of high treason against itself. Let it not, +then, be said, that the monstrousness of covenanting to convey, along +with the persons of the French, their plunder, secures the article from +the interpretation which the people of Great Britain gave, and which, I +have now proved, they were bound to give to it.--But, conceding for a +moment, that it was not intended that the words should bear this sense, +and that, neither in a fair grammatical construction, nor as illustrated +by other passages or by the general tenour of the document, they +actually did bear it, had not unquestionable voices proclaimed the +cruelty and rapacity--the acts of sacrilege, assassination, and robbery, +by which these treasures had been amassed? Was not the perfidy of the +French army, and its contempt of moral obligation, both as a body and as +to the individuals which composed it, infamous through +Europe?--Therefore, the concession would signify nothing: for our +Generals, by allowing an army of this character to depart with its +equipments, waggons, military chest, and baggage, had provided abundant +means to enable it to carry off whatsoever it desired, and thus to elude +and frustrate any stipulations which might have been made for compelling +it to restore that which had been so iniquitously seized. And here are +we brought back to the fountain-head of all this baseness; to that +apathy and deadness to the principle of justice, through the influence +of which, this army, outlawed by its crimes, was suffered to depart from +the Land, over which it had so long tyrannized--other than as a band of +disarmed prisoners.--I maintain, therefore, that permission to carry off +the booty was distinctly expressed; and, if it had not been so, that +the principle of justice could not here be preserved; as a violation of +it must necessarily have followed from other conditions of the treaty. +Sir Hew Dalrymple himself, before the Court of Inquiry, has told us, in +two letters (to Generals Beresford and Friere,) that 'such part of the +plunder as was in money, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to +identify;' and, consequently, the French could not be prevented from +carrying it away with them. From the same letters we learn, that 'the +French were intending to carry off a considerable part of their plunder, +by calling it public money, and saying that it belonged to the military +chest; and that their evasions of the article were most shameful, and +evinced a want of probity and honour, which was most disgraceful to +them.' If the French had given no other proofs of their want of such +virtues, than those furnished by this occasion, neither the Portugueze, +nor Spanish, nor British nations would condemn them, nor hate them as +they now do; nor would this article of the Convention have excited such +indignation. For the French, by so acting, could not deem themselves +breaking an engagement; no doubt they looked upon themselves as +injured,--that the failure in good faith was on the part of the British; +and that it was in the lawlessness of power, and by a mere quibble, that +this construction was afterwards put upon the article in question. + +Widely different from the conduct of the British was that of the +Spaniards in a like case:--with high feeling did they, abating not a jot +or a tittle, enforce the principle of justice. 'How,' says the governor +of Cadiz to General Dupont in the same noble letter before alluded to, +'how,' says he, after enumerating the afflictions which his army, and +the tyrant who had sent it, had unjustly brought upon the Spanish +nation, (for of these, in _their_ dealings with the French, they never +for a moment lost sight,) 'how,' asks he, 'could you expect, that your +army should carry off from Spain the fruit of its rapacity, cruelty, and +impiety? how could you conceive this possible, or that we should be so +stupid or senseless?' And this conduct is as wise in reason as it is +true to nature. The Spanish people could have had no confidence in their +government, if it had not acted thus. These are the sympathies which, +prove that a government is paternal,--that it makes one family with the +people: besides, it is only by such adherence to justice, that, in +times of like commotion, popular excesses can either be mitigated or +prevented. If we would be efficient allies of Spain, nay, if we would +not run the risk of doing infinite harm, these sentiments must not only +be ours as a nation, but they must pervade the hearts of our ministers +and our generals--our agents and our ambassadors. If it be not so, they, +who are sent abroad, must either be conscious how unworthy they are, and +with what unworthy commissions they appear, or not: if they do feel +this, then they must hang their heads, and blush for their country and +themselves; if they do not, the Spaniards must blush for them and revolt +from them; or, what would be ten thousand times more deplorable, they +must purchase a reconcilement and a communion by a sacrifice of all that +is excellent in themselves. Spain must either break down her lofty +spirit, her animation and fiery courage, to run side by side in the same +trammels with Great Britain; or she must start off from her intended +yoke-fellow with contempt and aversion. This is the alternative, and +there is no avoiding it. + +I have yet to speak of the influence of such concessions upon the French +Ruler and his army. With what Satanic pride must he have contemplated +the devotion of his servants and adherents to _their_ law, the +steadiness and zeal of their perverse loyalty, and the faithfulness with +which they stand by him and each other! How must his heart have +distended with false glory, while he contrasted these qualities of his +subjects with the insensibility and slackness of his British enemies! +This notice has, however, no especial propriety in this place; for, as +far as concerns Bonaparte, his pride and depraved confidence may be +equally fed by almost all the conditions of this instrument. But, as to +his army, it is plain that the permission (whether it be considered as +by an express article formally granted, or only involved in the general +conditions of the treaty), to bear away in triumph the harvest of its +crimes, must not only have emboldened and exalted it with arrogance, and +whetted its rapacity; but that hereby every soldier, of which this army +was composed, must, upon his arrival in his own country, have been a +seed which would give back plenteously in its kind. The French are at +present a needy people, without commerce or manufactures,--unsettled in +their minds and debased in their morals by revolutionary practices and +habits of warfare; and the youth of the country are rendered desperate +by oppression, which, leaving no choice in their occupation, discharges +them from all responsibility to their own consciences. How powerful then +must have been the action of such incitements upon a people so +circumstanced! The actual sight, and, far more, the imaginary sight and +handling of these treasures, magnified by the romantic tales which must +have been spread about them, would carry into every town and village an +antidote for the terrors of conscription; and would rouze men, like the +dreams imported from the new world when the first discoverers and +adventurers returned, with their ingots and their gold dust--their +stories and their promises, to inflame and madden the avarice of the +old. 'What an effect,' says the Governor of Cadiz, 'must it have upon +the people,' (he means the Spanish people,) 'to know that a single +soldier was carrying away 2580 livres tournois!' What an effect, (he +might have said also,) must it have upon the French!--I direct the +reader's attention to this, because it seems to have been overlooked; +and because some of the public journals, speaking of the Convention, +(and, no doubt, uttering the sentiments of several of their +readers,)--say 'that they are disgusted with the transaction, not +because the French have been permitted to carry off a few diamonds, or +some ingots of silver; but because we confessed, by consenting to the +treaty, that an army of 35,000 British troops, aided by the Portugueze +nation, was not able to compel 20,000 French to surrender at +discretion.' This is indeed the root of the evil, as hath been shewn; +and it is the curse of this treaty, that the several parts of it are of +such enormity as singly to occupy the attention and to destroy +comparison and coexistence. But the people of Great Britain are +disgusted both with the one and the other. They bewail the violation of +the principle: if the value of the things carried off had been in itself +trifling, their grief and their indignation would have been scarcely +less. But it is manifest, from what has been said, that it was not +trifling; and that therefore, (upon that account as well as upon +others,) this permission was no less impolitic than it was unjust and +dishonourable. + +In illustrating these articles of the Armistice and Convention, by which +the French were both expressly permitted and indirectly enabled to carry +off their booty, we have already seen, that a concession was made which +is still more enormous; viz. that all subjects of France, or of powers +in alliance with France, domiciliated in Portugal or resident there, and +all natives of Portugal who have accepted situations under _the French +government_, &c., shall have their _property_ of every kind guaranteed +to them by the British army. By articles 16th and 17th, their _persons_ +are placed under the like protection. 'The French' (Article XVI.) 'shall +be at liberty either to accompany the French army, or to remain in +Portugal;' 'And the Portugueze' (Article XVII.) 'shall not be rendered +accountable for their political conduct during the period of the +occupation of the country by the French army: they all are placed under +the protection of the British commanders, and shall sustain no injury in +their property or persons.' + +I have animadverted, heretofore, upon the unprofessional eagerness of +our Generals to appear in the character of negotiators when the sword +would have done them more service than the pen. But, if they had +confined themselves to mere military regulations, they might indeed with +justice have been grievously censured as injudicious commanders, whose +notion of the honour of armies was of a low pitch, and who had no +conception of the peculiar nature of the service in which they were +engaged: but the censure must have stopped here. Whereas, by these +provisions, they have shewn that they have never reflected upon the +nature of military authority as contra-distinguished from civil. French +example had so far dazzled and blinded them, that the French army is +suffered to denominate itself '_the French government_;' and, from the +whole tenour of these instruments, (from the preamble, and these +articles especially,) it should seem that our Generals fancied +themselves and their army to be _the British government_. For these +regulations, emanating from a mere military authority, are purely civil; +but of such a kind, that no power on earth could confer a right to +establish them. And this trampling upon the most sacred rights--this +sacrifice of the consciousness of a self-preserving principle, without +which neither societies nor governments can exist, is not made by our +generals in relation to subjects of their own sovereign, but to an +independent nation, our ally, into whose territories we could not have +entered but from its confidence in our friendship and good faith. Surely +the persons, who (under the countenance of too high authority) have +talked so loudly of prejudging this question, entirely overlooked or +utterly forgot this part of it. What have these monstrous provisions to +do with the relative strength of the two armies, or with any point +admitting a doubt? What need here of a Court of Judicature to settle who +were the persons (their names are subscribed by their own hands), and to +determine the quality of the thing? Actions and agents like these, +exhibited in this connection with each other, must of necessity be +condemned the moment they are known: and to assert the contrary, is to +maintain that man is a being without understanding, and that morality is +an empty dream. And, if this condemnation must after this manner follow, +to utter it is less a duty than a further inevitable consequence from +the constitution of human nature. They, who hold that the formal +sanction of a Court of Judicature is in this case required before a +people has a right to pass sentence know not to what degree they are +enemies to that people and to mankind; to what degree selfishness, +whether arising from their peculiar situation or from other causes, has +in them prevailed over those faculties which are our common inheritance, +and cut them off from fellowship with the species. Most deplorable would +be the result, if it were possible that the injunctions of these men +could be obeyed, or their remonstrances acknowledged to be just. For, +(not to mention that, if it were not for such prompt decisions of the +public voice, misdemeanours of men high in office would rarely be +accounted for at all,) we must bear in mind, at this crisis, that the +adversary of all good is hourly and daily extending his ravages; and, +according to such notions of fitness, our indignation, our sorrow, our +shame, our sense of right and wrong, and all those moral affections, and +powers of the understanding, by which alone he can be effectually +opposed, are to enter upon a long vacation; their motion is to be +suspended--a thing impossible; if it could, it would be destroyed. + +Let us now see what language the Portugueze speak upon that part of the +treaty which has incited me to give vent to these feelings, and to +assert these truths. 'I protest,' says General Friere, 'against Article +XVII., one of the two now under examination, because it attempts to tie +down the government of this kingdom not to bring to justice and condign +punishment those persons, who have been notoriously and scandalously +disloyal to their prince and the country by joining and serving the +French party: and, even if the English army should be allowed to screen +them from the punishment they have deserved, still it should not prevent +their expulsion--whereby this country would no longer have to fear being +again betrayed by the same men.' Yet, while the partizans of the French +are thus guarded, not a word is said to protect the loyal Portugueze, +whose fidelity to their country and their prince must have rendered them +obnoxious to the French army; and who in Lisbon and the environs, were +left at its mercy from the day when the Convention was signed, till the +departure of the French. Couple also with this the first additional +article, by which it is agreed, 'that the individuals in the civil +employment of the army,' (including all the agitators, spies, informers, +all the jackals of the ravenous lion,) 'made prisoners either by the +British troops or the Portugueze in any part of Portugal, will be +restored (_as is customary_) without exchange.' That is, no stipulations +being made for reciprocal conditions! In fact, through the whole course +of this strange interference of a military power with the administration +of civil justice in the country of an Ally, there is only one article +(the 15th) which bears the least shew of attention to Portugueze +interests. By this it is stipulated, 'That, from the date of the +ratification of the Convention, all arrears of contributions, +requisitions, or claims whatever of the French Government against +subjects of Portugal, or any other individuals residing in this country, +founded on the occupation of Portugal by the French troops in the month +of December 1807, which may not have been paid up, are cancelled: and +all sequestrations, laid upon their property moveable or immoveable, are +removed; and the free disposal of the same is restored to the proper +owners.' Which amounts to this. The French are called upon formally to +relinquish, in favour of the Portugueze, that to which they never had +any right; to abandon false claims, which they either had a power to +enforce, or they had not: if they departed immediately and had _not_ +power, the article was nugatory; if they remained a day longer and _had_ +power, there was no security that they would abide by it. Accordingly, +loud complaints were made that, after the date of the Convention, all +kinds of ravages were committed by the French upon Lisbon and its +neighbourhood: and what did it matter whether these were upon the plea +of old debts and requisitions; or new debts were created more greedily +than ever--from the consciousness that the time for collecting them was +so short? This article, then, the only one which is even in shew +favourable to the Portugueze, is, in substance, nothing: inasmuch as, in +what it is silent upon, (viz. that the People of Lisbon and its +neighbourhood shall not be vexed and oppressed by the French, during +their stay, with new claims and robberies,) it is grossly cruel or +negligent; and, in that for which it actually stipulates, wholly +delusive. It is in fact insulting; for the very admission of a formal +renunciation of these claims does to a certain degree acknowledge their +justice. The only decent manner of introducing matter to this effect +would have been by placing it as a bye clause of a provision that +secured the Portugueze from further molestations, and merely alluding to +it as a thing understood of course. Yet, from the place which this +specious article occupies, (preceding immediately the 16th and 17th +which we have been last considering,) it is clear that it must have been +intended by the French General as honey smeared upon the edge of the +cup--to make the poison, contained in those two, more palateable. + +Thus much for the Portugueze, and their particular interests. In one +instance, a concern of the Spanish Nation comes directly under notice; +and that Nation also is treated without delicacy or feeling. For by the +18th article it is agreed, 'that the Spaniards, (4000 in number) who had +been disarmed, and were confined on ship-board in the port of Lisbon by +the French, should be liberated.' And upon what consideration? Not upon +their _right_ to be free, as having been treacherously and cruelly dealt +with by men who were part of a Power that was labouring to subjugate +their country, and in this attempt had committed inhuman crimes against +it;--not even exchanged as soldiers against soldiers:--but the condition +of their emancipation is, that the British General engages 'to obtain of +the Spaniards to restore such French subjects, either military or civil, +as have been detained in Spain, without having been taken in battle or +in consequence of military operations, but on account of the +_occurrences_ of the 29th of last May and the days immediately +following. '_Occurrences_!' I know not what are exactly the features of +the face for which this word serves as a veil: I have no register at +hand to inform me what these events precisely were: but there can be no +doubt that it was a time of triumph for liberty and humanity; and that +the persons, for whom these noble-minded Spaniards were to be exchanged, +were no other than a horde from among the most abject of the French +Nation; probably those wretches, who, having never faced either the +dangers or the fatigues of war, had been most busy in secret +preparations or were most conspicuous in open acts of massacre, when the +streets of Madrid, a few weeks before, had been drenched with the blood +of two thousand of her bravest citizens. Yet the liberation of these +Spaniards, upon these terms, is recorded (in the report of the Court of +Enquiry) 'as one of the advantages which, in the contemplation of the +Generals, would result from the Convention!' + +Finally, 'If there shall be any doubt (Article XIV.) as to the meaning +of any article, it shall be explained favourably to the French Army; and +Hostages (Article XX.) of the rank of Field Officers, on the part of the +British Army and Navy, shall be furnished for the guarantee of the +present Convention.' + +I have now gone through the painful task of examining the most material +conditions of the CONVENTION of CINTRA:--the whole number of the +articles is twenty-two, with three additional ones--a long ladder into a +deep abyss of infamy!-- + +Need it be said that neglects--injuries--and insults--like these which +we have been contemplating, come from what quarter they may, let them be +exhibited towards whom they will, must produce not merely mistrust and +jealousy, but alienation and hatred. The passions and feelings may be +quieted or diverted for a short time; but, though out of sight or +seemingly asleep, they must exist; and the life which they have received +cannot, but by a long course of justice and kindness, be overcome and +destroyed. But why talk of a long course of justice and kindness, when +the immediate result must have been so deplorable? Relying upon our +humanity, our fellow-feeling, and our justice, upon these instant and +urgent claims, sanctioned by the more mild one of ancient alliance, the +Portugueze People by voices from every part of their land entreated our +succour; the arrival of a British Army upon their coasts was joyfully +hailed; and the people of the country zealously assisted in landing the +troops; without which help, as a British General has informed us, that +landing could not have been effected. And it is in this manner that +they are repaid! Scarcely have we set foot upon their country before we +sting them into self-reproaches, and act in every thing as if it were +our wish to make them ashamed of their generous confidence as of a +foolish simplicity--proclaiming to them that they have escaped from one +thraldom only to fall into another. If the French had any traitorous +partizans in Portugal, (and we have seen that such there were; and that +nothing was left undone on our part, which could be done, to keep them +there, and to strengthen them) what answer could have been given to one +of these, if (with this treaty in his hand) he had said, 'The French +have dealt hardly with us, I allow; but we have gained nothing: the +change is not for the better, but for the worse: for the appetite of +their tyranny was palled; but this, being new to its food, is keen and +vigorous. If you have only a choice between two masters, (such an +advocate might have argued) chose always the stronger: for he, after his +evil passions have had their first harvest, confident in his strength, +will not torment you wantonly in order to prove it. Besides, the +property which he has in you he can maintain; and there will be no risk +of your being torn in pieces--the unsettled prey of two rival claimants. +You will thus have the advantage of a fixed and assured object of your +hatred: and your fear, being stripped of doubt, will lose its motion and +its edge: both passions will relax and grow mild; and, though they may +not turn into reconcilement and love, though you may not be independent +nor be free, yet you will at least exist in tranquillity,--and possess, +if not the activity of hope, the security of despair.' No effectual +answer, I say, could have been given to a man pleading thus in such +circumstances. So much for the choice of evils. But, for the hope of +good!--what is to become of the efforts and high resolutions of the +Portugueze and Spanish Nations, manifested by their own hand in the +manner which we have seen? They may live indeed and prosper; but not by +us, but in despite of us. + +Whatever may be the character of the Portugueze Nation; be it true or +not, that they had a becoming sense of the injuries which they had +received from the French Invader, and were rouzed to throw off +oppression by a universal effort, and to form a living barrier against +it;--certain it is that, betrayed and trampled upon as they had been, +they held unprecedented claims upon humanity to secure them from further +outrages.--Moreover, our conduct towards them was grossly inconsistent. +For we entered their country upon the supposition that they had such +sensibility and virtue; we announced to them publickly and solemnly our +belief in this: and indeed to have landed a force in the Peninsula upon +any other inducement would have been the excess of folly and madness. +But the Portugueze _are_ a brave people--a people of great courage and +worth! Conclusions, drawn from intercourse with certain classes of the +depraved inhabitants of Lisbon only, and which are true only with +respect to them, have been hastily extended to the whole Nation, which +has thus unjustly suffered both in our esteem and in that of all Europe. +In common with their neighbours the Spaniards, they _were_ making a +universal, zealous, and fearless effort; and, whatever may be the final +issue, the very act of having risen under the pressure and in the face +of the most tremendous military power which the earth has ever seen--is +itself evidence in their favour, the strongest and most comprehensive +which can be given; a transcendent glory! which, let it be remembered, +no subsequent failures in duty on their part can forfeit. This they must +have felt--that they had furnished an illustrious example; and that +nothing can abolish their claim upon the good wishes and upon the +gratitude of mankind, which is--and will be through all ages their due. +At such a time, then, injuries and insults from any quarter would have +been deplorable; but, proceeding from us, the evil must have been +aggravated beyond calculation. For we have, throughout Europe, the +character of a sage and meditative people. Our history has been read by +the degraded Nations of the Continent with admiration, and some portions +of it with awe; with a recognition of superiority and distance, which +was honourable to us--salutary for those to whose hearts, in their +depressed state, it could find entrance--and promising for the future +condition of the human race. We have been looked up to as a people who +have acted nobly; whom their constitution of government has enabled to +speak and write freely, and who therefore have thought comprehensively; +as a people among whom philosophers and poets, by their surpassing +genius--their wisdom--and knowledge of human nature, have +circulated--and made familiar--divinely-tempered sentiments and the +purest notions concerning the duties and true dignity of individual and +social man in all situations and under all trials. By so readily +acceding to the prayers with which the Spaniards and Portugueze +entreated our assistance, we had proved to them that we were not wanting +in fellow-feeling. Therefore might we be admitted to be judges between +them and their enemies--unexceptionable judges--more competent even than +a dispassionate posterity, which, from the very want comparatively of +interest and passion, might be in its examination remiss and negligent, +and therefore in its decision erroneous. We, their contemporaries, were +drawn towards them as suffering beings; but still their sufferings were +not ours, nor could be; and we seemed to stand at that due point of +distance from which right and wrong might be fairly looked at and seen +in their just proportions. Every thing conspired to prepossess the +Spaniards and Portugueze in our favour, and to give the judgment of the +British Nation authority in their eyes. Strange, then, would be their +first sensations, when, upon further trial, instead of a growing +sympathy, they met with demonstrations of a state of sentiment and +opinion abhorrent from their own. A shock must have followed upon this +discovery, a shock to their confidence--not perhaps at first in us, but +in themselves: for, like all men under the agitation of extreme passion, +no doubt they had before experienced occasional misgivings that they +were subject to error and distraction from afflictions pressing too +violently upon them. These flying apprehensions would now take a fixed +place; and that moment would be most painful. If they continued to +respect our opinion, so far must they have mistrusted themselves: fatal +mistrust at such a crisis! Their passion of just vengeance, their +indignation, their aspiring hopes, everything that elevated and cheared, +must have departed from them. But this bad influence, the _excess_ of +the outrage would mitigate or prevent; and we may be assured that they +rather recoiled from Allies who had thus by their actions +discountenanced and condemned efforts, which the most solemn testimony +of conscience had avouched to them were just;--that they recoiled from +us with that loathing and contempt which unexpected, determined, and +absolute hostility, upon points of dearest interest will for ever +create. + +Again: independence and liberty were the blessings for which the people +of the Peninsula were contending--immediate independence, which was not +to be gained but by modes of exertion from which liberty must ensue. +Now, liberty--healthy, matured, time-honoured liberty--this is the +growth and peculiar boast of Britain; and Nature herself, by encircling +with the ocean the country which we inhabit, has proclaimed that this +mighty Nation is for ever to be her own ruler, and that the land is set +apart for the home of immortal independence. Judging then from these +first fruits of British Friendship, what bewildering and depressing and +hollow thoughts must the Spaniards and Portugueze have entertained +concerning the real value of these blessings, if the people who have +possessed them longest, and who ought to understand them best, could +send forth an army capable of enacting the oppression and baseness of +the Convention of Cintra; if the government of that people could +sanction this treaty; and if, lastly, this distinguished and favoured +people themselves could suffer it to be held forth to the eyes of men as +expressing the sense of their hearts--as an image of their +understandings. + +But it did not speak their sense--it was not endured--it was not +submitted to in their hearts. Bitter was the sorrow of the people of +Great Britain when the tidings first came to their ears, when they first +fixed their eyes upon this covenant--overwhelming was their +astonishment, tormenting their shame; their indignation was tumultuous; +and the burthen of the past would have been insupportable, if it had not +involved in its very nature a sustaining hope for the future. Among many +alleviations, there was one, which, (not wisely, but overcome by +circumstances) all were willing to admit;--that the event was so strange +and uncouth, exhibiting such discordant characteristics of innocent +fatuity and enormous guilt, that it could not without violence be +thought of as indicative of a general constitution of things, either in +the country or the government; but that it was a kind of _lusus +naturae_, in the moral world--a solitary straggler out of the +circumference of Nature's law--a monster which could not propagate, and +had no birth-right in futurity. Accordingly, the first expectation was +that the government would deem itself under the necessity of disanulling +the Convention; a necessity which, though in itself a great evil, +appeared small in the eyes of judicious men, compared with the +consequences of admitting that such a contract could be binding. For +they, who had signed and ratified it, had not only glaringly exceeded +all power which could be supposed to be vested in them as holding a +military office; but, in the exercise of political functions, they had +framed ordinances which neither the government, nor the Nation, nor any +Power on earth, could confer upon them a right to frame: therefore the +contract was self-destroying from the beginning. It is a wretched +oversight, or a wilful abuse of terms still more wretched, to speak of +the good faith of a Nation as being pledged to an act which was not a +shattering of the edifice of justice, but a subversion of its +foundations. One man cannot sign away the faculty of reason in another; +much less can one or two individuals do this for a whole people. +Therefore the contract was void, both from its injustice and its +absurdity; and the party, with whom it was made, must have known it to +be so. It could not then but be expected by many that the government +would reject it. Moreover, extraordinary outrages against reason and +virtue demand that extraordinary sacrifices of atonement should be made +upon their altars; and some were encouraged to think that a government +might upon this impulse rise above itself, and turn an exceeding +disgrace into true glory, by a public profession of shame and repentance +for having appointed such unworthy instruments; that, this being +acknowledged, it would clear itself from all imputation of having any +further connection with what had been done, and would provide that the +Nation should as speedily as possible, be purified from all suspicion of +looking upon it with other feelings than those of abhorrence. The people +knew what had been their own wishes when the army was sent in aid of +their Allies; and they clung to the faith, that their wishes and the +aims of the Government must have been in unison; and that the guilt +would soon be judicially fastened upon those who stood forth as +principals, and who (it was hoped) would be found to have fulfilled only +their own will and pleasure,--to have had no explicit commission or +implied encouragement for what they had done,--no accessaries in their +crime. The punishment of these persons was anticipated, not to satisfy +any cravings of vindictive justice (for these, if they could have +existed in such a case, had been thoroughly appeased already: for what +punishment could be greater than to have brought upon themselves the +sentence passed upon them by the voice of their countrymen?); but for +this reason--that a judicial condemnation of the men, who were openly +the proximate cause, and who were forgetfully considered as the single +and sole originating source, would make our detestation of the effect +more signally manifest. + +These thoughts, if not welcomed without scruple and relied upon without +fear, were at least encouraged; till it was recollected that the persons +at the head of government had ordered that the event should be +communicated to the inhabitants of the metropolis with signs of national +rejoicing. No wonder if, when these rejoicings were called to mind, it +was impossible to entertain the faith which would have been most +consolatory. The evil appeared no longer as the forlorn monster which I +have described. It put on another shape and was endued with a more +formidable life--with power to generate and transmit after its kind. A +new and alarming import was added to the event by this open testimony of +gladness and approbation; which intimated--which declared--that the +spirit, which swayed the individuals who were the ostensible and +immediate authors of the Convention, was not confined to them; but that +it was widely prevalent: else it could not have been found in the very +council-seat; there, where if wisdom and virtue have not some influence, +what is to become of the Nation in these times of peril? rather say, +into what an abyss is it already fallen! + +His Majesty's ministers, by this mode of communicating the tidings, +indiscreet as it was unfeeling, had committed themselves. Yet still they +might have recovered from the lapse, have awakened after a little time. +And accordingly, notwithstanding an annunciation so ominous, it was +matter of surprise and sorrow to many, that the ministry appeared to +deem the Convention binding, and that its terms were to be fulfilled. +There had indeed been only a choice of evils: but, of the two the +worse--ten thousand times the worse--was fixed upon. The ministers, +having thus officially applauded the treaty,--and, by suffering it to be +carried into execution, made themselves a party to the +transaction,--drew upon themselves those suspicions which will ever +pursue the steps of public men who abandon the direct road which leads +to the welfare of their country. It was suspected that they had taken +this part against the dictates of conscience, and from selfishness and +cowardice; that, from the first, they reasoned thus within +themselves:--'If the act be indeed so criminal as there is cause to +believe that the public will pronounce it to be; and if it shall +continue to be regarded as such; great odium must sooner or later fall +upon those who have appointed the agents: and this odium, which will be +from the first considerable, in spite of the astonishment and +indignation of which the framers of the Convention may be the immediate +object, will, when the astonishment has relaxed, and the angry passions +have died away, settle (for many causes) more heavily upon those who, by +placing such men in the command, are the original source of the guilt +and the dishonour. How then is this most effectually to be prevented? By +endeavouring to prevent or to destroy, as far as may be, the odium +attached to the act itself.' For which purpose it was suspected that the +rejoicings had been ordered; and that afterwards (when the people had +declared themselves so loudly),--partly upon the plea of the good faith +of the Nation being pledged, and partly from a false estimate of the +comparative force of the two obligations,--the Convention, in the same +selfish spirit, was carried into effect: and that the ministry took upon +itself a final responsibility, with a vain hope that, by so doing and +incorporating its own credit with the transaction, it might bear down +the censures of the people, and overrule their judgment to the +super-inducing of a belief, that the treaty was not so unjust and +inexpedient: and thus would be included--in one sweeping +exculpation--the misdeeds of the servant and the master. + +But,--whether these suspicions were reasonable or not, whatever motives +produced a determination that the Convention should be acted +upon,--there can be no doubt of the manner in which the ministry wished +that the people should appreciate it; when the same persons, who had +ordered that it should at first be received with rejoicing, availed +themselves of his Majesty's high authority to give a harsh reproof to +the City of London for having prayed 'that an enquiry might be +instituted into this dishonourable and unprecedented transaction.' In +their petition they styled it also 'an afflicting event--humiliating and +degrading to the country, and injurious to his Majesty's Allies.' And +for this, to the astonishment and grief of all sound minds, the +petitioners were severely reprimanded; and told, among other +admonitions, 'that it was inconsistent with the principles of British +jurisprudence to pronounce judgement without previous investigation.' + +Upon this charge, as re-echoed in its general import by persons who have +been over-awed or deceived, and by others who have been wilful +deceivers, I have already incidentally animadverted; and repelled it, I +trust, with becoming, indignation. I shall now meet the charge for the +last time formally and directly; on account of considerations applicable +to all times; and because the whole course of domestic proceedings +relating to the Convention of Cintra, combined with menaces which have +been recently thrown out in the lower House of Parliament, renders it +too probable that a league has been framed for the purpose of laying +further restraints upon freedom of speech and of the press; and that the +reprimand to the City of London was devised by ministers as a +preparatory overt act of this scheme; to the great abuse of the +Sovereign's Authority, and in contempt of the rights of the Nation. In +meeting this charge, I shall shew to what desperate issues men are +brought, and in what woeful labyrinths they are entangled, when, under +the pretext of defending instituted law, they violate the laws of reason +and nature for their own unhallowed purposes. + +If the persons, who signed this petition, acted inconsistently with the +principles of British jurisprudence; the offence must have been +committed by giving an answer, before adequate and lawful evidence had +entitled them so to do, to one or other of these questions:--'What is +the act? and who is the agent?'--or to both conjointly. Now the petition +gives no opinion upon the agent; it pronounces only upon the act, and +that some one must be guilty; but _who_--it does not take upon itself to +say. It condemns the act; and calls for punishment upon the authors, +whosoever they may be found to be; and does no more. After the analysis +which has been made of the Convention, I may ask if there be any thing +in this which deserves reproof; and reproof from an authority which +ought to be most enlightened and most dispassionate,--as it is, next to +the legislative, the most solemn authority in the Land. + +It is known to every one that the privilege of complaint and petition, +in cases where the Nation feels itself aggrieved, _itself_ being the +judge, (and who else ought to be, or can be?)--a privilege, the +exercise of which implies condemnation of something complained of, +followed by a prayer for its removal or correction--not only is +established by the most grave and authentic charters of Englishmen, who +have been taught by their wisest statesmen and legislators to be jealous +over its preservation, and to call it into practice upon every +reasonable occasion; but also that this privilege is an indispensable +condition of all civil liberty. Nay, of such paramount interest is it to +mankind, existing under any frame of Government whatsoever; that, either +by law or custom, it has universally prevailed under all +governments--from the Grecian and Swiss Democracies to the Despotisms of +Imperial Rome, of Turkey, and of France under her present ruler. It must +then be a high principle which could exact obeisance from governments at +the two extremes of polity, and from all modes of government +inclusively; from the best and from the worst; from magistrates acting +under obedience to the stedfast law which expresses the general will; +and from depraved and licentious tyrants, whose habit it is--to express, +and to act upon, their own individual will. Tyrants have seemed to feel +that, if this principle were acknowledged, the subject ought to be +reconciled to any thing; that, by permitting the free exercise of this +right alone, an adequate price was paid down for all abuses; that a +standing pardon was included in it for the past, and a daily renewed +indulgence for every future enormity. It is then melancholy to think +that the time is come when an attempt has been made to tear, out of the +venerable crown of the Sovereign of Great Britain, a gem which is in the +very front of the turban of the Emperor of Morocco.--(_See Appendix D_.) + +To enter upon this argument is indeed both astounding and humiliating: +for the adversary in the present case is bound to contend that we cannot +pronounce upon evil or good, either in the actions of our own or in past +times, unless the decision of a Court of Judicature has empowered us so +to do. Why then have historians written? and why do we yield to the +impulses of our nature, hating or loving--approving or condemning +according to the appearances which their records present to our eyes? +But the doctrine is as nefarious as it is absurd. For those public +events in which men are most interested, namely, the crimes of rulers +and of persons in high authority, for the most part are such as either +have never been brought before tribunals at all, or before unjust ones: +for, though offenders may be in hostility with each other, yet the +kingdom of guilt is not wholly divided against itself; its subjects are +united by a general interest to elude or overcome that law which would +bring them to condign punishment. Therefore to make a verdict of a Court +of Judicature a necessary condition for enabling men to determine the +quality of an act, when the 'head and front'--the life and soul of the +offence may have been, that it eludes or rises above the reach of all +judicature, is a contradiction which would be too gross to merit notice, +were it not that men willingly suffer their understandings to stagnate. +And hence this rotten bog, rotten and unstable as the crude consistence +of Milton's Chaos, 'smitten' (for I will continue to use the language of +the poet) 'by the petrific mace--and bound with Gorgonian rigour by the +look'--of despotism, is transmuted; and becomes a high-way of adamant +for the sorrowful steps of generation after generation. + +Again: in cases where judicial inquiries can be and are instituted, and +are equitably conducted, this suspension of judgment, with respect to +act or agent, is only supposed necessarily to exist in the Court itself; +not in the witnesses, the plaintiffs or accusers, or in the minds even +of the people who may be present. If the contrary supposition were +realized, how could the arraigned person ever have been brought into +Court? What would become of the indignation, the hope, the sorrow, or +the sense of justice, by which the prosecutors, or the people of the +country who pursued or apprehended the presumed criminal, or they who +appear in evidence against him, are actuated? If then this suspension of +judgment, by a law of human nature and a requisite of society, is not +supposed _necessarily_ to exist--except in the minds of the Court; if +this be undeniable in cases where the eye and ear-witnesses are +few;--how much more so in a case like the present; where all, that +constitutes the essence of the act, is avowed by the agents themselves, +and lies bare to the notice of the whole world?--Now it was in the +character of complainants and denunciators, that the petitioners of the +City of London appeared before his Majesty's throne; and they have been +reproached by his Majesty's ministers under the cover of a sophism, +which, if our anxiety to interpret favourably words sanctioned by the +First Magistrate--makes us unwilling to think it a deliberate artifice +meant for the delusion of the people, must however (on the most +charitable comment) be pronounced an evidence of no little heedlessness +and self-delusion on the part of those who framed it. + +To sum up the matter--the right of petition (which, we have shewn as a +general proposition, supposes a right to condemn, and is in itself an +act of qualified condemnation) may in too many instances take the ground +of absolute condemnation, both with respect to the crime and the +criminal. It was confined, in this case, to the crime; but, if the City +of London had proceeded farther, they would have been justifiable; +because the delinquents had set their hands to their own delinquency. +The petitioners, then, are not only clear of all blame; but are entitled +to high praise: and we have seen whither the doctrines lead, upon which +they were condemned.--And now, mark the discord which will ever be found +in the actions of men, where there is no inward harmony of reason or +virtue to regulate the outward conduct. + +Those ministers, who advised their Sovereign to reprove the City of +London for uttering prematurely, upon a measure, an opinion in which +they were supported by the unanimous voice of the nation, had themselves +before publickly prejudged the question by ordering that the tidings +should be communicated with rejoicings. One of their body has since +attempted to wipe away this stigma by representing that these orders +were given out of a just tenderness for the reputation of the generals, +who would otherwise have appeared to be condemned without trial. But did +these rejoicings leave the matter indifferent? Was not the _positive_ +fact of thus expressing an opinion (above all in a case like this, in +which surely no man could ever dream that there were any features of +splendour) far stronger language of approbation, than the _negative_ +fact could be of disapprobation? For these same ministers who had called +upon the people of Great Britain to rejoice over the Armistice and +Convention, and who reproved and discountenanced and suppressed to the +utmost of their power every attempt at petitioning for redress of the +injury caused by those treaties, have now made publick a document from +which it appears that, 'when the instruments were first laid before his +Majesty, the king felt himself compelled _at once_' (i.e. previously to +all investigation) 'to express his disapprobation of those articles, in +which stipulations were made directly affecting the interests or +feelings of the Spanish and Portugueze nations.' + +And was it possible that a Sovereign of a free country could be +otherwise affected? It is indeed to be regretted that his Majesty's +censure was not, upon this occasion, radical--and pronounced in a +sterner tone; that a Council was not in existence sufficiently +intelligent and virtuous to advise the king to give full expression to +the sentiments of his own mind; which, we may reasonably conclude, were +in sympathy with those of a brave and loyal people. Never surely was +there a public event more fitted to reduce men, in all ranks of society, +under the supremacy of their common nature; to impress upon them one +belief; to infuse into them one spirit. For it was not done in a remote +corner by persons of obscure rank; but in the eyes of Europe and of all +mankind; by the leading authorities, military and civil, of a mighty +empire. It did not relate to a petty immunity, or a local and insulated +privilege--but to the highest feelings of honour to which a Nation may +either be calmly and gradually raised by a long course of independence, +liberty, and glory; or to the level of which it may be lifted up at +once, from a fallen state, by a sudden and extreme pressure of violence +and tyranny. It not only related to these high feelings of honour; but +to the fundamental principles of justice, by which life and property, +that is the means of living, are secured. + +A people, whose government had been dissolved by foreign tyranny, and +which had been left to work out its salvation by its own virtues, prayed +for our help. And whence were we to learn how that help could be most +effectually given, how they were even to be preserved from receiving +injuries instead of benefits at our hands,--whence were we to learn this +but from their language and from our own hearts? They had spoken of +unrelenting and inhuman wrongs; of patience wearied out; of the +agonizing yoke cast off; of the blessed service of freedom chosen; of +heroic aspirations; of constancy, and fortitude, and perseverance; of +resolution even to the death; of gladness in the embrace of death; of +weeping over the graves of the slain, by those who had not been so happy +as to die; of resignation under the worst final doom; of glory, and +triumph, and punishment. This was the language which we heard--this was +the devout hymn that was chaunted; and the responses, with which our +country bore a part in the solemn service, were from her soul and from +the depths of her soul. + +O sorrow! O misery for England, the Land of liberty and courage and +peace; the Land trustworthy and long approved; the home of lofty example +and benign precept; the central orb to which, as to a fountain, the +nations of the earth 'ought to repair, and in their golden urns draw +light;'--O sorrow and shame for our country; for the grass which is upon +her fields, and the dust which is in her graves;--for her good men who +now look upon the day;--and her long train of deliverers and defenders, +her Alfred, her Sidneys, and her Milton; whose voice yet speaketh for +our reproach; and whose actions survive in memory to confound us, or to +redeem! + +For what hath been done? look at it: we have looked at it: we have +handled it: we have pondered it steadily: we have tried it by the +principles of absolute and eternal justice; by the sentiments of +high-minded honour, both with reference to their general nature, and to +their especial exaltation under present circumstances; by the rules of +expedience; by the maxims of prudence, civil and military: we have +weighed it in the balance of all these, and found it wanting; in that, +which is most excellent, most wanting. + +Our country placed herself by the side of Spain, and her fellow Nation; +she sent an honourable portion of her sons to aid a suffering people to +subjugate or destroy an army--but I degrade the word--a banded multitude +of perfidious oppressors, of robbers and assassins, who had outlawed +themselves from society in the wantonness of power; who were abominable +for their own crimes, and on account of the crimes of him whom they +served--to subjugate or destroy these; not exacting that it should be +done within a limited time; admitting even that they might effect their +purpose or not; she could have borne either issue, she was prepared for +either; but she was not prepared for such a deliverance as hath been +accomplished; not a deliverance of Portugal from French oppression, but +of the oppressor from the anger and power (at least from the animating +efforts) of the Peninsula: she was not prepared to stand between her +Allies, and their worthiest hopes: that, when chastisement could not be +inflicted, honour--as much as bad men could receive--should be +conferred: that them, whom her own hands had humbled, the same hands and +no other should exalt: that finally the sovereign of this horde of +devastators, himself the destroyer of the hopes of good men, should have +to say, through the mouth of his minister, and for the hearing of all +Europe, that his army of Portugal had 'DICTATED THE TERMS OF ITS +GLORIOUS RETREAT.' + +I have to defend my countrymen: and, if their feelings deserve +reverence, if there be any stirrings of wisdom in the motions of their +souls, my task is accomplished. For here were no factions to blind; no +dissolution of established authorities to confound; no ferments to +distemper; no narrow selfish interests to delude. The object was at a +distance; and it rebounded upon us, as with force collected from a +mighty distance; we were calm till the very moment of transition; and +all the people were moved--and felt as with one heart, and spake as with +one voice. Every human being in these islands was unsettled; the most +slavish broke loose as from fetters; and there was not an individual--it +need not be said of heroic virtue, but of ingenuous life and sound +discretion--who, if his father, his son, or his brother, or if the +flower of his house had been in that army, would not rather that they +had perished, and the whole body of their countrymen, their companions +in arms, had perished to a man, than that a treaty should have been +submitted to upon such conditions. This was the feeling of the people; +an awful feeling: and it is from these oracles that rulers are to learn +wisdom. + +For, when the people speaks loudly, it is from being strongly possessed +either by the Godhead or the Demon; and he, who cannot discover the true +spirit from the false, hath no ear for profitable communion. But in all +that regarded the destinies of Spain, and her own as connected with +them, the voice of Britain had the unquestionable sound of inspiration. +If the gentle passions of pity, love, and gratitude, be porches of the +temple; if the sentiments of admiration and rivalry be pillars upon +which the structure is sustained; if, lastly, hatred, and anger, and +vengeance, be steps which, by a mystery of nature, lead to the House of +Sanctity;--then was it manifest to what power the edifice was +consecrated; and that the voice within was of Holiness and Truth. + +Spain had risen not merely to be delivered and saved;--deliverance and +safety were but intermediate objects;--regeneration and liberty were the +end, and the means by which this end was to be attained; had their own +high value; were determined and precious; and could no more admit of +being departed from, than the end of being forgotten.--She had +risen--not merely to be free; but, in the act and process of acquiring +that freedom, to recompense herself, as it were in a moment, for all +which she had suffered through ages; to levy, upon the false fame of a +cruel Tyrant, large contributions of true glory; to lift herself, by the +conflict, as high in honour--as the disgrace was deep to which her own +weakness and vices, and the violence and perfidy of her enemies, had +subjected her. + +Let us suppose that our own Land had been so outraged; could we have +been content that the enemy should be wafted from our shores as lightly +as he came,--much less that he should depart illustrated in his own eyes +and glorified, singing songs of savage triumph and wicked +gaiety?--No.--Should we not have felt that a high trespass--a grievous +offence had been committed; and that to demand satisfaction was our +first and indispensable duty? Would we not have rendered their bodies +back upon our guardian ocean which had borne them hither; or have +insisted that their haughty weapons should submissively kiss the soil +which they had polluted? We should have been resolute in a defence that +would strike awe and terror: this for our dignity:--moreover, if safety +and deliverance are to be so fondly prized for their own sakes, what +security otherwise could they have? Would it not be certain that the +work, which had been so ill done to-day, we should be called upon to +execute still more imperfectly and ingloriously to-morrow; that we +should be summoned to an attempt that would be vain? + +In like manner were the wise and heroic Spaniards moved. If an Angel +from heaven had come with power to take the enemy from their grasp (I do +not fear to say this, in spite of the dominion which is now re-extended +over so large a portion of their Land), they would have been sad; they +would have looked round them; their souls would have turned inward; and +they would have stood like men defrauded and betrayed. + +For not presumptuously had they taken upon themselves the work of +chastisement. They did not wander madly about the world--like the +Tamerlanes, or the Chengiz Khans, or the present barbarian Ravager of +Europe--under a mock title of Delegates of the Almighty, acting upon +self-assumed authority. Their commission had been thrust upon them. They +had been trampled upon, tormented, wronged--bitterly, wantonly wronged, +if ever a people on the earth was wronged. And this it was which +legitimately incorporated their law with the supreme conscience, and +gave to them the deep faith which they have expressed--that their power +was favoured and assisted by the Almighty.--These words are not uttered +without a due sense of their awful import: but the Spirit of evil is +strong: and the subject requires the highest mode of thinking and +feeling of which human nature is capable.--Nor in this can they be +deceived; for, whatever be the immediate issue for themselves, the final +issue for their Country and Mankind must be good;--they are instruments +of benefit and glory for the human race; and the Deity therefore is with +them. + +From these impulses, then, our brethren of the Peninsula had risen; they +could have risen from no other. By these energies, and by such others as +(under judicious encouragement) would naturally grow out of and unite +with these, the multitudes, who have risen, stand; and, if they desert +them, must fall.--Riddance, mere riddance--safety, mere safety--are +objects far too defined, too inert and passive in their own nature, to +have ability either to rouze or to sustain. They win not the mind by any +attraction of grandeur or sublime delight, either in effort or in +endurance: for the mind gains consciousness of its strength to undergo +only by exercise among materials which admit the impression of its +power,--which grow under it, which bend under it,--which resist,--which +change under its influence,--which alter either through its might or in +its presence, by it or before it. These, during times of tranquillity, +are the objects with which, in the studious walks of sequestered life, +Genius most loves to hold intercourse; by which it is reared and +supported;--these are the qualities in action and in object, in image, +in thought, and in feeling, from communion with which proceeds +originally all that is creative in art and science, and all that is +magnanimous in virtue.--Despair thinks of _safety_, and hath no purpose; +fear thinks of safety; despondency looks the same way:--but these +passions are far too selfish, and therefore too blind, to reach the +thing at which they aim; even when there is in them sufficient dignity +to have an aim.--All courage is a projection from ourselves; however +short-lived, it is a motion of hope. But these thoughts bind too closely +to something inward,--to the present and to the past,--that is, to the +self which is or has been. Whereas the vigour of the human soul is from +without and from futurity,--in breaking down limit, and losing and +forgetting herself in the sensation and image of Country and of the +human race; and, when she returns and is most restricted and confined, +her dignity consists in the contemplation of a better and more exalted +being, which, though proceeding from herself, she loves and is devoted +to as to another. + +In following the stream of these thoughts, I have not wandered from my +course: I have drawn out to open day the truth from its recesses in the +minds of my countrymen.--Something more perhaps may have been done: a +shape hath perhaps been given to that which was before a stirring +spirit. I have shewn in what manner it was their wish that the struggle +with the adversary of all that is good should be maintained--by pure +passions and high actions. They forbid that their noble aim should be +frustrated by measuring against each other things which are +incommensurate--mechanic against moral power--body against soul. They +will not suffer, without expressing their sorrow, that purblind +calculation should wither the purest hopes in the face of all-seeing +justice. These are times of strong appeal--of deep-searching visitation; +when the best abstractions of the prudential understanding give way, and +are included and absorbed in a supreme comprehensiveness of intellect +and passion; which is the perfection and the very being of humanity. + +How base! how puny! how inefficient for all good purposes are the tools +and implements of policy, compared with these mighty engines of +Nature!--There is no middle course: two masters cannot be +served:--Justice must either be enthroned above might, and the moral law +take place of the edicts of selfish passion; or the heart of the people, +which alone can sustain the efforts of the people, will languish: their +desires will not spread beyond the plough and the loom, the field and +the fire-side: the sword will appear to them an emblem of no promise; an +instrument of no hope; an object of indifference, of disgust, or fear. +Was there ever--since the earliest actions of men which have been +transmitted by affectionate tradition or recorded by faithful history, +or sung to the impassioned harp of poetry--was there ever a people who +presented themselves to the reason and the imagination, as under more +holy influences than the dwellers upon the Southern Peninsula; as rouzed +more instantaneously from a deadly sleep to a more hopeful wakefulness; +as a mass fluctuating with one motion under the breath of a mightier +wind; as breaking themselves up, and settling into several bodies, in +more harmonious order; as reunited and embattled under a standard which +was reared to the sun with more authentic assurance of final +victory?--The superstition (I do not dread the word), which prevailed in +these nations, may have checked many of my countrymen who would +otherwise have exultingly accompanied me in the challenge which, under +the shape of a question, I have been confidently uttering; as I know +that this stain (so the same persons termed it) did, from the beginning, +discourage their hopes for the cause. Short-sighted despondency! +Whatever mixture of superstition there might be in the religious faith +or devotional practices of the Spaniards; this must have necessarily +been transmuted by that triumphant power, wherever that power was felt, +which grows out of intense moral suffering--from the moment in which it +coalesces with fervent hope. The chains of bigotry, which enthralled the +mind, must have been turned into armour to defend and weapons to annoy. +Wherever the heaving and effort of freedom was spread, purification must +have followed it. And the types and ancient instruments of error, where +emancipated men shewed their foreheads to the day, must have become a +language and a ceremony of imagination; expressing, consecrating, and +invigorating, the most pure deductions of Reason and the holiest +feelings of universal Nature. + +When the Boy of Saragossa (as we have been told), too immature in growth +and unconfirmed in strength to be admitted by his Fellow-citizens into +their ranks, too tender of age for them to bear the sight of him in +arms--when this Boy, forgetful or unmindful of the restrictions which +had been put upon him, rushed into the field where his Countrymen were +engaged in battle, and, fighting with the sinew and courage of an unripe +Hero, won a standard from the enemy, and bore his acquisition to the +Church, and laid it with his own hands upon the Altar of the +Virgin;--surely there was not less to be hoped for his Country from this +act, than if the banner, taken from his grasp, had, without any such +intermediation, been hung up in the place of worship--a direct offering +to the incorporeal and supreme Being. Surely there is here an object +which the most meditative and most elevated minds may contemplate with +absolute delight; a well-adapted outlet for the dearest sentiments; an +organ by which they may act; a function by which they may be +sustained.--Who does not recognise in this presentation a visible +affinity with deliverance, with patriotism, with hatred of oppression, +and with human means put forth to the height for accomplishing, under +divine countenance, the worthiest ends? + +Such is the burst and growth of power and virtue which may rise out of +excessive national afflictions from tyranny and oppression;--such is the +hallowing influence, and thus mighty is the sway, of the spirit of moral +justice in the heart of the individual and over the wide world of +humanity. Even the very faith in present miraculous interposition, which +is so dire a weakness and cause of weakness in tranquil times when the +listless Being turns to it as a cheap and ready substitute upon every +occasion, where the man sleeps, and the Saint, or the image of the +Saint, is to perform his work, and to give effect to his wishes;--even +this infirm faith, in a state of incitement from extreme passion +sanctioned by a paramount sense of moral justice; having for its object +a power which is no longer sole nor principal, but secondary and +ministerial; a power added to a power; a breeze which springs up +unthought-of to assist the strenuous oarsman;--even this faith is +subjugated in order to be exalted; and--instead of operating as a +temptation to relax or to be remiss, as an encouragement to indolence or +cowardice; instead of being a false stay, a necessary and definite +dependence which may fail--it passes into a habit of obscure and +infinite confidence of the mind in its own energies, in the cause from +its own sanctity, and in the ever-present invisible aid or momentary +conspicuous approbation of the supreme Disposer of things. + +Let the fire, which is never wholly to be extinguished, break out +afresh; let but the human creature be rouzed; whether he have lain +heedless and torpid in religious or civil slavery--have languished +under a thraldom, domestic or foreign, or under both these +alternately--or have drifted about a helpless member of a clan of +disjointed and feeble barbarians; let him rise and act;--and his +domineering imagination, by which from childhood he has been betrayed, +and the debasing affections, which it has imposed upon him, will from +that moment participate the dignity of the newly ennobled being whom +they will now acknowledge for their master; and will further him in his +progress, whatever be the object at which he aims. Still more inevitable +and momentous are the results, when the individual knows that the fire, +which is reanimated in him, is not less lively in the breasts of his +associates; and sees the signs and testimonies of his own power, +incorporated with those of a growing multitude and not to be +distinguished from them, accompany him wherever he moves.--Hence those +marvellous achievements which were performed by the first enthusiastic +followers of Mohammed; and by other conquerors, who with their armies +have swept large portions of the earth like a transitory wind, or have +founded new religions or empires.--But, if the object contended for be +worthy and truly great (as, in the instance of the Spaniards, we have +seen that it is); if cruelties have been committed upon an ancient and +venerable people, which 'shake the human frame with horror;' if not +alone the life which is sustained by the bread of the mouth, but +that--without which there is no life--the life in the soul, has been +directly and mortally warred against; if reason has had abominations to +endure in her inmost sanctuary;--then does intense passion, consecrated +by a sudden revelation of justice, give birth to those higher and better +wonders which I have described; and exhibit true miracles to the eyes of +men, and the noblest which can be seen. It may be added that,--as this +union brings back to the right road the faculty of imagination, where it +is prone to err, and has gone farthest astray; as it corrects those +qualities which (being in their essence indifferent), and cleanses those +affections which (not being inherent in the constitution of man, nor +necessarily determined to their object) are more immediately dependent +upon the imagination, and which may have received from it a thorough +taint of dishonour;--so the domestic loves and sanctities which are in +their nature less liable to be stained,--so these, wherever they have +flowed with a pure and placid stream, do instantly, under the same +influence, put forth their strength as in a flood; and, without being +sullied or polluted, pursue--exultingly and with song--a course which +leads the contemplative reason to the ocean of eternal love. + +I feel that I have been speaking in a strain which it is difficult to +harmonize with the petty irritations, the doubts and fears, and the +familiar (and therefore frequently undignified) exterior of present and +passing events. But the theme is justice: and my voice is raised for +mankind; for us who are alive, and for all posterity:--justice and +passion; clear-sighted aspiring justice, and passion sacred as vehement. +These, like twin-born Deities delighting in each other's presence, have +wrought marvels in the inward mind through the whole region of the +Pyrenean Peninsula. I have shewn by what process these united powers +sublimated the objects of outward sense in such rites--practices--and +ordinances of Religion--as deviate from simplicity and wholesome piety; +how they converted them to instruments of nobler use; and raised them to +a conformity with things truly divine. The same reasoning might have +been carried into the customs of civil life and their accompanying +imagery, wherever these also were inconsistent with the dignity of man; +and like effects of exaltation and purification have been shewn. + +But a more urgent service calls me to point to further works of these +united powers, more obvious and obtrusive--works and appearances, such +as were hailed by the citizen of Seville when returning from +Madrid;--'where' (to use the words of his own public declaration) 'he +had left his countrymen groaning in the chains which perfidy had thrown +round them, and doomed at every step to the insult of being eyed with +the disdain of the conqueror to the conquered; from Madrid threatened, +harrassed, and vexed; where mistrust reigned in every heart, and the +smallest noise made the citizens tremble in the bosom of their families; +where the enemy, from time to time, ran to arms to sustain the +impression of terror by which the inhabitants had been stricken through +the recent massacre; from Madrid a prison, where the gaolers took +pleasure in terrifying the prisoners by alarms to keep them quiet; from +Madrid thus tortured and troubled by a relentless Tyrant, to fit it for +the slow and interminable evils of Slavery;'--when he returned, and was +able to compare the oppressed and degraded state of the inhabitants of +that metropolis with the noble attitude of defence in which Andalusia +stood. 'A month ago,' says he, 'the Spaniards had lost their +country;--Seville has restored it to life more glorious than ever; and +those fields, which for so many years have seen no steel but that of the +plough-share, are going amid the splendour of arms to prove the new +cradle of their adored country.'--'I could not,' he adds, 'refrain from +tears of joy on viewing the city in which I first drew breath--and to +see it in a situation so glorious!' + +We might have trusted, but for late disgraces, that there is not a man +in these islands whose heart would not, at such a spectacle, have beat +in sympathy with that of this fervent Patriot--whose voice would not be +in true accord with his in the prayer (which, if he has not already +perished for the service of his dear country, he is perhaps uttering at +this moment) that Andalusia and the city of Seville may preserve the +noble attitude in which they then stood, and are yet standing; or, if +they be doomed to fall, that their dying efforts may not be unworthy of +their first promises; that the evening--the closing hour of their +freedom may display a brightness not less splendid, though more aweful, +than the dawn; so that the names of Seville and Andalusia may be +consecrated among men, and be words of life to endless generations. + +Saragossa!--She also has given bond, by her past actions, that she +cannot forget her duty and will not shrink from it.[20] + +[20] Written in February. + +Valencia is under the seal of the same obligation. The multitudes of men +who were arrayed in the fields of Baylen, and upon the mountains of the +North; the peasants of Asturias, and the students of Salamanca; and many +a solitary and untold-of hand, which, quitting for a moment the plough +or the spade, has discharged a more pressing debt to the country by +levelling with the dust at least one insolent and murderous +Invader;--these have attested the efficacy of the passions which we have +been contemplating--that the will of good men is not a vain impulse, +heroic desires a delusive prop;--have proved that the condition of human +affairs is not so forlorn and desperate, but that there are golden +opportunities when the dictates of justice may be unrelentingly +enforced, and the beauty of the inner mind substantiated in the outward +act;--for a visible standard to look back upon; for a point of realized +excellence at which to aspire; a monument to record;--for a charter to +fasten down; and, as far as it is possible, to preserve. + +Yes! there was an annunciation which the good received with gladness; a +bright appearance which emboldened the wise to say--We trust that +Regeneration is at hand; these are works of recovered innocence and +wisdom: + + Magnus ab integro seclorum nascitur ordo; + _Jam_ redit et Virgo, redeunt Saturnia regna; + _Jam_ nova progenies coelo demittitur alto. + +The spirits of the generous, of the brave, of the meditative, of the +youthful and undefiled--who, upon the strongest wing of human nature, +have accompanied me in this journey into a fair region--must descend: +and, sorrowful to think! it is at the name and remembrance of Britain +that we are to stoop from the balmy air of this pure element. Our +country did not create, but there was created for her, one of those +golden opportunities over which we have been rejoicing: an invitation +was offered--a summons sent to her ear, as if from heaven, to go forth +also and exhibit on her part, in entire coincidence and perfect harmony, +the beneficent action with the benevolent will; to advance in the career +of renovation upon which the Spaniards had so gloriously entered; and to +solemnize yet another marriage between Victory and Justice. How she +acquitted herself of this duty, we have already seen and lamented: yet +on this--and on this duty only--ought the mind of that army and of the +government to have been fixed. Every thing was smoothed before their +feet;--Providence, it might almost be said, held forth to the men of +authority in this country a gracious temptation to deceive them into the +path of the new virtues which were stirring;--the enemy was delivered +over to them; and they were unable to close their infantine fingers upon +the gift.--The helplessness of infancy was their's--oh! could I but add, +the innocence of infancy! + +Reflect upon what was the temper and condition of the Southern Peninsula +of Europe--the noble temper of the people of this mighty island +sovereigns of the all-embracing ocean; think also of the condition of so +vast a region in the Western, continent and its islands; and we shall +have cause to fear that ages may pass away before a conjunction of +things, so marvellously adapted to ensure prosperity to virtue, shall +present itself again. It could scarcely be spoken of as being to the +wishes of men,--it was so far beyond their hopes.--The government which +had been exercised under the name of the old Monarchy of Spain--this +government, imbecile even to dotage, whose very selfishness was +destitute of vigour, had been removed; taken laboriously and foolishly +by the plotting Corsican to his own bosom; in order that the world might +see, more triumphantly set forth than since the beginning of things had +ever been seen before, to what degree a man of bad principles is +despicable--though of great power--working blindly against his own +purposes. It was a high satisfaction to behold demonstrated, in this +manner, to what a narrow domain of knowledge the intellect of a Tyrant +must be confined; that if the gate by which wisdom enters has never been +opened, that of policy will surely find moments when it will shut itself +against its pretended master imperiously and obstinately. To the eyes of +the very peasant in the field, this sublime truth was laid open--not +only that a Tyrant's domain of knowledge is narrow, but melancholy as +narrow; inasmuch as--from all that is lovely, dignified, or exhilarating +in the prospect of human nature--he is inexorably cut off; and therefore +he is inwardly helpless and forlorn. + +Was not their hope in this--twofold hope; from the weakness of him who +had thus counteracted himself; and a hope, still more cheering, from the +strength of those who had been disburthened of a cleaving curse by an +ordinance of Providence--employing their most wilful and determined +enemy to perform for them the best service which man could perform? The +work of liberation was virtually accomplished--we might almost say, +established. The interests of the people were taken from a government +whose sole aim it had been to prop up the last remains of its own +decrepitude by betraying those whom it was its duty to +protect;--withdrawn from such hands, to be committed to those of the +people; at a time when the double affliction which Spain had endured, +and the return of affliction with which she was threatened, made it +impossible that the emancipated Nation could abuse its new-born strength +to any substantial injury to itself.--Infinitely less favourable to all +good ends was the condition of the French people when, a few years past, +a Revolution made them, for a season, their own masters,--rid them from +the incumbrance of superannuated institutions--the galling pressure of +so many unjust laws--and the tyranny of bad customs. The Spaniards +became their own masters: and the blessing lay in this, that they became +so at once: there had not been time for them to court their power: their +fancies had not been fed to wantonness by ever-changing temptations: +obstinacy in them would not have leagued itself with trivial opinions: +petty hatreds had not accumulated to masses of strength conflicting +perniciously with each other: vanity with them had not found leisure to +flourish--nor presumption: they did not assume their authority,--it was +given them,--it was thrust upon them. The perfidy and tyranny of +Napoleon '_compelled_,' says the Junta of Seville in words before +quoted, 'the whole Nation to take up arms and _to choose itself a form +of government_; and, in the difficulties and dangers into which the +French had plunged it, all--or nearly all--the provinces, as it were _by +the inspiration of Heaven_ and _in a manner little short of miraculous_, +created Supreme Juntas--delivered themselves up to their guidance--and +placed in their hands the rights and the ultimate fate of +Spain.'--Governments, thus newly issued from the people, could not but +act from the spirit of the people--be organs of their life. And, though +misery (by which I mean pain of mind not without some consciousness of +guilt) naturally disorders the understanding and perverts the moral +sense,--calamity (that is suffering, individual or national, when it has +been inflicted by one to whom no injury has been done or provocation +given) ever brings wisdom along with it; and, whatever outward agitation +it may cause, does inwardly rectify the will. + +But more was required; not merely judicious desires; not alone an eye +from which the scales had dropped off--which could see widely and +clearly; but a mighty hand was wanting. The government had been formed; +and it could not but recollect that the condition of Spain did not exact +from her children, as a _first_ requisite, virtues like those due and +familiar impulses of Spring-time by which things are revived and carried +forward in accustomed health according to established order--not power +so much for a renewal as for a birth--labour by throes and violence;--a +chaos was to be conquered--a work of creation begun and +consummated;--and afterwards the seasons were to advance, and continue +their gracious revolutions. The powers, which were needful for the +people to enter upon and assist in this work, had been given; we have +seen that they had been bountifully conferred. The Nation had been +thrown into--rather, lifted up to--that state when conscience, for the +body of the people, is not merely an infallible monitor (which may be +heard and disregarded); but, by combining--with the attributes of +insight to perceive, and of inevitable presence to admonish and +enjoin--the attribute of passion to enforce, it was truly an +all-powerful deity in the soul. + +Oh! let but any man, who has a care for the progressive happiness of the +species, peruse merely that epitome of Spanish wisdom and benevolence +and 'amplitude of mind for highest deeds' which, in the former part of +this investigation, I have laid before the reader: let him listen to the +reports--which they, who really have had means of knowledge, and who are +worthy to speak upon the subject, will give to him--of the things done +or endured in every corner of Spain; and he will see what emancipation +had there been effected in the mind;--how far the perceptions--the +impulses--and the actions also--had outstripped the habit and the +character, and consequently were in a process of permanently elevating +both; and how much farther (alas! by infinite degrees) the principles +and practice of a people, with great objects before them to concentrate +their love and their hatred, transcend the principles and practice of +governments; not excepting those which, in their constitution and +ordinary conduct, furnish the least matter for complaint. + +Then it was--when the people of Spain were thus rouzed; after this +manner released from the natal burthen of that government which had +bowed them to the ground; in the free use of their understandings, and +in the play and 'noble rage' of their passions; while yet the new +authorities, which they had generated, were truly living members of +their body, and (as I have said) organs of their life: when that +numerous people were in a stage of their journey which could not be +accomplished without the spirit which was then prevalent in them, and +which (as might be feared) would too soon abate of itself;--then it was +that we--not we, but the heads of the British army and Nation--when, if +they could not breathe a favouring breath, they ought at least to have +stood at an awful distance--stepped in with their forms, their +impediments, their rotten customs and precedents, their narrow desires, +their busy and purblind fears; and called out to these aspiring +travellers to halt--'For ye are in a dream;' confounded them (for it was +the voice of a seeming friend that spoke); and spell-bound them, as far +as was possible, by an instrument framed 'in the eclipse' and sealed +'with curses dark.'--In a word, we had the power to act up to the most +sacred letter of justice--and this at a time when the mandates of +justice were of an affecting obligation such as had never before been +witnessed; and we plunged into the lowest depths of injustice:--We had +power to give a brotherly aid to our Allies in supporting the mighty +world which their shoulders had undertaken to uphold; and, while they +were expecting from us this aid, we undermined--without forewarning +them--the ground upon which they stood. The evil is incalculable; and +the stain will cleave to the British name as long as the story of this +island shall endure. + +Did we not (if, from this comprehensive feeling of sorrow, I may for a +moment descend to particulars)--did we not send forth a general, one +whom, since his return, Court, and Parliament, and Army, have been at +strife with each other which shall most caress and applaud--a general, +who, in defending the armistice which he himself had signed, said in +open Court that he deemed that the French army was _entitled_ to such +terms. The people of Spain had, through the Supreme Junta of Seville, +thus spoken of this same army: 'Ye have, among yourselves, the objects +of your vengeance;--attack them;--they are but a handful of miserable +panic-struck men, humiliated and conquered already by their perfidy and +cruelties;--resist and destroy them: our united efforts will extirpate +this perfidious nation.' The same Spaniards had said (speaking +officially of the state of the whole Peninsula, and no doubt with their +eye especially upon this army in Portugal)--'Our enemies have taken up +exactly those positions in which they may most easily be +destroyed'--Where then did the British General find this right and title +of the French army in Portugal? 'Because,' says he in military language, +'it was not broken.'--Of the MAN, and of the understanding and heart of +the man--of the CITIZEN, who could think and feel after this manner in +such circumstances, it is needless to speak; but to the GENERAL I will +say, This is most pitiable pedantry. If the instinctive wisdom of your +Ally could not be understood, you might at least have remembered the +resolute policy of your enemy. The French army was not broken? Break it +then--wither it--pursue it with unrelenting warfare--hunt it out of its +holds;--if impetuosity be not justifiable, have recourse to patience--to +watchfulness--to obstinacy: at all events, never for a moment forget who +the foe is--and that he is in your power. This is the example which the +French Ruler and his Generals have given you at Ulm--at Lubeck--in +Switzerland--over the whole plain of Prussia--every where;--and this for +the worst deeds of darkness; while your's was the noblest service of +light. + +This remonstrance has been forced from me by indignation:--let me +explain in what sense I propose, with calmer thought, that the example +of our enemy should be imitated.--The laws and customs of war, and the +maxims of policy, have all had their foundation in reason and humanity; +and their object has been the attainment or security of some real or +supposed--some positive or relative--good. They are established among +men as ready guides for the understanding, and authorities to which the +passions are taught to pay deference. But the relations of things to +each other are perpetually changing; and in course of time many of these +leaders and masters, by losing part of their power to do service and +sometimes the whole, forfeit in proportion their right to obedience. +Accordingly they are disregarded in some instances, and sink insensibly +into neglect with the general improvement of society. But they often +survive when they have become an oppression and a hindrance which cannot +be cast off decisively, but by an impulse--rising either from the +absolute knowledge of good and great men,--or from the partial insight +which is given to superior minds, though of a vitiated moral +constitution,--or lastly from that blind energy and those habits of +daring which are often found in men who, checked by no restraint of +morality, suffer their evil passions to gain extraordinary strength in +extraordinary circumstances. By any of these forces may the tyranny be +broken through. We have seen, in the conduct of our Countrymen, to what +degree it tempts to weak actions,--and furnishes excuse for them, +admitted by those who sit as judges. I wish then that we could so far +imitate our enemies as, like them, to shake off these bonds; but not, +like them, from the worst--but from the worthiest impulse. If this were +done, we should have learned how much of their practice would harmonize +with justice; have learned to distinguish between those rules which +ought to be wholly abandoned, and those which deserve to be retained; +and should have known when, and to what point, they ought to be +trusted.--But how is this to be? Power of mind is wanting, where there +is power of place. Even we cannot, as a beginning of a new journey, +force or win our way into the current of success, the flattering motion +of which would awaken intellectual courage--the only substitute which is +able to perform any arduous part of the secondary work of 'heroic +wisdom;'--I mean, execute happily any of its prudential regulations. In +the person of our enemy and his chieftains we have living example how +wicked men of ordinary talents are emboldened by success. There is a +kindliness, as they feel, in the nature of advancement; and prosperity +is their Genius. But let us know and remember that this prosperity, with +all the terrible features which it has gradually assumed, is a child of +noble parents--Liberty and Philanthropic Love. Perverted as the creature +is which it has grown up to (rather, into which it has passed),--from no +inferior stock could it have issued. It is the Fallen Spirit, triumphant +in misdeeds, which was formerly a blessed Angel. + +If then (to return to ourselves) there be such strong obstacles in the +way of our drawing benefit either from the maxims of policy or the +principles of justice: what hope remains that the British Nation should +repair, by its future conduct, the injury which has been done?--We +cannot advance a step towards a rational answer to this +question--without previously adverting to the original sources of our +miscarriages; which are these:--First; a want, in the minds of the +members of government and public functionaries, of knowledge +indispensible for this service; and, secondly, a want of power, in the +same persons acting in their corporate capacities, to give effect to the +knowledge which individually they possess.--Of the latter source of +weakness,--this inability as caused by decay in the machine of +government, and by illegitimate forces which are checking and +controuling its constitutional motions,--I have not spoken, nor shall I +now speak: for I have judged it best to suspend my task for a while: and +this subject, being in its nature delicate, ought not to be lightly or +transiently touched. Besides, no _immediate_ effect can be expected from +the soundest and most unexceptionable doctrines which might be laid +down for the correcting of this evil.--The former source of +weakness,--namely, the want of appropriate and indispensible +knowledge,--has, in the past investigation, been reached, and shall be +further laid open; not without a hope of some result of _immediate_ good +by a direct application to the mind; and in full confidence that the +best and surest way to render operative that knowledge which is already +possessed--is to increase the stock of knowledge. + +Here let me avow that I undertook this present labour as a serious duty; +rather, that it was forced (and has been unremittingly pressed) upon me +by a perception of justice united with strength of feeling;--in a word, +by that power of conscience, calm or impassioned, to which throughout I +have done reverence as the animating spirit of the cause. My work was +begun and prosecuted under this controul:--and with the accompanying +satisfaction that no charge of presumption could, by a thinking mind, be +brought against me: though I had taken upon myself to offer instruction +to men who, if they possess not talents and acquirements, have no title +to the high stations which they hold; who also, by holding those +stations, are understood to obtain certain benefit of experience and of +knowledge not otherwise to be gained; and who have a further claim to +deference--founded upon reputation, even when it is spurious (as much of +the reputation of men high in power must necessarily be; their errors +being veiled and palliated by the authority attached to their office; +while that same authority gives more than due weight and effect to their +wiser opinions). Yet, notwithstanding all this, I did not fear the +censure of having unbecomingly obtruded counsels or remonstrances. For +there can be no presumption, upon a call so affecting as the present, in +an attempt to assert the sanctity and to display the efficacy of +principles and passions which are the natural birth-right of man; to +some share of which all are born; but an inheritance which may be +alienated or consumed; and by none more readily and assuredly than by +those who are most eager for the praise of policy, of prudence, of +sagacity, and of all those qualities which are the darling virtues of +the worldly-wise. Moreover; the evidence to which I have made appeal, in +order to establish the truth, is not locked up in cabinets; but is +accessible to all; as it exists in the bosoms of men--in the appearances +and intercourse of daily life--in the details of passing events--and in +general history. And more especially is its right import within the +reach of him who--taking no part in public measures, and having no +concern in the changes of things but as they affect what is most +precious in his country and humanity--will doubtless be more alive to +those genuine sensations which are the materials of sound judgment. Nor +is it to be overlooked that such a man may have more leisure (and +probably will have a stronger inclination) to communicate with the +records of past ages. + +Deeming myself justified then in what has been said,--I will continue to +lay open (and, in some degree, to account for) those privations in the +materials of judgment, and those delusions of opinion, and infirmities +of mind, to which practical Statesmen, and particularly such as are high +in office, are more than other men subject;--as containing an answer to +that question, so interesting at this juncture,--How far is it in our +power to make amends for the harm done? + +After the view of things which has been taken,--we may confidently +affirm that nothing but a knowledge of human nature directing the +operations of our government, can give it a right to an intimate +association with a cause which is that of human nature. I say, an +intimate association founded on the right of thorough knowledge;--to +contradistinguish this best mode of exertion from another which might +found _its_ right upon a vast and commanding military power put forth +with manifestation of sincere intentions to benefit our Allies--from a +conviction merely of policy that their liberty, independence, and +honour, are our genuine gain;--to distinguish the pure brotherly +connection from this other (in its appearance at least more magisterial) +which such a power, guided by such intention uniformly displayed, might +authorize. But of the former connection (which supposes the main +military effort to be made, even at present, by the people of the +Peninsula on whom the moral interest more closely presses), and of the +knowledge which it demands, I have hitherto spoken--and have further to +speak. + +It is plain _a priori_ that the minds of Statesmen and Courtiers are +unfavourable to the growth of this knowledge. For they are in a +situation exclusive and artificial; which has the further disadvantage, +that it does not separate men from men by collateral partitions which +leave, along with difference, a sense of equality--that they, who are +divided, are yet upon the same level; but by a degree of superiority +which can scarcely fail to be accompanied with more or less of pride. +This situation therefore must be eminently unfavourable for the +reception and establishment of that knowledge which is founded not upon +things but upon sensations;--sensations which are general, and under +general influences (and this it is which makes them what they are, and +gives them their importance);--not upon things which may be _brought_; +but upon sensations which must be _met_. Passing by the kindred and +usually accompanying influence of birth in a certain rank--and, where +education has been pre-defined from childhood for the express purpose of +future political power, the tendency of such education to warp (and +therefore weaken) the intellect;--we may join at once, with the +privation which I have been noticing, a delusion equally common. It is +this: that practical Statesmen assume too much credit to themselves for +their ability to see into the motives and manage the selfish passions of +their immediate agents and dependants; and for the skill with which they +baffle or resist the aims of their opponents. A promptness in looking +through the most superficial part of the characters of those men--who, +by the very circumstance of their contending ambitiously for the rewards +and honours of government, are separated from the mass of the society to +which they belong--is mistaken for a knowledge of human kind. Hence, +where higher knowledge is a prime requisite, they not only are +unfurnished, but, being unconscious that they are so, they look down +contemptuously upon those who endeavour to supply (in some degree) their +want.--The instincts of natural and social man; the deeper emotions; the +simpler feelings; the spacious range of the disinterested imagination; +the pride in country for country's sake, when to serve has not been a +formal profession--and the mind is therefore left in a state of dignity +only to be surpassed by having served nobly and generously; the +instantaneous accomplishment in which they start up who, upon a +searching call, stir for the Land which they love--not from personal +motives, but for a reward which is undefined and cannot be missed; the +solemn fraternity which a great Nation composes--gathered together, in a +stormy season, under the shade of ancestral feeling; the delicacy of +moral honour which pervades the minds of a people, when despair has been +suddenly thrown off and expectations are lofty; the apprehensiveness to +a touch unkindly or irreverent, where sympathy is at once exacted as a +tribute and welcomed as a gift; the power of injustice and inordinate +calamity to transmute, to invigorate, and to govern--to sweep away the +barriers of opinion--to reduce under submission passions purely evil--to +exalt the nature of indifferent qualities, and to render them fit +companions for the absolute virtues with which they are summoned to +associate--to consecrate passions which, if not bad in themselves, are +of such temper that, in the calm of ordinary life, they are rightly +deemed so--to correct and embody these passions--and, without weakening +them (nay, with tenfold addition to their strength), to make them worthy +of taking their place as the advanced guard of hope, when a sublime +movement of deliverance is to be originated;--these arrangements and +resources of nature, these ways and means of society, have so little +connection with those others upon which a ruling minister of a +long-established government is accustomed to depend; these--elements as +it were of a universe, functions of a living body--are so opposite, in +their mode of action, to the formal machine which it has been his pride +to manage;--that he has but a faint perception of their immediate +efficacy; knows not the facility with which they assimilate with other +powers; nor the property by which such of them--as, from necessity of +nature, must change or pass away--will, under wise and fearless +management, surely generate lawful successors to fill their place when +their appropriate work is performed. Nay, of the majority of men, who +are usually found in high stations under old governments, it may without +injustice be said; that, when they look about them in times (alas! too +rare) which present the glorious product of such agency to their eyes, +they have not a right, to say--with a dejected man in the midst of the +woods, the rivers, the mountains, the sunshine, and shadows of some +transcendant landscape-- + + 'I see, not feel, how beautiful they are:' + +These spectators neither see nor feel. And it is from the blindness and +insensibility of these, and the train whom they draw along with them, +that the throes of nations have been so ill recompensed by the births +which have followed; and that revolutions, after passing from crime to +crime and from sorrow to sorrow, have often ended in throwing back such +heavy reproaches of delusiveness upon their first promises. + +I am satisfied that no enlightened Patriot will impute to me a wish to +disparage the characters of men high in authority, or to detract from +the estimation which is fairly due to them. My purpose is to guard +against unreasonable expectations. That specific knowledge,--the +paramount importance of which, in the present condition of Europe, I am +insisting upon,--they, who usually fill places of high trust in old +governments, neither do--nor, for the most part, can--possess: nor is it +necessary, for the administration of affairs in ordinary circumstances, +that they should.--The progress of their own country, and of the other +nations of the world, in civilization, in true refinement, in science, +in religion, in morals, and in all the real wealth of humanity, might +indeed be quicker, and might correspond more happily with the wishes of +the benevolent,--if Governors better understood the rudiments of nature +as studied in the walks of common life; if they were men who had +themselves felt every strong emotion 'inspired by nature and by fortune +taught;' and could calculate upon the force of the grander passions. +Yet, at the same time, there is temptation in this. To know may seduce; +and to have been agitated may compel. Arduous cares are attractive for +their own sakes. Great talents are naturally driven towards hazard and +difficulty; as it is there that they are most sure to find their +exercise, and their evidence, and joy in anticipated triumph--the +liveliest of all sensations. Moreover; magnificent desires, when least +under the bias of personal feeling, dispose the mind--more than itself +is conscious of--to regard commotion with complacency, and to watch the +aggravations of distress with welcoming; from an immoderate confidence +that, when the appointed day shall come, it will be in the power of +intellect to relieve. There is danger in being a zealot in any +cause--not excepting that of humanity. Nor is it to be forgotten that +the incapacity and ignorance of the regular agents of long-established +governments do not prevent some progress in the dearest concerns of men; +and that society may owe to these very deficiencies, and to the tame and +unenterprizing course which they necessitate, much security and tranquil +enjoyment. + +Nor, on the other hand, (for reasons which may be added to those +already given) is it so desirable as might at first sight be imagined, +much less is it desirable as an absolute good, that men of comprehensive +sensibility and tutored genius--either for the interests of mankind or +for their own--should, in ordinary times, have vested in them political +power. The Empire, which they hold, is more independent: its constituent +parts are sustained by a stricter connection: the dominion is purer and +of higher origin; as mind is more excellent than body--the search of +truth an employment more inherently dignified than the application of +force--the determinations of nature more venerable than the accidents of +human institution. Chance and disorder, vexation and disappointment, +malignity and perverseness within or without the mind, are a sad +exchange for the steady and genial processes of reason. Moreover; +worldly distinctions and offices of command do not lie in the path--nor +are they any part of the appropriate retinue--of Philosophy and Virtue. +Nothing, but a strong spirit of love, can counteract the consciousness +of pre-eminence which ever attends pre-eminent intellectual power with +correspondent attainments: and this spirit of love is best encouraged by +humility and simplicity in mind, manners, and conduct of life; virtues, +to which wisdom leads. But,--though these be virtues in a Man, a +Citizen, or a Sage,--they cannot be recommended to the especial culture +of the Political or Military Functionary; and still less of the Civil +Magistrate. Him, in the exercise of his functions, it will often become +to carry himself highly and with state; in order that evil may be +suppressed, and authority respected by those who have not understanding. +The power also of office, whether the duties be discharged well or ill, +will ensure a never-failing supply of flattery and praise: and of +these--a man (becoming at once double-dealer and dupe) may, without +impeachment of his modesty, receive as much as his weakness inclines him +to; under the shew that the homage is not offered up to himself, but to +that portion of the public dignity which is lodged in his person. But, +whatever may be the cause, the fact is certain--that there is an +unconquerable tendency in all power, save that of knowledge acting by +and through knowledge, to injure the mind of him who exercises that +power; so much so, that best natures cannot escape the evil of such +alliance. Nor is it less certain that things of soundest quality, +issuing through a medium to which they have only an arbitrary relation, +are vitiated: and it is inevitable that there should be a reaescent of +unkindly influence to the heart of him from whom the gift, thus unfairly +dealt with, proceeded.--In illustration of these remarks, as connected +with the management of States, we need only refer to the Empire of +China--where superior endowments of mind and acquisitions of learning +are the sole acknowledged title to offices of great trust; and yet in no +country is the government more bigotted or intolerant, or society less +progressive. + +To prevent misconception; and to silence (at least to throw discredit +upon) the clamours of ignorance;--I have thought proper thus, in some +sort, to strike a balance between the claims of men of routine--and men +of original and accomplished minds--to the management of State affairs +in ordinary circumstances. But ours is not an age of this character: +and,--after having seen such a long series of misconduct, so many +unjustifiable attempts made and sometimes carried into effect, good +endeavours frustrated, disinterested wishes thwarted, and benevolent +hopes disappointed,--it is reasonable that we should endeavour to +ascertain to what cause these evils are to be ascribed. I have directed +the attention of the Reader to one primary cause: and can he doubt of +its existence, and of the operation which I have attributed to it? + +In the course of the last thirty years we have seen two wars waged +against Liberty--the American war, and the war against the French People +in the early stages of their Revolution. In the latter instance the +Emigrants and the Continental Powers and the British did, in all their +expectations and in every movement of their efforts, manifest a common +ignorance--originating in the same source. And, for what more especially +belongs to ourselves at this time, we may affirm--that the same +presumptuous irreverence of the principles of justice, and blank +insensibility to the affections of human nature, which determined the +conduct of our government in those two wars _against_ liberty, have +continued to accompany its exertions in the present struggle _for_ +liberty,--and have rendered them fruitless. The British government deems +(no doubt), on its own part, that its intentions are good. It must not +deceive itself: nor must we deceive ourselves. Intentions--thoroughly +good--could not mingle with the unblessed actions which we have +witnessed. A disinterested and pure intention is a light that guides as +well as cheers, and renders desperate lapses impossible. + +Our duty is--our aim ought to be--to employ the true means of liberty +and virtue for the ends of liberty and virtue. In such policy, +thoroughly understood, there is fitness and concord and rational +subordination; it deserves a higher name--organization, health, and +grandeur. Contrast, in a single instance, the two processes; and the +qualifications which they require. The ministers of that period found it +an easy task to hire a band of Hessians, and to send it across the +Atlantic, that they might assist _in bringing the Americans_ (according +to the phrase then prevalent) _to reason_. The force, with which these +troops would attack, was gross,--tangible,--and might be calculated; but +the spirit of resistance, which their presence would create, was +subtle--ethereal--mighty--and incalculable. Accordingly, from the moment +when these foreigners landed--men who had no interest, no business, in +the quarrel, but what the wages of their master bound him to, and he +imposed upon his miserable slaves;--nay, from the first rumour of their +destination, the success of the British was (as hath since been affirmed +by judicious Americans) impossible. + +The British government of the present day have been seduced, as we have +seen, by the same commonplace facilities on the one side; and have been +equally blind on the other. A physical auxiliar force of thirty-five +thousand men is to be added to the army of Spain: but the moral energy, +which thereby _might_ be taken away from the principal, is overlooked or +slighted; the material being too fine for their calculation. What does +it avail to graft a bough upon a tree; if this be done so ignorantly and +rashly that the trunk, which can alone supply the sap by which the whole +must flourish, receives a deadly wound? Palpable effects of the +Convention of Cintra, and self-contradicting consequences even in the +matter especially aimed at, may be seen in the necessity which it +entailed of leaving 8,000 British troops to protect Portugueze traitors +from punishment by the laws of their country. A still more serious and +fatal contradiction lies in this--that the English army was made an +instrument of injustice, and was dishonoured, in order that it might be +hurried forward to uphold a cause which could have no life but by +justice and honour. The Nation knows how that army languished in the +heart of Spain: that it accomplished nothing except its retreat, is +sure: what great service it might have performed, if it had moved from a +different impulse, we have shewn. + +It surely then behoves those who are in authority--to look to the state +of their own minds. There is indeed an inherent impossibility that they +should be equal to the arduous duties which have devolved upon them: but +it is not unreasonable to hope that something higher might be aimed at; +and that the People might see, upon great occasions,--in the practice of +its Rulers--a more adequate reflection of its own wisdom and virtue. Our +Rulers, I repeat, must begin with their own minds. This is a precept of +immediate urgency; and, if attended to, might be productive of immediate +good. I will follow it with further conclusions directly referring to +future conduct. + +I will not suppose that any ministry of this country can be so abject, +so insensible, and unwise, as to abandon the Spaniards and Portugueze +while there is a Patriot in arms; or, if the people should for a time be +subjugated, to deny them assistance the moment they rise to require it +again. I cannot think so unfavourably of my country as to suppose this +possible. Let men in power, however, take care (and let the nation be +equally careful) not to receive any reports from our army--of the +disposition of the Spanish people--without mistrust. The British +generals, who were in Portugal (the whole body of them,[21] according to +the statement of Sir Hew Dalrymple), approved of the Convention of +Cintra; and have thereby shewn that _their_ communications are not to be +relied upon in this case. And indeed there is not any information, which +we can receive upon this subject, that is so little trustworthy as that +which comes from our army--or from any part of it. The opportunities of +notice, afforded to soldiers in actual service, must necessarily be very +limited; and a thousand things stand in the way of their power to make a +right use of these. But a retreating army, in the country of an +Ally;--harrassed and dissatisfied; willing to find a reason for its +failures in any thing but itself, and actually not without much solid +ground for complaint; retreating; sometimes, perhaps, fugitive; and, in +its disorder, tempted (and even forced) to commit offences upon the +people of the district through which it passes; while they, in their +turn, are filled with fear and inconsiderate anger;--an army, in such a +condition, must needs be incapable of seeing objects as they really are; +and, at the same time, all things must change in its presence, and put +on their most unfavourable appearances. + +[21] From this number, however, must be excepted the gallant and +patriotic General Ferguson. For that officer has had the virtue publicly +and in the most emphatic manner, upon two occasions, to reprobate the +whole transaction. + +Deeming it then not to be doubted that the British government will +continue its endeavours to support its Allies; one or other of two +maxims of policy follows obviously from the painful truths which we have +been considering:--Either, first, that we should put forth to the utmost +our strength as a military power--strain it to the very last point, and +prepare (no erect mind will start at the proposition) to pour into the +Peninsula a force of two hundred thousand men or more,--and make +ourselves for a time, upon Spanish ground, principals in the contest; +or, secondly, that we should direct our attention to giving support +rather in _Things_ than in Men. + +The former plan, though requiring a great effort and many sacrifices, is +(I have no doubt) practicable: its difficulties would yield to a bold +and energetic Ministry, in despite of the present constitution of +Parliament. The Militia, if they had been called upon at the beginning +of the rising in the Peninsula, would (I believe)--almost to a man--have +offered their services: so would many of the Volunteers in their +individual capacity. They would do so still. The advantages of this plan +would be--that the power, which would attend it, must (if judiciously +directed) insure unity of effort; taming down, by its dignity, the +discords which usually prevail among allied armies; and subordinating to +itself the affections of the Spanish and Portugueze by the palpable +service which it was rendering to their Country. A further encouragement +for adopting this plan he will find, who perceives that the military +power of our Enemy is not in substance so formidable, by many--many +degrees of terror, as outwardly it appears to be. The last campaign has +not been wholly without advantage: since it has proved that the French +troops are indebted, for their victories, to the imbecility of their +opponents far more than to their own discipline or courage--or even to +the skill and talents of their Generals. There is a superstition hanging +over us which the efforts of our army (not to speak of the Spaniards) +have, I hope, removed.--But their mighty numbers!--In that is a delusion +of another kind. In the former instance, year after year we imagined +things to be what they were not: and in this, by a more fatal and more +common delusion, the thought of what things really are--precludes the +thought of what in a moment they may become: the mind, overlaid by the +present, cannot lift itself to attain a glimpse of the future. + +All--which is comparatively inherent, or can lay claim to any degree of +permanence, in the tyranny which the French Nation maintains over +Europe--rests upon two foundations:--First; Upon the despotic rule which +has been established in France over a powerful People who have lately +passed from a state of revolution, in which they supported a struggle +begun for domestic liberty, and long continued for liberty and national +independence:--and, secondly, upon the personal character of the Man by +whom that rule is exercised. + +As to the former; every one knows that Despotism, in a general sense, is +but another word for weakness. Let one generation disappear; and a +people over whom such rule has been extended, if it have not virtue to +free itself, is condemned to embarrassment in the operations of its +government, and to perpetual languor; with no better hope than that +which may spring from the diseased activity of some particular Prince on +whom the authority may happen to devolve. This, if it takes a regular +hereditary course: but,--if the succession be interrupted, and the +supreme power frequently usurped or given by election,--worse evils +follow. Science and Art must dwindle, whether the power be hereditary or +not: and the virtues of a Trajan or an Antonine are a hollow support for +the feeling of contentment and happiness in the hearts of their +subjects: such virtues are even a painful mockery;--something that is, +and may vanish in a moment, and leave the monstrous crimes of a +Caracalla or a Domitian in its place,--men, who are probably leaders of +a long procession of their kind. The feebleness of despotic power we +have had before our eyes in the late condition of Spain and Prussia; and +in that of France before the Revolution; and in the present condition of +Austria and Russia. But, in a _new-born_ arbitrary and military +Government (especially if, like that of France, it have been immediately +preceded by a popular Constitution), not only this weakness is not +found; but it possesses, for the purposes of external annoyance, a +preternatural vigour. Many causes contribute to this: we need only +mention that, fitness--real or supposed--being necessarily the chief +(and almost sole) recommendation to offices of trust, it is clear that +such offices will in general be ably filled; and their duties, +comparatively, well executed: and that, from the conjunction of absolute +civil and military authority in a single Person, there naturally follows +promptness of decision; concentration of effort; rapidity of motion; and +confidence that the movements made will be regularly supported. This is +all which need now be said upon the subject of this first basis of +French Tyranny. + +For the second--namely, the personal character of the Chief; I shall at +present content myself with noting (to prevent misconception) that this +basis is not laid in any superiority of talents in him, but in his utter +rejection of the restraints of morality--in wickedness which +acknowledges no limit but the extent of its own power. Let any one +reflect a moment; and he will feel that a new world of forces is opened +to a Being who has made this desperate leap. It is a tremendous +principle to be adopted, and steadily adhered to, by a man in the +station which Buonaparte occupies; and he has taken the full benefit of +it. What there is in this principle of weak, perilous, and +self-destructive--I may find a grateful employment in endeavouring to +shew upon some future occasion. But it is a duty which we owe to the +present moment to proclaim--in vindication of the dignity of human +nature, and for an admonition to men of prostrate spirit--that the +dominion, which this Enemy of mankind holds, has neither been acquired +nor is sustained by endowments of intellect which are rarely bestowed, +or by uncommon accumulations of knowledge; but that it has risen from +circumstances over which he had no influence; circumstances which, with +the power they conferred, have stimulated passions whose natural food +hath been and is ignorance; from the barbarian impotence and insolence +of a mind--originally of ordinary constitution--lagging, in moral +sentiment and knowledge, three hundred years behind the age in which it +acts. In such manner did the power originate; and, by the forces which I +have described, is it maintained. This should be declared: and it +should be added--that the crimes of Buonaparte are more to be abhorred +than those of other denaturalized creatures whose actions are painted in +History; because the Author of those crimes is guilty with less +temptation, and sins in the presence of a clearer light. + +No doubt in the command of almost the whole military force of Europe +(the subject which called upon me to make these distinctions) he has, +_at this moment_, a third source of power which may be added to these +two. He himself rates this last so high--either is, or affects to be, so +persuaded of its pre-eminence--that he boldly announces to the world +that it is madness, and even impiety, to resist him. And sorry may we be +to remember that there are British Senators, who (if a judgement may be +formed from the language which they speak) are inclined to accompany him +far in this opinion. But the enormity of this power has in it nothing +_inherent_ or _permanent_. Two signal overthrows in pitched battles +would, I believe, go far to destroy it. Germans, Dutch, Italians, Swiss, +Poles, would desert the army of Buonaparte, and flock to the standard of +his Adversaries, from the moment they could look towards it with that +confidence which one or two conspicuous victories would inspire. A +regiment of 900 Swiss joined the British army in Portugal; and, if the +French had been compelled to surrender as Prisoners of War, we should +have seen that all those troops, who were not native Frenchmen, would +(if encouragement had been given) have joined the British: and the +opportunity that was lost of demonstrating this fact--was not among the +least of the mischiefs which attended the termination of the +campaign.--In a word; the vastness of Buonaparte's military power is +formidable--not because it is impossible to break it; but because it has +not yet been penetrated. In this respect it may not inaptly be compared +to a huge pine-forest (such as are found in the Northern parts of this +Island), whose ability to resist the storms is in its skirts: let but +the blast once make an inroad; and it levels the forest, and sweeps it +away at pleasure. A hundred thousand men, such as fought at Vimiera and +Corunna, would accomplish three such victories as I have been +anticipating. This Nation _might_ command a military force which would +drive the French out of the Peninsula: I do not say that we could +sustain there a military force which would prevent their re-entering; +but that we could transplant thither, by a great effort, one which would +expel them:--_This_ I maintain: and it is matter of thought in which +infirm minds may find both reproach and instruction. The Spaniards could +then take possession of their own fortresses; and have leisure to give +themselves a blended civil and military organization, complete and +animated by liberty; which, if once accomplished, they would be able to +protect themselves. The oppressed Continental Powers also, seeing such +unquestionable proof that Great Britain was sincere and earnest, would +lift their heads again; and, by so doing, would lighten the burthen of +war which might remain for the Spaniards. + +In treating of this plan--I have presumed that a General might be placed +at the head of this great military power who would not sign a Treaty +like that of the Convention of Cintra, and say (look at the proceedings +of the Board of Inquiry) that he was determined to this by 'British +interests;' or frame _any_ Treaty in the country of an Ally (save one +purely military for the honourable preservation, if necessary, of his +own army or part of it) to which the sole, or even the main, inducement +was--our interests contra-distinguished from those of that Ally;--a +General and a Ministry whose policy would be comprehensive enough to +perceive that the true welfare of Britain is best promoted by the +independence, freedom, and honour of other Nations; and that it is only +by the diffusion and prevalence of these virtues that French Tyranny can +be ultimately reduced; or the influence of France over the rest of +Europe brought within its natural and reasonable limits. + +If this attempt be 'above the strain and temper' of the country, there +remains only a plan laid down upon the other principles; namely, service +(as far as is required) in _things_ rather than in men; that is, men +being secondary to things. It is not, I fear, possible that the moral +sentiments of the British Army or Government should accord with those of +Spain in her present condition. Commanding power indeed (as hath been +said), put forth in the repulse of the common enemy, would tend, more +effectually than any thing save the prevalence of true wisdom, to +prevent disagreement, and to obviate any temporary injury which the +moral spirit of the Spaniards might receive from us: at all events--such +power, should there ensue any injury, would bring a solid compensation. +But from a middle course--an association sufficiently intimate and wide +to scatter every where unkindly passions, and yet unable to attain the +salutary point of decisive power--no good is to be expected. Great would +be the evil, at this momentous period, if the hatred of the Spaniards +should look two ways. Let it be as steadily fixed upon the French, as +the Pilot's eye upon his mark. Military stores and arms should be +furnished with unfailing liberality: let Troops also be supplied; but +let these act separately,--taking strong positions upon the coast, if +such can be found, to employ twice their numbers of the Enemy; and, +above all, let there be floating Armies--keeping the Enemy in constant +uncertainty where he is to be attacked. The peninsula frame of Spain and +Portugal lays that region open to the full shock of British warfare. Our +Fleet and Army should act, wherever it is possible, as parts of one +body--a right hand and a left; and the Enemy ought to be made to feel +the force of both. + +But--whatever plans be adopted--there can be no success, unless the +execution be entrusted to Generals of competent judgement. That the +British Army swarms with those who are incompetent--is too plain from +successive proofs in the transactions at Buenos Ayres, at Cintra, and in +the result of the Board of Inquiry.--Nor must we see a General appointed +to command--and required, at the same time, to frame his operations +according to the opinion of an inferior Officer: an injunction (for a +recommendation, from such a quarter, amounts to an injunction) implying +that a man had been appointed to a high station--of which the very +persons, who had appointed him, deemed him unworthy; else they must have +known that he would endeavour to profit by the experience of any of his +inferior officers, from the suggestions of his own understanding: at the +same time--by denying to the General-in-Chief the free use of his own +judgement, and by the act of announcing this presumption of his +incompetence to the man himself--such an indignity is put upon him, that +his passions must of necessity be rouzed; so as to leave it scarcely +possible that he could draw any benefit, which he might otherwise have +drawn, from the local knowledge or talents of the individual to whom he +was referred: and, lastly, this injunction virtually involves a +subversion of all military subordination. In the better times of the +House of Commons--a minister, who had presumed to write such a letter as +that to which I allude, would have been impeached. + +The Debates in Parliament, and measures of Government, every day furnish +new Proofs of the truths which I have been attempting to establish--of +the utter want of general principles;--new and lamentable proofs! This +moment (while I am drawing towards a conclusion) I learn, from the +newspaper reports, that the House of Commons has refused to declare that +the Convention of Centra _disappointed the hopes and expectations of the +Nation_. + +The motion, according to the letter of it, was ill-framed; for the +Convention might have been a very good one, and still have disappointed +the hopes and expectations of the Nation--as those might have been +unwise: at all events, the words ought to have stood--the _just_ and +_reasonable_ hopes of the Nation. But the hacknied phrase of +'_disappointed hopes and expectations_'--should not have been used at +all: it is a centre round which much delusion has gathered. The +Convention not only did not satisfy the Nation's hopes of good; but sunk +it into a pitfall of unimagined and unimaginable evil. The hearts and +understandings of the People tell them that the language of a proposed +parliamentary resolution, upon this occasion, ought--not only to have +been different in the letter--but also widely different in the spirit: +and the reader of these pages will have deduced, that no terms of +reprobation could in severity exceed the offences involved in--and +connected with--that instrument. But, while the grand keep of the castle +of iniquity was to be stormed, we have seen nothing but a puny assault +upon heaps of the scattered rubbish of the fortress; nay, for the most +part, on some accidental mole-hills at its base. I do not speak thus in +disrespect to the Right Hon. Gentleman who headed this attack. His mind, +left to itself, would (I doubt not) have prompted something worthier and +higher: but he moves in the phalanx of Party;--a spiritual Body; in +which (by strange inconsistency) the hampering, weakening, and +destroying, of every individual mind of which it is composed--is the law +which must constitute the strength of the whole. The question +was--whether principles, affecting the very existence of Society, had +not been violated; and an arm lifted, and let fall, which struck at the +root of Honour; with the aggravation of the crime having been committed +at this momentous period. But what relation is there between these +principles and actions, and being in Place or out of it? If the People +would constitutionally and resolutely assert their rights, their +Representatives would be taught another lesson; and for their own +profit. Their understandings would be enriched accordingly: for it is +there--there where least suspected--that the want, from which this +country suffers, chiefly lies. They err, who suppose that venality and +corruption (though now spreading more and more) are the master-evils of +this day: neither these nor immoderate craving for power are so much to +be deprecated, as the non-existence of a widely-ranging intellect; of an +intellect which, if not efficacious to infuse truth as a vital fluid +into the heart, might at least make it a powerful tool in the hand. +Outward profession,--which, for practical purposes, is an act of most +desirable subservience,--would then wait upon those objects to which +inward reverence, though not felt, was known to be due. Schemes of ample +reach and true benefit would also promise best to insure the rewards +coveted by personal ambition: and men of baser passions, finding it +their interest, would naturally combine to perform useful service under +the direction of strong minds: while men of good intentions would have +their own pure satisfaction; and would exert themselves with more +upright--I mean, more hopeful--cheerfulness, and more successfully. It +is not therefore inordinate desire of wealth or power which is so +injurious--as the means which are and must be employed, in the present +intellectual condition of the Legislature, to sustain and secure that +power: these are at once an effect of barrenness, and a cause; acting, +and mutually re-acting, incessantly. An enlightened Friend has, in +conversation, observed to the Author of these pages--that formerly the +principles of men wore better than they who held them; but that now (a +far worse evil!) men are better than their principles. I believe it:--of +the deplorable quality and state of principles, the public proceedings +in our Country furnish daily new proof. It is however some consolation, +at this present crisis, to find--that, of the thoughts and feelings +uttered during the two debates which led me to these painful +declarations, such--as approach towards truth which has any dignity in +it--come from the side of his Majesty's Ministers.--But note again +those contradictions to which I have so often been obliged to advert. +The Ministers advise his Majesty publicly to express sentiments of +disapprobation upon the Convention of Cintra; and, when the question of +the merits or demerits of this instrument comes before them in +Parliament, the same persons--who, as advisers of the crown, lately +condemned the treaty--now, in their character of representatives of the +people, by the manner in which they received this motion, have +pronounced an encomium upon it. For, though (as I have said) the motion +was inaccurately and inadequately worded, it was not set aside upon this +ground. And the Parliament has therefore persisted in withholding, from +the insulted and injured People and from their Allies, the only +reparation which perhaps it may be in its power to grant; has refused to +signify its repentance and sorrow for what hath been done; without +which, as a previous step, there can be no proof--no gratifying +intimation, even to this Country or to its Allies, that the future +efforts of the British Parliament are in a sincere spirit. The guilt of +the transaction therefore being neither repented of, nor atoned for; the +course of evil is, by necessity, persevered in.--But let us turn to a +brighter region. + +The events of the last year, gloriously destroying many frail fears, +have placed--in the rank of serene and immortal truths--a proposition +which, as an object of belief, hath in all ages been fondly cherished; +namely--That a numerous Nation, determined to be free, may effect its +purpose in despite of the mightiest power which a foreign Invader can +bring against it. These events also have pointed out how, in the ways of +Nature and under the guidance of Society, this happy end is to be +attained: in other words, they have shewn that the cause of the People, +in dangers and difficulties issuing from this quarter of oppression, is +safe while it remains not only in the bosom but in the hands of the +People; or (what amounts to the same thing) in those of a government +which, being truly _from_ the People, is faithfully _for_ them. While +the power remained with the provincial Juntas, that is, with the body +natural of the community (for those authorities, newly generated in such +adversity, were truly living members of that body); every thing +prospered in Spain. Hopes of the best kind were opened out and +encouraged; liberal opinions countenanced; and wise measures arranged: +and last, and (except as proceeding from these) least of all,--victories +in the field, in the streets of the city, and upon the walls of the +fortress. + +I have heretofore styled it a blessing that the Spanish People became +their own masters at once. It _was_ a blessing; but not without much +alloy: as the same disinterested generous passions, which preserved (and +would for a season still have preserved) them from a bad exercise of +their power, impelled them to part with it too soon; before labours, +hitherto neither tried nor thought of, had created throughout the +country the minor excellences indispensible for the performance of those +labours; before powerful minds, not hitherto of general note, had found +time to shew themselves; and before men, who were previously known, had +undergone the proof of new situations. Much therefore was wanting to +direct the general judgement in the choice of persons, when the second +delegation took place; which was a removal (the first, we have seen, had +not been so) of the power from the People. But, when a common centre +became absolutely necessary, the power ought to have passed from the +provincial Assemblies into the hands of the Cortes; and into none else. +A pernicious Oligarchy crept into the place of this comprehensive--this +constitutional--this saving and majestic Assembly. Far be it from me to +speak of the Supreme Junta with ill-advised condemnation: every man must +feel for the distressful trials to which that Body has been exposed. But +eighty men or a hundred, with a king at their head veiled under a cloud +of fiction (we might say, with reference to the difficulties of this +moment, begotten upon a cloud of fiction), could not be an image of a +Nation like that of Spain, or an adequate instrument of their power for +their ends. The Assembly, from the smallness of its numbers, must have +wanted breadth of wing to extend itself and brood over Spain with a +quickening touch of warmth every where. If also, as hath been mentioned, +there was a want of experience to determine the judgment in choice of +persons; this same smallness of numbers must have unnecessarily +increased the evil--by excluding many men of worth and talents which +were so far known and allowed as that they would surely have been +deputed to an Assembly upon a larger scale. Gratitude, habit, and +numerous other causes must have given an undue preponderance to birth, +station, rank, and fortune; and have fixed the election, more than was +reasonable, upon those who were most conspicuous for these +distinctions;--men whose very virtue would incline them superstitiously +to respect established things, and to mistrust the People--towards whom +not only a frank confidence but a forward generosity was the first of +duties. I speak not of the vices to which such men would be liable, +brought up under the discipline of a government administered like the +old Monarchy of Spain: the matter is both ungracious and too obvious. + +But I began with hope; and hope has inwardly accompanied me to the end. +The whole course of the campaign, rightly interpreted, has justified my +hope. In Madrid, in Ferrol, in Corunna, in every considerable place, and +in every part of the country over which the French have re-extended +their dominion,--we learn, from their own reports, that the body of the +People have shewed against them, to the last, the most determined +hostility. Hence it is clear that the lure, which the invading Usurper +found himself constrained lately to hold out to the inferior orders of +society in the shape of various immunities, has totally failed: and +therefore he turns for support to another quarter, and now attempts to +cajole the wealthy and the privileged. But this class has been taught, +by late Decrees, what it has to expect from him; and how far he is to be +confided-in for its especial interests. Many individuals, no doubt, he +will seduce; but the bulk of the class, even if they could be insensible +to more liberal feelings, cannot but be his enemies. This change, +therefore, is not merely shifting ground; but retiring to a position +which he himself has previously undermined. Here is confusion; and a +power warring against itself. + +So will it ever fare with foreign Tyrants when (in spite of domestic +abuses) a People, which has lived long, feels that it has a Country to +love; and where the heart of that People is sound. Between the native +inhabitants of France and Spain there has existed from the earliest +period, and still does exist, an universal and utter dissimilitude in +laws, actions, deportment, gait, manners, customs: join with this the +difference in the language, and the barrier of the Pyrenees; a +separation and an opposition in great things, and an antipathy in small. +Ignorant then must he be of history and of the reports of travellers and +residents in the two countries, or strangely inattentive to the +constitution of human nature, who (this being true) can admit the +belief that the Spaniards, numerous and powerful as they are, will live +under Frenchmen as their lords and masters. Let there be added to this +inherent mutual repulsiveness--those recent indignities and horrible +outrages; and we need not fear to say that such reconcilement is +impossible; even without that further insuperable obstacle which we hope +will exist, an establishment of a free Constitution in Spain.--The +intoxicated setter-up of Kings may fill his diary with pompous stories +of the acclamations with which his solemn puppets are received; he may +stuff their mouths with impious asseverations; and hire knees to bend +before them, and lips to answer with honied greetings of gratitude and +love: these cannot remove the old heart, and put a new one into the +bosom of the spectators. The whole is a pageant seen for a day among men +in its passage to that 'Limbo large and broad' whither, as to their +proper home, fleet + + All the unaccomplish'd works of Nature's hand, + Abortive, monstrous, or unkindly mix'd, + _Dissolv'd on earth_. + +Talk not of the perishable nature of enthusiasm; and rise above a +craving for perpetual manifestations of things. He is to be pitied whose +eye can only be pierced by the light of a meridian sun, whose frame can +only be warmed by the heat of midsummer. Let us hear no more of the +little dependence to be had in war upon voluntary service. The things, +with which we are primarily and mainly concerned, are inward passions; +and not outward arrangements. These latter may be given at any time; +when the parts, to be put together, are in readiness. Hatred and love, +and each in its intensity, and pride (passions which, existing in the +heart of a Nation, are inseparable from hope)--these elements being in +constant preparation--enthusiasm will break out from them, or coalesce +with them, upon the summons of a moment. And these passions are scarcely +less than inextinguishable. The truth of this is recorded in the manners +and hearts of North and South Britons, of Englishmen and Welshmen, on +either border of the Tweed and of the Esk, on both sides of the Severn +and the Dee; an inscription legible, and in strong characters, which the +tread of many and great blessings, continued through hundreds of years, +has been unable to efface. The Sicilian Vespers are to this day a +familiar game among the boys of the villages on the sides of Mount Etna, +and through every corner of the Island; and 'Exterminate the French!' is +the action in their arms, and the word of triumph upon their tongues. He +then is a sorry Statist, who desponds or despairs (nor is he less so who +is too much elevated) from any considerations connected with the quality +of enthusiasm. Nothing is so easy as to sustain it by partial and +gradual changes of its object; and by placing it in the way of receiving +new interpositions according to the need. The difficulty lies--not in +kindling, feeding, or fanning the flame; but in continuing so to +regulate the relations of things--that the fanning breeze and the +feeding fuel shall come from no unworthy quarter, and shall neither of +them be wanting in appropriate consecration. The Spaniards have as great +helps towards ensuring this, as ever were vouchsafed to a People. + +What then is to be desired? Nothing but that the Government and the +higher orders of society should deal sincerely towards the middle class +and the lower: I mean, that the general temper should be sincere.--It is +not required that every one should be disinterested, or zealous, or of +one mind with his fellows. Selfishness or slackness in individuals, and +in certain bodies of men also (and at time's perhaps in all), have their +use: else why should they exist? Due circumspection and necessary +activity, in those who are sound, could not otherwise maintain +themselves. The deficiencies in one quarter are more than made up by +consequent overflowings in another. 'If my Neighbour fails,' says the +true Patriot, 'more devolves upon me.' Discord and even treason are not, +in a country situated as Spain is, the pure evils which, upon a +superficial view, they appear to be. Never are a people so livelily +admonished of the love they bear their country, and of the pride which +they have in their common parent, as when they hear of some parricidal +attempt of a false brother. For this cause chiefly, in times of national +danger, are their fancies so busy in suspicion; which under such shape, +though oftentimes producing dire and pitiable effects, is +notwithstanding in its general character no other than that habit which +has grown out of the instinct of self-preservation--elevated into a +wakeful and affectionate apprehension for the whole, and ennobling its +private and baser ways by the generous use to which they are converted. +Nor ever has a good and loyal man such a swell of mind, such a clear +insight into the constitution of virtue, and such a sublime sense of its +power, as at the first tidings of some atrocious act of perfidy; when, +having taken the alarm for human nature, a second thought recovers him; +and his faith returns--gladsome from what has been revealed within +himself, and awful from participation of the secrets in the profaner +grove of humanity which that momentary blast laid open to his view. + +Of the ultimate independence of the Spanish Nation there is no reason to +doubt: and for the immediate furtherance of the good cause, and a +throwing-off of the yoke upon the first favourable opportunity by the +different tracts of the country upon which it has been re-imposed, +nothing is wanting but sincerity on the part of the government towards +the provinces which are yet free. The first end to be secured by Spain +is riddance of the enemy: the second, permanent independence: and the +third, a free constitution of government; which will give their main +(though far from sole) value to the other two; and without which little +more than a formal independence, and perhaps scarcely that, can be +secured. Humanity and honour, and justice, and all the sacred feelings +connected with atonement, retribution, and satisfaction; shame that will +not sleep, and the sting of unperformed duty; and all the powers of the +mind, the memory that broods over the dead and turns to the living, the +understanding, the imagination, and the reason;--demand and enjoin that +the wanton oppressor should be driven, with confusion and dismay, from +the country which he has so heinously abused. + +This cannot be accomplished (scarcely can it be aimed at) without an +accompanying and an inseparable resolution, in the souls of the +Spaniards, to be and remain their own masters; that is, to preserve +themselves in the rank of Men; and not become as the Brute that is +driven to the pasture, and cares not who owns him. It is a common saying +among those who profess to be lovers of civil liberty, and give +themselves some credit for understanding it,--that, if a Nation be not +free, it is mere dust in the balance whether the slavery be bred at +home, or comes from abroad; be of their own suffering, or of a +stranger's imposing. They see little of the under-ground part of the +tree of liberty, and know less of the nature of man, who can think thus. +Where indeed there is an indisputable and immeasurable superiority in +one nation over another; to be conquered may, in course of time, be a +benefit to the inferior nation: and, upon this principle, some of the +conquests of the Greeks and Romans may be justified. But in what of +really useful or honourable are the French superior to their Neighbours? +Never far advanced, and, now barbarizing apace, they may carry--amongst +the sober and dignified Nations which surround them--much to be avoided, +but little to be imitated. + +There is yet another case in which a People may be benefited by +resignation or forfeiture of their rights as a separate independent +State; I mean, where--of two contiguous or neighbouring countries, both +included by nature under one conspicuously defined limit--the weaker is +united with, or absorbed into, the more powerful; and one and the same +Government is extended over both. This, with clue patience and +foresight, may (for the most part) be amicably effected, without the +intervention of conquest; but--even should a violent course have been +resorted to, and have proved successful--the result will be matter of +congratulation rather than of regret, if the countries have been +incorporated with an equitable participation of natural advantages and +civil privileges. Who does not rejoice that former partitions have +disappeared,--and that England, Scotland, and Wales, are under one +legislative and executive authority; and that Ireland (would that she +had been more justly dealt with!) follows the same destiny? The large +and numerous Fiefs, which interfered injuriously with the grand +demarcation assigned by nature to France, have long since been united +and consolidated. The several independent Sovereignties of Italy (a +country, the boundary of which is still more expressly traced out by +nature; and which has no less the further definition and cement of +country which Language prepares) have yet this good to aim at: and it +will be a happy day for Europe, when the natives of Italy and the +natives of Germany (whose duty is, in like manner, indicated to them) +shall each dissolve the pernicious barriers which divide them, and form +themselves into a mighty People. But Spain, excepting a free union with +Portugal, has no benefit of this kind to look for: she has long since +attained it. The Pyrenees on the one side, and the Sea on every other; +the vast extent and great resources of the territory; a population +numerous enough to defend itself against the whole world, and capable +of great increase; language; and long duration of independence;--point +out and command that the two nations of the Peninsula should be united +in friendship and strict alliance; and, as soon as it may be effected +without injustice, form one independent and indissoluble sovereignty. +The Peninsula cannot be protected but by itself: it is too large a tree +to be framed by nature for a station among underwoods; it must have +power to toss its branches in the wind, and lift a bold forehead to the +sun. + +Allowing that the 'regni novitas' should either compel or tempt the +Usurper to do away some ancient abuses, and to accord certain +insignificant privileges to the People upon the purlieus of the forest +of Freedom (for assuredly he will never suffer them to enter the body of +it); allowing this, and much more; that the mass of the Population would +be placed in a condition outwardly more thriving--would be _better off_ +(as the phrase in conversation is); it is still true that--in the act +and consciousness of submission to an imposed lord and master, to a will +not growing out of themselves, to the edicts of another People their +triumphant enemy--there would be the loss of a sensation within for +which nothing external, even though it should come close to the garden +and the field--to the door and the fire-side, can make amends. The +Artisan and the Merchant (men of classes perhaps least attached to their +native soil) would not be insensible to this loss; and the Mariner, in +his thoughtful mood, would sadden under it upon the wide ocean. The +central or cardinal feeling of these thoughts may, at a future time, +furnish fit matter for the genius of some patriotic Spaniard to express +in his own noble language--as an inscription for the Sword of Francis +the First; if that Sword, which was so ingloriously and perfidiously +surrendered, should ever, by the energies of Liberty, be recovered, and +deposited in its ancient habitation in the Escurial. The Patriot will +recollect that,--if the memorial, then given up by the hand of the +Government, had also been abandoned by the heart of the People, and that +indignity patiently subscribed to,--his country would have been lost for +ever. + +There are multitudes by whom, I know, these sentiments will not be +languidly received at this day; and sure I am--that, a hundred and fifty +years ago, they would have been ardently welcomed by all. But, in many +parts of Europe (and especially in our own country), men have been +pressing forward, for some time, in a path which has betrayed by its +fruitfulness; furnishing them constant employment for picking up things +about their feet, when thoughts were perishing in their minds. While +Mechanic Arts, Manufactures, Agriculture, Commerce, and all those +products of knowledge which are confined to gross--definite--and +tangible objects, have, with the aid of Experimental Philosophy, been +every day putting on more brilliant colours; the splendour of the +Imagination has been fading: Sensibility, which was formerly a generous +nursling of rude Nature, has been chased from its ancient range in the +wide domain of patriotism and religion with the weapons of derision by a +shadow calling itself Good Sense: calculations of presumptuous +Expediency--groping its way among partial and temporary +consequences--have been substituted for the dictates of paramount and +infallible Conscience, the supreme embracer of consequences: lifeless +and circumspect Decencies have banished the graceful negligence and +unsuspicious dignity of Virtue. + +The progress of these arts also, by furnishing such attractive stores of +outward accommodation, has misled the higher orders of society in their +more disinterested exertions for the service of the lower. Animal +comforts have been rejoiced over, as if they were the end of being. A +neater and more fertile garden; a greener field; implements and utensils +more apt; a dwelling more commodious and better furnished;--let these be +attained, say the actively benevolent, and we are sure not only of being +in the right road, but of having successfully terminated our journey. +Now a country may advance, for some time, in this course with apparent +profit: these accommodations, by zealous encouragement, may be attained: +and still the Peasant or Artisan, their master, be a slave in mind; a +slave rendered even more abject by the very tenure under which these +possessions are held: and--if they veil from us this fact, or reconcile +us to it--they are worse than worthless. The springs of emotion may be +relaxed or destroyed within him; he may have little thought of the past, +and less interest in the future.--The great end and difficulty of life +for men of all classes, and especially difficult for those who live by +manual labour, is a union of peace with innocent and laudable animation. +Not by bread alone is the life of Man sustained; not by raiment alone is +he warmed;--but by the genial and vernal inmate of the breast, which at +once pushes forth and cherishes; by self-support and self-sufficing +endeavours; by anticipations, apprehensions, and active remembrances; by +elasticity under insult, and firm resistance to injury; by joy, and by +love; by pride which his imagination gathers in from afar; by patience, +because life wants not promises; by admiration; by gratitude +which--debasing him not when his fellow-being is its object--habitually +expands itself, for his elevation, in complacency towards his Creator. + +Now, to the existence of these blessings, national independence is +indispensible; and many of them it will itself produce and maintain. For +it is some consolation to those who look back upon the history of the +world to know--that, even without civil liberty, society may +possess--diffused through its inner recesses in the minds even of its +humblest members--something of dignified enjoyment. But, without +national independence, this is impossible. The difference, between +inbred oppression and that which is from without, is _essential_; +inasmuch as the former does not exclude, from the minds of a people, the +feeling of being self-governed; does not imply (as the latter does, when +patiently submitted to) an abandonment of the first duty imposed by the +faculty of reason. In reality: where this feeling has no place, a people +are not a society, but a herd; man being indeed distinguished among them +from the brute; but only to his disgrace. I am aware that there are too +many who think that, to the bulk of the community, this independence is +of no value; that it is a refinement with which they feel they have no +concern; inasmuch as, under the best frame of Government, there is an +inevitable dependence of the pool upon the rich--of the many upon the +few--so unrelenting and imperious as to reduce this other, by +comparison, into a force which has small influence, and is entitled to +no regard. Superadd civil liberty to national independence; and this +position is overthrown at once: for there is no more certain mark of a +sound frame of polity than this; that, in all individual instances (and +it is upon these generalized that this position is laid down), the +dependence is in reality far more strict on the side of the wealthy; and +the labouring man leans less upon others than any man in the +community.--But the case before us is of a country not internally free, +yet supposed capable of repelling an external enemy who attempts its +subjugation. If a country have put on chains of its own forging; in the +name of virtue, let it be conscious that to itself it is accountable: +let it not have cause to look beyond its own limits for reproof: +and,--in the name of humanity,--if it be self-depressed, let it have its +pride and some hope within itself. The poorest Peasant, in an unsubdued +land, feels this pride. I do not appeal to the example of Britain or of +Switzerland, for the one is free, and the other lately was free (and, I +trust, will ere long be so again): but talk with the Swede; and you will +see the joy he finds in these sensations. With him animal courage (the +substitute for many and the friend of all the manly virtues) has space +to move in; and is at once elevated by his imagination, and softened by +his affections: it is invigorated also; for the whole courage of his +Country is in his breast. + +In fact: the Peasant, and he who lives by the fair reward of his manual +labour, has ordinarily a larger proportion of his gratifications +dependent upon these thoughts--than, for the most part, men in other +classes have. For he is in his person attached, by stronger roots, to +the soil of which he is the growth: his intellectual notices are +generally confined within narrower bounds: in him no partial or +antipatriotic interests counteract the force of those nobler sympathies +and antipathies which he has in right of his Country; and lastly the +belt or girdle of his mind has never been stretched to utter relaxation +by false philosophy, under a conceit of making it sit more easily and +gracefully. These sensations are a social inheritance to him: more +important, as he is precluded from luxurious--and those which are +usually called refined--enjoyments. + +Love and admiration must push themselves out towards some quarter: +otherwise the moral man is killed. Collaterally they advance with great +vigour to a certain extent--and they are checked: in that direction, +limits hard to pass are perpetually encountered: but upwards and +downwards, to ancestry and to posterity, they meet with gladsome help +and no obstacles; the tract is interminable.--Perdition to the Tyrant +who would wantonly cut off an independent Nation from its inheritance in +past ages; turning the tombs and burial-places of the Forefathers into +dreaded objects of sorrow, or of shame and reproach, for the Children! +Look upon Scotland and Wales: though, by the union of these with +England under the same Government (which was effected without conquest +in one instance), ferocious and desolating wars, and more injurious +intrigues, and sapping and disgraceful corruptions, have been prevented; +and tranquillity, security, and prosperity, and a thousand interchanges +of amity, not otherwise attainable, have followed;--yet the flashing +eye, and the agitated voice, and all the tender recollections, with +which the names of Prince Llewellin and William Wallace are to this day +pronounced by the fire-side and on the public road, attest that these +substantial blessings have not been purchased without the relinquishment +of something most salutary to the moral nature of Man: else the +remembrances would not cleave so faithfully to their abiding-place in +the human heart. But, if these affections be of general interest, they +are of especial interest to Spain; whose history, written and +traditional, is pre-eminently stored with the sustaining food of such +affections: and in no country are they more justly and generally prized, +or more feelingly cherished. + +In the conduct of this argument I am not speaking _to_ the humbler ranks +of society: it is unnecessary: _they_ trust in nature, and are safe. The +People of Madrid, and Corunna, and Ferrol, resisted to the last; from an +impulse which, in their hearts, was its own justification. The failure +was with those who stood higher in the scale. In fact; the universal +rising of the Peninsula, under the pressure and in the face of the most +tremendous military power which ever existed, is evidence which cannot +be too much insisted upon; and is decisive upon this subject, as +involving a question of virtue and moral sentiment. All ranks were +penetrated with one feeling: instantaneous and universal was the +acknowledgement. If there have been since individual fallings-off; those +have been caused by that kind of after-thoughts which are the bastard +offspring of selfishness. The matter was brought home to Spain; and no +Spaniard has offended herein with a still conscience.--It is to the +worldlings of our own country, and to those who think without carrying +their thoughts far enough, that I address myself. Let them know, there +is no true wisdom without imagination; no genuine sense;--that the man, +who in this age feels no regret for the ruined honour of other Nations, +must be poor in sympathy for the honour of his own Country; and that, if +he be wanting here towards that which circumscribes the whole, he +neither has--nor can have--social regard for the lesser communities +which Country includes. Contract the circle, and bring him to his +family; such a man cannot protect _that_ with dignified loves. Reduce +his thoughts to his own person; he may defend himself,--what _he_ deems +his honour; but it is the _action_ of a brave man from the impulse of +the brute, or the motive of a coward. + +But it is time to recollect that this vindication of human feeling began +from an _hypothesis_,--that the _outward_ state of the mass of the +Spanish people would be improved by the French usurpation. To this I now +give an unqualified denial. Let me also observe to those men, for whose +infirmity this hypothesis was tolerated,--that the true point of +comparison does not lie between what the Spaniards have been under a +government of their own, and what they may become under French +domination; but between what the Spaniards may do (and, in all +likelihood, will do) for themselves, and what Frenchmen would do for +them. But,--waiving this,--the sweeping away of the most splendid +monuments of art, and rifling of the public treasuries in the conquered +countries, are an apt prologue to the tragedy which is to ensue. Strange +that there are men who can be so besotted as to see, in the decrees of +the Usurper concerning feudal tenures and a worn-out Inquisition, any +other evidence than that of insidiousness and of a constrained +acknowledgement of the strength which he felt he had to overcome. What +avail the lessons of history, if men can be duped thus? Boons and +promises of this kind rank, in trustworthiness, many degrees lower than +amnesties after expelled kings have recovered their thrones. +The fate of subjugated Spain may be expressed in these +words,--pillage--depression--and helotism--for the supposed +aggrandizement of the imaginary freeman its master. There would indeed +be attempts at encouragement, that there might be a supply of something +to pillage: studied depression there would be, that there might arise no +power of resistance: and lastly helotism;--but of what kind? that a vain +and impious Nation might have slaves, worthier than itself, for work +which its own hands would reject with scorn. + +What good can the present arbitrary power confer upon France itself? Let +that point be first settled by those who are inclined to look farther. +The earlier proceedings of the French Revolution no doubt infused +health into the country; something of which survives to this day: but +let not the now-existing Tyranny have the credit of it. France neither +owes, nor can owe, to this any rational obligation. She has seen decrees +without end for the increase of commerce and manufactures; pompous +stories without number of harbours, canals, warehouses, and bridges: but +there is no worse sign in the management of affairs than when that, +which ought to follow as an effect, goes before under a vain notion that +it will be a cause.--Let us attend to the springs of action, and we +shall not be deceived. The works of peace cannot flourish in a country +governed by an intoxicated Despot; the motions of whose distorted +benevolence must be still more pernicious than those of his cruelty. '_I +have bestowed; I have created; I have regenerated; I have been pleased +to organize_;'--this is the language perpetually upon his lips, when his +ill-fated activities turn that way. Now commerce, manufactures, +agriculture, and all the peaceful arts, are of the nature of virtues or +intellectual powers: they cannot be given; they cannot be stuck in here +and there; they must spring up; they must grow of themselves: they may +be encouraged; they thrive better with encouragement, and delight in it; +but the obligation must have bounds nicely defined; for they are +delicate, proud, and independent. But a Tyrant has no joy in any thing +which is endued with such excellence: he sickens at the sight of it: he +turns away from it, as an insult to his own attributes. We have seen the +present ruler of France publicly addressed as a Providence upon earth; +styled, among innumerable other blasphemies, the supreme Ruler of +things; and heard him say, in his answers, that he approved of the +language of those who thus saluted him. (_See Appendix E_.)--Oh folly to +think that plans of reason can prosper under such countenance! If this +be the doom of France, what a monster would be the double-headed tyranny +of Spain! + +It is immutably ordained that power, taken and exercised in contempt of +right, never can bring forth good. Wicked actions indeed have oftentimes +happy issues: the benevolent economy of nature counter-working and +diverting evil; and educing finally benefits from injuries, and turning +curses to blessings. But I am speaking of good in a direct course. All +good in this order--all moral good--begins and ends in reverence of +right. The whole Spanish People are to be treated not as a mighty +multitude with feeling, will, and judgment; not as rational +creatures;--but as objects without reason; in the language of human law, +insuperably laid down not as Persons but as Things. Can good come from +this beginning; which, in matter of civil government, is the +fountain-head and the main feeder of all the pure evil upon earth? Look +at the past history of our sister Island for the quality of foreign +oppression: turn where you will, it is miserable at best; but, in the +case of Spain!--it might be said, engraven upon the rocks of her own +Pyrenees, + + Per me si va nella citta dolente; + Per me si va nell' eterno dolore; + Per me si va tra la perduta gente. + +So much I have thought it necessary to speak upon this subject; with a +desire to enlarge the views of the short-sighted, to cheer the +desponding, and stimulate the remiss. I have been treating of duties +which the People of Spain feel to be solemn and imperious; and have +referred to springs of action (in the sensations of love and hatred, of +hope and fear),--for promoting the fulfilment of these duties,--which +cannot fail. The People of Spain, thus animated, will move now; and will +be prepared to move, upon a favourable summons, for ages. And it is +consolatory to think that,--even if many of the leading persons of that +country, in their resistance to France, should not look beyond the two +first objects (viz. riddance of the enemy, and security of national +independence);--it is, I say, consolatory to think that the conduct, +which can alone secure either of these ends, leads directly to a free +internal Government. We have therefore both the passions and the reason +of these men on our side in two stages of the common journey: and, when +this is the case, surely we are justified in expecting some further +companionship and support from their reason--acting independent of their +partial interests, or in opposition to them. It is obvious that, to the +narrow policy of this class (men loyal to the Nation and to the King, +yet jealous of the People), the most dangerous failures, which have +hitherto taken place, are to be attributed: for, though from acts of +open treason Spain may suffer and has suffered much, these (as I have +proved) can never affect the vitals of the cause. But the march of +Liberty has begun; and they, who will not lead, may be borne along.--At +all events, the road is plain. Let members for the Cortes be assembled +from those Provinces which are not in the possession of the Invader: or +at least (if circumstances render this impossible at present) let it be +announced that such is the intention, to be realized the first moment +when it shall become possible. In the mean while speak boldly to the +People: and let the People write and speak boldly. Let the expectation +be familiar to them of open and manly institutions of law and liberty +according to knowledge. Let them be universally trained to military +exercises, and accustomed to military discipline: let them be drawn +together in civic and religious assemblies; and a general communication +of those assemblies with each other be established through the country: +so that there may be one zeal and one life in every part of it. + +With great profit might the Chiefs of the Spanish Nation look back upon +the earlier part of the French Revolution. Much, in the outward manner, +might there be found worthy of qualified imitation: and, where there is +a difference in the inner spirit (and there is a mighty difference!), +the advantage is wholly on the side of the Spaniards.--Why should the +People of Spain be dreaded by their leaders? I do not mean the +profligate and flagitious leaders; but those who are well-intentioned, +yet timid. That there are numbers of this class who have excellent +intentions, and are willing to make large personal sacrifices, is clear; +for they have put every thing to risk--all their privileges, their +honours, and possessions--by their resistance to the Invader. Why then +should they have fears from a quarter--whence their safety must come, if +it come at all?--Spain has nothing to dread from Jacobinism. +Manufactures and Commerce have there in far less degree than +elsewhere--by unnaturally clustering the people together--enfeebled +their bodies, inflamed their passions by intemperance, vitiated from +childhood their moral affections, and destroyed their imaginations. +Madrid is no enormous city, like Paris; over-grown, and +disproportionate; sickening and bowing down, by its corrupt humours, the +frame of the body politic. Nor has the pestilential philosophism of +France made any progress in Spain. No flight of infidel harpies has +alighted upon their ground. A Spanish understanding is a hold too strong +to give way to the meagre tactics of the 'Systeme de la Nature;' or to +the pellets of logic which Condillac has cast in the foundry of +national vanity, and tosses about at hap-hazard--self-persuaded that he +is proceeding according to art. The Spaniards are a people with +imagination: and the paradoxical reveries of Rousseau, and the +flippancies of Voltaire, are plants which will not naturalise in the +country of Calderon and Cervantes. Though bigotry among the Spaniards +leaves much to be lamented; I have proved that the religious habits of +the nation must, in a contest of this kind, be of inestimable service. + +Yet further: contrasting the present condition of Spain with that of +France at the commencement of her revolution, we must not overlook one +characteristic; the Spaniards have no division among themselves by and +through themselves; no numerous Priesthood--no Nobility--no large body +of powerful Burghers--from passion, interest, and conscience--opposing +the end which is known and felt to be the duty and only honest and true +interest of all. Hostility, wherever it is found, must proceed from the +seductions of the Invader: and these depend solely upon his power: let +that be shattered; and they vanish. + +And this once again leads us directly to that immense military force +which the Spaniards have to combat; and which, many think, more than +counterbalances every internal advantage. It is indeed formidable: as +revolutionary appetites and energies must needs be; when, among a people +numerous as the people of France, they have ceased to spend themselves +in conflicting factions within the country for objects perpetually +changing shape; and are carried out of it under the strong controul of +an absolute despotism, as opportunity invites, for a definite +object--plunder and conquest. It is, I allow, a frightful spectacle--to +see the prime of a vast nation propelled out of their territory with the +rapid sweep of a horde of Tartars; moving from the impulse of like +savage instincts; and furnished, at the same time, with those implements +of physical destruction which have been produced by science and +civilization. Such are the motions of the French armies; unchecked by +any thought which philosophy and the spirit of society, progressively +humanizing, have called forth--to determine or regulate the application +of the murderous and desolating apparatus with which by philosophy and +science they have been provided. With a like perversion of things, and +the same mischievous reconcilement of forces in their nature adverse, +these revolutionary impulses and these appetites of barbarous (nay, +what is far worse, of barbarized) men are embodied in a new frame of +polity; which possesses the consistency of an ancient Government, +without its embarrassments and weaknesses. And at the head of all is the +mind of one man who acts avowedly upon the principle that everything, +which can be done safely by the supreme power of a State, may be done +(_See Appendix F_.); and who has, at his command, the greatest part of +the continent of Europe--to fulfil what yet remains unaccomplished of +his nefarious purposes. + +Now it must be obvious to a reflecting mind that every thing which is +desperately immoral, being in its constitution monstrous, is of itself +perishable: decay it cannot escape; and, further, it is liable to sudden +dissolution: time would evince this in the instance before us; though +not, perhaps, until infinite and irreparable harm had been done. But, +even at present, each of the sources of this preternatural strength (as +far as it is formidable to Europe) has its corresponding seat of +weakness; which, were it fairly touched, would manifest itself +immediately.--The power is indeed a Colossus: but, if the trunk be of +molten-brass, the members are of clay; and would fall to pieces upon a +shock which need not be violent. Great Britain, if her energies were +properly called forth and directed, might (as we have already +maintained) give this shock. 'Magna parvis obscurantur' was the +appropriate motto (the device a Sun Eclipsed) when Lord Peterborough, +with a handful of men opposed to fortified cities and large armies, +brought a great part of Spain to acknowledge a sovereign of the House of +Austria. We have _now_ a vast military force; and,--even without a +Peterborough or a Marlborough,--at this precious opportunity (when, as +is daily more probable, a large portion of the French force must march +northwards to combat Austria) we might easily, by expelling the French +from the Peninsula, secure an immediate footing there for liberty; and +the Pyrenees would then be shut against them for ever. The disciplined +troops of Great Britain might overthrow the enemy in the field; while +the Patriots of Spain, under wise management, would be able to consume +him slowly but surely. + +For present annoyance his power is, no doubt, mighty: but liberty--in +which it originated, and of which it is a depravation--is far mightier; +and the good in human nature is stronger than the evil. The events of +our age indeed have brought this truth into doubt with some persons: and +scrupulous observers have been astonished and have repined at the sight +of enthusiasm, courage, perseverance, and fidelity, put forth seemingly +to their height,--and all engaged in the furtherance of wrong. But the +minds of men are not always devoted to this bad service as strenuously +as they appear to be. I have personal knowledge that, when the attack +was made which ended in the subjugation of Switzerland, the injustice of +the undertaking was grievously oppressive to many officers of the French +army; and damped their exertions. Besides, were it otherwise, there is +no just cause for despondency in the perverted alliance of these +qualities with oppression. The intrinsic superiority of virtue and +liberty, even for politic ends, is not affected by it. If the tide of +success were, by any effort, fairly turned;--not only a general +desertion, as we have the best reason to believe, would follow among the +troops of the enslaved nations; but a moral change would also take place +in the minds of the native French soldiery. Occasion would be given for +the discontented to break out; and, above all, for the triumph of human +nature. It would _then_ be seen whether men fighting in a bad +cause,--men without magnanimity, honour, or justice,--could recover; and +stand up against champions who by these virtues were carried forward in +good fortune, as by these virtues in adversity they had been sustained. +As long as guilty actions thrive, guilt is strong: it has a giddiness +and transport of its own; a hardihood not without superstition, as if +Providence were a party to its success. But there is no independent +spring at the heart of the machine which can be relied upon for a +support of these motions in a change of circumstances. Disaster opens +the eyes of conscience; and, in the minds of men who have been employed +in bad actions, defeat and a feeling of punishment are inseparable. + +On the other hand; the power of an unblemished heart and a brave spirit +is shewn, in the events of war, not only among unpractised citizens and +peasants; but among troops in the most perfect discipline. Large bodies +of the British army have been several times broken--that is, technically +vanquished--in Egypt, and elsewhere. Yet they, who were conquered as +formal soldiers, stood their ground and became conquerors as men. This +paramount efficacy of moral causes is not willingly admitted by persons +high in the profession of arms; because it seems to diminish their value +in society--by taking from the importance of their art: but the truth is +indisputable: and those Generals are as blind to their own interests as +to the interests of their country, who, by submitting to inglorious +treaties or by other misconduct, hazard the breaking down of those +personal virtues in the men under their command--to which they +themselves, as leaders, are mainly indebted for the fame which they +acquire. + +Combine, with this moral superiority inherent in the cause of Freedom, +the endless resources open to a nation which shews constancy in +defensive war; resources which, after a lapse of time, leave the +strongest invading army comparatively helpless. Before six cities, +resisting as Saragossa hath resisted during her two sieges, the whole of +the military power of the adversary would melt away. Without any +advantages of natural situation; without fortifications; without even a +ditch to protect them; with nothing better than a mud wall; with not +more than two hundred regular troops; with a slender stock of arms and +ammunition; with a leader inexperienced in war;--the Citizens of +Saragossa began the contest. Enough of what was needful--was produced +and created; and--by courage, fortitude, and skill rapidly matured--they +baffled for sixty days, and finally repulsed, a large French army with +all its equipments. In the first siege the natural and moral victory +were both on their side; nor less so virtually (though the termination +was different) in the second. For, after another resistance of nearly +three months, they have given the enemy cause feelingly to say, with +Pyrrhus of old,--'A little more of such conquest, and I am destroyed.' + +If evidence were wanting of the efficacy of the principles which +throughout this Treatise have been maintained,--it has been furnished in +overflowing measure. A private individual, I had written; and knew not +in what manner tens of thousands were enacting, day after day, the +truths which, in the solitude of a peaceful vale, I was meditating. Most +gloriously have the Citizens of Saragossa proved that the true army of +Spain, in a contest of this nature, is the whole people. The same city +has also exemplified a melancholy--yea a dismal truth; yet consolatory, +and full of joy; that,--when a people are called suddenly to fight for +their liberty, and are sorely pressed upon,--their best field of battle +is the floors upon which their children have played; the chambers where +the family of each man has slept (his own or his neighbours'); upon or +under the roofs by which they have been sheltered; in the gardens of +their recreation; in the street, or in the market-place; before the +Altars of their Temples; and among their congregated dwellings--blazing, +or up-rooted. + +The Government of Spain must never forget Saragossa for a moment. +Nothing is wanting, to produce the same effects every where, but a +leading mind such as that city was blessed with. In the latter contest +this has been proved; for Saragossa contained, at that time, bodies of +men from almost all parts of Spain. The narrative of those two sieges +should be the manual of every Spaniard: he may add to it the ancient +stories of Numantia and Saguntum: let him sleep upon the book as a +pillow; and, if he be a devout adherent to the religion of his country, +let him wear it in his bosom for his crucifix to rest upon. + +Beginning from these invincible feelings, and the principles of justice +which are involved in them; let nothing be neglected, which policy and +prudence dictate, for rendering subservient to the same end those +qualities in human nature which are indifferent or even morally bad; and +for making the selfish propensities contribute to the support of wise +arrangements, civil and military.--Perhaps there never appeared in the +field more steady soldiers--troops which it would have been more +difficult to conquer with such knowledge of the art of war as then +existed--than those commanded by Fairfax and Cromwell: let us see from +what root these armies grew. 'Cromwell,' says Sir Philip Warwick, 'made +use of the zeal and credulity of these persons' (that is--such of the +people as had, in the author's language, the fanatic humour); 'teaching +them (as they too readily taught themselves) that they engaged for God, +when he led them against his vicegerent the King. And, where this +opinion met with a natural courage, it made them bolder--and too often +crueller; and, where natural courage wanted, zeal supplied its place. +And at first they chose rather to die than flee; and custom removed fear +of danger: and afterwards--finding the sweet of good pay, and of +opulent plunder, and of preferment suitable to activity and merit--the +lucrative part made gain seem to them a natural member of godliness. And +I cannot here omit' (continues the author) 'a character of this army +which General Fairfax gave unto myself; when, complimenting him with the +regularity and temperance of his army, he told me, The best common +soldiers he had--came out of our army and from the garrisons he had +taken in. So (says he) I found you had made them good soldiers; and I +have made them good men. But, upon this whole matter, it may appear' +(concludes the author) 'that the spirit of discipline of war may beget +that spirit of discipline which even Solomon describes as the spirit of +wisdom and obedience.' Apply this process to the growth and maturity of +an armed force in Spain. In making a comparison of the two cases; to the +sense of the insults and injuries which, as Spaniards and as human +Beings, they have received and have to dread,--and to the sanctity which +an honourable resistance has already conferred upon their +misfortunes,--add the devotion of that people to their religion as +Catholics;--and it will not be doubted that the superiority of the +radical feeling is, on their side, immeasurable. There is (I cannot +refrain from observing) in the Catholic religion, and in the character +of its Priesthood especially, a source of animation and fortitude in +desperate struggles--which may be relied upon as one of the best hopes +of the cause. The narrative of the first siege of Zaragoza, lately +published in this country, and which I earnestly recommend to the +reader's perusal, informs us that,--'In every part of the town where the +danger was most imminent, and the French the most numerous,--was Padre +St. Iago Sass, curate of a parish in Zaragoza. As General Palafox made +his rounds through the city, he often beheld Sass alternately playing +the part of a Priest and a Soldier; sometimes administering the +sacrament to the dying; and, at others, fighting in the most determined +manner against the enemies of his country.--He was found so serviceable +in inspiring the people with religious sentiments, and in leading them +on to danger, that the General has placed him in a situation where both +his piety and courage may continue to be as useful as before; and he is +now both Captain in the army, and Chaplain to the commander-in-chief.' + +The reader will have been reminded, by the passage above cited from Sir +Philip Warwick's memoirs, of the details given, in the earlier part of +this tract, concerning the course which (as it appeared to me) might +with advantage be pursued in Spain: I must request him to combine those +details with such others as have since been given: the whole would have +been further illustrated, if I could sooner have returned to the +subject; but it was first necessary to examine the grounds of hope in +the grand and disinterested passions, and in the laws of universal +morality. My attention has therefore been chiefly directed to these laws +and passions; in order to elevate, in some degree, the conceptions of my +readers; and with a wish to rectify and fix, in this fundamental point, +their judgements. The truth of the general reasoning will, I have no +doubt, be acknowledged by men of uncorrupted natures and practised +understandings; and the conclusion, which I have repeatedly drawn, will +be acceded to; namely, that no resistance can be prosperous which does +not look, for its chief support, to these principles and feelings. If, +however, there should be men who still fear (as I have been speaking of +things under combinations which are transitory) that the action of these +powers cannot be sustained; to such I answer that,--if there be a +necessity that it should be sustained at the point to which it first +ascended, or should recover that height if there have been a +fall,--Nature will provide for that necessity. The cause is in Tyranny: +and that will again call forth the effect out of its holy retirements. +Oppression, its own blind and predestined enemy, has poured this of +blessedness upon Spain,--that the enormity of the outrages, of which she +has been the victim, has created an object of love and of hatred--of +apprehensions and of wishes--adequate (if that be possible) to the +utmost demands of the human spirit. The heart that serves in this cause, +if it languish, must languish from its own constitutional weakness; and +not through want of nourishment from without. But it is a belief +propagated in books, and which passes currently among talking men as +part of their familiar wisdom, that the hearts of the many _are_ +constitutionally weak; that they _do_ languish; and are slow to answer +to the requisitions of things. I entreat those, who are in this +delusion, to look behind them and about them for the evidence of +experience. Now this, rightly understood, not only gives no support to +any such belief; but proves that the truth is in direct opposition to +it. The history of all ages; tumults after tumults; wars, foreign or +civil, with short or with no breathing-spaces, from generation to +generation; wars--why and wherefore? yet with courage, with +perseverance, with self-sacrifice, with enthusiasm--with cruelty driving +forward the cruel man from its own terrible nakedness, and attracting +the more benign by the accompaniment of some shadow which seems to +sanctify it; the senseless weaving and interweaving of +factions--vanishing and reviving and piercing each other like the +Northern Lights; public commotions, and those in the bosom of the +individual; the long calenture to which the Lover is subject; the blast, +like the blast of the desart, which sweeps perennially through a +frightful solitude of its own making in the mind of the Gamester; the +slowly quickening but ever quickening descent of appetite down which the +Miser is propelled; the agony and cleaving oppression of grief; the +ghost-like hauntings of shame; the incubus of revenge; the +life-distemper of ambition;--these inward existences, and the visible +and familiar occurrences of daily life in every town and village; the +patient curiosity and contagious acclamations of the multitude in the +streets of the city and within the walls of the theatre; a procession, +or a rural dance; a hunting, or a horse-race; a flood, or a fire; +rejoicing and ringing of bells for an unexpected gift of good fortune, +or the coming of a foolish heir to his estate;--these demonstrate +incontestibly that the passions of men (I mean, the soul of sensibility +in the heart of man)--in all quarrels, in all contests, in all quests, +in all delights, in all employments which are either sought by men or +thrust upon them--do immeasurably transcend their objects. The true +sorrow of humanity consists in this;--not that the mind of man fails; +but that the course and demands of action and of life so rarely +correspond with the dignity and intensity of human desires: and hence +that, which is slow to languish, is too easily turned aside and abused. +But--with the remembrance of what has been done, and in the face of the +interminable evils which are threatened--a Spaniard can never have cause +to complain of this, while a follower of the tyrant remains in arms upon +the Peninsula. + +Here then they, with whom I _hope_, take their stand. There is a +spiritual community binding together the living and the dead; the good, +the brave, and the wise, of all ages. We would not be rejected from this +community: and therefore do we hope. We look forward with erect mind, +thinking and feeling: it is an obligation of duty: take away the sense +of it, and the moral being would die within us.--Among the most +illustrious of that fraternity, whose encouragement we participate, is +an Englishman who sacrificed his life in devotion to a cause bearing a +stronger likeness to this than any recorded in history. It is the elder +Sidney--a deliverer and defender, whose name I have before uttered with +reverence; who, treating of the war in the Netherlands against Philip +the Second, thus writes: 'If her Majesty,' says he, 'were the fountain; +I wold fear, considering what I daily find, that we shold wax dry. But +she is but a means whom God useth. And I know not whether I am deceaved; +but I am fully persuaded, that, if she shold withdraw herself, other +springs wold rise to help this action. For, methinks, I see the great +work indeed in hand against the abuses of the world; wherein it is no +greater fault to have confidence in man's power, than it is too hastily +to despair of God's work.' + +The pen, which I am guiding, has stopped in my hand; and I have scarcely +power to proceed.--I will lay down one principle; and then shall +contentedly withdraw from the sanctuary. + +When wickedness acknowledges no limit but the extent of her power, and +advances with aggravated impatience like a devouring fire; the only +worthy or adequate opposition is--that of virtue submitting to no +circumscription of her endeavours save that of her rights, and aspiring +from the impulse of her own ethereal zeal. The Christian exhortation for +the individual is here the precept for nations--'Be ye therefore +perfect; even as your Father, which is in Heaven, is perfect.' + +Upon a future occasion (if what has been now said meets with attention) +I shall point out the steps by which the practice of life may be lifted +up towards these high precepts. I shall have to speak of the child as +well as the man; for with the child, or the youth, may we begin with +more hope: but I am not in despair even for the man; and chiefly from +the inordinate evils of our time. There are (as I shall attempt to shew) +tender and subtile ties by which these principles, that love to soar in +the pure region, are connected with the ground-nest in which they were +fostered and from which they take their flight. + +The outermost and all-embracing circle of benevolence has inward +concentric circles which, like those of the spider's web, are bound +together by links, and rest upon each other; making one frame, and +capable of one tremor; circles narrower and narrower, closer and closer, +as they lie more near to the centre of self from which they proceeded, +and which sustains the whole. The order of life does not require that +the sublime and disinterested feelings should have to trust long to +their own unassisted power. Nor would the attempt consist either with +their dignity or their humility. They condescend, and they adopt: they +know the time of their repose; and the qualities which are worthy of +being admitted into their service--of being their inmates, their +companions, or their substitutes. I shall strive to shew that these +principles and movements of wisdom--so far from towering above the +support of prudence, or rejecting the rules of experience, for the +better conduct of those multifarious actions which are alike necessary +to the attainment of ends good or bad--do instinctively prompt the sole +prudence which cannot fail. The higher mode of being does not exclude, +but necessarily includes, the lower; the intellectual does not exclude, +but necessarily includes, the sentient; the sentient, the animal; and +the animal, the vital--to its lowest degrees. Wisdom is the hidden root +which thrusts forth the stalk of prudence; and these uniting feed and +uphold 'the bright consummate flower'--National Happiness--the end, the +conspicuous crown, and ornament of the whole. + +I have announced the feelings of those who hope: yet one word more to +those who despond. And first; _he_ stands upon a hideous precipice (and +it will be the same with all who may succeed to him and his iron +sceptre)--he who has outlawed himself from society by proclaiming, with +act and deed, that he acknowledges no mastery but power. This truth must +be evident to all who breathe--from the dawn of childhood, till the last +gleam of twilight is lost in the darkness of dotage. But take the tyrant +as he is, in the plenitude of his supposed strength. The vast country of +Germany, in spite of the rusty but too strong fetters of corrupt +princedoms and degenerate nobility,--Germany--with its citizens, its +peasants, and its philosophers--will not lie quiet under the weight of +injuries which has been heaped upon it. There is a sleep, but no death, +among the mountains of Switzerland. Florence, and Venice, and Genoa, and +Rome,--have their own poignant recollections, and a majestic train of +glory in past ages. The stir of emancipation may again be felt at the +mouths as well as at the sources of the Rhine. Poland perhaps will not +be insensible; Kosciusko and his compeers may not have bled in vain. Nor +is Hungarian loyalty to be overlooked. And, for Spain itself, the +territory is wide: let it be overrun: the torrent will weaken as the +water spreads. And, should all resistance disappear, be not daunted: +extremes meet: and how often do hope and despair almost touch each +other--though unconscious of their neighbourhood, because their faces +are turned different ways! yet, in a moment, the one shall vanish; and +the other begin a career in the fulness of her joy. + +But we may turn from these thoughts: for the present juncture is most +auspicious. Upon liberty, and upon liberty alone, can there be permanent +dependence; but a temporary relief will be given by the share which +Austria is about to take in the war. Now is the time for a great and +decisive effort; and, if Britain does not avail herself of it, her +disgrace will be indelible, and the loss infinite. If there be ground of +hope in the crimes and errors of the enemy, he has furnished enough of +both: but imbecility in his opponents (above all, the imbecility of the +British) has hitherto preserved him from the natural consequences of his +ignorance, his meanness of mind, his transports of infirm fancy, and his +guilt. Let us hasten to redeem ourselves. The field is open for a +commanding British military force to clear the Peninsula of the enemy, +while the better half of his power is occupied with Austria. For the +South of Spain, where the first effort of regeneration was made, is yet +free. Saragossa (which, by a truly efficient British army, might have +been relieved) has indeed fallen; but leaves little to regret; for +consummate have been her fortitude and valour. The citizens and soldiers +of Saragossa are to be envied: for they have completed the circle of +their duty; they have done all that could be wished--all that could be +prayed for. And, though the cowardly malice of the enemy gives too much +reason to fear that their leader Palafox (with the fate of Toussaint) +will soon be among the dead, it is the high privilege of men who have +performed what he has performed--that they cannot be missed; and, in +moments of weakness only, can they be lamented: their actions represent +them every where and for ever. Palafox has taken his place as parent and +ancestor of innumerable heroes. + +Oh! that the surviving chiefs of the Spanish people may prove worthy of +their situation! With such materials,--their labour would be pleasant, +and their success certain. But--though heads of a nation venerable for +antiquity, and having good cause to preserve with reverence the +institutions of their elder forefathers--they must not be +indiscriminately afraid of new things. It is their duty to restore the +good which has fallen into disuse; and also to create, and to adopt. +Young scions of polity must be engrafted on the time-worn trunk: a new +fortress must be reared upon the ancient and living rock of justice. +Then would it be seen, while the superstructure stands inwardly +immoveable, in how short a space of time the ivy and wild plant would +climb up from the base, and clasp the naked walls; the storms, which +could not shake, would weather-stain; and the edifice, in the day of its +youth, would appear to be one with the rock upon which it was planted, +and to grow out of it. + +But let us look to ourselves. Our offences are unexpiated: and, wanting +light, we want strength. With reference to this guilt and to this +deficiency, and to my own humble efforts towards removing both, I shall +conclude with the words of a man of disciplined spirit, who withdrew +from the too busy world--not out of indifference to its welfare, or to +forget its concerns--- but retired for wider compass of eye-sight, that +he might comprehend and see in just proportions and relations; knowing +above all that he, who hath not first made himself master of the horizon +of his own mind, must look beyond it only to be deceived. It is Petrarch +who thus writes: 'Haec dicerem, et quicquid in rem praesentem et +indignatio dolorque dictarent; nisi obtorpuisse animos, actumque de +rebus nostris, crederem. Nempe, qui aliis iter rectum ostendere +solebamus, nunc (quod exitio proximum est) coeci coecis ducibus per +abrupta rapimur; alienoque circumvolvimur exemplo; quid velimus, nescii. +Nam (ut coeptum exequar) totum hoc malum, seu nostrum proprium seu +potius omnium gentium commune, IGNORATIO FINIS facit. Nesciunt +inconsulti homines quid agant: ideo quicquid agunt, mox ut coeperint, +vergit in nauseam. Hinc ille discursus sine termino; hinc, medio calle, +discordiae; et, ante exitum, DAMNATA PRINCIPIA; et explete nihil.' + +As an act of respect to the English reader--I shall add, to the same +purpose, the words of our own Milton; who, contemplating our ancestors +in his day, thus speaks of them and their errors:--'Valiant, indeed, and +prosperous to win a field; but, to know the end and reason of winning, +injudicious and unwise. Hence did their victories prove as fruitless, as +their losses dangerous; and left them still languishing under the same +grievances that men suffer conquered. Which was indeed unlikely to go +otherwise; unless men more than vulgar bred up in the knowledge of +ancient and illustrious deeds, invincible against many and vain titles, +impartial to friendships and relations, had conducted their affairs.' + +THE END. + + + + +APPENDIX. + + * * * * * + +_A (page 67)_. + + +When this passage was written, there had appeared only unauthorized +accounts of the Board of Inquiry's proceedings. Neither from these +however, nor from the official report of the Board (which has been since +published), is any satisfactory explanation to be gained on this +question--or indeed on any other question of importance. All, which is +to be collected from them, is this: the Portugueze General, it appears, +offered to unite his whole force with the British on the single +condition that they should be provisioned from the British stores; and, +accordingly, rests his excuse for not co-operating on the refusal of Sir +Arthur Wellesley to comply with this condition. Sir A.W. denies the +validity of his excuse; and, more than once, calls it a _pretence_; +declaring that, in his belief, Gen. Freire's real motive for not joining +was--a mistrust in the competence of the British to appear in the field +against the French. This however is mere surmise; and therefore cannot +have much weight with those who sincerely sought for satisfaction on +this point: moreover, it is a surmise of the individual whose +justification rests on making it appear that the difficulty did not +arise with himself; and it is right to add, that the only _fact_ +produced goes to discredit this surmise; viz. that Gen. Friere did, +without any delay, furnish the whole number of troops which Sir Arthur +engaged to feed. However the Board exhibited so little anxiety to be +satisfied on this point, that no positive information was gained. + +A reference being here first made to the official report of the Board of +Inquiry; I shall make use of the opportunity which it offers to lay +before the reader an outline of that Board's proceedings; from which it +will appear how far the opinion--pronounced, by the national voice, upon +the transactions in Portugal--ought, in sound logic, to be modified by +any part of those proceedings. + +We find in the warrant under which the Board of Inquiry was to act, and +which defined its powers, that an inquiry was to be made into the +conditions of the 'armistice and convention; and into all the causes and +circumstances, whether arising from the operations of the British army, +or otherwise, which led to them.' + +Whether answers to the charges of the people of England were made +possible by the provisions of this warrant--and, secondly, whether even +these provisions have been satisfied by the Board of Inquiry--will best +appear by involving those charges in four questions, according to the +following scale, which supposes a series of concessions impossible to +those who think the nation justified in the language held on the +transactions in Portugal. + +1. Considering the perfidy with which the French army had entered +Portugal; the enormities committed by it during its occupation of that +country; the vast military power of which that army was a part, and the +use made of that power by its master; the then existing spirit of the +Spanish, Portugueze, and British nations; in a word, considering the +especial nature of the service, and the individual character of this +war;--was it lawful for the British army, under any conceivable +circumstances, so long as it had the liberty of re-embarking, to make +_any conceivable_ convention? i.e. Was the negative evil of a total +failure in every object for which it had been sent to Portugal of worse +tendency than the positive evil of acknowledging in the French army a +fair title to the privileges of an honourable enemy by consenting to a +mode of treaty which (in its very name, implying a reciprocation of +concession and respect) must be under any limitations as much more +indulgent than an ordinary capitulation, as that again must (in its +severest form) be more indulgent than the only favour which the French +marauders could presume upon obtaining--viz. permission to surrender at +discretion? + +To this question the reader need not be told that these pages give a +naked unqualified denial; and that to establish the reasonableness of +that denial is one of their main purposes: but, for the benefit of the +men accused, let it be supposed granted; and then the second question +will be + +2. Was it lawful for the English army, in the case of its being reduced +to the supposed dilemma of either re-embarking or making _some_ +convention, to make _that specifical_ convention which it did make at +Cintra? + +This is of necessity and _a fortiori_ denied; and it has been proved +that neither to this, nor any other army, could it be lawful to make +such a convention--not merely under the actual but under any conceivable +circumstances; let however this too, on behalf of the parties accused, +be granted; and then the third question will be + +3. Was the English Army reduced to that dilemma? + +4. Finally, this also being conceded (which not even the Generals have +dared to say), it remains to ask by whose and by what misconduct did an +army--confessedly the arbiter of its own movements and plans at the +opening of the campaign--forfeit that free agency--either to the extent +of the extremity supposed, or of any approximation to that extremity? + +Now of these four possible questions in the minds of all those who +condemn the convention of Cintra, it is obvious that the King's warrant +supposes only the three latter to exist (since, though it allows inquiry +to be made into the individual convention, it no where questions the +tolerability of a convention _in genere_); and it is no less obvious +that the Board, acting under that warrant, has noticed only the +last--i.e. by what series of military movements the army was brought +into a state of difficulty which justified _a_ convention (the Board +taking for granted throughout--1st, That such a state could exist; +2ndly, That it actually did exist; and 3rdly, That--if it existed, and +accordingly justified _some imaginable_ convention--it must therefore of +necessity justify _this_ convention). + +Having thus shewn that it is on the last question only that the nation +could, in deference to the Board of Inquiry, surrender or qualify any +opinion which, it had previously given--let us ask what answer is +gained, from the proceedings of that Board, to the charge involved even +in this last question (premising however--first--that this charge was +never explicitly made by the public, or at least was enunciated only in +the form of a conjecture--and 2ndly that the answer to it is collected +chiefly from the depositions of the parties accused)? Now the whole sum +of their answer amounts to no more than this--that, in the opinion of +some part of the English staff, an opportunity was lost on the 21st of +exchanging the comparatively slow process of reducing the French army by +siege for the brilliant and summary one of a _coup-de-main_. + +This opportunity, be it observed, was offered only by Gen. Junot's +presumption in quitting his defensive positions, and coming out to meet +the English army in the field; so that it was an advantage so much over +and above what might fairly have been calculated upon: at any rate, if +_this_ might have been looked for, still the accident of battle, by +which a large part of the French army was left in a situation to be cut +off, (to the loss of which advantage Sir A. Wellesley ascribes the +necessity of a convention) could surely never have been anticipated; and +therefore the British army was, even after that loss, in as prosperous a +state as it had from the first any right to expect. Hence it is to be +inferred, that Sir A.W. must have entered on this campaign with a +predetermination to grant a convention in any case, excepting in one +single case which he knew to be in the gift of only very extraordinary +good fortune. With respect to him, therefore, the charges--pronounced by +the national voice--are not only confirmed, but greatly aggravated. +Further, with respect to the General who superseded him, all those--who +think that such an opportunity of terminating the campaign was really +offered, and, through his refusal to take advantage of it, lost--are +compelled to suspect in him a want of military skill, or a wilful +sacrifice of his duty to the influence of personal rivalry, accordingly +as they shall interpret his motives. + +The whole which we gain therefore from the Board of Inquiry is--that +what we barely suspected is ripened into certainty--and that on all, +which we assuredly knew and declared without needing that any tribunal +should lend us its sanction, no effort has been made at denial, or +disguise, or palliation. + +Thus much for the proceedings of the Board of Inquiry, upon which their +decision was to be grounded. As to the decision itself, it declares that +no further military proceedings are necessary; 'because' (say the +members of the Board). 'however some of us may differ in our sentiments +respecting the fitness of the convention in the relative situation of +the two armies, it is our unanimous declaration that unquestionable zeal +and firmness appear throughout to have been exhibited by Generals Sir H. +Dalrymple, Sir H. Burrard, and Sir A. Wellesley.' In consequence of this +decision, the Commander-in-Chief addressed a letter to the +Board--reminding them that, though the words of his Majesty's warrant +expressly enjoin that the _conditions_ of the Armistice and Convention +should be strictly examined and reported upon, they have altogether +neglected to give any opinion upon those conditions. They were therefore +called upon then to declare their opinion, whether an armistice was +adviseable; and (if so) whether the terms of _that_ armistice were such +as ought to be agreed upon;--and to declare, in like manner, whether a +convention was adviseable; and (if so) whether the terms of _that_ +convention were such as ought to have been agreed upon. + +To two of these questions--viz. those which relate to the particular +armistice and convention made by the British Generals--the members of +the Board (still persevering in their blindness to the other two which +express doubt as to the lawfulness of _any_ armistice or convention) +severally return answers which convey an approbation of the armistice +and convention by four members, a disapprobation of the convention by +the remaining three, and further a disapprobation of the armistice by +one of those three. + +Now it may be observed--first--that, even if the investigation had not +been a public one, it might have reasonably been concluded, from the +circumstance of the Board having omitted to report any opinion +concerning the terms of the armistice and the convention, that those +terms had not occupied enough of its attention to justify the Board in +giving any opinion upon them--whether of approbation or disapprobation; +and, secondly,--this conclusion, which might have been made _a priori_, +is confirmed by the actual fact that no examination or inquiry of this +kind appears throughout the report of its proceedings: and therefore any +opinion subsequently given, in consequence of the requisition of the +Commander-in-Chief, can lay claim to no more authority upon these +points--than the opinion of the same men, if they had never sat in a +public Court upon this question. In this condition are all the members, +whether they approve or disapprove of the convention. And with respect +to the three who disapprove of the convention,--over and above the +general impropriety of having, under these circumstances, pronounced a +verdict at all in the character of members of that Board--they are +subject to an especial charge of inconsistency in having given such an +opinion, in their second report, as renders nugatory that which they +first pronounced. For the reason--assigned, in their first report, for +deeming no further military proceedings necessary--is because it appears +that unquestionable _zeal and firmness_ were exhibited throughout by the +several General Officers; and the reason--assigned by those three who +condemn the convention--is that the Generals did not insist upon the +terms to which they were entitled; that is (in direct opposition to +their former opinions), the Generals shewed a want of firmness and zeal. +If then the Generals were acquitted, in the first case, solely upon the +ground of having displayed firmness and zeal; a confessed want of +firmness and zeal, in the second case, implies conversely a ground of +censure--rendering (in the opinions of these three members) further +military proceedings absolutely necessary. They,--who are most aware of +the unconstitutional frame of this Court or Board, and of the perplexing +situation in which its members must have found themselves placed,--will +have the least difficulty in excusing this inconsistency: it is however +to be regretted; particularly in the instance of the Earl of +Moira;--who, disapproving both of the Convention and Armistice, has +assigned for that disapprobation unanswerable reasons drawn--not from +hidden sources, unapproachable except by judicial investigation--but +from facts known to all the world. + +--The reader will excuse this long note; to which however I must add +one word:--Is it not strange that, in the general decision of the Board, +zeal and firmness--nakedly considered, and without question of their +union with judgment and such other qualities as can alone give them any +value--should be assumed as sufficient grounds on which to rest the +acquittal of men lying under a charge of military delinquency? + + * * * * * + +B _(page 72)_. + +It is not necessary to add, that one of these fears was removed by the +actual landing of ten thousand men, under Sir J. Moore, pending the +negotiation: and yet no change in the terms took place in consequence. +This was an important circumstance; and, of itself, determined two of +the members of the Board of Inquiry to disapprove of the convention: +such an accession entitling Sir H. Dalrymple (and, of course, making it +his duty) to insist on more favourable terms. But the argument is +complete without it. + + * * * * * + +C _(page 75)_. + +I was unwilling to interrupt the reader upon a slight occasion; but I +cannot refrain from adding here a word or two by way of comment.--I have +said at page 71, speaking of Junot's army, that the British were to +encounter the same men, &c. Sir Arthur Wellesley, before the Board of +Inquiry, disallowed this supposition; affirming that Junot's army had +not then reached Spain, nor could be there for some time. Grant this: +was it not stipulated that a messenger should be sent off, immediately +after the conclusion of the treaty, to Buonaparte--apprising him of its +terms, and when he might expect his troops; and would not this enable +him to hurry forward forces to the Spanish frontiers, and to bring them +into action--knowing that these troops of Junot's would be ready to +support him? What did it matter whether the British were again to +measure swords with these identical men; whether these men were even to +appear again upon Spanish ground? It was enough, that, if these did not, +others would--who could not have been brought to that service, but that +these had been released and were doing elsewhere some other service for +their master; enough that every thing was provided by the British to +land them as near the Spanish frontier (and as speedily) as they could +desire. + + * * * * * + +D _(page 108)_. + +This attempt, the reader will recollect, is not new to our country;--it +was accomplished, at one aera of our history, in that memorable act of +an English Parliament, which made it unlawful for any man to ask his +neighbour to join him in a petition for redress of grievances: and which +thus denied the people 'the benefit of tears and prayers to their own +infamous deputies!' For the deplorable state of England and Scotland at +that time--see the annals of Charles the Second, and his successor.--We +must not forget however that to this state of things, as the cause of +those measures which the nation afterwards resorted to, we are +originally indebted for the blessing of the Bill of Rights. + + * * * * * + +_E_ (_page_ 159). + +I allude here more especially to an address presented to Buonaparte +(October 27th, 1808) by the deputies of the new departments of the +kingdom of Italy; from which address, as given in the English journals, +the following passages are extracted:-- + + 'In the necessity, in which you are to overthrow--to destroy--to + disperse your enemies as the wind dissipates the dust, you are not + an exterminating angel; but you are the being that extends his + thoughts--that measures the face of the earth--to re-establish + universal happiness upon better and surer bases.' + + * * * * * + + 'We are the interpreters of a million of souls at the extremity of + your kingdom of Italy.'--'Deign, _Sovereign Master of all Things_, + to hear (as we doubt not you will)' &c. + +The answer begins thus:-- + +'I _applaud_ the sentiments you express in the name of my people of +Musora, Metauro, and Tronto.' + + * * * * * + +_F_ (_page_ 163). + +This principle, involved in so many of his actions, Buonaparte has of +late explicitly avowed: the instances are numerous: it will be +sufficient, in this place, to allege one--furnished by his answer to the +address cited in the last note:-- + + 'I am particularly attached to your Archbishop of Urbino: that + prelate, animated with the true faith, repelled with indignation + the advice--and braved the menaces--of those who wished to confound + the affairs of Heaven, which never change, with the affairs of this + world, which are modified according to circumstances _of force_ and + policy.' + + * * * * * + +SUSPENSION OF ARMS + +_Agreed upon between Lieutenant-General_ SIR ARTHUR WELLESLEY, K.B. _on +the one part, and the General-of-Division_ KELLERMANN _on the other +part; each having powers from the respective Generals of the French and +English Armies_. + +_Head-Quarters of the English Army_, August 22, 1808. + + +ARTICLE I. There shall be, from this date, a Suspension of Arms between +the armies of his Britannic Majesty, and his Imperial and Royal Majesty, +Napoleon I. for the purpose of negociating a Convention for the +evacuation of Portugal by the French army. + +ART. II. The Generals-in-Chief of the two armies, and the +Commander-in-Chief of the British fleet at the entrance of the Tagus, +will appoint a day to assemble, on such part of the coast as shall be +judged convenient, to negociate and conclude the said Convention. + +ART. III. The river of Sirandre shall form the line of demarcation to be +established between the two armies; Torres Vedras shall not be occupied +by either. + +ART. IV. The General-in-Chief of the English army undertakes to include +the Portugueze armies in this suspension of arms; and for them the line +of demarkation shall be established from Leyria to Thomar. + +ART. V. It is agreed provisionally that the French army shall not, in +any case, be considered as prisoners of war; that all the individuals +who compose it shall be transported to France with their arms and +baggage, and the whole of their private property, from which nothing +shall be exempted. + +ART. VI. No individual, whether Portugueze, or of a nation allied to +France, or French, shall be called to account for his political conduct; +their respective property shall be protected; and they shall be at +liberty to withdraw from Portugal, within a limited time, with their +property. + +ART. VII. The neutrality of the port of Lisbon shall be recognised for +the Russian fleet: that is to say, that, when the English army or fleet +shall be in possession of the city and port, the said Russian fleet +shall not be disturbed during its stay; nor stopped when it wishes to +sail; nor pursued, when it shall sail, until after the time fixed by the +maritime law. + +ART. VIII. All the artillery of French calibre, and also the horses of +the cavalry, shall be transported to France. + +ART. IX. This suspension of arms shall not be broken without forty-eight +hours' previous notice. + +Done and agreed upon between the above-named Generals, the day and year +above-mentioned. + + (Signed) ARTHUR WELLESLEY. KELLERMANN, General-of-Division. + +_Additional Article_. + +The garrisons of the places occupied by the French army shall be +included in the present Convention, if they have not capitulated before +the 25th instant. + + (Signed) ARTHUR WELLESLEY. KELLERMANN, General-of-Division. + + (A true Copy.) + + A.J. DALRYMPLE, Captain, Military Secretary. + + * * * * * + +DEFINITIVE CONVENTION FOR THE EVACUATION OF PORTUGAL BY THE FRENCH ARMY. + +The Generals commanding in chief the British and French armies in +Portugal, having determined to negociate and conclude a treaty for the +evacuation of Portugal by the French troops, on the basis of the +agreement entered into on the 22d instant for a suspension of +hostilities, have appointed the under-mentioned officers to negociate +the same in their names; viz.--on the part of the General-in-Chief of +the British army, Lieutenant-Colonel MURRAY, Quarter-Master-General; +and, on the part of the General-in-Chief of the French army, Monsieur +KELLERMANN, General-of-Division; to whom they have given authority to +negociate and conclude a Convention to that effect, subject to their +ratification respectively, and to that of the Admiral commanding the +British fleet at the entrance of the Tagus. + +Those two officers, after exchanging their full powers, have agreed upon +the articles which follow: + +ARTICLE I. All the places and forts in the kingdom of Portugal, occupied +by the French troops, shall be delivered up to the British army in the +state in which they are at the period of the signature of the present +Convention. + +ART. II. The French troops shall evacuate Portugal with their arms and +baggage; they shall not be considered as prisoners of war; and, on their +arrival in France, they shall be at liberty to serve. + +ART. III. The English Government shall furnish the means of conveyance +for the French army; which shall be disembarked in any of the ports of +France between Rochefort and L'Orient, inclusively. + +ART. IV. The French army shall carry with it all its artillery, of +French calibre, with the horses belonging to it, and the tumbrils +supplied with sixty rounds per gun. All other artillery, arms, and +ammunition, as also the military and naval arsenals, shall be given up +to the British army and navy in the state in which they may be at the +period of the ratification of the Convention. + +ART. V. The French army shall carry with it all its equipments, and all +that is comprehended under the name of property of the army; that is to +say, its military chest, and carriages attached to the Field +Commissariat and Field Hospitals; or shall be allowed to dispose of such +part of the same, on its account, as the Commander-in-Chief may judge it +unnecessary to embark. In like manner, all individuals of the army shall +be at liberty to dispose of their private property of every description; +with full security hereafter for the purchasers. + +ART. VI. The cavalry are to embark their horses; as also the Generals +and other officers of all ranks. It is, however, fully understood, that +the means of conveyance for horses, at the disposal of the British +Commanders, are very limited; some additional conveyance may be procured +in the port of Lisbon; the number of horses to be embarked by the troops +shall not exceed six hundred; and the number embarked by the Staff shall +not exceed two hundred. At all events every facility will be given to +the French army to dispose of the horses, belonging to it, which cannot +be embarked. + +ART. VII. In order to facilitate the embarkation, it shall take place in +three divisions; the last of which will be principally composed of the +garrisons of the places, of the cavalry, the artillery, the sick, and +the equipment of the army. The first division shall embark within seven +days of the date of the ratification; or sooner, if possible. + +ART. VIII. The garrison of Elvas and its forts, and of Peniche and +Palmela, will be embarked at Lisbon; that of Almaida at Oporto, or the +nearest harbour. They will be accompanied, on their march by British +Commissaries, charged with providing for their subsistence and +accommodation. + +ART. IX. All the sick and wounded, who cannot be embarked with the +troops, are entrusted to the British army. They are to be taken care of, +whilst they remain in this country, at the expence of the British +Government; under the condition of the same being reimbursed by France +when the final evacuation is effected. The English government will +provide for their return to France; which shall take place by +detachments of about one hundred and fifty (or two hundred) men at a +time. A sufficient number of French medical officers shall be left +behind to attend them. + +ART. X. As soon as the vessels employed to carry the army to France +shall have disembarked it in the harbours specified, or in any other of +the ports of France to which stress of weather may force them, every +facility shall be given them to return to England without delay; and +security against capture until their arrival in a friendly port. + +ART. XI. The French army shall be concentrated in Lisbon, and within a +distance of about two leagues from it. The English army will approach +within three leagues of the capital; and will be so placed as to leave +about one league between the two armies. + +ART. XII. The forts of St. Julien, the Bugio, and Cascais, shall be +occupied by the British troops on the ratification of the Convention. +Lisbon and its citadel, together with the forts and batteries, as far as +the Lazaretto or Tarfuria on one side, and fort St. Joseph on the other, +inclusively, shall be given up on the embarkation of the second +division; as shall also the harbour; and all armed vessels in it of +every description, with their rigging, sails, stores, and ammunition. +The fortresses of Elvas, Almaida, Peniche, and Palmela, shall be given +up as soon as the British troops can arrive to occupy them. In the mean +time, the General-in-Chief of the British army will give notice of the +present Convention to the garrisons of those places, as also to the +troops before them, in order to put a stop to all further hostilities. + +ART. XIII. Commissioners shall be named, on both sides, to regulate and +accelerate the execution of the arrangements agreed upon. + +ART. XIV. Should there arise doubts as to the meaning of any article, it +will be explained favourably to the French army. + +ART. XV. From the date of the ratification of the present Convention, +all arrears of contributions, requisitions, or claims whatever, of the +French Government, against the subjects of Portugal, or any other +individuals residing in this country, founded on the occupation of +Portugal by the French troops in the mouth of December 1807, which may +not have been paid up, are cancelled; and all sequestrations laid upon +their property, moveable or immoveable, are removed; and the free +disposal of the same is restored to the proper owners. + +ART. XVI. All subjects of France, or of powers in friendship or alliance +with France, domiciliated in Portugal, or accidentally in this country, +shall be protected: their property of every kind, moveable and +immoveable, shall be respected: and they shall be at liberty either to +accompany the French army, or to remain in Portugal. In either case +their property is guaranteed to them; with the liberty of retaining or +of disposing of it, and passing the produce of the sale thereof into +France, or any other country where they may fix their residence; the +space of one year being allowed them for that purpose. + +It is fully understood, that the shipping is excepted from this +arrangement; only, however, in so far as regards leaving the Port; and +that none of the stipulations above-mentioned can be made the pretext of +any commercial speculation. + +ART. XVII. No native of Portugal shall be rendered accountable for his +political conduct during the period of the occupation of this country by +the French army; and all those who have continued in the exercise of +their employments, or who have accepted situations under the French +Government, are placed under the protection of the British Commanders: +they shall sustain no injury in their persons or property; it not having +been at their option to be obedient, or not, to the French Government: +they are also at liberty to avail themselves of the stipulations of the +16th Article. + +ART. XVIII. The Spanish troops detained on board ship in the Port of +Lisbon shall be given up to the Commander-in-Chief of the British army; +who engages to obtain of the Spaniards to restore such French subjects, +either military or civil, as may have been detained in Spain, without +being taken in battle, or in consequence of military operations, but on +occasion of the occurrences of the 29th of last May, and the days +immediately following. + +ART. XIX. There shall be an immediate exchange established for all ranks +of prisoners made in Portugal since the commencement of the present +hostilities. + +ART. XX. Hostages of the rank of field-officers shall be mutually +furnished on the part of the British army and navy, and on that of the +French army, for the reciprocal guarantee of the present Convention. The +officer of the British army shall be restored on the completion of the +articles which concern the army; and the officer of the navy on the +disembarkation of the French troops in their own country. The like is to +take place on the part of the French army. + +ART. XXI. It shall be allowed to the General-in-Chief of the French army +to send an officer to France with intelligence of the present +Convention. A vessel will be furnished by the British Admiral to convey +him to Bourdeaux or Rochefort. + +ART. XXII. The British Admiral will be invited to accommodate His +Excellency the Commander-in-Chief, and the other principal officers of +the French army, on board of ships of war. + +Done and concluded at Lisbon this 30th day of August, 1808. + + (Signed) GEORGE MURRAY, Quarter-Master-General. KELLERMANN, Le + General de Division. + +We, the Duke of Abrantes, General-in-Chief of the French army, have +ratified and do ratify the present Definitive Convention in all its +articles, to be executed according to its form and tenor. + + (Signed) The Duke of ABRANTES. _Head-Quarters--Lisbon_, 30 _th + August_, 1808. + +_Additional Articles to the Convention of the 30th of August_, 1808. + +ART. I. The individuals in the civil employment of the army made +prisoners, either by the British troops, or by the Portugueze, in any +part of Portugal, will be restored, as is customary, without exchange. + +ART. II. The French army shall be subsisted from its own magazines up to +the day of embarkation; the garrisons up to the day of the evacuation of +the fortresses. + +The remainder of the magazines shall be delivered over, in the usual +form, to the British Government; which charges itself with the +subsistence of the men and horses of the army from the above-mentioned +periods till they arrive in France; under the condition of their being +reimbursed by the French Government for the excess of the expense beyond +the estimates, to be made by both parties, of the value of the magazines +delivered up to the British army. + +The provisions on board the ships of war, in possession of the French +army, will be taken in account by the British Government in like manner +with the magazines in the fortresses. + +ART. III. The General commanding the British troops will take the +necessary measures for re-establishing the free circulation of the means +of subsistence between the country and the capital. + +Done and concluded at Lisbon this 30th day of August, 1808. + + (Signed) GEORGE MURRAY, Quarter-Master-General. KELLERMANN, Le + General de Division. + +We, Duke of Abrantes, General-in-Chief of the French army, have ratified +and do ratify the additional articles of the Convention, to be executed +according to their form and tenor. + + The Duke of ABRANTES. (A true Copy.) A.J. DALRYMPLE, Captain, + Military Secretary. + +_Articles of a Convention entered into between Vice-Admiral_ SENIAVIN, +_Knight of the Order of St. Alexander and other Russian Orders, and +Admiral Sir_ CHARLES COTTON, _Bart. for the Surrender of the Russian +Fleet, now anchored in the River Tagus_. + +ART. I. The ships of war of the Emperor of Russia, now in the Tagus (as +specified in the annexed list), shall be delivered up to Admiral Sir +Charles Cotton, immediately, with all their stores as they now are; to +be sent to England, and there held as a deposit by his Britannic +Majesty, to be restored to His Imperial Majesty within six months after +the conclusion of a peace between His Britannic Majesty and His Imperial +Majesty the Emperor of all the Russias. + +ART. II. Vice-Admiral Seniavin, with the officers, sailors, and marines, +under his command, to return to Russia, without any condition or +stipulation respecting their future services; to be conveyed thither in +men of war, or proper vessels, at the expence of His Britannic Majesty. + +Done and concluded on board the ship Twerday, in the Tagus, and on board +His Britannic Majesty's ship Hibernia, off the mouth of that river, the +3d day of September 1808. + + (Signed) DE SENIAVIN. (Signed) CHARLES COTTON. (Counter-signed) By + command of the Admiral, L. SASS, Assesseur de College. + (Counter-signed) By command of the Admiral, JAMES KENNEDY, + Secretary. + + +POSTSCRIPT + +ON SIR JOHN MOORE'S LETTERS. + +Whilst the latter sheets of this work were passing through the press, +there was laid before Parliament a series of correspondence between the +English Government and its servants in Spain; amongst which were the +letters of Sir John Moore. That these letters, even with minds the least +vigilant to detect contradictions and to make a commentary from the past +actions of the Spaniards, should have had power to alienate them from +the Spanish cause--could never have been looked for; except indeed by +those who saw, in the party spirit on this question, a promise that more +than ordinary pains would be taken to misrepresent their contents and to +abuse the public judgment. But however it was at any rate to have been +expected--both from the place which Sir J. Moore held in the Nation's +esteem previously to his Spanish campaign, and also especially from that +which (by his death in battle) he had so lately taken in its +affections--that they would weigh a good deal in depressing the general +sympathy with Spain: and therefore the Author of this work was desirous +that all which these letters themselves, or other sources of +information, furnished to mitigate and contradict Sir J.M.'s +opinions--should be laid before the public: but--being himself at a +great distance from London, and not having within his reach all the +documents necessary for this purpose--he has honoured the friend, who +corrects the press errors, by making over that task to him; and the +reader is therefore apprised, that the Author is not responsible for any +thing which follows. + + * * * * * + +Those, who have not examined these letters for themselves, will have +collected enough of their general import, from conversation and the +public prints, to know that they pronounce an opinion unfavourable to +the Spaniards. They will perhaps have yet to learn that this opinion is +not supported by any body of _facts_ (for of facts only three are given; +and those, as we shall see, misrepresented); but solely by the weight of +Sir John Moore's personal authority. This being the case, it becomes the +more important to assign the value of that authority, by making such +deductions from the present public estimate of it, as are either fairly +to be presumed from his profession and office, or directly inferred from +the letters under consideration. + +As reasons for questioning _a priori_ the impartiality of these +letters,--it might be suggested (in reference to what they would be +likely to _omit_)--first--that they are the letters of a _soldier_; that +is, of a man trained (by the prejudices of his profession) to despise, +or at least to rate as secondary, those resources which for Spain must +be looked to as supreme;--and, secondly, that they are the letters of a +_general_; that is, of a soldier removed by his rank from the +possibility of any extensive intercourse with the lower classes; +concerning whom the question chiefly was. But it is more important to +remark (in reference to what they would be likely to +_mis-state_)--thirdly--that they are the letters of a +_commander-in-chief_; standing--from the very day when he took the +field--in a dilemma which compelled him to risk the safety of his army +by advancing, or its honour by retreating; and having to make out an +apology, for either issue, to the very persons who had imposed this +dilemma upon him.--The reader is requested to attend to this. Sir John +Moore found himself in Leon with a force 'which, if united,' (to quote +his own words) 'would not exceed 26,000 men.' Such a force, after the +defeat of the advanced armies,--he was sure--could effect nothing; the +best result he could anticipate was an inglorious retreat. That he +should be in this situation at the very opening of the campaign, he saw, +would declare to all Europe that somewhere there must be blame: but +where? with himself he knew that there was none: the English Government +(with whom he must have seen that at least a part of the blame lay--for +sending him so late, and with a force so lamentably incommensurate to +the demands of the service) it was not for him--holding the situation +that he did--openly to accuse (though, by implication, he often does +accuse them); and therefore it became his business to look to the +Spaniards; and, in their conduct, to search for palliations of that +inefficiency on his part--which else the persons, to whom he was +writing, would understand as charged upon themselves. Writing with such +a purpose--and under a double fettering of his faculties; first from +anxious forebodings of calamity or dishonour; and secondly from the pain +he must have felt at not being free to censure those with whom he could +not but be aware that the embarrassments of his situation had, at least +in part, originated--we might expect that it would not be difficult for +him to find, in the early events of the campaign, all which he sought; +and to deceive himself into a belief, that, in stating these events +without any commentary or even hints as to the relative circumstances +under which they took place (which only could give to the naked facts +their value and due meaning), he was making no misrepresentations,--and +doing the Spaniards no injustice. + +These suggestions are made with the greater earnestness, as it is +probable that the honourable death of Sir John Moore will have given so +much more weight to his opinion on any subject--as, if these suggestions +be warranted, it is entitled on this subject to less weight--than the +opinion of any other individual equally intelligent, and not liable +(from high office and perplexity of situation) to the same influences of +disgust or prejudice. + +That these letters _were_ written under some such influences, is plain +throughout: we find, in them, reports of the four first events in the +campaign; and, in justice to the Spaniards, it must be said that all are +virtually mis-statements. Take two instances: + +1. The main strength and efforts of the French were, at the opening of +the campaign, directed against the army of Gen. Blake. The issue is thus +given by Sir J.M.:--'Gen. Blake's army in Biscay has been +defeated--dispersed; and its officers and men are flying in every +direction.' Could it be supposed that the army, whose matchless +exertions and endurances are all merged in this over-charged (and almost +insulting) statement of their result, was, 'mere peasantry' (Sir J.M.'s +own words) and opposed to greatly superior numbers of veteran troops? +Confront with this account the description given by an eye-witness +(Major-Gen. Leith) of their constancy and the trials of their constancy; +remembering that, for ten successive days, they were engaged (under the +pressure of similar hardships, with the addition of one not mentioned +here, viz.--a want of clothing) in continued actions with the +French:--'Here I shall take occasion to state another instance of the +patience (and, I will add, the chearfulness) of the Spanish soldiers +under the greatest privations.--After the action of Soronosa on the 31st +ult., it was deemed expedient by Gen. Blake, for the purpose of forming +a junction with the second division and the army of Asturias, that the +army should make long, rapid, and continued marches through a country at +any time incapable of feeding so numerous an army, and at present almost +totally drained of provisions. From the 30th of October to the present +day (Nov. 6), with the exception of a small and partial issue of bread +at Bilboa on the morning of the 1st of November, this army has been +totally destitute of bread, wine, or spirits; and has literally lived on +the scanty supply of beef and sheep which those mountains afford. Yet +never was there a symptom of complaint or murmur; the soldiers' minds +appearing to be entirely occupied with the idea of being led against the +enemy at Bilboa.'--'It is impossible for me to do justice to the +gallantry and energy of the divisions engaged this day. The army are +loud in expressing their desires to be led against the enemy at Bilboa; +the universal exclamation is--The bayonet! the bayonet! lead us back to +Soronosa.' + +2. On the 10th of November the Estramaduran advanced guard, of about +12,000 men, was defeated at Burgos by a division of the French army +_selected_ for the service--and having a vast superiority in cavalry and +artillery. This event, with the same neglect of circumstances as in the +former instance, Sir J.M. thus reports:--'The French, after beating the +army of Estramadura, are advanced at Burgos.' Now surely to any +unprejudiced mind the bare fact of 12,000 men (chiefly raw levies) +having gone forward to meet and to find out the main French army--under +all the oppression which, to the ignorant of the upper and lower classes +throughout Europe, there is in the name of Bonaparte--must appear, under +any issue, a title to the highest admiration, such as would have made +this slight and incidental mention of it impossible. + +The two next events--viz. the forcing of the pass at Somosierra by the +Polish horse, and the partial defeat of Castanos--are, as might be shewn +even from the French bulletins, no less misrepresented. With respect to +the first,--Sir J. Moore, over-looking the whole drama of that noble +defence, gives only the catastrophe; and his account of the second will +appear, from any report, to be an exaggeration. + +It may be objected that--since Sir J.M. no where alleges these events as +proving any thing against the Spaniards, but simply as accounting for +his own plans (in which view, howsoever effected, whether with or +without due resistance, they were entitled to the same value)--it is +unfair to say that, by giving them uncircumstantially, he has +misrepresented them. But it must be answered, that, in letters +containing elsewhere (though not immediately in connexion with these +statements) opinions unfavourable to the Spaniards, to omit any thing +making _for_ them--_is_ to misrepresent in effect. And, further, it +shall now be shewn that even those three charges--which Sir J.M. _does_ +allege in proof of his opinions--are as glaringly mis-stated. + +The first of these charges is the most important: I give it to the +reader in the words of Sir John Moore:--'The French cavalry from Burgos, +in small detachments, are over-running the province of Leon; raising +contributions; to which the inhabitants submit without the least +resistance.' Now here it cannot be meant that no efforts at resistance +were made by individuals or small parties; because this would not only +contradict the universal laws of human nature,--but would also be at +utter variance with Sir J.M.'s repeated complaints that he could gain no +information of what was passing in his neighbourhood. It is meant +therefore that there was no regular organised resistance; no resistance +such as might be made the subject of an official report. Now we all know +that the Spaniards have every where suffered deplorably from a want of +cavalry; and, in the absence of that, hear from a military man +(Major-Gen. Brodrick) _why_ there was no resistance: '--At that time I +was not aware how remarkably the plains of Leon and Castille differ from +any other I have seen; nor how strongly the circumstances, which +constitute that difference, enforce the opinion I venture to express.' +(He means the necessity of cavalry reinforcements from England.) 'My +road from Astorga lay through a vast open space, extending from 5 to 20 +or more miles on every side; without a single accident of ground which +could enable a body of infantry to check a pursuing enemy, or to cover +its own retreat. In such ground, any corps of infantry might be +insulted, to the very gates of the town it occupied, by cavalry far +inferior in numbers; _contributions raised under their eyes_, and the +whole neighbourhood exhausted of its resources, _without the possibility +of their opposing any resistance to such incursions_.' + +The second charge is made on the retreat to Corunna: 'the Gallicians, +though armed,' Sir J.M. says, 'made no attempt to stop the passage of +the French through the mountains.' That they were armed--is a proof that +they had an _intention_ to do so (as one of our journals observed): but +what encouragement had they in that intention from the sight of a +regular force--more than 30,000 strong--abandoning, without a struggle, +passes where (as an English general asserts) 'a body of a thousand men +might stop an army of twenty times the number?' + +The third charge relates to the same Province: it is a complaint that +'the people run away; the villages are deserted;' and again, in his last +letter,--'They abandoned their dwellings at our approach; drove away +their carts, oxen, and every thing which could be of the smallest aid to +the army.' To this charge, in so far as it may be thought to criminate +the Spaniards, a full answer is furnished by their accuser himself in +the following memorable sentence in another part of the very same +letter:--'I am sorry to say that the army, whose conduct I had such +reason to extol in its march through Portugal and on its arrival in +Spain, has totally changed its character since it began to retreat.' +What do we collect from this passage? Assuredly that the army +ill-treated the Gallicians; for there is no other way in which an army, +as a body, can offend--excepting by an indisposition to fight; and that +interpretation (besides that we are all sure that no English army could +_so_ offend) Sir J. Moore expressly guards against in the next sentence. + +The English army then treated its Ally as an enemy: and,--though there +are alleviations of its conduct in its great sufferings,--yet it must be +remembered that these sufferings were due--not to the Gallicians--but to +circumstances over which they had no controul--to the precipitancy of +the retreat, the inclemency of the weather, and the poverty of the +country; and that (knowing this) they must have had a double sense of +injustice in any outrages of an English army, from, contrasting them +with the professed objects of that army in entering Spain.--It is to be +observed that the answer to the second charge would singly have been +some answer to this; and, reciprocally, that the answer to this is a +full answer to the second. + +Having thus shewn that, in Sir J. Moore's very inaccurate statements of +facts, we have some further reasons for a previous distrust of any +opinion which is supported by those statements,--it is now time to make +the reader acquainted with the real terms and extent of that opinion. +For it is far less to be feared that, from his just respect for him who +gave it, he should allow it an undue weight in his judgment--than that, +reposing on the faithfulness of the abstracts and reports of these +letters, he should really be still ignorant of its exact tenor. + +The whole amount then of what Sir John Moore has alleged against the +Spaniards, in any place but one, is comprised in this sentence:--'The +enthusiasm, of which we have heard so much, no where appears; whatever +good-will there is (and I believe amongst the lower orders there is a +great deal) is taken no advantage of.' It is true that, in that one +place (viz. in his last letter written at Corunna), he charges the +Spaniards with 'apathy and indifference:' but, as this cannot be +reconciled with his concession of _a great deal of good-will_, we are +bound to take that as his real and deliberate opinion which he gave +under circumstances that allowed him most coolness and freedom of +judgment.--The Spaniards then were wanting in enthusiasm. Now what is +meant by enthusiasm? Does it mean want of ardour and zeal in battle? +This Sir J. Moore no where asserts; and, even without a direct +acknowledgement of their good conduct in the field (of which he had +indeed no better means of judging than we in England), there is involved +in his statement of the relative numbers of the French and +Spaniards--combined with our knowledge of the time during which they +maintained their struggle--a sufficient testimony to that; even if the +events of the first campaign had not made it superfluous. Does it mean +then a want of good-will to the cause? So far from this, we have seen +that Sir J.M. admits that there was, in that class where it was most +wanted, 'a great deal' of good-will. And, in the present condition of +Spain, let it be recollected what it is that this implies. We see, in +the intercepted letter to Marshal Soult (transmitted by Sir J.M.), that +the French keep accurate registers of the behaviour of the different +towns; and this was, no doubt, well known throughout Spain. Therefore to +shew any signs of good-will--much more to give a kind welcome to the +English (as had been done at Badajoz and Salamanca)--was, they knew, a +pledge of certain punishment on any visit from the French. So that +good-will, manifested in these circumstances, was nothing less than a +testimony of devotion to the cause. + +Here then, the reader will say, I find granted--in the courage and the +good-will of the Spaniards--all the elements of an enthusiastic +resistance; and cannot therefore imagine what more could be sought for +except the throwing out and making palpable of their enthusiasm to the +careless eye in some signal outward manifestations. In this accordingly +we learn what interpretation we are to give to Sir J.M.'s charge:--there +were no tumults on his entrance into Spain; no insurrections; they did +not, as he says, 'rally round' the English army. But, to determine how +far this disappointment of his expectations tells against the Spaniards, +we must first know how far those expectations were reasonable. Let the +reader consider, then, + +First; what army was this round which the Spaniards were to rally? If it +was known by the victory of Vimiera, it was known also to many by the +Convention of Cintra; for, though the government had never ventured to +communicate that affair officially to the nation, dark and perplexing +whispers were however circulated about it throughout Spain. Moreover, it +must surely demand some superstition in behalf of regular troops--to +see, in an army of 20,000 men, a dignity adequate to the office here +claimed for it of awakening a new vigour and enthusiasm in such a nation +as Spain; not to mention that an English army, however numerous, had no +right to consider itself as other than a tributary force--as itself +tending to a centre--and attracted rather than attracting. + +Secondly; it appears that Sir J.M. has overlooked one most important +circumstance;--viz. that the harvest, in these provinces, had been +already reaped; the English army could be viewed only as gleaners. Thus, +as we have already seen, Estramadura had furnished an army which had +marched before his arrival; from Salamanca also--the very place in which +he makes his complaint--there had gone out a battalion to Biscay which +Gen. Blake had held up, for its romantic gallantly, to the admiration of +his whole army. + +Yet, thirdly, it is not meant by any means to assert that Spain has put +forth an energy adequate to the service--or in any tolerable proportion +to her own strength. Far from it! But upon whom does the blame rest? Not +surely upon the people--who, as long as they continued to have +confidence in their rulers, could not be expected (after the early +fervours of their revolution had subsided) much to overstep the measure +of exertion prescribed to them--but solely upon the government. Up to +the time when Sir J.M. died, the Supreme Junta had adopted no one grand +and comprehensive measure for calling out the strength of the +nation;--scarcely any of such ordinary vigour as, in some countries, +would have been adopted to meet local disturbances among the people. +From their jealousy of popular feeling,--they had never taken any steps, +by books or civic assemblies, to make the general enthusiasm in the +cause available by bringing it within the general consciousness; and +thus to create the nation into an organic whole. Sir J.M. was fully +aware of this:--'The Spanish Government,' he says, 'do not seem ever to +have contemplated the possibility of a second attack:' and accordingly, +whenever he is at leisure to make distinctions, he does the people the +justice to say--that the failure was with those who should have 'taken +advantage' of their good will. With the people therefore will for ever +remain the glory of having resisted heroically with means utterly +inadequate; and with the government the whole burthen of the disgrace +that the means were thus inadequate. + +But, further,--even though it should still be thought that, in the three +Provinces which Sir J. Moore saw, there may have been some failures with +the people,--it is to be remembered that these were the very three which +had never been the theatre of French outrages; which therefore had +neither such a vivid sense of the evils which they had to fear, nor so +strong an animation in the recollection of past triumphs: we might +accordingly have predicted that, if any provinces should prove slack in +their exertions, it would be these three. So that, after all, (a candid +inquirer into this matter will say) admitting Sir J.M.'s description to +be faithful with respect to what he saw, I can never allow that the +conduct of these three provinces shall be held forth as an exponent of +the general temper and condition of Spain. For that therefore I must +look to other authorities. + +Such an inquirer we might then refer to the testimonies of Gen. Leith +and of Capt. Pasley for Biscay and Asturias; of Mr. Vaughan (as cited by +Lord Castlereagh) for the whole East and South; of Lord Cochrane +(himself a most gallant man, and giving _his_ testimony under a trying +comparison of the Spaniards with English Sailors) for Catalonia in +particular; of Lord W. Bentinck for the central provinces; and, for all +Spain, we might appeal even to the Spanish military reports--which, by +the discrimination of their praises (sometimes giving severe rebukes to +particular regiments, &c.), authenticate themselves. + +But, finally, we are entitled--after the _actions_ of the Spaniards--to +dispense with such appeals. Spain might justly deem it a high injury and +affront, to suppose that (after her deeds performed under the condition +of her means) she could require any other testimony to justify her +before nil posterity. What those deeds have been, it cannot surely now +be necessary to inform the reader: and therefore the remainder of this +note shall be employed in placing before him the present posture of +Spain--under two aspects which may possibly have escaped his notice. + +First, Let him look to that part of Spain which is now in the possession +of the enemy;--let him bear in mind that the present campaign opened at +the latter end of last October; that the French were then masters of +the country up to the Ebro; that the contest has since lain between a +veteran army (rated, on the lowest estimate, at 113,000 men--with a +prodigious superiority in cavalry, artillery, &c.) opposed (as to all +_regular_ opposition) by unpractised Spaniards, split into three +distinct armies, having no communication with each other, making a total +of not more than 80,000 men;--and then let him inquire what progress, in +this time and with these advantages, the French have been able to make +(comparing it, at the same time, with that heretofore made in Prussia, +and elsewhere): the answer shall be given from the _Times_ newspaper of +April 8th--'It appears that, at the date of our last accounts from +France as well as Spain, about one half of the Peninsula was still +unsubdued by the French arms. The Provinces, which retain their +independence, form a sort of irregular or broken crescent; of which one +horn consists in parts of Catalonia and Valencia, and the other horn +includes Asturias (perhaps we may soon add Gallicia). The broader +surface contains the four kingdoms of Andalusia (Seville, Grenada, +Cordova, and Murcia), and considerable parts of Estramadura, and La +Mancha; besides Portugal.'--The writer might have added that even the +Provinces, occupied by the French, cannot yet be counted substantially +as conquests: since they have a military representation in the south; +large proportions of the defeated armies having retreated thither. + +Secondly. Let him look to that part of Spain which yet remains +unsubdued.--It was thought no slight proof of heroism in the people of +Madrid, that they prepared for their defence--not as the foremost +champions of Spain (in which character they might have gained an +adventitious support from the splendour of their post; and, at any rate, +would have been free from the depression of preceding disasters)--but +under a full knowledge of recent and successive overthrows; their +advanced armies had been defeated; and their last stay, at Somosierra, +had been driven in upon them. But the Provinces in the South have many +more causes for dejection: they have heard, since these disasters, that +this heroic city of Madrid has fallen; that their forts in Catalonia +have been wrested from them; that an English army just moved upon the +horizon of Spain--to draw upon itself the gaze and expectations of the +people, and then to vanish like an apparition; and, finally, they have +heard of the desolation of Saragossa. Under all this accumulation of +calamity, what has been their conduct? In Valencia redoubled +preparations of defence; in Seville a decree for such energetic +retaliation on the enemy,--as places its authors, in the event of his +success, beyond the hopes of mercy; in Cadiz--on a suspicion that a +compromise was concerted with their enemy--tumults and clamours of the +people for instant vengeance; every where, in their uttermost distress, +the same stern and unfaultering attitude of defiance as at the glorious +birth of their resistance. + +In this statement, then, of the past efforts of Spain--and of her +present preparations for further efforts--will be found a full answer to +all the charges alleged, by Sir John Moore in his letters, against the +people of Spain, even if we did not find sufficient ground for rejecting +them in an examination of these letters themselves. + + * * * * * + +The Author of the above note--having, in justice to the Spaniards, +spoken with great plainness and freedom--feels it necessary to add a few +words, that it may not thence be concluded that he is insensible to Sir +J. Moore's claims upon his respect. Perhaps--if Sir J.M. could himself +have given us his commentary upon these letters, and have restricted the +extension of such passages as (from want of vigilance in making +distinctions or laxity of language) are at variance with concessions +made elsewhere--they would have been found not more to differ from the +reports of other intelligent and less prejudiced observers, than we +might have expected from the circumstances under which they were +written. Sir J.M. has himself told us (in a letter published since the +above note was written) that he thinks the Spaniards 'a fine people;' +and that acknowledgement, from a soldier, cannot be supposed to exclude +courage; nor, from a Briton, some zeal for national independence. We are +therefore to conclude that, when Sir J.M. pronounces opinions on 'the +Spaniards' not to be reconciled with this and other passages, he +speaks--not of the Spanish people--but of the Spanish government. And, +even for what may still remain charged uncandidly upon the people, the +writer does not forget that there are infinite apologies to be found in +Sir J. Moore's situation: the earliest of these letters were written +under great anxiety and disturbance of mind from the anticipation of +calamity;--and the latter (which are the most severe) under the actual +pressure of calamity; and calamity of that sort which would be the most +painful to the feelings of a gallant soldier, and most likely to vitiate +his judgment with respect to those who had in part (however innocently) +occasioned it. There may be pleaded also for him--that want of leisure +which would make it difficult to compare the different accounts he +received, and to draw the right inferences from them. But then these +apologies for his want of fidelity--are also reasons before-hand for +suspecting it: and there are now (May 18th) to be added to these +reasons, and their confirmations in the letters themselves, fresh proofs +in the present state of Gallicia, as manifested by the late re-capture +of Vigo, and the movements of the Marquis de la Romana; all which, from +Sir J. Moore's account of the temper in that province, we might have +confidently pronounced impossible. We must therefore remember that what +in him were simply mis-statements--are now, when repeated with our +better information, calumnies; and calumnies so much the less to be +excused in us, as we have already (in our conduct towards Spain) given +her other and no light matter of complaint against ourselves. + + * * * * * + +END OF THE APPENDIX. + + + + +III. VINDICATION OF OPINIONS IN THE TREATISE ON THE 'CONVENTION OF +CINTRA:' + +=VIZ=. + +(_a_) LETTER TO MAJOR-GENERAL SIR CHARLES W. PASLEY, K.C.B., ON HIS +'MILITARY POLICY AND INSTITUTIONS OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE,' 1811. + +(_b_) LETTER ENCLOSING THE PRECEDING TO A FRIEND UN-NAMED. + + * * * * * + +NOTE. + +These two Letters--the latter for the first time printed--form a fitting +sequel to the 'Convention of Cintra.' See Preface in the present volume +for more on them. G. + + * * * * * + +TO CAPTAIN PASLEY, ROYAL ENGINEERS. + +Grasmere, March 28, 1811. + +MY DEAR SIR, + +I address this to the publishers of your 'Essay,' not knowing where to +find you. Before I speak of the instruction and pleasure which I have +derived from your work, let me say a word or two in apology for my own +apparent _neglect_ of the letter with which you honoured me some time +ago. In fact, I was thoroughly sensible of the value of your +correspondence, and of your kindness in writing to me, and took up the +pen to tell you so. I wrote half of a pretty long letter to you, but I +was so disgusted with the imperfect and feeble expression which I had +given to some not uninteresting ideas, that I threw away the unfinished +sheet, and could not find resolution to resume what had been so +inauspiciously begun. I am ashamed to say, that I write so few letters, +and employ my pen so little in any way, that I feel both a lack of words +(such words I mean as I wish for) and of mechanical skill, extremely +discouraging to me. I do not plead these disabilities on my part as an +excuse, but I wish you to know that they have been the sole cause of my +silence, and not a want of sense of the honour done me by your +correspondence, or an ignorance of what good breeding required of me. +But enough of my trespasses! Let me only add, that I addressed a letter +of some length to you when you were lying ill at Middleburgh; this +probably you never received. Now for your book. I had expected it with +great impatience, and desired a friend to send it down to me immediately +on its appearance, which he neglected to do. On this account, I did not +see it till a few days ago. I have read it through twice, with great +care, and many parts three or four times over. From this, you will +conclude that I must have been much interested; and I assure you that I +deem myself also in a high degree instructed. It would be a most +pleasing employment to me to dwell, in this letter, upon those points in +which I agree with you, and to acknowledge my obligations for the +clearer views you have given of truths which I before perceived, though +not with that distinctness in which they now stand before my eyes. But I +could wish this letter to be of some use to you; and that end is more +likely to be attained if I advert to those points in which I think you +are mistaken. These are chiefly such as though very material in +themselves, are not at all so to the main object you have in view, viz. +that of proving that the military power of France may by us be +successfully resisted, and even overthrown. In the first place, then, I +think that there are great errors in the survey of the comparative +strength of the two empires, with which you begin your book, and on +which the first 160 pages are chiefly employed. You seem to wish to +frighten the people into exertion; and in your ardour to attain your +object, that of rousing our countrymen by any means, I think you have +caught far too eagerly at every circumstance with respect to revenue, +navy, &c. that appears to make for the French. This I think was +unnecessary. The people are convinced that the power of France is +dangerous, and that it is our duty to resist it to the utmost. I think +you might have commenced from this acknowledged fact; and, at all +events, I cannot help saying, that the first 100 pages or so of your +book, contrasted with the brilliant prospects towards the conclusion, +have impressed me with a notion that you have written too much under the +influence of feelings similar to those of a poet or novelist, who +deepens the distress in the earlier part of his work, in order that the +happy catastrophe which he has prepared for his hero and heroine may be +more keenly relished. Your object is to conduct us to Elysium, and, lest +we should not be able to enjoy that pure air and purpurial sunshine, you +have taken a peep at Tartarus on the road. Now I am of your mind, that +we ought not to make peace with France, on any account, till she is +humiliated, and her power brought within reasonable bounds. It is our +duty and our interest to be at war with her; but I do not think with +you, that a state of peace would give to France that superiority which +you seem so clearly to foresee. In estimating the resources of the two +empires, as to revenue, you appear to make little or no allowance for +what I deem of prime and paramount importance, the characters of the two +nations, and of the two governments. Was there ever an instance, since +the world began, of the peaceful arts thriving under a despotism so +oppressive as that of France is and must continue to be, and among a +people so unsettled, so depraved, and so undisciplined in civil arts and +habits as the French nation must now be? It is difficult to come at the +real revenue of the French empire; but it appears to me certain, +absolutely certain, that it must diminish rapidly every year. The armies +have hitherto been maintained chiefly from the contributions raised upon +the conquered countries, and from the plunder which the soldiers have +been able to find. But that harvest is over. Austria, and particularly +Hungary, may have yet something to supply; but the French Ruler will +scarcely quarrel with them for a few years at least. But from Denmark, +and Sweden, and Russia, there is not much to be gained. In the mean +while, wherever his iron yoke is fixed, the spirits of the people are +broken; and it is in vain to attempt to extort money which they do not +possess, and cannot procure. Their bodies he may command, but their +bodies he cannot move without the inspiration of _wealth_, somewhere or +other; by wealth I mean superfluous produce, something arising from the +labour of the inhabitants of countries beyond what is necessary to their +support. What will avail him the command of the whole population of the +Continent, unless there be a security for capital somewhere existing, so +that the mechanic arts and inventions may thereby be applied in such a +manner as that an overplus may arise from the labour of the country +which shall find its way into the pocket of the State for the purpose of +supporting its military and civil establishments? Now, when I look at +the condition of our country, and compare it with that of France, and +reflect upon the length of the time, and the infinite combination of +favourable circumstances which have been necessary to produce the laws, +the regulations, the customs, the moral character, and the physical +enginery of all sorts, through means, and by aid of which, labour is +carried on in this happy Land; and when I think of the wealth and +population (concentrated too in so small a space) which we must have at +command for military purposes, I confess I have not much dread, looking +either at war or peace, of any power which France, with respect to us, +is likely to attain for years, I may say for generations. Whatever may +be the form of a government, its spirit, at least, must be mild and free +before agriculture, trade, commerce, and manufactures can thrive under +it; and if these do not prosper in a State, it may extend its empire to +right and to left, and it will only carry poverty and desolation along +with it, without being itself permanently enriched. You seem to take for +granted, that because the French revenue amounts to so much at present +it must continue to keep up to that height. This, I conceive impossible, +unless the spirit of the government alters, which is not likely for many +years. How comes it that we are enabled to keep, by sea and land, so +many men in arms? Not by our foreign commerce, but by our domestic +ingenuity, by our home labour, which, with the aid of capital and the +mechanic arts and establishments, has enabled a few to produce so much +as will maintain themselves, and the hundreds of thousands of their +countrymen whom they support in arms. If our foreign trade were utterly +destroyed, I am told, that not more than one-sixth of our trade would +perish. The spirit of Buonaparte's government is, and must continue to +be, like that of the first conquerors of the New World who went raving +about for gold--gold! and for whose rapacious appetites the slow but +mighty and sure returns of any other produce could have no charms. I +cannot but think that generations must pass away before France, or any +of the countries under its thraldom, can attain those habits, and that +character, and those establishments which must be attained before it can +wield its population in a manner that will ensure our overthrow. This +(if we conduct the war upon principles of common sense) seems to me +impossible, while we continue at war; and should a peace take place +(which, however, I passionately deprecate), France will long be +compelled to pay tribute to us, on account of our being so far before +her in the race of genuine practical philosophy and true liberty. I mean +that the _mind_ of this country is so far before that of France, and +that _that_ mind has empowered the _hands_ of the country to raise so +much national wealth, that France must condescend to accept from us what +she will be unable herself to produce. Is it likely that any of our +manufacturing capitalists, in case of a peace, would trust themselves to +an arbitrary government like that of France, which, without a moment's +warning, might go to war with us and seize their persons and their +property; nay, if they should be so foolish as to trust themselves to +its discretion, would be base enough to pick a quarrel with us for the +very purpose of a pretext to strip them of all they possessed? Or is it +likely, if the native French manufacturers and traders were capable of +rivalling us in point of skill, that any Frenchman would venture upon +that ostentatious display of wealth which a large cotton-mill, for +instance, requires, when he knows that by so doing he would only draw +upon himself a glance of the greedy eye of government, soon to be +followed by a squeeze from its rapacious hand? But I have dwelt too long +upon this. The sum of what I think, by conversation, I could convince +you of is, that your comparative estimate is erroneous, and materially +so, inasmuch as it makes no allowance for the increasing superiority +which a State, supposed to be independent and equitable in its dealings +to its subjects, must have over an oppressive government; and none for +the time which is necessary to give prosperity to peaceful arts, even if +the government should improve. Our country has a mighty and daily +growing forest of this sort of wealth; whereas, in France, the trees are +not yet put into the ground. For my own part, I do not think it possible +that France, with all her command of territory and coast, can outstrip +us in naval power, unless she could previously, by her land power, cut +us off from timber and naval stores, necessary for the building and +equipment of our fleet. In that intellectual superiority which, as I +have mentioned, we possess over her, we should find means to build as +many ships as she could build, and also could procure sailors to man +them. The same energy would furnish means for maintaining the men; and +if they could be fed and maintained, they would surely be produced. Why +then am I for _war_ with France? 1st. Because I think our naval +superiority may be more cheaply maintained, and more easily, by war than +by peace; and because I think, that if the war were conducted upon those +principles of martial policy which you so admirably and nobly enforce, +united with (or rather bottomed upon) those notions of justice and +right, and that knowledge of and reverence for the moral sentiments of +mankind, which, in my Tract, I attempted to portray and illustrate, the +tide of military success would immediately turn in our favour; and we +should find no more difficulty in reducing the French power than +Gustavus Adolphus did in reducing that of the German Empire in his day. +And here let me express my zealous thanks for the spirit and beauty with +which you have pursued, through all its details, the course of martial +policy which you recommend. Too much praise cannot be given to this +which is the great body of your work. I hope that it will not be lost +upon your countrymen. But (as I said before) I rather wish to dwell upon +those points in which I am dissatisfied with your 'Essay.' Let me then +come at once to a fundamental principle. You maintain, that as the +military power of France is in progress, ours must be so also, or we +must perish. In this I agree with you. Yet you contend also, that this +increase or progress can only be brought about by conquests permanently +established upon the Continent; and, calling in the doctrines of the +writers upon the Law of Nations to your aid, you are for beginning with +the conquest of Sicily, and so on, through Italy, Switzerland, &c. &c. +Now it does not appear to me, though I should rejoice heartily to see a +British army march from Calabria, triumphantly, to the heart of the +Alps, and from Holland to the centre of Germany,--yet it does not appear +to me that the conquest and permanent possession of these countries is +necessary either to produce those resources of men or money which the +security and prosperity of our country requires. All that is absolutely +needful, for either the one or the other, is a large, experienced, and +seasoned _army_, which we cannot possess without a field to fight in, +and that field must be somewhere upon the Continent. Therefore, as far +as concerns ourselves and our security, I do not think that so wide a +space of conquered country is desirable; and, as a patriot, I have no +wish for it. If I desire it, it is not for our sakes directly, but for +the benefit of those unhappy nations whom we should rescue, and whose +prosperity would be reflected back upon ourselves. Holding these +notions, it is natural, highly as I rate the importance of military +power, and deeply as I feel its necessity for the protection of every +excellence and virtue, that I should rest my hopes with respect to the +emancipation of Europe more upon moral influence, and the wishes and +opinions of the people of the respective nations, than you appear to do. +As I have written in my pamphlet, 'on the moral qualities of a people +must its salvation ultimately depend. Something higher than military +excellence must be taught _as_ higher; something more fundamental, _as_ +more fundamental.' Adopting the opinion of the writers upon the laws of +Nations, you treat of _conquest_ as if _conquest_ could in itself, +nakedly and abstractedly considered, confer rights. If we once admit +this proposition, all morality is driven out of the world. We conquer +Italy--that is, we raise the British standard in Italy,--and, by the aid +of the inhabitants, we expel the French from the country, and have a +right to keep it for ourselves. This, if I am not mistaken, is not only +implied, but explicitly maintained in your book. Undoubtedly, if it be +clear that the possession of Italy is necessary for our security, we +have a right to keep possession of it, if we should ever be able to +master it by the sword. But not because we have gained it by conquest, +therefore may we keep it; no; the sword, as the sword, can give no +rights; but because a great and noble Nation, like ours, cannot prosper +or exist without such possession. If the fact _were_ so, we should then +have a right to keep possession of what by our valour we had +acquired--not otherwise. If these things were matter of mere +speculation, they would not be worth talking about; but they are not so. +The spirit of conquest, and the ambition of the sword, never can confer +true glory and happiness upon a nation that has attained power +sufficient to protect itself. Your favourites, the Romans, though no +doubt having the fear of the Carthaginians before their eyes, yet were +impelled to carry their arms out of Italy by ambition far more than by a +rational apprehension of the danger of their condition. And how did they +enter upon their career? By an act of atrocious injustice. You are too +well read in history for me to remind you what that act was. The same +disregard of morality followed too closely their steps everywhere. Their +ruling passion, and sole steady guide, was the glory of the Roman name, +and the wish to spread the Roman power. No wonder, then, if their armies +and military leaders, as soon as they had destroyed all foreign enemies +from whom anything was to be dreaded, turned their swords upon each +other. The ferocious cruelties of Sylla and Marius, of Catiline, and of +Antony and Octavius, and the despotism of the empire, were the necessary +consequences of a long course of action pursued upon such blind and +selfish principles. Therefore, admiring as I do your scheme of martial +policy, and agreeing with you that a British military power may, and +that the _present_ state of the world requires that it _ought_ to be, +predominant in Italy, and Germany, and Spain; yet still, I am afraid +that you look with too much complacency upon conquest by British arms, +and upon British military influence upon the Continent, for _its own +sake_. Accordingly, you seem to regard Italy with more satisfaction than +Spain. I mean you contemplate our possible exertions in Italy with more +pleasure, merely because its dismembered state would probably keep it +more under our sway--in other words, more at our mercy. Now, I think +there is nothing more unfortunate for Europe than the condition of +Germany and Italy in these respects. Could the barriers be dissolved +which have divided the one nation into Neapolitans, Tuscans, Venetians, +&c., and the other into Prussians, Hanoverians, &c., and could they once +be taught to feel their strength, the French would be driven back into +their own Land immediately. I wish to see Spain, Italy, France, Germany, +formed into independent nations; nor have I any desire to reduce the +power of France further than may be necessary for that end. Woe be to +that country whose military power is irresistible! I deprecate such an +event for Great Britain scarcely less than for any other Land. Scipio +foresaw the evils with which Rome would be visited when no Carthage +should be in existence for her to contend with. If a nation have nothing +to oppose or to fear without, it cannot escape decay and concussion +within. Universal triumph and absolute security soon betray a State into +abandonment of that discipline, civil and military, by which its +victories were secured. If the time should ever come when this island +shall have no more formidable enemies by land than it has at this moment +by sea, the extinction of all that it previously contained of good and +great would soon follow. Indefinite progress, undoubtedly, there ought +to be somewhere; but let that be in knowledge, in science, in +civilization, in the increase of the numbers of the people, and in the +augmentation of their virtue and happiness. But progress in conquest +cannot be indefinite; and for that very reason, if for no other, it +cannot be a fit object for the exertions of a people, I mean beyond +certain limits, which, of course, will vary with circumstances. My +prayer, as a patriot, is, that we may always have, somewhere or other, +enemies capable of resisting us, and keeping us at arm's length. Do I, +then, object that our arms shall be carried into every part of the +Continent? No: such is the present condition of Europe, that I earnestly +pray for what I deem would be a mighty blessing. France has already +destroyed, in almost every part of the Continent, the detestable +governments with which the nations have been afflicted; she has +extinguished one sort of tyranny, but only to substitute another. Thus, +then, have the countries of Europe been taught, that domestic +oppression, if not manfully and zealously repelled, must sooner or later +be succeeded by subjugation from without; they have tasted the +bitterness of both cups, have drunk deeply of both. Their spirits are +prepared for resistance to the foreign tyrant, and with our help I think +they may shake him off, and, under our countenance, and following (as +far as they are capable) our example, they may fashion to themselves, +making use of what is best in their own ancient laws and institutions, +new forms of government, which may secure posterity from a repetition of +such calamities as the present age has brought forth. The materials of a +new balance of power exist in the language, and name, and territory of +Spain, in those of France, and those of Italy, Germany, Russia, and the +British Isles. The smaller States must disappear, and merge in the large +nations and wide-spread languages. The possibility of this remodelling +of Europe I see clearly; earnestly do I pray for it; and I have in my +mind a strong conviction that your invaluable work will be a powerful +instrument in preparing the way for that happy issue. Yet, still, we +must go deeper than the nature of your labour requires you to penetrate. +Military policy merely will not perform all that is needful, nor mere +military virtues. If the Roman State was saved from overthrow, by the +attack of the slaves and of the gladiators, through the excellence of +its armies, yet this was not without great difficulty;[22] and Rome +would have been destroyed by Carthage, had she not been preserved by a +civic fortitude in which she surpassed all the nations of the earth. The +reception which the Senate gave to Terentius Varro, after the battle of +Cannae, is the sublimest event in human history. What a contrast to the +wretched conduct of the Austrian government after the battle at Wagram! +England requires, as you have shown so eloquently and ably, a new system +of martial policy; but England, as well as the rest of Europe, requires +what is more difficult to give it,--a new course of education, a higher +tone of moral feeling, more of the grandeur of the imaginative +faculties, and less of the petty processes of the unfeeling and purblind +understanding, that would manage the concerns of nations in the same +calculating spirit with which it would set about building a house. Now a +State ought to be governed (at least in these times), the labours of the +statesman ought to advance, upon calculations and from impulses similar +to those which give motion to the hand of a great artist when he is +preparing a picture, or of a mighty poet when he is determining the +proportions and march of a poem;--much is to be done by rule; the great +outline is previously to be conceived in distinctness, but the +consummation of the work must be trusted to resources that are not +tangible, though known to exist. Much as I admire the political sagacity +displayed in your work, I respect you still more for the lofty spirit +that supports it; for the animation and courage with which it is +replete; for the contempt, in a just cause, of death and danger by which +it is ennobled; for its heroic confidence in the valour of your +countrymen; and the absolute determination which it everywhere expresses +to maintain in all points the honour of the soldier's profession, and +that of the noble Nation of which you are a member--of the Land in which +you were born. No insults, no indignities, no vile stooping, will your +politics admit of; and therefore, more than for any other cause, do I +congratulate my country on the appearance of a book which, resting in +this point our national safety upon the purity of our national +character, will, I trust, lead naturally to make us, at the same time, a +more powerful and a high-minded nation. + + Affectionately yours, W. WORDSWORTH.[23] + +[22] 'Totis imperii viribus consurgitur,' says the historian, speaking +of the war of the gladiators. + +[23] _Memoirs_, vol. i. pp. 406-20. + + * * * * * + + +_Letter enclosing the Preceding to a Friend unnamed_. + +MY DEAR SIR, + +I have taken the Liberty of addressing the enclosed to you, with a wish +that you would be so kind as to send it by the twopenny Post. The +Letter, though to a personal Acquaintance and to some degree a friend, +is upon a kind of Public occasion, and consists of Comments upon Captain +Pasley's lately published Essay on the Military Policy of Great Britain; +a work which if you have not seen I earnestly recommend to your careful +Perusal. I have sent my Letter unsealed in order that if you think it +worth while you may read it, which would oblige me. You may begin with +those words in the 1st Page, 'Now for your Book:' which you will see are +legible, being transcribed by a Friend. The rest, in my own hand, is +only an Apology for not writing sooner; save that there are two Sonnets +which if you like you may glance your eye over. Do not forget to put a +wafer on the Letter after you have done with it. + +Will you excuse me if I find myself unable to forbear saying, upon this +occasion, a few words concerning the conduct pursued with respect to +foreign affairs by the Party with whom you act? I learn from a private +quarter of unquestionable Authority, that it was Lord Grenville's +intention, had he come into power as he lately expected, to have +recalled the army from Portugal. In the name of my Country, of our +virtuous and suffering Allies, and of Human Nature itself, I give thanks +to Providence who has restored the King's health so far as to prevent +this intention being put into practice hitherto. The transgressions of +the present ministry are grievous; but excepting only a deliberate and +direct attack upon the civil liberty of our own Country, there cannot be +any thing in a Minister worse than a desponding spirit and the lack of +confidence in a good cause. If Lord G. and Mr. Ponsonby think that the +privilege allowed to opposition-manoeuvering justifies them in speaking +as they do, they are sadly mistaken and do not discern what is becoming +the times; but if they sincerely believe in the omnipotence of +Buonaparte upon the Continent, they are the dupes of their own fears and +the slaves of their own ignorance. Do not deem me presumptuous when I +say that it is pitiable to hear Lord Grenville talking as he did in the +late debate of the inability of Great Britain to take a commanding +station as a military Power, and maintaining that our efforts must be +essentially, he means exclusively, naval. We have destroyed our enemies +upon the Sea, and are equally capable of destroying him upon land. Rich +in soldiers and revenues as we are, we are capable, availing ourselves +of the present disposition of the Continent, to erect there under our +countenance, and by a wise application of our resources, a military +Power, which the tyrannical and immoral Government of Buonaparte could +not prevail against, and if he could not overthrow it, he must himself +perish. Lord G. grudges two millions in aid of Portugal, which has +eighty thousand men in arms, and what they can perform has been proved. +Yet Lord G. does not object to our granting aid to a great Military +Power on the Continent if such could he found, nay he begs of us to wait +till that fortunate period arrives. Whence does Lord G., from what +quarter does he expect it? from Austria, from the Prussian monarchy, +brought to life again, from Russia, or lastly from the Confederacy of +the Rhine turning against their Creator and Fashioner? Is the +expectation of the Jews for their Messiah or of the Portugueze for St. +Sebastian more extravagant? But Lord G. ought to know that such a +military POWER does already exist upon the Peninsula, formless indeed +compared with what under our plastic hands it may become, yet which has +proved itself capable of its giving employment during the course of +three years to at least five hundred thousand of the enemy's best +troops. An important fact has been proved, that the enemy cannot _drive_ +us from the Peninsula. We have the point to stand upon which Archimedes +wished for, and we may move the Continent if we persevere. Let us +prepare to exercise in Spain a military influence like that which we +already possess in Portugal, and our affairs must improve daily and +rapidly. Whatever money we advance for Portugal and Spain, we can direct +the management of it, an inestimable advantage which, with relation to +Prussia, Russia or Austria, we never possessed. Besides, how could we +govern the purposes of those States, when that inherent imbecility and +cowardice leave them no purpose or aim to which they can steadily adhere +of themselves for six weeks together? Military Powers! So these States +have been called. A strange Misnomer! they are Weaknesses--a true though +ill-sounding Title!--and not Powers! Polybius tells us that Hannibal +entered into Italy with twenty thousand men, and that the aggregate +forces of Italy at that time amounted to seven hundred and sixty +thousand foot and horse, with the Roman discipline and power to head +that mighty force. Gustavus Adolphus invaded Germany with thirteen +thousand men; the Emperor at that time having between two and three +hundred thousand warlike and experienced Troops commanded by able +Generals, to oppose to him. Let these facts and numerous others which +history supplies of the same kind, be thought of; and let us hear no +more of the impossibility of Great Britain girt round and defended by +the Sea and an invincible Navy, becoming a military Power; Great Britain +whose troops surpass in valour those of all the world, and who has an +army and a militia of upwards of three hundred thousand men! Do reflect +my dear Sir, upon the materials which are now in preparation upon the +Continent. Hannibal expected to be joined by a parcel of the contented +barbarian Gauls in the north of Italy. Gustavus stood forth as the +Champion of the Protestant interest: how feeble and limited each of +these auxiliary sentiments and powers, compared with what the state of +knowledge, the oppressions of their domestic governments, and the +insults and injuries and hostile cruelties inflicted by the French upon +the continental nations, must have exerted to second our arms whenever +we shall appear in that Force which we can assume, and with that +boldness which would become us, and which justice and human nature and +Patriotism call upon us to put forth. Farewell, most truly yours, + +W. WORDSWORTH. + +Shall we see you this Summer? I hope so. + + + + +IV. TWO ADDRESSES TO THE FREEHOLDERS OF WESTMORELAND. + +1818. + +NOTE. + +On the occasion of these 'Two Addresses,' and other related matters, see +Preface in the present volume. G. + + TWO ADDRESSES TO THE FREEHOLDERS OF WESTMORELAND. + + * * * * * +Kendal: + +PRINTED BY AIREY AND BELLINGHAM. 1818. + +ADVERTISEMENT. + + * * * * * + +The Author thinks it proper to advise his Reader, that he alone is +responsible for the sentiments and opinions expressed in these sheets. +Gladly would he have availed himself of the judgment of others, if that +benefit could have been had without subjecting the Persons consulted to +the possibility of blame, for having sanctioned any view of the topics +under consideration, which, either from its erroneousness might deserve, +or from Party feelings or other causes might incur, censure. + +The matter comprised in these pages was intended to compose a succession +of Addresses to be printed in the _Kendal Chronicle_, and a part of the +first was published through that channel. The intention was dropped for +reasons well known. It is now mentioned in order to account for the +disproportion in the length of the two Addresses, and an arrangement of +matter, in some places, different from what would otherwise have been +chosen. A portion also has appeared in the _Carlisle Patriot_. + +It is of little importance to add, that this Publication has been +delayed by unavoidable engagements of the Printer. + +_March_ 26, 1818. + + * * * * * + +TO THE READER. + +The new Candidate has appeared amongst us, and concluded, for the +present, his labours in the County. They require no further notice here +than an expression of thanks for the success with which he has +co-operated with the Author of these pages to demonstrate, by the whole +of his itinerant proceedings, that the vital principle of the Opposition +ostensibly headed by him, is at enmity with the bonds by which society +is held together, and Government maintained. + +_April_ 4, 1818. + +TO THE FREEHOLDERS, &c. + + * * * * * + +GENTLEMEN, + +Two Months have elapsed since warning was given of an intention to +oppose the present Representatives of the County of Westmoreland, at the +ensuing Election; yet, till so late a period as the 26th of January, no +avowal of such intention appeared from any quarter entitling it to +consideration. For, as to the Body of Men, calling itself the London +Committee, there is not, up to this hour I believe, any public evidence +even of its existence, except certain notices signed by two obscure +individuals. But, in the minds of those naturally interested in the +welfare of the County, a ferment was excited by various devices; +inflammatory addresses were busily circulated; men, laying claim to the +flattering character of Reformers of abuses, became active; and, as this +stir did not die away, they who foresaw its bearings and tendencies, +were desirous that, if there were any just grounds for discontent, the +same should be openly declared, by persons whose characters and +situations in life would be a pledge for their having proceeded upon +mature deliberation. At length, a set of resolutions have appeared, from +a Meeting of dissatisfied Freeholders, holden in a Town, which, if not +the principal in point of rank, is the most populous, opulent, and +weighty, in the County. Among those who composed this Meeting, the first +visible authentic Body which the Opposition has produced, are to be +found persons answering to the description above given--men from whom +might have been expected, in the exposition of their complaints, sound +sense as to the nature of the grievances, and rational views as to the +mode of removing them--Have such expectations, if entertained, been +fulfilled? + +The first Resolution unanimously agreed upon by this Meeting, is couched +in these words: 'It is impossible for us, as Freeholders, to submit any +longer to a single Family, however respectable, naming both Members for +the County.' What if this leading article had been thus expressed? 'That +it is injurious to the interests, and derogatory to the dignity, of the +County of Westmoreland, that both its Representatives should be brought +into Parliament, by the influence of one Family.' Words to this effect +would surely have given the sense of the Resolution, as proceeding from +men of cool reflection; and offered nakedly to the consideration of +minds which, it was desired, should be kept in a similar state. But we +cannot '_submit_ any longer'--if the intention was to mislead and +irritate, such language was well adapted for the purpose; but it ill +accords with the spirit of the next Resolution, which affirms, that the +Meeting is wholly unconnected with any political Party; and, thus +disclaiming indirectly those passions and prejudices that are apt to +fasten upon political partisans, implicitly promises, that the opinions +of the Meeting shall be conveyed in terms suitable to such disavowal. +Did the persons in question imagine themselves in a state of +degradation? On their own word we must believe they did; and no one +could object to their employing, among each other, such language as gave +vent to feelings proceeding from that impression, in a way that +gratified themselves. But, by _publishing_ their Resolutions, they shew +that they are not communing for the sake of mutual sympathy, but to +induce others to participate a sentiment which probably they are +strangers to. We _submit_ to the law, and to those who are placed in +authority over us, while in the legitimate exercise of their +functions--we _submit_ to the decrees of Providence, because they are +not to be resisted--a coward _submits_ to be insulted--a pusillanimous +wretch to be despised--and a knave, if detected, must submit to be +scouted--a slave submits to his Taskmaster; but, the Freeholders of +Westmoreland, cannot, _in reason_, be said to submit to the House of +Lowther naming their Representatives, unless it can be proved that those +Representatives have been thrust upon them by an unjustifiable agency; +and that they owe their seats, not to the free suffrages and frank +consent of their Constituents, but to unfair means, whether in the shape +of seduction or threat. If there be an indignity on one side, there must +have been a wrong done on the other; and, to make out this point, it +ought to have been shewn, that some other Person, qualified by his +property, his education, his rank, and character, had stood forth and +offered himself to represent you, Freeholders of Westmoreland, in +Parliament; and that, in this attempt, he had been crushed by the power +of a single Family, careless of the mode in which that power was +exercised. I appeal to those who have had an opportunity of being +acquainted with the Noble Lord who is at the head of that Family, +whether they are of opinion, that any consideration of his own interest +or importance in the State, would have induced him to oppose _such_ a +Candidate, provided there was reason for believing that the unabused +sense of the County was with him. If indeed a Candidate supposed to be +so favoured by the County, had declared himself an enemy to the general +measures of Administration for some years past, those measures have +depended on principles of conduct of such vast importance, that the +Noble Lord must needs have endeavoured, as far as prudence authorised, +to frustrate an attempt, which, in conscience, he could not approve. + +I affirm, then, that, as there was no wrong, there is no indignity--the +present Members owe their high situation to circumstances, local and +national. They are there _because no one else has presented himself_, +or, for some years back, has been likely to present himself, with +pretensions, the reasonableness of which could enter into competition +with their's. This is, in some points of view, a misfortune, but it is +the fact; and no class of men regret it more than the independent and +judicious adherents of the House of Lowther: Men who are happy and proud +to rally round the Nobleman who is the head of that House, in defence of +rational liberty: Men who know that he has proved himself a faithful +guardian to the several orders of the State--that he is a tried enemy to +dangerous innovations--a condemner of fantastic theories--one who +understands mankind, and knows the heights and levels of human nature, +by which the course of the streams of social action is determined--a +Lover of the People, but one who despises, as far as relates to his own +practice; and deplores, in respect to that of others, the shows, and +pretences, and all the false arts by which the plaudits of the multitude +are won, and the people flattered to the common ruin of themselves and +their deceivers. + +But after all, let us soberly enquire to what extent it is really an +evil that two persons, so nearly connected in blood, should represent +this County. And first looking at the matter _locally_, what _is_ that +portion of England known by the name of the County of Westmoreland? A +County which indeed the natives of it love, and are justly proud of; a +region famous for the production of shrewd, intelligent, brave, active, +honest, enterprising men:--but it covers no very large space on the map; +the soil is in general barren, the country poor accordingly, and of +necessity thinly inhabited. There are in England single Towns, even of a +third or fourth rate importance, that contain a larger population than +is included within the limits of Westmoreland, from the foot of Wrynose +to the sides of Stainmoor, and from the banks of the Kent to those of +the Emont. Is it, then, to be wondered at, considering the antiquity of +the House of Lowther, that circumstances should have raised it to the +elevation which it holds in a district so thinly peopled, neither rich +in the products of Agriculture, nor in the materials of Commerce, and +where it is impossible that any considerable number of Country Gentlemen +of large, or as our ancestors expressed themselves of notable estate, +can co-exist. It must unavoidably happen therefore that, at all times, +there will be few persons, in such a County, furnished with the stable +requisites of property, rank, family, and personal fitness, that shall +point them out for such an office, and _dispose them to covet it_, by +insuring that degree of public confidence which will make them +independent, comfortable, and happy, in discharging the duties which it +imposes. This small number will, at particular periods, be liable to be +reduced; that this _has_ been the case is apparent upon retrospect; and +that the number is not large at present, may be inferred from the +difficulty with which a third Candidate has been found; and from the +insignificant station which the Individual, who has at length obeyed the +call of the discontented, holds in the County. + +With these local circumstances _general_ considerations have powerfully +co-operated, to place the representation of Westmoreland where it now +is; and to this second division of the subject I particularly request +your attention, Gentlemen, as reflecting Patriots. + +Looking up to the government with respectful attachment, we all +acknowledge that power must be controlled and checked, or it will be +abused; hence the desirableness of a vigorous opposition in the House +of Commons; and hence a wish, grounded upon a conviction of general +expediency, that the opposition to ministry, whose head and chief seat +of action are in Parliament, should be efficaciously diffused through +all parts of the Country. On this principle the two grand divisions of +Party, under our free government, are founded. Conscience regulated by +expediency, is the basis; honour, binding men to each other in spite of +temptation, is the corner-stone; and the superstructure is friendship, +protecting kindness, gratitude, and all the moral sentiments by which +self-interest is liberalized. Such is Party, looked at on the favourable +side. Cogent _moral_ inducements, therefore, exist for the prevalence of +two powerful bodies in the practice of the State, spreading their +influence and interests throughout the country; and, on _political_ +considerations, it is desirable that the strength of each should bear +such proportion to that of the other, that, while Ministry are able to +carry into effect measures not palpably injurious, the vigilance of +Opposition may turn to account, being backed by power at all times +sufficient to awe, but never, (were that possible) except when supported +by manifest reason, to intimidate. + +Such apportioning of the strength of the two Parties _has_ existed; such +a degree of power the Opposition formerly possessed; and if they have +lost that salutary power, if they are dwindled and divided, they must +ascribe it to their own errors. They are weak because they have been +unwise: they are brought low, because when they had solid and high +ground to stand upon, they took a flight into the air. To have hoped too +ardently of human nature, as they did at the commencement of the French +Revolution, was no dishonour to them as men; but _politicians_ cannot be +allowed to plead temptations of fancy, or impulses of feeling, in +exculpation of mistakes in judgement. Grant, however, to the enthusiasm +of Philanthropy as much indulgence as it may call for, it is still +extraordinary that, in the minds of English Statesmen and Legislators, +the naked absurdity of the means did not raise a doubt as to the +attainableness of the end. Mr. Fox, captivated by the vanities of a +system founded upon abstract rights, chaunted his expectations in the +House of Parliament; and too many of his Friends partook of the +illusion. The most sagacious Politician of his age broke out in an +opposite strain. Time has verified his predictions; the books remain in +which his principles of foreknowledge were laid down; but, as the Author +became afterwards a Pensioner of State, thousands, in this country of +free opinions, persist in asserting that his divination was guess-work, +and that conscience had no part in urging him to speak. That warning +voice proved vain; the Party from whom he separated, +proceeded--confiding in splendid oratorical talents and ardent feelings +rashly wedded to novel expectations, when common sense, uninquisitive +experience, and a modest reliance on old habits of judgement, when +either these, or a philosophic penetration, were the only qualities that +could have served them. + +How many private Individuals, at that period, were kept in a rational +course by circumstances, supplying restraints which their own +understandings would not have furnished! Through what fatality it +happens, that Bodies of Men are so slow to profit, in a similar way, by +circumstances affecting their prosperity, the Opposition seem never to +have enquired. They could not avoid observing, that the Holders of +Property throughout the country, being mostly panic-stricken by the +proceedings in France, turned instinctively against the admirers of the +new system;--and, as security for property is the very basis of civil +society, how was it possible but that reflecting men, who perceived this +truth, should mistrust those Representatives of the People, who could +not have acted less prudently, had they been utterly unconscious of it! +But they had committed themselves and did not retract; either from +unabating devotion to their cause, or from false honour, and that +self-injuring consistency, the favourite sister of obstinacy, which the +mixed conscience of mankind is but too apt to produce. Meanwhile the +tactics of Parliament must continue in exercise on some system or other; +their adversaries were to be annoyed at any rate; and so intent were +they upon this, that, in proportion as the entrenchments of Ministry +strengthened, the assaults of Opposition became more careless and +desperate. + +While the war of words and opinions was going forward in this country, +Europe was deluged with blood. They in whose hands power was vested +among us, in course of time, lost ground in public opinion, through the +failure of their efforts. Parties were broken and re-composed; but Men +who are brought together less by principle than by events, cannot +cordially co-operate, or remain long united. The opponents of the war, +in this middle stage and desponding state of it, were not popular; and +afterwards, when the success of the enemy made the majority of the +Nation feel, that Peace dictated by him could not be lasting, and they +were bent on persevering in the struggle, the Party of Opposition +persisted in a course of action which, as their countenance of the +doctrine of the rights of man, had brought their understandings into +disrepute, cast suspicion on the soundness of their patriotic +affections. Their passions made them blind to the differences between a +state of peace and war, (above all such a war!) as prescribing rules for +their own conduct. They were ignorant, or never bore in mind, that a +species of hostility which, had there been no foreign enemy to resist, +might have proved useful and honourable, became equally pernicious and +disgraceful, when a formidable foe threatened us with destruction. + +I appeal to impartial recollection, whether, during the course of the +late awful struggle, and in the latter stages of it especially, the +antagonists of Ministers, in the two Houses of Parliament, did not, for +the most part, conduct themselves more like allies to a military despot, +who was attempting to enslave the world, and to whom their own country +was an object of paramount hatred, than like honest Englishmen, who had +breathed the air of liberty from their cradles. If any state of things +could supply them with motives for acting in that manner, they must +abide by the consequences. They must reconcile themselves as well as +they can to dislike and to disesteem, the unavoidable results of +behaviour so unnatural. Peace has indeed come; but do they who +deprecated the continuance of the war, and clamoured for its close, on +any terms, rejoice heartily in a triumph by which their prophecies were +belied? Did they lend their voices to swell the hymn of transport, that +resounded through our Land, when the arch-enemy was overthrown? Are they +pleased that inheritances have been restored, and that legitimate +governments have been re-established, on the Continent? And do they +grieve when those re-established governments act unworthily of the +favour which Providence has shown them? Do not too many rather secretly +congratulate themselves on every proof of imbecility or misconduct there +exhibited; and endeavour that attention shall be exclusively fixed on +those melancholy facts, as if they were the only fruits of a triumph, +to which we Britons owe, that we are a fearless, undishonoured, and +rapidly improving people, and the nations of the Continent owe their +very existence as self-governed communities? + +The Party of Opposition, or what remains of it, has much to repent of; +many humiliating reflections must pass through the minds of those who +compose it, and they must learn the hard lesson to be thankful for them +as a discipline indispensible to their amendment. Thus only can they +furnish a sufficient nucleus for the formation of a new Body; nor can +there be any hope of such Body being adequate to its appropriate +service, and of its possessing that portion of good opinion which shall +entitle it to the respect of its antagonists, unless it live and act, +for a length of time, under a distinct conception of the kind and degree +of hostility to the executive government, which is fairly warrantable. +The Party must cease indiscriminately to court the discontented, and to +league itself with Men who are athirst for innovation, to a point which +leaves it doubtful, whether an Opposition, that is willing to co-operate +with such Agitators, loves as it ought to do, and becomingly venerates, +the happy and glorious Constitution, in Church and State, which we have +inherited from our Ancestors. + +Till not a doubt can be left that this indispensible change has been +effected, Freeholders of Westmoreland! you will remain--but to _exhort_ +is not my present business--I was retracing the history of the influence +of one Family, and have shewn that much of it depends upon that steady +support given by them to government, during a long and arduous struggle, +and upon the general course of their public conduct, which has secured +your approbation and won for them your confidence. Let us now candidly +ask what practical evil has arisen from this preponderance. Is it not +obvious, that it is justified by the causes that have produced it? As +far as it concerns the general well-being of the Kingdom, it would be +easy to shew, that if the democratic activities of the great Towns and +of the manufacturing Districts, were not counteracted by the sedentary +power of large estates, continued from generation to generation in +particular families, it would be scarcely possible that the Laws and +Constitution of the Country could sustain the shocks which they would be +subject to. And as to our own County, _that_ Man must be strangely +prejudiced, who does not perceive how desireable it is, that some +powerful Individual should he attached to it; who, by his influence with +Government, may facilitate the execution of any plan tending, with due +concern for _general_ welfare, to the especial benefit of Westmoreland. +The influence of the House of Lowther is, we acknowledge, great; but has +a case been made out, that this influence has been abused? The voice of +gratitude is not loud, out of delicacy to the Benefactor; but, if all +who know were at liberty to speak, to the measure of their wishes, the +services which have been rendered by the House of Lowther to +Westmoreland, its Natives, and Inhabitants, would be proclaimed in a +manner that would confound detraction.--Yet the Kendal Committee of the +26th of January--without troubling themselves to inquire how far this +preponderance is a reasonable thing, and what have been its real and +practical effects--are indignant; their blood is roused; 'and they are +determined to address their Brother Freeholders, and call upon them to +recover the exercise of the elective Franchise, which has been withheld +from them for half a century.'--_Withheld_ from them! Suppose these +Champions, in this their first declaration of hostility, had said, 'to +recover the elective Franchise _which we have suffered to lie dormant_.' +But no!--Who would take blame to himself, when, by so doing, he is +likely to break the force of the indignation, which, whether deserved or +not, he hopes to heap upon his adversary? This is politic--but does it +become professing men? Does it suit those who set forward with a +proclamation, that they are select spirits, free from Party ties; and, +of course, superior to those artifices and misrepresentations--to those +groundless or immoderate aversions--which men who act in parties find it +so difficult to keep clear of? + +What degree of discernment and consistency, an assembly of persons, who +begin their labours with such professions and publish such intentions, +have shewn, by making choice of the Individual whom they have +recommended, as eminently entitled to their confidence and qualified to +assist them in attaining their end, may become the fit subject of a +future enquiry. + +SECOND ADDRESS. + + +GENTLEMEN, + +Much of my former Address, originated in deference to that sense of +right, which is inseparable from the minds of enlightened Patriots. +Passing from local considerations, I wrote under a belief that, whatever +personal or family leanings might prevail among you, you would be moved +by a wish to see the supporters of his Majesty's Ministers and their +opponents--possessed, relatively to each other, of that degree of +strength which might render both parties, in their several capacities, +most serviceable to the State. I noticed, that this just proportion of +strength no longer remained; and shewed, that the Opposition had caused +it to be destroyed by holding, from the beginning of the French +Revolution, such a course as introduced in Parliament, discord among +themselves; deprived them, in that House and elsewhere, of the respect +which from their Adversaries they had been accustomed to command; turned +indifferent persons into enemies; and alienated, throughout the Island, +the affections of thousands who had been proud to unite with them. This +weakness and degradation, deplored by all true Friends of the +Commonweal, was sufficiently accounted for, without even adverting to +the fact that--when the disasters of the war had induced the Country to +forgive, and, in some degree, to forget, the alarming attachment of that +Party to French theories: and power, heightened by the popularity of +hope and expectation, was thrown into their hands--they disgusted even +bigotted adherents, by the rapacious use they made of that +power;--stooping to so many offensive compromises, and committing so +many faults in every department, that, a Government of Talents, if such +be the fruits of talent, was proved to be the most mischievous sort of +government which England had ever been troubled with. So that, whether +in or out of place, an evil genius seemed to attend them! + +How could all this happen? For the fundamental reason, that neither the +religion, the laws, the morals, the manners, nor the literature of the +country, especially as contrasted with those of France, were prized by +the Leaders of the Party as they deserved. It is a notorious fact that, +among their personal Friends, was scarcely to be found a single +Clergyman of distinction;--so that, how to dispose of their +ecclesiastical patronage in a manner that might do them credit, they +were almost as ignorant as strangers landed, for the first time, in a +foreign Country. This is not to be accounted for on any supposition +(since the education of men of rank naturally devolves on those members +of our Universities, who choose the Church for their profession) but +that of a repugnance on their part to associate with persons of grave +character and decorous manners. Is the distracted remnant of the Party, +now surviving, improved in that respect? The dazzling talents with which +it was once distinguished have passed away; pleasure and dissipation are +no longer, in that quarter, exhibited to the world in such reconcilement +with business as excited dispositions to forgive what could not be +approved, and a species of wonder, not sufficiently kept apart from +envy, at the extraordinary gifts and powers by which the union was +accomplished. This injurious conjunction no longer exists, so as to +attract the eyes of the Nation. But we look in vain for signs that the +opinions, habits, and feelings of the Party are tending towards a +restoration of that genuine English character, by which alone the +confidence of the sound part of the People can be recovered. + +The public life of the Candidate who now, for the first time, solicits +your suffrages, my Brother Freeholders, cannot, however, without +injustice to that Party, be deemed a fair exponent of its political +opinions. It has, indeed, been too tolerant with Mr. Brougham, while he +was labouring to ingraft certain sour cuttings from the wild wood of +ultra reform on the reverend, though somewhat decayed, stock of that +tree of Whiggism, which flourished proudly under the cultivation of our +Ancestors. This indulgence, and others like it, will embolden him to aim +at passing himself off as the Delegate of Opposition, and the authorized +pleader of their cause. But Time, that Judge from whom none but triflers +appeal to conjecture, has decided upon leading principles and main +events, and given the verdict against his clients. While, with a ready +tongue, the Advocate of a disappointed party is filling one scale, do +you, with a clear memory and apt judgment, silently throw in what of +right belongs to the other; and the result will be, that no sensible man +among you, who has supported the present Members on account of their +steady adherence to Ministers, can be induced to change his conduct, or +be persuaded that the hour is either come, or approaching, when, for the +sake of bringing the power of Opposition in this County nearer to an +equality with that of Ministers, it will be his duty to vote against +those Representatives in whom he has hitherto confided. No, if Mr. +Brougham had not individually passed far beyond the line of that +Party--if his conduct had been such that even they themselves would +admit that he truly belonged to them--the exception would still lie +against the general rule; and will remain till the character of men and +measures materially changes, for the better, assuredly, on the one side, +if not for the worse on the other. Remember what England might have been +with an Administration countenancing French Doctrines at the dawn of the +French Revolution, and suffering them, as it advanced, to be sown with +every wind that came across the Channel! Think what was the state of +Europe before the French Emperor, the apparent, and in too many respects +the real, Idol of Opposition, was overthrown! + +Numbers, I am aware, do not cease vehemently to maintain, that the late +war was neither just nor necessary; that the ostensible and real causes +of it were widely different; that it was not begun, and persisted in, +for the purpose of withstanding foreign aggression, and in defence of +social order: but from unprincipled ambition in the Powers of Europe, +eager to seize that opportunity of augmenting their territories at the +expence of distracted and enfeebled France.--Events ever-to-be-lamented +do, I grant, give too much colour to those affirmations. But this was a +war upon a large scale, wherein many Belligerents took part; and no one +who distinctly remembers the state of Europe at its commencement will be +inclined any more to question that the alleged motives had a solid +foundation, because then, or afterwards, others might mix with them, +than he would doubt that the maintenance of Christianity and the +reduction of the power of the Infidels were the principal motives of the +Crusades, because roving Adventurers, joining in those expeditions, +turned them to their own profit. Traders and hypocrites may make part of +a Caravan bound to Mecca; but it does not follow that a religious +observance is not the prime object of the Pilgrimage. The political +fanaticism (it deserves no milder name) that pervaded the Manifesto +issued by the Duke of Brunswick, on his entry into France, proves, that +he and the Power whose organ he was, were swayed on their march by an +ambition very different from that of territorial aggrandizement;--at +least, if such ambition existed, it is plain that feelings of another +kind blinded them to the means of gratifying it. Nevertheless, we must +acknowledge the passion soon manifested itself, and in a quarter where +it was least excusable. The seizure of Valenciennes, in the name of the +Emperor of Germany, was an act of such glaring rapacity, and gave the +lie so unfeelingly to all that had been professed, that the then +Ministers of Great Britain, doubtless, opposed the intention with a +strong remonstrance. But the dictates of magnanimity (which in such +cases is but another word for high and sage policy) would have +been--'this unjust act must either be abandoned, or Great Britain shall +retire from a contest which, if such principles are to govern, or +interfere with, the conduct of it, cannot but be calamitous.' A threat +to this purpose was either not given or not acted upon. _Hinc illae +clades_! From that moment the alliance of the French Loyalists with the +coalesced Powers seemed to have no ground of rational patriotism to +stand upon. Their professed helpers became their worst enemies; and +numbers among them not only began to wish for the defeat of their false +friends, but joined themselves to their fellow-countrymen, of all +parties, who were labouring to effect it.--But the military successes of +the French, arising mainly from this want of principle in the +Confederate Powers, in course of time placed the policy and justice of +the war upon a new footing. However men might differ about the necessity +or reasonableness of resorting to arms in the first instance, things +were brought to such a state that, among the disinterested and +dispassionate, there could be but one opinion (even if nothing higher +than security was aimed at) on the demand for the utmost strength of the +nation being put forth in the prosecution of the war, till it should +assume a more hopeful aspect.--And now it was that Ministers made ample +amends for past subserviency to selfish coadjutors, and proved +themselves worthy of being entrusted with the fate of Europe. While the +Opposition were taking counsel from their fears, and recommending +despair--while they continued to magnify without scruple the strength of +the Enemy, and to expose, misrepresent, and therefore increase the +weaknesses of their country, his Majesty's Ministers were not daunted, +though often discouraged: they struggled up against adversity with +fortitude, and persevered heroically; throwing themselves upon the +honour and wisdom of the Country, and trusting for the issue to the +decrees of a just PROVIDENCE:--and for this determination everlasting +gratitude will attend them! + +From the internal situation of France, produced by the Revolution, War +with the contiguous Powers was inevitable; sooner or later the evil must +have been encountered; and it was of little importance whether England +took a share in it somewhat earlier than, by fallible judgments, might +be deemed necessary, or not. The frankness with which the faults that +were committed have been acknowledged entitles the writer to some +regard, when, speaking from an intimate knowledge of the internal state +of France at that time, he affirms, that the war waged against her was, +in a liberal interpretation of the words, _just and necessary_. At all +events our Nation viewed it in this light. A large majority of the +Inhabitants of Great Britain called for the war; and they who _will_ the +end _will_ the means: the war being deemed necessary, taxes became +indispensible for its support. Some might prefer one mode of raising +them--some another; but these are minor considerations. Public men, +united in bodies, must act on great principles. Mutual deference is a +fundamental requisite for the composition and efficiency of a Party: +for, if individual judgment is to be obtruded and insisted upon in +subordinate concerns, the march of business will be perpetually +obstructed. The leaders will not know whom they can depend upon, and +therefore will be at a loss what to recommend, and how to act. If a +public man differs from his Party in essentials, Conscience and Honour +demand that he should withdraw; but if there be no such difference, it +is incumbent upon him to submit his personal opinion to the general +sense. He, therefore, who thought the prosecution of the war necessary, +could not condemn the public Imposts; on this consequence the steady +adherents of Ministers rest their claim to approbation, and advance it +boldly in defiance of the outcry raised against the Government, on +account of the burthens which the situation of Europe compelled it to +lay upon the people. + +In matters of taste, it is a process attended with little advantage, and +often injurious, to compare one set of artists, or writers, with +another. But, in estimating the merits of public men, especially of two +Parties acting in direct opposition, it is not only expedient, but +indispensible, that both should be kept constantly in sight. The truth +or fallacy of French principles, and the tendency, good or bad, of the +Revolution which sprang out of them; and the necessity, or +non-necessity--the policy, or impolicy--of resisting by war the +encroachments of republican and imperial France; these were the opposite +grounds upon which each Party staked their credit: here we behold them +in full contrast with each other--To whom shall the crown be given? On +whom has the light fallen? and who are covered by shade and thick +darkness? + +The magnanimity which resolved, that for principle's sake no efforts +should be spared to crush a bestial despotism, was acknowledged by every +manly spirit whom Party degenerating into Faction had not vitiated. That +such was the dictate of confiding _wisdom_ had long been inwardly felt; +and the _prudence_ of the course was evinced by the triumphant issue; +but to the very completeness of this triumph may be indirectly +attributed no small portion of the obloquy how heaped upon those +advisers through whom it was achieved. The power of Napoleon Buonaparte +was overthrown--his person has disappeared from the theatre of +Europe--his name has almost deserted the columns of her daily and weekly +Journals--but as he has left no Successor, as there is no foreign Tyrant +of sufficient importance to attract hatred by exciting fear, many honest +English Patriots must either find, or set up, something at home for the +employment of those affections. This is too natural to occasion +surprise; thousands are so framed, that they are but languidly conscious +of their love of an object, unless while they feel themselves in an +active state of aversion to something which they can regard as its +opposite.--Thus we see Men, who had been proud of their attachment to +his Majesty's Ministers, during the awful struggle, as soon as it was +over, allowing on the first temptation that proud attachment to be +converted into immoderate suspicion, and a long experienced gratitude +into sudden alienation.--Through this infirmity, many were betrayed into +taking part with the Men whom they had heretofore despised or condemned; +and assisted them in reviling their own Government for suffering, among +the States of the Continent, institutions to remain which the +respective nations (surely the best, if not the only judges in the case) +were unwilling to part with; and for having permitted things to be done, +either just and proper in themselves, or if indeed abuses, abuses of +that kind which Great Britain had neither right to oppose, nor power to +prevent. Not a Frenchman is in arms in Spain! But (alas for the credit +of the English Cabinet!) Ferdinand, though a lawful, appears to be a +sorry King; and the Inquisition, though venerated by the People of Spain +as a holy tribunal, which has spread a protecting shade over their +religion for hundreds of years, is, among Protestants, an abomination! +Is that, however, a reason why we should not rejoice that Spain is +restored to the rank of an Independent nation; and that her resources do +not continue at the disposal of a foreign Tyrant, for the annoyance of +Great Britain? Prussia no longer receives decrees from the Tuilleries; +but nothing, we are told, is gained by this deliverance; because the +Sovereign of that Country has not participated, as far as became him, a +popular effervescence; and has withheld from his subjects certain +privileges which they have proved themselves, to all but heated +judgments, not yet qualified to receive. Now, if numbers can blame, +without cause, the British Cabinet for events falling below their +wishes, in cases remote from their immediate concerns, the +reasonableness of their opinions may well be questioned in points where +selfish passion is touched to the quick.--Yes, in spite of the outcry of +such Men to the contrary, every enlightened Politician and discerning +Patriot, however diffident as to what was the exact line of prudence in +such arduous circumstances, will reprobate the conduct of those who were +for reducing public expenditure with a precipitation that might have +produced a convulsion in the State. The Habeas Corpus Act is also our +own near concern; it was suspended, some think without sufficient cause; +not so, however, the Persons who had the best means of ascertaining the +state of the Country; for they could have been induced to have recourse +to a measure, at all times so obnoxious, by nothing less than a +persuasion of its expediency. 'But persuasion (an Objector will say) is +produced in many ways; and even that degree of it which in these matters +passes for conviction, depends less upon external testimony than on the +habits and feelings of those by whom the testimony is to be weighed and +decided upon. A council for the administration of affairs is far from +being as favourably circumstanced as a tribunal of law; for the Party, +which is to pronounce upon the case, has had to procure the evidence, +the sum and quality of which must needs have been affected by previously +existing prejudices, and by any bias received in the process of +collecting it.--The privileges of the subject, one might think, would +never be unjustifiably infringed, if it were only from considerations of +self-interest; but power is apt to resort to unnecessary rigour in order +to supply the deficiencies of _authority_ forfeited by remissness; it is +also not unfrequently exerted merely to shew that it is possessed; to +shew this to others while power is a novelty, and when it has long +ceased to be so, to prove it to ourselves. Impatience of mind, moreover, +puts men upon the use of strong and coarse tools, when those of lighter +make and finer edge, with due care, might execute the work much better. +Above all, timidity flies to extremes;--if the elements were at our +command, how often would an inundation be called for, when a fire-engine +would have proved equal to the service!--Much more might be urged in +this strain, and similar suggestions are all that the question will +admit of; for to suppose a gross appetite of tyranny in Government, +would be an insult to the reader's understanding. Happily for the +Inhabitants of Westmoreland, as no dispositions existing among them +could furnish a motive for this restrictive measure, so they will not be +sorry that their remoteness from scenes of public confusion, has placed +them where they will be slow to give an unqualified opinion upon its +merits. Yet it will not escape their discernment, that, if doubts might +have been entertained whether the ignorant and distressed multitude, in +other parts of the Island, were actually brought to a state that +justified the suspension of this law, such doubts must have been +weakened, if not wholly removed, by the subsequent behaviour of those in +the upper ranks of society, who, in order to arraign the Government, and +denounce the laws, have seized every opportunity of palliating sedition, +if not of exculpating treason. O far better to employ bad men in the +detection of foul conspiracies, than to excuse and shelter--(would that +I were allowed to confine myself to these words)--than to reward and +honour--every one that can contrive to make himself conspicuous by +courses which, wherever they are not branded with infamy, find the +national character in a state of degradation, ominous (if it should +spread) for the existence of all that ought to be dear to Englishmen. + +But there are points of domestic policy in which his Majesty's +Ministers, not appearing in counterview with their Opponents, are seen +less to their honour. Speaking as an Individual, and knowing that here I +differ from many Freeholders with whom it is an honour to co-operate in +the present struggle, I must express my disapprobation of the patronage +afforded by several persons in power, to a Society by which is virtually +propagated the notion that Priesthood, and of course our own inestimable +Church Establishment, is superfluous. I condemn their sanction (and this +attaches to the whole body) of the malevolent and senseless abuse heaped +upon the Clergy, in the matter of Tythes, through the medium of papers +circulated by the Agricultural Board. I deprecate the course which some +among them take in the Catholic Question, as unconstitutional; and +deplore the want of discernment evinced by men who persuade themselves +that the discontents prevalent in Ireland will be either removed or +abated by such concession. With these errors and weaknesses the Members +of the Administration (as appears to me) may be justly reproached; and a +still heavier charge will lie against them, if the correction of the +Poor Laws be longer deferred. May they exhibit, in treating this +momentous subject, a tenderness of undeceived humanity on the one side, +and a sternness of enlightened state-policy on the other! Thus, and thus +only, can be checked immediately, and in due course of time perhaps +removed, an evil by which one claim and title is set in array against +another, in a manner, and to an extent, that threatens utter subversion +to the ancient frame of society. + +This is the heaviest burthen that now lies upon England!--Here is a +necessity for reform which, as it cannot prosper unless it begin from +the Government and the upper ranks in society, has no attraction for +demagogues and mob-exciting patriots. They understand their game; and, +as if the people could in no way be so effectually benefited as by +rendering their Government suspected, they declaim against taxes; and, +by their clamours for reduction of public expenditure, drown the +counter-suggestions from the 'still small voice' of moderation appealing +to circumstances. 'Cry aloud, and spare not!--Retrench and lop off!' +and so they proceeded with the huzza of the multitude at their heels, +till they had produced an extreme embarrassment in the Government, and +instant distress and misery among the People. + +One of the most importunate of that class of Economists which Parliament +contained, now Gentlemen, solicits the honour of representing you; and +merit may perhaps be claimed for him for his exertions upon that +occasion. If it be praiseworthy to have contributed to cast shoals of +our deserving countrymen adrift, without regard to their past services, +that praise cannot be denied him; if it be commendable to have availed +himself of inordinate momentary passion to carry measures whereby the +general weal was sacrificed, whether designedly for the attainment of +popularity, or in the self-applauding sincerity of a heated mind, that +praise is due to Mr. Brougham and his coadjutors. But, to the judicious +Freeholders of Westmoreland, whether Gentry or Yeomanry, rich or poor, +he will in vain adduce this, or any other part of the recent conduct of +Opposition, as a motive for strengthening their interests amongst us. +No, Freeholders, we must wait; assuring them that they shall have a +reasonable portion of our support as soon as they have proved that they +deserve it! + +Till that time comes, it will not grieve us that this County should +supply two Representatives to uphold the Servants of the Crown, even if +both should continue, through unavoidable circumstances, to issue from +one Family amongst us. Till that change takes place, we will treat with +scorn the senseless outcry for the recovery of an independence which has +never been lost. We are, have been, and will remain, independent; and +the host of men, respectable on every account, who have publicly avowed +their desire to maintain our present Representatives in their seats, +deem it insolence to assert the contrary. They are independent in every +rational sense of the word; acknowledging, however, that they rest upon +a principle, and are incorporated with an interest; and this they regard +as a proof that their affections are sane, and their understandings +superior to illusion. But in certain vocabularies liberty is synonymous +with licence; and to be free, as explained by some, is to live and act +without restraint. In like manner, independence, according to the +meaning of their interpretation, is the explosive energy of +conceit--making blind havoc with expediency. It is a presumptuous +spirit at war with all the passive worth of mankind. The independence +which they boast of despises habit, and time-honoured forms of +subordination; it consists in breaking old ties upon new temptations; in +casting off the modest garb of private obligation to strut about in the +glittering armour of public virtue; in sacrificing, with jacobinical +infatuation, the near to the remote, and preferring, to what has been +known and tried, that which has no distinct existence, even in +imagination; in renouncing, with voluble tongue and vain heart, every +thing intricate in motive, and mixed in quality, in a downright passion +of love for absolute, unapproachable patriotism! In short, the +independence these Reformers bawl for is the worthy precursor of the +liberty they adore;--making her first essay by starting out of the +course for the pleasure of falling into the ditch; and asserting her +heaven-born vigour by soaring _above_ the level of humanity in +profession, that it may more conspicuously appear how far she can fall +_below_ it in practice. + +To this spurious independence the Friends of our present Representatives +lay no claim. They assert in the face of the world that those +Representatives hold their seats by free election.--_That_ has placed +them there; and why should we wish to change what we do not disapprove +of--that which could not have been without our approbation? But this +County has not for a long time been disturbed by electioneering +contests.--Is there no species of choice, then, but that which is +accompanied with commotion and clamour? Do silent acquiescence and +deliberate consent pass for nothing? Being contented, what could we seek +for more? Being satisfied, why should we stir for stirring's sake? +Uproar and disorder, even these we could tolerate on a justifying +occasion; but it is no sign of prudence to court them unnecessarily, nor +of temper to invite them wantonly. He who resorts to substantial +unruliness for the redress of imaginary grievances, provokes certain +mischief; and often, in the end, produces calamity which would excite +little compassion, could it be confined to its original author. + +Let those who think that they are degraded proclaim their own dishonour. +_They_ choose to regard themselves as shackled Conscripts:--_we_ know +that we are self-equipped Volunteers. If they cannot be easy without +branding themselves as slaves, we would endeavour to dissuade them from +such abuse of their free-agency; but if they persist, we cannot +interfere with their humour: only do not let them apply the iron to our +foreheads! They cry out that they have been in a lethargy; why do they +not add that they would have been asleep to this hour, if they had not +been roused, in their vales and on their moors, by an officious and +impertinent call from the dirty alleys and obscure courts of the +Metropolis? + +If there be any honour in England, the composition of the Lowther Party +must be loyal and honourable. Its adversaries have admitted that a large +majority, they might have added nearly the whole, of the leading Gentry; +that the Magistracy--all but a single Individual; that the Clergy and +the Members of the other liberal Professions--with very few exceptions; +and a vast body of Tradesmen and Manufacturers, and of substantial +Yeomen, the honest Grey-coats of Westmoreland, have already declared +themselves of one mind upon this appeal to their judgments. Looking to a +distance, they see the worth and opulence, the weight of character, and +the dignity and respectability of station, that distinguish the numerous +list of Freeholders resident in London, who have jointly and publicly +testified their satisfaction in the conduct of our present +Representatives. The discontented see and know these things; and are +well aware also that the Lowthers cannot justly be accused of inordinate +and disrespectful family ambition, inasmuch as it was not their wish +that the County should be represented by two Members of their House. It +has long been no secret that if any other Gentleman of the County +properly qualified, whose _political principles did not substantially +differ from their own_, would have come forward, he would have been +_sure of their support_. If they resist to the utmost persons of +_opposite_ principles, the points in dispute being scarcely less than +vital, the more must they be respected by every zealous Patriot and +conscientious Man. + +From what has been said, it appears that the political influence of the +family of Lowther in Westmoreland is the natural and reasonable +consequence of a long-continued possession of large +property--furnishing, with the judicious Nobleman at its head, an +obvious support, defence, and _instrument_ for the intelligent +patriotism of the County. I have said instrument, and laid an emphasis +upon the word; because they who do not perceive that such is the truth +are ignorant what shape, in these cases, social combinations must take, +in order to be efficient and be preserved. Every great family which many +have rallied round from congeniality of public sentiment, and for a +political purpose, seems in course of time to direct, and in ordinary +cases does direct, its voluntary adherents; but, if it should violate +their wishes and shock their sense of right, it would speedily be +reduced to such support only as it could _command_; and then would be +seen who had been Principal, and who Secondary; to whom had belonged in +reality the place of Agent, to whom that of the Employer. The sticklers +for _emancipation_ (a fashionable word in our times, when rational +acquiescence is deemed baseness of spirit, and the most enlightened +service passes for benighted servility!) have been free on numerous +occasions to make the effort they are now making. Could any considerable +person have been found to share their feeling, they might have proposed +a Representative unacceptable to the Family whose ascendancy they +complain of, with a certainty of securing his election, had the +good-will of the Freeholders been on their side. What could possibly +have prevented this trial? But they talk as if some mysterious power had +been used to their injury. Some call it 'a thraldom from without'--some +'a drowsiness within.'--Mr. Brougham's Kendal Committee find fault with +others--the Chairman of the Appleby Committee is inclined to fix the +blame nearer home. An accredited organ of their Kendal Committee tells +you dogmatically, from the Bill of Rights, that '_Elections shall be +free_;' and, if asked how the citation bears upon the case, his answer +would most likely prove him of opinion, that, as noise is sometimes an +accompaniment of freedom, so there can be no freedom without noise. Or, +does the erudite Constitutionalist take this method of informing us, +that the Lord Lieutenant has been accustomed to awe and controul the +Voters of this County, as Charles the Second and his Brother attempted +to awe and controul those of the whole kingdom? If such be the meaning +of the Writer and his Employers, what a pity Westmoreland has not a +Lunatic Asylum for the accommodation of the whole Body! In the same +strain, and from the same quarter, we are triumphantly told 'that no +Peer of Parliament shall interfere in Elections.' How injurious then to +these Monitors and their Cause the report of the Hereditary High +Sheriff's massy subscription, and his zealous countenance! Let him be +entreated formally to contradict it;--or would they have one law for a +Peer who is a Friend to Administration, and another for such as are its +enemies? Is the same act to pass for culpable or praiseworthy, just as +it thwarts, or furthers, the wishes of those who pronounce a judgment +upon it? + +The approvers of that order of things in which we live and move, at this +day, as free Englishmen, are under no temptation to fall into these +contradictions. They acknowledge that the general question is one of +great delicacy: they admit that laws cannot be openly slighted without a +breach of decorum, even when the relations of things are so far altered +that Law looks one way--and Reason another. Where such disagreement +occurs in respect to those Statutes which have the dignity of +constitutional regulations, the less that is said upon the subject the +better for the Country. But writers, who in such a case would gladly +keep a silent course, are often forced out of it by wily hypocrites, and +by others, who seem unconscious that, as there are Pedants in +Literature, and Bigots in Religion, so are there Precisians in +Politics--men without experience, who contend for limits and restraints +when the Power which those limits and restraints were intended to +confine is long since vanished. In the Statute-books Enactments of great +name stand unrepealed, which may be compared to a stately oak in the +last stage of decay, or a magnificent building in ruins. Respect and +admiration are due to both; and we should deem it profaneness to cut +down the one, or demolish the other. But are we, therefore, to be sent +to the sapless tree for may-garlands, or reproached for not making the +mouldering ruin our place of abode? Government is essentially a matter +of expediency; they who perceive this, and whose knowledge keeps pace +with the changes of society, lament that, when Time is gently carrying +what is useless or injurious into the back-ground, he must be +interrupted in the process by Smatterers and Sciolists--intent upon +misdirecting the indignation of the simple, and feeding the ill-humours +of the ignorant. How often do such men, for no better purpose, remind +their disciples of the standing order that declares it to be 'a high +infringement of the liberties and privileges of the Commons, for any +Lord of Parliament to concern himself in the election of members, to +serve for the Commons in Parliament.'--This vote continues to be read +publicly at the opening of every Session,--but practice rises up against +it; and, without censuring the Custom, or doubting that it might be +salutary when first established, (though it is not easily reconcileable +with the eligibility of the eldest sons of Peers to the lower House, +without any other qualification than their birth,) we may be permitted +to be thankful that subsequent experience is not rendered useless to the +living by the formal repetition of a voice from the tombs. Better is it +that laws should remain till long trial has proved them an incumbrance, +than that they should be too hastily changed; but this consideration +need not prevent the avowal of an opinion, which every practical +Statesman will confirm, that, if the property of the Peers were not, +according to the will and by the care of the owners, substantially +represented by Commoners, to a proportionate extent under their +influence, their large Estates would be, for them, little better than +sand liable to be blown about in the desart, and their privileges, +however useful to the country, would become fugitive as foam upon the +surface of the sea.--(_See Note_.) + +I recollect a picture of Diogenes going about in search of an honest +man. The philosopher bore a staff in one hand, and a lantern in the +other. Did the latter accompaniment imply that he was a persevering +Spirit who would continue his labour by night as well as by day? Or was +it a stroke of satire on the part of the painter, indicating that, as +Diogenes was a surly and conceited Cynic, he preferred darkness for his +time of search, and a scanty and feeble light of his own carrying, to +the bounteous assistance of the sun in heaven? How this might be with +Diogenes, I know not; but assuredly thus it fares with our +Reformers:--The Journal of some venal or factious scribbler is the black +and smoky lantern they are guided by; and the sunshine spread over the +face of a happy country is of no use in helping them to find any object +they are in search of.--The plea of the degraded state of the +Representation of Westmoreland has been proved to be rotten;--if certain +discontented persons desire to erect a building on a new plan, why not +look about for a firm foundation? The dissatisfied ought honestly to +avow, that their aim is to elect a Man, whose principles differ from +those of the present Members to an extreme which takes away all hope, or +even wish, that the interest he is to depend upon should harmonize with +the interest hitherto prevalent in the County. Every thing short of this +leaves them subject to a charge of acting upon false pretences, unless +they prefer being accused of harbouring a pharisaical presumption, that +would be odious were it not ridiculous. If the state of society in +Westmoreland be as corrupt as they describe, what, in the name of +wonder, has preserved _their_ purity? Away then with hypocrisy and +hollow pretext; let us be no longer deafened with a rant about throwing +off intolerable burthens, and repelling injuries, and avenging insults! +Say at once that you disapprove of the present Members, and would have +others more to your own liking; you have named your Man, or rather +necessity has named him for you. Your ship was reduced to extremities; +it would have been better to abandon her--you thought otherwise; will +you listen then while I shew that the Pilot, who has taken charge of the +vessel, is ignorant of the soundings, and that you will have cause to be +thankful if he does not prove very desperate in the management of the +helm? + +The Lands of England, you will recollect, Gentlemen, are originally +supposed to be holden by grants from the King, our liege Lord; and the +Constitution of the Country is accordingly a mellowed feudality. The +oldest and most respectable name for a County Representative is, KNIGHT +OF THE SHIRE. In the reign of Queen Anne it was enacted, that every +Knight of the Shire (the eldest sons of Peers and a few others excepted) +shall have a clear estate of Freehold or Copyhold to the value of L600 +per annum. The same qualification continues to be required at this day; +and, if the depreciation of money and other causes have injuriously +affected the _Letter_ of the Statute, the _Spirit_ of it has not only +been preserved in practice, but carried still higher. Hence we scarcely +scruple to take for granted that a County Representative is a man of +substantial landed property; or stands in such known relation to a +conspicuous Estate that he has in it a valuable interest; and that, +whoever be the possessor, such Estate may be looked upon as a pledge for +his conduct. + +The basis of the elective Franchise being property, the legal condition +of eligibility to a seat in Parliament is the same. Our ancestors were +not blind to the _moral_ considerations which, if they did not suggest +these ordinances, established a confidence in their expediency. Knowing +that there could be no _absolute_ guarantee for integrity, and that +there was no _certain_ test of discretion and knowledge, for bodies of +men, the prudence of former times turned to the best substitute human +nature would admit of, and civil society furnished. This was property; +which shewed that a man had something that might be impaired or lost by +mismanagement; something which tended to place him above dependence from +need; and promised, though it did not insure, some degree of education +to produce requisite intelligence. To be a Voter required a fixed +Property, or a defined privilege; to be voted for, required more; and +the scale of demand rose with the responsibility incurred. A Knight of +the Shire must have double the Estate required from a Representative of +a Borough. This is the old Law; and the course of things since has +caused, as was observed above, that high office to devolve almost +exclusively on Persons of large Estate, or their near connections. And +why is it desirable that we should not deviate from this track? If we +wish for honesty, we shall select men who, not being subject to one of +the strongest temptations to be otherwise than honest, will incur +heavier disgrace, and meet with less indulgence, if they disappoint us. +Do we wish for sage conduct, our choice will fall upon those who have +the wisdom that lurks in circumstances, to supply what may be deficient +in their personal accomplishments. But, if there _be_ a deficiency, the +fault must lie with the Electors themselves. When persons of large +property are confided in, we cannot plead want of opportunities for +being acquainted with them. Men of large estates cannot but be men of +wide concerns; and thus it is that they become known in proportion. +Extensive landed property entails upon the possessor many duties, and +places him in divers relations, by which he undergoes a public trial. Is +a man just in his dealings? Does he keep his promises? Does he pay his +debts punctually? Has he a feeling for the poor? Is his Family well +governed? Is he a considerate Landlord? Does he attend to his own +affairs; and are those of others, which have fallen under his care, +diligently and judiciously managed? Answers to these questions, where +the Subject of them has but an inconsiderable landed Property, can only +be expected from a very narrow circle of Neighbours;--but place him at +the head of a large Estate, and knowledge of what he is in these +particulars must spread to a distance; and it will be further known how +he has acted as a Magistrate, and in what manner he has fulfilled the +duties of every important office which he may have been called to, by +virtue of his possessions. + +Such are the general principles of reason which govern law, and justify +practice in this weighty matter. The decision is not to take place upon +imagination or conjecture. It is not to rest upon professions of the +Candidate, or protestations of his Friends. As a County Representative +is to be voted for by many--many must have opportunities of knowing him; +or, failing that intimate knowledge, we require the pledge of condition, +the bond and seal of circumstance. Otherwise we withhold our confidence, +and cannot be prevailed upon to give, to the opinions of an Individual +unbacked by these advantages, the countenance and authority which they +might derive from being supposed to accord with those of numerous +Constituents scattered over a wide Country, and therefore less liable to +be affected by partial views, or sudden and transitory passion--to +diminish their value. + +The Freeholders of past times knew that their rights were most likely to +repose in safety, under the shade of rank and property. Adventurers had +no estimation among them; there was no room for them--no place for them +to appear in.--Think of this, and ask if your Fathers, could they rise +from their tombs, would not have stared, with no small degree of wonder, +upon the Person who now solicits the Suffrages of the County of +Westmoreland. What are his Rents--Where are his comings in? He is +engaged in an undertaking of great expence--how is that expence +supplied? From his own purse? Impossible! Where are the golden sinews +which this Champion of Independence depends upon? If they be furnished +by those who have no natural connection with the County, are we simple +enough to believe that they dip their hands into their pockets out of +pure good-will to us? May they not rather justly be suspected of a wish +to embroil us for some sinister purpose? At all events, it might be some +satisfaction would they shew themselves, so that, if we are to have a +Subscription-candidate, we may know what sort of Persons he is indebted +to, and at least be able to _guess_ what they will require of him. + +The principles that have been laid down, and the facts which have been +adverted to, might seem to render it superfluous to retrace the public +conduct of Mr. Brougham, and to enquire whether, in Parliament or at the +London Tavern, in Palace Yard or elsewhere, those acts and courses, to +which he himself refers as his _only_ recommendation, do not still more +unfit him for the trust which he covets. But Persons fond of novelty +make light of deficiencies which would have admitted of no compensation +in the judgment of our Ancestors; and the Candidate, being in no respect +remarkable for deference to public opinion, is willing to avail himself +of new-fangled expectations. Hence it becomes necessary to consider what +would be the _political value of the Freeholds of Westmoreland_, if the +system of Annual Parliaments and Universal Suffrage (countenanced by Mr. +Brougham) should be acted upon. But, as there has been much saying and +unsaying on this subject, let us review the case. + +In the House of Commons, on the 17th of February, 1817, Lord Cochrane +affirmed, that, on a certain day which he named, Mr. Brougham, at a +dinner given at the London Tavern, to the Friends of Parliamentary +Reform, used the following words, or words to the same effect:--'As +often as we have required that Parliaments should be chosen yearly, and +that the elective Franchise should be extended to all who pay taxes, we +have been desired to wait, for the enemy was at the gate, and ready to +avail himself of the discords attending our political contests, in order +to undermine our national independence. This argument is gone, and our +Adversaries must now look for another. He had mentioned the two radical +doctrines of _yearly election_, and the _Franchise enjoyed by all paying +taxes_; but it would be superfluous to reason in favour of them here, +where all are agreed on the subject.' + +When this, and other passages of like import, were produced by Lord C. +in a paper declared to be in Mr. Brougham's handwriting, and to be a +report made by himself of the speech then and there delivered, did Mr. +Brougham deny that the handwriting was his, and that those words had +fallen from his pen, as the best image that his own memory could furnish +of what he had uttered? No--he gave vent only to a vague complaint of +groundless aspersions; and accused certain persons of rashness and +imprudence, and of not waiting only for a few days longer, when they +would have had a full and fair opportunity of hearing his sentiments on +this momentous subject. He then acknowledged that some observations had +fallen from him _similar_ to what had been read by the Noble Lord; and +added, that he then said, or at least meant to be understood as saying, +(he takes no notice of what he wrote or meant to be understood as +writing,) _what he still maintained_--'that the power of election should +he limited _to those who paid direct taxes_;' in other and more faithful +words, should be _extended_ to all persons in that condition. Mr. B. +proceeded manfully to scout the notion, that the mere production of a +speech delivered by him at a Tavern would make him swerve from the line +of his duty, from the childish desire of keeping up an appearance of +consistency! + +What then is the amount? On the 23d of June, 1814, (it cannot be unfair +to state as a fact, that a vacancy in the Representation of Westminster +was at that time looked for,) Mr. B. either was, or wished to be, +accounted an Advocate of Annual Parliaments and Suffrage to be enjoyed +by all paying taxes; and on the 17th of February, 1817, when Mr. B. in +another place is reminded of these, his avowed opinions, he is utterly +mute upon the subject of Annual Parliaments, on the expediency of which +he had before harangued at length, and confines himself to announce, as +the sum of his then opinion, that suffrage should _be co-extensive with +direct taxation_! The question had two faces, and Mr. B. chooses only to +look at one. Hard pressed as he was, we cannot grant him this +indulgence. He has, indeed, denounced, on other occasions, the +_combined_ doctrines of Annual Parliaments and Universal Suffrage as +chimerical and absurd; though how near he came to the point of +recommending both, at the London Tavern, he is any thing but explicit; +(in fact both, as Lord C. shewed, _were_ virtually recommended by him.) +But what does he think of Annual Parliaments, in _conjunction_ with his +rectified opinion of Suffrage, co-extensive with direct taxation? Here +he leaves us wholly in the dark; but if the turbulent workings of Mr. +Brougham's mind, and his fondness for contentious exhibition, manifested +on all possible occasions, may be admitted as positive evidence, to +corroborate the negative which his silence on this point implies, we are +justified in believing that his passions were on that side, whatever +might be the bent of his cooler judgment. But this is of little import. + +Introduce suffrage co-extensive with direct taxation, and Annual +Parliaments must unavoidably follow. The clumsy simplicity of the one +arrangement would, in the eyes of its Admirers, match strikingly with +the palpable expediency of the other. Such a union is equally suitable +to an age of gross barbarism and an age of false philosophy. It is +amusing to hear this plan of suffrage for all who pay direct taxes +recommended as consonant to the genius and spirit of the British +Constitution, when, in fact, though sufficiently rash and hazardous, it +is no better than a timid plagiarism from the doctrine of the Rights of +Man. Upon the model of that system, it begins with flagrant injustice to +_chartered_ rights; for if it were adopted, the elective Franchises that +now exist would be depreciated accordingly; an invidious process for +those who would lose by the alteration; and still more invidious for +those to whom the privilege would not be suffered to descend. Alas! I am +trifling with the subject! If the spirit of a People, composed as that +of England now is, were once put into a ferment, by organizing a +democracy on this scheme, and to this extent, with a Press as free and +licentious as our's has long been, what a flimsy barrier would remain to +check the impetus of the excluded! When, in thousands, they bore down +upon the newly constituted House of Assembly, demanding to be placed +upon a level with their fellow-subjects, it would avail little to send a +Peace-officer to enquire--where are your vouchers? Shew us that the +Tax-gatherer has been among you! As soon as the petty Artizans, +Shop-keepers, and Pot-house Keepers, of our over-grown Manufacturing +Towns and our enormous Cities, had each and all been invested with the +right of voting, the infection would spread like a plague.--Our +neighbours on the Continent tried this plan of direct taxation; and, in +the beginning of the third year of _their_ Reform, Universal Suffrage, +which had long ruled in spirit, lorded it in form also, from the +Pyrenees to the Rhine, and from the Straits of Calais to the Shores of +the Mediterranean. Down went the throne of France! and, if we should +take the same guide, the Throne of England must submit a second time to +a like destiny. Most of us would deem this a considerable evil--the +greatest political evil that could befal the Land! Not so, however, our +new Candidate! unless his opinion, if, indeed, he ever _held_ what may +be called an opinion upon any thing, has undergone important changes +since the time when he expressed himself in the following words:--'When +trade and the arts of civilized life have been carried to a certain +length, war is the greatest calamity that can befal a community. Any +state in modern Europe would be so completely ruined by the contests +which Athens and Carthage easily supported, that it would be a matter of +total indifference, whether the war was a series of victories or +disasters. The return of Peace to France or England, after half so long +a contest as either the Peloponnesian or the Punic wars, _would be +cheaply purchased by any conquest or revolution, any change of dynasty +or overthrow of Government_.'--See vol. i. p. 13, of _Colonial Policy_, +by H. Brougham. + +The above was given to the world when we were at war with Bonaparte; and +that part of the English nation, who might read the book or hear of this +author's doctrines, was plainly told, that, in _his_ estimation, our +Constitutional liberties were not worthy of being defended at the cost +of a 14 years' war! But the unsuspecting, humane, and hope-cherishing +adherents of the new Candidate will tell you, this does not prove that +Mr. B. sets a small price on the Constitution and Laws of England; it +only shews his tender-heartedness, and his extreme aversion to the +horrors and devastation of war.--Hear then Mr. B. on these points also. +Let his _serious_ Friends take from his pen this pleasant description, +which proves at least that he can be _jocular_ upon a subject that makes +most men grave; although they may not think twice seven years' war so +great a calamity as _any_ conquest or _Revolution_, any change of +dynasty or _overthrow_ of _Government_.--'A species of pecuniary +commutation,' he tells us, 'has been contrived, by which the operations +of war are rendered very harmless; they are performed by some hundreds +of sailors fighting _harmlessly_ on the barren plains of the ocean, and +some thousands of soldiers carrying on a scientific, and regular, and +_quiet_ system of warfare, in countries _set apart for the purpose_, and +resorted to as the arena where the disputes of nations may be +determined. The prudent policy had been adopted of _purchasing defeat_ +at a distance rather than victory at home; in this manner we _paid our +allies for being vanquished; a few useless millions, and a few more +useless lives were sacrificed_; and the result was, that we were amply +rewarded by safety, increased resources, and real addition of power.' +(_Edinburgh Review_, No. II., and ascertained to be the writing of Mr. +Brougham, by his having incorporated it in his _Colonial Policy_.) + +The new Candidate challenges the strictest scrutiny into his public +life, so that had we gone much farther than the above retrospect, we +should only have been fulfilling his own wishes. Personal enmity towards +the Subject, the Writer has none; being, in all that concerns the +feelings of private life, friendly to Mr. Brougham, rather than +otherwise. That his talents and habits of application entitle him to no +common respect, must be universally acknowledged; but talents in +_themselves merely_ are, in the eyes of the judicious, no +recommendation. If a sword be sharp, it is of the more importance to +ask--What use it is likely to be put to? In government, if we can keep +clear of mischief, good will come of itself. Fitness is the thing to be +sought; and unfitness is much less frequently caused by general +incapacity than by absence of that kind of capacity which the charge +demands. Talent is apt to generate presumption and self-confidence; and +no qualities are so necessary, in a Legislator, as the opposites of +these--which, if they do not imply the existence of sagacity, are the +best substitutes for it--whether they produce, in the general +disposition of the mind, an humble reliance on the wisdom of our +Forefathers, and a sedate yielding to the pressure of existing things; +or carry the thoughts still higher, to religious trust in a +superintending Providence, by whose permission laws are ordered and +customs established, for other purposes than to be perpetually found +fault with. + +These suggestions are recommended to the consideration of our new +Aspirant, and of all those public men whose judgments are perverted, and +tempers soured, by long struggling in the ranks of opposition, and +incessant bustling among the professors of Reform. I shall not recall to +notice further particulars, because time, by softening asperities or +removing them out of sight, is a friend to benevolence. Although a +rigorous investigation has been invited, it is well that there is no +need to run through the rash assertions, the groundless accusations, and +the virulent invectives that disfigure the speeches of this never-silent +Member. All these things, offensive to moderate men, are too much to the +taste of many of Mr. Brougham's partizans in Westmoreland. But I call +upon those who relish these deviations from fair and honourable +dealing--upon those also of his adherents who are inwardly ashamed of +their Champion, on this account--and upon all the Freeholders concerned +in the general question, to review what has been laid before them. +Having done this, they cannot but admit that Mr. Brougham's +_independence_ is a dark _dependence_, which no one understands--and, +that if a jewel _has_ been lost in Westmoreland, his are not the eyes by +which it is to be found again. If the dignity of Knight of the Shire is +to be conferred, _he_ cannot be pronounced a fit person to receive it. +For whether, my Brother Freeholders, you look at the humbleness of his +situation amongst Country Gentlemen; or at his amphibious habits, in the +two elements of Law and Authorship, and the odd vagaries he has played +in both; or whether he be tried by the daring opinions which, by his own +acknowledgment, he has maintained in Parliament, and at public meetings, +on the subject of the elective Franchise; we meet with concurring proofs +that HE IS ALTOGETHER UNFIT TO REPRESENT THIS, OR ANY OTHER COUNTY! + +If, notwithstanding the truth of this inference, Mr. Brougham's talents, +information, and activity make it desirable that he should have a place +in the House of Commons, why cannot they who are of this opinion be +content, since he is already there? What service he is capable of +rendering may be as effectually performed, should he never aspire beyond +re-election to one of those seats which he now fills. The good, if any +is to be looked for, may then be obtained with much less risk of evil. +While he continues a Member for a close Borough, his dangerous opinions +are left mainly to the support of his own character, and the arguments +which his ingenuity can adduce to recommend them; but should they derive +that degree of sanction from the Freeholders of a County, which success +in his present undertaking would imply, they might become truly +formidable!--Let every one, then, who cannot accompany Mr. B. in his +bold theories, and does not go the length of admiring the composition of +his political life, be cautious how he betakes himself to such help, in +order to reduce, within what he may deem due bounds, the influence of a +Family prominent in the civil service of the County from the earliest +times. It is apparent, if the Writer has not employed his pen in vain, +that against this influence there is no just ground of complaint. They +who think with him will continue to uphold it, as long as the Family +proves that it understands its own interest and honour by a judicious +attention to our's. And should it forfeit our respect by misconduct, in +the unavoidable decline of its political importance which would ensue, +we should not envy that House its splendid possessions or its manifold +privileges; knowing that some Families must be permanently great and +opulent, or there would be no security for the possessions of the middle +ranks, or of the humble Proprietor. But, looking at the present +constitution and measure of this influence, you cannot but perceive, +Gentlemen, that, if there were _indeed_ any thing in it that could +justly be complained of, our duty might still be to bear with the local +evil, as correcting an opposite extreme in some other quarter of the +Island;--as a counterpoise of some weight elsewhere pressing injuriously +upon the springs of social order. How deplorable would be the ignorance, +how pitiful the pride, that could prevent us from submitting to a +partial evil for the sake of a general good! In fine, if a comprehensive +survey enjoined no such sacrifice, and even if all that the unthinking, +the malevolent, and the desperate, all that the deceivers and the +deceived, have conjointly urged at this time against the House of +Lowther, were literally true, you would be cautious how you sought a +remedy for aristocratic oppression, by throwing yourselves into the arms +of a flaming democracy! + +Government and civil Society are things of infinite complexity, and rash +Politicians are the worst enemies of mankind; because it is mainly +through them that rational liberty has made so little progress in the +world. You have heard of a Profession to which the luxury of modern +times has given birth, that of Landscape-Gardeners, or Improvers of +Pleasure-grounds. A competent Practitioner in this elegant art begins by +considering every object, that he finds in the place where he is called +to exercise his skill, as having a right to remain, till the contrary be +proved. If it be a deformity he asks whether a slight alteration may not +convert it into a beauty; and he destroys nothing till he has convinced +himself by reflection that no alteration, no diminution or addition, can +make it ornamental. Modern Reformers reverse this judicious maxim. If a +thing is before them, so far from deeming that it has on that account a +claim to continue and be deliberately dealt with, its existence with +them is a sufficient warrant for its destruction. Institutions are to be +subverted, Practices radically altered, and Measures to be reversed. +All men are to change their places, not because the men are +objectionable, or the place is injurious, but because certain Pretenders +are eager to be at work, being tired of both. Some are forward, through +pruriency of youthful talents--and Greybeards hobble after them, in whom +number of years is a cloak for poverty of experience. Some who have much +leisure, because every affair of their own has withered under their +mismanagement, are eager to redeem their credit, by stirring gratis for +the public;--others, having risen a little in the world, take +_swimmingly_ to the trade of factious Politics, on their original stock +of base manners and vulgar opinions. Some are theorists hot for +practice, others hacknied Practitioners who never had a theory; many are +vain, and must be busy; and almost as many are needy--and the spirit of +justice, deciding upon their own merits, will not suffer them to remain +at rest. + +The movement made among us, my countrymen of Westmoreland, was preceded, +announced, and prepared, by _such_ Agitators, disseminating falsehoods +and misrepresentations, equally mischievous, whether they proceeded from +wilful malice or presumptuous ignorance. Take warning in time. Be not +persuaded to unite with them who, whether they intend you injury or not, +cannot but prove your enemies. Let not your's be the first County in +England, which, since the days of Wilkes, and after the dreadful example +of France, has given countenance to principles congenial to the vice, +profligacy, and half-knowledge of Westminster; but which formerly were +unheard of among us, or known only to be detested. Places, Pensions, and +formidable things, if you like! but far better these, with our King and +Constitution, with our quiet fire-sides and flourishing fields, than +proscription and confiscation, without them! Long wars, and their +unavoidable accompaniment, heavy taxes--both these evils are liable to +intemperate exaggeration; but, be they what they may, would there be +less of war and lighter taxes, as so many grumblers loudly preach, and +too many submissive spirits fondly believe, if the House of Commons were +altered into one of more popular frame, with more frequent opportunities +given of changing the persons sent thither? A reference to the twenty +years which succeeded the Revolution, may suffice to shew the fallacy of +such expectations. Parliaments were then triennial, and democratic +principles fashionable even among the Servants of the Crown. Yet, during +that space of time, wars were almost incessant; and never were burthens +imposed so far above the apparent ability of the Nation to support them. +Having adverted to the warlike measures of those reigns merely to +support my argument, I cannot forbear to applaud the high-spirited +Englishmen of that age. Our forefathers were tried, as we have been +tried--and their virtue did not sink under the duties which the decrees +of Providence imposed upon it. They triumphed, though less signally than +we have done;--following their example, let us now cultivate fortitude, +encourage hope and chearful industry; and give way to enterprise. So +will prosperity return. The stream, which has been checked, will flow +with recruited vigour--and, when another century shall have passed away, +the ambition of France will be as little formidable to our then-existing +Posterity as it is now to us. But the lessons of History must be +studied;--they teach us that, under every form of civil polity, war will +contrive to lift up its head, and most pertinaciously in those States +where the People have most sway. When I recur to these admonitions, it +is to entreat that the discontented would exercise their understandings, +rather than consult their passions; first separating real from mistaken +grievances, and then endeavouring to ascertain (which cannot be done +with a glance of the mind) how much is fairly attributable to the +Government; how much to ourselves; and how large a portion of what we +have to endure has been forced upon us by a foreign Power, over whom we +could exercise no controul but by arms. The course here recommended will +keep us, as we are, free and happy--will preserve us from what, through +want of these and like precautions, other Nations have been hurried +into--domestic broils, sanguinary tribunals, civil slaughter in the +field, anarchy, and (sad cure and close of all!) tranquillity under the +iron grasp of military despotism. Years before this catastrophe, what +would have become of your Elective Franchise, Freeholders of +Westmoreland? The Coadjutors of the obscure Individuals who, from a +distance, first excited this movement under a pretence of recovering +your Rights, would have played the whirlwind among your Property, and +crushed you, less perhaps out of malice, than because, in their frenzy, +they could not help it. + +A conviction that the subject is ill understood by those who were +unprepared for what has just been said, is the excuse to my own mind, +Gentlemen, for having made so protracted a demand upon your attention. +The ruinous tendencies of this self-flattering enterprize can only be +checked by timely and general foresight. The contest in which we are +engaged has been described by Persons noticing it from a distance, as +the work of a Cabal of Electioneering Jobbers, who have contrived to set +up the Thanet against the Lowther interests, that both Parties might +spend their money for the benefit of those who cared for neither. The +Thanet interest in the County of Westmoreland!--one might almost as well +talk of an interest in the moon! The Descendant of the Cliffords has not +thought it worth while to recommend himself to the Electors, by the +course either of his public or his private life; and therefore, though +his purse may have weight, and his possessions are considerable, he +himself, in reference to the supposed object, is nothing. If this had +been really an attempt made by a numerous body of malcontent Freeholders +to carry their wishes for a change into effect, by placing at their head +some _approved_ Chief of an ancient Family, possessed of real +consequence in the County, the proceeding, considered in the abstract, +could not have been objected to. This County is, and ever was, open to +fair and honourable contest, originating in principles sanctioned by +general practice; and carried on by means which, if universally adopted, +would not be injurious to the State. But the present measure stands not +upon any such grounds; it is an attempt, no matter with what ultimate +view, TO EFFECT A TOTAL CHANGE IN THE CHARACTER OF COUNTY ELECTIONS; +beginning here with the expectation, as is openly avowed, of being +imitated elsewhere. It _reverses_ the order hitherto pursued. Instead of +aiming to influence the less wealthy and less instructed Freeholders +through the medium of those whom they have been accustomed to confide +in--instead of descending by legitimate gradations from high to lower, +from the well-instructed and widely-experienced to those who have not +had equal advantages--it commences at the bottom; far beneath the degree +of the poorest Freeholders; and works upwards, with an inflammatory +appeal to feelings that owe their birth to previous mistatement of +facts. Opulence, rank, station, privilege, distinction, intellectual +culture--the notions naturally following upon these in a Country like +England are protection, succour, guidance, example, dissemination of +knowledge, introduction of improvements, and all the benefits and +blessings that among Freemen are diffused, where authority like the +parental, from a sense of community of interest and the natural goodness +of mankind, is softened into brotherly concern. This is no Utopian +picture of the characteristics of elevated rank, wealth, competence, and +learned and liberal education in England; for, with the liberty of +speech and writing that prevails amongst us, if such rays of light and +love did not generally emanate from superiority of station, possessions, +and accomplishment, the frame of society, which we behold, could not +subsist. Yes--in spite of pride, hardness of heart, grasping avarice, +and other selfish passions, the not unfrequent concomitants of affluence +and worldly prosperity, the mass of the people are justly dealt with, +and tenderly cherished;--accordingly, gratitude without servility; +dispositions to prompt return of service, undebased by officiousness; +and respectful attachment, that, with small prejudice to the +understanding, greatly enriches the heart: such are the sentiments with +which Englishmen of the humblest condition have been accustomed to look +up towards their Friends and Benefactors. Among the holders of fixed +property (whether labourers in the field or artisans); among those who +are fortunate enough to have an interest in the soil of their Country; +these human sentiments of civil life are strengthened by additional +dependencies.--I am aware how much universal habits of rapacious +speculation, occasioned by fluctuations in the value of produce during +the late war--how much the spread of manufactories and the baleful +operation of the Poor Laws, have done to impair these indigenous and +salutary affections. I am conscious of the sad deterioration, and no one +can lament it more deeply; but sufficient vitality is left in the Stock +of ancient virtue to furnish hope that, by careful manuring, and skilful +application of the knife to the withered branches, fresh shoots might +thrive in their place--were it not for the base artifices of Malignants, +who, pretending to invigorate the tree, pour scalding water and +corrosive compounds among its roots; so that the fibres are killed in +the mould by which they have been nourished. + +That for years such artifices have been employed in Westmoreland, and in +a neighbouring County, with unremitting activity, must be known to all. +Whatever was disliked has been systematically attacked, by the vilifying +of persons connected with it. The Magistrates and public Functionaries, +up to the Lord Lieutenant himself, have been regularly traduced--as +unfaithful to their trust; the Clergy habitually derided--as +time-servers and slavish dependants; and the Gentry, if conspicuous for +attachment to the Government, stigmatized--as Men without honour or +patriotism, and leagued in conspiracy against the Poor. After this +manner have the Provincial Newspapers (the chief agents in this local +mischief,) concurred with the disaffected London Journals, who were +playing the same part towards laws and institutions, and general +measures of State, by calumniating the principal Authorities of the +Kingdom. Hence, instead of gratitude and love, and confidence and hope, +are resentment and envy, mistrust and jealousy, and hatred and rancour, +inspired:--and the drift of all is, to impress the Body of the People +with a belief that neither justice can be expected, nor benevolence +hoped for, unless power be transferred to Persons least resembling those +who now hold it; that is--to Demagogues and Incendiaries! + +It will be thought that this attempt is too extravagant to be dangerous; +inasmuch as every member of society, possessed of weight and authority, +must revolt from such a transfer, and abhor the issues to which it +points. Possessed of weight and authority--with whom? These Agitators +_have_ weight and authority there, where they seek for it, that is with +no small portion of what they term the physical strength of the Country. +The People have ever been the dupes of extremes. VAST GAINS WITH LITTLE +PAINS, is a jingle of words that would be an appropriate inscription for +the insurrectionary banner of unthinking humanity. To walk--to +wind--towards a thing that is coveted--how unattractive an operation +compared with leaping upon it at once!--Certainly no one possessed of +_legitimate authority_ can desire such a transfer as we have been forced +to contemplate; but he may aid in bringing it about, without desiring +it. Numerous are the courses of civil action in which men of pure +dispositions and honourable aims, are tempted to take part with those +who are utterly destitute of both. Be not startled, if, merely glancing +at the causes of this deplorable union, as it is now exhibited in this +part of England, I observe, that there is no necessary connection +between public spirit and political sagacity. How often does it happen +that right intention is averse to inquiry as casting a damp upon its own +zeal, and a suspicion upon the intrinsic recommendation of its object! +Good men turn instinctively from inferences unfavourable to human +nature. But there are facts which are not to be resisted, where the +understanding is sound. The self-styled Emancipators have tried their +strength; if there were any thing promising to England in their efforts, +we should have seen this Country arrayed in opposite Parties resembling +each other in quality and composition. Little of that appears. The +promoters of the struggle did not hope for such a result; and many of +them would not have wished for it, could they have expected to be +carried through by that ruinous division of the upper from the lower +ranks of society, on which they mainly relied. + +But, Freeholders, wicked devices have not done the service that was +expected from them. You are upon your guard; the result of this canvass +has already shewn that a vast majority of you are proof against assault, +and remain of sound mind. Such example of Men abiding by the rules of +their Forefathers cannot but encourage others, who yet hesitate, to +determine in favour of the good cause. The more signal the victory the +greater will be the honour paid to fixed and true principles, and the +firmer our security against the recurrence of like innovations. At all +events, enough, I trust, has been effected by the friends of our present +Representatives to protect those who have been deceived, and may not in +time awaken from their delusion. May their eyes be opened, and at no +distant day; so that, perceiving the benefits which the laws, as now +enacted and administered, ensure to their native Land, they may feel +towards you who make the wiser choice the gratitude which you will have +deserved.--The beginnings of great troubles are mostly of comparative +insignificance;--a little spark can kindle a mighty conflagration, and a +small leak will suffice to sink a stately vessel. To that loyal decision +of the event now pending, which may be confidently expected, Britain may +owe the continuance of her tranquillity and freedom; the maintenance of +the justice and equity for which she is pre-eminent among nations; and +the preservation of her social comforts, her charitable propensities, +her morals and her religion. Of this, as belonging to the future, we +cannot speak with certainty; but not a doubt can exist that the +practices which led to the destruction of all that was venerable in a +neighbouring Country, have upon this occasion been industriously, +unscrupulously, eagerly resorted to.--But my last words shall be words +of congratulation and thanksgiving--upon a bright prospect that the +wishes will be crossed, and the endeavours frustrated, of those amongst +us who, without their own knowledge, were ready to relinquish every good +which they and we possess, by uniting with overweening Reformers--to +compose the VANGUARD OF A FEROCIOUS REVOLUTION! + +A FREEHOLDER. + +Westmoreland, February 24, 1818. + + * * * * * + +NOTE. + +I have not scrupled to express myself strongly on this subject, +perceiving what use is made by the Opposite Party of those resolutions +of the House of Commons. In support of my opinion I quote the following +from the 'CARLISLE PATRIOT' of the 14th of February, premising, with the +Author of the Letter from which it is extracted, that by far the +greatest number of opulent Landholders are Members of the upper House, +and that the richest subjects are some of its Peers:-- + +'The Peers of Great Britain, stripped as they now are of the overgrown +importance which they derived from the Feudal System, have made no +acquisition of political influence to compensate for the loss of it, by +an increasing extension of patronage, either collectively or +individually, like the crown; nor have the various circumstances +operated upon their body in any considerable degree, which have effected +such a radical and powerful accumulation of consequence and importance +in the Lower House. Add to this, that the general sentiment or feeling +that commonly exists between them and the body of the people bears no +analogy to the vivid principles of affectionate loyalty that tend so +strongly to secure and guard the person and rights of the King, or the +reciprocal sympathy of congenial interests that acts and directs so +powerfully betwixt the Commons and the Community in general. On the +contrary, the spirit that exists betwixt the Peers as a collectively +distinct body, and the people at large, is a spirit of _repulsion_ +rather than of attraction. In a corporate light, they are viewed with no +sentiments of kindly affection, and therefore upon the supposition of a +political contest betwixt them and either of the other two Estates, they +would inevitably labour under the disadvantage of carrying it on against +all the force of the prejudices, which to a great extent always directs +popular opinion; hence, amidst all the contests and straggles which have +agitated or convulsed the Kingdom since the Reign of Henry the Seventh, +the political importance of the Peers, considered as an Estate of +Parliament, has been rather diminished than increased; and were such a +democratical House of Commons as our modern Patriots so loudly call for, +to be efficiently formed, the constitutional equilibrium of our envied +public system would be infallibly destroyed, and the spirit of our +Legislative Body, which in a great measure awards influence in +proportion to property, completely abrogated:--and it is in vain to +suppose that if even such a change was desirable, it could possibly be +effected without producing a train of incalculable miseries that would +much more than overbalance any partial good which could reasonably be +expected from the alteration....' + +'As property then is incontestibly the foundation-stone of political +right in Britain, it follows, as an inevitable consequence, that the +ratio of these rights should be in some measure commensurate to the +extent of the property, otherwise the immutable maxims of justice, as +well as the spirit of the Constitution, is violated; for it would be +palpably unjust to put a man who possessed a great stake in the welfare +of the Country, and paid comparatively a greater proportion of its +public revenue, on a level with the inferior freeholders, who, not +possessing any thing like an equal extent of property, cannot possibly +have the means of equally contributing to the exigencies of the State.... + +'Now if any considerate conscientious man will calmly reflect upon the +power of the House of Commons in the imposition of taxes, and in how +many ways the public burthen affects the landed interest, either +directly or indirectly, he must acknowledge the expediency, as well as +the necessity and justice of the system, which, _steadily though +silently_, protects the great landholders in exercising an appropriate +influence in the election of the Representatives of the +People.--PHOCION.' + +Previous to the Reign of Henry the Seventh, the Peers defended their +property and their privileges through the means of armed Retainers. That +politic Prince, by laws directed against the number of these Retainers; +by bringing in use the making of leases; and by statutes framed for the +purpose of 'unfettering more easily the Estates of his powerful +Nobility, and laying them more open to alienation,' prepared the way for +reducing the power of an Order which had been too strong for the Crown. +The operation of these laws, in course of time, would have brought the +Peers, as an Estate of the Realm, to utter insignificance, had not the +practice of supplying the Peerage with new Members, through creation by +patent without intervention of Parliament, been substituted for the only +mode previously tolerated by the great Barons for the exercise of this +royal prerogative, namely, by authority of Parliament. Thus did the +consequence of the Order, notwithstanding the diminution of its power, +continue to be maintained;--rich Commoners and Royal Favourites being +introduced to supply the places of extinguished Families, or those whose +wealth had fallen into decay. This prerogative grew without immoderate +exercise till the close of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth. The first of +the Stuarts employed it lavishly, not considering the changes that had +taken place. His predecessors of the House of Tudor, by breaking down +the feudal strength of the Lords, and by transfer (through the +Reformation) of the Spiritual supremacy to themselves as temporal +Sovereigns, had come into possession of a superfluity of power which +enabled the Crown to supply what was wanted in the Peers for their own +support. But through remote operation of the same causes, the Commons +were rising fast into consequence, with a puritanical spirit of +republicanism spreading rapidly amongst them. Hence the augmentation of +the number of Peers, made by James the First, notwithstanding the +addition of property carried by it to the Upper House, did not add +sufficient strength to that body to compensate for the distastefulness +of the measure to the people; and, as far as the property of the New +Peers was but the creature of prodigal grants from the Crown, the +conjoint strength of the two Estates received no increase. In the +meanwhile surrenders were made of the power of the Crown with infatuated +facility; till the Commons became so strong that the right of creating +Boroughs, being openly disputed, was almost abandoned; and the speedy +consequence of the whole was that the two parliamentary Estates of King +and Lords fell before the intemperance of the third. After the +restoration, the disputes about the bounds of Liberty and Prerogative +were revived; but Prerogative was gradually abandoned for the less +obnoxious and less obvious operations of influence. The numerous +creations of Peers were complained of; but, whatever motive might have +governed those creations, they were justified by the necessity of +things. Large as were the additions made to the number of Peers they +were insufficient to give the House its due weight as a separate Estate +in the Legislature. Through the reigns of Charles, William, and Anne, +whether the Crown was disposed to tyranny, or the Commons were venal, +factious, or arbitrary, we see too many proofs of the Lords wanting +natural strength to maintain their rights, and carry their patriotic +wishes into effect, even when they were supported by marked expressions +of popular opinion in their favour. If the changes which had taken place +in the structure of Society would have allowed them to act regularly as +an independent body upon its intrinsic resources, a deathblow was given +to such expectation towards the close of the reign of Queen Anne, when +twelve Peers were created in one day. This act, deservedly made one of +the articles of impeachment against Lord Oxford, shewed that their +sentiments, as a Body, were at the mercy of any unprincipled +Administration, and _compelled_ them to look about for some other means +of being attended to;--and the most obvious was the best for the Country +and themselves--That of taking care of, and augmenting, the influence +which they possessed in the House of Commons. Reformers plead against +this practice, constitutional resolutions still existing. The slight +review which has been given demonstrates its necessity if the +Constitution is to be preserved. The only question which a practical +politician can tolerate for a moment relates to the _degree_ of this +influence;--has it been carried too far? The considerations which put me +upon writing the present note (for the length of which I ought to +apologise) do not require the discussion of this point. The amicable +reader will rejoice with me that, in spite of mutual shocks and +encroachments, the three Orders of the State are preserved in salutary +equipoise, although the mode of bringing this about has unavoidably +changed with change of circumstances. The spirit of the Constitution +remains unimpaired, nor have the essential parts of its frame undergone +any alteration. May both endure as long as the Island itself! + + + + +V. OF THE CATHOLIC RELIEF BILL, 1829. + +NOTE. + +See Preface in the present volume for details on this 'Letter;' which +was addressed to the Bishop of London (Blomfield). This is printed from +the original Manuscript. G. + +OF THE CATHOLIC RELIEF BILL, 1829. + + +My Lord, + +I have been hesitating for the space of a week, whether I should take +the liberty of addressing you; but as the decision draws near my anxiety +increases, and I cannot refrain from intruding upon you for a few +minutes. I will try to be brief, throwing myself upon your indulgence, +if what I have to say prove of little moment. + +The question before us is, Can Protestantism and Popery--or, somewhat +narrowing the ground, Can the Church of England (including that of +Ireland) and the Church of Rome--be co-ordinate powers in the +constitution of a free country, and at the same time Christian belief be +in that country a vital principle of action? The States of the Continent +afford no proof whatever that the existence of Protestantism and +Romanism under the specified conditions is practicable; nor can they be +rationally referred to as furnishing a guide for us. In France, the most +conspicuous of these States and the freest, the number of Protestants in +comparison with Catholics is insignificant, and unbelief and +superstition almost divide the country between them. In Prussia, there +is no legislative Assembly; the Government is essentially military; and +excepting the countries upon the Rhine, recently added to that Power, +the proportion of Catholics is inconsiderable. In Hanover, Jacob speaks +of the Protestants as more than ten to one; here, indeed, is a +legislative Assembly, but its powers are ill defined. Hanover had, and +still may have, a censorship of the press--an indulgent one; it can +afford to be so through the sedative virtue of the standing army of the +country, and that of the Germanic League to back the executive in case +of commotion. No sound-minded Englishman will build upon the short-lived +experience of the kingdom of the Netherlands. In Flanders a benighted +Papacy prevails, which defeated the attempts of the king to enlighten +the people by education; and I am well assured that the Protestant +portion of Holland have small reason to be thankful for the footing upon +which they have been there placed. If that kingdom is to last, there is +great cause for fear that its government will incline more and more to +Romanism as the religion of a great majority of its subjects, and as one +which by its slavish spirit makes the people more manageable. If so, it +is to be apprehended that Protestantism will gradually disappear before +it; and the ruling classes, in a still greater degree than they now are, +will become infidels, as the easiest refuge in their own minds from the +debasing doctrines of Papacy. + +Three great conflicts[24] are before the progressive nations, between +Christianity and Infidelity, between Papacy and Protestantism, and +between the spirit of the old feudal and monarchical governments and the +representative and republican system, as established in America. The +Church of England, in addition to her infidel and Roman Catholic +assailants, and the politicians of the anti-feudal class, has to contend +with a formidable body of Protestant Dissenters. Amid these several and +often combined attacks, how is she to maintain herself? From which of +these enemies has she most to fear? Some are of opinion that Papacy is +less formidable than Dissent, whose bias is republican, which is averse +to monarchy, to a hierarchy, and to the tything system--to all which +Romanism is strongly attached. The abstract principles embodied in the +creed of the Dissenters' catechism are without doubt full as politically +dangerous as those of the Romanists; but fortunately their creed is not +their practice. They are divided among themselves, they acknowledge no +foreign jurisdiction, their organisation and discipline, are +comparatively feeble; and in times long past, however powerful they +proved themselves to overthrow, they are not likely to be able to build +up. Whatever the Presbyterian form, as in the Church of Scotland, may +have to recommend it, we find that the sons of the nobility and gentry +of Scotland who choose the sacred profession almost invariably enter +into the Church of England; and for the same reason, viz. the want of a +hierarchy (you will excuse me for connecting views so humiliating with +divine truth), the rich Dissenters, in the course of a generation or +two, fall into the bosom of our Church. As holding out attractions to +the upper orders, the Church of England has no advantages over that of +Rome, but rather the contrary. Papacy will join with us in preserving +the form, but for the purpose and in the hope of seizing the substance +for itself. Its ambition is upon record; it is essentially at enmity +with light and knowledge; its power to exclude these blessings is not so +great as formerly, though its desire to do so is equally strong, and its +determination to exert its power for its own exaltation by means of that +exclusion is not in the least abated. The See of Rome justly regards +England as the head of Protestantism; it admires, it is jealous, it is +envious of her power and greatness. It despairs of being able to destroy +them, but it is ever on the watch to regain its lost influence over that +country; and it hopes to effect this through the means of Ireland. The +words of this last sentence are not my own, but those of the head of one +of the first Catholic families of the county from which I write, spoken +without reserve several years ago. Surely the language of this +individual must be greatly emboldened when he sees the prostrate +condition in which our yet Protestant Government now lies before the +Papacy of Ireland. 'The great Catholic interest,' 'the old Catholic +interest,' I know to have been phrases of frequent occurrence in the +mouth of a head of the first Roman Catholic family of England; and to +descend far lower, 'What would satisfy you?' said, not long ago, a +person to a very clever lady, a dependent upon another branch of that +family. 'That church,' replied she, pointing to the parish church of the +large town where the conversation took place. Monstrous expectation! yet +not to be overlooked as an ingredient in the compound of Papacy. This +'great Catholic interest' we are about to embody in a legislative form. +A Protestant Parliament is to turn itself into a canine monster with two +heads, which, instead of keeping watch and ward, will be snarling at and +bent on devouring each other. + +[24] In this classification I anticipate matter which Mr. Southey has in +the press, the substance of a conversation between us. + +Whatever enemies the Church of England may have to struggle with now and +hereafter, it is clear that at this juncture she is specially called to +take the measure of her strength as opposed to the Church of Rome--that +is her most pressing enemy. The Church of England, as to the point of +private judgment, standing between the two extremes of Papacy and +Dissent, is entitled to heartfelt reverence; and among thinking men, +whose affections are not utterly vitiated, never fails to receive it. +Papacy will tolerate no private judgment, and Dissent is impatient of +anything else. The blessing of Providence has thus far preserved the +Church of England between the shocks to which she has been exposed from +those opposite errors; and notwithstanding objections may lie against +some parts of her Liturgy, particularly the Athanasian Creed, and +however some of her articles may be disputed about, her doctrines are +exclusively scriptural, and her practice is accommodated to the +exigencies of our weak nature. If this be so, what has she to fear? Look +at Ireland, might be a sufficient answer. Look at the disproportion +between her Catholic and Protestant population. Look at the distempered +heads of the Roman Catholic Church insisting upon terms which in France, +and even in Austria, dare not be proposed, and which the Pope himself +would probably relinquish for a season. Look at the revenues of the +Protestant Church; her cathedrals, her churches, that once belonged to +the Romanists, and where, _in imagination_, their worship has never +ceased to be celebrated. Can it be doubted that when the yet existing +restrictions are removed, that the disproportion in the population and +the wealth of the Protestant Church will become more conspicuous objects +for discontent to point at; and that plans, however covert, will be +instantly set on foot, with the aid of new powers, for effecting an +overthrow, and, if possible, a transfer? But all this is too obvious; I +would rather argue with those who think that by excluding the Romanists +from political power we make them more attached to their religion, and +cause them to unite more strongly in support of it. Were this true to +the extent maintained, we should still have to balance between the +unorganised power which they derive from a sense of injustice, real or +supposed, and the legitimate organised power which concession would +confer upon surviving discontent; for no one, I imagine, is weak enough +to suppose that discontent would disappear. But it is a deception, and a +most dangerous one, to conclude that if a free passage were given to the +torrent, it would lose, by diffusion, its ability to do injury. The +checks, as your Lordship well knows, which are after a time necessary to +provoke other sects to activity, are not wanted here. The Roman Church +stands independent of them through its constitution, so exquisitely +contrived, and through its doctrine and discipline, which give a +peculiar and monstrous power to its priesthood. In proof of this, take +the injunction of celibacy, alone separating the priesthood from the +body of the community, and the practice of confession, making them +masters of the conscience, while the doctrines give them an absolute +power over the will. To submit to such thraldom men must be bigoted in +its favour; and that we see is the case of Spain, in Portugal, in +Austria, in Italy, in Flanders, in Ireland, and in all countries where +you have Papacy in full blow. And does not history prove, that however +other sects may have languished under the relaxing influence of good +fortune, Papacy has ever been most fiery and rampant when most +prosperous? + +But many, who do not expect that conciliation will be the result of +concession, have a farther expedient on which they rely much. They +propose to take the Romish Church in Ireland into pay, and expect that +afterwards its clergy will be as compliant to the Government as the +Presbyterians in that country have proved. This measure is, in the first +place, too disingenuous not to be condemned by honest men; for the +Government acting on this policy would degrade itself by offering bribes +to men of a sacred calling to act contrary to their sense of duty. If +they be sincere, as priests and truly spiritual-minded, they will find +it impossible to accept of a stipend, known to be granted with such +expectation. If they be worldlings and false of heart, they will +practise double-dealing, and seem to support the Government while they +are actually undermining it; for they know that if they be suspected of +sacrificing the interests of the Church they will lose all authority +over their flocks. Power and consideration are more valued than money. +The priests will not be induced to risk their sway over the people for +any sums that our Government would venture to afford them out of the +exhausted revenues of the empire. Surely they would prefer to such a +scanty hire the hope of carving for themselves from the property of the +Protestant Church of their country, or even the gratification of +stripping usurpation--for such they deem it--of its gains, though there +may be no hope to win what others are deprived of. Many English +favourers of this scheme are reconciled to what they call a modification +of the Irish Protestant Establishment in an application of a portion of +the revenues to the support of the Romish Church. This they deem +reasonable; shortly it will be openly aimed at, and they will rejoice +should they accomplish their purpose. But your Lordship will agree with +me that, if that happen, it would be one of the most calamitous events +that ignorance has in our time given birth to. After all, could the +secular clergy be paid out of this spoliation, or in any other way? The +Regulars would rise in consequence of their degradation; and where would +be the influence that could keep them from mischief? They would swarm +over the country to prey upon the people still more than they now do. In +all the reasonings of the friends to this bribing scheme, the +distinctive character of the Papal Church is overlooked. + +But they who expect that tranquillity will be a permanent consequence of +the Relief Bill dwell much upon the mighty difference in opinion and +feeling between the upper and lower ranks of the Romish communion. They +affirm that many keep within the pale of the Church as a point of +honour; that others have notions greatly relaxed, and though not at +present prepared to separate, they will gradually fall off. But what +avail the inward sentiments of men if they are convinced that by acting +upon them they will forfeit their outward dignity and power? As long as +the political influence which the priests now exercise shall endure, or +anything like it, the great proprietors will be obliged to dissemble, +and to conform in their action to the demands of that power. Such will +be the conduct of the great Roman Catholic proprietors; nay, farther, I +agree with those who deem it probable that, through a natural and +reasonable desire to have their property duly represented, many +landholders who are now Protestant will be tempted to go over to Papacy. +This may be thought a poor compliment to Protestantism, since religious +scruples, it is said, are all that keep the Papists out; but is not the +desire to be in, pushing them on almost to rebellion at this moment? We +are taking, I own, a melancholy view of both sides; but human nature, be +it what it may, must by legislators be looked at as it is. + +In the treatment of this question we hear perpetually of wrong; but the +wrong is all on one side. If the political power of Ireland is to be a +transfer from those who are of the State religion of the country to +those who are not, there is nothing gained on the score of justice. We +hear also much of STIGMA; but this is not to be done away unless all +offices, the Privy Council and the Chancellorship, be open to them; that +is, unless we allow a man to be eligible to keep the King's conscience +who has not his own in his keeping; unless we open the throne itself to +men of this soul-degrading faith. + +The condition of Ireland is indeed, and long has been, wretched. +Lamentable is it to acknowledge, that the mass of the people are so +grossly uninformed, and from that cause subject to such delusions and +passions, that they would destroy each other were it not for restraints +put upon them by a power out of themselves. This power it is that +protracts their existence in a state for which otherwise the course of +nature would provide a remedy by reducing their numbers through mutual +destruction; so that English civilisation may fairly be said to have +been the shield of Irish barbarism. And now these swarms of degraded +people, which could not have existed but through the neglect and +misdirected power of the sister island, are by a withdrawing of that +power to have their own way, and to be allowed to dictate to us. A +population, vicious in character as unnatural in immediate origin (for +it has been called into birth by short-sighted landlords, set upon +adding to the number of votes at their command, and by priests who for +lucre's sake favour the increase of marriages), is held forth as +constituting a claim to political power strong in proportion to its +numbers, though in a sane view that claim is in an inverse ratio to +them. Brute force indeed wherever lodged, as we are too feelingly taught +at present, must be measured and met--measured with care, in order to be +met with fortitude. + +The chief proximate causes of Irish misery and ignorance are Papacy--of +which I have said so much--and the tenure and management of landed +property, and both these have a common origin, viz. the imperfect +conquest of the country. The countries subjected by the ancient Romans, +and those that in the middle ages were subdued by the Northern tribes, +afford striking instances of the several ways in which nations may be +improved by foreign conquest. The Romans by their superiority in arts +and arms, and, in the earlier period of their history, in virtues also, +may seem to have established a moral right to force their institutions +upon other nations, whether under a process of decline or emerging from +barbarism; and this they effected, we all know, not by overrunning +countries as Eastern conquerors have done, and Bonaparte in our own +days, but by completing a regular subjugation, with military roads and +garrisons, which became centres of civilisation for the surrounding +district. Nor am I afraid to add, though the fact might be caught at as +bearing against the general scope of my argument, that both conquerors +and conquered owed much to the participation of civil rights which the +Romans liberally communicated. The other mode of conquest, that pursued +by the Northern nations, brought about its beneficial effects by the +settlement of a hardy and vigorous people among the distracted and +effeminate nations against whom their incursions were made. The +conquerors transplanted with them their independent and ferocious spirit +to reanimate exhausted communities, and in their turn received a +salutary mitigation, till in process of time the conqueror and +conquered, having a common interest, were lost in each other. To neither +of these modes was unfortunate Ireland subject, and her insular +territory, by physical obstacles, and still more by moral influences +arising out of them, has aggravated the evil consequent upon +independence lost as hers was. The writers of the time of Queen +Elizabeth have pointed out how unwise it was to transplant among a +barbarous people, not half subjugated, the institutions that time had +matured among those who too readily considered themselves masters of +that people. It would be presumptuous in me to advert in detail to the +exacerbations and long-lived hatred that have perverted the moral sense +in Ireland, obstructed religious knowledge, and denied to her a due +share of English refinement and civility. It is enough to observe, that +the Reformation was ill supported in that country, and that her soil +became, through frequent forfeitures, mainly possessed by men whose +hearts were not in the land where their wealth lay. + +But it is too late, we are told, for retrospection. We have no choice +between giving way and a sanguinary war. Surely it is rather too much +that the country should be required to take the measure of the +threatened evil from a Cabinet which by its being divided against +itself, which by its remissness and fear of long and harassing debates +in the two Houses, has for many years past fostered the evil, and in no +small part created the danger, the extent of which is now urged as +imposing the necessity of granting their demands. + +Danger is a relative thing, and the first requisite for being in a +condition to judge of what we have to dread from the physical force of +the Romanists is to be in sympathy with the Protestants. Had our +Ministers been truly so, could they have suffered themselves to be +bearded by the Catholic Association for so many years as they have been? + +I speak openly to you, my Lord, though a member of his Majesty's Privy +Council; and begging your pardon for detaining you so long, I hasten to +a conclusion. + +The civil disabilities, for the removal of which Mr. O'Connell and his +followers are braving the Government, cannot but be indifferent to the +great body of the Irish nation, except as means for gaining an end. Take +away the intermediate power of the priests, and an insurrection in +Brobdignag at the call of the King of Lilliput might be as hopefully +expected as that the Irish people would stir as they are now prepared to +do at the call of a political demagogue. Now these civil disabilities do +not directly affect the priests; they therefore must have ulterior +views, and though it must be flattering to their vanity to shew that +they have the Irish representation in their own hands, and though their +worldly interest and that of their connections will, they know, +immediately profit by that dominion, what they look for principally is +the advancement of their religion at the cost of Protestantism; that +would bring everything else in its train. While it is obvious that the +political agitators could not rouse the people without the intervention +of the priests, it is true that the priests could not excite the people +without a hope that from the exaltation of their Church their social +condition would be improved. What in Irish interpretation these words +would mean we may tremble to think of. + +In whatever way we look, religion is so much mixed up in this matter, +that the guardians of the Episcopal Church of the Empire are imperiously +called upon to show themselves worthy of the high trust reposed in them. +You, my Lord, are convinced that, in spite of the best securities that +can be given, the admission of Roman Catholics into the Legislature is a +dangerous experiment. Oaths cannot be framed that will avail here; the +only securities to be relied upon are what we have little hope to +see--the Roman Church reforming itself, and a Ministry and a Parliament +sufficiently sensible of the superiority of the one form of religion +over the other to be resolved, not only to preserve the present rights +and immunities of the Protestant Church inviolate, but prepared by all +fair means for the extension of its influence, with a hope that it may +gradually prevail over Papacy. + +It is, we trust, the intention of Providence that the Church of Rome +should in due time disappear; and come what may on the Church of +England, we have the satisfaction of knowing that in defending a +Government resting upon a Protestant basis--say what they will, the +other party have abandoned--we are working for the welfare of humankind, +and supporting whatever there is of dignity in our frail nature. + +Here I might stop; but I am above measure anxious for the course which +the bench of bishops may take at this crisis. They are appealed to, and +even by the Heir Presumptive to the throne from his seat in Parliament. +There will be attempts to brow-beat them on the score of humanity; but +humanity is, if it deserves the name, a calculating and prospective +quality; it will on this occasion balance an evil at hand with a far +greater one that is sure, or all but sure, to come. Humanity is not +shewn the less by firmness than by tenderness of heart. It is neither +deterred by clamour, nor enfeebled by its own sadness; but it estimates +evil and good to the best of its power, acts by the dictates of +conscience, and trusts the issue to the Ruler of all things. + +If, my Lord, I have seemed to write with over-confidence on any opinions +I have above given, impute it to a wish of avoiding cumbrous qualifying +expressions. + +Sincerely do I pray that God may give your Lordship and the rest of your +brethren light to guide you and strength to walk in that light. + + I am, my Lord, &c. + + + + +II. ETHICAL. + + + + +I. OF LEGISLATION FOR THE POOR, THE WORKING CLASSES, AND THE CLERGY: +APPENDIX TO POEMS. + +1835. + +NOTE. + +On the several portions of this division of the Prose see Preface in the +present volume. G. + +OF LEGISLATION FOR THE POOR, THE WORKING CLASSES, AND THE CLERGY. + +APPENDIX TO POEMS. + + +In the present Volume, as in those that have preceded it, the reader +will have found occasionally opinions expressed upon the course of +public affairs, and feelings given vent to as national interests excited +them. Since nothing, I trust, has been uttered but in the spirit of +reflective patriotism, those notices are left to produce their own +effect; but, among the many objects of general concern, and the changes +going forward, which I have glanced at in verse, are some especially +affecting the lower orders of society: in reference to these, I wish +here to add a few words in plain prose. + +Were I conscious of being able to do justice to those important topics, +I might avail myself of the periodical press for offering anonymously my +thoughts, such as they are, to the world; but I feel that, in procuring +attention, they may derive some advantage, however small, from my name, +in addition to that of being presented in a less fugitive shape. It is +also not impossible that the state of mind which some of the foregoing +poems may have produced in the reader, will dispose him to receive more +readily the impression which I desire to make, and to admit the +conclusions I would establish. + + * * * * * + +I. The first thing that presses upon my attention is the Poor Law +Amendment Act. I am aware of the magnitude and complexity of the +subject, and the unwearied attention which it has received from men of +far wider experience than my own; yet I cannot forbear touching upon one +point of it, and to this I will confine myself, though not insensible to +the objection which may reasonably be brought against treating a portion +of this, or any other, great scheme of civil polity separately from the +whole. The point to which I wish to draw the reader's attention is, that +_all_ persons who cannot find employment, or procure wages sufficient +to support the body in health and strength, are entitled to a +maintenance by law. + +This dictate of humanity is acknowledged in the Report of the +Commissioners: but is there not room for apprehension that some of the +regulations of the new Act have a tendency to render the principle +nugatory by difficulties thrown in the way of applying it? If this be +so, persons will not be wanting to show it, by examining the provisions +of the Act in detail,--an attempt which would be quite out of place +here; but it will not, therefore, be deemed unbecoming in one who fears +that the prudence of the head may, in framing some of those provisions, +have supplanted the wisdom of the heart, to enforce a principle which +cannot be violated without infringing upon one of the most precious +rights of the English people, and opposing one of the most sacred claims +of civilised humanity. + +There can be no greater error, in this department of legislation, than +the belief that this principle does by necessity operate for the +degradation of those who claim, or are so circumstanced as to make it +likely they may claim, through laws founded upon it, relief or +assistance. The direct contrary is the truth: it may be unanswerably +maintained that its tendency is to raise, not to depress; by stamping a +value upon life, which can belong to it only where the laws have placed +men who are willing to work, and yet cannot find employment, above the +necessity of looking for protection against hunger and other natural +evils, either to individual and casual charity, to despair and death, or +to the breach of law by theft or violence. + +And here, as in the Report of the Commissioners, the fundamental +principle has been recognised, I am not at issue with them any farther +than I am compelled to believe that their 'remedial measures' obstruct +the application of it more than the interests of society require. + +And calling to mind the doctrines of political economy which are now +prevalent, I cannot forbear to enforce the justice of the principle, and +to insist upon its salutary operation. + +And first for its justice: If self-preservation be the first law of our +nature, would not every one in a state of nature be morally justified in +taking to himself that which is indispensable to such preservation, +where, by so doing, he would not rob another of that which might be +equally indispensable to _his_ preservation? And if the value of life +be regarded in a right point of view, may it not be questioned whether +this right of preserving life, at any expense short of endangering the +life of another, does not survive man's entering into the social state; +whether this right can be surrendered or forfeited, except when it +opposes the divine law, upon any supposition of a social compact, or of +any convention for the protection of mere rights of property? + +But, if it be not safe to touch the abstract question of man's right in +a social state to help himself even in the last extremity, may we not +still contend for the duty of a Christian government, standing _in loco +parentis_ towards all its subjects, to make such effectual provision, +that no one shall be in danger of perishing either through the neglect +or harshness of its legislation? Or, waiving this, is it not +indisputable that the claim of the State to the allegiance, involves the +protection of the subject? And, as all rights in one party impose a +correlative duty upon another, it follows that the right of the State to +require the services of its members, even to the jeoparding of their +lives in the common defence, establishes a right in the people (not to +be gainsaid by utilitarians and economists) to public support when, from +any cause, they may be unable to support themselves. + +Let us now consider the salutary and benign operation of this principle. +Here we must have recourse to elementary feelings of human nature, and +to truths which from their very obviousness are apt to be slighted, till +they are forced upon our notice by our own sufferings or those of +others. In the Paradise Lost, Milton represents Adam, after the Fall, as +exclaiming, in the anguish of his soul-- + + Did I request Thee, Maker, from my clay + To mould me man; did I solicit Thee + From darkness to promote me? + ...My will + Concurred not to my being. + +Under how many various pressures of misery have men been driven thus, in +a strain touching upon impiety, to expostulate with the Creator! and +under few so afflictive as when the source and origin of earthly +existence have been brought back to the mind by its impending close in +the pangs of destitution. But as long as, in our legislation, due +weight shall be given to this principle, no man will be forced to bewail +the gift of life in hopeless want of the necessaries of life. + +Englishmen have, therefore, by the progress of civilisation among them, +been placed in circumstances more favourable to piety and resignation to +the divine will, than the inhabitants of other countries, where a like +provision has not been established. And as Providence, in this care of +our countrymen, acts through a human medium, the objects of that care +must, in like manner, be more inclined towards a grateful love of their +fellow-men. Thus, also, do stronger ties attach the people to their +country, whether while they tread its soil, or, at a distance, think of +their native Land as an indulgent parent, to whose arms even they who +have been imprudent and undeserving may, like the prodigal son, betake +themselves, without fear of being rejected. + +Such is the view of the case that would first present itself to a +reflective mind; and it is in vain to show, by appeals to experience, in +contrast with this view, that provisions founded upon the principle have +promoted profaneness of life, and dispositions the reverse of +philanthropic, by spreading idleness, selfishness, and rapacity: for +these evils have arisen, not as an inevitable consequence of the +principle, but for want of judgment in framing laws based upon it; and, +above all, from faults in the mode of administering the law. The +mischief that has grown to such a height from granting relief in cases +where proper vigilance would have shewn that it was not required, or in +bestowing it in undue measure, will be urged by no truly enlightened +statesman, as a sufficient reason for banishing the principle itself +from legislation. + +Let us recur to the miserable states of consciousness that it precludes. + +There is a story told, by a traveller in Spain, of a female who, by a +sudden shock of domestic calamity, was driven out of her senses, and +ever after looked up incessantly to the sky, feeling that her +fellow-creatures could do nothing for her relief. Can there be +Englishmen who, with a good end in view, would, upon system, expose +their brother Englishmen to a like necessity of looking upwards only; or +downwards to the earth, after it shall contain no spot where the +destitute can demand, by civil right, what by right of nature they are +entitled to? + +Suppose the objects of our sympathy not sunk into this blank despair, +but wandering about as strangers in streets and ways, with the hope of +succour from casual charity; what have we gained by such a change of +scene? Woful is the condition of the famished Northern Indian, +dependent, among winter snows, upon the chance passage of a herd of +deer, from which one, if brought down by his rifle-gun, may be made the +means of keeping him and his companions alive. As miserable is that of +some savage Islander, who, when the land has ceased to afford him +sustenance, watches for food which the waves may cast up, or in vain +endeavours to extract it from the inexplorable deep. But neither of +these is in a state of wretchedness comparable to that which is so often +endured in civilised society: multitudes, in all ages, have known it, of +whom may be said:-- + + Homeless, near a thousand homes they stood, + And near a thousand tables pined, and wanted food. + +Justly might I be accused of wasting time in an uncalled-for attempt to +excite the feelings of the reader, if systems of political economy, +widely spread, did not impugn the principle, and if the safeguards +against such extremities were left unimpaired. It is broadly asserted by +many, that every man who endeavours to find work, _may_ find it. Were +this assertion capable of being verified, there still would remain a +question, what kind of work, and how far may the labourer be fit for it? +For if sedentary work is to be exchanged for standing; and some light +and nice exercise of the fingers, to which an artisan has been +accustomed all his life, for severe labour of the arms; the best efforts +would turn to little account, and occasion would be given for the +unthinking and the unfeeling unwarrantably to reproach those who are put +upon such employment, as idle, froward, and unworthy of relief, either +by law or in any other way! Were this statement correct, there would +indeed be an end of the argument, the principle here maintained would be +superseded. But, alas! it is far otherwise. That principle, applicable +to the benefit of all countries, is indispensable for England, upon +whose coast families are perpetually deprived of their support by +shipwreck, and where large masses of men are so liable to be thrown out +of their ordinary means of gaining bread, by changes in commercial +intercourse, subject mainly or solely to the will of foreign powers; by +new discoveries in arts and manufactures; and by reckless laws, in +conformity with theories of political economy, which, whether right or +wrong in the abstract, have proved a scourge to tens of thousands, by +the abruptness with which they have been carried into practice. + +But it is urged,--refuse altogether compulsory relief to the +able-bodied, and the number of those who stand in need of relief will +steadily diminish through a conviction of an absolute necessity for +greater forethought, and more prudent care of a man's earnings. +Undoubtedly it would, but so also would it, and in a much greater +degree, if the legislative provisions were retained, and parochial +relief administered under the care of the upper classes, as it ought to +be. For it has been invariably found, that wherever the funds have been +raised and applied under the superintendence of gentlemen and +substantial proprietors, acting in vestries and as overseers, pauperism +has diminished accordingly. Proper care in that quarter would +effectually check what is felt in some districts to be one of the worst +evils in the Poor Law system, viz. the readiness of small and needy +proprietors to join in imposing rates that seemingly subject them to +great hardships, while, in fact, this is done with a mutual +understanding, that the relief each is ready to bestow upon his still +poorer neighbours will be granted to himself or his relatives, should it +hereafter be applied for. + +But let us look to inner sentiments of a nobler quality, in order to +know what we have to build upon. Affecting proofs occur in every one's +experience, who is acquainted with the unfortunate and the indigent, of +their unwillingness to derive their subsistence from aught but their own +funds or labour, or to be indebted to parochial assistance for the +attainment of any object, however dear to them. A case was reported, the +other day, from a coroner's inquest, of a pair who, through the space of +four years, had carried about their dead infant from house to house, and +from lodging to lodging, as their necessities drove them, rather than +ask the parish to bear the expense of its interment:--the poor creatures +lived in the hope of one day being able to bury their child at their own +cost. It must have been heart-rending to see and hear the mother, who +had been called upon to account for the state in which the body was +found, make this deposition. By some, judging coldly, if not harshly, +this conduct might be imputed to an unwarrantable pride, as she and her +husband had, it is true, been once in prosperity. But examples, where +the spirit of independence works with equal strength, though not with +like miserable accompaniments, are frequently to be found even yet among +the humblest peasantry and mechanics. There is not, then, sufficient +cause for doubting that a like sense of honour may be revived among the +people, and their ancient habits of independence restored, without +resorting to those severities which the new Poor Law Act has introduced. + +But even if the surfaces of things only are to be examined, we have a +right to expect that lawgivers should take into account the various +tempers and dispositions of mankind: while some are led, by the +existence of a legislative provision, into idleness and extravagance, +the economical virtues might be cherished in others by the knowledge +that, if all their efforts fail, they have in the Poor Laws a 'refuge +from the storm and a shadow from the heat.' Despondency and distraction +are no friends to prudence: the springs of industry will relax, if +cheerfulness be destroyed by anxiety; without hope men become reckless, +and have a sullen pride in adding to the heap of their own wretchedness. +He who feels that he is abandoned by his fellow-men will be almost +irresistibly driven to care little for himself; will lose his +self-respect accordingly, and with that loss what remains to him of +virtue? + +With all due deference to the particular experience and general +intelligence of the individuals who framed the Act, and of those who in +and out of Parliament have approved of and supported it; it may be said, +that it proceeds too much upon the presumption that it is a labouring +man's own fault if he be not, as the phrase is, before-hand with the +world. But the most prudent are liable to be thrown back by sickness, +cutting them off from labour, and causing to them expense: and who but +has observed how distress creeps upon multitudes without misconduct of +their own; and merely from a gradual fall in the price of labour, +without a correspondent one in the price of provisions; so that men who +may have ventured upon the marriage state with a fair prospect of +maintaining their families in comfort and happiness, see them reduced to +a pittance which no effort of theirs can increase? Let it be remembered, +also, that there are thousands with whom vicious habits of expense are +not the cause why they do not store up their gains; but they are +generous and kind-hearted, and ready to help their kindred and friends; +moreover, they have a faith in Providence that those who have been +prompt to assist others will not be left destitute, should they +themselves come to need. By acting from these blended feelings, numbers +have rendered themselves incapable of standing up against a sudden +reverse. Nevertheless, these men, in common with all who have the +misfortune to be in want, if many theorists had their wish, would be +thrown upon one or other of those three sharp points of condition before +adverted to, from which the intervention of law has hitherto saved them. + +All that has been said tends to show how the principle contended for +makes the gift of life more valuable, and has, it may be hoped, led to +the conclusion that its legitimate operation is to make men worthier of +that gift: in other words, not to degrade but to exalt human nature. But +the subject must not be dismissed without adverting to the indirect +influence of the same principle upon the moral sentiments of a people +among whom it is embodied in law. In our criminal jurisprudence there is +a maxim, deservedly eulogised, that it is better that ten guilty persons +should escape, than that one innocent man should suffer; so, also, might +it be maintained, with regard to the Poor Laws, that it is better for +the interests of humanity among the people at large, that ten +undeserving should partake of the funds provided, than that one morally +good man, through want of relief, should either have his principles +corrupted, or his energies destroyed; than that such a one should either +be driven to do wrong, or be cast to the earth in utter hopelessness. In +France, the English maxim of criminal jurisprudence is reversed; there, +it is deemed better that ten innocent men should suffer, than one guilty +escape: in France, there is no universal provision for the poor; and we +may judge of the small value set upon human life in the metropolis of +that country, by merely noticing the disrespect with which, after death, +the body is treated, not by the thoughtless vulgar, but in schools of +anatomy, presided over by men allowed to be, in their own art and in +physical science, among the most enlightened in the world. In the East, +where countries are overrun with population as with a weed, infinitely +more respect is shown to the remains of the deceased: and what a bitter +mockery is it, that this insensibility should be found where civil +polity is so busy in minor regulations, and ostentatiously careful to +gratify the luxurious propensities, whether social or intellectual, of +the multitude! Irreligion is, no doubt, much concerned with this +offensive disrespect shown to the bodies of the dead in France; but it +is mainly attributable to the state in which so many of the living are +left by the absence of compulsory provision for the indigent so humanely +established by the law of England. + +Sights of abject misery, perpetually recurring, harden the heart of the +community. In the perusal of history and of works of fiction, we are +not, indeed, unwilling to have our commiseration excited by such objects +of distress as they present to us; but, in the concerns of real life, +men know that such emotions are not given to be indulged for their own +sakes: there, the conscience declares to them that sympathy must be +followed by action; and if there exist a previous conviction that the +power to relieve is utterly inadequate to the demand, the eye shrinks +from communication with wretchedness, and pity and compassion languish, +like any other qualities that are deprived of their natural aliment. Let +these considerations be duly weighed by those who trust to the hope that +an increase of private charity, with all its advantages of superior +discrimination, would more than compensate for the abandonment of those +principles, the wisdom of which has been here insisted upon. How +discouraging, also, would be the sense of injustice, which could not +fail to arise in the minds of the well-disposed, if the burden of +supporting the poor, a burden of which the selfish have hitherto by +compulsion borne a share, should now, or hereafter, be thrown +exclusively upon the benevolent. + +By having put an end to the Slave Trade and Slavery, the British people +are exalted in the scale of humanity; and they cannot but feel so, if +they look into themselves, and duly consider their relation to God and +their fellow-creatures. That was a noble advance; but a retrograde +movement will assuredly be made, if ever the principle, which has been +here defended, should be either avowedly abandoned or but ostensibly +retained. + +But after all, there may be a little reason to apprehend permanent +injury from any experiment that may be tried. On the one side will be +human nature rising up in her own defence, and on the other prudential +selfishness acting to the same purpose, from a conviction that, without +a compulsory provision for the exigencies of the labouring multitude, +that degree of ability to regulate the price of labour, which is +indispensable for the reasonable interest of arts and manufactures, +cannot, in Great Britain, be upheld. + + * * * * * + +II. In a poem of the foregoing collection, allusion is made to the state +of the workmen congregated in manufactories. In order to relieve many of +the evils to which that class of society are subject, and to establish a +better harmony between them and their employers, it would be well to +repeal such laws as prevent the formation of joint-stock companies. +There are, no doubt, many and great obstacles to the formation and +salutary working of these societies, inherent in the mind of those whom +they would obviously benefit. But the combinations of masters to keep +down, unjustly, the price of labour would be fairly checked by them, as +far as they were practicable; they would encourage economy, inasmuch as +they would enable a man to draw profit from his savings, by investing +them in buildings or machinery for processes of manufacture with which +he was habitually connected. His little capital would then be working +for him while he was at rest or asleep; he would more clearly perceive +the necessity of capital for carrying on great works: he would better +learn to respect the larger portions of it in the hands of others; he +would be less tempted to join in unjust combinations: and, for the sake +of his own property, if not for higher reasons, he would be slow to +promote local disturbance, or endanger public tranquillity; he would, at +least, be loth to act in that way _knowingly_: for it is not to be +denied that such societies might be nurseries of opinions unfavourable +to a mixed constitution of government, like that of Great Britain. The +democratic and republican spirit which they might be apt to foster would +not, however, be dangerous in itself, but only as it might act without +being sufficiently counterbalanced, either by landed proprietorship, or +by a Church extending itself so as to embrace an ever-growing and +ever-shifting population of mechanics and artisans. But if the +tendencies of such societies would be to make the men prosper who might +belong to them, rulers and legislators should rejoice in the result, +and do their duty to the State by upholding and extending the influence +of that Church to which it owes, in so great a measure, its safety, its +prosperity, and its glory. + +This, in the temper of the present times, may be difficult, but it is +become indispensable, since large towns in great numbers have sprung up, +and others have increased tenfold, with little or no dependence upon the +gentry and the landed proprietors; and apart from those mitigated feudal +institutions, which, till of late, have acted so powerfully upon the +composition of the House of Commons. Now it may be affirmed that, in +quarters where there is not an attachment to the Church, or the landed +aristocracy, and a pride in supporting them, _there_ the people will +dislike both, and be ready, upon such incitements as are perpetually +recurring, to join in attempts to overthrow them. There is no neutral +ground here: from want of due attention to the state of society in large +towns and manufacturing districts, and ignorance or disregard of these +obvious truths, innumerable well-meaning persons became zealous +supporters of a Reform Bill, the qualities and powers of which, whether +destructive or constructive, they would otherwise have been afraid of: +and even the framers of that bill, swayed as they might be by party +resentments and personal ambition, could not have gone so far, had not +they too been lamentably ignorant or neglectful of the same truths both +of fact and philosophy. + +But let that pass; and let no opponent of the Bill be tempted to +compliment his own foresight, by exaggerating the mischiefs and dangers +that have sprung from it: let not time be wasted in profitless regrets; +and let those party distinctions vanish to their very names that have +separated men who, whatever course they may have pursued, have ever had +a bond of union in the wish to save the limited monarchy, and those +other institutions that have, under Providence, rendered for so long a +period of time this country the happiest and worthiest of which there is +any record since the foundation of civil society. + + * * * * * + +III. A philosophic mind is best pleased when looking at religion in its +spiritual bearing; as a guide of conduct, a solace under affliction, and +a support amid the instabilities of mortal life; but the Church having +been forcibly brought by political considerations to my notice, while +treating of the labouring classes, I cannot forbear saying a few words +upon that momentous topic. + +There is a loud clamour for extensive change in that department. The +clamour would be entitled to more respect if they who are the most eager +to swell it with their voices were not generally the most ignorant of +the real state of the Church, and the service it renders to the +community. _Reform_ is the word employed. Let us pause and consider what +sense it is apt to carry, and how things are confounded by a lax use of +it. The great religious Reformation, in the sixteenth century, did not +profess to be a new construction, but a restoration of something fallen +into decay, or put out of sight. That familiar and justifiable use of +the word seems to have paved the way for fallacies with respect to the +term reform, which it is difficult to escape from. Were we to speak of +improvement and the correction of abuses, we should run less risk of +being deceived ourselves, or of misleading others. We should be less +likely to fall blindly into the belief, that the change demanded is a +renewal of something that has existed before, and that, therefore, we +have experience on our side; nor should we be equally tempted to beg the +question, that the change for which we are eager must be advantageous. +From generation to generation, men are the dupes of words; and it is +painful to observe, that so many of our species are most tenacious of +those opinions which they have formed with the least consideration. They +who are the readiest to meddle with public affairs, whether in Church or +State, fly to generalities, that they may be eased from the trouble of +thinking about particulars; and thus is deputed to mechanical +instrumentality the work which vital knowledge only can do well. + +'Abolish pluralities, have a resident incumbent in every parish,' is a +favourite cry; but, without adverting to other obstacles in the way of +this specious scheme, it may be asked what benefit would accrue from its +_indiscriminate_ adoption to counterbalance the harm it would introduce, +by nearly extinguishing the order of curates, unless the revenues of the +Church should grow with the population, and be greatly increased in many +thinly peopled districts, especially among the parishes of the North. + +The order of curates is so beneficial, that some particular notice of it +seems to be required in this place. For a Church poor as, relatively to +the numbers of people, that of England is, and probably will continue to +be, it is no small advantage to have youthful servants, who will work +upon the wages of hope and expectation. Still more advantageous is it to +have, by means of this order, young men scattered over the country, who +being more detached from the temporal concerns of the benefice, have +more leisure for improvement and study, and are less subject to be +brought into secular collision with those who are under their spiritual +guardianship. The curate, if he reside at a distance from the incumbent, +undertakes the requisite responsibilities of a temporal kind, in that +modified way which prevents him, as a new-comer, from being charged with +selfishness: while it prepares him for entering upon a benefice of his +own, with something of a suitable experience. If he should act under and +in co-operation with a resident incumbent, the gain is mutual. His +studies will probably be assisted; and his training, managed by a +superior, will not be liable to relapse in matters of prudence, +seemliness, or in any of the highest cares of his functions; and by way +of return for these benefits to the pupil, it will often happen that the +zeal of a middle-aged or declining incumbent will be revived, by being +in near communion with the ardour of youth, when his own efforts may +have languished through a melancholy consciousness that they have not +produced as much good among his flock as, when he first entered upon the +charge, he fondly hoped. + +Let one remark, and that not the least important, be added. A curate, +entering for the first time upon his office, comes from college after a +course of expense, and with such inexperience in the use of money, that, +in his new situation, he is apt to fall unawares into pecuniary +difficulties. If this happens to him, much more likely is it to happen +to the youthful incumbent; whose relations, to his parishioners and to +society, are more complicated; and, his income being larger and +independent of another, a costlier style of living is required of him by +public opinion. If embarrassment should ensue, and with that unavoidably +some loss of respectability, his future usefulness will be +proportionably impaired: not so with the curate, for he can easily +remove and start afresh with a stock of experience and an unblemished +reputation; whereas the early indiscretions of an incumbent being +rarely forgotten, may be impediments to the efficacy of his ministry for +the remainder of his life. The same observations would apply with equal +force to doctrine. A young minister is liable to errors, from his +notions being either too lax or over-strained. In both cases it would +prove injurious that the error should be remembered, after study and +reflection, with advancing years, shall have brought him to a clearer +discernment of the truth, and better judgment in the application of it. + +It must be acknowledged that, among the regulations of ecclesiastical +polity, none at first view are more attractive than that which +prescribes for every parish a resident incumbent. How agreeable to +picture to one's self, as has been done by poets and romance writers, +from Chaucer down to Goldsmith, a man devoted to his ministerial office, +with not a wish or a thought ranging beyond the circuit of its cares! +Nor is it in poetry and fiction only that such characters are found; +they are scattered, it is hoped not sparingly, over real life, +especially in sequestered and rural districts, where there is but small +influx of new inhabitants, and little change of occupation. The spirit +of the Gospel, unaided by acquisitions of profane learning and +experience in the world,--that spirit and the obligations of the sacred +office may, in such situations, suffice to effect most of what is +needful. But for the complex state of society that prevails in England, +much more is required, both in large towns, and in many extensive +districts of the country. A minister should not only be irreproachable +in manners and morals, but accomplished in learning, as far as is +possible without sacrifice of the least of his pastoral duties. As +necessary, perhaps more so, is it that he should be a citizen as well as +a scholar; thoroughly acquainted with the structure of society and the +constitution of civil government, and able to reason upon both with the +most expert; all ultimately in order to support the truths of +Christianity, and to diffuse its blessings. + +A young man coming fresh from the place of his education, cannot have +brought with him these accomplishments; and if the scheme of equalising +Church incomes, which many advisers are much bent upon, be realised, so +that there should be little or no secular inducement for a clergyman to +desire a removal from the spot where he may chance to have been first +set down: surely not only opportunities for obtaining the requisite +qualifications would be diminished, but the motives for desiring to +obtain them would be proportionably weakened. And yet these +qualifications are indispensable for the diffusion of that knowledge, by +which alone the political philosophy of the New Testament can be rightly +expounded, and its precepts adequately enforced. In these time, when the +press is daily exercising so great a power over the minds of the people, +for wrong or for right as may happen, _that_ preacher ranks among the +first of benefactors who, without stooping to the direct treatment of +current politics and passing events, can furnish infallible guidance +through the delusions that surround them; and who, appealing to the +sanctions of Scripture, may place the grounds of its injunctions in so +clear a light, that disaffection shall cease to be cultivated as a +laudable propensity, and loyalty cleansed from the dishonour of a blind +and prostrate obedience. + +It is not, however, in regard to civic duties alone, that this knowledge +in a minister of the Gospel is important; it is still more so for +softening and subduing private and personal discontents. In all places, +and at all times, men have gratuitously troubled themselves, because +their survey of the dispensations of Providence has been partial and +narrow; but now that readers are so greatly multiplied, men judge as +they are _taught_, and repinings are engendered everywhere, by +imputations being cast upon the government; and are prolonged or +aggravated by being ascribed to misconduct or injustice in rulers, when +the individual himself only is in fault. If a Christian pastor be +competent to deal with these humours, as they may be dealt with, and by +no members of society so successfully, both from more frequent and more +favourable opportunities of intercourse, and by aid of the authority +with which he speaks; he will be a teacher of moderation, a dispenser of +the wisdom that blunts approaching distress by submission to God's will, +and lightens, by patience, grievances which cannot be removed. + +We live in times when nothing, of public good at least, is generally +acceptable, but what we believe can be traced to preconceived intention, +and specific acts and formal contrivances of human understanding. A +Christian instructor thoroughly accomplished would be a standing +restraint upon such presumptuousness of judgment, by impressing the +truth that-- + + In the unreasoning progress of the world + A wiser spirit is at work for us, + A better eye than ours.--MS. + +Revelation points to the purity and peace of a future world; but our +sphere of duty is upon earth; and the relations of impure and +conflicting things to each other must be understood, or we shall be +perpetually going wrong, in all but goodness of intention; and goodness +of intention will itself relax through frequent disappointment. How +desirable, then, is it, that a minister of the Gospel should be versed +in the knowledge of existing facts, and be accustomed to a wide range of +social experience! Nor is it less desirable for the purpose of +counterbalancing and tempering in his own mind that ambition with which +spiritual power is as apt to be tainted as any other species of power +which men covet or possess. + +It must be obvious that the scope of the argument is to discourage an +attempt which would introduce into the Church of England an equality of +income and station, upon the model of that of Scotland. The sounder part +of the Scottish nation know what good their ancestors derived from their +Church, and feel how deeply the living generation is indebted to it. +They respect and love it, as accommodated in so great a measure to a +comparatively poor country, through the far greater portion of which +prevails a uniformity of employment; but the acknowledged deficiency of +theological learning among the clergy of that Church is easily accounted +for by this very equality. What else may be wanting there, it would be +unpleasant to inquire, and might prove invidious to determine: one +thing, however, is clear; that in all countries the temporalities of the +Church Establishment should bear an analogy to the state of society, +otherwise it cannot diffuse its influence through the whole community. +In a country so rich and luxurious as England, the character of its +clergy must unavoidably sink, and their influence be everywhere +impaired, if individuals from the upper ranks, and men of leading +talents, are to have no inducements to enter into that body but such as +are purely spiritual. And this 'tinge of secularity' is no reproach to +the clergy, nor does it imply a deficiency of spiritual endowments. +Parents and guardians, looking forward to sources of honourable +maintenance for their children and wards, often direct their thoughts +early towards the Church, being determined partly by outward +circumstances, and partly by indications of seriousness, or intellectual +fitness. It is natural that a boy or youth, with such a prospect before +him, should turn his attention to those studies, and be led into those +habits of reflection, which will in some degree tend to prepare him for +the duties he is hereafter to undertake. As he draws nearer to the time +when he will be called to these duties, he is both led and compelled to +examine the Scriptures. He becomes more and more sensible of their +truth. Devotion grows in him; and what might begin in temporal +considerations will end (as in a majority of instances we trust it does) +in a spiritual-mindedness not unworthy of that Gospel, the lessons of +which he is to teach, and the faith of which he is to inculcate. Not +inappositely may be here repeated an observation which, from its +obviousness and importance, must have been frequently made--viz. that +the impoverishing of the clergy, and bringing their incomes much nearer +to a level, would not cause them to become less worldly-minded: the +emoluments, howsoever reduced, would be as eagerly sought for, but by +men from lower classes in society; men who, by their manners, habits, +abilities, and the scanty measure of their attainments, would +unavoidably be less fitted for their station, and less competent to +discharge its duties. + +Visionary notions have in all ages been afloat upon the subject of best +providing for the clergy; notions which have been sincerely entertained +by good men, with a view to the improvement of that order, and eagerly +caught at and dwelt upon, by the designing, for its degradation and +disparagement. Some are beguiled by what they call the _voluntary +system_, not seeing (what stares one in the face at the very threshold) +that they who stand in most need of religious instruction are +unconscious of the want, and therefore cannot reasonably be expected to +make any sacrifices in order to supply it. Will the licentious, the +sensual, and the depraved, take from the means of their gratifications +and pursuits, to support a discipline that cannot advance without +uprooting the trees that bear the fruit which they devour so greedily? +Will _they_ pay the price of that seed whose harvest is to be reaped in +an invisible world? A voluntary system for the religious exigencies of a +people numerous and circumstanced as we are! Not more absurd would it be +to expect that a knot of boys should draw upon the pittance of their +pocket-money to build schools, or out of the abundance of their +discretion be able to select fit masters to teach and keep them in +order! Some, who clearly perceive the incompetence and folly of such a +scheme for the agricultural part of the people, nevertheless think it +feasible in large towns, where the rich might subscribe for the +religious instruction of the poor. Alas! they know little of the thick +darkness that spreads over the streets and alleys of our large towns. +The parish of Lambeth, a few years since, contained not more than one +church and three or four small proprietary chapels, while dissenting +chapels of every denomination were still more scantily found there; yet +the inhabitants of the parish amounted at that time to upwards of +50,000. Were the parish church, and the chapels of the Establishment +existing there, an _impediment_ to the spread of the Gospel among that +mass of people? Who shall dare to say so? But if any one, in the face of +the fact which has just been stated, and in opposition to authentic +reports to the same effect from various other quarters, should still +contend, that a voluntary system is sufficient for the spread and +maintenance of religion, we would ask, what kind of religion? wherein +would it differ, among the many, from deplorable fanaticism? + +For the preservation of the Church Establishment, all men, whether they +belong to it or not, could they perceive their true interest, would be +strenuous: but how inadequate are its provisions for the needs of the +country! and how much is it to be regretted that, while its zealous +friends yield to alarms on account of the hostility of Dissent, they +should so much overrate the danger to be apprehended from that quarter, +and almost overlook the fact that hundreds of thousands of our +fellow-countrymen, though formally and nominally of the Church of +England, never enter her places of worship, neither have they +communication with her ministers! This deplorable state of things was +partly produced by a decay of zeal among the rich and influential, and +partly by a want of due expansive power in the constitution of the +Establishment as regulated by law. Private benefactors, in their efforts +to build and endow churches, have been frustrated, or too much impeded +by legal obstacles: these, where they are unreasonable or unfitted for +the times, ought to be removed; and, keeping clear of intolerance and +injustice, means should be used to render the presence and powers of +the Church commensurate with the wants of a shifting and +still-increasing population. + +This cannot be effected, unless the English Government vindicate the +truth, that, as her Church exists for the benefit of all (though not in +equal degree), whether of her communion or not, all should be made to +contribute to its support. If this ground be abandoned, cause will be +given to fear that a moral wound may be inflicted upon the heart of the +English people, for which a remedy cannot be speedily provided by the +utmost efforts which the members of the Church will themselves be able +to make. + +But let the friends of the Church be of good courage. Powers are at work +by which, under Divine Providence, she may be strengthened and the +sphere of her usefulness extended; not by alterations in her Liturgy, +accommodated to this or that demand of finical taste, nor by cutting off +this or that from her articles or Canons, to which the scrupulous or the +overweening may object. Covert schism, and open nonconformity, would +survive after alterations, however promising in the eyes of those whose +subtilty had been exercised in making them. Latitudinarianism is the +parhelion of liberty of conscience, and will ever successfully lay claim +to a divided worship. Among Presbyterians, Socinians, Baptists, and +Independents, there will always be found numbers who will tire of their +several creeds, and some will come over to the Church. Conventicles may +disappear, congregations in each denomination may fall into decay or be +broken up, but the conquests which the National Church ought chiefly to +aim at, lie among the thousands and tens of thousands of the unhappy +outcasts who grow up with no religion at all. The wants of these cannot +but be feelingly remembered. Whatever may be the disposition of the new +constituencies under the Reformed Parliament, and the course which the +men of their choice may be inclined or compelled to follow, it may be +confidently hoped that individuals, acting in their private capacities, +will endeavour to make up for the deficiencies of the Legislature. Is it +too much to expect that proprietors of large estates, where the +inhabitants are without religious instruction, or where it is sparingly +supplied, will deem it their duty to take part in this good work; and +that thriving manufacturers and merchants will, in their several +neighbourhoods, be sensible of the like obligation, and act upon it with +generous rivalry? + +Moreover, the force of public opinion is rapidly increasing: and some +may bend to it, who are not so happy as to be swayed by a higher motive: +especially they who derive large incomes from lay-impropriations, in +tracts of country where ministers are few and meagerly provided for. A +claim still stronger may be acknowledged by those who, round their +superb habitations, or elsewhere, walk over vast estates which were +lavished upon their ancestors by royal favouritism or purchased at +insignificant prices after church-spoliation; such proprietors, though +not conscience-stricken (there is no call for that), may be prompted to +make a return for which their tenantry and dependents will learn to +bless their names. An impulse has been given; an accession of means from +these several sources, co-operating with a _well_-considered change in +the distribution of some parts of the property at present possessed by +the Church, a change scrupulously founded upon due respect to law and +justice, will, we trust, bring about so much of what her friends desire, +that the rest may be calmly waited for, with thankfulness for what shall +have been obtained. + +Let it not be thought unbecoming in a layman to have treated at length a +subject with which the clergy are more intimately conversant. All may, +without impropriety, speak of what deeply concerns all: nor need an +apology be offered for going over ground which has been trod before so +ably and so often: without pretending, however, to any thing of novelty, +either in matter or manner, something may have been offered to view, +which will save the writer from the imputation of having little to +recommend his labour, but goodness of intention. + +It was with reference to thoughts and feelings expressed in verse, that +I entered upon the above notices, and with verse I will conclude. The +passage is extracted from my MSS. written above thirty years ago: it +turns upon the individual dignity which humbleness of social condition +does not preclude, but frequently promotes. It has no direct bearing +upon clubs for the discussion of public affairs, nor upon political or +trade-unions; but if a single workman--who, being a member of one of +those clubs, runs the risk of becoming an agitator, or who, being +enrolled in a union, must be left without a will of his own, and +therefore a slave--should read these lines, and be touched by them, I +should indeed rejoice, and little would I care for losing credit as a +poet with intemperate critics, who think differently from me upon +political philosophy or public measures, if the sober-minded admit that, +in general views, my affections have been moved, and my imagination +exercised, under and _for_ the guidance of reason. + + Here might I pause, and bend in reverence + To Nature, and the power of human minds; + To men as they are men within themselves. + How oft high service is performed within, + When all the external man is rude in show; + Not like a temple rich with pomp and gold, + But a mere mountain chapel that protects + Its simple worshippers from sun and shower! + Of these, said I, shall be my song; of these, + If future years mature me for the task, + Will I record the praises, making verse + Deal boldly with substantial things--in truth + And sanctity of passion speak of these, + That justice may be done, obeisance paid + Where it is due. Thus haply shall I teach + Inspire, through unadulterated ears + Pour rapture, tenderness, and hope; my theme + No other than the very heart of man, + As found among the best of those who live, + Not unexalted by religious faith, + Nor uninformed by books, good books, though few + In Nature's presence: thence may I select + Sorrow that is not sorrow, but delight, + And miserable love that is not pain + To hear of, for the glory that redounds + Therefrom to human kind, and what we are. + Be mine to follow with no timid step + Where knowledge leads me; it shall be my pride + That I have dared to tread this holy ground, + Speaking no dream, but things oracular, + Matter not lightly to be heard by those + Who to the letter of the outward promise + Do read the invisible soul; by men adroit + In speech, and for communion with the world + Accomplished, minds whose faculties are then + Most active when they are most eloquent, + And elevated most when most admired. + Men may be found of other mould than these; + Who are their own upholders, to themselves + Encouragement and energy and will; + Expressing liveliest thoughts in lively words + As native passion dictates. Others, too, + There are, among the walks of homely life, + Still higher, men for contemplation framed; + Shy, and unpractised in the strife of phrase; + Meek men, whose very souls perhaps would sink + Beneath them, summoned to such intercourse. + Theirs is the language of the heavens, the power, + The thought, the image, and the silent joy: + Words are but under-agents in their souls; + When they are grasping with their greatest strength + They do not breathe among them; this I speak + In gratitude to God, who feeds our hearts + For His own service, knoweth, loveth us, + When we are unregarded by the world. + + + + +II. ADVICE TO THE YOUNG. + + +(_a_) LETTER TO THE EDITOR OF 'THE FRIEND,' SIGNED 'MATHETES.' + +(_b_) ANSWER TO THE LETTER OF 'MATHETES.' + +1809. + +ADVICE TO THE YOUNG. + +INTRODUCTION TO 'THE FRIEND,' VOL. III. (1850). + + +(_a_) LETTER TO THE EDITOR BY 'MATHETES.' + + [Greek: Para Sextou--ten ennoian tou kata physinzen, kai to semnon + aplastos,--ose kolakeias men pases proseneseran einai ten omilian + autou, aidesimotaton de par' auton ekeinon ton kairon einai kai ama + men apathesaton einai, ama de philosorgotaton kai to idein + aithropon saphos elachison ton eautou kalon hegoumenon ten autou + polymathien]. + + M. ANTONINUS.[25] + +[25] L. i. 9. But the passage is made up from, rather than found in, +Antoninus. Ed. of _Friend_. + + From Sextus, and from the contemplation of his character, I learned + what it was to live a life in harmony with nature; and that + seemliness and dignity of deportment, which insured the profoundest + reverence at the very same time that his company was more winning + than all the flattery in the world. To him I owe likewise that I + have known a man at once the most dispassionate and the most + affectionate, and who of all his attractions set the least value on + the multiplicity of his literary acquisitions. + +_To the Editor of 'The Friend.'_ + +SIR, + +I hope you will not ascribe to presumption the liberty I take in +addressing you on the subject of your work. I feel deeply interested in +the cause you have undertaken to support; and my object in writing this +letter is to describe to you, in part from my own feelings, what I +conceive to be the state of many minds, which may derive important +advantage from your instructions. + +I speak, Sir, of those who, though bred up under our unfavourable system +of education, have yet held at times some intercourse with nature, and +with those great minds whose works have been moulded by the spirit of +nature; who, therefore, when they pass from the seclusion and constraint +of early study, bring with them into the new scene of the world much of +the pure sensibility which is the spring of all that is greatly good in +thought and action. To such the season of that entrance into the world +is a season of fearful importance; not for the seduction of its +passions, but of its opinions. Whatever be their intellectual powers, +unless extraordinary circumstances in their lives have been so +favourable to the growth of meditative genius, that their speculative +opinions must spring out of their early feelings, their minds are still +at the mercy of fortune: they have no inward impulse steadily to propel +them: and must trust to the chances of the world for a guide. And such +is our present moral and intellectual state, that these chances are +little else than variety of danger. There will be a thousand causes +conspiring to complete the work of a false education, and by inclosing +the mind on every side from the influences of natural feeling, to +degrade its inborn dignity, and finally bring the heart itself under +subjection to a corrupted understanding. I am anxious to describe to you +what I have experienced or seen of the dispositions and feelings that +will aid every other cause of danger, and tend to lay the mind open to +the infection of all those falsehoods in opinion and sentiment, which +constitute the degeneracy of the age. + +Though it would not be difficult to prove, that the mind of the country +is much enervated since the days of her strength, and brought down from +its moral dignity, it is not yet so forlorn of all good,--there is +nothing in the face of the times so dark and saddening and repulsive--as +to shock the first feelings of a generous spirit, and drive it at once +to seek refuge in the elder ages of our greatness. There yet survives so +much of the character bred up through long years of liberty, danger, and +glory, that even what this age produces bears traces of those that are +past, and it still yields enough of beautiful, and splendid, and bold, +to captivate an ardent but untutored imagination. And in this real +excellence is the beginning of danger: for it is the first spring of +that excessive admiration of the age which at last brings down to its +own level a mind born above it. If there existed only the general +disposition of all who are formed with a high capacity for good, to be +rather credulous of excellence than suspiciously and severely just, the +error would not be carried far: but there are, to a young mind, in this +country and at this time, numerous powerful causes concurring to inflame +this disposition, till the excess of the affection above the worth of +its object is beyond all computation. To trace these causes it will be +necessary to follow the history of a pure and noble mind from the first +moment of that critical passage from seclusion to the world, which +changes all the circumstances of its intellectual existence, shows it +for the first time the real scene of living men, and calls up the new +feeling of numerous relations by which it is to be connected with them. + +To the young adventurer in life, who enters upon his course with such a +mind, every thing seems made for delusion. He comes with a spirit the +dearest feelings and highest thoughts of which have sprung up under the +influences of nature. He transfers to the realities of life the high +wild fancies of visionary boyhood: he brings with him into the world the +passions of solitary and untamed imagination, and hopes which he has +learned from dreams. Those dreams have been of the great and wonderful +and lovely, of all which in these has yet been disclosed to him: his +thoughts have dwelt among the wonders of nature, and among the loftiest +spirits of men, heroes, and sages, and saints;--those whose deeds, and +thoughts, and hopes, were high above ordinary mortality, have been the +familiar companions of his soul. To love and to admire has been the joy +of his existence. Love and admiration are the pleasures he will demand +of the world. For these he has searched eagerly into the ages that are +gone; but with more ardent and peremptory expectation he requires them +of that in which his own lot is cast: for to look on life with hopes of +happiness is a necessity of his nature, and to him there is no happiness +but such as is surrounded with excellence. + +See first how this spirit will affect his judgment of moral character, +in those with whom chance may connect him in the common relations of +life. It is of those with whom he is to live, that his soul first +demands this food of her desires. From their conversation, their looks, +their actions, their lives, she asks for excellence. To ask from all and +to ask in vain, would be too dismal to bear: it would disturb him too +deeply with doubt and perplexity and fear. In this hope, and in the +revolting of his thoughts from the possibility of disappointment, there +is a preparation for self-delusion: there is an unconscious +determination that his soul shall be satisfied; an obstinate will to +find good every where. And thus his first study of mankind is a +continued effort to read in them the expression of his own feelings. He +catches at every uncertain shew and shadowy resemblance of what he +seeks; and unsuspicious in innocence, he is first won with those +appearances of good which are in fact only false pretensions. But this +error is not carried far: for there is a sort of instinct of rectitude, +which, like the pressure of a talisman given to baffle the illusions of +enchantment, warns a pure mind against hypocrisy. There is another +delusion more difficult to resist and more slowly dissipated. It is when +he finds, as he often will, some of the real features of excellence in +the purity of their native form. For then his rapid imagination will +gather round them all the kindred features that are wanting to perfect +beauty; and make for him, where he could not find, the moral creature of +his expectation; peopling, even from this human world, his little circle +of affection with forms as fair as his heart desired for its love. + +But when, from the eminence of life which he has reached, he lifts up +his eyes, and sends out his spirit to range over the great scene that is +opening before him and around him, the whole prospect of civilised life +so wide and so magnificent;--when he begins to contemplate, in their +various stations of power or splendour, the leaders of mankind, those +men on whose wisdom are hung the fortunes of nations, those whose genius +and valour wield the heroism of a people;--or those, in no inferior +pride of place, whose sway is over the mind of society, chiefs in the +realm of imagination, interpreters of the secrets of nature, rulers of +human opinion;--what wonder, when he looks on all this living scene, +that his heart should burn with strong affection, that he should feel +that his own happiness will be for ever interwoven with the interests of +mankind? Here then the sanguine hope with which he looks on life, will +again be blended with his passionate desire of excellence; and he will +still be impelled to single out some, on whom his imagination and his +hopes may repose. To whatever department of human thought or action his +mind is turned with interest, either by the sway of public passion or by +its own impulse, among statesmen, and warriors, and philosophers, and +poets, he will distinguish some favoured names on which he may satisfy +his admiration. And there, just as in the little circle of his own +acquaintance, seizing eagerly on every merit they possess, he will +supply more from his own credulous hope, completing real with imagined +excellence, till living men, with all their imperfections, become to +him the representatives of his perfect ideal creation;--till, +multiplying his objects of reverence, as he enlarges his prospect of +life, he will have surrounded himself with idols of his own hands, and +his imagination will seem to discern a glory in the countenance of the +age, which is but the reflection of its own effulgence. + +He will possess, therefore, in the creative power of generous hope, a +preparation for illusory and exaggerated admiration of the age in which +he lives: and this predisposition will meet with many favouring +circumstances, when he has grown up under a system of education like +ours, which (as perhaps all education must that is placed in the hands +of a distinct and embodied class, who therefore bring to it the peculiar +and hereditary prejudices of their order) has controlled his imagination +to a reverence of former times, with an unjust contempt of his own. For +no sooner does he break loose from this control, and begin to feel, as +he contemplates the world for himself, how much there is surrounding him +on all sides that gratifies his noblest desires, than there springs up +in him an indignant sense of injustice, both to the age and to his own +mind; and he is impelled warmly and eagerly to give loose to the +feelings that have been held in bondage, to seek out and to delight in +finding excellence that will vindicate the insulted world, while it +justifies, too, his resentment of his own undue subjection, and exalts +the value of his new found liberty. + +Add to this, that secluded as he has been from knowledge, and, in the +imprisoning circle of one system of ideas, cut off from his share in the +thoughts and feelings that are stirring among men, he finds himself, at +the first steps of his liberty, in a new intellectual world. Passions +and powers which he knew not of start up in his soul. The human mind, +which he had seen but under one aspect, now presents to him a thousand +unknown and beautiful forms. He sees it, in its varying powers, glancing +over nature with restless curiosity, and with impetuous energy striving +for ever against the barriers which she has placed around it; sees it +with divine power creating from dark materials living beauty, and fixing +all its high and transported fancies in imperishable forms. In the world +of knowledge, and science, and art, and genius, he treads as a stranger: +in the confusion of new sensations, bewildered in delights, all seems +beautiful; all seems admirable. And therefore he engages eagerly in the +pursuit of false or insufficient philosophy; he is won by the +allurements of licentious art; he follows with wonder the irregular +transports of undisciplined imagination. Nor, where the objects of his +admiration are worthy, is he yet skilful to distinguish between the +acquisitions which the age has made for itself, and that large +proportion of its wealth which it has only inherited: but in his delight +of discovery and growing knowledge, all that is new to his own mind +seems to him new-born to the world. To himself every fresh idea appears +instruction; every new exertion, acquisition of power: he seems just +called to the consciousness of himself, and to his true place in the +intellectual world; and gratitude and reverence towards those to whom he +owes this recovery of his dignity, tend much to subject him to the +dominion of minds that were not formed by nature to be the leaders of +opinion. + +All the tumult and glow of thought and imagination, which seize on a +mind of power in such a scene, tend irresistibly to bind it by stronger +attachment of love and admiration to its own age. And there is one among +the new emotions which belong to its entrance on the world, one almost +the noblest of all, in which this exaltation of the age is essentially +mingled. The faith in the perpetual progression of human nature towards +perfection gives birth to such lofty dreams, as secure to it the devout +assent of the imagination; and it will be yet more grateful to a heart +just opening to hope, flushed with the consciousness of new strength, +and exulting in the prospect of destined achievements. There is, +therefore, almost a compulsion on generous and enthusiastic spirits, as +they trust that the future shall transcend the present, to believe that +the present transcends the past. It is only on an undue love and +admiration of their own age that they can build their confidence in the +melioration of the human race. Nor is this faith, which, in some shape, +will always be the creed of virtue, without apparent reason, even in the +erroneous form in which the young adopt it. For there is a perpetual +acquisition of knowledge and art, an unceasing progress in many of the +modes of exertion of the human mind, a perpetual unfolding of virtues +with the changing manners of society: and it is not for a young mind to +compare what is gained with what has passed away; to discern that +amidst the incessant intellectual activity of the race, the intellectual +power of individual minds maybe falling off; and that amidst +accumulating knowledge lofty science may disappear; and still less, to +judge, in the more complicated moral character of a people, what is +progression, and what is decline. + +Into a mind possessed with this persuasion of the perpetual progress of +man, there may even imperceptibly steal both from the belief itself, and +from many of the views on which it rests, something like a distrust of +the wisdom of great men of former ages, and with the reverence, which no +delusion will ever over-power in a pure mind, for their greatness, a +fancied discernment of imperfection and of incomplete excellence, which +wanted for its accomplishment the advantages of later improvements: +there will be a surprise that so much should have been possible in times +so ill prepared; and even the study of their works may be sometimes +rather the curious research of a speculative inquirer, than the devout +contemplation of an enthusiast,--the watchful and obedient heart of a +disciple listening to the inspiration of his master. + +Here then is the power of delusion that will gather round the first +steps of a youthful spirit, and throw enchantment over the world in +which it is to dwell; hope realising its own dreams; ignorance dazzled +and ravished with sudden sunshine; power awakened and rejoicing in its +own consciousness; enthusiasm kindling among multiplying images of +greatness and beauty, and enamoured, above all, of one splendid error; +and, springing from all these, such a rapture of life and hope and joy, +that the soul, in the power of its happiness, transmutes things +essentially repugnant to it into the excellence of its own nature: these +are the spells that cheat the eye of the mind with illusion. It is under +these influences that a young man of ardent spirit gives all his love, +and reverence, and zeal, to productions of art, to theories of science, +to opinions, to systems of feeling, and to characters distinguished in +the world, that are far beneath his own original dignity. + +Now as this delusion springs not from his worse but his better nature, +it seems as if there could be no warning to him from within of his +danger: for even the impassioned joy which he draws at times from the +works of nature, and from those of her mightier sons, and which would +startle him from a dream of unworthy passion, serves only to fix the +infatuation:--for those deep emotions, proving to him that his heart is +uncorrupted, justify to him all its workings, and his mind, confiding +and delighting in itself, yields to the guidance of its own blind +impulses of pleasure. His chance, therefore, of security is the chance +that the greater number of objects occurring to attract his honourable +passions may be worthy of them. But we have seen that the whole power of +circumstances is collected to gather round him such objects and +influences as will bend his high passions to unworthy enjoyment. He +engages in it with a heart and understanding unspoiled: but they cannot +long be misapplied with impunity. They are drawn gradually into closer +sympathy with the falsehoods they have adopted, till, his very nature +seeming to change under the corruption, there disappears from it the +capacity of those higher perceptions and pleasures to which he was born: +and he is cast off from the communion of exalted minds, to live and to +perish with the age to which he has surrendered himself. + +If minds under these circumstances of danger are preserved from decay +and overthrow, it can seldom, I think, be to themselves that they owe +their deliverance. It must be to a fortunate chance which places them +under the influence of some more enlightened mind, from which they may +first gain suspicion and afterwards wisdom. There is a philosophy, +which, leading them by the light of their best emotions to the +principles which should give life to thought and law to genius, will +discover to them, in clear and perfect evidence, the falsehood of the +errors that have misled them, and restore them to themselves. And this +philosophy they will be willing to hear and wise to understand; but they +must be led into its mysteries by some guiding hand; for they want the +impulse or the power to penetrate of themselves the recesses. + +If a superior mind should assume the protection of others just beginning +to move among the dangers I have described, it would probably be found, +that delusions springing from their own virtuous activity were not the +only difficulties to be encountered. Even after suspicion is awakened, +the subjection to falsehood may be prolonged and deepened by many +weaknesses both of the intellectual and moral nature; weaknesses that +will sometimes shake the authority of acknowledged truth. There may be +intellectual indolence; an indisposition in the mind to the effort of +combining the ideas it actually possesses, and bringing into distinct +form the knowledge, which in its elements is already its own: there may +be, where the heart resists the sway of opinion, misgivings and modest +self-mistrust in him who sees that, if he trusts his heart, he must +slight the judgment of all around him:--there may be too habitual +yielding to authority, consisting, more than in indolence or diffidence, +in a conscious helplessness and incapacity of the mind to maintain +itself in its own place against the weight of general opinion; and there +may be too indiscriminate, too undisciplined, a sympathy with others, +which by the mere infection of feeling will subdue the reason. There +must be a weakness in dejection to him who thinks with sadness, if his +faith be pure, how gross is the error of the multitude, and that +multitude how vast;--a reluctance to embrace a creed that excludes so +many whom he loves, so many whom his youth has revered;--a difficulty to +his understanding to believe that those whom he knows to be, in much +that is good and honourable, his superiors, can be beneath him in this +which is the most important of all;--a sympathy pleading importunately +at his heart to descend to the fellowship of his brothers, and to take +their faith and wisdom for his own. How often, when under the impulses +of those solemn hours, in which he has felt with clearer insight and +deeper faith his sacred truths, he labours to win to his own belief +those whom he loves, will he be checked by their indifference or their +laughter! And will he not bear back to his meditations a painful and +disheartening sorrow, a gloomy discontent in that faith which takes in +but a portion of those whom he wishes to include in all his blessings? +Will he not be enfeebled by a distraction of inconsistent desires, when +he feels so strongly that the faith which fills his heart, the circle +within which he would embrace all he loves--would repose all his wishes +and hopes, and enjoyments--is yet incommensurate with his affections? + +Even when the mind, strong in reason and just feeling united, and +relying on its strength, has attached itself to truth, how much is there +in the course and accidents of life that is for ever silently at work +for its degradation. There are pleasures deemed harmless, that lay +asleep the recollections of innocence: there are pursuits held +honourable, or imposed by duty, that oppress the moral spirit: above +all there is that perpetual connection with ordinary minds in the common +intercourse of society; that restless activity of frivolous +conversation, where men of all characters and all pursuits mixing +together, nothing may be talked of that is not of common interest to +all;--nothing, therefore, but those obvious thoughts and feelings that +float over the surface of things: and all which is drawn from the depth +of nature, all which impassioned feeling has made original in thought, +would be misplaced and obtrusive. The talent that is allowed to shew +itself is that which can repay admiration by furnishing entertainment: +and the display to which it is invited is that which flatters the vulgar +pride of society, by abasing what is too high in excellence for its +sympathy. A dangerous seduction to talents, which would make language, +given to exalt the soul by the fervid expression of its pure emotions, +the instrument of its degradation. And even when there is, as in the +instance I have supposed, too much uprightness to choose so +dishonourable a triumph, there is a necessity of manners, by which +everyone must be controlled who mixes much in society, not to offend +those with whom he converses by his superiority; and whatever be the +native spirit of a mind, it is evident that this perpetual adaptation of +itself to others, this watchfulness against its own rising feelings, +this studied sympathy with mediocrity, must pollute and impoverish the +sources of its strength. + +From much of its own weakness, and from all the errors of its misleading +activities, may generous youth be rescued by the interposition of an +enlightened mind: and in some degree it may be guarded by instruction +against the injuries to which it is exposed in the world. His lot is +happy who owes this protection to friendship; who has found in a friend +the watchful guardian of his mind. He will not be deluded, having that +light to guide; he will not slumber, with that voice to inspire; he will +not be desponding or dejected, with that bosom to lean on. But how many +must there be whom Heaven has left unprovided, except in their own +strength; who must maintain themselves, unassisted and solitary, against +their own infirmities and the opposition of the world! For such there +may yet be a protector. If a teacher should stand up in their +generation, conspicuous above the multitude in superior power, and still +more in the assertion and proclamation of disregarded truth;--to him, to +his cheering or summoning voice, all those would turn, whose deep +sensibility has been oppressed by the indifference, or misled by the +seduction, of the times. Of one such teacher who has been given to our +own age you have described the power when you said, that in his +annunciation of truths he seemed to speak in thunders. I believe that +mighty voice has not been poured out in vain; that there are hearts that +have received into their inmost depths all its varying tones; and that +even now, there are many to whom the name of Wordsworth calls up the +recollection of their weakness and the consciousness of their strength. + +To give to the reason and eloquence of one man this complete control +over the minds of others, it is necessary, I think, that he should be +born in their own times. For thus whatever false opinion of pre-eminence +is attached to the age becomes at once a title of reverence to him: and +when with distinguished powers he sets himself apart from the age, and +above it, as the teacher of high but ill-understood truths, he will +appear at once to a generous imagination in the dignity of one whose +superior mind outsteps the rapid progress of society, and will derive +from illusion itself the power to disperse illusions. It is probable +too, that he who labours under the errors I have described, might feel +the power of truth in a writer of another age, yet fail in applying the +full force of his principles to his own times: but when he receives them +from a living teacher, there is no room for doubt or misapplication. It +is the errors of his own generation that are denounced; and whatever +authority he may acknowledge in the instructions of his master, strikes, +with inevitable force, at his veneration for the opinions and characters +of his own times. And finally there will be gathered round a living +teacher, who speaks to the deeper soul, many feelings of human love that +will place the infirmities of the heart peculiarly under his control; at +the same time that they blend with and animate the attachment to his +cause. So that there will flow from him something of the peculiar +influence of a friend: while his doctrines will be embraced and asserted +and vindicated with the ardent zeal of a disciple, such as can scarcely +be carried back to distant times, or connected with voices that speak +only from the grave. + +I have done what I proposed. I have related to you as much as I have had +opportunities of knowing of the difficulties from within and from +without, which may oppose the natural development of true feeling and +right opinion in a mind formed with some capacity for good; and the +resources which such a mind may derive from an enlightened contemporary +writer. If what I have said be just, it is certain that this influence +will be felt more particularly in a work, adapted by its mode of +publication to address the feelings of the time, and to bring to its +readers repeated admonition and repeated consolation. + +I have perhaps presumed too far in trespassing on your attention, and in +giving way to my own thoughts; but I was unwilling to leave any thing +unsaid which might induce you to consider with favour the request I was +anxious to make, in the name of all whose state of mind I have +described, that you would at times regard us more particularly in your +instructions. I cannot judge to what degree it may be in your power to +give the truth you teach a control over understandings that have matured +their strength in error; but in our class I am sure you will have docile +learners. + +MATHETES. + +(_b_) ANSWER TO THE LETTER OF MATHETES. + +The Friend might rest satisfied that his exertions thus far have not +been wholly unprofitable, if no other proof had been given of their +influence, than that of having called forth the foregoing letter, with +which he has been so much interested, that he could not deny himself the +pleasure of communicating it to his readers. In answer to his +correspondent, it need scarcely here be repeated, that one of the main +purposes of his work is to weigh, honestly and thoughtfully, the moral +worth and intellectual power of the age in which we live; to ascertain +our gain and our loss; to determine what we are in ourselves positively, +and what we are compared with our ancestors; and thus, and by every +other means within his power, to discover what may be hoped for future +times, what and how lamentable are the evils to be feared, and how far +there is cause for fear. If this attempt should not be made wholly in +vain, my ingenious correspondent, and all who are in a state of mind +resembling that of which he gives so lively a picture, will be enabled +more readily and surely to distinguish false from legitimate objects of +admiration: and thus may the personal errors which he would guard +against be more effectually prevented or removed by the development of +general truth for a general purpose, than by instructions specifically +adapted to himself or to the class of which he is the able +representative. There is a life and spirit in knowledge which we extract +from truths scattered for the benefit of all, and which the mind, by its +own activity, has appropriated to itself,--a life and spirit, which is +seldom found in knowledge communicated by formal and direct precepts, +even when they are exalted and endeared by reverence and love for the +teacher. + +Nevertheless, though I trust that the assistance which my correspondent +has done me the honour to request, will in course of time flow naturally +from my labours, in a manner that will best serve him, I cannot resist +the inclination to connect, at present, with his letter a few remarks of +direct application to the subject of it; remarks, I say,--for to such I +shall confine myself,--independent of the main point out of which his +complaint and request both proceed; I mean the assumed inferiority of +the present age in moral dignity and intellectual power to those which +have preceded it. For if the fact were true, that we had even surpassed +our ancestors in the best of what is good, the main part of the dangers +and impediments which my correspondent has feelingly portrayed, could +not cease to exist for minds like his, nor indeed would they be much +diminished; as they arise out of the constitution of things, from the +nature of youth, from the laws that govern the growth of the faculties, +and from the necessary condition of the great body of mankind. Let us +throw ourselves back to the age of Elizabeth, and call up to mind the +heroes, the warriors, the statesmen, the poets, the divines, and the +moral philosophers, with which the reign of the virgin queen was +illustrated. Or if we be more strongly attracted by the moral purity and +greatness, and that sanctity of civil and religious duty, with which the +tyranny of Charles I. was struggled against, let us cast our eyes, in +the hurry of admiration, round that circle of glorious patriots: but do +not let us be persuaded, that each of these, in his course of +discipline, was uniformly helped forward by those with whom he +associated, or by those whose care it was to direct him. Then, as now, +existed objects to which the wisest attached undue importance; then, as +now, judgment was misled by factions and parties, time wasted in +controversies fruitless, except as far as they quickened the faculties; +then, as now, minds were venerated or idolized, which owed their +influence to the weakness of their contemporaries rather than to their +own power. Then, though great actions were wrought, and great works in +literature and science produced, yet the general taste was capricious, +fantastical, or grovelling; and in this point, as in all others, was +youth subject to delusion, frequent in proportion to the liveliness of +the sensibility, and strong as the strength of the imagination. Every +age hath abounded in instances of parents, kindred, and friends, who, by +indirect influence of example, or by positive injunction and +exhortation, have diverted or discouraged the youth, who, in the +simplicity and purity of nature, had determined to follow his +intellectual genius through good and through evil, and had devoted +himself to knowledge, to the practice of virtue and the preservation of +integrity, in slight of temporal rewards. Above all, have not the common +duties and cares of common life at all times exposed men to injury from +causes the action of which is the more fatal from being silent and +unremitting, and which, wherever it was not jealously watched and +steadily opposed, must have pressed upon and consumed the diviner +spirit? + +There are two errors into which we easily slip when thinking of past +times. One lies in forgetting in the excellence of what remains the +large overbalance of worthlessness that has been swept away. Ranging +over the wide tracts of antiquity, the situation of the mind may be +likened to that of a traveller[26] in some unpeopled part of America, +who is attracted to the burial place of one of the primitive +inhabitants. It is conspicuous upon an eminence, 'a mount upon a mount!' +He digs into it, and finds that it contains the bones of a man of mighty +stature; and he is tempted to give way to a belief, that as there were +giants in those days, so all men were giants. But a second and wiser +thought may suggest to him that this tomb would never have forced itself +upon his notice, if it had not contained a body that was distinguished +from others,--that of a man who had been selected as a chieftain or +ruler for the very reason that he surpassed the rest of his tribe in +stature, and who now lies thus conspicuously inhumed upon the +mountain-top, while the bones, of his followers are laid unobtrusively +together in their burrows upon the plain below. The second habitual +error is, that in this comparison of ages we divide time merely into +past and present, and place these in the balance to be weighed against +each other; not considering that the present is in our estimation not +more than a period of thirty years, or half a century at most, and that +the past is a mighty accumulation of many such periods, perhaps the +whole of recorded time, or at least the whole of that portion of it in +which our own country has been distinguished. We may illustrate this by +the familiar use of the words ancient and modern, when applied to +poetry. What can be more inconsiderate or unjust than to compare a few +existing writers with the whole succession of their progenitors? The +delusion, from the moment that our thoughts are directed to it, seems +too gross to deserve mention; yet men will talk for hours upon poetry, +balancing against each other the words ancient and modern, and be +unconscious that they have fallen into it. + +[26] See Ashe's _Travels in America_. + +These observations are not made as implying a dissent from the belief +of my correspondent, that the moral spirit and intellectual powers of +this country are declining; but to guard against unqualified admiration, +even in cases where admiration has been rightly fixed, and to prevent +that depression which must necessarily follow, where the notion of the +peculiar unfavourableness of the present times to dignity of mind has +been carried too far. For in proportion as we imagine obstacles to exist +out of ourselves to retard our progress, will, in fact, our progress be +retarded. Deeming, then, that in all ages an ardent mind will be baffled +and led astray in the manner under contemplation, though in various +degrees, I shall at present content myself with a few practical and +desultory comments upon some of those general causes, to which my +correspondent justly attributes the errors in opinion, and the lowering +or deadening of sentiment, to which ingenuous and aspiring youth is +exposed. And first, for the heart-cheering belief in the perpetual +progress of the species towards a point of unattainable perfection. If +the present age do indeed transcend the past in what is most beneficial +and honourable, he that perceives this, being in no error, has no cause +for complaint; but if it be not so, a youth of genius might, it should +seem, be preserved from any wrong influence of this faith by an insight +into a simple truth, namely, that it is not necessary, in order to +satisfy the desires of our nature, or to reconcile us to the economy of +providence, that there should be at all times a continuous advance in +what is of highest worth. In fact it is not, as a writer of the present +day has admirably observed, in the power of fiction to portray in words, +or of the imagination to conceive in spirit, actions or characters of +more exalted virtue, than those which thousands of years ago have +existed upon earth, as we know from the records of authentic history. +Such is the inherent dignity of human nature, that there belong to it +sublimities of virtues which all men may attain, and which no man can +transcend: and though this be not true in an equal degree of +intellectual power, yet in the persons of Plato, Demosthenes, and Homer, +and in those of Shakespeare, Milton, and Lord Bacon, were enshrined as +much of the divinity of intellect as the inhabitants of this planet can +hope will ever take up its abode among them. But the question is not of +the power or worth of individual minds, but of the general moral or +intellectual merits of an age, or a people, or of the human race. Be it +so. Let us allow and believe that there is a progress in the species +towards unattainable perfection, or whether this be so or not, that it +is a necessity of a good and greatly-gifted nature to believe it; surely +it does not follow that this progress should be constant in those +virtues and intellectual qualities, and in those departments of +knowledge, which in themselves absolutely considered are of most value, +things independent and in their degree indispensable. The progress of +the species neither is nor can be like that of a Roman road in a right +line. It may be more justly compared to that of a river, which, both in +its smaller reaches and larger turnings, is frequently forced back +towards its fountains by objects which cannot otherwise be eluded or +overcome; yet with an accompanying impulse that will insure its +advancement hereafter, it is either gaining strength every hour, or +conquering in secret some difficulty, by a labour that contributes as +effectually to further it in its course, as when it moves forward +uninterrupted in a line, direct as that of the Roman road with which I +began the comparison. + +It suffices to content the mind, though there may be an apparent +stagnation, or a retrograde movement in the species, that something is +doing which is necessary to be done, and the effects of which will in +due time appear; that something is unremittingly gaining, either in +secret preparation or in open and triumphant progress. But in fact here, +as every where, we are deceived by creations which the mind is compelled +to make for itself; we speak of the species not as an aggregate, but as +endued with the form and separate life of an individual. But human +kind,--what is it else than myriads of rational beings in various +degrees obedient to their reason; some torpid, some aspiring; some in +eager chase to the right hand, some to the left; these wasting down +their moral nature, and those feeding it for immortality? A whole +generation may appear even to sleep, or may be exasperated with +rage,--they that compose it, tearing each other to pieces with more than +brutal fury. It is enough for complacency and hope, that scattered and +solitary minds are always labouring somewhere in the service of truth +and virtue; and that by the sleep of the multitude the energy of the +multitude may be prepared; and that by the fury of the people the chains +of the people may be broken. Happy moment was it for England when her +Chaucer, who has rightly been called the morning star of her literature, +appeared above the horizon; when her Wicliffe, like the sun, shot orient +beams through the night of Romish superstition! Yet may the darkness and +the desolating hurricane which immediately followed in the wars of York +and Lancaster, be deemed in their turn a blessing, with which the Land +has been visited. + +May I return to the thought of progress, of accumulation, of increasing +light, or of any other image by which it may please us to represent the +improvement of the species? The hundred years that followed the +usurpation of Henry IV., were a hurling-back of the mind of the country, +a dilapidation, an extinction; yet institutions, laws, customs, and +habits, were then broken down, which would not have been so readily, nor +perhaps so thoroughly destroyed by the gradual influence of increasing +knowledge; and under the oppression of which, if they had continued to +exist, the virtue and intellectual prowess of the succeeding century +could not have appeared at all, much less could they have displayed +themselves with that eager haste, and with those beneficent triumphs, +which will to the end of time be looked back upon with admiration and +gratitude. + +If the foregoing obvious distinctions be once clearly perceived, and +steadily kept in view, I do not see why a belief in the progress of +human nature towards perfection should dispose a youthful mind, however +enthusiastic, to an undue admiration of his own age, and thus tend to +degrade that mind. + +But let me strike at once at the root of the evil complained of in my +correspondent's letter. Protection from any fatal effect of seductions +and hindrances which opinion may throw in the way of pure and +high-minded youth, can only be obtained with certainty at the same price +by which every thing great and good is obtained, namely, steady +dependence upon voluntary and self-originating effort, and upon the +practice of self-examination, sincerely aimed at and rigorously +enforced. But how is this to be expected from youth? Is it not to demand +the fruit when the blossom is barely put forth, and is hourly at the +mercy of frosts and winds? To expect from youth these virtues and +habits, in that degree of excellence to which in mature years they may +be carried, would indeed be preposterous. Yet has youth many helps and +aptitudes for the discharge of these difficult duties, which are +withdrawn for the most part from the more advanced stages of life. For +youth has its own wealth and independence; it is rich in health of body +and animal spirits, in its sensibility to the impressions of the natural +universe, in the conscious growth of knowledge, in lively sympathy and +familiar communion with the generous actions recorded in history, and +with the high passions of poetry; and, above all, youth is rich in the +possession of time, and the accompanying consciousness of freedom and +power. The young man feels that he stands at a distance from the season +when his harvest is to be reaped; that he has leisure and may look +around, and may defer both the choice and the execution of his purposes. +If he makes an attempt and shall fail, new hopes immediately rush in and +new promises. Hence, in the happy confidence of his feelings, and in the +elasticity of his spirit, neither worldly ambition, nor the love of +praise, nor dread of censure, nor the necessity of worldly maintenance, +nor any of those causes which tempt or compel the mind habitually to +look out of itself for support; neither these, nor the passions of envy, +fear, hatred, despondency, and the rankling of disappointed hopes, (all +which in after life give birth to, and regulate, the efforts of men and +determine their opinions) have power to preside over the choice of the +young, if the disposition be not naturally bad, or the circumstances +have not been in an uncommon degree unfavourable. + +In contemplation, then, of this disinterested and free condition of the +youthful mind, I deem it in many points peculiarly capable of searching +into itself, and of profiting by a few simple questions, such as these +that follow. Am I chiefly gratified by the exertion of my power from the +pure pleasure of intellectual activity, and from the knowledge thereby +acquired? In other words, to what degree do I value my faculties and my +attainments for their own sakes? or are they chiefly prized by me on +account of the distinction which they confer, or the superiority which +they give me over others? Am I aware that immediate influence and a +general acknowledgment of merit are no necessary adjuncts of a +successful adherence to study and meditation in those departments of +knowledge which are of most value to mankind;--that a recompense of +honours and emoluments is far less to be expected; in fact, that there +is little natural connection between them? Have I perceived this truth; +and, perceiving it, does the countenance of philosophy continue to +appear as bright and beautiful in my eyes?--Has no haze bedimmed it? Has +no cloud passed over and hidden from me that look which was before so +encouraging? Knowing that it is my duty, and feeling that it is my +inclination, to mingle as a social being with my fellow men; prepared +also to submit cheerfully to the necessity that will probably exist of +relinquishing, for the purpose of gaining a livelihood, the greatest +portion of my time to employments where I shall have little or no choice +how or when I am to act; have I, at this moment, when I stand as it were +upon the threshold of the busy world, a clear intuition of that +pre-eminence in which virtue and truth (involving in this latter word +the sanctities of religion) sit enthroned above all denominations and +dignities which, in various degrees of exaltation, rule over the desires +of men? Do I feel that, if their solemn mandates shall be forgotten, or +disregarded, or denied the obedience due to them when opposed to others, +I shall not only have lived for no good purpose, but that I shall have +sacrificed my birth-right as a rational being; and that every other +acquisition will be a bane and a disgrace to me? This is not spoken with +reference to such sacrifices as present themselves to the youthful +imagination in the shape of crimes, acts by which the conscience is +violated; such a thought, I know, would be recoiled from at once, not +without indignation; but I write in the spirit of the ancient fable of +Prodicus, representing the choice of Hercules. Here is the World, a +female figure approaching at the head of a train of willing or giddy +followers: her air and deportment are at once careless, remiss, +self-satisfied, and haughty: and there is Intellectual Prowess, with a +pale cheek and serene brow, leading in chains Truth, her beautiful and +modest captive. The one makes her salutation with a discourse of ease, +pleasure, freedom, and domestic tranquillity; or, if she invite to +labour, it is labour in the busy and beaten track, with assurance of the +complacent regards of parents, friends, and of those with whom we +associate. The promise also may be upon her lip of the huzzas of the +multitude, of the smile of kings, and the munificent rewards of senates. +The other does not venture to hold forth any of these allurements; she +does not conceal from him whom she addresses the impediments, the +disappointments, the ignorance and prejudice which her follower will +have to encounter, if devoted, when duty calls, to active life; and if +to contemplative, she lays nakedly before him a scheme of solitary and +unremitting labour, a life of entire neglect perhaps, or assuredly a +life exposed to scorn, insult, persecution, and hatred; but cheered by +encouragement from a grateful few, by applauding conscience, and by a +prophetic anticipation, perhaps, of fame--a late, though lasting, +consequence. Of these two, each in this manner soliciting you to become +her adherent, you doubt not which to prefer; but oh! the thought of +moment is not preference, but the degree of preference; the passionate +and pure choice, the inward sense of absolute and unchangeable devotion. + +I spoke of a few simple questions. The question involved in this +deliberation is simple, but at the same time it is high and awful; and I +would gladly know whether an answer can be returned satisfactory to the +mind. We will for a moment suppose that it can not; that there is a +startling and a hesitation. Are we then to despond,--to retire from all +contest,--and to reconcile ourselves at once to cares without a generous +hope, and to efforts in which there is no more moral life than that +which is found in the business and labours of the unfavoured and +unaspiring many? No. But if the inquiry have not been on just grounds +satisfactorily answered, we may refer confidently our youth to that +nature of which he deems himself an enthusiastic follower, and one who +wishes to continue no less faithful and enthusiastic. We would tell him +that there are paths which he has not trodden; recesses which he has not +penetrated; that there is a beauty which he has not seen, a pathos which +he has not felt, a sublimity to which he hath not been raised. If he +have trembled because there has occasionally taken place in him a lapse +of which he is conscious; if he foresee open or secret attacks, which he +has had intimations that he will neither be strong enough to resist, nor +watchful enough to elude, let him not hastily ascribe this weakness, +this deficiency, and the painful apprehensions accompanying them, in any +degree to the virtues or noble qualities with which youth by nature is +furnished; but let him first be assured, before he looks about for the +means of attaining the insight, the discriminating powers, and the +confirmed wisdom of manhood, that his soul has more to demand of the +appropriate excellencies of youth, than youth has yet supplied to it; +that the evil under which he labours is not a superabundance of the +instincts and the animating spirit of that age, but a falling short, or +a failure. But what can he gain from this admonition? He cannot recall +past time; he cannot begin his journey afresh; he cannot untwist the +links by which, in no undelightful harmony, images and sentiments are +wedded in his mind. Granted that the sacred light of childhood is and +must be for him no more than a remembrance. He may, notwithstanding, be +remanded to nature, and with trustworthy hopes, founded less upon his +sentient than upon his intellectual being; to nature, as leading on +insensibly to the society of reason, but to reason and will, as leading +back to the wisdom of nature. A re-union, in this order accomplished, +will bring reformation and timely support; and the two powers of reason +and nature, thus reciprocally teacher and taught, may advance together +in a track to which there is no limit. + +We have been discoursing (by implication at least) of infancy, +childhood, boyhood, and youth, of pleasures lying upon the unfolding +intellect plenteously as morning dew-drops,--of knowledge inhaled +insensibly like the fragrance,--of dispositions stealing into the spirit +like music from unknown quarters,--of images uncalled for and rising up +like exhalations,--of hopes plucked like beautiful wild flowers from the +ruined tombs that border the highways of antiquity, to make a garland +for a living forehead;--in a word, we have been treating of nature as a +teacher of truth through joy and through gladness, and as a creatress of +the faculties by a process of smoothness and delight. We have made no +mention of fear, shame, sorrow, nor of ungovernable and vexing thoughts; +because, although these have been and have done mighty service, they are +overlooked in that stage of life when youth is passing into +manhood--overlooked, or forgotten. We now apply for the succour which we +need to a faculty that works after a different course; that faculty is +reason; she gives more spontaneously, but she seeks for more; she works +by thought through feeling; yet in thoughts she begins and ends. + +A familiar incident may elucidate this contrast in the operations of +nature, may render plain the manner in which a process of intellectual +improvements, the reverse of that which nature pursues, is by reason +introduced. There never perhaps existed a school-boy, who, having, when +he retired to rest, carelessly blown out his candle, and having chanced +to notice, as he lay upon his bed in the ensuing darkness, the sullen +light which had survived the extinguished flame, did not, at some time +or other, watch that light as if his mind were bound to it by a spell. +It fades and revives, gathers to a point, seems as if it would go out in +a moment, again recovers its strength, nay becomes brighter than before: +it continues to shine with an endurance, which in its apparent weakness +is a mystery; it protracts its existence so long, clinging to the power +which supports it, that the observer, who had lain down in his bed so +easy-minded, becomes sad and melancholy; his sympathies are touched; it +is to him an intimation and an image of departing human life; the +thought comes nearer to him; it is the life of a venerated parent, of a +beloved brother or sister, or of an aged domestic, who are gone to the +grave, or whose destiny it soon may be thus to linger, thus to hang upon +the last point of mortal existence, thus finally to depart and be seen +no more. This is nature teaching seriously and sweetly through the +affections, melting the heart, and, through that instinct of tenderness, +developing the understanding. In this instance the object of solicitude +is the bodily life of another. Let us accompany this same boy to that +period between youth and manhood, when a solicitude may be awakened for +the moral life of himself. Are there any powers by which, beginning with +a sense of inward decay that affects not however the natural life, he +could call to mind the same image and hang over it with an equal +interest as a visible type of his own perishing spirit? Oh! surely, if +the being of the individual be under his own care, if it be his first +care, if duty begin from the point of accountableness to our conscience +and, through that, to God and human nature; if without such primary +sense of duty, all secondary care of teacher, of friend, or parent, must +be baseless and fruitless; if, lastly, the motions of the soul transcend +in worth those of the animal functions, nay, give to them their sole +value; then truly are there such powers; and the image of the dying +taper may be recalled and contemplated, though with no sadness in the +nerves, no disposition to tears, no unconquerable sighs, yet with a +melancholy in the soul, a sinking inward into ourselves from thought to +thought, a steady remonstrance, and a high resolve. Let then the youth +go back, as occasion will permit, to nature and to solitude, thus +admonished by reason, and relying upon this newly acquired support. A +world of fresh sensations will gradually open upon him as his mind puts +off its infirmities, and as instead of being propelled restlessly +towards others in admiration, or too hasty love, he makes it his prime +business to understand himself. New sensations, I affirm, will be opened +out, pure, and sanctioned by that reason which is their original author; +and precious feelings of disinterested, that is self-disregarding, joy +and love may be regenerated and restored; and, in this sense, he may be +said to measure back the track of life he has trodden. + +In such disposition of mind let the youth return to the visible +universe, and to conversation with ancient books, and to those, if such +there be, which in the present day breathe the ancient spirit; and let +him feed upon that beauty which unfolds itself, not to his eye as it +sees carelessly the things which cannot possibly go unseen, and are +remembered or not as accident shall decide, but to the thinking mind; +which searches, discovers, and treasures up, infusing by meditation into +the objects with which it converses an intellectual life, whereby they +remain planted in the memory, now and for ever. Hitherto the youth, I +suppose, has been content for the most part to look at his own mind, +after the manner in which he ranges along the stars in the firmament +with naked unaided sight: let him now apply the telescope of art, to +call the invisible stars out of their hiding places; and let him +endeavour to look through the system of his being, with the organ of +reason, summoned to penetrate, as far as it has power, in discovery of +the impelling forces and the governing laws. + +These expectations are not immoderate; they demand nothing more than the +perception of a few plain truths; namely, that knowledge, efficacious +for the production of virtue, is the ultimate end of all effort, the +sole dispenser of complacency and repose. A perception also is implied +of the inherent superiority of contemplation to action. The Friend does +not in this contradict his own words, where he has said heretofore, that +'doubtless to act is nobler than to think.'[27] + +[27] 'The Friend,' vol. i. p. 158 (ed. 1850). G. + +In those words, it was his purpose to censure that barren +contemplation, which rests satisfied with itself in cases where the +thoughts are of such quality that they may, and ought to, be embodied in +action. But he speaks now of the general superiority of thought to +action; as proceeding and governing all action that moves to salutary +purposes; and, secondly, as leading to elevation, the absolute +possession of the individual mind, and to a consistency or harmony of +the being within itself, which no outward agency can reach to disturb or +to impair; and lastly, as producing works of pure science; or of the +combined faculties of imagination, feeling, and reason; works which, +both from their independence in their origin upon accident, their +nature, their duration, and the wide spread of their influence, are +entitled rightly to take place of the noblest and most beneficent deeds +of heroes, statesmen, legislators, or warriors. + +Yet, beginning from the perception of this established superiority, we +do not suppose that the youth, whom we wish to guide and encourage, is +to be insensible to those influences of wealth, or rank, or station, by +which the bulk of mankind are swayed. Our eyes have not been fixed upon +virtue which lies apart from human nature, or transcends it. In fact +there is no such virtue. We neither suppose nor wish him to undervalue +or slight these distinctions as modes of power, things that may enable +him to be more useful to his contemporaries; nor as gratifications that +may confer dignity upon his living person, and, through him, upon those +who love him; nor as they may connect his name, through a family to be +founded by his success, in a closer chain of gratitude with some portion +of posterity, who shall speak of him as among their ancestry, with a +more tender interest than the mere general bond of patriotism or +humanity would supply. We suppose no indifference to, much less a +contempt of, these rewards; but let them have their due place; let it be +ascertained, when the soul is searched into, that they are only an +auxiliary motive to exertion, never the principal or originating force. +If this be too much to expect from a youth who, I take for granted, +possesses no ordinary endowments, and whom circumstances with respect to +the more dangerous passions have favoured, then, indeed, must the noble +spirit of the country be wasted away; then would our institutions be +deplorable, and the education prevalent among us utterly vile and +debasing. + +But my correspondent, who drew forth these thoughts, has said rightly, +that the character of the age may not without injustice be thus branded. +He will not deny that, without speaking of other countries, there is in +these islands, in the departments of natural philosophy, of mechanic +ingenuity, in the general activities of the country, and in the +particular excellence of individual minds, in high stations civil or +military, enough to excite admiration and love in the sober-minded, and +more than enough to intoxicate the youthful and inexperienced. I will +compare, then, an aspiring youth, leaving the schools in which he has +been disciplined, and preparing to bear a part in the concerns of the +world, I will compare him in this season of eager admiration, to a +newly-invested knight appearing with his blank unsignalized shield, upon +some day of solemn tournament, at the court of the Faery-queen, as that +sovereignty was conceived to exist by the moral and imaginative genius +of our divine Spenser. He does not himself immediately enter the lists +as a combatant, but he looks round him with a beating heart, dazzled by +the gorgeous pageantry, the banners, the impresses, the ladies of +overcoming beauty, the persons of the knights, now first seen by him, +the fame of whose actions is carried by the traveller, like merchandize, +through the world, and resounded upon the harp of the minstrel. But I am +not at liberty to make this comparison. If a youth were to begin his +career in such an assemblage, with such examples to guide and to +animate, it will be pleaded, there would be no cause for apprehension; +he could not falter, he could not be misled. But ours is, +notwithstanding its manifold excellences, a degenerate age; and recreant +knights are among us far outnumbering the true. A false Gloriana in +these days imposes worthless services, which they who perform them, in +their blindness, know not to be such; and which are recompensed by +rewards as worthless, yet eagerly grasped at, as if they were the +immortal guerdon of virtue. + +I have in this declaration insensibly overstepped the limits which I had +determined not to pass: let me be forgiven; for it is hope which hath +carried me forward. In such a mixed assemblage as our age presents, with +its genuine merit and its large overbalance of alloy, I may boldly ask +into what errors, either with respect to person or thing, could a young +man fall, who had sincerely entered upon the course of moral discipline +which has been recommended, and to which the condition of youth, it has +been proved, is favourable? His opinions could no where deceive him +beyond the point up to which, after a season, he would find that it was +salutary for him to have been deceived. For as that man cannot set a +right value upon health who has never known sickness, nor feel the +blessing of ease who has been through his life a stranger to pain, so +can there be no confirmed and passionate love of truth for him who has +not experienced the hollowness of error. Range against each other as +advocates, oppose as combatants, two several intellects, each +strenuously asserting doctrines which he sincerely believes; but the one +contending for the worth and beauty of that garment which the other has +outgrown and cast away. Mark the superiority, the ease, the dignity, on +the side of the more advanced mind, how he overlooks his subject, +commands it from centre to circumference, and hath the same thorough +knowledge of the tenets which his adversary, with impetuous zeal, but in +confusion also, and thrown off his guard at every turn of the argument, +is labouring to maintain. If it be a question of the fine arts (poetry +for instance) the riper mind not only sees that his opponent is +deceived; but, what is of far more importance, sees how he is deceived. +The imagination stands before him with all its imperfections laid open; +as duped by shows, enslaved by words, corrupted by mistaken delicacy and +false refinement, as not having even attended with care to the reports +of the senses, and therefore deficient grossly in the rudiments of its +own power. He has noted how, as a supposed necessary condition, the +understanding sleeps in order that the fancy may dream. Studied in the +history of society, and versed in the secret laws of thought, he can +pass regularly through all the gradations, can pierce infallibly all the +windings, which false taste through ages has pursued, from the very time +when first, through inexperience, heedlessness, or affectation, the +imagination took its departure from the side of truth, its original +parent. Can a disputant thus accoutred be withstood?--one to whom, +further, every movement in the thoughts of his antagonist is revealed by +the light of his own experience; who, therefore, sympathizes with +weakness gently, and wins his way by forbearance; and hath, when +needful, an irresistible power of onset, arising from gratitude to the +truth which he vindicates, not merely as a positive good for mankind, +but as his own especial rescue and redemption. + +I might here conclude: but my correspondent towards the close of his +letter, has written so feelingly upon the advantages to be derived, in +his estimation, from a living instructor, that I must not leave this +part of the subject without a word of direct notice. The Friend cited, +some time ago,[28] a passage from the prose works of Milton, eloquently +describing the manner in which good and evil grow up together in the +field of the world almost inseparably; and insisting, consequently, upon +the knowledge and survey of vice as necessary to the constituting of +human virtue, and the scanning of error to the confirmation of truth. + +[28] 'The Friend,' vol. i. p. 96 (ed. 1850). G. + +If this be so, and I have been reasoning to the same effect in the +preceding paragraph, the fact, and the thoughts which it may suggest, +will, if rightly applied, tend to moderate an anxiety for the guidance +of a more experienced or superior mind. The advantage, where it is +possessed, is far from being an absolute good: nay, such a preceptor, +ever at hand, might prove an oppression not to be thrown off, and a +fatal hindrance. Grant that in the general tenor of his intercourse with +his pupil he is forbearing and circumspect, inasmuch as he is rich in +that knowledge (above all other necessary for a teacher) which cannot +exist without a liveliness of memory, preserving for him an unbroken +image of the winding, excursive, and often retrograde course, along +which his own intellect has passed. Grant that, furnished with these +distinct remembrances, he wishes that the mind of his pupil should be +free to luxuriate in the enjoyments, loves, and admirations appropriated +to its age; that he is not in haste to kill what he knows will in due +time die of itself; or be transmuted, and put on a nobler form and +higher faculties otherwise unattainable. In a word, that the teacher is +governed habitually by the wisdom of patience waiting with pleasure. Yet +perceiving how much the outward help of art can facilitate the progress +of nature, he may be betrayed into many unnecessary or pernicious +mistakes where he deems his interference warranted by substantial +experience. And in spite of all his caution, remarks may drop insensibly +from him which shall wither in the mind of his pupil a generous +sympathy, destroy a sentiment of approbation or dislike, not merely +innocent but salutary; and for the inexperienced disciple how many +pleasures may be thus off, what joy, what admiration, and what love! +While in their stead are introduced into the ingenuous mind misgivings, +a mistrust of its own evidence, dispositions to affect to feel where +there can be no real feeling, indecisive judgments, a superstructure of +opinions that has no base to support it, and words uttered by rote with +the impertinence of a parrot or a mockingbird, yet which may not be +listened to with the same indifference, as they cannot be heard without +some feeling of moral disapprobation. + +These results, I contend, whatever may be the benefit to be derived from +such an enlightened teacher, are in their degree inevitable. And by this +process, humility and docile dispositions may exist towards the master, +endued as he is with the power which personal presence confers; but at +the same time they will be liable to overstep their due bounds, and to +degenerate into passiveness and prostration of mind. This towards him; +while, with respect to other living men, nay even to the mighty spirits +of past times, there may be associated with such weakness a want of +modesty and humility. Insensibly may steal in presumption and a habit of +sitting in judgment in cases where no sentiment ought to have existed +but diffidence or veneration. Such virtues are the sacred attributes of +youth; its appropriate calling is not to distinguish in the fear of +being deceived or degraded, not to analyze with scrupulous minuteness, +but to accumulate in genial confidence; its instinct, its safety, its +benefit, its glory, is to love, to admire, to feel, and to labour. +Nature has irrevocably decreed, that our prime dependence in all stages +of life after infancy and childhood have been passed through (nor do I +know that this latter ought to be excepted) must be upon our own minds; +and that the way to knowledge shall be long, difficult, winding, and +oftentimes returning upon itself. + +What has been said is a mere sketch, and that only of a part of the +interesting country into which we have been led; but my correspondent +will be able to enter the paths that have been pointed out. Should he do +this and advance steadily for a while, he needs not fear any deviations +from the truth which will be finally injurious to him. He will not long +have his admiration fixed upon unworthy objects; he will neither be +clogged nor drawn aside by the love of friends or kindred, betraying his +understanding through his affections; he will neither be bowed down by +conventional arrangements of manners producing too often a lifeless +decency; nor will the rock of his spirit wear away in the endless +beating of the waves of the world; neither will that portion of his own +time, which he must surrender to labours by which his livelihood is to +be earned or his social duties performed, be unprofitable to himself +indirectly, while it is directly useful to others; for that time has +been primarily surrendered through an act of obedience to a moral law +established by himself, and therefore he moves them also along the orbit +of perfect liberty. + +Let it be remembered, that the advice requested does not relate to the +government of the more dangerous passions, or to the fundamental +principles of right and wrong as acknowledged by the universal +conscience of mankind. I may therefore assure my youthful correspondent, +if he will endeavour to look into himself in the manner which I have +exhorted him to do, that in him the wish will be realized, to him in due +time the prayer granted, which was uttered by that living teacher of +whom he speaks with gratitude as of a benefactor, when in his character +of philosophical poet, having thought of morality as implying in its +essence voluntary obedience, and producing the effect of order, he +transfers in the transport of imagination, the law of moral to physical +natures, and having contemplated, through the medium of that order, all +modes of existence as subservient to one spirit, concludes his address +to the power of duty in the following words: + + To humbler functions, awful power! + I call thee: I myself commend + Unto thy guidance from this hour; + Oh, let my weakness have an end! + Give unto me, made lowly wise, + The spirit of self-sacrifice; + The confidence of reason give, + And in the light of truth thy bondman let me live! + + + + +III. OF EDUCATION. + +(_a_) ON THE EDUCATION OF THE YOUNG: LETTER TO A FRIEND, 1806. + +(_b_) OF THE PEOPLE, THEIR WAYS AND NEEDS: LETTER TO ARCHDEACON +WRANGHAM, 1808. + +(_c_) EDUCATION: TWO LETTERS TO THE REV. H.J. ROSE, 1828. + +(_d_) EDUCATION OF DUTY: LETTER TO REV. DR. WORDSWORTH, 1830. + +(_e_) SPEECH ON LAYING THE FOUNDATION-STONE OF THE NEW SCHOOL IN THE +VILLAGE OF BOWNESS, WINDERMERE, 1836. + +(_a_) ON THE EDUCATION OF THE YOUNG. + +_Letter to a Friend_ [1806]. + +MY DEAR SIR, + +I am happy to hear of the instructions which you are preparing for +parents, and feel honoured by your having offered to me such an +opportunity of conveying to the public any information I may possess +upon the subject; but, in truth, I am so little competent in the present +unarranged state of my ideas to write any thing of value, that it would +be the highest presumption in me to attempt it. This is not mock +modesty, but rigorous and sober truth. As to the case of your own child, +I will set down a few thoughts, which I do not hope will throw much +light on your mind, but they will show my willingness to do the little +that is in my power. + +The child being the child of a man like you, what I have to say will lie +in small compass. + +I consider the facts which you mention as indicative of what is commonly +called sensibility, and of quickness and talent, and shall take for +granted that they are so; you add that the child is too much noticed by +grown people, and apprehend selfishness. + +Such a child will almost always be too much noticed; and it is scarcely +possible entirely to guard against the evil: hence vanity, and under bad +management selfishness of the worst kind. And true it is, that under +better and even the best management, such constitutions are liable to +selfishness; not showing itself in the shape of tyranny, caprice, +avarice, meanness, envy, skulking, and base self-reference; but +selfishness of a worthier kind, yet still rightly called by that name. +What I mean I shall explain afterwards. + +Vanity is not the necessary or even natural growth of such a +temperament; quite the contrary. Such a child, if neglected and suffered +to run wild, would probably be entirely free from vanity, owing to the +liveliness of its feelings, and the number of its resources. It would be +by nature independent and sufficient for itself. But as such children, +in these times in particular, are rarely if ever neglected, or rather +rarely if ever not far too much noticed, it is a hundred to one your +child will have more vanity than you could wish. This is one evil to be +guarded against. Formerly, indeed till within these few years, children +were very carelessly brought up; at present they too early and too +habitually feel their own importance, from the solicitude and +unremitting attendance which is bestowed upon them. A child like yours, +I believe, unless under the wisest guidance, would prosper most where +she was the least noticed and the least made of; I mean more than this +where she received the least cultivation. She does not stand in need of +the stimulus of praise (as much as can benefit her, _i.e._ as much as +her nature requires, it will be impossible to withhold from her); nor of +being provoked to exertion, or, even if she be not injudiciously +thwarted, to industry. Nor can there be any need to be _sedulous_ in +calling out her affections; her own lively enjoyments will do all this +for her, and also point out what is to be done to her. But take all the +pains you can, she will be too much noticed. Other evils will also beset +her, arising more from herself; and how are these to be obviated? But, +first, let us attempt to find what these evils will be. + +Observe, I put all gross mismanagement out of the question, and I +believe they will then probably be as follows: first, as mentioned +before, a considerable portion of vanity. But if the child be not +constrained too much, and be left sufficiently to her own pursuits, and +be not too anxiously tended, and have not her mind planted over by art +with likings that do not spring naturally up in it, this will by the +liveliness of her independent enjoyment almost entirely disappear, and +she will become modest and diffident; and being not apt from the same +ruling cause,--I mean the freshness of her own sensations--to compare +herself with others, she will hold herself in too humble estimation. But +she will probably still be selfish; and this brings me to the +explanation of what I hinted at before, viz., in what manner she will be +selfish. + +It appears, then, to me that all the permanent evils which you have to +apprehend for your daughter, supposing you should live to educate her +yourself, may be referred to this principle,--an undue predominance of +present objects over absent ones, which, as she will surely be +distinguished by an extreme love of those about her, will produce a +certain restlessness of mind, calling perpetually for proofs of +ever-living regard and affection: she must be loved as much and in the +same way as she loves, or she will not be satisfied. Hence, quickness in +taking offence, petty jealousies and apprehensions lest she is neglected +or loses ground in people's love, a want of a calm and steady sense of +her own merits to secure her from these fits of imagined slights; for, +in the first place, she will, as is hinted at before, be in general +deficient in this just estimation of her own worth, and will further be +apt to forget everything of that kind in the present sense of supposed +injury. She will (all which is referable to the same cause) in the +company of others have too constant a craving for sympathy up to a +height beyond what her companions are capable of bestowing; this will +often be mortifying to herself, and burthensome to others; and should +circumstances be untoward, and her mind be not sufficiently furnished +with ideas and knowledge, this craving would be most pernicious to +herself, preying upon mind and body. She will be too easily pleased, apt +to overrate the merits of new acquaintances, subject to fits of +over-love and over-joy, in absence from those she loves full of fears +and apprehensions, &c., injurious to her health; her passions for the +most part will be happy and good, but she will be too little mistress of +them. The distinctions which her intellect will make will be apt, able, +and just, but in conversation she will be prone to overshoot herself, +and commit eloquent blunders through eagerness. In fine, her manners +will be frank and ardent, but they will want dignity; and a want of +dignity will be the general defect of her character. + +Something of this sort of character, which I have thus loosely sketched, +and something of the sort of selfishness to which I have adverted, it +seems to me that under the best management you have reason to apprehend +for your daughter. If she should happen to be an only child, or the only +sister of brothers who would probably idolize her, one might prophesy +almost with absolute confidence that most of these qualities would be +found in her in a great degree. How then is the evil to be softened down +or prevented? Assuredly, not by mortifying her, which is the course +commonly pursued with such tempers; nor by preaching to her about her +own defects; nor by overrunning her infancy with books about good boys +and girls, and bad boys and girls, and all that trumpery; but (and this +is the only important thing I have to say upon the subject) by putting +her in the way of acquiring without measure or limit such knowledge as +will lead her out of herself, such knowledge as is interesting for its +own sake; things known because they are interesting, not interesting +because they are known; in a word, by leaving her at liberty to +luxuriate in such feelings and images as will feed her mind in silent +pleasure. This nourishment is contained in fairy tales, romances, the +best biographies and histories, and such parts of natural history +relating to the powers and appearances of the earth and elements, and +the habits and structure of animals, as belong to it, not as an art or +science, but as a magazine of form and feeling. This kind of knowledge +is purely good, a direct antidote to every evil to be apprehended, and +food absolutely necessary to preserve the mind of a child like yours +from morbid appetites. Next to these objects comes such knowledge as, +while it is chiefly interesting for its own sake, admits the fellowship +of another sort of pleasure, that of complacence from the conscious +exertion of the faculties and love of praise. The accomplishments of +dancing, music, and drawing, rank under this head; grammar, learning of +languages, botany probably, and out of the way knowledge of arts and +manufactures, &c. The second class of objects, as far as they tend to +feed vanity and self-conceit, are evil; but let them have their just +proportion in the plan of education, and they will afterwards contribute +to destroy these, by furnishing the mind with power and independent +gratification: the vanity will disappear, and the good will remain. + +Lastly comes that class of objects which are interesting almost solely +because they are known, and the knowledge may be displayed; and this +unfortunately comprehends three fourths of what, according to the plan +of modern education, children's heads are stuffed with; that is, minute, +remote, or trifling facts in geography, topography, natural history, +chronology, &c., or acquisitions in art, or accomplishments which the +child makes by rote, and which are quite beyond its age; things of no +value in themselves, but as they show cleverness; things hurtful to any +temper, but to a child like yours absolute poison. Having said thus +much, it seems almost impertinent to add that your child, above all, +should, I might say, be chained down to the severest attention to +truth,--I mean to the minutest accuracy in every thing which she +relates; this will strike at the root of evil by teaching her to form +correct notions of present things, and will steadily strengthen her +mind. Much caution should be taken not to damp her natural vivacity, for +this may have a very bad effect; and by the indirect influence of the +example of manly and dignified manners any excessive wildnesses of her +own will be best kept under. Most unrelaxing firmness should from the +present hour be maintained in withstanding such of her desires as are +grossly unreasonable. But indeed I am forgetting to whom I am speaking, +and am ashamed of these precepts; they will show my good will, and in +that hope alone can I suffer them to stand. Farewell, there is great +reason to congratulate yourself in having a child so promising; and you +have my best and most ardent wishes that she may be a blessing to her +parents and every one about her.[29] + +[29] _Memoirs_, vol. ii. pp. 164-70. G. + +_(b)_ OF THE PEOPLE, THEIR WAYS AND NEEDS. + +_Letter to Archdeacon Wrangham_. + +Grasmere, June 5. 1808. + +MY DEAR WRANGHAM, + +I have this moment received your letter. + +--is a most provoking fellow; very kind, very humane, very generous, +very ready to serve, with a thousand other good qualities, but in the +practical business of life the arrantest marplan that ever lived. When I +first wrote to you, I wrote also to him, sending the statement which I +sent to you, and begging his exertions _among his friends_. By and by +comes back my statement, having undergone a _rifacimento_ from his +hands, and _printed_, with an accompanying letter, saying that if some +of the principal people in this neighbourhood who had already subscribed +would put their names to this paper, testifying that this was a proper +case for charitable interferences, or that the _persons mentioned were +proper objects of charity_, that he would have the printed paper +inserted in the public newspapers, &c. Upon which, my sister wrote to +him, that in consequence of what had been already subscribed, and what +we had reason to expect from those friends who were privately stirring +in the business, among whom we chiefly alluded to you, in our own minds, +as one on whom we had most dependence, that there would be no necessity +_for public advertisements_, but that if among his private friends he +could raise any money for us, we should be very glad to receive it. And +upon this does he write to you in this (what shall I call it? for I am +really vexed!) blundering manner! I will not call upon you to undertake +the awkward task of rebuilding that part of the edifice which ---- has +destroyed, but let what remains be preserved; and if a little could be +added, there would be no harm. I must request you to transmit the money +to me, with the names of the persons to whom we are obliged. + + * * * * * + +With regard to the more important part of your letter, I am under many +difficulties. I am writing from a window which gives me a view of a +little boat, gliding quietly about upon the surface of our basin of a +lake. I should like to be in it, but what could I do with such a vessel +in the heart of the Atlantic Ocean? As this boat would be to that +navigation, so is my letter to the subject upon which you would set me +afloat. Let me, however, say, that I have read your sermon (which I +lately received from Longman) with much pleasure; I only gave it a +cursory perusal, for since it arrived our family has been in great +confusion, we having removed to another house, in which we are not yet +half settled. The Appendix I had received before in a frank, and of that +I feel myself more entitled to speak, because I had read it more at +leisure. I am entirely of accord with you in chiefly recommending +religious books for the poor; but of many of those which you recommend I +can neither speak in praise nor blame, as I have never read them. Yet, +as far as my own observation goes, which has been mostly employed upon +agricultural persons in thinly-peopled districts, I cannot find that +there is much disposition to read among the labouring classes, or much +occasion for it. Among manufacturers and persons engaged in sedentary +employments, it is, I know, very different. The labouring man in +agriculture generally carries on his work either in solitude or with his +own family--with persons whose minds he is thoroughly acquainted with, +and with whom he is under no temptation to enter into discussions, or to +compare opinions. He goes home from the field, or the barn, and within +and about his own house he finds a hundred little jobs which furnish him +with a change of employment which is grateful and profitable; then comes +supper, and bed. This for week-days. For sabbaths, he goes to church +with us often or mostly twice a day; on coming home, some one turns to +the Bible, finds the text, and probably reads the chapter whence it is +taken, or perhaps some other; and in the afternoon the master or +mistress frequently reads the Bible, if alone; and on this day the +mistress of the house _almost always_ teaches the children to read, or +as they express it, hears them a lesson; or if not thus employed, they +visit their neighbours, or receive them in their own houses as they drop +in, and keep up by the hour a slow and familiar chat. This kind of life, +of which I have seen much, and which I know would be looked upon with +little complacency by many religious persons, is peaceable, and as +innocent as (the frame of society and the practices of government being +what they are) we have a right to expect; besides, it is much more +intellectual than a careless observer would suppose. One of our +neighbours, who lives as I have described, was yesterday walking with +me; and as we were pacing on, talking about indifferent matters, by the +side of a brook, he suddenly said to me, with great spirit and a lively +smile, 'I _like_ to walk where I can hear the sound of a beck!' (the +word, as you know, in our dialect for a brook). I cannot but think that +this man, without being conscious of it, has had many devout feelings +connected with the appearances which have presented themselves to him in +his employment as a shepherd, and that the pleasure of his heart at that +moment was an acceptable offering to the Divine Being. But to return to +the subject of books. I find among the people I am speaking of, +halfpenny ballads and penny and two-penny histories in great abundance; +these are often bought as charitable tributes to the poor persons who +hawk them about (and it is the best way of procuring them). They are +frequently stitched together in tolerably thick volumes, and such I have +read; some of the contents, though not often religious, very good; +others objectionable, either for the superstition in them, such as +prophecies, fortune-telling, &c., or more frequently for indelicacy. I +have so much felt the influence of these straggling papers, that I have +many a time wished that I had talents to produce songs, poems, and +little histories that might circulate among other good things in this +way, supplanting partly the bad flowers and useless herbs, and to take +place of weeds. Indeed, some of the poems which I have published were +composed, not without a hope that at some time or other they might +answer this purpose. The kind of library which you recommend would not, +I think, for the reasons given above, be of much direct use in any of +the agricultural districts of Cumberland and Westmoreland with which I +am acquainted, though almost every person here can read; I mean of +general use as to morals or behaviour. It might, however, with +individuals, do much in awakening enterprise, calling forth ingenuity, +and fostering genius. I have known several persons who would eagerly +have sought, not after these books merely, but _any_ books, and would +have been most happy in having such a collection to repair to. The +knowledge thus acquired would also have spread, by being dealt about in +conversation among their neighbours, at the door, and by the fire-side; +so that it is not easy to foresee how far the good might extend; and +harm I can see none which would not be greatly overbalanced by the +advantage. The situation of manufacturers is deplorably different. The +monotony of their employments renders some sort of stimulus, +intellectual or bodily, absolutely necessary for them. Their work is +carried on in clusters,--men from different parts of the world, and +perpetually changing; so that every individual is constantly in the way +of being brought into contact with new notions and feelings, and being +unsettled in his own accordingly; a select library, therefore, in such +situations may be of the same use as a public dial, keeping everybody's +clock in some kind of order. + +Besides contrasting the manufacturer with the agriculturalist, it may be +observed, that he has much more leisure; and in his over hours, not +having other pleasant employment to turn to, he is more likely to find +reading a relief. What, then, are the books which should be put in his +way? Without being myself a clergyman, I have no hesitation in saying, +chiefly religious ones; though I should not go so far as you seemed +inclined to do, excluding others because they are not according to the +letter or in the spirit of your profession. I, with you, feel little +disposed to admire several of those mentioned by Gilbert Burns, much +less others which you name as having been recommended. In Gilbert B.'s +collection there may be too little religion, and I should fear that you, +like all other clergymen, may confine yourself too exclusively to that +concern which you justly deem the most important, but which by being +exclusively considered can never be thoroughly understood. I will allow, +with you, that a religious faculty is the eye of the soul; but, if we +would have successful soul-oculists, not merely that organ, but the +general anatomy and constitution of the intellectual frame must be +studied; for the powers of that eye are affected by the general state of +the system. My meaning is, that piety and religion will be the best +understood by him who takes the most comprehensive view of the human +mind, and that, for the most part, they will strengthen with the general +strength of the mind, and that this is best promoted by a due mixture of +direct and indirect nourishment and discipline. For example, _Paradise +Lost_, and _Robinson Crusoe_, might be as serviceable as Law's _Serious +Call_, or Melmoth's _Great Importance of a Religious Life_; at least, +if the books be all good, they would mutually assist each other. In what +I have said, though following my own thoughts merely as called forth by +your Appendix, is _implied_ an answer to your request that I would give +you 'half an idea upon education as a national object.' I have only kept +upon the surface of the question, but you must have deduced, that I deem +any plan of national education in a country like ours most difficult to +apply to practice. In Switzerland, or Sweden, or Norway, or France, or +Spain, or anywhere but Great Britain, it would be comparatively easy. +Heaven and hell are scarcely more different from each other than +Sheffield and Manchester, &c., differ from the plains and valleys of +Surrey, Essex, Cumberland, or Westmoreland. We have mighty cities, and +towns of all sizes, with villages and cottages scattered everywhere. We +are mariners, miners, manufacturers in tens of thousands, traders, +husbandmen, everything. What form of discipline, what books or +doctrines--I will not say would equally suit all these--but which, if +happily fitted for one, would not perhaps be an absolute nuisance in +another? You will, also, have deduced that nothing romantic can be said +with truth of the influence of education upon the district in which I +live. We have, thank heaven, free schools, or schools with some +endowment, almost everywhere; and almost every one can read. But not +because we have free or endowed schools, but because our land is, far +more than elsewhere, tilled by men who are the owners of it; and as the +population is not over crowded, and the vices which are quickened and +cherished in a crowded population do not therefore prevail, parents have +more ability and inclination to send their children to school; much more +than in manufacturing districts, and also, though in a less degree, more +than in agricultural ones where the tillers are not proprietors. If in +Scotland the children are sent to school, where the parents have not the +advantage I have been speaking of, it is chiefly because their labour +can be turned to no account at home. Send among them manufacturers, or +farmers on a large scale, and you may indeed substitute Sunday-schools +or other modes of instructing them; but the ordinary parish schools will +be neglected. The influence of our schools in this neighbourhood can +never be understood, if this, their connection with the state of landed +property, be overlooked. In fact, that influence is not striking. The +people are not habitually religious, in the common sense of the word, +much less godly. The effect of their schooling is chiefly seen by the +activity with which the young persons emigrate, and the success +attending it; and at home, by a general orderliness and gravity, with +habits of independence and self-respect: nothing obsequious or fawning +is ever to be seen amongst them. + +It may be added, that this ability (from the two causes, land and +schools) of giving their children instruction contributes to spread a +respect for scholarship through the country. If in any family one of the +children should be quicker at his book, or fonder of it than others, he +is often marked out in consequence for the profession of a clergyman. +This (before the mercantile or manufacturing employments held out such +flattering hopes) very generally happened; so that the schools of the +North were the great nurseries of curates, several of whom got forward +in their profession, some with and others without the help of a +university education; and, in all instances, such connection of families +(all the members of which lived in the humblest and plainest manner, +working with their own hands as labourers) with a learned and dignified +profession, assisted (and still does, though in a less degree) not a +little to elevate their feelings, and conferred importance on them in +their own eyes. But I must stop, my dear Wrangham. Begin your education +at the top of society; let the head go in the right course, and the tail +will follow. But what can you expect of national education conducted by +a government which for twenty years resisted the abolition of the slave +trade, and annually debauches the morals of the people by every possible +device? holding out temptation with one hand, and scourging with the +other. The distilleries and lotteries are a standing record that the +government cares nothing for the morals of the people, and that all +which they want is their money. But wisdom and justice are the only true +sources of the revenue of a people; preach this, and may you not preach +in vain! + +Wishing you success in every good work, I remain your affectionate +friend, W. WORDSWORTH. + +Thanks for your inquiries about our little boy, who is well, though not +yet quite strong.[30] + +[30] _Memoirs_, vol. ii. pp. 171-9. G. + +(_c._) EDUCATION. + +_Two Letters to the Rev. Hugh James Rose, Horsham, Sussex_. + + Rydal Mount, Dec. 11. 1828. + +MY DEAR SIR, + +I have read your excellent sermons delivered before the University[31] +several times. In nothing were my notions different from yours as there +expressed. It happened that I had been reading just before Bishop Bull's +sermon,[32] of which you speak so highly: it had struck me just in the +same way as an inestimable production. I was highly gratified by your +discourses, and cannot but think that they must have been beneficial to +the hearers, there abounds in them so pure a fervour. I have as yet +bestowed less attention upon your German controversy[33] than so +important a subject deserves. + +[31] _On the Commission and consequent Duties of the Clergy_, preached +before the University of Cambridge, in April 1826, and published in +1828. G. + +[32] The title of which is _The Priest's Office difficult and +dangerous_. It will be found in vol. i. p. 137. of Dr. Burton's edition +of the bishop's works. G. + +[33] _The State of the Protestant Religion in Germany_, a series of +discourses preached before the University of Cambridge, by the Rev. Hugh +James Rose; Lond. 1825: and his _Letter to the Bishop of London, in +reply to Mr. Pusey's work on that subject_; Lond. 1829. G. + +Since our conversation upon the subject of Education, I have found no +reason to alter the opinions I then expressed. Of those who seem to me +to be in error, two parties are especially prominent; they, the most +conspicuous head of whom is Mr. Brougham, who think that sharpening of +intellect and attainment of knowledge are things good in themselves, +without reference to the circumstances under which the intellect _is_ +sharpened, or to the quality of the knowledge acquired. 'Knowledge,' +says Lord Bacon, 'is power,' but surely not less for evil than for good. +Lord Bacon spoke like a philosopher; but they who have that maxim in +their mouths the oftenest have the least understanding of it. + +The other class consists of persons who are aware of the importance of +religion and morality above everything; but, from not understanding the +constitution of our nature and the composition of society, they are +misled and hurried on by zeal in a course which cannot but lead to +disappointment. One instance of this fell under my own eyes the other +day in the little town of Ambleside, where a party, the leaders of which +are young ladies, are determined to set up a school for girls on the +Madras system, confidently expecting that these girls will in +consequence be less likely to go astray when they grow up to women. +Alas, alas! they may be taught, I own, more quickly to read and write +under the Madras system, and to answer more readily, and perhaps with +more intelligence, questions put to them, than they could have done +under dame-teaching. But poetry may, with deference to the philosopher +and the religionist, be consulted in these matters; and I will back +Shenstone's school-mistress, by her winter fire and in her summer +garden-seat, against all Dr. Bell's sour-looking teachers in petticoats +that I have ever seen. + +What is the use of pushing on the education of girls so fast, and mainly +by the stimulus of Emulation, who, to say nothing worse of her, is +cousin-german to Envy? What are you to do with these girls? what demand +is there for the ability that they may have prematurely acquired? Will +they not be indisposed to bend to any kind of hard labour or drudgery? +and yet many of them must submit to it, or do wrong. The mechanism of +the Bell system is not required in small places; praying after the +_fugleman_ is not like praying at a mother's knee. The Bellites overlook +the difference: they talk about moral discipline; but wherein does it +encourage the imaginative feelings, without which the practical +understanding is of little avail, and too apt to become the cunning +slave of the bad passions. I dislike _display_ in everything; above all +in education.... The old dame did not affect to make theologians or +logicians; but she taught to read; and she practised the memory, often, +no doubt, by rote; but still the faculty was improved: something, +perhaps, she explained, and trusted the rest to parents, to masters, and +to the pastor of the parish. I am sure as good daughters, as good +servants, as good mothers and wives, were brought up at that time as +now, when the world is so much less humble-minded. A hand full of +employment, and a head not above it, with such principles and habits as +may be acquired without the Madras machinery, are the best security for +the chastity of wives of the lower rank. + +Farewell. I have exhausted my paper. + +Your affectionate + +W. WORDSWORTH.[34] + +[34] _Memoirs_, vol. ii. pp. 180-3. G. + + * * * * * + + +_Of the Same to the Same_, + +MY DEAR SIR, + +I have taken a folio sheet to make certain minutes upon the subject of +EDUCATION. + + +As a Christian preacher your business is with man as an immortal being. +Let us imagine you to be addressing those, and those only, who would +gladly co-operate with you in any course of education which is most +likely to ensure to men a happy immortality. Are you satisfied with that +course which the most active of this class are bent upon? Clearly not, +as I remember from your conversation, which is confirmed by your last +letter. Great principles, you hold, are sacrificed to shifts and +expedients. I agree with you. What more sacred law of nature, for +instance, than that the mother should educate her child? yet we +felicitate ourselves upon the establishment of infant-schools, which is +in direct opposition to it. Nay, we interfere with the maternal instinct +before the child is born, by furnishing, in cases where there is no +necessity, the mother with baby-linen for her unborn child. Now, that in +too many instances a lamentable necessity may exist for this, I allow; +but why should such charity be obtruded? Why should so many excellent +ladies form themselves into committees, and rush into an almost +indiscriminate benevolence, which precludes the poor mother from the +strongest motive human nature can be actuated by for industry, for +forethought, and self-denial? When the stream has thus been poisoned at +its fountain-head, we proceed, by separating, through infant-schools, +the mother from the child, and from the rest of the family, +disburthening them of all care of the little-one for perhaps eight hours +of the day. To those who think this an evil, but a necessary one, much +might be said, in order to qualify unreasonable expectations. But there +are thousands of stirring people now in England, who are so far misled +as to deem these schools _good in themselves_, and to wish that, even in +the smallest villages, the children of the poor should have what _they_ +call 'a good education' in this way. Now, these people (and no error is +at present more common) confound _education_ with _tuition_. + +Education, I need not remark to you, is everything that _draws out_ the +human being, of which _tuition_, the teaching of schools especially, +however important, is comparatively an insignificant part. Yet the +present bent of the public mind is to sacrifice the greater power to the +less--all that life and nature teach, to the little that can be learned +from books and a master. In the eyes of an enlightened statesman this is +absurd; in the eyes of a pure lowly-minded Christian it is monstrous. + +The Spartan and other ancient communities might disregard domestic ties, +because they had the substitution of country, which we cannot have. With +us, country is a mere name compared with what it was to the Greeks; +first, as contrasted with barbarians; and next, and above all, as that +_passion_ only was strong enough to preserve the individual, his family, +and the whole State, from ever-impending destruction. Our course is to +supplant domestic attachments without the possibility of substituting +others more capacious. What can grow out of it but selfishness? + +Let it then be universally admitted that infant-schools are an evil, +only tolerated to qualify a greater, viz., the inability of mothers to +attend to their children, and the like inability of the elder to take +care of the younger, from their labour being wanted in factories, or +elsewhere, for their common support. But surely this is a sad state of +society; and if these expedients of tuition or education (if that word +is not to be parted with) divert our attention from the fact that the +remedy for so mighty an evil must be sought elsewhere, they are most +pernicious things, and the sooner they are done away with the better. + +But even as a course of tuition, I have strong objections to +infant-schools; and in no small degree to the Madras system also. We +must not be deceived by premature adroitness. The _intellect_ must not +be trained with a view to what the infant or child may perform, without +constant reference to what that performance promises for the man. It is +with the mind as with the body. I recollect seeing a German babe stuffed +with beer and beef, who had the appearance of an infant Hercules. _He_ +might have enough in him of the old Teutonic blood to grow up to a +strong man; but tens of thousands would dwindle and perish after such +unreasonable cramming. Now I cannot but think, that the like would +happen with our modern pupils, if the views of the patrons of these +schools were realised. The diet they offer is not the natural diet for +infant and juvenile minds. The faculties are over-strained, and not +exercised with that simultaneous operation which ought to be aimed at as +far as is practicable. Natural history is taught in infant-schools by +pictures stuck up against walls, and such mummery. A moment's notice of +a red-breast pecking by a winter's hearth is worth it all. + +These hints are for the negative side of the question: and for the +positive,--what conceit, and presumption, and vanity, and envy, and +mortification, and hypocrisy, &c. &c., are the unavoidable result of +schemes where there is so much display and contention! All this is at +enmity with Christianity; and if the practice of sincere churchmen in +this matter be so, what have we not to fear when we cast our eyes upon +other quarters where religious instruction is deliberately excluded? The +wisest of us expect far too much from school teaching. One of the most +innocent, contented, happy, and, in his sphere, most useful men whom I +know, can neither read nor write. Though learning and sharpness of wit +must exist somewhere, to protect, and in some points to interpret the +Scriptures, yet we are told that the Founder of this religion rejoiced +in spirit, that things were hidden from the wise and prudent, and +revealed unto babes: and again, 'Out of the mouths of babes and +sucklings Thou hast perfected praise.' Apparently, the infants here +contemplated were under a very different course of discipline from that +which many in our day are condemned to. In a town of Lancashire, about +nine in the morning, the streets resound with the crying of infants, +wheeled off in carts and other vehicles (some ladies, I believe, lending +their carriages for this purpose) to their school-prisons. + +But to go back a little. Human learning, as far as it tends to breed +pride and self-estimation (and that it requires constant vigilance to +counteract this tendency we must all feel), is against the spirit of +the Gospel. Much cause then is there to lament that inconsiderate zeal, +wherever it is found, which whets the intellect by blunting the +affections. Can it, in a _general_ view, be good, that an infant should +learn much which its _parents do not know_? Will not the child arrogate +a superiority unfavourable to love and obedience? + +But suppose this to be an evil only for the present generation, and that +a succeeding race of infants will have no such advantage over their +parents; still it may be asked, should we not be making these infants +too much the creatures of society when we cannot make them more so? Here +would they be for eight hours in the day like plants in a conservatory. +What is to become of them for the other sixteen hours, when they are +returned to all the influences, the dread of which first suggested this +contrivance? Will they be better able to resist the mischief they may be +exposed to from the bad example of their parents, or brothers and +sisters? It is to be feared not, because, though they must have heard +many good precepts, their condition in school is artificial; they have +been removed from the discipline and exercise of humanity, and they +have, besides, been subject to many evil temptations within school and +peculiar to it. + +In the present generation I cannot see anything of an harmonious +co-operation between these schools and home influences. If the family be +thoroughly bad, and the child cannot be removed altogether, how feeble +the barrier, how futile the expedient! If the family be of middle +character, the children will lose more by separation from domestic cares +and reciprocal duties, than they can possibly gain from captivity with +such formal instruction as may be administered. + +We are then brought round to the point, that it is to a physical and not +a moral necessity that we must look, if we would justify this disregard, +I had almost said violation, of a primary law of human nature. The link +of eleemosynary tuition connects the infant school with the national +schools upon the Madras system. Now I cannot but think that there is too +much indiscriminate gratuitous instruction in this country; arising out +of the misconception above adverted to, of the real power of school +teaching, relatively to the discipline of life; and out of an over-value +of talent, however exerted, and of knowledge prized for its own sake, +and acquired in the shape of knowledge. The latter clauses of the last +sentence glance rather at the London University and the Mechanics' +Institutes than at the Madras schools, yet they have some bearing upon +these also. Emulation, as I observed in my last letter, is the +master-spring of that system. It mingles too much with all teaching, and +with all learning; but in the Madras mode it is the great wheel which +puts every part of the machine into motion. + +But I have been led a little too far from gratuitous instruction. If +possible, instruction ought never to be altogether so. A child will soon +learn to feel a stronger love and attachment to its parents, when it +perceives that they are making sacrifices for its instruction. All that +precept can teach is nothing compared with convictions of this kind. In +short, unless book-attainments are carried on by the side of moral +influences they are of no avail. Gratitude is one of the most benign of +moral influences; can a child be grateful to a corporate body for its +instruction? or grateful even to the Lady Bountiful of the +neighbourhood, with all the splendour which he sees about her, as he +would be grateful to his poor father and mother, who spare from their +scanty provision a mite for the culture of his mind at school? If we +look back upon the progress of things in this country since the +Reformation, we shall find, that instruction has never been severed from +moral influences and purposes, and the natural action of circumstances, +in the way that is now attempted. Our forefathers established, in +abundance, free grammar schools; but for a distinctly understood +religious purpose. They were designed to provide against a relapse of +the nation into Popery, by diffusing a knowledge of the languages in +which the Scriptures are written, so that a sufficient number might be +aware how small a portion of the popish belief had a foundation in Holy +Writ. + +It is undoubtedly to be desired that every one should be able to read, +and perhaps (for that is far from being equally apparent) to write. But +you will agree with me, I think, that these attainments are likely to +turn to better account where they are not gratuitously lavished, and +where either the parents and connections are possessed of certain +property which enables them to procure the instruction for their +children, or where, by their frugality and other serious and +self-denying habits, they contribute, as far as they can, to benefit +their offspring in this way. Surely, whether we look at the usefulness +and happiness of the individual, or the prosperity and security of the +State, this, which was the course of our ancestors, is the better +course. Contrast it with that recommended by men in whose view knowledge +and intellectual adroitness are to do everything of themselves. + +We have no guarantee on the social condition of these well informed +pupils for the use they may make of their power and their knowledge: the +scheme points not to man as a religious being; its end is an unworthy +one; and its means do not pay respect to the order of things. Try the +Mechanics' Institutes and the London University, &c. &c. by this test. +The powers are not co-ordinate with those to which this nation owes its +virtue and its prosperity. Here is, in one case, a sudden formal +abstraction of a vital principle, and in both an unnatural and violent +pushing on. Mechanics' Institutes make discontented spirits and +insubordinate and presumptuous workmen. Such at least was the opinion of +Watt, one of the most experienced and intelligent of men. And +instruction, where religion is expressly excluded, is little less to be +dreaded than that by which it is trodden under foot. And, for my own +part, I cannot look without shuddering on the array of surgical +midwifery lectures, to which the youth of London were invited at the +commencement of this season by the advertisements of the London +University. Hogarth understood human nature better than these +professors: his picture I have not seen for many long years, but I think +his last stage of cruelty is in the dissecting room. + +But I must break off, or you will have double postage to pay for this +letter. Pray excuse it; and pardon the style, which is, purposely, as +meagre as I could make it, for the sake of brevity. I hope that you can +gather the meaning, and that is enough. I find that I have a few moments +to spare, and will, therefore, address a word to those who may be +inclined to ask, what is the use of all these objections? The +schoolmaster is, and will remain, abroad. The thirst of knowledge is +spreading and will spread, whether virtue and duty go along with it or +no. Grant it; but surely these observations may be of use if they tend +to check unreasonable expectations. One of the most difficult tasks is +to keep benevolence in alliance with beneficence. Of the former there is +no want, but we do not see our way to the latter. Tenderness of heart is +indispensable for a good man, but a certain sternness of heart is as +needful for a wise one. We are as impatient under the evils of society +as under our own, and more so; for in the latter case, necessity +enforces submission. It is hard to look upon the condition in which so +many of our fellow creatures are born, but they are not to be raised +from it by partial and temporary expedients: it is not enough to rush +headlong into any new scheme that may be proposed, be it Benefit +Societies, Savings' Banks, Infant Schools, Mechanic Institutes, or any +other. Circumstances have forced this nation to do, by its +manufacturers, an undue portion of the dirty and unwholesome work of the +globe. The revolutions among which we have lived have unsettled the +value of all kinds of property, and of labour, the most precious of all, +to that degree, that misery and privation are frightfully prevalent. We +must bear the sight of this, and endure its pressure, till we have by +reflection discovered the cause, and not till then can we hope even to +palliate the evil. It is a thousand to one but that the means resorted +to will aggravate it. + + Farewell, ever affectionately yours, W. WORDSWORTH. + + +_Quere_.--Is the education in the parish schools of Scotland gratuitous, +or if not, in what degree is it so?[35] + +[35] _Memoirs_, vol. ii. pp. 183-92. G. + +(_d_) EDUCATION OF DUTY. + +_Letter to the Rev. Dr. Wordsworth_. + + + =Rydal= Mount, April 27. 1830. + +MY DEAR BROTHER, + +Was Mr. Rose's course of sermons upon education? The more I reflect upon +the subject, the more I am convinced that positive instruction, even of +a religious character, is much over-rated. The education of man, and +above all of a Christian, is the education of _duty_, which is most +forcibly taught by the business and concerns of life, of which, even for +children, especially the children of the poor, book-learning is but a +small part. There is an officious disposition on the part of the upper +and middle classes to precipitate the tendency of the people towards +intellectual culture in a manner subversive of their own happiness, and +dangerous to the peace of society. It is mournful to observe of how +little avail are lessons of piety taught at school, if household +attentions and obligations be neglected in consequence of the time taken +up in school tuition, and if the head be stuffed with vanity from the +gentlemanliness of the employment of reading. Farewell. + +W. W.[36] + +[36] _Memoirs_, =vol=. ii. p. 193. G. + +(_e_) SPEECH ON LAYING THE FOUNDATION-STONE OF THE NEW SCHOOL IN THE +VILLAGE OF BOWNESS, WINDERMERE, 1836. + + +Standing here as Mr. Bolton's substitute, at his own request, an honour +of which I am truly sensible, it gives me peculiar pleasure to see in +spite of this stormy weather, so numerous a company of his friends and +neighbours upon this occasion. How happy would it have made him to have +been eye-witness of an assemblage which may fairly be regarded as a +proof of the interest felt in his benevolent undertaking, and an earnest +that the good work will not be done in vain. Sure I am, also, that there +is no one present who does not deeply regret the cause why that +excellent man cannot appear among us. The public spirit of Mr. Bolton +has ever been remarkable both for its comprehensiveness and the +judicious way in which it has been exerted. Many years ago when we were +threatened with foreign invasion, he equipped and headed a body of +volunteers, for the defence of our country. Not long since the +inhabitants of Ulverston (his native place I believe) were indebted to +him for a large contribution towards erecting a church in that town. His +recent munificent donations to the public charities of Liverpool are +well known; and I only echo the sentiments of this meeting, when I say +that every one would have rejoiced to see a gentleman (who has completed +his 80th year) taking the lead in this day's proceedings, for which +there would have been no call, but for his desire permanently to benefit +a district in which he has so long been a resident proprietor. It may be +gathered from old documents, that, upwards of 200 years ago, this place +was provided with a school, which early in the reign of Charles II. was +_endowed_ by the liberality of certain persons of the neighbourhood. The +building, originally small and low, has long been in a state which +rendered the erection of a new one very desirable; this Mr. Bolton has +undertaken to do at his sole expense. The structure, which is to +supersede the old school-house, will have two apartments, airy, +spacious, and lofty, one for boys the other for girls, in which they +will be instructed by respective teachers, and not crowded together as +in the old school-room, under one and the same person; each room will be +capable of containing at least 100 children; within the enclosure there +will be spacious and separate play-grounds for the boys and girls, with +distinct covered sheds to play in in wet weather. There will also be a +library-room for the school, and to contain books for the benefit of the +neighbourhood; and, in short, every arrangement that could be desired. +It may be added, that the building, from the elegance of its +architecture, and its elevated, conspicuous situation, will prove a +striking ornament to the beautiful country in the midst of which it will +stand. Such being the advantages proposed, allow me to express a hope +that they will be turned to the best possible account. The privilege of +the school being free, will not, I trust, tempt parents to withdraw +their children from punctual attendance upon slight and trivial +occasions; and they will take care, as far as depends upon themselves, +that the wishes of the present benefactor may be met, and his intentions +fulfilled. Those wishes and intentions I will take upon me to say, are +consonant to what has been expressed in the original trust-deed of the +pious and sensible men already spoken of, who in that instrument declare +that they have provided a fund 'towards the finding and maintenance of +an able schoolmaster, and repairing the school-house from time to time, +for ever; for teaching and instructing of youth within the said hamlets, +in grammar, writing, reading, and other good learning and discipline +meet and convenient for them; for the honour of God, for the better +advancement and preferment of the said youth, and to the perpetual and +thankful remembrance of the founders and authors of so good a work.' The +effect of this beautiful summary upon your minds will not, I hope, be +weakened if I make a brief comment upon the several clauses of it, which +will comprise nearly the whole of what I feel prompted to say upon this +occasion. I will take the liberty, however, of inverting the order in +which the purposes of these good men are mentioned, beginning at what +they end with. '_The perpetual and thankful remembrance of the founders +and authors of so good a work_.' Do not let it be supposed that your +forefathers, when they looked onwards to this issue, did so from vanity +and love of applause, uniting with local attachment; they wished their +good works to be remembered principally because they were conscious that +such remembrance would be beneficial to the hearts of those whom they +desired to serve, and would effectually promote the particular good they +had in view. Let me add _for_ them, what their modesty and humility +would have prevented their insisting upon, that such tribute of grateful +recollection was, and is still, their _due_; for if gratitude be not the +most perfect shape of justice, it is assuredly her most beautiful +crown,--a halo and glory with which she delights to have her brows +encircled. So much of this gratitude as those good men hoped for, I may +bespeak for your neighbour, who is now animated by the same spirit, and +treading in their steps. + +The second point to which I shall advert is that where it is said that +such and such things shall be taught '_for the better advancement and +preferment of the said youth_.' This purpose is as honourable as it is +natural, and recalls to remembrance the time when the northern counties +had, in this particular, great advantages over the rest of England. By +the zealous care of many pious and good men, among whom I cannot but +name (from his connection with this neighbourhood, and the benefits he +conferred upon it) Archbishop Sandys, free schools were founded in these +parts of the kingdom in much greater numbers than elsewhere. The learned +professions derived many ornaments from this source; but a more +remarkable consequence was that till within the last 40 years or so, +merchants' counting-houses, and offices, in the lower departments of +which a certain degree of scholastic attainment was requisite, were +supplied in a great measure from Cumberland and Westmoreland. Numerous +and large fortunes were the result of the skill, industry, and +integrity, which the young men thus instructed, carried with them to the +Metropolis. That superiority no longer exists; not so much, I trust, +from a slackening on the part of the teachers, or an indisposition of +the inhabitants to profit by their free schools, but because the kingdom +at large has become sensible of the advantages of school instruction; +and we of the north consequently have competitors from every quarter. +Let not this discourage, but rather stimulate us to more strenuous +endeavours, so that if we do not keep a-head of the rest of our +countrymen, we may at least take care not to be left behind in the race +of honourable ambition. But after all, worldly advancement and +preferment neither are, nor ought to be the _main_ end of instruction, +either in schools or elsewhere, and particularly in those which are in +rural places, and scantily endowed. It is in the order of Providence, as +we are all aware, that _most_ men must end their temporal course pretty +much as they began it; nor will the thoughtful repine at this +dispensation. In lands where nature in the many is not trampled upon by +injustice, feelingly may the peasant say to the courtier-- + + The sun that bids your diamond blaze + To deck our lily deigns. + +Contentment, according to the common adage, is better than riches; and +why is it better? Not merely because there can be no happiness without +it, but for the sake, also, of its moral dignity. Mankind, we know, are +placed on earth to have their hearts and understandings exercised and +improved, some in one sphere and some in another, to undergo various +trials, and to perform divers duties; _that_ duty which, in the world's +estimation may seem the least, often being the most important in the +eyes of our heavenly Father. Well and wisely has it been said, in words +which I need not scruple to quote here, where extreme poverty and abject +misery are unknown-- + + God doth not need + Either man's work or his own gifts; who best + Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best; his state + Is kingly--thousands at his bidding speed + And post o'er land and ocean without rest; + They also serve who only stand and wait. + +Thus am I naturally led to the third and last point in the declaration +of the ancient trust-deed, which I mean to touch upon:--'_Youth shall +lie instructed in grammar, writing, reading, and, other good discipline, +meet and convenient for them, for the honour of God_.' Now, my friends +and neighbours, much as we must admire the zeal and activity which have +of late years been shewn in the teaching of youth, I will candidly ask +those among you, who have had sufficient opportunities to observe, +whether the instruction given in many schools _is_, in fact, _meet and +convenient_? In the building about to be erected here, I have not the +smallest reason for dreading that it will be otherwise. But I speak in +the hearing of persons who may be active in the management of schools +elsewhere; and they will excuse me for saying, that many are conducted +at present so as to afford melancholy proof that instruction is neither +_meet nor convenient_ for the pupils there taught, nor, indeed, for the +human mind in any rank or condition of society. I am not going to say +that religious instruction, the most important of all, is neglected; far +from it; but I affirm, that it is too often given with reference, less +to the affections, to the imagination, and to the practical duties, than +to subtile distinctions in points of doctrine, and to facts in scripture +history, of which a knowledge may be brought out by a catechetical +process. This error, great though it be, ought to be looked at with +indulgence, because it is a tempting thing for teachers unduly to +exercise the understanding and memory, inasmuch as progress in the +departments in which these faculties are employed, is most obviously +proved to the teacher himself, and most flatteringly exhibited to the +inspectors of schools and casual lookers on. A still more lamentable +error which proceeds much from the same cause, is an over-strained +application to mental processes of arithmetic and mathematics; and a too +minute attention to departments of natural and civil history. How much +of trick may mix with this we will not ask, but the display of +precocious intellectual power in these branches, is often astonishing; +and, in proportion as it is so, may, for the most part, be pronounced +not only useless, but injurious. The training that fits a boxer for +victory in the ring, gives him strength that cannot, and is not +required, to be kept up for ordinary labour, and often lays the +foundation of subsequent weakness and fatal disease. In like manner +there being in after life no call for these extraordinary powers of +mind, and little use for the knowledge, the powers decay, and the +knowledge withers and drops off. Here is then not only a positive +injury, but a loss of opportunities for culture of intellect and +acquiring information, which, as being in a course of regular demand, +would be hereafter, the one strengthened and the other naturally +increased. All this mischief, my friends, originates in a decay of that +feeling which our fathers had uppermost in their hearts, viz., that the +business of education should be conducted for _the honour of God_. And +here I must direct your attention to a fundamental mistake, by which +this age, so distinguished for its marvellous progress in arts and +sciences, is unhappily characterized--a mistake, manifested in the use +of the word _education_, which is habitually confounded with _tuition_ +or school instruction; this is indeed a very important part of +education, but when it is taken for the whole, we are deceived and +betrayed. Education, according to the derivation of the word, and in the +only use of which it is strictly justifiable, comprehends all those +processes and influences, come from whence they may, that conduce to the +best development of the bodily powers, and of the moral, intellectual, +and spiritual faculties which the position of the individual admits of. +In this just and high sense of the word, the education of a sincere +Christian, and a good member of society upon Christian principles, does +not terminate with his youth, but goes on to the last moment of his +conscious earthly existence--an education not for time but for eternity. +To education like this, is indispensably necessary, as co-operating with +schoolmasters and ministers of the gospel, the never-ceasing vigilance +of parents; not so much exercised in superadding their pains to that of +the schoolmaster or minister in teaching lessons or catechisms, or by +enforcing maxims or precepts (though this part of their duty ought to be +habitually kept in mind), but by care over their _own_ conduct. It is +through the silent operation of example in their own well-regulated +behaviour, and by accustoming their children early to the discipline of +daily and hourly life, in such offices and employment as the situation +of the family requires, and as are suitable to tender years, that +parents become infinitely the most important tutors of their children, +without appearing, or positively meaning to be so. This education of +circumstances has happily, in this district, not yet been much infringed +upon by experimental novelties; parents here are anxious to send their +offspring to those schools where knowledge substantially useful is +inculcated, and those arts most carefully taught for which in after life +there will be most need; this is especially true of the judgments of +parents respecting the instruction of their daughters, which _I know_ +they would wish to be confined to reading, writing, and arithmetic, and +plain needlework, or any other art favourable to economy and +home-comforts. Their shrewd sense perceives that hands full of +employment, and a head not above it, afford the best protection against +restlessness and discontent, and all the perilous temptations to which, +through them, youthful females are exposed. It is related of Burns, the +celebrated Scottish poet, that once while in the company of a friend, he +was looking from an eminence over a wide tract of country, he said, that +the sight of so many smoking cottages gave a pleasure to his mind that +none could understand who had not witnessed, like himself, the happiness +and worth which they contained. How were those _happy_ and _worthy_ +people educated? By the influence of hereditary good example at home, +and by their parochial schoolmasters opening the way for the admonitions +and exhortations of their clergy; that was at a time when knowledge was +perhaps better than now distinguished from smatterings of information, +and when knowledge itself was more thought of in due subordination to +wisdom. How was the evening before the sabbath then spent by the +families among which the poet was brought up? He has himself told us in +imperishable verse. The Bible was brought forth, and after the father of +the family had reverently laid aside, his bonnet, passages of scripture +were read, and the poet thus describes what followed:-- + + Then kneeling down to Heaven's eternal King, + The saint, the father, and the husband prays; + Hope springs exulting on triumphant wing, + That thus they all shall meet in future days: + There ever bask in uncreated rays, + No more to sigh or shed the bitter tear + Together hymning their Creator's praise, + In such society, yet still more dear; + While circling time moves round in an eternal sphere. + +May He who enlightened the understanding of those cottagers with a +knowledge of Himself for the entertainment of such hope, 'who sanctified +their affections that they might love Him, and put His fear into their +hearts that they might dread to offend Him'--may He who, in preparing +for these blessed effects, disdained not the humble instrumentality of +parochial schools, enable this of ours, by the discipline and teaching +pursued in it, to sow seeds for a like harvest! In this wish, I am sure, +my friends, you will all fervently join; and now, after renewing our +expression of regret that the benevolent founder is not here to perform +the ceremony himself, we will proceed to lay the first stone of the +intended edifice. + + + + +NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. + +I. POLITICAL. + + +I. _Apology for the French Revolution_. + +P. 3, l. 5. 'A sublime allegory.' 'The Vision of Mirza' of Addison, +originally published in 'The Spectator' (No. 159, Sept. 1, 1711). + +P. 4, ll. 38-9. 'A bishop, a man of philosophy and humanity, as +distinguished as your lordship.' This was the Abbe Gregoire, whom +Schlosser describes as the 'good-natured, pious, and visionary bishop;' +and again, 'particular attention must be paid to the speeches of the +pious Gregoire and his dreams of Utopian virtue.' ('History of the 18th +Century,' vol. vi. pp. 203-434). cf. Alison's 'History of the French +Revolution,' vol. ii. c. vii. pp. 81-2 (ed. 1853); vol. xii. p. 3, _et +alibi_. + +P. 7, l. 20. 'The hero of the necklace.' Prince de Rohan. More exactly +the Cardinal de Rohan, but who was of the princely house of De Rohan. +Carlyle has characteristically told the story of 'the diamond necklace' +in one of his Essays. Cf. Alison, as before, i. p. 177; and Schlosser, +_s.u._ + +P. 8, l. 22. 'Mr. Burke, in a philosophic lamentation over the +extinction of chivalry,' &c. The famous apostrophe in relation to Marie +Antoinette in his 'Reflections on the Revolution in France' (1790). + +P. 9, ll. 8-12. The author gives no reference whatever to the source of +this French quotation. + +P. 14, l. 34. 'The Rights of Man.' The famous (or notorious) book of +Thos. Paine, published in 1791-2 as 'The Rights of Man; being an Answer +to Mr. Burke's Attack on the French Revolution.' See p. 21 for +Wordsworth's vehement denunciation of Burke in the work which Paine +answers, viz. 'The Reflections,' &c. But Wordsworth's ultimate estimate +of Burke is the splendid praise of 'The Prelude,' book vii. ll. 513-544. + + +II. _The Convention of Cintra_. + +Title-page. 'Qui didicit,' &c. From Horace, 'De Arto Poetica,' ll. 312, +314, 315. + +_Verso_ of title-page. Quotation from Bacon. From 'Advertisement +touching the Controversies of the Church of England (4th paragraph), +Spedding's Letters and Life,' vol. i. p. 76. + +P. 55, l. 40. 'General Loison.' A French general of cavalry. He was +known by the nickname of Maneta, the bloody one-handed. He was the +Alaric of Evora. 'His misdeeds,' says Southey, 'were never equalled or +paralleled in the dark ages.' It was from Orense that Soult invaded +Portugal, having Loison and Foy for his lieutenants. + +P. 56, l. 26. 'M. le duc d'Abrantes.' Andoche Junot, duc d'Abrantes, +born 23d Oct. 1771, and died by his own hand 29th July 1813. He was +created duke by Napoleon when he was sent by him to command the French +army in Portugal (1808); defeated by Sir Arthur Wellesley (Wellington) +at Vimiera, 21st August 1808. + +P. 65, l. 27. 'Massaredo.' Rather Mazaredo, a Spanish general. He had +lived much in England. He cleansed and repaired Sir John Moore's tomb at +Corunna, and planted the ground for a public Alameda (walk). + +P. 59, ll. 25-6. 'General Morla.' At wind-blown Fuencanal (one league +from Madrid) is an old mansion of the Mendoza family, in which +Buonaparte lodged from Dec. 2, 1808, until Dec. 22; and here, Dec. 3, he +received the Madrid deputation headed by the traitor Morla. 'On the 4th +Dec. 1808, General Morla and General Don Fernando de Vera, governor of +the town (Madrid), presented themselves, and at ten o'clock General +Belliard took the command of Madrid. All the posts were put into the +hands of the French, and a general pardon was proclaimed' (Southey, +_s.n._). + +P. 60, l. 15. 'The names of Pelayo and The Cid,' &c. (1) _Pelayo_. The +Moorish descent was made in great force near Gibraltar in 711. The +battle of the Gaudalete (fought near Jerez de la Frontera) followed +immediately; and in the course of three years they (the Moors) had +conquered the whole of Spain except the north-west region (Biscay and +Asturias), behind whose mountains a large body of Chontians under Pelayo +retreated. Seven years later he (Pelayo) defeated the Moors, seized +Leon, and became the first king of the Asturias. (2) _The Cid_. Rodrigo +Ruy Diaz of Vibar, born in 1026, is the prince the champion of Spain, El +Cid Campeador, and the Achilles and Aeneas of Gotho-Spanish epos. Thus, +as Schlegel says, 'he is worth a whole library for the understanding the +spirit of his age and the character of the old Castilian.' 'Cast in the +stern mould of a disputed and hostile invasion, when men fought for +their God and their father-land, for all they had or hoped for in this +world and the next, the Cid possessed the vices and virtues of the +mediaeval Spaniard, and combined the daring personal valour, the cool +determination and perseverance of the Northman, engrafted on the subtle +perfidy and brilliant chivalry of the Oriental.' + +P. 63, l. 15. 'Ferdinand VII.' King of Spain; born 1784; died 1833. +Father of Isabella II., the present ex-queen of Spain. In opposition to +his father and his best advisers, he solicited the protection of +Napoleon, for which he was imprisoned (1807); compelled to renounce his +rights (1808); resided at Bayonne, where he servilely subjected himself +to Napoleon, 1808 to 1813; restored 1814, when he abolished the Cortes +and revived the Inquisition. By the help of a French army he put down au +insurrection, and reestablished absolute despotism (1823). He married +Christiana of Naples (now Duchess Rianzanes), 1829. Abolished Salic law +in favour of his daughter, 1830. + +P. 84, l. 35. 'Radice in Tartara tendit.' From Virgil, Georg. ii. 292. + +P. 92, l. 28. 'General Dupont.' In June 1808, Dupont, commanding the +French army, had marched from Madrid to Andalusia, in the south of +Spain, given Cordova up to pillage, and committed atrocities which +roused the Spanish people to fury. The Spanish general Leastanos +(afterwards created Duque de Baylen), with an army sent by the Junta of +Seville, won the sanguinary battle of Baylen, and compelled the French +to surrender at discretion on the 21st July 1808. + +P. 96, l. 37. 'General Friere.' More accurately, Freyere, viz. Manuel +Freyere, a Spanish general; born 1795; died 1834. He distinguished +himself in the War of Independence, 1809-1813. He helped much in gaining +the victory at Toulouse, 10th April 1814. Faithful to constitutional +principles, he retired from public life in 1820. + +P. 109, ll. 12-16. Quotation from Milton. Adapted from 'Paradise Lost,' +book x. ll. 294-7. + +P. 117, l. 33. 'The Boy of Saragossa.' Probably a _lapsus_ for the +_Maid_ of Saragossa, Angustina. This Amazon (in a good, soft sense), +although a mere itinerant seller of cool drinks, vied in heroism with +the noble Condeya de Burita, who amid the crash of war tended the sick +and wounded, resembling in looks and deeds a ministering angel. She +(Angustina) snatched the match from a dying artillery-man's hand, and +fired the cannon at the French; hence she was called La Artillera. + +P. 122, ll. 8-10. Latin quotation. Virgil, Eclogae, iv. 6. + +P. 149, ll. 16-19. Quotation from Milton, viz. 'Paradise Lost,' book +iii. ll. 455-7. + +P. 149, l. 40. 'The Sicilian Vespers.' The historical name given to the +massacre of the French in Sicily, commenced at Palermo 30th March 1282. +The late Earl of Ellesmere wrote a monograph on the subject. + +P. 160, ll. 11-13. Quotation in Italian. From Dante, 'Inferno,' c. iii. +ll. 1-3. + +P. 165, ll. 30-1. Saying of Pyrrhus. More exactly, 'Another such +victory, and I must return to Epeirus alone' (said of the renowned +battle on the bank of the Siris). See 'Plutarch and Dionysius,' and +Droysen, 'Geschichte des Hellenisinus,' _s.n._ + +P. 166, l. 31. 'Onward.' Sir Philip Warwick. His 'Memoirs' were +reprinted and edited by Sir Walter Scott (1702). His 'portraiture' of +Cromwell is among the commonplaces of history. + +P. 167, l. 30. 'Padre St. Iago Sass.' He is introduced into Wilkie's +famous picture of the 'Maid of Saragossa.' + +P. 167, l. 31. 'Palafox.' Jose Palafox y Chelzi, Duke of Saragossa, was +born in 1780; heroically defended Saragossa against the attack of the +French, 27th July 1808; sent prisoner to France 21st Feb. 1809; released +11th Dec. 1813; died 16th Feb. 1847. + +P. 173-4. 'Petrarch.' From his Epistolae, _s.v._--'Milton.' Apparently a +somewhat loose recollection from memory of a passage in 'The Ready and +Easy Way to establish a Free Commonwealth,' &c. (1659-60), commencing +'It may be well thought strange,' &c. + +III. _Vindication of Opinions in the Treatise on the Convention of +Cintra_. + +P. 205, footnote. Latin quotation. Read, 'Totis imperii viribus [contra +mirmillonem] consurgitur.' Floras, iii. 20. + + +II. ETHICAL. + +I. _Of Legislation for the Poor_. + +P. 275, ll. 28 onward. Quotation from Milton. From 'Paradise Lost,' book +x. ll. 743-747, but changed somewhat in meaning. + +P. 277, ll. 16-17. Quotation. Adapted from 'Guilt and Sorrow,' st. xli. +II. 8-9. + +II. _(e) Speech on Laying the Foundation-stone of the New School, &c._ + +On this occasion a prayer was offered by the Rev. R.P. Graves, M.A., +(then) the curate, which--as admirably suitable, and as having made a +profound impression at the time, the bowed head and reverent look of the +venerable Poet as he joined in it remaining 'pleasures of memory' +still--it is deemed expedient to preserve permanently. I derive it from +the same source as the full Speech itself, and give the context: 'Mr. +Wordsworth then descended a step-ladder to the foundation-stone, and +deposited the bottle in the cavity, which was covered with a brass +plate, having inscribed on it the name of the founder, date, &c. Being +furnished with a trowel and mortar by the master mason, Mr. John Holme, +he spread it; another massy stone was then let down upon the first, and +adjusted to its position, Mr. Wordsworth handling the rule, plumb-line, +and mallet, and patting the stone he retired. The Rev. R.P. Graves next +offered up the following prayer for the welfare and success of the +undertaking: "The foundation-stone of the new parochial school-house of +Bowness being now laid, it remains that, as your minister, I should +invoke upon the work that blessing of God, without which no human +undertaking can prosper,--O Lord God, Who dwellest on high, Whose throne +is the Heaven of heavens, and Who yet deignest to look down with +goodness and mercy on Thy children of earth, look down, we beseech Thee, +with favour upon us who now implore Thy gracious benediction on the work +which is before Thee. The building which Thou hast put into the heart of +Thy servant to erect grant that, as it is happily begun, it may be +successfully completed, and that it may become a fountain-head of +blessing to this place and neighbourhood. Thou hast directed us, O Lord, +to bring up our children in Thy nurture and admonition; bless, we pray +Thee, this effort to secure the constant fulfilment of so important a +duty, one so entirely bound up with our own and our children's welfare. +Grant that here, from age to age, the youth of these hamlets may receive +such faithful instruction as may fit them for usefulness in this life, +and for happiness in the next. Grant that the one school may send out +numbers endued with such principles and knowledge as may make them, in +their several callings, industrious, upright, useful men; in society, +peaceful neighbours, contented citizens, loyal subjects; in their +families, affectionate sons, and husbands, and fathers; in the Church, +dutiful members of that pure and Scriptural Establishment with which +Thou hast blessed our Land; and, as crowning and including all, resolved +and pious followers of our Redeemer Christ. Grant too, O Lord, that the +females which shall be educated in the other school shall receive there +such valuable principles and such convenient knowledge as may fit them +to make happy the homes of such men; that, with Thy blessing on their +instruction, they may become obedient and dutiful children, modest and +virtuous women, faithful and affectionate wives and mothers, pious and +unassuming Christians; so that with regard to both it may be widely and +gratefully owned that here was sown the good seed which shall have borne +fruit abundantly in all the relations of life, and which at the great +day of harvest hereafter shall, according to Thy word, be gathered into +Thy garner. Such, O Lord God, Thou knowest to be the good objects +contemplated by the original founders of the school, and the promotion +of which is at the heart of him whose benefaction we have this day seen +auspiciously begun. Trusting, therefore, O Lord, with full assurance +that Thou dost favourably allow and regard these pious designs, I now +undertake, as God's minister, and in His name, to bless and dedicate for +ever this spot of ground, and the building which, with the Divine +permission, will be here erected, and of which this is the +foundation-stone, to the sound and religious training up of youth from +generation to generation, to the continued grateful remembrance of the +pious benefactor, and to the everlasting glory of God Most High, the +Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And let all the people say, +Amen."' + +P. 288, ll. 1-3. These lines might have gone into the closing book of +'The Prelude,' but I have failed to trace or recall them. + +P. 223. Long verse-quotation. From 'The Prelude,' book xiii. ll. +220-277. + +P. 311, footnote [A], viz. Captain T. Ashe's 'Travels in America in the +year 1806, for the purpose of exploring the rivers of Alleghanny, +Monongahela, Ohio, and the Mississippi, and ascertaining the Produce and +Condition of their Banks and Vicinity.' 3 vols. 12mo, 1808. Alexander +Wilson, the 'Ornithologist,' vainly sought to accompany Ashe. Had he +done so the incredibilities of these Travels had probably been omitted. +(See his Works by me, 2 vols. 8vo, 1875.) + +P. 326. Verse-quotation at close. From close of 'Ode to Duty' (xix. +'Poems of Sentiment and Reflection'). + +P. 353, ll. 7-8. Verse-quotation. Whence? It sounds familiarly. + +P. 353, ll. 20-25. From Milton, 'Sonnet xiv.' + +P. 356, ll. 16-24. Verse-quotation. From Burns' 'Cottar's Saturday +Night.' It may be noted here that the 'saint, the father, and the +husband' of this imperishable celebration of lowly Scottish godliness +was William Burns (or Burness), father of the Poet; and whilst this note +is being written a copy of a most interesting MS. (about to be +published) by William Burness, prepared by him for his children, reaches +me. It is entitled, 'Manual of Religious Belief, by William Burness, in +the form of a Dialogue between a Father and his Son.' G. + + + + + + + + +THE PROSE WORKS OF WILLIAM WORDSWORTH. + +FOR THE FIRST TIME COLLECTED, + +_WITH ADDITIONS FROM UNPUBLISHED MANUSCRIPTS_. + +Edited, with Preface, Notes and Illustrations, + +BY THE REV. ALEXANDER B. GROSART, ST. GEORGE'S, BLACKBURN, LANCASHIRE. + +IN THREE VOLUMES. + +VOL. II. + +AESTHETICAL AND LITERARY. + +LONDON: EDWARD MOXON, SON, AND CO. 1 AMEN CORNER, PATERNOSTER ROW. + +1876. + + +AMS Press, Inc. New York 10003 +1967 Manufactured in the United States of America + + + + +CONTENTS OF VOL. II. + + +*** A star [*] designates publication herein _for the first time_ G. + + +AESTHETICAL AND LITERARY. + + I. Of Literary Biography and Monuments: + (_a_) A Letter to a Friend of Robert Burns, 1816 + (_b_) Letter to a Friend on Monuments to Literary Men, + 1819 + (_c_) Letter to John Peace, Esq., of Bristol, 1844 + II. Upon Epitaphs: + (_a_) From 'The Friend' + *(_b_) From the Author's MSS.: + The Country Church-yard, and critical Examination + of Ancient Epitaphs + *(_c_) From the Author's MSS.: + Celebrated Epitaphs considered +III. Essays, Letters, and Notes, elucidatory and confirmatory of + the Poems, 1798-1835: + (_a_) Of the Principles of Poetry and the 'Lyrical Ballads,' + 1798-1802 + (_b_) Of Poetic Diction + (_c_) Poetry as a Study, 1815 + (_d_) Of Poetry as Observation and Description, and Dedication + of 1815 + (_e_) Of 'The Excursion:' Preface + *(_f_) Letters to Sir George and Lady Beaumont and others, + on the Poems and related Subjects[1] + (_g_) Letter to Charles Fox with the 'Lyrical Ballads,' + and his Answer, &c. + (_h_) Letter on the Principles of Poetry and his own Poems + to (afterwards) Professor John Wilson + IV. Descriptive: + (_a_) A Guide through the District of the Lakes, 1835 + (_b_) Kendal and Windermere Railway: two Letters reprinted + from the _Morning Post_. Revised, with + Additions, 1844 +NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS + +[1] The Beaumont Letters are given from the originals, and in many +cases, as elsewhere, contain important additions and corrections. G. + + + + +AESTHETICAL AND LITERARY. + + + + + +I. OF LITERARY BIOGRAPHY AND MONUMENTS. + + +(_a_) A LETTER TO A FRIEND OF ROBERT BURNS, 1816. + +(_b_) LETTER TO A FRIEND ON MONUMENTS TO LITERARY MEN, 1819. + +(_c_) LETTER TO JOHN PEACE OF BRISTOL, 1844. + +NOTE. + + +For details on the several portions of this division, see the Preface in +Vol. I. G. + + + + +A LETTER TO A FRIEND OF ROBERT BURNS: OCCASIONED BY AN INTENDED +REPUBLICATION OF THE ACCOUNT OF THE LIFE OF BURNS, BY DR. CURRIE; AND OF +THE SELECTION MADE BY HIM FROM HIS LETTERS. + +BY WILLIAM WORDSWORTH. + + +_LONDON_: + +PRINTED FOR LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, AND BROWN, PATERNOSTER-ROW. + +1816. + +(_a_) A LETTER TO A FRIEND OF ROBERT BURNS. + +TO JAMES GRAY, ESQ., EDINBURGH. + +DEAR SIR, + +I have carefully perused the Review of the Life of your friend Robert +Burns,[2] which you kindly transmitted to me; the author has rendered a +substantial service to the poet's memory; and the annexed letters are +all important to the subject. After having expressed this opinion, I +shall not trouble you by commenting upon the publication; but will +confine myself to the request of Mr. Gilbert Burns, that I would furnish +him with my notions upon the best mode of conducting the defence of his +brother's injured reputation; a favourable opportunity being now +afforded him to convey his sentiments to the world, along with a +republication of Dr. Currie's book, which he is about to superintend. +From the respect which I have long felt for the character of the person +who has thus honoured me, and from the gratitude which, as a lover of +poetry, I owe to the genius of his departed relative, I should most +gladly comply with this wish; if I could hope that any suggestions of +mine would be of service to the cause. But, really, I feel it a thing of +much delicacy, to give advice upon this occasion, as it appears to me, +mainly, not a question of opinion, or of taste, but a matter of +conscience. Mr. Gilbert Burns must know, if any man living does, what +his brother was; and no one will deny that he, who possesses this +knowledge, is a man of unimpeachable veracity. He has already spoken to +the world in contradiction of the injurious assertions that have been +made, and has told why he forbore to do this on their first appearance. + +[2] _A Review of the Life of Robert Burns, and of various Criticisms on +his Character and Writings_, by Alexander Peterkin, 1814. + +If it be deemed adviseable to reprint Dr. Currie's narrative, without +striking out such passages as the author, if he were now alive, would +probably be happy to efface, let there be notes attached to the most +obnoxious of them, in which the misrepresentations may be corrected, and +the exaggerations exposed. I recommend this course, if Dr. Currie's Life +is to be republished, as it now stands, in connexion with the poems and +letters, and especially if prefixed to them; but, in my judgment, it +would be best to copy the example which Mason has given in his second +edition of Gray's works. There, inverting the order which had been +properly adopted, when the Life and Letters were new matter, the poems +are placed first; and the rest takes its place as subsidiary to them. If +this were done in the intended edition of Burns's works, I should +strenuously recommend, that a concise life of the poet be prefixed, from +the pen of Gilbert Burns, who has already given public proof how well +qualified he is for the undertaking. I know no better model as to +proportion, and the degree of detail required, nor, indeed, as to the +general execution, than the life of Milton by Fenton, prefixed to many +editions of the _Paradise Lost_. But a more copious narrative would be +expected from a brother; and some allowance ought to be made, in this +and other respects, for an expectation so natural. + +In this prefatory memoir, when the author has prepared himself by +reflecting, that fraternal partiality may have rendered him, in some +points, not so trustworthy as others less favoured by opportunity, it +will be incumbent upon him to proceed candidly and openly, as far as +such a procedure will tend to restore to his brother that portion of +public estimation, of which he appears to have been unjustly deprived. +Nay, when we recall to mind the black things which have been written of +this great man, and the frightful ones that have been insinuated against +him; and, as far as the public knew, till lately, without complaint, +remonstrance, or disavowal, from his nearest relatives; I am not sure +that it would not be best, at this day, explicitly to declare to what +degree Robert Burns had given way to pernicious habits, and, as nearly +as may be, to fix the point to which his moral character had been +degraded. It is a disgraceful feature of the times that this measure +should be necessary; most painful to think that a _brother_ should have +such an office to perform. But, if Gilbert Burns be conscious that the +subject will bear to be so treated, he has no choice; the duty has been +imposed upon him by the errors into which the former biographer has +fallen, in respect to the very principles upon which his work ought to +have been conducted. + +I well remember the acute sorrow with which, by my own fire-side, I +first perused Dr. Currie's Narrative, and some of the letters, +particularly of those composed in the latter part of the poet's life. If +my pity for Burns was extreme, this pity did not preclude a strong +indignation, of which he was not the object. If, said I, it were in the +power of a biographer to relate the truth, the _whole_ truth, and +nothing _but_ the truth, the friends and surviving kindred of the +deceased, for the sake of general benefit to mankind, might endure that +such heart-rending communication should be made to the world. But in no +case is this possible; and, in the present, the opportunities of +directly acquiring other than superficial knowledge have been most +scanty; for the writer has barely seen the person who is the subject of +his tale; nor did his avocations allow him to take the pains necessary +for ascertaining what portion of the information conveyed to him was +authentic. So much for facts and actions; and to what purpose relate +them even were they true, if the narrative cannot be heard without +extreme pain; unless they are placed in such a light, and brought +forward in such order, that they shall explain their own laws, and leave +the reader in as little uncertainty as the mysteries of our nature will +allow, respecting the spirit from which they derived their existence, +and which governed the agent? But hear on this pathetic and awful +subject, the poet himself, pleading for those who have transgressed! + + One point must still be greatly dark, + The moving _why_ they do it, + And just as lamely can ye mark + How far, perhaps, they rue it. + + Who made the heart, 'tis _he_ alone + Decidedly can try us; + He knows each chord--its various tone, + Each spring, its various bias. + + Then at the balance let's be mute, + We never can adjust it; + What's done we partly may compute, + But know not what's _resisted_. + +How happened it that the recollection of this affecting passage did not +check so amiable a man as Dr. Currie, while he was revealing to the +world the infirmities of its author? He must have known enough of human +nature to be assured that men would be eager to sit in judgment, and +pronounce _decidedly_ upon the guilt or innocence of Burns by his +testimony; nay, that there were multitudes whose main interest in the +allegations would be derived from the incitements which they found +therein to undertake this presumptuous office. And where lies the +collateral benefit, or what ultimate advantage can be expected, to +counteract the injury that the many are thus tempted to do to their own +minds; and to compensate the sorrow which must be fixed in the hearts of +the considerate few, by language that proclaims so much, and provokes +conjectures as unfavourable as imagination can furnish? Here, said I, +being moved beyond what it would become me to express, here is a +revolting account of a man of exquisite genius, and confessedly of many +high moral qualities, sunk into the lowest depths of vice and misery! +But the painful story, notwithstanding its minuteness, is +incomplete,--in essentials it is deficient; so that the most attentive +and sagacious reader cannot explain how a mind, so well established by +knowledge, fell--and continued to fall, without power to prevent or +retard its own ruin. + +Would a bosom friend of the author, his counsellor and confessor, have +told such things, if true, as this book contains? and who, but one +possessed of the intimate knowledge which none but a bosom friend can +acquire, could have been justified in making these avowals? Such a one, +himself a pure spirit, having accompanied, as it were, upon wings, the +pilgrim along the sorrowful road which he trod on foot; such a one, +neither hurried down by its slippery descents, nor entangled among its +thorns, nor perplexed by its windings, nor discomfited by its founderous +passages--for the instruction of others--might have delineated, almost +as in a map, the way which the afflicted pilgrim had pursued till the +sad close of his diversified journey. In this manner the venerable +spirit of Isaac Walton was qualified to have retraced the unsteady +course of a highly-gifted man, who, in this lamentable point, and in +versatility of genius, bore no unobvious resemblance to the Scottish +bard; I mean his friend COTTON--whom, notwithstanding all that the sage +must have disapproved in his life, he honoured with the title of son. +Nothing like this, however has the biographer of Burns accomplished; +and, with his means of information, copious as in some respects they +were, it would have been absurd to attempt it. The only motive, +therefore, which could authorize the writing and publishing matter so +distressing to read--is wanting! + +Nor is Dr. Currie's performance censurable from these considerations +alone; for information, which would have been of absolute worth if in +his capacity of biographer and editor he had known when to stop short, +is rendered unsatisfactory and inefficacious through the absence of this +reserve, and from being coupled with statements of improbable and +irreconcileable facts. We have the author's letters discharged upon us +in showers; but how few readers will take the trouble of comparing those +letters with each other, and with the other documents of the +publication, in order to come at a genuine knowledge of the writer's +character!--The life of Johnson by Boswell had broken through many +pre-existing delicacies, and afforded the British public an opportunity +of acquiring experience, which before it had happily wanted; +nevertheless, at the time when the ill-selected medley of Burns's +correspondence first appeared, little progress had been made (nor is it +likely that, by the mass of mankind, much ever will be made) in +determining what portion of these confidential communications escapes +the pen in courteous, yet often innocent, compliance--to gratify the +several tastes of correspondents; and as little towards distinguishing +opinions and sentiments uttered for the momentary amusement merely of +the writer's own fancy, from those which his judgment deliberately +approves, and his heart faithfully cherishes. But the subject of this +book was a man of extraordinary genius; whose birth, education, and +employments had placed and kept him in a situation far below that in +which the writers and readers of expensive volumes are usually found. +Critics upon works of fiction have laid it down as a rule that +remoteness of place, in fixing the choice of a subject, and in +prescribing the mode of treating it, is equal in effect to distance of +time;--restraints may be thrown off accordingly. Judge then of the +delusions which artificial distinctions impose, when to a man like +Doctor Currie, writing with views so honourable, the _social condition_ +of the individual of whom he was treating, could seem to place him at +such a distance from the exalted reader, that ceremony might he +discarded with him, and his memory sacrificed, as it were, almost +without compunction. The poet was laid where these injuries could not +reach him; but he had a parent, I understand, an admirable woman, still +surviving; a brother like Gilbert Burns!--a widow estimable for her +virtues; and children, at that time infants, with the world before them, +which they must face to obtain a maintenance; who remembered their +father probably with the tenderest affection;--and whose opening minds, +as their years advanced, would become conscious of so many reasons for +admiring him.--Ill-fated child of nature, too frequently thine own +enemy,--unhappy favourite of genius, too often misguided,--this is +indeed to be 'crushed beneath the furrow's weight!' + +Why, sir, do I write to you at this length, when all that I had to +express in direct answer to the request, which occasioned this letter, +lay in such narrow compass?--Because having entered upon the subject, I +am unable to quit it!--Your feelings, I trust, go along with mine; and, +rising from this individual case to a general view of the subject, you +will probably agree with me in opinion that biography, though differing +in some essentials from works of fiction, is nevertheless, like them, an +_art_--an art, the laws of which are determined by the imperfections of +our nature, and the constitution of society. Truth is not here, as in +the sciences, and in natural philosophy, to be sought without scruple, +and promulgated for its own sake, upon the mere chance of its being +serviceable; but only for obviously justifying purposes, moral or +intellectual. + +Silence is a privilege of the grave, a right of the departed: let him, +therefore, who infringes that right, by speaking publicly of, for, or +against, those who cannot speak for themselves, take heed that he opens +not his mouth without a sufficient sanction. _De mortuis nil nisi +bonum_, is a rule in which these sentiments have been pushed to an +extreme that proves how deeply humanity is interested in maintaining +them. And it was wise to announce the precept thus absolutely; both +because there exist in that same nature, by which it has been dictated, +so many temptations to disregard it,--and because there are powers and +influences, within and without us, that will prevent its being literally +fulfilled--to the suppression of profitable truth. Penalties of law, +conventions of manners, and personal fear, protect the reputation of the +living; and something of this protection is extended to the recently +dead,--who survive, to a certain degree, in their kindred and friends. +Few are so insensible as not to feel this, and not to be actuated by the +feeling. But only to philosophy enlightened by the affections does it +belong justly to estimate the claims of the deceased on the one hand, +and of the present age and future generations, on the other; and to +strike a balance between them.--Such philosophy runs a risk of becoming +extinct among us, if the coarse intrusions into the recesses, the gross +breaches upon the sanctities, of domestic life, to which we have lately +been more and more accustomed, are to be regarded as indications of a +vigorous state of public feeling--favourable to the maintenance of the +liberties of our country.--Intelligent lovers of freedom are from +necessity bold and hardy lovers of truth; but, according to the measure +in which their love is intelligent, is it attended with a finer +discrimination, and a more sensitive delicacy. The wise and good (and +all others being lovers of licence rather than of liberty are in fact +slaves) respect, as one of the noblest characteristics of Englishmen, +that jealousy of familiar approach, which, while it contributes to the +maintenance of private dignity, is one of the most efficacious guardians +of rational public freedom. + +The general obligation upon which I have insisted, is especially binding +upon those who undertake the biography of _authors_. Assuredly, there is +no cause why the lives of that class of men should be pried into with +the same diligent curiosity, and laid open with the same disregard of +reserve, which may sometimes be expedient in composing the history of +men who have borne an active part in the world. Such thorough knowledge +of the good and bad qualities of these latter, as can only be obtained +by a scrutiny of their private lives, conduces to explain not only their +own public conduct, but that of those with whom they have acted. Nothing +of this applies to authors, considered merely as authors. Our business +is with their books,--to understand and to enjoy them. And, of poets +more especially, it is true--that, if their works be good, they contain +within themselves all that is necessary to their being comprehended and +relished. It should seem that the ancients thought in this manner; for +of the eminent Greek and Roman poets, few and scanty memorials were, I +believe, ever prepared; and fewer still are preserved. It is delightful +to read what, in the happy exercise of his own genius, Horace chooses to +communicate of himself and his friends; but I confess I am not so much a +lover of knowledge, independent of its quality, as to make it likely +that it would much rejoice me, were I to hear that records of the Sabine +poet and his contemporaries, composed upon the Boswellian plan, had been +unearthed among the ruins of Herculaneum. You will interpret what I am +writing, _liberally_. With respect to the light which such a discovery +might throw upon Roman manners, there would be reasons to desire it: but +I should dread to disfigure the beautiful ideal of the memories of those +illustrious persons with incongruous features, and to sully the +imaginative purity of their classical works with gross and trivial +recollections. The least weighty objection to heterogeneous details, is +that they are mainly superfluous, and therefore an incumbrance. + +But you will perhaps accuse me of refining too much; and it is, I own, +comparatively of little importance, while we are engaged in reading the +_Iliad_, the _Eneid_, the tragedies of _Othello_ and _King Lear_, +whether the authors of these poems were good or bad men; whether they +lived happily or miserably. Should a thought of the kind cross our +minds, there would be no doubt, if irresistible external evidence did +not decide the question unfavourably, that men of such transcendant +genius were both good and happy: and if, unfortunately, it had been on +record that they were otherwise, sympathy with the fate of their +fictitious personages would banish the unwelcome truth whenever it +obtruded itself, so that it would but slightly disturb our pleasure. Far +otherwise is it with that class of poets, the principal charm of whose +writings depends upon the familiar knowledge which they convey of the +personal feelings of their authors. This is eminently the case with the +effusions of Burns;--in the small quantity of narrative that he has +given, he himself bears no inconsiderable part, and he has produced no +drama. Neither the subjects of his poems, nor his manner of handling +them, allow us long to forget their author. On the basis of his human +character he has reared a poetic one, which with more or less +distinctness presents itself to view in almost every part of his +earlier, and, in my estimation, his most valuable verses. This poetic +fabric, dug out of the quarry of genuine humanity, is airy and +spiritual:--and though the materials, in some parts, are coarse, and the +disposition is often fantastic and irregular, yet the whole is agreeable +and strikingly attractive. Plague, then, upon your remorseless hunters +after matter of fact (who, after all, rank among the blindest of human +beings) when they would convince you that the foundations of this +admirable edifice are hollow; and that its frame is unsound! Granting +that all which has been raked up to the prejudice of Burns were +literally true; and that it added, which it does not, to our better +understanding of human nature and human life (for that genius is not +incompatible with vice, and that vice leads to misery--the more acute +from the sensibilities which are the elements of genius--we needed not +those communications to inform us) how poor would have been the +compensation for the deduction made, by this extrinsic knowledge, from +the intrinsic efficacy of his poetry--to please, and to instruct! + +In illustration of this sentiment, permit me to remind you that it is +the privilege of poetic genius to catch, under certain restrictions of +which perhaps at the time of its being exerted it is but dimly +conscious, a spirit of pleasure wherever it can be found,--in the walks +of nature, and in the business of men.--The poet, trusting to primary +instincts, luxuriates among the felicities of love and wine, and is +enraptured while he describes the fairer aspects of war: nor does he +shrink from the company of the passion of love though immoderate--from +convivial pleasure though intemperate--nor from the presence of war +though savage, and recognized as the handmaid of desolation. Frequently +and admirably has Burns given way to these impulses of nature; both with +reference to himself and in describing the condition of others. Who, but +some impenetrable dunce or narrow-minded puritan in works of art, ever +read without delight the picture which he has drawn of the convivial +exaltation of the rustic adventurer, Tam o'Shanter? The poet fears not +to tell the reader in the outset that his hero was a desperate and +sottish drunkard, whose excesses were frequent as his opportunities. +This reprobate sits down to his cups, while the storm is roaring, and +heaven and earth are in confusion;--the night is driven on by song and +tumultuous noise--laughter and jest thicken as the beverage improves +upon the palate--conjugal fidelity archly bends to the service of +general benevolence--selfishness is not absent, but wearing the mask of +social cordiality--and, while these various elements of humanity are +blended into one proud and happy composition of elated spirits, the +anger of the tempest without doors only heightens and sets off the +enjoyment within.--I pity him who cannot perceive that, in all this, +though there was no moral purpose, there is a moral effect. + + Kings may be blest, but Tam was glorious, + O'er a' the _ills_ of life victorious. + +What a lesson do these words convey of charitable indulgence for the +vicious habits of the principal actor in this scene, and of those who +resemble him!--Men who to the rigidly virtuous are objects almost of +loathing, and whom therefore they cannot serve! The poet, penetrating +the unsightly and disgusting surfaces of things, has unveiled with +exquisite skill the finer ties of imagination and feeling, that often +bind these beings to practices productive of so much unhappiness to +themselves, and to those whom it is their duty to cherish;--and, as far +as he puts the reader into possession of this intelligent sympathy, he +qualifies him for exercising a salutary influence over the minds of +those who are thus deplorably enslaved. + +Not less successfully does Burns avail himself of his own character and +situation in society, to construct out of them a poetic +self,--introduced as a dramatic personage--for the purpose of +inspiriting his incidents, diversifying his pictures, recommending his +opinions, and giving point to his sentiments. His brother can set me +right if I am mistaken when I express a belief that, at the time when he +wrote his story of _Death and Dr. Hornbook_, he had very rarely been +intoxicated, or perhaps even much exhilarated by liquor. Yet how happily +does he lead his reader into that track of sensations! and with what +lively humour does he describe the disorder of his senses and the +confusion of his understanding, put to test by a deliberate attempt to +count the horns of the moon! + + But whether she had three or four + He could na' tell. + +Behold a sudden apparition that disperses this disorder, and in a moment +chills him into possession of himself! Coming upon no more important +mission than the grisly phantom was charged with, what mode of +introduction could have been more efficient or appropriate? + +But, in those early poems, through the veil of assumed habits and +pretended qualities, enough of the real man appears to show that he was +conscious of sufficient cause to dread his own passions, and to bewail +his errors! We have rejected as false sometimes in the letter, and of +necessity as false in the spirit, many of the testimonies that others +have borne against him; but, by his own hand--in words the import of +which cannot be mistaken--it has been recorded that the order of his +life but faintly corresponded with the clearness of his views. It is +probable that he would have proved a still greater poet if, by strength +of reason, he could have controlled the propensities which his +sensibility engendered; but he would have been a poet of a different +class: and certain it is, had that desirable restraint been early +established, many peculiar beauties which enrich his verses could never +have existed, and many accessary influences, which contribute greatly to +their effect, would have been wanting. For instance, the momentous truth +of the passage already quoted, 'One point must still be greatly dark,' +&c. could not possibly have been conveyed with such pathetic force by +any poet that ever lived, speaking in his own voice; unless it were felt +that, like Burns, he was a man who preached from the text of his own +errors; and whose wisdom, beautiful as a flower that might have risen +from seed sown from above, was in fact a scion from the root of personal +suffering. Whom did the poet intend should be thought of as occupying +that grave over which, after modestly setting forth the moral +discernment and warm affections of its 'poor inhabitant,' it is supposed +to be inscribed that + + --Thoughtless follies laid him low, + And stained his name. + +Who but himself,--himself anticipating the too probable termination of +his own course? Here is a sincere and solemn avowal--a public +declaration _from his own will_--a confession at once devout, poetical, +and human--a history in the shape of a prophecy! What more was required +of the biographer than to have put his seal to the writing, testifying +that the foreboding had been realized, and that the record was +authentic?--Lastingly is it to be regretted in respect to this memorable +being, that inconsiderate intrusion has not left us at liberty to enjoy +his mirth, or his love; his wisdom or his wit; without an admixture of +useless, irksome, and painful details, that take from his poems so much +of that right--which, with all his carelessness, and frequent breaches +of self-respect, he was not negligent to maintain for them--the right of +imparting solid instruction through the medium of unalloyed pleasure. + +You will have noticed that my observations have hitherto been confined +to Dr. Currie's book: if, by fraternal piety, the poison can be sucked +out of this wound, those inflicted by meaner hands may be safely left to +heal of themselves. Of the other writers who have given their names, +only one lays claim to even a slight acquaintance with the author, whose +moral character they take upon them publicly to anatomize. The +_Edinburgh_ reviewer--and him I single out because the author of the +vindication of Burns has treated his offences with comparative +indulgence, to which he has no claim, and which, from whatever cause it +might arise, has interfered with the dispensation of justice--the +_Edinburgh_ reviewer thus writes:[3] 'The _leading vice_ in Burns's +character, and the _cardinal deformity_, indeed, of ALL his productions, +was his contempt, or affectation of contempt, for prudence, decency, and +regularity, and his admiration of thoughtlessness, oddity, and vehement +sensibility: his belief, in short, in the dispensing power of genius and +social feeling in all matters of morality and common sense;' adding, +that these vices and erroneous notions 'have communicated to a great +part of his productions a character of immorality at once contemptible +and hateful.' We are afterwards told, that he is _perpetually_ making a +parade of his thoughtlessness, inflammability, and imprudence; and, in +the next paragraph, that he is _perpetually_ doing something else; i.e. +'boasting of his own independence.'--Marvellous address in the +commission of faults! not less than Caesar showed in the management of +business; who, it is said, could dictate to three secretaries upon three +several affairs, at one and the same moment! But, to be serious. When a +man, self-elected into the office of a public judge of the literature +and life of his contemporaries, can have the audacity to go these +lengths in framing a summary of the contents of volumes that are +scattered over every quarter of the globe, and extant in almost every +cottage of Scotland, to give the lie to his labours; we must not wonder +if, in the plenitude of his concern for the interests of abstract +morality, the infatuated slanderer should have found no obstacle to +prevent him from insinuating that the poet, whose writings are to this +degree stained and disfigured, was 'one of the sons of fancy and of +song, who spend in vain superfluities the money that belongs of right to +the pale industrious tradesman and his famishing infants; and who rave +about friendship and philosophy in a tavern, while their wives' hearts,' +&c. &c. + +[3] From Mr. Peterkin's pamphlet, who vouches for the accuracy of his +citations; omitting, however, to apologize for their length. + +It is notorious that this persevering Aristarch,[4] as often as a work +of original genius comes before him, avails himself of that opportunity +to re-proclaim to the world the narrow range of his own comprehension. +The happy self-complacency, the unsuspecting vain-glory, and the cordial +_bonhommie_, with which this part of his duty is performed, do not leave +him free to complain of being hardly dealt with if any one should +declare the truth, by pronouncing much of the foregoing attack upon the +intellectual and moral character of Burns, to be the trespass (for +reasons that will shortly appear, it cannot be called the venial +trespass) of a mind obtuse, superficial, and inept. What portion of +malignity such a mind is susceptible of, the judicious admirers of the +poet, and the discerning friends of the man, will not trouble themselves +to enquire; but they will wish that this evil principle had possessed +more sway than they are at liberty to assign to it; the offender's +condition would not then have been so hopeless. For malignity _selects_ +its diet; but where is to be found the nourishment from which vanity +will revolt? Malignity may be appeased by triumphs real or supposed, and +will then sleep, or yield its place to a repentance producing +dispositions of good will, and desires to make amends for past injury; +but vanity is restless, reckless, intractable, unappeasable, insatiable. + +[4] A friend, who chances to be present while the author is correcting +the proof sheets, observes that Aristarchus is libelled by this +application of his name, and advises that 'Zoilus' should be +substituted. The question lies between spite and presumption; and it is +not easy to decide upon a case where the claims of each party are so +strong: but the name of Aristarch, who, simple man! would allow no verse +to pass for Homer's which he did not approve of, is retained, for +reasons that will be deemed cogent. + +Fortunate is it for the world when this spirit incites only to actions +that meet with an adequate punishment in derision; such, as in a scheme +of poetical justice, would be aptly requited by assigning to the agents, +when they quit this lower world, a station in that not uncomfortable +limbo--the Paradise of Fools! But, assuredly, we shall have here another +proof that ridicule is not the test of truth, if it prevent us from +perceiving, that _depravity_ has no ally more active, more inveterate, +nor, from the difficulty of divining to what kind and degree of +extravagance it may prompt, more pernicious than self-conceit. Where +this alliance is too obvious to be disputed, the culprit ought not to be +allowed the benefit of contempt--as a shelter from detestation; much +less should he be permitted to plead, in excuse for his transgressions, +that especial malevolence had little or no part in them. It is not +recorded, that the ancient, who set fire to the temple of Diana, had a +particular dislike to the goddess of chastity, or held idolatry in +abhorrence: he was a fool, an egregious fool, but not the less, on that +account, a most odious monster. The tyrant who is described as having +rattled his chariot along a bridge of brass over the heads of his +subjects, was, no doubt, inwardly laughed at; but what if this mock +Jupiter, not satisfied with an empty noise of his own making, had amused +himself with throwing fire-brands upon the house-tops, as a substitute +for lightning; and, from his elevation, had hurled stones upon the heads +of his people, to show that he was a master of the destructive bolt, as +well as of the harmless voice of the thunder!--The lovers of all that is +honourable to humanity have recently had occasion to rejoice over the +downfall of an intoxicated despot, whose vagaries furnish more solid +materials by which the philosopher will exemplify how strict is the +connection between the ludicrously, and the terribly fantastic. We know, +also, that Robespierre was one of the vainest men that the most vain +country upon earth has produced;--and from this passion, and from that +cowardice which naturally connects itself with it, flowed the horrors of +his administration. It is a descent, which I fear you will scarcely +pardon, to compare these redoubtable enemies of mankind with the +anonymous conductor of a perishable publication. But the moving spirit +is the same in them all; and, as far as difference of circumstances, and +disparity of powers, will allow, manifests itself in the same way; by +professions of reverence for truth, and concern for duty--carried to the +giddiest heights of ostentation, while practice seems to have no other +reliance than on the omnipotence of falsehood. + +The transition from a vindication of Robert Burns to these hints for a +picture of the intellectual deformity of one who has grossly outraged +his memory, is too natural to require an apology: but I feel, sir, that +I stand in need of indulgence for having detained you so long. Let me +beg that you would impart to any judicious friends of the poet as much +of the contents of these pages as you think will be serviceable to the +cause; but do not give publicity to any _portion_ of them, unless it be +thought probable that an open circulation of the whole may be useful.[5] +The subject is delicate, and some of the opinions are of a kind, which, +if torn away from the trunk that supports them, will be apt to wither, +and, in that state, to contract poisonous qualities; like the branches +of the yew, which, while united by a living spirit to their native tree, +are neither noxious, nor without beauty; but, being dissevered and cast +upon the ground, become deadly to the cattle that incautiously feed upon +them. + +To Mr. Gilbert Burns, especially, let my sentiments be conveyed, with my +sincere respects, and best wishes for the success of his praise-worthy +enterprize. And if, through modest apprehension, he should doubt of his +own ability to do justice to his brother's memory, let him take +encouragement from the assurance that the most odious part of the +charges owed its credit to the silence of those who were deemed best +entitled to speak; and who, it was thought, would not have been mute, +had they believed that they could speak beneficially. Moreover, it may +be relied on as a general truth, which will not escape his recollection, +that tasks of this kind are not so arduous as, to those who are tenderly +concerned in their issue, they may at first appear to be; for, if the +many be hasty to condemn, there is a re-action of generosity which +stimulates them--when forcibly summoned--to redress the wrong; and, for +the sensible part of mankind, _they_ are neither dull to understand, nor +slow to make allowance for, the aberrations of men, whose intellectual +powers do honour to their species. + + I am, dear Sir, respectfully yours, + WILLIAM WORDSWORTH. + +Rydal Mount, January, 1816. + +[5] It was deemed that it would be so, and the letter is published +accordingly. + + + + +(b) OF MONUMENTS TO LITERARY MEN. + +_Letter to a Friend_. + + Rydal Mount, April 21. 1819. + +SIR, + +The letter with which you have honoured me, bearing date the 31st of +March, I did not receive until yesterday; and, therefore, could not +earlier express my regret that, notwithstanding a cordial approbation of +the feeling which has prompted the undertaking, and a genuine sympathy +in admiration with the gentlemen who have subscribed towards a Monument +for Burns, I cannot unite my humble efforts with theirs in promoting +this object. + +Sincerely can I affirm that my respect for the motives which have swayed +these gentlemen has urged me to trouble you with a brief statement of +the reasons of my dissent. + +In the first place: Eminent poets appear to me to be a class of men, who +less than any others stand in need of such marks of distinction; and +hence I infer, that this mode of acknowledging their merits is one for +which they would not, in general, be themselves solicitous. Burns did, +indeed, erect a monument to Fergusson; but I apprehend his gratitude +took this course because he felt that Fergusson had been prematurely cut +off, and that his fame bore no proportion to his deserts. In neither of +these particulars can the fate of Burns justly be said to resemble that +of his predecessor: his years were indeed few, but numerous enough to +allow him to spread his name far and wide, and to take permanent root in +the affections of his countrymen; in short, he has raised for himself a +monument so conspicuous, and of such imperishable materials, as to +render a local fabric of stone superfluous, and, therefore, +comparatively insignificant. + +But why, if this be granted, should not his fond admirers be permitted +to indulge their feelings, and at the same time to embellish the +metropolis of Scotland? If this may be justly objected to, and in my +opinion it may, it is because the showy tributes to genius are apt to +draw off attention from those efforts by which the interests of +literature might be substantially promoted; and to exhaust public spirit +in comparatively unprofitable exertions, when the wrongs of literary men +are crying out for redress on all sides. It appears to me, that towards +no class of his Majesty's subjects are the laws so unjust and +oppressive. The attention of Parliament has lately been directed, by +petition, to the exaction of copies of newly published works for certain +libraries; but this is a trifling evil compared with the restrictions +imposed upon the duration of copyright, which, in respect to works +profound in philosophy, or elevated, abstracted, and refined in +imagination, is tantamount almost to an exclusion of the author from all +pecuniary recompence; and, even where works of imagination and manners +are so constituted as to be adapted to immediate demand, as is the case +of those of Burns, justly may it be asked, what reason can be assigned +that an author who dies young should have the prospect before him of his +children being left to languish in poverty and dependence, while +booksellers are revelling in luxury upon gains derived from works which +are the delight of many nations. + +This subject might be carried much further, and we might ask, if the +course of things insured immediate wealth, and accompanying rank and +honours--honours and wealth often entailed on their families to men +distinguished in the other learned professions,--why the laws should +interfere to take away those pecuniary emoluments which are the natural +inheritance of the posterity of authors, whose pursuits, if directed by +genius and sustained by industry, yield in importance to none in which +the members of a community can be engaged? + +But to recur to the proposal in your letter. I would readily assist, +according to my means, in erecting a monument to the memory of the Poet +Chatterton, who, with transcendent genius, was cut off while he was yet +a boy in years; this, could he have anticipated the tribute, might have +soothed his troubled spirit, as an expression of general belief in the +existence of those powers which he was too impatient and too proud to +develope. At all events, it might prove an awful and a profitable +warning. I should also be glad to see a monument erected on the banks of +Loch Leven to the memory of the innocent and tender-hearted Michael +Bruce, who, after a short life, spent in poverty and obscurity, was +called away too early to have left behind him more than a few +trustworthy promises of pure affections and unvitiated imagination. + +Let the gallant defenders of our country be liberally rewarded with +monuments; their noble actions cannot speak for themselves, as the +writings of men of genius are able to do. Gratitude in respect to them +stands in need of admonition; and the very multitude of heroic +competitors which increases the demand for this sentiment towards our +naval and military defenders, considered as a body, is injurious to the +claims of individuals. Let our great statesmen and eminent lawyers, our +learned and eloquent divines, and they who have successfully devoted +themselves to the abstruser sciences, be rewarded in like manner; but +towards departed genius, exerted in the fine arts, and more especially +in poetry, I humbly think, in the present state of things, the sense of +our obligation to it may more satisfactorily be expressed by means +pointing directly to the general benefit of literature. + +Trusting that these opinions of an individual will be candidly +interpreted, I have the honour to be + + Your obedient servant, + W. WORDSWORTH.[6] + +[6] _Memoirs_, ii. 88-91. + + + + +(_c_) OF SIR THOMAS BROWNE, A MONUMENT TO SOUTHEY, &c. + +_Letter to John Peace, Esq., City Library, Bristol_. + + Rydal Mount, April 8. 1844. + +MY DEAR MR. PEACE, + +You have gratified me by what you say of Sir Thomas Browne. I possess +his _Religio Medici, Christian Morals, Vulgar Errors_, &c. in separate +publications, and value him highly as a most original author. I almost +regret that you did not add his Treatise upon _Urn Burial_ to your +publication; it is not long, and very remarkable for the vigour of mind +that it displays. + +Have you had any communication with Mr. Cottle upon the subject of the +subscription which he has set on foot for the erection of a _Monument_ +to Southey in Bristol Cathedral? We are all engaged in a like tribute to +be placed in the parish church of Keswick. For my own part, I am not +particularly fond of placing monuments in _churches_, at least in modern +times. I should prefer their being put in public places in the town with +which the party was connected by birth or otherwise; or in the country, +if he were a person who lived apart from the bustle of the world. And in +Southey's case, I should have liked better a bronze bust, in some +accessible and not likely to be disturbed part of St. Vincent's Rocks, +as a site, than the cathedral. + +Thanks for your congratulations upon my birthday. I have now entered, +awful thought! upon my 75th year. + +God bless you, and believe me, my dear friend, + + Ever faithfully yours, + WM. WORDSWORTH. + +Mrs. Wordsworth begs her kind remembrance, as does Miss Fenwick, who is +with us.[7] + +[7] _Memoirs_, ii. 91-2. + + + + +II. UPON EPITAPHS. + +_(a)_ FROM 'THE FRIEND.' + +_(b and c)_ FROM THE AUTHOR'S MSS. + + + + +(_a_) UPON EPITAPHS. + + +_From 'The Friend,' Feb_. 22, 1810. + +It needs scarcely be said, that an Epitaph presupposes a Monument, upon +which it is to be engraven. Almost all Nations have wished that certain +external signs should point out the places where their dead are +interred. Among savage tribes unacquainted with letters this has mostly +been done either by rude stones placed near the graves, or by mounds of +earth raised over them. This custom proceeded obviously from a twofold +desire; first, to guard the remains of the deceased from irreverent +approach or from savage violation: and, secondly, to preserve their +memory. 'Never any,' says Camden, 'neglected burial but some savage +nations; as the Bactrians, which cast their dead to the dogs; some +varlet philosophers, as Diogenes, who desired to be devoured of fishes; +some dissolute courtiers, as Maecenas, who was wont to say, Non tumulum +euro; sepelit natura relictos. + + I'm careless of a grave:--Nature her dead will save. + +As soon as nations had learned the use of letters, epitaphs were +inscribed upon these monuments; in order that their intention might be +more surely and adequately fulfilled. I have derived monuments and +epitaphs from two sources of feeling: but these do in fact resolve +themselves into one. The invention of epitaphs, Weever, in his +_Discourse of Funeral Monuments_, says rightly, 'proceeded from the +presage of fore-feeling of immortality, implanted in all men naturally, +and is referred to the scholars of Linus the Theban poet, who flourished +about the year of the world two thousand seven hundred; who first +bewailed this Linus their Master, when he was slain, in doleful verses, +then called of him Aelina, afterwards Epitaphia, for that they were +first sung at burials, after engraved upon the sepulchres.' + +And, verily, without the consciousness of a principle of immortality in +the human soul, Man could never have had awakened in him the desire to +live in the remembrance of his fellows: mere love, or the yearning of +kind towards kind, could not have produced it. The dog or horse perishes +in the field, or in the stall, by the side of his companions, and is +incapable of anticipating the sorrow with which his surrounding +associates shall bemoan his death, or pine for his loss; he cannot +pre-conceive this regret, he can form no thought of it; and therefore +cannot possibly have a desire to leave such regret or remembrance behind +him. Add to the principle of love which exists in the inferior animals, +the faculty of reason which exists in Man alone; will the conjunction of +these account for the desire? Doubtless it is a necessary consequence of +this conjunction; yet not I think as a direct result, but only to be +come at through an intermediate thought, viz. that of an intimation or +assurance within us, that some part of our nature is imperishable. At +least the precedence, in order of birth, of one feeling to the other, is +unquestionable. If we look back upon the days of childhood, we shall +find that the time is not in remembrance when, with respect to our own +individual Being, the mind was without this assurance; whereas, the wish +to be remembered by our friends or kindred after death, or even in +absence, is, as we shall discover, a sensation that does not form itself +till the _social_ feelings have been developed, and the Reason has +connected itself with a wide range of objects. Forlorn, and cut off from +communication with the best part of his nature, must that man be, who +should derive the sense of immortality, as it exists in the mind of a +child, from the same unthinking gaiety or liveliness of animal spirits +with which the lamb in the meadow, or any other irrational creature is +endowed; who should ascribe it, in short, to blank ignorance in the +child; to an inability arising from the imperfect state of his faculties +to come, in any point of his being, into contact with a notion of death; +or to an unreflecting acquiescence in what had been instilled into him! +Has such an unfolder of the mysteries of nature, though he may have +forgotten his former self, ever noticed the early, obstinate, and +unappeasable inquisitiveness of children upon the subject of +origination? This single fact proves outwardly the monstrousness of +those suppositions: for, if we had no direct external testimony that the +minds of very young children meditate feelingly upon death and +immortality, these inquiries, which we all know they are perpetually +making concerning the _whence_, do necessarily include correspondent +habits of interrogation concerning the _whither_. Origin and tendency +are notions inseparably co-relative. Never did a child stand by the side +of a running stream, pondering within himself what power was the feeder +of the perpetual current, from what never-wearied sources the body of +water was supplied, but he must have been inevitably propelled to follow +this question by another: 'Towards what abyss is it in progress? what +receptacle can contain the mighty influx?' And the spirit of the answer +must have been, though the word might be sea or ocean, accompanied +perhaps with an image gathered from a map, or from the real object in +nature--these might have been the _letter_, but the _spirit_ of the +answer must have been _as_ inevitably,--a receptacle without bounds or +dimensions;--nothing less than infinity. We may, then, be justified in +asserting, that the sense of immortality, if not a co-existent and twin +birth with Reason, is among the earliest of her offspring: and we may +further assert, that from these conjoined, and under their countenance, +the human affections are gradually formed and opened out. This is not +the place to enter into the recesses of these investigations; but the +subject requires me here to make a plain avowal, that, for my own part, +it is to me inconceivable, that the sympathies of love towards each +other, which grow with our growth, could ever attain any new strength, +or even preserve the old, after we had received from the outward senses +the impression of death, and were in the habit of having that impression +daily renewed and its accompanying feeling brought home to ourselves, +and to those we love; if the same were not counteracted by those +communications with our internal Being, which are anterior to all these +experiences, and with which revelation coincides, and has through that +coincidence alone (for otherwise it could not possess it) a power to +affect us. I confess, with me the conviction is absolute, that, if the +impression and sense of death were not thus counterbalanced, such a +hollowness would pervade the whole system of things, such a want of +correspondence and consistency, a disproportion so astounding betwixt +means and ends, that there could be no repose, no joy. Were we to grow +up unfostered by this genial warmth, a frost would chill the spirit, so +penetrating and powerful, that there could be no motions of the life of +love; and infinitely less could we have any wish to be remembered after +we had passed away from a world in which each man had moved about like a +shadow.--If, then, in a creature endowed with the faculties of foresight +and reason, the social affections could not have unfolded themselves +uncountenanced by the faith that Man is an immortal being; and if, +consequently, neither could the individual dying have had a desire to +survive in the remembrance of his fellows, nor on their side could they +have felt a wish to preserve for future times vestiges of the departed; +it follows, as a final inference, that without the belief in +immortality, wherein these several desires originate, neither monuments +nor epitaphs, in affectionate or laudatory commemoration of the +deceased, could have existed in the world. + +Simonides, it is related, upon landing in a strange country, found the +corpse of an unknown person lying by the sea-side; he buried it, and was +honoured throughout Greece for the piety of that act. Another ancient +Philosopher, chancing to fix his eyes upon a dead body, regarded the +same with slight, if not with contempt; saying, 'See the shell of the +flown bird!' But it is not to be supposed that the moral and +tender-hearted Simonides was incapable of the lofty movements of +thought, to which that other Sage gave way at the moment while his soul +was intent only upon the indestructible being; nor, on the other hand, +that he, in whose sight a lifeless human body was of no more value than +the worthless shell from which the living fowl had departed, would not, +in a different mood of mind, have been affected by those earthly +considerations which had incited the philosophic Poet to the performance +of that pious duty. And with regard to this latter we may be assured +that, if he had been destitute of the capability of communing with the +more exalted thoughts that appertain to human nature, he would have +cared no more for the corpse of the stranger than for the dead body of a +seal or porpoise which might have been cast up by the waves. We respect +the corporeal frame of Man, not merely because it is the habitation of a +rational, but of an immortal Soul. Each of these Sages was in sympathy +with the best feelings of our nature; feelings which, though they seem +opposite to each other, have another and a finer connection than that of +contrast.--It is a connection formed through the subtle process by +which, both in the natural and the moral world, qualities pass +insensibly into their contraries, and things revolve upon each other. +As, in sailing upon the orb of this planet, a voyage towards the regions +where the sun sets, conducts gradually to the quarter where we have been +accustomed to behold it come forth at its rising; and, in like manner, a +voyage towards the east, the birth-place in our imagination of the +morning, leads finally to the quarter where the sun is last seen when he +departs from our eyes; so the contemplative Soul, travelling in the +direction of mortality, advances to the country of everlasting life; +and, in like manner, may she continue to explore those cheerful tracts, +till she is brought back, for her advantage and benefit, to the land of +transitory things--of sorrow and of tears. + +On a midway point, therefore, which commands the thoughts and feelings +of the two Sages whom we have represented in contrast, does the Author +of that species of composition, the laws of which it is our present +purpose to explain, take his stand. Accordingly, recurring to the +twofold desire of guarding the remains of the deceased and preserving +their memory, it may be said that a sepulchral monument is a tribute to +a man as a human being; and that an epitaph (in the ordinary meaning +attached to the word) includes this general feeling and something more; +and is a record to preserve the memory of the dead, as a tribute due to +his individual worth, for a satisfaction to the sorrowing hearts of the +survivors, and for the common benefit of the living: which record is to +be accomplished, not in a general manner, but, where it can, in _close +connection with the bodily remains of the deceased_: and these, it may +be added, among the modern nations of Europe, are deposited within, or +contiguous to, their places of worship. In ancient times, as is well +known, it was the custom to bury the dead beyond the walls of towns and +cities; and among the Greeks and Romans they were frequently interred by +the way-sides. + +I could here pause with pleasure, and invite the Reader to indulge with +me in contemplation of the advantages which must have attended such a +practice. We might ruminate upon the beauty which the monuments, thus +placed, must have borrowed from the surrounding images of nature--from +the trees, the wild flowers, from a stream running perhaps within sight +or hearing, from the beaten road stretching its weary length hard by. +Many tender similitudes must these objects have presented to the mind of +the traveller leaning upon one of the tombs, or reposing in the coolness +of its shade, whether he had halted from weariness or in compliance with +the invitation, 'Pause, Traveller!' so often found upon the monuments. +And to its epitaph also must have been supplied strong appeals to +visible appearances or immediate impressions, lively and affecting +analogies of life as a journey--death as a sleep overcoming the tired +wayfarer--of misfortune as a storm that falls suddenly upon him--of +beauty as a flower that passeth away, or of innocent pleasure as one +that may be gathered--of virtue that standeth firm as a rock against the +beating waves;--of hope 'undermined insensibly like the poplar by the +side of the river that has fed it,' or blasted in a moment like a +pine-tree by the stroke of lightning upon the mountain-top--of +admonitions and heart-stirring remembrances, like a refreshing breeze +that comes without warning, or the taste of the waters of an unexpected +fountain. These, and similar suggestions, must have given, formerly, to +the language of the senseless stone a voice enforced and endeared by the +benignity of that Nature with which it was in unison.--We, in modern +times, have lost much of these advantages; and they are but in a small +degree counterbalanced to the inhabitants of large towns and cities, by +the custom of depositing the dead within, or contiguous to, their places +of worship; however splendid or imposing may be the appearance of those +edifices, or however interesting or salutary the recollections +associated with them. Even were it not true that tombs lose their +monitory virtue when thus obtruded upon the notice of men occupied with +the cares of the world, and too often sullied and defiled by those +cares, yet still, when death is in our thoughts, nothing can make amends +for the want of the soothing influences of Nature, and for the absence +of those types of renovation and decay, which the fields and woods offer +to the notice of the serious and contemplative mind. To feel the force +of this sentiment, let a man only compare in imagination the unsightly +manner in which our monuments are crowded together in the busy, noisy, +unclean, and almost grassless church-yard of a large town, with the +still seclusion of a Turkish cemetery, in some remote place; and yet +further sanctified by the grove of cypress in which it is embosomed. +Thoughts in the same temper as these have already been expressed with +true sensibility by an ingenuous Poet of the present day. The subject of +his poem is 'All Saints Church, Derby:' he has been deploring the +forbidding and unseemly appearance of its burial-ground, and uttering a +wish, that in past times the practice had been adopted of interring the +inhabitants of large towns in the country.-- + + Then in some rural, calm, sequestered spot, + Where healing Nature her benignant look + Ne'er changes, save at that lorn season, when, + With tresses drooping o'er her sable stole, + She yearly mourns the mortal doom of man, + Her noblest work, (so Israel's virgins erst, + With annual moan upon the mountains wept + Their fairest gone,) there in that rural scene, + So placid, so congenial to the wish + The Christian feels, of peaceful rest within + The silent grave, I would have stayed: + + * * * * * + + --wandered forth, where the cold dew of heaven + Lay on the humbler graves around, what time + The pale moon gazed upon the turfy mounds, + Pensive, as though like me, in lonely muse, + Twere brooding on the dead inhumed beneath. + There while with him, the holy man of Uz, + O'er human destiny I sympathised, + Counting the long, long periods prophecy + Decrees to roll, ere the great day arrives + Of resurrection, oft the blue-eyed Spring + Had met me with her blossoms, as the Dove, + Of old, returned with olive leaf, to cheer + The Patriarch mourning o'er a world destroyed: + And I would bless her visit; for to me + 'Tis sweet to trace the consonance that links + As one, the works of Nature and the word + Of God.--JOHN EDWARDS. + +A village church-yard, lying as it does in the lap of Nature, may indeed +be most favourably contrasted with that of a town of crowded population; +and sepulture therein combines many of the best tendencies which belong +to the mode practised by the Ancients, with others peculiar to itself. +The sensations of pious cheerfulness, which attend the celebration of +the sabbath-day in rural places, are profitably chastised by the sight +of the graves of kindred and friends, gathered together in that general +home towards which the thoughtful yet happy spectators themselves are +journeying. Hence a parish-church, in the stillness of the country, is a +visible centre of a community of the living and the dead; a point to +which are habitually referred the nearest concerns of both. + +As, then, both in cities and villages, the dead are deposited in close +connection with our places of worship, with us the composition of an +epitaph naturally turns, still more than among the nations of antiquity, +upon the most serious and solemn affections of the human mind; upon +departed worth--upon personal or social sorrow and admiration--upon +religion, individual and social--upon time, and upon eternity. +Accordingly, it suffices, in ordinary cases, to secure a composition of +this kind from censure, that it contain nothing that shall shock or be +inconsistent with this spirit. But, to entitle an epitaph to praise, +more than this is necessary. It ought to contain some thought or feeling +belonging to the mortal or immortal part of our nature touchingly +expressed; and if that be done, however general or even trite the +sentiment may be, every man of pure mind will read the words with +pleasure and gratitude. A husband bewails a wife; a parent breathes a +sigh of disappointed hope over a lost child; a son utters a sentiment of +filial reverence for a departed father or mother; a friend perhaps +inscribes an encomium recording the companionable qualities, or the +solid virtues, of the tenant of the grave, whose departure has left a +sadness upon his memory. This and a pious admonition to the living, and +a humble expression of Christian confidence in immortality, is the +language of a thousand church-yards; and it does not often happen that +anything, in a greater degree discriminate or appropriate to the dead or +to the living, is to be found in them. This want of discrimination has +been ascribed by Dr. Johnson, in his Essay upon the epitaphs of Pope, to +two causes; first, the scantiness of the objects of human praise; and, +secondly, the want of variety in the characters of men; or, to use his +own words, 'to the fact, that the greater part of mankind have no +character at all.' Such language may be holden without blame among the +generalities of common conversation; but does not become a critic and a +moralist speaking seriously upon a serious subject. The objects of +admiration in human nature are not scanty, but abundant: and every man +has a character of his own, to the eye that has skill to perceive it. +The real cause of the acknowledged want of discrimination in sepulchral +memorials is this: That to analyse the characters of others, especially +of those whom we love, is not a common or natural employment of men at +any time. We are not anxious unerringly to understand the constitution +of the minds of those who have soothed, who have cheered, who have +supported us: with whom we have been long and daily pleased or +delighted. The affections are their own justification. The light of love +in our hearts is a satisfactory evidence that there is a body of worth +in the minds of our friends or kindred, whence that light has proceeded. +We shrink from the thought of placing their merits and defects to be +weighed against each other in the nice balance of pure intellect; nor do +we find much temptation to detect the shades by which a good quality or +virtue is discriminated in them from an excellence known by the same +general name as it exists in the mind of another; and, least of all, do +we incline to these refinements when under the pressure of sorrow, +admiration, or regret, or when actuated by any of those feelings which +incite men to prolong the memory of their friends and kindred, by +records placed in the bosom of the all-uniting and equalising receptacle +of the dead. + +The first requisite, then, in an Epitaph is, that it should speak, in a +tone which shall sink into the heart, the general language of humanity +as connected with the subject of death--the source from which an epitaph +proceeds--of death, and of life. To be born and to die are the two +points in which all men feel themselves to be in absolute coincidence. +This general language may be uttered so strikingly as to entitle an +epitaph to high praise; yet it cannot lay claim to the highest unless +other excellencies be superadded. Passing through all intermediate +steps, we will attempt to determine at once what these excellencies are, +and wherein consists the perfection of this species of composition.--It +will be found to lie in a due proportion of the common or universal +feeling of humanity to sensations excited by a distinct and clear +conception, conveyed to the reader's mind, of the individual, whose +death is deplored and whose memory is to be preserved; at least of his +character as, after death, it appeared to those who loved him and lament +his loss. The general sympathy ought to be quickened, provoked, and +diversified, by particular thoughts, actions, images,--circumstances of +age, occupation, manner of life, prosperity which the deceased had +known, or adversity to which he had been subject; and these ought to be +bound together and solemnised into one harmony by the general sympathy. +The two powers should temper, restrain, and exalt each other. The reader +ought to know who and what the man was whom he is called upon to think +of with interest. A distinct conception should be given (implicitly +where it can, rather than explicitly) of the individual lamented.--But +the writer of an epitaph is not an anatomist, who dissects the internal +frame of the mind; he is not even a painter, who executes a portrait at +leisure and in entire tranquillity; his delineation, we must remember, +is performed by the side of the grave; and, what is more, the grave of +one whom he loves and admires. What purity and brightness is that virtue +clothed in, the image of which must no longer bless our living eyes! The +character of a deceased friend or beloved kinsman is not seen, no--nor +ought to be seen, otherwise than as a tree through a tender haze or a +luminous mist, that spiritualises and beautifies it; that takes away, +indeed, but only to the end that the parts which are not abstracted may +appear more dignified and lovely; may impress and affect the more. Shall +we say, then, that this is not truth, not a faithful image; and that, +accordingly, the purposes of commemoration cannot be answered?--It _is_ +truth, and of the highest order; for, though doubtless things are not +apparent which did exist; yet, the object being looked at through this +medium, parts and proportions are brought into distinct view which +before had been only imperfectly or unconsciously seen: it is truth +hallowed by love--the joint offspring of the worth of the dead and the +affections of the living! This may easily be brought to the test. Let +one, whose eyes have been sharpened by personal hostility to discover +what was amiss in the character of a good man, hear the tidings of his +death, and what a change is wrought in a moment! Enmity melts away; and, +as it disappears, unsightliness, disproportion, and deformity, vanish; +and, through the influence of commiseration, a harmony of love and +beauty succeeds. Bring such a man to the tomb-stone on which shall be +inscribed an epitaph on his adversary, composed in the spirit which we +have recommended. Would he turn from it as from an idle tale? No;--the +thoughtful look, the sigh, and perhaps the involuntary tear, would +testify that it had a sane, a generous, and good meaning; and that on +the writer's mind had remained an impression which was a true abstract +of the character of the deceased; that his gifts and graces were +remembered in the simplicity in which they ought to be remembered. The +composition and quality of the mind of a virtuous man, contemplated by +the side of the grave where his body is mouldering, ought to appear, and +be felt as something midway between what he was on earth walking about +with his living frailties, and what he may be presumed to be as a spirit +in heaven. + +It suffices, therefore, that the trunk and the main branches of the +worth of the deceased be boldly and unaffectedly represented. Any +further detail, minutely and scrupulously pursued, especially if this be +done with laborious and antithetic discriminations, must inevitably +frustrate its own purpose; forcing the passing Spectator to this +conclusion,--either that the dead did not possess the merits ascribed to +him, or that they who have raised a monument to his memory, and must +therefore be supposed to have been closely connected with him, were +incapable of perceiving those merits; or at least during the act of +composition had lost sight of them; for, the understanding having been +so busy in its petty occupation, how could the heart of the mourner be +other than cold? and in either of these cases, whether the fault be on +the part of the buried person or the survivors, the memorial is +unaffecting and profitless. + +Much better is it to fall short in discrimination than to pursue it too +far, or to labour it unfeelingly. For in no place are we so much +disposed to dwell upon those points, of nature and condition, wherein +all men resemble each other, as in the temple where the universal Father +is worshipped, or by the side of the grave which gathers all human +Beings to itself, and 'equalises the lofty and the low.' We suffer and +we weep with the same heart; we love and are anxious for one another in +one spirit; our hopes look to the same quarter; and the virtues by which +we are all to be furthered and supported, as patience, meekness, +good-will, justice, temperance, and temperate desires, are in an equal +degree the concern of us all. Let an Epitaph, then, contain at least +these acknowledgments to our common nature; nor let the sense of their +importance be sacrificed to a balance of opposite qualities or minute +distinctions in individual character; which if they do not, (as will for +the most part be the case,) when examined, resolve themselves into a +trick of words, will, even when they are true and just, for the most +part be grievously out of place; for, as it is probable that few only +have explored these intricacies of human nature, so can the tracing of +them be interesting only to a few. But an epitaph is not a proud writing +shut up for the studious: it is exposed to all--to the wise and the most +ignorant; it is condescending, perspicuous, and lovingly solicits +regard; its story and admonitions are brief, that the thoughtless, the +busy, and indolent, may not be deterred, nor the impatient tired: the +stooping old man cons the engraven record like a second horn-book;--the +child is proud that he can read it;--and the stranger is introduced +through its mediation to the company of a friend: it is concerning all, +and for all:--in the church-yard it is open to the day; the sun looks +down upon the stone, and the rains of heaven beat against it. + +Yet, though the writer who would excite sympathy is bound in this case, +more than in any other, to give proof that he himself has been moved, it +is to be remembered, that to raise a monument is a sober and a +reflective act; that the inscription which it bears is intended to be +permanent, and for universal perusal; and that, for this reason, the +thoughts and feelings expressed should be permanent also--liberated from +that weakness and anguish of sorrow which is in nature transitory, and +which with instinctive decency retires from notice. The passions should +be subdued, the emotions controlled; strong, indeed, but nothing +ungovernable or wholly involuntary. Seemliness requires this, and truth +requires it also: for how can the narrator otherwise be trusted? +Moreover, a grave is a tranquillising object: resignation in course of +time springs up from it as naturally as the wild flowers, besprinkling +the turf with which it may be covered, or gathering round the monument +by which it is defended. The very form and substance of the monument +which has received the inscription, and the appearance of the letters, +testifying with what a slow and laborious hand they must have been +engraven, might seem to reproach the author who had given way upon this +occasion to transports of mind, or to quick turns of conflicting +passion; though the same might constitute the life and beauty of a +funeral oration or elegiac poem. + +These sensations and judgments, acted upon perhaps unconsciously, have +been one of the main causes why epitaphs so often personate the +deceased, and represent him as speaking from his own tomb-stone. The +departed Mortal is introduced telling you himself that his pains are +gone; that a state of rest is come; and he conjures you to weep for him +no longer. He admonishes with the voice of one experienced in the vanity +of those affections which are confined to earthly objects, and gives a +verdict like a superior Being, performing the office of a judge, who has +no temptations to mislead him, and whose decision cannot but be +dispassionate. Thus is death disarmed of its sting, and affliction +unsubstantialised. By this tender fiction, the survivors bind themselves +to a sedater sorrow, and employ the intervention of the imagination in +order that the reason may speak her own language earlier than she would +otherwise have been enabled to do. This shadowy interposition also +harmoniously unites the two worlds of the living and the dead by their +appropriate affections. And it may be observed, that here we have an +additional proof of the propriety with which sepulchral inscriptions +were referred to the consciousness of immortality as their primal +source. + +I do not speak with a wish to recommend that an epitaph should be cast +in this mould preferably to the still more common one, in which what is +said comes from the survivors directly; but rather to point out how +natural those feelings are which have induced men, in all states and +ranks of society, so frequently to adopt this mode. And this I have done +chiefly in order that the laws, which ought to govern the composition of +the other, may be better understood. This latter mode, namely, that in +which the survivors speak in their own persons, seems to me upon the +whole greatly preferable: as it admits a wider range of notices; and, +above all, because, excluding the fiction which is the ground-work of +the other, it rests upon a more solid basis. + +Enough has been a said to convey our notion of a perfect epitaph; but it +must be borne in mind that one is meant which will best answer the +_general_ ends of that species of composition. According to the course +pointed out, the worth of private life, through all varieties of +situation and character, will be most honourably and profitably +preserved in memory. Nor would the model recommended less suit public +men, in all instances save of those persons who by the greatness of +their services in the employments of peace or war, or by the surpassing +excellence of their works in art, literature, or science, have made +themselves not only universally known, but have filled the heart of +their country with everlasting gratitude. Yet I must here pause to +correct myself. In describing the general tenor of thought which +epitaphs ought to hold, I have omitted to say, that if it be the +_actions_ of a man, or even some _one_ conspicuous or beneficial act of +local or general utility, which have distinguished him, and excited a +desire that he should be remembered, then, of course, ought the +attention to be directed chiefly to those actions or that act: and such +sentiments dwelt upon as naturally arise out of them or it. Having made +this necessary distinction, I proceed.--The mighty benefactors of +mankind, as they are not only known by the immediate survivors, but will +continue to be known familiarly to latest posterity, do not stand in +need of biographic sketches, in such a place; nor of delineations of +character to individualise them. This is already done by their Works, in +the memories of men. Their naked names, and a grand comprehensive +sentiment of civic gratitude, patriotic love, or human admiration--or +the utterance of some elementary principle most essential in the +constitution of true virtue;--or a declaration touching that pious +humility and self-abasement, which are ever most profound as minds are +most susceptible of genuine exaltation--or an intuition, communicated in +adequate words, of the sublimity of intellectual power;--these are the +only tribute which can here be paid--the only offering that upon such an +altar would not be unworthy. + + What needs my Shakspeare for his honoured bones + The labour of an age in piled stones, + Or that his hallowed reliques should be hid + Under a star y-pointing pyramid? + Dear Son of Memory, great Heir of Fame, + What need'st thou such weak witness of thy name? + Thou in our wonder and astonishment + Hast built thyself a livelong monument, + And so sepulchred, in such pomp dost lie, + That kings for such a tomb would wish to die. + + + + +(_b_) THE COUNTRY CHURCH-YARD, AND CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF ANCIENT +EPITAPHS. + +_From the Author's Mss._ + + + Yet even these bones from insult to protect + Some frail memorial still erected nigh, + With uncouth rhymes and shapeless sculpture deck'd, + Implores the passing tribute of a sigh. + Their name, their years, spelt by the unletter'd Muse, + The place of fame and elegy supply, + And many a holy text around she strews, + That teach the rustic moralist to die. + +When a Stranger has walked round a Country Church-yard and glanced his +eye over so many brief chronicles, as the tomb-stones usually contain, +of faithful wives, tender husbands, dutiful children, and good men of +all classes; he will be tempted to exclaim in the language of one of the +characters of a modern Tale, in a similar situation, 'Where are all the +_bad_ people buried?' He may smile to himself an answer to this +question, and may regret that it has intruded upon him so soon. For my +own part such has been my lot; and indeed a man, who is in the habit of +suffering his mind to be carried passively towards truth as well as of +going with conscious effort in search of it, may be forgiven, if he has +sometimes insensibly yielded to the delusion of those flattering +recitals, and found a pleasure in believing that the prospect of real +life had been as fair as it was in that picture represented. And such a +transitory oversight will without difficulty be forgiven by those who +have observed a trivial fact in daily life, namely, how apt, in a series +of calm weather, we are to forget that rain and storms have been, and +will return to interrupt any scheme of business or pleasure which our +minds are occupied in arranging. Amid the quiet of a church-yard thus +decorated as it seemed by the hand of Memory, and shining, if I may so +say, in the light of love, I have been affected by sensations akin to +those which have risen in my mind while I have been standing by the +side of a smooth sea, on a Summer's day. It is such a happiness to have, +in an unkind world, one enclosure where the voice of Detraction is not +heard; where the traces of evil inclinations are unknown; where +contentment prevails, and there is no jarring tone in the peaceful +concert of amity and gratitude. I have been rouzed from this reverie by +a consciousness suddenly flashing upon me, of the anxieties, the +perturbations, and in many instances, the vices and rancorous +dispositions, by which the hearts of those who lie under so smooth a +surface and so fair an outside have been agitated. The image of an +unruffled sea has still remained; but my fancy has penetrated into the +depths of that sea,--with accompanying thoughts of shipwreck, of the +destruction of the mariner's hopes, the bones of drowned men heaped +together, monsters of the deep, and all the hideous and confused sights +which Clarence saw in his dream. + +Nevertheless, I have been able to return (and who may _not_?) to a +steady contemplation of the benign influence of such a favourable +Register lying open to the eyes of all. Without being so far lulled as +to imagine I saw in a village church-yard the eye or central point of a +rural Arcadia, I have felt that with all the vague and general +expressions of love, gratitude, and praise, with which it is usually +crowded, it is a far more faithful representation of homely life as +existing among a community in which circumstances have not been +untoward, than any report which might be made by a rigorous observer +deficient in that spirit of forbearance and those kindly prepossessions, +without which human life can in no condition be profitably looked at or +described. For we must remember that it is the nature of vice to force +itself upon notice, both in the act and by its consequences. +Drunkenness, cruelty, brutal manners, sensuality and impiety, +thoughtless prodigality and idleness, are obstreperous while they are in +the height and heyday of their enjoyment; and when that is passed away, +long and obtrusive is the train of misery which they draw after them. +But on the contrary, the virtues, especially those of humble life, are +retired; and many of the highest must be sought for or they will be +overlooked. Industry, economy, temperance, and cleanliness, are indeed +made obvious by flourishing fields, rosy complexions, and smiling +countenances; but how few know anything of the trials to which men in a +lonely condition are subject, or of the steady and triumphant manner in +which those trials are often sustained, but they themselves? The +afflictions which peasants and rural citizens have to struggle with are +for the most part secret; the tears which they wipe away, and the sighs +which they stifle,--this is all a labour of privacy. In fact their +victories are to themselves known only imperfectly; for it is +inseparable from virtue, in the pure sense of the word, to be +unconscious of the might of her own prowess. This is true of minds the +most enlightened by reflection; who have forecast what they may have to +endure, and prepared themselves accordingly. It is true even of these, +when they are called into action, that they necessarily lose sight of +their own accomplishments and support their conflicts in +self-forgetfulness and humility. That species of happy ignorance, which +is the consequence of these noble qualities, must exist still more +frequently, and in a greater degree, in those persons to whom duty has +never been matter of laborious speculation, and who have no intimations +of the power to act and to resist which is in them, till they are +summoned to put it forth. I could illustrate this by many examples, +which are now before my eyes; but it would detain me too long from my +principal subject which was to suggest reasons for believing that the +encomiastic language of rural tomb-stones does not so far exceed reality +as might lightly be supposed. Doubtless, an inattentive or ill-disposed +Observer, who should apply to surrounding cottages the knowledge which +he may possess of any rural neighbourhood, would upon the first impulse +confidently report that there was little in their living inhabitants +which reflected the concord and the virtue there dwelt upon so fondly. +Much has been said in a former Paper tending to correct this +disposition; and which will naturally combine with the present +considerations. Besides, to slight the uniform language of these +memorials as on that account not trustworthy would obviously be +unjustifiable. + +Enter a church-yard by the sea-coast, and you will be almost sure to +find the tomb-stones crowded with metaphors taken from the sea and a +sea-faring life. These are uniformly in the same strain; but surely we +ought not thence to infer that the words are used of course, without any +heartfelt sense of their propriety. Would not the contrary conclusion be +right? But I will adduce a fact which more than a hundred analogical +arguments will carry to the mind a conviction of the strength and +sanctity of those feelings which persons in humble stations of society +connect with their departed friends and kindred. We learn from the +Statistical Account of Scotland that in some districts, a general +transfer of inhabitants has taken place; and that a great majority of +those who live, and labour, and attend public worship in one part of the +country, are buried in another. Strong and unconquerable still continues +to be the desire of all, that their bones should rest by the side of +their forefathers, and very poor persons provide that their bodies +should be conveyed if necessary to a great distance to obtain that last +satisfaction. Nor can I refrain from saying that this natural +interchange by which the living inhabitants of a parish have small +knowledge of the dead who are buried in their church-yard is grievously +to be lamented, wherever it exists. For it cannot fail to preclude not +merely much but the best part of the wholesome influence of that +communion between living and dead which the conjunction in rural +districts of the place of burial and place of worship tends so +effectually to promote. Finally, let us remember that if it be the +nature of man to be insensible to vexations and afflictions when they +have passed away, he is equally insensible to the height and depth of +his blessings till they are removed from him. An experienced and +well-regulated mind, will not, therefore, be insensible to this +monotonous language of sorrow and affectionate admiration; but will find +under that veil a substance of individual truth. Yet upon all men, and +upon such a mind in particular, an Epitaph must strike with a gleam of +pleasure, when the expression is of that kind which carries conviction +to the heart at once that the author was a sincere mourner, and that the +inhabitant of the grave deserved to be so lamented. This may be done +sometimes by a naked ejaculation; as in an instance which a friend of +mine met with in a church-yard in Germany, thus literally translated: +'Ah! they have laid in the grave a brave man: he was to me more than +many!' + + Ach! sie haben + Einen Braven + Mann begraben + Mir war er mehr als viele. + +An effect as pleasing is often produced by the recital of an affliction +endured with fortitude, or of a privation submitted to with contentment; +or by a grateful display of the temporal blessings with which Providence +had favoured the deceased, and the happy course of life through which he +had passed. And where these individualities are untouched upon, it may +still happen that the estate of man in his helplessness, in his +dependence upon his Maker, or some other inherent of his nature shall be +movingly and profitably expressed. Every Reader will be able to supply +from his own observation instances of all these kinds, and it will be +more pleasing for him to refer to his memory than to have the page +crowded with unnecessary quotations. I will however give one or two from +an old book cited before. The following of general application, was a +great favourite with our forefathers: + + Farwel my Frendys, the tyd abidyth no man, + I am departed hens, and so sal ye, + But in this passage the best song I can + Is _Requiem Eternam_, now Jesu grant it me. + When I have ended all myn adversity + Grant me in Paradys to have a mansion + That shedst Thy bloud for my redemption. + +This epitaph might seem to be of the age of Chaucer, for it has the very +tone and manner of the Prioress's Tale. + +The next opens with a thought somewhat interrupting that complacency and +gracious repose which the language and imagery of a church-yard tend to +diffuse, but the truth is weighty and will not be less acceptable for +the rudeness of the expression. + + When the bells be mearely roung + And the Masse devoutly soung + And the meate merrely eaten + Then sall Robert Trappis his Wyffs and his Chyldren be + forgotten. + Wherfor Iesu that of Mary sproung + Set their soulys Thy Saynts among, + Though it be undeservyd on their syde + Yet good Lord let them evermor Thy mercy abyde! + +It is well known how fond our ancestors were of a play upon the name of +the deceased when it admitted of a double sense. The following is an +instance of this propensity not idly indulged. It brings home a general +truth to the individual by the medium of a pun, which will be readily +pardoned for the sake of the image suggested by it, for the happy mood +of mind in which the epitaph is composed, for the beauty of the +language, and for the sweetness of the versification, which indeed, the +date considered, is not a little curious. It is upon a man whose name +was Palmer. I have modernized the spelling in order that its uncouthness +may not interrupt the Reader's gratification. + + Palmers all our Fathers were + I a Palmer lived here + And travelled still till worn with age + I ended this world's pilgrimage, + On the blest Ascension-day + In the chearful month of May; + One thousand with four hundred seven, + And took my journey hence to heaven. + +With this join the following, which was formerly to be seen upon a fair +marble under the portraiture of one of the abbots of St. Albans. + + Hic quidem terra tegitur + Peccati solvens debitum + Cujus nomen non impositum + In libro vitae sit inscriptum. + +The spirit of it may be thus given: 'Here lies, covered by the earth, +and paying his debt to sin, one whose name is not set forth: may it be +inscribed in the Book of Life!' + +But these instances, of the humility, the pious faith and simplicity of +our forefathers, have led me from the scene of our contemplations--a +Country Church-yard! and from the memorials at this day commonly found +in it. I began with noticing such as might be wholly uninteresting from +the uniformity of the language which they exhibit; because, without +previously participating the truths upon which these general +attestations are founded, it is impossible to arrive at that state of +disposition of mind necessary to make those epitaphs thoroughly felt +which have an especial recommendation. With the same view, I will +venture to say a few words upon another characteristic of these +compositions almost equally striking; namely, the homeliness of some of +the inscriptions, the strangeness of the illustrative images, the +grotesque spelling, with the equivocal meaning often struck out by it, +and the quaint jingle of the rhymes. These have often excited regret in +serious minds, and provoked the unwilling to good-humoured laughter. +Yet, for my own part, without affecting any superior sanctity, I must +say that I have been better satisfied with myself, when in these +evidences I have seen a proof how deeply the piety of the rude +forefathers of the hamlet, is seated in their natures; I mean how +habitual and constitutional it is, and how awful the feeling which they +attach to the situation of their departed friends,--a proof of this +rather than of their ignorance or of a deadness in their faculties to a +sense of the ridiculous. And that this deduction may be just, is +rendered probable by the frequent occurrence of passages according to +our present notion, full as ludicrous, in the writings of the most wise +and learned men of former ages, divines and poets, who in the +earnestness of their souls have applied metaphors and illustrations, +taken either from Holy Writ or from the usages of their own country, in +entire confidence that the sacredness of the theme they were discussing +would sanctify the meanest object connected with it; or rather without +ever conceiving it was possible that a ludicrous thought could spring up +in any mind engaged in such meditations. And certainly, these odd and +fantastic combinations are not confined to epitaphs of the peasantry, or +of the lower orders of society, but are perhaps still more commonly +produced among the higher, in a degree equally or more striking. For +instance, what shall we say to this upon Sir George Vane, the noted +Secretary of State to King Charles I.? + + His Honour wonne i'th' field lies here in dust, + His Honour got by grace shall never rust: + The former fades, the latter shall fade never + For why? He was Sr George once but St George ever. + +The date is 1679. When we reflect that the father of this personage must +have had his taste formed in the punning Court of James I., and that the +epitaph was composed at a time when our literature was stuffed with +quaint or out-of-the-way thoughts, it will seem not unlikely that the +author prided himself upon what he might call a clever hit: I mean his +better affections were less occupied with the several associations +belonging to the two ideas than his vanity delighted with that act of +ingenuity by which they had been combined. But the first couplet +consists of a just thought naturally expressed; and I should rather +conclude the whole to be a work of honest simplicity; and that the +sense of worldly dignity associated with the title, in a degree +habitual to our ancestors, but which at this time we can but feebly +sympathize with, and the imaginative feeling involved--viz. the saintly +and chivalrous name of the champion of England, were unaffectedly linked +together: and that both were united and consolidated in the author's +mind, and in the minds of his contemporaries whom no doubt he had +pleased, by a devout contemplation of a happy immortality, the reward of +the just. + +At all events, leaving this particular case undecided, the general +propriety of these notices cannot be doubted; and I gladly avail myself +of this opportunity to place in a clear view the power and majesty of +impassioned faith, whatever be its object: to shew how it subjugates the +lighter motions of the mind, and sweeps away superficial difference in +things. And this I have done, not to lower the witling and the worldling +in their own esteem, but with a wish to bring the ingenuous into still +closer communion with those primary sensations of the human heart, which +are the vital springs of sublime and pathetic composition, in this and +in every other kind. And as from these primary sensations such +composition speaks, so, unless correspondent ones listen promptly and +submissively in the inner cell of the mind to whom it is addressed, the +voice cannot be heard; its highest powers are wasted. + +These suggestions may be further useful to establish a criterion of +sincerity, by which a writer may be judged; and this is of high import. +For, when a man is treating an interesting subject, or one which he +ought not to treat at all unless he be interested, no faults have such a +killing power as those which prove that he is not in earnest, that he is +acting a part, has leisure for affectation, and feels that without it he +could do nothing. This is one of the most odious of faults; because it +shocks the moral sense, and is worse in a sepulchral inscription, +precisely in the same degree as that mode of composition calls for +sincerity more urgently than any other. And indeed where the internal +evidence proves that the writer was moved, in other words where this +charm of sincerity lurks in the language of a tomb-stone and secretly +pervades it, there are no errors in style or manner for which it will +not be, in some degree, a recompence; but without habits of reflection a +test of this inward simplicity cannot be come at; and as I have said, I +am now writing with a hope to assist the well-disposed to attain it. + +Let us take an instance where no one can be at a loss. The following +lines are said to have been written by the illustrious Marquis of +Montrose with the point of his sword, upon being informed of the death +of his master, Charles I.: + + Great, good, and just, could I but rate + My griefs, and thy so rigid fate; + I'd weep the world to such a strain, + As it should deluge once again. + But since thy loud-tongued blood demands supplies, + More from Briareus' hands than Argus' eyes, + I'll sing thy obsequies with trumpets' sounds + And write thy epitaph with blood and wounds. + +These funereal verses would certainly be wholly out of their place upon +a tomb-stone; but who can doubt that the writer was transported to the +height of the occasion? that he was moved as it became an heroic +soldier, holding those principles and opinions, to be moved? His soul +labours;--the most tremendous event in the history of the +planet--namely, the deluge, is brought before his imagination by the +physical image of tears,--a connection awful from its very remoteness +and from the slender band that unites the ideas:--it passes into the +region of fable likewise; for all modes of existence that forward his +purpose are to be pressed into the service. The whole is instinct with +spirit, and every word has its separate life; like the chariot of the +Messiah, and the wheels of that chariot, as they appeared to the +imagination of Milton aided by that of the prophet Ezekiel. It had power +to move of itself, but was conveyed by cherubs. + + --with stars their bodies all + And wings were set with eyes, with eyes the wheels + Of beryl, and careering fires between. + +Compare with the above verses of Montrose the following epitaph upon Sir +Philip Sidney, which was formerly placed over his grave in St. Paul's +Church. + + England, Netherland, the Heavens, and the Arts, + The Soldiers, and the World, have made six parts + Of noble Sidney; for who will suppose + That a small heap of stones can Sidney enclose? + England hath his Body, for she it fed, + Netherland his Blood, in her defence shed: + The Heavens have his Soul, the Arts have his Fame, + The Soldiers the grief, the World his good Name. + +There were many points in which the case of Sidney resembled that of +Charles I. He was a sovereign, but of a nobler kind--a sovereign in the +hearts of men; and after his premature death he was truly, as he hath +been styled, 'the world-mourned Sidney.' So fondly did the admiration of +his contemporaries settle upon him, that the sudden removal of a man so +good, great, and thoroughly accomplished, wrought upon many even to +repining, and to the questioning the dispensations of Providence. Yet +he, whom Spenser and all the men of genius of his age had tenderly +bemoaned, is thus commemorated upon his tomb-stone; and to add to the +indignity, the memorial is nothing more than the second-hand coat of a +French commander! It is a servile translation from a French epitaph, +which says Weever, 'was by some English Wit happily imitated and +ingeniously applied to the honour of our worthy chieftain.' Yet Weever +in a foregoing paragraph thus expresses himself upon the same subject; +giving without his own knowledge, in my opinion, an example of the +manner in which an epitaph ought to have been composed: 'But I cannot +pass over in silence Sir Philip Sidney, the elder brother, being (to use +Camden's words) the glorious star of this family, a lively pattern of +virtue, and the lovely joy of all the learned sort; who fighting +valiantly with the enemy before Zutphen in Geldesland, dyed manfully. +This is that Sidney, whom, as God's will was, he should therefore be +born into the world even to shew unto our age a sample of ancient +virtues: so His good pleasure was, before any man looked for it, to call +for him again and take him out of the world, as being more worthy of +heaven than earth. Thus we may see perfect virtue suddenly vanisheth out +of sight, and the best men continue not long.' + +There can be no need to analyse this simple effusion of the moment in +order to contrast it with the laboured composition before given; the +difference will flash upon the Reader at once. But I may say it is not +likely that such a frigid composition as the former would have ever been +applied to a man whose death had so stirred up the hearts of his +contemporaries, if it had not been felt that something different from +that nature which each man carried in his own breast was in his case +requisite; and that a certain straining of mind was inseparable from the +subject. Accordingly, an epitaph is adopted in which the Writer had +turned from the genuine affections and their self-forgetting +inspirations, to the end that his understanding, or the faculty +designated by the word _head_ as opposed to _heart_, might curiously +construct a fabric to be wondered at. Hyperbole in the language of +Montrose is a mean instrument made mighty because wielded by an +afflicted soul, and strangeness is here the order of Nature. Montrose +stretched after remote things, but was at the same time propelled +towards them; the French Writer goes deliberately in search of them: no +wonder then if what he brings home does not prove worth the carriage. + +Let us return to an instance of common life. I quote it with reluctance, +not so much for its absurdity as that the expression in one place will +strike at first sight as little less than impious; and it is indeed, +though unintentionally so, most irreverent. But I know no other example +that will so forcibly illustrate the important truth I wish to +establish. The following epitaph is to be found in a church-yard in +Westmoreland; which the present Writer has reason to think of with +interest as it contains the remains of some of his ancestors and +kindred. The date is 1678. + + Under this Stone, Reader, inter'd doth lye, + Beauty and Virtue's true epitomy. + At her appearance the noone-son + Blush'd and shrunk in 'cause quite outdon. + In her concentered did all graces dwell: + God pluck'd my rose that He might take a smel. + I'll say no more: but weeping wish I may + Soone with thy dear chaste ashes com to lay. + Sic efflevit Maritus. + + +Can anything go beyond this in extravagance? yet, if the fundamental +thoughts be translated into a natural style, they will be found +reasonable and affecting--'The woman who lies here interred, was in my +eyes a perfect image of beauty and virtue; she was to me a brighter +object than the sun in heaven: God took her, who was my delight, from +this earth to bring her nearer to Himself. Nothing further is worthy to +be said than that weeping I wish soon to lie by thy dear chaste ashes. +Thus did the husband pour out his tears.' + +These verses are preceded by a brief account of the lady, in Latin +prose, in which the little that is said is the uncorrupted language of +affection. But, without this introductory communication I should myself +have had no doubt, after recovering from the first shock of surprize and +disapprobation, that this man, notwithstanding his extravagant +expressions, was a sincere mourner; and that his heart, during the very +act of composition, was moved. These fantastic images, though they stain +the writing, stained not her soul,--they did not even touch it; but hung +like globules of rain suspended above a green leaf, along which they may +roll and leave no trace that they have passed over it. This +simple-hearted man must have been betrayed by a common notion that what +was natural in prose would be out of place in verse;--that it is not the +Muse which puts on the garb but the garb which makes the Muse. And +having adopted this notion at a time when vicious writings of this kind +accorded with the public taste, it is probable that, in the excess of +his modesty, the blankness of his inexperience, and the intensity of his +affection, he thought that the further he wandered from Nature in his +language the more would he honour his departed consort, who now appeared +to him to have surpassed humanity in the excellence of her endowments. +The quality of his fault and its very excess are both in favour of this +conclusion. + +Let us contrast this epitaph with one taken from a celebrated Writer of +the last century. + + _To the memory of_ LUCY LYTTLETON, _Daughter &c. who departed this + life &c. aged_ 20._ Having employed the short time assigned to her + here in the uniform practice of religion and virtue_. + + Made to engage all hearts, and charm all eyes, + Though meek, magnanimous; though witty, wise; + Polite, as all her life in Courts had been; + Yet good, as she the world had never seen; + The noble fire of an exalted mind, + With gentle female tenderness combined. + Her speech was the melodious voice of love, + Her song the warbling of the vernal grove; + Her eloquence was sweeter than her song, + Soft as her heart, and as her reason strong; + Her form each beauty of the mind express'd, + Her mind was Virtue by the Graces drest. + +The prose part of this inscription has the appearance of being intended +for a tomb-stone; but there is nothing in the verse that would suggest +such a thought. The composition is in the style of those laboured +portraits in words which we sometimes see placed at the bottom of a +print to fill up lines of expression which the bungling Artist had left +imperfect. We know from other evidence that Lord Lyttleton dearly loved +his wife; he has indeed composed a monody to her memory which proves +this, and she was an amiable woman; neither of which facts could have +been gathered from these inscriptive verses. This epitaph would derive +little advantage from being translated into another style as the former +was; for there is no under current; no skeleton or staminae of thought +and feeling. The Reader will perceive at once that nothing in the heart +of the Writer had determined either the choice, the order or the +expression, of the ideas; that there is no interchange of action from +within and from without; that the connections are mechanical and +arbitrary, and the lowest kind of these--heart and eyes: petty +alliterations, as meek and magnanimous, witty and wise, combined with +oppositions in thoughts where there is no necessary or natural +opposition. Then follow voice, song, eloquence, form, mind--each +enumerated by a separate act as if the Author had been making a +_Catalogue Raisonne_. + +These defects run through the whole; the only tolerable verse is, + + Her speech was the melodious voice of love. + +Observe, the question is not which of these epitaphs is better or worse; +but which faults are of a worse kind. In the former case we have a +mourner whose soul is occupied by grief and urged forward by his +admiration. He deems in his simplicity that no hyperbole can transcend +the perfections of her whom he has lost; for the version which I have +given fairly demonstrates that, in spite of his outrageous expressions, +the under current of his thoughts was natural and pure. We have +therefore in him the example of a mind during the act of composition +misled by false taste to the highest possible degree; and, in that of +Lord Lyttleton, we have one of a feeling heart, not merely misled, but +wholly laid asleep by the same power. Lord Lyttleton could not have +written in this way upon such a subject, if he had not been seduced by +the example of Pope, whose sparkling and tuneful manner had bewitched +the men of letters his contemporaries, and corrupted the judgment of the +nation through all ranks of society. So that a great portion of original +genius was necessary to embolden a man to write faithfully to Nature +upon any affecting subject if it belonged to a class of composition in +which Pope had furnished examples. + +I am anxious not to be misunderstood. It has already been stated that in +this species of composition above every other, our sensations and +judgments depend upon our opinion or feeling of the Author's state of +mind. Literature is here so far identified with morals, the quality of +the act so far determined by our notion of the aim and purpose of the +agent, that nothing can please us, however well executed in its kind, if +we are persuaded that the primary virtues of sincerity, earnestness and +a moral interest in the main object are wanting. Insensibility here +shocks us, and still more so if manifested by a Writer going wholly out +of his way in search of supposed beauties, which if he were truly moved +he could set no value upon, could not even think of. We are struck in +this case not merely with a sense of disproportion and unfitness, but we +cannot refrain from attributing no small part of his intellectual to a +moral demerit. And here the difficulties of the question begin, namely +in ascertaining what errors in the choice of or the mode of expressing +the thoughts, most surely indicate the want of that which is most +indispensible. Bad taste, whatever shape it may put on, is injurious to +the heart and the understanding. If a man attaches much interest to the +faculty of taste as it exists in himself and employs much time in those +studies of which this faculty (I use the word taste in its comprehensive +though most unjustifiable sense) is reckoned the arbiter, certain it is +his moral notions and dispositions must either be purified and +strengthened or corrupted and impaired. How can it be otherwise, when +his ability to enter into the spirit of works in literature must depend +upon his feelings, his imagination and his understanding, that is upon +his recipient, upon his creative or active and upon his judging powers, +and upon the accuracy and compass of his knowledge, in fine upon all +that makes up the moral and intellectual man. What is true of +individuals is equally true of nations. Nevertheless a man called to a +task in which he is not practised, may have his expression thoroughly +defiled and clogged by the style prevalent in his age, yet still, +through the force of circumstances that have roused him, his under +feeling may remain strong and pure; yet this may be wholly concealed +from common view. Indeed the favourite style of different ages is so +different and wanders so far from propriety that if it were not that +first rate Writers in all nations and tongues are governed by common +principles, we might suppose that truth and nature were things not to be +looked for in books; hence to an unpractised Reader the productions of +every age will present obstacles in various degrees hard to surmount; a +deformity of style not the worst in itself but of that kind with which +he is least familiar will on the one hand be most likely to render him +insensible to a pith and power which may be within, and on the other +hand he will be the least able to see through that sort of falsehood +which is most prevalent in the works of his own time. Many of my +Readers, to apply these general observations to the present case, must +have derived pleasure from the epitaph of Lord Lyttleton and no doubt +will be startled at the comparison I have made; but bring it to the test +recommended it will then be found that its faults, though not in degree +so intolerable, are in kind more radical and deadly than those of the +strange composition with which it has been compared. + +The course which we have taken having brought us to the name of this +distinguished Writer--Pope--I will in this place give a few observations +upon his Epitaphs,--the largest collection we have in our language, from +the pen of any Writer of eminence. As the epitaphs of Pope and also +those of Chiabrera, which occasioned this dissertation, are in metre, it +may be proper here to enquire how far the notion of a perfect epitaph, +as given in a former Paper, may be modified by the choice of metre for +the vehicle, in preference to prose. If our opinions be just, it is +manifest that the basis must remain the same in either case; and that +the difference can only lie in the superstructure; and it is equally +plain, that a judicious man will be less disposed in this case than in +any other to avail himself of the liberty given by metre to adopt +phrases of fancy, or to enter into the more remote regions of +illustrative imagery. For the occasion of writing an epitaph is +matter-of-fact in its intensity, and forbids more authoritatively than +any other species of composition all modes of fiction, except those +which the very strength of passion has created; which have been +acknowledged by the human heart, and have become so familiar that they +are converted into substantial realities. When I come to the epitaphs of +Chiabrera, I shall perhaps give instances in which I think he has not +written under the impression of this truth; where the poetic imagery +does not elevate, deepen, or refine the human passion, which it ought +always to do or not to act at all, but excludes it. In a far greater +degree are Pope's epitaphs debased by faults into which he could not I +think have fallen if he had written in prose as a plain man and not as a +metrical Wit. I will transcribe from Pope's Epitaphs the one upon Mrs. +Corbet (who died of a cancer), Dr. Johnson having extolled it highly and +pronounced it the best of the collection. + + Here rests a woman, good without pretence, + Blest with plain reason and with sober sense; + No conquest she but o'er herself desir'd; + No arts essayed, but not to be admir'd. + Passion and pride were to her soul unknown, + Convinc'd that virtue only is our own. + So unaffected, so compos'd a mind, + So firm yet soft, so strong yet so refin'd, + Heaven as its purest gold by tortures tried, + The saint sustain'd it, but the woman died. + +This _may_ be the best of Pope's Epitaphs; but if the standard which we +have fixed be a just one, it cannot be approved of. First, it must be +observed, that in the epitaphs of this Writer, the true impulse is +wanting, and that his motions must of necessity be feeble. For he has no +other aim than to give a favourable portrait of the character of the +deceased. Now mark the process by which this is performed. Nothing is +represented implicitly, that is, with its accompaniment of +circumstances, or conveyed by its effects. The Author forgets that it is +a living creature that must interest us and not an intellectual +existence, which a mere character is. Insensible to this distinction the +brain of the Writer is set at work to report as flatteringly as he may +of the mind of his subject; the good qualities are separately abstracted +(can it be otherwise than coldly and unfeelingly?) and put together +again as coldly and unfeelingly. The epitaph now before us owes what +exemption it may have from these defects in its general plan to the +excruciating disease of which the lady died; but it is liable to the +same censure, and is, like the rest, further objectionable in this; +namely, that the thoughts have their nature changed and moulded by the +vicious expression in which they are entangled, to an excess rendering +them wholly unfit for the place they occupy. + + Here rests a woman, good without pretence, + Blest with plain reason-- + +from which _sober sense_ is not sufficiently distinguishable. This verse +and a half, and the one 'so unaffected, so composed a mind,' are +characteristic, and the expression is true to nature; but they are, if I +may take the liberty of saying it, the only parts of the epitaph which +have this merit. Minute criticism is in its nature irksome, and as +commonly practiced in books and conversation, is both irksome and +injurious. Yet every mind must occasionally be exercised in this +discipline, else it cannot learn the art of bringing words rigorously to +the test of thoughts; and these again to a comparison with things, their +archetypes, contemplated first in themselves, and secondly in relation +to each other; in all which processes the mind must be skilful, +otherwise it will be perpetually imposed upon. In the next couplet the +word _conquest_, is applied in a manner that would have been displeasing +even from its triteness in a copy of complimentary verses to a +fashionable Beauty; but to talk of making conquests in an epitaph is not +to be endured. 'No arts essayed, but not to be admired,'--are words +expressing that she had recourse to artifices to conceal her amiable and +admirable qualities; and the context implies that there was a merit in +this; which surely no sane mind would allow. But the meaning of the +Author, simply and honestly given, was nothing more than that she +shunned admiration, probably with a more apprehensive modesty than was +common; and more than this would have been inconsistent with the praise +bestowed upon her--that she had an unaffected mind. This couplet is +further objectionable, because the sense of love and peaceful admiration +which such a character naturally inspires, is disturbed by an oblique +and ill-timed stroke of satire. She is not praised so much as others are +blamed, and is degraded by the Author in thus being made a covert or +stalking-horse for gratifying a propensity the most abhorrent from her +own nature--'Passion and pride were to her soul unknown.' It cannot be +meant that she had no passions, but that they were moderate and kept in +subordination to her reason; but the thought is not here expressed; nor +is it clear that a conviction in the understanding that 'virtue only is +our own,' though it might suppress her pride, would be itself competent +to govern or abate many other affections and passions to which our frail +nature is, and ought in various degrees, to be subject. In fact, the +Author appears to have had no precise notion of his own meaning. If she +was 'good without pretence,' it seems unnecessary to say that she was +not proud. Dr. Johnson, making an exception of the verse, 'Convinced +that virtue only is our own,' praises this epitaph for 'containing +nothing taken from common places.' Now in fact, as may be deduced from +the principles of this discourse, it is not only no fault but a primary +requisite in an epitaph that it shall contain thoughts and feelings +which are in their substance common-place, and even trite. It is +grounded upon the universal intellectual property of man,--sensations +which all men have felt and feel in some degree daily and +hourly;--truths whose very interest and importance have caused them to +be unattended to, as things which could take care of themselves. But it +is required that these truths should be instinctively ejaculated or +should rise irresistibly from circumstances; in a word that they should +be uttered in such connection as shall make it felt that they are not +adopted, not spoken by rote, but perceived in their whole compass with +the freshness and clearness of an original intuition. The Writer must +introduce the truth with such accompaniment as shall imply that he has +mounted to the sources of things, penetrated the dark cavern from which +the river that murmurs in every one's ear has flowed from generation to +generation. The line 'Virtue only is our own,'--is objectionable, not +from the common-placeness of the truth, but from the vapid manner in +which it is conveyed. A similar sentiment is expressed with appropriate +dignity in an epitaph by Chiabrera, where he makes the Archbishop of +Albino say of himself, that he was + + --smitten by the great ones of the world, + But did not fall; for virtue braves all shocks, + Upon herself resting immoveably. + +'So firm yet soft, so strong yet so refined': These intellectual +operations (while they can be conceived of as operations of intellect +at all, for in fact one half of the process is mechanical, words doing +their own work and one half of the line manufacturing the rest) remind +me of the motions of a Posture-master, or of a man balancing a sword +upon his finger, which must be kept from falling at all hazards. 'The +saint sustained it, but the woman died.' Let us look steadily at this +antithesis: the _saint_, that is her soul strengthened by religion, +supported the anguish of her disease with patience and resignation; but +the _woman_, that is her body (for if anything else is meant by the word +woman, it contradicts the former part of the proposition and the passage +is nonsense), was overcome. Why was not this simply expressed; without +playing with the Reader's fancy, to the delusion and dishonour of his +understanding, by a trifling epigramatic point? But alas! ages must pass +away before men will have their eyes open to the beauty and majesty of +Truth, and will be taught to venerate Poetry no further than as she is a +handmaid pure as her mistress--the noblest handmaid in her train! + + + + +_(c)_ CELEBRATED EPITAPHS CONSIDERED. _From the Author's Mss_. + +I vindicate the rights and dignity of Nature; and as long as I condemn +nothing without assigning reasons not lightly given, I cannot suffer any +individual, however highly and deservedly honoured by my countrymen, to +stand in my way. If my notions are right, the epitaphs of Pope cannot +well be too severely condemned; for not only are they almost wholly +destitute of those universal feelings and simple movements of mind which +we have called for as indispensible, but they are little better than a +tissue of false thoughts, languid and vague expressions, unmeaning +antithesis, and laborious attempts at discrimination. Pope's mind had +been employed chiefly in observation upon the vices and follies of men. +Now, vice and folly are in contradiction with the moral principle which +can never be extinguished in the mind; and therefore, wanting the +contrast, are irregular, capricious, and inconsistent with themselves. +If a man has once said (see _Friend_, No......), 'Evil, be thou my +good!' and has acted accordingly, however strenuous may have been his +adherence to this principle, it will be well known by those who have had +an opportunity of observing him narrowly that there have been perpetual +obliquities in his course; evil passions thwarting each other in various +ways; and now and then, revivals of his better nature, which check him +for a short time or lead him to remeasure his steps:--not to speak of +the various necessities of counterfeiting virtue, which the furtherance +of his schemes will impose upon him, and the division which will be +consequently introduced into his nature. + +It is reasonable then that Cicero, when holding up Catiline to +detestation; and (without going to such an extreme case) that Dryden and +Pope, when they are describing characters like Buckingham, Shaftsbury, +and the Duchess of Marlborough, should represent qualities and actions +at war with each other and with themselves; and that the page should be +suitably crowded with antithetical expressions. But all this argues an +obtuse moral sensibility and a consequent want of knowledge, if applied +where virtue ought to be described in the language of affectionate +admiration. In the mind of the truly great and good everything that is +of importance is at peace with itself; all is stillness, sweetness and +stable grandeur. Accordingly the contemplation of virtue is attended +with repose. A lovely quality, if its loveliness be clearly perceived, +fastens the mind with absolute sovereignty upon itself; permitting or +inciting it to pass, by smooth gradation or gentle transition, to some +other kindred quality. Thus a perfect image of meekness (I refer to an +instance before given) when looked at by a tender mind in its happiest +mood, might easily lead on to thoughts of magnanimity; for assuredly +there is nothing incongruous in those virtues. But the mind would not +then be separated from the person who is the object of its thoughts; it +would still be confined to that person or to others of the same general +character; that is, would be kept within the circle of qualities which +range themselves quietly by each other's sides. Whereas, when meekness +and magnanimity are represented antithetically, the mind is not only +carried from the main object, but is compelled to turn to a subject in +which the quality exists divided from some other as noble, its natural +ally: a painful feeling! that checks the course of love, and repels the +sweet thoughts that might be settling round the person whom it was the +Author's wish to endear to us; but for whom, after this interruption, we +no longer care. If then a man, whose duty it is to praise departed +excellence not without some sense of regret or sadness, to do this or to +be silent, should upon all occasions exhibit that mode of connecting +thoughts, which is only natural while we are delineating vice under +certain relations, we may be assured that the nobler sympathies are not +alive in him; that he has no clear insight into the internal +constitution of virtue; nor has himself been soothed, cheared, +harmonized, by those outward effects which follow everywhere her +goings,--declaring the presence of the invisible Deity. And though it be +true that the most admirable of them must fall far short of perfection, +and that the majority of those whose work is commemorated upon their +tomb-stones must have been persons in whom good and evil were intermixed +in various proportions and stood in various degrees of opposition to +each other, yet the Reader will remember what has been said before upon +that medium of love, sorrow and admiration, through which a departed +friend is viewed; how it softens down or removes these harshnesses and +contradictions, which moreover must be supposed never to have been +grievous: for there can be no true love but between the good; and no +epitaph ought to be written upon a bad man, except for a warning. + +The purpose of the remarks given in the last Essay was chiefly to assist +the Reader in separating truth and sincerity from falsehood and +affectation; presuming that if the unction of a devout heart be wanting +everything else is of no avail. It was shewn that a current of just +thought and feeling may flow under a surface of illustrative imagery so +impure as to produce an effect the opposite of that which was intended. +Yet, though this fault may be carried to an intolerable _degree_, the +Reader will have gathered that in our estimation it is not _in kind_ the +most offensive and injurious. We have contrasted it in its excess with +instances where the genuine current or vein was wholly wanting; where +the thoughts and feelings had no vital union, but were artificially +connected, or formally accumulated, in a manner that would imply +discontinuity and feebleness of mind upon any occasion, but still more +reprehensible here! + +I will proceed to give milder examples not in this last kind but in the +former; namely of failure from various causes where the ground-work is +good. + + Take holy earth! all that my soul holds dear: + Take that best gift which Heaven so lately gave: + To Bristol's fount I bore with trembling care, + Her faded form. She bow'd to taste the wave-- + And died. Does youth, does beauty read the line? + Does sympathetic fear their breasts alarm? + Speak, dead Maria! breathe a strain divine; + Even from the grave thou shalt have power to charm. + Bid them in duty's sphere as meekly move: + And if so fair, from vanity as free, + As firm in friendship, and as fond in love; + Tell them, tho 'tis an awful thing to die, + ('Twas e'en to thee) yet, the dread path once trod; + Heaven lifts its everlasting portals high, + And bids 'the pure in heart behold their God.' + +This epitaph has much of what we have demanded; but it is debased in +some instances by weakness of expression, in others by false +prettiness. 'She bow'd to taste the wave, and died.' The plain truth +was, she drank the Bristol waters which failed to restore her, and her +death soon followed; but the expression involves a multitude of petty +occupations for the fancy. 'She bow'd': was there any truth in this? 'to +taste the wave': the water of a mineral spring which must have been +drunk out of a goblet. Strange application of the word 'wave' and +'died': This would have been a just expression if the water had killed +her; but, as it is, the tender thought involved in the disappointment of +a hope however faint is left unexpressed; and a shock of surprise is +given, entertaining perhaps to a light fancy but to a steady mind +unsatisfactory, because false. 'Speak! dead Maria, breathe a strain +divine'! This sense flows nobly from the heart and the imagination; but +perhaps it is not one of those impassioned thoughts which should be +fixed in language upon a sepulchral stone. It is in its nature too +poignant and transitory. A husband meditating by his wife's grave would +throw off such a feeling, and would give voice to it; and it would be in +its place in a Monody to her memory; but if I am not mistaken, ought to +have been suppressed here, or uttered after a different manner. The +implied impersonation of the deceased (according to the tenor of what +has before been said) ought to have been more general and shadowy. + + And if so fair, from vanity as free, + As firm in friendship and as fond in love; + Tell them-- + +These are two sweet verses, but the word 'fair' is improper; for +unquestionably it was not intended that their title to receive this +assurance should depend at all upon their personal beauty. Moreover in +this couplet and in what follows, the long suspension of the sense +excites the expectation of a thought less common than the concluding +one; and is an instance of a failure in doing what is most needful and +most difficult in an epitaph to do; namely to give to universally +received truths a pathos and spirit which shall re-admit them into the +soul like revelations of the moment. + +I have said that this excellence is difficult to attain; and why? Is it +because nature is weak? No! Where the soul has been thoroughly stricken +(and Heaven knows the course of life must have placed all men, at some +time or other, in that condition) there is never a want of _positive_ +strength; but because the adversary of Nature (call that adversary Art +or by what name you will) is _comparatively_ strong. The far-searching +influence of the power, which, for want of a better name, we will +denominate Taste, is in nothing more evinced than in the changeful +character and complexion of that species of composition which we have +been reviewing. Upon a call so urgent, it might be expected that the +affections, the memory, and the imagination would be _constrained_ to +speak their genuine language. Yet, if the few specimens which have been +given in the course of this enquiry, do not demonstrate the fact, the +Reader need only look into any collection of Epitaphs to be convinced, +that the faults predominant in the literature of every age will be as +strongly reflected in the sepulchral inscriptions as any where; nay +perhaps more so, from the anxiety of the Author to do justice to the +occasion: and especially if the composition be in verse; for then it +comes more avowedly in the shape of a work of art; and of course, is +more likely to be coloured by the work of art holden in most esteem at +the time. In a bulky volume of Poetry entitled ELEGANT EXTRACTS IN +VERSE, which must be known to most of my Readers, as it is circulated +everywhere and in fact constitutes at this day the poetical library of +our Schools, I find a number of epitaphs in verse, of the last century; +and there is scarcely one which is not thoroughly tainted by the +artifices which have over-run our writings in metre since the days of +Dryden and Pope. Energy, stillness, grandeur, tenderness, those feelings +which are the pure emanations of Nature, those thoughts which have the +infinitude of truth, and those expressions which are not what the garb +is to the body but what the body is to the soul, themselves a +constituent part and power or function in the thought--all these are +abandoned for their opposites,--as if our countrymen, through successive +generations, had lost the sense of solemnity and pensiveness (not to +speak of deeper emotions) and resorted to the tombs of their forefathers +and contemporaries, only to be tickled and surprised. Would we not +recoil from such gratification, in such a place, if the general +literature of the country had not co-operated with other causes +insidiously to weaken our sensibilities and deprave our judgments? +Doubtless, there are shocks of event and circumstance, public and +private, by which for all minds the truths of Nature will be elicited; +but sorrow for that individual or people to whom these special +interferences are necessary, to bring them into communion with the inner +spirit of things! for such intercourse must be profitless in proportion +as it is unfrequently irregular and transient. Words are too awful an +instrument for good and evil, to be trifled with; they hold above all +other external powers a dominion over thoughts. If words be not +(recurring to a metaphor before used) an incarnation of the thought, but +only a clothing for it, then surely will they prove an ill gift; such a +one as those possessed vestments, read of in the stories of +superstitious times, which had power to consume and to alienate from his +right mind the victim who put them on. Language, if it do not uphold, +and feed, and leave in quiet, like the power of gravitation or the air +we breathe, is a counter-spirit, unremittingly and noiselessly at work, +to subvert, to lay waste, to vitiate, and to dissolve. From a deep +conviction then that the excellence of writing, whether in prose or +verse, consists in a conjunction of Reason and Passion, a conjunction +which must be of necessity benign; and that it might be deduced from +what has been said that the taste, intellectual power and morals of a +country are inseparably linked in mutual dependence, I have dwelt thus +long upon this argument. And the occasion justifies me; for how could +the tyranny of bad taste be brought home to the mind more aptly than by +showing in what degree the feelings of nature yield to it when we are +rendering to our friends the solemn testimony of our love? more forcibly +than by giving proof that thoughts cannot, even upon this impulse, +assume an outward life without a transmutation and a fall. + + _Epitaph on Miss Drummond in the Church of Broadsworth, Yorkshire_. + MASON. + + Here sleeps what once was beauty, once was grace; + Grace, that with tenderness and sense combin'd + To form that harmony of soul and face, + Where beauty shines, the mirror of the mind. + Such was the maid, that in the morn of youth, + In virgin innocence, in Nature's pride, + Blest with each art, that owes its charm to truth, + Sunk in her Father's fond embrace, and died. + He weeps: O venerate the holy tear! + Faith lends her aid to ease Affliction's load; + The parent mourns his child upon the bier, + The Christian yields an angel to his God. + +The following is a translation from the Latin, communicated to a Lady in +her childhood and by her preserved in memory. I regret that I have not +seen the original. + + She is gone--my beloved daughter Eliza is gone, + Fair, cheerful, benign, my child is gone. + Thee long to be regretted a Father mourns, + Regretted--but thanks to the most perfect God! not lost. + For a happier age approaches + When again, my child, I shall behold + And live with thee for ever. + + Matthew Dobson to his dear, engaging, happy Eliza + Who in the 18th year of her age + Passed peaceably into heaven. + +The former of these epitaphs is very far from being the worst of its +kind, and on that account I have placed the two in contrast. +Unquestionably, as the Father in the latter speaks in his own person, +the situation is much more pathetic; but, making due allowance for this +advantage, who does not here feel a superior truth and sanctity, which +is not dependent upon this circumstance but merely the result of the +expression and the connection of the thoughts? I am not so fortunate as +to have any knowledge of the Author of this affecting composition, but I +much fear if he had called in the assistance of English verse the better +to convey his thoughts, such sacrifices would, from various influences, +have been made _even by him_, that, though he might have excited +admiration in thousands, he would have truly moved no one. The latter +part of the following by Gray is almost the only instance among the +metrical epitaphs in our language of the last century, which I remember, +of affecting thoughts rising naturally and keeping themselves pure from +vicious diction; and therefore retaining their appropriate power over +the mind. + + _Epitaph on Mrs. Clark_. + Lo! where the silent marble weeps, + A friend, a wife, a mother, sleeps; + A heart, within whose sacred cell + The peaceful virtues lov'd to dwell. + Affection warm, and love sincere, + And soft humanity were there. + In agony, in death resigned, + She felt the wound she left behind. + Her infant image, here below, + Sits smiling on a father's woe; + Whom what awaits, while yet he strays + Along the lonely vale of days? + A pang to secret sorrow dear; + A sigh, an unavailing tear, + Till time shall every grief remove, + With life, with meaning, and with love. + +I have been speaking of faults which are aggravated by temptations +thrown in the way of modern Writers when they compose in metre. The +first six lines of this epitaph are vague and languid, more so than I +think would have been possible had it been written in prose. Yet Gray, +who was so happy in the remaining part, especially the last four lines, +has grievously failed _in prose_ upon a subject which it might have been +expected would have bound him indissolubly to the propriety of Nature +and comprehensive reason. I allude to the conclusion of the epitaph upon +his mother, where he says, 'she was the careful tender mother of many +children, one of whom alone had the misfortune to survive her.' This is +a searching thought, but wholly out of place. Had it been said of an +idiot, of a palsied child, or of an adult from any cause dependent upon +his mother to a degree of helplessness which nothing but maternal +tenderness and watchfulness could answer, that he had the misfortune to +survive his mother, the thought would have been just. The same might +also have been wrung from any man (thinking of himself) when his soul +was smitten with compunction or remorse, through the consciousness of a +misdeed from which he might have been preserved (as he hopes or +believes) by his mother's prudence, by her anxious care if longer +continued, or by the reverential fear of offending or disobeying her. +But even then (unless accompanied with a detail of extraordinary +circumstances), if transferred to her monument, it would have been +misplaced, as being too peculiar, and for reasons which have been before +alleged, namely, as too transitory and poignant. But in an ordinary +case, for a man permanently and conspicuously to record that this was +his fixed feeling; what is it but to run counter to the course of +nature, which has made it matter of expectation and congratulation that +parents should die before their children? What is it, if searched to the +bottom, but lurking and sickly selfishness? Does not the regret include +a wish that the mother should have survived all her offspring, have +witnessed that bitter desolation where the order of things is disturbed +and inverted? And finally, does it not withdraw the attention of the +Reader from the subject to the Author of the Memorial, as one to be +commiserated for his strangely unhappy condition, or to be condemned for +the morbid constitution of his feelings, or for his deficiency in +judgment? A fault of the same kind, though less in degree, is found in +the epitaph of Pope upon Harcourt; of whom it is said that 'he never +gave his father grief but when he died.' I need not point out how many +situations there are in which such an expression of feeling would be +natural and becoming; but in a permanent inscription things only should +be admitted that have an enduring place in the mind; and a nice +selection is required even among these. The Duke of Ormond said of his +son Ossory, 'that he preferred his dead son to any living son in +Christendom,'--a thought which (to adopt an expression used before) has +the infinitude of truth! But though in this there is no momentary +illusion, nothing fugitive, it would still have been unbecoming, had it +been placed in open view over the son's grave; inasmuch as such +expression of it would have had an ostentatious air, and would have +implied a disparagement of others. The sublimity of the sentiment +consists in its being the secret possession of the Father. + +Having been engaged so long in the ungracious office of sitting in +judgment where I have found so much more to censure than to approve, +though, wherever it was in my power, I have placed good by the side of +evil, that the Reader might intuitively receive the truths which I +wished to communicate, I now turn back with pleasure to Chiabrera; of +whose productions in this department the Reader of the _Friend_ may be +enabled to form a judgment who has attentively perused the few specimens +only which have been given. 'An epitaph,' says Weever, 'is a +superscription (either in verse or prose) or an astrict pithic diagram, +writ, carved, or engraven upon the tomb, grave, or sepulchre of the +defunct, briefly declaring (_and that with a kind of commiseration_) the +name, the age, the deserts, the dignities, the state, _the praises both +of body and minde_, the good and bad fortunes in the life, and the +manner and time of the death of the person therein interred.' This +account of an epitaph, which as far as it goes is just, was no doubt +taken by Weever from the monuments of our own country, and it shews that +in his conception an epitaph was not to be an abstract character of the +deceased but an epitomized biography blended with description by which +an impression of the character was to be conveyed. Bring forward the one +incidental expression, a kind of commiseration, unite with it a concern +on the part of the dead for the well-being of the living made known by +exhortation and admonition, and let this commiseration and concern +pervade and brood over the whole, so that what was peculiar to the +individual shall still be subordinate to a sense of what he had in +common with the species, our notion of a perfect epitaph would then be +realized; and it pleases me to say that this is the very model upon +which those of Chiabrera are for the most part framed. Observe how +exquisitely this is exemplified in the one beginning 'Pause, courteous +stranger! Balbi supplicates,' given in the _Friend_ some weeks ago. The +subject of the epitaph is introduced intreating, not directly in his own +person but through the mouth of the author, that according to the +religious belief of his country a prayer for his soul might be preferred +to the Redeemer of the world: placed in counterpoize with this right +which he has in common with all the dead, his individual earthly +accomplishments appear light to his funeral Biographer as they did to +the person of whom he speaks when alive, nor could Chiabrera have +ventured to touch upon them but under the sanction of this person's +acknowledgment. He then goes on to say how various and profound was his +learning, and how deep a hold it took upon his affections, but that he +weaned himself from these things as vanities, and was devoted in later +life exclusively to the divine truths of the Gospel as the only +knowledge in which he could find perfect rest. Here we are thrown back +upon the introductory supplication and made to feel its especial +propriety in this case; his life was long, and every part of it bore +appropriate fruits. Urbina his birth-place might be proud of him, and +the passenger who was entreated to pray for his soul has a wish breathed +for his welfare. This composition is a perfect whole, there is nothing +arbitrary or mechanical, but it is an organized body, of which the +members are bound together by a common life and are all justly +proportioned. If I had not gone so much into detail I should have given +further instances of Chiabrera's Epitaphs, but I must content myself +with saying that if he had abstained from the introduction of heathen +mythology, of which he is lavish--an inexcusable fault for an inhabitant +of a Christian country, yet admitting of some palliation in an Italian +who treads classic soil and has before his eyes the ruins of the temples +which were dedicated to those fictitious beings of objects of worship by +the majestic people his ancestors--had omitted also some +uncharacteristic particulars, and had not on some occasions forgotten +that truth is the soul of passion, he would have left his Readers little +to regret. I do not mean to say that higher and nobler thoughts may not +be found in sepulchral inscriptions than his contain; but he understood +his work, the principles upon which he composed are just. The Reader of +the _Friend_ has had proofs of this: one shall be given of his mixed +manner, exemplifying some of the points in which he has erred. + + O Lelius beauteous flower of gentleness, + The fair Anglaia's friend above all friends: + O darling of the fascinating Loves + By what dire envy moved did Death uproot + Thy days e'er yet full blown, and what ill chance + Hath robbed Savona of her noblest grace? + She weeps for thee and shall for ever weep, + And if the fountain of her tears should fail + She would implore Sabete to supply + Her need: Sabete, sympathizing stream, + Who on his margin saw thee close thine eyes + On the chaste bosom of thy Lady dear, + Ah, what do riches, what does youth avail? + Dust are our hopes, I weeping did inscribe + In bitterness thy monument, and pray + Of every gentle spirit bitterly + To read the record with as copious tears. + +This epitaph is not without some tender thoughts, but a comparison of it +with the one upon the youthful Pozzobonelli (see _Friend_, No....) will +more clearly shew that Chiabrera has here neglected to ascertain whether +the passions expressed were in kind and degree a dispensation of reason, +or at least commodities issued under her licence and authority. + +The epitaphs of Chiabrera are twenty-nine in number, all of them save +two probably little known at this day in their own country and scarcely +at all beyond the limits of it; and the Reader is generally made +acquainted with the moral and intellectual excellence which +distinguished them by a brief history of the course of their lives or a +selection of events and circumstances, and thus they are individualized; +but in the two other instances, namely those of Tasso and Raphael, he +enters into no particulars, but contents himself with four lines +expressing one sentiment upon the principle laid down in the former part +of this discourse, where the subject of an epitaph is a man of prime +note. + + Torquato Tasso rests within this tomb: + This figure weeping from her inmost heart + Is Poesy: from such impassioned grief + Let every one conclude what this man was. + +The epitaph which Chiabrera composed for himself has also an appropriate +brevity and is distinguished for its grandeur, the sentiment being the +same as that which the Reader has before seen so happily enlarged upon. + +As I am brought back to men of first rate distinction and public +benefactors, I cannot resist the pleasure of transcribing the metrical +part of an epitaph which formerly was inscribed in the church of St. +Paul's to that Bishop of London who prevailed with William the Conqueror +to secure to the inhabitants of the city all the liberties and +privileges which they had enjoyed in the time of Edward the Confessor. + + These marble monuments to thee thy citizens assigne, + Rewards (O Father) farre unfit to those deserts of thine: + Thee unto them a faithful friend, thy London people found, + And to this towne of no small weight, a stay both sure and sound. + Their liberties restorde to them, by means of thee have beene, + Their publicke weale by means of thee, large gifts have felt and seene: + Thy riches, stocke, and beauty brave, one hour hath them supprest, + Yet these thy virtues and good deeds with us for ever rest. + +Thus have I attempted to determine what a sepulchral inscription ought +to be, and taken at the same time a survey of what epitaphs are good and +bad, and have shewn to what deficiencies in sensibility and to what +errors in taste and judgement most commonly are to be ascribed. It was +my intention to have given a few specimens from those of the ancients; +but I have already I fear taken up too much of the Reader's time. I have +not animadverted upon such, alas! far too numerous, as are reprehensible +from the want of moral rectitude in those who have composed them or +given it to be understood that they should he so composed; boastful and +haughty panegyrics ludicrously contradicting the solid remembrance of +those who knew the deceased; shocking the common sense of mankind by +their extravagance, and affronting the very altar with their impious +falsehood. Those I leave to general scorn, not however without a general +recommendation that they who have offended or may be disposed to offend +in this manner, would take into serious thought the heinousness of their +transgression. + +Upon reviewing what has been written I think it better here to add a few +favourable specimens such as are ordinarily found in our country +church-yards at this day. If those primary sensations upon which I have +dwelt so much be not stifled in the heart of the Reader, they will be +read with pleasure, otherwise neither these nor more exalted strains can +by him be truly interpreted. + + _Aged 87 and 83_. + + Not more with silver hairs than virtue crown'd + The good old pair take up this spot of ground: + Tread in their steps and you will surely find + Their Rest above, below their peace of mind. + + * * * * * + + At the Last Day I'm sure I shall appear, + To meet with Jesus Christ my Saviour dear: + Where I do hope to live with Him in bliss. + Oh, what a joy at my last hour was this! + + * * * * * + + _Aged 3 Months_. + + What Christ said once He said to all, + Come unto Me, ye children small: + None shall do you any wrong, + For to My Kingdom you belong. + + * * * * * + + _Aged 10 Weeks_. + + The Babe was sucking at the breast + When God did call him to his rest. + + +In an obscure corner of a country church-yard I once espied, half +overgrown with hemlock and nettles, a very small stone laid upon the +ground, bearing nothing more than the name of the deceased with the date +of birth and death, importing that it was an infant which had been born +one day and died the following. I know not how far the Reader may be in +sympathy with me; but more awful thoughts of rights conferred, of hopes +awakened, of remembrances stealing away or vanishing, were imparted to +my mind by that inscription there before my eyes than by any other that +it has ever been my lot to meet with upon a tomb-stone. + +The most numerous class of sepulchral inscriptions do indeed record +nothing else but the name of the buried person; but that he was born +upon one day and died upon another. Addison in the _Spectator_ making +this observation says, 'that he cannot look upon those registers of +existence, whether of brass or marble, but as a kind of satire upon the +departed persons who had left no other memorial of them than that they +were born and that they died.' In certain moods of mind this is a +natural reflection; yet not perhaps the most salutary which the +appearance might give birth to. As in these registers the name is mostly +associated with others of the same family, this is a prolonged +companionship, however shadowy: even a tomb like this is a shrine to +which the fancies of a scattered family may return in pilgrimage; the +thoughts of the individuals without any communication with each other +must oftentimes meet here. Such a frail memorial then is not without its +tendency to keep families together. It feeds also local attachment, +which is the tap-root of the tree of Patriotism. + +I know not how I can withdraw more satisfactorily from this long +disquisition than by offering to the Reader as a farewell memorial the +following Verses, suggested to me by a concise epitaph which I met with +some time ago in one of the most retired vales among the mountains of +Westmoreland. There is nothing in the detail of the poem which is not +either founded upon the epitaph or gathered from enquiries concerning +the deceased, made in the neighbourhood. + + Beneath that pine which rears its dusky head + Aloft, and covered by a plain blue stone + Briefly inscribed, a gentle Dalesman lies; + From whom in early childhood was withdrawn + The precious gift of hearing. He grew up + From year to year in loneliness of soul; + And this deep mountain valley was to him + Soundless with all its streams. The bird of dawn + Did never rouse this Cottager from sleep + With startling summons; not for his delight + The vernal cuckoo shouted, not for him + Murmured the labouring bee. When stormy winds + Were working the broad bosom of the Lake + Into a thousand thousand sparkling waves, + Rocking the trees, or driving cloud on cloud + Along the sharp edge of yon lofty crags, + The agitated scene before his eye + Was silent as a picture; evermore + Were all things silent wheresoe'er he moved. + Yet by the solace of his own calm thoughts + Upheld, he duteously pursued the round + Of rural labours: the steep mountain side + Ascended with his staff and faithful dog; + The plough he guided and the scythe he swayed, + And the ripe corn before his sickle fell + Among the jocund reapers. For himself, + All watchful and industrious as he was, + He wrought not; neither field nor flock he owned; + No wish for wealth had place within his mind, + No husband's love nor father's hope or care; + Though born a younger brother, need was none + That from the floor of his paternal home + He should depart to plant himself anew; + And when mature in manhood he beheld + His parents laid in earth, no loss ensued + Of rights to him, but he remained well pleased + By the pure bond of independent love, + An inmate of a second family, + The fellow-labourer and friend of him + To whom the small inheritance had fallen. + Nor deem that his mild presence was a weight + That pressed upon his brother's house; for books + Were ready comrades whom he could not tire; + Of whose society the blameless man + Was never satiate; their familiar voice + Even to old age with unabated charm + Beguiled his leisure hours, refreshed his thoughts, + Beyond its natural elevation raised + His introverted spirit, and bestowed + Upon his life an outward dignity + Which all acknowledged. The dark winter night, + The stormy day had each its own resource; + Song of the Muses, sage historic tale, + Science severe, or word of Holy Writ + Announcing immortality and joy + To the assembled spirits of the just + From imperfection and decay secure: + Thus soothed at home, thus busy in the field, + To no perverse suspicion he gave way; + No languour, peevishness, nor vain complaint. + And they who were about him did not fail + In reverence or in courtesy; they prized + His gentle manners, and his peaceful smiles; + The gleams of his slow-varying countenance + Were met with answering sympathy and love. + At length when sixty years and five were told + A slow disease insensibly consumed + The powers of nature, and a few short steps + Of friends and kindred bore him from his home, + Yon cottage shaded by the woody cross, + To the profounder stillness of the grave. + Nor was his funeral denied the grace + Of many tears, virtuous and thoughtful grief, + Heart-sorrow rendered sweet by gratitude; + And now that monumental stone preserves + His name, and unambitiously relates + How long and by what kindly outward aids + And in what pure contentedness of mind + The sad privation was by him endured. + And yon tall pine-tree, whose composing sound + Was wasted on the good man's living ear, + Hath now its own peculiar sanctity, + And at the touch of every wandering breeze + Murmurs not idly o'er his peaceful grave. + + + + +III. ESSAYS, LETTERS, AND NOTES ELUCIDATORY AND CONFIRMATORY OF THE POEMS. + +1798-1835. + +_(a)_ OF THE PRINCIPLES OF POETRY AND THE 'LYRICAL BALLADS' (1798-1802). +_(b)_ OF POETIC DICTION. +_(c)_ POETRY AS A STUDY (1815). +_(d)_ OF POETRY AS OBSERVATION AND DESCRIPTION, AND DEDICATION OF 1815. +_(e)_ OF 'THE EXCURSION:' PREFACE. +_(f)_ LETTERS TO SIR GEORGE AND LADY BEAUMONT AND OTHERS ON THE POEMS +AND RELATED SUBJECTS. +_(g)_ LETTER TO CHARLES FOX WITH THE 'LYRICAL BALLADS,' AND HIS ANSWER, +&c. +_(h)_ LETTER ON THE PRINCIPLES OF POETRY AND HIS OWN POEMS TO (AFTERWARDS) +PROFESSOR JOHN WILSON. + +NOTE. + +Of the occasion and sources, &c. of the several portions of the present +division see Preface in Vol. I. G. + + + + +_(a)_ OF THE PRINCIPLES OF POETRY AND THE 'LYRICAL BALLADS' +(1798-1802). + + +The first Volume of these Poems has already been submitted to general +perusal. It was published, as an experiment, which, I hoped, might be of +some use to ascertain, how far, by fitting to metrical arrangement a +selection of the real language of men in a state of vivid sensation, +that sort of pleasure and that quantity of pleasure may be imparted, +which a Poet may rationally endeavour to impart. + +I had formed no very inaccurate estimate of the probable effect of those +Poems: I flattered myself that they who should be pleased with them +would read them with more than common pleasure: and, on the other hand, +I was well aware, that by those who should dislike them, they would be +read with more than common dislike. The result has differed from my +expectation in this only, that a greater number have been pleased than I +ventured to hope I should please. + + * * * * * + +Several of my Friends are anxious for the success of these Poems, from a +belief, that, if the views with which they were composed were indeed +realised, a class of Poetry would be produced, well adapted to interest +mankind permanently, and not unimportant in the quality, and in the +multiplicity of its moral relations: and on this account they have +advised me to prefix a systematic defence of the theory upon which the +Poems were written. But I was unwilling to undertake the task, knowing +that on this occasion the Reader would look coldly upon my arguments, +since I might be suspected of having been principally influenced by the +selfish and foolish hope of _reasoning_ him into an approbation of these +particular Poems: and I was still more unwilling to undertake the task, +because, adequately to display the opinions, and fully to enforce the +arguments, would require a space wholly disproportionate to a preface. +For, to treat the subject with the clearness and coherence of which it +is susceptible, it would be necessary to give a full account of the +present state of the public taste in this country, and to determine how +far this taste is healthy or depraved; which, again, could not be +determined, without pointing out in what manner language and the human +mind act and re-act on each other, and without retracing the +revolutions, not of literature alone, but likewise of society itself. I +have therefore altogether declined to enter regularly upon this defence; +yet I am sensible, that there would be something like impropriety in +abruptly obtruding upon the Public, without a few words of introduction, +Poems so materially different from those upon which general approbation +is at present bestowed. + +It is supposed, that by the act of writing in verse an Author makes a +formal engagement that he will gratify certain known habits of +association; that he not only thus apprises the Reader that certain +classes of ideas and expressions will be found in his book, but that +others will be carefully excluded. This exponent or symbol held forth by +metrical language must in different eras of literature have excited very +different expectations: for example, in the age of Catullus, Terence, +and Lucretius, and that of Statius or Claudian; and in our own country, +in the age of Shakspeare and Beaumont and Fletcher, and that of Donne +and Cowley, or Dryden, or Pope. I will not take upon me to determine the +exact import of the promise which, by the act of writing in verse, an +Author in the present day makes to his reader: but it will undoubtedly +appear to many persons that I have not fulfilled the terms of an +engagement thus voluntarily contracted. They who have been accustomed to +the gaudiness and inane phraseology of many modern writers, if they +persist in reading this book to its conclusion, will, no doubt, +frequently have to struggle with feelings of strangeness and +awkwardness: they will look round for poetry, and will be induced to +inquire by what species of courtesy these attempts can be permitted to +assume that title. I hope therefore the reader will not censure me for +attempting to state what I have proposed to myself to perform; and also +(as far as the limits of a preface will permit) to explain some of the +chief reasons which have determined me in the choice of my purpose: that +at least he may be spared any unpleasant feeling of disappointment, and +that I myself may be protected from one of the most dishonourable +accusations which can be brought against an Author; namely, that of an +indolence which prevents him from endeavouring to ascertain what is his +duty, or, when his duty is ascertained, prevents him from performing it. + +The principal object, then, proposed in these Poems was to choose +incidents and situations from common life, and to relate or describe +them, throughout, as far as was possible in a selection of language +really used by men, and, at the same time, to throw over them a certain +colouring of imagination, whereby ordinary things should be presented to +the mind in an unusual aspect; and, further, and above all, to make +these incidents and situations interesting by tracing in them, truly +though not ostentatiously, the primary laws of our nature: chiefly, as +far as regards the manner in which we associate ideas in a state of +excitement. Humble and rustic life was generally chosen, because, in +that condition, the essential passions of the heart find a better soil +in which they can attain their maturity, are less under restraint, and +speak a plainer and more emphatic language; because in that condition of +life our elementary feelings co-exist in a state of greater simplicity, +and, consequently, may be more accurately contemplated, and more +forcibly communicated; because the manners of rural life germinate from +those elementary feelings, and, from the necessary character of rural +occupations, are more easily comprehended, and are more durable; and, +lastly, because in that condition the passions of men are incorporated +with the beautiful and permanent forms of Nature. The language, too, of +these men has been adopted (purified indeed from what appear to be its +real defects, from all lasting and rational causes of dislike or +disgust) because such men hourly communicate with the best objects from +which the best part of language is originally derived; and because, from +their rank in society and the sameness and narrow circle of their +intercourse, being less under the influence of social vanity, they +convey their feelings and notions in simple and unelaborated +expressions. Accordingly, such a language, arising out of repeated +experience and regular feelings, is a more permanent, and a far more +philosophical language, than that which is frequently substituted for it +by Poets, who think that they are conferring honour upon themselves and +their art, in proportion as they separate themselves from the sympathies +of men, and indulge in arbitrary and capricious habits of expression, +in order to furnish food for fickle tastes, and fickle appetites, of +their own creation.[8] + +I cannot, however, be insensible to the present outcry against the +triviality and meanness, both of thought and language, which some of my +contemporaries have occasionally introduced into their metrical +compositions; and I acknowledge that this defect, where it exists, is +more dishonourable to the Writer's own character than false refinement +or arbitrary innovation, though I should contend at the same time, that +it is far less pernicious in the sum of its consequences. From such +verses the Poems in these volumes will be found distinguished at least +by one mark of difference, that each of them has a worthy _purpose_. Not +that I always began to write with a distinct purpose formally conceived; +but habits of meditation have, I trust, so prompted and regulated my +feelings, that my descriptions of such objects as strongly excite those +feelings, will be found to carry along with them a _purpose_. If this +opinion be erroneous, I can have little right to name of a Poet. For all +good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: and though +this be true, Poems to which any value can be attached were never +produced on any variety of subjects but by a man who, being possessed of +more than usual organic sensibility, had also thought long and deeply. +For our continued influxes of feeling are modified and directed by our +thoughts, which are indeed the representatives of all our past feelings; +and, as by contemplating the relation of these general representatives +to each other, we discover what is really important to men, so, by the +repetition and continuance of this act, our feelings will be connected +with important subjects, till at length, if we be originally possessed +of much sensibility, such habits of mind will be produced, that, by +obeying blindly and mechanically the impulses of those habits, we shall +describe objects, and utter sentiments, of such a nature, and in such +connection with each other, that the understanding of the Reader must +necessarily be in some degree enlightened, and his affections +strengthened and purified. + +[8] It is worth while here to observe, that the affecting parts of +Chaucer are almost always expressed in language pure and universally +intelligible even to this day. + +It has been said that each of these poems has a purpose. Another +circumstance must be mentioned which distinguishes these Poems from the +popular Poetry of the day; it is this, that the feeling therein +developed gives importance to the action and situation, and not the +action and situation to the feeling. + +A sense of false modesty shall not prevent me from asserting, that the +Reader's attention is pointed to this mark of distinction, far less for +the sake of these particular Poems than from the general importance of +the subject. The subject is indeed important! For the human mind is +capable of being excited without the application of gross and violent +stimulants; and he must have a very faint perception of its beauty and +dignity who does not know this, and who does not further know, that one +being is elevated above another, in proportion as he possesses this +capability. It has therefore appeared to me, that to endeavour to +produce or enlarge this capability is one of the best services in which, +at any period, a Writer can be engaged; but this service, excellent at +all times, is especially so at the present day. For a multitude of +causes, unknown to former times, are now acting with a combined force to +blunt the discriminating powers of the mind, and, unfitting it for all +voluntary exertion, to reduce it to a state of almost savage torpor. The +most effective of these causes are the great national events which are +daily taking place, and the increasing accumulation of men in cities, +where the uniformity of their occupations produces a craving for +extraordinary incident, which the rapid communication of intelligence +hourly gratifies. To this tendency of life and manners the literature +and theatrical exhibitions of the country have conformed themselves. The +invaluable works of our elder writers, I had almost said the works of +Shakspeare and Milton, are driven into neglect by frantic novels, sickly +and stupid German Tragedies, and deluges of idle and extravagant stories +in verse.--When I think upon this degrading thirst after outrageous +stimulation, I am almost ashamed to have spoken of the feeble endeavour +made in these volumes to counteract it; and, reflecting upon the +magnitude of the general evil, I should be oppressed with no +dishonourable melancholy, had I not a deep impression of certain +inherent and indestructible qualities of the human mind, and likewise of +certain powers in the great and permanent objects that act upon it, +which are equally inherent and indestructible; and were there not added +to this impression a belief, that the time is approaching when the evil +will be systematically opposed, by men of greater powers, and with far +more distinguished success. + +Having dwelt thus long on the subjects and aim of these Poems, I shall +request the Reader's permission to apprise him of a few circumstances +relating to their _style_, in order, among other reasons, that he may +not censure me for not having performed what I never attempted. The +Reader will find that personifications of abstract ideas rarely occur in +these volumes; and are utterly rejected, as an ordinary device to +elevate the style, and raise it above prose. My purpose was to imitate, +and, as far as is possible, to adopt the very language of men; and +assuredly such personifications do not make any natural or regular part +of that language. They are, indeed, a figure of speech occasionally +prompted by passion, and I have made use of them as such; but have +endeavoured utterly to reject them as a mechanical device of style, or +as a family language which Writers in metre seem to lay claim to by +prescription. I have wished to keep the Reader in the company of flesh +and blood, persuaded that by so doing I shall interest him. Others who +pursue a different track will interest him likewise; I do not interfere +with their claim, but wish to prefer a claim of my own. There will also +be found in these volumes little of what is usually called poetic +diction; as much pains has been taken to avoid it as is ordinarily taken +to produce it; this has been done for the reason already alleged, to +bring my language near to the language of men; and further, because the +pleasure which I have proposed to myself to impart, is of a kind very +different from that which is supposed by many persons to be the proper +object of poetry. Without being culpably particular, I do not know how +to give my Reader a more exact notion of the style in which it was my +wish and intention to write, than by informing him that I have at all +times endeavoured to look steadily at my subject; consequently, there is +I hope in these Poems little falsehood of description, and my ideas are +expressed in language fitted to their respective importance. Something +must have been gained by this practice, as it is friendly to one +property of all good poetry, namely, good sense: but it has necessarily +cut me off from a large portion of phrases and figures of speech which +from father to son have long been regarded as the common inheritance of +Poets. I have also thought it expedient to restrict myself still +further, having abstained from the use of many expressions, in +themselves proper and beautiful, but which have been foolishly repeated +by bad Poets, till such feelings of disgust are connected with them as +it is scarcely possible by any art of association to overpower. + +If in a poem there should be found a series of lines, or even a single +line, in which the language, though naturally arranged, and according to +the strict laws of metre, does not differ from that of prose, there is a +numerous class of critics, who, when they stumble upon these prosaisms, +as they call them, imagine that they have made a notable discovery, and +exult over the Poet as over a man ignorant of his own profession. Now +these men would establish a canon of criticism which the Reader will +conclude he must utterly reject, if he wishes to be pleased with these +volumes. And it would be a most easy task to prove to him, that not only +the language of a large portion of every good poem, even of the most +elevated character, must necessarily, except with reference to the +metre, in no respect differ from that of good prose, but likewise that +some of the most interesting parts of the best poems will be found to be +strictly the language of prose when prose is well written. The truth of +this assertion might be demonstrated by innumerable passages from almost +all the poetical writings, even of Milton himself. To illustrate the +subject in a general manner, I will here adduce a short composition of +Gray, who was at the head of those who, by their reasonings, have +attempted to widen the space of separation betwixt Prose and Metrical +composition, and was more than any other man curiously elaborate in the +structure of his own poetic diction. + + In vain to me the smiling mornings shine, + And reddening Phoebus lifts his golden fire: + The birds in vain their amorous descant join, + Or cheerful fields resume their green attire. + These ears, alas! for other notes repine; + _A different object do these eyes require; + My lonely anguish melts no heart but mine; + And in my breast the imperfect joys expire_; + Yet morning smiles the busy race to cheer, + And new-born pleasure brings to happier men; + The fields to all their wonted tribute bear; + To warm their little loves the birds complain. + _I fruitless mourn to Him that cannot hear, + And weep the more because I weep in vain_. + +It will easily be perceived, that the only part of this Sonnet which is +of any value is the lines printed in Italics; it is equally obvious, +that, except in the rhyme, and in the use of the single word 'fruitless' +for fruitlessly, which is so far a defect, the language of these lines +does in no respect differ from that of prose. + +By the foregoing quotation it has been shown that the language of Prose +may yet be well adapted to Poetry; and it was previously asserted, that +a large portion of the language of every good poem can in no respect +differ from that of good Prose. We will go further. It may be safely +affirmed, that there neither is, nor can be, any _essential_ difference +between the language of prose and metrical composition. We are fond of +tracing the resemblance between Poetry and Painting, and, accordingly, +we call them Sisters: but where shall we find bonds of connection +sufficiently strict to typify the affinity betwixt metrical and prose +composition? They both speak by and to the same organs; the bodies in +which both of them are clothed may be said to be of the same substance, +their affections are kindred, and almost identical, not necessarily +differing even in degree; Poetry[9] sheds no tears 'such as Angels +weep,' but natural and human tears; she can boast of no celestial ichor +that distinguishes her vital juices from those of prose; the same human +blood circulates through the veins of them both. + +[9] I here use the word 'Poetry' (though against my own judgment) as +opposed to the word Prose, and synonymous with metrical composition. But +much confusion has been introduced into criticism by this +contradistinction of Poetry and Prose, instead of the more philosophical +one of Poetry and Matter of Fact, or Science. The only strict antithesis +to Prose is Metre; nor is this, in truth, a _strict_ antithesis, because +lines and passages of metre so naturally occur in writing prose, that it +would be scarcely possible to avoid them, even were it desirable. + +If it be affirmed that rhyme and metrical arrangement of themselves +constitute a distinction which overturns what has just been said on the +strict affinity of metrical language with that of prose, and paves the +way for other artificial distinctions which the mind voluntarily admits, +I answer that the language of such Poetry as is here recommended is, as +far as is possible, a selection of the language really spoken by men; +that this selection, wherever it is made with true taste and feeling, +will of itself form a distinction far greater than would at first be +imagined, and will entirely separate the composition from the vulgarity +and meanness of ordinary life; and, if metre be superadded thereto, I +believe that a dissimilitude will he produced altogether sufficient for +the gratification of a rational mind. What other distinction would we +have? Whence is it to come? And where is it to exist? Not, surely, where +the Poet speaks through the mouths of his characters: it cannot be +necessary here, either for elevation of style, or any of its supposed +ornaments: for, if the Poet's subject be judiciously chosen, it will +naturally, and upon fit occasion, lead him to passions the language of +which, if selected truly and judiciously, must necessarily be dignified +and variegated, and alive with metaphors and figures. I forbear to speak +of an incongruity which would shock the intelligent Reader, should the +Poet interweave any foreign splendour of his own with that which the +passion naturally suggests: it is sufficient to say that such addition +is unnecessary. And, surely, it is more probable that those passages, +which with propriety abound with metaphors and figures, will have their +due effect, if, upon other occasions where the passions are of a milder +character, the style also be subdued and temperate. + +But, as the pleasure which I hope to give by the Poems now presented to +the Reader must depend entirely on just notions upon this subject, and, +as it is in itself of high importance to our taste and moral feelings, I +cannot content myself with these detached remarks. And if, in what I am +about to say, it shall appear to some that my labour is unnecessary, and +that I am like a man fighting a battle without enemies, such persons may +be reminded, that, whatever be the language outwardly holden by men, a +practical faith in the opinions which I am wishing to establish is +almost unknown. If my conclusions are admitted, and carried as far as +they must be carried if admitted at all, our judgments concerning the +works of the greatest Poets both ancient and modern will be far +different from what they are at present, both when we praise, and when +we censure: and our moral feelings influencing and influenced by these +judgments will, I believe, be corrected and purified. + +Taking up the subject, then, upon general grounds, let me ask, what is +meant by the word Poet? What is a Poet? To whom does he address himself? +And what language is to be expected from him?--He is a man speaking to +men: a man, it is true, endowed with more lively sensibility, more +enthusiasm and tenderness, who has a greater knowledge of human nature, +and a more comprehensive soul, than are supposed to be common among +mankind; a man pleased with his own passions and volitions, and who +rejoices more than other men in the spirit of life that is in him; +delighting to contemplate similar volitions and passions as manifested +in the goings-on of the Universe, and habitually impelled to create them +where he does not find them. To these qualities he has added a +disposition to be affected more than other men by absent things as if +they were present; an ability of conjuring up in himself passions, which +are indeed far from being the same as those produced by real events, yet +(especially in those parts of the general sympathy which are pleasing +and delightful) do more nearly resemble the passions produced by real +events, than anything which, from the motions of their own minds merely, +other men are accustomed to feel in themselves:--whence, and from +practice, he has acquired a greater readiness and power in expressing +what he thinks and feels, and especially those thoughts and feelings +which, by his own choice, or from the structure of his own mind, arise +in him without immediate external excitement. + +But whatever portion of this faculty we may suppose even the greatest +Poet to possess, there cannot be a doubt that the language which it will +suggest to him, must often, in liveliness and truth, fall short of that +which is uttered by men in real life, under the actual pressure of those +passions, certain shadows of which the Poet thus produces, or feels to +be produced, in himself. + +However exalted a notion we would wish to cherish of the character of a +Poet, it is obvious, that while he describes and imitates passions, his +employment is in some degree mechanical, compared with the freedom and +power of real and substantial action and suffering. So that it will be +the wish of the Poet to bring his feelings near to those of the persons +whose feelings he describes, nay, for short spaces of time, perhaps, to +let himself slip into an entire delusion, and even confound and identify +his own feelings with theirs; modifying only the language which is thus +suggested to him by a consideration that he describes for a particular +purpose, that of giving pleasure. Here, then, he will apply the +principle of selection which has been already insisted upon. He will +depend upon this for removing what would otherwise be painful or +disgusting in the passion; he will feel that there is no necessity to +trick out or to elevate nature: and, the more industriously he applies +this principle, the deeper will be his faith that no words, which _his_ +fancy or imagination can suggest, will be to be compared with those +which are the emanations of reality and truth. + +But it may be said by those who do not object to the general spirit of +these remarks, that, as it is impossible for the Poet to produce upon +all occasions language as exquisitely fitted for the passion as that +which the real passion itself suggests, it is proper that he should +consider himself as in the situation of a translator, who does not +scruple to substitute excellencies of another kind for those which are +unattainable by him; and endeavours occasionally to surpass his +original, in order to make some amends for the general inferiority to +which he feels that he must submit. But this would be to encourage +idleness and unmanly despair. Further, it is the language of men who +speak of what they do not understand; who talk of Poetry as of a matter +of amusement and idle pleasure; who will converse with us as gravely +about a _taste_ for Poetry, as they express it, as if it were a thing as +indifferent as a taste for rope-dancing, or Frontiniac or Sherry. +Aristotle, I have been told, has said, that Poetry is the most +philosophic of all writing: it is so: its object is truth, not +individual and local, but general, and operative; not standing upon +external testimony, but carried alive into the heart by passion; truth +which is its own testimony, which gives competence and confidence to the +tribunal to which it appeals, and receives them from the same tribunal. +Poetry is the image of man and nature. The obstacles which stand in the +way of the fidelity of the Biographer and Historian, and of their +consequent utility, are incalculably greater than those which are to be +encountered by the Poet who comprehends the dignity of his art. The Poet +writes under one restriction only, namely, the necessity of giving +immediate pleasure to a human Being possessed of that information which +may be expected from him, not as a lawyer, a physician, a mariner, an +astronomer, or a natural philosopher, but as a Man. Except this one +restriction, there is no object standing between the Poet and the image +of things; between this, and the Biographer and Historian, there are a +thousand. + +Nor let this necessity of producing immediate pleasure be considered as +a degradation of the Poet's art. It is far otherwise. It is an +acknowledgment of the beauty of the universe, an acknowledgment the more +sincere, because not formal, but indirect; it is a task light and easy +to him who looks at the world in the spirit of love: further, it is a +homage paid to the native and naked dignity of man, to the grand +elementary principle of pleasure, by which he knows, and feels, and +lives, and moves. We have no sympathy but what is propagated by +pleasure: I would not be misunderstood; but wherever we sympathise with +pain, it will be found that the sympathy is produced and carried on by +subtle combinations with pleasure. We have no knowledge, that is, no +general principles drawn from the contemplation of particular facts, but +what has been built up by pleasure, and exists in us by pleasure alone. +The Man of science, the Chemist and Mathematician, whatever difficulties +and disgusts they may have had to struggle with, know and feel this. +However painful may be the objects with which the Anatomist's knowledge +is connected, he feels that his knowledge is pleasure; and where he has +no pleasure he has no knowledge. What then does the Poet? He considers +man and the objects that surround him as acting and re-acting upon each +other, so as to produce an infinite complexity of pain and pleasure; he +considers man in his own nature and in his ordinary life as +contemplating this with a certain quantity of immediate knowledge, with +certain convictions, intuitions, and deductions, which from habit +acquire the quality of intuitions; he considers him as looking upon this +complex scene of ideas and sensations, and finding every where object +that immediately excite in him sympathies which, from the necessities of +his nature, are accompanied by an overbalance of enjoyment. + +To this knowledge which all men carry about with them, and to these +sympathies in which, without any other discipline than that of our daily +life, we are fitted to take delight, the Poet principally directs his +attention. He considers man and nature as essentially adapted to each +other, and the mind of man as naturally the mirror of the fairest and +most interesting properties of nature. And thus the Poet, prompted by +this feeling of pleasure, which accompanies him through the whole course +of his studies, converses with general nature, with affections akin to +those, which, through labour and length of time, the Man of science has +raised up in himself, by conversing with those particular parts of +nature which are the objects of his studies. The knowledge both of the +Poet and the Man of science is pleasure; but the knowledge of the one +cleaves to us as a necessary part of our existence, our natural and +unalienable inheritance; the other is a personal and individual +acquisition, slow to come to us, and by no habitual and direct sympathy +connecting us with our fellow-beings. The Man of science seeks truth as +a remote and unknown benefactor; he cherishes and loves it in his +solitude: the Poet, singing a song in which all human beings join with +him, rejoices in the presence of truth as our visible friend and hourly +companion. Poetry is the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge; it is +the impassioned expression which is in the countenance of all Science. +Emphatically may it be said of the Poet, as Shakspeare hath said of man, +'that he looks before and after.' He is the rock of defence for human +nature; an upholder and preserver, carrying every where with him +relationship and love. In spite of difference of soil and climate, of +language and manners, of laws and customs: in spite of things silently +gone out of mind, and things violently destroyed; the Poet binds +together by passion and knowledge the vast empire of human society, as +it is spread over the whole earth, and over all time. The objects of the +Poet's thoughts are every where; though the eyes and senses of man are, +it is true, his favourite guides, yet he will follow wheresoever he can +find an atmosphere of sensation in which to move his wings. Poetry is +the first and last of all knowledge--it is as immortal as the heart of +man. If the labours of Men of science should ever create any material +revolution, direct or indirect, in our condition, and in the impressions +which we habitually receive, the Poet will sleep then no more than at +present; he will be ready to follow the steps of the Man of science, not +only in those general indirect effects, but he will be at his side, +carrying sensation into the midst of the objects of the science itself. +The remotest discoveries of the Chemist, the Botanist, or Mineralogist, +will be as proper objects of the Poet's art as any upon which it can be +employed, if the time should ever come when these things shall be +familiar to us, and the relations under which they are contemplated by +the followers of these respective sciences shall be manifestly and +palpably material to us as enjoying and suffering beings. If the time +should ever come when what is now called science, thus familiarised to +men, shall be ready to put on, as it were, a form of flesh and blood, +the Poet will lend his divine spirit to aid the transfiguration, and +will welcome the Being thus produced, as a dear and genuine inmate of +the household of man.--It is not, then, to be supposed that any one, who +holds that sublime notion of Poetry which I have attempted to convey, +will break in upon the sanctity and truth of his pictures by transitory +and accidental ornaments, and endeavour to excite admiration of himself +by arts, the necessity of which must manifestly depend upon the assumed +meanness of his subject. + +What has been thus far said applies to Poetry in general; but especially +to those parts of composition where the Poet speaks through the mouths +of his characters; and upon this point it appears to authorise the +conclusion that there are few persons of good sense, who would not allow +that the dramatic parts of composition are defective, in proportion as +they deviate from the real language of nature, and are coloured by a +diction of the Poet's own, either peculiar to him as an individual Poet +or belonging simply to Poets in general; to a body of men who, from the +circumstance of their composition being in metre, it is expected will +employ a particular language. + +It is not, then, in the dramatic parts of composition that we look for +this distinction of language; but still it may be proper and necessary +where the Poet speaks to us in his own person and character. To this I +answer by referring the Reader to the description before given of a +Poet. Among the qualities there enumerated as principally conducing to +form a Poet, is implied nothing differing in kind from other men, but +only in degree. The sum of what was said is, that the Poet is chiefly +distinguished from other men by a greater promptness to think and feel +without immediate external excitement, and a greater power in expressing +such thoughts and feelings as are produced in him in that manner. But +these passions and thoughts and feelings are the general passions and +thoughts and feelings of men. And with what are they connected? +Undoubtedly with our moral sentiments and animal sensations, and with +the causes which excite these; with the operations of the elements, and +the appearances of the visible universe; with storm and sunshine, with +the revolutions of the seasons, with cold and heat, with loss of friends +and kindred, with injuries and resentments, gratitude and hope, with +fear and sorrow. These, and the like, are the sensations and objects +which the Poet describes, as they are the sensations of other men, and +the objects which interest them. The Poet thinks and feels in the spirit +of human passions. How, then, can his language differ in any material +degree from that of all other men who feel vividly and see clearly? It +might be _proved_ that it is impossible. But supposing that this were +not the case, the Poet might then be allowed to use a peculiar language +when expressing his feelings for his own gratification, or that of men +like himself. But Poets do not write for Poets alone, but for men. +Unless therefore we are advocates for that admiration which subsists +upon ignorance, and that pleasure which arises from hearing what we do +not understand, the Poet must descend from this supposed height; and, in +order to excite rational sympathy, he must express himself as other men +express themselves. To this it may be added, that while he is only +selecting from the real language of men, or, which amounts to the same +thing, composing accurately in the spirit of such selection, he is +treading upon safe ground, and we know what we are to expect from him. +Our feelings are the same with respect to metre; for, as it may be +proper to remind the Reader, the distinction of metre is regular and +uniform, and not, like that which is produced by what is usually called +POETIC DICTION, arbitrary, and subject to infinite caprices, upon which +no calculation whatever can be made. In the one case, the Reader is +utterly at the mercy of the Poet, respecting what imagery or diction he +may choose to connect with the passion; whereas, in the other, the metre +obeys certain laws, to which the Poet and Reader both willingly submit +because they are certain, and because no interference is made by them +with the passion but such as the concurring testimony of ages has shown +to heighten and improve the pleasure which co-exists with it. + +It will now be proper to answer an obvious question, namely, Why, +professing these opinions, have I written in verse? To this, in addition +to such answer as is included in what has been already said, I reply, in +the first place, Because, however I may have restricted myself, there is +still left open to me what confessedly constitutes the most valuable +object of all writing, whether in prose or verse; the great and +universal passions of men, the most general and interesting of their +occupations, and the entire world of nature before me--to supply endless +combinations of forms and imagery. Now, supposing for a moment that +whatever is interesting in these objects may be as vividly described in +prose, why should I be condemned for attempting to superadd to such +description, the charm which, by the consent of all nations, is +acknowledged to exist in metrical language? To this, by such as are yet +unconvinced, it may be answered that a very small part of the pleasure +given by Poetry depends upon the metre, and that it is injudicious to +write in metre, unless it be accompanied with the other artificial +distinctions of style with which metre is usually accompanied, and that, +by such deviation, more will be lost from the shock which will thereby +be given to the Reader's associations than will be counterbalanced by +any pleasure which he can derive from the general power of numbers. In +answer to those who still contend for the necessity of accompanying +metre with certain appropriate colours of style in order to the +accomplishment of its appropriate end, and who also, in my opinion, +greatly under-rate the power of metre in itself, it might, perhaps, as +far as relates to these Volumes, have been almost sufficient to observe, +that poems are extant, written upon more humble subjects, and in a still +more naked and simple style, which have continued to give pleasure from +generation to generation. Now, if nakedness and simplicity be a defect, +the fact here mentioned affords a strong presumption that poems somewhat +less naked and simple are capable of affording pleasure at the present +day; and, what I wished _chiefly_ to attempt, at present, was to justify +myself for having written under the impression of this belief. + +But various causes might be pointed out why, when the style is manly, +and the subject of some importance, words metrically arranged will long +continue to impart such a pleasure to mankind as he who proves the +extent of that pleasure will be desirous to impart. The end of Poetry is +to produce excitement in co-existence with an overbalance of pleasure; +but, by the supposition, excitement is an unusual and irregular state of +the mind; ideas and feelings do not, in that state, succeed each other +in accustomed order. If the words, however, by which this excitement is +produced be in themselves powerful, or the images and feelings have an +undue proportion of pain connected with them, there is some danger that +the excitement may he carried beyond its proper bounds. Now the +co-presence of something regular, something to which the mind has been +accustomed in various moods and in a less excited state, cannot but have +great efficacy in tempering and restraining the passion by an +intertexture of ordinary feeling, and of feeling not strictly and +necessarily connected with the passion. This is unquestionably true; and +hence, though the opinion will at first appear paradoxical, from the +tendency of metre to divest language, in a certain degree, of its +reality, and thus to throw a sort of half-consciousness of unsubstantial +existence over the whole composition, there can be little doubt but that +more pathetic situations and sentiments, that is, those which have a +greater proportion of pain connected with them, may be endured in +metrical composition, especially in rhyme, than in prose. The metre of +the old ballads is very artless; yet they contain many passages which +would illustrate this opinion; and I hope, if the following Poems be +attentively perused, similar instances will be found in them. This +opinion may be further illustrated by appealing to the Reader's own +experience of the reluctance with which he comes to the re-perusal of +the distressful parts of _Clarissa Harlowe_, or the _Gamester_; while +Shakspeare's writings, in the most pathetic scenes, never act upon us, +as pathetic, beyond the bounds of pleasure--an effect which, in a much +greater degree than might at first be imagined, is to be ascribed to +small, but continual and regular impulses of pleasurable surprise from +the metrical arrangement.--On the other hand (what it must be allowed +will much more frequently happen) if the Poet's words should be +incommensurate with the passion, and inadequate to raise the Reader to a +height of desirable excitement, then, (unless the Poet's choice of his +metre has been grossly injudicious) in the feelings of pleasure which +the Reader has been accustomed to connect with metre in general, and in +the feeling, whether cheerful or melancholy, which he has been +accustomed to connect with that particular movement of metre, there will +be found something which will greatly contribute to impart passion to +the words, and to effect the complex end which the Poet proposes to +himself. + +If I had undertaken a SYSTEMATIC defence of the theory here maintained, +it would have been my duty to develop the various causes upon which the +pleasure received from metrical language depends. Among the chief of +these causes is to be reckoned a principle which must be well known to +those who have made any of the Arts the object of accurate reflection; +namely, the pleasure which the mind derives from the perception of +similitude in dissimilitude. This principle is the great spring of the +activity of our minds, and their chief feeder. From this principle the +direction of the sexual appetite, and all the passions connected with +it, take their origin: it is the life of our ordinary conversation; and +upon the accuracy with which similitude in dissimilitude, and +dissimilitude in similitude are perceived, depend our taste and our +moral feelings. It would not be a useless employment to apply this +principle to the consideration of metre, and to show that metre is hence +enabled to afford much pleasure, and to point out in what manner that +pleasure is produced. But my limits will not permit me to enter upon +this subject, and I must content myself with a general summary. + +I have said that poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful +feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquillity: +the emotion is contemplated till, by a species of re-action, the +tranquillity gradually disappears, and an emotion, kindred to that which +was before the subject of contemplation, is gradually produced, and does +itself actually exist in the mind. In this mood successful composition +generally begins, and in a mood similar to this it is carried on; but +the emotion, of whatever kind, and in whatever degree, from various +causes, is qualified by various pleasures, so that in describing any +passions whatsoever, which are voluntarily described, the mind will, +upon the whole, be in a state of enjoyment. If Nature be thus cautious +to preserve in a state of enjoyment a being so employed, the Poet ought +to profit by the lesson held forth to him, and ought especially to take +care, that, whatever passions he communicates to his Reader, those +passions, if his Reader's mind be sound and vigorous, should always be +accompanied with an overbalance of pleasure. Now the music of harmonious +metrical language, the sense of difficulty overcome, and the blind +association of pleasure which has been previously received from works of +rhyme or metre of the same or similar construction, an indistinct +perception perpetually renewed of language closely resembling that of +real life, and yet, in the circumstance of metre, differing from it so +widely--all these imperceptibly make up a complex feeling of delight, +which is of the most important use in tempering the painful feeling +always found intermingled with powerful descriptions of the deeper +passions. This effect is always produced in pathetic and impassioned +poetry; while, in lighter compositions, the ease and gracefulness with +which the Poet manages his numbers are themselves confessedly a +principal source of the gratification of the Reader. All that it is +_necessary_ to say, however, upon this subject, may be effected by +affirming, what few persons will deny, that, of two descriptions, either +of passions, manners, or characters, each of them equally well executed, +the one in prose and the other in verse, the verse will be read a +hundred times where the prose is read once. + +Having thus explained a few of my reasons for writing in verse, and why +I have chosen subjects from common life, and endeavoured to bring my +language near to the real language of men, if I have been too minute in +pleading my own cause, I have at the same time been treating a subject +of general interest; and for this reason a few words shall be added with +reference solely to these particular poems, and to some defects which +will probably be found in them. I am sensible that my associations must +have sometimes been particular instead of general, and that, +consequently, giving to things a false importance, I may have sometimes +written upon unworthy subjects; but I am less apprehensive on this +account, than that my language may frequently have suffered from those +arbitrary connections of feelings and ideas with particular words and +phrases, from which no man can altogether protect himself. Hence I have +no doubt, that, in some instances, feelings, even of the ludicrous, may +be given to my Readers by expressions which appeared to me tender and +pathetic. Such faulty expressions, were I convinced they were faulty at +present, and that they must necessarily continue to be so, I would +willingly take all reasonable pains to correct. But it is dangerous to +make these alterations on the simple authority of a few individuals, or +even of certain classes of men; for where the understanding of an Author +is not convinced, or his feelings altered, this cannot be done without +great injury to himself: for his own feelings are his stay and support; +and, if he set them aside in one instance, he may be induced to repeat +this act till his mind shall lose all confidence in itself, and become +utterly debilitated. To this it may be added, that the Critic ought +never to forget that he is himself exposed to the same errors as the +Poet, and, perhaps, in a much greater degree: for there can be no +presumption in saying of most readers, that it is not probable they will +be so well acquainted with the various stages of meaning through which +words have passed, or with the fickleness or stability of the relations +of particular ideas to each other; and, above all, since they are so +much less interested in the subject, they may decide lightly and +carelessly. + +Long as the Reader has been detained, I hope he will permit me to +caution him against a mode of false criticism which has been applied to +Poetry, in which the language closely resembles that of life and nature. +Such verses have been triumphed over in parodies, of which Dr. Johnson's +stanza is a fair specimen:-- + + I put my hat upon my head + And walked into the Strand, + And there I met another man + Whose hat was in his hand. + +Immediately under these lines let us place one of the most +justly-admired stanzas of the 'Babes in the Wood.' + + These pretty Babes with hand in hand + Went wandering up and down; + But never more they saw the Man + Approaching from the Town. + +In both these stanzas the words, and the order of the words, in no +respect differ from the most unimpassioned conversation. There are words +in both, for example, 'the Strand,' and 'the Town,' connected with none +but the most familiar ideas; yet the one stanza we admit as admirable, +and the other as a fair example of the superlatively contemptible. +Whence arises this difference? Not from the metre, not from the +language, not from the order of the words; but the _matter_ expressed in +Dr. Johnson's stanza is contemptible. The proper method of treating +trivial and simple verses, to which Dr. Johnson's stanza would be a fair +parallelism, is not to say, this is a bad kind of poetry, or, this is +not poetry; but, this wants sense; it is neither interesting in itself, +nor can _lead_ to any thing interesting; the images neither originate in +that sane state of feeling which arises out of thought, nor can excite +thought or feeling in the Reader. This is the only sensible manner of +dealing with such verses. Why trouble yourself about the species till +you have previously decided upon the genus? Why take pains to prove that +an ape is not a Newton, when it is self-evident that he is not a man? + +One request I must make of my reader, which is, that in judging these +Poems he would decide by his own feelings genuinely, and not by +reflection upon what will probably be the judgment of others. How common +is it to hear a person say, I myself do not object to this style of +composition, or this or that expression, but, to such and such classes +of people it will appear mean or ludicrous! This mode of criticism, so +destructive of all sound unadulterated judgment, is almost universal: +let the Reader then abide, independently, by his own feelings, and, if +he finds himself affected, let him not suffer such conjectures to +interfere with his pleasure. + +If an Author, by any single composition, has impressed us with respect +for his talents, it is useful to consider this as affording a +presumption, that on other occasions where we have been displeased, he, +nevertheless, may not have written ill or absurdly; and further, to give +him so much credit for this one composition as may induce us to review +what has displeased us, with more care than we should otherwise have +bestowed upon it. This is not only an act of justice, but, in our +decisions upon poetry especially, may conduce, in a high degree, to the +improvement of our own taste: for an _accurate_ taste in poetry, and in +all the other arts, as Sir Joshua Reynolds has observed, is an +_acquired_ talent, which can only be produced by thought and a +long-continued intercourse with the best models of composition. This is +mentioned, not with so ridiculous a purpose as to prevent the most +inexperienced Reader from judging for himself, (I have already said that +I wish him to judge for himself;) but merely to temper the rashness of +decision, and to suggest, that, if Poetry be a subject on which much +time has not been bestowed, the judgment may be erroneous; and that, in +many cases, it necessarily will be so. + +Nothing would, I know, have so effectually contributed to further the +end which I have in view, as to have shown of what kind the pleasure is, +and how that pleasure is produced, which is confessedly produced by +metrical composition essentially different from that which I have here +endeavoured to recommend: for the Reader will say that he has been +pleased by such composition; and what more can be done for him? The +power of any art is limited; and he will suspect, that, if it be +proposed to furnish him with new friends, that can be only upon +condition of his abandoning his old friends. Besides, as I have said, +the Reader is himself conscious of the pleasure which he has received +from such composition, composition to which he has peculiarly attached +the endearing name of Poetry; and all men feel an habitual gratitude, +and something of an honourable bigotry, for the objects which have long +continued to please them: we not only wish to be pleased, but to be +pleased in that particular way in which we have been accustomed to be +pleased. There is in these feelings enough to resist a host of +arguments; and I should be the less able to combat them successfully, as +I am willing to allow, that, in order entirely to enjoy the Poetry which +I am recommending, it would be necessary to give up much of what is +ordinarily enjoyed. But, would my limits have permitted me to point out +how this pleasure is produced, many obstacles might have been removed, +and the Reader assisted in perceiving that the powers of language are +not so limited as he may suppose; and that it is possible for Poetry to +give other enjoyments, of a purer, more lasting, and more exquisite +nature. This part of the subject has not been altogether neglected, but +it has not been so much my present aim to prove, that the interest +excited by some other kinds of poetry is less vivid, and less worthy of +the nobler powers of the mind, as to offer reasons for presuming, that +if my purpose were fulfilled, a species of poetry would be produced, +which is genuine poetry; in its nature well adapted to interest mankind +permanently, and likewise important in the multiplicity and quality of +its moral relations. + +From what has been said, and from a perusal of the Poems, the Reader +will be able clearly to perceive the object which I had in view: he will +determine how far it has been attained; and, what is a much more +important question, whether it be worth attaining: and upon the decision +of these two questions will rest my claim to the approbation of the +Public. + + + + +(b) OF POETIC DICTION. + +'What is usually called Poetic Diction' (Essay i. page 84, line 22). + + +Perhaps, as I have no right to expect that attentive perusal, without +which, confined, as I have been, to the narrow limits of a Preface, my +meaning cannot be thoroughly understood, I am anxious to give an exact +notion of the sense in which the phrase poetic diction has been used; +and for this purpose, a few words shall here be added, concerning the +origin and characteristics of the phraseology, which I have condemned +under that name. + +The earliest poets of all nations generally wrote from passion excited +by real events; they wrote naturally, and as men: feeling powerfully as +they did, their language was daring, and figurative. In succeeding +times, Poets, and Men ambitious of the fame of Poets, perceiving the +influence of such language, and desirous of producing the same effect +without being animated by the same passion, set themselves to a +mechanical adoption of these figures of speech, and made use of them, +sometimes with propriety, but much more frequently applied them to +feelings and thoughts with which they had no natural connection +whatsoever. A language was thus insensibly produced, differing +materially from the real language of men in _any situation_. The Reader +or Hearer of this distorted language found himself in a perturbed and +unusual state of mind: when affected by the genuine language of passion +he had been in a perturbed and unusual state of mind also: in both cases +he was willing that his common judgment and understanding should be laid +asleep, and he had no instinctive and infallible perception of the true +to make him reject the false; the one served as a passport for the +other. The emotion was in both cases delightful, and no wonder if he +confounded the one with the other, and believed them both to be produced +by the same, or similar causes. Besides, the Poet spake to him in the +character of a man to be looked up to, a man of genius and authority. +Thus, and from a variety of other causes, this distorted language was +received with admiration; and Poets, it is probable, who had before +contented themselves for the most part with misapplying only +expressions which at first had been dictated by real passion, carried +the abuse still further, and introduced phrases composed apparently in +the spirit of the original figurative language of passion, yet +altogether of their own invention, and characterised by various degrees +of wanton deviation from good sense and Nature. + +It is indeed true, that the language of the earliest Poets was felt to +differ materially from ordinary language, because it was the language of +extraordinary occasions; but it was really spoken by men, language which +the Poet himself had uttered when he had been affected by the events +which he described, or which he had heard uttered by those around him. +To this language it is probable that metre of some sort or other was +early superadded. This separated the genuine language of Poetry still +further from common life, so that whoever read or heard the poems of +these earliest Poets felt himself moved in a way in which he had not +been accustomed to be moved in real life, and by causes manifestly +different from those which acted upon him in real life. This was the +great temptation to all the corruptions which have followed: under the +protection of this feeling succeeding Poets constructed a phraseology +which had one thing, it is true, in common with the genuine language of +poetry, namely, that it was not heard in ordinary conversation; that it +was unusual. But the first Poets, as I have said, spake a language +which, though unusual, was still the language of men. This circumstance, +however, was disregarded by their successors; they found that they could +please by easier means: they became proud of modes of expression which +they themselves had invented, and which were uttered only by themselves. +In process of time metre became a symbol or promise of this unusual +language, and whoever took upon him to write in metre, according as he +possessed more or less of true poetic genius, introduced less or more of +this adulterated phraseology into his compositions, and the true and the +false were inseparably interwoven until, the taste of men becoming +gradually perverted, this language was received as a natural language: +and at length by the influence of books upon men, did to a certain +degree really become so. Abuses of this kind were imported from one +nation to another, and with the progress of refinement this diction +became daily more and more corrupt, thrusting out of sight the plain +humanities of Nature by a motley masquerade of tricks, quaintnesses, +hieroglyphics, and enigmas. + +It would not be uninteresting to point out the causes of the pleasure +given by this extravagant and absurd diction. It depends upon a great +variety of causes, but upon none, perhaps, more than its influence in +impressing a notion of the peculiarity and exaltation of the Poet's +character, and in flattering the Reader's self-love by bringing him +nearer to a sympathy with that character; an effect which is +accomplished by unsettling ordinary habits of thinking, and thus +assisting the Reader to approach to that perturbed and dizzy state of +mind in which if he does not find himself, he imagines that he is +_balked_ of a peculiar enjoyment which poetry can and ought to bestow. + +The sonnet quoted from Gray, in the Preface, except the lines printed in +Italics, consists of little else but this diction, though not of the +worst kind; and indeed, if one may be permitted to say so, it is far too +common in the best writers both ancient and modern. Perhaps in no way, +by positive example, could more easily be given a notion of what I mean +by the phrase _poetic diction_ than by referring to a comparison between +the metrical paraphrase which we have of passages in the Old and New +Testament, and those passages as they exist in our common Translation. +See Pope's 'Messiah' throughout; Prior's 'Did sweeter sounds adorn my +flowing tongue,' etc., etc., 'Though I speak with the tongues of men and +of angels,' etc., etc. 1st Corinthians, chap. xiii. By way of immediate +example, take the following of Dr. Johnson: + + Turn on the prudent Ant thy heedless eyes, + Observe her labours, Sluggard, and be wise; + No stern command, no monitory voice, + Prescribes her duties, or directs her choice; + Yet, timely provident, she hastes away + To snatch the blessings of a plenteous day; + When fruitful Summer loads the teeming plain, + She crops the harvest, and she stores the grain. + How long shall sloth usurp thy useless hours, + Unnerve thy vigour, and enchain thy powers? + While artful shades thy downy couch enclose, + And soft solicitation courts repose, + Amidst the drowsy charms of dull delight, + Year chases year with unremitted flight, + Till Want now following, fraudulent and slow, + Shall spring to seize thee, like an ambush'd foe. + +From this hubbub of words pass to the original. 'Go to the Ant, thou +Sluggard, consider her ways, and be wise: which having no guide, +overseer, or ruler, provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her +food in the harvest. How long wilt thou sleep, O Sluggard? When wilt +thou arise out of thy sleep? Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a +little folding of the hands to sleep. So shall thy poverty come as one +that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man.' Proverbs, chap. vi. + +One more quotation, and I have done. It is from Cowper's Verses supposed +to be written by Alexander Selkirk:-- + + Religion! what treasure untold + Resides in that heavenly word! + More precious than silver and gold, + Or all that this earth can afford. + But the sound of the church-going bell + These valleys and rocks never heard, + Ne'er sigh'd at the sound of a knell, + Or smiled when a Sabbath appeared. + + Ye winds, that have made me your sport, + Convey to this desolate shore + Some cordial endearing report + Of a land I must visit no more. + My Friends, do they now and then send + A wish or a thought after me? + O tell me I yet have a friend, + Though a friend I am never to see. + +This passage is quoted as an instance of three different styles of +composition. The first four lines are poorly expressed; some Critics +would call the language prosaic; the fact is, it would be bad prose, so +bad, that it is scarcely worse in metre. The epithet 'church-going' +applied to a bell, and that by so chaste a writer as Cowper, is an +instance of the strange abuses which Poets have introduced into their +language, till they and their Readers take them as matters of course, if +they do not single them out expressly as objects of admiration. The two +lines 'Ne'er sigh'd at the sound,' &c., are, in my opinion, an instance +of the language of passion wrested from its proper use, and, from the +mere circumstance of the composition being in metre, applied upon an +occasion that does not justify such violent expressions; and I should +condemn the passage, though perhaps few Readers will agree with me, as +vicious poetic diction. The last stanza is throughout admirably +expressed: it would be equally good whether in prose or verse, except +that the Reader has an exquisite pleasure in seeing such natural +language so naturally connected with metre. The beauty of this stanza +tempts me to conclude with a principle which ought never to be lost +sight of, and which has been my chief guide in all I have said,--namely, +that in works _of imagination and sentiment_, for of these only have I +been treating, in proportion as ideas and feelings are valuable, whether +the composition be in prose or in verse, they require and exact one and +the same language. Metre is but adventitious to composition, and the +phraseology for which that passport is necessary, even where it may be +graceful at all, will be little valued by the judicious. + + + + +(c) POETRY AS A STUDY. + +With the young of both sexes, Poetry is, like love, a passion; but, for +much the greater part of those who have been proud of its power over +their minds, a necessity soon arises of breaking the pleasing bondage; +or it relaxes of itself;--the thoughts being occupied in domestic cares, +or the time engrossed by business. Poetry then becomes only an +occasional recreation; while to those whose existence passes away in a +course of fashionable pleasure, it is a species of luxurious amusement. +In middle and declining age, a scattered number of serious persons +resort to poetry, as to religion, for a protection against the pressure +of trivial employments, and as a consolation for the afflictions of +life. And, lastly, there are many, who, having been enamoured of this +art in their youth, have found leisure, after youth was spent, to +cultivate general literature; in which poetry has continued to be +comprehended _as a study_. + +Into the above classes the Readers of poetry may be divided; Critics +abound in them all; but from the last only can opinions be collected of +absolute value, and worthy to be depended upon, as prophetic of the +destiny of a new work. The young, who in nothing can escape delusion, +are especially subject to it in their intercourse with Poetry. The +cause, not so obvious as the fact is unquestionable, is the same as that +from which erroneous judgments in this art, in the minds of men of all +ages, chiefly proceed; but upon Youth it operates with peculiar force. +The appropriate business of poetry, (which, nevertheless, if genuine, is +as permanent as pure science,) her appropriate employment, her privilege +and her _duty_, is to treat of things not as they _are_, but as they +_appear_; not as they exist in themselves, but as they _seem_ to exist +to the _senses_, and to the _passions_. What a world of delusion does +this acknowledged obligation prepare for the inexperienced! what +temptations to go astray are here held forth for them whose thoughts +have been little disciplined by the understanding, and whose feelings +revolt from the sway of reason!--When a juvenile Reader is in the height +of his rapture with some vicious passage, should experience throw in +doubts, or common-sense suggest suspicions, a lurking consciousness +that the realities of the Muse are but shows, and that her liveliest +excitements are raised by transient shocks of conflicting feeling and +successive assemblages of contradictory thoughts--is ever at hand to +justify extravagance, and to sanction absurdity. But, it may be asked, +as these illusions are unavoidable, and, no doubt, eminently useful to +the mind as a process, what good can be gained by making observations, +the tendency of which is to diminish the confidence of youth in its +feelings, and thus to abridge its innocent and even profitable +pleasures? The reproach implied in the question could not be warded off, +if Youth were incapable of being delighted with what is truly excellent; +or, if these errors always terminated of themselves in due season. But, +with the majority, though their force be abated, they continue through +life. Moreover, the fire of youth is too vivacious an element to be +extinguished or damped by a philosophical remark; and, while there is no +danger that what has been said will be injurious or painful to the +ardent and the confident, it may prove beneficial to those who, being +enthusiastic, are, at the same time, modest and ingenuous. The +intimation may unite with their own misgivings to regulate their +sensibility, and to bring in, sooner than it would otherwise have +arrived, a more discreet and sound judgment. + +If it should excite wonder that men of ability, in later life, whose +understandings have been rendered acute by practice in affairs, should +be so easily and so far imposed upon when they happen to take up a new +work in verse, this appears to be the cause;--that, having discontinued +their attention to poetry, whatever progress may have been made in other +departments of knowledge, they have not, as to this art, advanced in +true discernment beyond the age of youth. If, then, a new poem fall in +their way, whose attractions are of that kind which would have +enraptured them during the heat of youth, the judgment not being +improved to a degree that they shall be disgusted, they are dazzled; and +prize and cherish the faults for having had power to make the present +time vanish before them, and to throw the mind back, as by enchantment, +into the happiest season of life. As they read, powers seem to be +revived, passions are regenerated, and pleasures restored. The Book was +probably taken up after an escape from the burden of business, and with +a wish to forget the world, and all its vexations and anxieties. Having +obtained this wish, and so much more, it is natural that they should +make report as they have felt. + +If Men of mature age, through want of practice, be thus easily beguiled +into admiration of absurdities, extravagances, and misplaced ornaments, +thinking it proper that their understandings should enjoy a holiday, +while they are unbending their minds with verse, it may be expected that +such Readers will resemble their former selves also in strength of +prejudice, and an inaptitude to be moved by the unostentatious beauties +of a pure style. In the higher poetry, an enlightened Critic chiefly +looks for a reflection of the wisdom of the heart and the grandeur of +the imagination. Wherever these appear, simplicity accompanies them; +Magnificence herself, when legitimate, depending upon a simplicity of +her own, to regulate her ornaments. But it is a well-known property of +human nature, that our estimates are ever governed by comparisons, of +which we are conscious with various degrees of distinctness. Is it not, +then, inevitable (confining these observations to the effects of style +merely) that an eye, accustomed to the glaring hues of diction by which +such Readers are caught and excited, will for the most part be rather +repelled than attracted by an original Work, the colouring of which is +disposed according to a pure and refined scheme of harmony? It is in the +fine arts as in the affairs of life, no man can _serve_ (i.e. obey with +zeal and fidelity) two Masters. + +As Poetry is most just to its own divine origin when it administers the +comforts and breathes the spirit of religion, they who have learned to +perceive this truth, and who betake themselves to reading verse for +sacred purposes, must be preserved from numerous illusions to which the +two Classes of Readers, whom we have been considering, are liable. But, +as the mind grows serious from the weight of life, the range of its +passions is contracted accordingly; and its sympathies become so +exclusive, that many species of high excellence wholly escape, or but +languidly excite its notice. Besides, men who read from religious or +moral inclinations, even when the subject is of that kind which they +approve, are beset with misconceptions and mistakes peculiar to +themselves. Attaching so much importance to the truths which interest +them, they are prone to over-rate the Authors by whom those truths are +expressed and enforced. They come prepared to impart so much passion to +the Poet's language, that they remain unconscious how little, in fact, +they receive from it. And, on the other hand, religious faith is to him +who holds it so momentous a thing, and error appears to be attended with +such tremendous consequences, that, if opinions touching upon religion +occur which the Reader condemns, he not only cannot sympathise with +them, however animated the expression, but there is, for the most part, +an end put to all satisfaction and enjoyment. Love, if it before +existed, is converted into dislike; and the heart of the Reader is set +against the Author and his book.--To these excesses, they, who from +their professions ought to be the most guarded against them, are perhaps +the most liable; I mean those sects whose religion, being from the +calculating understanding, is cold and formal. For when Christianity, +the religion of humility, is founded upon the proudest faculty of our +nature, what can be expected but contradictions? Accordingly, believers +of this cast are at one time contemptuous; at another, being troubled, +as they are and must be, with inward misgivings, they are jealous and +suspicious;--and at all seasons, they are under temptation to supply, by +the heat with which they defend their tenets, the animation which is +wanting to the constitution of the religion itself. + +Faith was given to man that his affections, detached from the treasures +of time, might be inclined to settle upon those of eternity:--the +elevation of his nature, which this habit produces on earth, being to +him a presumptive evidence of a future state of existence; and giving +him a title to partake of its holiness. The religious man values what he +sees chiefly as an 'imperfect shadowing forth' of what he is incapable +of seeing. The concerns of religion refer to indefinite objects, and are +too weighty for the mind to support them without relieving itself by +resting a great part of the burthen upon words and symbols. The commerce +between Man and his Maker cannot be carried on but by a process where +much is represented in little, and the Infinite Being accommodates +himself to a finite capacity. In all this may be perceived the affinity +between religion and poetry; between religion--making up the +deficiencies of reason by faith; and poetry--passionate for the +instruction of reason; between religion--whose element is infinitude, +and whose ultimate trust is the supreme of things, submitting herself +to circumscription, and reconciled to substitutions; and +poetry--ethereal and transcendent, yet incapable to sustain her +existence without sensuous incarnation. In this community of nature may +be perceived also the lurking incitements of kindred error;--so that we +shall find that no poetry has been more subject to distortion, than that +species, the argument and scope of which is religious; and no lovers of +the art have gone farther astray than the pious and the devout. + +Whither then shall we turn for that union of qualifications which must +necessarily exist before the decisions of a critic can be of absolute +value? For a mind at once poetical and philosophical; for a critic whose +affections are as free and kindly as the spirit of society, and whose +understanding is severe as that of dispassionate government? Where are +we to look for that initiatory composure of mind which no selfishness +can disturb? For a natural sensibility that has been tutored into +correctness without losing anything of its quickness; and for active +faculties, capable of answering the demands which an Author of original +imagination shall make upon them, associated with a judgment that cannot +be duped into admiration by aught that is unworthy of it?--among those +and those only, who, never having suffered their youthful love of poetry +to remit much of its force, have applied to the consideration of the +laws of this art the best power of their understandings. At the same +time it must be observed--that, as this Class comprehends the only +judgments which are trustworthy, so does it include the most erroneous +and perverse. For to be mistaught is worse than to be untaught; and no +perverseness equals that which is supported by system, no errors are so +difficult to root out as those which the understanding has pledged its +credit to uphold. In this Class are contained censors, who, if they be +pleased with what is good, are pleased with it only by imperfect +glimpses, and upon false principles; who, should they generalise +rightly, to a certain point, are sure to suffer for it in the end; who, +if they stumble upon a sound rule, are fettered by misapplying it, or by +straining it too far; being incapable of perceiving when it ought to +yield to one of higher order. In it are found critics too petulant to be +passive to a genuine poet, and too feeble to grapple with him; men, who +take upon them to report of the course which _he_ holds whom they are +utterly unable to accompany,--confounded if he turn quick upon the wing, +dismayed if he soar steadily 'into the region;'--men of palsied +imaginations and indurated hearts; in whose minds all healthy action is +languid, who therefore feed as the many direct them, or, with the many, +are greedy after vicious provocatives;--judges, whose censure is +auspicious, and whose praise ominous! In this class meet together the +two extremes of best and worst. + +The observations presented in the foregoing series are of too ungracious +a nature to have been made without reluctance; and, were it only on this +account, I would invite the reader to try them by the test of +comprehensive experience. If the number of judges who can be confidently +relied upon be in reality so small, it ought to follow that partial +notice only, or neglect, perhaps long continued, or attention wholly +inadequate to their merits--must have been the fate of most works in the +higher departments of poetry; and that, on the other hand, numerous +productions have blazed into popularity, and have passed away, leaving +scarcely a trace behind them; it will be further found, that when +Authors shall have at length raised themselves into general admiration +and maintained their ground, errors and prejudices have prevailed +concerning their genius and their works, which the few who are conscious +of those errors and prejudices would deplore; if they were not +recompensed by perceiving that there are select Spirits for whom it is +ordained that their fame shall be in the world an existence like that of +Virtue, which owes its being to the struggles it makes, and its vigour +to the enemies whom it provokes;--a vivacious quality, ever doomed to +meet with opposition, and still triumphing over it; and, from the nature +of its dominion, incapable of being brought to the sad conclusion of +Alexander, when he wept that there were no more worlds for him to +conquer. + +Let us take a hasty retrospect of the poetical literature of this +Country for the greater part of the last two centuries, and see if the +facts support these inferences. + +Who is there that now reads the 'Creation' of Dubartas? Yet all Europe +once resounded with his praise; he was caressed by kings; and, when his +Poem was translated into our language, the 'Faery Queen' faded before +it. The name of Spenser, whose genius is of a higher order than even +that of Ariosto, is at this day scarcely known beyond the limits of the +British Isles. And if the value of his works is to be estimated from the +attention now paid to them by his countrymen, compared with that which +they bestow on those of some other writers, it must be pronounced small +indeed. + + The laurel, meed of mighty conquerors + And poets _sage_-- + +are his own words; but his wisdom has, in this particular, been his +worst enemy: while its opposite, whether in the shape of folly or +madness, has been _their_ best friend. But he was a great power, and +bears a high name: the laurel has been awarded to him. + +A dramatic Author, if he write for the stage, must adapt himself to the +taste of the audience, or they will not endure him; accordingly the +mighty genius of Shakspeare was listened to. The people were delighted: +but I am not sufficiently versed in stage antiquities to determine +whether they did not flock as eagerly to the representation of many +pieces of contemporary Authors, wholly undeserving to appear upon the +same boards. Had there been a formal contest for superiority among +dramatic writers, that Shakspeare, like his predecessors Sophocles and +Euripides, would have often been subject to the mortification of seeing +the prize adjudged to sorry competitors, becomes too probable, when we +reflect that the admirers of Settle and Shadwell were, in a later age, +as numerous, and reckoned as respectable in point of talent, as those of +Dryden. At all events, that Shakspeare stooped to accommodate himself to +the People, is sufficiently apparent; and one of the most striking +proofs of his almost omnipotent genius, is, that he could turn to such +glorious purpose those materials which the prepossessions of the age +compelled him to make use of. Yet even this marvellous skill appears not +to have been enough to prevent his rivals from having some advantage +over him in public estimation; else how can we account for passages and +scenes that exist in his works, unless upon a supposition that some of +the grossest of them, a fact which in my own mind I have no doubt of, +were foisted in by the Players, for the gratification of the many? + +But that his Works, whatever might be their reception upon the stage, +made but little impression upon the ruling Intellects of the time, may +be inferred from the fact that Lord Bacon, in his multifarious +writings, nowhere either quotes or alludes to him.[10]--His dramatic +excellence enabled him to resume possession of the stage after the +Restoration; but Dryden tells us that in his time two of the plays of +Beaumont and Fletcher were acted for one of Shakspeare's. And so faint +and limited was the perception of the poetic beauties of his dramas in +the time of Pope, that, in his Edition of the Plays, with a view of +rendering to the general reader a necessary service, he printed between +inverted commas those passages which he thought most worthy of notice. + +[10] The learned Hakewill (a third edition of whose book bears date +1635), writing to refute the error 'touching Nature's perpetual and +universal decay,' cites triumphantly the names of Ariosto, Tasso, +Bartas, and Spenser, as instances that poetic genius had not +degenerated; but he makes no mention of Shakspeare. + +At this day, the French Critics have abated nothing of their aversion to +this darling of our Nation: 'the English, with their bouffon de +Shakspeare,' is as familiar an expression among them as in the time of +Voltaire. Baron Grimm is the only French writer who seems to have +perceived his infinite superiority to the first names of the French +theatre; an advantage which the Parisian critic owed to his German blood +and German education. The most enlightened Italians, though well +acquainted with our language, are wholly incompetent to measure the +proportions of Shakspeare. The Germans only, of foreign nations, are +approaching towards a knowledge and feeling of what he is. In some +respects they have acquired a superiority over the fellow-countrymen of +the Poet: for among us it is a current, I might say, an established +opinion, that Shakspeare is justly praised when he is pronounced to be +'a wild irregular genius, in whom great faults are compensated by great +beauties.' How long may it be before this misconception passes away, and +it becomes universally acknowledged that the judgment of Shakspeare in +the selection of his materials, and in the manner in which he has made +them, heterogeneous as they often are, constitute a unity of their own, +and contribute all to one great end, is not less admirable than his +imagination, his invention, and his intuitive knowledge of human Nature! + +There is extant a small Volume of miscellaneous poems, in which +Shakspeare expresses his own feelings in his own person. It is not +difficult to conceive that the Editor, George Steevens, should have +been insensible to the beauties of one portion of that Volume, the +Sonnets; though in no part of the writings of this Poet is found, in an +equal compass, a greater number of exquisite feelings felicitously +expressed. But, from regard to the Critic's own credit, he would not +have ventured to talk of an[11] act of parliament not being strong +enough to compel the perusal of those little pieces, if he had not known +that the people of England were ignorant of the treasures contained in +them: and if he had not, moreover, shared the too common propensity of +human nature to exult over a supposed fall into the mire of a genius +whom he had been compelled to regard with admiration, as an inmate of +the celestial regions--'there sitting where he durst not soar.' + +[11] This flippant insensibility was publicly reprehended by Mr. +Coleridge in a course of Lectures upon Poetry given by him at the Royal +Institution. For the various merits of thought and language in +Shakspeare's Sonnets, see Numbers 27, 29, 30, 32, 33, 54, 64, 66, 68, +73, 76, 86, 91, 92, 93, 97, 98, 105, 107, 108, 109, 111, 113, 114, 116, +117, 129, and many others. + +Nine years before the death of Shakspeare, Milton was born: and early in +life he published several small poems, which, though on their first +appearance they were praised by a few of the judicious, were afterwards +neglected to that degree, that Pope in his youth could borrow from them +without risk of its being known. Whether these poems are at this day +justly appreciated, I will not undertake to decide: nor would it imply a +severe reflection upon the mass of readers to suppose the contrary; +seeing that a man of the acknowledged genius of Voss, the German poet, +could suffer their spirit to evaporate; and could change their +character, as is done in the translation made by him of the most popular +of those pieces. At all events, it is certain that these Poems of Milton +are now much read, and loudly praised; yet were they little heard of +till more than 150 years after their publication; and of the Sonnets, +Dr. Johnson, as appears from Boswell's Life of him, was in the habit of +thinking and speaking as contemptuously as Steevens wrote upon those of +Shakspeare. + +About the time when the Pindaric odes of Cowley and his imitators, and +the productions of that class of curious thinkers whom Dr. Johnson has +strangely styled metaphysical Poets, were beginning to lose something of +that extravagant admiration which they had excited, the 'Paradise Lost' +made its appearance. 'Fit audience find though few,' was the petition +addressed by the Poet to his inspiring Muse. I have said elsewhere that +he gained more than he asked; this I believe to be true; but Dr. Johnson +has fallen into a gross mistake when he attempts to prove, by the sale +of the work, that Milton's Countrymen were '_just_ to it' upon its first +appearance. Thirteen hundred Copies were sold in two years; an uncommon +example, he asserts, of the prevalence of genius in opposition to so +much recent enmity as Milton's public conduct had excited. But, be it +remembered that, if Milton's political and religious opinions, and the +manner in which he announced them had raised him many enemies, they had +procured him numerous friends; who, as all personal danger was passed +away at the time of publication, would be eager to procure the +master-work of a man whom they revered, and whom they would be proud of +praising. Take, from the number of purchasers, persons of this class, +and also those who wished to possess the Poem as a religious work, and +but few I fear would be left who sought for it on account of its +poetical merits. The demand did not immediately increase; 'for,' says +Dr. Johnson, 'many more readers' (he means persons in the habit of +reading poetry) 'than were supplied at first the Nation did not afford.' +How careless must a writer be who can make this assertion in the face of +so many existing title-pages to belie it! Turning to my own shelves, I +find the folio of Cowley, seventh edition, 1681. A book near it is +Flatman's Poems, fourth edition, 1686; Waller, fifth edition, same date. +The Poems of Norris of Bemerton not long after went, I believe, through +nine editions. What further demand there might be for these works I do +not know; but I well remember, that, twenty-five years ago, the +booksellers' stalls in London swarmed with the folios of Cowley. This is +not mentioned in disparagement of that able writer and amiable man; but +merely to show--that, if Milton's work were not more read, it was not +because readers did not exist at the time. The early editions of the +'Paradise Lost' were printed in a shape which allowed them to be sold at +a low price, yet only three thousand copies of the Work were sold in +eleven years; and the Nation, says Dr. Johnson, had been satisfied from +1623 to 1664, that is, forty-one years, with only two editions of the +Works of Shakspeare; which probably did not together make one thousand +Copies; facts adduced by the critic to prove the 'paucity of +Readers.'--There were readers in multitudes; but their money went for +other purposes, as their admiration was fixed elsewhere. We are +authorized, then, to affirm, that the reception of the 'Paradise Lost,' +and the slow progress of its fame, are proofs as striking as can be +desired that the positions which I am attempting to establish are not +erroneous.[12]--How amusing to shape to one's self such a critique as a +Wit of Charles's days, or a Lord of the Miscellanies or trading +Journalist of King William's time, would have brought forth, if he had +set his faculties industriously to work upon this Poem, every where +impregnated with _original_ excellence. + +So strange indeed are the obliquities of admiration, that they whose +opinions are much influenced by authority will often be tempted to think +that there are no fixed principles[13] in human nature for this art to +rest upon. I have been honoured by being permitted to peruse in MS. a +tract composed between the period of the Revolution and the close of +that century. It is the Work of an English Peer of high accomplishments, +its object to form the character and direct the studies of his son. +Perhaps nowhere does a more beautiful treatise of the kind exist. The +good sense and wisdom of the thoughts, the delicacy of the feelings, and +the charm of the style, are, throughout, equally conspicuous. Yet the +Author, selecting among the Poets of his own country those whom he deems +most worthy of his son's perusal, particularises only Lord Rochester, +Sir John Denham, and Cowley. Writing about the same time, Shaftesbury, +an author at present unjustly depreciated, describes the English Muses +as only yet lisping in their cradles. + +The arts by which Pope, soon afterwards, contrived to procure to himself +a more general and a higher reputation than perhaps any English Poet +ever attained during his life-time, are known to the judicious. And as +well known is it to them, that the undue exertion of those arts is the +cause why Pope has for some time held a rank in literature, to which, if +he had not been seduced by an over-love of immediate popularity, and had +confided more in his native genius, he never could have descended. + +[12] Hughes is express upon this subject: in his dedication of Spenser's +Works to Lord Somers, he writes thus. 'It was your Lordship's +encouraging a beautiful Edition of "Paradise Lost" that first brought +that incomparable Poem to be generally known and esteemed.' + +[13] This opinion seems actually to have been entertained by Adam Smith, +the worst critic, David Hume not excepted, that Scotland, a soil to +which this sort of weed seems natural, has produced. + +He bewitched the nation by his melody, and dazzled it by his polished +style, and was himself blinded by his own success. Having wandered from +humanity in his Eclogues with boyish inexperience, the praise, which +these compositions obtained, tempted him into a belief that Nature was +not to be trusted, at least in pastoral Poetry. To prove this by +example, he put his friend Gay upon writing those Eclogues which their +author intended to be burlesque. The instigator of the work, and his +admirers, could perceive in them nothing but what was ridiculous. +Nevertheless, though these Poems contain some detestable passages, the +effect, as Dr. Johnson well observes, 'of reality and truth became +conspicuous even when the intention was to show them grovelling and +degraded.' The Pastorals, ludicrous to such as prided themselves upon +their refinement, in spite of those disgusting passages, 'became +popular, and were read with delight, as just representations of rural +manners and occupations.' + +Something less than sixty years after the publication of the 'Paradise +Lost' appeared Thomson's 'Winter;' which was speedily followed by his +other 'Seasons.' It is a work of inspiration: much of it is written from +himself, and nobly from himself. How was it received? 'It was no sooner +read,' says one of his contemporary biographers, 'than universally +admired: those only excepted who had not been used to feel, or to look +for any thing in poetry, beyond a _point_ of satirical or epigrammatic +wit, a smart _antithesis_ richly trimmed with rhyme, or the softness of +an _elegiac_ complaint. To such his manly classical spirit could not +readily commend itself; till, after a more attentive perusal, they had +got the better of their prejudices, and either acquired or affected a +truer taste. A few others stood aloof, merely because they had long +before fixed the articles of their poetical creed, and resigned +themselves to an absolute despair of ever seeing any thing new and +original. These were somewhat mortified to find their notions disturbed +by the appearance of a poet, who seemed to owe nothing but to Nature and +his own genius. But, in a short time, the applause became unanimous; +every one wondering how so many pictures, and pictures so familiar, +should have moved them but faintly to what they felt in his +descriptions. His digressions too, the overflowings of a tender +benevolent heart, charmed the reader no less; leaving him in doubt, +whether he should more admire the Poet or love the Man.' + +This case appears to bear strongly against us:--but we must distinguish +between wonder and legitimate admiration. The subject of the work is the +changes produced in the appearances of Nature by the revolution of the +year: and, by undertaking to write in verse, Thomson pledged himself to +treat his subject as became a Poet. Now it is remarkable that, excepting +the nocturnal 'Reverie' of Lady Winchilsea, and a passage or two in the +'Windsor Forest' of Pope, the poetry of the period intervening between +the publication of the 'Paradise Lost' and the 'Seasons' does not +contain a single new image of external Nature; and scarcely presents a +familiar one from which it can be inferred that the eye of the Poet had +been steadily fixed upon his object, much less that his feelings had +urged him to work upon it in the spirit of genuine imagination. To what +a low state knowledge of the most obvious and important phenomena had +sunk, is evident from the style in which Dryden has executed a +description of Night in one of his Tragedies, and Pope his translation +of the celebrated moonlight scene in the 'Iliad.' A blind man, in the +habit of attending accurately to descriptions casually dropped from the +lips of those around him, might easily depict these appearances with +more truth. Dryden's lines are vague, bombastic, and senseless;[14] +those of Pope, though he had Homer to guide him, are throughout false +and contradictory. The verses of Dryden, once highly celebrated, are +forgotten; those of Pope still retain their hold upon public +estimation,--nay, there is not a passage of descriptive poetry, which at +this day finds so many and such ardent admirers. Strange to think of an +enthusiast, as may have been the case with thousands, reciting those +verses under the cope of a moonlight sky, without having his raptures in +the least disturbed by a suspicion of their absurdity!--If these two +distinguished writers could habitually think that the visible universe +was of so little consequence to a poet, that it was scarcely necessary +for him to cast his eyes upon it, we may be assured that those passages +of the older poets which faithfully and poetically describe the +phenomena of Nature, were not at that time holden in much estimation, +and that there was little accurate attention paid to those appearances. + +[14] CORTES _alone in a night-gown_. + +All things are hush'd as Nature's self lay dead; The mountains seem to +nod their drowsy head. The little Birds in dreams their songs repeat, +And sleeping Flowers beneath the Night-dew sweat: Even Lust and Envy +sleep; yet Love denies Rest to my soul, and slumber to my eyes. + +DRYDEN's _Indian Emperor_. + +Wonder is the natural product of Ignorance; and as the soil was _in such +good condition_ at the time of the publication of the 'Seasons,' the +crop was doubtless abundant. Neither individuals nor nations become +corrupt all at once, nor are they enlightened in a moment. Thomson was +an inspired poet, but he could not work miracles; in cases where the art +of seeing had in some degree been learned, the teacher would further the +proficiency of his pupils, but he could do little _more_; though so far +does vanity assist men in acts of self-deception, that many would often +fancy they recognised a likeness when they knew nothing of the original. +Having shown that much of what his biographer deemed genuine admiration +must in fact have been blind wonderment--how is the rest to be accounted +for?--Thomson was fortunate in the very title of his poem, which seemed +to bring it home to the prepared sympathies of every one: in the next +place, notwithstanding his high powers, he writes a vicious style; and +his false ornaments are exactly of that kind which would be most likely +to strike the undiscerning. He likewise abounds with sentimental +common-places, that, from the manner in which they were brought forward, +bore an imposing air of novelty. In any well-used copy of the 'Seasons' +the book generally opens of itself with the rhapsody on love, or with +one of the stories (perhaps 'Damon and Musidora'); these also are +prominent in our collections of Extracts, and are the parts of his Work, +which, after all, were probably most efficient in first recommending the +author to general notice. Pope, repaying praises which he had received, +and wishing to extol him to the highest, only styles him 'an elegant and +philosophical poet;' nor are we able to collect any unquestionable +proofs that the true characteristics of Thomson's genius as an +imaginative poet[15] were perceived, till the elder Warton, almost forty +years after the publication of the 'Seasons,' pointed them out by a +note in his Essay on the Life and Writings of Pope. In the 'Castle of +Indolence' (of which Gray speaks so coldly) these characteristics were +almost as conspicuously displayed, and in verse more harmonious, and +diction more pure. Yet that fine poem was neglected on its appearance, +and is at this day the delight only of a few! + +[15] Since these observations upon Thomson were written, I have perused +the second edition of his 'Seasons,' and find that even _that_ does not +contain the most striking passages which Warton points out for +admiration; these, with other improvements, throughout the whole work, +must have been added at a later period. + +When Thomson died, Collins breathed forth his regrets in an Elegiac +Poem, in which he pronounces a poetical curse upon _him_ who should +regard with insensibility the place where the Poet's remains were +deposited. The Poems of the mourner himself have now passed through +innumerable editions, and are universally known; but if, when Collins +died, the same kind of imprecation had been pronounced by a surviving +admirer, small is the number whom it would not have comprehended. The +notice which his poems attained during his life-time was so small, and +of course the sale so insignificant, that not long before his death he +deemed it right to repay to the bookseller the sum which he had advanced +for them, and threw the edition into the fire. + +Next in importance to the 'Seasons' of Thomson, though at considerable +distance from that work in order of time, come the _Reliques of Ancient +English Poetry_; collected, new-modelled, and in many instances (if such +a contradiction in terms may be used) composed by the Editor, Dr. Percy. +This work did not steal silently into the world, as is evident from the +number of legendary tales, that appeared not long after its publication; +and had been modelled, as the authors persuaded themselves, after the +old Ballad. The Compilation was however ill suited to the then existing +taste of city society; and Dr. Johnson, 'mid the little senate to which +he gave laws, was not sparing in his exertions to make it an object of +contempt. The critic triumphed, the legendary imitators were deservedly +disregarded, and, as undeservedly, their ill-imitated models sank, in +this country, into temporary neglect; while Buerger, and other able +writers of Germany, were translating, or imitating these _Reliques_, and +composing, with the aid of inspiration thence derived, poems which are +the delight of the German nation. Dr. Percy was so abashed by the +ridicule flung upon his labours from the ignorance and insensibility of +the persons with whom he lived, that, though while he was writing under +a mask he had not wanted resolution to follow his genius into the +regions of true simplicity and genuine pathos (as is evinced by the +exquisite ballad of 'Sir Cauline' and by many other pieces), yet when he +appeared in his own person and character as a poetical writer, he +adopted, as in the tale of the 'Hermit of Warkworth,' a diction scarcely +in any one of its features distinguishable from the vague, the glossy, +and unfeeling language of his day. I mention this remarkable fact[16] +with regret, esteeming the genius of Dr. Percy in this kind of writing +superior to that of any other man by whom in modern times it has been +cultivated. That even Buerger (to whom Klopstock gave, in my hearing, a +commendation which he denied to Goethe and Schiller, pronouncing him to +be a genuine poet, and one of the few among the Germans whose works +would last) had not the fine sensibility of Percy, might be shown from +many passages, in which he has deserted his original only to go astray. +For example, + + Now daye was gone, and night was come, + And all were fast asleepe, + All save the Lady Emeline, + Who sate in her bowre to weepe: + + And soone she heard her true Love's voice + Low whispering at the walle, + Awake, awake, my clear Ladye, + 'Tis I thy true-love call. + +Which is thus tricked out and dilated: + + Als nun die Nacht Gebirg' und Thal + Vermummt in Rabenschatten, + Und Hochburgs Lampen ueberall + Schon ausgeflimmert hatten, + Und alles tief entschlafen war; + Doch nur das Fraeulein immerdar, + Voll Fieberangst, noch wachte, + Und seinen Ritter dachte: + Da horch! Ein suesser Liebeston + Kam leis' empor geflogen. + 'Ho, Truedchen, ho! Da bin ich schon! + Frisch auf! Dich angezogen!' + +[16] Shenstone, in his 'Schoolmistress,' gives a still more remarkable +instance of this timidity. On its first appearance, (See D'Israeli's 2d +Series of the _Curiosities of Literature_) the Poem was accompanied with +an absurd prose commentary, showing, as indeed some incongruous +expressions in the text imply that the whole was intended for burlesque. +In subsequent editions, the commentary was dropped, and the People have +since continued to read in seriousness, doing for the Author what he had +not courage openly to venture upon for himself. + +But from humble ballads we must ascend to heroics. + +All hail, Macpherson! hail to thee, Sire of Ossian! The Phantom was +begotten by the smug embrace of an impudent Highlander upon a cloud of +tradition--it travelled southward, where it was greeted with +acclamation, and the thin Consistence took its course through Europe, +upon the breath of popular applause. The Editor of the _Reliques_ had +indirectly preferred a claim to the praise of invention, by not +concealing that his supplementary labours were considerable! how selfish +his conduct, contrasted with that of the disinterested Gael, who, like +Lear, gives his kingdom away, and is content to become a pensioner upon +his own issue for a beggarly pittance!--Open this far-famed Book!--I +have done so at random, and the beginning of the 'Epic Poem Temora,' in +eight Books, presents itself. 'The blue waves of Ullin roll in light. +The green hills are covered with day. Trees shake their dusky heads in +the breeze. Grey torrents pour their noisy streams. Two green hills with +aged oaks surround a narrow plain. The blue course of a stream is there. +On its banks stood Cairbar of Atha. His spear supports the king; the red +eyes of his fear are sad. Cormac rises on his soul with all his ghastly +wounds.' Precious memorandums from the pocket-book of the blind Ossian! + +If it be unbecoming, as I acknowledge that for the most part it is, to +speak disrespectfully of Works that have enjoyed for a length of time a +widely-spread reputation, without at the same time producing +irrefragable proofs of their unworthiness, let me be forgiven upon this +occasion.--Having had the good fortune to be born and reared in a +mountainous country, from my very childhood I have felt the falsehood +that pervades the volumes imposed upon the world under the name of +Ossian. From what I saw with my own eyes, I knew that the imagery was +spurious. In Nature everything is distinct, yet nothing defined into +absolute independent singleness. In Macpherson's work, it is exactly the +reverse; every thing (that is not stolen) is in this manner defined, +insulated, dislocated, deadened,--yet nothing distinct. It will always +be so when words are substituted for things. To say that the characters +never could exist, that the manners are impossible, and that a dream has +more substance than the whole state of society, as there depicted, is +doing nothing more than pronouncing a censure which Macpherson defied; +when, with the steeps of Morven before his eyes, he could talk so +familiarly of his Car-borne heroes;--of Morven, which, if one may judge +from its appearance at the distance of a few miles, contains scarcely an +acre of ground sufficiently accommodating for a sledge to be trailed +along its surface.--Mr. Malcolm Laing has ably shown that the diction of +this pretended translation is a motley assemblage from all quarters; but +he is so fond of making out parallel passages as to call poor Macpherson +to account for his '_ands_' and his '_buts_!' and he has weakened his +argument by conducting it as if he thought that every striking +resemblance was a _conscious_ plagiarism. It is enough that the +coincidences are too remarkable for its being probable or possible that +they could arise in different minds without communication between them. +Now as the Translators of the Bible, and Shakspeare, Milton, and Pope, +could not be indebted to Macpherson, it follows that he must have owed +his fine feathers to them; unless we are prepared gravely to assert, +with Madame de Stael, that many of the characteristic beauties of our +most celebrated English Poets are derived from the ancient Fingallian; +in which case the modern translator would have been but giving back to +Ossian his own.--It is consistent that Lucien Buonaparte, who could +censure Milton for having surrounded Satan in the infernal regions with +courtly and regal splendour, should pronounce the modern Ossian to be +the glory of Scotland;--a country that has produced a Dunbar, a +Buchanan, a Thomson, and a Burns! These opinions are of ill-omen for the +Epic ambition of him who has given them to the world. + +Yet, much as those pretended treasures of antiquity have been admired, +they have been wholly uninfluential upon the literature of the Country. +No succeeding writer appears to have caught from them a ray of +inspiration; no author, in the least distinguished, has ventured +formally to imitate them--except the boy, Chatterton, on their first +appearance. He had perceived, from the successful trials which he +himself had made in literary forgery, how few critics were able to +distinguish between a real ancient medal and a counterfeit of modern +manufacture; and he set himself to the work of filling a magazine with +_Saxon Poems_,--counterparts of those of Ossian, as like his as one of +his misty stars is to another. This incapability to amalgamate with the +literature of the Island, is, in my estimation, a decisive proof that +the book is essentially unnatural; nor should I require any other to +demonstrate it to be a forgery, audacious as worthless. Contrast, in +this respect, the effect of Macpherson's publication with the _Reliques_ +of Percy, so unassuming, so modest in their pretensions!--I have already +stated how much Germany is indebted to this latter work; and for our own +country, its poetry has been absolutely redeemed by it. I do not think +that there is an able writer in verse of the present day who would not +be proud to acknowledge his obligations to the _Reliques_; I know that +it is so with my friends; and, for myself, I am happy in this occasion +to make a public avowal of my own. + +Dr. Johnson, more fortunate in his contempt of the labours of Macpherson +than those of his modest friend, was solicited not long after to furnish +Prefaces biographical and critical for the works of some of the most +eminent English Poets. The booksellers took upon themselves to make the +collection; they referred probably to the most popular miscellanies, +and, unquestionably, to their books of accounts; and decided upon the +claim of authors to be admitted into a body of the most eminent, from +the familiarity of their names with the readers of that day, and by the +profits, which, from the sale of his works, each had brought and was +bringing to the Trade. The Editor was allowed a limited exercise of +discretion, and the Authors whom he recommended are scarcely to be +mentioned without a smile. We open the volume of Prefatory Lives, and to +our astonishment the _first_ name we find is that of Cowley!--What is +become of the morning-star of English Poetry? Where is the bright +Elizabethan constellation? Or, if names be more acceptable than images, +where is the ever-to-be-honoured Chaucer? Where is Spenser? where +Sidney? and, lastly, where he, whose rights as a poet, +contradistinguished from those which he is universally allowed to +possess as a dramatist, we have vindicated,--where Shakspeare?--These, +and a multitude of others not unworthy to be placed near them, their +contemporaries and successors, we have _not_. But in their stead, we +have (could better be expected when precedence was to be settled by an +abstract of reputation at any given period made, as in this case before +us?) Roscommon, and Stepney, and Phillips, and Walsh, and Smith, and +Duke, and King, and Spratt--Halifax, Granville, Sheffield, Congreve, +Broome, and other reputed Magnates--metrical writers utterly worthless +and useless, except for occasions like the present, when their +productions are referred to as evidence what a small quantity of brain +is necessary to procure a considerable stock of admiration, provided the +aspirant will accommodate himself to the likings and fashions of his +day. + +As I do not mean to bring down this retrospect to our own times, it may +with propriety be closed at the era of this distinguished event. From +the literature of other ages and countries, proofs equally cogent might +have been adduced, that the opinions announced in the former part of +this Essay are founded upon truth. It was not an agreeable office, nor a +prudent undertaking, to declare them; but their importance seemed to +render it a duty. It may still be asked, where lies the particular +relation of what has been said to these Volumes?--The question will be +easily answered by the discerning Reader who is old enough to remember +the taste that prevailed when some of these poems were first published, +seventeen years ago; who has also observed to what degree the poetry of +this Island has since that period been coloured by them; and who is +further aware of the unremitting hostility with which, upon some +principle or other, they have each and all been opposed. A sketch of my +own notion of the constitution of Fame has been given; and, as far as +concerns myself, I have cause to be satisfied. The love, the admiration, +the indifference, the slight, the aversion, and even the contempt, with +which these Poems have been received, knowing, as I do, the source +within my own mind, from which they have proceeded, and the labour and +pains, which, when labour and pains appeared needful, have been bestowed +upon them, must all, if I think consistently, be received as pledges and +tokens, bearing the same general impression, though widely different in +value;--they are all proofs that for the present time I have not +laboured in vain; and afford assurances, more or less authentic, that +the products of my industry will endure. + +If there be one conclusion more forcibly pressed upon us than another by +the review which has been given of the fortunes and fate of poetical +Works, it is this,--that every author, as far as he is great and at the +same time _original_, has had the task of _creating_ the taste by which +he is to be enjoyed; so has it been, so will it continue to be. This +remark was long since made to me by the philosophical Friend for the +separation of whose poems from my own I have previously expressed my +regret. The predecessors of an original Genius of a high order will have +smoothed the way for all that he has in common with them;--and much he +will have in common; but, for what is peculiarly his own, he will be +called upon to clear and often to shape his own road:--he will be in the +condition of Hannibal among the Alps. + +And where lies the real difficulty of creating that taste by which a +truly original poet is to be relished? Is it in breaking the bonds of +custom, in overcoming the prejudices of false refinement, and displacing +the aversions of inexperience? Or, if he labour for an object which here +and elsewhere I have proposed to myself, does it consist in divesting +the reader of the pride that induces him to dwell upon those points +wherein men differ from each other, to the exclusion of those in which +all men are alike, or the same; and in making him ashamed of the vanity +that renders him insensible of the appropriate excellence which civil +arrangements, less unjust than might appear, and Nature illimitable in +her bounty, have conferred on men who may stand below him in the scale +of society? Finally, does it lie in establishing that dominion over the +spirits of readers by which they are to be humbled and humanised, in +order that they may be purified and exalted? + +If these ends are to be attained by the mere communication of +_knowledge_, it does _not_ lie here.--TASTE, I would remind the reader, +like IMAGINATION, is a word which has been forced to extend its services +far beyond the point to which philosophy would have confined them. It is +a metaphor, taken from a _passive_ sense of the human body, and +transferred to things which are in their essence _not_ passive,--to +intellectual _acts_ and _operations_. The word, Imagination, has been +overstrained, from impulses honourable to mankind, to meet the demands +of the faculty which is perhaps the noblest of our nature. In the +instance of Taste, the process has been reversed; and from the +prevalence of dispositions at once injurious and discreditable, being no +other than that selfishness which is the child of apathy,--which, as +Nations decline in productive and creative power, makes them value +themselves upon a presumed refinement of judging. Poverty of language is +the primary cause of the use which we make of the word, Imagination; +but the word, Taste, has been stretched to the sense which it bears in +modern Europe by habits of self-conceit, inducing that inversion in the +order of things whereby a passive faculty is made paramount among the +faculties conversant with the fine arts. Proportion and congruity, the +requisite knowledge being supposed, are subjects upon which taste may be +trusted; it is competent to this office;--for in its intercourse with +these the mind is _passive_, and is affected painfully or pleasurably as +by an instinct. But the profound and the exquisite in feeling, the lofty +and universal in thought and imagination; or, in ordinary language, the +pathetic and the sublime;--are neither of them, accurately speaking, +objects of a faculty which could ever without a sinking in the spirit of +Nations have been designated by the metaphor--_Taste_. And why? Because +without the exertion of a co-operating _power_ in the mind of the +Reader, there can be no adequate sympathy with either of these emotions: +without this auxiliary impulse, elevated or profound passion cannot +exist. + +Passion, it must be observed, is derived from a word which signifies +_suffering_; but the connection which suffering has with effort, with +exertion, and _action_, is immediate and inseparable. How strikingly is +this property of human nature exhibited by the fact, that, in popular +language, to be in a passion, is to be angry!--But, + + Anger in hasty _words_ or _blows_ + Itself discharges on its foes. + +To be moved, then, by a passion, is to be excited, often to external, +and always to internal, effort: whether for the continuance and +strengthening of the passion, or for its suppression, accordingly as the +course which it takes may be painful or pleasurable. If the latter, the +soul must contribute to its support, or it never becomes vivid,--and +soon languishes, and dies. And this brings us to the point. If every +great poet with whose writings men are familiar, in the highest exercise +of his genius, before he can be thoroughly enjoyed, has to call forth +and to communicate _power_, this service, in a still greater degree, +falls upon an original writer, at his first appearance in the world.--Of +genius the only proof is, the act of doing well what is worthy to be +done, and what was never done before: Of genius, in the fine arts, the +only infallible sign is the widening the sphere of human sensibility, +for the delight, honour, and benefit of human nature. Genius is the +introduction of a new element into the intellectual universe: or, if +that be not allowed, it is the application of powers to objects on which +they had not before been exercised, or the employment of them in such a +manner as to produce effects hitherto unknown. What is all this but an +advance, or a conquest, made by the soul of the poet? Is it to be +supposed that the reader can make progress of this kind, like an Indian +prince or general--stretched on his palanquin, and borne by his slaves? +No; he is invigorated and inspirited by his leader, in order that he may +exert himself; for he cannot proceed in quiescence, he cannot be carried +like a dead weight. Therefore to create taste is to call forth and +bestow power, of which knowledge is the effect; and _there_ lies the +true difficulty. + +As the pathetic participates of an _animal_ sensation, it might +seem--that, if the springs of this emotion were genuine, all men, +possessed of competent knowledge of the facts and circumstances, would +be instantaneously affected. And, doubtless, in the works of every true +poet will be found passages of that species of excellence, which is +proved by effects immediate and universal. But there are emotions of the +pathetic that are simple and direct, and others--that are complex and +revolutionary; some--to which the heart yields with gentleness; +others--against which it struggles with pride; these varieties are +infinite as the combinations of circumstance and the constitutions of +character. Remember, also, that the medium through which, in poetry, the +heart is to be affected--is language; a thing subject to endless +fluctuations and arbitrary associations. The genius of the poet melts +these down for his purpose; but they retain their shape and quality to +him who is not capable of exerting, within his own mind, a corresponding +energy. There is also a meditative, as well as a human, pathos; an +enthusiastic, as well as an ordinary, sorrow; a sadness that has its +seat in the depths of reason, to which the mind cannot sink gently of +itself--but to which it must descend by treading the steps of thought. +And for the sublime,--if we consider what are the cares that occupy the +passing day, and how remote is the practice and the course of life from +the sources of sublimity in the soul of Man, can it be wondered that +there is little existing preparation for a poet charged with a new +mission to extend its kingdom, and to augment and spread its +enjoyments? + +Away, then, with the senseless iteration of the word _popular_, applied +to new works in poetry, as if there were no test of excellence in this +first of the fine arts but that all men should run after its +productions, as if urged by an appetite, or constrained by a spell!--The +qualities of writing best fitted for eager reception are either such as +startle the world into attention by their audacity and extravagance; or +they are chiefly of a superficial kind lying upon the surfaces of +manners; or arising out of a selection and arrangement of incidents, by +which the mind is kept upon the stretch of curiosity and the fancy +amused without the trouble of thought. But in every thing which is to +send the soul into herself, to be admonished of her weakness, or to be +made conscious of her power:--wherever life and Nature are described as +operated upon by the creative or abstracting virtue of the imagination; +wherever the instinctive wisdom of antiquity and her heroic passions +uniting, in the heart of the poet, with the meditative wisdom of later +ages, have produced that accord of sublimated humanity, which is at once +a history of the remote past and a prophetic enunciation of the remotest +future, _there_, the poet must reconcile himself for a season to few and +scattered hearers.--Grand thoughts (and Shakspeare must often have +sighed over this truth), as they are most naturally and most fitly +conceived in solitude, so can they not be brought forth in the midst of +plaudits, without some violation of their sanctity. Go to a silent +exhibition of the productions of the Sister Art, and be convinced that +the qualities which dazzle at first sight, and kindle the admiration of +the multitude, are essentially different from those by which permanent +influence is secured. Let us not shrink from following up these +principles as far as they will carry us, and conclude with +observing--that there never has been a period, and perhaps never will +be, in which vicious poetry, of some kind or other, has not excited more +zealous admiration, and been far more generally read, than good; but +this advantage attends the good, that the _individual_, as well as the +species, survives from age to age; whereas, of the depraved, though the +species be immortal, the individual quickly _perishes_; the object of +present admiration vanishes, being supplanted by some other as easily +produced; which, though no better, brings with it at least the +irritation of novelty,--with adaptation, more or less skilful, to the +changing humours of the majority of those who are most at leisure to +regard poetical works when they first solicit their attention. + +Is it the result of the whole, that, in the opinion of the Writer, the +judgment of the People is not to be respected? The thought is most +injurious; and, could the charge be brought against him, he would repel +it with indignation. The People have already been justified, and their +eulogium pronounced by implication, when it was said, above--that, of +_good_ poetry, the _individual_, as well as the species, _survives_. And +how does it survive but through the People? What preserves it but their +intellect and their wisdom? + + --Past and future, are the wings + On whose support, harmoniously conjoined, + Moves the great Spirit of human knowledge--MS. + +The voice that issues from this Spirit, is that Vox Populi which the +Deity inspires. Foolish must he be who can mistake for this a local +acclamation, or a transitory outcry--transitory though it be for years, +local though from a Nation. Still more lamentable is his error who can +believe that there is any thing of divine infallibility in the clamour +of that small though loud portion of the community, ever governed by +factitious influence, which, under the name of the PUBLIC, passes +itself, upon the unthinking, for the PEOPLE. Towards the Public, the +Writer hopes that he feels as much deference as it is entitled to: but +to the People, philosophically characterised, and to the embodied spirit +of their knowledge, so far as it exists and moves, at the present, +faithfully supported by its two wings, the past and the future, his +devout respect, his reverence, is due. He offers it willingly and +readily; and, this done, takes leave of his Readers, by assuring +them--that, if he were not persuaded that the contents of these Volumes, +and the Work to which they are subsidiary, evince something of the +'Vision and the Faculty divine;' and that, both in words and things, +they will operate in their degree, to extend the domain of sensibility +for the delight, the honour, and the benefit of human nature, +notwithstanding the many happy hours which he has employed in their +composition, and the manifold comforts and enjoyments they have procured +to him, he would not, if a wish could do it, save them from immediate +destruction;--from becoming at this moment, to the world, as a thing +that had never been. + +1815 + + + + +_(d)_ OF POETRY AS OBSERVATION AND DESCRIPTION. + +The powers requisite for the production of poetry are: first, those of +Observation and Description,--_i.e._, the ability to observe with +accuracy things as they are in themselves, and with fidelity to describe +them, unmodified by any passion or feeling existing in the mind of the +describer: whether the things depicted be actually present to the +senses, or have a place only in the memory. This power, though +indispensable to a Poet, is one which he employs only in submission to +necessity, and never for a continuance of time: as its exercise supposes +all the higher qualities of the mind to be passive, and in a state of +subjection to external objects, much in the same way as a translator or +engraver ought to be to his original. 2ndly, Sensibility,--which, the +more exquisite it is, the wider will be the range of a poet's +perceptions; and the more will he be incited to observe objects, both as +they exist in themselves, and as re-acted upon by his own mind. (The +distinction between poetic and human sensibility has been marked in the +character of the Poet delineated in the original preface.) 3dly, +Reflection,--which makes the Poet acquainted with the value of actions, +images, thoughts, and feelings; and assists the sensibility in +perceiving their connection with each other. 4thly, Imagination and +Fancy,--to modify, to create, and to associate. 5thly, Invention,--by +which characters are composed out of materials supplied by observation; +whether of the Poet's own heart and mind, or of external life and +nature; and such incidents and situations produced as are most +impressive to the imagination, and most fitted to do justice to the +characters, sentiments, and passions, which the Poet undertakes to +illustrate. And, lastly, Judgment,--to decide how and where, and in what +degree, each of these faculties ought to be exerted; so that the less +shall not be sacrificed to the greater; nor the greater, slighting the +less, arrogate, to its own injury, more than its due. By judgment, also, +is determined what are the laws and appropriate graces of every species +of composition.[17] + +[17] As sensibility to harmony of numbers, and the power of producing +it, are invariably attendants upon the faculties above specified, +nothing has been said upon those requisites. + +The materials of Poetry, by these powers collected and produced, are +cast, by means of various moulds, into divers forms. The moulds may be +enumerated, and the forms specified, in the following order. 1st, The +Narrative,--including the Epopoeia, the Historic Poem, the Tale, the +Romance, the Mock-Heroic, and, if the spirit of Homer will tolerate such +neighbourhood, that dear production of our days, the metrical Novel. Of +this class, the distinguishing mark is, that the Narrator, however +liberally his speaking agents be introduced, is himself the source from +which every thing primarily flows. Epic Poets, in order that their mode +of composition may accord with the elevation of their subject, represent +themselves as _singing_ from the inspiration of the Muse, 'Arma virumque +_cano_;' but this is a fiction, in modern times, of slight value; the +'Iliad' or the 'Paradise Lost' would gain little in our estimation by +being chanted. The other poets who belong to this class are commonly +content to _tell_ their tale;--so that of the whole it may be affirmed +that they neither require nor reject the accompaniment of music. + +2ndly, The Dramatic,--consisting of Tragedy, Historic Drama, Comedy, and +Masque, in which the poet does not appear at all in his own person, and +where the whole action is carried on by speech and dialogue of the +agents; music being admitted only incidentally and rarely. The Opera may +be placed here, inasmuch as it proceeds by dialogue; though depending, +to the degree that it does, upon music, it has a strong claim to be +ranked with the lyrical. The characteristic and impassioned Epistle, of +which Ovid and Pope have given examples, considered as a species of +monodrama, may, without impropriety, be placed in this class. + +3dly, The Lyrical,--containing the Hymn, the Ode, the Elegy, the Song, +and the Ballad; in all which, for the production of their _full_ effect, +an accompaniment of music is indispensable. + +4thly, The Idyllium,--descriptive chiefly either of the processes and +appearances of external nature, as the 'Seasons' of Thomson; or of +characters, manners, and sentiments, as are Shenstone's +'Schoolmistress,' 'The Cotter's Saturday Night' of Burns, 'The Twa Dogs' +of the same Author; or of these in conjunction with the appearances of +Nature, as most of the pieces of Theocritus, the 'Allegro' and +'Penseroso' of Milton, Beattie's 'Minstrel,' Goldsmith's 'Deserted +Village.' The Epitaph, the Inscription, the Sonnet, most of the epistles +of poets writing in their own persons, and all loco-descriptive poetry, +belong to this class. + +5thly, Didactic,--the principal object of which is direct instruction; +as the Poem of Lucretius, the 'Georgics' of Virgil, 'The Fleece' of +Dyer, Mason's 'English Garden,' &c. + +And, lastly, philosophical Satire, like that of Horace and Juvenal; +personal and occasional Satire rarely comprehending sufficient of the +general in the individual to be dignified with the name of poetry. + +Out of the three last has been constructed a composite order, of which +Young's 'Night Thoughts,' and Cowper's 'Task,' are excellent examples. + +It is deducible from the above, that poems, apparently miscellaneous, +may with propriety be arranged either with reference to the powers of +mind _predominant_ in the production of them; or to the mould in which +they are cast; or, lastly, to the subjects to which they relate. From +each of these considerations, the following Poems have been divided into +classes; which, that the work may more obviously correspond with the +course of human life, and for the sake of exhibiting in it the three +requisites of a legitimate whole, a beginning, a middle, and an end, +have been also arranged, as far as it was possible, according to an +order of time, commencing with Childhood, and terminating with Old Age, +Death, and Immortality. My guiding wish was, that the small pieces of +which these volumes consist, thus discriminated, might be regarded under +a twofold view; as composing an entire work within themselves, and as +adjuncts to the philosophical Poem, 'The Recluse.' This arrangement has +long presented itself habitually to my own mind. Nevertheless, I should +have preferred to scatter the contents of these volumes at random, if I +had been persuaded that, by the plan adopted, any thing material would +be taken from the natural effect of the pieces, individually, on the +mind of the unreflecting Reader. I trust there is a sufficient variety +in each class to prevent this; while, for him who reads with reflection, +the arrangement will serve as a commentary unostentatiously directing +his attention to my purposes, both particular and general. But, as I +wish to guard against the possibility of misleading by this +classification, it is proper first to remind the Reader, that certain +poems are placed according to the powers of mind, in the Author's +conception, predominant in the production of them; _predominant_, which +implies the exertion of other faculties in less degree. Where there is +more imagination than fancy in a poem, it is placed under the head of +imagination, and _vice versa_. Both the above classes might without +impropriety have been enlarged from that consisting of 'Poems founded on +the Affections;' as might this latter from those, and from the class +'proceeding from Sentiment and Reflection.' The most striking +characteristics of each piece, mutual illustration, variety, and +proportion, have governed me throughout. + +None of the other Classes, except those of Fancy and Imagination, +require any particular notice. But a remark of general application may +be made. All Poets, except the dramatic, have been in the practice of +feigning that their works were composed to the music of the harp or +lyre: with what degree of affectation this has been done in modern +times, I leave to the judicious to determine. For my own part, I have +not been disposed to violate probability so far, or to make such a large +demand upon the Reader's charity. Some of these pieces are essentially +lyrical; and, therefore, cannot have their due force without a supposed +musical accompaniment; but, in much the greatest part, as a substitute +for the classic lyre or romantic harp, I require nothing more than an +animated or impassioned recitation, adapted to the subject. Poems, +however humble in their kind, if they be good in that kind, cannot read +themselves; the law of long syllable and short must not be so +inflexible,--the letter of metre must not be so impassive to the spirit +of versification,--as to deprive the Reader of all voluntary power to +modulate, in subordination to the sense, the music of the poem;--in the +same manner as his mind is left at liberty, and even summoned, to act +upon its thoughts and images. But, though the accompaniment of a musical +instrument be frequently dispensed with, the true Poet does not +therefore abandon his privilege distinct from that of the mere Proseman; + + He murmurs near the running brooks + A music sweeter than their own. + +Let us come now to the consideration of the words Fancy and Imagination, +as employed in the classification of the following Poems. 'A man,' says +an intelligent author, 'has imagination in proportion as he can +distinctly copy in idea the impressions of sense: it is the faculty +which _images_ within the mind the phenomena of sensation. A man has +fancy in proportion as he can call up, connect, or associate, at +pleasure, those internal images ([Greek: phantazein] is to cause to +appear) so as to complete ideal representations of absent objects. +Imagination is the power of depicting, and fancy of evoking and +combining. The imagination is formed by patient observation; the fancy +by a voluntary activity in shifting the scenery of the mind. The more +accurate the imagination, the more safely may a painter, or a poet, +undertake a delineation, or a description, without the presence of the +objects to be characterised. The more versatile the fancy, the more +original and striking will be the decorations produced.'--_British +Synonyms discriminated, by W. Taylor_. + +Is not this as if a man should undertake to supply an account of a +building, and be so intent upon what he had discovered of the +foundation, as to conclude his task without once looking up at the +superstructure? Here, as in other instances throughout the volume, the +judicious Author's mind is enthralled by Etymology; he takes up the +original word as his guide and escort, and too often does not perceive +how soon he becomes its prisoner, without liberty to tread in any path +but that to which it confines him. It is not easy to find out how +imagination, thus explained, differs from distinct remembrance of +images; or fancy from quick and vivid recollection of them: each is +nothing more than a mode of memory. If the two words bear the above +meaning and no other, what term is left to designate that faculty of +which the Poet is 'all compact;' he whose eye glances from earth to +heaven, whose spiritual attributes body forth what his pen is prompt in +turning to shape; or what is left to characterise Fancy, as insinuating +herself into the heart of objects with creative activity? Imagination, +in the sense of the word as giving title to a class of the following +Poems, has no reference to images that are merely a faithful copy, +existing in the mind, of absent external objects; but is a word of +higher import, denoting operations of the mind upon those objects and +processes of creation or of composition, governed by certain fixed laws. +I proceed to illustrate my meaning by instances. A parrot _hangs_ from +the wires of his cage by his beak or by his claws; or a monkey from the +bough of a tree by his paws or his tail. Each creature does so literally +and actually. In the first Eclogue of Virgil, the shepherd, thinking of +the time when he is to take leave of his farm, thus addresses his +goats:-- + + Non ego vos posthac viridi projectus in antro + Dumosa _pendere_ procul de rupe videbo. + + --half way down + _Hangs_ one who gathers samphire, + +is the well-known expression of Shakspeare, delineating an ordinary +image upon the cliffs of Dover. In these two instances is a slight +exertion of the faculty which I denominate imagination, in the use of +one word: neither the goats nor the samphire-gatherer do literally hang, +as does the parrot or the monkey; but, presenting to the senses +something of such an appearance, the mind in its activity, for its own +gratification, contemplates them as hanging. + + As when far off at sea a fleet descried + _Hangs_ in the clouds, by equinoctial wind; + Close sailing from Bengala, or the isles + Of Ternate or Tidore, whence merchants bring + Their spicy drugs; they on the trading flood + Through the wide Ethiopian to the Cape + Ply, stemming nightly toward the Pole; so seemed + Far off the flying Fiend. + + +Here is the full strength of the imagination involved in the word +_hangs_, and exerted upon the whole image: First, the fleet, an +aggregate of many ships, is represented as one mighty person, whose +track, we know and feel, is upon the waters; but, taking advantage of +its appearance to the senses, the Poet dares to represent it as _hanging +in the clouds_, both for the gratification of the mind in contemplating +the image itself, and in reference to the motion and appearance of the +sublime objects to which it is compared. + +From impressions of sight we will pass to those of sound; which, as they +must necessarily be of a less definite character, shall be selected from +these volumes: + + Over his own sweet voice the Stock-dove _broods_; + +of the same bird, + + His voice was _buried_ among trees. + Yet to be come at by the breeze; + + O, Cuckoo! shall I call thee _Bird_, + Or but a wandering _Voice_? + +The stock-dove is said to _coo_, a sound well imitating the note of the +bird; but, by the intervention of the metaphor _broods_, the affections +are called in by the imagination to assist in marking the manner in +which the bird reiterates and prolongs her soft note, as if herself +delighting to listen to it, and participating of a still and quiet +satisfaction, like that which may be supposed inseparable from the +continuous process of incubation. 'His voice was buried among the +trees,' a metaphor expressing the love of _seclusion_ by which this Bird +is marked; and characterising its note as not partaking of the shrill +and the piercing, and therefore more easily deadened by the intervening +shade; yet a note so peculiar and withal so pleasing, that the breeze, +gifted with that love of the sound which the Poet feels, penetrates the +shades in which it is entombed, and conveys it to the ear of the +listener. + + Shall I call thee Bird, + Or but a wandering Voice? + +This concise interrogation characterises the seeming ubiquity of the +voice of the cuckoo, and dispossesses the creature almost of a corporeal +existence; the Imagination being tempted to this exertion of her power +by a consciousness in the memory that the cuckoo is almost perpetually +heard throughout the season of spring, but seldom becomes an object of +sight. + +Thus far of images independent of each other, and immediately endowed by +the mind with properties that do not inhere in them, upon an incitement +from properties and qualities the existence of which is inherent and +obvious. These processes of imagination are carried on either by +conferring additional properties upon an object, or abstracting from it +some of those which it actually possesses, and thus enabling it to +re-act upon the mind which hath performed the process, like a new +existence. + +I pass from the Imagination acting upon an individual image to a +consideration of the same faculty employed upon images in a conjunction +by which they modify each other. The Reader has already had a fine +instance before him in the passage quoted from Virgil, where the +apparently perilous situation of the goat, hanging upon the shaggy +precipice, is contrasted with that of the shepherd contemplating it from +the seclusion of the cavern in which he lies stretched at ease and in +security. Take these images separately, and how unaffecting the picture +compared with that produced by their being thus connected with, and +opposed to, each other! + + As a huge stone is sometimes seen to lie + Couched on the bald top of an eminence, + Wonder to all who do the same espy + By what means it could thither come, and whence, + So that it seems a thing endued with sense, + Like a sea-beast crawled forth, which on a shelf + Of rock or sand reposeth, there to sun himself. + + Such seemed this Man; not all alive or dead + Nor all asleep, in his extreme old age. + + * * * * * + + Motionless as a cloud the old Man stood, + That heareth not the loud winds when they call, + And moveth altogether if it move at all. + +In these images, the conferring, the abstracting, and the modifying +powers of the Imagination, immediately and mediately acting, are all +brought into conjunction. The stone is endowed with something of the +power of life to approximate it to the sea-beast; and the sea-beast +stripped of some of its vital qualities to assimilate it to the stone; +which intermediate image is thus treated for the purpose of bringing the +original image, that of the stone, to a nearer resemblance to the figure +and condition of the aged Man; who is divested of so much of the +indications of life and motion as to bring him to the point where the +two objects unite and coalesce in just comparison. After what has been +said, the image of the cloud need not be commented upon. + +Thus far of an endowing or modifying power: but the Imagination also +shapes and _creates_; and how? By innumerable processes; and in none +does it more delight than in that of consolidating numbers into unity, +and dissolving and separating unity into number,--alternations +proceeding from, and governed by, a sublime consciousness of the soul in +her own mighty and almost divine powers. Recur to the passage already +cited from Milton. When the compact Fleet, as one Person, has been +introduced 'Sailing from Bengala.' 'They,' _i.e._ the 'merchants,' +representing the fleet resolved into a multitude of ships, 'ply' their +voyage towards the extremities of the earth: 'So' (referring to the word +'As' in the commencement) 'seemed the flying Fiend;' the image of his +person acting to recombine the multitude of ships into one body,--the +point from which the comparison set out. 'So seemed,' and to whom +seemed? To the heavenly Muse who dictates the poem, to the eye of the +Poet's mind, and to that of the Reader, present at one moment in the +wide Ethiopian, and the next in the solitudes, then first broken in +upon, of the infernal regions! + + Modo me Thebis, modo ponit Athenis. + +Here again this mighty Poet,--speaking of the Messiah going forth to +expel from heaven the rebellious angels, + + Attended by ten thousand thousand Saints + He onward came: far off his coming shone,-- + +the retinue of Saints, and the Person of the Messiah himself, lost +almost and merged in the splendour of that indefinite abstraction 'His +coming!' + +As I do not mean here to treat this subject further than to throw some +light upon the present Volumes, and especially upon one division of +them, I shall spare myself and the Reader the trouble of considering the +Imagination as it deals with thoughts and sentiments, as it regulates +the composition of characters, and determines the course of actions: I +will not consider it (more than I have already done by implication) as +that power which, in the language of one of my most esteemed Friends, +'draws all things to one; which makes things animate or inanimate, +beings with their attributes, subjects with their accessaries, take one +colour and serve to one effect.'[18] The grand store-houses of +enthusiastic and meditative Imagination, of poetical, as +contradistinguished from human and dramatic Imagination, are the +prophetic and lyrical parts of the Holy Scriptures, and the works of +Milton; to which I cannot forbear to add those of Spenser. I select +these writers in preference to those of ancient Greece and Rome, because +the anthropomorphitism of the Pagan religion subjected the minds of the +greatest poets in those countries too much to the bondage of definite +form; from which the Hebrews were preserved by their abhorrence of +idolatry. This abhorrence was almost as strong in our great epic Poet, +both from circumstances of his life, and from the constitution of his +mind. However imbued the surface might be with classical literature, he +was a Hebrew in soul; and all things tended in him towards the sublime. +Spenser, of a gentler nature, maintained his freedom by aid of his +allegorical spirit, at one time inciting him to create persons out of +abstractions; and, at another, by a superior effort of genius, to give +the universality and permanence of abstractions to his human beings, by +means of attributes and emblems that belong to the highest moral truths +and the purest sensations,--of which his character of Una is a glorious +example. Of the human and dramatic Imagination the works of Shakspeare +are an inexhaustible source. + +[18] Charles Lamb upon the genius of Hogarth. + + I tax not you, ye Elements, with unkindness, + I never gave you kingdoms, call'd you Daughters! + + +And if, bearing in mind the many Poets distinguished by this prime +quality, whose names I omit to mention; yet justified by recollection of +the insults which the ignorant, the incapable and the presumptuous, have +heaped upon these and my other writings, I may be permitted to +anticipate the judgment of posterity upon myself, I shall declare +(censurable, I grant, if the notoriety of the fact above stated does not +justify me) that I have given in these unfavourable times, evidence of +exertions of this faculty upon its worthiest objects, the external +universe, the moral and religious sentiments of Man, his natural +affections, and his acquired passions; which have the same ennobling +tendency as the productions of men, in this kind, worthy to be holden in +undying remembrance. + +To the mode in which Fancy has already been characterised as the power +of evoking and combining, or, as my friend Mr. Coleridge has styled it, +'the aggregative and associative power,' my objection is only that the +definition is too general. To aggregate and to associate, to evoke and +to combine, belong as well to the Imagination as to the Fancy; but +either the materials evoked and combined are different; or they are +brought together under a different law, and for a different purpose. +Fancy does not require that the materials which she makes use of should +be susceptible of change in their constitution, from her touch; and, +where they admit of modification, it is enough for her purpose if it be +slight, limited, and evanescent. Directly the reverse of these, are the +desires and demands of the Imagination. She recoils from everything but +the plastic, the pliant, and the indefinite. She leaves it to Fancy to +describe Queen Mab as coming, + + In shape no bigger than an agate-stone + On the fore-finger of an alderman. + +Having to speak of stature, she does not tell you that her gigantic +Angel was as tall as Pompey's Pillar; much less that he was twelve +cubits, or twelve hundred cubits high; or that his dimensions equalled +those of Teneriffe or Atlas;--because these, and if they were a million +times as high it would be the same, are bounded: The expression is, 'His +stature reached the sky!' the illimitable firmament!--When the +Imagination frames a comparison, if it does not strike on the first +presentation, a sense of the truth of the likeness, from the moment that +it is perceived, grows--and continues to grow--upon the mind; the +resemblance depending less upon outline of form and feature, than upon +expression and effect; less upon casual and outstanding, than upon +inherent and internal, properties: moreover, the images invariably +modify each other.--The law under which the processes of Fancy are +carried on is as capricious as the accidents of things, and the effects +are surprising, playful, ludicrous, amusing, tender, or pathetic, as the +objects happen to be appositely produced or fortunately combined. Fancy +depends upon the rapidity and profusion with which she scatters her +thoughts and images; trusting that their number, and the felicity with +which they are linked together, will make amends for the want of +individual value: or she prides herself upon the curious subtilty and +the successful elaboration with which she can detect their lurking +affinities. If she can win you over to her purpose, and impart to you +her feelings, she cares not how unstable or transitory may be her +influence, knowing that it will not be out of her power to resume it +upon an apt occasion. But the Imagination is conscious of an +indestructible dominion;--the Soul may fall away from it, not being able +to sustain its grandeur; but, if once felt and acknowledged, by no act +of any other faculty of the mind can it be relaxed, impaired, or +diminished.--Fancy is given to quicken and to beguile the temporal part +of our nature, Imagination to incite and to support the eternal.--Yet is +it not the less true that Fancy, as she is an active, is also, under her +own laws and in her own spirit, a creative faculty. In what manner Fancy +ambitiously aims at a rivalship with Imagination, and Imagination stoops +to work with materials of Fancy, might be illustrated from the +compositions of all eloquent writers, whether in prose or verse; and +chiefly from those of our own Country. Scarcely a page of the +impassioned parts of Bishop Taylor's Works can be opened that shall not +afford examples.--Referring the Reader to those inestimable volumes, I +will content myself with placing a conceit (ascribed to Lord +Chesterfield) in contrast with a passage from the 'Paradise Lost:'-- + + The dews of the evening most carefully shun, + They are the tears of the sky for the loss of the sun. + +After the transgression of Adam, Milton, with other appearances of +sympathising Nature, thus marks the immediate consequence, + + Sky lowered, and, muttering thunder, some sad drops + Wept at completion of the mortal sin. + +The associating link is the same in each instance: Dew and rain, not +distinguishable from the liquid substance of tears, are employed as +indications of sorrow. A flash of surprise is the effect in the former +case; a flash of surprise, and nothing more; for the nature of things +does not sustain the combination. In the latter, the effects from the +act, of which there is this immediate consequence and visible sign, are +so momentous, that the mind acknowledges the justice and reasonableness +of the sympathy in nature so manifested; and the sky weeps drops of +water as if with human eyes, as 'Earth had before trembled from her +entrails, and Nature given a second groan.' + +Finally, I will refer to Cotton's 'Ode upon Winter,' an admirable +composition, though stained with some peculiarities of the age in which +he lived, for a general illustration of the characteristics of Fancy. +The middle part of this ode contains a most lively description of the +entrance of Winter, with his retinue, as 'A palsied king,' and yet a +military monarch,--advancing for conquest with his army; the several +bodies of which, and their arms and equipments, are described with a +rapidity of detail, and a profusion of _fanciful_ comparisons, which +indicate on the part of the poet extreme activity of intellect, and a +correspondent hurry of delightful feeling. Winter retires from the foe +into his fortress, where + + --a magazine + Of sovereign juice is cellared in; + Liquor that will the siege maintain + Should Phoebus ne'er return again. + +Though myself a water-drinker, I cannot resist the pleasure of +transcribing what follows, as an instance still more happy of Fancy +employed in the treatment of feeling than, in its preceding passages, +the Poem supplies of her management of forms. + + 'Tis that, that gives the poet rage, + And thaws the gelly'd blood of age; + Matures the young, restores the old, + And makes the fainting coward bold. + + It lays the careful head to rest, + Calms palpitations in the breast. + Renders our lives' misfortune sweet; + + * * * * * + + Then let the chill Sirocco blow, + And gird us round with hills of snow, + Or else go whistle to the shore, + And make the hollow mountains roar. + + Whilst we together jovial sit + Careless, and crowned with mirth and wit, + Where, though bleak winds confine us home, + Our fancies round the world shall roam. + + We'll think of all the Friends we know. + And drink to all worth drinking to; + When having drunk all thine and mine, + We rather shall want healths than wine. + + But where Friends fail us, we'll supply + Our friendships with our charity; + Men that remote in sorrows live, + Shall by our lusty brimmers thrive. + + We'll drink the wanting into wealth, + And those that languish into health, + The afflicted into joy; th' opprest + Into security and rest. + + The worthy in disgrace shall find + Favour return again more kind, + And in restraint who stifled lie, + Shall taste the air of liberty. + + The brave shall triumph in success, + The lovers shall have mistresses, + Poor unregarded Virtue, praise, + And the neglected Poet, bays. + + Thus shall our healths do others good, + Whilst we ourselves do all we would; + For, freed from envy and from care, + What would we be but what we are? + +When I sate down to write this Preface, it was my intention to have +made it more comprehensive; but, thinking that I ought rather to +apologise for detaining the reader so long, I will here conclude. + + * * * * * + +DEDICATION: PREFIXED TO THE EDITION OF 1815. + + +_To Sir George Howland Beaumont, Bart_. + +MY DEAR SIR GEORGE, + +Accept my thanks for the permission given me to dedicate these Volumes +to you. In addition to a lively pleasure derived from general +considerations, I feel a particular satisfaction; for, by inscribing +these Poems with your Name, I seem to myself in some degree to repay, by +an appropriate honour, the great obligation which I owe to one part of +the Collection--as having been the means of first making us personally +known to each other. Upon much of the remainder, also, you have a +peculiar claim,--for some of the best pieces were composed under the +shade of your own groves, upon the classic ground of Coleorton; where I +was animated by the recollection of those illustrious Poets of your name +and family, who were born in that neighbourhood; and, we may be assured, +did not wander with indifference by the dashing stream of Grace Dieu, +and among the rocks that diversify the forest of Charnwood.--Nor is +there any one to whom such parts of this Collection as have been +inspired or coloured by the beautiful Country from which I now address +you, could be presented with more propriety than to yourself--to whom it +has suggested so many admirable pictures. Early in life, the sublimity +and beauty of this region excited your admiration; and I know that you +are bound to it in mind by a still strengthening attachment. + +Wishing and hoping that this Work, with the embellishments it has +received from your pencil, may survive as a lasting memorial of a +friendship which I reckon among the blessings of my life, + +I have the honour to be, my dear Sir George, + + Yours most affectionately and faithfully, + WILLIAM WORDSWORTH. +RYDAL MOUNT, WESTMORELAND, + _February_ 1, 1815. + + + + +_(e)_ OF 'THE EXCURSION.' + +The Title-page announces that this is only a portion of a poem; and the +Reader must be here apprised that it belongs to the second part of a +long and laborious Work, which is to consist of three parts.--The Author +will candidly acknowledge that, if the first of these had been +completed, and in such a manner as to satisfy his own mind, he should +have preferred the natural order of publication, and have given that to +the world first; but, as the second division of the Work was designed to +refer more to passing events, and to an existing state of things, than +the others were meant to do, more continuous exertion was naturally +bestowed upon it, and greater progress made here than in the rest of the +poem; and as this part does not depend upon the preceding, to a degree +which will materially injure its own peculiar interest, the Author, +complying with the earnest entreaties of some valued Friends, presents +the following pages to the Public. + +It may be proper to state whence the poem, of which 'The Excursion' is a +part, derives its Title of THE RECLUSE.-Several years ago, when the +Author retired to his native mountains, with the hope of being enabled +to construct a literary Work that might live, it was a reasonable thing +that he should take a review of his own mind, and examine how far Nature +and Education had qualified him for such employment. As subsidiary to +this preparation, he undertook to record, in verse, the origin and +progress of his own powers, as far as he was acquainted with them. That +Work, addressed to a dear Friend, most distinguished for his knowledge +and genius, and to whom the Author's Intellect is deeply indebted, has +been long finished; and the result of the investigation which gave rise +to it was a determination to compose a philosophical poem, containing +views of Man, Nature, and Society; and to be entitled, 'The Recluse;' as +having for its principal subject the sensations and opinions of a poet +living in retirement.--The preparatory poem is biographical, and +conducts the history of the Author's mind to the point when he was +emboldened to hope that his faculties were sufficiently matured for +entering upon the arduous labour which he had proposed to himself: and +the two Works have the same kind of relation to each other, if he may so +express himself, as the ante-chapel has to the body of a gothic church. +Continuing this allusion, he may be permitted to add, that his minor +Pieces, which have been long before the Public, when they shall be +properly arranged, will be found by the attentive Reader to have such +connection with the main Work as may give them claim to be likened to +the little cells, oratories, and sepulchral recesses, ordinarily +included in those edifices. + +The Author would not have deemed himself justified in saying, upon this +occasion, so much of performances either unfinished, or unpublished, if +he had not thought that the labour bestowed by him upon what he has +heretofore and now laid before the Public entitled him to candid +attention for such a statement as he thinks necessary to throw light +upon his endeavours to please and, he would hope, to benefit his +countrymen.--Nothing further need be added, than that the first and +third parts of 'The Recluse' will consist chiefly of meditations in the +Author's own person; and that in the intermediate part ('The Excursion') +the intervention of characters speaking is employed, and something of a +dramatic form adopted. + +It is not the Author's intention formally to announce a system: it was +more animating to him to proceed in a different course; and if he shall +succeed in conveying to the mind clear thoughts, lively images, and +strong feelings, the Reader will have no difficulty in extracting the +system for himself. And in the mean time the following passage, taken +from the conclusion of the first book of 'The Recluse,' may be +acceptable as a kind of _Prospectus_ of the design and scope of the +whole Poem. + + On Man, on Nature, and on Human Life, + Musing in solitude, I oft perceive + Fair trains of imagery before me rise. + Accompanied by feelings of delight + Pure, or with no unpleasing sadness mixed; + And I am conscious of affecting thoughts + And dear remembrances, whose presence soothes + Or elevates the Mind, intent to weigh + The good and evil of our mortal state. + --To these emotions, whencesoe'er they come, + Whether from breath of outward circumstance, + Or from the Soul--an impulse to herself-- + I would give utterance in numerous verse. + Of Truth, of Grandeur, Beauty, Love, and Hope, + And melancholy Fear subdued by Faith; + Of blessed consolations in distress; + Of moral strength, and intellectual Power; + Of joy in widest commonalty spread; + Of the individual Mind that keeps her own + Inviolate retirement, subject there + To Conscience only, and the law supreme + Of that Intelligence which governs all-- + I sing:--'fit audience let me find though few!' + + So prayed, more gaining than he asked, the Bard-- + In holiest mood. Urania, I shall need + Thy guidance, or a greater Muse, if such + Descend to earth or dwell in highest heaven! + For I must tread on shadowy ground, must sink + Deep--and, aloft ascending, breathe in worlds + To which the heaven of heavens is but a veil. + All strength--all terror, single or in bands, + That ever was put forth in personal form-- + Jehovah--with His thunder, and the choir + Of shouting Angels, and the empyreal thrones-- + I pass them unalarmed. Not Chaos, not + The darkest pit of lowest Erebus, + Nor aught of blinder vacancy, scooped out + By help of dreams--can breed such fear and awe + As fall upon us often when we look + Into our Minds, into the Mind of Man-- + My haunt, and the main region of my song. + --Beauty--a living Presence of the earth, + Surpassing the most fair ideal Forms + Which craft of delicate Spirits hath composed + From earth's materials--waits upon my steps; + Pitches her tents before me as I move, + An hourly neighbour. Paradise, and groves + Elysian, Fortunate Fields--like those of old + Sought in the Atlantic Main--why should they be + A history only of departed things, + Or a mere fiction of what never was? + For the discerning intellect of Man, + When wedded to this goodly universe + In love and holy passion, shall find these + A simple produce of the common day. + --I, long before the blissful hour arrives, + Would chant, in lonely peace, the spousal verse + Of this great consummation:--and, by words + Which speak of nothing more than what we are, + Would I arouse the sensual from their sleep + Of Death, and win the vacant and the vain + To noble raptures; while my voice proclaims + How exquisitely the individual Mind + (And the progressive powers perhaps no less + Of the whole species) to the external World + Is fitted:--and how exquisitely, too-- + Theme this but little heard of among men-- + The external World is fitted to the Mind; + And the creation (by no lower name + Can it be called) which they with blended might + Accomplish:--this is our high argument. + --Such grateful haunts foregoing, if I oft + Must turn elsewhere--to travel near the tribes + And fellowships of men, and see ill sights + Of madding passions mutually inflamed; + Must hear Humanity in fields and groves + Pipe solitary anguish; or must hang + Brooding above the fierce confederate storm + Of sorrow, barricadoed evermore + Within the walls of cities--may these sounds + Have their authentic comment; that even these + Hearing, I be not downcast or forlorn!-- + Descend, prophetic Spirit! that inspir'st + The human Soul of universal earth, + Dreaming on things to come; and dost possess + A metropolitan temple in the hearts + Of mighty Poets: upon me bestow + A gift of genuine insight; that my Song + With star-like virtue in its place may shine. + Shedding benignant influence, and secure, + Itself, from all malevolent effect + Of those mutations that extend their sway + Throughout the nether sphere!--And if with this + I mix more lowly matter: with the thing + Contemplated, describe the Mind and Man + Contemplating: and who, and what he was-- + The transitory Being that beheld + This Vision: when and where, and how he lived; + Be not this labour useless. If such theme + May sort with highest objects, then--dread Power! + Whose gracious favour is the primal source + Of all illumination--may my Life + Express the image of a better time, + More wise desires, and simpler manners;--nurse + My Heart in genuine freedom:--all pure thoughts + Be with me;--so shall Thy unfailing love + Guide, and support, and cheer me to the end! + + + + +_f_ LETTERS TO SIR GEORGE AND LADY BEAUMONT AND OTHERS ON THE POEMS AND +RELATED SUBJECTS. + + * * * * * + +GRATITUDE FOR KINDNESSES, DIFFICULTY OF +LETTER-WRITING, &c. + +_Letter to Sir George H. Beaumont, Bart_. + + Grasmere, 14th October, 1803. + +DEAR SIR GEORGE, + +If any Person were to be informed of the particulars of your kindness to +me,--if it were described to him in all its delicacy and nobleness,--and +he should afterwards be told that I suffered eight weeks to elapse +without writing to you one word of thanks or acknowledgment, he would +deem it a thing absolutely _impossible_. It is nevertheless true. This +is, in fact, the first time that I have taken up a pen, not for writing +letters, but on any account whatsoever, except once, since Mr. Coleridge +showed me the writings of the Applethwaite Estate, and told me the +little history of what you had done for me, the motives, &c. I need not +say that it gave me the most heartfelt pleasure, not for my own sake +chiefly, though in that point of view it might well be most highly +interesting to me, but as an act which, considered in all its relations +as to matter and manner, it would not be too much to say, did honour to +human nature; at least, I felt it as such, and it overpowered me. + +Owing to a set of painful and uneasy sensations which I have, more or +less, at all times about my chest, from a disease which chiefly affects +my nerves and digestive organs, and which makes my aversion from writing +little less than madness, I deferred writing to you, being at first made +still more uncomfortable by travelling, and loathing to do violence to +myself, in what ought to be an act of pure pleasure and enjoyment, viz., +the expression of my deep sense of your goodness. This feeling was, +indeed, so strong in me, as to make me look upon the act of writing to +you, not as the work of a moment, but as a business with something +little less than awful in it, a task, a duty, a thing not to be done but +in my best, my purest, and my happiest moments. Many of these I had, but +then I had not my pen and ink (and) my paper before me, my conveniences, +'my appliances and means to boot;' all which, the moment that I thought +of them, seemed to disturb and impair the sanctity of my pleasure. I +contented myself with thinking over my complacent feelings, and +breathing forth solitary gratulations and thanksgivings, which I did in +many a sweet and many a wild place, during my late Tour. In this shape, +procrastination became irresistible to me; at last I said, I will write +at home from my own fire-side, when I shall be at ease and in comfort. I +have now been more than a fortnight at home, but the uneasiness in my +chest has made me beat off the time when the pen was to be taken up. I +do not know from what cause it is, but during the last three years I +have never had a pen in my hand for five minutes, before my whole frame +becomes one bundle of uneasiness; a perspiration starts out all over me, +and my chest is oppressed in a manner which I cannot describe. This is a +sad weakness; for I am sure, though it is chiefly owing to the state of +my body, that by exertion of mind I might in part control it. So, +however, it is; and I mention it, because I am sure when you are made +acquainted with the circumstances, though the extent to which it exists +nobody can well conceive, you will look leniently upon my silence, and +rather pity than blame me; though I must still continue to reproach +myself, as I have done bitterly every day for these last eight weeks. +One thing in particular has given me great uneasiness: it is, least in +the extreme delicacy of your mind, which is well known to me, you for a +moment may have been perplexed by a single apprehension that there might +be any error, anything which I might misconceive, in your kindness to +me. When I think of the possibility of this, I am vexed beyond measure +that I had not resolution to write immediately. But I hope that these +fears are all groundless, and that you have (as I know your nature will +lead you to do) suspended your judgment upon my silence, blaming me +indeed but in that qualified way in which a good man blames what he +believes will be found an act of venial infirmity, when it is fully +explained. But I have troubled you far too much with this. Such I am +however, and deeply I regret that I am such. I shall conclude with +solemnly assuring you, late as it is, that nothing can wear out of my +heart, as long as my faculties remain, the deep feeling which I have of +your delicate and noble conduct towards me. + +It is now high time to speak of the estate, and what is to be done with +it. It is a most delightful situation, and few things would give me +greater pleasure than to realise the plan which you had in view for me, +of building a house there. But I am afraid, I am sorry to say, that the +chances are very much against this, partly on account of the state of my +own affairs, and still more from the improbability of Mr. Coleridge's +continuing in the country. The writings are at present in my possession, +and what I should wish is, that I might be considered at present as +steward of the land, with liberty to lay out the rent in planting, or +any other improvement which might be thought advisable, with a view to +building upon it. And if it should be out of my power to pitch my own +tent there, I would then request that you would give me leave to restore +the property to your own hands, in order that you might have the +opportunity of again presenting it to some worthy person who might be so +fortunate as to be able to make that pleasant use of it which it was +your wish that I should have done. + +Mr. Coleridge informed me, that immediately after you left Keswick, he +had, as I requested, returned you thanks for those two elegant drawings +which you were so good as to leave for me. The present is valuable in +itself, and I consider it as a high honour conferred on me. How often +did we wish for five minutes' command of your pencil while we were in +Scotland! or rather that you had been with us. Sometimes I am sure you +would have been highly delighted. In one thing Scotland is superior to +every country I have travelled in; I mean the graceful beauty of the +dresses and figures. There is a tone of imagination about them beyond +anything I have seen elsewhere. + +Mr. Coleridge, I understand, has written to you several times lately; so +of course he will have told you when and why he left us. I am glad he +did, as I am sure the solitary part of his tour did him much the most +service. He is still unwell, though wonderfully strong. He is attempting +to bring on a fit of the gout, which he is sure will relieve him +greatly. I was at Keswick last Sunday and saw both him and Mr. Southey, +whom I liked very much. Coleridge looks better, I think, than when you +saw him; and is, I also think, upon the whole, much better. Lady +Beaumont will be pleased to hear that our carriage (though it did not +suit Mr. Coleridge, the noise of it being particularly unpleasant to +him) answered wonderfully well for my sister and me, and that the whole +tour far surpassed our most sanguine expectations. + +They are sadly remiss at Keswick in putting themselves to trouble in +defence of the country; they came forward very cheerfully some time ago, +but were so thwarted by the orders and counter-orders of the ministry +and their servants, that they have thrown up the whole in disgust. At +Grasmere, we have turned out almost to a man. We are to go to Ambleside +on Sunday to be mustered, and put on, for the first time, our military +apparel. I remain, dear Sir George, with the most affectionate and +respectful regard for you and Lady Beaumont, + + Yours sincerely, + W. WORDSWORTH. + +My sister will transcribe three sonnets,[19] which I do not send you +from any notion I have of their merit, but merely because they are the +only verses I have written since I had the pleasure of seeing you and +Lady Beaumont. At the sight of Kilchurn Castle, an ancient residence of +the Breadalbanes, upon an island in Loch Awe, I felt a real poetical +impulse: but I did not proceed. I began a poem (apostrophising the +castle) thus: + + Child of loud-throated war! the mountain stream + Roars in thy hearing; but thy hour of rest + Is come, and thou art silent in thine age; + +but I stopp'd.[20] + +[19] Written at Needpath, (near Peebles,) a mansion of the Duke of +Queensbury: 'Now as I live, I pity that great Lord,' &c. (_Memorials of +a Tour in Scotland_, xii.) To the Men of Kent: 'Vanguard of Liberty, ye +Men of Kent.' [_Poems dedicated to National Independence and Liberty_, +xxiii.] Anticipation: 'Shout, for a mighty victory is won!' (_Ibid_, +xxvi.) &c. If you think, either you or Lady Beaumont, that these two +last Sonnets are worth publication, would you have the goodness to +circulate them in any way you like. (On _various readings_ in these +Sonnets, see our Notes and Illustrations. G.) + +[20] _Memoirs_, vol. i. pp. 260-4, with important additions from the +original. G. + + +OF SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS, &c. + +_Letter to Sir George H. Beaumont, Bart_. + + Grasmere, July 20. 1804. DEAR SIR GEORGE, + +Lady Beaumont in a letter to my sister told her some time ago that it +was your intention to have written to me, but knowing my aversion to +letter writing you were unwilling to impose upon me the trouble of +answering. I am much obliged to you for the honour you intended me, and +deeply sensible of your delicacy. If a man were what he ought to be, +with such feelings and such motives as I have, it would be as easy for +him to write to Sir George Beaumont as to take his food when he was +hungry or his repose when he was weary. But we suffer bad habits to grow +upon us, and that has been the case with me, as you have had reason to +find and forgive already. I cannot quit the subject without regretting +that any weakness of mine should have prevented my hearing from you, +which would always give me great delight, and though I cannot presume to +say that I should be a _punctual_ correspondent, I am sure I should not +be insensible of your kindness, but should also do my best to deserve +it. + +A few days ago I received from Mr. Southey your very acceptable present +of Sir Joshua Reynolds's Works, which, with the Life, I have nearly read +through. Several of the Discourses I had read before, though never +regularly together: they have very much added to the high opinion which +I before entertained of Sir Joshua Reynolds. Of a great part of them, +never having had an opportunity of _studying_ any pictures whatsoever, I +can be but a very inadequate judge; but of such parts of the Discourses +as relate to general philosophy, I may be entitled to speak with more +confidence; and it gives me great pleasure to say to you, knowing your +great regard for Sir Joshua, that they appear to me highly honourable to +him. The sound judgment universally displayed in these Discourses is +truly admirable,--I mean the deep conviction of the necessity of +unwearied labour and diligence, the reverence for the great men of his +art, and the comprehensive and unexclusive character of his taste. Is it +not a pity, Sir George, that a man with such a high sense of the +_dignity_ of his art, and with such industry, should not have given more +of his time to the nobler departments of painting? I do not say this so +much on account of what the world would have gained by the superior +excellence and interest of his pictures, though doubtless that would +have been very considerable, but for the sake of example. It is such an +animating sight to see a man of genius, regardless of temporary gains, +whether of money or praise, fixing his attention solely upon what is +intrinsically interesting and permanent, and finding his happiness in an +entire devotion of himself to such pursuits as shall most ennoble human +nature. We have not yet seen enough of this in modern times; and never +was there a period in society when such examples were likely to do more +good than at present. The industry and love of truth which distinguish +Sir Joshua's mind are most admirable; but he appears to me to have lived +too much for the age in which he lived, and the people among whom he +lived, though this in an infinitely less degree than his friend Burke, +of whom Goldsmith said, with such truth, long ago, that-- + + Born for the universe, he narrowed his mind, + And to party gave up what was meant for mankind. + +I should not have said thus much of Reynolds, which I have not said +without pain, but because I have so great a respect for his character, +and because he lived at a time when, being the first Englishman +distinguished for excellence in the higher department of painting, he +had the field fairly open for him to have given an example, upon which +all eyes needs must have been fixed, of a man preferring the cultivation +and exertion of his own powers in the highest possible degree to any +other object of regard. My writing is growing quite illegible. I must +therefore either mend it, or throw down the pen. + +How sorry we all are under this roof that we cannot have the pleasure of +seeing you and Lady Beaumont down this summer! The weather has been most +glorious, and the country, of course, most delightful. Our own valley in +particular was last night, by the light of the full moon, and in the +perfect stillness of the lake, a scene of loveliness and repose as +affecting as was ever beheld by the eye of man. We have had a day and a +half of Mr. Davy's company at Grasmere, and no more: he seemed to leave +us with great regret, being post-haste on his way to Edinburgh. I went +with him to Paterdale, on his road to Penrith, where he would take +coach. We had a deal of talk about you and Lady Beaumont: he was in your +debt a letter, as I found, and exceedingly sorry that he had not been +able to get over to see you, having been engaged at Mr. Coke's +sheep-shearing, which had not left him time to cross from the Duke of +Bedford's to your place. We had a very pleasant interview, though far +too short. He is a most interesting man, whose views are fixed upon +worthy objects. + +That Loughrigg Tarn, beautiful pool of water as it is, is a perpetual +mortification to me when I think that you and Lady Beaumont were so near +having a summer-nest there. This is often talked over among us; and we +always end the subject with a heigh ho! of regret. But I must think of +concluding. My sister thanks Lady Beaumont for her last letter, and will +write to her in a few days; but I must say to her myself how happy I was +to hear that her sister had derived any consolation from Coleridge's +poems and mine. I must also add how much pleasure it gives me that Lady +Beaumont is so kindly, so affectionately disposed to my dear and good +sister, and also to the other unknown parts of my family. Could we but +have Coleridge back among us again! There is no happiness in this life +but in intellect and virtue. Those were very pretty verses which Lady +Beaumont sent; and we were much obliged to her for them. + +What shocking bad writing I have sent you; I don't know [how] it is, but +[it] seems as if I could not write any better. + +Farewell. Believe me, with the sincerest love and affection for you and +Lady Beaumont, + + YOURS, + WM. WORDSWORTH.[21] + +[21] _Memoirs_, vol. i. pp. 267-70, with important additions from the +original. G. + + * * * * * + + +FAMILY NEWS, REYNOLDS, &c. + +_Letter to Sir George H. Beaumont, Bart_. + + Grasmere, August 30. (?) 1804. DEAR SIR GEORGE, + +Wednesday last, Mrs. Coleridge, as she may, perhaps, herself have +informed you or Lady Beaumont, received a letter from Coleridge. I +happened to be at Keswick when it arrived; and she has sent it over to +us to-day. I will transcribe the most material parts of it, first +assuring you, to remove anxiety on your part, that the contents are, we +think, upon the whole, promising. He begins thus (date, June 5. 1804, +Tuesday noon; Dr. Stoddart's, Malta):--'I landed, in more than usual +health, in the harbour of Valetta, about four o'clock, Friday afternoon, +April 18. Since then I have been waiting, day after day, for the +departure of Mr. Laing, tutor of the only child of Sir A. Ball, our +civil governor.' + + * * * * * + +My sister has to thank Lady Beaumont for a letter; but she is at present +unable to write, from a violent inflammation in her eyes, which I hope +is no more than the complaint going about: but as she has lately been +over-fatigued, and is in other respects unwell, I am not without fear +that the indisposition in her eyes may last some time. As soon as she is +able, she will do herself the pleasure of writing to Lady Beaumont. Mrs. +Wordsworth and Lady B.'s little god-daughter[22] are both doing very +well. Had the child been a boy, we should have persisted in our right to +avail ourselves of Lady Beaumont's goodness in offering to stand sponsor +for it. The name of _Dorothy_, obsolete as it is now grown, had been so +long devoted in my own thoughts to the first daughter that I might have, +that I could not break this promise to myself--a promise in which my +wife participated; though the name of _Mary_, to my ear the most musical +and truly English in sound we have, would have otherwise been most +welcome to me, including, as it would, Lady Beaumont and its mother. +This last sentence, though in a letter to you, Sir George, is intended +for Lady Beaumont. + +[22] Dora Wordsworth, born Aug. 16. 1804. + + * * * * * + +When I ventured to express my regret at Sir Joshua Reynolds giving so +much of his time to portrait-painting and to his friends, I did not mean +to recommend absolute solitude and seclusion from the world as an +advantage to him or anybody else. I think it a great evil; and indeed, +in the case of a painter, frequent intercourse with the living world +seems absolutely necessary to keep the mind in health and vigour. I +spoke, in some respects, in compliment to Sir Joshua Reynolds, feeling +deeply, as I do, the power of his genius, and loving passionately the +labours of genius in every way in which I am capable of comprehending +them. Mr. Malone, in the account prefixed to the Discourses, tells us +that Sir Joshua generally passed the time from eleven till four every +day in portrait-painting. This it was that grieved me, as a sacrifice of +great things to little ones. It will give me great pleasure to hear from +you at your leisure. I am anxious to know that you are satisfied with +the site and intended plan of your house. I suppose no man ever built a +house without finding, when it was finished, that something in it might +have been better done. _Internal_ architecture seems to have arrived at +great excellence in England; but, I don't know how it is, I scarcely +ever see the _outside_ of a new house that pleases me. But I must break +off. Believe me, with best remembrances from my wife and sister to +yourself and Lady Beaumont, + + Yours, + With the greatest respect and regard, + W. WORDSWORTH. + +My poetical labours have been entirely suspended during the last two +months: I am most anxious to return to them[23]. + +[23] _Memoirs_, vol. i. pp. 270--2. G. + + * * * * * + +OF NATURE AND ART, &c. + +_Letter to Sir George H. Beaumont_. + + August 28. 1811, Cottage, 7 minutes' walk from + the sea-side, near Bootle, Cumberland. + +MY DEAR SIR GEORGE, + +How shall I appear before you again after so long an interval? It seems +that now I ought rather to begin with an apology for writing, than for +not having written during a space of almost twelve months. I have blamed +myself not a little; yet not so much as I should have done had I not +known that the main cause of my silence has been the affection I feel +for you; on which account it is not so easy to me to write upon trifling +or daily occurrences to you as it would be to write to another whom I +loved less. Accordingly these have not had power to tempt me to take up +the pen; and in the mean while, from my more intimate concerns I have +abstained, partly because I do not, in many cases, myself like to see +the reflection of them upon paper, and still more because it is my wish +at all times, when I think of the state in which your health and spirits +may happen to be, that my letter should be wholly free from melancholy, +and breathe nothing but cheerfulness and pleasure. Having made this +avowal, I trust that what may be wanting to my justification will be +made up by your kindness and forgiving disposition. + +It was near about this time last year that we were employed in our +pleasant tour to the Leasowes and Hagley. The twelve months that have +elapsed have not impaired the impressions which those scenes made upon +me, nor weakened my remembrance of the delight which the places and +objects, and the conversations they led to, awakened in our minds. + + * * * * * + +It is very late to mention, that when in Wales, last autumn, I contrived +to pass a day and a half with your friend Price at Foxley. He was very +kind, and took due pains to show me all the beauties of his place. I +should have been very insensible not to be pleased with, and grateful +for, his attentions; and certainly I was gratified by the sight of the +scenes through which he conducted me. + + * * * * * + +I was less able to do justice in my own mind to the scenery of Foxley. +You will, perhaps, think it a strange fault that I am going to find with +it, considering the acknowledged taste of the owner, viz. that, small as +it is compared with hundreds of places, the domain is too extensive for +the character of the country. Wanting both rock and water, it +necessarily wants variety; and in a district of this kind, the portion +of a gentleman's estate which he keeps exclusively to himself, and which +he devotes, wholly or in part, to ornament, may very easily exceed the +proper bounds,--not, indeed, as to the preservation of wood, but most +easily as to every thing else. A man by little and little becomes so +delicate and fastidious with respect to forms in scenery, where he has a +power to exercise a control over them, that if they do not exactly +please him in all moods and every point of view, his power becomes his +law; he banishes one, and then rids himself of another; impoverishing +and _monotonising_ landscapes, which, if not originally distinguished +by the bounty of Nature, must be ill able to spare the inspiriting +varieties which art, and the occupations and wants of life in a country +left more to itself, never fail to produce. This relish of humanity +Foxley wants, and is therefore to me, in spite of all its +recommendations, a melancholy spot,--I mean that part of it which the +owner keeps to himself, and has taken so much pains with. I heard the +other day of two artists who thus expressed themselves upon the subject +of a scene among our lakes: 'Plague upon those vile enclosures!' said +one; 'they spoil everything.' 'Oh,' said the other, 'I never _see_ +them.' Glover was the name of this last. Now, for my part, I should not +wish to be either of these gentlemen; but to have in my own mind the +power of turning to advantage, wherever it is possible, every object of +art and nature as they appear before me. What a noble instance, as you +have often pointed out to me, has Rubens given of this in that picture +in your possession, where he has brought, as it were, a whole county +into one landscape, and made the most formal partitions of cultivation, +hedge-rows of pollard willows, conduct the eye into the depths and +distances of his picture; and thus, more than by any other means, has +given it that appearance of immensity which is so striking. As I have +slipped into the subject of painting, I feel anxious to inquire whether +your pencil has been busy last winter in the solitude and uninterrupted +quiet of Dunmow. Most likely you know that we have changed our residence +in Grasmere, which I hope will be attended with a great overbalance of +advantages. One we are certain of--that we have at least one +sitting-room clear of smoke, I trust, in all winds.... Over the +chimney-piece is hung your little picture, from the neighbourhood of +Coleorton. In our other house, on account of the frequent fits of smoke +from the chimneys, both the pictures which I have from your hand were +confined to bed-rooms. A few days after I had enjoyed the pleasure of +seeing, in different moods of mind, your Coleorton landscape from my +fire-side, it _suggested_ to me the following sonnet, which, having +walked out to the side of Grasmere brook, where it murmurs through the +meadows near the church, I composed immediately: + + Praised be the art whose subtle power could stay + Yon cloud, and fix it in that glorious shape; + Nor would permit the thin smoke to escape. + Nor those bright sunbeams to forsake the day; + Which stopped that band of travellers on their way, + Ere they were lost within the shady wood; + And showed the bark upon the glassy flood + For ever anchored in her sheltering bay. + +The images of the smoke and the travellers are taken from your picture; +the rest were added, in order to place the thought in a clear point of +view, and for the sake of variety. I hope Coleorton continues to improve +upon you and Lady Beaumont; and that Mr. Taylor's new laws and +regulations are at least _peaceably_ submitted to. Mrs. W. and I return +in a few days to Grasmere. We cannot say that the child for whose sake +we came down to the sea-side has derived much benefit from the bathing. +The weather has been very unfavourable: we have, however, contrived to +see every thing that lies within a reasonable walk of our present +residence; among other places, Mulcaster--at least as much of it as can +be seen from the public road; but the noble proprietor has contrived to +shut himself up so with plantations and chained gates and locks, that +whatever prospects he may command from his stately prison, or rather +fortification, can only be guessed at by the passing traveller. In the +state of blindness and unprofitable peeping in which we were compelled +to pursue our way up a long and steep hill, I could not help observing +to my companion that the Hibernian peer had completely given the lie to +the poet Thomson, when, in a strain of proud enthusiasm, he boasts, + + I care not, Fortune, what you me deny, + You cannot rob me of free Nature's grace; + You cannot shut the windows of the sky, + Through which Aurora shows her brightening face; + You cannot bar my constant feet to trace + The woods and lawns by living stream, &c. + (_Castle of Indolence_.) + +The _windows of the sky_ were not _shut_, indeed, but the business was +done more thoroughly; for the sky was nearly shut out altogether. This +is like most others, a bleak and treeless coast, but abounding in +corn-fields, and with a noble beach, which is delightful either for +walking or riding. The Isle of Man is right opposite our window; and +though in this unsettled weather often invisible, its appearance has +afforded us great amusement. One afternoon, above the whole length of +it was stretched a body of clouds, shaped and coloured like a +magnificent grove in winter when whitened with snow and illuminated by +the morning sun, which, having melted the snow in part, has intermingled +black masses among the brightness. The whole sky was scattered over with +fleecy dark clouds, such as any sunshiny day produces, and which were +changing their shapes and position every moment. But this line of clouds +immoveably attached themselves to the island, and manifestly took their +shape from the influence of its mountains. There appeared to be just +span enough of sky to allow the hand to slide between the top of +Snafell, the highest peak in the island, and the base of this glorious +forest, in which little change was noticeable for more than the space of +half an hour. We had another fine sight one evening, walking along a +rising ground, about two miles distant from the shore. It was about the +hour of sunset, and the sea was perfectly calm; and in a quarter where +its surface was indistinguishable from the western sky, hazy, and +luminous with the setting sun, appeared a tall sloop-rigged vessel, +magnified by the atmosphere through which it was viewed, and seeming +rather to hang in the air than to float upon the waters. Milton compares +the appearance of Satan to a _fleet_ descried far off at sea. The +visionary grandeur and beautiful form of this _single_ vessel, could +words have conveyed to the mind the picture which nature presented to +the eye, would have suited his purpose as well as the largest company of +vessels that ever associated together with the help of a trade wind in +the wide ocean; yet not exactly so, and for this reason, that his image +is a permanent one, not dependent upon accident. + +I have not left myself room to assure you how sincerely I remain, + + Your affectionate friend, + W. WORDSWORTH.[24] + +[24] _Memoirs_, vol. i. pp. 272--8. G. + + * * * * * + +'THE RECLUSE,' REYNOLDS, &c. + +_To Sir George Beaumont, Bart_. + + Grasmere, Dec. 25th. 1804. + +MY DEAR SIR GEORGE, + +Long since ought I to have thanked you for your last affectionate +letter; but I knew how indulgent you were, and therefore fell, I won't +say more easily, but surely with far less pain to myself, into my old +trick of procrastination. I was deeply sensible of your kindness in +inviting me to Grosvenor Square, and then felt and still feel a strong +inclination to avail myself of the opportunity of cultivating your +friendship and that of Lady Beaumont, and of seeing a little of the +world at the same time. But as the wish is strong there are also strong +obstacles against it; first, though I have lately been tolerably +industrious, I am far behind-hand with my appointed work; and next, my +nervous system is so apt to be deranged by going from home, that I am by +no means sure that I should not be so much of a dependent invalid, I +mean a person obliged to manage himself, as to make it absolutely +improper for me to obtrude myself where neither my exertions of mind or +body, could enable me to be tolerable company. I say nothing of my +family, because a short absence would be abundantly recompensed by the +pleasure of a 'sweet return.' At all events, I must express my sincere +thanks for your kindness and the pleasure which I received from your +letter, breathing throughout such favourable dispositions, I may say, +such earnest friendship towards me. + +I think we are completely agreed upon the subject of Sir Joshua, that +is, we both regret that he did not devote more of his time to the higher +branches of the Art, and further, I think you join with me in lamenting +to a certain degree at least that he did not live more to himself. I +have since read the rest of his Discourses, with which I have been +greatly pleased, and, wish most heartily that I could have an +opportunity of seeing in your company your own collection of pictures +and some others in town, Mr. Angerstein's, for instance, to have pointed +out to me some of those finer and peculiar beauties of painting which I +am afraid I shall never have an occasion of becoming sufficiently +familiar with pictures to discover of myself. There is not a day in my +life when I am at home in which that exquisite little drawing of yours +of Applethwaite does not affect me with a sense of harmony and grace, +which I cannot describe. Mr. Edridge, an artist whom you know, saw this +drawing along with a Mr. Duppa, another artist, who published _Hints +from Raphael and Michael Angelo_; and they were both most enthusiastic +in their praise of it, to my great delight. By the bye, I thought Mr. +Edridge a man of very mild and pleasing manners, and as far as I could +judge, of delicate feelings, in the province of his Art. Duppa is +publishing a life of Michael Angelo, and I received from him a few days +ago two proof-sheets of an Appendix which contains the poems of M.A., +which I shall read, and translate one or two of them, if I can do it +with decent success. I have peeped into the Sonnets, and they do not +appear at all unworthy of their great Author. + +You will be pleased to hear that I have been advancing with my work: I +have written upwards of 2000 verses during the last ten weeks. I do not +know if you are exactly acquainted with the plan of my poetical labour: +it is twofold; first, a Poem, to be called 'The Recluse;' in which it +will be my object to express in verse my most interesting feelings +concerning man, nature, and society; and next, a poem (in which I am at +present chiefly engaged) on my earlier life, or the growth of my own +mind, taken up upon a large scale. This latter work I expect to have +finished before the month of May; and then I purpose to fall with all my +might on the former, which is the chief object upon which my thoughts +have been fixed these many years. Of this poem, that of 'The +Pedlar,'[25] which Coleridge read you, is part, and I may have written +of it altogether about 2000 lines. It will consist, I hope, of about ten +or twelve thousand. + +[25] 'The Excursion.' 'The Pedlar' was the title once proposed, from the +character of the Wanderer, but abandoned. (_Memoirs_, vol. i. p.304.) + +May we not hope for the pleasure of seeing you and Lady Beaumont down +here next Summer? I flatter myself that Coleridge will then be return'd, +and though we would not [on] any account that he should fix himself in +this rainy part of England, yet perhaps we may have the happiness of +meeting all together for a few weeks. We have lately built in our little +rocky orchard, a little circular Hut, lined with moss, like a wren's +nest, and coated on the outside with heath, that stands most charmingly, +with several views from the different sides of it, of the Lake, the +Valley, and the Church--sadly spoiled, however, lately by being +white-washed. The little retreat is most delightful, and I am sure you +and Lady Beaumont would be highly pleased with it. Coleridge has never +seen it. What a happiness would it be to us to see him there, and +entertain you all next Summer in our homely way under its shady thatch. +I will copy a dwarf inscription which I wrote for it the other day, +before the building was entirely finished, which indeed it is not yet. + + No whimsy of the purse is here, + No Pleasure-House forlorn; + Use, comfort, do this roof endear; + A tributary Shed to chear + The little Cottage that is near, + To help it and adorn. + +I hope the young Roscius, if he go on as he has begun, will rescue the +English theatre from the infamy that has fallen upon it, and restore the +reign of good sense and nature. From what you have seen, Sir George, do +you think he could manage a character of Shakspeare? Neither Selin nor +Douglas require much power; but even to perform them as he does, talents +and genius I should think must be necessary. I had very little hope I +confess, thinking it very natural that a theatre which had brought a dog +upon the stage as a principal performer, would catch at a wonder +whatever shape it might put on. + +We have had no tidings of Coleridge these several months. He spoke of +papers which he had sent by private hands, none of which _we_ have +received. It must be most criminal neglect somewhere if the fever be +suffered to enter Malta. Farewell, and believe me, my dear Sir George, +your affectionate and sincere friend, + + W. WORDSWORTH.[26] + +[26] _Memoirs_, vol. i. p.304 _et seq.,_ with important additions from +the original. G. + + * * * * * + + 'THE RECLUSE; YOUNG ROSCIUS, &c. + + _Letter to Sir George H. Beaumont, Bart_. Grasmere, May 1st. 1805. + + MY DEAR SIR GEORGE, + +I have wished to write to you every day this long time, but I have also +had another wish, which has interfered to prevent me; I mean the wish to +resume my poetical labours: time was stealing away fast from me, and +nothing done, and my mind still seeming unfit to do anything. At first I +had a strong impulse to write a poem that should record my brother's +virtues, and be worthy of his memory. I began to give vent to my +feelings, with this view, but I was overpowered by my subject, and could +not proceed. I composed much, but it is all lost except a few lines, as +it came from me in such a torrent that I was unable to remember it. I +could not hold the pen myself, and the subject was such that I could not +employ Mrs. Wordsworth or my sister as my amanuensis. This work must +therefore rest awhile till I am something calmer; I shall, however, +never be at peace till, as far as in me lies, I have done justice to my +departed brother's memory. His heroic death (the particulars of which I +have now accurately collected from several of the survivors) exacts this +from me, and still more his singularly interesting character, and +virtuous and innocent life. + +Unable to proceed with this work, I turned my thoughts again to the Poem +on my own Life, and you will be glad to hear that I have added 300 lines +to it in the course of last week. Two books more will conclude it. It +will be not much less than 9000 lines,--not hundred but thousand lines +long,--an alarming length! and a thing unprecedented in literary history +that a man should talk so much about himself. It is not self-conceit, as +you will know well, that has induced me to do this, but real humility. I +began the work because I was unprepared to treat any more arduous +subject, and diffident of my own powers. Here, at least, I hoped that to +a certain degree I should be sure of succeeding, as I had nothing to do +but describe what I had felt and thought; therefore could not easily be +bewildered. This might certainly have been done in narrower compass by a +man of more address; but I have done my best. If, when the work shall be +finished, it appears to the judicious to have redundancies, they shall +be lopped off, if possible; but this is very difficult to do, when a man +has written with thought; and this defect, whenever I have suspected it +or found it to exist in any writings of mine, I have always found +incurable. The fault lies too deep, and is in the first conception. If +you see Coleridge before I do, do not speak of this to him, as I should +like to have his judgment unpreoccupied by such an apprehension. I wish +much to have your further opinion of the young Roscius, above all of his +'Hamlet.' It is certainly impossible that he should understand the +character, that is, the composition of the character. But many of the +sentiments which are put into Hamlet's mouth he may be supposed to be +capable of feeling, and to a certain degree of entering into the spirit +of some of the situations. I never saw 'Hamlet' acted myself, nor do I +know what kind of a play they make of it. I think I have heard that +some parts which I consider among the finest are omitted: in particular, +Hamlet's wild language after the ghost has disappeared. The players have +taken intolerable liberties with Shakspeare's Plays, especially with +'Richard the Third,' which, though a character admirably conceived and +drawn, is in some scenes bad enough in Shakspeare himself; but the play, +as it is now acted, has always appeared to me a disgrace to the English +stage. 'Hamlet,' I suppose, is treated by them with more reverence. They +are both characters far, far above the abilities of any actor whom I +have ever seen. Henderson was before my time, and, of course, Garrick. + +We are looking anxiously for Coleridge: perhaps he may be with you now. +We were afraid that he might have had to hear other bad news of our +family, as Lady Beaumont's little god-daughter has lately had that +dangerous complaint, the croup, particularly dangerous here, where we +are thirteen miles from any medical advice on which we can have the +least reliance. Her case has been a mild one, but sufficient to alarm us +much, and Mrs. Wordsworth and her aunt have undergone much fatigue in +sitting up, as for nearly a fortnight she had very bad nights. She yet +requires much care and attention. + +Is your building going on? I was mortified that the sweet little valley, +of which you spoke some time ago, was no longer in the possession of +your family: it is the place, I believe, where that illustrious and most +extraordinary man, Beaumont the Poet, and his brother, were born. One is +astonished when one thinks of that man having been only eight-and-twenty +years of age, for I believe he was no more, when he died. Shakspeare, we +are told, had scarcely written a single play at that age. I hope, for +the sake of poets, you are proud of these men. + +Lady Beaumont mentioned some time ago that you were painting a picture +from 'The Thorn:' is it finished? I should like to see it; the poem is a +favourite with me, and I shall love it the better for the honour you +have done it. We shall be most happy to have the other drawing which you +promised us some time ago. The dimensions of the Applethwaite one are +eight inches high, and a very little above ten broad; this, of course, +exclusive of the margin. + +I am anxious to know how your health goes on: we are better than we had +reason to expect. When we look back upon this Spring, it seems like a +dreary dream to us. But I trust in God that we shall yet 'bear up and +steer right onward.' + +Farewell. I am, your affectionate friend, + + W. WORDSWORTH. + + +My sister thanks Lady Beaumont for her letter, the short one of the +other day, and hopes to be able to write soon. Have you seen Southey's +'Madoc'? We have it in the house, but have deferred reading it, having +been too busy with the child. I should like to know how it pleases +you.[27] + +[27] _Memoirs_, vol. i. pp. 305--8. G. + + * * * * * + +PORTRAIT OF COLERIDGE: 'THE EXCURSION' FINISHED: SOUTHEY'S MADOC; &c. + +_Letter to Sir George H. Beaumont, Bart_. + + Grasmere, June 3d. 1805. + +MY DEAR SIR GEORGE, + +I write to you from the moss-hut at the top of my orchard, the sun just +sinking behind the hills in front of the entrance, and his light falling +upon the green moss of the side opposite me. A linnet is singing in the +tree above, and the children of some of our neighbours, who have been +to-day little John's visitors, are playing below equally noisy and +happy. The green fields in the level area of the vale, and part of the +lake, lie before me in quietness. I have just been reading two +newspapers, full of factious brawls about Lord Melville and his +delinquencies, ravage of the French in the West Indies, victories of the +English in the East, fleets of ours roaming the sea in search of enemies +whom they cannot find, &c. &c. &c.; and I have asked myself more than +once lately, if my affections can be in the right place, caring as I do +so little about what the world seems to care so much for. All this seems +to me, 'a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying +nothing.' It is pleasant in such a mood to turn one's thoughts to a good +man and a dear friend. I have, therefore, taken up the pen to write to +you. And, first, let me thank you (which I ought to have done long ago, +and should have done, but that I knew I had a licence from you to +procrastinate) for your most acceptable present of Coleridge's portrait, +welcome in itself, and more so as coming from you. It is as good a +resemblance as I expect to see of Coleridge, taking it all together, for +I consider C.'s as a face absolutely impracticable. Mrs. Wordsworth was +overjoyed at the sight of the print; Dorothy and I much pleased. We +think it excellent about the eyes and forehead, which are the finest +parts of C.'s face, and the general contour of the face is well given; +but, to my sister and me, it seems to fail sadly about the middle of the +face, particularly at the bottom of the nose. Mrs. W. feels this also; +and my sister so much, that, except when she covers the whole of the +middle of the face, it seems to her so entirely to alter the expression, +as rather to confound than revive in her mind the remembrance of the +original. We think, as far as mere likeness goes, Hazlitt's is better; +but the expression in Hazlitt's is quite dolorous and funereal; that in +this is much more pleasing, though certainly falling far below what one +would wish to see infused into a picture of C. Mrs. C. received a day or +two ago a letter from a friend who had letters from Malta, not from +Coleridge, but a Miss Stoddart, who is there with her brother. These +letters are of the date of the fifth of March, and speak of him as +looking well and quite well, and talking of coming home, but doubtful +whether by land or sea. + +I have the pleasure to say, that I finished my poem about a fortnight +ago. I had looked forward to the day as a most happy one; and I was +indeed grateful to God for giving me life to complete the work, such as +it is. But it was not a happy day for me; I was dejected on many +accounts: when I looked back upon the performance, it seemed to have a +dead weight about it,--the reality so far short of the expectation. It +was the first long labour that I had finished; and the doubt whether I +should ever live to write The Recluse,' and the sense which I had of +this poem being so far below what I seemed capable of executing, +depressed me much; above all, many heavy thoughts of my poor departed +brother hung upon me, the joy which I should have had in showing him the +manuscript, and a thousand other vain fancies and dreams. I have spoken +of this, because it was a state of feeling new to me, the occasion being +new. This work may be considered as a sort _of portico_ to 'The +Recluse,' part of the same building, which I hope to be able, ere long, +to begin with in earnest; and if I am permitted to bring it to a +conclusion, and to write, further, a narrative poem of the epic kind, I +shall consider the task of my life as over. I ought to add, that I have +the satisfaction of finding the present poem not quite of so alarming a +length as I apprehended. + +I wish much to hear from you, if you have leisure; but as you are so +indulgent to me, it would be the highest injustice were I otherwise to +you. + +We have read 'Madoc,' and been highly pleased with it. It abounds in +beautiful pictures and descriptions, happily introduced, and there is an +animation diffused through the whole story, though it cannot, perhaps, +be said that any of the characters interest you much, except, perhaps, +young Llewellyn, whose situation is highly interesting, and he appears +to me the best conceived and sustained character in the piece. His +speech to his uncle at their meeting in the island is particularly +interesting. The poem fails in the highest gifts of the poet's mind, +imagination in the true sense of the word, and knowledge of human nature +and the human heart. There is nothing that shows the hand of the great +master; but the beauties in description are innumerable; for instance, +that of the figure of the bard, towards the beginning of the convention +of the bards, receiving the poetic inspiration; that of the wife of +Tlalala, the savage, going out to meet her husband; that of Madoc, and +the Atzecan king with a long name, preparing for battle; everywhere, +indeed, you have beautiful descriptions, and it is a work which does the +author high credit, I think. I should like to know your opinion of it. +Farewell! Best remembrances and love to Lady Beaumont. Believe me, + + My dear Sir George, + Your most sincere friend, + W. WORDSWORTH. + +My sister thanks Lady Beaumont for her letter, and will write in a few +days. I find that Lady B. has been pleased much by 'Madoc.'[28] + +[28] _Memoirs_, vol. i. pp. 309--12. G. + + +COLERIDGE: VISIT TO COLEORTON: HOUBRAKEN: 'MADOC,' &c. + +_To Sir George H. Beaumont, Bart_. + + Grasmere, July 29th. [1805.] + +MY DEAR SIR GEORGE, + +We have all here been made happy in hearing that you are so much better. +I write now chiefly on account of a mistake which you seem to be under +concerning Coleridge. I guess from your letter that you suppose him to +be appointed to the place of Secretary to Sir A. Ball. This is by no +means the case. He is an occasional substitute for Mr. Chapman, who is +secretary, and no doubt must have resumed his office long before this; +as he had been expected every day some time before the date of C.'s last +letter. The paragraph in the Paper (which we also saw) positively states +that C. is appointed Secretary. This is an error, and has been merely +put in upon common rumour. + +When you were ill I had a thought which I will mention to you. It was +this: I wished to know how you were at present situated as to house-room +at Coleorton, that is, whether you could have found a corner for me to +put my head in, in case I could have contrived to have commanded three +weeks' time, or so. I am at present, and shall be for some time, engaged +with a sick friend, who has come all the way from Bristol on purpose to +see us, and has taken lodgings in the Village; but should you be unwell +again, and my company be like to tend in the least to exhilarate you, I +should like to know, that were it in my power to go and see you, I might +have the liberty to do so. + +Having such reason to expect Coleridge at present (were we at liberty in +other respects), I cannot think of taking my family on tour, agreeable +to your kind suggestion. Something has, however, already been added by +your means to our comforts, in the way of Books, and probably we shall +be able to make an excursion ere the Summer be over. + +By the bye, are you possessed of Houbraken and Vertue's _Heads of +Illustrious Persons_, with anecdotes of their Lives by Birch? I had an +opportunity of purchasing a handsome copy (far below the price at which +it now sells, I believe, in London) at Penrith, a few weeks ago; and if +you have not a copy, and think the work has any merit, you would please +me greatly by giving it a place in your Library. + +I am glad you like the passage in 'Madoc' about Llewellyn. Southey's +mind does not seem strong enough to draw the picture of a hero. The +character of Madoc is often very insipid and contemptible; for instance, +when he is told that the Foemen have surprised Caer, Madoc, and of +course (he has reason to believe) butchered or carried away all the +women and children, what does the Author make him do? Think of Goervyl +and Llayan very tenderly forsooth; but not a word about his people! In +short, according to my notion, the character is throughout languidly +conceived, and, as you observe, the contrast between her and Llewellyn +makes him look very mean. I made a mistake when I pointed out a +beautiful passage as being in the beginning of the meeting of the bards; +it occurs before, and ends thus: + + --His eyes were closed; + His head, as if in reverence to receive + The inspiration, bent; and as he raised + His glowing countenance and brighter eye + And swept with passionate hands the ringing harp. + +The verses of your ancestor Francis Beaumont, the younger, are very +elegant and harmonious, and written with true feeling. Is this the only +poem of his extant? There are some pleasing Verses (I think by Corbet, +Bishop of Norwich) on the death of Francis Beaumont the elder. They end, +I remember, thus, alluding to his short life: + + --by whose sole death appears, + Wit's a disease consumes men in few years. + +I have never seen the works of the brother of the dramatic Poet; but I +know he wrote a poem upon the Battle of Bosworth Field. Probably it will +be in the volume which you have found, which it would give me great +pleasure to see, as also Charnwood Rocks, which must have a striking +effect in that country. I am highly flattered by Lady Beaumont's +favourable opinion of me and my poems. + +My Sister will answer her affectionate letter very soon; she would have +done it before now, but she has been from home three days and unwell, or +entirely engrossed with some visitors whom we have had, the rest of her +time. + +The letter which you will find accompanying this is from an +acquaintance of ours to his wife. He lives at Patterdale, and she was +over at Grasmere. We thought it would interest you. Farewell. I remain, +in hopes of good news of your health, your affectionate and sincere +friend, + + W. WORDSWORTH. + +_From Mr. Luff of Patterdale to his Wife_. + +Patterdale, July 23d. [1805.] + +An event happened here last night which has greatly affected the whole +village, and particularly myself. + +The body, or more properly speaking, bones of a poor fellow were +yesterday found by Willy Harrison, in the rocks at the head of red Tarn. +It appears that he was attempting to descend the Pass from Helvellyn to +the Tarn, when he lost his footing and was dashed to pieces. + +His name appears to have been Charles Gough. Several things were found +in his pockets; fishing tackle, memorandums, a gold watch, silver +pencil, Claude Lorraine glasses, &c. + +Poor fellow! It is very strange, but we met him when we were last +reviewed in April; and he then wanted John Harrison to turn back with +him and go to the Tarn; but he was told that his request could not be +complied with. It appears that he proceeded [forward] and met his fate. + +You will be much interested to know that a spaniel bitch was found alive +by his side, where she has remained upwards of three months, guarding +the bones of her master; but she had become so wild that it was with +difficulty she was taken. She is in good condition; and what is more +odd, had whelped a pup, which from its size must have lived some weeks, +but when found was lying dead by the bones. The bones are as completely +freed from flesh as if they had been anatomised, and perfectly white and +dry. The head can nowhere be found. The arms, one thigh and a leg were +all that remained in the clothes. All the rest were scattered about here +and there. + +When I reflect on my own wanderings and the many dangerous situations I +have found myself in, in the pursuit of game, I cannot help thanking +Providence that I am now here to relate to you this melancholy tale. I +wonder whether poor Fan's affection would under similar circumstances +have equalled that of the little spaniel. + + +OF LORD NELSON AND 'THE HAPPY WARRIOR,' AND PITT; AND ON BUILDING, +GARDENING, &c. + +_Letter to Sir George H. Beaumont, Bart_. + + Grasmere, Feb. 11th. 1806. + +MY DEAR SIR GEORGE, + +Upon opening this letter, you must have seen that it is accompanied with +a copy of verses.[29] I hope they will give you some pleasure, as it +will be the best way in which they can repay me for a little vexation, +of which they have been the cause. They were written several weeks ago, +and I wished to send them to you, but could not muster up resolution, as +I felt that they were so unworthy of the subject. Accordingly, I kept +them by me from week to week, with a hope (which has proved vain) that, +in some happy moment, a new fit of inspiration would help me to mend +them; and hence my silence, which, with your usual goodness, I know you +will excuse. + +[29] 'The Happy Warrior' + +You will find that the verses are allusive to Lord Nelson; and they will +show that I must have sympathised with you in admiration of the man, and +sorrow for our loss. Yet, considering the matter coolly, there was +little to regret. The state of Lord Nelson's health, I suppose, was +such, that he could not have lived long; and the first burst of +exultation upon landing in his native country, and his reception here, +would have been dearly bought, perhaps, by pain and bodily weakness, and +distress among his friends, which he could neither remove nor alleviate. +Few men have ever died under circumstances so likely to make their +deaths of benefit to their country: it is not easy to see what his life +could have done comparable to it. The loss of such men as Lord Nelson +is, indeed, great and real; but surely not for the reason which makes +most people grieve, a supposition that no other such man is in the +country. The old ballad has taught us how to feel on these occasions: + + I trust I have within my realm + Five hundred good as he. + +But this is the evil, that nowhere is merit so much under the power of +what (to avoid a more serious expression) one may call that of fortune, +as in military and naval service; and it is five hundred to one that +such men will not have attained situations where they can show +themselves, so that the country may know in whom to trust. Lord Nelson +had attained that situation; and, therefore, I think (and not for the +other reason), ought we chiefly to lament that he is taken from us. + +Mr. Pitt is also gone! by tens of thousands looked upon in like manner +as a great loss. For my own part, as probably you know, I have never +been able to regard his political life with complacency. I believe him, +however, to have been as disinterested a man, and as true a lover of his +country, as it was possible for so ambitious a man to be. His first wish +(though probably unknown to himself) was that his country should prosper +under his administration; his next that it should prosper. Could the +order of these wishes have been reversed, Mr. Pitt would have avoided +many of the grievous mistakes into which, I think, he fell. I know, my +dear Sir George, you will give me credit for speaking without arrogance; +and I am aware it is not unlikely you may differ greatly from me in +these points. But I like, in some things, to differ with a friend, and +that he should _know_ I differ from him; it seems to make a more healthy +friendship, to act as a relief to those notions and feelings which we +have in common, and to give them a grace and spirit which they could not +otherwise possess. + +There were some parts in the long letter which I wrote about laying out +grounds, in which the expression must have been left imperfect. I like +splendid mansions in their proper places, and have no objection to large +or even obtrusive houses in themselves. My dislike is to that system of +gardening which, because a house happens to be large or splendid, and +stands at the head of a large domain, establishes it therefore as a +principle that the house ought to _dye_ all the surrounding country with +a strength of colouring and to an extent proportionate to its own +importance. This system, I think, is founded in false taste, false +feeling, and its effects disgusting in the highest degree. The reason +you mention as having induced you to build was worthy of you, and gave +me the highest pleasure. But I hope God will grant you and Lady Beaumont +life to enjoy yourselves the fruit of your exertions for many years. + +We have lately had much anxiety about Coleridge. What can have become of +him? It must be upwards of three months since he landed at Trieste. Has +he returned to Malta think you, or what can have befallen him? He has +never since been heard of. + +Lady Beaumont spoke of your having been ill of a cold; I hope you are +better. We have all here been more or less deranged in the same way. + +We have to thank you for a present of game, which arrived in good time. + +Never have a moment's uneasiness about answering my letters. We are all +well at present, and unite in affectionate wishes to you and Lady +Beaumont. Believe me, + + Your sincere friend, + W. WORDSWORTH. + + +I have thoughts of sending the Verses to a Newspaper.[30] + + +[30] _Memoirs_, vol. i. p.321 _et seq_., with important additions from +the original. By a curious inadvertence this letter is dated 1796--quite +plainly--for 1806, as shown by the post-mark outside. G. + + * * * * * + + +OF HIS OWN POEMS AS FALSELY CRITICISED. + +_Letter to Lady Beaumont_. + + Coleorton, May 21. 1807. + +MY DEAR LADY BEAUMONT, + +Though I am to see you so soon, I cannot but write a word or two, to +thank you for the interest you take in my poems, as evinced by your +solicitude about their immediate reception. I write partly to thank you +for this, and to express the pleasure it has given me, and partly to +remove any uneasiness from your mind which the disappointments you +sometimes meet with, in this labour of love, may occasion. I see that +you have many battles to fight for me,--more than, in the ardour and +confidence of your pure and elevated mind, you had ever thought of being +summoned to; but be assured that this opposition is nothing more than +what I distinctly foresaw that you and my other friends would have to +encounter. I say this, not to give myself credit for an eye of prophecy, +but to allay any vexatious thoughts on my account which this opposition +may have produced in you. + +It is impossible that any expectations can be lower than mine +concerning the immediate effect of this little work upon what is called +the public. I do not here take into consideration the envy and +malevolence, and all the bad passions which always stand in the way of a +work of any merit from a living poet; but merely think of the pure, +absolute, honest ignorance in which all worldlings of every rank and +situation must be enveloped, with respect to the thoughts, feelings, and +images, on which the life of my poems depends. The things which I have +taken, whether from within or without, what have they to do with routs, +dinners, morning calls, hurry from door to door, from street to street, +on foot or in carriage; with Mr. Pitt or Mr. Fox, Mr. Paul or Sir +Francis Burdett, the Westminster election or the borough of Honiton? In +a word--for I cannot stop to make my way through the hurry of images +that present themselves to me--what have they to do with endless talking +about things nobody cares any thing for except as far as their own +vanity is concerned, and this with persons they care nothing for but as +their vanity or _selfishness_ is concerned?--what have they to do (to +say all at once) with a life without love? In such a life there can be +no thought; for we have no thought (save thoughts of pain) but as far as +we have love and admiration. + +It is an awful truth, that there neither is, nor can be, any genuine +enjoyment of poetry among nineteen out of twenty of those persons who +live, or wish to live, in the broad light of the world--among those who +either are, or are striving to make themselves, people of consideration +in society. This is a truth, and an awful one, because to be incapable +of a feeling of poetry, in my sense of the word, is to be without love +of human nature and reverence for God. + +Upon this I shall insist elsewhere; at present let me confine myself to +my object, which is to make you, my dear friend, as easy-hearted as +myself with respect to these poems. Trouble not yourself upon their +present reception; of what moment is that compared with what I trust is +their destiny?--to console the afflicted; to add sunshine to daylight, +by making the happy happier; to teach the young and the gracious of +every age to see, to think, and feel, and, therefore, to become more +actively and securely virtuous; this is their office, which I trust they +will faithfully perform, long after we (that is, all that is mortal of +us) are mouldered in our graves. I am well aware how far it would seem +to many I over-rate my own exertions, when I speak in this way, in +direct connection with the volume I have just made public. + +I am not, however, afraid of such censure, insignificant as probably the +majority of those poems would appear to very respectable persons. I do +not mean London wits and witlings, for these have too many foul passions +about them to be respectable, even if they had more intellect than the +benign laws of Providence will allow to such a heartless existence as +theirs is; but grave, kindly-natured, worthy persons, who would be +pleased if they could. I hope that these volumes are not without some +recommendations, even for readers of this class: but their imagination +has slept; and the voice which is the voice of my poetry, without +imagination, cannot be heard. Leaving these, I was going to say a word +to such readers as Mr. ----. Such!--how would he be offended if he knew I +considered him only as a representative of a class, and not an unique! +'Pity,' says Mr. ---- 'that so many trifling things should be admitted to +obstruct the view of those that have merit.' Now, let this candid judge +take, by way of example, the sonnets, which, probably, with the +exception of two or three other poems, for which I will not contend, +appear to him the most trifling, as they are the shortest. I would say +to him, omitting things of higher consideration, there is one thing +which must strike you at once, if you will only read these poems,--that +those 'to Liberty,' at least, have a connection with, or a bearing upon, +each other; and, therefore, if individually they want weight, perhaps, +as a body, they may not be so deficient. At least, this ought to induce +you to suspend your judgment, and qualify it so far as to allow that the +writer aims at least at comprehensiveness. + +But, dropping this, I would boldly say at once, that these sonnets, +while they each fix the attention upon some important sentiment, +separately considered, do, at the same time, collectively make a poem on +the subject of civil liberty and national independence, which, either +for simplicity of style or grandeur of moral sentiment, is, alas! likely +to have few parallels in the poetry of the present day. Again, turn to +the 'Moods of my own Mind.' There is scarcely a poem here of above +thirty lines, and very trifling these poems will appear to many; but, +omitting to speak of them individually, do they not, taken +collectively, fix the attention upon a subject eminently poetical, +viz., the interest which objects in Nature derive from the predominance +of certain affections, more or less permanent, more or less capable of +salutary renewal in the mind of the being contemplating these objects? +This is poetic, and essentially poetic. And why? Because it is creative. + +But I am wasting words, for it is nothing more than you know; and if +said to those for whom it is intended, it would not be understood. + +I see by your last letter, that Mrs. Fermor has entered into the spirit +of these 'Moods of my own Mind.' Your transcript from her letter gave me +the greatest pleasure; but I must say that even she has something yet to +receive from me. I say this with confidence, from her thinking that I +have fallen below myself in the sonnet, beginning, + + With ships the sea was sprinkled far and nigh. + +As to the other which she objects to, I will only observe, that there is +a misprint in the last line but two, + + And _though_ this wilderness, + +for + + And _through_ this wilderness, + +that makes it unintelligible. This latter sonnet, for many reasons +(though I do not abandon it), I will not now speak of; but upon the +other, I could say something important in conversation, and will attempt +now to illustrate it by a comment, which, I feel, will be inadequate to +convey my meaning. There is scarcely one of my poems which does not aim +to direct the attention to some moral sentiment, or to some general +principle, or law of thought, or of our intellectual constitution. For +instance, in the present case, who is there that has not felt that the +mind can have no rest among a multitude of objects, of which it either +cannot make one whole, or from which it cannot single out one individual +whereupon may be concentrated the attention, divided among or distracted +by a multitude? After a certain time, we must either select one image or +object, which must put out of view the rest wholly, or must subordinate +them to itself while it stands forth as a head: + + How glowed the firmament + With living sapphires! Hesperus, that _led_ + The starry host, rode brightest; till the moon, + Rising in clouded majesty, at length, + Apparent _Queen_, unveiled _her peerless_ light, + And o'er the dark her silver mantle threw. + +Having laid this down as a general principle, take the case before us. I +am represented in the sonnet as casting my eyes over the sea, sprinkled +with a multitude of ships, like the heavens with stars. My mind may be +supposed to float up and down among them, in a kind of dreamy +indifference with respect either to this or that one, only in a +pleasurable state of feeling with respect to the whole prospect. +'Joyously it showed.' This continued till that feeling may be supposed +to have passed away, and a kind of comparative listlessness or apathy to +have succeeded, as at this line, + + Some veering up and down, one knew not why. + +All at once, while I am in this state, comes forth an object, an +individual; and my mind, sleepy and unfixed, is awakened and fastened in +a moment. + + Hesperus, that _led_ + The starry host, + +is a poetical object, because the glory of his own nature gives him the +pre-eminence the moment he appears. He calls forth the poetic faculty, +receiving its exertions as a tribute. But this ship in the sonnet may, +in a manner still more appropriate, be said to come upon a mission of +the poetic spirit, because, in its own appearance and attributes, it is +barely sufficiently distinguished to rouse the creative faculty of the +human mind, to exertions at all times welcome, but doubly so when they +come upon us when in a state of remissness. The mind being once fixed +and roused, all the rest comes from itself; it is merely a lordly ship, +nothing more: + + This ship was nought to me, nor I to her, + Yet I pursued her with a lover's look. + +My mind wantons with grateful joy in the exercise of its own powers, +and, loving its own creation, + + This ship to all the rest I did prefer, + +making her a sovereign or a regent, and thus giving body and life to all +the rest; mingling up this idea with fondness and praise-- + + where she comes the winds must stir; + +and concluding the whole with, + + On went she, and due north her journey took; + +thus taking up again the reader with whom I began, letting him know how +long I must have watched this favourite vessel, and inviting him to rest +his mind as mine is resting. + +Having said so much upon mere fourteen lines, which Mrs. Fermor did not +approve, I cannot but add a word or two upon my satisfaction in finding +that my mind has so much in common with hers, and that we participate so +many of each other's pleasures. I collect this from her having singled +out the two little poems, 'The Daffodils,' and 'The Rock crowned with +Snowdrops.' I am sure that whoever is much pleased with either of these +quiet and tender delineations must be fitted to walk through the +recesses of my poetry with delight, and will there recognise, at every +turn, something or other in which, and over which, it has that property +and right which knowledge and love confer. The line, + + Come, blessed barrier, &c. + +in the 'Sonnet upon Sleep,' which Mrs. F. points out, had before been +mentioned to me by Coleridge, and, indeed, by almost every body who had +heard it, as eminently beautiful. My letter (as this second sheet, which +I am obliged to take, admonishes me) is growing to an enormous length; +and yet, saving that I have expressed my calm confidence that these +poems will live, I have said nothing which has a particular application +to the object of it, which was to remove all disquiet from your mind on +account of the condemnation they may at present incur from that portion +of my contemporaries who are called the public. I am sure, my dear Lady +Beaumont, if you attach any importance to it, it can only be from an +apprehension that it may affect me, upon which I have already set you at +ease; or from a fear that this present blame is ominous of their future +or final destiny. If this be the case, your tenderness for me betrays +you. Be assured that the decision of these persons has nothing to do +with the question; they are altogether incompetent judges. These people, +in the senseless hurry of their idle lives, do not _read_ books, they +merely snatch a glance at them, that they may talk about them. And even +if this were not so, never forget what, I believe, was observed to you +by Coleridge, that every great and original writer, in proportion as he +is great or original, must himself create the taste by which he is to be +relished; he must teach the art by which he is to be seen; this, in a +certain degree, even to all persons, however wise and pure may be their +lives, and however unvitiated their taste. But for those who dip into +books in order to give an opinion of them, or talk about them to take up +an opinion--for this multitude of unhappy, and misguided, and misguiding +beings, an entire regeneration must be produced; and if this be +possible, it must be a work _of time_. To conclude, my ears are +stone-dead to this idle buzz, and my flesh as insensible as iron to +these petty stings; and, after what I have said, I am sure yours will be +the same. I doubt not that you will share with me an invincible +confidence that my writings (and among them these little poems) will +co-operate with the benign tendencies in human nature and society, +wherever found; and that they will, in their degree, be efficacious in +making men wiser, better, and happier. Farewell! I will not apologise +for this letter, though its length demands an apology. Believe me, +eagerly wishing for the happy day when I shall see you and Sir George +here, + + Most affectionately yours, + W. WORDSWORTH. + +Do not hurry your coming hither on our account: my sister regrets that +she did not press this upon you, as you say in your letter, 'we cannot +_possibly_ come before the first week in June;' from which we infer that +your kindness will induce you to make sacrifices for our sakes. Whatever +pleasure we may have in thinking of Grasmere, we have no impatience to +be gone, and think with full as much regret of leaving Coleorton. I had, +for myself, indeed, a wish to be at Grasmere with as much of the summer +before me as might be; but to this I attach no importance whatever, as +far as the gratification of that wish interferes with any inclination or +duty of yours. I could not be satisfied without seeing you here, and +shall have great pleasure in waiting.[31] + +[31] _Memoirs_, vol. i. pp. 331-40. + + +OF 'PETER BELL' AND OTHER POEMS. _Letter to Sir George H. Beaumont, +Bart_. + + MY DEAR SIR GEORGE, + +I am quite delighted to hear of your picture for 'Peter Bell;' I was +much pleased with the sketch, and I have no doubt that the picture will +surpass it as far as a picture ought to do. I long much to see it. I +should approve of any engraver approved by you. But remember that no +poem of mine will ever be popular; and I am afraid that the sale of +'Peter' would not carry the expence of the engraving, and that the poem, +in the estimation of the public, would be a weight upon the print. I say +not this in modest disparagement of the poem, but in sorrow for the +sickly taste of the public in verse. The _people_ would love the poem of +'Peter Bell,' but the _public_ (a very different being) will never love +it. Thanks for dear Lady B.'s transcript from your friend's letter; it +is written with candour, but I must say a word or two not in praise of +it. 'Instances of what I mean,' says your friend, 'are to be found in a +poem on a Daisy' (by the by, it is on _the_ Daisy, a mighty difference!) +'and on _Daffodils reflected in the Water_.' Is this accurately +transcribed by Lady Beaumont? If it be, what shall we think of criticism +or judgment founded upon, and exemplified by, a poem which must have +been so inattentively perused? My language is precise; and, therefore, +it would be false modesty to charge myself with blame. + + Beneath the trees, + Ten thousand dancing in the _breeze_. + The _waves beside_ them danced, but they + Outdid the _sparkling waves_ in glee. + +Can expression be more distinct? And let me ask your friend how it is +possible for flowers to be _reflected_ in water where there are _waves_? +They may, indeed, in _still_ water; but the very object of my poem is +the trouble or agitation, both of the flowers and the water. I must +needs respect the understanding of every one honoured by your +friendship; but sincerity compels me to say that my poems must be more +nearly looked at, before they can give rise to any remarks of much +value, even from the strongest minds. With respect to this individual +poem, Lady B. will recollect how Mrs. Fermor expressed herself upon it. +A letter also was sent to me, addressed to a friend of mine, and by him +communicated to me, in which this identical poem was singled out for +fervent approbation. What then shall we say? Why, let the poet first +consult his own heart, as I have done, and leave the rest to +posterity,--to, I hope, an improving posterity. The fact is, the English +_public_ are at this moment in the same state of mind with respect to my +poems, if small things may be compared with great, as the French are in +respect to Shakspeare, and not the French alone, but almost the whole +Continent. In short, in your friend's letter, I am condemned for the +very thing for which I ought to have been praised, viz., that I have not +written down to the level of superficial observers and unthinking minds. +Every great poet is a teacher: I wish either to be considered as a +teacher, or as nothing. + +To turn to a more pleasing subject. Have you painted anything else +beside this picture from 'Peter Bell'? Your two oil-paintings (and, +indeed, everything I have of yours) have been much admired by the +artists who have seen them. And, for our own parts, we like them better +every day; this, in particular, is the case with the small picture from +the neighbourhood of Coleorton, which, indeed, pleased me much at the +first sight, but less impressed the rest of our household, who now see +as many beauties in it as I do myself. Havill, the water-colour painter, +was much pleased with these things; he is painting at Ambleside, and has +done a view of Rydal Water, looking down upon it from Rydal Park, of +which I should like to know your opinion; it will be exhibited in the +Spring, in the water-colour Exhibition. I have purchased a black-lead +pencil sketch of Mr. Green, of Ambleside, which, I think, has great +merit, the materials being uncommonly picturesque, and well put +together: I should dearly like to have the same subject (it is the +cottage at Glencoign, by Ulleswater) treated by you. In the poem I have +just written, you will find one situation which, if the work should ever +become familiarly known, would furnish as fine a subject for a picture +as any thing I remember in poetry ancient or modern. I need not mention +what it is, as when you read the poem you cannot miss it. We have at +last had, by the same post, two letters from Coleridge, long and +melancholy; and also, from Keswick, an account so depressing as to the +state of his health, that I should have set off immediately to London, +to see him, if I had not myself been confined by indisposition. + +I hope that Davy is by this time perfectly restored to health. Believe +me, my dear Sir George, + + Most sincerely yours, + W. WORDSWORTH.[32] + +[32] _Memoirs_, vol. i. pp. 340-3. + + +OF BUILDING AND GARDENING AND LAYING OUT OF GROUNDS. _Letter to Sir +George H. Beaumont, Bart_. + + Grasmere, October 17th. 1805. + +MY DEAR SIR GEORGE, + +I was very glad to learn that you had room for me at Coleorton, and far +more so, that your health was so much mended. Lady Beaumont's last +letter to my sister has made us wish that you were fairly through your +present engagements with workmen and builders, and, as to improvements, +had smoothed over the first difficulties, and gotten things into a way +of improving themselves. I do not suppose that any man ever built a +house, without finding in the progress of it obstacles that were +unforeseen, and something that might have been better planned; things +teazing and vexatious when they come, however the mind may have been +made up at the outset to a general expectation of the kind. + +With respect to the grounds, you have there the advantage of being in +good hands, namely, those of Nature; and, assuredly, whatever petty +crosses from contrariety of opinion or any other cause you may now meet +with, these will soon disappear, and leave nothing behind but +satisfaction and harmony. Setting out from the distinction made by +Coleridge which you mentioned, that your house will belong to the +country, and not the country be an appendage to your house, you cannot +be wrong. Indeed, in the present state of society, I see nothing +interesting either to the imagination or the heart, and, of course, +nothing which true taste can approve, in any interference with Nature, +grounded upon any other principle. In times when the feudal system was +in its vigor, and the personal importance of every chieftain might be +said to depend entirely upon the extent of his landed property and +rights of seignory; when the king, in the habits of people's minds, was +considered as the primary and true proprietor of the soil, which was +granted out by him to different lords, and again by them to their +several tenants under them, for the joint defence of all; there might +have been something imposing to the imagination in the whole face of a +district, testifying, obtrusively even, its dependence upon its chief. +Such an image would have been in the spirit of the society, implying +power, grandeur, military state, and security; and, less directly, in +the person of the chief, high birth, and knightly education and +accomplishments; in short, the most of what was then deemed interesting +or affecting. Yet, with the exception of large parks and forests, +nothing of this kind was known at that time, and these were left in +their wild state, so that such display of ownership, so far from taking +from the beauty of Nature, was itself a chief cause of that beauty being +left unspoiled and unimpaired. The _improvements_, when the place was +sufficiently tranquil to admit of any, though absurd and monstrous in +themselves, were confined (as our present Laureate has observed, I +remember, in one of his essays) to an acre or two about the house in the +shape of garden with terraces, &c. So that Nature had greatly the +advantage in those days, when what has been called English gardening was +unheard of. This is now beginning to be perceived, and we are setting +out to travel backwards. Painters and poets have had the credit of being +reckoned the fathers of English gardening; they will also have, +hereafter, the better praise of being fathers of a better taste. Error +is in general nothing more than getting hold of good things, as every +thing has two handles, by the wrong one. It was a misconception of the +meaning and principles of poets and painters which gave countenance to +the modern system of gardening, which is now, I hope, on the decline; in +other words, we are submitting to the rule which you at present are +guided by, that of having our houses belong to the country, which will +of course lead us back to the simplicity of Nature. And leaving your own +individual sentiments and present work out of the question, what good +can come of any other guide, under any circumstances? We have, indeed, +distinctions of rank, hereditary legislators, and large landed +proprietors; but from numberless causes the state of society is so much +altered, that nothing of that lofty or imposing interest, formerly +attached to large property in land, can now exist; none of the poetic +pride, and pomp, and circumstance; nor anything that can be considered +as making amends for violation done to the holiness of Nature. Let us +take an extreme case, such as a residence of a Duke of Norfolk, or +Northumberland: of course you would expect a mansion, in some degree +answerable to their consequence, with all conveniences. The names of +Howard and Percy will always stand high in the regards of Englishmen; +but it is degrading, not only to such families as these, but to every +really interesting one, to suppose that their importance will be most +felt where most displayed, particularly in the way I am now alluding to. +This is contracting a general feeling into a local one. Besides, were it +not so, as to what concerns the Past, a man would be sadly astray, who +should go, for example, to modernise Alnwick and its dependencies, with +his head full of the ancient Percies: he would find nothing there which +would remind him of them, except by contrast; and of that kind of +admonition he would, indeed, have enough. But this by the bye, for it is +against the principle itself I am contending, and not the misapplication +of it. After what was said above, I may ask, if anything connected with +the families of Howard and Percy, and their rank and influence, and thus +with the state of government and society, could, in the present age, be +deemed a recompence for their thrusting themselves in between us and +Nature. Surely it is a substitution of little things for great when we +would put a whole country into a nobleman's livery. I know nothing which +to me would be so pleasing or affecting, as to be able to say when I am +in the midst of a large estate--This man is not the victim of his +condition; he is not the spoiled child of worldly grandeur; the thought +of himself does not take the lead in his enjoyments; he is, where he +ought to be, lowly-minded, and has human feelings; he has a true relish +of simplicity, and therefore stands the best chance of being happy; at +least, without it there is no happiness, because there can be no true +sense of the bounty and beauty of the creation, or insight into the +constitution of the human mind. Let a man of wealth and influence shew, +by the appearance of the country in his neighbourhood, that he treads +in the steps of the good sense of the age, and occasionally goes +foremost; let him give countenance to improvements in agriculture, +steering clear of the pedantry of it, and showing that its grossest +utilities will connect themselves harmoniously with the more +intellectual arts, and even thrive the best under such connection; let +him do his utmost to be surrounded with tenants living comfortably, +which will bring always with it the best of all graces which a country +can have--flourishing fields and happy-looking houses; and, in that part +of his estate devoted to park and pleasure-ground, let him keep himself +as much out of sight as possible; let Nature be all in all, taking care +that everything done by man shall be in the way of being adopted by her. +If people chuse that a great mansion should be the chief figure in a +country, let this kind of keeping prevail through the picture, and true +taste will find no fault. + +I am writing now rather for writing's sake than anything else, for I +have many remembrances beating about in my head which you would little +suspect. I have been thinking of you, and Coleridge, and our Scotch +Tour, and Lord Lowther's grounds, and Heaven knows what. I have had +before me the tremendously long ell-wide gravel walks of the Duke of +Athol, among the wild glens of Blair, Bruar Water, and Dunkeld, brushed +neatly, without a blade of grass or weed upon them, or anything that +bore traces of a human footstep; much indeed of human hands, but wear or +tear of foot was none. Thence I pass'd to our neighbour, Lord Lowther. +You know that his predecessor, greatly, without doubt, to the advantage +of the place, left it to take care of itself. The present lord seems +disposed to do something, but not much. He has a neighbour, a Quaker, an +amiable, inoffensive man[33], and a little of a poet too, who has amused +himself, upon his own small estate upon the Emont, in twining pathways +along the banks of the river, making little cells and bowers with +inscriptions of his own writing, all very pretty as not spreading far. +This man is at present Arbiter Elegantiarum, or master of the grounds, +at Lowther, and what he has done hitherto is very well, as it is little +more than making accessible what could not before be got at. + +[33] Mr. Thomas Wilkinson. See poem, 'To his Spade.' + +You know something of Lowther. I believe a more delightful spot is not under +the sun. Last summer I had a charming walk along the river, for which I was +indebted to this man, whose intention is to carry the walk along the +river-side till it joins the great road at Lowther Bridge, which you +will recollect, just under Brougham, about a mile from Penrith. This to +my great sorrow! for the manufactured walk, which was absolutely +necessary in many places, will in one place pass through a few hundred +yards of forest ground, and will there efface the most beautiful +specimen of a forest pathway ever seen by human eyes, and which I have +paced many an hour, when I was a youth, with some of those I best love. +This path winds on under the trees with the wantonness of a river or a +living creature; and even if I may say so with the subtlety of a spirit, +contracting or enlarging itself, visible or invisible as it likes. There +is a continued opening between the trees, a narrow slip of green turf +besprinkled with flowers, chiefly daisies, and here it is, if I may use +the same kind of language, that this pretty path plays its pranks, +wearing away the turf and flowers at its pleasure. When I took the walk +I was speaking of, last summer, it was Sunday. I met several of the +people of the country posting to and from church, in different parts; +and in a retired spot by the river-side were two musicians (belonging +probably to some corps of volunteers) playing upon the hautboy and +clarionet. You may guess I was not a little delighted; and as you had +been a visiter at Lowther, I could not help wishing you were with me. +And now I am brought to the sentiment which occasioned this detail; I +may say, brought back to my subject, which is this,--that all just and +solid pleasure in natural objects rests upon two pillars, God and Man. +Laying out grounds, as it is called, may be considered as a liberal art, +in some sort like poetry and painting; and its object, like that of all +the liberal arts, is, or ought to be, to move the affections under the +controul of good sense; that is, those of the best and wisest: but, +speaking with more precision, it is to assist Nature in moving the +affections, and, surely, as I have said, the affections of those who +have the deepest perception of the beauty of Nature; who have the most +valuable feelings, that is, the most permanent, the most independent, +the most ennobling, connected with Nature and human life. No liberal art +aims merely at the gratification of an individual or a class: the +painter or poet is degraded in proportion as he does so; the true +servants of the Arts pay homage to the human kind as impersonated in +unwarped and enlightened minds. If this be so when we are merely putting +together words or colours, how much more ought the feeling to prevail +when we are in the midst of the realities of things; of the beauty and +harmony, of the joy and happiness of living creatures; of men and +children, of birds and beasts, of hills and streams, and trees and +flowers; with the changes of night and day, evening and morning, summer +and winter; and all their unwearied actions and energies, as benign in +the spirit that animates them as they are beautiful and grand in that +form and clothing which is given to them for the delight of our senses! +But I must stop, for you feel these things as deeply as I; more deeply, +if it were only for this, that you have lived longer. What then shall we +say of many great mansions with their unqualified expulsion of human +creatures from their neighbourhood, happy or not; houses, which do what +is fabled of the upas tree, that they breathe out death and desolation! +I know you will feel with me here, both as a man and a lover and +professor of the arts. I was glad to hear from Lady Beaumont that you +did not think of removing your village. Of course much here will depend +upon circumstances, above all, with what kind of inhabitants, from the +nature of the employments in that district, the village is likely to be +stocked. But, for my part, strip my neighbourhood of human beings, and I +should think it one of the greatest privations I could undergo. You have +all the poverty of solitude, nothing of its elevation. In a word, if I +were disposed to write a sermon (and this is something like one) upon +the subject of taste in natural beauty, I should take for my text the +little pathway in Lowther Woods, and all which I had to say would begin +and end in the human heart, as under the direction of the Divine Nature, +conferring value on the objects of the senses, and pointing out what is +valuable in them. + +I began this subject with Coleorton in my thoughts, and a confidence, +that whatever difficulties or crosses (as of many good things it is not +easy to chuse the best) you might meet with in the practical application +of your principles of Taste, yet, being what they are, you will soon be +pleased and satisfied. Only (if I may take the freedom to say so) do not +give way too much to others: considering what your studies and pursuits +have been, your own judgment must be the best: professional men may +suggest hints, but I would keep the decision to myself. + +Lady Beaumont utters something like an apprehension that the slowness of +workmen or other impediments may prevent our families meeting at +Coleorton next summer. We shall be sorry for this, the more so, as the +same cause will hinder your coming hither. At all events, we shall +depend upon her frankness, which we take most kindly indeed; I mean, on +the promise she has made, to let us know whether you are gotten so far +through your work as to make it comfortable for us all to be together. + +I cannot close this letter without a word about myself. I am sorry to +say I am not yet settled to any serious employment. The expectation of +Coleridge not a little unhinges me, and, still more, the number of +visitors we have had; but winter is approaching, and I have good hopes. +I mentioned Michael Angelo's poetry some time ago; it is the most +difficult to construe I ever met with, but just what you would expect +from such a man, shewing abundantly how conversant his soul was with +great things. There is a mistake in the world concerning the Italian +language; the poetry of Dante and Michael Angelo proves, that if there +be little majesty and strength in Italian verse, the fault is in the +authors, and not in the tongue. I can translate, and have translated, +two books of Ariosto, at the rate, nearly, of 100 lines a day; but so +much meaning has been put by Michael Angelo into so little room, and +that meaning sometimes so excellent in itself, that I found the +difficulty of translating him insurmountable. I attempted, at least, +fifteen of the sonnets, but could not anywhere succeed. I have sent you +the only one I was able to finish: it is far from being the best, or +most characteristic, but the others were too much for me.[34] + +[34] 'Yes, Hope may with my strong desire keep pace,' &c. + +I began this letter about a week ago, having been interrupted. I mention +this, because I have on this account to apologise to Lady Beaumont, and +to my sister also, whose intention it was to have written, but being +very much engaged, she put it off as I was writing. We have been weaning +Dorothy, and since, she has had a return of the croup from an imprudent +exposure on a very cold day. But she is doing well again; and my sister +will write very soon. Lady Beaumont inquired how game might be sent us. +There is a direct conveyance from Manchester to Kendal by the mail, and +a parcel directed for me, to be delivered at Kendal, immediately, to +John Brockbank, Ambleside, postman, would, I dare say, find its way to +us expeditiously enough; only you will have the goodness to mention in +your letters when you do send anything, otherwise we may not be aware of +any mistake. + +I am glad the Houbraken will be acceptable, and will send it any way you +shall think proper, though perhaps, as it would only make a small +parcel, there might be some risk in trusting it to the waggon or mail, +unless it could be conveniently inquired after. No news of Coleridge. +The length of this letter is quite formidable; forgive it. Farewell, and +believe me, my dear Sir George, + + Your truly affectionate friend, + W. WORDSWORTH.[35] + +[35] _Memoirs_, vol. i. pp. 345-54, with very important additions from the +original. G. + + +OF THE INSCRIPTIONS AT COLEORTON. + +_Letter to Sir George H. Beaumont, Bart_. + +MY DEAR SIR GEORGE, + +Had there been room at the end of the small avenue of lime-trees for +planting a spacious circle of the same trees, the urn might have been +placed in the centre, with the inscription thus altered: + + Ye lime-trees, ranged around this hallowed urn, + Shoot forth with lively power at Spring's return! + + * * * * * + + Here may some painter sit in future days, + Some future poet meditate his lays! + Not mindless of that distant age, renowned, + When inspiration hovered o'er this ground, + The haunt of him who sang, how spear and shield + In civil conflict met on Bosworth field, + And of that famous youth (full soon removed + From earth!) by mighty Shakspeare's self approved. + Fletcher's associate, Jonson's friend beloved. + +The first couplet of the above, as it before stood, would have appeared +ludicrous, if the stone had remained after the tree might have been +gone. The couplet relating to the household virtues did not accord with +the painter and the poet; the former being allegorical figures; the +latter, living men. + +What follows, I composed yesterday morning, thinking there might be no +impropriety in placing it, so as to be _visible only to a person sitting +within the niche_ which we hollowed out of the sandstone in the +winter-garden. I am told that this is, in the present form of the niche, +impossible; but I shall be most ready, when I come to Coleorton, to +scoop out a place for it, if Lady Beaumont think it worth while. + + INSCRIPTION. + + Oft is the medal faithful to its trust + When temples, columns, towers, are laid in dust; + And 'tis a common ordinance of fate + That things obscure and small outlive the great. + Hence, &c. + +These inscriptions have all one fault, they are too long; but I was +unable to do justice to the thoughts in less room. The second has +brought Sir John Beaumont and his brother Francis so lively to my mind, +that I recur to the plan of republishing the former's poems, perhaps in +connection with those of Francis. Could any further _search_ be made +after the 'Crown of Thorns?' If I recollect right, Southey applied +without effect to the numerous friends he has among the collectors. The +best way, perhaps, of managing this republication would be, to print it +in a very elegant type and paper, and not many copies, to be sold high, +so that it might be prized by the collectors as a curiosity. Bearing in +mind how many excellent things there are in Sir John Beaumont's little +volume, I am somewhat mortified at this mode of honouring his memory; +but in the present state of the taste of this country, I cannot flatter +myself that poems of that character would win their way into general +circulation. Should it appear advisable, another edition might +afterwards be published, upon a plan which would place the book within +the reach of those who have little money to spare. I remain, my dear Sir +George, + + Your affectionate friend, + W. WORDSWORTH[36]. + +[36] _Memoirs_, vol. i, pp. 358-60. + + +OF POEMS, COLERIDGE, &c. &c. + +_Letter to Sir George H. Beaumont, Bart_. + + Grasmere, Sat., Nov. 16. 1811. + +MY DEAR SIR GEORGE, + +I have to thank you for two letters. Lady Beaumont also will accept my +acknowledgments for the interesting letter with which she favoured me. + + * * * * * + +I learn from Mrs. Coleridge, who has lately heard from C----, that +Alston, the painter, has arrived in London. Coleridge speaks of him as a +most interesting person. He has brought with him a few pictures from his +own pencil, among others, a Cupid and Psyche, which, in C.'s opinion, +has not, for colouring, been surpassed since Titian. C. is about to +deliver a Course of Lectures upon Poetry, at some Institution in the +city. He is well, and I learn that the 'Friend' has been a good deal +inquired after lately. For ourselves, we never hear from him. + +I am glad that the inscriptions please you. It did always appear to me, +that inscriptions, particularly those in verse, or in a dead language, +were never supposed _necessarily_ to be the composition of those in +whose name they appeared. If a more striking, or more dramatic effect +could be produced, I have always thought, that in an epitaph or memorial +of any kind, a father, or husband, &c. might be introduced, speaking, +without any absolute deception being intended: that is, the reader is +understood to be at liberty to say to himself,--these verses, or this +Latin, may be the composition of some unknown person, and not that of +the father, widow, or friend, from whose hand or voice they profess to +proceed. If the composition be natural, affecting, or beautiful, it is +all that is required. This, at least, was my view of the subject, or I +should not have adopted that mode. However, in respect to your scruples, +which I feel are both delicate and reasonable, I have altered the +verses; and I have only to regret that the alteration is not more +happily done. But I never found anything more difficult. I wished to +preserve the expression _patrimonial grounds_, but I found this +impossible, on account of the awkwardness of the pronouns, he and his, +as applied to Reynolds, and to yourself. This, even where it does not +produce confusion, is always inelegant. I was, therefore, obliged to +drop it; so that we must be content, I fear, with the inscription as it +stands below. As you mention that the first copy was mislaid, I will +transcribe the first part from that; but you can either choose the Dome +or the Abbey as you like. + + Ye lime-trees, ranged before this hallowed urn, + Shoot forth with lively power at Spring's return; + And be not slow a stately growth to rear + Of pillars, branching off from year to year, + Till ye have framed, at length, a darksome aisle, + Like a recess within that sacred pile + Where Reynolds, 'mid our country's noblest dead, + In the last sanctity of fame is laid, &c. &c. + +I hope this will do: I tried a hundred different ways, but cannot hit +upon anything better. I am sorry to learn from Lady Beaumont, that there +is reason to believe that our cedar is already perished. I am sorry for +it. The verses upon that subject you and Lady B. praise highly; and +certainly, if they have merit, as I cannot but think they have, your +discriminating praises have pointed it out. The alteration in the +beginning, I think with you, is a great improvement, and the first line +is, to my ear, very rich and grateful. As to the 'Female and Male,' I +know not how to get rid of it; for that circumstance gives the recess an +appropriate interest. I remember, Mr. Bowles, the poet, objected to the +word ravishment at the end of the sonnet to the winter-garden; yet it +has the authority of all the first-rate poets, for instance, Milton: + + In whose sight all things joy, with _ravishment_, + Attracted by thy beauty still to gaze. + +Objections upon these grounds merit more attention in regard to +inscriptions than any other sort of composition; and on this account, +the lines (I mean those upon the niche) had better be suppressed, for it +is not improbable that the altering of them might cost me more trouble +than writing a hundred fresh ones. + +We were happy to hear that your mother, Lady Beaumont, was so +surprisingly well. You do not mention the school at Coleorton. Pray how +is Wilkie in health, and also as to progress in his art? I do not doubt +that I shall like Arnold's picture; but he would have been a better +painter, if his genius had led him to _read_ more in the early part of +his life. Wilkie's style of painting does not require that the mind +should be fed from books; but I do not think it possible to _excel_ in +_landscape_ painting without a strong tincture of the poetic +spirit.[37] + + +OF THE INSCRIPTIONS AT COLEORTON. + +_Letter to Lady Beaumont_. + + Grasmere, Wednesday, Nov. 20. 1811. + +MY DEAR LADY BEAUMONT, + +When you see this you will think I mean to overrun you with +inscriptions: I do not mean to tax you with putting them up, only with +reading them. The following I composed yesterday morning, in a walk from +Brathway, whither I had been to accompany my sister. + + FOR A SEAT IN THE GROVES OF COLEORTON. + + Beneath yon eastern ridge, the craggy bound + Rugged and high of Charnwood's forest-ground, + Stand yet, but, Stranger! hidden from thy view, + The ivied ruins of forlorn Grace Dieu, &c. &c. + +I hope that neither you nor Sir George will think that the above takes +from the effect of the mention of Francis Beaumont in the poem upon the +cedar. Grace Dieu is itself so interesting a spot, and has naturally and +historically such a connection with Coleorton, that I could not deny +myself the pleasure of paying it this mark of attention. The thought of +writing the inscription occurred to me many years ago. I took the +liberty of transcribing for Sir George an alteration which I had made in +the inscription for St. Herbert's island; I was not then quite satisfied +with it; I have since retouched it, and will trouble you to read him the +following, which I hope will give you pleasure. + + This island, guarded from profane approach + By mountains high and waters widely spread, + Gave to St. Herbert a benign retreat, &c. &c. + +I ought to mention, that the line, + + And things of holy use unhallowed lie, + +is taken from the following of Daniel, + + Strait all that holy was unhallowed lies. + +[37] _Memoirs_, vol. i. pp. 360-3. + +I will take this occasion of recommending to you (if you happen to have +Daniel's poems) to read the epistle addressed to the Lady Margaret, +Countess of Cumberland, beginning, + + He that of such a height hath built his mind. + +The whole poem is composed in a strain of meditative morality more +dignified and affecting than anything of the kind I ever read. It is, +besides, strikingly applicable to the revolutions of the present times. + +My dear Lady Beaumont, your letter and the accounts it contains of the +winter-garden, gave me great pleasure. I cannot but think, that under +your care, it will grow up into one of the most beautiful and +interesting spots in England. We all here have a longing desire to see +it. I have mentioned the high opinion we have of it to a couple of my +friends, persons of taste living in this country, who are determined, +the first time they are called up to London, to turn aside to visit it; +which I said they might without scruple do, if they mentioned my name to +the gardener. My sister begs me to say, that she is aware how long she +has been in your debt, and that she should have written before now, but +that, as I have, latterly, been in frequent communication with +Coleorton, she thought it as well to defer answering your letter. Do you +see the _Courier_ newspaper at Dunmow? I ask on account of a little poem +upon the comet, which I have read in it to-day. Though with several +defects, and some feeble and constrained expressions, it has great +merit, and is far superior to the run, not merely of newspaper, but of +modern poetry in general. I half suspect it to be Coleridge's, for +though it is, in parts, inferior to him, I know no other writer of the +day who can do so well. It consists of five stanzas, in the measure of +the 'Fairy Queen.' It is to be found in last Saturday's paper, November +16th. If you don't see the _Courier_ we will transcribe it for you. As +so much of this letter is taken up with my verses, I will e'en trespass +still further on your indulgence, and conclude with a sonnet, which I +wrote some time ago upon the poet, John Dyer. If you have not read the +'Fleece,' I would strongly recommend it to you. The character of Dyer, +as a patriot, a citizen, and a tender-hearted friend of humanity was, in +some respects, injurious to him as a poet, and has induced him to dwell, +in his poem, upon processes which, however important in themselves, +were unsusceptible of being poetically treated. Accordingly, his poem +is, in several places, dry and heavy; but its beauties are innumerable, +and of a high order. In point of _Imagination_ and purity of style, I am +not sure that he is not superior to any writer in verse since the time +of Milton. + + SONNET. + + Bard of the Fleece! whose skilful genius made + That work a living landscape fair and bright; + Nor hallowed less by musical delight + Than those soft scenes through which thy childhood strayed, + Those southern tracts of Cambria, deep embayed, &c. &c. + +In the above is one whole line from the 'Fleece,' and two other +expressions. When you read the 'Fleece' you will recognise them. I +remain, my dear Lady Beaumont, + + Your sincere friend, + W. WORDSWORTH.[38] + +[38] _Memoirs_, vol. i. pp. 363-6. + + +EXCURSION IN NORTH WALES. + +_Letter to Sir George H. Beaumont_. + + Hindwell, Radnor, Sept. 20. 1824. MY DEAR SIR GEORGE, + +After a three weeks' ramble in North Wales, Mrs. Wordsworth, Dora, and +myself are set down quietly here for three weeks more. The weather has +been delightful, and everything to our wishes. On a beautiful day we +took the steam-packet at Liverpool, passed the mouth of the Dee, coasted +the extremity of the Vale of Clwyd, sailed close under Great Orm's Head, +had a noble prospect of Penmaenmawr, and having almost touched upon +Puffin's Island, we reached Bangor Ferry, a little after six in the +afternoon. We admired the stupendous preparations for the bridge over +the Menai; and breakfasted next morning at Carnarvon. We employed +several hours in exploring the interior of the noble castle, and looking +at it from different points of view in the neighbourhood. At half-past +four we departed for Llanberris, having fine views as we looked back of +C. Castle, the sea, and Anglesey. A little before sunset we came in +sight of Llanberris Lake, Snowdon, and all the craggy hills and +mountains surrounding it; the foreground a beautiful contrast to this +grandeur and desolation--a green sloping hollow, furnishing a shelter +for one of the most beautiful collections of lowly Welsh cottages, with +thatched roofs, overgrown with plants, anywhere to be met with: the +hamlet is called Cum-y-glo. And here we took boat, while the solemn +lights of evening were receding towards the tops of the mountains. As we +advanced, Dolbardin Castle came in view, and Snowdon opened upon our +admiration. It was almost dark when we reached the quiet and comfortable +inn at Llanberris. + + * * * * * + +There being no carriage-road, we undertook to walk by the Pass of +Llanberris, eight miles, to Capel Cerig; this proved fatiguing, but it +was the only oppressive exertion we made during the course of our tour. +We arrived at Capel Cerig in time for a glance at the Snowdonian range, +from the garden of the inn, in connection with the lake (or rather pool) +reflecting the crimson clouds of evening. The outline of Snowdon is +perhaps seen nowhere to more advantage than from this place. Next +morning, five miles down a beautiful valley to the banks of the Conway, +which stream we followed to Llanrwst; but the day was so hot that we +could only make use of the morning and evening. Here we were joined, +according to previous arrangement, by Bishop Hobart, of New York, who +remained with us till two o'clock next day, and left us to complete his +hasty tour through North and South Wales. In the afternoon arrived my +old college friend and youthful companion among the Alps, the Rev. R. +Jones, and in his car we all proceeded to the Falls of the Conway, +thence up that river to a newly-erected inn on the Irish road, where we +lodged; having passed through bold and rocky scenery along the banks of +a stream which is a feeder of the Dee. Next morning we turned from the +Irish road three or four miles to visit the 'Valley of Meditation' (Glyn +Mavyr) where Mr. Jones has, at present, a curacy, with a comfortable +parsonage. We slept at Corwen, and went down the Dee to Llangollen, +which you and dear Lady B. know well. Called upon the celebrated +Recluses,[39] who hoped that you and Lady B. had not forgotten them; +they certainly had not forgotten you, and they begged us to say that +they retained a lively remembrance of you both. We drank tea and passed +a couple of hours with them in the evening, having visited the aqueduct +over the Dee and Chirk Castle in the afternoon. Lady E. has not been +well, and has suffered much in her eyes, but she is surprisingly lively +for her years. Miss P. is apparently in unimpaired health. Next day I +sent them the following sonnet from Ruthin, which was conceived, and in +a great measure composed, in their grounds. + +[39] The Lady E. Butler, and the Hon. Miss Ponsonby. + + A stream, to mingle with your favourite Dee, + Along the _Vale of Meditation_ flows; + So named by those fierce Britons, pleased to see + In Nature's face the expression of repose, &c. &c. + +We passed three days with Mr. Jones's friends in the vale of Clwyd, +looking about us, and on the Tuesday set off again, accompanied by our +friend, to complete our tour. We dined at Conway, walked to Bennarth, +the view from which is a good deal choked up with wood. A small part of +the castle has been demolished for the sake of the new road to +communicate with the suspension-bridge, which they are about to make to +the small island opposite the castle, to be connected by a long +embankment with the opposite shore. The bridge will, I think, prove +rather ornamental when time has taken off the newness of its supporting +masonry; but the mound deplorably impairs the majesty of the water at +high-tide; in fact it destroys its lake-like appearance. Our drive to +Aber in the evening was charming; sun setting in glory. We had also a +delightful walk next morning up the vale of Aber, terminated by a lofty +waterfall; not much in itself, but most striking as a closing +accompaniment to the secluded valley. Here, in the early morning, I saw +an odd sight--fifteen milk-maids together, laden with their brimming +pails. How cheerful and happy they appeared! and not a little inclined +to joke after the manner of the pastoral persons in Theocritus. That day +brought us to Capel Cerig again, after a charming drive up the banks of +the Ogwen, having previously had beautiful views of Bangor, the sea, and +its shipping. From Capel Cerig down the justly celebrated vale of Nant +Gwynant to Bethgelart. In this vale are two small lakes, the higher of +which is the only Welsh lake which has any pretensions to compare with +our own; and it has one great advantage over them, that it remains +wholly free from intrusive objects. We saw it early in the morning; and +with the greenness of the meadows at its head, the steep rocks on one of +its shores, and the bold mountains at _both_ extremities, a feature +almost peculiar to itself, it appeared to us truly enchanting. The +village of Bethgelart is much altered for the worse: new and formal +houses have, in a great measure, supplanted the old rugged and tufted +cottages, and a smart hotel has taken the lead of the lowly public-house +in which I took refreshment almost thirty years ago, previous to a +midnight ascent to the summit of Snowdon. At B. we were agreeably +surprised by the appearance of Mr. Hare, of New College, Oxford. We +slept at Tan-y-bylch, having employed the afternoon in exploring the +beauties of the vale of Festiniog. Next day to Barmouth, whence, the +following morning, we took boat and rowed up its sublime estuary, which +may compare with the finest of Scotland, having the advantage of a +superior climate. From Dolgelly we went to Tal-y-llyn, a solitary and +very interesting lake under Cader Idris. Next day, being Sunday, we +heard service performed in Welsh, and in the afternoon went part of the +way down a beautiful valley to Machynleth, next morning to Aberystwith, +and up the Rhydiol to the Devil's Bridge, where we passed the following +day in exploring those two rivers, and Hafod in the neighbourhood. I had +seen these things long ago, but either my memory or my powers of +observation had not done them justice. It rained heavily in the night, +and we saw the waterfalls in perfection. While Dora was attempting to +make a sketch from the chasm in the rain, I composed by her side the +following address to the torrent: + + How art thou named? In search of what strange land, + From what huge height descending? Can such force + Of water issue from a British source? + +Next day, viz. last Wednesday, we reached this place, and found all our +friends well, except our good and valuable friend, Mr. Monkhouse, who is +here, and in a very alarming state of health. His physicians have +ordered him to pass the winter in Devonshire, fearing a consumption; but +he is certainly not suffering under a regular hectic pulmonary decline: +his pulse is good, so is his appetite, and he has no fever, but is +deplorably emaciated. He is a near relation of Mrs. W., and one, as you +know, of my best friends. I hope to see Mr. Price, at Foxley, in a few +days. Mrs. W.'s brother is about to change his present residence for a +farm close by Foxley. + +Now, my dear Sir George, what chance is there of your being in Wales +during any part of the autumn? I would strain a point to meet you +anywhere, were it only for a couple of days. Write immediately, or +should you be absent without Lady B. she will have the goodness to tell +me of your movements. I saw the Lowthers just before I set off, all +well. You probably have heard from my sister. It is time to make an end +of this long letter, which might have been somewhat less dry if I had +not wished to make you master of our whole route. Except ascending one +of the high mountains, Snowdon or Cader Idris, we omitted nothing, and +saw as much as the shortened days would allow. With love to Lady B. and +yourself, dear Sir George, from us all, I remain, ever, + + Most faithfully yours, + WM. WORDSWORTH.[40] + +[40] _Memoirs_, vol. ii. pp. 121--7. + + + + +(g) LETTER TO THE RIGHT HON. CHARLES JAMES FOX. + +_With the 'Lyrical Ballads'_ (1801): _with critical Remarks on his +Poems_. + + Grasmere, Westmoreland, January 14th. 1801. + +SIR, + +It is not without much difficulty that I have summoned the courage to +request your acceptance of these volumes. Should I express my real +feelings, I am sure that I should seem to make a parade of diffidence +and humility. + +Several of the poems contained in these volumes are written upon +subjects which are the common property of all poets, and which, at some +period of your life, must have been interesting to a man of your +sensibility, and perhaps may still continue to be so. It would be highly +gratifying to me to suppose that even in a single instance the manner in +which I have treated these general topics should afford you any +pleasure; but such a hope does not influence me upon the present +occasion; in truth I do not feel it. Besides, I am convinced that there +must be many things in this collection which may impress you with an +unfavourable idea of my intellectual powers. I do not say this with a +wish to degrade myself, but I am sensible that this must be the case, +from the different circles in which we have moved, and the different +objects with which we have been conversant. + +Being utterly unknown to you as I am, I am well aware that if I am +justified in writing to you at all, it is necessary my letter should be +short; but I have feelings within me, which I hope will so far show +themselves, as to excuse the trespass which I am afraid I shall make. + +In common with the whole of the English people, I have observed in your +public character a constant predominance of sensibility of heart. +Necessitated as you have been from your public situation to have much to +do with men in bodies, and in classes, and accordingly to contemplate +them in that relation, it has been your praise that you have not thereby +been prevented from looking upon them as individuals, and that you have +habitually left your heart open to be influenced by them in that +capacity. This habit cannot but have made you dear to poets; and I am +sure that if, since your first entrance into public life, there has been +a single true poet living in England, he must have loved you. + +But were I assured that I myself had a just claim to the title of a +poet, all the dignity being attached to the word which belongs to it, I +do not think that I should have ventured for that reason to offer these +volumes to you; at present it is solely on account of two poems in the +second volume, the one entitled 'The Brothers,' and the other 'Michael,' +that I have been emboldened to take this liberty. + +It appears to me that the most calamitous effect which has followed the +measures which have lately been pursued in this country, is, a rapid +decay of the domestic affections among the lower orders of society. This +effect the present rulers of this country are not conscious of, or they +disregard it. For many years past, the tendency of society, amongst +almost all the nations of Europe, has been to produce it; but recently, +by the spreading of manufactures through every part of the country, by +the heavy taxes upon postage, by workhouses, houses of industry, and the +invention of soup-shops, &c., superadded to the increasing disproportion +between the price of labour and that of the necessaries of life, the +bonds of domestic feeling among the poor, as far as the influence of +these things has extended, have been weakened, and in innumerable +instances entirely destroyed. The evil would be the less to be +regretted, if these institutions were regarded only as palliatives to a +disease; but the vanity and pride of their promoters are so subtly +interwoven with them, that they are deemed great discoveries and +blessings to humanity. In the meantime, parents are separated from their +children, and children from their parents; the wife no longer prepares, +with her own hands, a meal for her husband, the produce of his labour; +there is little doing in his house in which his affections can be +interested, and but little left in it that he can love. I have two +neighbours, a man and his wife, both upwards of eighty years of age. +They live alone. The husband has been confined to his bed many months, +and has never had, nor till within these few weeks has ever needed, any +body to attend to him but his wife. She has recently been seized with a +lameness which has often prevented her from being able to carry him his +food to his bed. The neighbours fetch water for her from the well, and +do other kind offices for them both. But her infirmities increase. She +told my servant two days ago, that she was afraid they must both be +boarded out among some other poor of the parish (they have long been +supported by the parish); but she said it was hard, having kept house +together so long, to come to this, and she was sure that 'it would burst +her heart.' I mention this fact to show how deeply the spirit of +independence is, even yet, rooted in some parts of the country. These +people could not express themselves in this way without an almost +sublime conviction of the blessings of independent domestic life. If it +is true, as I believe, that this spirit is rapidly disappearing, no +greater curse can befall a Land. + +I earnestly entreat your pardon for having detained you so long. In the +two poems, 'The Brothers,' and 'Michael,' I have attempted to draw a +picture of the domestic affections, as I know they exist among a class +of men who are now almost confined to the north of England. They are +small independent _proprietors_ of land, here called statesmen, men of +respectable education, who daily labour on their own little properties. +The domestic affections will always be strong amongst men who live in a +country not crowded with population, if these men are placed above +poverty. But if they are proprietors of small estates, which have +descended to them from their ancestors, the power, which these +affections will acquire amongst such men, is inconceivable by those who +have only had an opportunity of observing hired labourers, farmers, and +the manufacturing poor. Their little tract of land serves as a kind of +permanent rallying point for their domestic feelings, as a tablet upon +which they are written, which makes them objects of memory in a thousand +instances, when they would otherwise be forgotten. It is a fountain +fitted to the nature of social man, from which supplies of affection, as +pure as his heart was intended for, are daily drawn. This class of men +is rapidly disappearing. You, Sir, have a consciousness, upon which +every good man will congratulate you, that the whole of your public +conduct has, in one way or other, been directed to the preservation of +this class of men, and those who hold similar situations. You have felt +that the most sacred of all property is the property of the poor. The +two poems, which I have mentioned, were written with a view to show +that men who do not wear fine clothes can feel deeply. 'Pectus enim est +quod disertos facit, et vis mentis. Ideoque imperitis quoque, si modo +sint aliquo affectu concitati, verba non desunt.' The poems are faithful +copies from Nature; and I hope whatever effect they may have upon you, +you will at least be able to perceive that they may excite profitable +sympathies in many kind and good hearts, and may in some small degree +enlarge our feelings of reverence for our species, and our knowledge of +human nature, by showing that our best qualities are possessed by men +whom we are too apt to consider, not with reference to the points in +which they resemble us, but to those in which they manifestly differ +from us. I thought, at a time when these feelings are sapped in so many +ways, that the two poems might co-operate, however feebly, with the +illustrious efforts which you have made to stem this and other evils +with which the country is labouring; and it is on this account alone +that I have taken the liberty of thus addressing you. + +Wishing earnestly that the time may come when the country may perceive +what it has lost by neglecting your advice, and hoping that your latter +days may be attended with health and comfort, + + I remain, + With the highest respect and admiration, + Your most obedient and humble servant, + W. WORDSWORTH.[41] + +Fox's reply was as follows: + +SIR, + +I owe you many apologies for having so long deferred thanking you for +your poems, and your obliging letter accompanying them, which I received +early in March. The poems have given me the greatest pleasure; and if I +were obliged to choose out of them, I do not know whether I should not +say that 'Harry Gill,' 'We are Seven,' 'The Mad Mother,' and 'The +Idiot,' are my favourites. I read with particular attention the two you +pointed out; but whether it be from early prepossessions, or whatever +other cause, I am no great friend to blank verse for subjects which are +to be treated of with simplicity. + +[41] _Memoirs_, vol. i. pp. 166--171. + +You will excuse my stating my opinion to you so freely, which I should +not do if I did not really admire many of the poems in the collection, +and many parts even of those in blank verse. Of the poems which you +state not to be yours, that entitled 'Love' appears to me to be the +best, and I do not know who is the author. 'The Nightingale' I +understand to be Mr. Coleridge's, who combats, I think, very +successfully, the mistaken prejudice of the nightingale's note being +melancholy. I am, with great truth, + + Sir, +Your most obedient servant, + C. J. Fox.[42] + +St. Ann's Hill, May 25. [1801.] + +[42] _Memoirs_, vol. i. pp. 171--2. + + * * * * * + +In connection with the above the following observations addressed by +Wordsworth to some friends fitly find a place here. + +Speaking of the poem of the _Leech-Gatherer_,[43] sent in MS., he says: + + 'It is not a matter of indifference whether you are pleased with + his figure and employment, it may be comparatively whether you are + pleased with _this Poem_; but it is of the utmost importance that + you should have had pleasure in contemplating the fortitude, + independence, persevering spirit, and the general moral dignity of + this old man's character.' + +[43] Entitled 'Resolution and Independence.' + +And again, on the same poem: + + 'I will explain to you, in prose, my feelings in writing _that_ + poem.... I describe myself as having been exalted to the highest + pitch of delight by the joyousness and beauty of Nature; and then + as depressed, even in the midst of those beautiful objects, to the + lowest dejection and despair. A young poet in the midst of the + happiness of Nature is described as overwhelmed by the thoughts of + the miserable reverses which have befallen the happiest of all men, + viz. poets. I think of this till I am so deeply impressed with it, + that I consider the manner in which I was rescued from my dejection + and despair almost as an interposition of Providence. A person + reading the poem with feelings like mine will have been awed and + controlled, expecting something spiritual or supernatural. What is + brought forward? A lonely place, "a pond, by which an old man + _was_, far from all house or home:" not _stood_, nor _sat_, but + _was_--the figure presented in the most naked simplicity possible. + This feeling of spirituality or supernaturalness is again referred + to as being strong in my mind in this passage. How came he here? + thought I, or what can he be doing? I then describe him, whether + ill or well is not for me to judge with perfect confidence; but + this I _can_ confidently affirm, that though I believe God has + given me a strong imagination, I cannot conceive a figure more + impressive than that of an old man like this, the survivor of a + wife and ten children, travelling alone among the mountains and all + lonely places, carrying with him his own fortitude and the + necessities which an unjust state of society has laid upon him. You + speak of his speech as tedious. Everything is tedious when one does + not read with the feelings of the author. "The Thorn" is tedious to + hundreds; and so is the "Idiot Boy" to hundreds. It is in the + character of the old man to tell his story, which an impatient + reader must feel tedious. But, good heavens! such a figure, in such + a place; a pious, self-respecting, miserably infirm and pleased old + man telling such a tale! + + 'Your feelings upon the "Mother and the Boy, with the Butterfly," + were not indifferent: it was an affair of whole continents of moral + sympathy.' + + 'I am for the most part uncertain about my success in _altering_ + poems; but in this case,' speaking of an insertion, 'I am sure I + have produced a great improvement.'[44] + +[44] _Memoirs_, vol. i. pp. 166--174. + + + + +(_h_) OF THE PRINCIPLES OF POETRY AND HIS OWN POEMS. + +_Letter to (afterwards) Professor John Wilson_ ['_Christopher North_']. + +_To_ ----. + +MY DEAR SIR, + +Had it not been for a very amiable modesty you could not have imagined +that your letter could give me any offence. It was on many accounts +highly grateful to me. I was pleased to find that I had given so much +pleasure to an ingenuous and able mind, and I further considered the +enjoyment which you had had from my Poems as an earnest that others +might be delighted with them in the same, or a like manner. It is plain +from your letter that the pleasure which I have given you has not been +blind or unthinking; you have studied the poems, and prove that you have +entered into the spirit of them. They have not given you a cheap or +vulgar pleasure; therefore, I feel that you are entitled to my kindest +thanks for having done some violence to your natural diffidence in the +communication which you have made to me. + +There is scarcely any part of your letter that does not deserve +particular notice; but partly from some constitutional infirmities, and +partly from certain habits of mind, I do not write any letters unless +upon business, not even to my dearest friends. Except during absence +from my own family I have not written five letters of friendship during +the last five years. I have mentioned this in order that I may retain +your good opinion, should my letter be less minute than you are entitled +to expect. You seem to be desirous of my opinion on the influence of +natural objects in forming the character of Nations. This cannot be +understood without first considering their influence upon men in +general, first, with reference to such objects as are common to all +countries; and, next, such as belong exclusively to any particular +country, or in a greater degree to it than to another. Now it is +manifest that no human being can be so besotted and debased by +oppression, penury, or any other evil which unhumanises man, as to be +utterly insensible to the colours, forms, or smell of flowers, the +(voices)[45] and motions of birds and beasts, the appearances of the sky +and heavenly bodies, the general warmth of a fine day, the terror and +uncomfortableness of a storm, &c. &c. How dead soever many full-grown +men may outwardly seem to these things, all are more or less affected by +them; and in childhood, in the first practice and exercise of their +senses, they must have been not the nourishers merely, but often the +fathers of their passions. There cannot be a doubt that in tracts of +country where images of danger, melancholy, grandeur, or loveliness, +softness, and ease prevail, that they will make themselves felt +powerfully in forming the characters of the people, so as to produce an +uniformity or national character, where the nation is small and is not +made up of men who, inhabiting different soils, climates, &c., by their +civil usages and relations materially interfere with each other. It was +so formerly, no doubt, in the Highlands of Scotland; but we cannot +perhaps observe much of it in our own island at the present day, +because, even in the most sequestered places, by manufactures, traffic, +religion, law, interchange of inhabitants, &c., distinctions are done +away, which would otherwise have been strong and obvious. This complex +state of society does not, however, prevent the characters of +individuals from frequently receiving a strong bias, not merely from the +impressions of general Nature, but also from local objects and images. +But it seems that to produce these effects, in the degree in which we +frequently find them to be produced, there must be a peculiar +sensibility of original organisation combining with moral accidents, as +is exhibited in 'The Brothers' and in 'Ruth;' I mean, to produce this in +a marked degree; not that I believe that any man was ever brought up in +the country without loving it, especially in his better moments, or in a +district of particular grandeur or beauty without feeling some stronger +attachment to it on that account than he would otherwise have felt. I +include, you will observe, in these considerations, the influence of +climate, changes in the atmosphere and elements, and the labours and +occupations which particular districts require. + + +[45] Parts of this letter have been torn, and words have been lost; some +of which are here conjecturally supplied between brackets. + +You begin what you say upon the 'Idiot Boy,' with this observation, that +nothing is a fit subject for poetry which does not please. But here +follows a question, Does not please whom? Some have little knowledge of +natural imagery of any kind, and, of course, little relish for it; some +are disgusted with the very mention of the words pastoral poetry, sheep +or shepherds; some cannot tolerate a poem with a ghost or any +supernatural agency in it; others would shrink from an animated +description of the pleasures of love, as from a thing carnal and +libidinous; some cannot bear to see delicate and refined feelings +ascribed to men in low conditions in society, because their vanity and +self-love tell them that these belong only to themselves, and men like +themselves in dress, station, and way of life; others are disgusted with +the naked language of some of the most interesting passions of men, +because either it is indelicate, or gross, or vulgar; as many fine +ladies could not bear certain expressions in the 'Mother' and the +'Thorn,' and, as in the instance of Adam Smith, who, we are told, could +not endure the ballad of 'Clym of the Clough,' because the author had +not written like a gentleman. Then there are professional and national +prejudices for evermore. Some take no interest in the description of a +particular passion or quality, as love of solitariness, we will say, +genial activity of fancy, love of Nature, religion, and so forth, +because they have [little or] nothing of it in themselves; and so on +without end. I return then to [the] question, please whom? or what? I +answer, human nature as it has been (and ever) will be. But where are we +to find the best measure of this? I answer, [from with] in; by stripping +our own hearts naked, and by looking out of ourselves to [wards men] who +lead the simplest lives, and most according to Nature; men who have +never known false refinements, wayward and artificial desires, false +criticisms, effeminate habits of thinking and feeling, or who having +known these things have outgrown them. This latter class is the most to +be depended upon, but it is very small in number. People in our rank in +life are perpetually falling into one sad mistake, namely, that of +supposing that human nature and the persons they associate with are one +and the same thing. Whom do we generally associate with? Gentlemen, +persons of fortune, professional men, ladies, persons who can afford to +buy, or can easily procure books of half-a-guinea price, hot-pressed, +and printed upon superfine paper. These persons are, it is true, a part +of human nature, but we err lamentably if we suppose them to be fair +representatives of the vast mass of human existence. And yet few ever +consider books but with reference to their power of pleasing these +persons and men of a higher rank; few descend lower, among cottages and +fields, and among children. A man must have done this habitually before +his judgment upon the 'Idiot Boy' would be in any way decisive with me. +I _know_ I have done this myself habitually; I wrote the poem with +exceeding delight and pleasure, and whenever I read it I read it with +pleasure. You have given me praise for having reflected faithfully in my +Poems the feelings of human nature. I would fain hope that I have done +so. But a great Poet ought to do more than this; he ought, to a certain +degree, to rectify men's feelings, to give them new compositions of +feeling, to render their feelings more sane, pure, and permanent, in +short, more consonant to Nature, that is, to eternal Nature, and the +great moving Spirit of things. He ought to travel before men +occasionally as well as at their sides. I may illustrate this by a +reference to natural objects. What false notions have prevailed from +generation to generation of the true character of the Nightingale. As +far as my Friend's Poem, in the 'Lyrical Ballads,' is read, it will +contribute greatly to rectify these. You will recollect a passage in +Cowper, where, speaking of rural sounds, he says, + + And _even_ the boding Owl + That hails the rising moon has charms for me. + +Cowper was passionately fond of natural objects, yet you see he mentions +it as a marvellous thing that he could connect pleasure with the cry of +the owl. In the same poem he speaks in the same manner of that beautiful +plant, the gorse; making in some degree an amiable boast of his loving +it _'unsightly'_ and unsmooth as it is. There are many aversions of this +kind, which, though they have some foundation in nature, have yet so +slight a one, that, though they may have prevailed hundreds of years, a +philosopher will look upon them as accidents. So with respect to many +moral feelings, either of love or dislike. What excessive admiration was +paid in former times to personal prowess and military success; it is so +with the latter even at the present day, but surely not nearly so much +as heretofore. So with regard to birth, and innumerable other modes of +sentiment, civil and religious. But you will be inclined to ask by this +time how all this applies to the 'Idiot Boy.' To this I can only say +that the loathing and disgust which many people have at the sight of an +idiot, is a feeling which, though having some foundation in human +nature, is not necessarily attached to it in any virtuous degree, but is +owing in a great measure to a false delicacy, and, if I may say it +without rudeness, a certain want of comprehensiveness of thinking and +feeling. Persons in the lower classes of society have little or nothing +of this: if an idiot is born in a poor man's house, it must be taken +care of, and cannot be boarded out, as it would be by gentlefolks, or +sent to a public or private receptacle for such unfortunate beings. +[Poor people] seeing frequently among their neighbours such objects, +easily [forget] whatever there is of natural disgust about them, and +have [therefore] a sane state, so that without pain or suffering they +[perform] their duties towards them. I could with pleasure pursue this +subject, but I must now strictly adopt the plan which I proposed to +myself when I began to write this letter, namely, that of setting down a +few hints or memorandums, which you will think of for my sake. + +I have often applied to idiots, in my own mind, that sublime expression +of Scripture that _'their life is hidden with God.'_ They are +worshipped, probably from a feeling of this sort, in several parts of +the East. Among the Alps, where they are numerous, they are considered, +I believe, as a blessing to the family to which they belong. I have, +indeed, often looked upon the conduct of fathers and mothers of the +lower classes of society towards idiots as the great triumph of the +human heart. It is there that we see the strength, disinterestedness, +and grandeur of love; nor have I ever been able to contemplate an object +that calls out so many excellent and virtuous sentiments without finding +it hallowed thereby, and having something in me which bears down before +it, like a deluge, every feeble sensation of disgust and aversion. + +There are, in my opinion, several important mistakes in the latter part +of your letter which I could have wished to notice; but I find myself +much fatigued. These refer both to the Boy and the Mother. I must +content myself simply with observing that it is probable that the +principal cause of your dislike to this particular poem lies in the +_word_ Idiot. If there had been any such word in our language, _to which +we had attached passion_, as lack-wit, half-wit, witless, &c., I should +have certainly employed it in preference; but there is no such word. +Observe (this is entirely in reference to this particular poem), my +'Idiot' is not one of those who cannot articulate, and such as are +usually disgusting in their persons: + + Whether in cunning or in joy, + And then his words were not a few, &c._ + +and the last speech at the end of the poem. The 'Boy' whom I had in my +mind was by no means disgusting in his appearance, quite the contrary; +and I have known several with imperfect faculties, who are handsome in +their persons and features. There is one, at present, within a mile of +my own house, remarkably so, though [he has something] of a stare and +vacancy in his countenance. A friend of mine, knowing that some persons +had a dislike to the poem, such as you have expressed, advised me to add +a stanza, describing the person of the Boy [so as] entirely to separate +him in the imaginations of my readers from that class of idiots who are +disgusting in their persons; but the narration in the poem is so rapid +and impassioned, that I could not find a place in which to insert the +stanza without checking the progress of it, and [so leaving] a deadness +upon the feeling. This poem has, I know, frequently produced the same +effect as it did upon you and your friends; but there are many also to +whom it affords exquisite delight, and who, indeed, prefer it to any +other of my poems. This proves that the feelings there delineated are +such as men _may_ sympathise with. This is enough for my purpose. It is +not enough for me as a Poet, to delineate merely such feelings as all +men _do_ sympathise with; but it is also highly desirable to add to +these others, such as all men _may_ sympathise with, and such as there +is reason to believe they would be better and more moral beings if they +did sympathise with. + +I conclude with regret, because I have not said one half of [what I +intended] to say; but I am sure you will deem my excuse sufficient, +[when I] inform you that my head aches violently, and I am in other +respects unwell. I must, however, again give you my warmest thanks for +your kind letter. I shall be happy to hear from you again: and do not +think it unreasonable that I should request a letter from you, when I +feel that the answer which I may make to it will not perhaps be above +three or four lines. This I mention to you with frankness, and you will +not take it ill after what I have before said of my remissness in +writing letters. + + I am, dear Sir, + With great respect, + Yours sincerely, + W. WORDSWORTH.[46] + +[46] _Memoirs_, vol. i. pp. 192--200. + + + + +IV. DESCRIPTIVE. + +(_a_) A GUIDE THROUGH THE DISTRICT OF THE LAKES. + +(_b_) LETTERS, &c, ON KENDAL AND WINDERMERE RAILWAY. + +NOTE. + +See Preface in Vol. I. for details on the 'Guide' and these Letters. G. + + + + +A =GUIDE= THROUGH THE =DISTRICT OF THE LAKES= IN The North of England. +WITH =A DESCRIPTION OF THE SCENERY, &c.= FOR THE USE OF =TOURISTS AND +RESIDENTS=. + + + * * * * * + +=FIFTH EDITION=, WITH CONSIDERABLE ADDITIONS. + + * * * * * + + +=BY WILLIAM WORDSWORTH=. + + + + +_KENDAL:_ + +PUBLISHED BY HUDSON AND NICHOLSON, + +AND IN LONDON BY + +LONGMAN & CO., MOXON, AND WHITTAKER & CO. + +1835. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + * * * * * + +DIRECTIONS AND INFORMATION FOR THE TOURIST. + +Windermere.--Ambleside.--Coniston.--Ulpha Kirk.--Road from Ambleside to +Keswick.--Grasmere.--The Vale of Keswick.--Buttermere and +Crummock.--Lowes-water.--Wastdale.--Ullswater, with its tributary +Streams.--Haweswater, &c. + +DESCRIPTION OF THE SCENERY OF THE LAKES. + +SECTION FIRST. + +VIEW OR THE COUNTRY AS FORMED BY NATURE. + +Vales diverging from a common Centre.--Effect of Light and Shadow as +dependant upon the Position of the Vales.--Mountains,--their +Substance,--Surfaces,--and Colours.--Winter Colouring.--The +Vales,--Lakes,--Islands,--Tarns,--Woods,--Rivers,--Climate,--Night.... +p. 235 + +SECTION SECOND. + +ASPECT OF THE COUNTRY AS AFFECTED BY ITS INHABITANTS. + +Retrospect.--Primitive Aspect.--Roman and British Antiquities.--Feudal +Tenantry,--their Habitations and Enclosures--Tenantry reduced in Number +by the Union of the Two Crowns.--State of Society after that +Event.--Cottages,--Bridges,--Places of Worship,--Parks and +Mansions.--General Picture of Society.... 256 + +SECTION THIRD. + +CHANGES, AND RULES OF TASTE FOR PREVENTING THEIR BAD EFFECTS. + +Tourists.--New Settlers.--The Country disfigured.--Causes of +false Taste in Grounds and Buildings.--Ancient Models +recommended.--Houses.--Colouring of Buildings.--Grounds and +Plantations.--The Larch.--Planting.--Further Changes +Probable.--Conclusion.... 269 + +MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS. + +Time for visiting the Country.--Order in which Objects should be +approached.--Views from the Heights.--Comparisons, how +injurious.--Alpine Scenes compared with Cumbrian, +&c.--Phenomena.--Comparative Estimate.... 287 + +EXCURSIONS + +TO THE TOP OF SCAWFELL AND ON THE BANKS OF ULLSWATER, p. 302. + +ODE. + +THE PASS OF KIRKSTONE, p. 314. + +ITINERARY, + +p. 316. + + + + +DIRECTIONS AND INFORMATION FOR THE TOURIST. + +In preparing this Manual, it was the Author's principal wish to furnish +a Guide or Companion for the _Minds_ of Persons of taste, and feeling +for Landscape, who might be inclined to explore the District of the +Lakes with that degree of attention to which its beauty may fairly lay +claim. For the more sure attainment, however, of this primary object, he +will begin by undertaking the humble and tedious task of supplying the +Tourist with directions how to approach the several scenes in their +best, or most convenient, order. But first, supposing the approach to be +made from the south, and through Yorkshire, there are certain +interesting spots which may be confidently recommended to his notice, if +time can be spared before entering upon the Lake District; and the route +may be changed in returning. + +There are three approaches to the Lakes through Yorkshire; the least +adviseable is the great north road by Catterick and Greta Bridge, and +onwards to Penrith. The Traveller, however, taking this route, might +halt at Greta Bridge, and be well recompenced if he can afford to give +an hour or two to the banks of the Greta, and of the Tees, at Rokeby. +Barnard Castle also, about two miles up the Tees, is a striking object, +and the main North Road might be rejoined at Bowes. Every one has heard +of the great Fall of the Tees above Middleham, interesting for its +grandeur, as the avenue of rocks that leads to it, is to the geologist. +But this place lies so far out of the way as scarcely to be within the +compass of our notice. It might, however, be visited by a Traveller on +foot, or on horseback, who could rejoin the main road upon Stanemoor. + +The second road leads through a more interesting tract of country, +beginning at Ripon, from which place see Fountain's Abbey, and thence by +Hackfall, and Masham, to Jervaux Abbey, and up the vale of Wensley; +turning aside before Askrigg is reached, to see Aysgarth-force, upon the +Ure; and again, near Hawes, to Hardraw Scar, of which, with its +waterfall, Turner has a fine drawing. Thence over the fells to +Sedbergh, and Kendal. + +The third approach from Yorkshire is through Leeds. Four miles beyond +that town are the ruins of Kirkstall Abbey, should that road to Skipton +be chosen; but the other by Otley may be made much more interesting by +turning off at Addington to Bolton Bridge, for the sake of visiting the +Abbey and grounds. It would be well, however, for a party previously to +secure beds, if wanted, at the inn, as there is but one, and it is much +resorted to in summer. + +The Traveller on foot, or horseback, would do well to follow the banks +of the Wharf upwards, to Burnsall, and thence cross over the hills to +Gordale--a noble scene, beautifully described in Gray's Tour, and with +which no one can be disappointed. Thence to Malham, where there is a +respectable village inn, and so on, by Malham Cove, to Settle. + +Travellers in carriages must go from Bolton Bridge to Skipton, where +they rejoin the main road; and should they be inclined to visit Gordale, +a tolerable road turns off beyond Skipton. Beyond Settle, under +Giggleswick Scar, the road passes an ebbing and flowing well, worthy the +notice of the Naturalist. Four miles to the right of Ingleton, is +Weathercote Cave, a fine object, but whoever diverges for this, must +return to Ingleton. Near Kirkby Lonsdale observe the view from the +bridge over the Lune, and descend to the channel of the river, and by no +means omit looking at the Vale of Lune from the Church-yard. + +The journey towards the Lake country through Lancashire, is, with the +exception of the Vale of the Ribble, at Preston, uninteresting; till you +come near Lancaster, and obtain a view of the fells and mountains of +Lancashire and Westmoreland; with Lancaster Castle, and the Tower of the +Church seeming to make part of the Castle, in the foreground. + +They who wish to see the celebrated ruins of Furness Abbey, and are not +afraid of crossing the Sands, may go from Lancaster to Ulverston; from +which place take the direct road to Dalton; but by all means return +through Urswick, for the sake of the view from the top of the hill, +before descending into the grounds of Conishead Priory. From this +quarter the Lakes would be advantageously approached by Coniston; thence +to Hawkshead, and by the Ferry over Windermere, to Bowness: a much +better introduction than by going direct from Coniston to Ambleside, +which ought not to be done, as that would greatly take off from the +effect of Windermere. + +Let us now go back to Lancaster. The direct road thence to Kendal is 22 +miles, but by making a circuit of eight miles, the Vale of the Lune to +Kirkby Lonsdale will be included. The whole tract is pleasing; there is +one view mentioned by Gray and Mason especially so. In West's Guide it +is thus pointed out:--'About a quarter of a mile beyond the third +mile-stone, where the road makes a turn to the right, there is a gate on +the left which leads into a field where the station meant, will be +found.' Thus far for those who approach the Lakes from the South. + +Travellers from the North would do well to go from Carlisle by Wigton, +and proceed along the Lake of Bassenthwaite to Keswick; or, if +convenience should take them first to Penrith, it would still be better +to cross the country to Keswick, and begin with that vale, rather than +with Ulswater. It is worth while to mention, in this place, that the +banks of the river Eden, about Corby, are well worthy of notice, both on +account of their natural beauty, and the viaducts which have recently +been carried over the bed of the river, and over a neighbouring ravine. +In the Church of Wetherby, close by, is a fine piece of monumental +sculpture by Nollekens. The scenes of Nunnery, upon the Eden, or rather +that part of them which is upon Croglin, a mountain stream there falling +into the Eden, are, in their way, unrivalled. But the nearest road +thither, from Corby, is so bad, that no one can be advised to take it in +a carriage. Nunnery may be reached from Corby by making a circuit and +crossing the Eden at Armathwaite bridge. A portion of this road, +however, is bad enough. + +As much the greatest number of Lake Tourists begin by passing from +Kendal to Bowness, upon Windermere, our notices shall commence with that +Lake. Bowness is situated upon its eastern side, and at equal distance +from each extremity of the Lake of + +WINDERMERE. + +The lower part of this Lake is rarely visited, but has many interesting +points of view, especially at Storr's Hall and at Fellfoot, where the +Coniston Mountains peer nobly over the western barrier, which +elsewhere, along the whole Lake, is comparatively tame. To one also who +has ascended the hill from Grathwaite on the western side, the +Promontory called Rawlinson's Nab, Storr's Hall, and the Troutbeck +Mountains, about sun-set, make a splendid landscape. The view from the +Pleasure-house of the Station near the Ferry has suffered much from +Larch plantations; this mischief, however, is gradually disappearing, +and the Larches, under the management of the proprietor, Mr. Curwen, are +giving way to the native wood. Windermere ought to be seen both from its +shores and from its surface. None of the other Lakes unfold so many +fresh beauties to him who sails upon them. This is owing to its greater +size, to the islands, and to its having _two_ vales at the head, with +their accompanying mountains of nearly equal dignity. Nor can the +grandeur of these two terminations be seen at once from any point, +except from the bosom of the Lake. The Islands may be explored at any +time of the day; but one bright unruffled evening, must, if possible, be +set apart for the splendour, the stillness, and solemnity of a three +hours' voyage upon the higher division of the Lake, not omitting, +towards the end of the excursion, to quit the expanse of water, and peep +into the close and calm River at the head; which, in its quiet +character, at such a time, appears rather like an overflow of the +peaceful Lake itself, than to have any more immediate connection with +the rough mountains whence it has descended, or the turbulent torrents +by which it is supplied. Many persons content themselves with what they +see of Windermere during their progress in a boat from Bowness to the +head of the Lake, walking thence to Ambleside. But the whole road from +Bowness is rich in diversity of pleasing or grand scenery; there is +scarcely a field on the road side, which, if entered, would not give to +the landscape some additional charm. Low-wood Inn, a mile from the head +of Windermere, is a most pleasant halting-place; no inn in the whole +district is so agreeably situated for water views and excursions; and +the fields above it, and the lane that leads to Troutbeck, present +beautiful views towards each extremity of the Lake. From this place, and +from + + AMBLESIDE, + +Rides may be taken in numerous directions, and the interesting walks +are inexhaustible[47]; a few out of the main road may be +particularized;--the lane that leads from Ambleside to Skelgill; the +ride, or walk by Rothay Bridge, and up the stream under Loughrigg Fell, +continued on the western side of Rydal Lake, and along the fell to the +foot of Grasmere Lake, and thence round by the church of Grasmere; or, +turning round Loughrigg Fell by Loughrigg Tarn and the River Brathay, +back to Ambleside. From Ambleside is another charming excursion by +Clappersgate, where cross the Brathay, and proceed with the river on the +right to the hamlet of Skelwith-fold; when the houses are passed, turn, +before you descend the hill, through a gate on the right, and from a +rocky point is a fine view of the Brathay River, Langdale Pikes, &c.; +then proceed to Colwith-force, and up Little Langdale to Blea Tarn. The +scene in which this small piece of water lies, suggested to the Author +the following description, (given in his Poem of the 'Excursion') +supposing the spectator to look down upon it, not from the road, but +from one of its elevated sides. + + 'Behold! + Beneath our feet, a little lowly Vale, + A lowly Vale, and yet uplifted high + Among the mountains; even as if the spot + Had been, from eldest time by wish of theirs, + So placed, to be shut out from all the world! + Urn-like it was in shape, deep as an Urn; + With rocks encompassed, save that to the South + Was one small opening, where a heath-clad ridge + Supplied a boundary less abrupt and close; + A quiet treeless nook,[48] with two green fields, + A liquid pool that glittered in the sun, + And one bare Dwelling; one Abode, no more! + It seemed the home of poverty and toil, + Though not of want: the little fields, made green + By husbandry of many thrifty years, + Paid cheerful tribute to the moorland House. + --There crows the Cock, single in his domain: + The small birds find in Spring no thicket there + To shroud them; only from the neighbouring Vales + The Cuckoo, straggling up to the hill tops, + Shouteth faint tidings of some gladder place.' + +[47] Mr. Green's Guide to the Lakes, in two vols., contains a complete +Magazine of minute and accurate information of this kind, with the names +of mountains, streams, &c. + +[48] No longer strictly applicable, on account of recent plantations. + +From this little Vale return towards Ambleside by Great Langdale, +stopping, if there be time, to see Dungeon-ghyll waterfall. + +The Lake of + +CONISTON + +May be conveniently visited from Ambleside, but is seen to most +advantage by entering the country over the Sands from Lancaster. The +Stranger, from the moment he sets his foot on those Sands, seems to +leave the turmoil and traffic of the world behind him; and, crossing the +majestic plain whence the sea has retired, he beholds, rising apparently +from its base, the cluster of mountains among which he is going to +wander, and towards whose recesses, by the Vale of Coniston, he is +gradually and peacefully led. From the Inn at the head of Coniston Lake, +a leisurely Traveller might have much pleasure in looking into Yewdale +and Tilberthwaite, returning to his Inn from the head of Yewdale by a +mountain track which has the farm of Tarn Hows, a little on the right: +by this road is seen much the best view of Coniston Lake from the south. +At the head of Coniston Water there is an agreeable Inn, from which an +enterprising Tourist might go to the Vale of the Duddon, over Walna +Scar, down to Seathwaite, Newfield, and to the rocks where the river +issues from a narrow pass into the broad Vale. The Stream is very +interesting for the space of a mile above this point, and below, by +Ulpha Kirk, till it enters the Sands, where it is overlooked by the +solitary Mountain Black Comb, the summit of which, as that experienced +surveyor, Colonel Mudge, declared, commands a more extensive view than +any point in Britain. Ireland he saw more than once, but not when the +sun was above the horizon. + + Close by the Sea, lone sentinel, + Black-Comb his forward station keeps; + He breaks the sea's tumultuous swell,-- + And ponders o'er the level deeps. + + He listens to the bugle horn, + Where Eskdale's lovely valley bends; + Eyes Walney's early fields of corn; + Sea-birds to Holker's woods he sends. + + Beneath his feet the sunk ship rests, + In Duddon Sands, its masts all bare: + + * * * * * + +_The Minstrels of Windermere_, by Chas. Farish, B.D. + +The Tourist may either return to the Inn at Coniston by Broughton, or, +by turning to the left before he comes to that town, or, which would be +much better, he may cross from + +ULPHA KIRK + +Over Birker moor, to Birker-force, at the head of the finest ravine in +the country; and thence up the Vale of the Esk, by Hardknot and Wrynose, +back to Ambleside. Near the road, in ascending from Eskdale, are +conspicuous remains of a Roman fortress. Details of the Duddon and +Donnerdale are given in the Author's series of Sonnets upon the Duddon +and in the accompanying Notes. In addition to its two Vales at its head, +Windermere communicates with two lateral Vallies; that of Troutbeck, +distinguished by the mountains at its head--by picturesque remains of +cottage architecture; and, towards the lower part, by bold foregrounds +formed by the steep and winding banks of the river. This Vale, as before +mentioned, may be most conveniently seen from Low Wood. The other +lateral Valley, that of Hawkshead, is visited to most advantage, and +most conveniently, from Bowness; crossing the Lake by the Ferry--then +pass the two villages of Sawrey, and on quitting the latter, you have a +fine view of the Lake of Esthwaite, and the cone of one of the Langdale +Pikes in the distance. + +Before you leave Ambleside give three minutes to looking at a passage of +the brook which runs through the town; it is to be seen from a garden on +the right bank of the stream, a few steps above the bridge--the garden +at present is rented by Mrs. Airey.--Stockgill-force, upon the same +stream, will have been mentioned to you as one of the sights of the +neighbourhood. And by a Tourist halting a few days in Ambleside, the +_Nook_ also might be visited; a spot where there is a bridge over +Scandale-beck, which makes a pretty subject for the pencil. Lastly, for +residents of a week or so at Ambleside, there are delightful rambles +over every part of Loughrigg Fell and among the enclosures on its sides; +particularly about Loughrigg Tarn, and on its eastern side about Fox How +and the properties adjoining to the north-wards. + +ROAD FROM AMBLESIDE TO KESWICK. + +The Waterfalls of Rydal are pointed out to every one. But it ought to be +observed here, that Rydal-mere is no where seen to advantage from the +_main road_. Fine views of it may be had from Rydal Park; but these +grounds, as well as those of Rydal Mount and Ivy Cottage, from which +also it is viewed to advantage, are private. A foot road passing behind +Rydal Mount and under Nab Scar to Grasmere, is very favourable to views +of the Lake and the Vale, looking back towards Ambleside. The horse road +also, along the western side of the Lake, under Loughrigg fell, as +before mentioned, does justice to the beauties of this small mere, of +which the Traveller who keeps the high road is not at all aware. + +GRASMERE. + +There are two small Inns in the Vale of Grasmere, one near the Church, +from which it may be conveniently explored in every direction, and a +mountain walk taken up Easedale to Easedale Tarn, one of the finest +tarns in the country, thence to Stickle Tarn, and to the top of Langdale +Pikes. See also the Vale of Grasmere from Butterlip How. A boat is kept +by the innkeeper, and this circular Vale, in the solemnity of a fine +evening, will make, from the bosom of the Lake, an impression that will +be scarcely ever effaced. + +The direct road from Grasmere to Keswick does not (as has been observed +of Rydal Mere) shew to advantage Thirlmere, or Wythburn Lake, with its +surrounding mountains. By a Traveller proceeding at leisure, a deviation +ought to be made from the main road, when he has advanced a little +beyond the sixth mile-stone short of Keswick, from which point there is +a noble view of the Vale of Legberthwaite, with Blencathra (commonly +called Saddle-back) in front. Having previously enquired, at the Inn +near Wythburn Chapel, the best way from this mile-stone to the bridge +that divides the Lake, he must cross it, and proceed with the Lake on +the right, to the hamlet a little beyond its termination, and rejoin the +main road upon Shoulthwaite Moss, about four miles from Keswick; or, if +on foot, the Tourist may follow the stream that issues from Thirlmere +down the romantic Vale of St. John's, and so (enquiring the way at some +cottage) to Keswick, by a circuit of little more than a mile. A more +interesting tract of country is scarcely any where to be seen, than the +road between Ambleside and Keswick, with the deviations that have been +pointed out. Helvellyn may be conveniently ascended from the Inn at +Wythburn. + +THE VALE OF KESWICK. + +This Vale stretches, without winding, nearly North and South, from the +head of Derwent Water to the foot of Bassenthwaite Lake. It communicates +with Borrowdale on the South; with the river Greta, and Thirlmere, on +the East, with which the Traveller has become acquainted on his way from +Ambleside; and with the Vale of Newlands on the West--which last Vale +he may pass through, in going to, or returning from, Buttermere. The +best views of Keswick Lake are from Crow Park; Frier's Crag; the +Stable-field, close by; the Vicarage, and from various points in taking +the circuit of the Lake. More distant views, and perhaps full as +interesting, are from the side of Latrigg, from Ormathwaite, and +Applethwaite; and thence along the road at the foot of Skiddaw towards +Bassenthwaite, for about a quarter of a mile. There are fine bird's eye +views from the Castle-hill; from Ashness, on the road to Watenlath, and +by following the Watenlath stream downwards to the Cataract of Lodore. +This Lake also, if the weather be fine, ought to be circumnavigated. +There are good views along the western side of Bassenthwaite Lake, and +from Armathwaite at its foot; but the eastern side from the high road +has little to recommend it. The Traveller from Carlisle, approaching by +way of Ireby, has, from the old road on the top of Bassenthwaite-hawse, +much the most striking view of the Plain and Lake of Bassenthwaite, +flanked by Skiddaw, and terminated by Wallow-crag on the south-east of +Derwent Lake; the same point commands an extensive view of Solway Frith +and the Scotch Mountains. They who take the circuit of Derwent Lake, may +at the same time include BORROWDALE, going as far as Bowder-stone, or +Rosthwaite. Borrowdale is also conveniently seen on the way to Wastdale +over Sty-head; or, to Buttermere, by Seatoller and Honister Crag; or, +going over the Stake, through Langdale, to Ambleside. Buttermere may be +visited by a shorter way through Newlands, but though the descent upon +the Vale of Buttermere, by this approach, is very striking, as it also +is to one entering by the head of the Vale, under Honister Crag, yet, +after all, the best entrance from Keswick is from the lower part of the +Vale, having gone over Whinlater to Scale Hill, where there is a roomy +Inn, with very good accommodation. The Mountains of the Vale of + +BUTTERMERE AND CRUMMOCK + +are no where so impressive as from the bosom of Crummock Water. +Scale-force, near it, is a fine chasm, with a lofty, though but slender, +Fall of water. + +From Scale Hill a pleasant walk may be taken to an eminence in Mr. +Marshall's woods, and another by crossing the bridge at the foot of the +hill, upon which the Inn stands, and turning to the right, after the +opposite hill has been ascended a little way, then follow the road for +half a mile or so that leads towards Lorton, looking back upon Crummock +Water, &c., between the openings of the fences. Turn back and make your +way to + +LOWES-WATER. + +But this small Lake is only approached to advantage from the other end; +therefore any Traveller going by this road to Wastdale, must look back +upon it. This road to Wastdale, after passing the village of Lamplugh +Cross, presents suddenly a fine view of the Lake of Ennerdale, with its +Mountains; and, six or seven miles beyond, leads down upon Calder Abbey. +Little of this ruin is left, but that little is well worthy of notice. +At Calder Bridge are two comfortable Inns, and, a few miles beyond, +accommodations may be had at the Strands, at the foot of Wastdale. Into + +WASTDALE + +are three horse-roads, viz. over the Stye, from Borrowdale; a short cut +from Eskdale by Burnmore Tarn, which road descends upon the head of the +Lake; and the principal entrance from the open country by the Strands at +its foot. This last is much the best approach. Wastdale is well worth +the notice of the Traveller who is not afraid of fatigue; no part of the +country is more distinguished by sublimity. Wast-water may also be +visited from Ambleside; by going up Langdale, over Hardknot and +Wrynose--down Eskdale and by Irton Hall to the Strands; but this road +can only be taken on foot, or on horseback, or in a cart. + +We will conclude with + +ULLSWATER, + +as being, perhaps, upon the whole, the happiest combination of beauty +and grandeur, which any of the Lakes affords. It lies not more than ten +miles from Ambleside, and the Pass of Kirkstone and the descent from it +are very impressive; but, notwithstanding, this Vale, like the others, +loses much of its effect by being entered from the head: so that it is +better to go from Keswick through Matterdale, and descend upon Gowbarrow +Park; you are thus brought at once upon a magnificent view of the two +higher reaches of the Lake. Ara-force thunders down the Ghyll on the +left, at a small distance from the road. If Ullswater be approached from +Penrith, a mile and a half brings you to the winding vale of Eamont, and +the prospects increase in interest till you reach Patterdale; but the +first four miles along Ullswater by this road are comparatively tame; +and in order to see the lower part of the Lake to advantage, it is +necessary to go round by Pooley Bridge, and to ride at least three miles +along the Westmoreland side of the water, towards Martindale. The views, +especially if you ascend from the road into the fields, are magnificent; +yet this is only mentioned that the transient Visitant may know what +exists; for it would be inconvenient to go in search of them. They who +take this course of three or four miles _on foot_, should have a boat in +readiness at the end of the walk, to carry them across to the Cumberland +side of the Lake, near Old Church, thence to pursue the road upwards to +Patterdale. The Church-yard Yew-tree still survives at Old Church, but +there are no remains of a Place of Worship, a New Chapel having been +erected in a more central situation, which Chapel was consecrated by the +then Bishop of Carlisle, when on his way to crown Queen Elizabeth, he +being the only Prelate who would undertake the office. It may be here +mentioned that Bassenthwaite Chapel yet stands in a bay as sequestered +as the Site of Old Church; such situations having been chosen in +disturbed times to elude marauders. + +The Trunk, or Body of the Vale of Ullswater need not be further noticed, +as its beauties show themselves: but the curious Traveller may wish to +know something of its tributary Streams. + +At Dalemain, about three miles from Penrith, a Stream is crossed called +the Dacre, or Dacor, which name it bore as early as the time of the +Venerable Bede. This stream does not enter the Lake, but joins the +Eamont a mile below. It rises in the moorish Country about Penruddock, +flows down a soft sequestered Valley, passing by the ancient mansions +of Hutton John and Dacre Castle. The former is pleasantly situated, +though of a character somewhat gloomy and monastic, and from some of the +fields near Dalemain, Dacre Castle, backed by the jagged summit of +Saddle-back, with the Valley and Stream in front, forms a grand picture. +There is no other stream that conducts to any glen or valley worthy of +being mentioned, till we reach that which leads up to Ara-force, and +thence into Matterdale, before spoken of. Matterdale, though a wild and +interesting spot, has no peculiar features that would make it worth the +Stranger's while to go in search of them; but, in Gowbarrow Park, the +lover of Nature might linger for hours. Here is a powerful Brook, which +dashes among rocks through a deep glen, hung on every side with a rich +and happy intermixture of native wood; here are beds of luxuriant fern, +aged hawthorns, and hollies decked with honeysuckles; and fallow-deer +glancing and bounding over the lawns and through the thickets. These are +the attractions of the retired views, or constitute a foreground for +ever-varying pictures of the majestic Lake, forced to take a winding +course by bold promontories, and environed by mountains of sublime form, +towering above each other. At the outlet of Gowbarrow Park, we reach a +third stream, which flows through a little recess called Glencoin, where +lurks a single house, yet visible from the road. Let the Artist or +leisurely Traveller turn aside to it, for the buildings and objects +around them are romantic and picturesque. Having passed under the steeps +of Styebarrow Crag, and the remains of its native woods, at Glenridding +Bridge, a fourth Stream is crossed. + +The opening on the side of Ullswater Vale, down which this Stream flows, +is adorned with fertile fields, cottages, and natural groves, that +agreeably unite with the transverse views of the Lake; and the Stream, +if followed up after the enclosures are left behind, will lead along +bold water-breaks and waterfalls to a silent Tarn in the recesses of +Helvellyn. This desolate spot was formerly haunted by eagles, that built +in the precipice which forms its western barrier. These birds used to +wheel and hover round the head of the solitary angler. It also derives a +melancholy interest from the fate of a young man, a stranger, who +perished some years ago, by falling down the rocks in his attempt to +cross over to Grasmere. His remains were discovered by means of a +faithful dog that had lingered here for the space of three months, +self-supported, and probably retaining to the last an attachment to the +skeleton of its master. But to return to the road in the main Vale of +Ullswater.--At the head of the Lake (being now in Patterdale) we cross +a fifth Stream, Grisdale Beck: this would conduct through a woody steep, +where may be seen some unusually large ancient hollies, up to the level +area of the Valley of Grisdale; hence there is a path for +foot-travellers, and along which a horse may be led to Grasmere. A +sublime combination of mountain forms appears in front while ascending +the bed of this valley, and the impression increases till the path leads +almost immediately under the projecting masses of Helvellyn. Having +retraced the banks of the Stream to Patterdale, and pursued the road up +the main Dale, the next considerable stream would, if ascended in the +same manner, conduct to Deep-dale, the character of which Valley may be +conjectured from its name. It is terminated by a cove, a craggy and +gloomy abyss, with precipitous sides; a faithful receptacle of the snows +that are driven into it, by the west wind, from the summit of Fairfield. +Lastly, having gone along the western side of Brotherswater and passed +Hartsop Hall, a Stream soon after issues from a cove richly decorated +with native wood. This spot is, I believe, never explored by Travellers; +but, from these sylvan and rocky recesses, whoever looks back on the +gleaming surface of Brotherswater, or forward to the precipitous sides +and lofty ridges of Dove Crag, &c., will be equally pleased with the +beauty, the grandeur, and the wildness of the scenery. + +Seven Glens or Vallies have been noticed, which branch off from the +Cumberland side of the Vale. The opposite side has only two Streams of +any importance, one of which would lead up from the point where it +crosses the Kirkstone-road, near the foot of Brotherswater, to the +decaying hamlet of Hartsop, remarkable for its cottage architecture, and +thence to Hayswater, much frequented by anglers. The other, coming down +Martindale, enters Ullswater at Sandwyke, opposite to Gowbarrow Park. No +persons but such as come to Patterdale, merely to pass through it, +should fail to walk as far as Blowick, the only enclosed land which on +this side borders the higher part of the Lake. The axe has here +indiscriminately levelled a rich wood of birches and oaks, that divided +this favoured spot into a hundred pictures. It has yet its land-locked +bays, and rocky promontories; but those beautiful woods are gone, which +_perfected_ its seclusion; and scenes, that might formerly have been +compared to an inexhaustible volume, are now spread before the eye in a +single sheet,--magnificent indeed, but seemingly perused in a moment! +From Blowick a narrow track conducts along the craggy side of +Place-fell, richly adorned with juniper, and sprinkled over with +birches, to the village of Sandwyke, a few straggling houses, that with +the small estates attached to them, occupy an opening opposite to +Lyulph's Tower and Gowbarrow Park. In Martindale,[49] the road loses +sight of the Lake, and leads over a steep hill, bringing you again into +view of Ullswater. Its lowest reach, four miles in length, is before +you; and the view terminated by the long ridge of Cross Fell in the +distance. Immediately under the eye is a deep-indented bay, with a plot +of fertile land, traversed by a small brook, and rendered cheerful by +two or three substantial houses of a more ornamented and showy +appearance than is usual in those wild spots. + +From Pooley Bridge, at the foot of the Lake, Haweswater may be +conveniently visited. Haweswater is a lesser Ullswater, with this +advantage, that it remains undefiled by the intrusion of bad taste. + +Lowther Castle is about four miles from Pooley Bridge, and, if during +this Tour the Stranger has complained, as he will have had reason to do, +of a want of majestic trees, he may be abundantly recompensed for his +loss in the far-spreading woods which surround that mansion. Visitants, +for the most part, see little of the beauty of these magnificent +grounds, being content with the view from the Terrace; but the whole +course of the Lowther, from Askham to the bridge under Brougham Hall, +presents almost at every step some new feature of river, woodland, and +rocky landscape. A portion of this tract has, from its beauty, acquired +the name of the Elysian Fields;--but the course of the stream can only +be followed by the pedestrian. + +NOTE.--_Vide_ p. 227.--About 200 yards beyond the last house on the +Keswick side of Rydal village the road is cut through a low wooded rock, +called Thrang Crag. The top of it, which is only a few steps on the +south side, affords the best view of the Vale which is to be had by a +Traveller who confines himself to the public road. + +[49] See page 308. + + + + +DESCRIPTION OF THE SCENERY OF THE LAKES. + + * * * * * + +SECTION FIRST. + +VIEW OF THE COUNTRY AS FORMED BY NATURE. + + +At Lucerne, in Switzerland, is shewn a Model of the Alpine country which +encompasses the Lake of the four Cantons. The Spectator ascends a little +platform, and sees mountains, lakes, glaciers, rivers, woods, +waterfalls, and vallies, with their cottages, and every other object +contained in them, lying at his feet; all things being represented in +their appropriate colours. It may be easily conceived that this +exhibition affords an exquisite delight to the imagination, tempting it +to wander at will from valley to valley, from mountain to mountain, +through the deepest recesses of the Alps. But it supplies also a more +substantial pleasure: for the sublime and beautiful region, with all its +hidden treasures, and their bearings and relations to each other, is +thereby comprehended and understood at once. + +Something of this kind, without touching upon minute details and +individualities which would only confuse and embarrass, will here be +attempted, in respect to the Lakes in the north of England, and the +vales and mountains enclosing and surrounding them. The delineation, if +tolerably executed, will, in some instances, communicate to the +traveller, who has already seen the objects, new information; and will +assist in giving to his recollections a more orderly arrangement than +his own opportunities of observing may have permitted him to make; while +it will be still more useful to the future traveller, by directing his +attention at once to distinctions in things which, without such previous +aid, a length of time only could enable him to discover. It is hoped, +also, that this Essay may become generally serviceable, by leading to +habits of more exact and considerate observation than, as far as the +writer knows, have hitherto been applied to local scenery. + +To begin, then, with the main outlines of the country;--I know not how +to give the reader a distinct image of these more readily, than by +requesting him to place himself with me, in imagination, upon some given +point; let it be the top of either of the mountains, Great Gavel, or +Scawfell; or, rather, let us suppose our station to be a cloud hanging +midway between those two mountains, at not more than half a mile's +distance from the summit of each, and not many yards above their highest +elevation; we shall then see stretched at our feet a number of vallies, +not fewer than eight, diverging from the point, on which we are supposed +to stand, like spokes from the nave of a wheel. First, we note, lying to +the south-east, the vale of Langdale,[50] which will conduct the eye to +the long lake of Winandermere, stretched nearly to the sea; or rather to +the sands of the vast bay of Morcamb, serving here for the rim of this +imaginary wheel;--let us trace it in a direction from the south-east +towards the south, and we shall next fix our eyes upon the vale of +Coniston, running up likewise from the sea, but not (as all the other +vallies do) to the nave of the wheel, and therefore it may be not +inaptly represented as a broken spoke sticking in the rim. Looking forth +again, with an inclination towards the west, we see immediately at our +feet the vale of Duddon, in which is no lake, but a copious stream, +winding among fields, rocks, and mountains, and terminating its course +in the sands of Duddon. The fourth vale, next to be observed, viz. that +of the Esk, is of the same general character as the last, yet +beautifully discriminated from it by peculiar features. Its stream +passes under the woody steep upon which stands Muncaster Castle, the +ancient seat of the Penningtons, and after forming a short and narrow +aestuary enters the sea below the small town of Ravenglass. Next, almost +due west, look down into, and along the deep valley of Wastdale, with +its little chapel and half a dozen neat dwellings scattered upon a plain +of meadow and corn-ground intersected with stone walls apparently +innumerable, like a large piece of lawless patch-work, or an array of +mathematical figures, such as in the ancient schools of geometry might +have been sportively and fantastically traced out upon sand. Beyond this +little fertile plain lies, within a bed of steep mountains, the long, +narrow, stern, and desolate lake of Wastdale; and, beyond this, a dusky +tract of level ground conducts the eye to the Irish Sea. The stream +that issues from Wast-water is named the Irt, and falls into the +aestuary of the river Esk. Next comes in view Ennerdale, with its lake +of bold and somewhat savage shores. Its stream, the Ehen or Enna, +flowing through a soft and fertile country, passes the town of Egremont, +and the ruins of the castle,--then, seeming, like the other rivers, to +break through the barrier of sand thrown up by the winds on this +tempestuous coast, enters the Irish Sea. The vale of Buttermere, with +the lake and village of that name, and Crummock-water, beyond, next +present themselves. We will follow the main stream, the Coker, through +the fertile and beautiful vale of Lorton, till it is lost in the +Derwent, below the noble ruins of Cockermouth Castle. Lastly, +Borrowdale, of which the vale of Keswick is only a continuation, +stretching due north, brings us to a point nearly opposite to the vale +of Winandermere with which we began. From this it will appear, that the +image of a wheel, thus far exact, is little more than one half complete; +but the deficiency on the eastern side may be supplied by the vales of +Wytheburn, Ulswater, Hawswater, and the vale of Grasmere and Rydal; none +of these, however, run up to the central point between Great Gavel and +Scawfell. From this, hitherto our central point, take a flight of not +more than four or five miles eastward to the ridge of Helvellyn, and you +will look down upon Wytheburn and St. John's Vale, which are a branch of +the vale of Keswick; upon Ulswater, stretching due east:--and not far +beyond to the south-east (though from this point not visible) lie the +vale and lake of Hawswater; and lastly, the vale of Grasmere, Rydal, and +Ambleside, brings you back to Winandermere, thus completing, though on +the eastern side in a somewhat irregular manner, the representative +figure of the wheel. + +[50] Anciently spelt Langden, and so called by the old inhabitants to +this day--_dean_, from which the latter part of the word is derived, +being in many parts of England a name for a valley. + +Such, concisely given, is the general topographical view of the country +of the Lakes in the north of England; and it may be observed, that, from +the circumference to the centre, that is, from the sea or plain country +to the mountain stations specified, there is--in the several ridges that +enclose these vales, and divide them from each other, I mean in the +forms and surfaces, first of the swelling grounds, next of the hills and +rocks, and lastly of the mountains--an ascent of almost regular +gradation, from elegance and richness, to their highest point of +grandeur and sublimity. It follows therefore from this, first, that +these rocks, hills, and mountains, must present themselves to view in +stages rising above each other, the mountains clustering together +towards the central point; and next, that an observer familiar with the +several vales, must, from their various position in relation to the sun, +have had before his eyes every possible embellishment of beauty, +dignity, and splendour, which light and shadow can bestow upon objects +so diversified. For example, in the vale of Winandermere, if the +spectator looks for gentle and lovely scenes, his eye is turned towards +the south; if for the grand, towards the north: in the vale of Keswick, +which (as hath been said) lies almost due north of this, it is directly +the reverse. Hence, when the sun is setting in summer far to the +north-west, it is seen, by the spectator from the shores or breast of +Winandermere, resting among the summits of the loftiest mountains, some +of which will perhaps be half or wholly hidden by clouds, or by the +blaze of light which the orb diffuses around it; and the surface of the +lake will reflect before the eye correspondent colours through every +variety of beauty, and through all degrees of splendour. In the vale of +Keswick, at the same period, the sun sets over the humbler regions of +the landscape, and showers down upon _them_ the radiance which at once +veils and glorifies,--sending forth, meanwhile, broad streams of rosy, +crimson, purple, or golden light, towards the grand mountains in the +south and south-east, which, thus illuminated, with all their +projections and cavities, and with an intermixture of solemn shadows, +are seen distinctly through a cool and clear atmosphere. Of course, +there is as marked a difference between the _noontide_ appearance of +these two opposite vales. The bedimming haze that overspreads the south, +and the clear atmosphere and determined shadows of the clouds in the +north, at the same time of the day, are each seen in these several +vales, with a contrast as striking. The reader will easily conceive in +what degree the intermediate vales partake of a kindred variety. + +I do not indeed know any tract of country in which, within so narrow a +compass, may be found an equal variety in the influences of light and +shadow upon the sublime or beautiful features of landscape; and it is +owing to the combined circumstances to which the reader's attention has +been directed. From a point between Great Gavel and Scawfell, a +shepherd would not require more than an hour to descend into any one of +eight of the principal vales by which he would be surrounded; and all +the others lie (with the exception of Hawswater) at but a small +distance. Yet, though clustered together, every valley has its distinct +and separate character: in some instances, as if they had been formed in +studied contrast to each other, and in others with the united pleasing +differences and resemblances of a sisterly rivalship. This concentration +of interest gives to the country a decided superiority over the most +attractive districts of Scotland and Wales, especially for the +pedestrian traveller. In Scotland and Wales are found, undoubtedly, +individual scenes, which, in their several kinds, cannot be excelled. +But, in Scotland, particularly, what long tracts of desolate country +intervene! so that the traveller, when he reaches a spot deservedly of +great celebrity, would find it difficult to determine how much of his +pleasure is owing to excellence inherent in the landscape itself; and +how much to an instantaneous recovery from an oppression left upon his +spirits by the barrenness and desolation through which he has passed. + +But to proceed with our survey;--and, first, of the MOUNTAINS. Their +_forms_ are endlessly diversified, sweeping easily or boldly in simple +majesty, abrupt and precipitous, or soft and elegant. In magnitude and +grandeur they are individually inferior to the most celebrated of those +in some other parts of this island; but, in the combinations which they +make, towering above each other, or lifting themselves in ridges like +the waves of a tumultuous sea, and in the beauty and variety of their +surfaces and colours, they are surpassed by none. + +The general _surface_ of the mountains is turf, rendered rich and green +by the moisture of the climate. Sometimes the turf, as in the +neighbourhood of Newlands, is little broken, the whole covering being +soft and downy pasturage. In other places rocks predominate; the soil is +laid bare by torrents and burstings of water from the sides of the +mountains in heavy rains; and not unfrequently their perpendicular sides +are seamed by ravines (formed also by rains and torrents) which, meeting +in angular points, entrench and scar the surface with numerous figures +like the letters W. and Y. + +In the ridge that divides Eskdale from Wasdale, granite is found; but +the MOUNTAINS are for the most part composed of the stone by +mineralogists termed schist, which, as you approach the plain country, +gives place to limestone and freestone; but schist being the substance +of the mountains, the predominant _colour_ of their _rocky_ parts is +bluish, or hoary grey--the general tint of the lichens with which the +bare stone is encrusted. With this blue or grey colour is frequently +intermixed a red tinge, proceeding from the iron that interveins the +stone, and impregnates the soil. The iron is the principle of +decomposition in these rocks; and hence, when they become pulverized, +the elementary particles crumbling down, overspread in many places the +steep and almost precipitous sides of the mountains with an intermixture +of colours, like the compound hues of a dove's neck. When in the heat of +advancing summer, the fresh green tint of the herbage has somewhat +faded, it is again revived by the appearance of the fern profusely +spread over the same ground: and, upon this plant, more than upon +anything else, do the changes which the seasons make in the colouring of +the mountains depend. About the first week in October, the rich green, +which prevailed through the whole summer, is usually passed away. The +brilliant and various colours of the fern are then in harmony with the +autumnal woods; bright yellow or lemon colour, at the base of the +mountains, melting gradually, through orange, to a dark russet brown +towards the summits, where the plant, being more exposed to the weather, +is in a more advanced state of decay. Neither heath nor furze are +_generally_ found upon the _sides_ of these mountains, though in many +places they are adorned by those plants, so beautiful when in flower. We +may add, that the mountains are of height sufficient to have the surface +towards the summit softened by distance, and to imbibe the finest aerial +hues. In common also with other mountains, their apparent forms and +colours are perpetually changed by the clouds and vapours which float +round them: the effect indeed of mist or haze, in a country of this +character, is like that of magic. I have seen six or seven ridges rising +above each other, all created in a moment by the vapours upon the side +of a mountain, which, in its ordinary appearance, shewed not a +projecting point to furnish even a hint for such an operation. + +I will take this opportunity of observing, that they who have studied +the appearances of Nature feel that the superiority, in point of visual +interest, of mountainous over other countries--is more strikingly +displayed in winter than in summer. This, as must be obvious, is partly +owing to the _forms_ of the mountains, which, of course, are not +affected by the seasons; but also, in no small degree, to the greater +variety that exists in their winter than their summer _colouring_. This +variety is such, and so harmoniously preserved, that it leaves little +cause of regret when the splendour of autumn is passed away. The +oak-coppices, upon the sides of the mountains, retain russet leaves; the +birch stands conspicuous with its silver stem and puce-coloured twigs; +the hollies, with green leaves and scarlet berries, have come forth to +view from among the deciduous trees, whose summer foliage had concealed +them; the ivy is now plentifully apparent upon the stems and boughs of +the trees, and upon the steep rocks. In place of the deep summer-green +of the herbage and fern, many rich colours play into each other over the +surface of the mountains; turf (the tints of which are interchangeably +tawny-green, olive, and brown), beds of withered fern, and grey rocks, +being harmoniously blended together. The mosses and lichens are never so +fresh and flourishing as in winter, if it be not a season of frost; and +their minute beauties prodigally adorn the foreground. Wherever we turn, +we find these productions of Nature, to which winter is rather +favourable than unkindly, scattered over the walls, banks of earth, +rocks, and stones, and upon the trunks of trees, with the intermixture +of several species of small fern, now green and fresh; and, to the +observing passenger, their forms and colours are a source of +inexhaustable admiration. Add to this the hoar-frost and snow, with all +the varieties they create, and which volumes would not be sufficient to +describe. I will content myself with one instance of the colouring +produced by snow, which may not be uninteresting to painters. It is +extracted from the memorandum-book of a friend; and for its accuracy I +can speak, having been an eye-witness of the appearance. 'I observed,' +says he, 'the beautiful effect of the drifted snow upon the mountains, +and the perfect _tone_ of colour. From the top of the mountains +downwards a rich olive was produced by the powdery snow and the grass, +which olive was warmed with a little brown, and in this way harmoniously +combined, by insensible gradations, with the white. The drifting took +away the monotony of snow; and the whole vale of Grasmere, seen from +the terrace walk in Easedale, was as varied, perhaps more so, than even +in the pomp of autumn. In the distance was Loughrigg-Fell, the +basin-wall of the lake: this, from the summit downward, was a rich +orange-olive; then the lake of a bright olive-green, nearly the same +tint as the snow-powdered mountain tops and high slopes in Easedale; and +lastly, the church, with its firs, forming the centre of the view. Next +to the church came nine distinguishable hills, six of them with woody +sides turned towards us, all of them oak-copses with their bright red +leaves and snow-powdered twigs; these hills--so variously situated in +relation to each other, and to the view in general, so variously +powdered, some only enough to give the herbage a rich brown tint, one +intensely white and lighting up all the others--were yet so placed, as +in the most inobtrusive manner to harmonise by contrast with a perfect +naked, snowless bleak summit in the far distance.' + +Having spoken of the forms, surface, and colour of the mountains, let us +descend into the VALES. Though these have been represented under the +general image of the spokes of a wheel, they are, for the most part, +winding; the windings of many being abrupt and intricate. And, it may be +observed, that, in one circumstance, the general shape of them all has +been determined by that primitive conformation through which so many +became receptacles of lakes. For they are not formed, as are most of the +celebrated Welsh vallies, by an approximation of the sloping bases of +the opposite mountains towards each other, leaving little more between +than a channel for the passage of a hasty river; but the bottom of these +vallies is mostly a spacious and gently declining area, apparently level +as the floor of a temple, or the surface of a lake, and broken in many +cases, by rocks and hills, which rise up like islands from the plain. In +such of the vallies as make many windings, these level areas open upon +the traveller in succession, divided from each other sometimes by a +mutual approximation of the hills, leaving only passage for a river, +sometimes by correspondent windings, without such approximation; and +sometimes by a bold advance of one mountain towards that which is +opposite it. It may here be observed with propriety that the several +rocks and hills, which have been described as rising up like islands +from the level area of the vale, have regulated the choice of the +inhabitants in the situation of their dwellings. Where none of these +are found, and the inclination of the ground is not sufficiently rapid +easily to carry off the waters, (as in the higher part of Langdale, for +instance,) the houses are not sprinkled over the middle of the vales, +but confined to their sides, being placed merely so far up the mountain +as to be protected from the floods. But where these rocks and hills have +been scattered over the plain of the vale, (as in Grasmere, Donnerdale, +Eskdale, &c.) the beauty which they give to the scene is much heightened +by a single cottage, or cluster of cottages, that will be almost always +found under them, or upon their sides; dryness and shelter having +tempted the Dalesmen to fix their habitations there. + +I shall now speak of the LAKES of this country. The form of the lake is +most perfect when, like Derwent-water, and some of the smaller lakes, it +least resembles that of a river;--I mean, when being looked at from +any given point where the whole may be seen at once, the width of it +bears such proportion to the length, that, however the outline may be +diversified by far-receding bays, it never assumes the shape of a river, +and is contemplated with that placid and quiet feeling which belongs +peculiarly to the lake--as a body of still water under the influence +of no current; reflecting therefore the clouds, the light, and all the +imagery of the sky and surrounding hills; expressing also and making +visible the changes of the atmosphere, and motions of the lightest +breeze, and subject to agitation only from the winds-- + + --The visible scene + Would enter unawares into his mind + With all its solemn imagery, its rocks, + Its woods, and that uncertain heaven received + Into the bosom of the _steady_ lake! + +It must be noticed, as a favourable characteristic of the lakes of this +country, that, though several of the largest, such as Winandermere, +Ulswater, Hawswater, do, when the whole length of them is commanded from +an elevated point, loose somewhat of the peculiar form of the lake, and +assume the resemblance of a magnificent river; yet, as their shape is +winding, (particularly that of Ulswater and Hawswater) when the view of +the whole is obstructed by those barriers which determine the windings, +and the spectator is confined to one reach, the appropriate feeling is +revived; and one lake may thus in succession present to the eye the +essential characteristic of many. But, though the forms of the large +lakes have this advantage, it is nevertheless favourable to the beauty +of the country that the largest of them are comparatively small; and +that the same vale generally furnishes a succession of lakes, instead of +being filled with one. The vales in North Wales, as hath been observed, +are not formed for the reception of lakes; those of Switzerland, +Scotland, and this part of the North of England, _are_ so formed; but, +in Switzerland and Scotland, the proportion of diffused water is often +too great, as at the lake of Geneva for instance, and in most of the +Scotch lakes. No doubt it sounds magnificent and flatters the +imagination, to hear at a distance of expanses of water so many leagues +in length and miles in width; and such ample room may be delightful to +the fresh-water sailor, scudding with a lively breeze amid the +rapidly-shifting scenery. But, who ever travelled along the banks of +Loch-Lomond, variegated as the lower part is by islands, without feeling +that a speedier termination of the long vista of blank water would be +acceptable; and without wishing for an interposition of green meadows, +trees, and cottages, and a sparkling stream to run by his side? In fact, +a notion, of grandeur, as connected with magnitude, has seduced persons +of taste into a general mistake upon this subject. It is much more +desirable, for the purposes of pleasure, that lakes should be numerous, +and small or middle-sized, than large, not only for communication by +walks and rides, but for variety, and for recurrence of similar +appearances. To illustrate this by one instance:--how pleasing is it +to have a ready and frequent opportunity of watching, at the outlet of a +lake, the stream pushing its way among the rocks in lively contrast with +the stillness from which it has escaped; and how amusing to compare its +noisy and turbulent motions with the gentle playfulness of the breezes, +that may be starting up or wandering here and there over the +faintly-rippled surface of the broad water! I may add, as a general +remark, that, in lakes of great width, the shores cannot be distinctly +seen at the same time, and therefore contribute little to mutual +illustration and ornament; and, if the opposite shores are out of sight +of each other, like those of the American and Asiatic lakes, then +unfortunately the traveller is reminded of a nobler object; he has the +blankness of a sea-prospect without the grandeur and accompanying sense +of power. + +As the comparatively small size of the lakes in the North of England is +favourable to the production of variegated landscape, their +_boundary-line_ also is for the most part gracefully or boldly indented. +That uniformity which prevails in the primitive frame of the lower +grounds among all chains or clusters of mountains where large bodies of +still water are bedded, is broken by the _secondary_ agents of Nature, +ever at work to supply the deficiences of the mould in which things were +originally cast. Using the word _deficiences_, I do not speak with +reference to those stronger emotions which a region of mountains is +peculiarly fitted to excite. The bases of those huge barriers may run +for a long space in straight lines, and these parallel to each other; +the opposite sides of a profound vale may ascend as exact counterparts, +or in mutual reflection, like the billows of a troubled sea; and the +impression be, from its very simplicity, more awful and sublime. +Sublimity is the result of Nature's first great dealings with the +superficies of the Earth; but the general tendency of her subsequent +operations is towards the production of beauty; by a multiplicity of +symmetrical parts uniting in a consistent whole. This is everywhere +exemplified along the margins of these lakes. Masses of rock, that have +been precipitated from the heights into the area of waters, lie in some +places like stranded ships; or have acquired the compact structure of +jutting piers; or project in little peninsulas crested with native wood. +The smallest rivulet--one whose silent influx is scarcely noticeable +in a season of dry weather--so faint is the dimple made by it on the +surface of the smooth lake--will be found to have been not useless in +shaping, by its deposits of gravel and soil in time of flood, a curve +that would not otherwise have existed. But the more powerful brooks, +encroaching upon the level of the lake, have, in course of time, given +birth to ample promontories of sweeping outline that contrast boldly +with the longitudinal base of the steeps on the opposite shore; while +their flat or gently-sloping-surfaces never fail to introduce, into the +midst of desolation and barrenness, the elements of fertility, even +where the habitations of men may not have been raised. These alluvial +promontories, however, threaten, in some places, to bisect the waters +which they have long adorned; and, in course of ages, they will cause +some of the lakes to dwindle into numerous and insignificant pools; +which, in their turn, will finally be filled up. But, checking these +intrusive calculations, let us rather be content with appearances as +they are, and pursue in imagination the meandering shores, whether +rugged steeps, admitting of no cultivation, descend into the water; or +gently-sloping lawns and woods, or flat and fertile meadows, stretch +between the margin of the lake and the mountains. Among minuter +recommendations will be noticed, especially along bays exposed to the +setting-in of strong winds, the curved rim of fine blue gravel, thrown +up in course of time by the waves, half of it perhaps gleaming from +under the water, and the corresponding half of a lighter hue; and in +other parts bordering the lake, groves, if I may so call them, of reeds +and bulrushes; or plots of water-lilies lifting up their large +target-shaped leaves to the breeze, while the white flower is heaving +upon the wave. + +To these may naturally be added the birds that enliven the waters. +Wild-ducks in spring-time hatch their young in the islands, and upon +reedy shores;--the sand-piper, flitting along the stony margins, by +its restless note attracts the eye to motions as restless:--upon some +jutting rock, or at the edge of a smooth meadow, the stately heron may +be descried with folded wings, that might seem to have caught their +delicate hue from the blue waters, by the side of which she watches for +her sustenance. In winter, the lakes are sometimes resorted to by wild +swans; and in that season habitually by widgeons, goldings, and other +aquatic fowl of the smaller species. Let me be allowed the aid of verse +to describe the evolutions which these visitants sometimes perform, on a +fine day towards the close of winter. + + Mark how the feather'd tenants of the flood, + With grace of motion that might scarcely seem + Inferior to angelical, prolong + Their curious pastime! shaping in mid air + (And sometimes with ambitious wing that soars + High as the level of the mountain tops,) + A circuit ampler than the lake beneath, + Their own domain;---but ever, while intent + On tracing and retracing that large round, + Their jubilant activity evolves + Hundreds of curves and circlets, to and fro, + Upward and downward, progress intricate + Yet unperplex'd, as if one spirit swayed + Their indefatigable flight.--'Tis done-- + Ten times, or more, I fancied it had ceased; + But lo! the vanish'd company again + Ascending;--they approach--I hear their wings + Faint, faint, at first, and then an eager sound + Past in a moment--and as faint again! + They tempt the sun to sport amid their plumes; + They tempt the water or the gleaming ice, + To shew them a fair image;--'tis themselves, + Their own fair forms, upon the glimmering plain, + Painted more soft and fair as they descend + Almost to touch;--then up again aloft, + Up with a sally and a flash of speed, + As if they scorn'd both resting-place and rest! + +The ISLANDS, dispersed among these lakes, are neither so numerous nor so +beautiful as might be expected from the account that has been given of +the manner in which the level areas of the vales are so frequently +diversified by rocks, hills, and hillocks, scattered over them; nor are +they ornamented (as are several of the lakes in Scotland and Ireland) by +the remains of castles or other places of defence; nor with the still +more interesting ruins of religious edifices. Every one must regret that +scarcely a vestige is left of the Oratory, consecrated to the Virgin, +which stood upon Chapel-Holm in Windermere, and that the Chauntry has +disappeared, where mass used to be sung, upon St. Herbert's Island, +Derwent-water. The islands of the last-mentioned lake are neither +fortunately placed nor of pleasing shape; but if the wood upon them were +managed with more taste, they might become interesting features in the +landscape. There is a beautiful cluster on Winandermere; a pair +pleasingly contrasted upon Eydal; nor must the solitary green island of +Grasmere be forgotten. In the bosom of each of the lakes of Ennerdale +and Devockwater is a single rock, which, owing to its neighbourhood to +the sea, is-- + + The haunt of cormorants and sea-mews' clang, + +a music well suited to the stern and wild character of the several +scenes! It may be worth while here to mention (not as an object of +beauty, but of curiosity) that there occasionally appears above the +surface of Derwent-water, and always in the same place, a considerable +tract of spongy ground covered with aquatic plants, which is called the +Floating, but with more propriety might be named the Buoyant, Island; +and, on one of the pools near the lake of Esthwaite, may sometimes be +seen a mossy Islet, with trees upon it, shifting about before the wind, +a _lusus naturae_ frequent on the great rivers of America, and not +unknown in other parts of the world. + + --fas habeas invisere Tiburis arva, + Albuneaeque lacum, atque umbras terrasque natantes.[51] + + +[51] See that admirable Idyllium, the Catillus and Salia of Landor. + +This part of the subject may be concluded with observing--that, from the +multitude of brooks and torrents that fall into these lakes, and of +internal springs by which they are fed, and which circulate through them +like veins, they are truly living lakes, _'vivi lacus;'_ and are thus +discriminated from the stagnant and sullen pools frequent among +mountains that have been formed by volcanoes, and from the shallow meres +found in flat and fenny countries. The water is also of crystalline +purity; so that, if it were not for the reflections of the incumbent +mountains by which it is darkened, a delusion might be felt, by a person +resting quietly in a boat on the bosom of Winandermere or Derwent-water, +similar to that which Carver so beautifully describes when he was +floating alone in the middle of lake Erie or Ontario, and could almost +have imagined that his boat was suspended in an element as pure as air, +or rather that the air and water were one. + +Having spoken of Lakes I must not omit to mention, as a kindred feature +of this country, those bodies of still water called TARNS. In the +economy of Nature these are useful, as auxiliars to Lakes; for if the +whole quantity of water which falls upon the mountains in time of storm +were poured down upon the plains without intervention, in some quarters, +of such receptacles, the habitable grounds would be much more subject +than they are to inundation. But, as some of the collateral brooks spend +their fury, finding a free course toward and also down the channel of +the main stream of the vale before those that have to pass through the +higher tarns and lakes have filled their several basins, a gradual +distribution is effected; and the waters thus reserved, instead of +uniting, to spread ravage and deformity, with those which meet with no +such detention, contribute to support, for a length of time, the vigour +of many streams without a fresh fall of rain. Tarns are found in some of +the vales, and are numerous upon the mountains. A Tarn, in a _Vale_, +implies, for the most part, that the bed of the vale is not happily +formed; that the water of the brooks can neither wholly escape, nor +diffuse itself over a large area. Accordingly, in such situations, Tarns +are often surrounded by an unsightly tract of boggy ground; but this is +not always the case, and in the cultivated parts of the country, when +the shores of the Tarn are determined, it differs only from the Lake in +being smaller, and in belonging mostly to a smaller valley, or circular +recess. Of this class of miniature lakes, Loughrigg Tarn, near Grasmere, +is the most beautiful example. It has a margin of green firm meadows, of +rocks, and rocky woods, a few reeds here, a little company of +water-lilies there, with beds of gravel or stone beyond; a tiny stream +issuing neither briskly nor sluggishly out of it; but its feeding rills, +from the shortness of their course, so small as to be scarcely visible. +Five or six cottages are reflected in its peaceful bosom; rocky and +barren steeps rise up above the hanging enclosures; and the solemn Pikes +of Langdale overlook, from a distance, the low cultivated ridge of land +that forms the northern boundary of this small, quiet, and fertile +domain. The _mountain_ Tarns can only be recommended to the notice of +the inquisitive traveller who has time to spare. They are difficult of +access and naked; yet some of them are, in their permanent forms, very +grand; and there are accidents of things which would make the meanest of +them interesting. At all events, one of these pools is an acceptable +sight to the mountain wanderer; not merely as an incident that +diversifies the prospect, but as forming in his mind a centre or +conspicuous point to which objects, otherwise disconnected or +insubordinated, may be referred. Some few have a varied outline, with +bold heath-clad promontories; and, as they mostly lie at the foot of a +steep precipice, the water, where the sun is not shining upon it, +appears black and sullen; and, round the margin, huge stones and masses +of rock are scattered; some defying conjecture as to the means by which +they came thither; and others obviously fallen from on high--the +contribution of ages! A not unpleasing sadness is induced by this +perplexity, and these images of decay; while the prospect of a body of +pure water unattended with groves and other cheerful rural images, by +which fresh water is usually accompanied, and unable to give furtherance +to the meagre vegetation around it--excites a sense of some repulsive +power strongly put forth, and thus deepens the melancholy natural to +such scenes. Nor is the feeling of solitude often more forcibly or more +solemnly impressed than by the side of one of these mountain pools: +though desolate and forbidding, it seems a distinct place to repair to; +yet where the visitants must be rare, and there can be no disturbance. +Water-fowl flock hither; and the lonely angler may here be seen; but the +imagination, not content with this scanty allowance of society, is +tempted to attribute a voluntary power to every change which takes place +in such a spot, whether it be the breeze that wanders over the surface +of the water, or the splendid lights of evening resting upon it in the +midst of awful precipices. + + There, sometimes does a leaping fish + Send through the tarn a lonely cheer; + The crags repeat the raven's croak + In symphony austere: + Thither the rainbow comes, the cloud, + And mists that spread the flying shroud, + And sunbeams, and the sounding blast. + +It will be observed that this country is bounded on the south and east +by the sea, which combines beautifully, from many elevated points, with +the inland scenery; and, from the bay of Morecamb, the sloping shores +and back-ground of distant mountains are seen, composing pictures +equally distinguished for amenity and grandeur. But the aestuaries on +this coast are in a great measure bare at low water[52]; and there is no +instance of the sea running far up among the mountains, and mingling +with the lakes, which are such in the strict and usual sense of the +word, being of fresh water. Nor have the streams, from the shortness of +their course, time to acquire that body of water necessary to confer +upon them much majesty. In fact, the most considerable, while they +continue in the mountain and lake-country, are rather large brooks than +rivers. The water is perfectly pellucid, through which in many places +are seen, to a great depth, their beds of rock, or of blue gravel, which +give to the water itself an exquisitely cerulean colour: this is +particularly striking in the rivers Derwent and Duddon, which may be +compared, such and so various are their beauties, to any two rivers of +equal length of course in any country. The number of the torrents and +smaller brooks is infinite, with their waterfalls and water-breaks; and +they need not here be described. I will only observe that, as many, even +of the smallest rills, have either found, or made for themselves, +recesses in the sides of the mountains or in the vales, they have +tempted the primitive inhabitants to settle near them for shelter; and +hence, cottages so placed, by seeming to withdraw from the eye, are the +more endeared to the feelings. + +[52] In fact there is not an instance of a harbour on the Cumberland +side of the Solway frith that is not dry at low water; that of +Ravenglass, at the mouth of the Esk, as a natural harbour is much the +best. The Sea appears to have been retiring slowly for ages from this +coast. From Whitehaven to St. Bees extends a tract of level ground, +about five miles in length, which formerly must have been under salt +water, so as to have made an island of the high ground that stretches +between it and the Sea. + +The WOODS consist chiefly of oak, ash, and birch, and here and there +Wych-elm, with underwood of hazel, the white and black thorn, and +hollies; in moist places alders and willows abound; and yews among the +rocks. Formerly the whole country must have been covered with wood to a +great height up the mountains; where native Scotch firs[53] must have +grown in great profusion, as they do in the northern part of Scotland to +this day. But not one of these old inhabitants has existed, perhaps, for +some hundreds of years; the beautiful traces, however, of the universal +sylvan[54] appearance the country formerly had, yet survive in the +native coppice-woods that have been protected by inclosures, and also in +the forest-trees and hollies, which, though disappearing fast, are yet +scattered both over the inclosed and uninclosed parts of the mountains. +The same is expressed by the beauty and intricacy with which the fields +and coppice woods are often intermingled: the plough of the first +settlers having followed naturally the veins of richer, dryer, or less +stony soil; and thus it has shaped out an intermixture of wood and lawn, +with a grace and wildness which it would have been impossible for the +hand of studied art to produce. Other trees have been introduced within +these last fifty years, such as beeches, larches, limes, &c. and +plantations of firs, seldom with advantage, and often with great injury +to the appearance of the country; but the sycamore (which I believe was +brought into this island from Germany, not more than two hundred years +ago) has long been the favourite of the cottagers; and, with the fir, +has been chosen to screen their dwellings: and is sometimes found in the +fields whither the winds or the waters may have carried its seeds. + +[53] This species of fir is in character much superior to the American +which has usurped its place: Where the fir is planted for ornament, let +it be by all means of the aboriginal species, which can only be procured +from the Scotch nurseries. + +[54] A squirrel (so I have heard the old people of Wytheburn say) might +have gone from their chapel to Keswick without alighting on the ground. + +The want most felt, however, is that of timber trees. There are few +_magnificent_ ones to be found near any of the lakes; and unless greater +care be taken, there will, in a short time, scarcely be left an ancient +oak that would repay the cost of felling. The neighbourhood of Rydal, +notwithstanding the havoc which has been made, is yet nobly +distinguished. In the woods of Lowther, also, is found an almost +matchless store of ancient trees, and the majesty and wildness of the +native forest. + +Among the smaller vegetable ornaments must be reckoned the bilberry, a +ground plant, never so beautiful as in early spring, when it is seen +under bare or budding trees, that imperfectly intercept the tomb-stone +covering the rocky knolls with a pure mantle of fresh verdure, more +lively than the herbage of the open fields;--the broom, that spreads +luxuriantly along rough pastures, and in the month of June interveins +the steep copses with its golden blossoms;--and the juniper, a rich +evergreen, that thrives in spite of cattle, upon the uninclosed parts of +the mountains:--the Dutch myrtle diffuses fragrance in moist places; +and there is an endless variety of brilliant flowers in the fields and +meadows, which, if the agriculture of the country were more carefully +attended to, would disappear. Nor can I omit again to notice the lichens +and mosses: their profusion, beauty, and variety, exceed those of any +other country I have seen. + +It may now be proper to say a few words respecting climate, and 'skiey +influences,' in which this region, as far as the character of its +landscapes is affected by them, may, upon the whole, be considered +fortunate. The country is, indeed, subject to much bad weather, and it +has been ascertained that twice as much rain falls here as in many parts +of the island; but the number of black drizzling days, that blot out the +face of things, is by no means _proportionally_ great. Nor is a +continuance of thick, flagging, damp air, so common as in the West of +England and Ireland. The rain here comes down heartily, and is +frequently succeeded by clear, bright weather, when every brook is +vocal, and every torrent sonorous; brooks and torrents, which are never +muddy, even in the heaviest floods, except, after a drought, they +happen to be defiled for a short time by waters that have swept along +dusty roads, or have broken out into ploughed fields. Days of unsettled +weather, with partial showers, are very frequent; but the showers, +darkening, or brightning, as they fly from hill to hill, are not less +grateful to the eye than finely interwoven passages of gay and sad music +are touching to the ear. Vapours exhaling from the lakes and meadows +after sun-rise, in a hot season, or, in moist weather, brooding upon the +heights, or descending towards the valleys with inaudible motion, give a +visionary character to every thing around them; and are in themselves so +beautiful, as to dispose us to enter into the feelings of those simple +nations (such as the Laplanders of this day) by whom they are taken for +guardian deities of the mountains; or to sympathise with others, who +have fancied these delicate apparitions to be the spirits of their +departed ancestors. Akin to these are fleecy clouds resting upon the +hill-tops; they are not easily managed in picture, with their +accompaniments of blue sky; but how glorious are they in Nature! how +pregnant with imagination for the poet! and the height of the Cumbrian +mountains is sufficient to exhibit daily and hourly instances of those +mysterious attachments. Such clouds, cleaving to their stations, or +lifting up suddenly their glittering heads from behind rocky barriers, +or hurrying out of sight with speed of the sharpest sledge--will often +tempt an inhabitant to congratulate himself on belonging to a country of +mists and clouds and storms, and make him think of the blank sky of +Egypt, and of the cerulean vacancy of Italy, as an unanimated and even a +sad spectacle. The atmosphere, however, as in every country subject to +much rain, is frequently unfavourable to landscape, especially when keen +winds succeed the rain which are apt to produce coldness, spottiness, +and an unmeaning or repulsive detail in the distance;--a sunless +frost, under a canopy of leaden and shapeless clouds, is, as far as it +allows things to be seen, equally disagreeable. + +It has been said that in human life there are moments worth ages. In a +more subdued tone of sympathy may we affirm, that in the climate of +England there are, for the lover of Nature, days which are worth whole +months,--I might say--even years. One of these favoured days +sometimes occurs in spring-time, when that soft air is breathing over +the blossoms and new-born verdure, which inspired Buchanan with his +beautiful Ode to the first of May; the air, which, in the luxuriance of +his fancy, he likens to that of the golden age,--to that which gives +motion to the funereal cypresses on the banks of Lethe;--to the air +which is to salute beatified spirits when expiatory fires shall have +consumed the earth with all her habitations. But it is in autumn that +days of such affecting influence most frequently intervene;--the +atmosphere seems refined, and the sky rendered more crystalline, as the +vivifying heat of the year abates; the lights and shadows are more +delicate; the colouring is richer and more finely harmonised; and, in +this season of stillness, the ear being unoccupied, or only gently +excited, the sense of vision becomes more susceptible of its appropriate +enjoyments. A resident in a country like this which we are treating of, +will agree with me, that the presence of a lake is indispensable to +exhibit in perfection the beauty of one of these days; and he must have +experienced, while looking on the unruffled waters, that the +imagination, by their aid, is carried into recesses of feeling otherwise +impenetrable. The reason of this is, that the heavens are not only +brought down into the bosom of the earth, but that the earth is mainly +looked at, and thought of, through the medium of a purer element. The +happiest time is when the equinoxial gales are departed; but their fury +may probably be called to mind by the sight of a few shattered boughs, +whose leaves do not differ in colour from the faded foliage of the +stately oaks from which these relics of the storm depend: all else +speaks of tranquillity;--not a breath of air, no restlessness of +insects, and not a moving object perceptible--except the clouds +gliding in the depths of the lake, or the traveller passing along, an +inverted image, whose motion seems governed by the quiet of a time, to +which its archetype, the living person, is, perhaps, insensible:--or +it may happen, that the figure of one of the larger birds, a raven or a +heron, is crossing silently among the reflected clouds, while the voice +of the real bird, from the element aloft, gently awakens in the +spectator the recollection of appetites and instincts, pursuits and +occupations, that deform and agitate the world,--yet have no power to +prevent Nature from putting on an aspect capable of satisfying the most +intense cravings for the tranquil, the lovely, and the perfect, to which +man, the noblest of her creatures, is subject. + +Thus far, of climate, as influencing the feelings through its effect on +the objects of sense. We may add, that whatever has been said upon the +advantages derived to these scenes from a changeable atmosphere, would +apply, perhaps still more forcibly, to their appearance under the varied +solemnities of night. Milton, it will be remembered, has given a +_clouded_ moon to Paradise itself. In the night-season also, the +narrowness of the vales, and comparative smallness of the lakes, are +especially adapted to bring surrounding objects home to the eye and to +the heart. The stars, taking their stations above the hill-tops, are +contemplated from a spot like the Abyssinian recess of Rasselas, with +much more touching interest than they are likely to excite when looked +at from an open country with ordinary undulations: and it must be +obvious, that it is the _bays_ only of large lakes that can present such +contrasts of light and shadow as those of smaller dimensions display +from every quarter. A deep contracted valley, with diffused waters, such +a valley and plains level and wide as those of Chaldea, are the two +extremes in which the beauty of the heavens and their connexion with the +earth are most sensibly felt. Nor do the advantages I have been speaking +of imply here an exclusion of the aerial effects of distance. These are +insured by the height of the mountains, and are found, even in the +narrowest vales, where they lengthen in perspective, or act (if the +expression may be used) as telescopes for the open country. + +The subject would bear to be enlarged upon: but I will conclude this +section with a night-scene suggested by the Vale of Keswick. The +Fragment is well known; but it gratifies me to insert it, as the Writer +was one of the first who led the way to a worthy admiration of this +country. + + Now sunk the sun, now twilight sunk, and night + Rode in her zenith; not a passing breeze + Sigh'd to the grove, which in the midnight air + Stood motionless, and in the peaceful floods + Inverted hung: for now the billows slept + Along the shore, nor heav'd the deep; but spread + A shining mirror to the moon's pale orb, + Which, dim and waning, o'er the shadowy cliffs, + The solemn woods, and spiry mountain tops, + Her glimmering faintness threw: now every eye, + Oppress'd with toil, was drown'd in deep repose, + Save that the unseen Shepherd in his watch, + Propp'd on his crook, stood listening by the fold, + And gaz'd the starry vault, and pendant moon; + Nor voice, nor sound, broke on the deep serene; + But the soft murmur of swift-gushing rills, + Forth issuing from the mountain's distant steep, + (Unheard till now, and now scarce heard) proclaim'd + All things at rest, and imag'd the still voice + Of quiet, whispering in the ear of Night.[55] + +[55] Dr. Brown, the author of this fragment, was from his infancy +brought up in Cumberland, and should have remembered that the practice +of folding sheep by night is unknown among these mountains, and that the +image of the Shepherd upon the watch is out of its place, and belongs +only to countries, with a warmer climate, that are subject to ravages +from beasts of prey. It is pleasing to notice a dawn of imaginative +feeling in these verses. Tickel, a man of no common genius, chose, for +the subject of a Poem, Kensington Gardens, in preference to the Banks of +the Derwent, within a mile or two of which he was born. But this was in +the reign of Queen Anne, or George the first. Progress must have been +made in the interval; though the traces of it, except in the works of +Thomson and Dyer, are not very obvious. + + * * * * * + + + + +SECTION SECOND. + +ASPECT OF THE COUNTRY, AS AFFECTED BY ITS INHABITANTS. + +Hitherto I have chiefly spoken of the features by which Nature has +discriminated this country from others. I will now describe, in general +terms, in what manner it is indebted to the hand of man. What I have to +notice on this subject will emanate most easily and perspicuously from a +description of the ancient and present inhabitants, their occupations, +their condition of life, the distribution of landed property among them, +and the tenure by which it is holden. + +The reader will suffer me here to recall to his mind the shapes of the +vallies, and their position with respect to each other, and the forms +and substance of the intervening mountains. He will people the vallies +with lakes and rivers: the coves and sides of the mountains with pools +and torrents; and will bound half of the circle which we have +contemplated by the sands of the sea, or by the sea itself. He will +conceive that, from the point upon which he stood, he looks down upon +this scene before the country had been penetrated by any +inhabitants:---to vary his sensations, and to break in upon their +stillness, he will form to himself an image of the tides visiting and +re-visiting the friths, the main sea dashing against the bolder shore, +the rivers pursuing their course to be lost in the mighty mass of +waters. He may see or hear in fancy the winds sweeping over the lakes, +or piping with a loud voice among the mountain peaks; and, lastly, may +think of the primeval woods shedding and renewing their leaves with no +human eye to notice, or human heart to regret or welcome the change. +'When the first settlers entered this region (says an animated writer) +they found it overspread with wood; forest trees, the fir, the oak, the +ash, and the birch had skirted the fells, tufted the hills, and shaded +the vallies, through centuries of silent solitude; the birds and beasts +of prey reigned over the meeker species; and the _bellum inter omnia_ +maintained the balance of Nature in the empire of beasts.' + +Such was the state and appearance of this region when the aboriginal +colonists of the Celtic tribes were first driven or drawn towards it, +and became joint tenants with the wolf, the boar, the wild bull, the red +deer, and the leigh, a gigantic species of deer which has been long +extinct; while the inaccessible crags were occupied by the falcon, the +raven, and the eagle. The inner parts were too secluded, and of too +little value, to participate much of the benefit of Roman manners; and +though these conquerors encouraged the Britons to the improvement of +their lands in the plain country of Furness and Cumberland, they seem to +have had little connexion with the mountains, except for military +purposes, or in subservience to the profit they drew from the mines. + +When the Romans retired from Great Britain, it is well known that these +mountain-fastnesses furnished a protection to some unsubdued Britons, +long after the more accessible and more fertile districts had been +seized by the Saxon or Danish invader. A few, though distinct, traces of +Roman forts or camps, as at Ambleside, and upon Dunmallet, and a few +circles of rude stones attributed to the Druids[56], are the only +vestiges that remain upon the surface of the country, of these ancient +occupants; and, as the Saxons and Danes, who succeeded to the possession +of the villages and hamlets which had been established by the Britons, +seem at first to have confined themselves to the open country,--we may +descend at once to times long posterior to the conquest by the Normans, +when their feudal polity was regularly established. We may easily +conceive that these narrow dales and mountain sides, choaked up as they +must have been with wood, lying out of the way of communication with +other parts of the Island, and upon the edge of a hostile kingdom, could +have little attraction for the high-born and powerful; especially as the +more open parts of the country furnished positions for castles and +houses of defence, sufficient to repel any of those sudden attacks, +which, in the then rude state of military knowledge, could be made upon +them. Accordingly, the more retired regions (and to such I am now +confining myself) must have been neglected or shunned even by the +persons whose baronial or signioral rights extended over them, and left, +doubtless, partly as a place of refuge for outlaws and robbers, and +partly granted out for the more settled habitation of a few vassals +following the employment of shepherds or woodlanders. Hence these lakes +and inner vallies are unadorned by any remains of ancient grandeur, +castles, or monastic edifices, which are only found upon the skirts of +the country, as Furness Abbey, Calder Abbey, the Priory of Lannercost, +Gleaston Castle,--long ago a residence of the Flemings,--and the +numerous ancient castles of the Cliffords, the Lucys, and the Dacres. On +the southern side of these mountains, (especially in that part known by +the name of Furness Fells, which is more remote from the borders,) the +state of society would necessarily be more settled; though it also was +fashioned, not a little, by its neighbourhood to a hostile kingdom. We +will, therefore, give a sketch of the economy of the Abbots in the +distribution of lands among their tenants, as similar plans were +doubtless adopted by other Lords, and as the consequences have affected +the face of the country materially to the present day, being, in fact, +one of the principal causes which give it such a striking superiority, +in beauty and interest, over all other parts of the island. + +[56] It is not improbable that these circles were once numerous, and +that many of them may yet endure in a perfect state, under no very deep +covering of soil. A friend of the Author, while making a trench in a +level piece of ground, not far from the banks of the Emont, but in no +connection with that river, met with some stones which seemed to him +formally arranged; this excited his curiosity, and proceeding, he +uncovered a perfect circle of stones, from two to three or four feet +high, with a _sanctum sanctorum_,--the whole a complete place of +Druidical worship of small dimensions, having the same sort of relation +to Stonehenge, Long Meg and her Daughters near the river Eden, and Karl +Lofts near Shap (if this last be not Danish), that a rural chapel bears +to a stately church, or to one of our noble cathedrals. This interesting +little monument having passed, with the field in which it was found, +into other hands, has been destroyed. It is much to be regretted, that +the striking relic of antiquity at Shap has been in a great measure +destroyed also. + +The DAUGHTERS of LONG MEG are placed not in an oblong, as the STONES of +SHAP, but in a perfect circle, eighty yards in diameter, and seventy-two +in number, and from above three yards high, to less than so many feet: a +little way out of the circle stands LONG MEG herself--a single stone +eighteen feet high. + +When the Author first saw this monument, he came upon it by surprize, +therefore might over-rate its importance as an object; but he must say, +that though it is not to be compared with Stonehenge, he has not seen +any other remains of those dark ages, which can pretend to rival it in +singularity and dignity of appearance. + + A weight of awe not easy to be borne + Fell suddenly upon my spirit, cast + From the dread bosom of the unknown past, + When first I saw that sisterhood forlorn;-- + And Her, whose strength and stature seem to scorn + The power of years--pre-eminent, and placed + Apart, to overlook the circle vast. + Speak, Giant-mother! tell it to the Morn, + While she dispels the cumbrous shades of night; + Let the Moon hear, emerging from a cloud, + When, how, and wherefore, rose on British ground + That wondrous Monument, whose mystic round + Forth shadows, some have deemed, to mortal sight + The inviolable God that tames the proud. + +'When the Abbots of Furness,' says an author before cited, 'enfranchised +their villains, and raised them to the dignity of customary tenants, the +lands, which they had cultivated for their lord, were divided into whole +tenements; each of which, besides the customary annual rent, was charged +with the obligation of having in readiness a man completely armed for +the king's service on the borders, or elsewhere; each of these whole +tenements was again subdivided into four equal parts; each villain had +one; and the party tenant contributed his share to the support of the +man of arms, and of other burdens. These divisions were not properly +distinguished; the land remained mixed; each tenant had a share through +all the arable and meadow-land, and common of pasture over all the +wastes. These sub-tenements were judged sufficient for the support of so +many families; and no further division was permitted. These divisions +and sub-divisions were convenient at the time for which they were +calculated: the land, so parcelled out, was of necessity more attended +to, and the industry greater, when more persons were to be supported by +the produce of it. The frontier of the kingdom, within which Furness was +considered, was in a constant state of attack and defence; more hands, +therefore, were necessary to guard the coast, to repel an invasion from +Scotland, or make reprisals on the hostile neighbour. The dividing the +lands in such manner as has been shown, increased the number of +inhabitants, and kept them at home till called for: and, the land being +mixed, and the several tenants united in equipping the plough, the +absence of the fourth man was no prejudice to the cultivation of his +land, which was committed to the care of three. + +'While the villains of Low Furness were thus distributed over the land, +and employed in agriculture; those of High Furness were charged with the +care of flocks and herds, to protect them from the wolves which lurked +in the thickets, and in winter to browze them with the tender sprouts of +hollies and ash. This custom was not till lately discontinued in High +Furness; and holly-trees were carefully preserved for that purpose when +all other wood was cleared off; large tracts of common being so covered +with these trees, as to have the appearance of a forest of hollies. At +the Shepherd's call, the flocks surrounded the holly-bush, and received +the croppings at his hand, which they greedily nibbled up, bleating for +more. The Abbots of Furness enfranchised these pastoral vassals, and +permitted them to enclose _quillets_ to their houses, for which they +paid encroachment rent.'--West's _Antiquities of Furness_. + +However desirable, for the purposes of defence, a numerous population +might be, it was not possible to make at once the same numerous +allotments among the untilled vallies, and upon the sides of the +mountains, as had been made in the cultivated plains. The enfranchised +shepherd or woodlander, having chosen there his place of residence, +builds it of sods, or of the mountain-stone, and, with the permission of +his lord, encloses, like Robinson Crusoe, a small croft or two +immediately at his door for such animals as he wishes to protect. Others +are happy to imitate his example, and avail themselves of the same +privileges: and thus a population, mainly of Danish or Norse origin, as +the dialect indicates, crept on towards the more secluded parts of the +vallies. Chapels, daughters of some distant mother church, are first +erected in the more open and fertile vales, as those of Bowness and +Grasmere, offsets of Kendal: which again, after a period, as the settled +population increases, become motherchurches to smaller edifices, +planted, at length, in almost every dale throughout the country. The +inclosures, formed by the tenantry, are for a long time confined to the +home-steads; and the arable and meadow land of the vales is possessed in +common field; the several portions being marked out by stones, bushes, +or trees; which portions, where the custom has survived, to this day are +called _dales_, from the word _deylen_, to distribute; but, while the +valley was thus lying open, enclosures seem to have taken place upon the +sides of the mountains; because the land there was not intermixed, and +was of little comparative value; and, therefore, small opposition would +be made to its being appropriated by those to whose habitations it was +contiguous. Hence the singular appearance which the sides of many of +these mountains exhibit, intersected, as they are, almost to the summit, +with stone walls. When first erected, these stone fences must have +little disfigured the face of the country; as part of the lines would +every where be hidden by the quantity of native wood then remaining; and +the lines would also be broken (as they still are) by the rocks which +interrupt and vary their course. In the meadows, and in those parts of +the lower grounds where the soil has not been sufficiently drained, and +could not afford a stable foundation, there, when the increasing value +of land, and the inconvenience suffered from intermixed plots of ground +in common field, had induced each inhabitant to enclose his own, they +were compelled to make the fences of alders, willows, and other trees. +These, where the native wood had disappeared, have frequently enriched +the vallies with a sylvan appearance; while the intricate intermixture +of property has given to the fences a graceful irregularity, which, +where large properties are prevalent, and large capitals employed in +agriculture, is unknown. This sylvan appearance is heightened by the +number of ash-trees planted in rows along the quick fences, and along +the walls, for the purpose of browzing the cattle at the approach of +winter. The branches are lopped off and strewn upon the pastures; and +when the cattle have stripped them of the leaves, they are used for +repairing the hedges or for fuel. + +We have thus seen a numerous body of Dalesmen creeping into possession +of their home-steads, their little crofts, their mountain-enclosures; +and, finally, the whole vale is visibly divided; except, perhaps, here +and there some marshy ground, which, till fully drained, would not +repay the trouble of enclosing. But these last partitions do not seem to +have been general, till long after the pacification of the Borders, by +the union of the two crowns: when the cause, which had first determined +the distribution of land into such small parcels, had not only +ceased,--but likewise a general improvement had taken place in the +country, with a correspondent rise in the value of its produce. From the +time of the union, it is certain that this species of feudal population +must rapidly have diminished. That it was formerly much more numerous +than it is at present, is evident from the multitude of tenements (I do +not mean houses, but small divisions of land) which belonged formerly +each to a several proprietor, and for which separate fines are paid to +the manorial lord at this day. These are often in the proportion of four +to one of the present occupants. 'Sir Launcelot Threlkeld, who lived in +the reign of Henry VII., was wont to say, he had three noble houses, one +for pleasure, Crosby, in Westmoreland, where he had a park full of deer; +one for profit and warmth, wherein to reside in winter, namely, Yanwith, +nigh Penrith; and the third, Threlkeld, (on the edge of the vale of +Keswick,) well stocked with tenants to go with him to the wars.' But, as +I have said, from the union of the two crowns, this numerous vassalage +(their services not being wanted) would rapidly diminish; various +tenements would be united in one possessor; and the aboriginal houses, +probably little better than hovels, like the kraels of savages, or the +huts of the Highlanders of Scotland, would fall into decay, and the +places of many be supplied by substantial and comfortable buildings, a +majority of which remain to this day scattered over the vallies, and are +often the only dwellings found in them. + +From the time of the erection of these houses, till within the last +sixty years, the state of society, though no doubt slowly and gradually +improving, underwent no material change. Corn was grown in these vales +(through which no carriage-road had yet been made) sufficient upon each +estate to furnish bread for each family, and no more: notwithstanding +the union of several tenements, the possessions of each inhabitant still +being small, in the same field was seen an intermixture of different +crops; and the plough was interrupted by little rocks, mostly overgrown +with wood, or by spongy places, which the tillers of the soil had +neither leisure nor capital to convert into firm land. The storms and +moisture of the climate induced them to sprinkle their upland property +with outhouses of native stone, as places of shelter for their sheep, +where, in tempestuous weather, food was distributed to them. Every +family spun from its own flock the wool with which it was clothed; a +weaver was here and there found among them; and the rest of their wants +was supplied by the produce of the yarn, which they carded and spun in +their own houses, and carried to market, either under their arms, or +more frequently on pack-horses, a small train taking their way weekly +down the valley or over the mountains to the most commodious town. They +had, as I have said, their rural chapel, and of course their minister, +in clothing or in manner of life, in no respect differing from +themselves, except on the Sabbath-day; this was the sole distinguished +individual among them; every thing else, person and possession, +exhibited a perfect equality, a community of shepherds and +agriculturists, proprietors, for the most part, of the lands which they +occupied and cultivated. + +While the process above detailed was going on, the native forest must +have been every where receding; but trees were planted for the +sustenance of the flocks in winter,--such was then the rude state of +agriculture; and, for the same cause, it was necessary that care should +be taken of some part of the growth of the native woods. Accordingly, in +Queen Elizabeth's time, this was so strongly felt, that a petition was +made to the Crown, praying, 'that the Blomaries in High Furness might be +abolished, on account of the quantity of wood which was consumed in them +for the use of the mines, to the great detriment of the cattle.' But +this same cause, about a hundred years after, produced effects directly +contrary to those which had been deprecated. The re-establishment, at +that period, of furnaces upon a large scale, made it the interest of the +people to convert the steeper and more stony of the enclosures, +sprinkled over with remains of the native forest, into close woods, +which, when cattle and sheep were excluded, rapidly sowed and thickened +themselves. The reader's attention has been directed to the cause by +which tufts of wood, pasturage, meadow, and arable land, with its +various produce, are intricately intermingled in the same field; and he +will now see, in like manner, how enclosures entirely of wood, and +those of cultivated ground, are blended all over the country under a law +of similar wildness. + +An historic detail has thus been given of the manner in which the hand +of man has acted upon the surface of the inner regions of this +mountainous country, as incorporated with and subservient to the powers +and processes of Nature. We will now take a view of the same +agency--acting, within narrower bounds, for the production of the few +works of art and accommodations of life which, in so simple a state of +society, could be necessary. These are merely habitations of man and +coverts for beasts, roads and bridges, and places of worship. + +And to begin with the COTTAGES. They are scattered over the vallies, and +under the hill sides, and on the rocks; and, even to this day, in the +more retired dales, without any intrusion of more assuming buildings; + + Cluster'd like stars some few, but single most, + And lurking dimly in their shy retreats, + Or glancing on each other cheerful looks, + Like separated stars with clouds between.--MS. + +The dwelling-houses, and contiguous outhouses, are, in many instances, +of the colour of the native rock, out of which they have been built; +but, frequently the Dwelling or Fire-house, as it is ordinarily called, +has been distinguished from the barn or byer by rough-cast and white +wash, which, as the inhabitants are not hasty in renewing it, in a few +years acquires, by the influence of weather, a tint at once sober and +variegated. As these houses have been, from father to son, inhabited by +persons engaged in the same occupations, yet necessarily with changes in +their circumstances, they have received without incongruity additions +and accommodations adapted to the needs of each successive occupant, +who, being for the most part proprietor, was at liberty to follow his +own fancy: so that these humble dwellings remind the contemplative +spectator of a production of Nature, and may (using a strong expression) +rather be said to have grown than to have been erected;--to have risen, +by an instinct of their own, out of the native rock--so little is there +in them of formality, such is their wildness and beauty. Among the +numerous recesses and projections in the walls and in the different +stages of their roofs, are seen bold and harmonious effects of +contrasted sunshine and shadow. It is a favourable circumstance, that +the strong winds, which sweep down the vallies, induced the inhabitants, +at a time when the materials for building were easily procured, to +furnish many of these dwellings with substantial porches; and such as +have not this defence, are seldom unprovided with a projection of two +large slates over their thresholds. Nor will the singular beauty of the +chimneys escape the eye of the attentive traveller. Sometimes a low +chimney, almost upon a level with the roof, is overlaid with a slate, +supported upon four slender pillars, to prevent the wind from driving +the smoke down the chimney. Others are of a quadrangular shape, rising +one or two feet above the roof; which low square is often surmounted by +a tall cylinder, giving to the cottage chimney the most beautiful shape +in which it is ever seen. Nor will it be too fanciful or refined to +remark, that there is a pleasing harmony between a tall chimney of this +circular form, and the living column of smoke, ascending from it through +the still air. These dwellings, mostly built, as has been said, of rough +unhewn stone, are roofed with slates, which were rudely taken from the +quarry before the present art of splitting them was understood, and are, +therefore, rough and uneven in their surface, so that both the coverings +and sides of the houses have furnished places of rest for the seeds of +lichens, mosses, ferns, and flowers. Hence buildings, which in their +very form call to mind the processes of Nature, do thus, clothed in part +with a vegetable garb, appear to be received into the bosom of the +living principle of things, as it acts and exists among the woods and +fields; and, by their colour and their shape, affectingly direct the +thoughts to that tranquil course of Nature and simplicity, along which +the humble-minded inhabitants have, through so many generations, been +led. Add the little garden with its shed for bee-hives, its small bed of +pot-herbs, and its borders and patches of flowers for Sunday posies, +with sometimes a choice few too much prized to be plucked; an orchard of +proportioned size; a cheese-press, often supported by some tree near the +door; a cluster of embowering sycamores for summer shade; with a tall +fir, through which the winds sing when other trees are leafless; the +little rill or household spout murmuring in all seasons;--combine these +incidents and images together, and you have the representative idea of a +mountain-cottage in this country so beautifully formed in itself, and +so richly adorned by the hand of Nature. + +Till within the last sixty years there was no communication between any +of these vales by carriage-roads; all bulky articles were transported on +pack-horses. Owing, however, to the population not being concentrated in +villages, but scattered, the vallies themselves were intersected as now +by innumerable lanes and pathways leading from house to house and from +field to field. These lanes, where they are fenced by stone walls, are +mostly bordered with ashes, hazels, wild roses, and beds of tall fern, +at their base; while the walls themselves, if old, are overspread with +mosses, small ferns, wild strawberries, the geranium, and lichens: and, +if the wall happen to rest against a bank of earth, it is sometimes +almost wholly concealed by a rich facing of stone-fern. It is a great +advantage to a traveller or resident, that these numerous lanes and +paths, if he be a zealous admirer of Nature, will lead him on into all +the recesses of the country, so that the hidden treasures of its +landscapes may, by an ever-ready guide, be laid open to his eyes. + +Likewise to the smallness of the several properties is owing the great +number of bridges over the brooks and torrents, and the daring and +graceful neglect of danger or accommodation with which so many of them +are constructed, the rudeness of the forms of some, and their endless +variety. But, when I speak of this rudeness, I must at the same time +add, that many of these structures are in themselves models of elegance, +as if they had been formed upon principles of the most thoughtful +architecture. It is to be regretted that these monuments of the skill of +our ancestors, and of that happy instinct by which consummate beauty was +produced, are disappearing fast; but sufficient specimens remain[57] to +give a high gratification to the man of genuine taste. + +[57] Written some time ago. The injury done since, is more than could +have been calculated upon. + +_Singula de nobis anni praedantur euntes_. This is in the course of +things; but why should the genius that directed the ancient architecture +of these vales have deserted them? For the bridges, churches, mansions, +cottages, and their richly fringed and flat-roofed outhouses, venerable +as the grange of some old abbey, have been substituted structures, in +which baldness only seems to have been studied, or plans of the most +vulgar utility. But some improvement may be looked for in future; the +gentry _recently_ have copied the old models, and successful instances +might be pointed out, if I could take the liberty. + +Travellers who may not have been accustomed to pay attention to things +so inobtrusive, will excuse me if I point out the proportion between the +span and elevation of the arch, the lightness of the parapet, and the +graceful manner in which its curve follows faithfully that of the arch. + +Upon this subject I have nothing further to notice, except the PLACES OF +WORSHIP, which have mostly a little school-house adjoining[58]. The +architecture of these churches and chapels, where they have not been +recently rebuilt or modernised, is of a style not less appropriate and +admirable than that of the dwelling-houses and other structures. How +sacred the spirit by which our forefathers were directed! The _Religio +loci_ is no where violated by these unstinted, yet unpretending, works +of human hands. They exhibit generally a well-proportioned oblong, with +a suitable porch, in some instances a steeple tower, and in others +nothing more than a small belfry, in which one or two bells hang +visibly. But these objects, though pleasing in their forms, must +necessarily, more than others in rural scenery, derive their interest +from the sentiments of piety and reverence for the modest virtues and +simple manners of humble life with which they may be contemplated. A man +must be very insensible who would not be touched with pleasure at the +sight of the chapel of Buttermere, so strikingly expressing, by its +diminutive size, how small must be the congregation there assembled, as +it were, like one family; and proclaiming at the same time to the +passenger, in connection with the surrounding mountains, the depth of +that seclusion in which the people live, that has rendered necessary the +building of a separate place of worship for so few. A patriot, calling +to mind the images of the stately fabrics of Canterbury, York, or +Westminster, will find a heartfelt satisfaction in presence of this +lowly pile, as a monument of the wise institutions of our country, and +as evidence of the all-pervading and paternal care of that venerable +Establishment, of which it is, perhaps, the humblest daughter. The +edifice is scarcely larger than many of the single stones or fragments +of rock which are scattered near it. + +[58] In some places scholars were formerly taught in the church, and at +others the school-house was a sort of anti-chapel to the place of +worship, being under the same roof; an arrangement which was abandoned +as irreverent. It continues, however, to this day in Borrowdale. In the +parish register of that chapelry is a notice, that a youth who had +quitted the valley, and died in one of the towns on the coast of +Cumberland, had requested that his body should be brought and interred +at the foot of the pillar by which he had been accustomed to sit while a +school-boy. One cannot but regret that parish registers so seldom +contain any thing but bare names; in a few of this country, especially +in that of Lowes-water, I have found interesting notices of unusual +natural occurrences--characters of the deceased, and particulars of +their lives. There is no good reason why such memorials should not be +frequent; these short and simple annals would in future ages become +precious. + +We have thus far confined our observations, on this division of the +subject, to that part of these Dales which runs up far into the +mountains. + +As we descend towards the open country, we meet with halls and mansions, +many of which have been places of defence against the incursions of the +Scottish borderers; and they not unfrequently retain their towers and +battlements. To these houses, parks are sometimes attached, and to their +successive proprietors we chiefly owe whatever ornament is still left to +the country of majestic timber. Through the open parts of the vales are +scattered, also, houses of a middle rank between the pastoral cottage +and the old hall residence of the knight or esquire. Such houses differ +much from the rugged cottages before described, and are generally graced +with a little court or garden in front, where may yet be seen specimens +of those fantastic and quaint figures which our ancestors were fond of +shaping out in yew-tree, holly, or box-wood. The passenger will +sometimes smile at such elaborate display of petty art, while the house +does not deign to look upon the natural beauty or the sublimity which +its situation almost unavoidably commands. + +Thus has been given a faithful description, the minuteness of which the +reader will pardon, of the face of this country as it was, and had been +through centuries, till within the last sixty years. Towards the head of +these Dales was found a perfect Republic of Shepherds and +Agriculturists, among whom the plough of each man was confined to the +maintenance of his own family, or to the occasional accommodation of his +neighbour[59]. + +[59] One of the most pleasing characteristics of manners in secluded and +thinly-peopled districts, is a sense of the degree in which human +happiness and comfort are dependent on the contingency of neighbourhood. +This is implied by a rhyming adage common here, '_Friends are far, when +neighbours are nar_' (near). This mutual helpfulness is not confined to +out-of-doors work; but is ready upon all occasions. Formerly, if a +person became sick, especially the mistress of a family, it was usual +for those of the neighbours who were more particularly connected with +the party by amicable offices, to visit the house, carrying a present; +this practice, which is by no means obsolete, is called _owning_ the +family, and is regarded as a pledge of a disposition to be otherwise +serviceable in a time of disability and distress. + +Two or three cows furnished each family with milk and cheese. The +chapel was the only edifice that presided over these dwellings, the +supreme head of this pure Commonwealth; the members of which existed in +the midst of a powerful empire, like an ideal society or an organised +community, whose constitution had been imposed and regulated by the +mountains which protected it. Neither high-born nobleman, knight, nor +esquire, was here; but many of these humble sons of the hills had a +consciousness that the land, which they walked over and tilled, had for +more than five hundred years been possessed by men of their name and +blood; and venerable was the transition, when a curious traveller, +descending from the heart of the mountains, had come to some ancient +manorial residence in the more open parts of the Vales, which, through +the rights attached to its proprietor, connected the almost visionary +mountain republic he had been contemplating with the substantial frame +of society as existing in the laws and constitution of a mighty empire. + + * * * * * + + +SECTION THIRD. + +CHANGES, AND BULKS OF TASTE FOR PREVENTING THEIR BAD EFFECTS. + +Such, as hath been said, was the appearance of things till within the +last sixty years. A practice, denominated Ornamental Gardening, was at +that time becoming prevalent over England. In union with an admiration +of this art, and in some instances in opposition to it, had been +generated a relish for select parts of natural scenery: and Travellers, +instead of confining their observations to Towns, Manufactories, or +Mines, began (a thing till then unheard of) to wander over the island in +search of sequestered spots, distinguished as they might accidentally +have learned, for the sublimity or beauty of the forms of Nature there +to be seen.--Dr. Brown, the celebrated Author of the _Estimate of the +Manners and Principles of the Times_, published a letter to a friend, in +which the attractions of the Vale of Keswick were delineated with a +powerful pencil, and the feeling of a genuine Enthusiast. Gray, the +Poet, followed: he died soon after his forlorn and melancholy pilgrimage +to the Vale of Keswick, and the record left behind him of what he had +seen and felt in this journey, excited that pensive interest with which +the human mind is ever disposed to listen to the farewell words of a man +of genius. The journal of Gray feelingly showed how the gloom of ill +health and low spirits had been irradiated by objects, which the +Author's powers of mind enabled him to describe with distinctness and +unaffected simplicity. Every reader of this journal must have been +impressed with the words which conclude his notice of the Vale of +Grasmere:--'Not a single red tile, no flaring gentleman's house or +garden-wall, breaks in upon the repose of this little unsuspected +paradise; but all is peace, rusticity, and happy poverty, in its neatest +and most becoming attire.' + +What is here so justly said of Grasmere applied almost equally to all +its sister Vales. It was well for the undisturbed pleasure of the Poet +that he had no forebodings of the change which was soon to take place; +and it might have been hoped that these words, indicating how much the +charm of what _was_, depended upon what was _not_, would of themselves +have preserved the ancient franchises of this and other kindred mountain +retirements from trespass; or (shall I dare to say?) would have secured +scenes so consecrated from profanation. The lakes had now become +celebrated; visitors flocked hither from all parts of England; the +fancies of some were smitten so deeply, that they became settlers; and +the Islands of Derwent-water and Winandermere, as they offered the +strongest temptation, were the first places seized upon, and were +instantly defaced by the intrusion. + +The venerable wood that had grown for centuries round the small house +called St. Herbert's Hermitage, had indeed some years before been felled +by its native proprietor, and the whole island planted anew with Scotch +firs, left to spindle up by each other's side--a melancholy phalanx, +defying the power of the winds, and disregarding the regret of the +spectator, who might otherwise have cheated himself into a belief, that +some of the decayed remains of those oaks, the place of which was in +this manner usurped, had been planted by the Hermit's own hand. This +sainted spot, however, suffered comparatively little injury. At the +bidding of an alien improver, the Hind's Cottage, upon Vicar's island, +in the same lake, with its embowering sycamores and cattle-shed, +disappeared from the corner where they stood; and right in the middle, +and upon the precise point of the island's highest elevation, rose a +tall square habitation, with four sides exposed, like an astronomer's +observatory, or a warren-house reared upon an eminence for the detection +of depredators, or, like the temple of Oeolus, where all the winds pay +him obeisance. Round this novel structure, but at a respectful distance, +platoons of firs were stationed, as if to protect their commander when +weather and time should somewhat have shattered his strength. Within the +narrow limits of this island were typified also the state and strength +of a kingdom, and its religion as it had been, and was,--for neither was +the druidical circle uncreated, nor the church of the present +establishment; nor the stately pier, emblem of commerce and navigation; +nor the fort to deal out thunder upon the approaching invader. The taste +of a succeeding proprietor rectified the mistakes as far as was +practicable, and has ridded the spot of its puerilities. The church, +after having been docked of its steeple, is applied both ostensibly and +really, to the purpose for which the body of the pile was actually +erected, namely, a boat-house; the fort is demolished; and, without +indignation on the part of the spirits of the ancient Druids who +officiated at the circle upon the opposite hill, the mimic arrangement +of stones, with its _sanctum sanctorum_, has been swept away. + +The present instance has been singled out, extravagant as it is, +because, unquestionably, this beautiful country has, in numerous other +places, suffered from the same spirit, though not clothed exactly in the +same form, nor active in an equal degree. It will be sufficient here to +utter a regret for the changes that have been made upon the principal +Island at Winandermere, and in its neighbourhood. What could be more +unfortunate than the taste that suggested the paring of the shores, and +surrounding with an embankment this spot of ground, the natural shape of +which was so beautiful! An artificial appearance has thus been given to +the whole, while infinite varieties of minute beauty have been +destroyed. Could not the margin of this noble island be given back to +Nature? Winds and waves work with a careless and graceful hand: and, +should they in some places carry away a portion of the soil, the +trifling loss would be amply compensated by the additional spirit, +dignity, and loveliness, which these agents and the other powers of +Nature would soon communicate to what was left behind. As to the +larch-plantations upon the main shore,--they who remember the original +appearance of the rocky steeps, scattered over with native hollies and +ash-trees, will be prepared to agree with what I shall have to say +hereafter upon plantations[60] in general. + + +[60] These are disappearing fast, under the management of the present +Proprietor, and native wood is resuming its place. + +But, in truth, no one can now travel through the more frequented tracts, +without being offended, at almost every turn, by an introduction of +discordant objects, disturbing that peaceful harmony of form and colour, +which had been through a long lapse of ages most happily preserved. + +All gross transgressions of this kind originate, doubtless, in a feeling +natural and honourable to the human mind, viz. the pleasure which it +receives from distinct ideas, and from the perception of order, +regularity, and contrivance. Now, unpractised minds receive these +impressions only from objects that are divided from each other by strong +lines of demarcation; hence the delight with which such minds are +smitten by formality and harsh contrast. But I would beg of those who +are eager to create the means of such gratification, first carefully to +study what already exists; and they will find, in a country so lavishly +gifted by Nature, an abundant variety of forms marked out with a +precision that will satisfy their desires. Moreover, a new habit of +pleasure will be formed opposite to this, arising out of the perception +of the fine gradations by which in Nature one thing passes away into +another, and the boundaries that constitute individuality disappear in +one instance only to be revived elsewhere under a more alluring form. +The bill of Dunmallet, at the foot of Ulswater, was once divided into +different portions, by avenues of fir-trees, with a green and almost +perpendicular lane descending down the steep hill through each +avenue;--contrast this quaint appearance with the image of the same hill +overgrown with self-planted wood,--each tree springing up in the +situation best suited to its kind, and with that shape which the +situation constrained or suffered it to take. What endless melting and +playing into each other of forms and colours does the one offer to a +mind at once attentive and active; and how insipid and lifeless, +compared with it, appear those parts of the former exhibition with +which a child, a peasant perhaps, or a citizen unfamiliar with natural +imagery, would have been most delighted! + +The disfigurement which this country has undergone, has not, however, +proceeded wholly from the common feelings of human nature which have +been referred to as the primary sources of bad taste in rural imagery; +another cause must be added, that has chiefly shown itself in its effect +upon buildings. I mean a warping of the natural mind occasioned by a +consciousness that, this country being an object of general admiration, +every new house would be looked at and commented upon either for +approbation or censure. Hence all the deformity and ungracefulness that +ever pursue the steps of constraint or affectation. Persons, who in +Leicestershire or Northamptonshire would probably have built a modest +dwelling like those of their sensible neighbours, have been turned out +of their course; and, acting a part, no wonder if, having had little +experience, they act it ill. The craving for prospect, also, which is +immoderate, particularly in new settlers, has rendered it impossible +that buildings, whatever might have been their architecture, should in +most instances be ornamental to the landscape: rising as they do from +the summits of naked hills in staring contrast to the snugness and +privacy of the ancient houses. + +No man is to be condemned for a desire to decorate his residence and +possessions; feeling a disposition to applaud such an endeavour, I would +show how the end may be best attained. The rule is simple; with respect +to grounds--work, where you can, in the spirit of Nature, with an +invisible hand of art. Planting, and a removal of wood, may thus, and +thus only, be carried on with good effect; and the like may be said of +building, if Antiquity, who may be styled the co-partner and sister of +Nature, be not denied the respect to which she is entitled. I have +already spoken of the beautiful forms of the ancient mansions of this +country, and of the happy manner in which they harmonise with the forms +of Nature. Why cannot such be taken as a model, and modern internal +convenience be confined within their external grace and dignity. Expense +to be avoided, or difficulties to be overcome, may prevent a close +adherence to this model; still, however, it might be followed to a +certain degree in the style of architecture and in the choice of +situation, if the thirst for prospect were mitigated by those +considerations of comfort, shelter, and convenience, which used to be +chiefly sought after. But should an aversion to old fashions +unfortunately exist, accompanied with a desire to transplant into the +cold and stormy North, the elegancies of a villa formed upon a model +taken from countries with a milder climate, I will adduce a passage from +an English poet, the divine Spenser, which will show in what manner such +a plan may be realised without injury to the native beauty of these +scenes. + + Into that forest farre they thence him led, + Where was their dwelling in a pleasant glade + With MOUNTAINS round about environed, + And MIGHTY WOODS which did the valley shade, + And like a stately theatre it made, + Spreading itself into a spacious plaine; + And in the midst a little river plaide + Emongst the puny stones which seem'd to 'plaine + With gentle murmure that his course they did restraine. + + Beside the same a dainty place there lay, + Planted with mirtle trees and laurels green, + In which the birds sang many a lovely lay + Of God's high praise, and of their sweet loves teene, + As it an earthly paradise had beene; + In whose _enclosed shadow_ there was pight + A fair pavillion, _scarcely to be seen_, + The which was all within most richly dight, + That greatest princes living it mote well delight. + +Houses or mansions suited to a mountainous region, should be 'not +obvious, not obtrusive, but retired;' and the reasons for this rule, +though they have been little adverted to, are evident. Mountainous +countries, more frequently and forcibly than others, remind us of the +power of the elements, as manifested in winds, snows, and torrents, and +accordingly make the notion of exposure very unpleasing; while shelter +and comfort are in proportion necessary and acceptable. Far-winding +vallies difficult of access, and the feelings of simplicity habitually +connected with mountain retirements, prompt us to turn from ostentation +as a thing there eminently unnatural and out of place. A mansion, amid +such scenes, can never have sufficient dignity or interest to become +principal in the landscape, and to render the mountains, lakes, or +torrents, by which it may be surrounded, a subordinate part of the +view. It is, I grant, easy to conceive, that an ancient castellated +building, hanging over a precipice or raised upon an island, or the +peninsula of a lake, like that of Kilchurn Castle, upon Loch Awe, may +not want, whether deserted or inhabited, sufficient majesty to preside +for a moment in the spectator's thoughts over the high mountains among +which it is embosomed; but its titles are from antiquity--a power +readily submitted to upon occasion as the vicegerent of Nature: it is +respected, as having owed its existence to the necessities of things, as +a monument of security in times of disturbance and danger long passed +away,--as a record of the pomp and violence of passion, and a symbol of +the wisdom of law; it bears a countenance of authority, which is not +impaired by decay. + + Child of loud-throated War, the mountain stream + Roars in thy hearing; but thy hour of rest + Is come, and thou art silent in thy age! + +To such honours a modern edifice can lay no claim; and the puny efforts +of elegance appear contemptible, when, in such situations, they are +obtruded in rivalship with the sublimities of Nature. But, towards the +verge of a district like this of which we are treating, where the +mountains subside into hills of moderate elevation, or in an undulating +or flat country, a gentleman's mansion may, with propriety, become a +principal feature in the landscape; and, itself being a work of art, +works and traces of artificial ornament may, without censure, be +extended around it, as they will be referred to the common centre, the +house; the right of which to impress within certain limits a character +of obvious ornament will not be denied, where no commanding forms of +Nature dispute it, or set it aside. Now, to a want of the perception of +this difference, and to the causes before assigned, may chiefly be +attributed the disfigurement which the Country of the Lakes has +undergone, from persons who may have built, demolished, and planted, +with full confidence, that every change and addition was or would become +an improvement. + +The principle that ought to determine the position, apparent size, and +architecture of a house, viz. that it should be so constructed, and (if +large) so much of it hidden, as to admit of its being gently +incorporated into the scenery of Nature--should also determine its +colour. Sir Joshua Reynolds used to say, 'If you would fix upon the best +colour for your house, turn up a stone, or pluck up a handful of grass +by the roots, and see what is the colour of the soil where the house is +to stand, and let that be your choice.' Of course, this precept given in +conversation, could not have been meant to be taken literally. For +example, in Low Furness, where the soil, from its strong impregnation +with iron, is universally of a deep red, if this rule were strictly +followed, the house also must be of a glaring red; in other places it +must be of a sullen black; which would only be adding annoyance to +annoyance. The rule, however, as a general guide, is good; and, in +agricultural districts, where large tracts of soil are laid bare by the +plough, particularly if (the face of the country being undulating) they +are held up to view, this rule, though not to be implicitly adhered to, +should never be lost sight of;--the colour of the house ought, if +possible, to have a cast or shade of the colour of the soil. The +principle is, that the house must harmonise with the surrounding +landscape: accordingly, in mountainous countries, with still more +confidence may it be said, 'look at the rocks and those parts of the +mountains where the soil is visible, and they will furnish a safe +direction.' Nevertheless, it will often happen that the rocks may bear +so large a proportion to the rest of the landscape, and may be of such a +tone of colour, that the rule may not admit, even here, of being +implicitly followed. For instance, the chief defect in the colouring of +the Country of the Lakes (which is most strongly felt in the summer +season) is an over-prevalence of a bluish tint, which the green of the +herbage, the fern, and the woods, does not sufficiently counteract. If a +house, therefore, should stand where this defect prevails, I have no +hesitation in saying, that the colour of the neighbouring rocks would +not be the best that could be chosen. A tint ought to be introduced +approaching nearer to those which, in the technical language of +painters, are called _warm_: this, if happily selected, would not +disturb, but would animate the landscape. How often do we see this +exemplified upon a small scale by the native cottages, in cases where +the glare of white-wash has been subdued by time and enriched by +weather-stains! No harshness is then seen; but one of these cottages, +thus coloured, will often form a central point to a landscape by which +the whole shall be connected, and an influence of pleasure diffused +over all the objects that compose the picture. But where the cold blue +tint of the rocks is enriched by the iron tinge, the colour cannot be +too closely imitated; and it will be produced of itself by the stones +hewn from the adjoining quarry, and by the mortar, which may be tempered +with the most gravelly part of the soil. The pure blue gravel, from the +bed of the river, is, however, more suitable to the mason's purpose, who +will probably insist also that the house must be covered with +rough-cast, otherwise it cannot be kept dry; if this advice be taken, +the builder of taste will set about contriving such means as may enable +him to come the nearest to the effect aimed at. + +The supposed necessity of rough-cast to keep out rain in houses not +built of hewn stone or brick, has tended greatly to injure English +landscape, and the neighbourhood of these Lakes especially, by +furnishing such apt occasion for whitening buildings. That white should +be a favourite colour for rural residences is natural for many reasons. +The mere aspect of cleanliness and neatness thus given, not only to an +individual house, but, where the practice is general, to the whole face +of the country, produces moral associations so powerful, that, in many +minds, they take place of all others. But what has already been said +upon the subject of cottages, must have convinced men of feeling and +imagination, that a human dwelling of the humblest class may be rendered +more deeply interesting to the affections, and far more pleasing to the +eye, by other influences, than a sprightly tone of colour spread over +its outside. I do not, however, mean to deny, that a small white +building, embowered in trees, may, in some situations, be a delightful +and animating object--in no way injurious to the landscape; but this +only where it sparkles from the midst of a thick shade, and in rare and +solitary instances; especially if the country be itself rich and +pleasing, and abound with grand forms. On the sides of bleak and +desolate moors, we are indeed thankful for the sight of white cottages +and white houses plentifully scattered, where, without these, perhaps +every thing would be cheerless: this is said, however, with hesitation, +and with a wilful sacrifice of some higher enjoyments. But I have +certainly seen such buildings glittering at sun-rise, and in wandering +lights, with no common pleasure. The continental traveller also will +remember, that the convents hanging from the rocks of the Rhine, the +Rhone, the Danube, or among the Appenines, or the mountains of Spain, +are not looked at with less complacency when, as is often the case, they +happen to be of a brilliant white. But this is perhaps owing, in no +small degree, to the contrast of that lively colour with the gloom of +monastic life, and to the general want of rural residences of smiling +and attractive appearance, in those countries. + +The objections to white, as a colour, in large spots or masses in +landscape, especially in a mountainous country, are insurmountable. In +Nature, pure white is scarcely ever found but in small objects, such as +flowers: or in those which are transitory, as the clouds, foam of +rivers, and snow. Mr. Gilpin, who notices this, has also recorded the +just remark of Mr. Locke, of N----, that white destroys the _gradations_ +of distance; and, therefore, an object of pure white can scarcely ever +be managed with good effect in landscape-painting. Five or six white +houses, scattered over a valley, by their obtrusiveness, dot the +surface, and divide it into triangles, or other mathematical figures, +haunting the eye, and disturbing that repose which might otherwise be +perfect. I have seen a single white house materially impair the majesty +of a mountain; cutting away, by a harsh separation, the whole of its +base, below the point on which the house stood. Thus was the apparent +size of the mountain reduced, not by the interposition of another object +in a manner to call forth the imagination, which will give more than the +eye loses; but what had been abstracted in this case was left visible; +and the mountain appeared to take its beginning, or to rise, from the +line of the house, instead of its own natural base. But, if I may +express my own individual feeling, it is after sunset, at the coming on +of twilight, that white objects are most to be complained of. The +solemnity and quietness of Nature at that time are always marred, and +often destroyed by them. When the ground is covered with snow, they are +of course inoffensive; and in moonshine they are always pleasing--it is +a tone of light with which they accord: and the dimness of the scene is +enlivened by an object at once conspicuous and cheerful. I will conclude +this subject with noticing, that the cold, slaty colour, which many +persons, who have heard the white condemned, have adopted in its stead, +must be disapproved of for the reason already given. The flaring yellow +runs into the opposite extreme, and is still more censurable. Upon the +whole, the safest colour, for general use, is something between a cream +and a dust-colour, commonly called stone colour;--there are, among the +Lakes, examples of this that need not be pointed out.[61] + +[61] A proper colouring of houses is now becoming general. It is best +that the colouring material should be mixed with the rough-cast, and not +laid on as a _wash_ afterwards. + +The principle taken as our guide, viz. that the house should be so +formed, and of such apparent size and colour, as to admit of its being +gently incorporated with the works of Nature, should also be applied to +the management of the grounds and plantations, and is here more urgently +needed; for it is from abuses in this department, far more even than +from the introduction of exotics in architecture (if the phrase may be +used), that this country has suffered. Larch and fir plantations have +been spread, not merely with a view to profit, but in many instances for +the sake of ornament. To those who plant for profit, and are thrusting +every other tree out of the way, to make room for their favourite, the +larch, I would utter first a regret, that they should have selected +these lovely vales for their vegetable manufactory, when there is so +much barren and irreclaimable land in the neighbouring moors, and in +other parts of the island, which might have been had for this purpose at +a far cheaper rate. And I will also beg leave to represent to them, that +they ought not to be carried away by flattering promises from the speedy +growth of this tree; because in rich soils and sheltered situations, the +wood, though it thrives fast, is full of sap, and of little value; and +is, likewise, very subject to ravage from the attacks of insects, and +from blight. Accordingly, in Scotland, where planting is much better +understood, and carried on upon an incomparably larger scale than among +us, good soil and sheltered situations are appropriated to the oak, the +ash, and other deciduous trees; and the larch is now generally confined +to barren and exposed ground. There the plant, which is a hardy one, is +of slower growth; much less liable to injury; and the timber is of +better quality. But the circumstances of many permit, and their taste +leads them, to plant with little regard to profit; and there are others, +less wealthy, who have such a lively feeling of the native beauty of +these scenes, that they are laudably not unwilling to make some +sacrifices to heighten it. Both these classes of persons, I would +entreat to inquire of themselves wherein that beauty which they admire +consists. They would then see that, after the feeling has been gratified +that prompts us to gather round our dwelling a few flowers and shrubs, +which from the circumstance of their not being native, may, by their +very looks, remind us that they owe their existence to our hands, and +their prosperity to our care; they will see that, after this natural +desire has been provided for, the course of all beyond has been +predetermined by the spirit of the place. Before I proceed, I will +remind those who are not satisfied with the restraint thus laid upon +them, that they are liable to a charge of inconsistency, when they are +so eager to change the face of that country, whose native attractions, +by the act of erecting their habitations in it, they have so +emphatically acknowledged. And surely there is not a single spot that +would not have, if well managed, sufficient dignity to support itself, +unaided by the productions of other climates, or by elaborate +decorations which might be becoming elsewhere. + +Having adverted to the feelings that justify the introduction of a few +exotic plants, provided they be confined almost to the doors of the +house, we may add, that a transition should be contrived, without +abruptness, from these foreigners to the rest of the shrubs, which ought +to be of the kinds scattered by Nature, through the woods--holly, broom, +wild-rose, elder, dogberry, white and black thorn, &c.--either these +only, or such as are carefully selected in consequence of their being +united in form, and harmonising in colour with them, especially with +respect to colour, when the tints are most diversified, as in autumn and +spring. The various sorts of fruit-and-blossom-bearing trees usually +found in orchards, to which may be added those of the woods,--namely, +the wilding, black cherry tree, and wild cluster-cherry (here called +heck-berry)--may be happily admitted as an intermediate link between the +shrubs and the forest trees; which last ought almost entirely to be such +as are natives of the country. Of the birch, one of the most beautiful +of the native trees, it may be noticed, that, in dry and rocky +situations, it outstrips even the larch, which many persons are tempted +to plant merely on account of the speed of its growth. The Scotch fir is +less attractive during its youth than any other plant; but, when full +grown, if it has had room to spread out its arms, it becomes a noble +tree; and, by those who are disinterested enough to plant for posterity, +it may be placed along with the sycamore near the house; for, from their +massiveness, both these trees unite well with buildings, and in some +situations with rocks also; having, in their forms and apparent +substances, the effect of something intermediate betwixt the +immoveableness and solidity of stone, and the spray and foliage of the +lighter trees. If these general rules be just, what shall we say to +whole acres of artificial shrubbery and exotic trees among rocks and +dashing torrents, with their own wild wood in sight--where we have the +whole contents of the nurseryman's catalogue jumbled together--colour at +war with colour, and form with form?--among the most peaceful subjects +of Nature's kingdom, everywhere discord, distraction, and bewilderment! +But this deformity, bad as it is, is not so obtrusive as the small +patches and large tracts of larch-plantations that are overrunning the +hill sides. To justify our condemnation of these, let us again recur to +Nature. The process, by which she forms woods and forests, is as +follows. Seeds are scattered indiscriminately by winds, brought by +waters, and dropped by birds. They perish, or produce, according as the +soil and situation upon which they fall are suited to them: and under +the same dependence, the seedling or the sucker, if not cropped by +animals, (which Nature is often careful to prevent by fencing it about +with brambles or other prickly shrubs) thrives, and the tree grows, +sometimes single, taking its own shape without constraint, but for the +most part compelled to conform itself to some law imposed upon it by its +neighbours. From low and sheltered places, vegetation travels upwards to +the more exposed; and the young plants are protected, and to a certain +degree fashioned, by those that have preceded them. The continuous mass +of foliage which would be thus produced, is broken by rocks, or by +glades or open places, where the browzing of animals has prevented the +growth of wood. As vegetation ascends, the winds begin also to bear +their part in moulding the forms of the trees; but, thus mutually +protected, trees, though not of the hardiest kind, are enabled to climb +high up the mountains. Gradually, however, by the quality of the ground, +and by increasing exposure, a stop is put to their ascent; the hardy +trees only are left: those also, by little and little, give way--and a +wild and irregular boundary is established, graceful in its outline, +and never contemplated without some feeling, more or less distinct, of +the powers of Nature by which it is imposed. + +Contrast the liberty that encourages, and the law that limits, this +joint work of Nature and Time, with the disheartening necessities, +restrictions, and disadvantages, under which the artificial planter must +proceed, even he whom long observation and fine feeling have best +qualified for his task. In the first place his trees, however well +chosen and adapted to their several situations, must generally start all +at the same time; and this necessity would of itself prevent that fine +connection of parts, that sympathy and organisation, if I may so express +myself, which pervades the whole of a natural wood, and appears to the +eye in its single trees, its masses of foliage, and their various +colours, when they are held up to view on the side of a mountain; or +when, spread over a valley, they are looked down upon from an eminence. +It is therefore impossible, under any circumstances, for the artificial +planter to rival the beauty of Nature. But a moment's thought will show +that, if ten thousand of this spiky tree, the larch, are stuck in at +once upon the side of a hill, they can grow up into nothing but +deformity; that, while they are suffered to stand, we shall look in vain +for any of those appearances which are the chief sources of beauty in a +natural wood. + +It must be acknowledged that the larch, till it has outgrown the size of +a shrub, shows, when looked at singly, some elegance in form and +appearance, especially in spring, decorated, as it then is, by the pink +tassels of its blossoms; but, as a tree, it is less than any other +pleasing: its branches (for _boughs_ it has none) have no variety in the +youth of the tree, and little dignity, even when it attains its full +growth: _leaves_ it cannot be said to have, consequently neither affords +shade nor shelter. In spring the larch becomes green long before the +native trees; and its green is so peculiar and vivid, that, finding +nothing to harmonise with it, wherever it comes forth, a disagreeable +speck is produced. In summer, when all other trees are in their pride, +it is of a dingy, lifeless hue; in autumn of a spiritless unvaried +yellow, and in winter it is still more lamentably distinguished from +every other deciduous tree of the forest, for they seem only to sleep, +but the larch appears absolutely dead. If an attempt be made to mingle +thickets, or a certain proportion of other forest-trees, with the +larch, its horizontal branches intolerantly cut them down as with a +scythe, or force them to spindle up to keep pace with it. The +terminating spike renders it impossible that the several trees, where +planted in numbers, should ever blend together so as to form a mass or +masses of wood. Add thousands to tens of thousands, and the appearance +is still the same--a collection of separate individual trees, +obstinately presenting themselves as such; and which, from whatever +point they are looked at, if but seen, may be counted upon the fingers. +Sunshine, or shadow, has little power to adorn the surface of such a +wood; and the trees not carrying up their heads, the wind raises among +them no majestic undulations. It is indeed true, that, in countries +where the larch is a native, and where, without interruption, it may +sweep from valley to valley, and from hill to hill, a sublime image may +be produced by such a forest, in the same manner as by one composed of +any other single tree, to the spreading of which no limits can be +assigned. For sublimity will never be wanting, where the sense of +innumerable multitude is lost in, and alternates with, that of intense +unity; and to the ready perception of this effect, similarity and almost +identity of individual form and monotony of colour contribute. But this +feeling is confined to the native immeasurable forest; no artificial +plantation can give it. + +The foregoing observations will, I hope, (as nothing has been condemned +or recommended without a substantial reason) have some influence upon +those who plant for ornament merely. To such as plant for profit, I have +already spoken. Let me then entreat that the native deciduous trees may +be left in complete possession of the lower ground; and that plantations +of larch, if introduced at all, may be confined to the highest and most +barren tracts. Interposition of rocks would there break the dreary +uniformity of which we have been complaining; and the winds would take +hold of the trees, and imprint upon their shapes a wildness congenial to +their situation. + +Having determined what kinds of trees must be wholly rejected, or at +least very sparingly used, by those who are unwilling to disfigure the +country; and having shown what kinds ought to be chosen; I should have +given, if my limits had not already been overstepped, a few practical +rules for the manner in which trees ought to be disposed in planting. +But to this subject I should attach little importance, if I could +succeed in banishing such trees as introduce deformity, and could +prevail upon the proprietor to confine himself, either to those found in +the native woods, or to such as accord with them. This is, indeed, the +main point; for, much as these scenes have been injured by what has been +taken from them--buildings, trees, and woods, either through negligence, +necessity, avarice, or caprice--it is not the removals, but the harsh +_additions_ that have been made, which are the worst grievance--a +standing and unavoidable annoyance. Often have I felt this distinction, +with mingled satisfaction and regret; for, if no positive deformity or +discordance be substituted or superinduced, such is the benignity of +Nature, that, take away from her beauty after beauty, and ornament after +ornament, her appearance cannot be marred--the scars, if any be left, +will gradually disappear before a healing spirit; and what remains will +still be soothing and pleasing.-- + + Many hearts deplored + The fate of those old trees; and oft with pain + The traveller at this day will stop and gaze + On wrongs which Nature scarcely seems to heed: + For sheltered places, bosoms, nooks, and bays, + And the pure mountains, and the gentle Tweed, + And the green silent pastures, yet remain. + +There are few ancient woods left in this part of England upon which such +indiscriminate ravage as is here 'deplored,' could now be committed. +But, out of the numerous copses, fine woods might in time be raised, +probably without sacrifice of profit, by leaving, at the periodical +fellings, a due proportion of the healthiest trees to grow up into +timber.--This plan has fortunately, in many instances, been adopted; and +they, who have set the example, are entitled to the thanks of all +persons of taste. As to the management of planting with reasonable +attention to ornament, let the images of Nature be your guide, and the +whole secret lurks in a few words; thickets or underwoods--single +trees--trees clustered or in groups--groves--unbroken woods, but with +varied masses of foliage--glades--invisible or winding boundaries--in +rocky districts, a seemly proportion of rock left wholly bare, and other +parts half hidden--disagreeable objects concealed, and formal lines +broken--trees climbing up to the horizon, and, in some places, ascending +from its sharp edge, in which they are rooted, with the whole body of +the tree appearing to stand in the clear sky--in other parts, woods +surmounted by rocks utterly bare and naked, which add to the sense of +height, as if vegetation could not thither be carried, and impress a +feeling of duration, power of resistance, and security from change! + +The author has been induced to speak thus at length, by a wish to +preserve the native beauty of this delightful district, because still +further changes in its appearance must inevitably follow, from the +change of inhabitants and owners which is rapidly taking place.--About +the same time that strangers began to be attracted to the country, and +to feel a desire to settle in it, the difficulty, that would have stood +in the way of their procuring situations, was lessened by an unfortunate +alteration in the circumstances of the native peasantry, proceeding from +a cause which then began to operate, and is now felt in every house. The +family of each man, whether _estatesman_ or farmer, formerly had a +twofold support; first, the produce of his lands and flocks; and, +secondly, the profit drawn from the employment of the women and +children, as manufacturers; spinning their own wool in their own houses +(work chiefly done in the winter season), and carrying it to market for +sale. Hence, however numerous the children, the income of the family +kept pace with its increase. But, by the invention and universal +application of machinery, this second resource has been cut off; the +gains being so far reduced, as not to be sought after but by a few aged +persons disabled from other employment. Doubtless, the invention of +machinery has not been to these people a pure loss; for the profits +arising from home-manufactures operated as a strong temptation to choose +that mode of labour in neglect of husbandry. They also participate in +the general benefit which the island has derived from the increased +value of the produce of land, brought about by the establishment of +manufactories, and in the consequent quickening of agricultural +industry. But this is far from making them amends; and now that +home-manufactures are nearly done away, though the women and children +might, at many seasons of the year, employ themselves with advantage in +the fields beyond what they are accustomed to do, yet still all possible +exertion in this way cannot be rationally expected from persons whose +agricultural knowledge is so confined, and, above all, where there must +necessarily be so small a capital. The consequence, then, is--that +proprietors and farmers being no longer able to maintain themselves upon +small farms, several are united in one, and the buildings go to decay, +or are destroyed; and that the lands of the _estatesmen_ being +mortgaged, and the owners constrained to part with them, they fall into +the hands of wealthy purchasers, who in like manner unite and +consolidate; and, if they wish to become residents, erect new mansions +out of the ruins of the ancient cottages, whose little enclosures, with +all the wild graces that grew out of them, disappear. The feudal tenure +under which the estates are held has indeed done something towards +checking this influx of new settlers; but so strong is the inclination, +that these galling restraints are endured; and it is probable, that in a +few years the country on the margin of the Lakes will fall almost +entirely into the possession of gentry, either strangers or natives. It +is then much to be wished, that a better taste should prevail among +these new proprietors; and, as they cannot be expected to leave things +to themselves, that skill and knowledge should prevent unnecessary +deviations from that path of simplicity and beauty along which, without +design and unconsciously, their humble predecessors have moved. In this +wish the author will be joined by persons of pure taste throughout the +whole island, who, by their visits (often repeated) to the Lakes in the +North of England, testify that they deem the district a sort of national +property, in which every man has a right and interest who has an eye to +perceive and a heart to enjoy. + + + + +MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS. + +MR. WEST, in his well-known Guide to the Lakes, recommends, as the best +season for visiting this country, the interval from the beginning of +June to the end of August; and, the two latter months being a time of +vacation and leisure, it is almost exclusively in these that strangers +resort hither. But that season is by no means the best; the colouring of +the mountains and woods, unless where they are diversified by rocks, is +of too unvaried a green; and, as a large portion of the vallies is +allotted to hay-grass, some want of variety is found there also. The +meadows, however, are sufficiently enlivened after hay-making begins, +which is much later than in the southern part of the island. A stronger +objection is rainy weather, setting in sometimes at this period with a +vigour, and continuing with a perseverance, that may remind the +disappointed and dejected traveller of those deluges of rain which fall +among the Abyssinian mountains, for the annual supply of the Nile. The +months of September and October (particularly October) are generally +attended with much finer weather; and the scenery is then, beyond +comparison, more diversified, more splendid, and beautiful; but, on the +other hand, short days prevent long excursions, and sharp and chill +gales are unfavourable to parties of pleasure out of doors. +Nevertheless, to the sincere admirer of Nature, who is in good health +and spirits, and at liberty to make a choice, the six weeks following +the 1st of September may be recommended in preference to July and +August. For there is no inconvenience arising from the season which, to +such a person, would not be amply compensated by the _autumnal_ +appearance of any of the more retired vallies, into which discordant +plantations and unsuitable buildings have not yet found entrance.--In +such spots, at this season, there is an admirable compass and proportion +of natural harmony in colour, through the whole scale of objects; in the +tender green of the after-grass upon the meadows, interspersed with +islands of grey or mossy rock, crowned by shrubs and trees; in the +irregular inclosures of standing corn, or stubble-fields, in like manner +broken; in the mountain-sides glowing with fern of divers colours; in +the calm blue lakes and river-pools; and in the foliage of the trees, +through all the tints of autumn,--from the pale and brilliant yellow of +the birch and ash, to the deep greens of the unfaded oak and alder, and +of the ivy upon the rocks, upon the trees, and the cottages. Yet, as +most travellers are either stinted, or stint themselves, for time, the +space between the middle or last week in May, and the middle or last +week of June, may be pointed out as affording the best combination of +long days, fine weather, and variety of impressions. Few of the native +trees are then in full leaf; but, for whatever maybe wanting in depth of +shade, more than an equivalent will be found in the diversity of +foliage, in the blossoms of the fruit-and-berry-bearing trees which +abound in the woods, and in the golden flowers of the broom and other +shrubs, with which many of the copses are interveined. In those woods, +also, and on those mountain-sides which have a northern aspect, and in +the deep dells, many of the spring-flowers still linger; while the open +and sunny places are stocked with the flowers of the approaching summer. +And, besides, is not an exquisite pleasure still untasted by him who has +not heard the choir of linnets and thrushes chaunting their love-songs +in the copses, woods, and hedge-rows of a mountainous country; safe from +the birds of prey, which build in the inaccessible crags, and are at all +hours seen or heard wheeling about in the air? The number of these +formidable creatures is probably the cause, why, in the _narrow_ +vallies, there are no skylarks; as the destroyer would be enabled to +dart upon them from the near and surrounding crags, before they could +descend to their ground-nests for protection. It is not often that the +nightingale resorts to these vales; but almost all the other tribes of +our English warblers are numerous; and their notes, when listened to by +the side of broad still waters, or when heard in unison with the +murmuring of mountain-brooks, have the compass of their power enlarged +accordingly. There is also an imaginative influence in the voice of the +cuckoo, when that voice has taken possession of a deep mountain valley, +very different from any thing which can be excited by the same sound in +a flat country. Nor must a circumstance be omitted, which here renders +the close of spring especially interesting; I mean the practice of +bringing down the ewes from the mountains to yean in the vallies and +enclosed grounds. The herbage being thus cropped as it springs, _that_ +first tender emerald green of the season, which would otherwise have +lasted little more than a fortnight, is prolonged in the pastures and +meadows for many weeks: while they are farther enlivened by the +multitude of lambs bleating and skipping about. These sportive +creatures, as they gather strength, are turned out upon the open +mountains, and with their slender limbs, their snow-white colour, and +their wild and light motions, beautifully accord or contrast with the +rocks and lawns, upon which they must now begin to seek their food. And +last, but not least, at this time the traveller will be sure of room and +comfortable accommodation, even in the smaller inns. I am aware that few +of those who may be inclined to profit by this recommendation will be +able to do so, as the time and manner of an excursion of this kind are +mostly regulated by circumstances which prevent an entire freedom of +choice. It will therefore be more pleasant to observe, that, though the +months of July and August are liable to many objections, yet it often +happens that the weather, at this time, is not more wet and stormy than +they, who are really capable of enjoying the sublime forms of Nature in +their utmost sublimity, would desire. For no traveller, provided he be +in good health, and with any command of time, would have a just +privilege to visit such scenes, if he could grudge the price of a little +confinement among them, or interruption in his journey, for the sight or +sound of a storm coming on or clearing away. Insensible must he be who +would not congratulate himself upon the bold bursts of sunshine, the +descending vapours, wandering lights and shadows, and the invigorated +torrents and waterfalls, with which broken weather, in a mountainous +region, is accompanied. At such a time there is no cause to complain, +either of the monotony of midsummer colouring, or the glaring atmosphere +of long, cloudless, and hot days. + +Thus far concerning the respective advantages and disadvantages of the +different seasons for visiting this country. As to the order in which +objects are best seen--a lake being composed of water flowing from +higher grounds, and expanding itself till its receptacle is filled to +the brim,--it follows, that it will appear to most advantage when +approached from its outlet, especially if the lake be in a mountainous +country; for, by this way of approach, the traveller faces the grander +features of the scene, and is gradually conducted into its most sublime +recesses. Now, every one knows, that from amenity and beauty the +transition to sublimity is easy and favourable; but the reverse is not +so; for, after the faculties have been elevated, they are indisposed to +humbler excitement.[62] + +[62] The only instances to which the foregoing observations do not +apply, are Derwent-water and Lowes-water. Derwent is distinguished from +all the other Lakes by being _surrounded_ with sublimity: the fantastic +mountains of Borrowdale to the south, the solitary majesty of Skiddaw to +the north, the bold steeps of Wallow-crag and Lodore to the east, and to +the west the clustering mountains of Newlands. Lowes-water is tame at +the head, but towards its outlet has a magnificent assemblage of +mountains. Yet, as far as respects the formation of such receptacles, +the general observation holds good: neither Derwent nor Lowes-water +derive any supplies from the streams of those mountains that dignify the +landscape towards the outlets. + +It is not likely that a mountain will be ascended without +disappointment, if a wide range of prospect be the object, unless either +the summit be reached before sun-rise, or the visitant remain there +until the time of sun-set, and afterwards. The precipitous sides of the +mountain, and the neighbouring summits, may be seen with effect under +any atmosphere which allows them to be seen at all; but _he_ is the most +fortunate adventurer, who chances to be involved in vapours which open +and let in an extent of country partially, or, dispersing suddenly, +reveal the whole region from centre to circumference. + +A stranger to a mountainous country may not be aware that his walk in +the early morning ought to be taken on the eastern side of the vale, +otherwise he will lose the morning light, first touching the tops and +thence creeping down the sides of the opposite hills, as the sun +ascends, or he may go to some central eminence, commanding both the +shadows from the eastern, and the lights upon the western mountains. +But, if the horizon line in the east be low, the western side may be +taken for the sake of the reflections, upon the water, of light from the +rising sun. In the evening, for like reasons, the contrary course should +be taken. + +After all, it is upon the _mind_ which a traveller brings along with him +that his acquisitions, whether of pleasure or profit, must principally +depend.--May I be allowed a few words on this subject? + +Nothing is more injurious to genuine feeling than the practice of +hastily and ungraciously depreciating the face of one country by +comparing it with that of another. True it is Qui _bene_ distinguit bene +_docet_; yet fastidiousness is a wretched travelling companion; and the +best guide to which, in matters of taste, we can entrust ourselves, is a +disposition to be pleased. For example, if a traveller be among the +Alps, let him surrender up his mind to the fury of the gigantic +torrents, and take delight in the contemplation of their almost +irresistible violence, without complaining of the monotony of their +foaming course, or being disgusted with the muddiness of the +water--apparent even where it is violently agitated. In Cumberland and +Westmoreland, let not the comparative weakness of the streams prevent +him from sympathising with such impetuosity as they possess; and, making +the most of the present objects, let him, as he justly may do, observe +with admiration the unrivalled brilliancy of the water, and that variety +of motion, mood, and character, that arises out of the want of those +resources by which the power of the streams in the Alps is +supported.--Again, with respect to the mountains; though these are +comparatively of diminutive size, though there is little of perpetual +snow, and no voice of summer-avalanches is heard among them; and though +traces left by the ravage of the elements are here comparatively rare +and unimpressive, yet out of this very deficiency proceeds a sense of +stability and permanence that is, to many minds, more grateful-- + + While the hoarse rushes to the sweeping breeze + Sigh forth their ancient melodies. + +Among the Alps are few places that do not preclude this feeling of +tranquil sublimity. Havoc, and ruin, and desolation, and encroachment, +are everywhere more or less obtruded; and it is difficult, +notwithstanding the naked loftiness of the _pikes_, and the snow-capped +summits of the _mounts_, to escape from the depressing sensation, that +the whole are in a rapid process of dissolution; and, were it not that +the destructive agency must abate as the heights diminish, would, in +time to come, be levelled with the plains. Nevertheless, I would relish +to the utmost the demonstrations of every species of power at work to +effect such changes. + +From these general views let us descend a moment to detail. A stranger +to mountain imagery naturally on his first arrival looks out for +sublimity in every object that admits of it; and is almost always +disappointed. For this disappointment there exists, I believe, no +general preventive; nor is it desirable that there should. But with +regard to one class of objects, there is a point in which injurious +expectations may be easily corrected. It is generally supposed that +waterfalls are scarcely worth being looked at except after much rain, +and that, the more swoln the stream, the more fortunate the spectator; +but this however is true only of large cataracts with sublime +accompaniments; and not even of these without some drawbacks. In other +instances, what becomes, at such a time, of that sense of refreshing +coolness which can only be felt in dry and sunny weather, when the +rocks, herbs, and flowers glisten with moisture diffused by the breath +of the precipitous water? But, considering these things as objects of +sight only, it may be observed that the principal charm of the smaller +waterfalls or cascades consists in certain proportions of form and +affinities of colour, among the component parts of the scene; and in the +contrast maintained between the falling water and that which is +apparently at rest, or rather settling gradually into quiet in the pool +below. The beauty of such a scene, where there is naturally so much +agitation, is also heightened, in a peculiar manner, by the +_glimmering_, and, towards the verge of the pool, by the _steady_, +reflection of the surrounding images. Now, all those delicate +distinctions are destroyed by heavy floods, and the whole stream rushes +along in foam and tumultuous confusion. A happy proportion of component +parts is indeed noticeable among the landscapes of the North of England; +and, in this characteristic essential to a perfect picture, they surpass +the scenes of Scotland, and, in a still greater degree, those of +Switzerland. + +As a resident among the Lakes, I frequently hear the scenery of this +country compared with that of the Alps; and therefore a few words shall +be added to what has been incidentally said upon that subject. + +If we could recall, to this region of lakes, the native pine-forests, +with which many hundred years ago a large portion of the heights was +covered, then, during spring and autumn, it might frequently, with much +propriety, be compared to Switzerland,--the elements of the landscape +would be the same--one country representing the other in miniature. +Towns, villages, churches, rural seats, bridges and roads: green +meadows and arable grounds, with their various produce, and deciduous +woods of diversified foliage which occupy the vales and lower regions of +the mountains, would, as in Switzerland, be divided by dark forests from +ridges and round-topped heights covered with snow, and from pikes and +sharp declivities imperfectly arrayed in the same glittering mantle: and +the resemblance would be still more perfect on those days when vapours, +resting upon, and floating around the summits, leave the elevation of +the mountains less dependent upon the eye than on the imagination. But +the pine-forests have wholly disappeared; and only during late spring +and early autumn is realised here that assemblage of the imagery of +different seasons, which is exhibited through the whole summer among the +Alps,--winter in the distance,--and warmth, leafy woods, verdure and +fertility at hand, and widely diffused. + +Striking, then, from among the permanent materials of the landscape, +that stage of vegetation which is occupied by pine-forests, and, above +that, the perennial snows, we have mountains, the highest of which +little exceed 3000 feet, while some of the Alps do not fall short of +14,000 or 15,000, and 8000 or 10,000 is not an uncommon elevation. Our +tracts of wood and water are almost diminutive in comparison; therefore, +as far as sublimity is dependent upon absolute bulk and height, and +atmospherical influences in connection with these, it is obvious, that +there can be no rivalship. But a short residence among the British +Mountains will furnish abundant proof, that, after a certain point of +elevation, viz. that which allows of compact and fleecy clouds settling +upon, or sweeping over, the summits, the sense of sublimity depends more +upon form and relation of objects to each other than upon their actual +magnitude; and that an elevation of 3000 feet is sufficient to call +forth in a most impressive degree the creative, and magnifying, and +softening powers of the atmosphere. Hence, on the score even of +sublimity, the superiority of the Alps is by no means so great as might +hastily be inferred;--and, as to the _beauty_ of the lower regions of +the Swiss Mountains, it is noticeable--that, as they are all regularly +mown, their surface has nothing of that mellow tone and variety of hues +by which mountain turf, that is never touched by the scythe, is +distinguished. On the smooth and steep slopes of the Swiss hills, these +plots of verdure do indeed agreeably unite their colour with that of the +deciduous trees, or make a lively contrast with the dark green +pine-groves that define them, and among which they run in endless +variety of shapes--but this is most pleasing _at first sight_; the +permanent gratification of the eye requires finer gradations of tone, +and a more delicate blending of hues into each other. Besides, it is +only in spring and late autumn that cattle animate by their presence the +Swiss lawns; and, though the pastures of the higher regions where they +feed during the summer are left in their natural state of flowery +herbage, those pastures are so remote, that their texture and colour are +of no consequence in the composition of any picture in which a lake of +the Vales is a feature. Yet in those lofty regions, how vegetation is +invigorated by the genial climate of that country! Among the luxuriant +flowers there met with, groves, or forests, if I may so call them, of +Monks-hood are frequently seen; the plant of deep, rich blue, and as +tall as in our gardens; and this at an elevation where, in Cumberland, +Icelandic moss would only be found, or the stony summits be utterly +bare. + +We have, then, for the colouring of Switzerland, _principally_ a vivid +green herbage, black woods, and dazzling snows, presented in masses with +a grandeur to which no one can be insensible; but not often graduated by +Nature into soothing harmony, and so ill suited to the pencil, that +though abundance of good subjects may be there found, they are not such +as can be deemed _characteristic_ of the country; nor is this unfitness +confined to colour: the forms of the mountains, though many of them in +some points of view the noblest that can be conceived, are apt to run +into spikes and needles, and present a jagged outline which has a mean +effect, transferred to canvass. This must have been felt by the ancient +masters; for, if I am not mistaken, they have not left a single +landscape, the materials of which are taken from the _peculiar_ features +of the Alps; yet Titian passed his life almost in their neighbourhood; +the Poussins and Claude must have been well acquainted with their +aspects; and several admirable painters, as Tibaldi and Luino, were born +among the Italian Alps. A few experiments have lately been made by +Englishmen, but they only prove that courage, skill, and judgment, may +surmount any obstacles; and it may be safely affirmed, that they who +have done best in this bold adventure, will be the least likely to +repeat the attempt. But, though our scenes are better suited to painting +than those of the Alps, I should be sorry to contemplate either country +in reference to that art, further than as its fitness or unfitness for +the pencil renders it more or less pleasing to the eye of the spectator, +who has learned to observe and feel, chiefly from Nature herself. + +Deeming the points in which Alpine imagery is superior to British too +obvious to be insisted upon, I will observe that the deciduous woods, +though in many places unapproachable by the axe, and triumphing in the +pomp and prodigality of Nature, have, in general,[63] neither the +variety nor beauty which would exist in those of the mountains of +Britain, if left to themselves. Magnificent walnut-trees grow upon the +plains of Switzerland; and fine trees, of that species, are found +scattered over the hill-sides: birches also grow here and there in +luxuriant beauty; but neither these, nor oaks, are ever a prevailing +tree, nor can even be said to be common; and the oaks, as far as I had +an opportunity of observing, are greatly inferior to those of Britain. +Among the interior vallies the proportion of beeches and pines is so +great that other trees are scarcely noticeable; and surely such woods +are at all seasons much less agreeable than that rich and harmonious +distribution of oak, ash, elm, birch, and alder, that formerly clothed +the sides of Snowdon and Helvellyn; and of which no mean remains still +survive at the head of Ulswater. On the Italian side of the Alps, +chesnut and walnut-trees grow at a considerable height on the mountains; +but, even there, the foliage is not equal in beauty to the 'natural +product' of this climate. In fact the sunshine of the South of Europe, +so envied when heard of at a distance, is in many respects injurious to +rural beauty, particularly as it incites to the cultivation of spots of +ground which in colder climates would be left in the hands of Nature, +favouring at the same time the culture of plants that are more valuable +on account of the fruit they produce to gratify the palate, than for +affording pleasure to the eye, as materials of landscape. Take, for +instance, the Promontory of Bellagio, so fortunate in its command of the +three branches of the Lake of Como, yet the ridge of the Promontory +itself, being for the most part covered with vines interspersed with +olive-trees, accords but ill with the vastness of the green +unappropriated mountains, and derogates not a little from the sublimity +of those finely contrasted pictures to which it is a foreground. The +vine, when cultivated upon a large scale, notwithstanding all that may +be said of it in poetry,[64] makes but a dull formal appearance in +landscape; and the olive-tree (though one is loth to say so) is not more +grateful to the eye than our common willow, which it much resembles; but +the hoariness of hue, common to both, has in the aquatic plant an +appropriate delicacy, harmonising with the situation in which it most +delights. The same may no doubt be said of the olive among the dry rocks +of Attica, but I am speaking of it as found in gardens and vineyards in +the North of Italy. At Bellagio, what Englishman can resist the +temptation of substituting, in his fancy, for these formal treasures of +cultivation, the natural variety of one of our parks--its pastured +lawns, coverts of hawthorn, of wild-rose, and honeysuckle, and the +majesty of forest trees?--such wild graces as the banks of Derwent-water +shewed in the time of the Ratcliffes; and Growbarrow Park, Lowther, and +Rydal do at this day. + +[63] The greatest variety of trees is found in the Valais. + +As my object is to reconcile a Briton to the scenery of his own country, +though not at the expense of truth, I am not afraid of asserting that in +many points of view our LAKES, also, are much more interesting than +those of the Alps; first, as is implied above, from being more happily +proportioned to the other features of the landscape; and next, both as +being infinitely more pellucid, and less subject to agitation from the +winds.[65] + +[64] Lucretius has charmingly described a scene of this kind. + + Inque dies magis in montem succedere sylvas + Cogebant, infraquo locum coucedere cultis: + Prata, lacus, rivos, segetes, vinetaque laeta + Collibus et campis ut haberent, atque olearum + _Caerula_ distinguens inter _plaga_ currere posset + Per tumulos, et convalleis, camposque profusa: + Ut nunc esse vides vario distincta lepore + Onmia, quae pomis intersita dulcibus ornant, + Arbustisque teneut felicibus obsita circum. + + + +[65] It is remarkable that Como (as is probably the case with other +Italian Lakes) is more troubled by storms in summer than in winter. +Hence the propriety of the following verses: + + Lari! margine ubique confragoso + Nulli coelicolum negas sacellum + Picto pariete saxeoque tecto; + Hinc miracula multa navitarum + Audis, nee placido refellis ore, + Sed nova usque pavas, Noto vel Euro + _Aestivas_ quatieutibus cavernas, + Vel surgentis ab Adduae cubili + Caeco grandinis imbre provoluto. LANDOR. + + +Como, (which may perhaps be styled the King of Lakes, as Lugano is +certainly the Queen) is disturbed by a periodical wind blowing _from_ +the head in the morning, and _towards_ it in the afternoon. The +magnificent Lake of the four Cantons, especially its noblest division, +called the Lake of Uri, is not only much agitated by winds, but in the +night time is disturbed from the bottom, as I was told, and indeed as I +witnessed, without any apparent commotion in the air; and when at rest, +the water is not pure to the eye, but of a heavy green hue--as is that +of all the other lakes, apparently according to the degree in which they +are fed by melted snows. If the Lake of Geneva furnish an exception, +this is probably owing to its vast extent, which allows the water to +deposit its impurities. The water of the English lakes, on the contrary, +being of a crystalline clearness, the reflections of the surrounding +hills are frequently so lively, that it is scarcely possible to +distinguish the point where the real object terminates, and its +unsubstantial duplicate begins. The lower part of the Lake of Geneva, +from its narrowness, must be much less subject to agitation than the +higher divisions, and, as the water is clearer than that of the other +Swiss Lakes, it will frequently exhibit this appearance, though it is +scarcely possible in an equal degree. During two comprehensive tours +among the Alps, I did not observe, except on one of the smaller lakes +between Lugano and Ponte Tresa, a single instance of those beautiful +repetitions of surrounding objects on the bosom of the water, which are +so frequently seen here: not to speak of the fine dazzling trembling +net-work, breezy motions, and streaks and circles of intermingled smooth +and rippled water, which make the surface of our lakes a field of +endless variety. But among the Alps, where every thing tends to the +grand and the sublime, in surfaces as well as in forms, if the lakes do +not court the placid reflections of land objects those of first-rate +magnitude make compensation, in some degree, by exhibiting those +ever-changing fields of green, blue, and purple shadows or lights, (one +scarcely knows which to name them) that call to mind a sea-prospect +contemplated from a lofty cliff. + +The subject of torrents and waterfalls has already been touched upon; +but it may be added that in Switzerland, the perpetual accompaniment of +snow upon the higher regions takes much from the effect of foaming white +streams; while, from their frequency, they obstruct each other's +influence upon the mind of the spectator; and, in all cases, the effect +of an individual cataract, excepting the great Fall of the Rhine at +Schaffhausen, is diminished by the general fury of the stream of which +it is a part. + +Recurring to the reflections from still water, I will describe a +singular phenomenon of this kind of which I was an eye-witness. + +Walking by the side of Ulswater upon a calm September morning, I saw, +deep within the bosom of the Lake, a magnificent Castle, with towers and +battlements: nothing could be more distinct than the whole edifice. +After gazing with delight upon it for some time, as upon a work of +enchantment, I could not but regret that my previous knowledge of the +place enabled me to account for the appearance. It was in fact the +reflection of a pleasure-house called Lyulph's Tower--the towers and +battlements magnified and so much changed in shape as not to be +immediately recognised. In the meanwhile, the pleasure-house itself was +altogether hidden from my view by a body of vapour stretching over it +and along the hill-side on which it stands, but not so as to have +intercepted its communication with the lake; and hence this novel and +most impressive object, which, if I had been a stranger to the spot, +would, from its being inexplicable, have long detained the mind in a +state of pleasing astonishment. + +Appearances of this kind, acting upon the credulity of early ages, may +have given birth to, and favoured the belief in, stories of sub-aqueous +palaces, gardens, and pleasure-grounds--the brilliant ornaments of +Romance. + +With this _inverted_ scene I will couple a much more extraordinary +phenomenon, which will show how other elegant fancies may have had their +origin, less in invention than in the actual processes of Nature. + +About eleven o'clock on the forenoon of a winter's day, coming +suddenly, in company of a friend, into view of the Lake of Grasmere, we +were alarmed by the sight of a newly-created Island; the transitory +thought of the moment was, that it had been produced by an earthquake or +some other convulsion of Nature. Recovering from the alarm, which was +greater than the reader can possibly sympathise with, but which was +shared to its full extent by my companion, we proceeded to examine the +object before us. The elevation of this new island exceeded considerably +that of the old one, its neighbour; it was likewise larger in +circumference, comprehending a space of about five acres; its surface +rocky, speckled with snow, and sprinkled over with birch-trees; it was +divided towards the south from the other island by a narrow frith, and +in like manner from the northern shore of the lake; on the east and west +it was separated from the shore by a much larger space of smooth water. + +Marvellous was the illusion! Comparing the new with the old Island, the +surface of which is soft, green, and unvaried, I do not scruple to say +that, as an object of sight, it was much the more distinct. 'How little +faith,' we exclaimed, 'is due to one sense, unless its evidence be +confirmed by some of its fellows! What Stranger could possibly be +persuaded that this, which we know to be an unsubstantial mockery, is +_really_ so; and that there exists only a single Island on this +beautiful Lake?' At length the appearance underwent a gradual +transmutation; it lost its prominence and passed into a glimmering and +dim _inversion_, and then totally disappeared; leaving behind it a clear +open area of ice of the same dimensions. We now perceived that this bed +of ice, which was thinly suffused with water, had produced the illusion, +by reflecting and refracting (as persons skilled in optics would no +doubt easily explain) a rocky and woody section of the opposite mountain +named Silver-how. + +Having dwelt so much upon the beauty of pure and still water, and +pointed out the advantage which the Lakes of the North of England have +in this particular over those of the Alps, it would be injustice not to +advert to the sublimity that must often be given to Alpine scenes, by +the agitations to which those vast bodies of diffused water are there +subject. I have witnessed many tremendous thunder-storms among the Alps, +and the most glorious effects of light and shadow: but I never happened +to be present when any Lake was agitated by those hurricanes which I +imagine must often torment them. If the commotions be at all +proportionable to the expanse and depth of the waters, and the height of +the surrounding mountains, then, if I may judge from what is frequently +seen here, the exhibition must be awful and astonishing.--On this day, +March 30, 1822, the winds have been acting upon the small Lake of Rydal, +as if they had received command to carry its waters from their bed into +the sky; the white billows in different quarters disappeared under +clouds, or rather drifts, of spray, that were whirled along, and up into +the air by scouring winds, charging each other in squadrons in every +direction, upon the Lake. The spray, having been hurried aloft till it +lost its consistency and whiteness, was driven along the mountain tops +like flying showers that vanish in the distance. Frequently an eddying +wind scooped the waters out of the basin, and forced them upwards in the +very shape of an Icelandic Geyser, or boiling fountain, to the height of +several hundred feet. + +This small Mere of Rydal, from its position, is subject in a peculiar +degree to these commotions. The present season, however, is unusually +stormy;--great numbers of fish, two of them not less than 12 pounds +weight, were a few days ago cast on the shores of Derwent-water by the +force of the waves. + +Lest, in the foregoing comparative estimate, I should be suspected of +partiality to my native mountains, I will support my general opinion by +the authority of Mr. West, whose Guide to the Lakes has been eminently +serviceable to the Tourist for nearly 50 years. The Author, a Roman +Catholic Clergyman, had passed much time abroad, and was well acquainted +with the scenery of the Continent. He thus expresses himself: 'They who +intend to make the continental tour should begin here; as it will give, +in miniature, an idea of what they are to meet with there, in traversing +the Alps and Appenines; to which our northern mountains are not inferior +in beauty of line, or variety of summit, number of lakes, and +transparency of water; not in colouring of rock, or softness of turf, +but in height and extent only. The mountains here are all accessible to +the summit, and furnish prospects no less surprising, and with more +variety, than the Alps themselves. The tops of the highest Alps are +inaccessible, being covered with everlasting snow, which commencing at +regular heights above the cultivated tracts, or wooded and verdant +sides, form indeed the highest contrast in Nature. For there may be seen +all the variety of climate in one view. To this, however, we oppose the +sight of the ocean, from the summits of all the higher mountains, as it +appears intersected with promontories, decorated with islands, and +animated with navigation.'--West's _Guide_, p.5. + + + + +EXCURSIONS TO THE TOP OF SCAWFELL AND ON THE BANKS OF ULSWATER. + + +It was my intention, several years ago, to describe a regular tour +through this country, taking the different scenes in the most favourable +order; but after some progress had been made in the work it was +abandoned from a conviction, that, if well executed, it would lessen the +pleasure of the Traveller by anticipation, and, if the contrary, it +would mislead him. The Reader may not, however, be displeased with the +following extract from a letter to a Friend, giving an account of a +visit to a summit of one of the highest of these mountains; of which I +am reminded by the observations of Mr. West, and by reviewing what has +been said of this district in comparison with the Alps. + +Having left Rosthwaite in Borrowdale, on a bright morning in the first +week of October, we ascended from Seathwaite to the top of the ridge, +called Ash-course, and thence beheld three distinct views;--on one side, +the continuous Vale of Borrowdale, Keswick, and Bassenthwaite,--with +Skiddaw, Helvellyn, Saddle-back, and numerous other mountains--and, in +the distance, the Solway Frith and the Mountains of Scotland;--on the +other side, and below us, the Langdale Pikes--their own vale below +_them_;--Windermere,--and, far beyond Windermere, Ingleborough in +Yorkshire. But how shall I speak of the deliciousness of the third +prospect! At this time, _that_ was most favoured by sunshine and shade. +The green Vale of Esk--deep and green, with its glittering serpent +stream, lay below us; and, on we looked to the Mountains near the +Sea,--Black Comb pre-eminent,--and, still beyond, to the Sea itself, in +dazzling brightness. Turning round we saw the Mountains of Wastdale in +tumult; to our right, Great Gavel, the loftiest, a distinct, and _huge_ +form, though the middle of the mountain was, to our eyes, as its base. + +We had attained the object of this journey; but our ambition now mounted +higher. We saw the summit of Scawfell, apparently very near to us; and +we shaped our course towards it; but, discovering that it could not be +reached without first making a considerable descent, we resolved, +instead, to aim at another point of the same mountain, called the +_Pikes_, which I have since found has been estimated as higher than the +summit bearing the name of Scawfell Head, where the Stone Man is built. + +The sun had never once been overshadowed by a cloud during the whole of +our progress from the centre of Borrowdale. On the summit of the Pike, +which we gained after much toil, though without difficulty, there was +not a breath of air to stir even the papers containing our refreshment, +as they lay spread out upon a rock. The stillness seemed to be not of +this world:--we paused, and kept silence to listen; and no sound could +be heard: the Scawfell Cataracts were voiceless to us; and there was not +an insect to hum in the air. The vales which we had seen from Ash-course +lay yet in view; and, side by side with Eskdale, we now saw the sister +Vale of Donnerdale terminated by the Duddon Sands. But the majesty of +the mountains below, and close to us, is not to be conceived. We now +beheld the whole mass of Great Gavel from its base,--the Den of Wastdale +at our feet--a gulf immeasurable: Grasmire and the other mountains of +Crummock--Ennerdale and its mountains; and the Sea beyond! We sat down +to our repast, and gladly would we have tempered our beverage (for there +was no spring or well near us) with such a supply of delicious water as +we might have procured, had we been on the rival summit of Great Gavel; +for on its highest point is a small triangular receptacle in the native +rock, which, the shepherds say, is never dry. There we might have slaked +our thirst plenteously with a pure and celestial liquid, for the cup or +basin, it appears, has no other feeder than the dews of heaven, the +showers, the vapours, the hoar frost, and the spotless snow. + +While we were gazing around, 'Look,' I exclaimed, 'at yon ship upon the +glittering sea!' 'Is it a ship?' replied our shepherd-guide. 'It can be +nothing else,' interposed my companion; 'I cannot be mistaken, I am so +accustomed to the appearance of ships at sea.' The Guide dropped the +argument; but, before a minute was gone, he quietly said, 'Now look at +your ship; it is changed into a horse.' So indeed it was,--a horse with +a gallant neck and head. We laughed heartily; and, I hope, when again +inclined to be positive, I may remember the ship and the horse upon the +glittering sea; and the calm confidence, yet submissiveness, of our +wise Man of the Mountains, who certainly had more knowledge of clouds +than we, whatever might be our knowledge of ships. + +I know not how long we might have remained on the summit of the Pike, +without a thought of moving, had not our Guide warned us that we must +not linger; for a storm was coming. We looked in vain to espy the signs +of it. Mountains, vales, and sea were touched with the clear light of +the sun. 'It is there,' said he, pointing to the sea beyond Whitehaven, +and there we perceived a light vapour unnoticeable but by a shepherd +accustomed to watch all mountain bodings. We gazed around again, and yet +again, unwilling to lose the remembrance of what lay before us in that +lofty solitude; and then prepared to depart. Meanwhile the air changed +to cold, and we saw that tiny vapour swelled into mighty masses of cloud +which came boiling over the mountains. Great Gavel, Helvellyn, and +Skiddaw, were wrapped in storm; yet Langdale, and the mountains in that +quarter, remained all bright in sunshine. Soon the storm reached us; we +sheltered under a crag; and almost as rapidly as it had come it passed +away, and left us free to observe the struggles of gloom and sunshine in +other quarters. Langdale now had its share, and the Pikes of Langdale +were decorated by two splendid rainbows. Skiddaw also had his own +rainbows. Before we again reached Ash-course every cloud had vanished +from every summit. + +I ought to have mentioned that round the top of Scawfell-PIKE not a +blade of grass is to be seen. Cushions or tufts of moss, parched and +brown, appear between the huge blocks and stones that lie in heaps on +all sides to a great distance, like skeletons or bones of the earth not +needed at the creation, and there left to be covered with never-dying +lichens, which the clouds and dews nourish; and adorn with colours of +vivid and exquisite beauty. Flowers, the most brilliant feathers, and +even gems, scarcely surpass in colouring some of those masses of stone, +which no human eye beholds, except the shepherd or traveller be led +thither by curiosity: and how seldom must this happen! For the other +eminence is the one visited by the adventurous stranger; and the +shepherd has no inducement to ascend the PIKE in quest of his sheep; no +food being _there_ to tempt them. + +We certainly were singularly favoured in the weather; for when we were +seated on the summit, our conductor, turning his eyes thoughtfully +round, said, 'I do not know that in my whole life, I was ever, at any +season of the year, so high upon the mountains on so _calm_ a day.' (It +was the 7th of October.) Afterwards we had a spectacle of the grandeur +of earth and heaven commingled; yet without terror. We knew that the +storm would pass away;--for so our prophetic Guide had assured us. + +Before we reached Seathwaite in Borrowdale, a few stars had appeared, +and we pursued our way down the Vale, to Rosthwaite, by moonlight. + +Scawfell and Helvellyn being the two Mountains of this region which will +best repay the fatigue of ascending them, the following Verses may be +here introduced with propriety. They are from the Author's Miscellaneous +Poems. + + +_To--_. + +ON HER FIRST ASCENT TO THE SUMMIT OF HELVELLYN. + + Inmate of a Mountain Dwelling, + Thou hast clomb aloft, and gazed, + From the watch-towers of Helvellyn; + Awed, delighted, and amazed! + + Potent was the spell that bound thee + Not unwilling to obey; + For blue Ether's arms, flung round thee, + Stilled the pantings of dismay. + + Lo! the dwindled woods and meadows! + What a vast abyss is there! + Lo! the clouds, the solemn shadows, + And the glistenings--heavenly fair! + + And a record of commotion + Which a thousand ridges yield; + Ridge, and gulf, and distant ocean + Gleaming like a silver shield! + + --Take thy flight;--possess, inherit + Alps or Andes--they are thine! + With the morning's roseate Spirit, + Sweep their length of snowy line; + + Or survey the bright dominions + In the gorgeous colours drest + Flung from off the purple pinions, + Evening spreads throughout the west! + + Thine are all the coral fountains + Warbling in each sparry vault + Of the untrodden lunar mountains; + Listen to their songs!--or halt, + + To Niphate's top invited, + Whither spiteful Satan steered; + Or descend where the ark alighted, + When the green earth re-appeared: + + For the power of hills is on thee, + As was witnessed through thine eye + Then, when old Helvellyn won thee + To confess their majesty! + +Having said so much of _points of view_ to which few are likely to +ascend, I am induced to subjoin an account of a short excursion through +more accessible parts of the country, made at a _time_ when it is seldom +seen but by the inhabitants. As the journal was written for one +acquainted with the general features of the country, only those effects +and appearances are dwelt upon, which are produced by the changeableness +of the atmosphere, or belong to the season when the excursion was made. + +A.D. 1805.--On the 7th of November, on a damp and gloomy morning, we +left Grasmere Vale, intending to pass a few days on the banks of +Ullswater. A mild and dry autumn had been unusually favourable to the +preservation and beauty of foliage; and, far advanced as the season was, +the trees on the larger Island of Rydal-mere retained a splendour which +did not need the heightening of sunshine. We noticed, as we passed, that +the line of the grey rocky shore of that island, shaggy with variegated +bushes and shrubs, and spotted and striped with purplish brown heath, +indistinguishably blending with its image reflected in the still water, +produced a curious resemblance, both in form and colour, to a +richly-coated caterpillar, as it might appear through a magnifying glass +of extraordinary power. The mists gathered as we went along: but, when +we reached the top of Kirkstone, we were glad we had not been +discouraged by the apprehension of bad weather. Though not able to see a +hundred yards before us, we were more than contented. At such a time, +and in such a place, every scattered stone the size of one's head +becomes a companion. Near the top of the Pass is the remnant of an old +wall, which (magnified, though obscured, by the vapour) might have been +taken for a fragment of some monument of ancient grandeur,--yet that +same pile of stones we had never before even observed. This situation, +it must be allowed, is not favourable to gaiety; but a pleasing hurry of +spirits accompanies the surprise occasioned by objects transformed, +dilated, or distorted, as they are when seen through such a medium. Many +of the fragments of rock on the top and slopes of Kirkstone, and of +similar places, are fantastic enough in themselves; but the full effect +of such impressions can only be had in a state of weather when they are +not likely to be _sought_ for. It was not till we had descended +considerably that the fields of Hartshope were seen, like a lake tinged +by the reflection of sunny clouds: I mistook them for Brotherswater, +but, soon after, we saw that lake gleaming faintly with a steelly +brightness,--then, as we continued to descend, appeared the brown oaks, +and the birches of lively yellow--and the cottages--and the lowly Hall +of Hartshope, with its long roof and ancient chimneys. During great part +of our way to Patterdale, we had rain, or rather drizzling vapour; for +there was never a drop upon our hair or clothes larger than the smallest +pearls upon a lady's ring. + +The following morning, incessant rain till 11 o'clock, when the sky +began to clear, and we walked along the eastern shore of Ullswater +towards the farm of Blowick. The wind blew strong, and drove the clouds +forward, on the side of the mountain above our heads;--two +storm-stiffened black yew-trees fixed our notice, seen through, or under +the edge of, the flying mists,--four or five goats were bounding among +the rocks;--the sheep moved about more quietly, or cowered beneath their +sheltering places. This is the only part of the country where goats are +now found;[66] but this morning, before we had seen these, I was +reminded of that picturesque animal by two rams of mountain breed, both +with Ammonian horns, and with beards majestic as that which Michael +Angelo has given to his statue of Moses.--But to return; when our path +had brought us to that part of the naked common which overlooks the +woods and bush-besprinkled fields of Blowick, the lake, clouds, and +mists were all in motion to the sound of sweeping winds;--the church and +cottages of Patterdale scarcely visible, or seen only by fits between +the shifting vapours. To the northward the scene was less +visionary;--Place Fell steady and bold;--the whole lake driving onward +like a great river--waves dancing round the small islands. The house at +Blowick was the boundary of our walk; and we returned, lamenting to see +a decaying and uncomfortable dwelling in a place where sublimity and +beauty seemed to contend with each other. But these regrets were +dispelled by a glance on the woods that clothe the opposite steeps of +the lake. How exquisite was the mixture of sober and splendid hues! The +general colouring of the trees was brown--rather that of ripe hazel +nuts; but towards the water, there were yet beds of green, and in the +highest parts of the wood, was abundance of yellow foliage, which, +gleaming through a vapoury lustre, reminded us of masses of clouds, as +you see them gathered together in the west, and touched with the golden +light of the setting sun. + +[66] A.D. 1835. These also have disappeared. + +After dinner we walked up the Vale; I had never had an idea of its +extent and width in passing along the public road on the other side. We +followed the path that leads from house to house; two or three times it +took us through some of those copses or groves that cover the little +hillocks in the middle of the vale, making an intricate and pleasing +intermixture of lawn and wood. Our fancies could not resist the +temptation; and we fixed upon a spot for a cottage, which we began to +build: and finished as easily as castles are raised in the air.--Visited +the same spot in the evening. I shall say nothing of the moonlight +aspect of the situation which had charmed us so much in the afternoon; +but I wish you had been with us when, in returning to our friend's +house, we espied his lady's large white dog, lying in the moonshine upon +the round knoll under the old yew-tree in the garden, a romantic +image--the dark tree and its dark shadow--and the elegant creature, as +fair as a spirit! The torrents murmured softly: the mountains down which +they were falling did not, to my sight, furnish a back-ground for this +Ossianic picture; but I had a consciousness of the depth of the +seclusion, and that mountains were embracing us on all sides; 'I saw +not, but I _felt_ that they were there.' + +Friday, November 9th.--Rain, as yesterday, till 10 o'clock, when we took +a boat to row down the lake. The day improved,--clouds and sunny gleams +on the mountains. In the large bay under Place Fell, three fishermen +were dragging a net,--picturesque group beneath the high and bare crags! +A raven was seen aloft: not hovering like the kite, for that is not the +habit of the bird; but passing on with a straight-forward perseverance, +and timing the motion of its wings to its own croaking. The waters were +agitated; and the iron tone of the raven's voice, which strikes upon the +ear at all times as the more dolorous from its regularity, was in fine +keeping with the wild scene before our eyes. This carnivorous fowl is a +great enemy to the lambs of these solitudes; I recollect frequently +seeing, when a boy, bunches of unfledged ravens suspended from the +church-yard gates of H----, for which a reward of so much a head was +given to the adventurous destroyer.--The fishermen drew their net +ashore, and hundreds of fish were leaping in their prison. They were all +of the kind called skellies, a sort of fresh-water herring, shoals of +which may sometimes be seen dimpling or rippling the surface of the lake +in calm weather. This species is not found, I believe, in any other of +these lakes; nor, as far as I know, is the chevin, that _spiritless_ +fish, (though I am loth to call it so, for it was a prime favourite with +Isaac Walton,) which must frequent Ullswater, as I have seen a large +shoal passing into the lake from the river Eamont. _Here_ are no pike, +and the char are smaller than those of the other lakes, and of inferior +quality; but the grey trout attains a very large size, sometimes +weighing above twenty pounds. This lordly creature seems to know that +'retiredness is a piece of majesty;' for it is scarcely ever caught, or +even seen, except when it quits the depths of the lake in the spawning +season, and runs up into the streams, where it is too often destroyed in +disregard of the law of the land and of Nature. + +Quitted the boat in the bay of Sandwyke, and pursued our way towards +Martindale along a pleasant path--at first through a coppice, bordering +the lake, then through green fields--and came to the village, (if +village it may be called, for the houses are few, and separated from +each other,) a sequestered spot, shut out from the view of the lake. +Crossed the one-arched bridge, below the chapel, with its 'bare ring of +mossy wall,' and single yew-tree. At the last house in the dale we were +greeted by the master, who was sitting at his door, with a flock of +sheep collected round him, for the purpose of smearing them with tar +(according to the custom of the season) for protection against the +winter's cold. He invited us to enter, and view a room built by Mr. +Hasell for the accommodation of his friends at the annual chase of red +deer in his forests at the head of these dales. The room is fitted up +in the sportsman's style, with a cupboard for bottles and glasses, with +strong chairs, and a dining-table; and ornamented with the horns of the +stags caught at these hunts for a succession of years--the length of the +last race each had run being recorded under his spreading antlers. The +good woman treated us with oaten cake, new and crisp; and after this +welcome refreshment and rest, we proceeded on our return to Patterdale +by a short cut over the mountains. On leaving the fields of Sandwyke, +while ascending by a gentle slope along the valley of Martindale, we had +occasion to observe that in thinly-peopled glens of this character the +general want of wood gives a peculiar interest to the scattered cottages +embowered in sycamore. Towards its head, this valley splits into two +parts; and in one of these (that to the left) there is no house, nor any +building to be seen but a cattle-shed on the side of a hill, which is +sprinkled over with trees, evidently the remains of an extensive forest. +Near the entrance of the other division stands the house where we were +entertained, and beyond the enclosures of that farm there are no other. +A few old trees remain, relics of the forest, a little stream hastens, +though with serpentine windings, through the uncultivated hollow, where +many cattle were pasturing. The cattle of this country are generally +white, or light-coloured; but these were dark brown, or black, which +heightened the resemblance this scene bears to many parts of the +Highlands of Scotland.--While we paused to rest upon the hill-side, +though well contented with the quiet every-day sounds--the lowing of +cattle, bleating of sheep, and the very gentle murmuring of the valley +stream, we could not but think what a grand effect the music of the +bugle-horn would have among these mountains. It is still heard once +every year, at the chase I have spoken of; a day of festivity for the +inhabitants of this district except the poor deer, the most ancient of +them all. Our ascent even to the top was very easy; when it was +accomplished we had exceedingly fine views, some of the lofty Fells +being resplendent with sunshine, and others partly shrouded by clouds. +Ullswater, bordered by black steeps, was of dazzling brightness; the +plain beyond Penrith smooth and bright, or rather gleamy, as the sea or +sea sands. Looked down into Boardale, which, like Stybarrow, has been +named from the wild swine that formerly abounded here; but it has now no +sylvan covert, being smooth and bare, a long, narrow, deep, +cradle-shaped glen, lying so sheltered that one would be pleased to see +it planted by human hands, there being a sufficiency of soil; and the +trees would be sheltered almost like shrubs in a green-house.--After +having walked some way along the top of the hill, came in view of +Glenriddin and the mountains at the head of Grisdale.--Before we began +to descend turned aside to a small ruin, called at this day the chapel, +where it is said the inhabitants of Martindale and Patterdale were +accustomed to assemble for worship. There are now no traces from which +you could infer for what use the building had been erected; the loose +stones and the few which yet continue piled up resemble those which lie +elsewhere on the mountain; but the shape of the building having been +oblong, its remains differ from those of a common sheep-fold; and it has +stood east and west. Scarcely did the Druids, when they fled to these +fastnesses, perform their rites in any situation more exposed to +disturbance from the elements. One cannot pass by without being reminded +that the rustic psalmody must have had the accompaniment of many a +wildly-whistling blast; and what dismal storms must have often drowned +the voice of the preacher! As we descend, Patterdale opens upon the eye +in grand simplicity, screened by mountains, and proceeding from two +heads, Deep-dale and Hartshope, where lies the little lake of +Brotherswater, named in old maps Broaderwater, and probably rightly so; +for Bassenthwaite-mere at this day is familiarly called Broadwater; but +the change in the appellation of this small lake or pool (if it be a +corruption) may have been assisted by some melancholy accident similar +to what happened about twenty years ago, when two brothers were drowned +there, having gone out to take their holiday pleasure upon the ice on a +new-year's day. + +A rough and precipitous peat track brought us down to our friend's +house.--Another fine moonlight night; but a thick fog rising from the +neighbouring river, enveloped the rocky and wood-crested knoll on which +our fancy cottage had been erected; and, under the damp cast upon my +feelings, I consoled myself with moralising on the folly of hasty +decisions in matters of importance, and the necessity of having at least +one year's knowledge of a place before you realise airy suggestions in +solid stone. + +Saturday, November 10th.--At the breakfast-table tidings reached us of +the death of Lord Nelson, and of the victory at Trafalgar. Sequestered +as we were from the sympathy of a crowd, we were shocked to hear that +the bells had been ringing joyously at Penrith to celebrate the triumph. +In the rebellion of the year 1745, people fled with their valuables from +the open country to Patterdale, as a place of refuge secure from the +incursions of strangers. At that time, news such as we had heard might +have been long in penetrating so far into the recesses of the mountains; +but now, as you know, the approach is easy, and the communication, in +summer time, almost hourly: nor is this strange, for travellers after +pleasure are become not less active, and more numerous than those who +formerly left their homes for purposes of gain. The priest on the banks +of the remotest stream of Lapland will talk familiarly of Buonaparte's +last conquests, and discuss the progress of the French revolution, +having acquired much of his information from adventurers impelled by +curiosity alone. + +The morning was clear and cheerful after a night of sharp frost. At 10 +o'clock we took our way on foot towards Pooley Bridge, on the same side +of the lake we had coasted in a boat the day before.--Looked backwards +to the south from our favourite station above Blowick. The dazzling +sunbeams striking upon the church and village, while the earth was +steaming with exhalations not traceable in other quarters, rendered +their forms even more indistinct than the partial and flitting veil of +unillumined vapour had done two days before. The grass on which we trod, +and the trees in every thicket, were dripping with melted hoar-frost. We +observed the lemon-coloured leaves of the birches, as the breeze turned +them to the sun, sparkle, or rather _flash_, like diamonds, and the +leafless purple twigs were tipped with globes of shining crystal. + +The day continued delightful, and unclouded to the end. I will not +describe the country which we slowly travelled through, nor relate our +adventures: and will only add, that on the afternoon of the 13th we +returned along the banks of Ullswater by the usual road. The lake lay in +deep repose after the agitations of a wet and stormy morning. The trees +in Gowbarrow park were in that state when what is gained by the +disclosure of their bark and branches compensates, almost, for the loss +of foliage, exhibiting the variety which characterises the point of time +between autumn and winter. The hawthorns were leafless; their round +heads covered with rich scarlet berries, and adorned with arches of +green brambles, and eglantines hung with glossy hips; and the grey +trunks of some of the ancient oaks, which in the summer season might +have been regarded only for their venerable majesty, now attracted +notice by a pretty embellishment of green mosses and fern intermixed +with russet leaves retained by those slender outstarting twigs which the +veteran tree would not have tolerated in his strength. The smooth silver +branches of the ashes were bare; most of the alders as green as the +Devonshire cottage-myrtle that weathers the snows of Christmas.--Will +you accept it as some apology for my having dwelt so long on the +woodland ornaments of these scenes--that artists speak of the trees on +the banks of Ullswater, and especially along the bays of Stybarrow +crags, as having a peculiar character of picturesque intricacy in their +stems and branches, which their rocky stations and the mountain winds +have combined to give them? + +At the end of Gowbarrow park a large herd of deer were either moving +slowly or standing still among the fern. I was sorry when a +chance-companion, who had joined us by the way, startled them with a +whistle, disturbing an image of grave simplicity and thoughtful +enjoyment; for I could have fancied that those natives of this wild and +beautiful region were partaking with us a sensation of the solemnity of +the closing day. The sun had been set some time; and we could perceive +that the light was fading away from the coves of Helvellyn, but the lake +under a luminous sky, was more brilliant than before. + +After tea at Patterdale, set out again:--a fine evening; the seven stars +close to the mountain-top; all the stars seemed brighter than usual. The +steeps were reflected in Brotherswater, and, above the lake, appeared +like enormous black perpendicular walls. The Kirkstone torrents had been +swoln by the rains, and now filled the mountain pass with their roaring, +which added greatly to the solemnity of our walk. Behind us, when we had +climbed to a great height, we saw one light, very distinct, in the vale, +like a large red star--a solitary one in the gloomy region. The +cheerfulness of the scene was in the sky above us. + +Reached home a little before midnight. The following verses (from the +Author's Miscellaneous Poems,) after what has just been read may be +acceptable to the reader, by way of conclusion to this little Volume. + + +ODE. + +THE PASS OF KIRKSTONE. + + I. + + Within the mind strong fancies work, + A deep delight the bosom thrills, + Oft as I pass along the fork + Of these fraternal hills: + Where, save the rugged road, we find + No appanage of human kind; + Nor hint of man, if stone or rock + Seem not his handy-work to mock + By something cognizably shaped; + Mockery--or model roughly hewn, + And left as if by earthquake strewn, + Or from the Flood escaped: + Altars for Druid service fit; + (But where no fire was ever lit, + Unless the glow-worm to the skies + Thence offer nightly sacrifice;) + Wrinkled Egyptian monument; + Green moss-grown tower; or hoary tent; + Tents of a camp that never shall be raised; + On which four thousand years have gazed! + + + II. + + Ye plough-shares sparkling on the slopes! + Ye snow-white lambs that trip + Imprisoned 'mid the formal props + Of restless ownership! + Ye trees, that may to-morrow fall + To feed the insatiate Prodigal! + Lawns, houses, chattels, groves, and fields, + All that the fertile valley shields; + Wages of folly--baits of crime,-- + Of life's uneasy game the stake, + Playthings that keep the eyes awake + Of drowsy, dotard Time; + O care! O guilt!--O vales and plains, + Here, 'mid his own unvexed domains, + A Genius dwells, that can subdue + At once all memory of You,-- + Most potent when mists veil the sky, + Mists that distort and magnify; + While the hoarse rushes, to the sweeping breeze, + Sigh forth their ancient melodies! + + + III. + + List to those shriller notes!--_that_ march + Perchance was on the blast, + When through this Height's inverted arch, + Rome's earliest legion passed! + --They saw, adventurously impelled, + And older eyes than theirs beheld, + This block--and yon, whose Church-like frame + Gives to the savage Pass its name. + Aspiring Road! that lov'st to hide + Thy daring in a vapoury bourn, + Not seldom may the hour return + When thou shalt be my Guide: + And I (as often we find cause, + When life is at a weary pause, + And we have panted up the hill + Of duty with reluctant will) + Be thankful, even though tired and faint, + For the rich bounties of Constraint; + Whence oft invigorating transports flow + That Choice lacked courage to bestow! + + + IV. + + My Soul was grateful for delight + That wore a threatening brow; + A veil is lifted--can she slight + The scene that opens now? + Though habitation none appear, + The greenness tells, man must be there; + The shelter--that the perspective + Is of the clime in which we live; + Where Toil pursues his daily round; + Where Pity sheds sweet tears, and Love, + In woodbine bower or birchen grove, + Inflicts his tender wound. + --Who comes not hither ne'er shall know + How beautiful the world below; + Nor can he guess how lightly leaps + The brook adown the rocky steeps. + Farewell, thou desolate Domain! + Hope, pointing to the cultured Plain, + Carols like a shepherd boy; + And who is she?--Can that be Joy! + Who, with a sun-beam for her guide, + Smoothly skims the meadows wide; + While Faith, from yonder opening cloud, + To hill and vale proclaims aloud, + 'Whate'er the weak may dread, the wicked dare, + Thy lot, O man, is good, thy portion fair!' + + +_The Publishers, with permission of the Author, have added the +following_ + + + + +ITINERARY OF THE LAKES, FOR THE USE OF TOURISTS. + + * * * * * + +STAGES. MILES. + +Lancaster to Kendal, by Kirkby Lonsdale 30 +Lancaster to Kendal, by Burton 22 +Lancaster to Kendal, by Milnthorpe 21 +Lancaster to Ulverston, over Sands 21 +Lancaster to Ulverston, by Levens Bridge 35-1/2 +Ulverston to Hawkshead, by Coniston Water Head 19 +Ulverston to Bowness, by Newby Bridge 17 +Hawkshead to Ambleside 5 +Hawkshead to Bowness 6 +Kendal to Ambleside 14 +Kendal to Ambleside, by Bowness 15 +From and back to Ambleside round the two Langdales 18 +Ambleside to Ullswater 10 +Ambleside to Keswick 16-1/4 +Keswick to Borrowdale, and round the Lake 12 +Keswick to Borrowdale and Buttermere 23 +Keswick to Wastdale and Calder Bridge 27 +Calder Bridge to Buttermere and Keswick 29 +Keswick, round Bassenthwaite Lake 18 +Keswick to Patterdale, Pooley Bridge, and Penrith 38 +Keswick to Pooley Bridge and Penrith 24 +Keswick to Penrith 17-1/2 +Whitehaven to Keswick 27 +Workington to Keswick 21 +Excursion from Penrith to Hawes Water 27 +Carlisle to Penrith 18 +Penrith to Kendal 26 + + * * * * * + +_Inns and Public Houses, when not mentioned, are marked thus *_. + +LANCASTER to KENDAL, by Kirkby Lonsdale, 30 miles. + +MILES. MILES. + 5 Caton 5 + 2 Claughton 7 + 2 Hornby* 9 + 2 Melling 11 + 2 Tunstall 13 + 2 Burrow 15 + 2 Kirkby Lonsdale 17 +13 Kendal 30 + + +INNS--_Lancaster_: King's Arms, Commercial Inn, Royal Oak. _Kirkby +Lonsdale_: Rose and Crown, Green Dragon. + +LANCASTER to KENDAL, by Burton, 21-3/4 miles. + +MILES. MILES. +10-3/4 Burton 10-3/4 +4-3/4 Crooklands 15-1/2 +1/2 End Moor* 16 +5-3/4 Kendal 21-3/4 + +INNS: _Kendal_: King's Arms, Commercial Inn. _Burton_: Royal Oak, +King's Arms. + +LANCASTER to KENDAL, by Milnthorpe, 21-1/4/miles. + +2-3/4 Slyne* 2-3/4 +1-1/4 Bolton-le-Sands* 4 +2 Carnforth* 6 +2 Junction of the Milnthorpe +and Burton roads 8 +4 Hale* 12 +1/2 Beethom* 12-1/2 +1-1/4 Milnthorpe 13-3/4 +1-1/4 Heversham* 15 +1-1/2 Levens-Bridge 16-1/2 +4-3/4 Kendal 21-1/4 + +INN--_Milnthorpe_: Cross Keys. +LANCASTER to ULVERSTON, over Sands, 21 miles. + +3-1/2 Hest Bank* 3-1/2 +1/4 Lancaster Sands 3-3/4 +9 Kent's Bank 12-3/4 +1 Lower Allithwaite 13-3/4 +1-1/4 Flookburgh* 15 +3/4 Cark 15-3/4 +1/4 Leven Sands 16 +5 Ulverston 21 + +INNS--_Ulverston_: Sun Inn, Bradyll's Arms. + +LANCASTER to ULVERSTON, by Levens-Bridge, 35-1/2 miles. + +12 Hale* 12 +1/2 Beethom* 12-1/2 +1-1/4 Milnthorpe 13-3/4 +1-1/4 Heversham* 15 +2-3/4 Levens-Bridge 16-1/2 +4 Witherslack* 20-1/2 +3 Lindal* 23 +2 Newton* 25 +2 Newby-Bridge* 27-1/2 +2 Low Wood 29-1/2 +3 Greenodd 32-1/2 +3 Ulverston 35-1/2 + +ULVERSTON to HAWKSHEAD, by Coniston Water-Head, 19 miles. + +6 Lowick-Bridge 6 +2 Nibthwaite 8 +8 Coniston Water-Head* 16 +3 Hawkshead 19 + +INN--_Hawkshead_: Red Lion. + +ULVERSTON to BOWNESS, by Newby-Bridge, 16 miles. + +3 Greenodd 3 +3 Low Wood 6 +2 Newby-Bridge 8 +8 Bowness 16 + +INNS--_Bowness_: White Lion, Crown Inn. + +HAWKSHEAD to AMBLESIDE, 5 miles. + +HAWKSHEAD to BOWNESS, 5-1/2 miles. + +2 Sawrey 2 +2 Windermere-ferry* 4 +1-1/2 Bowness 5-1/2 + + +KENDAL to AMBLESIDE, 13-1/2 miles. + +5 Staveley* 5 +1-1/2 Ings Chapel 6-1/2 +2 Orrest-head 8-1/2 +1-1/2 Troutbeck-Bridge* 10 +2 Low Wood Inn 12 +1-1/2 Ambleside 13-1/2 + +INNS--_Ambleside_: Salutation Hotel, Commercial Inn. + +KENDAL to AMBLESIDE, by Bowness, 15 miles. + +MILES. MILES. +4 Crook* 4 +2 Gilpin-Bridge* 6 +3 Bowness 9 +2-1/2 Troutbeck-Bridge 11-1/2 +2 Low Wood Inn 13-1/2 +1-1/2 Ambleside 15 + +A Circuit from and back to AMBLESIDE, by Little and Great Langdale, +18 miles. + +3 Skelwith-Bridge* 3 +2 Colwith Cascade 5 +3 Blea Tarn 8 +3 Dungeon Ghyll 11 +2 Langdale Chapel Stile* 13 +5 By High Close and Rydal + to Ambleside 18 + +AMBLESIDE to ULLSWATER, 10 miles. + +4 Top of Kirkstone 4 +3 Kirkstone Foot 7 +3 Inn at Patterdale 10 + +AMBLESIDE to KESWICK, 16-1/4 miles. + +1-1/2 Rydal 1-1/2 +3-1/2 Swan, Grassmere* 5 +2 Dunmail Raise 7 +1-1/4 Nag's Head, Wythburn 8-1/4 +4 Smalthwaite-Bridge 12-1/4 +3 Castlerigg 15-1/4 +1 Keswick 16-1/4 + + * * * * * + +EXCURSIONS FROM KESWICK. + +INNS--_Keswick_: Royal Oak, Queen's Head. + +To BORROWDALE, and ROUND THE LAKE, 12 miles. + +2 Barrow House 2 +1 Lowdore 3 +1 Grange 4 +1 Bowder Stone 5 +1 Return to Grange 6 +4-1/2 Portinscale 10-1/2 +1-1/2 Keswick 12 + +To BORROWDALE and BUTTERMERE. + +5 Bowder Stone 5 +1 Rosthwaite 6 +2 Seatoller 8 +4 Gatesgarth 12 +2 Buttermere* 14 +9 Keswick, by Newlands 23 + +Two Days' Excursion to WASTDALE, ENNERDALE, and LOWES-WATER. + +_First Day._ + +6 Rosthwaite 6 +2 Seatoller 8 +1 Seathwaite 9 +3 Sty-head 12 +2 Wastdale-head 14 +6 Strands,* Nether Wastdale 20 +4 Gosforth* 24 +3 Calder-Bridge* 27 + +_Second Day._ + +7 Ennerdale-Bridge 7 +3 Lamplugh Cross* 10 +4 Lowes-Water 14 +2 Scale-hill* 16 +4 Buttermere* 20 +9 Keswick 29 + +KESWICK round BASSENTHWAITE WATER. + +MILES. MILES. + +8 Peel Wyke* 8 +1 Ouse-Bridge 9 +1 Castle Inn 10 +3 Bassenthwaite Sandbed 13 +5 Keswick 18 + +KESWICK to PATTERDALE, and by Pooley-Bridge to PENRITH. + +10 Springfield* 10 + 7 Gowbarrow Park 17 + 5 Patterdale* 22 +10 Pooley--Bridge* through + Gowbarrow Park 32 + 6 Penrith 38 + +INNS--_Penrith_: Crown Inn, the George. + +KESWICK to POOLEY-BRIDGE and PENRITH. + +12 Penruddock* 12 +3 Dacre* 15 +3 Pooley-Bridge 18 +6 Penrith 24 + +KESWICK to PENRITH, 17-1/2 miles. + +4 Threlkeld* 4 +7-1/2 Penruddock 11-1/2 +3-1/2 Stainton* 15 +2-1/2 Penrith 17-1/2 + +* * * * * + +WHITEHAVEN to KESWICK, 27 miles. + +2 Moresby 2 +2 Distington 4 +2 Winscales 6 +3 Little Clifton 9 +5 Cockermouth 14 +2-1/2 Embleton 16-1/2 +6-1/2 Thornthwaite 23 +4 Keswick 27 + +INNS--_Whitehaven_: Black Lion, Golden Lion, the Globe. _Cockermouth_: +The Globe, the Sun. + +WORKINGTON to KESWICK, 21 miles. + +The road joins that from Whitehaven to Keswick 4 miles from Workington. + +INNS--_Workington_: Green Dragon, New Crown, King's Arms. + +Excursion from PENRITH to HAWESWATER. + +5 Lowther, or Askham* 5 +7 By Bampton* to Haweswater 12 +4 Return by Butterswick 16 +5 Over Moor Dovack to + Pooley 21 +6 By Dalemain to Penrith 27 + +CARLISLE to PENRITH, 18 miles. + +2-1/2 Carlton* 2-1/2 +7 Low Hesket* 9-1/2 +1-1/2 High Hesket* 11 +2 Plumpton* 13 +5 Penrith 18 + +INNS--_Carlisle_: The Bush Coffee-House, King's Arms. + +PENRITH to KENDAL, 26 miles. + +1 Eamont-Bridge* 1 +1-1/2 Clifton* 2-1/2 +2 Hackthorpe* 4-1/2 +5-3/4 Shap 10-1/4 +6-3/4 Hawse Foot* 17 +4 Plough Inn* 21 +2-1/2 Skelsmergh Stocks* 23-1/2 +2-1/2 Kendal 26 + +INNS--_Shap_: Greyhound, King's Arms. + + +KENDAL AND WINDERMERE RAILWAY. + + * * * * * + +TWO LETTERS + +RE-PRINTED FROM THE MORNING POST. + +REVISED, WITH ADDITIONS. + + * * * * * + +KENDAL: + +PRINTED BY E. BRANTHWAITE AND SON. + +[1844.] + +NOTE. + +See Preface in Vol. I. for details on these Letters, &c. G. + + + + +SONNET ON THE PROJECTED KENDAL AND WINDERMERE RAILWAY. + + Is then no nook of English ground secure + From rash assault? Schemes of retirement sown + In youth, and mid the busy world kept pure + As when their earliest flowers of hope were blown, + Must perish;--how can they this blight endure? + And must he too the ruthless change bemoan + Who scorns a false utilitarian lure + Mid his paternal fields at random thrown? + Baffle the threat, bright Scene, from Orrest-head + Given to the pausing traveller's rapturous glance: + Plead for thy peace, thou beautiful romance + Of nature; and, if human hearts be dead, + Speak, passing winds; ye torrents, with your strong + And constant voice, protest against the wrong. + + WILLIAM WORDSWORTH. Rydal Mount, October 12th, 1844. + +The degree and kind of attachment which many of the yeomanry feel to +their small inheritances can scarcely be over-rated. Near the house of +one of them stands a magnificent tree, which a neighbour of the owner +advised him to fell for profit's sake. 'Fell it,' exclaimed the yeoman, +'I had rather fall on my knees and worship it.' It happens, I believe, +that the intended railway would pass through this little property, and I +hope that an apology for the answer will not be thought necessary by one +who enters into the strength of the feeling. + +W.W. + +KENDAL AND WINDERMERE RAILWAY. + + * * * * * + +No. I. + + _To the Editor of the 'Morning Post.'_ + +SIR, + +Some little time ago you did me the favour of inserting a sonnet +expressive of the regret and indignation which, in common with others +all over these Islands, I felt at the proposal of a railway to extend +from Kendal to Low Wood, near the head of Windermere. The project was so +offensive to a large majority of the proprietors through whose lands the +line, after it came in view of the Lake, was to pass, that, for this +reason, and the avowed one of the heavy expense without which the +difficulties in the way could not be overcome, it has been partially +abandoned, and the terminus is now announced to be at a spot within a +mile of Bowness. But as no guarantee can be given that the project will +not hereafter be revived, and an attempt made to carry the line forward +through the vales of Ambleside and Grasmere, and as in one main +particular the case remains essentially the same, allow me to address +you upon certain points which merit more consideration than the +favourers of the scheme have yet given them. The matter, though +seemingly local, is really one in which all persons of taste must be +interested, and, therefore, I hope to be excused if I venture to treat +it at some length. + +I shall barely touch upon the statistics of the question, leaving these +to the two adverse parties, who will lay their several statements before +the Board of Trade, which may possibly be induced to refer the matter to +the House of Commons; and, contemplating that possibility, I hope that +the observations I have to make may not be altogether without influence +upon the public, and upon individuals whose duty it may be to decide in +their place whether the proposed measure shall be referred to a +Committee of the House. Were the case before us an ordinary one, I +should reject such an attempt as presumptuous and futile; but it is not +only different from all others, but, in truth, peculiar. + +In this district the manufactures are trifling; mines it has none, and +its quarries are either wrought out or superseded; the soil is light, +and the cultivateable parts of the country are very limited; so that it +has little to send out, and little has it also to receive. Summer +TOURISTS, (and the very word precludes the notion of a railway) it has +in abundance; but the inhabitants are so few and their intercourse with +other places so infrequent, that one daily coach, which could not be +kept going but through its connection with the Post-office, suffices for +three-fourths of the year along the line of country as far as Keswick. +The staple of the district is, in fact, its beauty and its character of +seclusion and retirement; and to these topics and to others connected +with them my remarks shall be confined. + +The projectors have induced many to favour their schemes by declaring +that one of their main objects is to place the beauties of the Lake +district within easier reach of those who cannot afford to pay for +ordinary conveyances. Look at the facts. Railways are completed, which, +joined with others in rapid progress, will bring travellers who prefer +approaching by Ullswater to within four miles of that lake. The +Lancaster and Carlisle Railway will approach the town of Kendal, about +eight or nine miles from eminences that command the whole vale of +Windermere. The Lakes are therefore at present of very easy access for +_all_ persons; but if they be not made still more so, the poor, it is +said, will be wronged. Before this be admitted let the question be +fairly looked into, and its different bearings examined. No one can +assert that, if this intended mode of approach be not effected, anything +will be taken away that is actually possessed. The wrong, if any, must +lie in the unwarrantable obstruction of an attainable benefit. First, +then, let us consider the probable amount of that benefit. + +Elaborate gardens, with topiary works, were in high request, even among +our remote ancestors, but the relish for choice and picturesque natural +_scenery_ (a poor and mean word which requires an apology, but will be +generally understood), is quite of recent origin. Our earlier +travellers--Ray, the naturalist, one of the first men of his age--Bishop +Burnet, and others who had crossed the Alps, or lived some time in +Switzerland, are silent upon the sublimity and beauty of those regions; +and Burnet even uses these words, speaking of the Grisons--'When they +have made up estates elsewhere they are glad to leave Italy and the best +parts of Germany, and to come and live among those mountains of which +the very sight is enough to fill a man with horror.' The accomplished +Evelyn, giving an account of his journey from Italy through the Alps, +dilates upon the terrible, the melancholy, and the uncomfortable; but, +till he comes to the fruitful country in the neighbourhood of Geneva, +not a syllable of delight or praise. In the _Sacra Telluris Theoria_ of +the other Burnet there is a passage--omitted, however, in his own +English translation of the work--in which he gives utterance to his +sensations, when, from a particular spot he beheld a tract of the Alps +rising before him on the one hand, and on the other the Mediterranean +Sea spread beneath him. Nothing can be worthier of the magnificent +appearances he describes than his language. In a noble strain also does +the Poet Gray address, in a Latin Ode, the _Religio loci_ at the Grande +Chartruise. But before his time, with the exception of the passage from +Thomas Burnet just alluded to, there is not, I believe, a single English +traveller whose published writings would disprove the assertion, that, +where precipitous rocks and mountains are mentioned at all, they are +spoken of as objects of dislike and fear, and not of admiration. Even +Gray himself, describing, in his Journal, the steeps at the entrance of +Borrowdale, expresses his terror in the language of Dante:--'Let us not +speak of them, but look and pass on.' In my youth, I lived some time in +the vale of Keswick, under the roof of a shrewd and sensible woman, who +more than once exclaimed in my hearing, 'Bless me! folk are always +talking about prospects: when I was young there was never sic a thing +neamed.' In fact, our ancestors, as every where appears, in choosing the +site of their houses, looked only at shelter and convenience, especially +of water, and often would place a barn or any other out-house directly +in front of their habitations, however beautiful the landscape which +their windows might otherwise have commanded. The first house that was +built in the Lake district for the sake of the beauty of the country +was the work of a Mr. English, who had travelled in Italy, and chose for +his site, some eighty years ago, the great island of Windermere; but it +was sold before his building was finished, and he showed how little he +was capable of appreciating the character of the situation by setting up +a length of high garden-wall, as exclusive as it was ugly, almost close +to the house. The nuisance was swept away when the late Mr. Curwen +became the owner of this favoured spot. Mr. English was followed by Mr. +Pocklington, a native of Nottinghamshire, who played strange pranks by +his buildings and plantations upon Vicar's Island, in Derwent-water, +which his admiration, such as it was, of the country, and probably a +wish to be a leader in a new fashion, had tempted him to purchase. But +what has all this to do with the subject?--Why, to show that a vivid +perception of romantic scenery is neither inherent in mankind, nor a +necessary consequence of even a comprehensive education. It is benignly +ordained that green fields, clear blue skies, running streams of pure +water, rich groves and woods, orchards, and all the ordinary varieties +of rural Nature, should find an easy way to the affections of all men, +and more or less so from early childhood till the senses are impaired by +old age and the sources of mere earthly enjoyment have in a great +measure failed. But a taste beyond this, however desirable it may be +that every one should possess it, is not to be implanted at once; it +must be gradually developed both in nations and individuals. Rocks and +mountains, torrents and wide-spread waters, and all those features of +Nature which go to the composition of such scenes as this part of +England is distinguished for, cannot, in their finer relations to the +human mind, be comprehended, or even very imperfectly conceived, without +processes of culture or opportunities of observation in some degree +habitual. In the eye of thousands and tens of thousands, a rich meadow, +with fat cattle grazing upon it, or the sight of what they would call a +heavy crop of corn, is worth all that the Alps and Pyrenees in their +utmost grandeur and beauty could show to them; and, notwithstanding the +grateful influence, as we have observed, of ordinary Nature and the +productions of the fields, it is noticeable what trifling conventional +prepossessions will, in common minds, not only preclude pleasure from +the sight of natural beauty, but will even turn it into an object of +disgust. 'If I had to do with this garden,' said a respectable person, +one of my neighbours, 'I would sweep away all the black and dirty stuff +from that wall.' The wall was backed by a bank of earth, and was +exquisitely decorated with ivy, flowers, moss, and ferns, such as grow +of themselves in like places; but the mere notion of fitness associated +with a trim garden-wall prevented, in this instance, all sense of the +spontaneous bounty and delicate care of Nature. In the midst of a small +pleasure-ground, immediately below my house, rises a detached rock, +equally remarkable for the beauty of its form, the ancient oaks that +grow out of it, and the flowers and shrubs which adorn it. 'What a nice +place would this be,' said a Manchester tradesman, pointing to the rock, +'if that ugly lump were but out of the way.' Men as little advanced in +the pleasure which such objects give to others are so far from being +rare, that they may be said fairly to represent a large majority of +mankind. This is a fact, and none but the deceiver and the willingly +deceived can be offended by its being stated. But as a more susceptible +taste is undoubtedly a great acquisition, and has been spreading among +us for some years, the question is, what means are most likely to be +beneficial in extending its operation? Surely that good is not to be +obtained by transferring at once uneducated persons in large bodies to +particular spots, where the combinations of natural objects are such as +would afford the greatest pleasure to those who have been in the habit +of observing and studying the peculiar character of such scenes, and how +they differ one from another. Instead of tempting artisans and +labourers, and the humbler classes of shopkeepers, to ramble to a +distance, let us rather look with lively sympathy upon persons in that +condition, when, upon a holiday, or on the Sunday, after having attended +divine worship, they make little excursions with their wives and +children among neighbouring fields, whither the whole of each family +might stroll, or be conveyed at much less cost than would be required to +take a single individual of the number to the shores of Windermere by +the cheapest conveyance. It is in some such way as this only, that +persons who must labour daily with their hands for bread in large towns, +or are subject to confinement through the week, can be trained to a +profitable intercourse with Nature where she is the most distinguished +by the majesty and sublimity of her forms. + +For further illustration of the subject, turn to what we know of a man +of extraordinary genius, who was bred to hard labour in agricultural +employments, Burns, the poet. When he had become distinguished by the +publication of a volume of verses, and was enabled to travel by the +profit his poems brought him, he made a tour, in the course of which, as +his companion, Dr. Adair, tells us, he visited scenes inferior to none +in Scotland in beauty, sublimity, and romantic interest; and the Doctor +having noticed, with other companions, that he seemed little moved upon +one occasion by the sight of such a scene, says--'I doubt if he had much +taste for the picturesque.' The personal testimony, however, upon this +point is conflicting; but when Dr. Currie refers to certain local poems +as decisive proofs that Burns' fellow-traveller was mistaken, the +biographer is surely unfortunate. How vague and tame are the poet's +expressions in those few local poems, compared with his language when he +is describing objects with which his position in life allowed him to be +familiar! It appears, both from what his works contain, and from what is +not to be found in them, that, sensitive as they abundantly prove his +mind to have been in its intercourse with common rural images, and with +the general powers of Nature exhibited in storm and in stillness, in +light or darkness, and in the various aspects of the seasons, he was +little affected by the sight of one spot in preference to another, +unless where it derived an interest from history, tradition, or local +associations. He lived many years in Nithsdale, where he was in daily +sight of Skiddaw, yet he never crossed the Solway for a better +acquaintance with that mountain; and I am persuaded that, if he had been +induced to ramble among our Lakes, by that time sufficiently celebrated, +he would have seldom been more excited than by some ordinary Scottish +stream or hill with a tradition attached to it, or which had been the +scene of a favourite ballad or love song. If all this be truly said of +such a man, and the like cannot be denied of the eminent individuals +before named, who to great natural talents added the accomplishments of +scholarship or science, then what ground is there for maintaining that +the poor are treated with disrespect, or wrong done to them or any class +of visitants, if we be reluctant to introduce a railway into this +country for the sake of lessening, by eight or nine miles only, the +fatigue or expense of their journey to Windermere?--And wherever any +one among the labouring classes has made even an approach to the +sensibility which drew a lamentation from Burns when he had uprooted a +daisy with his plough, and caused him to turn the 'weeder-clips aside' +from the thistle, and spare 'the symbol dear' of his country, then +surely such a one, could he afford by any means to travel as far as +Kendal, would not grudge a two hours' walk across the skirts of the +beautiful country that he was desirous of visiting. + +The wide-spread waters of these regions are in their nature peaceful; so +are the-steep mountains and the rocky glens; nor can they be profitably +enjoyed but by a mind disposed to peace. Go to a pantomime, a farce, or +a puppet-show, if you want noisy pleasure--the crowd of spectators who +partake your enjoyment will, by their presence and acclamations, enhance +it; but may those who have given proof that they prefer other +gratifications continue to be safe from the molestation of cheap trains +pouring out their hundreds at a time along the margin of Windermere; nor +let any one be liable to the charge of being selfishly disregardful of +the poor, and their innocent and salutary enjoyments, if he does not +congratulate himself upon the especial benefit which would thus be +conferred on such a concourse. + + O, Nature, a' thy shows an' forms, + To feeling pensive hearts hae charms! + +So exclaimed the Ayrshire ploughman, speaking of ordinary rural Nature +under the varying influences of the seasons, and the sentiment has found +an echo in the bosoms of thousands in as humble a condition as he +himself was when he gave vent to it. But then they were feeling, pensive +hearts; men who would be among the first to lament the facility with +which they had approached this region, by a sacrifice of so much of its +quiet and beauty, as, from the intrusion of a railway, would be +inseparable. What can, in truth, be more absurd, than that either rich +or poor should be spared the trouble of travelling by the high roads +over so short a space, according to their respective means, if the +unavoidable consequence must be a great disturbance of the retirement, +and in many places a destruction of the beauty of the country, which the +parties are come in search of? Would not this be pretty much like the +child's cutting up his drum to learn where the sound came from? + +Having, I trust, given sufficient reason for the belief that the +imperfectly educated classes are not likely to draw much good from rare +visits to the Lakes performed in this way, and surely on their own +account it is not desirable that the visits should be frequent, let us +glance at the mischief which such facilities would certainly produce. +The directors of railway companies are always ready to devise or +encourage entertainments for tempting the humbler classes to leave their +homes. Accordingly, for the profit of the shareholders and that of the +lower class of innkeepers, we should have wrestling matches, horse and +boat races without number, and pot-houses and beer-shops would keep pace +with these excitements and recreations, most of which might too easily +be had elsewhere. The injury which would thus be done to morals, both +among this influx of strangers and the lower class of inhabitants, is +obvious; and, supposing such extraordinary temptations not to be held +out, there cannot be a doubt that the Sabbath day in the towns of +Bowness and Ambleside, and other parts of the district, would be subject +to much additional desecration. + +Whatever comes of the scheme which we have endeavoured to +discountenance, the charge against its opponents of being selfishly +regardless of the poor, ought to cease. The cry has been raised and kept +up by three classes of persons--they who wish to bring into discredit +all such as stand in the way of their gains or gambling speculations; +they who are dazzled by the application of physical science to the +useful arts, and indiscriminately applaud what they call the spirit of +the age as manifested in this way; and, lastly, those persons who are +ever ready to step forward in what appears to them to be the cause of +the poor, but not always with becoming attention to particulars. I am +well aware that upon the first class what has been said will be of no +avail, but upon the two latter some impression will, I trust, be made. + +To conclude. The railway power, we know well, will not admit of being +materially counteracted by sentiment; and who would wish it where large +towns are connected, and the interests of trade and agriculture are +substantially promoted, by such mode of intercommunication? But be it +remembered, that this case is, as has been said before, a peculiar one, +and that the staple of the country is its beauty and its character of +retirement. Let then the beauty be undisfigured and the retirement +unviolated, unless there be reason for believing that rights and +interests of a higher kind and more apparent than those which have been +urged in behalf of the projected intrusion will compensate the +sacrifice. Thanking you for the judicious observations that have +appeared in your paper upon the subject of railways, + + I remain, Sir, + Your obliged, + WM. WORDSWORTH. + +Rydal Mount, Dec. 9, 1844. + +NOTE.--To the instances named in this letter of the indifference even of +men of genius to the sublime forms of Nature in mountainous districts, +the author of the interesting Essays, in the _Morning Post_, entitled +Table Talk has justly added Goldsmith, and I give the passage in his own +words. + +'The simple and gentle-hearted Goldsmith, who had an exquisite sense of +rural beauty in the familiar forms of hill and dale, and meadows with +their hawthorn-scented hedges, does not seem to have dreamt of any such +thing as beauty in the Swiss Alps, though he traversed them on foot, and +had therefore the best opportunities of observing them. In his poem "The +Traveller," he describes the Swiss as loving their mountain homes, not +by reason of the romantic beauty of the situation, but in spite of the +miserable character of the soil, and the stormy horrors of their +mountain steeps-- + + Turn we to survey + Where rougher climes a nobler race display, + Where the bleak Swiss their stormy mansion tread, + And force a churlish soil for scanty bread. + No produce here the barren hills afford, + But man and steel, the soldier and his sword: + No vernal blooms their torpid rocks array, + But winter lingering chills the lap of May; + No Zephyr fondly sues the mountain's breast, + But meteors glare and stormy glooms invest. + Yet still, _even here_, content can spread a charm, + Redress the clime, and all its rage disarm.' + +In the same Essay, (December 18th, 1844,) are many observations +judiciously bearing upon the true character of this and similar +projects. + + +No. II. + +_To the Editor of the 'Morning Post.'_ + +Sir, + +As you obligingly found space in your journal for observations of mine +upon the intended Kendal and Windermere Railway, I venture to send you +some further remarks upon the same subject. The scope of the main +argument, it will be recollected, was to prove that the perception of +what has acquired the name of picturesque and romantic scenery is so far +from being intuitive, that it can be produced only by a slow and gradual +process of culture; and to show, as a consequence, that the humbler +ranks of society are not, and cannot be, in a state to gain material +benefit from a more speedy access than they now have to this beautiful +region. Some of our opponents dissent from this latter proposition, +though the most judicious of them readily admit the former; but then, +overlooking not only positive assertions, but reasons carefully given, +they say, 'As you allow that a more comprehensive taste is desirable, +you ought to side with us;' and they illustrate their position, by +reference to the British Museum and National Picture Gallery. 'There,' +they add, 'thanks to the easy entrance now granted, numbers are seen, +indicating by their dress and appearance their humble condition, who, +when admitted for the first time, stare vacantly around them, so that +one is inclined to ask what brought them hither? But an impression is +made, something gained which may induce them to repeat the visit until +light breaks in upon them, and they take an intelligent interest in what +they behold.' Persons who talk thus forget that, to produce such an +improvement, frequent access at small cost of time and labour is +indispensable. Manchester lies, perhaps, within eight hours' railway +distance of London; but surely no one would advise that Manchester +operatives should contract a habit of running to and fro between that +town and London, for the sake of forming an intimacy with the British +Museum and National Gallery? No, no; little would all but a very few +gain from the opportunities which, consistently with common sense, +could be afforded them for such expeditions. Nor would it fare better +with them in respect of trips to the lake district; an assertion, the +truth of which no one can doubt, who has learned by experience how many +men of the same or higher rank, living from their birth in this very +region, are indifferent to those objects around them in which a +cultivated taste takes so much pleasure. I should not have detained the +reader so long upon this point, had I not heard (glad tidings for the +directors and traffickers in shares!) that among the affluent and +benevolent manufacturers of Yorkshire and Lancashire are some who +already entertain the thought of sending, at their own expense, large +bodies of their workmen, by railway, to the banks of Windermere. Surely +those gentlemen will think a little more before they put such a scheme +into practice. The rich man cannot benefit the poor, nor the superior +the inferior, by anything that degrades him. Packing off men after this +fashion, for holiday entertainment, is, in fact, treating them like +children. They go at the will of their master, and must return at the +same, or they will be dealt with as transgressors. + +A poor man, speaking of his son, whose time of service in the army was +expired, once said to me, (the reader will be startled at the +expression, and I, indeed, was greatly shocked by it), 'I am glad he has +done with that _mean_ way of life.' But I soon gathered what was at the +bottom of the feeling. The father overlooked all the glory that attaches +to the character of a British soldier, in the consciousness that his +son's will must have been in so great a degree subject to that of +others. The poor man felt where the true dignity of his species lay, +namely, in a just proportion between actions governed by a man's own +inclinations and those of other men; but, according to the father's +notion, that proportion did not exist in the course of life from which +his son had been released. Had the old man known from experience the +degree of liberty allowed to the common soldier, and the moral effect of +the obedience required, he would have thought differently, and had he +been capable of extending his views, he would have felt how much of the +best and noblest part of our civic spirit was owing to our military and +naval institutions, and that perhaps our very existence as a free people +had by them been maintained. This extreme instance has been adduced to +show how deeply seated in the minds of Englishmen is their sense of +personal independence. Master-manufacturers ought never to lose sight of +this truth. Let them consent to a Ten Hours' Bill, with little or, if +possible, no diminution of wages, and the necessaries of life being more +easily procured, the mind will develope itself accordingly, and each +individual would be more at liberty to make at his own cost excursions +in any direction which might be most inviting to him. There would then +be no need for their masters sending them in droves scores of miles from +their homes and families to the borders of Windermere, or anywhere else. +Consider also the state of the lake district; and look, in the first +place, at the little town of Bowness, in the event of such railway +inundations. What would become of it in this, not the Retreat, but the +Advance, of the Ten Thousand? Leeds, I am told, has sent as many at once +to Scarborough. We should have the whole of Lancashire, and no small +part of Yorkshire, pouring in upon us to meet the men of Durham, and the +borderers from Cumberland and Northumberland. Alas, alas, if the lakes +are to pay this penalty for their own attractions! + + --Vane could tell what ills from beauty spring, + And Sedley cursed the form that pleased a king. + +The fear of adding to the length of my last long letter prevented me +from entering into details upon private and personal feelings among the +residents, who have cause to lament the threatened intrusion. These are +not matters to be brought before a Board of Trade, though I trust there +will always be of that board members who know well that as we do 'not +live by bread alone,' so neither do we live by political economy alone. +Of the present Board I would gladly believe there is not one who, if his +duty allowed it, would not be influenced by considerations of what may +be felt by a gallant officer now serving on the coast of South America, +when he shall learn that the nuisance, though not intended actually to +enter his property, will send its omnibuses, as fast as they can drive, +within a few yards of his modest abode, which he built upon a small +domain purchased at a price greatly enhanced by the privacy and beauty +of the situation. Professor Wilson (him I take the liberty to name), +though a native of Scotland, and familiar with the grandeur of his own +country, could not resist the temptation of settling long ago among our +mountains. The place which his public duties have compelled him to quit +as a residence, and may compel him to part with, is probably dearer to +him than any spot upon earth. The reader should be informed with what +respect he has been treated. Engineer agents, to his astonishment, came +and intruded with their measuring instruments, upon his garden. He saw +them; and who will not admire the patience that kept his hands from +their shoulders? I must stop. + +But with the fear before me of the line being carried; at a day not +distant, through the whole breadth of the district, I could dwell, with +much concern for other residents, upon the condition which they would be +in if that outrage should be committed; nor ought it to be deemed +impertinent were I to recommend this point to the especial regard of +Members of Parliament who may have to decide upon the question. The two +Houses of Legislature have frequently shown themselves not unmindful of +private feeling in these matters. They have, in some cases, been induced +to spare parks and pleasure grounds. But along the great railway lines +these are of rare occurrence. They are but a part, and a small part; +here it is far otherwise. Among the ancient inheritances of the yeomen, +surely worthy of high respect, are interspersed through the entire +district villas, most of them with such small domains attached that the +occupants would be hardly less annoyed by a railway passing through +their neighbour's ground than through their own. And it would be +unpardonable not to advert to the effect of this measure on the +interests of the very poor in this locality. With the town of Bowness I +have no _minute_ acquaintance; but of Ambleside, Grasmere, and the +neighbourhood, I can testify from long experience, that they have been +favoured by the residence of a gentry whose love of retirement has been +a blessing to these vales; for their families have ministered, and still +minister, to the temporal and spiritual necessities of the poor, and +have personally superintended the education of the children in a degree +which does those benefactors the highest honour, and which is, I trust, +gratefully acknowledged in the hearts of all whom they have relieved, +employed, and taught. Many of those friends of our poor would quit this +country if the apprehended change were realised, and would be succeeded +by strangers not linked to the neighbourhood, but flitting to and fro +between their fancy villas and the homes where their wealth was +accumulated and accumulating by trade and manufactures. It is obvious +that persons, so unsettled, whatever might be their good wishes and +readiness to part with money for charitable purposes, would ill supply +the loss of the inhabitants who had been driven away. + +It will be felt by those who think with me upon this occasion that I +have been writing on behalf of a social condition which no one who is +competent to judge of it will be willing to subvert, and that I have +been endeavouring to support moral sentiments and intellectual pleasures +of a high order against an enmity which seems growing more and more +formidable every day; I mean 'Utilitarianism,' serving as a mask for +cupidity and gambling speculations. My business with this evil lies in +its reckless mode of action by Railways, now its favourite instruments. +Upon good authority I have been told that there was lately an intention +of driving one of these pests, as they are likely too often to prove, +through a part of the magnificent ruins of Furness Abbey--an outrage +which was prevented by some one pointing out how easily a deviation +might be made; and the hint produced its due effect upon the engineer. + +Sacred as that relic of the devotion of our ancestors deserves to be +kept, there are temples of Nature, temples built by the Almighty, which +have a still higher claim to be left unviolated. Almost every reach of +the winding vales in this district might once have presented itself to a +man of imagination and feeling under that aspect, or, as the Vale of +Grasmere appeared to the Poet Gray more than seventy years ago. 'No +flaring gentleman's-house,' says he, 'nor garden-walls break in upon the +repose of this little unsuspected _paradise_, but all is peace,' &c., +&c. Were the Poet now living, how would he have lamented the probable +intrusion of a railway with its scarifications, its intersections, its +noisy machinery, its smoke, and swarms of pleasure-hunters, most of them +thinking that they do not fly fast enough through the country which they +have come to see. Even a broad highway may in some places greatly impair +the characteristic beauty of the country, as will be readily +acknowledged by those who remember what the Lake of Grasmere was before +the new road that runs along its eastern margin had been constructed. + + Quanto praestantias esset + Numen aquae viridi si margina clauderet undas + Herba-- + +As it once was, and fringed with wood, instead of the breastwork of bare +wall that now confines it. In the same manner has the beauty, and still +more the sublimity of many Passes in the Alps been injuriously affected. +Will the reader excuse a quotation from a MS. poem in which I attempted +to describe the impression made upon my mind by the descent towards +Italy along the Simplon before the new military road had taken the place +of the old muleteer track with its primitive simplicities? + + Brook and road + Were fellow-travellers in this gloomy Pass, + And with them did we journey several hours + At a slow step. The immeasurable height + Of woods decaying, never to be decayed, + The stationary blasts of waterfalls. + And in the narrow rent, at every turn, + Winds thwarting winds bewildered and forlorn, + The torrents shooting from the clear blue sky, + The rocks that muttered close upon our ears, + Black drizzling crags that spake by the way-side + As if a voice were in them, the sick sight + And giddy prospect of the raving stream, + The unfettered clouds and region of the heavens, + Tumult and peace, the darkness and the light, + Were all like workings of one mind, the features + Of the same face, blossoms upon one tree, + Characters of the great Apocalypse, + The types and symbols of Eternity, + Of first, and last, and midst, and without end. + 1799. + +Thirty years afterwards I crossed the Alps by the same Pass: and what +had become of the forms and powers to which I had been indebted for +those emotions? Many of them remained of course undestroyed and +indestructible. But, though the road and torrent continued to run +parallel to each other, their fellowship was put an end to. The stream +had dwindled into comparative insignificance, so much had Art interfered +with and taken the lead of Nature; and although the utility of the new +work, as facilitating the intercourse of great nations, was readily +acquiesced in, and the workmanship, in some places, could not but excite +admiration, it was impossible to suppress regret for what had vanished +for ever. The oratories heretofore not unfrequently met with, on a road +still somewhat perilous, were gone; the simple and rude bridges swept +away; and instead of travellers proceeding, with leisure to observe and +feel, were pilgrims of fashion hurried along in their carriages, not a +few of them perhaps discussing the merits of 'the last new Novel,' or +poring over their Guide-books, or fast asleep. Similar remarks might be +applied to the mountainous country of Wales; but there too, the plea of +utility, especially as expediting the communication between England and +Ireland, more than justifies the labours of the Engineer. Not so would +it be with the Lake District. A railroad is already planned along the +sea coast, and another from Lancaster to Carlisle is in great +forwardness: an intermediate one is therefore, to say the least of it, +superfluous. Once for all let me declare that it is not against Railways +but against the abuse of them that I am contending. + +How far I am from undervaluing the benefit to be expected from railways +in their legitimate application will appear from the following lines +published in 1837, and composed some years earlier. + +STEAMBOATS AND RAILWAYS. + + Motions and Means, on sea, on land at war + With old poetic feeling, not for this + Shall ye, by poets even, be judged amiss! + Nor shall your presence, howsoe'er it mar + The loveliness of Nature, prove a bar + To the mind's gaining that prophetic sense + Of future good, that point of vision, whence + May be discovered what in soul ye are. + In spite of all that Beauty must disown + In your harsh features, Nature doth embrace + Her lawful offspring in man's Art; and Time, + Pleased with your triumphs o'er his brother Space, + Accepts from your bold hand the proffered crown + Of hope, and welcomes you with cheer sublime. + +I have now done with the subject. The time of life at which I have +arrived may, I trust, if nothing else will, guard me from the imputation +of having written from any selfish interests, or from fear of +disturbance which a railway might cause to myself. If gratitude for what +repose and quiet in a district hitherto, for the most part, not +disfigured but beautified by human hands, have done for me through the +course of a long life, and hope that others might hereafter be benefited +in the same manner and in the same country, _be_ selfishness, then, +indeed, but not otherwise, I plead guilty to the charge. Nor have I +opposed this undertaking on account of the inhabitants of the district +_merely_, but, as hath been intimated, for the sake of every one, +however humble his condition, who coming hither shall bring with him an +eye to perceive, and a heart to feel and worthily enjoy. And as for +holiday pastimes, if a scene is to be chosen suitable to them for +persons thronging from a distance, it may be found elsewhere at less +cost of every kind. But, in fact, we have too much hurrying about in +these islands; much for idle pleasure, and more from over activity in +the pursuit of wealth, without regard to the good or happiness of +others. + + Proud were ye, Mountains, when, in times of old, + Your patriot sons, to stem invasive war, + Intrenched your brows; ye gloried in each scar: + Now, for your shame, a Power, the Thirst of Gold, + That rules o'er Britain like a baneful star, + Wills that your peace, your beauty, shall be sold, + And clear way made for her triumphal car + Through the beloved retreats your arms enfold! + Heard YE that Whistle? As her long-linked Train + Swept onwards, did the vision cross your view? + Yes, ye were startled;--and, in balance true, + Weighing the mischief with the promised gain, + Mountains, and Vales, and Floods, I call on you + To share the passion of a just disdain. + + WILLIAM WORDSWORTH. + + + + +NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. + + +AESTHETICAL AND LITERARY. + +I. _Of Literary Biography and Monuments_. + +(_a_) _A Letter to a Friend of Robert Burns, 1816_. + +P. 5, l. 1. James Gray, Esq. Wordsworth was justified in naming Gray a +'friend' of Burns. He was originally Master of the High School, +Dumfries, and associated with the Poet there. Transferred to the High +School of Edinburgh, he taught for well-nigh a quarter of a century with +repute. Disappointed of the Rectorship, he retired from Edinburgh to an +academy at Belfast. Later, having entered holy orders, he proceeded to +India as a chaplain in the East India Company's service. He was +stationed at Bhooj, in Cutch, near the mouth of the Indus; and the +education of the young Rao of that province having been intrusted to the +British Government, Gray was selected as his instructor--being the first +Christian honoured with such an appointment in the East. He died at his +post in 1830, deeply regretted. He was author of 'Cuna of Cheyd' and the +'Sabbath among the Mountains,' and many other things, original and +editorial. He left a MS. poem, entitled 'India,' and a translation of +the Gospels into the Cutch dialect of Hindoostanee. He will hold a niche +in literature as the fifteenth bard in the 'Queen's Wake' who sings of +'King Edward's Dream.' He married a sister of Mrs. Hogg. + +P. 5, footnote. Peterkin was a laborious compiler; but his Lives of +Burns and Fergusson are written in the most high-flown and exaggerated +style imaginable. He died in 1847. + +P. 5, l. 9. 'Mr. Gilbert Burns ... a favourable opportunity,' &c. This +excellent, common-sensed, and humble man's contributions to the later +impressions (1804, &c.) of Dr. Currie's edition of Burns are of +permanent value--very much more valuable than later brilliant +productions that have displaced them. In Peterkin's Burns there is a +letter from Gilbert Burns to him, dated September 29th, 1814. + +P. 7. Verse-quotation from Burns. From 'Address to the Unco Guid, or the +Rigidly Righteous' (closing stanzas). + +P. 15. Verse-quotation. From Burns' 'A Bard's Epitaph.' + +P. 17, footnote. Long before Wordsworth, Thomas Watson, in his 'Epistle +to the Frendly Reader' prefixed to his [Greek: EKATOMPATHIA] (1582), +wrote: 'As for any _Aristarchus_, Momus, or Zoilus, if they pinch me +more than is reasonable, thou, courteous Reader, which arte of a better +disposition, shalt rebuke them in my behalfe; saying to the first +[Aristarchus], that my birdes are al of mine own hatching,' &c. + +P. 21, ll. 30-37, Chatterton; ll. 38-40, &c., Michael Bruce. Both of the +suggested monuments have been raised; Chatterton's at Bristol, and +Bruce's over his grave. A photograph of the latter is given in our +quarto edition of his Poems. + + +II. _Upon Epitaphs_. + +P. 27, l. 10. Camden. Here and throughout the quotations (modernised) +are from 'Remaines concerning Britain: their + +Languages, +Names, +Surnames, +Allusions, +Anagrammes, +Armories, +Monies, +Empreses, +Apparell, +Artillarie, +Wise Speeches, +Proverbs, +Poesies, +Epitaphs. + +Written by William Camden, Esquire, Clarenceux King of Armes, surnamed +the Learned. The sixth Impression, with many rare Antiquities never +before imprinted. By the Industry and Care of John Philpot, Somerset +Herald: and W.D. Gent. London, 1657, 4to. Epitaphes, pp. 355-409. It has +not been deemed necessary to point out the somewhat loose character of +the quotations from Camden by Wordsworth; nor, with so many editions +available, would it have served any good end to have given the places in +the 'Epitaphes.' While Wordsworth evidently read both Camden and Weever, +his chief authority seems to have been a book that appeared on the sale +of his library, viz. 'Wit's Recreations; containing 630 Epigrams, 160 +_Epitaphs_, and variety of Fantasies and Fantastics, good for Melancholy +Humours. 1641.' + +P. 27, l. 16. This verse-rendering of 'Maecenas' is by Wordsworth, not +Camden--the quotation from whom here ought to have been marked with an +inverted comma (') after _relictos_. + +P. 27, l. 22. Weever. The title in full is as follows: 'Ancient Fvnerall +Monvments within the Vnited Monarchie of Great Britaine, Ireland, and +the Islands adiacent, with the dissolued Monasteries therein contained: +their Founders, and what eminent Persons have beene in the same +interred. As also the Death and Bvriall of Certaine of the Blood Royall, +the Nobilitie and Gentrie of these Kingdomes entombed in forraine +Nations. A work reuiuing the dead memorie of the Royal Progenie, the +Nobilitie, Gentrie, and Communaltie of these his Maiesties Dominions. +Intermixed and Illustrated with variety of Historicall observations, +annotations, and briefe notes, extracted out of approued Authors, +infallible Records, Lieger Bookes, Charters, Rolls, old Manuscripts, and +the Collections of iudicious Antiquaries. Whereunto is prefixed a +Discourse of Funerall Monuments. Of the Foundation and Fall of Religious +Houses. Of Religious Orders. Of the Ecclesiasticall estate of England. +And of other occurrences touched vpon by the way, in the whole passage +of these intended labours. Composed by the Studie and Trauels of John +Weever. Spe labor leuis. London. 1631, folio.' As with Camden, +Wordsworth quotes Weever from memory (apparently) throughout. + +P. 27, l. 23. Query--'or fore-feeling'? + +P. 32, l. 6. 'Pause, Traveller.' The 'Siste viator' was kept up long +after such roadside interments were abandoned. Crashaw's Epitaph for +Harris so begins; _e.g._ 'Siste te paulum, viator,' &c. (Works, vol. ii. +p. 378, Fuller Worthies' Library.) + +P. 33. John Edwards; verse-quotation. Query--the author of 'Kathleen' +(1808), 'Abradates and Panthea' (1808), &c.? + +P. 40. At close; verse-quotation. From Milton, Ep. W. Sh. + +P. 41. Verse-heading. From Gray's 'Elegy.' _En passant_, be it noted +that on 1st June 1875, at Sotheby's, the original MS. of this Elegy was +sold for upwards of 300 guineas to Sir William Fraser. + +P. 45, l. 28. Read 'mearely'=merrily, as 'merrely' onward. + +P. 49. ll. 7-14. On these lines, alleged to have been written by +Montrose, see Dr. Hannah's 'Courtly Poets' (1870), p. 207, and numerous +references. It may be noted that in line 2 Wordsworth changes 'too +rigid' into 'so rigid;' and l. 7, 'trumpet' into 'trumpets.' + +P. 49, ll. 30-2. Verse-quotation. Milton, 'Paradise Lost,' book vi. ll. +754-6. + +P. 66 (bottom). Epitaph on Mrs. Clark--_i.e._ Mrs. Jane Clarke. In l. +1, Gray wrote, not 'the,' but 'this;' which in the light of the +criticism it is important to remember. + +P. 73-75. Long verse-quotation. From the 'Excursion,' book vii. ll. +400-550. Note the 'Various Readings.' + + +III. _Essays, Letters, and Notes elucidatory and confirmatory of the +Poems_. + +(_a_) _Of the Principles of Poetry and the 'Lyrical Ballads.'_ + +P. 85. Verse-quotation. From Gray's Poems, 'Sonnet on the Death of Mr. +Richard West.' + +P. 99, l. 30. Sir Joshua Reynolds. For Wordsworth's critical verdict on +his literary work as well as his painting, see Letters in present +volume, pp. 153-157, _et alibi_. + + +(_c_) _Poetry as a study_. + +P. 112, ll. 6-7. Quotation from Spenser, 'Fairy Queen,' b.i.c.i. st. 9, +l. 1. + +P. 113, footnote. Hakewill. The work intended is 'An Apologie or +Declaration of the Power and Providence of God in the Government of the +World.' Oxford, 1627 (folio), and later editions. He was George +Hakewill, D.D., Archdeacon of Surrey. Died 1649. + +P. 115, ll. 36-7. '1623 to 1664 ... only two editions of the Works of +Shakspeare.' The second folio of 1632 and that of 1663 (same as 1664) +are here forgotten, and also the abundant separate reprints of the +separate Plays and Poems. + +P. 123, l. 6. Mr. Malcom Laing, a historian of Scotland 'from the Union +of the Crowns to the Union of the Kingdoms in the Reign of Queen Anne' +(4th edition, 1819, 4 vols.), who, in an exhaustive and drastic style, +disposed of the notorious 'Ossian' fictions of Macpherson. + +P. 130, ll. 12-14. Verse-quotation. From the 'Prelude.' + + +(_d_) _Of Poetry as Observation and Description_. + +P. 134, ll. 3-4 (at bottom). Verse-quotation. From 'A Poet's Epitaph' +(VIII. 'Poems of Sentiment and Reflection'). + +P. 136, ll. 7-8. Verse-quotation. From Shakspeare, 'Lear,' iv. 6. + +P. 136, ll. 17-24. Verse-quotation. From Milton, 'Paradise Lost,' book +ii. ll. 636-43. + +P. 139, ll. 10-11. Verse-quotation. Ibid. book vi. ll. 767-8. + +P. 140, ll. 10-11. Verse-quotation. From Shakspeare, 'Lear,' iii. 2. + +P. 141, ll. 1-2. Verse-quotation. Ibid. 'Romeo and Juliet,' i. 4. + +P. 142, ll. 7-8. 12-13. Verse-quotation. From Milton, 'Paradise Lost,' +book ix. 1002-3. + +P. 143. Long verse-quotation. Charles Cotton, the associate 'Angler' of +Walton 'for all time,' and of whom, as a Poet, Abp. Trench, in his +'Household Book of English Poetry,' has recently spoken highly yet +measuredly. + +P. 152, footnote *. _Various Readings_. (1) 'Sonnet composed at--.' Such +is the current heading of this Sonnet in the Poems (Rossetti, p. 177). +In the MS. it runs, 'Written at Needpath (near Peebles), Mansion of the +Duke of Queensbury' (_sic_); and thus opens: + + 'Now, as I live, I pity that great lord! + Whom pure despite of heart,' &c.; + +instead of, + + 'Degenerate Douglas! oh, the unworthy lord! + Whom mere,' &c. + +(2) To the Men of Kent, October 1803. In l. 3, the MS. reads: + + 'Her haughty forehead 'gainst the coast of France,' + +for 'brow against.' Line 7, 'can' for 'may.' (3) 'Anticipation,' October +1803. Line 12 in MS. reads: + + 'The loss and the sore prospect of the slain,' + +for, + + 'And even the prospect of our brethren slain.' + +In l. 14: + + 'True glory, everlasting sanctity,' + +for, + + 'In glory will they sleep and endless sanctity.' + +P. 161, l. 22. 'Milton compares,' &c. In 'Paradise Lost,' ii. 636-7. + +P. 163, l. 2. 'Duppa is publishing a Life of Michael Angelo,' &c. It +appeared in 1806 (4to); reprinted in Bohn's 'Illustrated Library.' + +P. 163, footnote A. Alexander Wilson, who became the renowned +'Ornithologist' of America, was for years a 'pedlar,' both at home and +in the United States. His intellectual ability and genius would alone +have given sanction to Wordsworth's conception; but as simple +matter-of-fact, the class was a peculiarly thoughtful and observant one, +as the Biographies of Scotland show. + +P. 167, ll. 30-1. 'A tale told,' &c. From Shakspeare, 'Macbeth,' v. 5. + +P. 170, l. 34. 'Houbraken,' &c. Reissued from the old copper-plates. + +P. 171, l. 30. 'I have never seen the works,' &c. In the Fuller +Worthies' Library I have collected the complete Poems of Sir John +Beaumont, 1 vol. + +Pp. 178-9. Quotation (bottom). From Milton, 'Paradise Lost,' book iv. +ll. 604-9; but 'How' is inadvertently substituted for 'Now.' + +P. 196, l. 35. John Dyer. Wordsworth's repeated recognition and lofty +estimate of Dyer recalls the fact that a collection of his many-sided +Writings is still a _desideratum_ that the present Editor of +Wordsworth's Prose hopes some day to supply--invited to the task of love +by a lineal descendant. + + +(_b_) _Of the Principles of Poetry and his own Poems_. + +P. 211, ll. 24-5. Verse-quotation from Cowper: more accurately it reads: + + 'The jay, the pie, and even the boding owl + That hails the rising moon, have charms for me.' + +('The Task,' b. i. ll. 205-6.) + + +IV. DESCRIPTIVE. + +(_a_) _A Guide through the District of the Lakes_. + +P. 217. It seems somewhat remarkable that Wordsworth nowhere mentions +the following work: 'Remarks made in a Tour from London to the Lakes of +Westmoreland and Cumberland in the Summer of MDCCXCI., originally +published in the _Whitehall Evening Post_, and now reprinted with +additions and corrections.... By A. Walker, Lecturer,' &c. 1792, 8vo. +Wordsworth could not have failed to be interested in the descriptions of +this overlooked book. They are open-eyed, open-eared, and vivid. I would +refer especially to the Letters on Windermere, pp. 58-60, and indeed all +on the Lakes. Space can only be found for a short quotation on Ambleside +(Letter xiii., August 18, 1791): 'We now leave Low Wood, and along the +verge of the Lake have a pleasing couple of miles to Ambleside. This is +a straggling little market-town, made up of rough-cast white houses, but +charmingly situated in the centre of three radiant vallies, _i.e._ all +issuing from the town as from a centre. This shows the propriety of the +Roman station situated near the west end of this place, called +Amboglana, commanding one of the most difficult passes in England.... +Beautiful woods rise half-way up the sides of the mountains from +Ambleside, and seem wishful to cover the naked asperities of the +country; but the Iron Works calling for them in the character of +charcoal every fourteen or fifteen years, exposes the nakedness of the +country. Among these woods and mountains are many frightful precipices +and roaring cascades. In a still evening several are heard at once, in +various keys, forming a kind of savage music; one, half a mile above the +town in a wood, seems upwards of a hundred feet fall.--About as much +water as is in the New River precipitates itself over a perpendicular +rock into a natural bason, where it seems to recover from its fall +before it takes a second and a third tumble over huge stones that break +it into a number of streams. It suffers not this outrage quietly, for it +grumbles through hollow glens and stone cavities all the way, till it +meets the Rothay, when it quietly enters the Lake' (pp. 71-3). It is odd +that a book so matterful, and containing many descriptions equal to this +of Ambleside, should be so absolutely gone out of sight. It is a +considerable volume, and pp. 1-114 are devoted to the Lake region. +Walker, in 1787, issued anonymously 'An Hasty Sketch of a Tour through +Part of the Austrian Netherlands, &c.... By an English Gentleman.' + +P. 264. Quotation from (eheu! eheu!) the still unpublished poem of +'Grasmere.' + +P. 274. Quotation from Spenser, 'Fairy Queen,' b. iii. c. v. st. 39-40. +In st. 39, l. 8, 'puny' is a misprint for 'pumy' = pumice; in st. 40, l. +3, 'sang' similarly misreads 'song' = sung, or were singing. + +P. 284. Verse-quotation. From 'Sonnet on Needpath Castle,' as _ante_. + +P. 296, footnote A. Lucretius, ii. 772 seq.; and cf. v. 482 seq. + +(_b_) _Kendal and Windermere Railway_. + +P. 331. Quotation from Burns,--Verse-letter to William Simpson, st. 14. + +P. 336. Is this from Dryden? G. + + + +END OF VOL. II. + + + + + + + +THE PROSE WORKS OF WILLIAM WORDSWORTH. + +FOR THE FIRST TIME COLLECTED, _WITH ADDITIONS FROM UNPUBLISHED +MANUSCRIPTS_. + +Edited with Preface, Notes, and Illustrations, BY THE REV. ALEXANDER B. +GROSART, + +ST. GEORGE'S, BLACKBURN, LANCASHIRE. + +IN THREE VOLUMES. + +VOL. III. + +CRITICAL AND ETHICAL. + +LONDON: EDWARD MOXON, SON, AND CO. + +1 AMEN CORNER, PATERNOSTER ROW. + +1876. + +AMS Press, Inc. New York, N.Y. 10003 1967 + +Manufactured in the United States of America + + + + +CONTENTS OF VOL. III. + +*** A star [*] designates publication herein _for the first time_. G. + + + +CRITICAL AND ETHICAL. + +I. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE POEMS, INCORPORATING: (a) The Notes +originally added to the first and successive editions. pp. 1-216 (b) The +whole of the I.F. MSS. + + *1. Prefatory Lines + *2. Prelude to the Last Volume + + +I. _Poems written in Youth_. + + *3. Extract from the conclusion, &c. + 4. The Evening Walk, &c. + *5. An Evening Walk + 5_a_. Intake + 6. Ghyll + 7. From Thomson + *8. Lines written while sailing, &c. + 9. Descriptive Sketches: Dedication + *10. Descriptive Sketches + 11. The Cross + 12. Rivers + 13. Vallombre + 14. Sugh + 15. Pikes + 16. Shrine + 17. Sourd + *18. Lines left upon a Seat, &c. + 19. Guilt and Sorrow, &c.: Advertisement + *20. The Female Vagrant + *21. Guilt and Sorrow, &c. + 22. Charles Farish + *23. The Forsaken, &c. + *24. The Borderers + 25. Short printed Note + 26. Later Note + + +II _Poems referring to the Period of Childhood_. + + *27. My Heart leaps up, &c. + *28. To a Butterfly + *29. The Sparrow's Nest + *30. Foresight + *31. Characteristics of a Child, &c. + *32. Address to a Child + *33. The Mother's Return + *34. Alice Fell; or Poverty + *35. Lucy Gray; or Solitude + *36. We are Seven, &c. + *37. The Idle Shepherd Boys + 38. Dungeon-ghyll Force + *39. Anecdote for Fathers + 40. Rural Architecture + 41. Great How + *42. The Pet Lamb, &c. + *43. Influence of natural Objects + *44. The Longest Day + *45. The Norman Boy + + +III. _Poems founded on the Affections_. + + 46. The Brothers + 47. Great Gavel + 48. Artegal and Elidure + *49. To a Butterfly + *50. A Farewell + *51. Stanzas in Castle of Indolence + *52. Louisa + *53. Strange Fits, &c. + *54. Ere with cold Beads, &c. + *55. To ---- + 56. 'Tis said that some, &c. + *57. A Complaint + *58. To ---- + *59. How rich that Forehead's, &c + *60. To ---- + 61. Lament of Mary Queen of Scots + 62. The Complaint of a forsaken Indian Woman + *63. Ibid. + *64. The Last of the Flock + *65. Repentance + *66. The Affliction of Margaret + *67. The Cottager to her Infant + *68. Maternal Grief + *69. The Sailor's Mother + *70. The Childless Father + 71. Funeral Basin + *72. The Emigrant Mother + 73. Vaudracour and Julia + *74. Ibid. + 75. The Idiot Boy + *76. Michael + 77. Clipping + *78. The Widow on Windermere Side + 79. The Armenian Lady's Love + 80. Percy's Reliques + *81. Loving and Liking + *82. Farewell Lines + 83. (1) The Redbreast + *84. (2) " + *85. Her Eyes are wild + + +IV. _Poems on the Naming of Places_. + + 86. Advertisement + *87. It was an April Morn, &c. + *88. May call it Emma's Dell + *89. To Joanna Hutchinson + 90. Inscriptions + *91. There is an Eminence, &c. + *92. A narrow girdle, &c. + *93. To Mary Hutchinson + *94. When to the attractions, &c. + 95. Captain Wordsworth + + +V. _Poems of the Fancy_. + + *96. A Morning Exercise + *97. Birds + *98. A Flower-garden + *99. A Whirl-blast, &c. +*100. The Waterfall and the Eglantine +*101. The Oak and the Broom +*102. To a Sexton +*103. To the Daisy +*104. To the same Flower +*105. To the small Celandine + 106. The Seven Sisters +*107. The Redbreast chasing Butterfly +*108. Song for the Spinning-wheel +*109. Hint from the Mountains +*110. On seeing a Needle-case, &c. +*111. The Contrast +*112. The Danish Boy +*113. Song for the Wandering Jew +*114. Stray Pleasures +*115. The Pilgrim's Dream, &c. +*116. The Poet and Turtle-dove +*117. A Wren's Nest +*118. Love lies bleeding +*119. Rural Illusions +*120. Kitten and falling Leaves + 121. The Waggoner: Dedication +*122. The Waggoner + 123. Benjamin the Waggoner + 124. The Dor-Hawk + 125. Helmcrag + 126. Merrynight + 127. Ghimmer-Crag + + +VI. _Poems of the Imagination_. + +*128. There was a Boy, &c. +*129. To the Cuckoo +*130. A Night-piece +*131. Yew-trees +*132. Nutting +*133. She was a Phantom of Delight +*134. The Nightingale +*135. Three Years she grew + 136. I wandered lonely, &c. + 137. The Daffodils +*138. The Reverie of poor Susan +*139. Power of Music +*140. Star-gazers +*141. Written in March +*142. Beggars +*143. Gipsies +*144. Ruth +*145. Resolution and Independence +*146. The Thorn + 147. Hart-Leap Well + 148. Ibid. + 149. Song at Feast of Brougham Castle +*150. Ibid. + 151. Sir John Beaumont + 152. The undying Fish of Bowscale Tarn + 153. The Cliffords +*154. Tintern Abbey +*155. It is no spirit, &c. + 156. French Revolution + 157. Yes, it was the Mountain Echo + 158. To a Skylark +*159. Laodamia + 160. Withered Trees +*161. Dion + 162. Fair is the Swan, &c. +*163. The Pass of Kirkstone +*164. To ---- +*165. To a Young Lady +*166. Water-fowl +*167. View from Black Comb +*168. The Haunted Tree +*169. The Triad + 170. The Wishing-gate + 171. The Wishing-gate destroyed +*172. The Primrose of the Rock +*173. Presentiments +*174. Vernal Ode +*175. Devotional Incitements +*176. The Cuckoo-Clock +*177. To the Clouds +*178. Suggested by a Picture of the Bird of Paradise +*179. A Jewish Family +*180. On the Power of Sound + 181. Peter Bell: a Tale + 182. Peter Bell: the Poem + + +VII. _Miscellaneous Sonnets_: Part I. + +*183. Commencement of writing of Sonnets + 184. Admonition +*185. Sonnet iv. Beaumont, &c. +*186. " vi. There is, &c. +*187. " viii. The fairest, &c. + 188. The Genius +*189. Sonnet ix. Upon the sight, &c. +*190. " xi. Aerial Rock +*191. " xv. The Wild Duck's Nest +*192. " xix. Grief, &c. +*193. " xxii. Decay of Piety +*194. " xxiv. to xxvi. +*195. " xxvii. Surprised, &c. +*196. " xxviii. and xxix. +*197. " xxx. It is, &c. +*198. " xxxvi. Calvert, &c. + + +Part II. + +*199. " iv. From the dark, &c. +*200. " v. Fool, &c. +*201. " vi. I watch, &c. + 202. " vii. The ungenial Hollow + 203. Sonnet viii. For the whole weight +*204. " x. Mark, &c. +*205. " xi. Dark, &c. +*206. " xiii. While not, &c. +*207. " xiv. How clear, &c. +*208. " xv. One who, &c. +*209. " xviii. Lady, &c. +*210. " xix. There is a pleasure, &c. +*211. " xxix. Though narrow, &c. +*212. " xxx. Four fiery, &c. +*213. " xxxi. Brook, &c. +*214. " xxxiii. to xxxv. + + +Part III. + +*215. " vi. Fame tells, &c. +*216. " vii. Where lively ground, &c. +*217. " ix. A stream, &c. + 218. " xi. In the Woods of Rydal +*219. " xiii. While Anna's peers, &c. +*220. " xvi. Unquiet childhood, &c. +*222. " xvii. Such age, &c. +*223. " xviii. Rotha, &c. + 224. The Rotha +*225. Sonnet xix. Miserrimus +*226. " xx. While poring, &c. +*227. " xxi. Chatsworth, &c. +*228. " xxii. 'Tis said, &c. +*229. " xxiii. Untouched, &c. +*230. " xxiv. Go, &c. +*231. " xxv. Why art, &c. +*232. " xxvi. Haydon, &c. +*233. " xxvii. A poet, &c. +*234. " xxviii. The most, &c. +*235. " xxix. By Art's, &c. +*236. " xxxii. All praise, &c. +*237. " xxxvi. Oh, what, &c. +*238. " xxxvii. Intent, &c. + 239. " xlii. Wansfel + 240. " xliii. A little rural town + + +VIII. _Memorials of a Tour in Scotland, 1803_. + +*241. Setting out +*242. To the Sons of Burns, &c. + 243. Ellen Irwin, &c. +*244. To a Highland Girl + 245. Stepping Westward +*246. Address to Kilchurn Castle. +*247. Rob Roy's Grave +*248. Sonnet composed at ---- Castle + 249. Yarrow Unvisited + 250. The Matron of Jedborough, &c. +*251. Sonnet, Fly, &c. +*252. The Blind Highland Boy + + +IX. _Memorials of a Second Tour in Scotland, 1814_. + +*253. Suggested by a beautiful Ruin, &c. +*254. At Corra Linn +*255. Effusion, &c. +*256. Yarrow Visited + + +X. _Poems dedicated to National Independence and Liberty_. + + 257. Robert Jones + 258. I grieved, &c. + 259. The King of Sweden, &c. +*260. Sept. 1, 1802 +*261. Two Voices are there, &c. +*262. O Friend, &c. +*263. War in Spain +*264. Zaragossa +*265. Lines on expected Invasion + 266. Fulke Greville, Lord Brooke + 267. Oak of Guernica + 268. Thanksgiving Ode +*269. Ibid. + 270. Spenser + + +XI. _Memorials of a Tour on the Continent, 1820_. + +*271. Introductory Remarks + 272. Fishwomen of Calais +*273. Incident at Bruges + 274. Between Namur and Liege + 275. Miserere Domine + 276. The Danube + 277. The Staub-bach + 278. Memorial, &c. + 279. Engelberg + 280. Our Lady of the Snow + 281. Tower of Tell at Altorf + 282. Schwytz + 283. Church of San Salvador + 284. Arnold Winkelried + 285. The Last Supper + 286. Statues on Milan Cathedral + 287. A Religious Procession + 288. Elegiac Stanzas + 289. Mount Righi + 290. Tower of Caligula + 291. Herds of Cattle + 292. The Forks + 292a. The Landenberg + 293. Pictures in Bridges, &c. +*294. At Dover + + +XII. _Memorials of a Tour in Italy, 1837_. + +*295. Introductory Remarks + 296. Ibid. +*297. Musings at Aquapendente + 298. Scott and Tasso + 299. Over waves, &c. + 300. How lovely, &c. + 301. This flowering Broom, &c. + 302. The Religious Movement, &c. + 302a. Pine-tree of Monte Mario + 303. Is this, ye Gods + 304. At Rome +*305. At Albano +*306. Cuckoo at Laverna + 307. Camaldoli + 308. Monk-visitors +*309. At Vallombrosa +*310. At Florence +*311. The Baptist +*312. Florence +*312a. Convent in the Apennines +*313. After leaving Italy +*314. At Rydal, 1838 +*315. Pillar of Trajan +*316. The Egyptian Maid + + +XIII. _The River Duddon, &c._ + + 317. Introduction + 318. The River Duddon + 319. Sonnets on the Duddon + 320. The Wild Strawberry + 321. Return, &c. + 322. Memoir of Walker + 323. Milton + 324. White Doe of Rylstone, &c. +*325. Ibid. + 326. Hazlitt + 327. Bolton Abbey + 328. Lady Aaeliza + 328a. Brancepeth + 329. Battle of the Standard + 330. Bells of Rylstone + 331. Rock-encircled Pound + + +XIV. _Ecclesiastical Sonnets_. + + 332. Advertisement +*333. Introductory Remarks + 334. St. Paul never in Britain + 335. Water-fowl + 336. Hill at St. Alban's + 337. Hallelujahs + 338. Daniel and Fuller + 339. Old Bangor + 340. Paulinus + 341. Edwin and the Sparrow + 342. Near fresh Streams + 343. The Clergy + 343a. Bede + 344. Zeal + 345. Alfred + 346. Crown and Cowl + 347. Council of Clermont + 348. Cistertian Monastery + 349. Waldenses + 350. Borrowed Lines + 351. Transfiguration + 352. Craft + 353. The Virgin Mountain + 354. Land + 355. Pilgrim Fathers + 356. The Clergyman + 357. Rush-bearing + 358. George Dyer + 359. Apprehension + 360. The Cross + 361. Monte Rosa + + +XV. _Yarrow Revisited, &c._ + + 362. Dedication +*363. Yarrow Revisited +*363a. Ibid. +*364. Place of Burial, &c. +*365. A Manse in Scotland +*366. Roslin Chapel +*367. The Trosachs +*368. Lock Etive Glen + 369. Eagles +*370. Sound of Mull + 371. Shepherds + 372. Highland Broach + 373. The Brownie +*374. Bothwell Castle +*375. The Avon +*376. Inglewood Forest + 377. Hart's-Horn Tree + 378. Fancy and Tradition + 379. Countess' Pillar + + +XVI. _Evening Voluntaries_. + + 380. Sixty-third Birthday +*381. By the Sea-side + 382. Not in the lucid, &c. + 383. The leaves, &c. + 384. Impromptu +*385. Evening of extraordinary Splendour + 386. Alston + 387. Mountain-ridges + + +XVII. _Poems composed in Tour of_ 1833. + + 388. Advertisement + 389. The Greta + 390. Brigham Church +*391. Nun's Well, Brigham +*392. To a Friend + 393. Mary Queen of Scots +*394. " " + 395. St. Bees and C. Smith + 396. Requiems. + 397. Sir William Hillary + 398. Isle of Man +*399. " + 400. By a retired Mariner +*401. At Bala Sala +*402. Tynwald Hill + 403. Snafell + 404. Eagle in Mosaic +*405. Frith of Clyde, &c. + 406. " " + 407. Mosgiel +*408. Macpherson's 'Ossian' + 409. Cave of Staffa + 410. Ox-eyed Daisy + 411. Iona + 412. Eden + 413. " +*414. Mrs. Howard + 415. Nunnery + 416. Corby +*417. Druidical Monument +*418. Lowther + 419. Earl of Lonsdale +*420. The Somnambulist + + +XVIII. _Poems of Sentiment, &c._ + + 421. Expostulation and Reply + 422. The Tables turned +*423. Lines written in early Spring +*424. A Character +*425. To my Sister +*426. Simon Lee +*427. Germany, 1798-9 +*428. To the Daisy + 429. Matthew +*430. " + 431. Personal Talk +*432. Spade of a Friend +*433. A Night Thought +*434. An Incident, &c. + 435. Tribute, &c. + 436. Fidelity +*437. Ode to Duty +*438. Happy Warrior +*439. The Force of Prayer +*440. A Fact, &c. +*441. A little onward + 442. Ode to Lycoris +*443. Ibid. +*444. Memory +*445. This Lawn +*446. Humanity. +*447. Thought on the Seasons +*448. To ----, &c. +*449. The Warning +*450. The Labourer's Noon-day Hymn +*451. May Morning +*452. Portrait by Stone +*453. Bird of Paradise + + +XIX. _Sonnets dedicated to Liberty_. + + 454. Change + 455. American Repudiation + 456. To the Pennsylvanians +*457. Feel for the Wrongs, &c. + 458. Punishment of Death + + +XX. _Miscellaneous Poems_. + + 459. Epistle to Beaumont +*460. Upon perusing the Foregoing, &c. + 461. Ibid. +*462. Gold and Silver Fishes +*463. Liberty + 464. " + 465. Poor Robin +*466. Ibid. +*467. Lady le Fleming +*468. To a Redbreast +*469. Floating Island +*470. Once I could hail, &c. +*471. The Gleaner + 472. Nightshade + 473. Churches--East and West + 474. Horn of Egremont Castle +*475. Goody Blake, &c. +*476. To a Child +*477. Lines in an Album, &c. + 478. The Russian Fugitive +*479. Ibid. + + +XXI. _Inscriptions_. + +*480 to 486 + + +XXII. _Selections from Chaucer +modernised_. + + 487. Of the Volume, &c + 488. The Prioress's Tale + + +XXIII. _Poems referring to Old Age_. + + 489. The Old Cumberland Beggar +*490. Ibid. + 491 and 492. Farmer of Tilsbury Vale + 493. The small Celandine +*494. The two Thieves +*495. Animal Tranquillity, &c. + + +XXIV. _Epitaphs and Elegiac Pieces_. + +*496. From Chiabrera +*497. By a blest Husband, &c. + 498. Cenotaph +*499. Epitaph, &c. +*500. Address to Scholars +*501. Elegiac Stanzas, &c. + 502. Elegiac Verses + 503. Moss Campion + 504. Lines 189 +*505. Invocation to the Earth +*506. Elegiac Stanzas +*507. Elegiac Musings + 508. Charles Lamb +*509. Ibid. +*510. James Hogg, Mrs. Hemans, &c. + 511. Dead Friends +*512. Ode: Intimations of Immortality, &c. + + +XXV. _The Excursion_. + +*513. On the leading Characters and Scenes + 514. The Aristocracy of Nature + 515. Eternity + 516. Of Mississippi, &c. + 517. Richard Baxter + 518. Endowment of Immortal Power, &c. + 519. Samuel Daniel, &c. + 520. Spires + 521. Sycamores + 522. The Transitory + 523. Dyer and The Fleece + 524. Dr. Bell + + +II. LETTERS AND EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS. + + 1. Autobiographical Memoranda, &c. + 2. Schoolmistress + 3. Books and Reading + 4. Tour on the Continent, 1790: Letter to Miss Wordsworth + 5. In Wales + 6. Melancholy of a Friend + 7. Holy Orders + 8. The French Revolution + 9. Failure of Louvet's Denunciation of Robespierre + 10. Of inflammatory political Opinions + 11. At Milkhouse, Halifax; 'Not _to take orders_' + 12. Literary Work, &c. + 13. Employment on a London Newspaper + 14. Raisley Calvert's Last Illness + 15. Family History + 16. Reading + 17. Satire: Juvenal, &c., 1795 + 18. Visit to Thelwall + 19. Poetry added to, 1798 + 20. On the Wye + 21. At Home again + 22. Early Visit to the Lake District + 23. On a Tour, 1799 + 24. At the Lakes: Letter to Coleridge + 25. Inconsistent Opinions on Poems + 26. On his Scottish Tour: To Scott + 27. The Grove: Capt. Wordsworth + 28. Spenser and Milton + 29. Death of Capt. Wordsworth + 30. Of Dryden: To Scott + 31. Of Marmion + 32. Topographical History + 33. The War in Spain, &c. + 34, 35, 36. The Convention of Cintra + 37. Home at Grasmere + *38. On Education of the Young + 39. Roman Catholics, &c. + 40. Death of Children + 41. Letter of Introduction: Humour + 42. The Peninsular War + 43. Of Southey + 44. Of alleged Changes in political Opinions + 45. Of his Poems, &c. + 46. Of Thanksgiving Ode, &c. + 47. Of Poems in Stanzas + 48 and 49. The Classics: Aeneid, &c. + 50. Tour on the Continent, 1820 + 51. Shakspeare's Cliff at Dover + 52. Of Affairs on the Continent, 1828 + *53. Style: Francis Edgeworth, &c. + 54. Of the Icon Basilike, &c. + 55. Of the R. Catholic Question + 56. Of the R.C. Emancipation Bill + 57. Of Ireland and the Poor Laws + 58. Of Lonsdale: Virgil, &c. + 59. Poems of Moxon + *60. Of Hamilton's, 'It haunts,' &c. + 61. Of Collins, Dyer, &c. + 62. Verses and Counsels + 63. Annuals and Roguery + 64. Works of Peele, &c. + 65. Lady Winchelsea, Tickell, &c. + *66. Hamilton's 'Spirit of Beauty,' &c. + 67. Play, Home, &c. + 68. Summer, Quillinan, &c. + 69. Works of Webster, &c. + 70. French Revolution, 1830 + *71. Nonsense: Rotten Boroughs, &c. + *72. Verses: Edgeworth, &c. + 73. Tour in Scotland + 74. Sir Walter Scott + 75. Of writing more Prose + 76. Of Poetry and Prose, &c. + 77. Of the Reform Bill + 78. Of political Affairs + 79. Family Affliction, &c. + *80. Illness of Sister, &c. + 81. Lucretia Davidson, &c. + 82. Tuition at the University + 83. Dissenters in University + 84. Skelton + 85. James Shirley + 86. Literary Criticism, &c. + 87. Of Elia, &c. + 88. English Sonnets, &c. + 89. Lady Winchelsea, &c. + 90. Popularity of Poetry + 91. Sonnets and Female Poets, &c. + 92. Mrs. Hemans' Dedication + 93. Verse-attempts + 94. Mrs. Hemans' Poems + 95. Church of England + 96. Omnipresence of the Deity + 97. and 98. New Church at Cockermouth + *99. Classic Scenes: Holy Land + 100. American ed. of Poems + 101. Quillinan's Poems + 102. On a Tour + 103. Bentley and Akenside +*104. Presidency of Royal Irish Academy, &c. +*105. Prose-writing: Coleridge, &c. + 106. Of his own Poems, &c. + 107. In the Sheldonian Theatre + 108. New edition of Poems + 109 and 110. Death of a Nephew + 111. On Death of a young Person + 112. Religion and versified Religion + 113. Sacred Poetry + 114. Visit of Queen Adelaide + 115. Ecclesiastical Duties and Revenues Act, &c. + 116. Samuel Rogers and Wordsworth + 117. An alarming Accident + 118. Of Alston and Haydon, &c. + 119. Of Peace's Apology for Cathedrals + 120. Of Cowper's Task + 121. On a Tour + 122. Marriage of Dora + 123. Letters to Brother + 124. Episcopal Church of America: Emerson and Carlyle + 125. Old Haunts revisited + 126. No Pension sought + 127. The Master of Trinity + 128. Alston's Portrait of Coleridge + 129. Southey's Death + 130. Tropical Scenery: Grace Darling + 131. Contemporary Poets: Southey's Death, &c. + 132. The Laureateship +*133. The same: Landor, &c. + 134. Alston: Home Occupations + 135. Socinianism + 136. Sacred Hymns + 137. Bereavements + 138. Birthday in America, &c. + 139. Class-fellows and School-fellows + 140. From Home: Queen, &c. + 141. The Laureateship: Tennyson, &c. + 142. Poems of Imagination, &c. + 143. Of the College of Maynooth, &c. + 144. Of the Heresiarch Church of Rome + 145. Family Trials + 146. Bishop White: Mormonites, &c. + 147. Governor Malartie: Lord Rector, &c. + 148 and 149. Death of Dora + 150. To John Peace, Esq. + 151. A Servant's Illness and Death + 152. Humility + + + + +III. CONVERSATIONS AND PERSONAL REMINISCENCES OF WORDSWORTH. + +From 'Satyrane's Letters:' Klopstock +Personal Reminiscences of the Hon. Mr. Justice Coleridge +Recollections of a Tour in Italy, by H.C. Robinson +Reminiscences of Lady Richardson and Mrs. Davy +Conversations and Reminiscences recorded by the Bishop of Lincoln +Reminiscences of the Rev. R.P. Graves +On the Death of Coleridge +Further Reminiscences and Memorabilia, by Rev. R.P. Graves +An American's Reminiscences +Recollections of Aubrey de Vere, Esq. +From 'Recollections of the Last Days of Shelley and Byron,' by + E.J. Trelawny, Esq. +From Letters of Professor Tayler +Anecdote of Crabbe +Later Opinion of Lord Brougham + + + + +CRITICAL AND ETHICAL. + + + + +I. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE POEMS, INCORPORATING + +(a) THE NOTES ORIGINALLY ADDED TO THE FIRST AND SUCCESSIVE EDITIONS. +(b) THE WHOLE OF THE I.F. MSS. + +NOTE. + +On these Notes and Illustrations, their sources and arrangement, &c., +see our Preface, Vol. I. The star [*] marks those that belong to the +I.F. MSS. G. + + + + +1. *_Prefatory Lines_. + + 'If thou indeed derive thy light from Heaven, + Then to the measure of that heaven-born light, + Shine, POET, in thy place, and be content:'-- + +'Like an untended watch-fire,' &c. (l. 10): These Verses were written +some time after we had become resident at Rydal Mount; and I will take +occasion from them to observe upon the beauty of that situation, as +being backed and flanked by lofty fells, which bring the heavenly bodies +to touch, as it were, the earth upon the mountain-tops, while the +prospect in front lies open to a length of level valley, the extended +lake, and a terminating ridge of low hills; so that it gives an +opportunity to the inhabitants of the place of noticing the stars in +both the positions here alluded to, namely, on the tops of the +mountains, and as winter-lamps at a distance among the leafless trees. + + +2. *_Prelude to the Last Volume_. [As supra.] + +These Verses were begun while I was on a visit to my son John at +Brigham, and finished at Rydal. As the contents of this Volume to which +they are now prefixed will be assigned to their respective classes when +my Poems shall be collected in one Vol., I should be at a loss where +with propriety to place this Prelude, being too restricted in its +bearing to serve as a Preface for the whole. The lines towards the +conclusion allude to the discontents then fomented thro' the country by +the Agitators of the Anti-Corn-Law League: the particular causes of such +troubles are transitory, but disposition to excite and liability to be +excited, are nevertheless permanent and therefore proper objects of the +Poet's regard. + + + + +I. POEMS WRITTEN IN YOUTH. + + +3. *_Extract from the Conclusion of a Poem, composed in anticipation of +leaving School_. + +'Dear native regions,' &c. 1786. Hawkshead. The beautiful image with +which this poem concludes suggested itself to me while I was resting in +a boat along with my companions under the shade of a magnificent row of +sycamores, which then extended their branches from the shore of the +promontory upon which stands the ancient and at that time the more +picturesque Hall of Coniston, the Seat of the Le Flemings from very +early times. The Poem of which it was the conclusion was of many hundred +lines, and contained thoughts and images most of which have been +dispersed through my other writings. + + +4. Of the Poems in this class, 'The Evening Walk' and 'Descriptive +Sketches' were first published in 1793. They are reprinted with some +alterations that were chiefly made very soon after their publication. + + * * * * * + +This notice, which was written some time ago, scarcely applies to the +Poem, 'Descriptive Sketches,' as it now stands. The corrections, though +numerous, are not, however, such as to prevent its retaining with +propriety a place in the class of Juvenile Pieces. + + +5. *_An Evening Walk. Addressed to a Young Lady_. [III.] + +The young lady to whom this was addressed was my sister. It was composed +at School and during my first two college vacations. There is not an +image in it which I have not observed; and, now in my seventy-third +year, I recollect the time and place where most of them were noticed. I +will confine myself to one instance. + + 'Waving his hat, the shepherd from the vale + Directs his wandering dog the cliffs to scale; + The dog bounds barking mid the glittering rocks, + Hunts where his master points, the intercepted flocks.' + +I was an eye-witness of this for the first time while crossing the pass +of Dunmail Raise. Upon second thought, I will mention another image: + + 'And fronting the bright west, yon oak entwines + Its darkening boughs and leaves in stronger lines.' + +This is feebly and imperfectly exprest; but I recollect distinctly the +very spot where this first struck me. It was on the way between +Hawkshead and Ambleside, and gave me extreme pleasure. The moment was +important in my poetical history; for I date from it my consciousness of +the infinite variety of natural appearances which had been unnoticed by +the poets of any age or country, so far as I was acquainted with them; +and I made a resolution to supply in some degree the deficiency. I could +not have been at that time above fourteen years of age. The description +of the swans that follows, was taken from the daily opportunities I had +of observing their habits, not as confined to the gentleman's park, but +in a state of nature. There were two pairs of them that divided the lake +of Esthwaite and its in-and-out-flowing streams between them, never +trespassing a single yard upon each other's separate domain. They were +of the old magnificent species, bearing in beauty and majesty about the +same relation to the Thames swan which that does to a goose. It was from +the remembrance of these noble creatures I took, thirty years after, the +picture of the swan which I have discarded from the poem of 'Dion.' +While I was a school-boy, the late Mr. Curwen introduced a little fleet +of these birds, but of the inferior species, to the Lake of Windermere. +Their principal home was about his own islands; but they sailed about +into remote parts of the lake, and either from real or imagined injury +done to the adjoining fields, they were got rid of at the request of the +farmers and proprietors, but to the great regret of all who had become +attached to them from noticing their beauty and quiet habits. I will +conclude my notice of this poem by observing that the plan of it has not +been confined to a particular walk, or an individual place; a proof (of +which I was unconscious at the time) of my unwillingness to submit the +poetic spirit to the chains of fact and real circumstance. The country +is idealized rather than described in any one of its local aspects. + + +FOOT-NOTES. + + +5a. _Intake_ (l. 49). + + 'When horses in the sunburnt intake stood.' + +The word _intake_ is local, and signifies a mountain-enclosure. + + +6. _Ghyll_ (l. 54). + + 'Brightens with water-brooks the hollow ghyll.' + +Ghyll is also, I believe, a term confined to this country; ghyll and +dingle have the same meaning. + + +7. Line 191. + + 'Gives one bright glance, and drops behind the hill.' + +From Thomson. + + +8. *_Lines written while sailing in a Boat at Evening_. [IV.] + +1789. This title is scarcely correct. It was during a solitary walk on +the banks of the Cam that I was first struck with this appearance, and +applied it to my own feelings in the manner here expressed, changing the +scene to the Thames, near Windsor. This, and the three stanzas of the +following poem, 'Remembrance of Collins,' formed one piece; but upon the +recommendation of Coleridge, the three last stanzas were separated from +the other. + + +9. _Descriptive Sketches taken during a Pedestrian Tour among the Alps_. +[VI.] + +DEDICATION. + +TO THE REV. ROBERT JONES, FELLOW OF ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. + +DEAR SIR,--However desirous I might have been of giving you proofs of +the high place you hold in my esteem, I should have been cautious of +wounding your delicacy by thus publicly addressing you, had not the +circumstance of our having been companions among the Alps seemed to give +this dedication a propriety sufficient to do away any scruples which +your modesty might otherwise have suggested. + +In inscribing this little work to you, I consult my heart. You know well +how great is the difference between two companions lolling in a +post-chaise, and two travellers plodding slowly along the road, side by +side, each with his little knapsack of necessaries upon his shoulders. +How much more of heart between the two latter! + +I am happy in being conscious that I shall have one reader who will +approach the conclusion of these few pages with regret. You they must +certainly interest, in reminding you of moments to which you can hardly +look back without a pleasure not the less dear from a shade of +melancholy. You will meet with few images without recollecting the spot +where we observed them together; consequently, whatever is feeble in my +design, or spiritless in my colouring, will be amply supplied by your +own memory. + +With still greater propriety I might have inscribed to you a description +of some of the features of your native mountains, through which we have +wandered together, in the same manner, with so much pleasure. But the +sea-sunsets, which give such splendour to the vale of Clwyd, Snowdon, +the chair of Idris, the quiet village of Bethgelert, Menai and her +Druids, the Alpine steeps of the Conway, and the still more interesting +windings of the wizard stream of the Dee, remain yet untouched. +Apprehensive that my pencil may never be exercised on these subjects, I +cannot let slip this opportunity of thus publicly assuring you with how +much affection and esteem + + I am, dear Sir, + Most sincerely yours, + W. WORDSWORTH. + +London, 1793. + + +10. *_Descriptive Sketches_. + +1791-2. Much the greatest part of this poem was composed during my walks +upon the banks of the Loire, in the years 1791, 1792. I will only notice +that the description of the valley filled with mist, beginning 'In +solemn shapes,' &c. was taken from that beautiful region, of which the +principal features are Lungarn and Sarnen. Nothing that I ever saw in +Nature left a more delightful impression on my mind than that which I +have attempted, alas how feebly! to convey to others in these lines. +Those two lakes have always interested me, especially from bearing, in +their size and other features, a resemblance to those of the North of +England. It is much to be deplored that a district so beautiful should +be so unhealthy as it is. + +FOOT-NOTES. + + +11. _The Cross_. 'The Cross, by angels planted on the aerial rock' (I. +70). Alluding to the crosses seen on the spiry rocks of Chartreuse. + + +12. _Rivers_. 'Along the mystic streams of Life and Death' (I. 71). +Names of rivers at the Chartreuse. + + +13. _Vallombre_. 'Vallombre, 'mid her falling fanes' (I. 74). Name of +one of the valleys of the Chartreuse. + + +14. _Sugh_. 'Beneath the cliffs, and pine-wood's steady sugh' (I. 358). +Sugh, a Scotch word expressive of the sound of the wind through the +trees. + + +15. _Pikes_. 'And Pikes of darkness named and fear and storms' (I. 471). +As Schreck-Horn, the pike of terror, Wetter-horn, the pike of storms, +&c. &c. + + +16. _Shrine_. 'Ensiedlen's wretched fane' (I. 545). This shrine is +resorted to, from a hope of relief, by multitudes, from every corner of +the Catholic world, labouring under mental or bodily afflictions. + + +17. _Sourd_. 'Sole sound, the Sourd prolongs his mournful cry!' (I. +618.) An insect so called, which emits a short melancholy cry, heard at +the close of the Summer evenings, on the banks of the Loire. + + +18. *_Lines left upon a Seat in a Yew-tree, which stands near the Lake +of Esthwaite, on a desolate Part of the Shore, commanding a beautiful +Prospect_.[VII.] + +Composed in part at school at Hawkshead. The tree has disappeared, and +the slip of Common on which it stood, that ran parallel to the lake, +and lay open to it, has long been enclosed, so that the road has lost +much of its attraction. This spot was my favourite walk in the evenings +during the latter part of my school-time. The individual whose habits +and character are here given was a gentleman of the neighbourhood, a man +of talent and learning, who had been educated at one of our +universities, and returned to pass his time in seclusion on his own +estate. He died a bachelor in middle age. Induced by the beauty of the +prospect, he built a small summer-house on the rocks above the peninsula +on which the ferry-house stands. [In pencil here--Query, Mr. Nott?] + +This property afterwards past into the hands of the late Mr. Curwen. The +site was long ago pointed out by Mr. West in his _Guide_ as the pride of +the Lakes, and now goes by the name of 'The Station.' So much used I to +be delighted with the view from it, while a little boy, that some years +before the first pleasure-house was built, I led thither from Hawkshead +a youngster about my own age, an Irish boy, who was a servant to an +itinerant conjuror. My motive was to witness the pleasure I expected the +boy would receive from the prospect of the islands below, and the +intermingling water. I was not disappointed; and I hope the fact, +insignificant as it may seem to some, may be thought worthy of note by +others who may cast their eye over these notes. + + +19. _Guilt and Sorrow; or Incidents upon Salisbury Plain_.[VIII.] + +ADVERTISEMENT, PREFIXED TO THE FIRST EDITION OF THIS POEM, PUBLISHED IN +1842. + +Not less than one-third of the following poem, though it has from time +to time been altered in the expression, was published so far back as the +year 1798, under the title of 'The Female Vagrant.' The extract is of +such length that an apology seems to be required for reprinting it here: +but it was necessary to restore it to its original position, or the rest +would have been unintelligible. The whole was written before the close +of the year 1794, and I will detail, rather as a matter of literary +biography than for any other reason, the circumstances under which it +was produced. + +During the latter part of the summer of 1793, having passed a month in +the Isle of Wight, in view of the fleet which was then preparing for +sea off Portsmouth at the commencement of the war, I left the place with +melancholy forebodings. The American war was still fresh in memory. The +struggle which was beginning, and which many thought would be brought to +a speedy close by the irresistible arms of Great Britain being added to +those of the Allies, I was assured in my own mind would be of long +continuance, and productive of distress and misery beyond all possible +calculation. This conviction was pressed upon me by having been a +witness, during a long residence in revolutionary France, of the spirit +which prevailed in that country. After leaving the Isle of Wight, I +spent two days in wandering on foot over Salisbury Plain, which, though +cultivation was then widely spread through parts of it, had upon the +whole a still more impressive appearance than it now retains. + +The monuments and traces of antiquity, scattered in abundance over that +region, led me unavoidably to compare what we know or guess of those +remote times with certain aspects of modern society, and with +calamities, principally those consequent upon war, to which, more than +other classes of men, the poor are subject. In those reflections, joined +with particular facts that had come to my knowledge, the following +stanzas originated. + +In conclusion, to obviate some distraction in the minds of those who are +well acquainted with Salisbury Plain, it may be proper to say, that of +the features described as belonging to it, one or two are taken from +other desolate parts of England. + + +20. *_The Female Vagrant_. + +I find the date of this is placed in 1792 in contradiction, by mistake, +to what I have asserted in 'Guilt and Sorrow.' The correct date is +1793-4. The chief incidents of it, more particularly her description of +her feelings on the Atlantic, are taken from life. + + +21. *_Guilt and Sorrow; or Incidents upon Salisbury Plain_. [VIII.] + +Unwilling to be unnecessarily particular, I have assigned this poem to +the dates 1793 and 1794; but, in fact, much of the Female Vagrant's +story was composed at least two years before. All that relates to her +sufferings as a soldier's wife in America, and her condition of mind +during her voyage home, were faithfully taken from the report made to me +of her own case by a friend who had been subjected to the same trials, +and affected in the same way. Mr. Coleridge, when I first became +acquainted with him, was so much impressed with this poem, that it would +have encouraged me to publish the whole as it then stood; but the +Mariner's fate appeared to me so tragical, as to require a treatment +more subdued, and yet more strictly applicable in expression, than I had +at first given to it. This fault was corrected nearly fifty years +afterwards, when I determined to publish the whole. It may be worth +while to remark, that though the incidents of this attempt do only in a +small degree produce each other, and it deviates accordingly from the +general rule by which narrative pieces ought to be governed, it is not +therefore wanting in continuous hold upon the mind, or in unity, which +is effected by the identity of moral interest that places the two +personages upon the same footing in the reader's sympathies. My ramble +over many parts of Salisbury Plain put me, as mentioned in the preface, +upon writing this poem, and left upon my mind imaginative impressions +the force of which I have felt to this day. From that district I +proceeded to Bath, Bristol, and so on to the banks of the Wye; when I +took again to travelling on foot. In remembrance of that part of my +journey, which was in 1793, I began the verses, + + 'Five years have passed,' &c. + + +22. _Charles Farish_. + + 'And hovering, round it often did a raven fly.' + +From a short MS. poem read to me when an undergraduate, by my +schoolfellow and friend, Charles Farish, long since deceased. The verses +were by a brother of his, a man of promising genius, who died young. +['Guilt and Sorrow,' st. ix. l. 9.] + + +23. *_The Forsaken. Poems founded on the Affections_. [XII.] + +This was an overflow from the affliction of Margaret, and excluded as +superfluous there; but preserved in the faint hope that it may turn to +account, by restoring a shy lover to some forsaken damsel; my poetry +having been complained of as deficient in interests of this sort, a +charge which the next piece, beginning, + + 'Lyre! though such power do in thy magic live!' + +will scarcely tend to obviate. The natural imagery of these verses was +supplied by frequent, I might say intense, observation of the Rydal +Torrent. What an animating contrast is the ever-changing aspect of that, +and indeed of every one of our mountain brooks, to the monotonous tone +and unmitigated fury of such streams among the Alps as are fed all the +summer long by glaciers and melting snows! A traveller, observing the +exquisite purity of the great rivers, such as the Rhone at Geneva, and +the Reuss at Lucerne, where they issue out of their respective lakes, +might fancy for a moment that some power in Nature produced this +beautiful change, with a view to make amends for those Alpine sullyings +which the waters exhibit near their fountain heads; but, alas! how soon +does that purity depart, before the influx of tributary waters that have +flowed through cultivated plains and the crowded abodes of men. + + +24. *_The Borderers: a Tragedy_. + +Of this dramatic work I have little to say in addition to the short +printed note which will be found attached to it. It was composed at +Racedown in Dorset, during the latter part of the year 1795, and in the +course of the following year. Had it been the work of a later period of +life, it would have been different in some respects from what it is now. +The plot would have been something more complex, and a greater variety +of characters introduced, to relieve the mind from the pressure of +incidents so mournful; the manners also would have been more attended +to. My care was almost exclusively given to the passions and the +characters, and the position in which the persons in the drama stood +relatively to each other, that the reader (for I never thought of the +stage at the time it was written) might be moved, and to a degree +instructed, by lights penetrating somewhat into the depths of our +nature. In this endeavour, I cannot think, upon a very late review, that +I have failed. As to the scene and period of action, little more was +required for my purpose than the absence of established law and +government, so that the agents might be at liberty to act on their own +impulses. Nevertheless, I do remember, that having a wish to colour the +manners in some degree from local history more than my knowledge enabled +me to do, I read Redpath's _History of the Borders_, but found there +nothing to my purpose. I once made an observation to Sir W. Scott, in +which he concurred, that it was difficult to conceive how so dull a book +could be written on such a subject. Much about the same time, but a +little after, Coleridge was employed in writing his tragedy of +_Remorse_; and it happened soon after that, through one of the Mr. +Pooles, Mr. Knight, the actor, heard that we had been engaged in writing +plays, and, upon his suggestion, mine was curtailed, and (I believe, +with Coleridge's) was offered to Mr. Harris, manager of Covent Garden. +For myself, I had no hope, nor even a wish (though a successful play +would in the then state of my finances have been a most welcome piece of +good fortune), that he should accept my performance; so that I incurred +no disappointment when the piece was _judiciously_ returned as not +calculated for the stage. In this judgment I entirely concurred; and had +it been otherwise, it was so natural for me to shrink from public +notice, that any hope I might have had of success would not have +reconciled me altogether to such an exhibition. Mr. C.'s play was, as is +well known, brought forward several years after, through the kindness of +Mr. Sheridan. In conclusion, I may observe, that while I was composing +this play, I wrote a short essay, illustrative of that constitution and +those tendencies of human nature, which make the apparently _motiveless_ +actions of bad men intelligible to careful observers. This was partly +done with reference to the character of Oswald, and his persevering +endeavour to lead the man he disliked into so heinous a crime; but still +more to preserve in my distinct remembrance what I had observed of +transitions in character, and the reflections I had been led to make, +during the time I was a witness of the changes through which the French +Revolution passed. + + +25. The following is the 'short printed note' mentioned in above: + +This Dramatic Piece, as noticed in its title-page, was composed in +1795-6. It lay nearly from that time till within the last two or three +months unregarded among my papers, without being mentioned even to my +most intimate friends. Having, however, impressions upon my mind which +made me unwilling to destroy the MS., I determined to undertake the +responsibility of publishing it during my own life, rather than impose +upon my successors the task of deciding its fate. Accordingly it has +been revised with some care; but, as it was at first written, and is now +published, without any view to its exhibition upon the stage, not the +slightest alteration has been made in the conduct of the story, or the +composition of the characters; above all, in respect to the two leading +Persons of the Drama, I felt no inducement to make any change. The study +of human nature suggests this awful truth, that, as in the trial to +which life subjects us, sin and crime are apt to start from their very +opposite qualities, so are there no limits to the hardening of the +heart, and the perversion of the understanding to which they may carry +their slaves. During my long residence in France, while the Revolution +was rapidly advancing to its extreme of wickedness, I had frequent +opportunities of being an eye-witness of this process, and it was while +that knowledge was fresh upon my memory that the Tragedy of the +_Borderers_ was composed. + + +26. Later, this was prefixed: 'Readers already acquainted with my Poems +will recognise, in the following composition, some eight or ten lines +which I have not scrupled to retain in the places where they originally +stood. It is proper, however, to add, that they would not have been used +elsewhere, if I had foreseen the time when I might be induced to publish +this Tragedy. February 28. 1842.' + + + + +II. POEMS REFERRING TO THE PERIOD OF CHILDHOOD. + + +27. *_My Heart leaps up when I behold_. [I.] + +This was written at Grasmere, Town-End, 1804. + + +28. *_To a Butterfly_. [II.] + +Grasmere, Town-End. Written in the Orchard, 1801. My sister and I were +parted immediately after the death of our mother, who died in 1777, +both being very young. [Corrected in pencil on opposite page--' March +1778.'] + + +29. *_The Sparrow's Nest_, [III.] + +The Orchard, Grasmere, Town-End, 1801. At the end of the garden of my +Father's house at Cockermouth was a high terrace that commanded a fine +view of the river Derwent and Cockermouth Castle. This was our favourite +play-ground. The terrace wall, a low one, was covered with closely-clipt +privet and roses, which gave an almost impervious shelter to birds that +built their nests there. The latter of these stanzas alludes to one of +these nests. + + +30. *_Foresight_, [IV.] + +Also composed in the Orchard, Grasmere, Town-End. + + +31. *_Characteristics of a Child three Years old_. [V.] + +Picture of my daughter Catharine, who died the year after. Written at +Allan-Bank, Grasmere, 1811. + + +32. *_Address to a Child_, [VI.] + +During a boisterous Winter's Evening. Town-End, Grasmere, 1806. + + +33. *_The Mother's Return_, [VII.] + +Ditto. By Miss Wordsworth [_i.e._ both poems]. + + +34. *_Alice Fell; or Poverty_. [VIII.] + +1801. Written to gratify Mr. Graham, of Glasgow, brother of the Author +of 'The Sabbath.' He was a zealous coadjutor of Mr. Clarkson, and a man +of ardent humanity. The incident had happened to himself, and he urged +me to put it into verse for humanity's sake. The humbleness, meanness if +you like, of the subject, together with the homely mode of treating it, +brought upon me a world of ridicule by the small critics, so that in +policy I excluded it from many editions of my Poems, till it was +restored at the request of some of my friends, in particular my +son-in-law, Edward Quillinan. + + +35. *_Lucy Gray; or Solitude_. [IX.] + +Written at Goslar, in Germany, in 1799. It was founded on a +circumstance told me by my sister, of a little girl, who, not far from +Halifax, in Yorkshire, was bewildered in a snow-storm. Her footsteps +were tracked by her parents to the middle of the lock of a canal, and no +other vestige of her, backward or forward, could be traced. The body, +however, was found in the canal. The way in which the incident was +treated, and the spiritualising of the character, might furnish hints +for contrasting the imaginative influences, which I have endeavoured to +throw over common life, with Crabbe's matter-of-fact style of handling +subjects of the same kind. This is not spoken to his disparagement, far +from it; but to direct the attention of thoughtful readers into whose +hands these notes may fall, to a comparison that may enlarge the circle +of their sensibilities, and tend to produce in them a catholic judgment. + +36. *_We are Seven_. [X.] _The Ancient Mariner and Coleridge, &c. &c._ +&c.&c. + +Written at Alfoxden in the spring of 1798, under circumstances somewhat +remarkable. The little girl who is the heroine, I met within the area of +Goderich Castle in the year 1793. Having left the Isle of Wight, and +crost Salisbury Plain, as mentioned in the preface to 'Guilt and +Sorrow,' I proceeded by Bristol up the Wye, and so on to N. Wales to the +Vale of Clwydd, where I spent my summer under the roof of the father of +my friend, Robert Jones. + +In reference to this poem, I will here mention one of the most +remarkable facts in my own poetic history, and that of Mr. Coleridge. In +the spring of the year 1798, he, my sister, and myself, started from +Alfoxden pretty late in the afternoon, with a view to visit Linton, and +the Valley of Stones near to it; and as our united funds were very +small, we agreed to defray the expense of the tour by writing a poem, to +be sent to the _New Monthly Magazine_, set up by Phillips, the +bookseller, and edited by Dr. Aikin. Accordingly we set off, and +proceeded, along the Quantock Hills, towards Watchet; and in the course +of this walk was planned the poem of the 'Ancient Mariner,' founded on a +dream, as Mr. Coleridge said, of his friend Mr. Cruikshank. Much the +greatest part of the story was Mr. Coleridge's invention; but certain +parts I myself suggested; for example, some crime was to be committed +which would bring upon the Old Navigator, as Coleridge afterwards +delighted to call him, the spectral persecution, as a consequence of +that crime and his own wanderings. I had been reading in Shelvocke's +_Voyages_, a day or two before, that, while doubling Cape Horn, they +frequently saw albatrosses in that latitude, the largest sort of +sea-fowl, some extending their wings twelve or thirteen feet. 'Suppose,' +said I, 'you represent him as having killed one of these birds on +entering the South Sea, and that the tutelary spirits of these regions +take upon them to avenge the crime.' The incident was thought fit for +the purpose, and adopted accordingly. I also suggested the navigation of +the ship by the dead men, but do not recollect that I had anything more +to do with the scheme of the poem. The gloss with which it was +subsequently accompanied was not thought of by either of us at the time, +at least not a hint of it was given to me, and I have no doubt it was a +gratuitous after-thought. We began the composition together, on that to +me memorable evening: I furnished two or three lines at the beginning of +the poem, in particular-- + + 'And listen'd like a three years' child; + The Mariner had his will.' + +These trifling contributions, all but one, (which Mr. C. has with +unnecessary scrupulosity recorded,) slipt out of his mind, as they well +might. As we endeavoured to proceed conjointly (I speak of the same +evening), our respective manners proved so widely different, that it +would have been quite presumptuous in me to do anything but separate +from an undertaking upon which I could only have been a clog. We +returned after a few days from a delightful tour, of which I have many +pleasant, and some of them droll enough, recollections. We returned by +Dulverton to Alfoxden. The 'Ancient Mariner' grew and grew till it +became too important for our first object, which was limited to our +expectation of five pounds; and we began to talk of a volume which was +to consist, as Mr. Coleridge has told the world, of Poems chiefly on +natural subjects, taken from common life, but looked at, as much as +might be, through an imaginative medium. Accordingly I wrote 'The Idiot +Boy,' 'Her Eyes are wild,' &c., and 'We are Seven,' 'The Thorn,' and +some others. To return to 'We are Seven,' the piece that called forth +this note:--I composed it while walking in the grove of Alfoxden. My +friends will not deem it too trifling to relate, that while walking to +and fro I composed the last stanza first, having begun with the last +line. When it was all but finished, I came in and recited it to Mr. +Coleridge and my sister, and said, 'A prefatory stanza must be added, +and I should sit down to our little tea-meal with greater pleasure if my +task was finished.' I mentioned in substance what I wished to be +expressed, and Coleridge immediately threw off the stanza, thus: + + 'A little child, dear brother Jem.' + +I objected to the rhyme, 'dear brother Jem,' as being ludicrous; but we +all enjoyed the joke of hitching in our friend James Tobin's name, who +was familiarly called Jem. He was the brother of the dramatist; and this +reminds me of an anecdote which it may be worth while here to notice. +The said Jem got a sight of the 'Lyrical Ballads' as it was going +through the press at Bristol, during which time I was residing in that +city. One evening he came to me with a grave face, and said, +'Wordsworth, I have seen the volume that Coleridge and you are about to +publish. There is one poem in it which I earnestly entreat you will +cancel, for, if published, it will make you everlastingly ridiculous.' I +answered, that I felt much obliged by the interest he took in my good +name as a writer, and begged to know what was the unfortunate piece he +alluded to. He said, 'It is called "We are Seven."' 'Nay,' said I, 'that +shall take its chance, however;' and he left me in despair. I have only +to add, that in the spring of 1841, I visited Goodrich Castle, not +having seen that part of the Wye since I met the little girl there in +1793. It would have given me greater pleasure to have found in the +neighbouring hamlet traces of one who had interested me so much, but +that was impossible, as, unfortunately, I did not even know her name. +The ruin, from its position and features, is a most impressive object. I +could not but deeply regret that its solemnity was impaired by a +fantastic new castle set up on a projection of the same ridge, as if to +show how far modern art can go in surpassing all that could be done by +antiquity and Nature with their united graces, remembrances, and +associations. I could have almost wished for power, so much the contrast +vexed me, to blow away Sir ---- Meyrick's impertinent structure and all +the possessions it contains. + + +37. *_The Idle Shepherd Boys; or Dungeon-Ghyll Force: a Pastoral_. [XI.] + +Grasmere, Town-End, 1800. I will only add a little monitory anecdote +concerning this subject. When Coleridge and Southey were walking +together upon the Fells, Southey observed that, if I wished to be +considered a faithful painter of rural manners, I ought not to have said +that my shepherd boys trimmed their rustic hats as described in the +poem. Just as the words had past his lips, two boys appeared with the +very plant entwined round their hats. I have often wondered that +Southey, who rambled so much about the mountains, should have fallen +into this mistake; and I record it as a warning for others who, with far +less opportunity than my dear friend had of knowing what things are, and +with far less sagacity, give way to presumptuous criticism, from which +he was free, though in this matter mistaken. In describing a tarn under +Helvellyn, I say, + + 'There sometimes doth a leaping fish + Send through the tarn a lonely cheer.' + +This was branded by a critic of those days, in a review ascribed to Mrs. +Barbauld, as unnatural and absurd. I admire the genius of Mrs. Barbauld, +and am certain that, had her education been favourable to imaginative +influences, no female of her day would have been more likely to +sympathise with that image, and to acknowledge the truth of the +sentiment. + + +38. _Foot-note_. + +Heading: 'Dungeon-ghyll Force.' _Ghyll_, in the dialect of Cumberland +and Westmoreland, is a short and, for the most part, a steep narrow +valley, with a stream running through it. _Force_ is the word +universally employed in these dialects for waterfall. + + +39. *_Anecdote for Fathers_. [XII.] + +This was suggested in front of Alfoxden. The boy was a son of my friend +Basil Montagu, who had been two or three years under our care. The name +of Kilve is from a village in the Bristol Channel, about a mile from +Alfoxden; and the name of Liswin Farm was taken from a beautiful spot on +the Wye. When Mr. Coleridge, my sister, and I had been visiting the +famous John Thelwall, who had taken refuge from politics, after a trial +for high treason, with a view to bring up his family by the profits of +agriculture; which proved as unfortunate a speculation as that he had +fled from. Coleridge and he had been public lecturers: Coleridge +mingling with his politics theology; from which the other abstained, +unless it were for the sake of a sneer. This quondam community of public +employment induced Thelwall to visit Coleridge at Nether Stowey, where +he fell in my way. He really was a man of extraordinary talent, an +affectionate husband, and a good father. Though brought up in the city +on a tailor's board, he was truly sensible of the beauty of natural +objects. I remember once when Coleridge, he and I were seated together +upon the turf, on the brink of a stream in the most beautiful part of +the most beautiful glen of Alfoxden, Coleridge exclaimed, 'This is a +place to reconcile one to all the jarrings and conflicts of the wide +world.' 'Nay,' said Thelwall, 'to make one forget them altogether.' The +visit of this man to Coleridge was, as I believe Coleridge has related, +the occasion of a spy being sent by Government to watch our proceedings; +which were, I can say with truth, such as the world at large would have +thought ludicrously harmless. + + +40. _Rural Architecture_. [XIII.] + +These structures, as every one knows, are common among our hills, being +built by shepherds, as conspicuous marks, and occasionally by boys in +sport. It was written at Town-End, in 1801. + + +41. _Foot-note: Great How_ (l. 4). + +Great How is a single and conspicuous hill, which rises towards the foot +of Thirlmere, on the western side of the beautiful dale of +Legberthwaite. + + +42. *_The Pet Lamb: a Pastoral_. [XIV.] + +Town-End, 1800. Barbara Lewthwaite, now living at Ambleside (1843), +though much changed as to beauty, was one of two most lovely sisters. +Almost the first words my poor brother John said, when he visited us for +the first time at Grasmere, were, 'Were those two angels that I have +just seen?' and from his description I have no doubt they were those +two sisters. The mother died in childbed; and one of our neighbours, at +Grasmere, told me that the loveliest sight she had ever seen was that +mother as she lay in her coffin with her [dead] babe in her arm. I +mention this to notice what I cannot but think a salutary custom, once +universal in these vales: every attendant on a funeral made it a duty to +look at the corpse in the coffin before the lid was closed, which was +never done (nor I believe is now) till a minute or two before the corpse +was removed. Barbara Lewthwaite was not, in fact, the child whom I had +seen and overheard as engaged in the poem. I chose the name for reasons +implied in the above, and will here add a caution against the use of +names of living persons. Within a few months after the publication of +this poem, I was much surprised, and more hurt, to find it in a child's +school-book, which, having been compiled by Lindley Murray, had come +into use at Grasmere school, where Barbara was a pupil. And, alas, I had +the mortification of hearing that she was very vain of being thus +distinguished; and in after life she used to say that she remembered the +incident, and what I said to her upon the occasion. + + +43. *_Influence of Natural Objects, &c._ [XVI.] + +Written in Germany, 1799. + + +44. *_The Longest Day_. [XVII.] + +1817. Suggested by the sight of my daughter (Dora) playing in front of +Rydal Mount, and composed in a great measure the same afternoon. I have +often wished to pair this poem upon the 'longest' with one upon the +'shortest' day, and regret even now that it has not been done. + + +45. *_The Norman Boy_. [XVIII.] + +The subject of this poem was sent me by Mrs. Ogle, to whom I was +personally unknown, with a hope on her part that I might be induced to +relate the incident in verse. And I do not regret that I took the +trouble; for not improbably the fact is illustrative of the boy's early +piety, and may concur, with my other little pieces on children, to +produce profitable reflection among my youthful readers. This is said, +however, with an absolute conviction that children will derive most +benefit from books which are not unworthy the perusal of persons of any +age. I protest with my whole heart against those productions, so +abundant in the present day, in which the doings of children are dwelt +upon as if they were incapable of being interested in anything else. On +this subject I have dwelt at length in the Poem on the growth of my own +mind. ['Prelude.'] + + * * * * * + + + + +III. POEMS FOUNDED ON THE AFFECTIONS. + + +46. _The Brothers_. [I.] + +1800. This poem was composed in a grove at the north-eastern end of +Grasmere Lake, which grove was in a great measure destroyed by turning +the high-road along the side of the water. The few trees that are left +were spared at my intercession. The poem arose out of the fact mentioned +to me, at Ennerdale, that a shepherd had fallen asleep upon the top of +the rock called the 'pillar,' and perished as here described, his staff +being left midway on the rock. + + +47. _Great Gavel_. (Foot-note.) + +'From the Great Gavel down by Leeza's banks' (l. 324). + +The Great Gavel, so called, I imagine, from its resemblance to the gable +end of a house, is one of the highest of the Cumberland mountains. The +Leeza is a river which flows into the Lake of Ennerdale. + + +48. _Artegal and Elidure_. [II.] + +Rydal Mount. This was written in the year 1815, as a token of +affectionate respect for the memory of Milton. 'I have determined,' says +he, in his preface to his History of England, 'to bestow the telling +over even of these reputed tales, be it for nothing else but in favour +of our English Poets and Rhetoricians, who by their wit well know how to +use them judiciously.' See the Chronicle of Geoffrey of Monmouth and +Milton's History of England. + + +49. *_To a Butterfly_. [III.] + +1801. Written at the same time and place. + + +50 *_A Farewell_. [IV.] + +1802. Composed just before my sister and I went to fetch Mary from +Gallowhill, near Scarborough. + + +51. *_Stanzas written in my Pocket-copy of Thomson's 'Castle of +Indolence.'_ [V.] + +Composed in the Orchard, Grasmere, Town-End. Coleridge living with us +much at the time, his son Hartley has said that his father's character +and history are here preserved in a livelier way than in anything that +has been written about him. + + +52. *_Louisa. After accompanying her on a mountain Excursion_. [VI.] + +Town-End, 1805. + + +53. *_Strange Fits of Passion have I known_. [VII.] + *_She dwelt among the Springs of Dove_. [VIII.] + *_I travelled among unknown Men_. [IX.] + +These three poems were written in Germany, 1799. + + +54. *_Ere with cold Beads of midnight Dew_. [X.] + +Rydal Mount, 1826. Suggested by the condition of a friend. + + +55. *_To_ ----. [XI.] + +Rydal Mount, 1824. Prompted by the undue importance attached to personal +beauty by some dear friends of mine. [In opposite page in pencil--S. C.] + + +56. *_'Tis said that some have died for Love_. [XIII.] + +1800. + + +57. *_A Complaint_. [XIV.] + +Suggested by a change in the manners of a friend. Coleorton, 1806. +[Town-End marked out and Coleorton written in pencil; and on opposite +page in pencil--Coleridge, S. T.] + + +58. *_To_ ----. [XV.] + +Rydal Mount, 1824. Written on [Mrs.] Mary Wordsworth. + + +59. * '_How rich that Forehead's calm Expanse_!'[XVII.] + +Rydal Mount, 1824. Also on M. W. + + +60. *_To_ ----. [XIX] + +Rydal Mount, 1824. To M. W., Rydal Mount. + + +61. *_Lament of Mary Queen of Scots_. [XX.] + +This arose out of a flash of Moonlight that struck the ground when I was +approaching the steps that lead from the garden at Rydal Mount to the +front of the house. 'From her sunk eye a stagnant tear stole forth,' is +taken, with some loss, from a discarded poem, 'The Convict,' in which +occurred, when he was discovered lying in the cell, these lines: + + 'But now he upraises the deep-sunken eye; + The motion unsettles a tear; + The silence of sorrow it seems to supply, + And asks of me, why I am here.' + + +62. _The Complaint of a forsaken Indian Woman_. [XXI.] + +When a Northern Indian, from sickness, is unable to continue his journey +with his companions, he is left behind, covered over with deer-skins, +and is supplied with water, food, and fuel, if the situation of the +place will afford it. He is informed of the track which his companions +intend to pursue, and if he be unable to follow, or overtake them, he +perishes alone in the desert; unless he should have the good fortune to +fall in with some other tribes of Indians. The females are equally, or +still more, exposed to the same fate. See that very interesting work, +Hearne's _Journey from Hudson's Bay to the Northern Ocean_. In the high +northern latitudes, as the same writer informs us, when the northern +lights vary their position in the air, they make a rustling and a +crackling noise, as alluded to in the following poem. + + +63. *_Ibid._ + +At Alfoxden, in 1798, where I read Hearne's _Journey_ with great +interest. It was composed for the volume of 'Lyrical Ballads.' + + +64. *_The Last of the Flock_. [XXII.] + +Produced at the same time [as 'The Complaint,' No. 62] and for the same +purpose. The incident occurred in the village of Holford, close by +Alfoxden. + + +65. *_Repentance_ [XXIII.] + +Town-End, 1804. Suggested by the conversation of our next neighbour, +Margaret Ashburner. + + +66. *_The Affliction of Margaret_ ----. [XXIV.] + +Town-End, 1804. This was taken from the case of a poor widow who lived +in the town of Penrith. Her sorrow was well known to Mary, to my sister, +and I believe to the whole town. She kept a shop, and when she saw a +stranger passing by, she was in the habit of going out into the street +to inquire of him after her son. + + +67. *_The Cottager to her Infant_. [XXV.] + +By my sister. Suggested to her while beside my sleeping children. + + +68. *_Maternal Grief_. + +This was in part an overflow from the Solitary's description of his own +and his wife's feelings upon the decease of their children; and I will +venture to add, for private notice solely, is faithfully set forth from +my wife's feelings and habits after the loss of our two children, within +half a year of each other. + + +69. *_The Sailor's Mother_. [XXVII.] + +Town-End, 1800. I met this woman near the Wishing-Gate, on the high-road +that then led from Grasmere to Ambleside. Her appearance was exactly as +here described, and such was her account, nearly to the letter. + + +70. *_The Childless Father_. [XXVIII.] + +Town-End, 1800. When I was a child at Cockermouth, no funeral took place +without a basin filled with sprigs of boxwood being placed upon a table +covered with a white cloth in front of the house. The huntings (on foot) +which the Old Man is suffered to join as here described were of common, +almost habitual, occurrence in our vales when I was a boy; and the +people took much delight in them. They are now less frequent. + + +71. _Funeral Basin_. + + 'Filled the funeral basin at Timothy's door.' + +In several parts of the North of England, when a funeral takes place, a +basin full of sprigs of boxwood is placed at the door of the house from +which the coffin is taken up, and each person who attends the funeral +ordinarily takes a sprig of this boxwood, and throws it into the grave +of the deceased. + + +72. *_The Emigrant Mother_. [XXIX.] + +1802. Suggested by what I have noticed in more than one French fugitive +during the time of the French Revolution. If I am not mistaken, the +lines were composed at Sockburn when I was on a visit to Mary and her +brothers. + + +73. _Vaudracour and Julia_. [XXX.] + +The following tale was written as an Episode, in a work from which its +length may perhaps exclude it. The facts are true; no invention as to +these has been exercised, as none was needed. + + +74. *_Ibid._ + +Town-End, 1805. Faithfully narrated, though with the omission of many +pathetic circumstances, from the mouth of a French lady, who had been an +eye and ear-witness of all that was done and said. Many long years after +I was told that Dupligne was then a monk in the Convent of La Trappe. + + +75. _The Idiot Boy_. + +Alfoxden, 1798. The last stanza, 'The cocks did crow, and the sun did +shine so cold,' was the foundation of the whole. The words were +reported to me by my dear friend Thomas Poole; but I have since heard +the same reported of other idiots. Let me add, that this long poem was +composed in the groves of Alfoxden, almost extempore; not a word, I +believe, being corrected, though one stanza was omitted. I mention this +in gratitude to those happy moments, for, in truth, I never wrote +anything with so much glee. + + +76. *_Michael_. [XXXII.] + +Town-End, 1807. Written about the same time as 'The Brothers.' The +sheepfold on which so much of the poem turns, remains, or rather the +ruins of it. The character and circumstances of Luke were taken from a +family to whom had belonged, many years before, the house we lived in at +Town-End, along with some fields and woodlands on the eastern shore of +Grasmere. The name of the Evening Star was not in fact given to this +house, but to another on the same side of the valley more to the north. +[On opposite page in pencil--' Greenhead Ghyll.'] + + +77. _Clipping_. + + 'The Clipping Tree, a name which yet it bears' (foot-note on 1. + 169). + +Clipping is the word used in the North of England for shearing. + + +78. *_The Widow on Windermere Side_. [XXXIV.] + +The facts recorded in this Poem were given me and the character of the +person described by my highly esteemed friend the Rev. R.P. Graves, who +has long officiated as Curate at Bowness, to the great benefit of the +parish and neighbourhood. The individual was well known to him. She died +before these Verses were composed. It is scarcely worth while to notice +that the stanzas are written in the sonnet-form; which was adopted when +I thought the matter might be included in 28 lines. + + +79. _The Armenian Lady's Love_. [XXXIV.] + +The subject of the following poem is from the 'Orlandus' of the author's +friend, Kenelm Henry Digby: and the liberty is taken of inscribing it to +him as an acknowledgment, however unworthy, of pleasure and instruction +derived from his numerous and valuable writings, illustrative of the +piety and chivalry of the olden time. *Rydal Mount, 1830. + + +80. _Percy's 'Reliques'_ (foot-note on 1. 2). + + 'You have heard "a Spanish Lady + How she wooed an English man."' + +See in Percy's _Reliques_ that fine old ballad, 'The Spanish Lady's +Love'; from which Poem the form of stanza, as suitable to dialogue, is +adopted. + + +81. *_Loving and Liking_. [XXXV.] + +By my Sister. Rydal Mount, 1832. It arose, I believe, out of a casual +expression of one of Mr. Swinburne's children. + + +82. *_Farewell Lines_. [XXXVI.] + +These Lines were designed as a farewell to Charles Lamb and his Sister, +who had retired from the throngs of London to comparative solitude in +the village of Enfield, Herts, [_sic._] + + +83. (1) _The Redbreast_. + +Lines 45-6. + + 'Of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and John + Blessing the bed she lies upon.' + +The words-- + + 'Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and John, + Bless the bed that I lie on,' + +are part of a child's prayer still in general use through the northern +counties. + + +84. *(2) + +Rydal Mount, 1834. Our cats having been banished the house, it was soon +frequented by Red-breasts. Two or three of them, when the window was +open, would come in, particularly when Mary was breakfasting alone, and +hop about the table picking up the crumbs. My Sister being then confined +to her room by sickness, as, dear creature, she still is, had one that, +without being caged, took up its abode with her, and at night used to +perch upon a nail from which a picture had hung. It used to sing and fan +her face with its wings in a manner that was very touching. [In +pencil--- But who was the pale-faced child?] + + +85. *_Her Eyes are wild_. [XXXVIII.] + +Alfoxden, 1798. The subject was reported to me by a lady of Bristol, who +had seen the poor creature. + + * * * * * + + + +IV. POEMS ON THE NAMING OF PLACES. + + +86. _Advertisement_. + +By persons resident in the country and attached to rural objects, many +places will be found unnamed or of unknown names, where little Incidents +must have occurred, or feelings been experienced, which will have given +to such places a private and peculiar interest. From a wish to give some +sort of record to such Incidents, and renew the gratification of such +feelings, Names have been given to Places by the Author and some of his +Friends, and the following Poems written in consequence. + + +87. *_It was an April Morn, &c._ [I.] + +Grasmere, 1800. This poem was suggested on the banks of the brook that +runs through Easedale, which is, in some parts of its course, as wild +and beautiful as brook can be. I have composed thousands of verses by +the side of it. + + +88. *'_May call it Emmas Dell'_ (I. 47). + +[In pencil, with reference to the last line is this--Emma's Dell--Who +was Emma?] + +89. *_To Joanna Hutchinson_. [II.] + +Grasmere, 1800. The effect of her laugh is an extravagance; though the +effect of the reverberation of voices in some parts of these mountains +is very striking. There is, in 'The Excursion,' an allusion to the bleat +of a lamb thus re-echoed and described, without any exaggeration, as I +heard it on the side of Stickle Tarn, from the precipice that stretches +on to Langdale Pikes. + +90. _Inscriptions_. + +In Cumberland and Westmoreland are several Inscriptions upon the native +rock, which, from the wasting of time, and the rudeness of the +workmanship, have been mistaken for Runic. They are without doubt Roman. +The Rotha mentioned in the poem is the River which, flowing through the +lakes of Grasmere and Ryedale, falls into Wynandermere. On Helmcrag, +that impressive single mountain at the head of the Vale of Grasmere, is +a rock which from most points of view bears a striking resemblance to an +old woman cowering. Close by this rock is one of those fissures or +caverns which in the language of the country are called dungeons. Most +of the mountains here mentioned immediately surround the Vale of +Grasmere; of the others, some are at a considerable distance, but they +belong to the same cluster. + + +91. *_There is an Eminence, &c._ [III.] + +1800. It is not accurate that the eminence here alluded to could be seen +from our orchard seat. It arises above the road by the side of Grasmere +Lake, towards Keswick, and its name is Stone Arthur. + + +92. *'_A narrow Girdle of rough Stones and Crags'_ [IV.] + + '----Point Kash Judgment' (last line). + +1800. The character of the eastern shore of Grasmere Lake is quite +changed since these verses were written, by the public road being +carried along its side. The friends spoken of were Coleridge and my +sister, and the fact occurred strictly as recorded. + + +93. *_To Mary Hutchinson_. [V.] + +Two years before our marriage. The pool alluded to is in Rydal Upper +Park. + + +94. *_When to the Attractions, &c._ [VI.] + +1805. The grove still exists; but the plantation has been walled in, and +is not so accessible as when my brother John wore the path in the manner +here described. The grove was a favourite haunt with us all while we +lived at Town-End. + + +95. _Captain Wordsworth_. + + 'When we, and others whom we love, shall meet + A second time, in Grasmere's happy Vale' (last lines). + +This wish was not granted; the lamented Person not long after perished +by shipwreck, in discharge of his duty as Commander of the Honourable +East India Company's Vessel, the Earl of Abergavenny. + + + + +V. POEMS OF THE FANCY. + + +96. *_A Morning Exercise_. [I.] + +Rydal Mount, 1825. I could wish the last five stanzas of this to be read +with the poem addressed to the Skylark. [No. 158.] + + +97. *_Birds_. + +'A feathered task-master cries, "Work away!" And, in thy iteration, +"Whip Poor Will!" Is heard the spirit of a toil-worn slave' (II. 15-17). + +See Waterton's _Wanderings in South America_. + + +98. *_A Flower-garden_. [II.] + +Planned by my friend Lady Beaumont in connexion with the garden at +Coleorton. + + +99. *_A Whirl-blast from behind the Hill_. [III.] + +Observed in the holly grove at Alfoxden, where these verses were written +in the spring of 1799. I had the pleasure of again seeing, with dear +friends, this Grove in unimpaired beauty forty-one years after. [The +'dear friends' were Mrs. Wordsworth, Miss Fenwick, Mr. and Mrs. +Quillinan, and Mr. William Wordsworth, May 18, 1841. _Memoirs_, i. 112.] + + +100. *_The Waterfall and the Eglantine_. [IV.] + +Suggested nearer to Grasmere on the same mountain track. The eglantine +remained many years afterwards, but is now gone. [In pencil on opposite +page--Mr. W. shewed me the place 1848. E.Q.] + +101. *_The Oak and the Broom; a Pastoral_. [V.] + +1800. Suggested upon the mountain pathway that leads from Upper Rydal to +Grasmere. The ponderous block of stone, which is mentioned in the poem, +remains, I believe, to this day, a good way up Nab-Scar. Broom grows +under it, and in many places on the side of the precipice. + + +102. *_To a Sexton_. [VI.] + +Written in Germany, 1799. + + +103. *_To the Daisy_. [VII.] + +This Poem, and two others to the same flower, were written in the year +1802; which is mentioned, because in some of the ideas, though not in +the manner in which those ideas are connected, and likewise even in some +of the expressions, there is a resemblance to passages in a Poem (lately +published) of Mr. [James] Montgomery's, entitled a 'Field Flower.' This +being said, Mr. Montgomery will not think any apology due to him; but I +cannot, however, help addressing him in the words of the Father of +English Poets: + + 'Though it happe me to rehersin + That ye han in your freshe songes saied, + Forberith me, and beth not ill apaied, + Sith that ye se I doe it in the honour + Of Love, and eke in service of the Flour.' + +1807. [Note.] See, in Chaucer and the older Poets, the honours formerly +paid to this flower. + + +104. *_To the same Flower_. [VIII.] + +'To the Daisy,' 'To the same Flower,' and 'The Green Linnet'--all +composed at Town-End Orchard, where the bird was often seen as here +described. + + +105. *_To the small Celandine_. [XI.] + +Grasmere, Town-End. It is remarkable that this flower coming out so +early in the spring as it does, and so bright and beautiful, and in such +profusion, should not have been noticed earlier in English verse. What +adds much to the interest that attends it, is its habit of shutting +itself up and opening out according to the degree of light and +temperature of the air. [In pencil on opposite page--Has not Chaucer +noticed it?] [Note.] Common Pilewort. + + +106. _The Seven Sisters_. + +The story of this Poem is from the German of Frederica Brun. + + +107. *_The Redbreast chasing the Butterfly_. [XV.] + +Observed as described in the then beautiful Orchard at Town-End. + + +108. *_Song for the Spinning-wheel_. [XVI.] + +1806. The belief on which this is founded I have often heard expressed +by an old neighbour of Grasmere. + + +109. *_Hint from the Mountains_. [XVII.] + +Bunches of fern may often be seen wheeling about in the wind, as here +described. The particular bunch that suggested these verses was noticed +in the Pass of Dunmail-Raise. The verses were composed in 1817, but the +application is for all times and places. + + +110. *_On seeing a Needle-case in the Form of a Harp_. [XVIII.] 1827. + + +111. *_The Contrast: the Parrot and the Wren_. + +This parrot belonged to Mrs. Luff while living at Fox-Ghyll. The wren +was one that haunted for many years the Summer-house between the two +terraces at Rydal Mount. [In pencil on opposite page--Addressed to +Dora.] + + +112. *_The Danish Boy_. [XXII.] + +Written in Germany, 1799. It was entirely a fancy; but intended as a +prelude to a ballad poem never written. + + +113. *_Song for the Wandering Jew_. [XXIII.] 1800. + + +114. *_Stray Pleasures_. [XXIV.] + +Suggested on the Thames by the sight of one of those floating mills that +used to be seen there. This I noticed on the Surrey side, between +Somerset House and Blackfriars Bridge. Charles Lamb was with me at the +time; and I thought it remarkable that I should have to point out to +_him_, an idolatrous Londoner, a sight so interesting as the happy group +dancing on the platform. Mills of this kind used to he, and perhaps +still are, not uncommon on the Continent. I noticed several upon the +river Saone in the year 1799; particularly near the town of Chalons, +where my friend Jones and I halted a day when we crossed France, so far +on foot. There we embarked and floated down to Lyons. + + +115. *_The Pilgrim's Dream; or the Star and the Glowworm_. [XXV.] + +I distinctly recollect the evening when these verses were suggested in +1818. It was on the road between Rydal and Grasmere, where glow-worms +abound. A star was shining above the ridge of Loughrigg Fell just +opposite. I remember a blockhead of a critic in some Review or other +crying out against this piece. 'What so monstrous,' said he, 'as to make +a star talk to a glowworm!' Poor fellow, we know well from this sage +observation what the 'primrose on the river's brim was to him.' + +Further--In writing to Coleridge he says: 'I parted from M---- on Monday +afternoon, about six o'clock, a little on this side Rushyford. Soon +after I missed my road in the midst of the storm.... Between the +beginning of Lord Darlington's park at Raby, and two or three miles +beyond Staindrop, I composed the poem on the opposite page ['The +Pilgrim's Dream,' &c.]. I reached Barnard Castle about half-past ten. +Between eight and nine evening I reached Eusemere.' [_Memoirs_, i. pp. +181-2.] + + +116. *_The Poet and the caged Turtle-dove_. [XXVI.] + +Rydal Mount, 1830. This dove was one of a pair that had been given to my +daughter by our excellent friend Miss Jewsbury, who went to India with +her husband Mr. Fletcher, where she died of cholera. The dove survived +its mate many years, and was killed, to our great sorrow, by a +neighbour's cat that got in at the window and dragged it partly out of +the cage. These verses were composed extempore, to the letter, in the +Terrace Summer-house before spoken of. It was the habit of the bird to +begin cooing and murmuring whenever it heard me making my verses. [In +pencil on opposite page--Dora.] + + +117. *_A Wren's Nest_. [XXVII.] + +In Dora's Field, 1833: Rydal Mount. This nest was built as described, in +a tree that grows near the pool in Dora's field next the Rydal Mount +Garden. + + +118. *_Love lies bleeding_. [XXVIII.] + +It has been said that the English, though their country has produced so +many great poets, is now the most unpoetical nation in Europe. It is +probably true; for they have more temptation to become so than any other +European people. Trade, commerce, and manufactures, physical science and +mechanic arts, out of which so much wealth has arisen, have made our +countrymen infinitely less sensible to movements of imagination and +fancy than were our forefathers in their simple state of society. How +touching and beautiful were in most instances the names they gave to our +indigenous flowers, or any other they were familiarly acquainted with! +Every month for many years have we been importing plants and flowers +from all quarters of the globe, many of which are spread through our +gardens, and some, perhaps, likely to be met with on the few commons +which we have left. Will their botanical names ever be displaced by +plain English appellations which will bring them home to our hearts by +connection with our joys and sorrows? It can never be, unless society +treads back her steps towards those simplicities which have been +banished by the undue influence of towns spreading and spreading in +every direction, so that city life with every generation takes more and +more the lead of rural. Among the ancients, villages were reckoned the +seats of barbarism. Refinement, for the most part false, increases the +desire to accumulate wealth; and, while theories of political economy +are boastfully pleading for the practice, inhumanity pervades all our +dealings in buying and selling. This selfishness wars against +disinterested imagination in all directions, and, evils coming round in +a circle, barbarism spreads in every quarter of our island. Oh, for the +reign of justice! and then the humblest man among us would have more +peace and dignity in and about him than the highest have now. + + +119. *_Rural Illusions_. [XXV.] + +Rydal Mount, 1832. Observed a hundred times in the grounds at Rydal +Mount. + + +120. *_The Kitten and the falling Leaves_. [XXXI.] + +1805. Seen at Town-End, Grasmere. The elder bush has long since +disappeared; it hung over the wall near the cottage, and the kitten +continued to leap up, catching the leaves as here described. The infant +was Dora. + + +121. _The Waggoner_. [XXXIII.] + +DEDICATION. + + 'In Cairo's crowded streets + The impatient Merchant, wondering, waits in vain, + And Mecca saddens at the long delay.' + + THOMSON. + + To CHARLES LAMB, ESQ. + + MY DEAR FRIEND, + +When I sent you, a few weeks ago, 'The Tale of Peter Bell,' you asked +'why "The Waggoner" was not added?'--To say the truth,--from the higher +tone of imagination, and the deeper touches of passion aimed at in the +former, I apprehended, this little Piece could not accompany it without +disadvantage. In the year 1806, if I am not mistaken, 'The Waggoner' was +read to you in manuscript, and, as you have remembered it for so long a +time, I am the more encouraged to hope that, since the localities on +which the Poem partly depends did not prevent its being interesting to +you, it may prove acceptable to others. Being therefore in some measure +the cause of its present appearance, you must allow me the gratification +of inscribing it to you; in acknowledgment of the pleasure I have +derived from your Writings, and of the high esteem with which I am very +truly yours, + + WILLIAM WORDSWORTH. +Rydal Mount, May 20, 1819. + + +122. *_The Waggoner_. + +Town-End, 1805. The character and story from fact. + + +123. _Benjamin 'the Waggoner.'_ + +Several years after the event that forms the subject of the Poem, in +company with my friend, the late Mr. Coleridge, I happened to fall in +with the person to whom the name of Benjamin is given. Upon our +expressing regret that we had not, for a long time, seen upon the road +either him or his waggon, he said:--'They could not do without me; and +as to the man who was put in my place, no good could come out of him; he +was a man of no _ideas_.' + +The fact of my discarded hero's getting the horses out of a difficulty +with a word, as related in the poem, was told me by an eye-witness. + + +124. _The Dor-Hawk_. + + 'The buzzing Dor-hawk round and round is wheeling' (c. i. l. 3). + +When the Poem was first written the note of the bird was thus +described:-- + + 'The Night-hawk is singing his frog-like tune, + Twirling his watchman's rattle about'-- + +but from unwillingness to startle the reader at the outset by so bold a +mode of expression, the passage was altered as it now stands. + + +125. _Helmcrag_ (c. i. l. 168). + +A mountain of Grasmere, the broken summit of which presents two figures, +full as distinctly shaped as that of the famous Cobbler near Arroquhar +in Scotland. + + +126. _Merrynight_ (c. ii. l. 30). + +A term well known in the North of England, and applied to rural +festivals where young persons meet in the evening for the purpose of +dancing. + + 'The fiddles squeak--that call to bliss' (c. ii. l. 97). + +At the close of each strathspey, or jig, a particular note from the +fiddle summons the Rustic to the agreeable duty of saluting his partner. + + +127. _Ghimmer-Crag _(c. iii. l. 21). + +The crag of the ewe-lamb. + + + + +VI. POEMS OF THE IMAGINATION. + +128. *_There was a Boy_. [I.] + +Written in Germany, 1799. This is an extract from the Poem on my own +poetical education. This practice of making an instrument of their own +fingers is known to most boys, though some are more skilful at it than +others. William Raincock of Rayrigg, a fine spirited lad, took the lead +of all my schoolfellows in this art. + + +129. *_To the Cuckoo_. [II.] Composed in the Orchard at Town-End, 1804. + + +130. *_A Night-piece_. [III.] + +Composed on the road between Nether Stowey and Alfoxden, extempore. I +distinctly remember the very moment when I was struck, as described, 'He +looks up at the clouds,' &c. + + +131. *_Yew-trees_. [V.] + +Grasmere, 1803. These Yew-trees are still standing, but the spread of +that at Lorton is much diminished by mutilation. I will here mention +that a little way up the hill on the road leading from Rossthwaite to +Stonethwaite lay the trunk of a yew-tree which appeared as you +approached, so vast was its diameter, like the entrance of a cave, and +not a small one. Calculating upon what I have observed of the slow +growth of this tree in rocky situations, and of its durability, I have +often thought that the one I am describing must have been as old as the +Christian era. The tree lay in the line of a fence. Great masses of its +ruins were strewn about, and some had been rolled down the hill-side and +lay near the road at the bottom. As you approached the tree you were +struck with the number of shrubs and young plants, ashes, &c. which had +found a bed upon the decayed trunk and grew to no inconsiderable height, +forming, as it were, a part of the hedgerow. In no part of England, or +of Europe, have I ever seen a yew-tree at all approaching this in +magnitude, as it must have stood. By the bye, Hutton, the Old Guide of +Keswick, had been so imprest with the remains of this tree that he used +gravely to tell strangers that there could be no doubt of its having +been in existence before the Flood. + + +132. *_Nutting_. [VI.] + +Written in Germany: intended as part of a poem on my own life, but +struck out as not being wanted there. Like most of my schoolfellows I +was an impassioned Nutter. For this pleasure the Vale of Esthwaite, +abounding in coppice wood, furnished a very wide range. These verses +arose out of the remembrance of feelings I had often had when a boy, and +particularly in the extensive woods that still stretch from the side of +Esthwaite Lake towards Graythwaite, the seat of the ancient family of +Sandys. + + +133. *_She was a Phantom of Delight_. [VIII.] + +1804. Town-End. The germ of this Poem was four lines composed as a part +of the verses on the Highland Girl. Though beginning in this way, it was +written from my heart, as is sufficiently obvious. + + +134. *_The Nightingale_. [IX.] + +Town-End, 1806. [So, but corrected in pencil 'Written at Coleorton.'] + + +135. *_Three Years she grew, &c._ [X.] + +1799. Composed in the Hartz Forest. [In pencil on opposite page--Who?] + + +136. _I wandered lonely as a Cloud_. [XII.] [= 'The Daffodils.'] + +Town-End, 1804. 'The Daffodils.' The two best lines in it are by Mary. +The daffodils grew and still grow on the margin of Ulswater, and +probably may be seen to this day as beautiful in the month of March +nodding their golden heads beside the dancing and foaming waves. [In +pencil on opposite page--Mrs. Wordsworth--but which? See the answer to +this, _infra_.] + + +137. _The Daffodils_. [xii.] + + Grasmere, Nov. 4. + +MT DEAR WRANGHAM, + +I am indeed much pleased that Mrs. Wrangham and yourself have been +gratified by these breathings of simple nature; the more so, because I +conclude from the character of the Poems which you have particularised +that the Volumes cannot but improve upon you. I see that you have +entered into the spirit of them. You mention 'The Daffodils.' You know +Butler, Montagu's friend: not Tom Butler, but the Conveyancer: when I +was in town in spring, he happened to see the Volumes lying on Montagu's +mantle-piece, and to glance his eye upon the very poem of 'The +Daffodils.' 'Aye,' says he, 'a fine morsel this for the Reviewers.' When +this was told me (for I was not present), I observed that there were +_two lines_ in that little poem which, if thoroughly felt, would +annihilate nine-tenths of the reviews of the kingdom, as they would find +no readers; the lines I alluded to were these: + + 'They flash upon that inward eye + Which is the bliss of solitude.' + +[These two lines were composed by Mrs. Wordsworth: _Memoirs_, i. 183-4.] + + +138. *_The Reverie of poor Susan_. [XIII.] + +Written 1801 or 1802. This arose out of my observations of the affecting +music of these birds, hanging in this way in the London streets during +the freshness and stillness of the Spring morning. + + +139. *_Power of Music_. [XIV.] + +Taken from life, 1806. + + +140. *_Star-gazers_. [XV.] Observed by me in Leicester Square, as here +described, 1806. + + +141. *_Written in March_. [XVI.] + +Extempore, 1801. This little poem was a favourite with Joanna Baillie. + + +142. *_Beggars_. [XVIII.] + +Town-End, 1802. Met and described by me to my sister near the Quarry at +the head of Rydal Lake--a place still a chosen resort of vagrants +travelling with their families. + + +143. *_Gipsies_. [XX.] + +Composed at Coleorton, 1807. I had observed them, as here described, +near Castle Donnington on my way to and from Derby. + + +144. *_Ruth_. + +Written in Germany, 1799. Suggested by an account I had of a wanderer in +Somersetshire. + + +145. *_Resolution and Independence_. [XXII.] + +Town-End, 1807. This old man I met a few hundred yards from my cottage +at Town-End, Grasmere; and the account of him is taken from his own +mouth. I was in the state of feeling described in the beginning of the +poem, while crossing over Barton Fell from Mr. Clarkson's at the foot of +Ullswater, towards Askham. The image of the hare I then observed on the +ridge of the Fell. + + +146. *_The Thorn_. [XXIII.] + +Alfoxden, 1798. Arose out of my observing on the ridge of Quantock Hill, +on a stormy day, a thorn, which I had often past in calm and bright +weather without noticing it. I said to myself, cannot I by some +invention do as much to make this Thorn permanently an impressive object +as the storm has made it to my eyes at this moment? I began the poem +accordingly, and composed it with great rapidity. Sir George Beaumont +painted a picture from it, which Wilkie thought his best. He gave it to +me; though, when he saw it several times at Rydal Mount afterwards, he +said, 'I could make a better, and would like to paint the same subject +over again.' The sky in this picture is nobly done, but it reminds one +too much of Wilson. The only fault however, of any consequence, is the +female figure, which is too old and decrepit for one likely to frequent +an eminence on such a call. + + +147. _Hart-Leap Well_. [XXIV.] + +Hart-Leap Well is a small spring of water, about five miles from +Richmond in Yorkshire, and near the side of the road that leads from +Richmond to Askrigg. Its name is derived from a remarkable Chase, the +memory of which is preserved by the monuments spoken of in the second +Part of the following Poem, which monuments do now exist as I have there +described them. + + +148. _Ibid._ + +Town-End, 1800. The first eight stanzas were composed extempore one +winter evening in the cottage; when, after having tired and disgusted +myself with labouring at an awkward passage in 'The Brothers,' I started +with a sudden impulse to this, to get rid of the other, and finished it +in a day or two. My sister and I had past the place a few weeks before +in our wild winter journey from Sockburn on the banks of the Tees to +Grasmere. A peasant whom we met near the spot told us the story, so far +as concerned the name of the well, and the hart, and pointed out the +stones. Both the stones and the well are objects that may easily be +missed: the tradition by this time may be extinct in the neighbourhood: +the man who related it to us was very old. + +[In pencil on opposite page--See Dryden's dog and hare in _Annus +Mirabilis_.] + + +149. _Song at the Feast of Brougham Castle_. [XXV.] + +Henry Lord Clifford, &c. &c., who is the subject of this Poem, was the +son of John Lord Clifford, who was slain at Towton Field, which John +Lord Clifford, as is known to the reader of English history, was the +person who after the battle of Wakefield slew, in the pursuit, the young +Earl of Rutland, son of the Duke of York, who had fallen in the battle, +'in part of revenge' (say the Authors of the _History of Cumberland and +Westmoreland_); 'for the Earl's father had slain his.' A deed which +worthily blemished the author (saith Speed); but who, as he adds, 'dare +promise anything temperate of himself in the heat of martial fury? +chiefly, when it was resolved not to leave any branch of the York line +standing; for so one maketh this Lord to speak.' This, no doubt, I would +observe by the bye, was an action sufficiently in the vindictive spirit +of the times, and yet not altogether so bad as represented; 'for the +Earl was no child, as some writers would have him, but able to bear +arms, being sixteen or seventeen years of age, as is evident from this, +(say the _Memoirs of the Countess of Pembroke_, who was laudably anxious +to wipe away, as far as could be, this stigma from the illustrious name +to which she was born,) that he was the next child to King Edward the +Fourth, which his mother had by Richard Duke of York, and that King was +then eighteen years of age: and for the small distance betwixt her +children, see Austin Vincent, in his _Book of Nobility_, p. 622, where +he writes of them all. It may further he observed, that Lord Clifford, +who was then himself only 25 years of age, had been a leading man and +commander, two or three years together in the army of Lancaster, before +this time; and, therefore, would be less likely to think that the Earl +of Rutland might be entitled to mercy from his youth.--But, independent +of this act, at best a cruel and savage one, the Family of Clifford had +done enough to draw upon them the vehement hatred of the House of York: +so that after the battle of Towton there was no hope for them but in +flight and concealment. Henry, the subject of the poem, was deprived of +his estate and honours during the space of twenty-four years; all which +time he lived as a shepherd in Yorkshire, or in Cumberland, where the +estate of his father-in-law (Sir Lancelot Threlkeld) lay. He was +restored to his estate and honours in the first year of Henry the +Seventh. It is recorded that, 'when called to Parliament, he behaved +nobly and wisely; but otherwise came seldom to London or the Court; and +rather delighted to live in the country, where he repaired several of +his castles, which had gone to decay during the late troubles.' Thus far +is chiefly collected from Nicholson and Burn; and I can add, from my own +knowledge, that there is a tradition current in the village of Threlkeld +and its neighbourhood, his principal retreat, that, in the course of his +shepherd-life, he had acquired great astronomical knowledge. I cannot +conclude this note without adding a word upon the subject of those +numerous and noble feudal Edifices, spoken of in the Poem, the ruins of +some of which are, at this day, so great an ornament to that interesting +country. The Cliffords had always been distinguished for an honourable +pride in these Castles; and we have seen that after the wars of York and +Lancaster they were rebuilt; in the civil wars of Charles the First they +were again laid waste, and again restored almost to their former +magnificence by the celebrated Mary Anne Clifford, Countess of Pembroke, +&c. &c. Not more than twenty-five years after this was done, when the +estates of Clifford had passed into the family of Tufton, three of these +castles, namely, Brough, Brougham, and Pendragon, were demolished, and +the timber and other materials sold by Thomas Earl of Thanet. We will +hope that, when this order was issued, the Earl had not consulted the +text of Isaiah, 58th chap. 12th verse, to which the inscription placed +over the gate of Pendragon Castle, by the Countess of Pembroke (I +believe his grandmother), at the time she repaired that structure, +refers the reader:--'_And they that shall be of thee shall build the old +waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; +and thou shalt be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of +paths to dwell in_.' The Earl of Thanet, the present possessor of the +estates, with a due respect for the memory of his ancestors, and a +proper sense of the value and beauty of these remains of antiquity, has +(I am told) given orders that they shall be preserved from all +depredations. + + +150. *_Ibid._ + +See the note attached. This poem was composed at Coleorton, while I was +walking to and fro along the path that led from Sir George Beaumont's +farm-house, where we resided, to the Hall, which was building at that +time. + + +151. _Sir John Beaumont_. + + 'Earth helped him with the cry of blood' (l. 27). + +This line is from 'The Battle of Bosworth Field,' by Sir John Beaumont +(brother to the dramatist), whose poems are written with much spirit, +elegance, and harmony; and have deservedly been reprinted in Chalmers' +_Collection of English Poets_. + + +152. _The undying Fish of Bowscale Tarn_ (l. 122). + +It is believed by the people of the country that there are two immortal +fish, inhabitants of this Tarn, which lies in the mountains not far from +Threlkeld--Blencathara, mentioned before, is the old and proper name of +the mountain vulgarly called Saddle-back. + + +153. _The Cliffords_. + + 'Armour rusting in his Halls + On the blood of Clifford calls' (ll. 142-3). + +The martial character of the Cliffords is well known to the readers of +English history; but it may not be improper here to say, by way of +comment on these lines and what follows, that besides several others who +perished in the same manner, the four immediate Progenitors of the +Person in whose hearing this is supposed to be spoken all died on the +Field. + + +154. *_Tintern Abbey_. [XXVI.] + +July 1798. No poem of mine was composed under circumstances more +pleasant for me to remember than this. I began it upon leaving Tintern, +after crossing the Wye, and concluded it just as I was entering Bristol +in the evening, after a ramble of four or five days with my sister. Not +a line of it was altered, and not any part of it written down till I +reached Bristol. It was published almost immediately after in the little +volume of which so much has been said in these notes, the 'Lyrical +Ballads,' as first published at Bristol by Cottle. + + +155. *_It is no Spirit, &c._ [XXVII.] + +1803. Town-End. I remember the instant my sister Sarah Hutchinson called +me to the window of our cottage saying, 'Look, how beautiful is yon +star! It has the sky all to itself.' I composed the verses immediately. + + +156. _French Revolution_. [XXVIII.] + +An extract from the long poem on my own poetical education. It was first +published by Coleridge in his _Friend_, which is the reason of its +having had a place in every edition of my poems since. + + +157. *_Yes, it was the Mountain Echo_. [XXIX.] + +Town-End, 1806. The Echo came from Nabscar, when I was walking on the +opposite side of Rydal Mere. I will here mention, for my dear sister's +sake, that while she was sitting alone one day, high up on this part of +Loughrigg Fell, she was so affected by the voice of the cuckoo, heard +from the crags at some distance, that she could not suppress a wish to +have a stone inscribed with her name among the rocks from which the +sound proceeded. On my return from my walk I recited those verses to +Mary, who was then confined with her son Thomas, who died in his seventh +year, as recorded on his headstone in Grasmere Churchyard. + + +158. _To a Skylark_. [XXX.] + +Rydal Mount, 1825. [In pencil--Where there are no skylarks; but the poet +is everywhere.] + + +159. *_Laodamia_. [XXXI.] + +Rydal Mount, 1814. Written at the same time as 'Dion,' and 'Artegal,' +and 'Elidure.' The incident of the trees growing and withering put the +subject into my thoughts, and I wrote with the hope of giving it a +loftier tone than, so far as I know, has been given it by any of the +ancients who have treated of it. It cost me more trouble than almost +anything of equal length I have ever written. + + +160. _Withered Trees_ (foot-note). + + 'The trees' tall summits withered at the sight' (l. 73). + +For the account of long-lived trees, see King's [_Natural_] _History_, +lib. xvi. cap. 44; and for the features in the character of Protesilaus, +see the _Iphigenia in Aulis_ of Euripides. + + +161. *_Dion_. [XXXII.] + +This poem was first introduced by a stanza that I have since transferred +to the notes, for reasons there given; and I cannot comply with the +request expressed by some of my friends, that the rejected stanza should +be restored. I hope they will be content if it be hereafter immediately +attached to the poem, instead of its being degraded to a place in the +notes. + +The 'reasons' (_supra_) are thus given: This poem began with the +following stanza, which has been displaced on account of its detaining +the reader too long from the subject, and as rather precluding, than +preparing for, the due effect of the allusion to the genius of Plato. + + +162. _Fair is the Swan, &c._ [XXXIII.] (See _supra_, 161.) + + +163. *_The Pass of Kirkstone_. + +Rydal Mount, 1817. Thoughts and feelings of many walks in all weathers +by day and night over this Pass alone, and with beloved friends. + + +164. *_To_ ----. [XXXV.] + +Rydal Mount, 1816. The lady was Miss Blackett, then residing with Mr. +Montague Burgoyne, at Fox-Ghyll. We were tempted to remain too long upon +the mountain, and I imprudently, with the hope of shortening the way, +led her among the crags and down a steep slope, which entangled us in +difficulties, that were met by her with much spirit and courage. + + +165. *_To a Young Lady_. [XXXVI.] + +Composed at the same time, and on the same vein, as 'I met Louisa in the +Shade.' Indeed they were designed to make one piece. [See No. 52.] + + +166. *_Water-fowl_. [XXXVII.] + +Observed frequently over the lakes of Rydal and Grasmere. + + +167. *_View from the Top of Black Comb_. [XXXVIII.] + +1813. Mary and I, as mentioned in the Epistle to Sir G. Beaumont, lived +some time under its shadow. + + +168. *_The Haunted Tree_. [XXXIX.] + +1819. This tree grew in the park of Rydal, and I have often listened to +its creaking as described. + + +169. *_The Triad_. [XL.] + +'Rydal Mount, 1828. The girls Edith Mary Southey, my daughter Dora, and +Sarah Coleridge.' More fully on this and others contemporaneously +written, is the following letter: + + To G.H. GORDON, ESQ. + Rydal Mount, Dec. 15, 1828. + +How strange that any one should be puzzled with the name 'Triad' _after_ +reading the poem! I have turned to Dr. Johnson, and there find '_Triad, +three united_,' and not a word more, as nothing more was needed. I +should have been rather mortified if _you_ had not liked the piece, as I +think it contains some of the happiest verses I ever wrote. It had been +promised several years to two of the party before a fancy fit for the +performance struck me; it was then thrown off rapidly, and afterwards +revised with care. During the last week I wrote some stanzas on the +_Power of Sound_, which ought to find a place in my larger work if aught +should ever come of that. + +In the book on the Lakes, which I have not at hand, is a passage rather +too vaguely expressed, where I content myself with saying, that after a +certain point of elevation the effect of mountains depends much more +upon their form than upon their absolute height. This point, which ought +to have been defined, is the one to which fleecy clouds (not thin watery +vapours) are accustomed to descend. I am glad you are so much interested +with this little tract; it could not have been written without long +experience. + + I remain, most faithfully, + Your much obliged, + WILLIAM WORDSWORTH. + + +170. _The Wishing-gate_. [XLI.] + +In the Vale of Grasmere, by the side of the old highway leading to +Ambleside, is a gate which, time out of mind, has been called the +'Wishing-gate,' from a belief that wishes formed or indulged there have +a favourable issue. + + +171. _The Wishing-gate destroyed_. + +Having been told, upon what I thought good authority, that this gate had +been destroyed, and the opening, where it hung, walled up, I gave vent +immediately to my feelings in these stanzas. But going to the place some +time after, I found, with much delight, my old favourite unmolested. +[*Rydal Mount, 1828.] + + +172. *_The Primrose of the Rock_. [XLIII.] + +Rydal Mount, 1821. It stands on the right hand, a little way leading up +the vale from Grasmere to Rydal. We have been in the habit of calling it +the glow-worm rock, from the number of glow-worms we have often seen +hanging on it as described. The tuft of primrose has, I fear, been +washed away by heavy rains. + + +173. *_Presentiments_. [XLIV.] + +Rydal Mount, 1830. + + +174. *_Vernal Ode_. [XLV.] + +Rydal Mount, 1817. Composed to place in view the immortality of +succession where immortality is denied, so far as we know, to the +individual creature. + + +175. *_Devotional Incitements_. [XLVI.] + +Rydal Mount, 1832. + + +176. *_The Cuckoo-Clock_. [XLVII.] + +Of this clock I have nothing further to say than what the poem +expresses, except that it must be here recorded that it was a present +from the dear friend for whose sake these notes were chiefly undertaken, +and who has written them from my dictation. + + +177. *_To the Clouds_. [XLVIII.] + +These verses were suggested while I was walking on the foot-road between +Rydal Mount and Grasmere. The clouds were driving over the top of +Nab-Scar across the vale; they set my thoughts agoing, and the rest +followed almost immediately. + + +178. *_Suggested by a Picture of the Bird of Paradise_. [XLIX.] + +This subject has been treated of before (see a former note). I will here +only, by way of comment, direct attention to the fact, that pictures of +animals and other productions of Nature, as seen in conservatories, +menageries and museums, &c., would do little for the national mind, nay, +they would be rather injurious to it, if the imagination were excluded +by the presence of the object, more or less out of the state of Nature. +If it were not that we learn to talk and think of the lion and the +eagle, the palm-tree, and even the cedar, from the impassioned +introduction of them so frequently in Holy Scripture, and by great +poets, and divines who write as poets, the spiritual part of our nature, +and therefore the higher part of it, would derive no benefit from such +intercourse with such subjects. + + +179. *_A Jewish Family_. [L.] + +Coleridge and my daughter and I in 1828 passed a fortnight upon the +banks of the Rhine, principally under the hospitable roof of Mr. Aders +at Gotesburg, but two days of the time were spent at St. Goa or in +rambles among the neighbouring vallies. It was at St. Goa that I saw the +Jewish family here described. Though exceedingly poor, and in rags, they +were not less beautiful than I have endeavoured to make them appear. We +had taken a little dinner with us in a basket, and invited them to +partake of it, which the mother refused to do both for herself and her +children, saying it was with them a fast-day; adding diffidently, that +whether such observances were right or wrong, _she_ felt it her duty to +keep them strictly. The Jews, who are numerous in this part of the +Rhine, greatly surpass the German peasantry in the beauty of their +features and in the intelligence of their countenances. But the lower +classes of the German peasantry have, here at least, the air of people +grievously opprest. Nursing mothers at the age of seven or eight and +twenty often look haggard and far more decayed and withered than women +of Cumberland and Westmoreland twice their age. This comes from being +under-fed and over-worked in their vineyards in a hot and glaring sun. +[In pencil on opposite page--The three went from my house in +Bryanston-street, London--E.Q.] + + +180. *_On the Power of Sound_. [LI.] + +Rydal Mount, 1828. I have often regretted that my tour in Ireland, +chiefly performed in the short days of October in a carriage and four (I +was with Mr. Marshall), supplied my memory with so few images that were +new and with so little motive to write. The lines, however, in this +poem, 'Thou too he heard, lone eagle!' &c., were suggested near the +Giant's Causeway, or rather at the promontory of Fairhead, where a pair +of eagles wheeled above our heads, and darted off as if to hide +themselves in a blaze of sky made by the setting sun. + + +181. _Peter Bell: a Tale_. + + DEDICATION. + 'What's in a _Name_?' + 'Brutus will start a Spirit as soon as Caesar!' + + To ROBERT SOUTHEY, ESQ., P.L., ETC., ETC. +MY DEAR FRIEND, + +The Tale of 'Peter Bell,' which I now introduce to your notice, and to +that of the Public, has, in its Manuscript state, nearly survived its +_minority_:--for it first saw the light in the summer of 1798. During +this long interval, pains have been taken at different times to make the +production less unworthy of a favourable reception; or, rather, to fit +it for filling _permanently_ a station, however humble, in the +Literature of our Country. This has, indeed, been the aim of all my +endeavours in Poetry, which, you know, have been sufficiently laborious +to prove that I deem the Art not lightly to be approached; and that the +attainment of excellence in it may laudably be made the principal object +of intellectual pursuit by any man who, with reasonable consideration of +circumstances, has faith in his own impulses. + +The Poem of 'Peter Bell,' as the Prologue will show, was composed under +a belief that the Imagination not only does not require for its exercise +the intervention of supernatural agency, but that, though such agency be +excluded, the faculty may be called forth as imperiously and for kindred +results of pleasure, by incidents, within the compass of poetic +probability, in the humblest departments of daily life. Since that +Prologue was written, _you_ have exhibited most splendid effects of +judicious daring, in the opposite and usual course. Let this +acknowledgment make my peace with the lovers of the supernatural; and I +am persuaded it will be admitted that to you, as a Master in that +province of the art, the following Tale, whether from contrast or +congruity, is not an inappropriate offering. Accept it, then, as a +public testimony of affectionate admiration from one with whose name +yours has been often coupled (to use your own words) for evil and for +good; and believe me to be, with earnest wishes that life and health may +be granted you to complete the many important works in which you are +engaged, and with high respect, + + Most faithfully yours, + WILLIAM WORDSWORTH. +Rydal Mount, April 7, 1819. + + +182. _Peter Bell: the Poem_. + +Alfoxden, 1798. Founded upon an anecdote which I read in a newspaper, of +an ass being found hanging his head over a canal in a wretched posture. +Upon examination a dead body was found in the water, and proved to be +the body of its master. The countenance, gait, and figure of Peter were +taken from a wild rover with whom I walked from Builth, on the river +Wye, downwards, nearly as far as the town of Hay. He told me strange +stories. It has always been a pleasure to me, through life, to catch at +every opportunity that has occurred in my rambles of becoming acquainted +with this class of people. The number of Peter's wives was taken from +the trespasses, in this way, of a lawless creature who lived in the +county of Durham, and used to be attended by many women, sometimes not +less than half a dozen, as disorderly as himself; and a story went in +the country, that he had been heard to say while they were quarrelling, +'Why can't you be quiet, there's none so many of you.' Benoni, or the +child of sorrow, I knew when I was a school-boy. His mother had been +deserted by a gentleman in the neighbourhood, she herself being a +gentlewoman by birth. The circumstances of her story were told me by my +dear old dame, Ann Tyson, who was her confidante. The lady died +broken-hearted. In the woods of Alfoxden I used to take great delight in +noticing the habits, tricks, and physiognomy of asses; and I have no +doubt that I was thus put upon writing the poem out of liking for the +creature that is so often dreadfully abused. The crescent moon, which +makes such a figure in the prologue, assumed this character one evening +while I was watching its beauty in front of Alfoxden House. I intended +this poem for the volume before spoken of, but it was not published for +more than twenty years afterwards. The worship of the Methodists, or +Ranters, is often heard during the stillness of the summer evening, in +the country, with affecting accompaniments of rural beauty. In both the +psalmody and voice of the preacher there is, not unfrequently, much +solemnity likely to impress the feelings of the rudest characters under +favourable circumstances. + +_Potter_ (foot-note). + + 'A Potter, Sir, he was by trade' (Pt. I. l. 11). + +In the dialect of the North, a hawker of earthenware is thus designated. + + + + +VII. MISCELLANEOUS SONNETS. + +PART I. + + +183. *_Commencement of writing of Sonnets_. + +In the cottage of Town-End, one afternoon in 1801, my sister read to me +the sonnets of Milton. I had long been well acquainted with them, but I +was particularly struck on that occasion with the dignified simplicity +and majestic harmony that runs through most of them--in character so +totally different from the Italian, and still more so from Shakespeare's +fine sonnets. I took fire, if I may be allowed to say so, and produced +three sonnets the same afternoon--the first I ever wrote, except an +irregular one at school. Of these three, the only one I distinctly +remember is 'I grieved for Buonaparte,' &c. One was never written down; +the third, which was I believe preserved, I cannot particularise. + + +184. _Admonition_. + + 'Well mays't thou halt,' &c. [II.] + +Intended more particularly for the perusal of those who have happened to +be enamoured of some beautiful place of retreat in the Country of the +Lakes. + + +185. *_Sonnet_ IV. + + 'Beaumont! it was thy wish,' &c. + +This was presented to me by Sir George Beaumont, with a view to the +erection of a house upon it, for the sake of being near to Coleridge, +then living, and likely to remain, at Greta Hall, near Keswick. The +severe necessities that prevented this arose from his domestic +situation. This little property, with a considerable addition that still +leaves it very small, lies beautifully upon the banks of a rill that +gurgles down the side of Skiddaw; and the orchard and other parts of the +grounds command a magnificent prospect of Derwent Water, the Mountains +of Borrowdale and Newlands. Not many years ago I gave the place to my +daughter. [In pencil on opposite page in Mrs. Quillinan's +handwriting--Many years ago, sir, for it was given when she was a frail +feeble monthling.] + + +186. *_Sonnet_ VI. + + 'There is a little unpretending rill.' + +This rill trickles down the hill-side into Windermere near Lowood. My +sister and I, on our first visit together to this part of the country, +walked from Kendal, and we rested to refresh ourselves by the side of +the Lake where the streamlet falls into it. This sonnet was written some +years after in recollection of that happy ramble, that most happy day +and hour. + + +187. *_Sonnet_ VIII. + + 'The fairest, brightest hues,' &c. + +Suggested at Hackett, which is the craggy ridge that rises between the +two Langdales, and looks towards Windermere. The cottage of Hackett was +often visited by us; and at the time when this sonnet was written, and +long after, was occupied by the husband and wife described in 'The +Excursion,' where it is mentioned that she was in the habit of walking +in the front of the dwelling with a light to guide her husband home at +night. The same cottage is alluded to in the Epistle to Sir G. Beaumont +as that from which the female peasant hailed us on our morning journey. +The musician mentioned in the sonnet was the Rev. P. Tilbrook of +Peterhouse, who remodelled the Ivy Cottage at Rydal after he had +purchased it. + +188. '_The Genius_.' + + 'Such strains of rapture as the Genius played.' + +See the 'Vision of Mirza' in the _Spectator_. + +189. *_Sonnet_ IX. + +Upon the sight of a beautiful picture. + +This was written when we dwelt in the Parsonage at Grasmere. The +principal features of the picture are Bredon Hill and Cloud Hill, near +Coleorton. I shall never forget the happy feeling with which my heart +was filled when I was impelled to compose this sonnet. We resided only +two years in this house; and during the last half of this time, which +was after this poem had been written, we lost our two children, Thomas +and Catherine. Our sorrow upon these events often brought it to my mind, +and cast me upon the support to which the last line of it gives +expression: + + 'The appropriate calm of blest eternity.' + +It is scarcely necessary to add that we still possess the picture. + + +190. *_Sonnet_ XI. + +Aerial Rock. + +A projecting point of Loughrigg, nearly in front of Rydal Mount. Thence +looking at it, you are struck with the boldness of its aspect; but +walking under it, you admire the beauty of its details. It is vulgarly +called Holme-scar, probably from the insulated pasture by the waterside +below it. + + +191. *_Sonnet_ XV. + +The Wild Duck's Nest. + +I observed this beautiful nest on the largest island of Rydal Water. + + +192. *_Sonnet_ XIX. + + 'Grief thou hast lost,' &c. + +I could write a treatise of lamentation upon the changes brought about +among the cottages of Westmoreland by the silence of the spinning-wheel. +During long winter's nights and wet days, the wheel upon which wool was +spun gave employment to a great part of a family. The old man, however +infirm, was able to card the wool, as he sate in the corner by the +fireside; and often, when a boy, have I admired the cylinders of carded +wool which were softly laid upon each other by his side. Two wheels were +often at work on the same floor, and others of the family, chiefly the +little children, were occupied in teazing and clearing the wool to fit +it for the hand of the carder. So that all, except the infants, were +contributing to mutual support: Such was the employment that prevailed +in the pastoral vales. Where wool was not at hand, in the small rural +towns, the wheel for spinning flax was almost in as constant use, if +knitting was not preferred; which latter occupation had the advantage +(in some cases disadvantage) that not being of necessity stationary, it +allowed of gossiping about from house to house, which good housewives +reckoned an idle thing. + + +193. *_Sonnet_ XXII. + +Decay of Piety. + +Attendance at church on prayer-days, Wednesdays and Fridays and +holidays, received a shock at the Revolution. It is now, however, +happily reviving. The ancient people described in this sonnet were among +the last of that pious class. May we hope that the practice now in some +degree renewed will continue to spread. + + +194. *_Sonnets_ XXIV. XXV. XXVI. + +Translations from Michael Angelo, done at the request of Mr. Duppa, +whose acquaintance I made through Mr. Southey. Mr. Duppa was engaged in +writing the life of Michael Angelo, and applied to Mr. Southey and +myself to furnish some specimens of his poetic genius. + + +195. *_Sonnet_ XXVII. + + 'Surprised by joy,' &c. + +This was in fact suggested by my daughter Catherine long after her +death. + + +196. *_Sonnets_ XXVIII. XXIX. + + 'Methought I saw,' &c. 'Even so for me,' &c. + +The latter part of the first of these was a great favourite with my +sister, Sara Hutchinson. When I saw her lying in death, I could not +resist the impulse to compose the sonnet that follows. + + +197. *_Sonnet_ XXX. + + 'It is a beauteous evening,' &c. + +This was composed on the beach near Calais, in the autumn of 1802. + + +198. *_Sonnet_ XXXVI. + + 'Calvert! it must not be,' &c. + +This young man, Raisley Calvert, to whom I was so much indebted, died at +Penrith, 179-. + + + * * * * * + + +PART II. + + +199. *_Sonnet_ IV. + + 'From the dark chambers,' &c. + +Composed in Edinburgh, during my Scotch tour with Mary and Sara, in the +year 1814. Poor Gillies never rose above the course of extravagance in +which he was at that time living, and which soon reduced him to poverty +and all its degrading shifts, mendicity being far from the worst. I +grieve whenever I think of him; for he was far from being without +genius, and had a generous heart--which is not always to be found in men +given up to profusion. He was nephew of Lord Gillies, the Scotch judge, +and also of the historian of Greece. He was cousin of Miss Margaret +Gillies, who painted so many portraits with success in our house. + + +200. *_Sonnet_ V. + +'Fool, prime of life,' &c. + +Suggested by observation of the way in which a young friend, whom I do +not choose to name, misspent his time and misapplied his talents. He +took afterwards a better course, and became an useful member of society, +respected, I believe, wherever he has been known. + + +201. *_Sonnet_ VI. + +'I watch, and long have watched,' &c. + +Suggested in front of Rydal Mount, the rocky parapet being the summit of +Loughrigg Fell opposite. Not once only but a hundred times have the +feelings of this sonnet been awakened by the same objects from the same +place. + + +202. _Sonnet_ VII. + +'The ungenial Hollow.' + +See the 'Phaedon' of Plato, by which this sonnet was suggested. + + +203. _Sonnet_ VIII. + +'For the whole weight,' &c. + +Composed, almost extempore, in a short walk on the western side of Rydal +Lake. + + +204. *_Sonnet_ X. + +'Mark the concentred hazels,' &c. + +Suggested in the wild hazel-wood at foot of Helm-Crag, where the stone +still lies, with others of like form and character, though much of the +wood that veiled it from the glare of day has been felled. This +beautiful ground was lately purchased by our friend, Mrs. Fletcher, the +ancient owners, most respected persons, being obliged to part with it in +consequence of the imprudence, if not misconduct, of a son. It is +gratifying to mention that instead of murmuring and repining at this +change of fortune they offered their services to Mrs. Fletcher, the +husband as an out-door labourer and the wife as a domestic servant. I +have witnessed the pride and pleasure with which the man worked at +improvements of the ground round the house. Indeed he expressed them to +me himself, and the countenance and manner of his wife always denoted +feelings of the same character. I believe a similar disposition to +contentment under change of fortune is common among the class to which +these good people belong. Yet, in proof that to part with their +patrimony is most painful to them, I may refer to those stanzas entitled +'Repentance,' no inconsiderable part of which was taken _verbatim_ from +the language of the speaker himself. [In pencil--Herself, M.N.] + + +205. *_Sonnet_ XI. + +'Dark and more dark,' &c. + +October 3d or 4th, 1802. Composed after a journey over the Hambleton +Hills, on a day memorable to me--the day of my marriage. The horizon +commanded by those hills is most magnificent. + +The next day, while we were travelling in a post-chaise up Wensley Dale, +we were stopt by one of the horses proving restiff, and were obliged to +wait two hours in a severe storm before the post-boy could fetch from +the Inn another to supply its place. The spot was in front of Bolton +Hall, where Mary Queen of Scots was kept prisoner soon after her +unfortunate landing at Workington. The place then belonged to the +Scroopes, and memorials of her are yet preserved there. To beguile the +time I composed a sonnet. The subject was our own confinement contrasted +with hers; but it was not thought worthy of being preserved. + + +206. *_Sonnet_ XIII. + +'While not a leaf,' &c. + +September 1815. 'For me, who under kindlier laws,' &c. (l. 9). This +conclusion has more than once, to my great regret, excited painfully sad +feelings in the hearts of young persons fond of poetry and poetic +composition by contrast of their feeble and declining health with that +state of robust constitution which prompted me to rejoice in a season of +frost and snow as more favourable to the Muses than summer itself. + + +207. *_Sonnet_ XIV. + +'How clear, how keen,' &c. + +November 1st. Suggested on the banks of the Brathay by the sight of +Langdale Pikes. It is delightful to remember those moments of +far-distant days, which probably would have been forgotten if the +impression had not been transferred to verse. The same observation +applies to the rest. + + +208. *_Sonnet_ XV. + +One who was suffering,' &c. + +Composed during a storm in Rydal Wood by the side of a torrent. + + +209. *_Sonnet_ XVIII. + +'Lady, the songs of Spring,' &c. + +1807. To Lady Beaumont. The winter garden of Coleorton, fashioned out of +an old quarry under the superintendence and direction of Mrs. Wordsworth +and my sister Dorothy, during the Winter and Spring of the year we +resided there. + + +210. *_Sonnet_ XIX. + +'There is a pleasure,' &c. + +Written on a journey from Brinsop Court, Herefordshire. + + +211. *_Sonnet_ XXIX. + +'Though narrow,' &c. + +1807. Coleorton. This old man's name was Mitchell. He was, in all his +ways and conversation, a great curiosity, both individually and as a +representative of past times. His chief employment was keeping watch at +night by pacing round the house at that time building, to keep off +depredators. He has often told me gravely of having seen the 'Seven +Whistlers and the Hounds' as here described. Among the groves of +Coleorton, where I became familiar with the habits and notions of old +Mitchell, there was also a labourer of whom I regret I had no personal +knowledge; for, more than forty years after, when he was become an old +man, I learnt that while I was composing verses, which I usually did +aloud, he took much pleasure, unknown to me, in following my steps, that +he might catch the words I uttered, and, what is not a little +remarkable, several lines caught in this way kept their place in his +memory. My volumes have lately been given to him, by my informant, and +surely he must have been gratified to meet in print his old +acquaintance. + + +212. *_Sonnet_ XXX. 'Four fiery steeds,' &c. + +Suggested on the road between Preston and Lancaster, where it first +gives a view of the Lake country, and composed on the same day, on the +roof of the coach. + + +213. *_Sonnet_ XXXI. 'Brook! whose society,' &c. + +Also composed on the roof of a coach, on my way to France, September +1802. + + +214. *_Sonnets_ XXXIII.-V. 'Waters.' + +Waters (as Mr. Westall informs us in the letter-press prefixed to his +admirable views [of the Caves, &c. of Yorkshire]) are invariably found +to flow through these caverns. + + * * * * * + + + + +PART III + + +215. *_Sonnet_ IV. 'Fame tells of Groves,' &c. + +Wallachia is the country alluded to. + + +216. *_Sonnet_ VII. 'Where lively ground,' &c. + +This parsonage was the residence of my friend Jones, and is particularly +described in another note. + + +217. *_Sonnet_ IX. 'A stream to mingle,' &c. + +In this Vale of Meditation ['Glen Mywr'] my friend Jones resided, having +been allowed by his Diocesan to fix himself there without resigning his +living in Oxfordshire. He was with my wife and daughter and me when we +visited these celebrated ladies, who had retired, as one may say, into +notice in this vale. Their cottage lay directly in the road between +London and Dublin, and they were, of course, visited by their Irish +friends as well as innumerable strangers. They took much delight in +passing jokes on our friend Jones's plumpness, ruddy cheeks, and smiling +countenance, as little suited to a hermit living in the Vale of +Meditation. We all thought there was ample room for retort on his part, +so curious was the appearance of these ladies, so elaborately +sentimental about themselves and their _caro Albergo_, as they named it +in an inscription on a tree that stood opposite, the endearing epithet +being preceded by the word _Ecco_! calling upon the saunterer to look +about him. So oddly was one of these ladies attired that we took her, at +a little distance, for a Roman Catholic priest, with a crucifix and +relics hung at his neck. They were without caps; their hair bushy and +white as snow, which contributed to the mistake. + + +218. _Sonnet_ XI. In the Woods of Rydal. + +This Sonnet, as Poetry, explains itself, yet the scene of the incident +having been a wild wood, it may be doubted, as a point of natural +history, whether the bird was aware that his attentions were bestowed +upon a human, or even a living creature. But a Redbreast will perch upon +the foot of a gardener at work, and alight on the handle of the spade +when his hand is half upon it. This I have seen. And under my own roof I +have witnessed affecting instances of the creature's friendly visits to +the chambers of sick persons, as described in the verses to the +Redbreast [No. 83]. One of these welcome intruders used frequently to +roost upon a nail in the wall, from which a picture had hung, and was +ready, as morning came, to pipe his song in the hearing of the invalid, +who had been long confined to her room. These attachments to a +particular person, when marked and continued, used to be reckoned +ominous; but the superstition is passing away. + + +219. *_Sonnet_ XIII. 'While Anna's peers,' &c. + +This is taken from the account given by Miss Jewsbury of the pleasure +she derived, when long confined to her bed by sickness, from the +inanimate object on which this Sonnet turns. + +220. *_Sonnet_ XV. 'Wait, prithee wait,' &c. + +The fate of this poor dove, as described, was told to me at Brinsop +Court by the young lady to whom I have given the name of Lesbia. + + +221. *_Sonnet_ XVI. 'Unquiet childhood,' &c. + +The infant was Mary Monkhouse, the only daughter of our friend and +cousin Thomas Monkhouse. + + +222. *_Sonnet_ XVII. 'Such age how beautiful!' &c. + +Lady Fitzgerald as described to me by Lady Beaumont. + + +223. *_Sonnet_ XVIIII. 'Rotha! my spiritual child,' &c. + +Rotha, the daughter of my son-in-law Mr. Quillinan. + + +224. _The Rotha_. 'The peaceful mountain stream,' &c. + +The river Rotha, that flows into Windermere from the Lakes of Grasmere +and Rydal. + + +225. *_Sonnet_ XIX. 'Miserrimus.' + +Many conjectures have been formed as to the person who lies under this +stone. Nothing appears to be known for a certainty. ?The Rev. Mr. +Morris, a Nonconformist, a sufferer for conscience' sake; a worthy man, +who having been deprived of his benefice after the accession of William +III, lived to an old age in extreme destitution, on the alms of +charitable Jacobites. + + +226. *_Sonnet_ XX. 'While poring,' &c. + +My attention to these antiquities was directed by Mr. Walker, son to the +itinerant Eidouranian philosopher. The beautiful pavement was discovered +within a few yards of the front door of his parsonage, and appeared +(from the site in full view of several hills upon which there had +formerly been Roman encampments) as if it might have been the villa of +the commander of the forces; at least such was Mrs. W.'s conjecture. + +227. *_Sonnet_ XXI. + + 'Chatsworth! thy stately mansion,' &c. + +I have reason to remember the day that gave rise to this Sonnet, the 6th +of November 1830. Having undertaken--a great feat for me--to ride my +daughter's pony from Westmoreland to Cambridge, that she might have the +use of it while on a visit to her uncle at Trinity Lodge, on my way from +Bakewell to Matlock I turned aside to Chatsworth, and had scarcely +gratified my curiosity by the sight of that celebrated place before +there came on a severe storm of wind and rain, which continued till I +reached Derby, both man and pony in a pitiable plight. For myself I went +to bed at noon-day. In the course of that journey I had to encounter a +storm worse if possible, in which the pony could (or would) only make +his way slantwise. I mention this merely to add, that notwithstanding +this battering, I composed on pony-back the lines to the memory of Sir +George Beaumont, suggested during my recent visit to Coleorton. + +228. *_Sonnet_ XXII. + + 'Tis said that to the brow,' &c. + +This pleasing tradition was told me by the coachman at whose side I sate +while he drove down the dale, he pointing to the trees on the hill as he +related the story. + +229. *_Sonnet_ XXIII. + + 'Untouched through all severity of cold.' + +This was also communicated to me by a coachman in the same way. In the +course of my many coach rambles and journeys, which, during the daytime +always, and often in the night, were taken on the outside of the coach, +I had good and frequent opportunities of learning the character of this +class of men. One remark I made, that is worth recording, that whenever +I had occasion especially to notice their well-ordered, respectful, and +kind behaviour to women, of whatever age, I found them, I may say almost +always, to be married men. + + +230. *_Sonnet_ XXIV. + +'Go, faithful Tishart,' &c. + +The six last lines of this sonnet are not written for poetical effect, +but as a matter of fact, which in more than one instance could not +escape my notice in the servants of the house. + + +231. *_Sonnet_ XXV. + +'Why art thou silent?' + +In the month of January [blank], when Dora and I were walking from +Town-End, Grasmere, across the vale, snow being on the ground, she +espied in the thick though leafless hedge a bird's-nest half filled with +snow. Out of this comfortless appearance arose this Sonnet, which was, +in fact, written without the least reference to any individual object, +but merely to prove to myself that I could, if I thought fit, write in a +strain that poets have been fond of. On the 14th of February in the same +year, my daughter, in a sportive mood, sent it as a Valentine under a +fictitious name to her cousin C. W. + + +232. *_Sonnet_ XXVI. + +'Haydon! let worthier judges,' &c. + +This Sonnet, though said to be written on seeing the portrait of +Napoleon, was in fact composed some time after, extempore, in Rydal +Mount. [In pencil--But it was said in prose in Haydon's studio, for I +was present: relate the facts and why it was versified.] + + +233. *_Sonnet_ XXVII. + +'A poet!--He hath put,' &c. + +I was impelled to write this Sonnet by the disgusting frequency with +which the word _artistical_, imported with other impertinencies from the +Germans, is employed by writers of the present day. For 'artistical' let +them substitute 'artificial,' and the poetry written on this system, +both at home and abroad, will be, for the most part, much better +characterised. + + +234. *_Sonnet_ XXVIII. + +'The most alluring clouds,' &c. + +Hundreds of times have I seen hanging about and above the Vale of Rydal, +clouds that might have given birth to this Sonnet; which was thrown +off, on the impulse of the moment, one evening when I was returning home +from the favourite walk of ours along the Rotha, under Loughrigg. + + +235. *_Sonnet_ XXIX. + +'By Art's bold privilege,' &c. + +This was composed while I was ascending Helvelyn in company with my +daughter and her husband. She was on horseback, and rode to the very top +of the hill without once dismounting: a feat which it was scarcely +possible to perform except during a season of dry weather, and a guide +with whom we fell in on the mountain told us he believed it had never +been accomplished before by any one. + + +236. *_Sonnet_ XXXII. + +'All praise the likeness,' &c. + +The picture which gave occasion to this and the following Sonnet was +from the pencil of Miss M. Gillies, who resided for several weeks under +our roof at Rydal Mount. + + +237. *_Sonnet_ XXXVI. + +'Oh, what a wreck,' &c. + +The sad condition of poor Mrs. Southey put me upon writing this. It has +afforded comfort to many persons whose friends have been similarly +affected. + + +238. *_Sonnet_ XXXVII. + +'Intent on gathering wool,' &c. + +Suggested by a conversation with Miss F., who along with her sister had +during their childhood found much delight in such gatherings for the +purpose here alluded to. + + +239. _Sonnet_ XLII. + +Wansfel. + +The Hill that rises to the south-east above Ambleside. + + +240. _Sonnet_ XLIII. + +----'a little rural town.' + +Ambleside. + + + + +VIII. MEMORIALS OF A TOUR IN SCOTLAND, 1803. + + +241. *_Setting out_. + +Mr. Coleridge, my sister, and myself started together from Town-End, to +make a tour in Scotland, August [14th]. Poor Coleridge was at that time +in bad spirits, and somewhat too much in love with his own dejection, +and he departed from us, as is recorded in my sister's Journal, soon +after we left Loch Lomond. The verses that stand foremost among these +memorials were not actually written for the occasion, but transplanted +from my Epistle to Sir G. Beaumont. + + +242. *_To the Sons of Burns after visiting the Grave of their Father_. +[iv.] + +See, in connection with these verses, two other poems upon Burns, one +composed actually at the time, and the other, though then felt, not put +into words till several years afterwards [viz. 'At the Grave of Burns, +1803, Seven Years after his Death (II.);' and 'Thoughts suggested the +Day following, on the Banks of Nith, near the Poet's Residence.' (III.) +Another Note in I.F. MSS. is nearly the same as this: viz. To be printed +among the Poems relating to my first Tour in Scotland: for illustrations +see my Sister's Journal. It may be proper to add that the second of +these pieces, though _felt_ at the time, was not composed till many +years after]. + + +243. *_Ellen Irwin, or the Braes of Kirtle_. [v.] + +It may be worth while to observe, that as there are Scotch poems on this +subject, in the simple ballad strain, I thought it would be both +presumptuous and superfluous to attempt treating it in the same way; and +accordingly, I chose a construction of stanza quite new in our language; +in fact, the same as that of Buergher's 'Leonora,' except that the first +and third lines do not in my stanzas rhyme. At the outset, I threw out a +classical image, to prepare the reader for the style in which I meant to +treat the story, and so to preclude all comparison. [Note.--The Kirtle +is a river in the southern part of Scotland, on the banks of which the +events here related took place.] + + +244. *_To a Highland Girl_. [VI.] + +This delightful creature, and her demeanour, are particularly described +in my sister's Journal. The sort of prophecy with which the verses +conclude has, through God's goodness, been realised; and now, +approaching the close of my seventy-third year, I have a most vivid +remembrance of her, and the beautiful objects with which she was +surrounded. She is alluded to in the poem of 'The Three Cottage Girls,' +among my continental memorials. In illustration of this class of poems, +I have scarcely anything to say beyond what is anticipated in my +sister's faithful and admirable Journal. + + +245. _Stepping Westward_. [VII.] + +While my fellow-traveller and I were walking by the side of Loch +Ketterine [Katrine] one fine evening after sunset, in our road to a Hut +where, in the course of our Tour, we had been hospitably entertained +some weeks before, we met, in one of the loneliest parts of that +solitary region, two well-dressed women, one of whom said to us, by way +of greeting, 'What, you are stepping westward?' + + +246. *_Address to Kilchurn Castle_. [X.] + +The first three lines were thrown off at the moment I first caught sight +of the ruin from a small eminence by the wayside; the rest was added +many years after. [Note.--The tradition is that the Castle was built by +a Lady during the absence of her Lord in Palestine.] + + +247. *_Rob Roys Grave_. [XI.] + +I have since been told that I was misinformed as to the burial-place of +Bob Roy; if so, I may plead in excuse that I wrote on apparently good +authority, namely, that of a well-educated lady, who lived at the head +of the Lake, within a mile, or less, of the point indicated as +containing the remains of one so famous in that neighbourhood. [Note +prefixed.--The history of Rob Roy is sufficiently known; his grave is +near the head of Loch Ketterine, in one of those small pinfold-like +burial-grounds, of neglected and desolate appearance, which the +traveller meets with in the Highlands of Scotland.] + + +248. *_Sonnet composed at ---- Castle_, 1803. [XII.] + + +The castle here mentioned was Nidpath, near Peebles. The person alluded +to was the then Duke of Queensberry. The fact was told me by Walter +Scott. + +249. _Yarrow Unvisited_. [XIII.] + +See the various Poems the scene of which is laid upon the banks of the +Yarrow; in particular the exquisite Ballad of Hamilton beginning + + 'Busk ye, busk ye, my bonnie, bonnie Bride, + Busk ye, busk ye, my winsome Marrow.' + + +250. _The Matron of Jedborough [Jedburgh] and her Husband_. [XV.] + +At Jedborough, my companion and I went into private lodgings for a few +days; and the following Verses were called forth by the character and +domestic situation of our Hostess. + + +251. *_Sonnet, 'Fly, some kind Harbinger.'_ [XVI.] + +This was actually composed the last day of our tour, between Dalston and +Grasmere. + + +252. *_The Blind Highland Boy_. [XVII.] + +The story was told me by George Mackreth, for many years parish-clerk of +Grasmere. He had been an eye-witness of the occurrence. The vessel in +reality was a washing-tub, which the little fellow had met with on the +shore of the loch. [Appended Note.--It is recorded in Dampier's +_Voyages_ that a boy, son of the captain of a man-of-war, seated himself +in a turtle-shell and floated in it from the shore to his father's ship, +which lay at anchor at the distance of half a mile. In deference to the +opinion of a friend, I have substituted such a shell for the less +elegant vessel in which my blind Voyager did actually intrust himself to +the dangerous current of Loch Leven, as was related to me by an +eye-witness.] + + + + +IX. MEMORIALS OF A SECOND TOUR IN SCOTLAND, 1814. + + +253. *_Suggested by a beautiful Ruin upon one of the islands of Loch +Lomond: a place chosen for the retreat of a solitary individual, from +whom this Habitation acquired the name of the Brownie's Cell_,[I.] + +In this tour my wife and her sister Sara were my companions. The account +of the Brownie's Cell, and the Brownies, was given me by a man we met +with on the banks of Loch Lomond, a little above Tarbert, and in front +of a huge mass of rock by the side of which, we were told, preachings +were often held in the open air. The place is quite a solitude, and the +surrounding scenery very striking. How much is it to be regretted that, +instead of writing such poems as the 'Holy Fair,' and others in which +the religious observances of his country are treated with so much +levity, and too often with indecency, Burns had not employed his genius +in describing religion under the serious and affecting aspects it must +so frequently take. + + +254. *_Composed at Corra Linn, in sight of Wallace Tower_.[II.] + +I had seen this celebrated waterfall twice before. But the feelings to +which it had given birth were not expressed till they recurred in +presence of the object on this occasion. + + +255. *_Effusion in the Pleasure-ground on the Banks of the Braw, near +Dunkeld_.[III.] + +I am not aware that this condemnatory effusion was ever seen by the +owner of the place. He might be disposed to pay little attention to it; +but, were it to prove otherwise, I should be glad, for the whole +exhibition is distressingly puerile. + + +256. *_Yarrow Visited_.[IV.] + +As mentioned in my verses on the death of the Ettrick Shepherd, my first +visit to Yarrow was in his company. We had lodged the night before at +Traquhair, where Hogg had joined us, and also Dr. Anderson, the editor +of the British Poets, who was on a visit at the Manse. Dr. A. walked +with us till we came in view of the vale of Yarrow, and being advanced +in life he then turned back. The old man was passionately fond of +poetry, though with not much of a discriminating judgment, as the +volumes he edited sufficiently shew. But I was much pleased to meet with +him and to acknowledge my obligation to his Collection, which had been +my brother John's companion in more than one voyage to India, and which +he gave me before his departure from Grasmere never to return. Through +these volumes I became first familiar with Chaucer; and so little money +had I then to spare for books, that, in all probability, but for this +same work, I should have known little of Drayton, Daniel, and other +distinguished poets of the Elizabethan age and their immediate +successors, till a much later period of my life. I am glad to record +this, not for any importance of its own, but as a tribute of gratitude +to this simple-hearted old man, whom I never again had the pleasure of +meeting. I seldom read or think of this poem without regretting that my +dear sister was not of the party, as she would have had so much delight +in recalling the time when, travelling together in Scotland, we declined +going in search of this celebrated stream, not altogether, I will +frankly confess, for the reasons assigned in the poem on the occasion. + + * * * * * + + + + +X. POEMS DEDICATED TO NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE AND LIBERTY. + +[HEADED IN I.F. NOTES 'SONNETS DEDICATED TO LIBERTY.'] + + +257. _Robert Jones_. + +'Jones! as from Calais,' &c. [Sonnet III.] + +(See No. 9, Dedication to Descriptive Sketches.) + +This excellent Person, one of my earliest and dearest friends, died in +the year 1835. We were under-graduates together of the same year, at the +same college, and companions in many a delightful ramble through his own +romantic country of North Wales. Much of the latter part of his life he +passed in comparative solitude; which I know was often cheered by +remembrance of our youthful adventures, and of the beautiful regions +which, at home and abroad, we had visited together. Our long friendship +was never subject to a moment's interruption,--and, while revising +these volumes for the last time, I have been so often reminded of my +loss, with a not unpleasing sadness, that I trust the Reader will excuse +this passing mention of a Man who well deserves from me something more +than so brief a notice. Let me only add, that during the middle part of +his life he resided many years (as Incumbent of the Living) at a +Parsonage in Oxfordshire, which is the subject of the seventh of the +'Miscellaneous Sonnets,' Part III. + + +258. _I grieved for Buonaparte. [Sonnet_ IV.] + +[Note No. 183 is repeated here.] + + +259. _The King of Sweden and Toussaint L'Ouverture_. + +[Sonnets VII. and VIII.] + +In this and a succeeding Sonnet on the same subject, let me be +understood as a Poet availing himself of the situation which the King of +Sweden occupied, and of the principles AVOWED IN HIS MANIFESTOS; as +laying hold of these advantages for the purpose of embodying moral +truths. This remark might, perhaps, as well have been suppressed; for to +those who may be in sympathy with the course of these Poems, it will be +superfluous; and will, I fear, be thrown away upon that other class, +whose besotted admiration of the intoxicated despot hereafter placed in +contrast with him is the most melancholy evidence of degradation in +British feeling and intellect which the times have furnished. + + +260. _September_ 1, 1802. [Sonnet IX.] + +Among the capricious acts of tyranny that disgraced these times was the +chasing of all negroes from France by decree of the Government; we had a +fellow-passenger who was one of the expelled. + + +261. *'_Two Voices are there,' &c._ [Sonnet XII.] + +This was composed while pacing to and fro between the Hall of Coleorton, +then rebuilding, and the principal Farm-house of the Estate, in which we +lived for nine or ten months. I will here mention that the Song on the +Restoration of Lord Clifford, as well as that on the Feast of Brougham +Castle as mentioned [in the place], were produced on the same ground. + + +262. *'_O Friend! I know not which Way_.' [Sonnet XIII.] + +This was written immediately after my return from France to London, when +I could not but be struck, as here described, with the vanity and parade +of our own country, especially in great towns and cities, as contrasted +with the quiet, and I may say the desolation, that the Revolution had +produced in France. This must be borne in mind, or else the reader may +think that in this and succeeding sonnets I have exaggerated the +mischief engendered and fostered among us by undisturbed wealth. + +[In pencil--Query: Sonnets relating to the expected Invasion, &c., p. +189, vol. iii. (1837) to p. 200; Ode, p. 201 to 203; Sonnets, part +second, p. 204 to 215]. [After three blank pages.] + + +263. *_War in Spain_. + +It would not be easy to conceive with what a depth of feeling I entered +into the struggle carried on by the Spaniards for their deliverance from +the usurped power of the French. Many times have I gone from Allan Bank, +in Grasmere Vale, where we were then residing, to the top of the +Raise-Gap, as it is called, so late as two o'clock in the morning, to +meet the carrier bringing the newspaper from Keswick. Imperfect traces +of the state of mind in which I then was may be found in my tract on the +Convention of Cintra, as well as in these Sonnets. + + +264. *_Zaragossa_. [Sonnet XVI.] + +In this sonnet I am under some obligations to one of an Italian author, +to which I cannot refer. + + +265. *_Lines on the expected Invasion_, 1803. [Sonnet XXVI.] + +To take their place among the political pieces. + + +266. _Fulke Greville, Lord Brooke_. [Sonnet XXVII.] + + 'Danger which they fear, and honour which they understand not.' + +Words in Lord Brooke's Life of Sir Philip Sidney. + +So in the 'Thanksgiving Ode' (vi. 10) on 'And discipline was passion's +dire excess' is quoted, 'Discipline the rule whereof is passion.' + + +267. _The Oak of Guernica_. [Part II. Sonnet XXVI.] + +The ancient oak of Guernica, says Laborde, in his account of Biscay, is +a most venerable natural monument. Ferdinand and Isabella, in the year +1476, after hearing mass in the church of Santa Maria de la Antigua, +repaired to this tree, under which they swore to the Biscayans to +maintain their _fueros_ (privileges). What other interest belongs to it +in the minds of the people will appear from the following 'Supposed +Address to the Same.' + + +268. _Thanksgiving Ode_. [Part II. XLVI.] + +Wholly unworthy of touching upon the momentous subject here treated +would that Poet be, before whose eyes the present distresses under which +this kingdom labours could interpose a veil sufficiently thick to hide, +or even to obscure, the splendour of this great moral triumph. If I have +given way to exultation, unchecked by these distresses, it might be +sufficient to protect me from a charge of insensibility, should I state +my own belief that the sufferings will be transitory. Upon the wisdom of +a very large majority of the British nation rested that generosity which +poured out the treasures of this country for the deliverance of Europe; +and in the same national wisdom, presiding in time of peace over an +energy not inferior to that which has been displayed in war, _they_ +confide who encourage a firm hope that the cup of our wealth will be +gradually replenished. There will, doubtless, be no few ready to indulge +in regrets and repinings; and to feed a morbid satisfaction by +aggravating these burthens in imagination; in order that calamity so +confidently prophesied, as it has not taken the shape which their +sagacity allotted to it, may appear as grievous as possible under +another. But the body of the nation will not quarrel with the gain, +because it might have been purchased at a less price; and, acknowledging +in these sufferings, which they feel to have been in a great degree +unavoidable, a consecration of their noble efforts, they will vigorously +apply themselves to remedy the evil. + +Nor is it at the expense of rational patriotism, or in disregard of +sound philosophy, that I have given vent to feelings tending to +encourage a martial spirit in the bosoms of my countrymen, at a time +when there is a general outcry against the prevalence of these +dispositions. The British army, both by its skill and valour in the +field, and by the discipline which rendered it, to the inhabitants of +the several countries where its operations were carried on, a protection +from the violence of their own troops, has performed services that will +not allow the language of gratitude and admiration to be suppressed or +restrained (whatever be the temper of the public mind) through a +scrupulous dread lest the tribute due to the past should prove an +injurious incentive for the future. Every man deserving the name of +Briton adds his voice to the chorus which extols the exploits of his +countrymen, with a consciousness, at times overpowering the effort, that +they transcend all praise.--But this particular sentiment, thus +irresistibly excited, is not sufficient. The nation would err +grievously, if she suffered the abuse which other States have made of +military power to prevent her from perceiving that no people ever was or +can be independent, free, or secure, much less great, in any sane +application of the word, without a cultivation of military virtues. Nor +let it be overlooked, that the benefits derivable from these sources are +placed within the reach of Great Britain, under conditions peculiarly +favourable. The same insular position which, by rendering territorial +incorporation impossible, utterly precludes the desire of conquest under +the most seductive shape it can assume, enables her to rely, for her +defence against foreign foes, chiefly upon a species of armed force from +which her own liberties have nothing to fear. Such are the privileges of +her situation; and, by permitting, they invite her to give way to the +courageous instincts of human nature, and to strengthen and refine them +by culture. + +But some have more than insinuated that a design exists to subvert the +civil character of the English people by unconstitutional applications +and unnecessary increase of military power. The advisers and abettors of +such a design, were it possible that it should exist, would be guilty of +the most heinous crime, which, upon this planet, can be committed. +Trusting that this apprehension arises from the delusive influences of +an honourable jealousy, let me hope that the martial qualities which I +venerate will be fostered by adhering to those good old usages which +experience has sanctioned; and by availing ourselves of new means of +indisputable promise: particularly by applying, in its utmost possible +extent, that system of tuition whose master-spring is a habit of +gradually enlightened subordination;--by imparting knowledge, civil, +moral, and religious, in such measure that the mind, among all classes +of the community, may love, admire, and be prepared and accomplished to +defend, that country under whose protection its faculties have been +unfolded, and its riches acquired:--by just dealing towards all orders +of the State, so that no members of it being trampled upon, courage may +everywhere continue to rest immoveably upon its ancient English +foundation, personal self-respect;--by adequate rewards, and permanent +honours, conferred upon the deserving;--by encouraging athletic +exercises and manly sports among the peasantry of the country;--and by +especial care to provide and support institutions, in which, during a +time of peace, a reasonable proportion of the youth of the country may +be instructed in military science. + +I have only to add, that I should feel little satisfaction in giving to +the world these limited attempts to celebrate the virtues of my country, +if I did not encourage a hope that a subject, which it has fallen within +my province to treat only in the mass, will by other poets be +illustrated in that detail which its importance calls for, and which +will allow opportunities to give the merited applause to PERSONS as well +as to THINGS. + +The ode was published along with other pieces, now interspersed through +this Volume. + + +269. *_Ibid._ + +The first stanza of this Ode was composed almost extempore, in front of +Rydal Mount before Church-time, on such a morning and precisely with +such objects before my eyes as are here described. The view taken of +Napoleon's character and proceedings is little in accordance with that +taken by some Historians and critical philosophers. I am glad and proud +of the difference, and trust that this series of Poems, infinitely below +the subject as they are, will survive to counteract in unsophisticated +minds the pernicious and degrading tendency of those views and doctrines +that lead to the idolatry of power as power, and in that false splendour +to lose sight of its real nature and constitution, as it often acts for +the gratification of its possessor without reference to a beneficial +end--an infirmity that has characterised men of all ages, classes, and +employments, since Nimrod became a mighty hunter before the Lord, [In +pencil is the following by Mr. Quillinan--In a letter to Southey about +the rhythm of this Ode Wordsworth, comparing the first paragraph of the +'Aeneid' with that of the 'Jerusalem Liberated,' says, that 'the measure +of the latter has the pace of a set of recruits shuffling to vulgar +music upon a parade, and receiving from the adjutant or drill-sergeant +the command to halt at every twenty steps.' Mr. W. had no ear for +instrumental music; or he would not have applied this vulgar sarcasm to +military march-music. Besides, awkward recruits are never drilled to +music at all. The Band on parade plays to perfectly-drilled troops. Ne +sutor ultra crepidam.] + + +270. _Spenser_. [Part II. Sonnet XLIII.] + + 'Assoiled from all encumbrance of our time.' + 'From all this world's encumbrance did himself assoil.' + + * * * * * + + + + +XI. MEMORIALS OF A TOUR ON THE CONTINENT, 1820. + + +271. *_Introductory Remarks_. + +I set out in company with my wife and sister, and Mr. and Mrs. +Monkhouse, then just married, and Miss Horrocks. These two ladies, +sisters, we left at Berne, while Mr. Monkhouse took the opportunity of +making an excursion with us among the Alps, as far as Milan. Mr. H. C. +Robinson joined us at Lucerne, and when this ramble was completed we +rejoined at Geneva the two ladies we had left at Berne, and proceeded to +Paris, where Mr. Monkhouse and H. C. R. left us, and where we spent five +weeks, of which there is not a record in these poems. + + +272. _The Fishwomen of Calais_, [I.] + +If in this Sonnet [I. of 'Memorials of a Tour on the Continent,' 1820] I +should seem to have borne a little hard upon the personal appearance of +the worthy Poissardes of Calais, let me take shelter under the authority +of my lamented friend, the late Sir George Beaumont. He, a most accurate +observer, used to say of them, that their features and countenances +seemed to have conformed to those of the creatures they dealt in; at +all events the resemblance was striking. + + +273. *_Incident at Bruges_. [IV.] + +This occurred at Bruges in the year 1828. Mr. Coleridge, my daughter, +and I, made a tour together in Flanders, upon the Rhine, and returned by +Holland. Dora and I, while taking a walk along a retired part of the +town, heard the voice as here described, and were afterwards informed +that it was a convent, in which were many English. We were both much +touched, I might say affected, and Dora moved as appears in the verses. + + +274. _Between Namur and Liege_. [VI.] + +The scenery on the Meuse pleases me more, upon the whole, than that of +the Rhine, though the river itself is much inferior in grandeur. The +rocks, both in form and colour, especially between Namur and Liege, +surpass any upon the Rhine, though they are in several places disfigured +by quarries, whence stones were taken for the new fortifications. This +is much to be regretted, for they are useless, and the scars will +remain, perhaps, for thousands of years. A like injury to a still +greater degree has been inflicted, in my memory, upon the beautiful +rocks at Clifton, on the banks of the Avon. There is probably in +existence a very long letter of mine to Sir Uvedale Price, in which was +given a description of the landscapes on the Meuse as compared with +those on the Rhine. + +Details in the spirit of these sonnets are given both in Mary's Journal +and my sister's; and the reperusal of them has strengthened a wish long +entertained, that somebody would put together, as in one work, the notes +contained in them, omitting particulars that were written down merely to +aid our memory, and bringing the whole into as small a compass as is +consistent with the general interests belonging to the scenes, +circumstances, and objects touched on by each writer. + + +275. '_Miserere Domine_.' [X.] + +See the beautiful song on Mr. Coleridge's Tragedy, 'The Remorse.' Why is +the harp of Quantock silent? + + +276. _The Danube_. [XI.] + + 'Not, like his great Compeers, indignantly + Doth Danube spring to life!' + +Before this quarter of the Black Forest was inhabited, the source of the +Danube might have suggested some of those sublime images which Armstrong +has so finely described; at present, the contrast is most striking. The +Spring appears in a capacious stone Basin in front of a Ducal palace, +with a pleasure-ground opposite; then, passing under the pavement, takes +the form of a little, clear, bright, black, vigorous rill, barely wide +enough to tempt the agility of a child five years old to leap over +it,--and entering the garden, it joins, after a course of a few hundred +yards, a stream much more considerable than itself. The _copiousness_ of +the spring at _Doneschingen_ must have procured for it the honour of +being named the Source of the Danube. + + +277. _The Staub-bach_. [XII.] + +'The Staub-bach' is a narrow Stream, which, after a long course on the +heights, comes to the sharp edge of a somewhat overhanging precipice, +overleaps it with a bound, and, after a fall of 930 feet, forms again a +rivulet. The vocal powers of these musical Beggars may seem to be +exaggerated; but this wild and savage air was utterly unlike any sounds +I had ever heard; the notes reached me from a distance, and on what +occasion they were sung I could not guess, only they seemed to belong, +in some way or other, to the Waterfall--and reminded me of religious +services chanted to Streams and Fountains in Pagan times. Mr. Southey +has thus accurately characterised the peculiarity of this music: 'While +we were at the Waterfall, some half-score peasants, chiefly women and +girls, assembled just out of reach of the Spring, and set up--surely, +the wildest chorus that ever was heard by human ears,--a song not of +articulate sounds, but in which the voice was used as a mere instrument +of music, more flexible than any which art could produce,--sweet, +powerful, and thrilling beyond description.'--See Notes to 'A Tale of +Paraguay.' + + +278. _Memorial near the Outlet of the Lake of Thun_. [XIV.] + + Dem + Andenken + Meines Freundes + ALOYS REDING + MDCCCXVIII. + +Aloys Reding, it will be remembered, was Captain-General of the Swiss +Forces, which with a courage and perseverance worthy of the cause, +opposed the flagitious and too successful attempt of Buonaparte to +subjugate their country. + + +279. _Engelbery_. [XVIII.] + +The Convent whose site was pointed out, according to tradition, in this +manner, is seated at its base. The architecture of the building is +unimpressive, but the situation is worthy of the honour which the +imagination of the mountaineers has conferred upon it. + + +280. _Our Lady of the Snow_. [XIX.] + +Mount Righi. + + +281. _Effusion in presence of the painted Tower of Tell at Altorf_. +[XX.] + +This Tower stands upon the spot where grew the Linden Tree against which +his Son is said to have been placed, when the Father's archery was put +to proof under circumstances so famous in Swiss Story. + + +282. _The Town of Schwytz_. [XXI.] + +Nearly 500 years (says Ebel, speaking of the French Invasion) had +elapsed, when, for the first time, foreign soldiers were seen upon the +frontiers of this small Canton, to impose upon it the laws of their +governors. + + +283. _The Church of San Salvador, seen from the Lake of Lugano_. [XXIV.] + +This Church was almost destroyed by lightning a few years ago, but the +altar and the image of the Patron Saint were untouched. The Mount, upon +the summit of which the Church is built, stands amid the intricacies of +the Lake of Lugano; and is, from a hundred points of view, its principal +ornament, rising to the height of 2000 feet, and, on one side, nearly +perpendicular. The ascent is toilsome; but the traveller who performs it +will be amply rewarded. Splendid fertility, rich woods and dazzling +waters, seclusion and confinement of view contrasted with sea-like +extent of plain fading into the sky; and this again, in an opposite +quarter, with an horizon of the loftiest and boldest Alps--unite in +composing a prospect more diversified by magnificence, beauty, and +sublimity, than perhaps any other point in Europe, of so inconsiderable +an elevation, commands. + + +284. _Foot-note on lines_ 31-36. + + 'He, too, of battle martyrs chief! + Who, to recall his daunted peers, + For victory shaped an open space, + By gathering with a wide embrace, + Into his single breast, a sheaf + Of fatal Austrian spears.' + +Arnold Winkelried, at the battle of Sampach, broke an Austrian phalanx +in this manner. + + +285. _'The Last Supper' of Leonardo da Vinci_. [xxvi.] + + 'Though searching damps and many an envious flaw + Have marred this Work.' + +This picture of the Last Supper has not only been grievously injured by +time, but the greatest part of it, if not the whole, is said to have +been retouched, or painted over again. These niceties may be left to +connoisseurs,--I speak of it as I felt. The copy exhibited in London +some years ago, and the engraving by Morghen, are both admirable; but in +the original is a power which neither of those works has attained, or +even approached. + + +286. _Statues on Milan Cathedral_. [XXVII.] + + 'Of figures human and divine.' + +The Statues ranged round the spire and along the roof of the Cathedral +of Milan, have been found fault with by persons whose exclusive taste is +unfortunate for themselves. It is true that the same expense and labour, +judiciously directed to purposes more strictly architectural, might +have much heightened the general effect of the building; for, seen from +the ground, the Statues appear diminutive. But the _coup-d'oeil_, from +the best point of view, which is half way up the spire, must strike an +unprejudiced person with admiration; and surely the selection and +arrangement of the Figures is exquisitely fitted to support the religion +of the country in the imaginations and feelings of the spectator. It was +with great pleasure that I saw, during the two ascents which we made, +several children, of different ages, tripping up and down the slender +spire, and pausing to look around them, with feelings much more animated +than could have been derived from these or the finest works of art, if +placed within easy reach.--Remember also that you have the Alps on one +side, and on the other the Apennines, with the plain of Lombardy +between! + + +287. _A Religious Procession_. [XXXII.] + + 'Still, with those white-robed Shapes--a living Stream, + The glacier pillars join in solemn guise.' + +This Procession is a part of the sacramental service performed once a +month. In the valley of Engleberg we had the good fortune to be present +at the _Grand Festival_ of the Virgin--but the Procession on that day, +though consisting of upwards of 1000 persons, assembled from all the +branches of the sequestered valley, was much less striking +(notwithstanding the sublimity of the surrounding scenery): it wanted +both the simplicity of the other and the accompaniment of the +Glacier-columns, whose sisterly resemblance to the _moving_ Figures gave +it a most beautiful and solemn peculiarity. + + +288. _Elegiac Stanzas_. [XXXIII.] + +The lamented Youth whose untimely death gave occasion to these elegiac +verses was Frederick William Goddard, from Boston in North America. He +was in his twentieth year, and had resided for some time with a +clergyman in the neighbourhood of Geneva for the completion of his +education. Accompanied by a fellow-pupil, a native of Scotland, he had +just set out on a Swiss tour when it was his misfortune to fall in with +a friend of mine who was hastening to join our party. The travellers, +after spending a day together on the road from Berne and at Soleure, +took leave of each other at night, the young men having intended to +proceed directly to Zurich. But early in the morning my friend found his +new acquaintances, who were informed of the object of his journey, and +the friends he was in pursuit of, equipped to accompany him. We met at +Lucerne the succeeding evening, and Mr. G. and his fellow-student became +in consequence our travelling companions for a couple of days. We +ascended the Righi together; and, after contemplating the sunrise from +that noble mountain, we separated at an hour and on a spot well suited +to the parting of those who were to meet no more. Our party descended +through the valley of our Lady of the Snow, and our late companions, to +Art. We had hoped to meet in a few weeks at Geneva; but on the third +succeeding day (on the 21st of August) Mr. Goddard perished, being +overset in a boat while crossing the lake of Zurich. His companion saved +himself by swimming, and was hospitably received in the mansion of a +Swiss gentleman (M. Keller) situated on the eastern coast of the lake. +The corpse of poor Goddard was cast ashore on the estate of the same +gentleman, who generously performed all the rites of hospitality which +could be rendered to the dead as well as to the living. He caused a +handsome mural monument to be erected in the church of Kuesnacht, which +records the premature fate of the young American, and on the shores too +of the lake the traveller may read an inscription pointing out the spot +where the body was deposited by the waves. + + +289. _Mount Righi_ (foot-note). + + --'the dread summit of the Queen + Of Mountains.' + +Mount Righi--Regina Montium. + + +290. _The Tower of Caligula_. [XXXV.] + +Near the town of Boulogne, and overhanging the beach, are the remains of +a tower which bears the name of Caligula, who here terminated his +western expedition, of which these sea-shells were the boasted spoils. +And at no great distance from these ruins, Buonaparte, standing upon a +mound of earth, harangued his 'Army of England,' reminding them of the +exploits of Caesar, and pointing towards the white cliffs, upon which +their standards _were to float_. He recommended also a subscription to +be raised among the Soldiery to erect on that ground, in memory of the +foundation of the 'Legion of Honour,' a Column--which was not completed +at the time we were there. + + +291. _Herds of Cattle_. [XXXVI.] + + 'We mark majestic herds of cattle, free + To ruminate.' + +This is a most grateful sight for an Englishman returning to his native +land. Every where one misses in the cultivated grounds abroad, the +animated and soothing accompaniment of animals ranging and selecting +their own food at will. + + +292. _The Forks_. ['Desultory Stanzas,' l. 37.] + +Les Fourches, the point at which the two chains of mountains part, that +enclose the Valais, which terminates at St. Maurice. + + +292[a]. _The Landenberg_. [Ibid. ll. 49-51.] + + --'ye that occupy + Your Council-seats beneath the open sky, + On Sarnen's Mount.' + +Sarnen, one of the two capitals of the Canton of Underwalden; the spot +here alluded to is close to the town, and is called the Landenberg, from +the tyrant of that name, whose chateau formerly stood there. On the 1st +of January 1308, the great day which the confederated Heroes had chosen +for the deliverance of their country, all the castles of the Governors +were taken by force or stratagem; and the Tyrants themselves conducted, +with their creatures, to the frontiers, after having witnessed the +destruction of their strong-holds. From that time the Landenberg has +been the place where the Legislators of this division of the Canton +assemble. The site, which is well described by Ebel, is one of the most +beautiful in Switzerland. + + +293. _Pictures in Bridges of Switzerland_. [Ibid. l. 56.] + + 'Calls me to pace her honoured Bridge.' + +The bridges of Lucerne are roofed, and open at the sides, so that the +passenger has, at the same time, the benefit of shade, and a view of the +magnificent country. The pictures are attached to the rafters; those +from Scripture History, on the Cathedral-bridge, amount, according to my +notes, to 240. Subjects from the Old Testament face the passenger as he +goes towards the Cathedral, and those from the New as he returns. The +pictures on these bridges, as well as those in most other parts of +Switzerland, are not to be spoken of as works of art; but they are +instruments admirably answering the purpose for which they were +designed. + + +294. *_At Dover_. [XXXVII.] + +For the impressions on which this Sonnet turns I am indebted to the +experience of my daughter during her residence at Dover with our dear +friend Miss Fenwick. + + * * * * * + + + + +XII. MEMORIALS OF A TOUR IN ITALY, 1837. + + +295. *_Introductory Remarks_. + +During my whole life I had felt a strong desire to visit Rome and the +other celebrated cities and regions of Italy, but did not think myself +justified in incurring the necessary expense till I received from Mr. +Moxon, the publisher of a large edition of my poems, a sum sufficient to +enable me to gratify my wish without encroaching upon what I considered +due to my family. My excellent friend H.C. Robinson readily consented to +accompany me, and in March 1837 we set off from London, to which we +returned in August--earlier than my companion wished, or I should myself +have desired, had I been, like him, a bachelor. These Memorials of that +Tour touch upon but a very few of the places and objects that interested +me; and in what they do advert to are for the most part much slighter +than I could wish. More particularly do I regret that there is no notice +in them of the south of France, nor of the Roman antiquities abounding +in that district; especially of the Pont de Degard, which, together with +its situation, impressed me full as much as any remains of Roman +architecture to be found in Italy. Then there was Vaucluse, with its +fountain, its Petrarch, its rocks [query--roses?] of all seasons, its +small plots of lawn in their first vernal freshness, and the blossoms of +the peach and other trees embellishing the scene on every side. The +beauty of the stream also called forcibly for the expression of sympathy +from one who from his childhood had studied the brooks and torrents of +his native mountains. Between two and three hours did I run about, +climbing the steep and rugged craggs, from whose base the water of +Vaucluse breaks forth. 'Has Laura's lover,' often said I to myself, +'ever sat down upon this stone? Or has his foot ever pressed that turf?' +Some, especially of the female sex, could have felt sure of it; my +answer was (impute it to my years), 'I fear, not.' Is it not in fact +obvious that many of his love-verses must have flowed, I do not say from +a wish to display his own talent, but from a habit of exercising his +intellect in that way, rather than from an impulse of his heart? It is +otherwise with his Lyrical Poems, and particularly with the one upon the +degradation of his country. There he pours out his reproaches, +lamentations, and aspirations like an ardent and sincere patriot. But +enough; it is time to turn to my own effusions, such as they are. + + +296. _Ibid._ + +The Tour, of which the following Poems are very inadequate remembrances, +was shortened by report, too well founded, of the prevalence of cholera +at Naples. To make some amends for what was reluctantly left unseen in +the south of Italy, we visited the Tuscan Sanctuaries among the +Apennines, and the principal Italian Lakes among the Alps. Neither of +those lakes, nor of Venice, is there any notice in these poems, chiefly +because I have touched upon them elsewhere. See in particular +'Descriptive Sketches,' 'Memorials of a Tour on the Continent in 1820,' +and a Sonnet upon the extinction of the Venetian Republic. + + +297. *_Musings at Aquapendente, April _1837. [I.] + +The following note refers to Sir W. Scott: + + 'Had his sunk eye kindled at those dear words + That spake of Bards and Minstrels' (ll. 60-1). + +_His_, Sir W. Scott's, eye _did_ in fact kindle at them, for the lines +'Places forsaken now,' and the two that follow, were adopted from a poem +of mine, which nearly forty years ago was in part read to him, and he +never forgot them. + + 'Old Helvellyn's brow, + Where once together in his day of strength + We stood rejoicing' (ll. 62-4). + +Sir Hy. Davy was with us at the time. We had ascended from Paterdale, +and I could not but admire the vigour with which Scott scrambled along +that horn of the mountain called 'Striding Edge.' Our progress was +necessarily slow, and beguiled by Scott's telling many stories and +amusing anecdotes, as was his custom. Sir H. Davy would have probably +been better pleased if other topics had occasionally been interspersed +and some discussion entered upon; at all events, he did not remain with +us long at the top of the mountain, but left us to find our way down its +steep side together into the vale of Grasmere, where at my cottage Mrs. +Scott was to meet us at dinner. He said: + + 'When I am there, although 'tis fair, + 'Twill be another Yarrow.' + +See among these Notes the one upon Yarrow Revisited. [In the printed +Notes there is the following farther reference to the touching quotation +by Scott--These words were quoted to me from 'Yarrow Unvisited' by Sir +Walter Scott, when I visited him at Abbotsford, a day or two before his +departure for Italy; and the affecting condition in which he was when he +looked upon Rome from the Janicular Mount was reported to me by a lady +who had the honour of conducting him thither.] + + +298. + A few short steps, painful they were, apart From + Tasso's convent-haven and retired grave'_(ll. 83-5). + +This, though introduced here, I did not know till it was told me at Rome +by Miss Mackenzie of Seaforth, a lady whose friendly attentions, during +my residence at Rome, I have gratefully acknowledged with expressions of +sincere regret that she is no more. Miss M. told me that she had +accompanied Sir Walter to the Janicular Mount, and, after showing him +the grave of Tasso in the church upon the top, and a mural monument +there erected to his memory, they left the church, and stood together on +the brow of the hill overlooking the city of Rome. His daughter Anne was +with them, and she, naturally desirous, for the sake of Miss Mackenzie +especially, to have some expression of pleasure from her father, half +reproached him for showing nothing of that kind either by his looks or +voice. 'How can I,' replied he, 'having only one leg to stand upon, and +that in extreme pain?' so that the prophecy was more than fulfilled. + + +299. '_Over waves rough and deep_' (line 122). + +We took boat near the lighthouse at the point of the right horn of the +bay, which makes a sort of natural port for Genoa; but the wind was +high, and the waves long and rough, so that I did not feel quite +recompensed by the view of the city, splendid as it was, for the danger +apparently incurred. The boatman (I had only one) encouraged me, saying, +we were quite safe; but I was not a little glad when we gained the +shore, though Shelley and Byron--one of them at least who seemed to have +courted agitation from every quarter--would have probably rejoiced in +such a situation. More than once, I believe, were they both in extreme +danger even on the Lake of Geneva. Every man, however, has his fears of +some kind or other, and, no doubt, they had theirs. Of all men whom I +have ever known, Coleridge had the most of passive courage in bodily +trial, but no one was so easily cowed when moral firmness was required +in miscellaneous conversation or in the daily intercourse of social +life. + + +300. + + '_How lovely_--_didst thou appear, Savona_' (ll. 209-11). + +There is not a single bay along this beautiful coast that might not +raise in a traveller a wish to take up his abode there; each as it +succeeds seems more inviting than the other; but the desolated convent +on the cliff in the bay of Savona struck my fancy most; and had I, for +the sake of my own health or of that of a dear friend, or any other +cause, been desirous of a residence abroad, I should have let my +thoughts loose upon a scheme of turning some part of this building into +a habitation, provided as far as might be with English comforts. There +is close by it a row, or avenue (I forget which), of tall cypresses. I +could not forbear saying to myself, 'What a sweet family walk, or one +for lonely musings, would be found under the shade!' but there probably +the trees remain little noticed and seldom enjoyed. + + +301. /p '_This flowering Broom's dear Neighbourhood_' (l. 378). p/ + +The Broom is a great ornament through the months of March and April to +the vales and hills of the Apennines, in the wild part of which it blows +in the utmost profusion, and of course successively at different +elevations as the season advances. It surpasses ours in beauty and +fragrance; but, speaking from my own limited observation only, I cannot +affirm the same of several of their wild Spring flowers, the primroses +in particular, which I saw not unfrequently but thinly scattered and +languishing as compared with ours. + + +302. _The Religious Movement in the English Church_. + +In the printed Notes there is the following on Aquapendente: 'It would +be ungenerous not to advert to the religious movement that, since the +composition of these verses in 1837, has made itself felt, more or less +strongly, throughout the English Church; a movement that takes for its +first principle a devout deference to the voice of Christian antiquity. +It is not my office to pass judgment on questions of theological detail; +but my own repugnance to the spirit and system of Romanism has been so +repeatedly, and I trust feelingly, expressed that I shall not be +suspected of a leaning that way, if I do not join in the grave charges, +thrown out, perhaps, in the heat of controversy, against the learned and +pious men to whose labours I allude. I speak apart from controversy, but +with a strong faith in the moral temper which would elevate the present +by doing reverence to the past. I would draw cheerful auguries for the +English Church from this movement as likely to restore among us a tone +of piety more earnest and real than that produced by the mere +formalities of the understanding, refusing, in a degree which I cannot +but lament, that its own temper and judgment shall be controlled by +those of antiquity.' From the I.F. MSS. we learn that the preceding note +was written by the Rev. F.W. Faber, D.D., as thus: 'The Note at the +close of the poem upon the Oxford movement was intrusted to my friend +Mr. Frederick Faber. I told him what I wished to be said, and begged +that as he was intimately acquainted with several of the Leaders of it, +he would express my thought in the way least likely to be taken amiss +by them. Much of the work they are undertaking was grievously wanted, +and God grant their endeavours may continue to prosper as they have +done.' + + +302[a]. *'_The Pine-tree of Monte Mario_,' [II.] + +Rescued by Sir G. Beaumont from destruction. Sir G. Beaumont told me +that when he first visited Italy, pine-trees of this species abounded; +but that on his return thither, which was more than thirty years after, +they had disappeared from many places where he had been accustomed to +admire them, and had become rare all over the country, especially in and +about Rome. Several Roman villas have within these few years passed into +the hands of foreigners, who, I observed with pleasure, have taken care +to plant this tree, which in course of years will become a great +ornament to the city and to the general landscape. + +May I venture to add here, that having ascended the Monte Mario I could +not resist embracing the trunk of this interesting monument of my +departed friend's feelings for the beauties of nature and the power of +that art which he loved so much and in the practice of which he was so +distinguished. + +[Among the printed Notes is the following--Within a couple of hours of +my arrival at Rome, I saw from Monte Pincio the Pine-tree as described +in the Sonnet; and while expressing admiration at the beauty of its +appearance, I was told by an acquaintance of my fellow-traveller, who +happened to join us at the moment, that a price had been paid for it by +the late Sir G. Beaumont, upon condition that the proprietor should not +act upon his known intention of cutting it down.] + + +303. '_Is this, ye gods_.' [III. l. 1.] + +Sight is at first a sad enemy to imagination, and to those pleasures +belonging to old times with which some exertions of that power will +always mingle. Nothing perhaps brings this truth home to the feelings +more than the city of Rome, not so much in respect to the impression +made at the moment when it is first seen and looked at as a whole, for +then the imagination may be invigorated, and the mind's eye quickened to +perceive as much as that of the imagination; but when particular spots +or objects are sought out, disappointment is, I believe, invariably +felt. Ability to recover from this disappointment will exist in +proportion to knowledge, and the power of the mind to reconstruct out of +fragments and parts, and to make details in the present subservient to +more adequate comprehension of the past. + + +304. '_At Rome_.' + + 'They who have seen the noble Roman's scorn.' [VII. l. 1.] + +I have a private interest in this sonnet, for I doubt whether it would +ever have been written, but for the lively picture given me by Anna +Ricketts of what they had witnessed of the indignation and sorrow +expressed by some Italian noblemen of their acquaintance upon the +surrender, which circumstances had obliged them to make, of the best +portion of their family mansions to strangers. + + +305. *_At Albano_. [IX] + +This sonnet is founded on simple fact, and was written to enlarge, if +possible, the views of those who can see nothing but evil in the +intercessions countenanced by the Church of Rome. That they are in many +respects lamentably pernicious must be acknowledged; but, on the other +hand, they who reflect while they see and observe cannot but be struck +with instances which will prove that it is a great error to condemn in +all cases such mediation, as purely idolatrous. This remark bears with +especial force upon addresses to the Virgin. + + +306. *_Cuckoo at Laverna_. [XIV.] + +May 25th, 1837. Among a thousand delightful feelings connected in my +mind with the voice of the cuckoo, there is a personal one which is +rather melancholy. I was first convinced that age had rather dulled my +hearing, by not being able to catch the sound at the same distance as +the younger companions of my walks; and of this failure I had proof upon +the occasion that suggested these verses. I did not hear the sound till +Mr. Robinson had twice or thrice directed my attention to it. + + +307. _Camaldoli_. [XV.] + +This famous sanctuary was the original establishment of Saint Romualdo, +(or Rumwald, as our ancestors saxonised the name) in the 11th century, +the ground (campo) being given by a Count Maldo. The Camaldolensi, +however, have spread wide as a branch of Benedictines, and may therefore +be classed among the _gentlemen_ of the monastic orders. The society +comprehends two orders, monks and hermits; symbolised by their arms, two +doves drinking out of the same cup. The monastery in which the monks +here reside is beautifully situated, but a large unattractive edifice, +not unlike a factory. The hermitage is placed in a loftier and wilder +region of the forest. It comprehends between 20 and 30 distinct +residences, each including for its single hermit an inclosed piece of +ground and three very small apartments. There are days of indulgence +when the hermit may quit his cell, and when old age arrives, he descends +from the mountain and takes his abode among the monks. + +My companion had, in the year 1831, fallen in with the monk, the subject +of these two sonnets, who showed him his abode among the hermits. It is +from him that I received the following particulars. He was then about 40 +years of age, but his appearance was that of an older man. He had been a +painter by profession, but on taking orders changed his name from Santi +to Raffaello, perhaps with an unconscious reference as well to the great +Sanzio d'Urbino as to the archangel. He assured my friend that he had +been 13 years in the hermitage and had never known melancholy or ennui. +In the little recess for study and prayer, there was a small collection +of books. 'I read only,' said he, 'books of asceticism and mystical +theology.' On being asked the names of the most famous mystics, he +enumerated _Scaramelli, San Giovanni della Croce, St. Dionysius the +Areopayite_ (supposing the work which bears his name to be really his), +and with peculiar emphasis _Ricardo di San Vittori_. The works of _Saint +Theresa _are also in high repute among ascetics. These names may +interest some of my readers. + +We heard that Raffaello was then living in the convent; my friend sought +in vain to renew his acquaintance with him. It was probably a day of +seclusion. The reader will perceive that these sonnets were supposed to +be written when he was a young man. + + +308. _Monk-visitors of Camaldoli_. + + 'What aim had they the pair of Monks?' (XVII. l. 1.) + +In justice to the Benedictines of Camaldoli, by whom strangers are so +hospitably entertained, I feel obliged to notice, that I saw among them +no other figures at all resembling, in size and complexion, the two +monks described in this Sonnet. What was their office, or the motive +which brought them to this place of mortification, which they could not +have approached without being carried in this or some other way, a +feeling of delicacy prevented me from inquiring. An account has before +been given of the hermitage they were about to enter. It was visited by +us towards the end of the month of May; yet snow was lying thick under +the pine-trees, within a few yards of the gate. + + +309. *_At Vallombrosa_. [XVIII.] + +I must confess, though of course I did not acknowledge it in the few +lines I wrote in the strangers' book kept at the Convent, that I was +somewhat disappointed at Vallombrosa. I had expected, as the name +implies, a deep and narrow valley, over-shadowed by enclosing hills: but +the spot where the convent stands is in fact not a valley at all, but a +cove or crescent open to an extensive prospect. In the book before +mentioned I read the notice in the English language, that if any one +would ascend the steep ground above the convent, and wander over it, he +would be abundantly rewarded by magnificent views. I had not time to act +upon the recommendation, and only went with my young guide to a point, +nearly on a level with the site of the convent, that overlooks the Vale +of Arno for some leagues. + +To praise great and good men has ever been deemed one of the worthiest +employments of poetry; but the objects of admiration vary so much with +time and circumstances, and the noblest of mankind have been found, when +intimately known, to be of characters so imperfect, that no eulogist can +find a subject which he will venture upon with the animation necessary +to create sympathy, unless he confines himself to a particular act, or +he takes something of a one-sided view of the person he is disposed to +celebrate. This is a melancholy truth, and affords a strong reason for +the poetic mind being chiefly exercised in works of fiction. The poet +can then follow wherever the spirit of admiration leads him, unchecked +by such suggestions as will be too apt to cross his way if all that he +is prompted to utter is to be tested by fact. Something in this spirit I +have written in the note attached to the Sonnet on the King of Sweden; +and many will think that in this poem, and elsewhere, I have spoken of +the author of 'Paradise Lost' in a strain of panegyric scarcely +justifiable by the tenour of some of his opinions, whether theological +or political, and by the temper he carried into public affairs, in +which, unfortunately for his genius, he was so much concerned. + +[Among the printed Notes is this--The name of Milton is pleasingly +connected with Vallombrosa in many ways. The pride with which the Monk, +without any previous question from me, pointed out his residence, I +shall not readily forget. It may be proper here to defend the Poet from +a charge which has been brought against him, in respect to the passage +in 'Paradise Lost' where this place is mentioned. It is said, that he +has erred in speaking of the trees there being deciduous, whereas they +are, in fact, pines. The fault-finders are themselves mistaken: the +natural woods of the region of Vallombrosa are deciduous and spread to a +great extent; those near the convent are, indeed, mostly pines; but they +are avenues of trees planted within a few steps of each other, and thus +composing large tracts of wood, plots of which are periodically cut +down. The appearance of those narrow avenues, upon steep slopes open to +the sky, on account of the height which the trees attain by being forced +to grow upwards, is often very impressive. My guide, a boy of about +fourteen years old, pointed this out to me in several places.] + + +310. *_Sonnet at Florence_. [XIX.] + + 'Under the shadow of a stately pile.' + +Upon what evidence the belief rests that this stone was a favourite seat +of Dante, I do not know; but a man would little consult his own interest +as a traveller, if he should busy himself with doubts as to the fact. +The readiness with which traditions of this character are received, and +the fidelity with which they are preserved from generation to +generation, are an evidence of feelings honourable to our nature. I +remember now, during one of my rambles in the course of a college +vacation, I was pleased at being shown at ---- a seat near a kind of +rocky cell at the source of the river ----, on which it was said that +Congreve wrote his _Old Bachelor_. One can scarcely hit on any +performance less in harmony with the scene; but it was a local tribute +paid to intellect by those who had not troubled themselves to estimate +the moral worth of that author's comedies. And why should they? he was a +man distinguished in his day, and the sequestered neighbourhood in which +he often resided was perhaps as proud of him as Florence of her Dante. +It is the same feeling, though proceeding from persons one cannot bring +together in this way without offering some apology to the shade of the +great visionary. + + +311. *_The Baptist_. [XX.] + +It was very hot weather during the week we stayed at Florence; and, +having never been there before, I went through much hard service, and am +not, therefore, _ashamed_ to confess, I fell asleep before this picture, +and sitting with my back towards the Venus de Medicis. Buonaparte, in +answer to one who had spoken of his being in a sound sleep up to the +moment when one of his great battles was to be fought, as a proof of the +calmness of his mind and command over anxious thoughts, said frankly, +'that he slept because, from bodily exhaustion, he could not help it.' +In like manner it is noticed that criminals, on the night previous to +their execution, seldom awake before they are called, a proof that the +body is the master of us far more than we need be willing to allow. + +Should this note by any possible chance be seen by any of my countrymen +who might have been in the Gallery at the time (and several persons were +there) and witnessed such an indecorum, I hope he will give up the +opinion which he might naturally have formed to my prejudice. + + +312. *_Florence_. + + 'Rapt above earth,' and the following one. [XXI.-II.] + +However, at first, these two Sonnets from M. Angelo may seem in their +spirit somewhat inconsistent with each other, I have not scrupled to +place them side by side as characteristic of their great author, and +others with whom he lived. I feel, nevertheless, a wish to know at what +periods of his life they were respectively composed. The latter, as it +expresses, was written in his advanced years, when it was natural that +the Platonism that pervades the one should give way to the Christian +feeling that inspired the other. Between both, there is more than poetic +affinity. + + +312a. *_Among the Ruins of a Convent in the Apennines_. [XXIII.] + +The political revolutions of our time have multiplied on the Continent +objects that unavoidably call forth reflections such as are expressed in +these verses, but the ruins in those countries are too recent to exhibit +in anything like an equal degree the beauty with which time and Nature +have invested the remains of our convents and abbeys. These verses, it +will be observed, take up the beauty long before it is matured, as one +cannot but wish it may be among some of the desolations of Italy, +France, and Germany. + + +313. *_Sonnets after leaving Italy_. [XXV.] + +I had proof in several instances that the Carbonari, if I may still call +them so, and their favourers, are opening their eyes to the necessity of +patience, and are intent upon spreading knowledge actively, but quietly +as they can. May they have resolution to continue in this course, for it +is the only one by which they can truly benefit their country. + +We left Italy by the way which is called the 'Nuova Strada d'Allemagna,' +to the east of the high passes of the Alps, which take you at once from +Italy into Switzerland. The road leads across several smaller heights, +and winds down different vales in succession, so that it was only by the +accidental sound of a few German words I was aware we had quitted Italy; +and hence the unwelcome shock alluded to in the two or three last lines +of the Sonnet with which this imperfect series concludes. + + +314. *_Composed at Rydal on May morning_, 1838. + +This and the following Sonnet [now XXVI.] were composed on what we call +the 'far terrace' at Rydal Mount, where I have murmured out many +thousands of my verses. + + +315. *_Pillar of Trajan_. [XXVIII.] + +These verses had better, perhaps, be transferred to the class of +'Italian Poems.' I had observed in the newspaper that 'The Pillar of +Trajan' was given as a subject for a Prize Poem in English verse. I had +a wish, perhaps, that my son, who was then an undergraduate at Oxford, +should try his fortune; and I told him so: but he, not having been +accustomed to write verse, wisely declined to enter on the task; +whereupon I showed him these lines as a proof of what might, without +difficulty, be done on such a subject. + + +316. *_The Egyptian Maid_. + +In addition to the short notice prefixed to this poem, it may be worth +while here to say, that it rose out of a few words casually used in +conversation by my nephew Henry Hutchinson. He was describing with great +spirit the appearance and movement of a vessel which he seemed to admire +more than any other he had ever seen, and said her name was the Water +Lily. This plant has been my delight from my boyhood, as I have seen it +floating on the lake; and that conversation put me upon constructing and +composing the poem. Had I not heard those words it would never have been +written. The form of the stanza is new, and is nothing but a repetition +of the first five lines as they were thrown off, and is, perhaps, not +well suited to narrative, and certainly would not have been trusted to +had I thought at the beginning that the poem would have gone to such a +length. [The short note referred to _supra_ is as follows: 'For the +names and persons in the following poem see the _History of the Renowned +Prince Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table_; for the rest the +author is answerable; only it may be proper to add that the Lotus, with +the bust of the goddess appearing to rise out of the full-blown flower, +was suggested by the beautiful work of ancient art once included among +the Townley Marbles, and now in the British Museum.'] + + + + +XIII. THE RIVER DUDDON: A SERIES OF SONNETS. + + +317. _Introduction_. + +The River Duddon rises upon Wrynose Fell, on the confines of +Westmoreland, Cumberland, and Lancashire: and, having served as a +boundary to the two last counties for the space of about twenty-five +miles, enters the Irish Sea, between the Isle of Walney and the Lordship +of Millum. + + +318. '_The River Duddon_.' + +A Poet, whose works are not yet known as they deserve to be, thus enters +upon his description of the 'Ruins of Rome:' + + 'The rising Sun + Flames on the ruins in the purer air + Towering aloft;' + +and ends thus-- + + 'The setting sun displays + His visible great round, between yon towers, + As through two shady cliffs.' + +Mr. Crowe, in his excellent loco-descriptive Poem, 'Lewesdon Hill,' is +still more expeditious, finishing the whole on a May-morning, before +breakfast. + + 'Tomorrow for severer thought, but now + To breakfast, and keep festival to-day.' + +No one believes, or is desired to believe, that those Poems were +actually composed within such limits of time; nor was there any reason +why a prose statement should acquaint the Reader with the plain fact, to +the disturbance of poetic credibility. But, in the present case, I am +compelled to mention, that the above series of Sonnets was the growth of +many years;--the one which stands the 14th was the first produced; and +others were added upon occasional visits to the Stream, or as +recollections of the scenes upon its banks awakened a wish to describe +them. In this manner I had proceeded insensibly, without perceiving that +I was trespassing upon ground pre-occupied, at least as far as intention +went, by Mr. Coleridge; who, more than twenty years ago, used to speak +of writing a rural Poem, to be entitled 'The Brook,' of which he has +given a sketch in a recent publication. But a particular subject cannot, +I think, much interfere with a general one; and I have been further +kept from encroaching upon any right Mr. C. may still wish to exercise, +by the restriction which the frame of the Sonnet imposed upon me, +narrowing unavoidably the range of thought, and precluding, though not +without its advantages, many graces to which a freer movement of verse +would naturally have led. + +May I not venture, then, to hope, that, instead of being a hindrance, by +anticipation of any part of the subject, these Sonnets may remind Mr. +Coleridge of his own more comprehensive design, and induce him to fulfil +it?--There is a sympathy in streams,--'one calleth to another;' and I +would gladly believe, that 'The Brook' will, ere long, murmur in concert +with 'The Duddon.' But, asking pardon for this fancy, I need not scruple +to say, that those verses must indeed be ill-fated which can enter upon +such pleasant walks of Nature, without receiving and giving inspiration. +The power of waters over the minds of Poets has been acknowledged from +the earliest ages;--through the 'Flumina amem sylvasque inglorius' of +Virgil, down to the sublime apostrophe to the great rivers of the earth, +by Armstrong, and the simple ejaculation of Burns, (chosen, if I +recollect right, by Mr. Coleridge, as a motto for his embryo 'Brook,')-- + + The Muse nae Poet ever fand her, + Till by himsel' he learned to wander + Adown some trotting burn's meander + AND NA' THINK LANG.' + + +319. *_The Sonnets on the River Duddon_. + +It is with the little River Duddon as it is with most other rivers, +Ganges and Nile not excepted,--many springs might claim the honour of +being its head. In my own fancy, I have fixed its rise near the noted +Shire Stones placed at the meeting point of the counties Westmoreland, +Cumberland, and Lancashire. They stand by the wayside, on the top of the +Wrynose Pass, and it used to be reckoned a proud thing to say, that by +touching them at the same time with feet and hands, one had been in +three counties at once. At what point of its course the stream takes the +name of Duddon, I do not know. I first became acquainted with the +Duddon, as I have good reason to remember, in early boyhood. Upon the +banks of the Derwent, I had learnt to be very fond of angling. Fish +abound in that large river,--not so in the small streams in the +neighbourhood of Hawkshead; and I fell into the common delusion, that +the farther from home the better sport would be had. Accordingly, one +day I attached myself to a person living in the neighbourhood of +Hawkshead, who was going to try his fortune, as an angler, near the +source of the Duddon. We fished a great part of the day with very sorry +success, the rain pouring torrents; and long before we got home, I was +worn out with fatigue; and if the good man had not carried me on his +back, I must have lain down under the best shelter I could find. Little +did I think then it would have been my lot to celebrate, in a strain of +love and admiration, the stream which for many years I never thought of +without recollections of disappointment and distress. + +During my college vacation, and two or three years afterwards, before +taking my bachelor's degree, I was several times resident in the house +of a near relative, who lived in the small town of Broughton. I passed +many delightful hours upon the banks of this river, which becomes an +estuary about a mile from that place. The remembrances of that period +are the subject of the 21st Sonnet. The subject of the 27th Sonnet is, +in fact, taken from a tradition belonging to Rydal Hall, which once +stood, as is believed, upon a rocky and woody hill on the right hand as +you go from Rydal to Ambleside, and was deserted, from the superstitious +fear here described, and the present site fortunately chosen instead. +The present Hall was erected by Sir Michael le Fleming, and it may be +hoped that at some future time there will be an edifice more worthy of +so beautiful a position. With regard to the 30th Sonnet, it is odd +enough that this imagination was realised in the year 1840, when I made +a tour through this district with my wife and daughter, Miss Fenwick and +her niece, and Mr. and Miss Quillinan. Before our return from Seathwaite +Chapel, the party separated. Mrs. Wordsworth, while most of us went +further up the stream, chose an opposite direction, having told us that +we would overtake her on our way to Ulpha. But she was tempted out of +the main road to ascend a rocky eminence near it, thinking it impossible +we should pass without seeing her. This however unfortunately happened; +and then ensued vexation and distress, especially to me, which I should +be ashamed to have recorded, for I lost my temper entirely. Neither I +nor those who were with me saw her again till we reached the Inn at +Broughton, seven miles. This may perhaps in some degree excuse my +irritability on the occasion, for I could not but think she had been +much to blame. It appeared, however, on explanation, that she had +remained on the rock, calling out and waving her handkerchief as we were +passing, in order that we also might ascend and enjoy a prospect which +had much charmed her. 'But on we went, her signals proving vain.' How +then could she reach Broughton before us? When we found she had not gone +on to Ulpha Kirk, Mr. Quillinan went back in one of the carriages in +search of her. He met her on the road, took her up, and by a shorter way +conveyed her to Broughton, where we were all re-united and spent a happy +evening. + +I have many affecting remembrances connected with this stream. These I +forbear to mention, especially things that occurred on its banks during +the latter part of that visit to the sea-side, of which the former part +is detailed in my Epistle to Sir George Beaumont. + +[The following additional notices of his latter excursion to the banks +of the Duddon are from a letter to Lady Frederick Bentinck. + +'You will have wondered, dear Lady Frederick, what is become of me. I +have been wandering about the country, and only returned yesterday. Our +tour was by Keswick, Scale Hill, Buttermere, Loweswater, Ennerdale, +Calder Abbey, Wastdale, Eskdale, the Vale of Duddon, Broughton, Furness +Abbey, Peele Castle, Ulverston, &c.; we had broken weather, which kept +us long upon the road, but we had also very fine intervals, and I often +wished you had been present. We had such glorious sights! one, in +particular, I never saw the like of. About sunset we were directly +opposite that large, lofty precipice at Wastwater, which is called the +Screes. The ridge of it is broken into sundry points, and along them, +and partly along the side of the steep, went driving a procession of +yellow vapoury clouds from the sea-quarter towards the mountain +Scawfell. Their colours I have called yellow, but it was exquisitely +varied, and the shapes of the rocks on the summit of the ridge varied +with the density or thinness of the vapours. The effect was most +enchanting; for right above was steadfastly fixed a beautiful rainbow. +We were a party of seven, Mrs. Wordsworth, my daughter, and Miss Fenwick +included, and it would be difficult to say who was most delighted. The +Abbey of Furness, as you well know, is a noble ruin, and most happily +situated in a dell that entirely hides it from the surrounding country. +It is taken excellent care of, and seems little dilapidated since I +first knew it, more than half a century ago.][1] + +[1] _Memoirs_, ii. 97-8. + + +320. _The Wild Strawberry: Sympson_. [Sonnet VI. ll. 9-10.] + + 'There bloomed the strawberry of the wilderness, + The trembling eyebright showed her sapphire blue.' + +These two lines are in a great measure taken from 'The Beauties of +Spring, a Juvenile Poem,' by the Rev. Joseph Sympson. He was a native of +Cumberland, and was educated in the vale of Grasmere, and at Hawkshead +school: his poems are little known, but they contain passages of +splendid description; and the versification of his 'Vision of Alfred' is +harmonious and animated. In describing the motions of the Sylphs, that +constitute the strange machinery of his Poem, he uses the following +illustrative simile: + + --'Glancing from their plumes + A changeful light the azure vault illumes. + Less varying hues beneath the Pole adorn + The streamy glories of the Boreal morn, + That wavering to and fro their radiance shed + On Bothnia's gulf with glassy ice o'erspread, + Where the lone native, as he homeward glides, + On polished sandals o'er the imprisoned tides, + And still the balance of his frame preserves, + Wheeled on alternate foot in lengthening curves, + Sees at a glance, above him and below, + Two rival heavens with equal splendour glow. + Sphered in the centre of the world he seems; + For all around with soft effulgence gleams; + Stars, moons, and meteors, ray opposed to ray, + And solemn midnight pours the blaze of day.' + +He was a man of ardent feeling, and his faculties of mind, particularly +his memory, were extraordinary. Brief notices of his life ought to find +a place in the History of Westmoreland. + + +321. '_Return' and 'Seathwaite Chapel_.' [Sonnets XVII. and XVIII.] + +The EAGLE requires a large domain for its support: but several pairs, +not many years ago, were constantly resident in this country, building +their nests in the steeps of Borrowdale, Wastdale, Ennerdale, and on the +eastern side of Helvellyn. Often have I heard anglers speak of the +grandeur of their appearance, as they hovered over Red Tarn, in one of +the coves of this mountain. The bird frequently returns, but is always +destroyed. Not long since, one visited Rydal lake, and remained some +hours near its banks: the consternation which it occasioned among the +different species of fowl, particularly the herons, was expressed by +loud screams. The horse also is naturally afraid of the eagle.--There +were several Roman stations among these mountains; the most considerable +seems to have been in a meadow at the head of Windermere, established, +undoubtedly, as a check over the Passes of Kirkstone, Dunmailraise, and +of Hardknot and Wrynose. On the margin of Rydal lake, a coin of Trajan +was discovered very lately.--The ROMAN FORT here alluded to, called by +the country people '_Hardknot Castle_,' is most impressively situated +half-way down the hill on the right of the road that descends from +Hardknot into Eskdale. It has escaped the notice of most antiquarians, +and is but slightly mentioned by Lysons.--The DRUIDICAL CIRCLE is about +half a mile to the left of the road ascending Stone-side from the vale +of Duddon: the country people call it '_Sunken Church_.' + +The reader who may have been interested in the foregoing Sonnets, (which +together may be considered as a Poem,) will not be displeased to find in +this place a prose account of the Duddon, extracted from Green's +comprehensive _Guide to the Lakes_, lately published. 'The road leading +from Coniston to Broughton is over high ground, and commands a view of +the River Duddon; which, at high water, is a grand sight, having the +beautiful and fertile lands of Lancashire and Cumberland stretching each +way from its margin. In this extensive view, the face of Nature is +displayed in a wonderful variety of hill and dale; wooded grounds and +buildings; amongst the latter Broughton Tower, seated on the crown of a +hill, rising elegantly from the valley, is an object of extraordinary +interest. Fertility on each side is gradually diminished, and lost in +the superior heights of Blackcomb, in Cumberland, and the high lands +between Kirkby and Ulverstone. + +'The road from Broughton to Seathwaite is on the banks of the Duddon, +and on its Lancashire side it is of various elevations. The river is an +amusing companion, one while brawling and tumbling over rocky +precipices, until the agitated water becomes again calm by arriving at a +smoother and less precipitous bed, but its course is soon again ruffled, +and the current thrown into every variety of form which the rocky +channel of a river can give to water.'--_Vide Green's Guide to the +Lakes_, vol. i. pp. 98-100. + +After all, the traveller would be most gratified who should approach +this beautiful Stream, neither at its source, as is done in the Sonnets, +nor from its termination; but from Coniston over Walna Scar; first +descending into a little circular valley, a collateral compartment of +the long winding vale through which flows the Duddon. This recess, +towards the close of September, when the after-grass of the meadow is +still of a fresh green, with the leaves of many of the trees faded, but +perhaps none fallen, is truly enchanting. At a point elevated enough to +show the various objects in the valley, and not so high as to diminish +their importance, the stranger will instinctively halt. On the +foreground, a little below the most favourable station, a rude +foot-bridge is thrown over the bed of the noisy brook foaming by the +wayside. Russet and craggy hills, of bold and varied outline, surround +the level valley, which is besprinkled with grey rocks plumed with birch +trees. A few homesteads are interspersed, in some places peeping out +from among the rocks like hermitages, whose site has been chosen for the +benefit of sunshine as well as shelter; in other instances, the +dwelling-house, barn, and byre compose together a cruciform structure, +which, with its embowering trees, and the ivy clothing part of the walls +and roof like a fleece, call to mind the remains of an ancient abbey. +Time, in most cases, and Nature everywhere, have given a sanctity to the +humble works of man that are scattered over this peaceful retirement. +Hence a harmony of tone and colour, a consummation and perfection of +beauty, which would have been marred had aim or purpose interfered with +the course of convenience, utility, or necessity. This unvitiated region +stands in no need of the veil of twilight to soften or disguise its +features. As it glistens in the morning sunshine, it would fill the +spectator's heart with gladsomeness. Looking from our chosen station, he +would feel an impatience to rove among its pathways, to be greeted by +the milkmaid, to wander from house to house, exchanging 'good-morrows' +as he passed the open doors; but, at evening, when the sun is set, and a +pearly light gleams from the western quarter of the sky, with an +answering light from the smooth surface of the meadows; when the trees +are dusky, but each kind still distinguishable; when the cool air has +condensed the blue smoke rising from the cottage chimneys; when the dark +mossy stones seem to sleep in the bed of the foaming brook; _then_, he +would be unwilling to move forward, not less from a reluctance to +relinquish what he beholds, than from an apprehension of disturbing, by +his approach, the quietness beneath him. Issuing from the plain of this +valley, the brook descends in a rapid torrent passing by the churchyard +of Seathwaite. The traveller is thus conducted at once into the midst of +the wild and beautiful scenery which gave occasion to the Sonnets from +the 14th to the 20th inclusive. From the point where the Seathwaite +brook joins the Duddon, is a view upwards, into the pass through which +the river makes its way into the plain of Donnerdale. The perpendicular +rock on the right bears the ancient British name of THE PEN; the one +opposite is called WALLA-BARROW CRAG, a name that occurs in other places +to designate rocks of the same character. The _chaotic_ aspect of the +scene is well marked by the expression of a stranger, who strolled out +while dinner was preparing, and at his return, being asked by his +host, 'What way he had been wandering?' replied, 'As far as it is +_finished_!' + +The bed of the Duddon is here strewn with large fragments of rocks +fallen from aloft; which, as Mr. Green truly says, 'are happily adapted +to the many-shaped waterfalls,' (or rather water-breaks, for none of +them are high,) 'displayed in the short space of half a mile.' That +there is some hazard in frequenting these desolate places, I myself have +had proof; for one night an immense mass of rock fell upon the very spot +where, with a friend, I had lingered the day before. 'The concussion,' +says Mr. Green, speaking of the event, (for he also, in the practice of +his art, on that day sat exposed for a still longer time to the same +peril,) 'was heard, not without alarm, by the neighbouring shepherds.' +But to return to Seathwaite Churchyard: it contains the following +inscription: + + In memory of the Reverend Robert Walker, who died the 25th of June, + 1802, in the 93d year of his age, and 67th of his curacy at + Seathwaite. + + 'Also, of Anne his wife, who died the 28th of January, in the 93d + year of her age.' + +In the parish-register of Seathwaite Chapel, is this notice: + + 'Buried, June 28th, the Rev. Robert Walker. He was curate of + Seathwaite sixty-six years. He was a man singular for his + temperance, industry, and integrity.' + +This individual is the Pastor alluded to, in the eighteenth Sonnet, as a +worthy compeer of the country parson of Chaucer, &c. In the seventh book +of the _Excursion_, an abstract of his character is given, beginning-- + + 'A Priest abides before whose life such doubts + Fall to the ground;--' + +and some account of his life, for it is worthy of being recorded, will +not be out of place here. + + +322. _Memoir of the Rev. Robert Walker_. + +('Pastor,' in Book vii. of 'The Excursion.') + +In the year 1709, Robert Walker was born at Under-crag, in Seathwaite; +he was the youngest of twelve children. His eldest brother, who +inherited the small family estate, died at Under-crag, aged ninety-four, +being twenty-four years older than the subject of this Memoir, who was +born of the same mother. Robert was a sickly infant; and, through his +boyhood and youth, continuing to be of delicate frame and tender health, +it was deemed best, according to the country phrase, to _breed him a +scholar_; for it was not likely that he would be able to earn a +livelihood by bodily labour. At that period few of these dales were +furnished with schoolhouses; the children being taught to read and write +in the chapel; and in the same consecrated building, where he officiated +for so many years both as preacher and schoolmaster, he himself received +the rudiments of his education. In his youth he became schoolmaster at +Loweswater; not being called upon, probably, in that situation, to teach +more than reading, writing, and arithmetic. But, by the assistance of a +'Gentleman' in the neighbourhood, he acquired, at leisure hours, a +knowledge of the classics, and became qualified for taking holy orders. +Upon his ordination, he had the offer of two curacies: the one, Torver, +in the vale of Coniston,--the other, Seathwaite, in his native vale. The +value of each was the same, _viz_., five pounds _per annum_: but the +cure of Seathwaite having a cottage attached to it, as he wished to +marry, he chose it in preference. The young person on whom his +affections were fixed, though in the condition of a domestic servant, +had given promise, by her serious and modest deportment, and by her +virtuous dispositions, that she was worthy to become the helpmate of a +man entering upon a plan of life such as he had marked out for himself. +By her frugality she had stored up a small sum of money, with which they +began house-keeping. In 1735 or 1736, he entered upon his curacy; and, +nineteen years afterwards, his situation is thus described, in some +letters to be found in the _Annual Register_ for 1760, from which the +following is extracted:-- + + 'To MR. ----. + 'Coniston, July 26, 1754. + +'Sir,--I was the other day upon a party of pleasure, about five or six +miles from this place, where I met with a very striking object, and of a +nature not very common. Going into a clergyman's house (of whom I had +frequently heard), I found him sitting at the head of a long square +table, such as is commonly used in this country by the lower class of +people, dressed in a coarse blue frock, trimmed with black horn buttons; +a checked shirt, a leathern strap about his neck for a stock, a coarse +apron, and a pair of great wooden-soled shoes plated with iron to +preserve them (what we call clogs in these parts), with a child upon his +knee, eating his breakfast; his wife, and the remainder of his children, +were some of them employed in waiting upon each other, the rest in +teasing and spinning wool, at which trade he is a great proficient; and +moreover, when it is made ready for sale, will lay it, by sixteen or +thirty-two pounds' weight, upon his back, and on foot, seven or eight +miles, will carry it to the market, even in the depth of winter. I was +not much surprised at all this, as you may possibly be, having heard a +great deal of it related before. But I must confess myself astonished +with the alacrity and the good humour that appeared both in the +clergyman and his wife, and more so at the sense and ingenuity of the +clergyman himself...' + +Then follows a letter from another person, dated 1755, from which an +extract shall be given. + +'By his frugality and good management, he keeps the wolf from the door, +as we say; and if he advances a little in the world, it is owing more to +his own care, than to anything else he has to rely upon. I don't find +his inclination is running after further preferment. He is settled among +the people, that are happy among themselves; and lives in the greatest +unanimity and friendship with them; and, I believe, the minister and +people are exceedingly satisfied with each other; and indeed how should +they be dissatisfied when they have a person of so much worth and +probity for their pastor? A man who, for his candour and meekness, his +sober, chaste, and virtuous conversation, his soundness in principle and +practice, is an ornament to his profession, and an honour to the country +he is in; and bear with me if I say, the plainness of his dress, the +sanctity of his manners, the simplicity of his doctrine, and the +vehemence of his expression, have a sort of resemblance to the pure +practice of primitive Christianity.' + +We will now give his own account of himself, to be found in the same +place. + + +'FROM THE REV. ROBERT WALKER. + +'Sir,--Yours of the 26th instant was communicated to me by Mr. C----, +and I should have returned an immediate answer, but the hand of +Providence, then laying heavy upon an amiable pledge of conjugal +endearment, hath since taken from me a promising girl, which the +disconsolate mother too pensively laments the loss of; though we have +yet eight living, all healthful, hopeful children, whose names and ages +are as follows:--Zaccheus, aged almost eighteen years; Elizabeth, +sixteen years and ten months; Mary, fifteen; Moses, thirteen years and +three months; Sarah, ten years and three months; Mabel, eight years and +three months; William Tyson, three years and eight months; and Anne +Esther, one year and three months; besides Anne, who died two years and +six months ago, and was then aged between nine and ten; and Eleanor, who +died the 23d inst., January, aged six years and ten months. Zaccheus, +the eldest child, is now learning the trade of tanner, and has two years +and a half of his apprenticeship to serve. The annual income of my +chapel at present, as near as I can compute it, may amount to about +17_l._, of which is paid in cash, viz., 5_l._ from the bounty of Queen +Anne, and 5_l._ from W.P., Esq., of P----, out of the annual rents, he +being lord of the manor; and 3_l._ from the several inhabitants of +L----, settled upon the tenements as a rent-charge; the house and +gardens I value at 4_l._ yearly, and not worth more; and I believe the +surplice fees and voluntary contributions, one year with another, may be +worth 3_l._; but as the inhabitants are few in number, and the fees very +low, this last-mentioned sum consists merely in free-will offerings. + +'I am situated greatly to my satisfaction with regard to the conduct and +behaviour of my auditory, who not only live in the happy ignorance of +the follies and vices of the age, but in mutual peace and good-will with +one another, and are seemingly (I hope really too) sincere Christians, +and sound members of the Established Church, not one dissenter of any +denomination being amongst them all. I got to the value of 40_l._ for my +wife's fortune, but had no real estate of my own, being the youngest son +of twelve children, born of obscure parents; and, though my income has +been but small, and my family large, yet, by a providential blessing +upon my own diligent endeavours, the kindness of friends, and a cheap +country to live in, we have always had the necessaries of life. By what +I have written (which is a true and exact account, to the best of my +knowledge,) I hope you will not think your favour to me, out of the late +worthy Dr. Stratford's effects, quite misbestowed, for which I must ever +gratefully own myself, + +Sir, +'Your much obliged and most obedient humble Servant, + 'R.W., Curate of S----. + +'To Mr. C., of Lancaster.' + +About the time when this letter was written the Bishop of Chester +recommended the scheme of joining the curacy of Ulpha to the contiguous +one of Seathwaite, and the nomination was offered to Mr. Walker; but an +unexpected difficulty arising, Mr. W., in a letter to the Bishop, (a +copy of which, in his own beautiful handwriting, now lies before me,) +thus expresses himself. 'If he,' meaning the person in whom the +difficulty originated, 'had suggested any such objection before, I +should utterly have declined any attempt to the curacy of Ulpha; +indeed, I was always apprehensive it might be disagreeable to my +auditory at Seathwaite, as they have been always accustomed to double +duty, and the inhabitants of Ulpha despair of being able to support a +schoolmaster who is not curate there also; which suppressed all thoughts +in me of serving them both.' And in a second letter to the Bishop he +writes: + +'My Lord,--I have the favour of yours of the 1st instant, and am +exceedingly obliged on account of the Ulpha affair: if that curacy +should lapse into your Lordship's hands, I would beg leave rather to +decline than embrace it; for the chapels of Seathwaite and Ulpha, +annexed together, would be apt to cause a general discontent among the +inhabitants of both places; by either thinking themselves slighted, +being only served alternately, or neglected in the duty, or attributing +it to covetousness in me; all which occasions of murmuring I would +willingly avoid.' And in concluding his former letter, he expresses a +similar sentiment upon the same occasion, 'desiring, if it be possible, +however, as much as in me lieth, to live peaceably with all men.' + + * * * * * + +The year following, the curacy of Seathwaite was again augmented; and, +to effect this augmentation, fifty pounds had been advanced by himself; +and, in 1760, lands were purchased with eight hundred pounds. Scanty as +was his income, the frequent offer of much better benefices could not +tempt Mr. W. to quit a situation where he had been so long happy, with a +consciousness of being useful. Among his papers I find the following +copy of a letter, dated 1775, twenty years after his refusal of the +curacy of Ulpha, which will show what exertions had been made for one of +his sons. + + +'May it please your Grace,--Our remote situation here makes it difficult +to get the necessary information for transacting business regularly; +such is the reason of my giving your Grace the present trouble. + +'The bearer (my son) is desirous of offering himself candidate for +deacon's orders at your Grace's ensuing ordination; the first, on the +25th instant, so that his papers could not be transmitted in due time. +As he is now fully at age, and I have afforded him education to the +utmost of my ability, it would give me great satisfaction (if your +Grace would take him, and find him qualified) to have him ordained. His +constitution has been tender for some years; he entered the college of +Dublin, but his health would not permit him to continue there, or I +would have supported him much longer. He has been with me at home above +a year, in which time he has gained great strength of body, sufficient, +I hope, to enable him for performing the function. Divine Providence, +assisted by liberal benefactors, has blest my endeavours, from a small +income, to rear a numerous family; and as my time of life renders me now +unfit for much future expectancy from this world, I should be glad to +see my son settled in a promising way to acquire an honest livelihood +for himself. His behaviour, so far in life, has been irreproachable; and +I hope he will not degenerate, in principles or practice, from the +precepts and pattern of an indulgent parent. Your Grace's favourable +reception of this, from a distant corner of the diocese, and an obscure +hand, will excite filial gratitude, and a due use shall be made of the +obligation vouchsafed thereby to + +'Your Grace's very dutiful and most obedient Son and Servant, ROBERT +WALKER.' + + +The same man, who was thus liberal in the education of his numerous +family, was even munificent in hospitality as a parish priest. Every +Sunday, were served, upon the long table, at which he has been described +sitting with a child upon his knee, messes of broth, for the refreshment +of those of his congregation who came from a distance, and usually took +their seats as parts of his own household. It seems scarcely possible +that this custom could have commenced before the augmentation of his +cure; and what would to many have been a high price of self-denial, was +paid, by the pastor and his family, for this gratification; as the treat +could only be provided by dressing at one time the whole, perhaps, of +their weekly allowance of fresh animal food; consequently, for a +succession of days, the table was covered with cold victuals only. His +generosity in old age may be still further illustrated by a little +circumstance relating to an orphan grandson, then ten years of age, +which I find in a copy of a letter to one of his sons; he requests that +half a guinea may be left for 'little Robert's pocket-money,' who was +then at school: intrusting it to the care of a lady, who, as he says, +'may sometimes frustrate his squandering it away foolishly,' and +promising to send him an equal allowance annually for the same purpose. +The conclusion of the same letter is so characteristic, that I cannot +forbear to transcribe it. 'We,' meaning his wife and himself, 'are in +our wonted state of health, allowing for the hasty strides of old age +knocking daily at our door, and threateningly telling us, we are not +only mortal, but must expect ere long to take our leave of our ancient +cottage, and lie down in our last dormitory. Pray pardon my neglect to +answer yours: let us hear sooner from you, to augment the mirth of the +Christmas holidays. Wishing you all the pleasures of the approaching +season, I am, dear Son, with lasting sincerity, yours affectionately, + +'ROBERT WALKER.' + + +He loved old customs and old usages, and in some instances stuck to them +to his own loss; for, having had a sum of money lodged in the hands of a +neighbouring tradesman, when long course of time had raised the rate of +interest, and more was offered, he refused to accept it; an act not +difficult to one, who, while he was drawing seventeen pounds a year from +his curacy, declined, as we have seen, to add the profits of another +small benefice to his own, lest he should be suspected of +cupidity.--From this vice he was utterly free; he made no charge for +teaching school; such as could afford to pay, gave him what they +pleased. When very young, having kept a diary of his expenses, however +trifling, the large amount, at the end of the year, surprised him; and +from that time the rule of his life was to be economical, not +avaricious. At his decease he left behind him no less a sum than +2000_l._; and such a sense of his various excellencies was prevalent in +the country, that the epithet of WONDERFUL is to this day attached to +his name. + +There is in the above sketch something so extraordinary as to require +further _explanatory_ details.--And to begin with his industry; eight +hours in each day, during five days in the week, and half of Saturday, +except when the labours of husbandry were urgent, he was occupied in +teaching. His seat was within the rails of the altar; the communion +table was his desk; and, like Shenstone's schoolmistress, the master +employed himself at the spinning-wheel, while the children were +repeating their lessons by his side. Every evening, after school hours, +if not more profitably engaged, he continued the same kind of labour, +exchanging, for the benefit of exercise, the small wheel, at which he +had sate, for the large one on which wool is spun, the spinner stepping +to and fro. Thus, was the wheel constantly in readiness to prevent the +waste of a moment's time. Nor was his industry with the pen, when +occasion called for it, less eager. Intrusted with extensive management +of public and private affairs, he acted, in his rustic neighbourhood, as +scrivener, writing out petitions, deeds of conveyance, wills, covenants, +&c., with pecuniary gain to himself, and to the great benefit of his +employers. These labours (at all times considerable) at one period of +the year, viz., between Christmas and Candlemas, when money transactions +are settled in this country, were often so intense, that he passed great +part of the night, and sometimes whole nights, at his desk. His garden +also was tilled by his own hand; he had a right of pasturage upon the +mountains for a few sheep and a couple of cows, which required his +attendance; with this pastoral occupation, he joined the labours of +husbandry upon a small scale, renting two or three acres in addition to +his own less than one acre of glebe; and the humblest drudgery which the +cultivation of these fields required was performed by himself. + +He also assisted his neighbours in haymaking and shearing their flocks, +and in the performance of this latter service he was eminently +dexterous. They, in their turn, complimented him with the present of a +haycock, or a fleece; less as a recompence for this particular service +than as a general acknowledgment. The Sabbath was in a strict sense kept +holy; the Sunday evenings being devoted to reading the Scripture and +family prayer. The principal festivals appointed by the Church were also +duly observed; but through every other day in the week, through every +week in the year, he was incessantly occupied in work of hand or mind; +not allowing a moment for recreation, except upon a Saturday afternoon, +when he indulged himself with a Newspaper, or sometimes with a Magazine. +The frugality and temperance established in his house, were as admirable +as the industry. Nothing to which the name of luxury could be given was +there known; in the latter part of his life, indeed, when tea had been +brought into almost general use, it was provided for visitors, and for +such of his own family as returned occasionally to his roof, and had +been accustomed to this refreshment elsewhere; but neither he nor his +wife ever partook of it. The raiment worn by his family was comely and +decent, but as simple as their diet; the home-spun materials were made +up into apparel by their own hands. At the time of the decease of this +thrifty pair, their cottage contained a large store of webs of woollen +and linen cloth, woven from thread of their own spinning. And it is +remarkable that the pew in the chapel in which the family used to sit, +remains neatly lined with woollen cloth spun by the pastor's own hands. +It is the only pew in the chapel so distinguished; and I know of no +other instance of his conformity to the delicate accommodations of +modern times. The fuel of the house, like that of their neighbours, +consisted of peat, procured from the mosses by their own labour. The +lights by which, in the winter evenings, their work was performed, were +of their own manufacture, such as still continue to be used in these +cottages; they are made of the pith of rushes, dipped in any unctuous +substance that the house affords. _White_ candles, as tallow candles are +here called, were reserved to honour the Christmas festivals, and were +perhaps produced upon no other occasions. Once a month, during the +proper season, a sheep was drawn from their small mountain flock, and +killed for the use of the family; and a cow, towards the close of the +year, was salted and dried for winter provision: the hide was tanned to +furnish them with shoes.--By these various resources, this venerable +clergyman reared a numerous family, not only preserving them, as he +affectingly says, 'from wanting the necessaries of life;' but affording +them an unstinted education, and the means of raising themselves in +society. In this they were eminently assisted by the effects of their +father's example, his precepts, and injunctions: he was aware that +truth-speaking, as a moral virtue, is best secured by inculcating +attention to accuracy of report even on trivial occasions; and so rigid +were the rules of honesty by which he endeavoured to bring up his +family, that if one of them had chanced to find in the lanes or fields +anything of the least use or value without being able to ascertain to +whom it belonged, he always insisted upon the child's carrying it back +to the place from which it had been brought. + +No one it might be thought could, as has been described, convert his +body into a machine, as it were, of industry for the humblest uses, and +keep his thoughts so frequently bent upon secular concerns, without +grievous injury to the more precious parts of his nature. How could the +powers of intellect thrive, or its graces be displayed, in the midst of +circumstances apparently so unfavourable, and where, to the direct +cultivation of the mind, so small a portion of time was allotted? But, +in this extraordinary man, things in their nature adverse were +reconciled. His conversation was remarkable, not only for being chaste +and pure, but for the degree in which it was fervent and eloquent; his +written style was correct, simple, and animated. Nor did his +_affections_ suffer more than his intellect; he was tenderly alive to +all the duties of his pastoral office: the poor and needy 'he never sent +empty away,'--the stranger was fed and refreshed in passing that +unfrequented vale--the sick were visited; and the feelings of humanity +found further exercise among the distresses and embarrassments in the +worldly estate of his neighbours, with which his talents for business +made him acquainted; and the disinterestedness, impartiality, and +uprightness which he maintained in the management of all affairs +confided to him, were virtues seldom separated in his own conscience +from religious obligation. Nor could such conduct fail to remind those +who witnessed it of a spirit nobler than law or custom: they felt +convictions which, but for such intercourse, could not have been +afforded, that, as in the practice of their pastor, there was no guile, +so in his faith there was nothing hollow; and we are warranted in +believing, that upon these occasions, selfishness, obstinacy, and +discord would often give way before the breathings of his good-will, and +saintly integrity. It may be presumed also--while his humble +congregation were listening to the moral precepts which he delivered +from the pulpit, and to the Christian exhortations that they should love +their neighbours as themselves, and do as they would be done unto--that +peculiar efficacy was given to the preacher's labours by recollections +in the minds of his congregation, that they were called upon to do no +more than his own actions were daily setting before their eyes. + +The afternoon service in the chapel was less numerously attended than +that of the morning, but by a more serious auditory; the lesson from the +New Testament, on those occasions, was accompanied by Burkitt's +Commentaries. These lessons he read with impassioned emphasis, +frequently drawing tears from his hearers, and leaving a lasting +impression upon their minds. His devotional feelings and the powers of +his own mind were further exercised, along with those of his family, in +perusing the Scriptures; not only on the Sunday evenings, but on every +other evening, while the rest of the household were at work, some one of +the children, and in her turn the servant, for the sake of practice in +reading, or for instruction, read the Bible aloud; and in this manner +the whole was repeatedly gone through. That no common importance was +attached to the observance of religious ordinances by his family, +appears from the following memorandum by one of his descendants, which I +am tempted to insert at length, as it is characteristic, and somewhat +curious. 'There is a small chapel in the county palatine of Lancaster, +where a certain clergyman has regularly officiated above sixty years, +and a few months ago administered the sacrament of the Lord's Supper in +the same, to a decent number of devout communicants. After the clergyman +had received himself, the first company out of the assembly who +approached the altar, and kneeled down to be partakers of the sacred +elements, consisted of the parson's wife; to whom he had been married +upwards of sixty years; one son and his wife; four daughters, each with +her husband; whose ages, all added together, amount to above 714 years. +The several and respective distances from the place of each of their +abodes, to the chapel where they all communicated, will measure more +than 1000 English miles. Though the narration will appear surprising, it +is without doubt a fact that the same persons, exactly four years +before, met at the same place, and all joined in performance of the same +venerable duty.' + +He was indeed most zealously attached to the doctrine and frame of the +Established Church. We have seen him congratulating himself that he had +no dissenters in his cure of any denomination. Some allowance must be +made for the state of opinion when his first religious impressions were +received, before the reader will acquit him of bigotry, when I mention, +that at the time of the augmentation of the cure, he refused to invest +part of the money in the purchase of an estate offered to him upon +advantageous terms, because the proprietor was a Quaker;--whether from +scrupulous apprehension that a blessing would not attend a contract +framed for the benefit of the Church between persons not in religious +sympathy with each other; or, as a seeker of peace, he was afraid of the +uncomplying disposition which at one time was too frequently conspicuous +in that sect. Of this an instance had fallen under his own notice; for, +while he taught school at Loweswater, certain persons of that +denomination had refused to pay annual interest due under the title of +Church-stock;[2] a great hardship upon the incumbent, for the curacy of +Loweswater was then scarcely less poor than that of Seathwaite. To what +degree this prejudice of his was blameable need not be +determined;--certain it is, that he was not only desirous, as he himself +says, to live in peace, but in love, with all men. He was placable, and +charitable in his judgments; and, however correct in conduct and +rigorous to himself, he was ever ready to forgive the trespasses of +others, and to soften the censure that was cast upon their +frailties.--It would be unpardonable to omit that, in the maintenance of +his virtues, he received due support from the partner of his long life. +She was equally strict, in attending to her share of their joint cares, +nor less diligent in her appropriate occupations. A person who had been +some time their servant in the latter part of their lives, concluded the +panegyric of her mistress by saying to me, 'She was no less excellent +than her husband; she was good to the poor; she was good to every +thing!' He survived for a short time this virtuous companion. When she +died, he ordered that her body should be borne to the grave by three of +her daughters and one grand-daughter; and, when the corpse was lifted +from the threshold, he insisted upon lending his aid, and feeling about, +for he was then almost blind, took hold of a napkin fixed to the coffin; +and, as a bearer of the body, entered the chapel, a few steps from the +lowly parsonage. + +[2] Mr. Walker's charity being of that kind which 'seeketh not her own,' +he would rather forego his rights than distrain for dues which the +parties liable refused, as a point of conscience, to pay. + +What a contrast does the life of this obscurely-seated, and, in point of +worldly wealth, poorly-repaid Churchman, present to that of a Cardinal +Wolsey! + + 'O 'tis a burthen, Cromwell, 'tis a burthen + Too heavy for a man who hopes for heaven!' + +We have been dwelling upon images of peace in the moral world, that have +brought us again to the quiet enclosure of consecrated ground, in which +this venerable pair lie interred. The sounding brook, that rolls close +by the churchyard, without disturbing feeling or meditation, is now +unfortunately laid bare; but not long ago it participated, with the +chapel, the shade of some stately ash-trees, which will not spring +again. While the spectator from this spot is looking round upon the +girdle of stony mountains that encompasses the vale,--masses of rock, +out of which monuments for all men that ever existed might have been +hewn--it would surprise him to be told, as with truth he might be, that +the plain blue slab dedicated to the memory of this aged pair is a +production of a quarry in North Wales. It was sent as a mark of respect +by one of their descendants from the vale of Festiniog, a region almost +as beautiful as that in which it now lies! + +Upon the Seathwaite Brook, at a small distance from the parsonage, has +been erected a mill for spinning yarn; it is a mean and disagreeable +object, though not unimportant to the spectator, as calling to mind the +momentous changes wrought by such inventions in the frame of +society--changes which have proved especially unfavourable to these +mountain solitudes. So much had been effected by those new powers, +before the subject of the preceding biographical sketch closed his life, +that their operation could not escape his notice, and doubtless excited +touching reflections upon the comparatively insignificant results of his +own manual industry. But Robert Walker was not a man of times and +circumstances; had he lived at a later period, the principle of duty +would have produced application as unremitting; the same energy of +character would have been displayed, though in many instances with +widely different effects. + +With pleasure I annex, as illustrative and confirmatory of the above +account, extracts from a paper in the _Christian Remembrancer_, October, +1819: it bears an assumed signature, but is known to be the work of the +Rev. Bobert Bamford, vicar of Bishopton, in the county of Durham; a +great-grandson of Mr. Walker, whose worth it commemorates, by a record +not the less valuable for being written in very early youth. + +'His house was a nursery of virtue. All the inmates were industrious, +and cleanly, and happy. Sobriety, neatness, quietness, characterised the +whole family. No railings, no idleness, no indulgence of passion, were +permitted. Every child, ever young, had its appointed engagements; +every hand was busy. Knitting, spinning, reading, writing, mending +clothes, making shoes, were by the different children constantly +performing. The father himself sitting amongst them, and guiding their +thoughts, was engaged in the same occupations.... + +'He sate up late, and rose early; when the family were at rest, he +retired to a little room which he had built on the roof of his house. He +had slated it, and fitted it up with shelves for his books, his stock of +cloth, wearing apparel, and his utensils. There many a cold winter's +night, without fire, while the roof was glazed with ice, did he remain +reading or writing till the day dawned. He taught the children in the +chapel, for there was no schoolhouse. Yet in that cold, damp place he +never had a fire. He used to send the children in parties either to his +own fire at home, or make them run up the mountain side. + + * * * * * + +'It may be further mentioned, that he was a passionate admirer of +Nature; she was his mother, and he was a dutiful child. While engaged on +the mountains it was his greatest pleasure to view the rising sun; and +in tranquil evenings, as it slided behind the hills, he blessed its +departure. He was skilled in fossils and plants; a constant observer of +the stars and winds: the atmosphere was his delight. He made many +experiments on its nature and properties. In summer he used to gather a +multitude of flies and insects, and, by his entertaining description, +amuse and instruct his children. They shared all his daily employments, +and derived many sentiments of love and benevolence from his +observations on the works and productions of Nature. Whether they were +following him in the field, or surrounding him in school, he took every +opportunity of storing their minds with useful information.--Nor was the +circle of his influence confined to Seathwaite. Many a distant mother +has told her child of Mr. Walker, and begged him to be as good a man. + + * * * * * + +'Once, when I was very young, I had the pleasure of seeing and hearing +that venerable old man in his 90th year, and even then, the calmness, +the force, the perspicuity of his sermon, sanctified and adorned by the +wisdom of grey hairs, and the authority of virtue, had such an effect +upon my mind, that I never see a hoary-headed clergyman, without +thinking of Mr. Walker.... He allowed no dissenter or methodist to +interfere in the instruction of the souls committed to his cure: and so +successful were his exertions, that he had not one dissenter of any +denomination whatever in the whole parish.--Though he avoided all +religious controversies, yet when age had silvered his head, and +virtuous piety had secured to his appearance reverence and silent +honour, no one, however determined in his hatred of apostolic descent, +could have listened to his discourse on ecclesiastical history and +ancient times, without thinking, that one of the beloved apostles had +returned to mortality, and in that vale of peace had come to exemplify +the beauty of holiness in the life and character of Mr. Walker. + + * * * * * + +'Until the sickness of his wife, a few months previous to her death, his +health and spirits and faculties were unimpaired. But this misfortune +gave him such a shock, that his constitution gradually decayed. His +senses, except sight, still preserved their powers. He never preached +with steadiness after his wife's death. His voice faltered: he always +looked at the seat she had used. He could not pass her tomb without +tears. He became, when alone, sad and melancholy, though still among his +friends kind and good-humoured. He went to bed about twelve o'clock the +night before his death. As his custom was, he went, tottering and +leaning upon his daughter's arm, to examine the heavens, and meditate a +few moments in the open air. "How clear the moon shines to-night!" He +said these words, sighed, and laid down. At six next morning he was +found a corpse. Many a tear, and many a heavy heart, and many a grateful +blessing followed him to the grave.' + +Having mentioned in this narrative the vale of Loweswater as a place +where Mr. Walker taught school, I will add a few memoranda from its +parish register, respecting a person apparently of desires as moderate, +with whom he must have been intimate during his residence there. + + 'Let him that would, ascend the tottering seat + Of courtly grandeur, and become as great + As are his mounting wishes; but for me, + Let sweet repose and rest my portion be. + + HENRY FOREST, Curate,' + + 'Honour, the idol which the most adore, + Receives no homage from my knee; + Content in privacy I value more + Than all uneasy dignity.' + + 'Henry Forest came to Loweswater, 1708, being 25 years of age.' + + 'This curacy was twice augmented by Queen Anne's Bounty. The first + payment, with great difficulty, was paid to Mr. John Curwen of + London, on the 9th of May, 1724, deposited by me, Henry Forest, + Curate of Loweswater. Ye said 9th of May, ye said Mr. Curwen went + to the office, and saw my name registered there, &c. This, by the + Providence of God, came by lot to this poor place. + + Haec testor H. Forest.' + +In another place he records, that the sycamore trees were planted in the +churchyard in 1710. + +He died in 1741, having been curate thirty-four years. It is not +improbable that H. Forest was the gentleman who assisted Robert Walker +in his classical studies at Loweswater. + +To this parish register is prefixed a motto, of which the following +verses are a part: + + 'Invigilate viri, tacito nam tempora gressu + Diffugiunt, nulloque sono convertitur annus; + Utendum est aetate, cito pede praeterit ajtas.' + + +323. _Milton_. + + 'We feel that we are greater than we know.' [Sonnet XXXIV. l. 14.] + 'And feel that I am happier than I know.' MILTON. + +The allusion to the Greek Poet will be obvious to the classical reader. + + +324. _The White Doe of Rylstone; or the Fate of the Nortons_. + +ADVERTISEMENT. + +During the summer of 1807 I visited, for the first time, the beautiful +country that surrounds Bolton Priory, in Yorkshire; and the Poem of the +White Doe, founded upon a tradition connected with that place, was +composed at the close of the same year. + +THE WHITE DOE OF RYLSTONE. + +The Poem of the White Doe of Rylstone is founded on a local tradition, +and on the Ballad in Percy's Collection, entitled, 'The Rising of the +North.' The tradition is as follows: 'About this time,' not long after +the Dissolution, 'a White Doe,' say the aged people of the +neighbourhood, 'long continued to make a weekly pilgrimage from +Rylstone over the falls of Bolton, and was constantly found in the Abbey +Churchyard during divine service; after the close of which she returned +home as regularly as the rest of the congregation.'--Dr. Whitaker's +_History of the Deanery of Craven_.--Rylstone was the property and +residence of the Nortons, distinguished in that ill-advised and +unfortunate Insurrection; which led me to connect with this tradition +the principal circumstances of their fate, as recorded in the Ballad. + +'Bolton Priory,' says Dr. Whitaker in his excellent book, _The History +and Antiquities of the Deanery of Craven_, 'stands upon a beautiful +curvature of the Wharf, on a level sufficiently elevated to protect it +from inundations, and low enough for every purpose of picturesque +effect. + +'Opposite to the east window of the Priory Church the river washes the +foot of a rock nearly perpendicular, and of the richest purple, where +several of the mineral beds, which break out, instead of maintaining +their usual inclination to the horizon, are twisted by some +inconceivable process into undulating and spiral lines. To the south all +is soft and delicious; the eye reposes upon a few rich pastures, a +moderate reach of the river, sufficiently tranquil to form a mirror to +the sun, and the bounding hills beyond, neither too near nor too lofty +to exclude, even in winter, any portion of his rays. + +'But, after all, the glories of Bolton are on the north. Whatever the +most fastidious taste could require to constitute a perfect landscape, +is not only found here, but in its proper place. In front, and +immediately under the eye, is a smooth expanse of park-like enclosure, +spotted with native elm, ash, &c. of the finest growth: on the right a +skirting oak wood, with jutting points of grey rock; on the left a +rising copse. Still forward are seen the aged groves of Bolton Park, the +growth of centuries; and farther yet, the barren and rocky distances of +Simonseat and Barden Fell contrasted with the warmth, fertility, and +luxuriant foliage of the valley below. + +'About half a mile above Bolton the valley closes, and either side of +the Wharf is overhung by solemn woods, from which huge perpendicular +masses of grey rock jut out at intervals. + +'This sequestered scene was almost inaccessible till of late, that +ridings have been cut on both sides of the river, and the most +interesting points laid open by judicious thinnings in the woods. Here a +tributary stream rushes from a waterfall, and bursts through a woody +glen to mingle its waters with the Wharf: there the Wharf itself is +nearly lost in a deep cleft in the rock, and next becomes a horned flood +enclosing a woody island--sometimes it reposes for a moment, and then +resumes its native character, lively, irregular, and impetuous. + +'The cleft mentioned above is the tremendous STRID. This chasm, being +incapable of receiving the winter floods, has formed on either side a +broad strand of naked gritstone full of rock-basins, or "pots of the +Linn," which bear witness to the restless impetuosity of so many +Northern torrents. But, if here Wharf is lost to the eye, it amply +repays another sense by its deep and solemn roar, like "the Voice of the +angry Spirit of the Waters," heard far above and beneath, amidst the +silence of the surrounding woods. + +'The terminating object of the landscape is the remains of Barden Tower, +interesting from their form and situation, and still more so from the +recollections which they excite.' + + +325. *_The White Doe of Rylstone_. + +The earlier half of this poem was composed at Stockton-upon-Tees, when +Mary and I were on a visit to her eldest brother, Mr. Hutchinson, at the +close of the year 1807. The country is flat, and the weather was rough. +I was accustomed every day to walk to and fro under the shelter of a row +of stacks, in a field at a small distance from the town, and there +poured forth my verses aloud, as freely as they would come. Mary reminds +me that her brother stood upon the punctilio of not sitting down to +dinner till I joined the party; and it frequently happened that I did +not make my appearance till too late, so that she was made +uncomfortable. I here beg her pardon for this and similar transgressions +during the whole course of our wedded life. To my beloved sister the +same apology is due. + +When, from the visit just mentioned, we returned to Town-End, Grasmere, +I proceeded with the poem. It may be worth while to note as a caution to +others who may cast their eyes on these memoranda, that the skin having +been rubbed off my heel by my wearing too tight a shoe, though I +desisted from walking, I found that the irritation of the wounded part +was kept up by the act of composition, to a degree that made it +necessary to give my constitution a holiday. A rapid cure was the +consequence. + +Poetic excitement, when accompanied by protracted labour in composition, +has throughout my life brought on more or less bodily derangement. +Nevertheless I am, at the close of my seventy-third year, in what may be +called excellent health. So that intellectual labour is not, +necessarily, unfavourable to longevity. But perhaps I ought here to add, +that mine has been generally carried on out of doors. + +Let me here say a few words of this Poem, by way of criticism. The +subject being taken from feudal times has led to its being compared to +some of Walter Scott's poems that belong to the same age and state of +society. The comparison is inconsiderate. Sir Walter pursued the +customary and very natural course of conducting an action, presenting +various turns of fortune, to some outstanding point on which the mind +might rest as a termination or catastrophe. The course I attempted to +pursue is entirely different. Everything that is attempted by the +principal personages in the 'White Doe' fails, so far as its object is +external and substantial: so far as it is moral and spiritual, it +succeeds. The heroine of the poem knows that her duty is not to +interfere with the current of events, either to forward or delay them; +but-- + + 'To abide + The shock, and finally secure + O'er pain and grief a triumph pure.' + +This she does in obedience to her brother's injunction, as most suitable +to a mind and character that, under previous trials, had been proved to +accord with his. She achieves this, not without aid from the +communication with the inferior creature, which often leads her thoughts +to revolve upon the past with a tender and humanising influence that +exalts rather than depresses her. The anticipated beatification, if I +may so say, of her mind, and the apotheosis of the companion of her +solitude, are the points at which the poem aims, and constitute its +legitimate catastrophe; far too spiritual a one for instant or +widely-spread sympathy, but not therefore the less fitted to make a deep +and permanent impression upon that class of minds who think and feel +more independently than the many do of the surfaces of things, and +interests transitory because belonging more to the outward and social +forms of life than to its internal spirit. + +How insignificant a thing, for example, does personal prowess appear, +compared with the fortitude of patience and heroic martyrdom; in other +words, with struggles for the sake of principle, in preference to +victory gloried in for its own sake! + +[To these remarks may be added the following, in a letter from the +writer to his friend Archdeacon Wrangham: + + 'Thanksgiving Day, Jan. 1816. + Rydal Mount. + +'MY DEAR WRANGHAM, + +'You have given me an additional mark of that friendly disposition, and +those affectionate feelings which I have long known you to possess, by +writing to me after my long and unjustifiable silence. + + * * * * * + +'Of the "White Doe" I have little to say, but that I hope it will be +acceptable to the intelligent, for whom alone it is written. It starts +from a high point of imagination, and comes round, through various +wanderings of that faculty, to a still higher--nothing less than the +apotheosis of the animal who gives the first of the two titles to the +poem. And as the poem thus begins and ends with pure and lofty +imagination, every motive and impetus that actuates the persons +introduced is from the same source; a kindred spirit pervades, and is +intended to harmonise the whole. Throughout, objects (the banner, for +instance) derive their influence, not from properties inherent in them, +not from what they _are_ actually in themselves, but from such as are +_bestowed_ upon them by the minds of those who are conversant with or +affected by those objects. Thus the poetry, if there be any in the work, +proceeds, as it ought to do, from the _soul of man_, communicating its +creative energies to the images of the external world. But, too much of +this. + + 'Most faithfully yours, + 'W. WORDSWORTH.'][3] + +[3] _Memoirs_, ii. pp. 57-58. + +326. _William Hazlitt's Quotation_. + + 'Action is transitory.' [Dedication-postscript, II. 1-6.] + +This and the five lines that follow were either read or recited by me, +more than thirty years since, to the late Mr. Hazlitt, who quoted some +expressions in them (imperfectly remembered) in a work of his published +several years ago. + +327. _Bolton Alley_. + + 'From Bolton's old monastic Tower' (c. i. l. 1). + +It is to be regretted that at the present day Bolton Abbey wants this +ornament; but the Poem, according to the imagination of the Poet, is +composed in Queen Elizabeth's time. 'Formerly,' says Dr. Whitaker, 'over +the Transept was a tower. This is proved not only from the mention of +bells at the Dissolution, when they could have had no other place, but +from the pointed roof of the choir, which must have terminated westward, +in some building of superior height to the ridge.' + +328. '_When Lady Aaeliza mourned_' (c. i. l. 226). + +The detail of this tradition may be found in Dr. Whitaker's book, and in +a Poem of this Collection, 'The Force of Prayer:' + + 'Bare breast I take and an empty hand' (c. ii. l. 179 and onward). + +See the Old Ballad--'The Rising of the North.' + +328[a]. _Brancepeth_. + + Nor joy for you,' &c. (c. iii. l. 1). + +Brancepeth Castle stands near the river Were, a few miles from the city +of Durham. It formerly belonged to the Nevilles, Earls of Westmoreland. +See Dr. Percy's account. + +329. _The Battle of the Standard_. + + 'Of mitred Thurston--what a Host + He conquered' (c. iii. ll. 121-2). + +See the Historians for the account of this memorable battle, usually +denominated the Battle of the Standard. + + +330. _Bells of Rylstone_ (c. vii. l. 212). + + 'When the Bells of Rylstone played + Their Sabbath music--"God us ayde!"' + +On one of the bells of Rylstone church, which seems coeval with the +building of the tower, is this cypher, 'I.N.,' for John Norton, and the +motto, 'God us Ayde.' + + +331. '_The grassy rock-encircled Pound_' (c. vii. l. 253). + +After a quotation from Whitaker. I cannot conclude without recommending +to the notice of all lovers of beautiful scenery, Bolton Abbey and its +neighbourhood. This enchanting spot belongs to the Duke of Devonshire; +and the superintendence of it has for some years been entrusted to the +Rev. William Carr, who has most skilfully opened out its features; and +in whatever he has added, has done justice to the place, by working with +an invisible hand of art in the very spirit of Nature. + + * * * * * + + + + +XIV. ECCLESIASTICAL SONNETS. + + +332. _Ecclesiastical Sonnets in Series_. + +ADVERTISEMENT. + +During the month of December, 1820, I accompanied a much-beloved and +honoured Friend in a walk through different parts of his estate, with a +view to fix upon the site of a new Church which he intended to erect. It +was one of the most beautiful mornings of a mild season,--our feelings +were in harmony with the cherishing influences of the scene; and such +being our purpose, we were naturally led to look back upon past events +with wonder and gratitude, and on the future with hope. Not long +afterwards, some of the Sonnets which will be found towards the close of +this series were produced as a private memorial of that morning's +occupation. + +The Catholic Question, which was agitated in Parliament about that time, +kept my thoughts in the same course; and it struck me that certain +points in the Ecclesiastical History of our Country might advantageously +be presented to view in verse. Accordingly, I took up the subject, and +what I now offer to the reader was the result. + +When this work was far advanced, I was agreeably surprised to find that +my friend, Mr. Southey, had been engaged with similar views in writing a +concise History of the Church _in_ England. If our Productions, thus +unintentionally coinciding, shall be found to illustrate each other, it +will prove a high gratification to me, which I am sure my friend will +participate. + + W. WORDSWORTH. +Rydal Mount, January 24, 1822. + +For the convenience of passing from one point of the subject to another +without shocks of abruptness, this work has taken the shape of a series +of Sonnets: but the Reader, it is to be hoped, will find that the +pictures are often so closely connected as to have jointly the effect of +passages of a poem in a form of stanza to which there is no objection +but one that bears upon the Poet only--its difficulty. + + +333. *_Introductory Remarks_. + +My purpose in writing this Series was, as much as possible, to confine +my view to the 'introduction, progress, and operation of the CHURCH in +ENGLAND, both previous and subsequent to the Reformation. The Sonnets +were written long before Ecclesiastical History and points of doctrine +had excited the interest with which they have been recently enquired +into and discussed. The former particular is mentioned as an excuse for +my having fallen into error in respect to an incident which had been +selected as setting forth the height to which the power of the Popedom +over temporal sovereignty had attained, and the arrogance with which it +was displayed. I allude to the last sonnet but one in the first series, +where Pope Alexander the Third, at Venice, is described as setting his +foot on the neck of the Emperor Barbarossa. Though this is related as a +fact in history, I am told it is a mere legend of no authority. +Substitute for it an undeniable truth, not less fitted for my purpose, +namely, the penance inflicted by Gregory the Seventh upon the Emperor +Henry the Fourth, at [Canosa].[4] + +[4] ('According to Baronius the humiliation of the Emperor was a +voluntary act of prostration on his part. _Ann. Eccl. ad Ann_. 1177.' +_Memoirs_, ii. 111.) + +Before I conclude my notice of these Sonnets, let me observe that the +opinion I pronounced in favour of Laud (long before the Oxford Tract +movement), and which had brought censure upon me from several quarters, +is not in the least changed. Omitting here to examine into his conduct +in respect to the persecuting spirit with which he has been charged, I +am persuaded that most of his aims to restore ritual practices which had +been abandoned, were good and wise, whatever errors he might commit in +the manner he sometimes attempted to enforce them. I further believe, +that had not he, and others who shared his opinions and felt as he did, +stood up in opposition to the Reformers of that period, it is +questionable whether the Church would ever have recovered its lost +ground, and become the blessing it now is, and will, I trust, become in +a still greater degree, both to those of its communion, and those who +unfortunately are separated from it: + + '_ 1 saw the Figure of a lovely Maid_.' [Sonnet I. Part III.] + +When I came to this part of the Series I had the dream described in this +sonnet. The figure was that of my daughter, and the whole past exactly +as here represented. The sonnet was composed on the middle road leading +from Grasmere to Ambleside: it was begun as I left the last house in the +vale, and finished, word for word, as it now stands, before I came in +view of Rydal. I wish I could say the same of the five or six hundred I +have written: most of them were frequently retouched in the course of +composition, and not a few laboriously. + +I have only further to observe that the intended church which prompted +these Sonnets was erected on Coleorton Moor, towards the centre of a +very populous parish, between three and four miles from +Ashby-de-la-Zouch, on the road to Loughborough, and has proved, I +believe, a great benefit to the neighbourhood. + +[POSTSCRIPT. + +As an addition to these general remarks on the 'Ecclesiastical Sonnets,' +it seems only right to give here from the _Memoirs_ (vol. ii. p. 113) +the following on Sonnet XL. (Pt. II.): + + 'With what entire affection did they prize + Their _new-born_ Church!' + +The invidious inferences that would be drawn from this epithet by the +enemies of the English Church and Reformation are too obvious to be +dilated on. The author was aware of this, and in reply to a friend who +called his attention to the misconstruction and perversion to which the +passage was liable, he replied as follows: + + 'Nov. 12. 1846. +MY DEAR C----, + +'The passage which you have been so kind as to comment upon in one of +the "Ecclesiastical Sonnets," was altered several years ago by my pen, +in a copy of my poems which I possess, but the correction was not +printed till a place was given it in the last edition, printed last +year, in one volume. It there stands, + + "Their church reformed." + +Though for my own part, as I mentioned some time since in a letter I had +occasion to write to the Bishop of ----, I do not like the term +_reformed_; if taken in its literal sense, as a _transformation_, it is +very objectionable. + + 'Yours affectionately, + 'W. WORDSWORTH.' + +Further, on the Sonnets on 'Aspects of Christianity in America,' +Wordsworth wrote to his valued friend, Professor Reed of Philadelphia, +as follows: + +'A few days ago, after a very long interval, I returned to poetical +composition; and my first employment was to write a couple of sonnets +upon subjects recommended by you to take place in the Ecclesiastical +Series. They are upon the Marriage Ceremony and the Funeral Service. I +have also, at the same time, added two others, one upon Visiting the +Sick, and the other upon the Thanksgiving of Women after Childbirth, +both subjects taken from the Services of our Liturgy. To the second part +of the same series, I have also added two, in order to do more justice +to the Papal Church for the services which she did actually render to +Christianity and humanity in the Middle Ages. By the by, the sonnet +beginning, "Men of the Western World," &c. was slightly altered after I +sent it to you, not in the hope of substituting a better verse, but +merely to avoid the repetition of the same word, "book," which occurs as +a rhyme in "The Pilgrim Fathers." These three sonnets, I learn, from +several quarters, have been well received by those of your countrymen +whom they most concern.'] [5] + +[5] Extract: September 4th, 1842: _Memoirs_, ii. 389-90. + + + + +PART I. FROM THE INTRODUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY INTO BRITAIN TO THE +CONSUMMATION OF THE PAPAL DOMINION. + + +334. _St. Paul never in Britain_. + + 'Did holy Paul,' &c. [Sonnet II. l. 6.] + +Stillingfleet adduces many arguments in support of this opinion, but +they are unconvincing. The latter part of this Sonnet (II. +'Conjectures') refers to a favourite notion of Roman Catholic writers, +that Joseph of Arimathea and his companions brought Christianity into +Britain, and built a rude church at Glastonbury; alluded to hereafter in +a passage upon the dissolution of monasteries. + + +335. _Water-fowl_. [Sonnet III. l. 1.] + + 'Screams round the Arch-druid's brow the sea-mew.' + +This water-fowl was among the Druids an emblem of those traditions +connected with the deluge that made an important part of their +mysteries. The cormorant was a bird of bad omen. + + +336. _Hill at St. Allan's: Bede_. + + 'That hill, whose flowery platform,' &c. [Sonnet VI. l. 13.] + +This hill at St. Alban's must have been an object of great interest to +the imagination of the venerable Bede, who thus describes it, with a +delicate feeling delightful to meet with in that rude age, traces of +which are frequent in his works:--'Variis herbarum floribus depictus imo +usquequaque vestitus, in quo nihil repente arduum, nihil praeceps, nihil +abruptum, quem lateribus longe lateque deductum in modum aequoris natura +complanat, dignum videlicet eum pro insita sibi specie venustatis jam +olim reddens, qui beati martyris canore dicaretur.' + + +337. _Hallelujahs_. + + 'Nor wants the cause the panic-striking aid Of hallelujahs.' + [Sonnet XI. ll. 1-2.] + +Alluding to the victory gained under Germanus. See Bede. + +338. _Samuel Daniel and Thomas Fuller _. [Ibid. ll. 9-10.] + + 'By men yet scarcely conscious of a care + For other monuments than those of earth.' + +The last six lines of this Sonnet are chiefly from the prose of Daniel; +and here I will state (though to the Readers whom this Poem will chiefly +interest it is unnecessary) that my obligations to other prose writers +are frequent,--obligations which, even if I had not a pleasure in +courting, it would have been presumptuous to shun, in treating an +historical subject. I must, however, particularise Fuller, to whom I am +indebted in the Sonnet upon Wycliffe and in other instances. And upon +the acquittal of the Seven Bishops I have done little more than versify +a lively description of that event in the MS. Memoirs of the first Lord +Lonsdale. + + +339. _Monastery of Old Bangor_. [Sonnet XII.] + +After a quotation from Turner's 'valuable History of the Anglo-Saxons.' +Taliesen was present at the battle which preceded this desolation. The +account Bede gives of this remarkable event, suggests a most striking +warning against National and Religious prejudices. + + +340. _Paulinus_. [Sonnet XV.] + +The person of Paulinus is thus described by Bede, from the memory of an +eye-witness: 'Longae staturae, paululum incurvus, nigro capillo, facie +macilenta, naso adunco, pertenui, venerabilis simul et terribilis +aspectu.' + + +341. _King Edwin and the Sparrow_. + +'Man's life is like a sparrow.' [Sonnet XVI. l. 1.] + +See the original of this speech in Bede.--The Conversion of Edwin, as +related by him, is highly interesting--and the breaking up of this +Council accompanied with an event so striking and characteristic, that I +am tempted to give it at length in a translation. 'Who, exclaimed the +King, when the Council was ended, shall first desecrate the altars and +the temples? I, answered the Chief Priest; for who more fit than myself, +through the wisdom which the true God hath given me, to destroy, for +the good example of others, what in foolishness is worshipped? +Immediately, casting away vain superstition, he besought the King to +grant him what the laws did not allow to a priest, arms and a courser +(equum emissarium); which mounting, and furnished with a sword and +lance, he proceeded to destroy the Idols. The crowd, seeing this, +thought him mad--he however halted not, but, approaching the profaned +temple, casting against it the lance which he had held in his hand, and, +exulting in acknowledgment of the worship of the true God, he ordered +his companions to pull down the temple, with all its enclosures. The +place is shown where those idols formerly stood, not far from York, at +the source of the river Derwent, and is at this day called Gormund Gaham +ubi pontifex ille, inspirante Deo vero, polluit ac destruxit eas, _quas +ipse sacraverat aras_.' The last expression is a pleasing proof that the +venerable monk of Wearmouth was familiar with the poetry of Virgil. + + +342. '_Near fresh Streams_.' [Sonnet XVII. l. 12.] + +The early propagators of Christianity were accustomed to preach near +rivers for the convenience of baptism. + + +343. _The Clergy_. [Sonnet XIX.] + +Having spoken of the zeal, disinterestedness, and temperance of the +clergy of those times, Bede thus proceeds:--'Unde et in magna erat +veneratione tempore illo religionis habitus, ita ut ubicunque clericus +aliquis, aut monachus adveniret, gaudeutur ab omnibus tanquam Dei +famulus exciperetur. Etiam si in itinere pergens inveniretur, +accurrebant, et flexa cervice, vel manu signari, vel ore illius se +benedici, gaudebant. Verbis quoque horum exhortatoriis diligenter +auditum praebebant.'--Lib. iii. cap. 26. + + +343(a). _Bede_. [Sonnet XIII. l. 14.] + +He expired dictating the last words of a translation of St. John's +Gospel. + + +344. _Zeal_. + + 'The people work like congregated bees!' [Sonnet XXIV. l. 2.] + +See in Turner's History, vol. iii. p. 528, the account of the erection +of Ramsey Monastery. Penances were removable by the performance of acts +of charity and benevolence. + + +345. _Alfred_. + + ----'pain narrows not his cares.' [Sonnet XXVI. l. 10.] + +Through the whole of his life, Alfred was subject to grievous maladies. + + +346. _Crown and Cowl_. + + 'Woe to the Crown that doth the Cowl obey.' [Sonnet XXXIX. l.1.] + +The violent measures carried on under the influence of Dunstan, for +strengthening the Benedictine Order, were a leading cause of the second +series of Danish invasions. See Turner. + + +347. _The Council of Clermont_. + + ----'in awe-stricken countries far and nigh ... that voice resounds. + [Sonnet XXXIII. ll. 13-14.] + +The decision of this Council was believed to be instantly known in +remote parts of Europe. + + * * * * * + + + + +PART II. TO THE CLOSE OF THE TROUBLES IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I. + +348. _Cistertian Monastery_. [Sonnet III.] + +'Here man more purely lives,' &c. + +'Bonum est nos hic esse, quia homo vivit purius, cadit rarius, surgit +velocius, incedit cautius, quiescit securius, moritur felicius, purgatur +utius, praemiatur copiosius.'--Bernard. 'This sentence,' says Dr. +Whitaker, 'is usually inscribed in some conspicuous part of the +Cistertian houses.' + + +349. _Waldenses_. + +'Whom obloquy pursues with hideous bark.' [Sonnet XIV. l. 8.] + +The list of foul names bestowed upon those poor creatures is long and +curious;--and, as is, alas! too natural, most of the opprobrious +appellations are drawn from circumstances into which they were forced by +their persecutors, who even consolidated their miseries into one +reproachful term, calling them Patarenians, or Paturins, from _pati_, to +suffer. + + Dwellers with wolves, she names them, for the pine + And green oak are their covert; as the gloom + Of night oft foils their enemy's design, + She calls them Riders on the flying broom; + Sorcerers, whose frame and aspect have become + One and the same through practices malign. + + +350. _Borrowed Lines_. + + 'And the green lizard and the gilded newt + Lead unmolested lives, and die of age.' [Sonnet XXI. ll. 7-8.] + +These two lines are adopted from a MS., written about 1770, which +accidentally fell into my possession. The close of the preceding Sonnet +'On Monastic Voluptuousness' is taken from the same source, as is the +verse, 'Where Venus sits,' &c., and the line, 'Once ye were holy, ye are +holy still,' in a subsequent Sonnet. + + +851. _Transfiguration_. + + 'One (like those prophets whom God sent of old) + Transfigured,' &c. [Sonnet XXXIV. ll. 4-5.] + +'M. Latimer suffered his keeper very quietly to pull off his hose, and +his other array, which to looke unto was very simple: and being stripped +unto his shrowd, he seemed as comely a person to them that were present, +as one should lightly see: and whereas in his clothes hee appeared a +withered and crooked sillie (weak) olde man, he now stood bolt upright, +as comely a father as one might lightly behold.... Then they brought a +faggotte, kindled with fire, and laid the same downe at doctor Ridley's +feete. To whome M. Latimer spake in this manner, "Bee of good comfort, +master Ridley, and play the man: wee shall this day light such a candle +by God's grace in England, as I trust shall never bee put out."'--_Fox's +Acts, &c._ + +Similar alterations in the outward figure and deportment of persons +brought to like trial were not uncommon. See note to the above passage +in Dr. Wordsworth's Ecclesiastical Biography, for an example in an +humble Welsh fisherman. + + +352. _Craft_. + + ----'craftily incites + The overweening, personates the mad.' [Sonnet XLI. l. 11.] + +A common device in religious and political conflicts. See Strype in +support of this instance. + +353. _The Virgin Mountain_. [Sonnet XLIII.] + +Jung-frau. + + +354. _Laud_. [Sonnet XLV.] + +In this age a word cannot be said in praise of Laud, or even in +compassion for his fate, without incurring a charge of bigotry; but +fearless of such imputation, I concur with Hume, 'that it is sufficient +for his vindication to observe that his errors were the most excusable +of all those which prevailed during that zealous period.' A key to the +right understanding of those parts of his conduct that brought the most +odium upon him in his own time, may be found in the following passage of +his speech before the bar of the House of Peers:--'Ever since I came in +place, I have laboured nothing more than that the external publick +worship of God, so much slighted in divers parts of this kingdom, might +be preserved, and that with as much decency and uniformity as might be. +For I evidently saw that the publick neglect of God's service in the +outward face of it, and the nasty lying of many places dedicated to that +service, _had almost cast a damp upon the true and inward worship of +God, which while we live in the body, needs external helps, and all +little enough to keep it in any vigour_.' + + * * * * * + + +PART III. FROM THE RESTORATION TO THE PRESENT TIME. + +355. _The Pilgrim Fathers_. [Sonnet XIII.] + +American episcopacy, in union with the church in England, strictly +belongs to the general subject; and I here make my acknowledgments to my +American friends, Bishop Doane, and Mr. Henry Reed of Philadelphia, for +having suggested to me the propriety of adverting to it, and pointed out +the virtues and intellectual qualities of Bishop White, which so +eminently fitted him for the great work he undertook. Bishop White was +consecrated at Lambeth, Feb. 4, 1787, by Archbishop Moor; and before his +long life was closed, twenty-six bishops had been consecrated in +America, by himself. For his character and opinions, see his own +numerous Works, and a 'Sermon in commemoration of him, by George +Washington Doane, Bishop of New Jersey.' + +356. _The Clergyman_. + + 'A genial hearth---- + And a refined rusticity, belong + To the neat mansion.' [Sonnet XVIII. ll. 1-3.] + +Among the benefits arising, as Mr. Coleridge has well observed, from a +Church Establishment of endowments corresponding with the wealth of the +country to which it belongs, may be reckoned as eminently important, the +examples of civility and refinement which the Clergy stationed at +intervals, afford to the whole people. The Established clergy in many +parts of England have long been, as they continue to be, the principal +bulwark against barbarism, and the link which unites the sequestered +peasantry with the intellectual advancement of the age. Nor is it below +the dignity of the subject to observe, that their taste, as acting upon +rural residences and scenery often furnishes models which country +gentlemen, who are more at liberty to follow the caprices of fashion, +might profit by. The precincts of an old residence must be treated by +ecclesiastics with respect, both from prudence and necessity. I remember +being much pleased, some years ago, at Rose Castle, the rural seat of +the See of Carlisle, with a style of garden and architecture, which, if +the place had belonged to a wealthy layman, would no doubt have been +swept away. A parsonage-house generally stands not far from the church; +this proximity imposes favourable restraints, and sometimes suggests an +affecting union of the accommodations and elegances of life with the +outward signs of piety and mortality. With pleasure I recall to mind a +happy instance of this in the residence of an old and much-valued Friend +in Oxfordshire. The house and church stand parallel to each other, at a +small distance; a circular lawn or rather grass-plot, spreads between +them; shrubs and trees curve from each side of the dwelling, veiling, +but not hiding, the church. From the front of this dwelling, no part of +the burial-ground is seen; but as you wind by the side of the shrubs +towards the steeple-end of the church, the eye catches a single, small, +low, monumental headstone, moss-grown, sinking into, and gently +inclining towards the earth. Advance, and the churchyard, populous and +gay with glittering tombstones, opens upon the view. This humble and +beautiful parsonage called forth a tribute, for which see the seventh of +the 'Miscellaneous Sonnets,' Part III. + + +357. _Rush-bearing_. [Sonnet XXXII.] + +This is still continued in many churches in Westmoreland. It takes place +in the month of July, when the floor of the stalls is strewn with fresh +rushes; and hence it is called the 'Rush-bearing.' + + +358. _George Dyer_. + + 'Teaching us to forget them or forgive.' [Sonnet XXXV. l. 10.] + +This is borrowed from an affecting passage in Mr. George Dyer's History +of Cambridge. + + +359. _Apprehension_. + + ----'had we, like them, endured + Sore stress of apprehension.' [Sonnet XXXVII. l. 6.] + +See Burnet, who is unusually animated on this subject; the east wind, so +anxiously expected and prayed for, was called the 'Protestant wind.' + + +360. _The Cross_. + + 'Yet will we not conceal the precious Cross, + Like men ashamed.' [Sonnet XL. ll. 9-10.] + +The Lutherans have retained the Cross within their churches: it is to be +regretted that we have not done the same. + + +361. _Monte Rosa_. + + Or like the Alpine Mount, that takes its name + From roseate hues,' &c. [Sonnet XLVI. ll. 5-6.] + +Some say that Monte Rosa takes its name from a belt of rock at its +summit--a very unpoetical and scarcely a probable supposition. + + + + +XV. 'YARROW REVISITED,' AND OTHER POEMS. + +COMPOSED (TWO EXCEPTED) DURING A TOUR IN SCOTLAND, AND ON THE ENGLISH +BORDER, IN THE AUTUMN OF 1831. + + +362. _Dedication_. + +TO SAMUEL ROGERS, ESQ. + + As a testimony of friendship, and acknowledgment of intellectual + obligations, these Memorials are affectionately inscribed. + +Rydal Mount, Dec. 11, 1834. + +The following stanzas ['Yarrow Revisited'] are a memorial of a day +passed with Sir Walter Scott, and other friends, visiting the banks of +the Yarrow under his guidance, immediately before his departure from +Abbotsford for Naples. + +The title 'Yarrow Revisited' will stand in no need of explanation, for +Readers acquainted with the Author's previous poems suggested by that +celebrated stream. + + +363. *_Yarrow Revisited_. + +I first became acquainted with this great and amiable man (Sir Walter +Scott) in the year 1803, when my sister and I, making a tour in +Scotland, were hospitably received by him in Lasswade, upon the banks of +the Esk, where he was then living. We saw a good deal of him in the +course of the following week. The particulars are given in my sister's +journal of that tour. + + +(2) *_Ibid._ + +In the autumn of 1831, my daughter and I set off from Rydal to visit Sir +Walter Scott, before his departure for Italy. This journey had been +delayed, by an inflammation in my eyes, till we found that the time +appointed for his leaving home would be too near for him to receive us +without considerable inconvenience. Nevertheless, we proceeded, and +reached Abbotsford on Monday. I was then scarcely able to lift up my +eyes to the light. How sadly changed did I find him from the man I had +seen so healthy, gay, and hopeful a few years before, when he said at +the inn at Paterdale, in my presence, his daughter Anne also being +there, with Mr. Lockhart, my own wife and daughter, and Mr. Quillinan, +'I mean to live till I am eighty, and shall write as long as I live.' +Though we had none of us the least thought of the cloud of misfortune +which was then going to break upon his head, I was startled, and almost +shocked, at that bold saying, which could scarcely be uttered by such a +man, sanguine as he was, without a momentary forgetfulness of the +instability of human life. But to return to Abbotsford. The inmates and +guests we found there were Sir Walter, Major Scott, Anne Scott, and Mr. +and Mrs. Lockhart; Mr. Liddell, his lady and brother, and Mr. Allan, the +painter, and Mr. Laidlaw, a very old friend of Sir Walter's. One of +Burns's sons, an officer in the Indian service, had left the house a day +or two before, and had kindly expressed his regret that he could not +wait my arrival, a regret that I may truly say was mutual. In the +evening, Mr. and Mrs. Liddell sang, and Mrs. Lockhart chaunted old +ballads to her harp; and Mr. Allan, hanging over the back of a chair, +told and acted odd stories in a humorous way. With this exhibition, and +his daughter's singing, Sir Walter was much amused, and, indeed, were we +all, as far as circumstances would allow. But what is most worthy of +mention is the admirable demeanour of Major Scott during that +evening.[6] He had much to suffer from the sight of his father's +infirmities and from the great change that was about to take place at +the residence he had built, and where he had long lived in so much +prosperity and happiness. But what struck me most was the patient +kindness with which he supported himself under the many fretful +expressions that his sister Anne addressed to him or uttered in his +hearing, and she, poor thing, as mistress of that house, had been +subject, after her mother's death, to a heavier load of care and +responsibility, and greater sacrifices of time, than one of such a +constitution of body and mind was able to bear. Of this Dora and I were +made so sensible, that as soon as we had crossed the Tweed on our +departure, we gave vent at the same moment to our apprehensions that her +brain would fail and she would go out of her mind, or that she would +sink under the trials she had passed and those which awaited her. + +[6] In pencil--This is a mistake, dear Father. It was the following +evening, when the Liddells were gone, and only ourselves and Mr. Allan +present. + +On Tuesday morning, Sir Walter Scott accompanied us, and most of the +party, to Newark Castle, on the _Yarrow_. When we alighted from the +carriages, he walked pretty stoutly, and had great pleasure in +revisiting these his favourite haunts. Of that excursion, the verses, +'Yarrow Revisited' are a memorial. Notwithstanding the romance that +pervades Sir Walter's works, and attaches to many of his habits, there +is too much pressure of fact for these verses to harmonise, as much as I +could wish, with the two preceding poems. On our return in the +afternoon, we had to cross the Tweed, directly opposite Abbotsford. The +wheels of our carriage grated upon the pebbles in the bed of the stream, +that there flows somewhat rapidly. A rich, but sad light, of rather a +purple than a golden hue, was spread over the Eildon Hills at that +moment; and, thinking it probable that it might be the last time Sir +Walter would cross the stream, I was not a little moved, and expressed +some of my feelings in the sonnet beginning, + + 'A trouble, not of clouds,' &c. + +At noon on Thursday we left Abbotsford, and on the morning of that day, +Sir Walter and I had a serious conversation, _tete-a-tete_, when he +spoke with gratitude of the happy life which, upon the whole, he had +led. He had written in my daughter's album, before he came into the +breakfast-room that morning, a few stanzas addressed to her; and while +putting the book into her hand, in his own Study, standing by his desk, +he said to her in my presence, 'I should not have done any thing of this +kind, but for your father's sake; they are probably the last verses I +shall ever write.' They show how much his mind was impaired; not by the +strain of thought, but by the execution, some of the lines being +imperfect, and one stanza wanting corresponding rhymes. One letter, the +initial S., had been omitted in the spelling of his own name. In this +interview, also, it was that, upon my expressing a hope of his health +being benefited by the climate of the country to which he was going, and +by the interest he would take in the classic remembrances of Italy, he +made use of the quotation from 'Yarrow Revisited,' as recorded by me in +the 'Musings at Aquapendente,' six years afterwards. + +Mr. Lockhart has mentioned in his life of him, what I heard from several +quarters while abroad, both at Rome and elsewhere, that little seemed to +interest him but what he could collect or heard of the fugitive Stuarts, +and their adherents who had followed them into exile. Both the 'Yarrow +Revisited' and the 'Sonnet' were sent him before his departure from +England. Some further particulars of the conversations which occurred +during this visit I should have set down, had they not been already +accurately recorded by Mr. Lockhart. + + +364. *_A Place of Burial in the South of Scotland_. [III.] + +Similar places for burial are not unfrequent in Scotland. The one that +suggested this sonnet lies on the banks of a small stream, called the +Wauchope, that flows into the Esk near Langholme. Mickle, who, as it +appears from his poem on Sir Martin, was not without genuine poetic +feelings, was born and passed his boyhood in this neighbourhood, under +his father, who was a minister of the Scotch Kirk. The Esk, both above +and below Langholme, flows through a beautiful country; and the two +streams of the Wauchope and the Ewes, which join it near that place, are +such as a pastoral poet would delight in. + + +365. *_On the Sight of a Manse in the South of Scotland_. [IV.] + +The manses in Scotland, and the gardens and grounds about them, have +seldom that attractive appearance which is common about our English +parsonages, even when the clergyman's income falls below the average of +the Scotch minister's. This is not merely owing to the one country being +poor in comparison with the other, but arises rather out of the equality +of their benefices, so that no one has enough to spare for decorations +that might serve as an example for others, whereas with us the taste of +the richer incumbent extends its influence more or less to the poorest. + +After all, in these observations, the surface only of the matter is +touched. I once heard a conversation, in which the Roman Catholic +religion was decried on account of its abuses: 'You cannot deny, +however,' said a lady of the party, repeating an expression used by +Charles II., 'that it is the religion of a gentleman.' It may be left to +the Scotch themselves to determine how far this observation applies to +the [religion] of their Kirk; while it cannot be denied [that] if it is +wanting in that characteristic quality, the aspect of common life, so +far as concerns its beauty, must suffer. Sincere Christian piety may be +thought not to stand in need of refinement or studied ornament, but +assuredly it is ever ready to adopt them, when they fall within its +notice, as means allow: and this observation applies not only to +manners, but to everything that a Christian (truly so in spirit) +cultivates and gathers round him, however humble his social condition. + + +366. *_Composed in Roslin Chapel during a Storm_. [V.] + +We were detained, by incessant rain and storm, at the small inn near +Roslin Chapel, and I passed a great part of the day pacing to and fro in +this beautiful structure, which, though not used for public service, is +not allowed to go to ruin. Here this sonnet was composed, and [I shall +be fully satisfied] if it has at all done justice to the feeling which +the place and the storm raging without inspired. I was as a prisoner. A +Painter delineating the interior of the chapel and its minute features, +under such circumstances, would have no doubt found his time agreeably +shortened. But the movements of the mind must be more free while dealing +with words than with lines and colours. Such, at least, was then, and +has been on many other occasions, my belief; and as it is allotted to +few to follow both arts with success, I am grateful to my own calling +for this and a thousand other recommendations which are denied to that +of the Painter. + + +367. *_The Trosachs_. [VI.] + +As recorded in my Sister's Journal, I had first seen the Trosachs in her +and Coleridge's company. The sentiment that runs through this sonnet was +natural to the season in which I again saw this beautiful spot; but +this, and some other sonnets that follow, were coloured by the +remembrance of my recent visit to Sir Walter Scott, and the melancholy +errand on which he was going. + + +368. *_Composed in the Glen of Lock Etive_. [VIII.] + + 'That make the patriot spirit.' + +It was mortifying to have frequent occasions to observe the bitter +hatred of the lower orders of the Highlanders to their superiors: love +of country seemed to have passed into its opposite. Emigration was the +only relief looked to with hope. + + +369. _Eagles: composed at Dunollie Castle in the Bay of Oban_. [IX.] + +The last I saw was on the wing, off the promontory of Fairhead, county +of Antrim. I mention this, because, though my tour in Ireland, with Mr. +Marshall and his son, was made many years ago, this allusion to the +eagle is the only image supplied by it to the poetry I have since +written. We travelled through the country in October; and to the +shortness of the days, and the speed with which we travelled (in a +carriage-and-four), may be ascribed this want of notices, in my verse, +of a country so interesting. The deficiency I am somewhat ashamed of, +and it is the more remarkable, as contrasted with my Scotch and +continental tours, of which are to be found in these volumes so many +memorials. + + +370. *_In the Sound of Mull_. [X.] + +Touring late in the season in Scotland is an uncertain speculation. We +were detained a week by rain at Bunaw, on Loch Etive, in a vain hope +that the weather would clear up, and allow me to show my daughter the +beauties of Glencoe. Two days we were at the Isle of Mull, on a visit to +Major Campbell; but it rained incessantly, and we were obliged to give +up our intention of going to Staffa. The rain pursued us to Tyndrum, +where the next sonnet was composed in a storm. + + +371. '_Shepherds of Etive Glen_.' [X.] + +In Gaelic--Buachaill Eite. + + +372. _Highland Broach_. [XV.] + +On ascending a hill that leads from Loch Awe towards Inverary, I fell +into conversation with a woman of the humbler class, who wore one of +these Highland broaches. I talked with her about it, and upon parting +with her, when I said, with a kindness I truly felt, 'May the broach +continue in your family for many generations to come, as you have +already possessed it,' she thanked me most becomingly, and seemed not a +little moved. The exact resemblance which the old broach (still in use, +though rarely met with among the Highlanders) bears to the Roman Fibula +must strike every one, and concurs, with the plaid and kilt, to recall +to mind the communication which the ancient Romans had with this remote +country. + +[Note.--How much the Broach is sometimes prized by persons in humble +stations may be gathered from an occurrence mentioned to me by a female +friend. She had an opportunity of benefiting a poor old woman in her own +hut, who, wishing to make a return, said to her daughter in Erse, in a +tone of plaintive earnestness, 'I would give anything I have, but I +_hope_ she does not wish for my Broach!' and uttering these words she +put her hand upon the Broach which fastened her kerchief, and which she +imagined had attracted the eye of her benefactress.] + + +373. _The Brownie_. [XVI.] + +Upon a small island not far from the head of Loch Lomond, are some +remains of an ancient building, which was for several years the abode of +a solitary Individual, one of the last survivors of the clan of +Macfarlane, once powerful in that neighbourhood. Passing along the shore +opposite this island in the year 1814, the Author learned these +particulars, and that this person then living there had acquired the +appellation of 'The Brownie.' See 'The Brownie's Cell' ['Memorials of a +Tour in Scotland, 1814,' I.], to which the following is a sequel. + + +374. *_Bothwell Castle_. [XVIII.] + +In my Sister's Journal is an account of Bothwell Castle as it appeared +to us at that time. + + +375. *_The Avon: a Feeder of the Avon_. [XX. l. 2.] + + 'Yet is it one that other rivulets bear.' + +There is the Shakspeare Avon, the Bristol Avon, the one that flows by +Salisbury, and a small river in Wales, I believe, bear the name; Avon +being, in the ancient tongue, the general name for river. + + +376. *_Suggested by a View from an Eminence in Inglewood Forest_. +[XXI.] + +The extensive forest of Inglewood has been enclosed within my memory. I +was well acquainted with it in its ancient state. The Hartshorn tree, +mentioned in the next sonnet, was one of its remarkable objects, as well +as another tree that grew upon an eminence not far from Penrith. It was +single and conspicuous, and, being of a round shape, though it was +universally known to be a 'sycamore,' it was always called the 'Round +Thorn,' so difficult is it to chain fancy down to fact. + + +377. _Hart's-Horn Tree, near Penrith_. [XXII.] + +[After a quotation from Nicholson and Burns's History of Westmoreland +and Cumberland.] The tree has now disappeared, but I well remember its +imposing appearance as it stood, in a decayed state, by the side of the +high road leading from Penrith to Appleby. The whole neighbourhood +abounds in interesting traditions and vestiges of antiquity, viz., +Julian's Bower; Brougham and Penrith Castles; Penrith Beacon, and the +curious remains in Penrith Churchyard; Arthur's Round Table, and, close +by, Maybrough; the excavation, called the Giant's Cave, on the banks of +the Emont; Long Meg and her daughters, near Eden, &c., &c. + + +378. _Fancy and Tradition_. [XXIII.] + +Suggested by the recollection of Juliana's bower and other traditions +connected with this ancient forest. + + +379. _Countess' Pillar_. [XXIV.] + +On the road-side between Penrith and Appleby there stands a pillar with +the following inscription:-- + + 'This pillar was erected in the year 1656, by Anne Countess Dowager + of Pembroke, &c. for a memorial of her last parting with her pious + mother, Margaret Countess Dowager of Cumberland, on the 2d April, + 1616; in memory whereof she hath left an annuity of L4, to be + distributed to the poor of the parish of Brougham, every 2d day of + April for ever, upon the stone table placed hard by. _Laus Deo_!' + + * * * * * + + + + +XVI. EVENING VOLUNTARIES. + + +380. _Lines composed on a high part of the coast of Cumberland, Easter +Sunday, April 7th, the Author's sixty-third birthday_. [II.] + +The lines were composed on the road between Moresby and Whitehaven, +while I was on a visit to my son, then rector of Moresby. This +succession of Voluntaries, with the exception of the 8th and 9th, +originated in the concluding lines of the last paragraph of this poem. +With this coast I have been familiar from my earliest childhood, and +remember being struck for the first time by the town and port of +Whitehaven, and the white waves breaking against its quays and piers, as +the whole came into view from the top of the high ground down which the +road,--which has since been altered,--then descended abruptly. My +sister, when she first heard the voice of the sea from this point, and +beheld the scene spread before her, burst into tears. Our family then +lived at Cockermouth, and this fact was often mentioned among us as +indicating the sensibility for which she was so remarkable. + + +381. *_By the Sea-side_. [III.] + +These lines were suggested during my residence under my son's roof at +Moresby on the coast near Whitehaven, at the time when I was composing +those verses among the Evening Voluntaries that have reference to the +Sea. In some future edition I purpose to place it among that class of +poems. It was in that neighbourhood I first became acquainted with the +ocean and its appearances and movements. My infancy and early childhood +were passed at Cockermouth, about eight miles from the coast, and I well +remember that mysterious awe with which I used to listen to anything +said about storms and shipwrecks. Sea-shells of many descriptions were +common in the town, and I was not a little surprised when I heard Mr. +Landor had denounced me as a Plagiarist from himself for having +described a boy applying a sea-shell to his ear, and listening to it for +intimation of what was going on in its native element. This I had done +myself scores of times, and it was a belief among us that we could know +from the sound whether the tide was ebbing or flowing. + + +382. _Not in the lucid intervals of life_. [IV.] + +The lines following, 'Nor do words,' &c., were written with Lord Byron's +character as a poet before me, and that of others among his +contemporaries, who wrote under like influences. + + +383. _The leaves that rustled on this oak-crowned hill_. [VII.] + +Composed by the side of Grasmere Lake. The mountains that enclose the +vale, especially towards Easedale, are most favourable to the +reverberation of sound: there is a passage in 'The Excursion,' towards +the close of the 4th book, where the voice of the raven in flight is +traced through the modifications it undergoes, as I have often heard it +in that vale and others of this district. + + +384. _Impromptu_. [VIII.] + +This Impromptu appeared, many years ago, among the Author's Poems, from +which, in subsequent editions, it was excluded. It is reprinted at the +request of the Friend in whose presence the lines were thrown off. + + +384a. *_Ibid._ + +Reprinted at the request of my Sister, in whose presence the lines were +thrown off. + + +385. *_Composed upon an Evening of extraordinary Splendour and Beauty_ +[IX.] + +Felt, and in a great measure composed, upon the little mount in front of +our abode at Rydal. In concluding my notices of this class of poems it +may be as well to observe, that among the Miscellaneous Sonnets are a +few alluding to morning impressions, which might be read with mutual +benefit in connection with these Evening Voluntaries. See for example +that one on Westminster Bridge, that on May 2d, on the song of the +Thrush, and the one beginning 'While beams of orient light.' + + +386. _Alston: American Painter_. + + 'Wings at my shoulder seem to play' (IX. iii. l. 9). + +In these lines I am under obligation to the exquisite picture of +'Jacob's Dream,' by Mr. Alston, now in America. It is pleasant to make +this public acknowledgment to a man of genius, whom I have the honour to +rank among my friends. + + +387. _Mountain-ridges_. [_Ibid._ IV. l. 20.] + +The multiplication of mountain-ridges, described at the commencement of +the third stanza of this Ode as a kind of Jacob's Ladder, leading to +Heaven, is produced either by watery vapours or sunny haze; in the +present instance by the latter cause. Allusions to the Ode, entitled +'Intimations of Immortality,' pervade the last stanza of the foregoing +Poem. + + + + +XVII. POEMS COMPOSED OR SUGGESTED DURING A TOUR IN THE SUMMER OF 1833. + + +388. _Advertisement_. + +Having been prevented by the lateness of the season, in 1831, from +visiting Staffa and Iona, the author made these the principal objects of +a short tour in the summer of 1833, of which the following series of +poems is a Memorial. The course pursued was down the Cumberland river +Derwent, and to Whitehaven; thence (by the Isle of Man, where a few days +were passed,) up the Frith of Clyde to Greenock, then to Oban, Staffa, +Iona, and back towards England by Loch Awe, Inverary, Loch Goil-head, +Greenock, and through parts of Renfrewshire, Ayrshire, and Dumfriesshire +to Carlisle, and thence up the River Eden, and homeward by Ullswater. + + +389. _The Greta_. + + 'But if thou, like Cocytus,' &c. (IV. l. 5). + +Many years ago, when I was at Greta Bridge, in Yorkshire, the hostess of +the inn, proud of her skill in etymology, said, that 'the name of the +river was taken from the _bridge_, the form of which, as every one must +notice, exactly resembled a great A.' Dr. Whitaker has derived it from +the word of common occurrence in the north of England, '_to greet_;' +signifying to lament aloud, mostly with weeping; a conjecture rendered +more probable from the stony and rocky channel of both the Cumberland +and Yorkshire rivers. The Cumberland Greta, though it does not, among +the country people, take up _that_ name till within three miles of its +disappearance in the river Derwent, may be considered as having its +source in the mountain cove of Wythburn, and flowing through Thirlmere, +the beautiful features of which lake are known only to those who, +travelling between Grasmere and Keswick, have quitted the main road in +the vale of Wythburn, and, crossing over to the opposite side of the +lake, have proceeded with it on the right hand. + +The channel of the Greta, immediately above Keswick, has, for the +purposes of building, been in a great measure cleared of the immense +stones which, by their concussion in high floods, produced the loud and +awful noises described in the sonnet. + +'The scenery upon this river,' says Mr. Southey in his Colloquies, +'where it passes under the woody side of Latrigg, is of the finest and +most rememberable kind: + + ----"ambiguo lapsu refluitque fluitque, + Occurrensque sibi venturas aspicit undas."' + + +390. _Brigham Church_. + + 'By hooded votaresses,' &c. (VIII. l. 11). + +Attached to the church of Brigham was formerly a chantry, which held a +moiety of the manor; and in the decayed parsonage some vestiges of +monastic architecture are still to be seen. + + +391. *_Nun's Well, Brigham_. [VIII.] + +So named from the Religious House which stood close by. I have rather an +odd anecdote to relate of the Nun's Well. One day the landlady of a +public house, a field's length from it, on the road-side, said to me, +'You have been to see the Nun's Well, sir.' 'The Nun's Well! What is +that?' said the postman, who in his royal livery stopt his mail-car at +the door. The landlady and I explained to him what the name meant, and +what sort of people the nuns were. A countryman who was standing by +rather tipsy stammered out, 'Ay, those Nuns were good people; they are +gone, but we shall soon have them back again.' The Reform mania was just +then at its height. + + +392. *_To a Friend_. [IX.] + + 'Pastor and Patriot.' + +My son John, who was then building a parsonage on his small living at +Brigham. + + +393. _Mary Queen of Scots landing at Workington_. [X.] + +'The fears and impatience of Mary were so great,' says Robertson, 'that +she got into a fisher-boat, and with about twenty attendants landed at +Workington, in Cumberland; and thence she was conducted with many marks +of respect to Carlisle.' The apartment in which the Queen had slept at +Workington Hall (where she was received by Sir Henry Curwen as became +her rank and misfortunes) was long preserved, out of respect to her +memory, as she had left it; and one cannot but regret that some +necessary alterations in the mansion could not be effected without its +destruction. + + +394. *_Mary Queen of Scots_.[X.] + + 'Bright as a star.' + +I will mention for the sake of the friend who is writing down these +Notes that it was among the fine Scotch firs near Ambleside, and +particularly those near Green Bank, that I have over and over again +paused at the sight of this image. Long may they stand to afford a like +gratification to others! This wish is not uncalled for--several of their +brethren having already disappeared. + +N.B. The Poem of St. Bees to follow at this place. + + +395. _St. Bees and Charlotte Smith_. [XI.] + +St. Bees' Heads, anciently called the Cliff of Baruth, are a conspicuous +sea-mark for all vessels sailing in the N.E. parts of the Irish Sea. In +a bay, one side of which is formed by the southern headland, stands the +village of St. Bees; a place distinguished, from very early times, for +its religious and scholastic foundations. + +'St. Bees,' say Nicholson and Burns, 'had its name from Bega, an holy +woman from Ireland, who is said to have founded here, about the year of +our Lord 650, a small monastery, where afterwards a church was built in +memory of her. + +'The aforesaid religious house, being destroyed by the Danes, was +restored by William de Meschiens, son of Ranulph, and brother of Ranulph +de Meschiens, first Earl of Cumberland after the Conquest; and made a +cell of a prior and six Benedictine monks to the Abbey of St. Mary at +York.' + +Several traditions of miracles, connected with the foundation of the +first of these religious houses, survive among the people of the +neighbourhood; one of which is alluded to in these Stanzas; and another, +of a somewhat bolder and more peculiar character, has furnished the +subject of a spirited poem by the Rev. R. Parkinson, M.A., late Divinity +Lecturer of St. Bees' College, and now Fellow of the Collegiate Church +of Manchester. + +After the dissolution of the monasteries, Archbishop Grindal founded a +free school at St. Bees, from which the counties of Cumberland and +Westmoreland have derived great benefit; and recently, under the +patronage of the Earl of Lonsdale, a college has been established there +for the education of ministers for the English Church. The old +Conventual Church has been repaired under the superintendence of the +Rev. Dr. Ainger, the Head of the College; and is well worthy of being +visited by any strangers who might be led to the neighbourhood of this +celebrated spot. + +The form of stanza in this Poem, and something in the style of +versification, are adopted from the 'St. Monica,' a poem of much beauty +upon a monastic subject, by Charlotte Smith: a lady to whom English +verse is under greater obligations than are likely to be either +acknowledged or remembered. She wrote little, and that little +unambitiously, but with true feeling for rural Nature, at a time when +Nature was not much regarded by English Poets; for in point of time her +earlier writings preceded, I believe, those of Cowper and Burns. + + +396. _Requiems_. + + 'Are not, in sooth, their Requiems sacred ties?' (XI. l. 73.) + +I am aware that I am here treading upon tender ground; but to the +intelligent reader I feel that no apology is due. The prayers of +survivors, during passionate grief for the recent loss of relatives and +friends, as the object of those prayers could no longer be the suffering +body of the dying, would naturally be ejaculated for the souls of the +departed; the barriers between the two worlds dissolving before the +power of love and faith. The ministers of religion, from their habitual +attendance upon sick-beds, would be daily witnesses of these benign +results; and hence would be strongly tempted to aim at giving to them +permanence, by embodying them in rites and ceremonies, recurring at +stated periods. All this, as it was in course of nature, so was it +blameless, and even praiseworthy; since some of its effects, in that +rude state of society, could not but be salutary. No reflecting person, +however, can view without sorrow the abuses which rose out of thus +formalising sublime instincts and disinterested movements of passion, +and perverting them into means of gratifying the ambition and rapacity +of the priesthood. But, while we deplore and are indignant at these +abuses, it would be a great mistake if we imputed the origin of the +offices to prospective selfishness on the part of the monks and clergy; +_they_ were at first sincere in their sympathy, and in their degree +dupes rather of their own creed than artful and designing men. Charity +is, upon the whole, the safest guide that we can take in judging our +fellow-men, whether of past ages or of the present time. + + +397. _Sir William Hillary_. + + 'And they are led by noble Hillary' (XV. l. 14). + +The TOWER OF REFUGE, an ornament to Douglas Bay, was erected chiefly +through the humanity and zeal of Sir William Hillary; and he also was +the founder of the lifeboat establishment at that place; by which, under +his superintendence, and often by his exertions at the imminent hazard +of his own life, many seamen and passengers have been saved. + + +398. _Isle of Man_. [XVI. l. 14.] + +The sea-water on the coast of the Isle of Man is singularly pure and +beautiful. + + +399. *_Isle of Man_. [XVII.] + +My son William is here the person alluded to as saving the life of the +youth; and the circumstances were as mentioned in the Sonnet. + + +400. *_By a retired Mariner_. [XIX.] + +Mary's brother Henry. + + +401. *_At Bala Sala_. [XX.] + +A thankful refuge. Supposed to be written by a friend (Mr. Cookson) who +died there a few years after. + + +402. *_Tynwald Hill_. + +Mr. Robinson and I walked the greater part of the way from Castle-Town +to Peel, and stopped some time at Tynwald Hill. My companions were an +elderly man, who in a muddy way (for he was tipsy) explained and +answered as far as he could my enquiries about the place and the +ceremonies held here. I found more agreeable company in some little +children, one of whom, upon my request, recited the Lord's Prayer to me, +and I helped her to a clearer understanding of it as well as I could; +but I was not at all satisfied with my own part. Hers was much better +done; and I am persuaded that, like other children, she knew more about +it than she was able to express, especially to a stranger. + + +403. _Snafell_. + + 'Off with you cloud, old Snafell' (Sonnet XXI. l. 9). + +The summit of this mountain is well chosen by Cowley as the scene of the +'Vision,' in which the spectral angel discourses with him concerning the +government of Oliver Cromwell. 'I found myself,' says he, 'on the top of +that famous hill in the Island Mona, which has the prospect of three +great, and not long since most happy, kingdoms. As soon as ever I looked +upon them, they called forth the sad representation of all the sins and +all the miseries that had overwhelmed them these twenty years.' It is +not to be denied that the changes now in progress, and the passions, and +the way in which they work, strikingly resemble those which led to the +disasters the philosophic writer so feelingly bewails. God grant that +the resemblance may not become still more striking as months and years +advance! + + +404. _Eagle in Mosaic_. [Sonnet XXV.] + + 'On revisiting Dunolly Castle.' + +This ingenious piece of workmanship, as I afterwards learned, had been +executed for their own amusement by some labourers employed about the +place. + + +405. *_In the Frith of Clyde_.--_Ailsa Crag during an eclipse of the +sun, July_ 17, 1833. [XXIII.] + +The morning of the eclipse was exquisitely beautiful while we passed the +Crag, as described in the sonnet. On the deck of the steamboat were +several persons of the poor and labouring class; and I could not but be +struck with their cheerful talk with each other, while not one of them +seemed to notice the magnificent objects with which we were surrounded; +and even the phenomenon of the eclipse attracted but little of their +attention. Was it right not to regret this? They appeared to me, +however, so much alive in their own minds to their own concerns that I +could not but look upon it as a misfortune that they had little +perception for such pleasures as cannot be cultivated without ease and +leisure. Yet, if one surveys life in all its duties and relations, such +ease and leisure will not be found so enviable a privilege as it may at +first appear. Natural philosophy, painting, and poetry, and refined +taste, are no doubt great acquisitions to society; but among those who +dedicate themselves to such pursuits it is to be feared that few are as +happy and as consistent in the management of their lives as the class of +persons who at that time led me into this course of reflection. I do not +mean by this to be understood to derogate from intellectual pursuits, +for that would be monstrous. I say it in deep gratitude for this +compensation to those whose cares are limited to the necessities of +daily life. Among them, self-tormentors, so numerous in the higher +classes of society, are rare. + + +406. *_On the Frith of Clyde_.--_In a Steamboat_, [XXIV.] + +The mountain outline on the north of this island [Arran], as seen from +the Frith of Clyde, is much the finest I have ever noticed in Scotland +or elsewhere. + + +407. '_There, said a Stripling_.' [XXXVII.] + +Mosgiel was thus pointed out to me by a young man, on the top of the +coach on my way from Glasgow to Kilmarnock. It is remarkable, that +though Burns lived some time here, and during much the most productive +period of his poetical life, he nowhere adverts to the splendid +prospects stretching towards the sea, and bounded by the peaks of Arran +on one part, which in clear weather he must have had daily before his +eyes. Yet this is easily explained. In one of his poetical effusions he +speaks of describing 'fair Nature's face,' as a privilege on which he +sets a high value; nevertheless, natural appearances rarely take a lead +in his poetry. It is as a human being, eminently sensitive and +intelligent, and not as a poet clad in his priestly robes and carrying +the ensigns of sacerdotal office, that he interests and affects us. + +Whether he speaks of rivers, hills, and woods, it is not so much on +account of the properties with which they are absolutely endowed, as +relatively to local patriotic remembrances and associations, or as they +are ministerial to personal feelings, especially those of love, whether +happy or otherwise; yet it is not _always_ so. Soon after we had passed +Mosgiel Farm we crossed the Ayr, murmuring and winding through a narrow +woody hollow. His line, + + 'Auld hermit Ayr staw thro' his woods,' [=stole] + +came at once to my mind, with Irwin, Lugar, Ayr, and Doon, Ayrshire +streams over which he breathes a sigh, as being unnamed in song; and, +surely, his own attempts to make them known were as successful as his +heart could desire. + + +408. *_Written on a Blank Leaf of Macpherson's 'Ossian_.' [XXVII] + +This poem should, for variety's sake, take its place among the itinerary +Sonnets on one of the Scotch Tours. + + +409. _Cave of Staffa_. [XXIX.] + +The reader may be tempted to exclaim, 'How came this and the two +following Sonnets to be written, after the dissatisfaction expressed in +the preceding one?' In fact, at the risk of incurring the reasonable +displeasure of the master of the steamboat, I returned to the cave, and +explored it under circumstances more favourable to those imaginative +impressions which it is so wonderfully fitted to make upon the mind. + + +410. _Ox-eyed Daisy_. + + 'Hope smiled when your nativity was cast, + Children of summer!' (XXXI. ll. 1-2.) + +Upon the head of the columns which form the front of the cave, rests a +body of decomposed basaltic matter, which was richly decorated with that +large bright flower, the ox-eyed daisy. I had noticed the same flower +growing with profusion among the bold rocks on the western coast of the +Isle of Man; making a brilliant contrast with their black and gloomy +surfaces. + + +411. _Iona_. [XXXIII.] + +The four last lines of this Sonnet are adapted from a well-known Sonnet +of Russel, as conveying my feeling better than any words of my own could +do. + + +412. _River Eden_, [XXXVIII.] + + 'Yet fetched from Paradise.' + +It is to be feared that there is more of the poet than the sound +etymologist in this derivation of the name Eden. On the western coast of +Cumberland is a rivulet which enters the sea at Moresby, known also in +the neighbourhood by the name of Eden. May not the latter syllable come +from the word Dean, _a valley_? Langdale, near Ambleside, is by the +inhabitants called Langden. The former syllable occurs in the name +Emont, a principal feeder of the Eden; and the stream which flows, when +the tide is out, over Cartmel Sands, is called the Ea--eau, +French--aqua, Latin. + + +413. _Ibid._ + + 'Nature gives thee flowers that have no rival amidst British bowers.' + +This can scarcely be true to the letter; but without stretching the +point at all, I can say that the soil and air appear more congenial with +many upon the bank of this river than I have observed in any other parts +of Great Britain. + + +414. *_Monument of Mrs. Howard_. [XXXIX.] + +Before this monument was put up in the chapel at Wetheral, I saw it in +the sculptor's studio. Nollekens, who, by the bye, was a strange and +grotesque figure that interfered much with one's admiration of his +works, showed me at the same time the various models in clay which he +had made one after another of the mother and her infant. The improvement +on each was surprising, and how so much grace, beauty, and tenderness +had come out of such a head I was sadly puzzled to conceive. Upon a +window-seat in his parlour lay two casts of faces; one of the Duchess of +Devonshire, so noted in her day, and the other of Mr. Pitt, taken after +his death--a ghastly resemblance, as these things always are, even when +taken from the living subject, and more ghastly in this instance (of Mr. +Pitt) from the peculiarity of the features. The heedless and apparently +neglectful manner in which the faces of these two persons were left--the +one so distinguished in London society, and the other upon whose +counsels and public conduct during a most momentous period depended the +fate of this great empire, and, perhaps, of all Europe--afforded a +lesson to which the dullest of casual visitors could scarcely be +insensible. It touched me the more because I had so often seen Mr. Pitt +upon his own ground at Cambridge and upon the floor of the House of +Commons. + + +415. _Nunnery_. [XLI.] + +I became acquainted with the walks of Nunnery when a boy. They are +within easy reach of a day's pleasant excursion from the town of +Penrith, where I used to pass my summer holidays under the roof of my +maternal grandfather. The place is well worth visiting, tho' within +these few years its privacy, and therefore the pleasure which the scene +is so well fitted to give, has been injuriously affected by walks cut in +the rocks on that side the stream which had been left in its natural +state. + + +416. _Scene at Corby_. [XLII.] + + 'Canal, and Viaduct, and Railway tell!' + +At Corby, a few miles below Nunnery, the Eden is crossed by a +magnificent viaduct; and another of these works is thrown over a deep +glen or ravine at a very short distance from the main stream. + + +417. *_Druidical Monument_. [XLIII.] + + 'A weight of awe not easy to be borne.' + +The daughters of Long Meg, placed in a perfect circle eighty yards in +diameter, are seventy-two in number above ground; a little way out of +the circle stands Long Meg herself, a single stone, eighteen feet high. +When I first saw this monument, as I came upon it by surprise, I might +over-rate its importance as an object; but, though it will not bear a +comparison with Stonehenge, I must say, I have not seen any other +relique of those dark ages, which can pretend to rival it in singularity +and dignity of appearance. + + +418. *_Lowther_. [XLIV.] + + 'Cathedral pomp.' + +It may be questioned whether this union was in the contemplation of the +Artist when he planned the edifice. However this might be, a Poet may be +excused for taking the view of the subject presented in this Sonnet. + + +419. _To the Earl of Lonsdale_. [XLV.] + +This sonnet was written immediately after certain trials, which took +place at the Cumberland Assizes, when the Earl of Lonsdale, in +consequence of repeated and long-continued attacks upon his character, +through the local press, had thought it right to prosecute the +conductors and proprietors of three several journals. A verdict of libel +was given in one case; and, in the others, the prosecutions were +withdrawn, upon the individuals retracting and disavowing the charges, +expressing regret that they had been made, and promising to abstain from +the like in future. + + +420. *_The Somnambulist_. [XLVI.] + +This poem might be dedicated to my friend Sir G. Beaumont and Mr. Rogers +jointly. While we were making an excursion together in this part of the +Lake District, we heard that Mr. Glover the artist, while lodging at +Lyulph's Tower, had been disturbed by a loud shriek, and upon rising he +learnt that it had come from a young woman in the house who was in the +habit of walking in her sleep. In that state she had gone down stairs, +and while attempting to open the outer door, either from some +difficulty, or the effect of the cold stone upon her feet, had uttered +the cry which alarmed him. It seemed to us all that this might serve as +a hint for a poem, and the story here told was constructed, and soon +after put into verse by me as it now stands. + +[Note.--'Lyulph's Tower'--A pleasure-house built by the late Duke of +Norfolk upon the banks of Ullswater. Force is the word used in the Lake +District for Waterfall.] + + + + +XVIII. POEMS OF SENTIMENT AND REFLECTION. + + +421. _Expostulation and Reply_. [I.] + +This poem is a favourite among the Quakers, as I have learnt on many +occasions. It was composed in front of the house at Alfoxden, in the +spring of 1798. + + +422. _The Tables turned_. [II.] + +Composed at the same time [as Expostulation and Reply]. + + +423. *_Lines written in early Spring_. [III.] + +1798. Actually composed while I was sitting by the side of the brook +that runs down from the _Comb_, in which stands the village of Alford, +through the grounds of Alfoxden. It was a chosen resort of mine. The +brook fell down a sloping rock, so as to make a waterfall, considerable +for that country; and, across the pool below, had fallen a tree, an ash, +if I rightly remember, from which rose, perpendicularly, boughs in +search of the light intercepted by the deep shade above. The boughs bore +leaves of green, that for want of sunshine had faded into almost +lily-white; and from the underside of this natural sylvan bridge +depended long and beautiful tresses of ivy, which waved gently in the +breeze, that might, poetically speaking, be called the breath of the +waterfall. This motion varied, of course, in proportion to the power of +water in the brook. When, with dear friends, I revisited this spot, +after an interval of more than forty years, this interesting feature of +the scene was gone. To the owner of the place I could not but regret +that the beauty of this retired part of the grounds had not tempted him +to make it more accessible, by a path, not broad or obtrusive, but +sufficient for persons who love such scenes to creep along without +difficulty. + + +424. *_A Character_. + +The principal features are taken from that of my friend Robert Jones. + + +425. *_To my Sister_. [V.] + +Composed in front of Alfoxden House. + +My little boy-messenger on this occasion was the son of Basil Montagu. +The larch mentioned in the first stanza was standing when I revisited +the place in May, 1841, more than forty years after. I was disappointed +that it had not improved in appearance, as to size, nor had it acquired +anything of the majesty of age, which, even though less perhaps than any +other tree, the larch sometimes does. A few score yards from this tree +grew, when we inhabited Alfoxden, one of the most remarkable beech-trees +ever seen. The ground sloped both towards and from it. It was of immense +size, and threw out arms that struck into the soil like those of the +banyan-tree, and rose again from it. Two of the branches thus inserted +themselves twice, which gave to each the appearance of a serpent moving +along by gathering itself up in folds. One of the large boughs of this +tree had been torn off by the wind before we left Alfoxden, but five +remained. In 1841 we could barely find the spot where the tree had +stood. So remarkable a production of nature could not have been wilfully +destroyed. + + +426. *_Simon Lee, the old Huntsman_. [VI.] + +This old man had been huntsman to the Squires of Alfoxden, which, at the +time we occupied it, belonged to a minor. The old man's cottage stood +upon the Common, a little way from the entrance to Alfoxden Park. But +[in 1841] it had disappeared. Many other changes had taken place in the +adjoining village, which I could not but notice with a regret more +natural than well-considered. Improvements but rarely appear such to +those who after long intervals of time revisit places they have had much +pleasure in. It is unnecessary to add, the fact was as mentioned in the +poem; and I have, after an interval of forty-five years, the image of +the old man as fresh before my eyes as if I had seen him yesterday. The +expression when the hounds were out, 'I dearly love their voice,' was +word for word from his own lips. + + +427. *_Lines written in Germany_. 1798-9. [VII.] + + 'A plague,' &c. + +A bitter winter it was when these verses were composed by the side of my +sister, in our lodgings, at a draper's house, in the romantic imperial +town of Goslar, on the edge of the Hartz Forest. In this town the German +Emperors of the Franconian line were accustomed to keep their court, and +it retains vestiges of ancient splendour. So severe was the cold of this +winter, that when we passed out of the parlour warmed by the stove, our +cheeks were struck by the air as by cold iron. I slept in a room over a +passage that was not ceiled. The people of the house used to say rather +unfeelingly, that they expected I should be frozen to death some night; +but with the protection of a pelisse lined with fur, and a dog's-skin +bonnet, such as was worn by the peasants, I walked daily on the +ramparts, or on a sort of public ground or garden, in which was a pond. +Here I had no companion but a kingfisher, a beautiful creature that +used to glance by me. I consequently became much attached to it. During +these walks I composed the poem that follows, 'The Poet's Epitaph.' + +Foot-note.--The Reader must be apprised, that the Stoves in North +Germany generally have the impression of a gallopping horse upon them, +this being part of the Brunswick Arms. + + +428. *_To the Daisy_. [IX.] + +This and the other poems addressed to the same flower were composed at +Town-End, Grasmere, during the earlier part of our residence there. I +have been censured for the last line but one, 'thy function +apostolical,' as being little less than profane. How could it be thought +so? The word is adopted with reference to its derivation, implying +something sent on a mission; and assuredly, this little flower, +especially when the subject of verse, may be regarded, in its humble +degree, as administering both to moral and to spiritual purposes. + + +429. _Matthew_. [X.] + +In the school [of Hawkshead] is a tablet, on which are inscribed, in +gilt letters, the names of the several persons who have been +schoolmasters there since the foundation of the school, with the time at +which they entered upon and quitted their office. Opposite to one of +those names the Author wrote the following lines: 'If Nature,' &c. + + +430. *_Matthew_. [X.] + +Such a tablet as is here spoken of continued to be preserved in +Hawkshead school, though the inscriptions were not brought down to our +time. This and other poems connected with Matthew would not gain by a +literal detail of facts. Like the wanderer in the 'Excursion,' this +schoolmaster was made up of several, both of his class and men of other +occupations. I do not ask pardon for what there is of untruth in such +verses, considered strictly as matters of fact. It is enough if, being +true and consistent in spirit, they move and teach in a manner not +unworthy of a Poet's calling. + + +431. *_Personal Talk_. [XIII.] + +Written at Town-End. The last line but two stood at first, better and +more characteristically, thus: + + 'By my half-kitchen and half-parlour fire.' + +My sister and I were in the habit of having the teakettle in our little +sitting-room; and we toasted the bread ourselves, which reminds me of a +little circumstance not unworthy of being set down among these minutiae. +Happening both of us to be engaged a few minutes one morning, when we +had a young prig of a Scotch lawyer to breakfast with us, my dear +sister, with her usual simplicity, put the toasting-fork with a slice of +bread into the hands of this Edinburgh genius. Our little book-case +stood on one side of the fire. To prevent loss of time, he took down a +book, and fell to reading, to the neglect of the toast, which was burnt +to a cinder. Many a time have we laughed at this circumstance and other +cottage simplicities of that day. By the bye, I have a spite at one of +this series of sonnets (I will leave the reader to discover which), as +having been the means of nearly putting off for ever our acquaintance +with dear Miss Fenwick, who has always stigmatised one line of it as +vulgar, and worthy only of having been composed by a country squire. + + +432. *_To the Spade of a Friend_. 1804. [XIV.] + +This person was Thomas Wilkinson, a Quaker by religious profession; by +natural constitution of mind--or, shall I venture to say, by God's +grace? he was something better. He had inherited a small estate, and +built a house upon it, near Yanwath, upon the banks of the Emont. I have +heard him say that his heart used to beat, in his boyhood, when he heard +the sound of a drum and fife. Nevertheless, the spirit of enterprise in +him confined itself in tilling his ground, and conquering such obstacles +as stood in the way of its fertility. Persons of his religious +persuasion do now, in a far greater degree than formerly, attach +themselves to trade and commerce. He kept the old track. As represented +in this poem, he employed his leisure hours in shaping pleasant walks by +the side of his beloved river, where he also built something between a +hermitage and a summer-house, attaching to it inscriptions, after the +manner of Shenstone at his Leasowes. He used to travel from time to +time, partly from love of Nature, and partly with religious friends, in +the service of humanity. His admiration of genius in every department +did him much honour. Through his connection with the family in which +Edmund Burke was educated, he became acquainted with that great man, who +used to receive him with great kindness and condescension; and many +times have I heard Wilkinson speak of those interesting interviews. He +was honoured also by the friendship of Elizabeth Smith, and of Thomas +Clarkson and his excellent wife, and was much esteemed by Lord and Lady +Lonsdale, and every member of that family. Among his verses (he wrote +many), are some worthy of preservation; one little poem in particular, +upon disturbing, by prying curiosity, a bird while hatching her young in +his garden. The latter part of this innocent and good man's life was +melancholy. He became blind, and also poor, by becoming surety for some +of his relations. He was a bachelor. He bore, as I have often witnessed, +his calamities with unfailing resignation. I will only add, that while +working in one of his fields, he unearthed a stone of considerable size, +then another, and then two more; and observing that they had been placed +in order, as if forming the segment of a circle, he proceeded carefully +to uncover the soil, and brought into view a beautiful Druid's temple, +of perfect, though small dimensions. In order to make his farm more +compact, he exchanged this field for another, and, I am sorry to add, +the new proprietor destroyed this interesting relic of remote ages for +some vulgar purpose. The fact, so far as concerns Thomas Wilkinson, is +mentioned in the note on a sonnet on 'Long Meg and her Daughters.' + + +433. *_A Night Thought_. [XV.] + +These verses were thrown off extempore upon leaving Mr. Luff's house at +Fox Ghyll one evening. The good woman is not disposed to look at the +bright side of things, and there happened to be present certain ladies +who had reached the point of life where _youth_ is ended, and who seemed +to contend with each other in expressing their dislike of the country +and the climate. One of them had been, heard to say she could not endure +a country where there was 'neither sunshine nor cavaliers.' [In pencil +on opposite page--Gossip.] + + +434. *_An Incident characteristic of a favourite Dog_. [XVI.] + +This dog I knew well. It belonged to Mrs. Wordsworth's brother, Mr. +Thomas Hutchinson, who then lived at Sockburn-on-the-Tees, a beautiful +retired situation, where I used to visit him and his sisters before my +marriage. My sister and I spent many months there after my return from +Germany in 1799. + + +435. _Tribute to the Memory of the same Dog_. [XVII.] + +Was written at the same time, 1805. The dog Music died, aged and blind, +by falling into a draw-well at Gallow Hill, to the great grief of the +family of the Hutchinsons, who, as has been before mentioned, had +removed to that place from Sockburn. + + +436. _Fidelity_. [XVIII.] + +The young man whose death gave occasion to this poem was named Charles +Gough, and had come early in the Spring to Patterdale for the sake of +angling. While attempting to cross over Helvellyn to Grasmere he slipped +from a steep part of the rock where the ice was not thawed, and +perished. His body was discovered as described in this poem. Walter +Scott heard of the accident, and both he and I, without either of us +knowing that the other had taken up the subject, each wrote a poem in +admiration of the dog's fidelity. His contains a most beautiful stanza: + + 'How long didst thou think that his silence was slumber! + When the wind waved his garment how oft didst thou start!' + +I will add that the sentiment in the last four lines of the last stanza +of my verses was uttered by a shepherd with such exactness, that a +traveller, who afterwards reported his account in print, was induced to +question the man whether he had read them, which he had not. + + +437. *_Ode to Duty_. [XIX.] + +This Ode, written in 1805, is on the model of Gray's 'Ode to Adversity,' +which is copied from Horace's 'Ode to Fortune.' + +Many and many a time have I been twitted by my wife and sister for +having forgotten this dedication of myself to the stern law-giver. +Transgressor indeed I have been, from hour to hour, from day to day; I +would fain hope however not more flagrantly or in a worse way than most +of my tuneful brethren. But these last words are in a wrong strain. We +should be rigorous to ourselves, and forbearing, if not indulgent, to +others, and if we make comparisons at all it ought to be with those who +have morally excelled us. [In pencil--But is not the first stanza of +Gray's from a chorus of Aeschylus? And is not Horace's Ode also modelled +on the Greek?] + + +438. *_Character of the Happy Warrior_. [XX.] + +The course of the great war with the French naturally fixed one's +attention upon the military character; and, to the honour of our +country, there are many illustrious instances of the qualities that +constitute its highest excellence. Lord Nelson carried most of the +virtues that the trials he was exposed to in his department of the +service necessarily call forth and sustain, if they do not produce the +contrary vices. But his public life was stained with one great crime, so +that, though many passages of these lines were suggested by what was +generally known as excellent in his conduct, I have not been able to +connect his name with the poem as I could wish, or even to think of him +with satisfaction in reference to the idea of what a warrior ought to +be. For the sake of such of my friends as may happen to read this note I +will add, that many elements of the character here portrayed were found +in my brother John, who perished by shipwreck, as mentioned elsewhere. +His messmates used to call him 'the Philosopher;' from which it must be +inferred that the qualities and dispositions I allude to had not escaped +their notice. He often expressed his regret, after the war had continued +some time, that he had not chosen the Naval instead of the East India +Company's Service, to which his family connection had led him. He +greatly valued moral and religious instruction for youth, as tending to +make good sailors. The best, he used to say, came from Scotland; the +next to them from the north of England, especially from Westmoreland and +Cumberland, where, thanks to the piety and local attachments of our +ancestors, endowed, or, as they are called, free-schools abound. + + +439. *_The Force of Prayer_. [XXI.] + +An appendage to 'The White Doe.' My friend, Mr. Rogers, has also written +on the subject. The story is preserved in Dr. Whitaker's _History of +Craven_, a topographical writer of first-rate merit in all that concerns +the past; but such was his aversion from the modern spirit, as shown in +the spread of manufactories in those districts of which he treated, that +his readers are left entirely ignorant, both of the progress of these +arts, and their real bearing upon the comfort, virtues, and happiness of +the inhabitants. + +While wandering on foot through the fertile valleys, and over the +moorlands of the Apennine that divides Yorkshire from Lancashire, I used +to be delighted with observing the number of substantial cottages that +had sprung up on every side, each having its little plot of fertile +ground, won from the surrounding waste. A bright and warm fire, if +needed, was always to be found in these dwellings. The father was at his +loom, the children looked healthy and happy. Is it not to be feared that +the increase of mechanic power has done away with many of these +blessings, and substituted many evils? Alas, if these evils grow, how +are they to be checked, and where is the remedy to be found? Political +economy will not supply it, that is certain. We must look to something +deeper, purer, and higher. + + +440. *_A Fact and an Imagination_. [XXII.] + +The first and last four lines of this poem each make a sonnet, and were +composed as such. But I thought that by intermediate lines they might be +connected so as to make a whole. One or two expressions are taken from +Milton's _History of England_. + + +441. *_A little Onward_. [XXIII.] + +The complaint in my eyes which gave occasion to this address to my +daughter first showed itself as a consequence of inflammation, caught at +the top of Kirkstone, when I was over-heated by having carried up the +ascent my eldest son, a lusty infant. Frequently has the disease +recurred since, leaving the eyes in a state which has often prevented my +reading for months, and makes me at this day incapable of bearing +without injury any strong light by day or night. My acquaintance with +books has therefore been far short of my wishes, and on this account, to +acknowledge the services daily and hourly done me by my family and +friends, this note is written. + + +442. _Ode to Lycoris_. [XXIV.] + +This, as well as the preceding and the two that follow, were composed in +front of Rydal Mount, and during my walks in the neighbourhood. +Nine-tenths of my verses have been murmured out in the open air. And +here let me repeat what I believe has already appeared in print. One day +a stranger, having walked round the garden and grounds of Rydal Mount, +asked of one of the female servants, who happened to be at the door, +permission to see her master's Study. 'This,' said she, leading him +forward, 'is my master's library, where he keeps his books; but his +study is out of doors.' After a long absence from home, it has more than +once happened that some one of my cottage neighbours (not of the +double-coach-house cottages) has said, 'Well, there he is; we are glad +to hear him _booing_ about again.' Once more, in excuse for so much +egotism, let me say these notes are written for my familiar friends, and +at their earnest request. Another time a gentleman, whom James had +conducted through the grounds, asked him what kind of plants throve best +there. After a little consideration, he answered, 'Laurels.' 'That is,' +said the stranger, 'as it should be. Don't you know that the laurel is +the emblem of poetry, and that poets used, on public occasions, to be +crowned with it?' James stared when the question was first put, but was +doubtless much pleased with the information. + + +443. *_Ibid._ + +The discerning reader who is aware that in the poem of 'Ellen Irwin' I +was desirous of throwing the reader at once out of the old ballad, so as +if possible to preclude a comparison between that mode of dealing with +the subject and the mode I meant to adopt, may here, perhaps, perceive +that this poem originated in the four last lines of the first stanza. +These specks of snow reflected in the lake, and so transferred, as it +were, to the subaqueous sky, reminded me of the swans which the fancy of +the ancient classic poets yoked to the car of Venus. Hence the tenor of +the whole first stanza and the name of Lycoris, which with some readers, +who think mythology and classical allusion too far-fetched, and +therefore more or less unnatural or affected, will tend to unrealise the +sentiment that pervades these verses. But surely one who has written so +much in verse as I have done may be allowed to retrace his steps into +the regions of fancy which delighted him in his boyhood, when he first +became acquainted with the Greek and Roman Poets. Before I read Virgil I +was so strongly attached to Ovid, whose _Metamorphoses_ I read at +school, that I was quite in a passion whenever I found him, in books of +criticism, placed below Virgil. As to Homer, I was never weary of +travelling over the scenes through which he led me. Classical literature +affected me by its own beauty. But the truths of Scripture having been +entrusted to the dead languages, and these fountains having been +recently laid open at the Reformation, an importance and a sanctity were +at that period attached to classical literature that extended, as is +obvious in Milton's _Lycidas_, for example, both to its spirit and form +in a degree that can never be revived. No doubt the hackneyed and +lifeless use into which mythology fell towards the close of the 17th +century, and which continued through the 18th, disgusted the general +reader with all allusion to it in modern verse. And though, in deference +to this disgust, and also in a measure participating in it, I abstained +in my earlier writings from all introduction of pagan fable,--surely, +even in its humble form, it may ally itself with real sentiment--as I +can truly affirm it did in the present case. + + +444. *_Memory_. [XXVIII.] + +The verses 'Or strayed from hope and promise, self-betrayed,' were, I am +sorry to say, suggested from apprehensions of the fate of my friend +H.C., the subject of the verses addressed to H.C. when six years old. +The piece which follows, to 'Memory,' arose out of similar feelings. + + +445. *_This Lawn_. [XXIX.] + +This lawn is the sloping one approaching the kitchen-garden, and was +made out of it. Hundreds of times have I here watched the dancing of +shadows amid a press of sunshine, and other beautiful appearances of +light and shade, flowers and shrubs. What a contrast between this and +the cabbages and onions and carrots that used to grow there on a piece +of ugly-shaped unsightly ground! No reflection, however, either upon +cabbages or onions. The latter, we know, were worshipped by the +Egyptians; and he must have a poor eye for beauty who has not observed +how much of it there is in the form and colour which cabbages and plants +of this genus exhibit through the various stages of their growth and +decay. A richer display of colour in vegetable nature can scarcely be +conceived than Coleridge, my sister, and I saw in a bed of potatoe +plants in blossom near a hut upon the moor between Inversneyd and Loch +Katrine. These blossoms were of such extraordinary beauty and richness +that no one could have passed them without notice. But the sense must be +cultivated through the mind before we can perceive those inexhaustible +treasures of Nature--for such they truly are--without the least +necessary reference to the utility of her productions, or even to the +laws whereupon, as we learn by research, they are dependent. Some are of +opinion that the habit of analysing, decomposing, and anatomising, is +inevitably unfavourable to the perception of beauty. People are led into +this mistake by overlooking the fact that such processes being to a +certain extent within the reach of a limited intellect, we are apt to +ascribe to them that insensibility of which they are in truth the +effect, and not the cause. Admiration and love, to which all knowledge +truly vital must tend, are felt by men of real genius in proportion as +their discoveries in Natural Philosophy are enlarged; and the beauty in +form of a plant or an animal is not made less but more apparent as a +whole by a more accurate insight into its constituent properties and +powers. A _Savant_, who is not also a poet in soul and a religionist in +heart, is a feeble and unhappy creature. + + +446. *_Humanity_. [XXX.] + +These verses and the preceding ones, entitled 'Liberty,' were composed +as one piece, which Mrs. W. complained of as unwieldy and +ill-proportioned; and accordingly it was divided into two, on her +judicious recommendation. + +[Printed notes: 'The rocking-stones alluded to in the beginning of the +following verses are supposed to have been used, by our British +ancestors, both for judicial and religious purposes. Such stones are not +uncommonly found, at this day, both in Great Britain and in Ireland.' On +l. 32, 'Descending to the worm in charity:' 'I am indebted here to a +passage in one of Mr. Digby's valuable works.'] + + +447. *_Thought on the Seasons_. [XXXI.] + +Written at Rydal Mount, 1829. + + +448. *_To_ ----, _on the Birth of her first Child_. [XXXII.] + +Written at Moresby near Whitehaven, 1833, when I was on a visit to my +son, then incumbent of that small living. While I am dictating these +Notes to my friend Miss Fenwick, Jan. 24th, 1843, the child, upon whose +birth these verses were written, is under my roof, and is of a +disposition so promising that the wishes and prayers and prophecies +which I then breathed forth in verse are, thro' God's mercy, likely to +be realised. [In pencil--Jane?] + + +449. *_The Warning: a Sequel to the Foregoing_. [XXXIII.] + +These lines were composed during the fever spread through the nation by +the Reform Bill. As the motives which led to this measure, and the good +or evil which has attended or has risen from it, will be duly +appreciated by future historians, there is no call for dwelling on the +subject in this place. I will content myself with saying that the then +condition of the people's mind is not, in these verses, exaggerated. + + +450. *_The Labourer's Noon-day Hymn_. [XXXV.] + +Bishop Ken's Morning and Evening Hymns are, as they deserve to be, +familiarly known. Many other hymns have also been written on the same +subjects; but not being aware of any being designed for noon-day I was +induced to compose these verses. Often we had occasion to observe +cottage children carrying in their baskets dinner to their fathers +engaged with their daily labours in the fields and woods. How gratifying +would it be to me could I be assured that any portion of these stanzas +had been sung by such a domestic concert under such circumstances. A +friend of mine has told me that she introduced this Hymn into a +village-school which she superintended; and the stanzas in succession +furnished her with texts to comment upon in a way which without +difficulty was made intelligible to the children, and in which they +obviously took delight; and they were taught to sing it to the tune of +the old 100th Psalm. + + +451. *_Ode composed on May Morning_. [XXXVI.] + +*_To May_. [XXXVII.] + +These two Poems originated in these lines 'How delicate, &c.' My +daughter and I left Rydal Mount upon a Tour through our mountains with +Mr. and Mrs. Carr, in the month of May 1826; and as we were going up the +Vale of Newlands I was struck with the appearance of the little chapel +gleaming through the veil of half-opened leaves, and the feeling which +was then conveyed to my mind was expressed in the stanza that follows. +As in the case of 'Liberty' and 'Humanity,' mentioned before, my first +intention was to write only one Poem; but subsequently I broke it into +two, making additions to each part, so as to produce a consistent and +appropriate whole. + + +452. *_Lines suggested by a Portrait from the Pencil of F. Stone_. +[XXXVIII.] + +*_The foregoing Subject resumed_. [XXXIX.] + +This Portrait has hung for many years in our principal sitting-room, and +represents J.Q. as she was when a girl. The picture, though it is +somewhat thinly painted, has much merit in tone and general effect. It +is chiefly valuable, however, from the sentiment that pervades it. The +anecdote of the saying of the monk in sight of Titian's picture was told +in this house by Mr. Wilkie, and was, I believe, first communicated to +the public in this poem, the former portion of which I was composing at +the time. Southey heard the story from Miss Hutchinson, and transferred +it to the 'Doctor;' but it is not easy to explain how my friend Mr. +Rogers, in a note subsequently added to his 'Italy,' was led to speak of +the same remarkable words having many years before been spoken in his +hearing by a monk or priest in front of a picture of the Last Supper +placed over a refectory-table in a convent at Padua. [Printed note on +XXXVIII., last line: 'The Escurial. The pile of buildings composing the +palace and convent of San Lorenzo has, in common usage, lost its proper +name in that of the Escurial, a village at the foot of the hill upon +which the splendid edifice, built by Philip the Second, stands. It need +scarcely be added, that Wilkie is the painter alluded to.' On XXXIX.: + + 'Frail ties, dissolving or dissolved + On earth, will be revived, we trust, in heaven.' + +'In the class entitled "Musings," in Mr. Southey's Minor Poems, is one +upon his own miniature picture, taken in childhood, and another upon a +landscape painted by Gaspar Poussin. It is possible that every word of +the above verses, though similar in subject, might have been written had +the author been unacquainted with those beautiful effusions of poetic +sentiment. But, for his own satisfaction, he must be allowed thus +publicly to acknowledge the pleasure those two Poems of his friend have +given him, and the grateful influence they have upon his mind as often +as he reads them or thinks of them.'] + + +453. *_Upon seeing a coloured Drawing of the Bird of Paradise in an +Album_. [XLI.] + +I cannot forbear to record that the last seven lines of this poem were +composed in bed, during the night of the day on which my sister S.H. +died, about six P.M., and it was the thought of her innocent and +beautiful life that through faith prompted the words: + + 'On wings that fear no glance of God's pure sight, + No tempest from His breath.' + +The reader will find two Poems on pictures of this bird among my Poems. +I will here observe, that in a far greater number of instances than have +been mentioned in these Notes one Poem has, as in this case, grown out +of another, either because I felt the subject had been inadequately +treated or that the thoughts and images suggested in course of +composition have been such as I found interfered with the unity +indispensable to every work of art, however humble in character. + + + + +XIX. SONNETS DEDICATED TO LIBERTY AND ORDER. + + +454. _Change_, [iv. 1. 14.] + + 'Perilous is sweeping change, all chance unsound.' + 'All change is perilous, and all chance unsound.' SPENSER. + + +455. _American Repudiation_. [VIII.] + +'Men of the Western World.' + +These lines were written several years ago, when reports prevailed of +cruelties committed in many parts of America, by men making a law of +their own passions. A far more formidable, as being a more deliberate +mischief, has appeared among those States, which have lately broken +faith with the public creditor in a manner so infamous. I cannot, +however, but look at both evils under a similar relation to inherent +good, and hope that the time is not distant when our brethren of the +West will wipe off this stain from their name and nation. + + +456. _To the Pennsylvanians_. [IX.] + +Happily the language of expostulation in which this Sonnet is written is +no longer applicable. It will be gratifying to Americans and Englishmen +(indignos fraternum rumpere foedus) to read the following particulars +communicated in a letter from Mr. Reed, dated October 28, 1850. 'In Mr. +Wordsworth's letters to me you will have observed that a good deal is +said on the Pennsylvania Loans, a subject in which, as you are aware, he +was interested for his friends rather than for himself. Last December, +when I learned that a new edition of his poems was in press, I wrote to +him (it was my last letter) to say frankly that his Sonnet "To +Pennsylvanians" _was no longer just_, and to desire him _not to let_ it +stand so for after time. It was very gratifying to me on receiving a +copy of the new edition, which was not till after his death, to find the +'_additional note_' at the end of the fifth volume, showing by its being +printed on the unusual place of a fly-leaf, that he had been anxious to +attend to such a request. It was characteristic of that righteousness +which distinguished him as an author; and it has this interest (as I +conjecture) that it was probably the last sentence he composed for the +press. It is chiefly on this account that I mention it to you.'[7] + +[7] _Memoirs_, ii. p. 114. + + +457. *_Feel for the Wrongs, &c._ [XIV.] + +This Sonnet is recommended to the perusal of the Anti-Corn-Law-Leaguers, +the Political Economists, and of all those who consider that the evils +under which we groan are to be removed or palliated by measures +ungoverned by moral and religious principles. + + +458. _Sonnets upon the Punishment of Death_,[XX.] + +Of these Sonnets the author thus wrote to John Peace, Esq., Bristol: + + Rydal Mount, Feb. 23. 1842. + +MY DEAR SIR, + +I was truly pleased with the receipt of the letter which you were put +upon writing by the perusal of my 'Penal Sonnets' in the _Quarterly +Review_. Being much engaged at present, I might have deferred making my +acknowledgments for this and other favours (particularly your 'Descant') +if I had not had a special occasion for addressing you at this moment. A +Bristol lady has kindly undertaken to be the bearer of the walking-stick +which I spoke to you of some time since. It was cut from a holly-tree +planted in our garden by my own hand. + + * * * * * + +Your 'Descant' amused me, but I must protest against your system, which +would discard punctuation to the extent you propose. It would, I think, +destroy the harmony of blank verse when skilfully written. What would +become of the pauses at the third syllable followed by an _and_, or any +such word, without the rest which a comma, when consistent with the +sense, calls upon the reader to make, and which being made, he starts +with the weak syllable that follows, as from the beginning of a verse? I +am sure Milton would have supported me in this opinion. Thomson wrote +his blank verse before his ear was formed as it was when he wrote the +'Castle of Indolence,' and some of his short rhyme poems. It was, +therefore, rather hard in you to select him as an instance of +punctuation abused. I am glad that you concur in my view on the +_Punishment of Death_. An outcry, as I expected, has been raised against +me by weak-minded humanitarians. What do you think of one person having +opened a battery of nineteen fourteen-pounders upon me, _i.e._ nineteen +sonnets, in which he gives himself credit for having blown me and my +system to atoms? Another sonneteer has had a solitary shot at me from +Ireland. + + Ever faithfully yours, + W. WORDSWORTH.[8] + +[8] _Memoirs_, ii. pp. 386-7. + + * * * * * + + + + +XX. MISCELLANEOUS POEMS. + + +459. _Epistle to Sir G. H. Beaumont, Bart_.[1.] + +From the South-west Coast of Cumberland,--1811. This poem opened, when +first written, with a paragraph that has been transferred as an +introduction to the first series of my 'Scotch Memorials.' The journey, +of which the first part is here described, was from Grasmere to Bootle, +on the south-west coast of Cumberland, the whole along mountain-roads, +through a beautiful country, and we had fine weather. The verses end +with our breakfast at the Head of Yewdale, in a yeoman's house, which, +like all the other property in that sequestered vale, has passed, or is +passing, into the hands of Mr. James Marshall, of Monk Coniston, in Mr. +Knott's, the late owner's time, called Waterhead. Our hostess married a +Mr. Oldfield, a lieutenant in the navy; they lived together for some +time at Hackett, where she still resides as his widow. It was in front +of that house, on the mountain-side, near which stood the peasant who, +while we were passing at a distance, saluted us, waving a kerchief in +his hand, as described in the poem. The dog which we met soon after our +starting, had belonged to Mr. Rowlandson, who for forty years was curate +at Grasmere, in place of the rector, who lived to extreme old age, in a +state of insanity. Of this Mr. R. much might be said, both with +reference to his character, and the way in which he was regarded by his +parishioners. He was a man of a robust frame, had a firm voice and +authoritative manner, of strong natural talents, of which he was +himself conscious, for he has been heard to say (it grieves me to add +with an oath), 'If I had been brought up at college by ---- I should have +been a Bishop.' Two vices used to struggle in him for mastery, avarice +and the love of strong drink. But avarice, as is common in like cases, +always got the better of its opponent, for though he was often +intoxicated it was never, I believe, at his own expense. As has been +said of one in a more exalted station, he could take any _given_ +quantity. I have heard a story of him which is worth the telling. One +Summer's morning our Grasmere curate, after a night's carouse in the +Vale of Langdale, on his return home having reached a point near which +the whole Vale of Grasmere might be seen with the Lake immediately below +him, he stept aside and sat down upon the turf. After looking for some +time at the landscape, then in the perfection of its morning beauty, he +exclaimed, 'Good God! that I should have led so long such a life in such +a place!' This no doubt was deeply felt by him at the time, but I am not +authorised to say that any noticeable amendment followed. Penuriousness +strengthened upon him as his body grew feebler with age. He had +purchased property and kept some land in his own hands, but he could not +find in his heart to lay out the necessary hire for labourers at the +proper season, and consequently he has often been seen in half dotage +working his hay in the month of November by moonlight--a melancholy +sight, which I myself have witnessed. Notwithstanding all that has been +said, this man, on account of his talents and superior education, was +looked up to by his parishioners, who, without a single exception, lived +at that time (and most of them upon their own small inheritances) in a +state of republican equality, a condition favourable to the growth of +kindly feelings among them, and, in a striking degree, exclusive to +temptations to gross vice and scandalous behaviour. As a pastor, their +curate did little or nothing for them; but what could more strikingly +set forth the efficacy of the Church of England, through its Ordinances +and Liturgy, than that, in spite of the unworthiness of the minister, +his church was regularly attended; and though there was not much +appearance in his flock of what might be called animated piety, +intoxication was rare, and dissolute morals unknown? With the Bible they +were, for the most part, well acquainted, and, as was strikingly shown +when they were under affliction, must have been supported and comforted +by habitual belief in those truths which it is the aim of the Church to +inculcate. [Notes: 'Sled' (l.110)--a local word for sledge; 'bield' (l. +175)--a word common in the country, signifying shelter, as in Scotland.] + + +460. *_Upon perusing the foregoing Epistle, thirty Years after its +Composition_. + +Loughrigg Tarn. + +This beautiful pool, and the surrounding scene, are minutely described +in my little book on the Lakes. + +Sir G.H.B., in the earlier part of his life, was induced, by his love of +Nature and the art of painting, to take up his abode at Old Brathay, +about three miles from this spot, so that he must have seen it [the +Tarn] under many aspects; and he was so much pleased with it, that he +purchased the Tarn with a view to build such a residence as is alluded +to in this 'Epistle.' Baronets and knights were not so common in that +day as now, and Sir M. le Fleming, not liking to have a rival in this +kind of distinction so near him, claimed a sort of lordship over the +territory, and showed dispositions little in unison with those of Sir G. +Beaumont, who was eminently a lover of peace. The project of building +was given up, Sir G.B. retaining possession of the Tarn. Many years +afterwards, a Kendal tradesman, born upon its banks, applied to me for +the purchase of it, and, accordingly, it was sold for the sum that had +been given for it, and the money was laid out, under my direction, upon +a substantial oak fence for a certain number of yew-trees, to be planted +in Grasmere Churchyard. Two were planted in each enclosure, with a view +to remove, after a certain time, the one which throve the least. After +several years, the stouter plant being left, the others were taken up, +and placed in other parts of the same churchyard, and were adequately +fenced at the expense and under the care of the late Mr. Barber, Mr. +Greenwood, and myself. The whole eight are now thriving, and are an +ornament to a place which, during late years, has lost much of its +rustic simplicity by the introduction of iron palisades, to fence off +family burying-grounds, and by numerous monuments, some of them in very +bad taste, from which this place of burial was in my memory quite free: +see the lines in the sixth book of 'The Excursion,' beginning, + + 'Green is the Churchyard.' + +The 'Epistle,' to which these notes refer, though written so far back as +1811, was carefully revised so late as 1842, previous to its +publication. I am loath to add, that it was never seen by the person to +whom it is addressed. So sensible am I of the deficiencies in all that I +write, and so far does every thing that I attempt fall short of what I +wish it to be, that even private publication, if such a term may be +allowed, requires more resolution than I can command. I have written to +give vent to my own mind, and not without hope that, some time or other, +kindred minds might benefit by my labours; but I am inclined to believe +I should never have ventured to send forth any verses of mine to the +world, if it had not been done on the pressure of personal occasions. +Had I been a rich man, my productions, like this 'Epistle,' the 'Tragedy +of the Borderers,' &c., would most likely have been confined to MS. + + +461. _Ibid._ + +Loughrigg Tarn, alluded to in the foregoing Epistle, resembles, though +much smaller in compass, the Lake Nemi, or _Speculum Dianae_ as it is +often called, not only in its clear waters and circular form, and the +beauty immediately surrounding it, but also as being overlooked by the +eminence of Langdale Pikes as Lake Nemi is by that of Monte Calvo. Since +this Epistle was written Loughrigg Tarn has lost much of its beauty by +the felling of many natural clumps of wood, relics of the old forest, +particularly upon the farm called 'The Oaks,' from the abundance of that +tree which grew there. + +It is to be regretted, upon public grounds, that Sir George Beaumont did +not carry into effect his intention of constructing here a Summer +Retreat in the style I have described; as his taste would have set an +example how buildings, with all the accommodations modern society +requires, might be introduced even into the most secluded parts of this +country without injuring their native character. The design was not +abandoned from failure of inclination on his part, but in consequence of +local untowardness which need not be particularised. + + +462. *_Gold and Silver Fishes in a Vase_.[II.] + +They were a present from Miss Jewsbury, of whom mention is made in the +Note at the end of the next poem. The fish were healthy to all +appearance in their confinement for a long time, but at last, for some +cause we could not make out, languished; and one of them being all but +dead, they were taken to the pool under the old pollard oak. The +apparently dying one lay on its side unable to move. I used to watch it, +and about the tenth day it began to right itself, and in a few days more +was able to swim about with its companions. For many months they +continued to prosper in their new place of abode; but one night by an +unusually great flood they were swept out of the pool and perished, to +our great regret. + + +463. *_Liberty_ (_Sequel to the above_). [III.] + +The connection of this with the preceding poem is sufficiently obvious. + + +464. _Liberty_. [III.] + + 'Life's book for thee may be unclosed, till age + Shall with a thankful tear bedrop its latest page.' + +There is now, alas! no possibility of the anticipation, with which the +above Epistle concludes, being realised: nor were the verses ever seen +by the Individual for whom they were intended. She accompanied her +husband, the Rev. Wm. Fletcher, to India, and died of cholera, at the +age of thirty-two or thirty-three years, on her way from Shalapore to +Bombay, deeply lamented by all who knew her. + +Her enthusiasm was ardent, her piety steadfast; and her great talents +would have enabled her to be eminently useful in the difficult path of +life to which she had been called. The opinion she entertained of her +own performances, given to the world under her maiden name, Jewsbury, +was modest and humble, and, indeed, far below their merits; as is often +the case with those who are making trial of their powers, with a hope to +discover what they are best fitted for. In one quality, viz., quickness +in the motions of her mind, she had, within the range of the Author's +acquaintance, no equal. + + +465. _Poor Robin_. [IV.] + +The small wild Geranium known by that name. + + +466. *_Ibid._ + +I often ask myself what will become of Rydal Mount after our day. Will +the old walls and steps remain in front of the house and about the +grounds, or will they be swept away with all the beautiful mosses and +ferns and wild geraniums and other flowers which their rude construction +suffered and encouraged to grow among them? This little wild flower, +'Poor Robin,' is here constantly courting my attention and exciting what +may be called a domestic interest with the varying aspects of its stalks +and leaves and flowers. Strangely do the tastes of men differ, according +to their employment and habits of life. 'What a nice well would that +be,' said a labouring man to me one day, 'if all that rubbish was +cleared off.' The 'rubbish' was some of the most beautiful mosses and +lichens and ferns and other wild growths, as could possibly be seen. +Defend us from the tyranny of trimness and neatness, showing itself in +this way! Chatterton says of Freedom, 'Upon her head wild weeds were +spread,' and depend upon it, if 'the marvellous boy' had undertaken to +give Flora a garland, he would have preferred what we are apt to call +weeds to garden-flowers. True taste has an eye for both. Weeds have been +called flowers out of place. I fear the place most people would assign +to them is too limited. Let them come near to our abodes, as surely they +may without impropriety or disorder. + + +467. *_To the Lady le Fleming_. [IX.] + +After thanking in prose Lady Fleming for the service she had done to her +neighbourhood by erecting this Chapel, I have nothing to say beyond the +expression of regret that the architect did not furnish an elevation +better suited to the site in a narrow mountain pass, and what is of more +consequence, better constructed in the interior for the purposes of +worship. It has no chancel. The Altar is unbecomingly confined. The Pews +are so narrow as to preclude the possibility of kneeling. There is no +vestry, and what ought to have been first mentioned, the Font, instead +of standing at its proper place at the entrance, is thrust into the +farthest end of a little pew. When these defects shall be pointed out to +the munificent patroness, they will, it is hoped, be corrected. [In +pencil--Have they not been corrected in part at least? 1843.] + + +468. *_To a Redbreast (in Sickness)_. [VI.] + +Almost the only Verses composed by our lamented sister S.H. [=Miss Sarah +Hutchinson, sister of Mrs. Wordsworth]. + + +469. *_Floating Island_. [VII.] + +My poor sister takes a pleasure in repeating these Verses, which she +composed not long before the beginning of her sad illness. + + +470. *_Once I could hail, &c._ [VIII.] + +'No faculty yet given me to espy the dusky shape.' Afterwards, when I +could not avoid seeing it, I wondered at this, and the more so because, +like most children, I had been in the habit of watching the moon thro' +all her changes, and had often continued to gaze at it while at the +full, till half-blinded. + + +471. *_The Gleaner (suggested by a Picture)_. + +This poem was first printed in the Annual called 'The Keep-sake.' The +Painter's name I am not sure of, but I think it was Holmes. + + +472. _Nightshade_. [IX. ii. 6.] + +Bekangs Ghyll--or the dell of Nightshade--in which stands St. Mary's +Abbey in Low Furness. + + +473. _Churches--East and West_. [X.] + +Our churches, invariably perhaps, stand east and west, but why is by few +persons exactly known; nor that the degree of deviation from due east +often noticeable in the ancient ones was determined, in each particular +case, by the point on the horizon at which the sun rose upon the day of +the saint to whom the church was dedicated. These observances of our +ancestors, and the causes of them, are the subject of the following +stanzas. + + +474. _The Horn of Egremont Castle_. [XI.] + +This story is a Cumberland tradition. I have heard it also related of +the Hall of Hutton John, an ancient residence of the Huddlestons, in a +sequestered valley upon the river Dacor. [In the I.F. MSS. the Note runs +thus: '1806. A tradition transferred from the ancient mansion of Hutton +John, the seat of the Huddlestons, to Egremont Castle.'] + + +475. *_Goody Blake and Harry Gill_. [XII.] + +Written at Alfoxden, 1798. The incident from Dr. Darwin's _Zoonomia_. + + +476. *_To a Child: written in her Album_. [XIV.] + +This quatrain was extempore on observing this image, as I had often +done, on the lawn of Rydal Mount. It was first written down in the Album +of my god-daughter, Rotha Quillinan. + + +477. *_Lines written in the Album of the Countess of Lonsdale_. [XV.] + +This is a faithful picture of that amiable Lady as she then was. The +youthfulness of figure and demeanour and habits, which she retained in +almost unprecedented degree, departed a very few years after, and she +died without violent disease by gradual decay, before she reached the +period of old age. [In pencil--Was she not 70? Mr. J.] + + +478. _The Russian Fugitive_. [XVII.] + +Peter Henry Bruce, having given in his entertaining Memoirs the +substance of this Tale, affirms that, besides the concurring reports of +others, he had the story from the lady's own mouth. The Lady Catherine, +mentioned towards the close, is the famous Catherine, then bearing that +name as the acknowledged wife of Peter the Great. + + +479. *_Ibid._ + +Early in life this story had interested me; and I often thought it would +make a pleasing subject for an Opera or musical drama. + + + + +XXI. INSCRIPTIONS. + +480. *(I.) In the grounds of Coleorton these verses are engraved on a +stone, placed near the tree, which was thriving and spreading when I saw +it in the summer of 1841. + +481. *(II.) This Niche is in the sandstone rock in the winter-garden at +Coleorton, which garden, as has been elsewhere said, was made under our +direction out of an old unsightly quarry. While the labourers were at +work Mrs. Wordsworth, my sister, and I used to amuse ourselves +occasionally in scooping this seat out of the soft stone. It is of the +size, with something of the appearance, of a stall in a cathedral. This +inscription is not engraven, as the former and the two following are, in +the grounds. + +482. *(VI.) The circumstance alluded to at the conclusion of these +verses was told me by Dr. Satterthwaite, who was Incumbent of Boodle, a +small town at the foot of Black Combe. He had the particulars from one +of the engineers, who was employed in making trigonometrical surveys of +that region. + +483. *(VIII.) Engraven, during my absence in Italy, upon a brass plate +inserted in the stone. + +484. *(IX.) The walk is what we call the far-terrace, beyond the +summer-house, at Rydal Mount. The lines were written when we were afraid +of being obliged to quit the place to which we were so much attached. + +485. *(XI.) The monument of ice here spoken of I observed while +ascending the middle road of the three ways that lead from Rydal to +Grasmere. It was on my right hand, and my eyes were upon it when it +fell, as told in these lines. + +486. *(XII.) Where the second quarry now is, as you pass from Rydal to +Grasmere, there was formerly a length of smooth rock that sloped towards +the road on the right hand. I used to call it tadpole slope, from having +frequently observed there the water bubbles gliding under the ice, +exactly in the shape of that creature. + + * * * * * + + + + +XXII. SELECTIONS FROM CHAUCER MODERNISED. + +487. _Of the Volume in which the 'Selections' appeared_. + +Of these 'Selections' the Author wrote as follows to Professor Reed, of +Philadelphia: + +'There has recently been published in London a volume of some of +Chaucer's tales and poems modernised. This little specimen originated in +what I attempted with the "Prioress's Tale;" and if the book should find +its way to America, you will see in it two further specimens from +myself. I had no further connection with the publication than by making +a present of these to one of the contributors. Let me, however, +recommend to your notice the "Prologue" and the "Franklin's Tale;" they +are both by Mr. Horne, a gentleman unknown to me, but are, the latter in +particular, very well done. Mr. Leigh Hunt has not failed in the +"Manciple's Tale," which I myself modernised many years ago; but, though +I much admire the genius of Chaucer as displayed in this performance, I +could not place my version at the disposal of the editor, as I deemed +the subject somewhat too indelicate, for pure taste, to be offered to +the world at this time of day. Mr. Horne has much hurt this publication +by not abstaining from the "Reve's Tale;" this, after making all +allowance for the rude manners of Chaucer's age, is intolerable, and by +indispensably softening down the incidents, he has killed the spirit of +that humour, gross and farcical, that pervades the original. When the +work was first mentioned to me, I protested as strongly as possible +against admitting any coarseness or indelicacy; so that my conscience is +clear of countenancing aught of that kind. So great is my admiration of +Chaucer's genius, and so profound my reverence for him as an instrument +in the hands of Providence for spreading the light of literature through +his native land, that, notwithstanding the defects and faults in this +publication, I am glad of it, as a mean for making many acquainted with +the original who would otherwise be ignorant of everything about him but +his name.'[9] + +[9] Extract: January 13th, 1841 (_Memoirs_, ii. p. 374-5). + + +488. _The Prioress's Tale_. + + 'Call up him who left half told + The story of Cambuscan bold.' + +In the following Poem no further deviation from the original has been +made than was necessary for the fluent reading and instant understanding +of the Author: so much, however, is the language altered since Chaucer's +time, especially in pronunciation, that much was to be removed, and its +place supplied with as little incongruity as possible. The ancient +accent has been retained in a few conjunctions, as _also_ and _alway_, +from a conviction that such sprinklings of antiquity would be admitted, +by persons of taste, to have a graceful accordance with the subject. The +fierce bigotry of the Prioress forms a fine back-ground for her +tender-hearted sympathies with the Mother and Child; and the mode in +which the story is told amply atones for the extravagance of the +miracle. + + + + +XXIII. POEMS REFERRING TO THE PERIOD OF OLD AGE. + +489. _The Old Cumberland Beggar_. [I.] + +The class of Beggars to which the Old Man here described belongs will +probably soon be extinct. It consisted of poor, and mostly old and +infirm persons, who confined themselves to a stated round in their +neighbourhood, and had certain fixed days, on which, at different +houses, they regularly received alms, sometimes in money, but mostly in +provisions. + +490. *_Ibid._ + +Observed, and with great benefit to my own heart, when I was a child. +Written at Racedown and Alfoxden in my 23d year. The political +economists were about that time beginning their war upon mendicity in +all its forms, and by implication, if not directly, on alms-giving also. +This heartless process has been carried as far as it can go by the +AMENDED Poor Law Bill, tho' the inhumanity that prevails in this measure +is somewhat disguised by the profession that one of its objects is to +throw the poor upon the voluntary donations of their neighbours, that +is, if rightly interpreted, to force them into a condition between +relief in the Union Poor House and alms robbed of their Christian grace +and spirit, as being forced rather from the avaricious and selfish; and +all, in fact, but the humane and charitable are at liberty to keep all +they possess from their distressed brethren. + +491. _The Farmer of Tilsbury Vale_. + +With this picture, which was taken from real life, compare the +imaginative one of 'The Reverie of Poor Susan,' and see (to make up the +deficiencies of the class) 'The Excursion' _passim_. + +492. _Ibid._ + +The character of this man was described to me, and the incident upon +which the verses turn was told me by Mr. Pool, of Nether Stowey, with +whom I became acquainted through our common friend S.T.C. During my +residence at Alfoxden, I used to see a great deal of him, and had +frequent occasions to admire the course of his daily life, especially +his conduct to his labourers and poor neighbours. Their virtues he +carefully encouraged, and weighed their faults in the scales of charity. +If I seem in these verses to have treated the weaknesses of the farmer +and his transgression too tenderly, it may in part be ascribed to my +having received the story from one so averse to all harsh judgment. +After his death was found in his _escritoir_ a lock of gray hair, +carefully preserved, with a notice that it had been cut from the head of +his faithful shepherd, who had served him for a length of years. I need +scarcely add that he felt for all men as brothers. He was much beloved +by distinguished persons:--Mr. Coleridge, Mr. Southey, Sir H. Davy, and +many others, and in his own neighbourhood was highly valued as a +magistrate, a man of business, and in every other social relation. The +latter part of the poem, perhaps, requires some apology, as being too +much of an echo to the 'Reverie of Poor Susan.' + +493. _The small Celandine_. [III.] + +See 'Poems of the Fancy' [XI.]. + +494. *_The two Thieves_. [IV.] + +This is described from the life, as I was in the habit of observing when +a boy at Hawkshead School. Daniel was more than 80 years older than +myself when he was daily thus occupied under my notice. No book could +have so early taught me to think of the changes to which human life is +subject, and while looking at him I could not but say to myself, We may, +any of us, I or the happiest of my playmates, live to become still more +the object of pity than the old man, this half-doating pilferer. + +495. *_Animal Tranquillity and Decay_. [V.] + +If I recollect right, these verses were an overflow from the 'Old +Cumberland Beggar.' + + * * * * * + + + + +XXIV. EPITAPHS AND ELEGIAC PIECES. + +496. *_From Chiabrera_. [I. to IX.] + +Those from Chiabrera were chiefly translated when Mr. Coleridge was +writing his _Friend_, in which periodical my Essay on Epitaphs, written +about that time, was first published. For further notice of Chiabrera in +connection with his Epitaphs see 'Musings at Aquapendente.' + +497. *_By a blest Husband, &c._ + +This lady was named Carleton. She, along with a sister, was brought up +in the neighbourhood of Ambleside. The Epitaph, a part of it at least, +is in the church at Bromsgrove, where she resided after her marriage. + +498. _Cenotaph_. + +In affectionate remembrance of Frances Fermor, whose remains are +deposited in the Church of Claines, near Worcester, this stone is +erected by her sister, Dame Margaret, wife of Sir George Beaumont, +Bart., who, feeling not less than the love of a brother for the +deceased, commends this memorial to the care of his heirs and successors +in the possession of this place. (See the verses on Mrs. F.) + +499. *_Epitaph in the Chapel-yard of Langdale, Westmoreland_. [IV.] + +Owen Lloyd, the subject of this Epitaph, was born at Old Brathay, near +Ambleside, and was the son of Charles Lloyd and his wife Sophia (nee +Pemberton), both of Birmingham. They had many children, both sons and +daughters, of whom the most remarkable was the subject of this Epitaph. +He was educated under Dawes of Ambleside, Dr. Butler of Shrewsbury, and +lastly at Trin. Coll., Cambridge, where he would have been greatly +distinguished as a scholar, but for inherited infirmities of bodily +constitution, which from early childhood affected his mind. His love for +the neighbourhood in which he was born and his sympathy with the habits +and characters of the mountain yeomanry, in conjunction with irregular +spirits, that unfitted him for facing duties in situations to which he +was unaccustomed, inclined him to accept the retired curacy of Langdale. +How much he was beloved and honoured there and with what feelings he +discharged his duty under the oppressions of severe malady is set forth, +though imperfectly, in this Epitaph. + + +500. *_Address to the Scholars of the Village School_. + +Were composed at Goslar in Germany. They will be placed among the +Elegiac pieces. + + +501. *_Elegiac Stanzas suggested by a Picture of Peel Castle_. [VI.] + +Sir George Beaumont painted two pictures of this subject, one of which +he gave to Mrs. Wordsworth, saying she ought to have it: but Lady B. +interfered, and after Sir George's death she gave it to Sir Uvedale +Price, in whose house at Foxley I have seen it--rather grudgingly I own. + + +502. _Elegiac Verses_. [VIII.] + +In memory of my Brother, John Wordsworth, Commander of the E.I. +Company's ship the Earl of Abergavenny, in which he perished by +calamitous shipwreck, Feb. 6, 1805. Composed near the Mountain track +that leads from Grasmere through Grisdale Hawes, where it descends +towards Patterdale. 1805. + + +503. _Moss Campion_ (_Silene acaulis_). [_Ibid._ II. l. 5.] + +This most beautiful plant is scarce in England, though it is found in +great abundance upon the mountains of Scotland. The first specimen I +ever saw of it, in its native bed, was singularly fine, the tuft or +cushion being at least eight inches in diameter, and the root +proportionably thick. I have only met with it in two places among our +mountains, in both of which I have since sought for it in vain. + +Botanists will not, I hope, take it ill, if I caution them against +carrying off, inconsiderately, rare and beautiful plants. This has often +been done, particularly from Ingleborough and other mountains in +Yorkshire, till the species have totally disappeared, to the great +regret of lovers of Nature living near the places where they grew. + + +504. _Lines_. + +Composed at Grasmere, during a walk one evening after a stormy day, the +Author having just read in a newspaper that the dissolution of Mr. Fox +was hourly expected, 'Loud is the Vale,' &c. [IX.] + + +505. *_Invocation to the Earth_. [x.] + +Composed immediately after the Thanksgiving Ode, to which it may be +considered as a second part. + + +506. *_Elegiac Stanzas. Addressed to Sir G.H.B_. [XII.] + +On Mrs. Fermor. This lady had been a widow long before I knew her. Her +husband was of the family of the lady celebrated in the 'Rape of the +Lock,' and was, I believe, a Roman Catholic. The sorrow which his death +caused her was fearful in its character, as described in this Poem, but +was subdued in course of time by the strength of her religious faith. I +have been for many weeks at a time an inmate with her at Coleorton Hall, +as were also Mary and my sister. The truth in the sketch of her +character here given was acknowledged with gratitude by her nearest +relatives. She was eloquent in conversation, energetic upon public +matters, open in respect to these, but slow to communicate her personal +feelings. Upon these she never touched in her intercourse with me, so +that I could not regard myself as her confidential friend, and was +accordingly surprised when I learnt she had left me a legacy of 100_l._ +as a token of her esteem. See in further illustration, the second stanza +inscribed upon her cenotaph in Coleorton Church. + + +507. *_Elegiac Musings in the Grounds of Coleorton Hall_.[XIII.] + +These verses were in fact composed on horseback during a storm, whilst I +was on my way from Coleorton to Cambridge. They are alluded to +elsewhere. [Intercalated by Mrs. Quillinan--My father was on my pony, +which he rode all the way from Rydal to Cambridge that I might have the +comfort and pleasure of a horse at Cambridge. The storm of wind and rain +on this day was so violent that the coach in which my mother and I +travelled, the same coach, was all but blown over, and had the coachman +drawn up as he attempted to do at one of his halting-places, we must +have been upset. My father and his pony were several times actually +blown out of the road. D.Q.] + + +508. _Charles Lamb_. [XIV.] + + From the most gentle creature nursed in fields. + +This way of indicating the _name_ of my lamented friend has been found +fault with; perhaps rightly so; but I may say in justification of the +double sense of the word, that similar allusions are not uncommon in +epitaphs. One of the best in our language in verse I ever read, was upon +a person who bore the name of Palmer; and the course of the thought, +throughout, turned upon the Life of the Departed, considered as a +pilgrimage. Nor can I think that the objection in the present case will +have much force with any one who remembers Charles Lamb's beautiful +sonnet addressed to his own name, and ending-- + + 'No deed of mine shall shame thee, gentle name!' + + +509. *_Ibid._ + +Light will be thrown upon the tragic circumstance alluded to in this +Poem when, after the death of Charles Lamb's sister, his biographer, Mr. +Serjeant Talfourd, shall be at liberty to relate particulars which could +not, at the time when his Memoir was written, be given to the public. +Mary Lamb was ten years older than her brother, and has survived him as +long a time. Were I to give way to my own feelings, I should dwell not +only on her genius and intellectual powers, but upon the delicacy and +refinement of manner which she maintained inviolable under most trying +circumstances. She was loved and honoured by all her brother's friends, +and others, some of them strange characters whom his philanthropic +peculiarities induced him to countenance. The death of C. Lamb himself +was doubtless hastened by his sorrow for that of Coleridge, to whom he +had been attached from the time of their being schoolfellows at Christ's +Hospital. Lamb was a good Latin scholar, and probably would have gone to +college upon one of the School foundations but for the impediment in his +speech. Had such been his lot, he would have probably been preserved +from the indulgences of social humours and fancies which were often +injurious to himself and causes of severe regret to his friends, without +really benefiting the object of his misapplied kindness. + + +510. *_Extempore Effusion upon the Death of James Hogg_. [XV.] + +These verses were written extempore immediately after reading a notice +of the Ettrick Shepherd's death in the Newcastle Paper, to the Editor of +which I sent a copy for publication. The persons lamented in these +Verses were all either of my friends or acquaintance. In Lockhart's Life +of Sir Walter Scott an account is given of my first meeting with him in +1803. How the Ettrick Shepherd and I became known to each other has +already been mentioned in these Notes. He was undoubtedly a man of +original genius, but of coarse manners and low and offensive opinions. +Of Coleridge and Lamb I need not speak here. Crabbe I have met in London +at Mr. Rogers', but more frequently and favourably at Mr. Hoare's upon +Hampstead Heath. Every Spring he used to pay that family a visit of some +length, and was upon terms of intimate friendship with Mrs. Hoare, and +still more with her daughter-in-law, who has a large collection of his +letters addressed to herself. After the Poet's decease application was +made to her to give up these letters to his biographer, that they, or at +least a part of them, might be given to the public. She hesitated to +comply, and asked my opinion on the subject. 'By no means,' was my +answer, grounded not upon any objection there might be to publishing a +selection from those letters, but from an aversion I have always felt to +meet idle curiosity by calling back the recently departed to become the +object of trivial and familiar gossip. Crabbe obviously for the most +part preferred the company of women to that of men; for this among other +reasons, that he did not like to be put upon the stretch in general +conversation. Accordingly, in miscellaneous society his talk was so +much below what might have been expected from a man so deservedly +celebrated, that to me it seemed trifling. It must upon other occasions +have been of a different character, as I found in our rambles together +on Hampstead Heath; and not so much so from a readiness to communicate +his knowledge of life and manners as of natural history in all its +branches. His mind was inquisitive, and he seems to have taken refuge +from a remembrance of the distresses he had gone through in these +studies and the employments to which they led. Moreover such +contemplations might tend profitably to counterbalance the painful +truths which he had collected from his intercourse with mankind. Had I +been more intimate with him I should have ventured to touch upon his +office as a Minister of the Gospel, and how far his heart and soul were +in it, so as to make him a zealous and diligent labourer. In poetry, +tho' he wrote much, as we all know, he assuredly was not so. I happened +once to speak of pains as necessary to produce merit of a certain kind +which I highly valued. His observation was, 'It is not worth while.' You +are right, thought I, if the labour encroaches upon the time due to +teach truth as a steward of the mysteries of God; but if poetry is to be +produced at all, make what you do produce as good as you can. Mr. Rogers +once told me that he expressed his regret to Crabbe that he wrote in his +late works so much less correctly than in his earlier. 'Yes,' replied +he, 'but then I had a reputation to make; now I can afford to relax.' +Whether it was from a modest estimate of his own qualifications or from +causes less creditable, his motives for writing verse and his hopes and +aims were not so high as is to be desired. After being silent for more +than twenty years he again applied himself to poetry, upon the spur of +applause he received from the periodical publications of the day, as he +himself tells us in one of his Prefaces. Is it not to be lamented that a +man who was so conversant with permanent truth, and whose writings are +so valuable an acquisition to our country's literature, should have +_required_ an impulse from such a quarter?[10] + +[10] In pencil on opposite page, by Mrs. Quillinan--Daddy dear, I don't +like this. Think how many reasons there were to depress his Muse--to say +nothing of his duties as a Priest, and probably he found poetry +interfere with them. He did not _require_ such praise to make him write, +but it just put it into his heart to try again, and gave him the courage +to do so. (See Notes and Illustrations at close. G) + +Mrs. Hemans was unfortunate as a Poetess in being obliged by +circumstances to write for money, and that so frequently and so much, +that she was compelled to look out for subjects wherever she could find +them, and to write as expeditiously as possible. As a woman she was to a +considerable degree a spoilt child of the world. She had been early in +life distinguished for talents, and poems of hers were published whilst +she was a girl. She had also been handsome in her youth, but her +education had been most unfortunate. She was totally ignorant of +housewifery, and could as easily have managed the spear of Minerva as +her needle. It was from observing these deficiencies that one day, while +she was under my roof, I purposely directed her attention to household +economy, and told her I had purchased scales which I intended to present +to a young lady as a wedding present; pointed out their utility (for her +especial benefit), and said that no menage ought to be without them. +Mrs. Hemans, not in the least suspecting my drift, reported this saying +in a letter to a friend at the time, as a proof of my simplicity. Being +disposed to make large allowances for the faults of her education and +the circumstances in which she was placed, I felt most kindly disposed +towards her and took her part upon all occasions, and I was not a little +affected by learning that after she withdrew to Ireland a long and +severe illness raised her spirit as it depressed her body. This I heard +from her most intimate friends, and there is striking evidence of it in +a poem entitled [Blank; and in pencil on opposite page--Do you mean a +Sonnet entitled 'Sabbath Sonnet,' composed by Mrs. Hemans, April 26th, +1835, a few days before her death? 'How many blessed groups this hour +are wending!'] These notices of Mrs. Hemans would be very unsatisfactory +to her intimate friends, as indeed they are to myself, not so much for +what is said, but what for brevity's sake is left unsaid. Let it suffice +to add there was much sympathy between us, and if opportunity had been +allowed me to see more of her, I should have loved and valued her +accordingly. As it is, I remember her with true affection for her +amiable qualities, and above all for her delicate and irreproachable +conduct during her long separation from an unfeeling husband, whom she +had been led to marry from the romantic notions of inexperienced youth. +Upon this husband I never heard her cast the least reproach, nor did I +ever hear her even name him, though she did not forbear wholly to touch +upon her domestic position; but never so as that any fault could be +found with her manner of adverting to it. + + +511. _Dead friends: 'Immortals.'_ [XV.] + +Walter Scott died 21st Sept. 1832. +S.T. Coleridge " 25th July 1834. +Charles Lamb " 27th Dec. 1834. +Geo. Crabbe " 3rd Feb. 1832. +Felicia Hemans " 16th May 1835. + + +512. *_Ode: Intimations of Immortality, from Recollections of early +Childhood_. [Headed in I.F. MSS. 'The Ode.'] + +This was composed during my residence at Town-End, Grasmere. Two years +at least passed between the writing of the four first stanzas and the +remaining part. To the attentive and competent reader the whole +sufficiently explains itself, but there may be no harm in adverting here +to particular feelings or _experiences_ of my own mind on which the +structure of the poem partly rests. Nothing was more difficult for me in +childhood than to admit the notion of death as a state applicable to my +own being. I have said elsewhere + + 'A simple child + That lightly draws its breath, + And feels its life in every limb, + What should it know of death?'[11] + +[11] In pencil on opposite page--But this first stanza of 'We are Seven' +is Coleridge's Jem and all (Mr. Quillinan). + +But it was not so much from the source of animal vivacity that _my_ +difficulty came as from a sense of the indomitableness of the spirit +within me. I used to brood over the stories of Enoch and Elijah, and +almost to persuade myself that, whatever might become of others, I +should be translated in something of the same way to heaven. With a +feeling congenial to this, I was often unable to think of external +things as having external existence, and I communed with all that I saw +as something not apart from, but inherent in, my own immaterial nature. +Many times while going to school have I grasped at a wall or tree to +recall myself from this abyss of idealism to the reality. At that time I +was afraid of such processes. In later periods of life I have deplored, +as we have all reason to do, a subjugation of an opposite character, +and have rejoiced over the remembrances, as is expressed in the lines, +'Obstinate questionings,' &c. To that dreamlike vividness and splendour +which invest objects of sight in childhood, every one, I believe, if he +would look back, could bear testimony, and I need not dwell upon it +here; but having in the Poem regarded it as presumptive evidence of a +prior state of existence, I think it right to protest against a +conclusion which has given pain to some good and pious persons, that I +meant to inculcate such a belief. It is far too shadowy a notion to be +recommended to faith as more than an element in our instincts of +immortality. But let us bear in mind that, though the idea is not +advanced in Revelation, there is nothing there to contradict it, and the +fall of man presents an analogy in its favour. Accordingly, a +pre-existent state has entered into the popular creeds of many nations, +and among all persons acquainted with classic literature is known as an +ingredient in Platonic philosophy. Archimedes said that he could move +the world if he had a point whereon to rest his machine. Who has not +felt the same aspirations as regards the world of his own mind? Having +to wield some of its elements when I was impelled to write this poem on +the 'Immortality of the Soul,' I took hold of the notion of +pre-existence as having sufficient foundation in humanity for +authorising me to make for my purpose the best use of it I could as a +Poet. + + * * * * * + + + + +XXV. 'THE EXCURSION.' + + +513. *_On the leading Characters and Scenes of the Poem_. + +Something must now be said of this Poem, but chiefly, as has been done +through the whole of these Notes, with reference to my personal friends, +and especially to her [Miss Fenwick] who has perseveringly taken them +down from my dictation. Towards the close of the 1st book, stand the +lines that were first written, beginning 'Nine tedious years,' and +ending 'last human tenant of these ruined walls.' These were composed in +1795, at Racedown; and for several passages describing the employment +and demeanour of Margaret during her affliction, I was indebted to +observations made in Dorsetshire, and afterwards at Alfoxden, in +Somersetshire, where I resided in 1797 and 1798. The lines towards the +conclusion of the 4th book, 'Despondency corrected,' beginning 'For the +man who in this spirit,' to the words 'intellectual soul,' were in order +of time composed the next, either at Racedown or Alfoxden, I do not +remember which. The rest of the poem was written in the vale of +Grasmere, chiefly during our residence at Allan Bank. The long poem on +my own education was, together with many minor poems, composed while we +lived at the cottage at Town-End. Perhaps my purpose of giving an +additional interest to these my poems, in the eyes of my nearest and +dearest friends, may he promoted by saying a few words upon the +character of the 'Wanderer,' the 'Solitary,' and the 'Pastor,' and some +other of the persons introduced. And first of the principal one, the +'Wanderer.' + +My lamented friend Southey (for this is written a month after his +decease[12]) used to say that had he been a Papist, the course of life +which would in all probability have been his, was the one for which he +was most fitted and most to his mind, that of a Benedictine Monk, in a +Convent, furnished, as many once were, and some still are, with an +inexhaustible library. _Books_, as appears from many passages in his +writings, and was evident to those who had opportunities of observing +his daily life, were, in fact, _his passion_; and _wandering_, I can +with truth affirm, was mine; but this propensity in me was happily +counteracted by inability from want of fortune to fulfil my wishes. + +[12] Which took place in March, 1843. + +But had I been born in a class which would have deprived me of what is +called a liberal education, it is not unlikely that, being strong in +body, I should have taken to a way of life such as that in which my +'Pedlar' passed the greater part of his days. At all events, I am here +called upon freely to acknowledge that the character I have represented +in his person is chiefly an idea of what I fancied my own character +might have become in his circumstances. + +Nevertheless much of what he says and does had an external existence, +that fell under my own youthful and subsequent observation. + +An individual, named Patrick, by birth and education a Scotchman, +followed this humble occupation for many years, and afterwards settled +in the town of Kendal. He married a kinswoman of my wife's, and her +sister Sarah was brought up from early childhood under this good man's +eye.[13] My own imaginations I was happy to find clothed in reality, and +fresh ones suggested, by what she reported of this man's tenderness of +heart, his strong and pure imagination, and his solid attainments in +literature, chiefly religious, whether in prose or verse. At Hawkshead +also, while I was a school-boy, there occasionally resided a packman +(the name then generally given to this calling), with whom I had +frequent conversations upon what had befallen him, and what he had +observed during his wandering life, and, as was natural, we took much to +each other; and upon the subject of Pedlarism in general, as _then_ +followed, and its favourableness to an intimate knowledge of human +concerns, not merely among the humbler classes of society, I need say +nothing here in addition to what is to be found in 'The Excursion,' and +a note attached to it. + +[13] In pencil on opposite page--Sarah went to Kendal on our mother's +death, but Mr. P. died in the course of a year or two. M.W. + +Now for the _Solitary_. Of him I have much less to say. Not long after +we took up our abode at Grasmere, came to reside there, from what motive +I either never knew or have forgotten, a Scotchman, a little past the +middle of life, who had for many years been chaplain to a Highland +regiment. He was in no respect, as far as I know, an interesting +character, though in his appearance there was a good deal that attracted +attention, as if he had been shattered in for bane, and not happy in +mind. Of his quondam position I availed myself to connect with the +'Wanderer,' also a Scotchman, a character suitable to my purpose, the +elements of which I drew from several persons with whom I had been +connected, and who fell under my observation during frequent residences +in London at the beginning of the French Revolution. The chief of these +was, one may now say, a Mr. Fawcett, a preacher at a Dissenting +meeting-house at the Old Jewry. It happened to me several times to be +one of his congregation through my connection with Mr. Nicholson of +Cateaton Street, Strand, who, at a time when I had not many +acquaintances in London, used often to invite me to dine with him on +Sundays; and I took that opportunity (Mr. N. being a Dissenter) of going +to hear Fawcett, who was an able and eloquent man. He published a poem +on War, which had a good deal of merit, and made me think more about him +than I should otherwise have done. But his Christianity was probably +never very deeply rooted; and, like many others in those times of like +shewy talents, he had not strength of character to withstand the effects +of the French Revolution, and of the wild and lax opinions which had +done so much towards producing it, and far more in carrying it forward +in its extremes. Poor Fawcett, I have been told, became pretty much such +a person as I have described, and early disappeared from the stage, +having fallen into habits of intemperance, which I have heard (though I +will not answer for the fact) hastened his death. Of him I need say no +more. There were many like him at that time, which the world will never +be without, but which were more numerous then, for reasons too obvious +to be dwelt upon. + +_The Pastor_.--To what is said of the 'Pastor' in the poem, I have +little to add but what may be deemed superfluous. It has ever appeared +to me highly favourable to the beneficial influence of the Church of +England upon all gradations and classes of society, that the patronage +of its benefices is in numerous instances attached to the estates of +noble families of ancient gentry; and accordingly I am gratified by the +opportunity afforded me in 'The Excursion,' to pourtray the character of +a country clergyman of more than ordinary talents, born and bred in the +upper ranks of society so as to partake of their refinements, and at the +same time brought by his pastoral office and his love of rural life into +intimate connection with the peasantry of his native district. + +To illustrate the relation which in my mind this 'Pastor' bore to the +'Wanderer,' and the resemblances between them, or rather the points of +community in their nature, I likened one to an oak, and the other to a +sycamore; and having here referred to this comparison, I need only add, +I had no one individual in my mind, wishing rather to embody this idea +than to break in upon the simplicity of it by traits of individual +character, or of any peculiarity of opinion. + +And now for a few words upon the scene where these interviews and +conversations are supposed to occur. + +The scene of the first book of the poem is, I must own, laid in a tract +of country not sufficiently near to that which soon comes into view in +the second book, to agree with the fact. All that relates to Margaret, +and the ruined cottage, &c., was taken from observations made in the +south-west of England, and certainly it would require more than +seven-leagued boots to stretch in one morning from a common in +Somersetshire, or Dorsetshire, to the heights of Furness Fells, and the +deep valleys they embosom. For this dealing with space, I need make, I +trust, no apology; but my friends may be amused by the truth. + +In the poem, I suppose that the Pedlar and I ascended from a plain +country up the vale of Langdale, and struck off a good way above the +chapel to the western side of the Vale. We ascended the hill, and thence +looked down upon the circular recess in which lies Blea Tarn, chosen by +the 'Solitary' for his retreat. After we quit his cottage, passing over +a low ridge, we descend into another Vale, that of Little Langdale, +towards the head of which stands embowered, or partly shaded by yews and +other trees, something between a cottage and a mansion, or gentleman's +house, such as they once were in this country. This I convert into the +parsonage, and at the same time, and as by the waving of a magic wand, I +turn the comparatively confined Vale of Langdale, its tarn, and the rude +chapel which once adorned the valley, into the stately and comparatively +spacious Vale of Grasmere and its ancient parish church; and upon the +side of Loughrigg Fell, at the foot of the Lake, and looking down upon +it and the whole Vale and its accompanying mountains, the 'Pastor' is +supposed by me to stand, when at sunset he addresses his companions in +words which I hope my readers may remember,[14] or I should not have +taken the trouble of giving so much in detail the materials on which my +mind actually worked. + +[14] Excursion; book the last, near the conclusion. + +Now for a few particulars of _fact_, respecting the persons whose +stories are told or characters described by the different speakers. To +Margaret I have already alluded. I will add here that the lines +beginning, + + 'She was a woman of a steady mind,' + +and, + + 'Live on earth a life of happiness,' + +faithfully delineate, as far as they go, the character possessed in +common by many women whom it has been my happiness to know in humble +life; and that several of the most touching things which she is +represented as saying and doing are taken from actual observation of the +distresses and trials under which different persons were suffering, +some of them strangers to me, and others daily under my notice. + +I was born too late to have a distinct remembrance of the origin of the +American war; but the state in which I represent Robert's mind to be, I +had frequent opportunities of observing at the commencement of our +rupture with France in 1793; opportunities of which I availed myself in +the story of the 'Female Vagrant,' as told in the poem on 'Guilt and +Sorrow.' The account given by the 'Solitary,' towards the close of the +second book, in all that belongs to the character of the old man, was +taken from a Grasmere pauper, who was boarded in the last house quitting +the Vale on the road to Ambleside; the character of his hostess, and all +that befell the poor man upon the mountain, belongs to Paterdale. The +woman I knew well; her name was Ruth Jackson, and she was exactly such a +person as I describe. The ruins of the old chapel, among which the old +man was found lying, may yet be traced, and stood upon the ridge that +divides Paterdale from Boardale and Martindale, having been placed there +for the convenience of both districts. The glorious appearance disclosed +above and among the mountains, was described partly from what my friend +Mr. Luff, who then lived in Paterdale, witnessed upon this melancholy +occasion, and partly from what Mrs. Wordsworth and I had seen, in +company with Sir G. and Lady Beaumont, above Hartshope Hall, in our way +from Paterdale to Ambleside. + +And now for a few words upon the church, its monuments, and of the +deceased who are spoken of as lying in the surrounding churchyard. But +first for the one picture given by the 'Wanderer' of the living. In this +nothing is introduced but what was taken from Nature, and real life. The +cottage was called Hackett, and stands, as described, on the southern +extremity of the ridge which separates the two Langdales. The pair who +inhabited it were called Jonathan and Betty Yewdale. Once when our +children were ill, of whooping-cough I think, we took them for change of +air to this cottage, and were in the habit of going there to drink tea +upon fine summer afternoons; so that we became intimately acquainted +with the characters, habits, and lives of these good, and let me say, in +the main, wise people. The matron had, in her early youth, been a +servant in a house at Hawkshead, where several boys boarded, while I +was a school-boy there. I did not remember her as having served in that +capacity; but we had many little anecdotes to tell to each other of +remarkable boys, incidents, and adventures, which had made a noise in +their day in that small town. These two persons were induced afterwards +to settle at Rydal, where they both died. + +_Church and Churchyard_.--The church, as already noticed, is that of +Grasmere. The interior of it has been improved lately and made warmer by +underdrawing the roof, and raising the floor; but the rude and antique +majesty of its former appearance has been impaired by painting the +rafters; and the oak benches, with a simple rail at the back dividing +them from each other, have given way to seats that have more the +appearance of pews. It is remarkable that, excepting only the pew +belonging to Rydal Hall, that to Rydal Mount, the one to the parsonage, +and, I believe, another, the men and women still continue, as used to be +the custom in Wales, to sit separate from each other. Is this practice +as old as the Reformation? and when and how did it originate? In the +Jewish synagogues, and in Lady Huntingdon's chapels, the sexes are +divided in the same way. In the adjoining churchyard greater changes +have taken place; it is now not a little crowded with tombstones; and +near the schoolhouse, which stands in the churchyard, is an ugly +structure, built to receive the hearse, which is recently come into use. +It would not be worth while to allude to this building, or the +hearse-vehicle it contains, but that the latter has been the means of +introducing a change much to be lamented in the mode of conducting +funerals among the mountains. Now, the coffin is lodged in the hearse at +the door of the house of the deceased, and the corpse is so conveyed to +the churchyard gate. All the solemnity which formerly attended its +progress, as described in this poem, is put an end to. So much do I +regret this, that I beg to be excused for giving utterance here to a +wish that, should it befall me to die at Rydal Mount, my own body may be +carried to Grasmere Church after the manner in which, till lately, that +of every one was borne to the place of sepulchre here, namely, on the +shoulders of neighbours; no house being passed without some words of a +funeral psalm being sung at the time by the attendants bearing it. When +I put into the mouth of the 'Wanderer,' 'Many precious rites and customs +of our rural ancestry are gone, or stealing from us,' 'this, I hope, +will last for ever,' and what follows, little did I foresee that the +observance and mode of proceeding which had often affected me so much +would so soon be superseded. + +Having said much of the injury done to this churchyard, let me add, that +one is at liberty to look forward to a time when, by the growth of the +yew-trees thriving there, a solemnity will be spread over the place that +will in some degree make amends for the old simple character which has +already been so much encroached upon, and will be still more every year. +I will here set down, by way of memorial, that my friend Sir G. +Beaumont, having long ago purchased the beautiful piece of water called +Loughrigg Tarn, on the banks of which he intended to build, I told him +that a person in Kendal who was attached to the place wished to purchase +it. Sir George, finding the possession of no use to him, consented to +part with it, and placed the purchase-money, 20_l._, at my disposal, for +any local use which I thought proper. Accordingly, I resolved to plant +yew-trees in the churchyard; and had four pretty strong large oak +enclosures made, in each of which was planted under my own eye, and +principally, if not entirely, by my own hand, two young trees, with the +intention of leaving the one that throve best to stand. Many years +after, Mr. Barber, who will long be remembered in Grasmere, Mr. +Greenwood (the chief landed proprietor), and myself, had four other +enclosures made in the churchyard at our own expense, in each of which +was planted a tree taken from its neighbour, and they all stand thriving +admirably, the fences having been removed as no longer necessary. May +the trees be taken care of hereafter, when we are all gone; and some of +them will perhaps, at some far-distant time, rival the majesty of the +yew of Lorton, and those which I have described as growing at +Borrowdale, where they are still to be seen in grand assemblage. + +And now for the persons that are selected as lying in the churchyard. +But first for the individual whose grave is prepared to receive him. + +His story is here truly related. He was a schoolfellow of mine for some +years. He came to us when he was at least seventeen years of age, very +tall, robust, and full grown. This prevented him from falling into the +amusements and games of the school; consequently, he gave more time to +books. He was not remarkably bright or quick, but, by industry, he made +a progress more than respectable. His parents not being wealthy enough +to send him to college when he left Hawkshead, he became a schoolmaster, +with a view to preparing himself for holy orders. About this time he +fell in love, as related in the poem, and every thing followed as there +described, except that I do not know exactly when and where he died. The +number of youths that came to Hawkshead school from the families of the +humble yeomanry, to be educated to a certain degree of scholarship, as a +preparation for the church, was considerable; and the fortunes of those +persons in after life various of course, and some not a little +remarkable. I have now one of this class in my eye who became an usher +in a preparatory school, and ended in making a large fortune. His +manners, when he came to Hawkshead, were as uncouth as well could be; +but he had good abilities, with skill to turn them to account, and when +the master of the school to which he was usher died, he stept into his +place, and became proprietor of the establishment. He continued to +manage it with such address, and so much to the taste of what is called +high society and the fashionable world, that no school of the kind, even +till he retired, was in such high request. Ministers of State, the +wealthiest gentry, and nobility of the first rank, vied with each other +in bespeaking a place for their sons in the seminary of this fortunate +teacher. [In pencil on opposite page--Mr. Pearson.] In the solitude of +Grasmere, while living as a married man in a cottage of 8_l._ per annum +rent, I often used to smile at the tales which reached me of the +brilliant career of this quondam clown--for such in reality he was, in +manners and appearance, before he was polished a little by attrition +with gentlemen's sons trained at Hawkshead, rough and rude as many of +our families were. Not 200 yards from the cottage in Grasmere just +mentioned, to which I retired, this gentleman, who many years afterwards +purchased a small estate in the neighbourhood, is now erecting a +boat-house, with an upper story to be resorted to as an entertaining +room when he and his associates may feel inclined to take their pastime +on the Lake. Every passenger will be disgusted with the sight of this +edifice, not merely as a tasteless thing in itself, but as utterly out +of place, and peculiarly fitted, as far as it is observed (and it +obtrudes itself on notice at every point of view), to mar the beauty +and destroy the pastoral simplicity of the Vale. For my own part, and +that of my household, it is our utter detestation, standing by a shore +to which, before the high road was made to pass that way, we used daily +and hourly to repair for seclusion and for the shelter of a grove, under +which I composed many of my poems--the 'Brothers' especially; and for +this reason we gave the grove that name. 'That which each man loved and +prized in his peculiar nook of earth dies with him or is changed.' So +much for my old schoolfellow and his exploits. I will only add that, as +the foundation has twice failed, from the Lake no doubt being intolerant +of the intrusion, there is some ground for hoping that the impertinent +structure will not stand. It has been rebuilt in somewhat better taste, +and much as one wishes it away, it is not now so very unsightly. The +structure is an emblem of the man. Perseverance has conquered +difficulties, and given something of form and polish to rudeness. [In +pencil on opposite page--This boat-house, badly built, gave way, and was +rebuilt. It again tumbled, and was a third time reconstructed, but in a +better fashion than before. It is not now, _per se_, an ugly building, +however obtrusive it may be.] + +The Miner, next described as having found his treasure after twice ten +years of labour, lived in Paterdale, and the story is true to the +letter. It seems to me, however, rather remarkable, that the strength of +mind which had supported him through his long unrewarded labour, did not +enable him to bear its successful issue. Several times in the course of +my life I have heard of sudden influxes of great wealth being followed +by derangement; and, in one instance, the shock of good fortune was so +great as to produce absolute idiotcy. But these all happened where there +had been little or no previous effort to acquire the riches, and +therefore such a consequence might the more naturally be expected, than +in the case of the solitary miner. In reviewing his story, one cannot +but regret that such perseverance was not sustained by a worthier +object. Archimedes leaped out of his bath and ran about the streets, +proclaiming his discovery in a transport of joy; but we are not told +that he lost either his life or his senses in consequence. + +The next character, to whom the priest is led by contrast with the +resoluteness displayed by the foregoing, is taken from a person born +and bred in Grasmere, by name Dawson, and whose talents, dispositions, +and way of life, were such as are here delineated. I did not know him, +but all was fresh in memory when we settled at Grasmere in the beginning +of the century. From this point the conversation leads to the mention of +two individuals, who by their several fortunes were, at different times, +driven to take refuge at the small and obscure town of Hawkshead on the +skirt of these mountains. Their stories I had from the dear old dame +with whom, as a school-boy, and afterwards, I lodged for the space of +nearly ten years. The elder, the Jacobite, was named Drummond, and was +of a high family in Scotland; the Hanoverian Whig bore the name of +Vandeput,[15] and might, perhaps, be a descendant of some Dutchman who +had come over in the train of King William. At all events, his zeal was +such, that he ruined himself by a contest for the representation of +London or Westminster, undertaken to support his Party, and retired to +this corner of the world, selected as it had been by Drummond for that +obscurity which, since visiting the Lakes became fashionable, it has no +longer retained. So much was this region considered out of the way till +a late period, that persons who had fled from justice used often to +resort hither for concealment, and some were so bold as to not +unfrequently make excursions from the place of their retreat for the +purpose of committing fresh offences. Such was particularly the case +with two brothers of the name of Weston, who took up their abode at Old +Brathay, I think about seventy years ago. They were highwaymen, and +lived there some time without being discovered, though it was known that +they often disappeared, in a way, and upon errands, which could not be +accounted for. Their horses were noticed as being of a choice breed, and +I have heard from the Relph family, one of whom was a saddler in the +town of Kendal, that they were curious in their saddles, and housings, +and accoutrements of their horses. They, as I have heard, and as was +universally believed, were, in the end, both taken and hanged. + +[15] Sir George Vandeput. + +_Tall was her stature, her complexion dark, and saturnine_.--This person +lived at Town-End, and was almost our next neighbour. I have little to +notice concerning her beyond what is said in the poem. She was a most +striking instance how far a woman may surpass in talent, in knowledge, +and culture of mind, those with and among whom she lives, and yet fall +below them in Christian virtues of the heart and spirit. It seemed +almost, and I say it with grief, that in proportion as she excelled in +the one, she failed in the other. How frequently has one to observe in +both sexes the same thing, and how mortifying is the reflection! + +_As on a sunny bank the tender lamb_.--The story that follows was told +to Mrs. Wordsworth and my sister, by the sister of this unhappy young +woman. Every particular was exactly as I have related. The party was not +known to me, though she lived at Hawkshead; but it was after I left +school. The clergyman who administered comfort to her in her distress I +knew well. Her sister, who told the story, was the wife of a leading +yeoman in the Vale of Grasmere, and they were an affectionate pair, and +greatly respected by every one who knew them. Neither lived to be old; +and their estate, which was, perhaps, the most considerable then in the +Vale, and was endeared to them by many remembrances of a salutary +character, not easily understood or sympathised with by those who are +born to great affluence, past to their eldest son, according to the +practice of these Vales, who died soon after he came into possession. He +was an amiable and promising youth, but was succeeded by an only +brother, a good-natured man, who fell into habits of drinking, by which +he gradually reduced his property, and the other day the last acre of it +was sold, and his wife and children, and he himself still surviving, +have very little left to live upon; which it would not, perhaps, have +been worth while to record here, but that through all trials this woman +has proved a model of patience, meekness, affectionate forbearance, and +forgiveness. Their eldest son, who through the vices of his father has +thus been robbed of an ancient family inheritance, was never heard to +murmur or complain against the cause of their distress, and is now, +deservedly, the chief prop of his mother's hopes. + +BOOK VII.--The clergyman and his family described at the beginning of +this book were, during many years, our principal associates in the Vale +of Grasmere, unless I were to except our very nearest neighbours. I have +entered so particularly into the main points of their history, that I +will barely testify in prose that (with the single exception of the +particulars of their journey to Grasmere, which, however, was exactly +copied from real life in another instance) the whole that I have said of +them is as faithful to the truth as words can make it. There was much +talent in the family, and the eldest son was distinguished for poetical +talent, of which a specimen is given in my Notes to the Sonnets on the +Duddon. Once, when in our cottage at Town-End, I was talking with him +about poetry, in the course of our conversation I presumed to find fault +with the versification of Pope, of whom he was an enthusiastic admirer. +He defended him with a warmth that indicated much irritation; +nevertheless I would not abandon my point, and said, 'In compass and +variety of sound your own versification surpasses his.' Never shall I +forget the change in his countenance and tone of voice: the storm was +laid in a moment, he no longer disputed my judgment, and I passed +immediately in his mind, no doubt, for as great a critic as ever lived. +I ought to add, he was a clergyman and a well-educated man, and his +verbal memory was the most remarkable of any individual I have known, +except a Mr. Archer, an Irishman, who lived several years in this +neighbourhood, and who in this faculty was a prodigy: he afterwards +became deranged, and I fear continues so if alive. + +Then follows the character of Robert Walker, for which see Nates to the +Duddon. + +Next that of the _Deaf Man_, whose epitaph may be seen in the churchyard +at the head of Hawes-Water, and whose qualities of mind and heart, and +their benign influence in conjunction with his privation, I had from his +relatives on the spot. + +The _Blind Man_, next commemorated, was John Gough, of Kendal, a man +known, far beyond his neighbourhood, for his talents and attainments in +natural history and science. + +Of the _Infants' Grave_ next noticed, I will only say, it is an exact +picture of what fell under my own observation; and all persons who are +intimately acquainted with cottage life must often have observed like +instances of the working of the domestic affections. + +_A volley thrice repeated_.--This young volunteer bore the name of +Dawson, and was younger brother, if I am not mistaken, to the prodigal +of whose character and fortunes an account is given towards the +beginning of the preceding book. The father of the family I knew well; +he was a man of literary education and [considerable] experience in +society, much beyond what was common among the inhabitants of the Vale. +He had lived a good while in the Highlands of Scotland as a manager of +iron-works at Bunaw, and had acted as clerk to one of my predecessors in +the office of distributor of stamps, when he used to travel round the +country collecting and bringing home the money due to Government in +gold, which it may be worth while to mention, for the sake of my +friends, was deposited in the cell or iron closet under the west window, +which still exists, with the iron doors that guarded the property. This, +of course, was before the time of bills and notes. The two sons of this +person had no doubt been led by the knowledge of their father to take +more delight in scholarship, and had been accustomed, in their own +minds, to take a wider view of social interests, than was usual among +their associates. The premature death of this gallant young man was much +lamented, and as an attendant upon the funeral, I myself witnessed the +ceremony, and the effect of it as described in the poems, 'Tradition +tells that in Eliza's golden days,' 'A knight came on a war-horse,' 'The +house is gone.' The pillars of the gateway in front of the mansion +remained when we first took up our abode at Grasmere. Two or three +cottages still remain which are called Nott Houses, from the name of the +gentleman (I have called him a knight) concerning whom these traditions +survive. He was the ancestor of the _Knott_ family, formerly +considerable proprietors in the district. What follows in the discourse +of the 'Wanderer,' upon the changes he had witnessed in rural life by +the introduction of machinery, is truly described from what I myself saw +during my boyhood and early youth, and from what was often told me by +persons of this humble calling. Happily, most happily, for these +mountains, the mischief was diverted from the banks of their beautiful +streams, and transferred to open and flat counties abounding in coal, +where the agency of steam was found much more effectual for carrying on +those demoralising works. Had it not been for this invention, long +before the present time, every torrent and river in this district would +have had its factory, large and populous in proportion to the power of +the water that could there be commanded. Parliament has interfered to +prevent the night-work which was carried on in these mills as actively +as during the daytime, and by necessity, still more perniciously; a sad +disgrace to the proprietors and to the nation which could so long +tolerate such unnatural proceedings. + +Reviewing, at this late period, 1843, what I put into the mouths of my +interlocutors a few years after the commencement of the century, I +grieve that so little progress has been made in diminishing the evils +deplored, or promoting the benefits of education which the 'Wanderer' +anticipates. The results of Lord Ashley's labours to defer the time when +children might legally be allowed to work in factories, and his +endeavours to still further limit the hours of permitted labour, have +fallen far short of his own humane wishes, and of those of every +benevolent and right-minded man who has carefully attended to this +subject; and in the present session of Parliament (1843) Sir James +Graham's attempt to establish a course of religious education among the +children employed in factories has been abandoned, in consequence of +what might easily have been foreseen, the vehement and turbulent +opposition of the Dissenters; so that for many years to come it may be +thought expedient to leave the religious instruction of children +entirely in the hands of the several denominations of Christians in the +Island, each body to work according to its own means and in its own way. +Such is my own confidence, a confidence I share with many others of my +most valued friends, in the superior advantages, both religious and +social, which attend a course of instruction presided over and guided by +the clergy of the Church of England, that I have no doubt, that if but +once its members, lay and clerical, were duly sensible of those +benefits, their Church would daily gain ground, and rapidly, upon every +shape and fashion of Dissent; and in that case, a great majority in +Parliament being sensible of these benefits, the ministers of the +country might be emboldened, were it necessary, to apply funds of the +State to the support of education on church principles. Before I +conclude, I cannot forbear noticing the strenuous efforts made at this +time in Parliament by so many persons to extend manufacturing and +commercial industry at the expense of agricultural, though we have +recently had abundant proofs that the apprehensions expressed by the +'Wanderer' were not groundless. + + 'I spake of mischief by the wise diffused, + With gladness thinking that the more it spreads + The healthier, the securer we become; + Delusion which a moment may destroy!' + +The Chartists are well aware of this possibility, and cling to it with +all ardour and perseverance which nothing but wiser and more brotherly +dealing towards the many on the part of the wealthy few can moderate or +remove. + +BOOK IX., _towards conclusion_. + + 'While from the grassy mountain's open side + We gazed.' + +The point here fixed upon in my imagination is half-way up the northern +side of Loughrigg Fell, from which the 'Pastor' and his companions are +supposed to look upwards to the sky and mountain-tops, and round the +Vale, with the Lake lying immediately beneath them. + + 'But turned, not without welcome promise given + That he would share the pleasures and pursuits + Of yet another Summer's day, consumed + In wandering with us.' + +When I reported this promise of the 'Solitary,' and long after, it was +my wish, and I might say intention, that we should resume our wanderings +and pass the borders into his native country, where, as I hoped, he +might witness, in the society of the 'Wanderer,' some religious +ceremony--a sacrament say, in the open fields, or a preaching among the +mountains, which, by recalling to his mind the days of his early +childhood, when he had been present on such occasions in company with +his parents and nearest kindred, might have dissolved his heart into +tenderness, and so done more towards restoring the Christian faith in +which he had been educated, and, with that, contentedness and even +cheerfulness of mind, than all that the 'Wanderer' and 'Pastor' by their +several effusions and addresses had been enabled to effect. An issue +like this was in my intentions, but alas! + + ----'mid the wreck of is and was, + Things incomplete and purposes betrayed + Make sadder transits o'er thought's optic glass + Than noblest objects utterly decayed.' + + + Bydal Mount, June 24. 1843. + St. John Baptist Day. + +Of the 'Church' in the 'Excursion' (Book v.) we find this additional +morsel in a letter to Lady Frederick Bentinck (_Memoirs_, i. 156): 'The +Church is a very ancient structure; some persons now propose to ceil +it, a project which, as a matter of taste and feeling, I utterly +disapprove. At present, it is open to the rafters, and is accordingly +spacious, and has a venerable appearance, favourable, when one first +enters, to devotional impressions.' + + +514. _The Aristocracy of Nature_. + + ----'much did he see of men.' ['Excursion,' Book i. 1. 344.] + +At the risk of giving a shock to the prejudices of artificial society, I +have ever been ready to pay homage to the aristocracy of nature; under a +conviction that vigorous human-heartedness is the constituent principle +of true taste. It may still, however, be satisfactory to have prose +testimony how far a Character, employed for purposes of imagination, is +founded upon general fact. I, therefore, subjoin an extract from an +author who had opportunities of being well acquainted with a class of +men, from whom my own personal knowledge emboldened me to draw this +portrait. + +'We learn from Caesar and other Roman Writers, that the travelling +merchants who frequented Gaul and other barbarous countries, either +newly conquered by the Roman arms, or bordering on the Roman conquests, +were ever the first to make the inhabitants of those countries +familiarly acquainted with the Roman modes of life, and to inspire them +with an inclination to follow the Roman fashions, and to enjoy Roman +conveniences. In North America, travelling merchants from the +settlements have done and continue to do much more towards civilising +the Indian natives, than all the missionaries, Papist or Protestant, who +have ever been sent among them. + +'It is farther to be observed, for the credit of this most useful class +of men, that they commonly contribute, by their personal manners, no +less than by the sale of their wares, to the refinement of the people +among whom they travel. Their dealings form them to great quickness of +wit and acuteness of judgment. Having constant occasion to recommend +themselves and their goods, they acquire habits of the most obliging +attention, and the most insinuating address. As in their peregrinations +they have opportunity of contemplating the manners of various men and +various cities, they become eminently skilled in the knowledge of the +world. _As they wander, each alone, through thinly-inhabited +districts they form habits of reflection and of sublime contemplation_. +With all these qualifications, no wonder that they should often be, in +remote parts of the country, the best mirrors of fashion, and censors of +manners; and should contribute much to polish the roughness, and soften +the rusticity of our peasantry. It is not more than twenty or thirty +years since a young man going from any part of Scotland to England, of +purpose to _carry the pack_, was considered as going to lead the life +and acquire the fortune of a gentleman. When, after twenty years' +absence, in that honourable line of employment, he returned with his +acquisitions to his native country, he was regarded as a gentleman to +all intents and purposes.' _Heron's Journey in Scotland_, Vol. i. p. 89. + + +515. _Eternity_. + + 'Lost in unsearchable Eternity!' ['Excursion,' Book iii. 1. 112.] + +Since this paragraph was composed, I have read with so much pleasure, in +Burnet's _Theory of the Earth_, a passage expressing corresponding +sentiments, excited by objects of a similar nature, that I cannot +forbear to transcribe it. + +'Siquod vero Natura nobis dedit spectaculum, in hac tellure, vere +gratum, et philosopho dignum, id semel mihi contigisse arbitror; cum ex +celsissima rupe speculabundus ad oram maris Mediterranei, hinc aequor +caeruleum, illinc tractus Alpinos prospexi; nihil quidem magis dispar +aut dissimile, nec in suo genere, magis egregium et singulare. Hoc +theatrum ego facile praetulerim Romanis cunctis, Graecisve; atque id +quod natura hic spectandum exhibet, scenicis ludis omnibus, aut +amphitheatri certamiuibus. Nihil hic elegans aut venustum, sed ingens et +magnificum, et quod placet magnitudine sua et quadam specie +immensitatis. Hinc intuebar maris aequabilem superficiem, usque et usque +diffusam, quantum maximum oculorum acies ferri potuit; illinc +disruptissimam terrae faciem, et vastas moles varie elevatas aut +depressas, erectas, propendentes, reclinatas, coacervatas, omni situ +inaequali et turbido. Placuit, ex hac parte, Naturae unitas et +simplicitas, et inexhausta quaedam planities; ex altera, multiformis +confusio magnorum corporum, et insanae rerum strages: quas cum intuebar, +non urbis alicujus aut oppidi, sed confracti mundi rudera, ante oculos +habere mihi visus sum. + +'In singulis fere montibus erat aliquid insolens et mirabile, sed prae +caeteris mihi placebat illa, qua sedebam, rupes; erat maxima et +altissima, et qua terram respiciebat, molliori ascensu altitudinem suam +dissimulabat: qua vero mare, horrendum praeceps, et quasi ad +perpendiculum facta, instar parietis. Praeterea facies illa marina adeo +erat laevis ac uniformis (quod in rupibus aliquando observare licet) ac +si scissa fuisset a summo ad imum, in illo plano; vel terrae motu +aliquo, aut fulmine, divulsa. + +'Ima pars rupis erat cava, recessusque habuit, et saxeos specus, euntes +in vacuum montem; sive natura pridem factos, sive exesos mari, et +undarum crebris ictibus: In hos enim cum impetu ruebant et fragore, +aestuantis maris fluctus; quos iterum spumantes reddidit antrum, et +quasi ab imo ventre evomuit. + +'Dextrum latus montis erat praeruptum, aspero saxo et nuda caute; +sinistrum non adeo neglexerat Natura, arboribus utpote ornatum: et prope +pedem montis rivus limpidae aquae prorupit; qui cum vicinam vallem +irrigaverat, lento motu serpens, et per varios maeandros, quasi ad +protrahendam vitam, in magno mari absorptus subito periit. Denique in +summo vertice promontorii, commode eminebat saxum, cui insidebam +contemplabundus. Vale augusta sedes, Rege digna: Augusta rupes, semper +mihi memoranda!' P. 89. _Telluris Theoria sacra, &c. Editio secunda_. + + +516. _'Of Mississippi, or that Northern Stream;' William Gilbert_. +['Excursion,' Book iii. l. 935.] + +'A man is supposed to improve by going out into the _World_, by visiting +_London_. Artificial man does; he extends with his sphere; but, alas! +that sphere is microscopic; it is formed of minutiae, and he surrenders +his genuine vision to the artist, in order to embrace it in his ken. His +bodily senses grow acute, even to barren and inhuman pruriency; while +his mental become proportionally obtuse. The reverse is the Man of Mind: +he who is placed in the sphere of Nature and of God, might be a mock at +Tattersall's and Brooks', and a sneer at St. James's: he would certainly +be swallowed alive by the first _Pizarro_ that crossed him:--But when he +walks along the river of Amazons; when he rests his eye on the +unrivalled Andes; when he measures the long and watered savannah; or +contemplates, from a sudden promontory, the distant, vast Pacific--and +feels himself a freeman in this vast theatre, and commanding each ready +produced fruit of this wilderness, and each progeny of this stream--his +exaltation is not less than imperial. He is as gentle, too, as he is +great: his emotions of tenderness keep pace with his elevation of +sentiment; for he says, "These were made by a good Being, who, unsought +by me, placed me here to enjoy them." He becomes at once a child and a +king. His mind is in himself; from hence he argues, and from hence he +acts, and he argues unerringly, and acts magisterially: his mind in +himself is also in his God; and therefore he loves, and therefore he +soars.'--From the notes upon 'The Hurricane,' a Poem, by William +Gilbert. + +The Reader, I am sure, will thank me for the above quotation, which, +though from a strange book, is one of the finest passages of modern +English prose. + + +517. _Richard Baxter_. + + ''Tis, by comparison, an easy task + Earth to despise,' &c. ['Excursion,' Book iv. ll. 131-2.] + +See, upon this subject, Baxter's most interesting review of his own +opinions and sentiments in the decline of life. It may be found (lately +reprinted) in Dr. Wordsworth's _Ecclesiastical Biography_. + + +518. _Endowment of immortal Power_. + + 'Alas! the endowment of Immortal Power,' &c. ['Excursion,' Ibid. ll. 206 + _et seqq._] + +This subject is treated at length in the Ode 'Intimations of +Immortality.' + + +519. _Samuel Daniel and Countess of Cumberland_. ['Excursion,' _ibid._ +l. 326.] + + 'Knowing the heart of Man is set to be,' &c. + +The passage quoted from Daniel is taken from a poem addressed to the +Lady Margaret, Countess of Cumberland, and the two last lines, printed +in Italics, are by him translated from Seneca. The whole Poem is very +beautiful. I will transcribe four stanzas from it, as they contain an +admirable picture of the state of a wise Man's mind in a time of public +commotion. + + Nor is he moved with all the thunder-cracks + Of tyrants' threats, or with the surly brow + Of Power, that proudly sits on other's crimes; + Charged with more crying sins than those he checks. + The storms of sad confusion that may grow + Up in the present for the coming times, + Appal not him; that hath no side at all, + But of himself, and knows the worst can fall. + + Although his heart (so near allied to earth) + Cannot but pity the perplexed state + Of troublous and distressed mortality, + That thus make way unto the ugly birth + Of their own sorrows, and do still beget + Affliction upon Imbecility; + Yet seeing thus the course of things must run, + He looks thereon not strange, but as foredone. + + And whilst distraught ambition compasses, + And is encompassed, while as craft deceives, + And is deceived: whilst man doth ransack man, + And builds on blood, and rises by distress; + And th' Inheritance of desolation leaves + To great-expecting hopes: He looks thereon, + As from the shore of peace, with unwet eye, + And bears no venture in Impiety. + + Thus, Lady, fares that man that hath prepared + A rest for his desire; and sees all things + Beneath him; and hath learned this book of man, + Full of the notes of frailty; and compared + The best of glory with her sufferings: + By whom, I see, you labour all you can + To plant your heart! and set your thoughts as near + His glorious mansion as your powers can bear.' + + +520. _Spires_. + + And spires whose "silent finger points to Heaven."' ['Excursion,' + Book vi. l. 19.] + +An instinctive taste teaches men to build their churches in flat +countries with spire-steeples, which as they cannot be referred to any +other object, point as with silent finger to the sky and stars, and +sometimes, when they reflect the brazen light of a rich though rainy +sunset, appear like a pyramid of flame burning heaven-ward. See 'The +Friend,' by S. T. Coleridge, No. 14, p. 223. + + +521. _Sycamores_. + + 'That sycamore which annually holds + Within its shade as in a stately tent.' ['Excursion,' Book vii. ll. 622-3.] + + 'This sycamore oft musical with Bees; + _Such tents_ the Patriarch loved.' S.T. COLERIDGE. + + +522. _The Transitory_. + + 'Perish the roses and the flowers of Kings.' + ['Excursion,' Book vii. l. 990.] + +The 'Transit gloria mundi' is finely expressed in the Introduction to +the Foundation-charters of some of the ancient Abbeys. Some expressions +here used are taken from that of the Abbey of St. Mary's, Furness, the +translation of which is as follows: + +'Considering every day the uncertainty of life, that the roses and +flowers of Kings, Emperors, and Dukes, and the crowns and palms of all +the great, wither and decay; and that all things, with an uninterrupted +course, tend to dissolution and death: I therefore,' &c. + + +523. _Dyer and 'The Fleece.'_ + + ---'Earth has lent + Her waters, Air her breezes.' ['Excursion,' Book viii. ll. 112-3.] + +In treating this subject, it was impossible not to recollect, with +gratitude, the pleasing picture, which, in his Poem of the Fleece, the +excellent and amiable Dyer has given of the influences of manufacturing +industry upon the face of this Island. He wrote at a time when machinery +was first beginning to be introduced, and his benevolent heart prompted +him to augur from it nothing but good. Truth has compelled me to dwell +upon the baneful effects arising out of an ill-regulated and excessive +application of powers so admirable in themselves. + + +524. _Dr. Bell_. + + 'Binding herself by Statute.' ['Excursion,' Book ix. l. 300.] + +The discovery of Dr. Bell affords marvellous facilities for carrying +this into effect; and it is impossible to over-rate the benefit which +might accrue to humanity from the universal application of this simple +engine under an enlightened and conscientious government. + + + + +II. LETTERS AND EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS. + +NOTE. + +On this division of the Prose, the Reader may see our Preface, Vol. I. +G. + + +1. _Autobiographical Memoranda dictated by William Wordsworth, P.L., at +Rydal Mount, November_ 1847. + +I was born at Cockermouth, in Cumberland, on April 7th, 1770, the second +son of John Wordsworth, attorney-at-law, as lawyers of this class were +then called, and law-agent to Sir James Lowther, afterwards Earl of +Lonsdale. My mother was Anne, only daughter of William Cookson, mercer, +of Penrith, and of Dorothy, born Crackanthorp, of the ancient family of +that name, who from the times of Edward the Third had lived in Newbiggen +Hall, Westmoreland. My grandfather was the first of the name of +Wordsworth who came into Westmoreland, where he purchased the small +estate of Sockbridge. He was descended from a family who had been +settled at Peniston in Yorkshire, near the sources of the Don, probably +before the Norman Conquest. Their names appear on different occasions in +all the transactions, personal and public, connected with that parish; +and I possess, through the kindness of Col. Beaumont, an almery made in +1325, at the expense of a William Wordsworth, as is expressed in a Latin +inscription[16] carved upon it, which carries the pedigree of the family +back four generations from himself. + + +[16] The original is as follows, some of the abbreviations being +expanded: 'HOC OPUS FIEBAT ANNO DOMINI MCCCXXV EX SUMPIU WLLLELMI +WOBDESWORTH FILII W. FIL. JOH. FIL. W. FIL. NICH. VIRI ELIZABETH FILIAE +ET HEREDIS W. PROCTOR DE PENYSTON QUORUM ANIMABUS PROPITIETUE DEUS.' + +On the almery are carved the letters 'I.H.S.' and 'M.;' also the emblem +of the Holy Trinity. + +For further information concerning this oak press, see Mr. Hunter's +paper in _Gentleman's Magazine _for July, 1850, p. 43. + +The time of my infancy and early boyhood was passed partly at +Cockermouth, and partly with my mother's parents at Penrith, where my +mother, in the year 1778, died of a decline, brought on by a cold, the +consequence of being put, at a friend's house in London, in what used to +be called 'a best bedroom.' My father never recovered his usual +cheerfulness of mind after this loss, and died when I was in my +fourteenth year, a school-boy, just returned from Hawkshead, whither I +had been sent with my elder brother Richard, in my ninth year. + +I remember my mother only in some few situations, one of which was her +pinning a nosegay to my breast when I was going to say the catechism in +the church, as was customary before Easter.[17] I remember also telling +her on one week day that I had been at church, for our school stood in +the churchyard, and we had frequent opportunities of seeing what was +going on there. The occasion was, a woman doing penance in the church in +a white sheet. My mother commended my having been present, expressing a +hope that I should remember the circumstance for the rest of my life. +'But,' said I, 'Mama, they did not give me a penny, as I had been told +they would.' 'Oh,' said she, recanting her praises, 'if that was your +motive, you were very properly disappointed.' + +My last impression was having a glimpse of her on passing the door of +her bedroom during her last illness, when she was reclining in her easy +chair. An intimate friend of hers, Miss Hamilton by name, who was used +to visit her at Cockermouth, told me that she once said to her, that the +only one of her five children about whose future life she was anxious, +was William; and he, she said, would be remarkable either for good or +for evil. The cause of this was, that I was of a stiff, moody, and +violent temper; so much so that I remember going once into the attics of +my grandfather's house at Penrith, upon some indignity having been put +upon me, with an intention of destroying myself with one of the foils +which I knew was kept there. I took the foil in hand, but my heart +failed. Upon another occasion, while I was at my grandfather's house at +Penrith, along with my eldest brother, Richard, we were whipping tops +together in the large drawing-room, on which the carpet was only laid +down upon particular occasions. The walls were hung round with family +pictures, and I said to my brother, 'Dare you strike your whip through +that old lady's petticoat?' He replied, 'No, I won't.' 'Then,' said I, +'here goes;' and I struck my lash through her hooped petticoat, for +which no doubt, though I have forgotten it, I was properly punished. But +possibly, from some want of judgment in punishments inflicted, I had +become perverse and obstinate in defying chastisement, and rather proud +of it than otherwise. + +[17] See Ecclesiastical Sonnets, Part III. Sonnet xxii. 'On +Catechising.' + +Of my earliest days at school I have little to say, but that they were +very happy ones, chiefly because I was left at liberty, then and in the +vacations, to read whatever books I liked. For example, I read all +Fielding's works, _Don Quixote, Gil Blas,_ and any part of Swift that I +liked; _Gulliver's Travels,_ and the _Tale of the Tub,_ being both much +to my taste. I was very much indebted to one of the ushers of Hawkshead +School, by name Shaw, who taught me more of Latin in a fortnight than I +had learnt during two preceding years at the school of Cockermouth. +Unfortunately for me this excellent master left our school, and went to +Stafford, where he taught for many years. It may be perhaps as well to +mention, that the first verses which I wrote were a task imposed by my +master; the subject, 'The Summer Vacation;' and of my own accord I added +others upon 'Return to School.' There was nothing remarkable in either +poem; but I was called upon, among other scholars, to write verses upon +the completion of the second centenary from the foundation of the school +in 1585, by Archbishop Sandys. These verses were much admired, far more +than they deserved, for they were but a tame imitation of Pope's +versification, and a little in his style. This exercise, however, put it +into my head to compose verses from the impulse of my own mind, and I +wrote, while yet a school-boy, a long poem running upon my own +adventures, and the scenery of the country in which I was brought up. +The only part of that poem which has been preserved is the conclusion of +it, which stands at the beginning of my collected Poems ['Dear native +regions,' &c.]. + +In the month of October, 1787, I was sent to St. John's College, +Cambridge, of which my uncle, Dr. Cookson, had been a fellow. The +master, Dr. Chevallier, died very soon after;[18] and, according to the +custom of that time, his body, after being placed in the coffin, was +removed to the hall of the college, and the pall, spread over the +coffin, was stuck over by copies of verses, English or Latin, the +composition of the students of St. John's. My uncle seemed mortified +when upon inquiry he learnt that none of these verses were from my pen, +'because,' said he, 'it would have been a fair opportunity for +distinguishing yourself.' I did not, however, regret that _I_ had been +silent on this occasion, as I felt no interest in the deceased person, +with whom I had had no intercourse, and whom I had never seen but during +his walks in the college grounds. + +[18] He was succeeded by Dr. Craven in 1789. + +When at school, I, with the other boys of the same standing, was put +upon reading the first six books of Euclid, with the exception of the +fifth; and also in algebra I learnt simple and quadratic equations; and +this was for me unlucky, because I had a full twelvemonth's start of the +freshmen of my year, and accordingly got into rather an idle way; +reading nothing but classic authors according to my fancy, and Italian +poetry. My Italian master was named Isola, and had been well acquainted +with Gray the poet. As I took to these studies with much interest, he +was proud of the progress I made. Under his correction I translated the +_Vision of Mirza_, and two or three other papers of the _Spectator_, +into Italian. In the month of August, 1790, I set off for the Continent, +in companionship with Robert Jones, a Welshman, a fellow-collegian. We +went staff in hand, without knapsacks, and carrying each his needments +tied up in a pocket handkerchief, with about twenty pounds apiece in our +pockets. We crossed from Dover and landed at Calais on the eve of the +day when the king was to swear fidelity to the new constitution: an +event which was solemnised with due pomp at Calais. On the afternoon of +that day we started, and slept at Ardres. For what seemed best to me +worth recording in this tour, see the 'Poem of my own Life.'[19] + +After taking my degree in January, 1791, I went to London, stayed there +some time, and then visited my friend Jones, who resided in the Yale of +Clwydd, North Wales. Along with him I made a pedestrian tour through +North Wales, for which also see the Poem.[20] + +In the autumn of 1791 I went to Paris, where I stayed some little time, +and then went to Orleans, with a view of being out of the way of my own +countrymen, that I might learn to speak the language fluently. At +Orleans, and Blois, and Paris, on my return, I passed fifteen or sixteen +months.[21] It was a stirring time. The king was dethroned when I was at +Blois, and the massacres of September took place when I was at Orleans. +But for these matters see also the Poem. I came home before the +execution of the king, and passed the subsequent time among my friends +in London and elsewhere, till I settled with my only sister at Piacedown +in Dorsetshire, in the year 1796. + +[19] Prelude, book vi. + +[20] Ibid, book xiv. + +[21] This is not quite correct; the time of his absence did not exceed +thirteen months. + +Here we were visited by Mr. Coleridge, then residing at Bristol; and for +the sake of being near him when he had removed to Nether-Stowey, in +Somersetshire, we removed to Alfoxden, three miles from that place. This +was a very pleasant and productive time of my life. Coleridge, my +sister, and I, set off on a tour to Linton and other places in +Devonshire; and in order to defray his part of the expense, Coleridge on +the same afternoon commenced his poem of the 'Ancient Mariner;' in which +I was to have borne my part, and a few verses were written by me, and +some assistance given in planning the poem; but our styles agreed so +little, that I withdrew from the concern, and he finished it himself. + +In the course of that spring I composed many poems, most of which were +printed at Bristol, in one volume, by my friend Joseph Cottle, along +with Coleridge's 'Ancient Mariner,' and two or three other of his +pieces. + +In the autumn of 1798, Mr. Coleridge, a friend of his Mr. Chester, my +sister, and I, crossed from Yarmouth to Hamburgh, where we remained a +few days, and saw, several times, Klopstock the poet. Mr. Coleridge and +his friend went to Ratzburg, in the north of Germany, and my sister and +I preferred going southward; and for the sake of cheapness, and the +neighbourhood of the Hartz Mountains, we spent the winter at the old +imperial city of Goslar. The winter was perishingly cold--the coldest of +this century; and the good people with whom we lodged told me one +morning, that they expected to find me frozen to death, my little +sleeping room being immediately over an archway. However, neither my +sister nor I took any harm. + +We returned to England in the following spring, and went to visit our +friends the Hutchinsons, at Sockburn-on-Tees, in the county of Durham, +with whom we remained till the 19th of December. We then came, on St. +Thomas's Day, the 21st, to a small cottage at Town-End, Grasmere, which, +in the course of a tour some months previously with Mr. Coleridge, I had +been pleased with, and had hired. This we furnished for about a hundred +pounds, which sum had come to my sister by a legacy from her uncle +Crackanthorp. + +I fell to composition immediately, and published, in 1800, the second +volume of the 'Lyrical Ballads.' + +In the year 1802 I married Mary Hutchinson, at Brompton, near +Scarborough, to which part of the country the family had removed from +Sockburn. We had known each other from childhood, and had practised +reading and spelling under the same old dame at Penrith, a remarkable +personage, who had taught three generations, of the upper classes +principally, of the town of Penrith and its neighbourhood. + +After our marriage we dwelt, together with our sister, at Town-End, +where three of our children were born. In the spring of 1808, the +increase of our family caused us to remove to a larger house, then just +built, Allan Bank, in the same vale; where our two younger children were +born, and who died at the rectory, the house we afterwards occupied for +two years. They died in 1812, and in 1813 we came to Rydal Mount, where +we have since lived with no further sorrow till 1836, when my sister +became a confirmed invalid, and our sister Sarah Hutchinson died. She +lived alternately with her brother and with us.[22] + + +2. _His Schoolmistress, Mrs. Anne Birkett, Penrith_. + +'The old dame did not affect to make theologians, or logicians, but she +taught to read, and she practised the memory, often no doubt by rote; +but still the faculty was improved. Something perhaps she explained, and +left the rest to parents, to masters, and to the pastor of the +parish.'[23] + + +3. _Books and Reading_. + +'Do not trouble yourself with reading modern authors at present; confine +your attention to ancient classical writers; make yourself master of +them; and when you have done that, you will come down to us; and then +you will be able to judge us according to our deserts.'[24] + +[22] _Memoirs_, i. pp. 7-17. + +[23] Letter to Rev. H.J. Rose (1828), _Memoirs_, i. 33. + +[24] Letter to a nephew, _Memoirs_, i. 48-9. + + +4. _Tour on the Continent_, 1790. + +LETTER TO MISS WORDSWORTH, SEPT. 6 1790. + + Sept. 6, 1790, Keswill (a small village on the + Lake of Constance). + +MY DEAR SISTER, + +My last letter was addressed to you from St. Valier and the Grande +Chartreuse. I have, since that period, gone over a very considerable +tract of country, and I will give you a sketch of my route as far as +relates to mentioning places where I have been, after I have assured you +that I am in excellent health and spirits, and have had no reason to +complain of the contrary during our whole tour. My spirits have been +kept in a perpetual hurry of delight, by the almost uninterrupted +succession of sublime and beautiful objects which have passed before my +eyes during the course of the last mouth. I will endeavour to give you +some idea of our route. It will be utterly impossible for me to dwell +upon particular scenes, as my paper would be exhausted before I had done +with the journey of two or three days. On quitting the Grande +Chartreuse, where we remained two days, contemplating, with increased +pleasure, its wonderful scenery, we passed through Savoy to Geneva; +thence, along the Pays do Vaud side of the lake, to Villeneuve, a small +town seated at its head. The lower part of the lake did not afford us a +pleasure equal to what might have been expected from its celebrity; this +owing partly to its width, and partly to the weather, which was one of +those hot gleamy days in which all distant objects are veiled in a +species of bright obscurity. But the higher part of the lake made us +ample amends; 'tis true we had some disagreeable weather, but the banks +of the water are infinitely more picturesque, and, as it is much +narrower, the landscape suffered proportionally less from that pale +steam which before almost entirely hid the opposite shore. From +Villeneuve we proceeded up the Rhone to Martigny, where we left our +bundles, and struck over the mountains to Chamouny, and visited the +glaciers of Savoy. You have undoubtedly heard of these celebrated +scenes, but if you have not read about them, any description which I +have room to give you must be altogether inadequate. After passing two +days in the environs of Chamouny, we returned to Martigny, and pursued +our mount up the Valais, along the Rhine, to Brig. At Brig we quitted +the Valais, and passed the Alps at the Simplon, in order to visit part +of Italy. The impressions of three hours of our walk among these Alps +will never be effaced. From Duomo d'Ossola, a town of Italy which lay in +our route, we proceeded to the lake of Locarno, to visit the Boromean +Islands, and thence to Como. A more charming path was scarcely ever +travelled over. The banks of many of the Italian and Swiss lakes are so +steep and rocky as not to admit of roads; that of Como is partly of +this character. A small foot-path is all the communication by land +between one village and another, on the side along which we passed, for +upwards of thirty miles. We entered upon this path about noon, and, +owing to the steepness of the banks, were soon unmolested by the sun, +which illuminated the woods, rocks, and villages of the opposite shore. +The lake is narrow, and the shadows of the mountains were early thrown +across it. It was beautiful to watch them travelling up the side of the +hills,--for several hours to remark one half of a village covered with +shade, and the other bright with the strongest sunshine. It was with +regret that we passed every turn of this charming path, where every new +picture was purchased by the loss of another which we should never have +been tired of gazing upon. The shores of the lake consist of steeps +covered with large, sweeping woods of chestnut, spotted with villages; +some clinging from the summits of the advancing rocks, and others hiding +themselves within their recesses. Nor was the surface of the lake less +interesting than its shores; half of it glowing with the richest green +and gold, the reflection of the illuminated wood and path, shaded with a +soft blue tint. The picture was still further diversified by the number +of sails which stole lazily by us as we paused in the wood above them. +After all this we had the moon. It was impossible not to contrast that +repose, that complacency of spirit, produced by these lovely scenes, +with the sensations I had experienced two or three days before, in +passing the Alps. At the lake of Como, my mind ran through a thousand +dreams of happiness, which might be enjoyed upon its banks, if +heightened by conversation and the exercise of the social affections. +Among the more awful scenes of the Alps, I had not a thought of man, or +a single created being; my whole soul was turned to Him who produced the +terrible majesty before me. But I am too particular for the limits of my +paper. + +We followed the lake of Como to its head, and thence proceeded to +Chiavenna, where we began to pass a range of the Alps, which brought us +into the country of the Grisons at Sovozza. From Sovozza we pursued the +valley of Myssen, in which it is situated, to its head; passed Mount +Adula to Hinter Rhine, a small village near one of the sources of the +Rhine. We pursued this branch of the Rhine downward through the Grisons +to Michenem, where we turned up the other branch of the same river, and +following it to Chiamut, a small village near its source. Here we +quitted the Grisons, and entered Switzerland at the valley of Urseren, +and pursued the course of the Reuss down to Altorf; thence we proceeded, +partly upon the lake and partly behind the mountains on its banks, to +Lucerne, and thence to Zurich. From Zurich, along the banks of the lake, +we continued our route to Richtenschwyl: here we left the lake to visit +the famous church and convent of Einsiedeln, and thence to Glaris. But +this catalogue must be shockingly tedious. Suffice it to say, that, +after passing a day in visiting the romantic valley of Glaris, we +proceeded by the lake of Wallenstadt and the canton of Appenzell to the +lake of Constance, where this letter was begun nine days ago. From +Constance we proceeded along the banks of the Rhine to Schaffhausen, to +view the falls of the Rhine there. Magnificent as this fall certainly +is, I must confess I was disappointed in it. I had raised my ideas too +high. + +We followed the Rhine downward about eight leagues from Schaffhausen, +where we crossed it, and proceeded by Baden to Lucerne. I am at this +present moment (14th September) writing at a small village on the road +from Grindelwald to Lauterbrunnen. By consulting your maps, you will +find these villages in the south-east part of the canton of Berne, not +far from the lakes of Thun and Brientz. After viewing the valley of +Lauterbrunnen, we shall have concluded our tour of the more Alpine part +of Switzerland. We proceed thence to Berne, and intend, after making two +or three small excursions about the lake of Neufchatel, to go to Basle, +a town in Switzerland, upon the Rhine, whence we shall, if we find we +can afford it, take advantage of the river down to Cologne, and so cross +to Ostend, where we shall take the packet to Margate. To-day is the 14th +of September; and I hope we shall be in England by the 10th of October. +I have had, during the course of this delightful tour, a great deal of +uneasiness from an apprehension of your anxiety on my account. I have +thought of you perpetually; and never have my eyes burst upon a scene of +particular loveliness but I have almost instantly wished that you could +for a moment be transported to the place where I stood to enjoy it. I +have been more particularly induced to form those wishes, because the +scenes of Switzerland have no resemblance to any I have found in +England; consequently it may probably never be in your power to form an +idea of them. We are now, as I observed above, upon the point of +quitting these most sublime and beautiful parts; and you cannot imagine +the melancholy regret which I feel at the idea. I am a perfect +enthusiast in my admiration of nature in all her various forms; and I +have looked upon, and, as it were, conversed with, the objects which +this country has presented to my view so long, and with such increasing +pleasure, that the idea of parting from them oppresses me with a sadness +similar to what I have always felt in quitting a beloved friend. + +There is no reason to be surprised at the strong attachment which the +Swiss have always shown to their native country. Much of it must +undoubtedly have been owing to those charms which have already produced +so powerful an effect upon me, and to which the rudest minds cannot +possibly be indifferent. Ten thousand times in the course of this tour +have I regretted the inability of my memory to retain a more strong +impression of the beautiful forms before me; and again and again, in +quitting a fortunate station, have I returned to it with the most eager +avidity, in the hope of bearing away a more lively picture. At this +moment, when many of these landscapes are floating before my mind, I +feel a high enjoyment in reflecting that perhaps scarcely a day of my +life will pass in which I shall not derive some happiness from these +images. + +With regard to the manners of the inhabitants of this singular country, +the impressions which we have had often occasion to receive have been +unfavourable; but it must be remembered that we have had little to do +but with innkeepers, and those corrupted by perpetual intercourse with +strangers. Had we been able to speak the language, which is German, and +had we time to insinuate ourselves into their cottages, we should +probably have had as much occasion to admire the simplicity of their +lives as the beauties of their country. My partiality to Switzerland, +excited by its natural charms, induces me to hope that the manners of +the inhabitants are amiable; but at the same time I cannot help +frequently comparing them with those of the French, and, as far as I +have had opportunity to observe, they lose very much by the comparison. +We not only found the French a much less imposing people, but that +politeness diffused through the lowest ranks had an air so engaging that +you could scarce attribute it to any other cause than real benevolence. +During the time, which was near a month, that we were in France, we had +not once to complain of the smallest deficiency in courtesy in any +person, much less of any positive rudeness. We had also perpetual +occasion to observe that cheerfulness and sprightliness for which the +French have always been remarkable. But I must remind you that we +crossed at the time when the whole nation was mad with joy in +consequence of the Revolution. It was a most interesting period to be in +France; and we had many delightful scenes, where the interest of the +picture was owing solely to this cause. I was also much pleased with +what I saw of the Italians during the short time we were among them. We +had several times occasion to observe a softness and elegance which +contrasted strongly with the severe austereness of their neighbours on +the other side of the Alps. It was with pleasure I observed, at a small +inn on the lake of Como, the master of it playing upon his harpsichord, +with a large collection of Italian music about him. The outside of the +instrument was such that it would not much have graced an English +drawing-room; but the tones that he drew from it were by no means +contemptible. + +But it is time to talk about England. When you write to my brothers, I +must beg of you to give my love, and tell them I am sorry it has not +been in my power to write to them. Kit will be surprised he has not +heard from me, as we were almost upon terms of regular correspondence. I +had not heard from Richard for some time before I set out. I did not +call upon him when I was in London; not so much because we were +determined to hurry through London, but because he, as many of our +friends at Cambridge did, would look upon our scheme as mad and +impracticable. I expect great pleasure, on my return to Cambridge, in +exulting over those of my friends who threatened us with such an +accumulation of difficulties as must undoubtedly render it impossible +for us to perform the tour. Every thing, however, has succeeded with us +far beyond my most sanguine expectations. We have, it is true, met with +little disasters occasionally, but far from distressing, and they rather +gave us additional resolution and spirits. We have both enjoyed most +excellent health; and we have been so inured to walking, that we are +become almost insensible to fatigue. We have several times performed a +journey of thirteen leagues over the most mountainous parts of +Switzerland without any more weariness than if we had been walking an +hour in the groves of Cambridge. Our appearance is singular; and we have +often observed, that, in passing through a village, we have excited a +general smile. Our coats, which we had made light on purpose for the +journey, are of the same piece; and our manner of carrying our bundles, +which is upon our heads, with each an oak stick in our hands, +contributes not a little to that general curiosity which we seem to +excite. But I find I have again relapsed into egotism, and must here +entreat you, not only to pardon this fault, but also to make allowance +for the illegible hand and desultory style of this letter. It has been +written, as you will see by its different shades, at many sittings, and +is, in fact, the produce of most of the leisure which I have had since +it was begun, and is now finally drawing to a conclusion, it being on +the 16th of September. I flatter myself still with the hope of seeing +you for a fortnight or three weeks, if it be agreeable to my uncle, as +there will be no necessity for me to be in Cambridge before the 10th of +November. I shall be better able to judge whether I am likely to enjoy +this pleasure in about three weeks. I shall probably write to you again +before I quit France; if not, most certainly immediately on my landing +in England. You will remember me affectionately to my uncle and aunt: as +he was acquainted with my giving up all thoughts of a fellowship, he +may, perhaps, not be so much displeased at this journey. I should be +sorry if I have offended him by it. I hope my little cousin is well. I +must now bid you adieu, with assuring you that you are perpetually in my +thoughts, and that I remain, + +Most affectionately yours, + +W. WORDSWORTH. + +On looking over this letter, I am afraid you will not be able to read +half of it. I must again beg you to excuse me. + +Miss Wordsworth, Rev. Wm. Cookson's, Long Stretton, Norfolk, +L'Angleterre.[25] + +[25] Memoirs, pp. 57-66. + + +5. _In Wales_. + +'You will see by the date of this letter that I am in Wales, and whether +you remember the place of Jones's residence or no, you will immediately +conclude that I am with him. I quitted London about three weeks ago, +where my time passed in a strange manner, sometimes whirled about by the +vortex of its _strenua inertia_, and sometimes thrown by the eddy into a +corner of the stream. Think not, however, that I had not many pleasant +hours.... My time has been spent since I reached Wales in a very +agreeable manner, and Jones and I intend to make a tour through its +northern counties,--on foot, as you will easily suppose.'[26] + + +6. _Melancholy of a Friend_. + +'I regret much not to have been made acquainted with your wish to have +employed your vacation in a pedestrian tour, both on your account, as it +would have contributed greatly to exhilarate your spirits, and on mine, +as we should have gained much from the addition of your society. Such an +excursion would have served like an Aurora Borealis to gild your long +Lapland night of melancholy.'[27] + +7. _Holy Orders_. + +About this time Wordsworth was urged by some of his relatives to take +holy orders. Writing from Cambridge, September 23rd, to Mathews, he +says: 'I quitted Wales on a summons from Mr. Robinson, a gentleman you +most likely have heard me speak of, respecting my going into orders and +taking a curacy at Harwich; which curacy he considered as introductory +to the living. I thought it was best to pay my respects to him in +person, to inform him that I am not of age for ordination.'[28] + +[26] Letter to William Mathews, _Memoirs_, i. 70. + +[27] Ibid. _Memoirs_, i. 71. + +[28] _Memoirs_, i. 71. + + +8. _The French Revolution: _1792. + +'The horrors excited by the relation of the events consequent upon the +commencement of hostilities is general. Not but that there are some men +who felt a gloomy satisfaction from a measure which seemed to put the +patriot army out of a possibility of success. An ignominious flight, the +massacre of their general, a dance performed with savage joy round his +burning body, the murder of six prisoners, are events which would have +arrested the attention of the reader of the annals of Morocco.' + +He then expresses his fear that the patriot army would be routed by the +invaders. But 'suppose,' he adds, 'that the German army is at the gates +of Paris, what will be the consequence? It will be impossible for it to +make any material alterations in the constitution; impossible to +reinstate the clergy in its ancient guilty splendour; impossible to +restore an existence to the noblesse similar to that it before enjoyed; +impossible to add much to the authority of the king. Yet there are in +France some (millions?)--I speak without exaggeration--who expect that +this will take place.'[29] + + +9. _Failure of Louvets Denunciation of Robespierre_. + +At Paris his feelings were still more disturbed by the abortive issue of +Louvet's denunciation of Robespierre: he began to forebode the +commencement of the Reign of Terror; he was paralysed with sorrow and +dismay, and stung with disappointment, that no paramount spirit had +emerged to abash the impious crests of the leaders of 'the atheist +crew,' and 'to quell outrage and bloody power,' and to 'clear a passage +for just government, and leave a solid birthright to the state.'[30] + +[29] Extract of letter to Mathews, May 17, 1792, _Memoirs_, i. 75. + +[30] _Memoirs_, i. 76. + + +10. _Of inflammatory Political Opinions_. + +'I disapprove of monarchical and aristocratical governments, however +modified. Hereditary distinctions, and privileged orders of every +species, I think, must necessarily counteract the progress of human +improvement. Hence it follows, that I am not among the admirers of the +British constitution. I conceive that a more excellent system of civil +policy might be established among us; yet in my ardour to attain the +goal, I do not forget the nature of the ground where the race is to be +run. The destruction of those institutions which I condemn appears to me +to be hastening on too rapidly. I recoil from the very idea of a +revolution. I am a determined enemy to every species of violence. I see +no connection, but what the obstinacy of pride and ignorance renders +necessary, between justice and the sword, between reason and bonds. I +deplore the miserable condition of the French, and think that _we_ can +only be guarded from the same scourge by the undaunted efforts of good +men.... I severely condemn all inflammatory addresses to the passions of +men. I know that the multitude walk in darkness. I would put into each +man's hands a lantern, to guide him; and not have him to set out upon +his journey depending for illumination on abortive flashes of lightning, +or the coruscations of transitory meteors.'[31] + + +11. _At Milkhouse, Halifax_: 'Not _to take orders_.' + +'My sister,' he says, in a letter to Mathews (February 17th, 1794), 'is +under the same roof with me; indeed it was to see her that I came into +this country. I have been doing nothing, and still continue to do +nothing. What is to become of me I know not.' He announces his resolve +_not_ to take orders; and 'as for the Law, I have neither strength of +mind, purse, or constitution, to engage in that pursuit.'[32] + + +12. _Literary Work: Evening Walk and Descriptive Sketches_: 1794. + +In May, 1794, William Wordsworth was at Whitehaven, at his uncle's, Mr. +Richard Wordsworth's; and he then proposes to his friend Mathews, who +was resident in London, that they should set on foot a monthly political +and literary Miscellany, to which, he says, 'he would communicate +critical remarks on poetry, the arts of painting, gardening, &c., +besides essays on morals and politics.' 'I am at present,' he adds, +'nearly at leisure--I say _nearly_, for I am _not quite_ so, as I am +correcting, and considerably adding to, those poems which I published in +your absence' ('The Evening Walk' and 'Descriptive Sketches'). 'It was +with great reluctance that I sent those two little works into the world +in so imperfect a state. But as I had done nothing by which to +distinguish myself at the university, I thought these little things +might show that I _could_ do something. They have been treated with +unmerited contempt by some of the periodicals, and others have spoken in +higher terms of them than they deserve.'[33] + +[31] Extract of letter to Mathews, _Memoirs_, i. 79-80. + +[32] _Memoirs_, i. 82. + +[33] Ibid. i. 82-3. + + +13. _Employment on a London Newspaper_. + +Writing from Keswick on November 7th, 1794, he announces to his friend +Mathews, who _was_ employed on the newspapers, his desire and intention +of coming to London for the same purpose, and requests him to procure +for him a similar engagement. 'You say a newspaper would be glad of me. +Do you think you could ensure me employment in that way, on terms +similar to your own? I mean, also, in an Opposition paper, for I cannot +abet, in the smallest degree, the measures pursued by the present +ministry. They are already so deeply advanced in iniquity, that, like +Macbeth, they cannot retreat. When I express myself in this manner, I am +far from reprobating those whose sentiments differ from my own; I know +that many good men are persuaded of the expediency of the present war.' +He then turns to domestic matters: 'You would probably see that my +brother [afterwards the Master of Trinity] has been honoured with two +college declamation prizes. This goes towards a fellowship, which I hope +he will obtain, and am sure he will merit. He is a lad of talents, and +industrious withal. This same industry is a good old Roman quality, and +nothing is to be done without it.'[34] + + +14. _Raisley Culvert's last Illness_. + +'My friend' [Calvert] 'has every symptom of a confirmed consumption, and +I cannot think of quitting him in his present debilitated state.'[35] +Again: 'I have been here [Mr. Somerby's, at the sign of the Robin Hood, +Penrith] for some time. I am still much engaged with my sick friend; and +sorry am I to add that he worsens daily ... he is barely alive.'[36] + +[34] Memoirs, i. 85. + +[35] Letter to Mathews, Nov. 9, 1794. + +[36] Memoirs, i. 85-6. + + +15. _Family History_. + +LETTER TO SIR GEORGE H. BEAUMONT, BART. + Grasmere, Feb. 20, 1805. + +My dear friend, + +My father, who was an attorney of considerable eminence, died intestate +when we were children; and the chief part of his personal property after +his decease was expended in an unsuccessful attempt to compel the late +Lord Lonsdale to pay a debt of about 5000_l._ to my father's estate. +Enough, however, was scraped together to educate us all in different +ways. I, the second son, was sent to college with a view to the +profession of the church or law; into one of which I should have been +forced by necessity, had not a friend left me 900_l._ This bequest was +from a young man with whom, though I call him friend, I had had but +little connection; and the act was done entirely from a confidence on +his part that I had powers and attainments which might be of use to +mankind. This I have mentioned, because it was his due, and I thought +the fact would give you pleasure. Upon the interest of the 900_l._, +400_l._ being laid out in annuity, with 200_l._ deducted from the +principal, and 100_l._ a legacy to my sister, and a 100_l._ more which +the 'Lyrical Ballads' have brought me, my sister and I contrived to live +seven years, nearly eight. Lord Lonsdale. then died, and the present +Lord Lowther paid to my father's estate 8500_l._ Of this sum I believe +1800_l._ apiece will come to my sister and myself; at least, would have +come: but 3000_l._ was lent out to our poor brother,[37] I mean taken +from the whole sum, which was about 1200_l._ more than his share, which +1200_l._ belonged to my sister and me. This 1200_l._ we freely lent him; +whether it was insured or no, I do not know; but I dare say it will +prove to be the case; we did not, however, stipulate for its being +insured. But you shall faithfully know all particulars as soon as I have +learned them.[38] + + +16. _Reading: 1795_. + +Here [Racedown Lodge, near Crewkerne, Dorsetshire] he and his sister +employed themselves industriously in reading--'if reading can ever +deserve the name of industry,' says Wordsworth in a letter to his friend +Mathews of March 21, 1796.[39] + +[37] Captain John Wordsworth, who perished by shipwreck a short time +before the date of this letter. + +[38] _Memoirs_, i. 88-9. + +[39] Ibid. i. 94. + + +17. _Satire: Poetical Imitations of Juvenal: 1795_. + + LETTER TO WRANGHAM. + +Nov. 7. 1806. + +'I have long since come to a fixed resolution to steer clear of personal +satire; in fact, I never will have anything to do with it as far as +concerns the _private_ vices of individuals on any account. With respect +to public delinquents or offenders, I will not say the same; though I +should be slow to meddle even with these. This is a rule which I have +laid down for myself, and shall rigidly adhere to; though I do not in +all cases blame those who think and act differently. + +'It will therefore follow, that I cannot lend any assistance to your +proposed publication. The verses which you have of mine I should wish to +be destroyed; I have no copy of them myself, at least none that I can +find. I would most willingly give them up to you, fame, profit, and +everything, if I thought either true fame or profit could arise out of +them.'[40] + + +18. _Visit to Thelwall_. + +'Mr. Coleridge, my sister, and I had been visiting the famous John +Thelwall, who had taken refuge from politics after a trial for high +treason, with a view to bring up his family by the profits of +agriculture, which proved as unfortunate a speculation as that he had +fled from. Coleridge and he had been public lecturers, Coleridge +mingling with his politics theology, from which the other elocutionist +abstained, unless it were for the sake of a sneer. This quondam +community of public employment induced Thelwall to visit Coleridge, at +Nether-Stowey, where he fell in my way. He really was a man of +extraordinary talent, an affectionate husband, and a good father. Though +brought up in the City, on a tailor's board, he was truly sensible of +the beauty of natural objects. I remember once, when Coleridge, he, and +I were seated upon the turf on the brink of the stream, in the most +beautiful part of the most beautiful glen of Alfoxden, Coleridge +exclaimed, "This is a place to reconcile one to all the jarrings and +conflicts of the wide world." "Nay," said Thelwall, "to make one forget +them altogether." The visit of this man to Coleridge was, as I believe +Coleridge has related, the occasion of a spy being sent by Government to +watch our proceedings, which were, I can say with truth, such as the +world at large would have thought ludicrously harmless.'[41] + +[40] _Memoirs_, i. 95-6. + +[41] Ibid. i. 104-5. + + +19. _Poetry added to: April 12th, 1798_. + +'You will be pleased to hear that I have gone on very rapidly adding to +my stock of poetry. Do come and let me read it to you under the old +trees in the park [at Alfoxden]. We have little more than two months to +stay in this place.'[42] + + +20. _On the Wye_. + +'We left Alfoxden on Monday morning, the 26th of June, stayed with +Coleridge till the Monday following, then set forth on foot towards +Bristol. We were at Cottle's for a week, and thence we went towards the +banks of the Wye. We crossed the Severn Ferry, and walked ten miles +further to Tintern Abbey, a very beautiful ruin on the Wye. The next +morning we walked along the river through Monmouth to Goderich Castle, +there slept, and returned the next day to Tintern, thence to Chepstow, +and from Chepstow back again in a boat to Tintern, where we slept, and +thence back in a small vessel to Bristol. + +'The Wye is a stately and majestic river from its width and depth, but +never slow and sluggish; you can always hear its murmur. It travels +through a woody country, now varied with cottages and green meadows, and +now with huge and fantastic rocks.'[43] + + +21. _At Home again_. + +'We are now' (he says in a letter to Cottle) 'in the county of Durham, +just upon the borders of Yorkshire. We left Coleridge well at Gottingen +a month ago. We have spent our time pleasantly enough in Germany, but we +are right glad to find ourselves in England--for we have learnt to know +its value.'[44] + + +22. _Early Visit to the Lake District_. + +On September 2nd [1799] Wordsworth writes from Sockburn to his friend +Cottle: 'If you come down.... I will accompany you on your tour. You +will come by Greta Bridge, which is about twenty miles from this place: +thither Dorothy and I will go to meet you.... Dorothy will return to +Sockburn, and I will accompany you into Cumberland and +Westmoreland.'[45] + +[42] Letter to Cottle, _Memoirs_, i. 116. + +[43] Ibid. i. 116-17. + +[44] 1799: _Memoirs_, i. 145. + +[45] Ibid. i. 147. + + +23. _On a Tour, 1799_. + +'We left Cottle, as you know, at Greta Bridge. We were obliged to take +the mail over Stanemoor: the road interesting with sun and mist. At +Temple Sowerby I learned that John was at Newbiggin. I sent a note; he +came, looks very well, said he would accompany us a few days. Next day +we set off and dined at Mr. Myers', thence to Bampton, where we slept. +On Friday proceeded along the lake of Hawes-Water, a noble scene which +pleased us much. The mists hung so low that we could not go directly +over to Ambleside, so we went round by Long Sleddale to Kentmere, +Troutbeck, Rayrigg, and Bowness; ... a rainy and raw day.... Went to the +ferry, much disgusted with the new erections about Windermere; ... +thence to Hawkshead: great change among the people since we were last +there. Next day by Rydal to Grasmere, Robert Newton's. At Robert +Newton's we have remained till to-day. John left us on Tuesday: we +walked with him to the tarn. This day was a fine one, and we had some +grand mountain scenery; the rest of the week has been bad weather. The +evening before last we walked to the upper waterfall at Rydal, and saw +it through the gloom, and it was very magnificent. Coleridge was much +struck with Grasmere and its neighbourhood. I have much to say to you. +You will think my plan a mad one, but I have thought of building a house +there by the lake-side. John would give me 40_l._ to buy the ground. +There is a small house at Grasmere empty, which, perhaps, we may take; +but of this we will speak.'[46] + +[46] _Memoirs_, i. 148-9. + + +24. _At the Lakes_. + +LETTER TO COLERIDGE (1799): JOURNEY FROM SOCKBURN TO GRASMERE. + +'We arrived here on the evening of St. Thomas's day, last Friday [1799], +and have now been four days in our new abode without writing to you--a +long time! but we have been in such confusion as not to have had a +moment's leisure. My dear friend, we talk of you perpetually, and for me +I see you every where. But let me be a little more methodical. We left +Sockburn last Tuesday morning. We crossed the Tees by moonlight in the +Sockburn fields, and after ten good miles' riding came in sight of the +Swale. It is there a beautiful river, with its green bank and flat holms +scattered over with trees. Four miles further brought us to Richmond, +with its huge ivied castle, its friarage steeple, its castle tower +resembling a huge steeple, and two other steeple towers, for such they +appeared to us. The situation of this place resembles that of Barnard +Castle, but I should suppose is somewhat inferior to it. George +accompanied us eight miles further, and there we parted with sorrowful +hearts. We were now in Wensley Dale, and D[orothy] and I set off side by +side to foot it as far as Kendal. I will not clog my letter with a +description of this celebrated dale; but I must not neglect to mention +that a little before sunset we reached one of the waterfalls, of which I +read you a short description in Mr. Taylor's tour. It is a singular +scene; I meant to have given you some account of it, but I feel myself +too lazy to execute the task. 'Tis such a performance as you might have +expected from some giant gardener employed by one of Queen Elizabeth's +courtiers, if this same giant gardener had consulted with Spenser, and +they two had finished the work together. By this you will understand +that it is at once formal and wild. We reached Askrigg, twelve miles, +before six in the evening, having been obliged to walk the last two +miles over hard frozen roads, to the great annoyance of our ankles and +feet. Next morning the earth was thinly covered with snow, enough to +make the road soft, and prevent its being slippery. On leaving Askrigg, +we turned aside to see another waterfall. It was a beautiful morning, +with driving snow showers, which disappeared by fits, and unveiled the +east, which was all one delicious pale orange colour. After walking +through two small fields we came to a mill, which we passed; and in a +moment a sweet little valley opened before us with an area of grassy +ground, and a stream dashing over various laminae of black rocks close +under a bank covered with firs; the bank and stream on our left, another +woody bank on our right, and the flat meadow in front, from which, as at +Buttermere the stream had retired, as it were, to hide itself under the +shade. As we walked up this delightful valley we were tempted to look +back perpetually on the stream, which reflected the orange lights of the +morning among the gloomy rocks, with a brightness varying with the +agitation of the current. The steeple of Askrigg was between us and the +east, at the bottom of the valley; it was not a quarter of a mile +distant, but oh! how far we were from it! The two banks seemed to join +before us with a facing of rock common to them both. When we reached +this bottom the valley opened out again; two rocky banks on each side, +which, hung with ivy and moss, and fringed luxuriantly with brushwood, +ran directly parallel to each other, and then approaching with a gentle +curve at their point of union, presented a lofty waterfall, the +termination of the valley. It was a keen frosty morning, showers of snow +threatening us, but the sun bright and active. We had a task of +twenty-one miles to perform in a short winter's day. All this put our +minds into such a state of excitation, that we were no unworthy +spectators of this delightful scene. On a nearer approach the waters +seemed to fall down a tall arch, or niche, that had shaped itself by +insensible moulderings in the wall of an old castle. We left this spot +with reluctance, but highly exhilarated. When we had walked about a mile +and a half, we overtook two men with a string of ponies and some empty +carts. I recommended to Dorothy to avail herself of this opportunity of +husbanding her strength: we rode with them more than two miles. 'Twas +bitter cold, the wind driving the snow behind us in the best style of a +mountain storm. We soon reached an inn at a place called Hardrane, and +descending from our vehicles, after warming ourselves by the cottage +fire, we walked up the brook-side to take a view of a third waterfall. +We had not walked above a few hundred yards between two winding rocky +banks, before we came full upon the waterfall, which seemed to throw +itself in a narrow line from a lofty wall of rock, the water, which shot +manifestly to some distance from the rock, seeming to be dispersed into +a thin shower scarcely visible before it reached the bason. We were +disappointed in the cascade itself, though the introductory and +accompanying banks were an exquisite mixture of grandeur and beauty. We +walked up to the fall; and what would I not give if I could convey to +you the feelings and images which were then communicated to me? After +cautiously sounding our way over stones of all colours and sizes, +encased in the clearest water formed by the spray of the fall, we found +the rock, which before had appeared like a wall, extending itself over +our heads, like the ceiling of a huge cave, from the summit of which the +waters shot directly over our heads into a bason, and among fragments +wrinkled over with masses of ice as white as snow, or rather, as Dorothy +says, like congealed froth. The water fell at least ten yards from us, +and we stood directly behind it, the excavation not so deep in the rock +as to impress any feeling of darkness, but lofty and magnificent; but in +connection with the adjoining banks excluding as much of the sky as +could well be spared from a scene so exquisitely beautiful. The spot +where we stood was as dry as the chamber in which I am now sitting, and +the incumbent rock, of which the groundwork was limestone, veined and +dappled with colours which melted into each other with every possible +variety of colour. On the summit of the cave were three festoons, or +rather wrinkles, in the rock, run up parallel like the folds of a +curtain when it is drawn up. Each of these was hung with icicles of +various length, and nearly in the middle of the festoon in the deepest +valley of the waves that ran parallel to each other, the stream shot +from the rows of icicles in irregular fits of strength, and with a body +of water that varied every moment. Sometimes the stream shot into the +bason in one continued current; sometimes it was interrupted almost in +the midst of its fall, and was blown towards part of the waterfall at no +great distance from our feet like the heaviest thunder-shower. In such a +situation you have at every moment a feeling of the presence of the sky. +Large fleecy clouds drove over our heads above the rush of the water, +and the sky appeared of a blue more than usually brilliant. The rocks on +each side, which, joining with the side of this cave, formed the vista +of the brook, were chequered with three diminutive waterfalls, or rather +courses of water. Each of these was a miniature of all that summer and +winter can produce of delicate beauty. The rock in the centre of the +falls, where the water was most abundant, a deep black, the adjoining +parts yellow, white, purple, and dove-colour, covered with water-plants +of the most vivid green, and hung with streaming icicles, that in some +places seem to conceal the verdure of the plants, and the violet and +yellow variegation of the rocks; and in some places render the colours +more brilliant. I cannot express to you the enchanting effect produced +by this Arabian scene of colour as the wind blew aside the great +waterfall behind which we stood, and alternately hid and revealed each +of these fairy cataracts in irregular succession, or displayed them +with various gradations of distinctness as the intervening spray was +thickened or dispersed. What a scene, too, in summer! In the luxury of +our imagination we could not help feeding upon the pleasure which this +cave, in the heat of a July noon, would spread through a frame +exquisitely sensible. That huge rock on the right, the bank winding +round on the left, with all its living foliage, and the breeze stealing +up the valley, and bedewing the cavern with the freshest imaginable +spray. And then the murmur of the water, the quiet, the seclusion, and a +long summer day.'[47] + + +25. _Inconsistent Opinions on his Poems_. + +|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| +| 'HARMONIES OF CRITICISM.' | +|---------------------------------------|------------------------------------------| +| '_Nutting_.' | '_Nutting_.' | +|Mr. C.W.: | 'Mr. S.: | +|'Worth its weight in gold.' | 'Can make neither head nor tail of it.'| +| | | +| '_Joanna_.' | '_Joanna_.' | +| | | +|Mr. J.W.: | Mr. S.: | +|'The finest poem of its | | +|length you have written.' | 'Can make nothing of it.' | +| | | +| '_Poet's Epitaph_.' | '_Poet's Epitaph_.' | +| | | +|Mr. Charles Lamb: | Mr. S.: | +|'The latter part preeminently | | +|good, and your own.' | 'The latter part very ill written. | +| | | +| '_Cumberland Beggar_.' | '_Cumberland Beggar_.' | +|Mr. J.W.: | Mr. Charles Lamb: | +|'Everybody seems delighted.' | 'You seem to presume your readers | +| | are stupid: the instructions too | +| | direct.' | +| | | +| '_Idiot Boy_.' | '_Idiot Boy_.' | +|Mr. J.W.: | Mr. S.: | +|'A lady, a friend of mine, could | 'Almost thrown by it into a fit | +|talk of nothing else: this, of all the | with disgust; _cannot read it_!' | +|poems, her delight.' | | +| | | +|But here comes the waggon | | +| | W.W.[48] | +|---------------------------------------|------------------------------------------| + + +26. _On his Scottish Tour_. + +TO SCOTT. + +Grasmere, Oct. 16. 1803. + +'We had a delightful journey home, delightful weather, and a sweet +country to travel through. We reached our little cottage in high +spirits, and thankful to God for all His bounties. My wife and child +were both well, and, as I need not say, we had all of us a happy +meeting.... We passed Branxholme (your Branxholme, we supposed) about +four miles on this side of Hawick. It looks better in your poem than in +its present realities. The situation, however, is delightful, and makes +amends for an ordinary mansion. The whole of the Teviot, and the +pastoral steeps about Mosspaul, pleased us exceedingly. The Esk, below +Langholm, is a delicious river, and we saw it to great advantage. We did +not omit noticing Johnnie Armstrong's Keep; but his hanging-place, to +our great regret, we missed. We were, indeed, most truly sorry that we +could not have you along with us into Westmoreland. The country was in +its full glory; the verdure of the valleys, in which we are so much +superior to you in Scotland, but little tarnished by the weather; and +the trees putting on their most beautiful looks. My sister was quite +enchanted; and we often said to each other, "What a pity Mr. Scott is +not with us!..." I had the pleasure of seeing Coleridge and Southey at +Keswick last Sunday. Southey, whom I never saw much of before, I liked +much: he is very pleasant in his manner, and a man of great reading in +old books, poetry, chronicles, memoirs, &c., particularly Spanish and +Portuguese.... My sister and I often talk of the happy days that we +spent in your company. Such things do not occur often in life. If we +live, we shall meet again; that is my consolation when I think of these +things. Scotland and England sound like division, do what we can; but we +really are but neighbours, and if you were no further off, and in +Yorkshire, we should think so. Farewell! God prosper you, and all that +belongs to you! Your sincere friend, for such I will call myself, though +slow to use a word of such solemn meaning to any one, + +'W. WORDSWORTH.'[49] + +[49] _Life of Scott_, by Lockhart, vol. ii. 165-7 (1856). The following +from the same source, earlier, may fitly find a place here: 'It was in +the September of this year [1803] that Scott first saw Wordsworth. Their +common acquaintance, Stoddart, had so often talked of them to each +other, that they met as if they had not been strangers; and they parted +friends. Mr. and Miss Wordsworth had just completed that tour in the +Highlands of which so many incidents have since been immortalised, both +in the poet's sense and in the hardly less poetical prose of his +sister's Diary. On the morning of the 17th of September, having left +their carriage at Rosslyn, they walked down the valley to Lasswade, and +arrived there before Mr. and Mrs. Scott had risen. "We were received," +Mr. Wordsworth has told me, "with that frank cordiality which, under +whatever circumstances I afterwards met him, always marked his manners; +and, indeed, I found him then in every respect--except perhaps that his +animal spirits were somewhat higher--precisely the same man that you +knew him in later life; the same lively, entertaining conversation, full +of anecdote, and averse from disquisition; the same unaffected modesty +about himself; the same cheerful and benevolent and hopeful views of man +and the world. He partly read and partly recited, sometimes in an +enthusiastic style of chant, the first four cantos of the "Lay of the +Last Minstrel;" and the novelty of the manners, the clear picturesque +descriptions, and the easy glowing energy of much of the verse, greatly +delighted me."' (pp. 160-1). + + +27. _The Grove: Captain John Wordsworth_. + +John Wordsworth left Grasmere on Michaelmas-day, 1800, walking over by +Grisedale Tarn to Paterdale, whence he would proceed to Penrith; he took +leave of his brother William, near the Tarn, where Ullswater first comes +in view; and he went to sea again, in the Abergavenny East-Indiaman, in +the spring of 1801. + +After his departure from Grasmere, the Poet discovered a track which had +been worn by his brother's steps 'pacing there unwearied and alone,' +during the winter weather, in a sheltering fir-grove above the cottage, +and henceforth _that_ fir-grove was known to the Poet's household by the +name of 'John's Grove,' or 'Brother's Grove.' Of this Wordsworth writes: + +'_When to the attractions of the busy world_,' 1805.--'The grove still +exists, but the plantation has been walled in, and is not so accessible +as when my brother John wore the path in the manner described. The grove +was a favourite haunt with us all while we lived at Town-End.'[50] + + +28. _Spenser and Milton_. + +Captain Wordsworth returned from the voyage on which he sailed in 1801; +and in November 1802, he writes for directions what books to buy to +carry with him on a voyage of sixteen months.... + + + +[50] _Memoirs_, i. 282. + +'Tell John' says Wordsworth, 'when he buys Spenser, to purchase an +edition which has his "State of Ireland" in it. This is in prose. This +edition may be scarce, but one surely can be found. + +'Milton's Sonnets (transcribe all this for John, as said by me to him) I +think manly and dignified compositions, distinguished by simplicity and +unity of object and aim, and undisfigured by false or vicious ornaments. +They are in several places incorrect, and sometimes uncouth in language, +and, perhaps, in some, inharmonious; yet, upon the whole, I think the +music exceedingly well suited to its end, that is, it has an energetic +and varied flow of sound crowding into narrow room more of the combined +effect of rhyme and blank verse than can be done by any other kind of +verse I know. The Sonnets of Milton which I like best are that to +_Cyriack Skinner_; on his _Blindness_; _Captain or Colonel_; _Massacre +of Piedmont_; _Cromwell_, except two last lines; _Fairfax_, &c.'[51] + +[51] _Memoirs_, i. 287. + + +29. _Death of Captain John Wordsworth_. + +LETTER TO SIR GEORGE H. BEAUMONT, BART. + + Grasmere, Feb. 11. 1805. + +MY DEAR FRIEND, + +The public papers will already have broken the shock which the sight of +this letter will give you: you will have learned by them the loss of the +Earl of Abergavenny East-Indiaman, and, along with her, of a great +proportion of the crew,--that of her captain, our brother, and a most +beloved brother he was. This calamitous news we received at 2 o'clock +to-day, and I write to you from a house of mourning. My poor sister, and +my wife who loved him almost as we did (for he was one of the most +amiable of men), are in miserable affliction, which I do all in my power +to alleviate; but Heaven knows I want consolation myself. I can say +nothing higher of my ever-dear brother, than that he was worthy of his +sister, who is now weeping beside me, and of the friendship of +Coleridge; meek, affectionate, silently enthusiastic, loving all quiet +things, and a poet in every thing but words. + +Alas! what is human life! This present moment, I thought, this morning, +would have been devoted to the pleasing employment of writing a letter +to amuse you in your confinement. I had singled out several little +fragments (descriptions merely), which I purposed to have transcribed +from my poems, thinking that the perusal of them might give you a few +minutes' gratification; and now I am called to this melancholy office. + +I shall never forget your goodness in writing so long and interesting a +letter to me under such circumstances. This letter also arrived by the +same post which brought the unhappy tidings of my brother's death, so +that they were both put into my hands at the same moment.... + + Your affectionate friend, + W. WORDSWORTH. + +I shall do all in my power to sustain my sister under her sorrow, which +is, and long will be, bitter and poignant. We did not love him as a +brother merely, but as a man of original mind, and an honour to all +about him. Oh! dear friend, forgive me for talking thus. We have had no +tidings of Coleridge. I tremble for the moment when he is to hear of my +brother's death; it will distress him to the heart,--and his poor body +cannot bear sorrow. He loved my brother, and he knows how we at Grasmere +loved him. + + +Nine days afterwards, Wordsworth resumed the subject as follows: + + Grasmere, Feb. 20. 1805. + +Having spoken of worldly affairs, let me again mention my beloved +brother. It is now just five years since, after a separation of fourteen +years (I may call it a separation, for we only saw him four or five +times, and by glimpses), he came to visit his sister and me in this +cottage, and passed eight blessed months with us. He was then waiting +for the command of the ship to which he was appointed when he quitted +us. As you will have seen, we had little to live upon, and he as little +(Lord Lonsdale being then alive). But he encouraged me to persist, and +to keep my eye steady on its object. He would work for me (that was his +language), for me and his sister; and I was to endeavour to do something +for the world. He went to sea, as commander, with this hope; his voyage +was very unsuccessful, he having lost by it considerably. When he came +home, we chanced to be in London, and saw him. 'Oh!' said he, 'I have +thought of you, and nothing but you; if ever of myself, and my bad +success, it was only on your account.' He went again to sea a second +time, and also was unsuccessful; still with the same hopes on our +account, though then not so necessary, Lord Lowther having paid the +money.[52] Lastly came the lamentable voyage, which he entered upon, +full of expectation, and love to his sister and myself, and my wife, +whom, indeed, he loved with all a brother's tenderness. This is the end +of his part of the agreement--of his efforts for my welfare! God grant +me life and strength to fulfil mine! I shall never forget him,--never +lose sight of him: there is a bond between us yet, the same as if he +were living, nay, far more sacred, calling upon me to do my utmost, as +he to the last did his utmost to live in honour and worthiness. Some of +the newspapers carelessly asserted that he did not wish to survive his +ship. This is false. He was heard by one of the surviving officers +giving orders, with all possible calmness, a very little before the ship +went down; and when he could remain at his post no longer, then, and not +till then, he attempted to save himself. I knew this would be so, but it +was satisfactory for me to have it confirmed by external evidence. Do +not think our grief unreasonable. Of all human beings whom I ever knew, +he was the man of the most rational desires, the most sedate habits, and +the most perfect self-command. He was modest and gentle, and shy even to +disease; but this was wearing off. In every thing his judgments were +sound and original; his taste in all the arts, music and poetry in +particular (for these he, of course, had had the best opportunities of +being familiar with), was exquisite; and his eye for the beauties of +nature was as fine and delicate as ever poet or painter was gifted with, +in some discriminations, owing to his education and way of life, far +superior to any person's I ever knew. But, alas! what avails it? It was +the will of God that he should be taken away. + + * * * * * + +I trust in God that I shall not want fortitude; but my loss is great and +irreparable. + +[52] Due to Wordsworth's father from James, Earl of Lonsdale, at whose +death, in 1802, it was paid by his Lordship's successor, and divided +among the five children. + + * * * * * + +Many thanks for the offer of your house; but I am not likely to be +called to town. Lady Beaumont gives us hope we may see you next summer: +this would, indeed, be great joy to us all. My sister thanks Lady B. for +her affectionate remembrance of her and her letter, and will write as +soon as ever she feels herself able. Her health, as was to be expected, +has suffered much. + + Your most affectionate friend, + W. WORDSWORTH. + +Again: + + Grasmere, March 12. 1805. + +As I have said, your last letter affected me much. A thousand times have +I asked myself, as your tender sympathy led me to do, 'why was he taken +away?' and I have answered the question as you have done. In fact, there +is no other answer which can satisfy and lay the mind at rest. Why have +we a choice, and a will, and a notion of justice and injustice, enabling +us to be moral agents? Why have we sympathies that make the best of us +so afraid of inflicting pain and sorrow, which yet we see dealt about so +lavishly by the Supreme Governor? Why should our notions of right +towards each other, and to all sentient beings within our influence, +differ so widely from what appears to be His notion and rule, _if every +thing were to end here_? Would it not be blasphemy to say that, upon the +supposition of the thinking principle being _destroyed by death_, +however inferior we may be to the great Cause and Ruler of things, we +have _more of love_ in our nature than He has? The thought is monstrous; +and yet how to get rid of it, except upon the supposition of _another_ +and a _better world_, I do not see. As to my departed brother, who leads +our minds at present to these reflections, he walked all his life pure +among many impure. Except a little hastiness of temper, when any thing +was done in a clumsy or bungling manner, or when improperly contradicted +upon occasions of not much importance, he had not one vice of his +profession. I never heard an oath, or even an indelicate expression or +allusion, from him in my life; his modesty was equal to that of the +purest woman. In prudence, in meekness, in self-denial, in fortitude, in +just desires and elegant and refined enjoyments, with an entire +simplicity of manners, life, and habit, he was all that could be wished +for in man; strong in health, and of a noble person, with every hope +about him that could render life dear, thinking of, and living only for, +others,--and we see what has been his end! So good must be better; so +high must be destined to be higher. + + * * * * * + +I will take this opportunity of saying, that the newspaper accounts of +the loss of the ship are throughout grossly inaccurate. The chief facts +I will state, in a few words, from the deposition at the India House of +one of the surviving officers. She struck at 5 P.M. Guns were fired +immediately, and were continued to be fired. She was gotten off the rock +at half-past seven, but had taken in so much water, in spite of constant +pumping, as to be water-logged. They had, however, hope that she might +still be run upon Weymouth Sands, and with this view continued pumping +and baling till eleven, when she went down. The longboat could not be +hoisted out, as, had that been done, there would have been no +possibility of the ship being run aground. I have mentioned these +things, because the newspaper accounts were such as tended to throw +discredit on my brother's conduct and personal firmness, stating that +the ship had struck an hour and a half before guns were fired, and that, +in the agony of the moment, the boats had been forgotten to be hoisted +out. We knew well this could not be; but, for the sake of the relatives +of the persons lost, it distressed us much that it should have been +said. A few minutes before the ship went down, my brother was seen +talking with the first mate, with apparent cheerfulness; and he was +standing on the hen-coop, which is the point from which he could +overlook the whole ship, the moment she went down, dying, as he had +lived, in the very place and point where his duty stationed him. I must +beg your pardon for detaining you so long on this melancholy subject; +and yet it is not altogether melancholy, for what nobler spectacle can +be contemplated than that of a virtuous man, with a serene countenance, +in such an overwhelming situation? I will here transcribe a passage +which I met with the other day in a review; it is from Aristotle's +'Synopsis of the Virtues and Vices.'[53] 'It is,' says he, 'the property +of fortitude not to be easily terrified by the dread of things +pertaining to death; to possess good confidence in things terrible, and +presence of mind in dangers; rather to prefer to be put to death +worthily, than to be preserved basely; and to be the cause of victory. +Moreover, it is the property of fortitude to labour and endure, and to +make valorous exertion an object of choice. Further, presence of mind, a +well-disposed soul, confidence and boldness are the attendants on +fortitude; and, besides these, industry and patience.' Except in the +circumstance of making valorous exertion an 'object _of choice_' (if the +philosopher alludes to general habits of character), my brother might +have sat for this picture; but he was of a meek and retired nature, +loving all quiet things. + +[53] Vol. ix. p. 395, ed. Bekker. Oxon. 1837. + + I remain, dear Sir George, + Your most affectionate friend, + W. WORDSWORTH. + +The following, to his friend Southey, was written the morrow after the +arrival of the sad tidings: + + Tuesday Evening, Grasmere, 1805. + +We see nothing here that does not remind us of our dear brother; there +is nothing about us (save the children, whom he had not seen) that he +has not known and loved. + +If you could bear to come to this house of mourning to-morrow, I should +be for ever thankful. We weep much to-day, and that relieves us. As to +fortitude, I hope I shall show that, and that all of us will show it in +a proper time, in keeping down many a silent pang hereafter. But grief +will, as you say, and must, have its course; there is no wisdom in +attempting to check it under the circumstances which we are all of us in +here. + +I condole with you, from my soul, on the melancholy account of your own +brother's situation; God grant you may not hear such tidings! Oh! it +makes the heart groan, that, with such a beautiful world as this to live +in, and such a soul as that of man's is by nature and gift of God, that +we should go about on such errands as we do, destroying and laying +waste; and ninety-nine of us in a hundred never easy in any road that +travels towards peace and quietness. And yet, what virtue and what +goodness, what heroism and courage, what triumphs of disinterested love +everywhere, and human life, after all, what is it! Surely, this is not +to be for ever, even on this perishable planet! Come to us to-morrow, +if you can; your conversation, I know, will do me good. + + * * * * * + +All send best remembrances to you all. + + Your affectionate friend, + W. WORDSWORTH. + +The following, to another friend, completes the sad tale: + + Grasmere, March 16. 1805. + +He wrote to us from Portsmouth, about twelve days before this disaster, +full of hopes, saying that he was to sail to-morrow. Of course, at the +time when we heard this deplorable news, we imagined that he was as far +on his voyage as Madeira. It was, indeed, a thunderstroke to us! The +language which he held was always so encouraging, saying that ships +were, in nine instances out of ten, lost by mismanagement: he had, +indeed, a great fear of pilots, and I have often heard him say, that no +situation could be imagined more distressing than that of being at the +mercy of these men. 'Oh!' said he, 'it is a joyful hour for us when we +get rid of them.' His fears, alas! were too well founded; his own ship +was lost while under the management of the pilot, whether mismanaged by +him or not, I do not know; but know for certain, which is, indeed, our +great consolation, that our dear brother did all that man could do, even +to the sacrifice of his own life. The newspaper accounts were grossly +inaccurate; indeed, that must have been obvious to any person who could +bear to think upon the subject, for they were absolutely unintelligible. +There are two pamphlets upon the subject; one a mere transcript from the +papers; the other may be considered, as to all important particulars, as +of authority; it is by a person high in the India House, and contains +the deposition of the surviving officers concerning the loss of the +ship. The pamphlet, I am told, is most unfeelingly written: I have only +seen an extract from it, containing Gilpin's deposition, the fourth +mate. From this, it appears that every thing was done that could be +done, under the circumstances, for the safety of the lives and the ship. +My poor brother was standing on the hen-coop (which is placed upon the +poop, and is the most commanding situation in the vessel) when she went +down, and he was thence washed overboard by a large sea, which sank the +ship. He was seen struggling with the waves some time afterwards, having +laid hold, it is said, of a rope. He was an excellent swimmer; but what +could it avail in such a sea, encumbered with his clothes, and exhausted +in body, as he must have been! + +For myself, I feel that there is something cut out of my life which +cannot be restored. I never thought of him but with hope and delight: we +looked forward to the time, not distant, as we thought, when he would +settle near us, when the task of his life would be over, and he would +have nothing to do but reap his reward. By that time, I hoped also that +the chief part of my labours would be executed, and that I should be +able to show him that he had not placed a false confidence in me. I +never wrote a line without a thought of its giving him pleasure: my +writings, printed and manuscript, were his delight, and one of the chief +solaces of his long voyages. But let me stop: I will not be cast down; +were it only for his sake, I will not be dejected. I have much yet to +do, and pray God to give me strength and power: his part of the +agreement between us is brought to an end, mine continues; and I hope +when I shall be able to think of him with a calmer mind, that the +remembrance of him dead will even animate me more than the joy which I +had in him living. I wish you would procure the pamphlet I have +mentioned; you may know the right one, by its having a motto from +Shakspeare, from Clarence's dream. I wish you to see it, that you may +read G.'s statement, and be enabled, if the affair should ever be +mentioned in your hearing, to correct the errors which they must have +fallen into who have taken their ideas from the newspaper accounts. I +have dwelt long, too long I fear, upon this subject, but I could not +write to you upon any thing else, till I had unburthened my heart. We +have great consolations from the sources you allude to; but, alas! we +have much yet to endure. Time only can give us regular tranquillity. We +neither murmur nor repine, but sorrow we must; we should be senseless +else.[54] + +[54] _Memoirs_, i. 288-98. + + +30. _Of Dryden_. + +LETTER TO SIR WALTER SCOTT.[55] + +[55] From Lockhart's _Life of Scott_, vol. ii. pp. 287-9 (edit. 1856). + + Paterdale, Nov. 7. 1803. + +MY DEAR SCOTT, + +I was much pleased to hear of your engagement with Dryden: not that he +is, as a poet, any great favourite of mine. I admire his talents and +genius highly, but his is not a poetical genius. The only qualities I +can find in Dryden that are _essentially_ poetical, are a certain ardour +and impetuosity of mind, with an excellent ear. It may seem strange that +I do not add to this, great command of language. _That_ he certainly +has, and of such language too, as it is most desirable that a poet +should possess, or rather, that he should not be without. But it is not +language that is, in the highest sense of the word, poetical, being +neither of the imagination nor of the passions; I mean the amiable, the +ennobling, or the intense passions. I do not mean to say that there is +nothing of this in Dryden, but as little, I think, as is possible, +considering how much he has written. You will easily understand my +meaning, when I refer to his versification of 'Palamon and Arcite,' as +contrasted with the language of Chaucer. Dryden had neither a tender +heart nor a lofty sense of moral dignity. Whenever his language is +poetically impassioned, it is mostly upon unpleasing subjects, such as +the follies, vices, and crimes of classes of men, or of individuals. +That his cannot be the language of imagination, must have necessarily +followed from this,--that there is not a single image from Nature in the +whole body of his works; and in his translation from Virgil, whenever +Virgil can be fairly said to have his _eye_ upon his object, Dryden +always spoils the passage. + +But too much of this; I am glad that you are to be his editor. His +political and satirical pieces may be greatly benefited by illustration, +and even absolutely require it. A correct text is the first object of an +editor; then such notes as explain difficult or obscure passages; and +lastly, which is much less important, notes pointing out authors to whom +the Poet has been indebted, not in the fiddling way of phrase here and +phrase there (which is detestable as a general practice), but where he +has had essential obligations either as to matter or manner. + +If I can be of any use to you, do not fail to apply to me. One thing I +may take the liberty to suggest, which is, when you come to the fables, +might it not be advisable to print the whole of the Tales of Boccace in +a smaller type in the original language? If this should look too much +like swelling a book, I should certainly make such extracts as would +show where Dryden has most strikingly improved upon, or fallen below, +his original. I think his translations from Boccace are the best, at +least the most poetical, of his poems. It is many years since I saw +Boccace, but I remember that Sigismunda is not married by him to +Guiscard (the names are different in Boccace in both tales, I believe, +certainly in Theodore, &c.). I think Dryden has much injured the story +by the marriage, and degraded Sigismunda's character by it. He has also, +to the best of my remembrance, degraded her still more, by making her +love absolute sensuality and appetite; Dryden had no other notion of the +passion. With all these defects, and they are very gross ones, it is a +noble poem. Guiscard's answer, when first reproached by Tancred, is +noble in Boccace, nothing but this: _Amor pua molto piu che ne roi ne io +possiamo_. This, Dryden has spoiled. He says first very well, 'The +faults of love by love are justified,' and then come four lines of +miserable rant, quite _a la Maximin_. Farewell, and believe me ever, + + Your affectionate friend, + WILLIAM WORDSWORTH. + + +31. _Of Marmion_. + +EXTRACT OF LETTER TO SIR WALTER SCOTT (1808). + +Thank you for 'Marmion.' I think your end has been attained. That it is +not the end which I should wish you to propose to yourself, you will be +well aware, from what you know of my notions of composition, both as to +matter and manner. In the circle of my acquaintance it seems as well +liked as the 'Lay,' though I have heard that in the world it is not so. +Had the Poem been much better than the Lay, it could scarcely have +satisfied the public, which has too much of the monster, the moral +monster, in its composition. The Spring has burst out upon us all at +once, and the vale is now in exquisite beauty; a gentle shower has +fallen this morning, and I hear the thrush, who has built in my orchard, +singing amain. How happy we should be to see you here again! Ever, my +dear Scott, your sincere friend, + + W. W.[56] + + +32. _Topographical History_, &_c_. + +LETTER TO REV. FRANCIS WRANGHAM, HUNMANBY, NEAR BRIDLINGTON, YORKSHIRE. + + Grasmere, Oct. 2. 1808. + +MY DEAR WRANGHAM, + +In what are you employed--I mean by way of amusement and relaxation from +your professional duties? Is there any topographical history of your +neighbourhood? I remember reading White's _Natural History and +Antiquities of Selbourne_ with great pleasure, when a boy at school, and +I have lately read Dr. Whitaker's _History of Craven and Whalley_, both +with profit and pleasure. Would it not be worth your while to give some +of your leisure hours to a work of this kind, making those works partly +your model, and adding thereto from the originality of your own mind? + +With your activity you might produce something of this kind of general +interest, taking for your limit any division in your neighbourhood, +natural, ecclesiastical, or civil: suppose, for example, the coast from +the borders of Cleveland, or from Scarborough, to Spurnhead; and inward +into the country to any boundary that you might approve of. Pray think +of this. I am induced to mention it from belief that you are admirably +qualified for such a work; that it would pleasantly employ your leisure +hours; and from a regret in seeing works of this kind, which might be +made so very interesting, utterly marred by falling into the hands of +wretched bunglers, _e.g._ the _History of Cleveland_, which I have just +read, by a Clergyman of ----, the most heavy performance I ever +encountered; and what an interesting district! Pray let me hear from you +soon. + + Affectionately and sincerely yours, + W. WORDSWORTH.[57] + +[56] Lockhart's _Life_, iii. 45-6. + +[57] _Memoirs_, i. 385-6. + + +33. _The War in Spain: Benefactors of Mankind, &c._ + +TO THE SAME. + + Grasmere, Dec. 3. 1808. + +MY DEAR WRANGHAM, + +On the other side you have the prospectus of a weekly essay intended to +be published by your friend Coleridge. + + * * * * * + +Your Sermon did not reach me till the night before last; we have all +read it, and are much pleased with it. Upon the whole, I like it better +than the last: it must have been heard with great interest. I differ, +however, from you in a few particulars. 1st. The Spaniards 'devoting +themselves for an imprisoned Bourbon, or the crumbling relics of the +Inquisition.' This is very fair for pointing a sentence, but it is not +the truth. They have told us over and over again, that they are +_fighting against a foreign tyrant_, who has dealt with them most +perfidiously and inhumanly, who must hate them for their worth, and on +account of the injuries they have received from him, and whom they must +hate accordingly; _against_ a ruler over whom they could have no +control, and _for_ one whom they have told us they will establish as a +sovereign of a _free_ people, and therefore must he himself be a limited +monarch. You will permit me to make to you this representation for its +truth's sake, and because it gives me an opportunity of letting out a +secret, viz. that I myself am very deep in this subject, and about to +publish upon it, first, I believe, in a newspaper, for the sake of +immediate and wide circulation; and next, the same matter in a separate +pamphlet, under the title of 'The Convention of Cintra brought to the +test of principles, and the people of Great Britain vindicated from the +charge of having prejudged it.' You will wonder to hear me talk of +principles when I have told you that I also do not go along with you in +your sentiments respecting the Roman Catholic question. I confess I am +not prepared to see the Roman Catholic religion as the Established +Church of Ireland; and how that can be consistently refused to them, if +other things are granted on the plea of their being the majority, I do +not see. Certainly this demand will follow, and how would it be +answered? + +There is yet another circumstance in which I differ from you. If Dr. +Bell's plan of education be of that importance which it appears to be +of, it cannot be a matter of indifference whether he or Lancaster have a +rightful claim to the invention. For Heaven's sake let all benefactors +of their species have the honour due to them. Virgil gives a high place +in Elysium to the improvers of life, and it is neither the least +philosophical or least poetical passage of the _Aeneid_.[58] These +points of difference being stated, I may say that in other things I +greatly approve both of the matter and manner of your Sermon. + +Do not fail to return my best thanks to the lady to whom I am obliged +for the elegant and accurate drawing of Broughton Church. I should have +written to thank her and you for it immediately, but I foresaw that I +should have occasion to write to you on this or other business. + +All here desire their best remembrances; and believe me (in great haste, +for I have several other letters to write on the same subject), +affectionately yours, + +W. WORDSWORTH.[59] + +[58] 'Quique sui memores alios fecere merendo.' _Aen_. vi. 664. + +[59] _Memoirs_, i. 386-8. + +34. _The Convention of Cintra: the Roman Catholics_. + +TO THE SAME. + + Workington, April 8. 1809. + +MY DEAR WRANGHAM, + +You will think I am afraid that I have used you ill in not replying +sooner to your last letter; particularly as you were desirous to be +informed in what newspaper my Pamphlet was printing. I should not have +failed to give you immediately any information upon this subject which +could be of use; but in fact, though I began to publish in a newspaper, +viz. the '_Courier_, an accidental loss of two or three sheets of the +manuscript prevented me from going on in that mode of publication after +two sections had appeared. The Pamphlet will be out in less than a +fortnight, entitled, at full length, 'Concerning the relations of Great +Britain, Spain, and Portugal, to each other, and to the common enemy at +this crisis, and specifically as affected by the Convention of Cintra; +the whole brought to the test of those principles by which alone the +independence and freedom of nations can be preserved or recovered.' This +is less a Title than a Table of Contents. I give it you at full length +in order that you may set your fancy at work (if you have no better +employment for it) upon what the Pamphlet may contain. I sent off the +last sheets only a day or two since, else I should have written to you +sooner; it having been my intention to pay my debt to you the moment I +had discharged this debt to my country. What I have written has been +done according to the best light of my conscience: it is indeed very +imperfect, and will, I fear, be little read; but if it is read, cannot, +I hope, fail of doing some good; though I am aware it will create me a +world of enemies, and call forth the old yell of Jacobinism. I have not +sent it to any personal friends as such, therefore I have made no +exception in your case. I have ordered it to be sent to two, the Spanish +and Portuguese Ambassadors, and three or four other public men and +Members of Parliament, but to nobody of my friends and relations. It is +printed with my name, and, I believe, will be published by Longman.... I +am very happy that you have not been inattentive to my suggestion on the +subject of Topography. When I ventured to recommend the pursuit to you, +I did not for a moment suppose that it was to interfere with your +appropriate duties as a parish priest; far otherwise: but I know you are +of an active mind, and I am sure that a portion of your time might be +thus employed without any deduction from that which was due to your +professional engagements. It would be a recreation to you; and also it +does appear to me that records of this kind ought to be executed by +somebody or other, both for the instruction of those now living and for +the sake of posterity; and if so, the duty devolves more naturally upon +clergymen than upon other persons, as their opportunities and +qualifications are both likely to be better than those of other men. If +you have not seen White's and Whitaker's books do procure a sight of +them. + +I was aware that you would think me fair game upon the Roman Catholic +question; but really I should be greatly obliged to any man who would +help me over the difficulty I stated. If the Roman Catholics, upon the +plea of their being the majority merely (which implies an admission on +our part that their profession of faith is in itself as good as ours, as +consistent with civil liberty), if they are to have their requests +accorded, how can they be refused (consistently) the further prayer of +being constituted, upon the same plea, the Established Church? I +confess I am not prepared for this. With the Methodists on one side and +the Catholics on the other, what is to become of the poor church and the +people of England? to both of which I am most tenderly attached, and to +the former not the less so, on account of the pretty little spire of +Broughton Parish Church, under which you and I were made happy men by +the gift from Providence of two excellent wives. To Mrs. Wrangham, +present my cordial regards, and believe me, dear Wrangham, your very + + Sincere and affectionate friend, + W. WORDSWORTH.[60] + + +35. _The Tractate on 'The Convention of Cintra.'_ + +LETTER TO LORD LONSDALE. + + Grasmere, May 25 [1809]. + +MY LORD, + +I had also another reason for deferring this acknowledgment to your +Lordship, viz. that at the same time I wished to present to you a Tract +which I have lately written, and which I hope you have now received. It +was finished, and ought to have appeared, two months ago, but has been +delayed by circumstances (connected with my distance from the press) +over which I had no control. If this Tract should so far interest your +Lordship as to induce you to peruse it, I do not doubt that it will be +thoughtfully and candidly judged by you; in which case I fear no +censure, but that which every man is liable to who, with good +intentions, may have occasionally fallen into error; while at the same +time I have an entire confidence that the principles which I have +endeavoured to uphold must have the sanction of a mind distinguished, +like that of your Lordship, for regard to morality and religion, and the +true dignity and honour of your country. + + * * * * * + +May I beg of your Lordship to present my respectful compliments to Lady +Lonsdale. + + I have the honour to be, my Lord, + Your Lordship's most obedient servant, + W. WORDSWORTH.[61] + +[60] _Memoirs_, i. 388-90. + +[61] _Ibid_, i. 390-1. + + +36. _Of 'The Convention of Cintra,' &c._ + + +LETTER TO SOUTHEY. + +MY DEAR SOUTHEY,[62] + +[62] Mr. Southey's opinions on the Convention of Cintra, at the time of +its ratification, were in unison with those of his friend. See Southey's +_Correspondence_, vol. iii. p. 177-180. + +Col. Campbell, our neighbour at G., has sent for your book; he served +during the whole of the Peninsular war, and you shall hear what he says +of it in _due course_. We are out of the way of all literary +communication, so I can report nothing. I have read the whole with great +pleasure; the work will do you everlasting honour. I have said _the +whole_, forgetting, in that contemplation, my feelings upon one part, +where you have tickled with a feather when you should have branded with +a red-hot iron. You will guess I mean the Convention of Cintra. My +detestation, I may say abhorrence, of that event is not at all +diminished by your account of it. Buonaparte had committed a capital +blunder in supposing that when he had _intimidated_ the _Sovereigns_ of +Europe he had _conquered_ the several _Nations_. Yet it was natural for +a wiser than he was to have fallen into this mistake; for the old +despotisms had deprived the body of the people of all practical +knowledge in the management, and, of necessity, of all interest, in the +course of affairs. The French themselves were astonished at the apathy +and ignorance of the people whom they had supposed they had utterly +subdued, when they had taken their fortresses, scattered their armies, +entered their capital cities, and struck their cabinets with dismay. +There was no hope for the deliverance of Europe till the nations had +suffered enough to be driven to a passionate recollection of all that +was honourable in their past history, and to make appeal to the +principles of universal and everlasting justice. These sentiments, the +authors of that Convention most unfeelingly violated; and as to the +principles, they seemed to be as little aware even of the existence of +such powers, for powers emphatically may they be called, as the tyrant +himself. As far, therefore, as these men could, they put an extinguisher +upon the star which was then rising. It is in vain to say that after the +first burst of indignation was over, the Portuguese themselves were +reconciled to the event, and rejoiced in their deliverance. We may +infer from that the horror which they must have felt in the presence of +their oppressors; and we may see in it to what a state of helplessness +their bad government had reduced them. Our duty was to have treated them +with respect as the representatives of suffering humanity beyond what +they were likely to look for themselves, and as deserving greatly, in +common with their Spanish brethren, for having been the first to rise +against the tremendous oppression, and to show how, and how only, it +could be put an end to. + +WM. WORDSWORTH.[63] + + +37. _Home at Grasmere: 'The Parsonage.'_ + + +'The house which I have for some time occupied is the Parsonage of +Grasmere. It stands close by the churchyard [where his two children were +buried], and I have found it absolutely necessary that we should quit a +place which, by recalling to our minds at every moment the losses we +have sustained in the course of the last year [1811-12] would grievously +retard our progress toward that tranquillity which it is our duty to aim +at.'[64] + + +38. _On Education of the Young_. + + +LETTER TO PROFESSOR HAMILTON, OBSERVATORY, DUBLIN. + +Lowther Castle, Sunday Mor[ning] [Sept. 26, 1830]. + +MY DEAR MR. HAMILTON, + +I profit by the frank in which the letter for your sister will be +enclosed, to thank you for yours of the 11th, and the accompanying +spirited and elegant verses. You ask many questions, kindly testifying +thereby the interest you take in us and our neighbourhood. Most probably +some of them are answered in my daughter's letter to Miss E.H. I will, +however, myself reply to one or two at the risk of repeating what she +may have said. 1st. Mrs. Hemans has not sent us any tidings of her +movements and intentions since she left us; so I am unable to tell you +whether she mean to settle in Edinburgh or London. + +[63] _Memoirs_, i. 391-8. + +[64] Letter to Lord Lonsdale, Jan. 8. 1813: _Memoirs_, ii. 2. + +She said she would write as soon as she could procure a frank. That +accommodation is, I suppose, more rare in Scotland than at this season +in our neighbourhood. I assure you the weather has been so unfavourable +to out-door amusements since you left us (not but that we have had a +sprinkling of fine and bright days), that little or no progress has been +made in the game of the Graces; and I fear that amusement must be +deferred till next summer, if we or anybody else are to see another. Mr. +Barber has dined with us once, and my sister and Mrs. Marshall, of +Halsteads, have seen his palace and grounds; but I cannot report upon +the general state of his temper. I believe he continues to be enchanted, +as far as decayed health will allow, with a Mr. Cooper, a clergyman who +has just come to the living of Hawkshend (about five miles from +Ambleside). Did I tell you that Professor Wilson, with his two sons and +daughter, have been, and probably still are, at Elleray? He heads the +gaieties of the neighbourhood, and has presided as steward at two +regattas. Do these employments come under your notions of action opposed +to contemplation? Why should they not? Whatever the high moralists may +say, the political economists will, I conclude, approve them as setting +capital afloat, and giving an impulse to manufacture and handicrafts; +but I speak of the improvement which may come thence to navigation and +nautical science. I have dined twice along with my brother (who left us +some time ago) in the Professor's company--at Mrs. Watson's, widow of +the Bp., at Calgarth, and at Mr. Bolton's. Poor Mr. B.! he must have +been greatly shocked at the fatal accident that put an end to his friend +Huskisson's earthly career. There is another acquaintance of mine also +recently gone--a person for whom I never had any love, but with whom I +had for a short time a good deal of intimacy. I mean Hazlitt, whose +death you may have seen announced in the papers. He was a man of +extraordinary acuteness, but perverse as Lord Byron himself; whose life +by Galt I have been skimming since I came here. Galt affects to be very +profound, though [he] is in fact a very shallow fellow,--and perhaps the +most illogical writer that these illogical days have produced. His +'buts' and his 'therefores' are singularly misapplied, singularly even +for this unthinking age. He accuses Mr. Southey of pursuing Lord B---- +with _rancour_. I should like a reference to what Mr. S---- has written +of Lord B----, to ascertain whether this charge be well founded. I +trust it is not, both from what I know of my friend, and for the +aversion which Mr. G---- has expressed towards the Lakers, whom in the +plenitude of his ignorance he is pleased to speak of as a _class_ or +_school_ of Poets. + +Now for a word on the serious part of your letter. Your views of action +and contemplation are, I think, just. If you can lay your hands upon Mr. +Coleridge's 'Friend,' you will find some remarks of mine upon a letter +signed, if I recollect right, 'Mathetes,' which was written by Professor +Wilson, in which, if I am not mistaken, sentiments like yours are +expressed. At all events, I am sure that I have long retained those +opinions, and have frequently expressed them either by letter or +otherwise. One thing, however, is not to be forgotten concerning active +life--that a personal independence must be provided for; and in some +cases more is required--ability to assist our friends, relations, and +natural dependents. The party are at breakfast, and I must close this +wretched scrawl, which pray excuse. + + Ever faithfully yours, + WM. WORDSWORTH.[65] + +[65] _Memoirs_, i. 433, with important additions from the MS. G. + +Pray continue to write at your leisure. How could I have forgot so long +to thank you for your obliging present, which I shall value on every +account? + + +39. _Roman Catholics: Bible Society, &c._ + + +LETTER TO ARCHDEACON WRANGHAM. + + Grasmere, March 27 [1811]. + +MY DEAR WRANGHAM, + +Your last letter, which I have left so long unanswered, found me in a +distressed state of mind, with one of my children lying nearly, as I +thought, at the point of death. This put me off answering your +letter.... + +You return to the R. Catholic Question. I am decidedly of opinion that +no further concessions should be made. The R. Catholic Emancipation is a +mere pretext of ambitious and discontented men. Are you prepared for the +next step--a R. Catholic Established Church? I confess I dread the +thought. + +As to the Bible Society, my view of the subject is as follows:--1st. +Distributing Bibles is a good thing. 2ndly. More Bibles will be +distributed in consequence of the existence of the Bible Society; +therefore, so far as that goes, the existence of the Bible Society is +good. But, 3rdly, as to the _indirect_ benefits expected from it, as +producing a golden age of unanimity among Christians, all that I think +fume and emptiness; nay, far worse. So deeply am I persuaded that +discord and artifice, and pride and ambition, would be fostered by such +an approximation and unnatural alliance of sects, that I am inclined to +think the evil thus produced would more than outweigh the good done by +dispersing the Bibles. I think the last fifty or sixty pages of my +brother's pamphlet[66] merit the serious consideration of all persons of +the Established Church who have connected themselves with the sectaries +for this purpose.... + +Entreating your pardon for my long delay in answering your letter, let +me conclude with assuring you that I remain, with great truth, your +affectionate friend, + +W. WORDSWORTH.[67] + +[66] _Reasons for declining to become a Subscriber to the British and +Foreign Bible Society_, by Christopher Wordsworth, D.D., Dean of +Bocking. Lond. 1810. See also his _Letter to Lord Teignmouth_ in +vindication of the above Letter. Lond. 1810. + +[67] _Memoirs_, ii. 8-9. + + +40. _Death of Children: Politics, &c._ + + + Rydal Mount, near Ambleside, Aug. 28, 1813. + +MY DEAR WRANGHAM, + +Your letter arrived when I was on the point of going from home on +business. I took it with me, intending to answer it upon the road, but I +had not courage to undertake the office on account of the inquiries it +contains concerning my family. I will be brief on this melancholy +subject. In the course of the last year I have lost two sweet children, +a girl and a boy, at the ages of four and six and a half. These +innocents were the delight of our hearts, and beloved by everybody that +knew them. They were cut off in a few hours--one by the measles, and the +other by convulsions; dying, one half a year after the other. I quit +this sorrowful subject, secure of your sympathy as a father and as my +friend. + + * * * * * + +My employment I find salutary to me, and of consequence in a pecuniary +point of view, as my literary employments bring me no remuneration, nor +promise any. As to what you say about the Ministry, I very much prefer +the course of their policy to that of the Opposition; especially on two +points most near my heart: resistance of Buonaparte by force of arms, +and their adherence to the principles of the British Constitution in +withholding political power from the Roman Catholics. My most determined +hostility shall always be directed against those statesmen who, like +Whitbread, Grenville, and others, would crouch to a sanguinary tyrant; +and I cannot act with those who see no danger to the Constitution in +introducing papists into Parliament. There are other points of policy in +which I deem the Opposition grievously mistaken, and therefore I am at +present, and long have been, by principle, a supporter of ministers, as +far as my little influence extends. With affectionate wishes for your +welfare and that of your family, and with best regards to Mrs. Wrangham, +I am, my dear friend, + + Faithfully yours, + W. WORDSWORTH.[68] + +[68] _Memoirs_, ii. 9-10. + + +41. _Letter of Introduction: Humour_. + + +TO ARCHDEACON WRANGHAM. + + Rydal Mount, near Kendal, April 26. 1814. + +MY DEAR WRANGHAM, + +I trouble you with this in behalf of a very deserving young clergyman of +the name of Jameson, who is just gone from this neighbourhood to a +curacy at Sherbourne, in the neighbourhood of Ferry Bridge. He has a +mother and a younger brother dependent upon his exertions, and it is his +wish to take pupils in order to increase his income, which, as he is a +curate, you know, cannot but be small. He is an excellent young man, a +good scholar, and likely to become much better, for he is extremely +industrious. Among his talents I must mention that for drawing, in which +he is a proficient.... Now my wish is that, if it fall in your way, you +would vouchsafe him your patronage.... + +Of course, you cannot speak for him directly till you have seen him; +but, might he be permitted to refer to you, you could have no objection +to say that you were as yet ignorant of his merits as to your own +knowledge, but that 'your _esteemed_ friend Mr. Wordsworth, that +_popular_ poet, stamp-collector for Westmoreland, &c., had recommended +him strenuously to you as in all things deserving.' + +A portion of a long poem[69] from me will see the light ere long; I hope +it will give you pleasure. It is serious, and has been written with +great labour.... + +I mean to make a tour in Scotland with Mrs. W---- and her sister, Miss +Hutchinson. I congratulate you on the overthrow of the execrable despot, +and the complete triumph of the _war faction_, of which noble body I +have the honour to be as active a member as my abilities and industry +would allow. Best remembrances to yourself and Mrs. Wrangham, + + And believe me affectionately yours, + W. WORDSWORTH.[70] + +42. _The Peninsular War_. + +LETTER TO ROBERT SOUTHEY, ESQ. + + ----, 1827. + +MY DEAR SIR, + +Edith thanked you, in my name, for your valuable present of the +'Peninsular War.' I have read it with great delight: it is beautifully +written, and a most interesting story. I did not notice a single +sentiment or opinion that I could have wished away but one--where you +support the notion that, if the Duke of Wellington had not lived and +commanded, Buonaparte must have continued the master of Europe. I do not +object to this from any dislike I have to the Duke, but from a +conviction--I trust, a philosophic one--that Providence would not allow +the upsetting of so diabolical a system as Buonaparte's to depend upon +the existence of any individual. Justly was it observed by Lord +Wellesley, that Buonaparte was of an order of minds that created for +themselves great reverses. He might have gone further, and said that it +is of the nature of tyranny to work to its own destruction.[71] + + +[69] 'The Excursion,' published 1814. + +[70] _Memoirs_, ii 10-11. + +[71] As has been said by Demosthenes. + +The sentence of yours which occasioned these loose remarks is, as I +said, the only one I objected to, while I met with a thousand things to +admire. Your sympathy with the great cause is every where energetically +and feelingly expressed. What fine fellows were Alvarez and Albuquerque; +and how deeply interesting the siege of Gerona! + +I have not yet mentioned dear Sir George Beaumont.[72] His illness was +not long; and he was prepared by habitually thinking on his latter end. +But it is impossible not to grieve for ourselves, for his loss cannot be +supplied. Let dear Edith stay as long as you can; and when she must go, +pray come for her, and stay a few days with us. Farewell. + + Ever most affectionately yours, + W. W----.[73] + +[72] Who died Feb. 7, 1827. + +[73] _Memoirs_, ii. 20-1. + + +43._Of the Writings of Southey_. + +LETTER TO G. HUNTLY GORDON, ESQ. + Rydal Mount, May 14. 1829. + +Mr. Southey means to present me (as usual) his 'Colloquies,' &c. There +is, perhaps, not a page of them that he did not read me in MS.; and +several of the Dialogues are upon subjects which we have often +discussed. I am greatly interested with much of the book; but upon its +effect as a whole I can yet form no opinion, as it was read to me as it +happened to be written. I need scarcely say that Mr. Southey ranks very +highly, in my opinion, as a prose writer. His style is eminently clear, +lively, and unencumbered, and his information unbounded; and there is a +moral ardour about his compositions which nobly distinguishes them from +the trading and factious authorship of the present day. He may not +improbably be our companion in Wales next year. At the end of this month +he goes, with his family, to the Isle of Man for sea-air; and said, if I +would accompany him, and put off the Welsh tour for another year, he +would join our party. Notwithstanding the inducement, I could not bring +myself to consent; but as things now are, I shall remind him of the hope +he held out. + + Believe me, very faithfully, yours, + WM. WORDSWORTH. + +There is no probability of my being in town this season. I have a +horror of smoking; and nothing but a necessity for health's sake could +reconcile me to it in William.[74] + +[74] _Memoirs_, ii. 22. + + +44. _Of alleged Changes in Political Opinions_. + +LETTER TO A FRIEND, 1821. + +In the year 1821 (October 7) an old friend of Wordsworth thus writes to +him: 'They tell me you have changed your opinions upon many subjects +respecting which we used to think alike; but I am persuaded we shall +neither of us change those great principles which ought to guide us in +our conduct, and lead us to do all the good we can to others. And I am +much mistaken if we should not find many things to talk about without +disturbing ourselves with political or party disputes.' + +To this Wordsworth answered as follows: + + Rydal Mount, Dec. 4. 1821. + +MY DEAR L----, + +Your letter ought to have been much earlier acknowledged, and would have +been so, had I not been sure you would ascribe my silence to its true +cause, viz. procrastination, and not to indifference to your kind +attention. There was another feeling which both urged and indisposed me +to write to you,--I mean the allusion which, in so friendly a manner, +you make to a supposed change in my political opinions. To the +scribblers in pamphlets and periodical publications who have heaped so +much obloquy upon myself and my friends Coleridge and Southey, I have +not condescended to reply, nor ever shall; but to you, my candid and +enlightened friend, I will say a few words on this subject, which, if we +have the good fortune to meet again, as I hope we may, will probably be +further dwelt upon. + +I should think that I had lived to little purpose if my notions on the +subject of government had undergone no modification: my youth must, in +that case, have been without enthusiasm, and my manhood endued with +small capability of profiting by reflection. If I were addressing those +who have dealt so liberally with the words renegade, apostate, &c., I +should retort the charge upon them, and say, _you_ have been deluded by +_places_ and _persons_, while I have stuck to _principles_. _I_ +abandoned France and her rulers when _they_ abandoned the struggle for +liberty, gave themselves up to tyranny, and endeavoured to enslave the +world. I disapproved of the war against France at its commencement, +thinking, which was, perhaps, an error, that it might have been avoided; +but after Buonaparte had violated the independence of Switzerland, my +heart turned against him, and against the nation that could submit to be +the instrument of such an outrage. Here it was that I parted, in +feeling, from the Whigs, and to a certain degree united with their +adversaries, who were free from the delusion (such I must ever regard +it) of Mr. Fox and his party, that a safe and honourable peace was +practicable with the French nation, and that an ambitious conqueror like +Buonaparte could be softened down into a commercial rival. + +In a determination, therefore, to aim at the overthrow of that +inordinate ambition by war, I sided with the ministry, not from general +approbation of their conduct, but as men who thought right on this +essential point. How deeply this question interested me will be plain to +any one who will take the trouble of reading my political sonnets, and +the tract occasioned by the 'Convention of Cintra,' in which are +sufficient evidences of my dissatisfaction with the mode of conducting +the war, and a prophetic display of the course which it would take if +carried on upon the principles of justice, and with due respect for the +feelings of the oppressed nations. + +This is enough for foreign politics, as influencing my attachments. + +There are three great domestic questions, viz. the liberty of the press, +parliamentary reform, and Roman Catholic concession, which, if I briefly +advert to, no more need be said at present. + +A free discussion of public measures through the press I deem the _only_ +safeguard of liberty: without it I have neither confidence in kings, +parliaments, judges, or divines: they have all in their turn betrayed +their country. But the press, so potent for good, is scarcely less so +for evil; and unfortunately they who are misled and abused by its means +are the persons whom it can least benefit. It is the fatal +characteristic of their disease to reject all remedies coming from the +quarter that has caused or aggravated the malady. I am _therefore_ for +vigorous restrictions; but there is scarcely any abuse that I would not +endure rather than sacrifice, or even endanger, this freedom. + +When I was young (giving myself credit for qualities which I did not +possess, and measuring mankind by that standard) I thought it derogatory +to human nature to set up property in preference to person as a title +for legislative power. That notion has vanished. I now perceive many +advantages in our present complex system of representation which +formerly eluded my observation; this has tempered my ardour for reform: +but if any plan could be contrived for throwing the representation +fairly into the hands of the property of the country, and not leaving it +so much in the hands of the large proprietors as it now is, it should +have my best support; though even in that event there would be a +sacrifice of personal rights, independent of property, that are now +frequently exercised for the benefit of the community. + +Be not startled when I say that I am averse to further concessions to +the Roman Catholics. My reasons are, that such concessions will not +produce harmony among the Roman Catholics themselves; that they among +them who are most clamorous for the measure care little about it but as +a step, first, to the overthrow of the Protestant establishment in +Ireland, as introductory to a separation of the two countries--their +ultimate aim; that I cannot consent to take the character of a religion +from the declaration of powerful professors of it disclaiming doctrines +imputed to that religion; that, taking its character from what it +_actually teaches to the great mass_, I believe the Roman Catholic +religion to be unchanged in its doctrines and unsoftened in its +spirit,--how can it be otherwise unless the doctrine of Infallibility be +given up? that such concessions would set all other dissenters in +motion--an issue which has never fairly been met by the friends to +concession; and deeming the Church Establishment not only a fundamental +part of our constitution, but one of the greatest upholders and +propagators of civilization in our own country, and, lastly, the most +effectual and main support of religious Toleration, I cannot but look +with jealousy upon measures which must reduce her relative influence, +unless they be accompanied with arrangements more adequate than any yet +adopted for the preservation and increase of that influence, to keep +pace with the other powers in the community. + +I do not apologise for this long letter, the substance of which you may +report to any one worthy of a reply who, in your hearing, may animadvert +upon my political conduct. I ought to have added, perhaps, a word on +_local politics_, but I have not space; but what I should have said may +in a great measure be deduced from the above. + + I am, my dear L----, + Yours, &c. &c., + W.W.[75] + +[75] _Memoirs_, ii. 23-27. + + +45. _Of his Poems and others_. + +LETTER TO BERNARD BARTON. + + Rydal Mount, near Ambleside, Jan. 12. 1816. + +DEAR SIR, + +Though my sister, during my absence, has returned thanks in my name for +the verses which you have done me the honour of addressing to me, and +for the obliging letter which accompanies them, I feel it incumbent on +me, on my return home, to write a few words to the same purpose, with my +own hand. + +It is always a satisfaction to me to learn that I have given pleasure +upon _rational_ grounds; and I have nothing to object to your poetical +panegyric but the occasion which called it forth. An admirer of my +works, zealous as you have declared yourself to be, condescends too much +when he gives way to an impulse proceeding from the ----, or indeed from +any other Review. The writers in these publications, while they +prosecute their inglorious employment, cannot be supposed to be in a +state of mind very favourable for being affected by the finer influences +of a thing so pure as genuine poetry; and as to the instance which has +incited you to offer me this tribute of your gratitude, though I have +not seen it, I doubt not but that it is a splenetic effusion of the +conductor of that Review, who has taken a perpetual retainer from his +own incapacity to plead against my claims to public approbation. + +I differ from you in thinking that the only poetical lines in your +address are 'stolen from myself.' The best verse, perhaps, is the +following: + + 'Awfully mighty in his impotence,' + +which, by way of repayment, I may he tempted to steal from you on some +future occasion. + +It pleases, though it does not surprise me, to learn that, having been +affected early in life by my verses, you have returned again to your old +loves after some little infidelities, which you were shamed into by +commerce with the scribbling and chattering part of the world. I have +heard of many who upon their first acquaintance with my poetry have had +much to get over before they could thoroughly relish it; but never of +one who having once learned to enjoy it, had ceased to value it, or +survived his admiration. This is as good an external assurance as I can +desire, that my inspiration is from a pure source, and that my +principles of composition are trustworthy. + +With many thanks for your good wishes, and begging leave to offer mine +in return, + + I remain, + Dear Sir, + Respectfully yours, + WM. WORDSWORTH.[76] + +[76] _Memoirs_, ii. 52-4. + +Bernard Barton, Esq., Woodbridge, Suffolk. + + +46. _Of the Thanksgiving Ode and 'White Doe of Rylston.'_ + +LETTER TO ROBERT SOUTHEY. + + 1816. +MY DEAR SOUTHEY, + +I am much of your mind in respect to my Ode. Had it been a hymn, +uttering the sentiments of a _multitude_, a _stanza_ would have been +indispensable. But though I have called it a 'Thanksgiving Ode,' +strictly speaking it is not so, but a poem, composed, or supposed to be +composed, on the morning of the thanksgiving, uttering the sentiments of +an _individual_ upon that occasion. It is a _dramatised ejaculation_; +and this, if any thing can, must excuse the irregular frame of the +metre. In respect to a _stanza_ for a grand subject designed to be +treated comprehensively, there are great objections. If the stanza be +short, it will scarcely allow of fervour and impetuosity, unless so +short, as that the sense is run perpetually from one stanza to another, +as in Horace's Alcaics; and if it be long, it will be as apt to generate +diffuseness as to check it. Of this we have innumerable instances in +Spenser and the Italian poets. The sense required cannot he included in +one given stanza, so that another whole stanza is added, not +unfrequently, for the sake of matter which would naturally include +itself in a very few lines. + +If Gray's plan be adopted, there is not time to become acquainted with +the arrangement, and to recognise with pleasure the recurrence of the +movement. + +Be so good as to let me know where you found most difficulty in +following me. The passage which I most suspect of being misunderstood +is, + + 'And thus is missed the sole true glory;' + +and the passage, where I doubt most about the reasonableness of +expecting that the reader should follow me in the luxuriance of the +imagery and the language, is the one that describes, under so many +metaphors, the spreading of the news of the Waterloo victory over the +globe. Tell me if this displeased you. + +Do you know who reviewed 'The White Doe,' in the _Quarterly_? After +having asserted that Mr. W. uses his words without any regard to their +sense, the writer says, that on no other principle can he explain that +Emily is _always_ called 'the consecrated Emily.' Now, the name Emily +occurs just fifteen times in the poem; and out of these fifteen, the +epithet is attached to it _once_, and that for the express purpose of +recalling the scene in which she had been consecrated by her brother's +solemn adjuration, that she would fulfil her destiny, and become a soul, + + 'By force of sorrows high + Uplifted to the purest sky + Of undisturbed mortality.' + +The point upon which the whole moral interest of the piece hinges, when +that speech is closed, occurs in this line, + + 'He kissed the consecrated maid;' + +and to bring back this to the reader, I repeated the epithet. + +The service I have lately rendered to Burns' genius[77] will one day be +performed to mine. The quotations, also, are printed with the most +culpable neglect of correctness: there are lines turned into nonsense. +Too much of this. Farewell! + + Believe me affectionately yours, + W. WORDSWORTH.[78] + +[77] See his 'Letter to a Friend of Burns.' + +[78] _Memoirs_, ii. 60-1. + + +_47. Of Poems in Stanzas_. + +LETTER TO ROBERT SOUTHEY. + +DEAR SOUTHEY, + + * * * * * + +My opinion in respect to _epic poetry_ is much the same as the critic +whom Lucien Buonaparte has quoted in his preface. _Epic_ poetry, of the +highest class, requires in the first place an action eminently +influential, an action with a grand or sublime train of consequences; it +next requires the intervention and guidance of beings superior to man, +what the critics I believe call _machinery_; and, lastly, I think with +Dennis, that no subject but a religious one can answer the demand of the +soul in the highest class of this species of poetry. Now Tasso's is a +religious subject, and in my opinion, a most happy one; but I am +confidently of opinion that the _movement_ of Tasso's poem rarely +corresponds with the essential character of the subject; nor do I think +it possible that written in _stanzas_ it should. The celestial movement +cannot, I think, be kept up, if the sense is to be broken in that +despotic manner at the close of every eight lines. Spenser's stanza is +infinitely finer than the _ottaca rhima_, but even Spenser's will not +allow the epic movement as exhibited by Homer, Virgil, and Milton. How +noble is the first paragraph of the _Aeneid_ in point of sound, compared +with the first stanza of the _Jerusalem Delivered_! The one winds with +the majesty of the Conscript Fathers entering the Senate House in solemn +procession; and the other has the pace of a set of recruits shuffling on +the drill-ground, and receiving from the adjutant or drill-serjeant the +commands to halt at every ten or twenty steps. Farewell. + + Affectionately yours, + W. WORDSWORTH.[79] + +[79] _Memoirs_, ii. 62-3. + + +48. _The Classics: Translation of Aeneid, &c._ + +[Laodamia, Dion, &c.] These poems were written in 1814-16. About this +time Wordsworth's attention was given to the education of his eldest +son: this occupation appears to have been the occasion of their +composition. In preparing his son for his university career, he +reperused the principal Latin poets; and doubtless the careful study of +their works was not without a beneficial influence on his own. It +imparted variety and richness to his conceptions, and shed new graces on +his style, and rescued his poems from the charge of mannerism. + +Among the fruits of this course of reading, was a translation of some of +the earlier books of VIRGIL'S AENEID. Three books were finished. This +version was not executed in blank verse, but in rhyme; not, however, in +the style of Pope, but with greater freedom and vigour. A specimen of +this translation was contributed by Wordsworth to the _Philological +Museum_, printed at Cambridge in 1832.[80] It was accompanied with the +following letter from the author:-- + + +TRANSLATION OF PART OF THE FIRST BOOK OF THE AENEID.[81] + +_To the editor off the Philological Museum_. + +Your letter reminding me of an expectation I some time since held out to +you, of allowing some specimens of my translation from the _Aeneid_ to +be printed in the _Philological Museum_, was not very acceptable; for I +had abandoned the thought of ever sending into the world any part of +that experiment--for it was nothing more--an experiment begun for +amusement, and, I now think, a less fortunate one than when I first +named it to you. Having been displeased, in modern translations, with +the additions of incongruous matter, I began to translate with a resolve +to keep clear of that fault, by adding nothing; but I became convinced +that a spirited translation can scarcely be accomplished in the English +language without admitting a principle of compensation. On this point, +however, I do not wish to insist; and merely send the following passage, +taken at random, from a wish to comply with your request. + + W.W.[82] + +[80] Vol. i. p. 382. + +[81] _Philological Museum_, edit. Camb. 1832, vol. i. p. 382. + +[82] _Memoirs_, ii. 68-9. + + +49. _On the same: Letters to Earl Lonsdale_. + +MY LORD, + +Many thanks for your obliging letter. I shall be much gratified if you +happen to like my translation, and thankful for any remarks with which +you may honour me. I have made so much progress with the second book, +that I defer sending the former till that is finished. It takes in many +places a high tone of passion, which I would gladly succeed in +rendering. When I read Virgil in the original I am moved; but not so +much so by the translation; and I cannot but think this owing to a +defect in the diction, which I have endeavoured to supply, with what +success you will easily be enabled to judge. + + Ever, my Lord, + Most faithfully your obliged friend and servant, + WM. WORDSWORTH.[83] + + Feb. 5 [1829]. + +MY LORD, + +I am truly obliged by your friendly and frank communication. May I beg +that you would add to the favour, by marking with a pencil some of the +passages that are faulty, in your view of the case? We seem pretty much +of opinion upon the subject of rhyme. Pentameters, where the sense has a +close of some sort at every two lines, may be rendered in regularly +closed couplets; but hexameters (especially the Virgilian, that run the +lines into each other for a great length) cannot. I have long been +persuaded that Milton formed his blank verse upon the model of the +_Georgics_ and the _Aeneid_, and I am so much struck with this +resemblance, that I should have attempted Virgil in blank verse, had I +not been persuaded that no ancient author can be with advantage so +rendered. Their religion, their warfare, their course of action and +feeling, are too remote from modern interest to allow it. We require +every possible help and attraction of sound, in our language, to smooth +the way for the admission of things so remote from our present concerns. +My own notion of translation is, that it cannot be too literal, provided +three faults be avoided: _baldness_, in which I include all that takes +from dignity; and _strangeness_ or _uncouthness_, including harshness; +and lastly, attempts to convey meanings which, as they cannot be given +but by languid circumlocutions, cannot in fact be said to be given at +all. I will trouble you with an instance in which I fear this fault +exists. Virgil, describing Aeneas's voyage, third book, verse 551, +says-- + + 'Hinc sinus Herculei, si vera est fama. Tarenti + Cernitur.' + +[83] _Memoirs_, ii. 69. + +I render it thus: + + 'Hence we behold the bay that bears the name + Of proud Tarentum, proud to share the fame + Of Hercules, though by a dubious claim.' + +I was unable to get the meaning with tolerable harmony into fewer words, +which are more than to a modern reader, perhaps, it is worth. + +I feel much at a loss, without the assistance of the marks which I have +requested, to take an exact measure of your Lordship's feelings with +regard to the diction. To save you the trouble of reference, I will +transcribe two passages from Dryden; first, the celebrated appearance of +Hector's ghost to Aeneas. Aeneas thus addresses him: + + 'O light of Trojans and support of Troy, + Thy father's champion, and thy country s joy, + O long expected by thy friends, from whence + Art thou returned, so late for our defence? + Do we behold thee, wearied as we are + With length of labours and with toils of war? + After so many funerals of thy own, + Art thou restored to thy declining town?' + +This I think not an unfavourable specimen of Dryden's way of treating +the solemnly pathetic passages. Yet, surely, here is _nothing_ of the +_cadence_ of the original, and little of its spirit. The second verse is +not in the original, and ought not to have been in Dryden; for it +anticipates the beautiful hemistich, + + 'Sat patriae Priamoque datum.' + +By the by, there is the same sort of anticipation in a spirited and +harmonious couplet preceding: + + 'Such as he was when by _Pelides slain_ + Thessalian coursers dragged him o'er the plain.' + +This introduction of Pelides here is not in Virgil, because it would +have prevented the effect of + + 'Redit exuvias indutus Achillei.' + +There is a striking solemnity in the answer of Pantheus to Aeneas: + + 'Venit summa dies et ineluctabile tempus + Dardaniae: fuimus Troes, fuit Ilium, et ingens + Gloria Teucrorum,' &c. + +Dryden thus gives it: + + 'Then Pantheus, with a groan, + Troy is no more, and Ilium was a town. + The fatal day, the appointed hour is come + When wrathful Jove's irrevocable doom + Transfers the Trojan state to Grecian hands. + The fire consumes the town, the foe commands.' + +My own translation runs thus; and I quote it because it occurred to my +mind immediately on reading your Lordship's observations: + + 'Tis come, the final hour, + Th' inevitable close of Dardan power + Hath come! we _have_ been Trojans, Ilium _was_, + And the great name of Troy; now all things pass + To Argos. So wills angry Jupiter. + Amid a burning town the Grecians domineer.' + +I cannot say that '_we have been_,' and 'Ilium _was_,' are as sonorous +sounds as 'fuimus,' and 'fuit;' but these latter must have been as +familiar to the Romans as the former to ourselves. I should much like to +know if your Lordship disapproves of my translation here. I have one +word to say upon ornament. It was my wish and labour that my translation +should have far more of the _genuine_ ornaments of Virgil than my +predecessors. Dryden has been very careless of these, and profuse of his +own, which seem to me very rarely to harmonise with those of Virgil; as, +for example, describing Hector's appearance in the passage above alluded +to, + + 'A _bloody shroud_, he seemed, and _bath'd_ in tears. + I wept to see the _visionary_ man.' + +Again, + + 'And all the wounds he for his country bore + Now streamed afresh, and with _new purple ran_.' + +I feel it, however, to be too probable that my translation is deficient +in ornament, because I must unavoidably have lost many of Virgil's, and +have never without reluctance attempted a compensation of my own. Had I +taken the liberties of my predecessors, Dryden especially, I could have +translated nine books with the labour that three have cost me. The third +book, being of a humbler character than either of the former, I have +treated with rather less scrupulous apprehension, and have interwoven a +little of my own; and, with permission, I will send it, ere long, for +the benefit of your Lordship's observations, which really will be of +great service to me if I proceed. Had I begun the work fifteen years +ago, I should have finished it with pleasure; at present, I fear it will +take more time than I either can or ought to spare. I do not think of +going beyond the fourth book. + +As to the MS., be so kind as to forward it at your leisure to me, at Sir +George Beaumont's, Coleorton Hall, near Ashby, whither I am going in +about ten days. May I trouble your Lordship with our respectful +compliments to Lady Lonsdale? + + Believe [me] ever + Your Lordship's faithful + And obliged friend and servant, + WM. WORDSWORTH.[84] + +[84] _Memoirs_, ii. 69-74. + + +50. _Tour on the Continent, 1820_. + +LETTERS TO THE EARL OF LONSDALE. + + Lucerne, Aug. 19. 1820. +MY LORD, + +You did me the honour of expressing a wish to hear from me during my +continental tour; accordingly, I have great pleasure in writing from +this place, where we arrived three days ago. Our route has lain through +Brussels, Namur, along the banks of the Meuse, to Liege; thence to +Aix-la-Chapelle, Cologne, and along the Rhine to Mayence, to Frankfort, +Heidelberg (a noble situation, at the point where the Neckar issues from +steep lofty hills into the plain of the Rhine), Carlsruhe, and through +the Black Forest to Schaffhausen; thence to Zurich, Berne, Thun, +Interlachen. Here our Alpine tour might be said to commence, which has +produced much pleasure thus far, and nothing that deserves the name of +difficulty, even for the ladies. From the Valley of Lauterbrunnen we +crossed the Wengern Alp to Grindelwald, and then over the grand Sheideck +to Meyringen. This journey led us over high ground, and for fifteen +leagues along the base of the loftiest Alps, which reared their bare or +snow-clad ridges and pikes, in a clear atmosphere, with fleecy clouds +now and then settling upon and gathering round them. We heard and saw +several avalanches; they are announced by a sound like thunder, but more +metallic and musical. This warning naturally makes one look about, and +we had the gratification of seeing one falling, in the shape and +appearance of a torrent or cascade of foaming water, down the deep-worn +crevices of the steep or perpendicular granite mountains. Nothing can +be more awful than the sound of these cataracts of ice and snow thus +descending, unless it be the silence which succeeds. The elevations from +which we beheld these operations of Nature, and saw such an immense +range of primitive mountains stretching to the east and west, were +covered with rich pasturage and beautiful flowers, among which was +abundance of the monkshood, a flower which I had never seen but in the +trim borders of our gardens, and which here grew not so much in patches +as in little woods or forests, towering above the other plants. At this +season the herdsmen are with their cattle in still higher regions than +those which we have trod, the herbage where we travelled being reserved +till they descend in the autumn. We have visited the Abbey of Engelberg, +not many leagues from the borders of the Lake of Lucerne. The tradition +is, that the site of the abbey was appointed by angels, singing from a +lofty mountain that rises from the plain of the valley, and which, from +having been thus honoured, is called Engelberg, or the Hill of the +Angels. It is a glorious position for such beings, and I should have +thought myself repaid for the trouble of so long a journey by the +impression made upon my mind, when I first came in view of the vale in +which the convent is placed, and of the mountains that enclose it. The +light of the sun had left the valley, and the deep shadows spread over +it heightened the splendour of the evening light, and spread upon the +surrounding mountains, some of which had their summits covered with pure +snow; others were half hidden by vapours rolling round them; and the +Rock of Engelberg could not have been seen under more fortunate +circumstances, for masses of cloud glowing with the reflection of the +rays of the setting sun were hovering round it, like choirs of spirits +preparing to settle upon its venerable head. + +To-day we quit this place to ascend the mountain Righi. We shall be +detained in this neighbourhood till our passports are returned from +Berne, signed by the Austrian minister, which we find absolutely +necessary to enable us to proceed into the _Milanese_. At the end of +five weeks at the latest, we hope to reach Geneva, returning by the +Simplon Pass. There I might have the pleasure of hearing from your +Lordship; and may I beg that you would not omit to mention our +Westmoreland politics? The diet of Switzerland is now sitting in this +place. Yesterday I had a long conversation with the Bavarian envoy, +whose views of the state of Europe appear to me very just. This letter +must unavoidably prove dull to your Lordship, but when I have the +pleasure of seeing you, I hope to make some little amends, though I feel +this is a very superficial way of viewing a country, even with reference +merely to the beauties of Nature. We have not met with many English; +there is scarcely a third part as many in the country as there was last +year. A brother of Lord Grey is in the house where we now are, and Lord +Ashburton left yesterday. I must conclude abruptly, with kindest +remembrances to Lady Lonsdale and Lady Mary. Believe me, my Lord, most +faithfully + + Your Lordship's + WM. WORDSWORTH. + + Paris, Oct. 7 [1820], 45 Rue Charlot, + Boulevards du Temple. + +MY LORD, + +I had the honour of writing to your Lordship from Lucerne, 19th of +August, giving an account of our movements. We have visited, since, +those parts of Switzerland usually deemed most worthy of notice, and the +Italian lakes, having stopped four days at Milan, and as many at Geneva. +With the exception of a couple of days on the Lake of Geneva, the +weather has been most favourable, though frequently during the last +fortnight extremely cold. We have had no detention from illness, nor any +bad accident, for which we feel more grateful, on account of some of our +fellow travellers, who accidentally joined us for a few days. Of these, +one, an American gentleman, was drowned in the Lake of Zurich, by the +upsetting of a boat in a storm, two or three days after he parted with +us; and two others, near the summit of Mount Jura, and in the middle of +a tempestuous night, were precipitated, they scarcely knew how far, +along with one of those frightful and ponderous vehicles, a continental +diligence. We have been in Paris since Sunday last, and think of staying +about a fortnight longer, as scarcely less will suffice for even a hasty +view of the town and neighbourhood. We took Fontainebleau in our way, +and intend giving a day to Versailles. The day we entered Paris we +passed a well-drest young man and woman, dragging a harrow through a +field, like cattle; nevertheless, working in the fields on the sabbath +day does not appear to be general in France. On the same day a +wretched-looking person begged of us, as the carriage was climbing a +hill. Nothing could exceed his transport in receiving a pair of old +pantaloons which were handed out of the carriage. This poor mendicant, +the postilion told us, was an _ancien Cure_. The churches seem generally +falling into decay in the country. We passed one which had been recently +repaired. I have noticed, however, several young persons, men as well as +women, earnestly employed in their devotions, in different churches, +both in Paris and elsewhere. Nothing which I have seen in this city has +interested me at all like the Jardin des Plantes, with the living +animals, and the Museum of Natural History which it includes. Scarcely +could I refrain from tears of admiration at the sight of this apparently +boundless exhibition of the wonders of the creation. The statues and +pictures of the Louvre affect me feebly in comparison. The exterior of +Paris is much changed since I last visited it in 1792. I miss many +ancient buildings, particularly the Temple, where the poor king and his +family were so long confined. That memorable spot, where the Jacobin +Club was held, has also disappeared. Nor are the additional buildings +always improvements; the Pont des Arts, in particular, injures the view +from the Pont Neuf greatly; but in these things public convenience is +the main point. + +I say nothing of public affairs, for I have little opportunity of +knowing anything about them. In respect to the business of our Queen, we +deem ourselves truly fortunate in having been out of the country at a +time when an inquiry, at which all Europe seems scandalised, was going +on. + +I have purposely deferred congratulating your Lordship on the marriage +of Lady Mary with Lord Frederick Bentinck, which I hear has been +celebrated. My wishes for her happiness are most earnest. + +With respectful compliments and congratulations to Lady Lonsdale, in +which Mrs. Wordsworth begs leave to join, + + I have the honour to be, + My Lord, + Your Lordship's + Obliged and faithful friend and servant, + WM. WORDSWORTH.[85] + +[85] _Memoirs_, ii. 90-104. + + +51. _Shakespeare's Cliff at Dover_. + +How strange that the description of Dover Cliff, in _King Lear_, should +ever have been supposed to have been meant for a reality! I know nothing +that more forcibly shows the little reflection with which even men of +sense read poetry. The cliff cannot be more than 400 feet high; and yet, +'how truly,' exclaims the historian of Dover, 'has Shakespeare described +the precipice!' How much better would the historian have done, had he +given us its actual elevation![86] + +[86] _Memoirs_, ii. 116. + + +52. _Of Affairs on the Continent_, 1828. + +LETTER TO A NEPHEW. + + Rydal Mount, Nov. 27. 1828. + +MY DEAR C----, + +It gives me much pleasure to learn that your residence in France has +answered so well. As I had recommended the step, I felt more especially +anxious to be informed of the result. I have only to regret that you did +not tell me whether the interests of a foreign country and a brilliant +metropolis had encroached more upon the time due to academical studies +than was proper. + +As to the revolution which Mr. D---- calculates upon, I agree with him +that a great change must take place, but not altogether, or even mainly, +from the causes which he looks to, if I be right in conjecturing that he +expects that the religionists who have at present such influence over +the king's mind will be predominant. The extremes to which they wish to +carry things are not sufficiently in the spirit of the age to suit their +purpose. The French monarchy must undergo a great change, or it will +fall altogether. A constitution of government so disproportioned cannot +endure. A monarchy, without a powerful aristocracy or nobility +graduating into a gentry, and so downwards, cannot long subsist. This is +wanting in France, and must continue to be wanting till the restrictions +imposed on the disposal of property by will, through the Code Napoleon, +are done away with: and it may be observed, by the by, that there is a +bareness, some would call it a simplicity, in that code which unfits it +for a complex state of society like that of France, so that evasions +and stretchings of its provisions are already found necessary, to a +degree which will ere long convince the French people of the necessity +of disencumbering themselves of it. But to return. My apprehension is, +that for the cause assigned, the French monarchy may fall before an +aristocracy can be raised to give it necessary support. The great +monarchies of Russia, Prussia, and Austria, having not yet been subject +to popular revolutions, are still able to maintain themselves, through +the old feudal _forces_ and qualities, with something, not much, of the +feudal _virtues_. This cannot be in France; popular inclinations are +much too strong--thanks, I will say so far, to the Revolution. How is a +government fit for her condition to be supported, but by religion, and a +spirit of honour, or refined conscience? Now religion, in a widely +extended country plentifully peopled, cannot be preserved from abuse of +priestly influence, and from superstition and fanaticism, nor honour be +an operating principle upon a large scale, except through +_property_--that is, such accumulations of it, graduated as I have +mentioned above, through the community. Thus and thus only can be had +exemption from temptation to low habits of mind, leisure for solid +education, and dislike to innovation, from a sense in the several +classes how much they have to lose; for circumstances often make men +wiser, or at least more discreet, when their individual levity or +presumption would dispose them to be much otherwise. To what extent that +constitution of character which is produced by property makes up for the +decay of chivalrous loyalty and strengthens governments, may be seen by +comparing the officers of the English army with those of Prussia, &c. +How far superior are ours as gentlemen! so much so that British officers +can scarcely associate with those of the Continent, not from pride, but +instinctive aversion to their low propensities. But I cannot proceed, +and ought, my dear C----, to crave your indulgence for so long a prose. + +When you see Frere, pray give him my kind regards, and say that he shall +hear from me the first frank I can procure. Farewell, with kindest love +from all, + + Yours, very affectionately, + W.W.[87] + +[87] _Memoirs_, ii. 129-131. + +53. _Style: Francis Edgeworth's 'Dramatic Fragment:' Criticisms_. I +should say [to your young friend] style is in Poetry of incalculable +importance. He seems, however, aware of it, for his diction is obviously +studied. Now the great difficulty is to determine what constitutes a +good style. In estimating this we are all subject to delusion, not +improbably I am so, when it appears to me that the metaphor in the first +speech of his dramatic scene is too much drawn out. It does not pass off +as rapidly as metaphors ought to do, I think, in dramatic writing. I am +well aware that our early dramatists abound with these continuities of +imagery, but to me they appear laboured and unnatural, at least unsuited +to that species of composition, of which action and motion are the +essentials. 'While with the ashes of a light that was,' and the two +following lines, are in the best style of dramatic writing. To every +opinion thus given always add, I pray you, 'in my judgment,' though I +may not, to save trouble or to avoid a charge of false modesty, express +it. 'This over-pressure of a heavy pleasure,' &c., is admirable; and, +indeed, it would be tedious to praise all that pleases me. Shelley's +'Witch of Atlas' I never saw; therefore the stanza referring to +Narcissus and her was read by me to some disadvantage. One observation I +am about to make will at least prove I am no flatterer, and will +therefore give a qualified value to my praise. + + 'There was nought there that morn + But thrice three antient hills _alone_.' + +Here the word 'alone,' being used instead of only, makes an absurdity +like that noticed in the _Spectator_--'Enter a king and three fidlers +_solus_.'[88] + +54. _Of the 'Icon Basilike,' &c._ LETTER TO SOUTHEY. + +MY DEAR S----, + +I am ashamed not to have done your message about the _Icon_ to my +brother.[89] + +[88] Extract of Letter to Professor Hamilton, 12th Feb. 1829, here first +printed. G. [F9] This refers to Dr. Wordsworth's volume on the authorship +of _Icon Basilike_. London, 1824. + +I have no excuse, but that at that time both my body and my memory were +run off their legs. I am very glad you thought the answer[90] appeared +to you triumphant, for it had struck me as in the main point, knowledge +of the subject, and spirit in the writing, and accuracy in the logic, as +one of the best controversial tracts I ever had. + +I am glad you have been so busy; I wish I could say so much of myself. I +have written this last month, however, about 600 verses, with tolerable +success. + +Many thanks for the review: your article is excellent. I only wish that +you had said more of the deserts of government in respect to Ireland; +since I do sincerely believe that no government in Europe has shown +better dispositions to its subjects than the English have done to the +Irish, and that no country has improved so much during the same period. +You have adverted to this part of the subject, but not spoken so +forcibly as I could have wished. There is another point might be +insisted upon more expressly than you have done--the danger, not to say +the absurdity, of Roman Catholic legislation for the property of a +_Protestant_ church, so inadequately _represented in Parliament_ as ours +is. The Convocation is gone; clergymen are excluded from the House of +Commons; and the Bishops are at the beck of Ministers. I boldly ask what +real property of the country is so inadequately represented: it is a +mere mockery. + + Most affectionately yours, + W.W.[91] + +[90] This alludes to Dr. Wordsworth's second publication, entitled 'King +Charles the First the Author of _Icon Basilike_.' London, 1828. + +[91] _Memoirs_, ii. 132-3. + + +55. _Of the Roman Catholic Question_. + +LETTER TO G. HUNTLY GORDON, ESQ. + + Rydal Mount, Thursday Night, Feb. 26. 1829. + +You ask for my opinion on the Roman Catholic Question. + +I dare scarcely trust my pen to the notice of the question which the +Duke of Wellington tells us is about to be _settled_. One thing no +rational person will deny, that the experiment is hazardous. Equally +obvious is it that the timidity, supineness, and other unworthy +qualities of the government for many years past have produced the +danger, the extent of which they now affirm imposes a necessity of +granting all that the Romanists demand. Now, it is rather too much that +the country should be called upon to take the measure of this danger +from the very men who may almost be said to have created it. Danger is a +relative thing, and the first requisite for judging of what we have to +dread from the physical force of the Roman Catholics is to be in +sympathy with the Protestants. Had our Ministers been so, could they +have suffered themselves to be bearded by the Catholic Association for +so many years? + +C----, if I may take leave to say it, loses sight of _things_ in +_names_, when he says that they should not be admitted as Roman +Catholics, but simply as British subjects. The question before us is, +Can Protestantism and Popery be coordinate powers in the constitution of +a _free_ country, and at the same time Christian belief be in that +country a vital principle of action? + +I fear not. Heaven grant I may be deceived! + +W.W.[92] + +[92] _Memoirs_, ii. 134. + + +56. _Of the Roman Catholic Emancipation Bill_. + +LETTER TO THE EARL OF LONSDALE. + + Rydal Mount, Wednesday. + +MY LORD, + + * * * * * + +There is one point also delicate to touch upon and hazardous to deal +with, but of prime importance in this crisis. The question, as under the +conduct of the present Ministers, is closely connecting itself with +religion. Now after all, if we are to be preserved from utter confusion, +it is religion and morals, and conscience, which must do the work. The +religious part of the community, especially those attached to the Church +of England, must and _do_ feel that neither the Church as an +establishment, nor its points of Faith as a church, nor Christianity +itself as governed by Scripture, ought to be left long, if it can be +prevented, in the hands which manage our affairs. + +But I am running into unpardonable length. I took up the pen principally +to express a hope that your Lordship may have continued to see the +question in the light which affords the only chance of preserving the +nation from several generations perhaps of confusion, and crime, and +wretchedness. + + Excuse the liberty I have taken, + And believe me most faithfully, + Your Lordship's + Much obliged, + W. WORDSWORTH.[93] + +[93] _Memoirs_, ii. 135. + + +57. _Of Ireland and the Poor Laws, &c._ + +LETTER TO G. HUNTLY GORDON, ESQ. + + Rydal Mount, Dec. 1. 1829. + +MY DEAR SIR, + +You must not go to Ireland without applying to me, as the guide-books +for the most part are sorry things, and mislead by their exaggerations. +If I were a younger man, and could prevail upon an able artist to +accompany me, there are few things I should like better than giving a +month or six weeks to explore the county of Kerry only. A judicious +topographical work on that district would be really useful, both for the +lovers of Nature and the observers of manners. As to the Giant's +Causeway and the coast of Antrim, you cannot go wrong; there the +interests obtrude themselves on every one's notice. + +The subject of the Poor Laws was never out of my sight whilst I was in +Ireland; it seems to me next to impossible to introduce a general system +of such laws, principally for two reasons: the vast numbers that would +have equal claims for relief, and the non-existence of a class capable +of looking with effect to their administration. Much is done at present +in many places (Derry, for example) by voluntary contributions; but the +narrow-minded escape from the burthen, which falls unreasonably upon the +charitable; so that assessments in the best-disposed places are to be +wished for, could they be effected without producing a greater evil. + +The great difficulty that is complained of in the well-managed places is +the floating poor, who cannot be excluded, I am told, by any existing +law from quartering themselves where they like. Open begging is not +practised in many places, but there is no law by which the poor can be +prevented from returning to a place which they may have quitted +voluntarily, or from which they have been expelled (as I was told). Were +it not for this obstacle compulsory local regulations might, I think, be +applied in many districts with good effect. + +It would be unfair to myself to quit this momentous subject without +adding that I am a zealous friend to the great principle of the Poor +Laws, as tending, if judiciously applied, much more to elevate than to +depress the character of the labouring classes. I have never seen this +truth developed as it ought to be in parliament. + +The day I dined with Lord F.L. Gower at his official residence in the +Phoenix Park, I met there with an intelligent gentleman, Mr. Page, who +was travelling in Ireland expressly to collect information upon this +subject, which, no doubt, he means to publish. If you should hear of +this pamphlet when it comes out procure it, for I am persuaded it will +prove well worth reading. Farewell. + + Faithfully yours, + WILLIAM WORDSWORTH.[94] + + +58. _Of the Earl of Lonsdale: Virgil: Book-buying: Gifts of Books: +Commentaries_. + +TWO LETTERS TO THE VENERABLE ARCHDEACON WRANGHAM. + + Rydal Mount, Feb. 19. 1819. + +DEAR WRANGHAM, + +I received your kind letter last night, for which you will accept my +thanks. I write upon the spur of that mark of your regard, or my +aversion to letter-writing might get the better of me. + +I find it difficult to speak publicly of good men while alive, +especially if they are persons who have power. The world ascribes the +eulogy to interested motives, or to an adulatory spirit, which I detest. +But of LORD LONSDALE, I will say to you, that I do not think there +exists in England a man of any rank more anxiously desirous to discharge +his duty in that state of life to which it has pleased God to call him. +His thought and exertions are constantly directed to that object; and +the more he is known the more is he beloved, and respected, and admired. + +[94] _Memoirs_, ii. 155-6. + +I ought to have thanked you before for your version of VIRGIL'S +ECLOGUES, which reached me at last. I have lately compared it line for +line with the original, and think it very well done. I was particularly +pleased with the skill you have shown in managing the contest between +the shepherds in the third Pastoral, where you have included in a +succession of couplets the sense of Virgil's paired hexameters. I think +I mentioned to you that these poems of Virgil have always delighted me +much; there is frequently either an elegance or a happiness which no +translation can hope to equal. In point of fidelity your translation is +very good indeed. + +You astonish me with the account of your books; and I should have been +still more astonished if you had told me you had read a third (shall I +say a tenth part?) of them. My reading powers were never very good, and +now they are much diminished, especially by candle-light; and as to +_buying_ books, I can affirm that in _new_ books I have not spent five +shillings for the last five years, _i.e._, in Reviews, Magazines, +Pamphlets, &c. &c.; so that there would be an end of Mr. Longman, and +Mr. Cadell, &c. &c., if nobody had more power or inclination to buy than +myself. And as to old books, my dealings in that way, for want of means, +have been very trifling. Nevertheless, small and paltry as my collection +is, I have not read a fifth part of it. I should, however, like to see +your army. + + 'Such forces met not, nor so wide a camp, + When Agrican, with fill his _northern_ powers, + Besieged Albracca, as _romances_ tell.' + +Not that I accuse you of romancing; I verily believe that you have all +the books you speak of. Dear Wrangham, are you and I ever like to meet +in this world again? _Yours_ is a _corner_ of the earth; _mine_ is _not_ +so. I never heard of anybody going to Bridlington; but all the world +comes to the Lakes. Farewell. Excuse this wretched scrawl; it is like +all that proceeds from, my miserable pen. + + * * * * * + + Ever faithfully yours, + WM. WORDSWORTH. + +DEAR WRANGHAM, + +You are very good in sending one letter after another to inquire after a +person so undeserving of attentions of this kind as myself. Dr. Johnson, +I think, observes, or rather is made to observe by some of his +biographers, that no man delights to _give_ what he is accustomed to +_sell_. 'For example: you, Mr. Thrale, would rather part with anything +in this way than your porter.' Now, though I have never been much of a +salesman in matters of literature (the whole of my returns--I do not say +_net profits_, but _returns_--from the writing trade, not amounting to +seven score pounds), yet, somehow or other, I manufacture a letter, and +part with it as reluctantly as if it were really a thing of price. But, +to drop the comparison, I have so much to do with writing, in the way of +labour and profession, that it is difficult to me to conceive how +anybody can take up a pen but from constraint. My writing-desk is to me +a place of punishment; and, as my penmanship sufficiently testifies. I +always bend over it with some degree of impatience. All this is said +that you may know the real cause of my silence, and not ascribe it in +any degree to slight or forgetfulness on my part, or an insensibility to +your worth and the value of your friendship.... As to my occupations, +they look little at the present age; but I live in hope of leaving +something behind me that by some minds will be valued. + +I see no new books except by the merest accident. Of course your poem, +which I should have been pleased to read, has not found its way to me. +You inquire about old books: you might almost as well have asked for my +teeth as for any of mine. The only _modern_ books that I read are those +of Travels, or such as relate to matters of fact; and the only modern +books that I care for; but as to old ones, I am like yourself--scarcely +anything comes amiss to me. The little time I have to spare--the very +little, I may say--all goes that way. If, however, in the _line of your +profession_ you want any bulky old Commentaries on the Scriptures (such +as not twelve strong men of these degenerate days will venture--I do not +say to _read_, but to _lift_), I can, perhaps, as a special favour, +accommodate you. + +I and mine will be happy to see you and yours here or anywhere; but I am +sorry the time you talk of is so distant: a year and a half is a long +time looking forward, though looking back ten times as much is as brief +as a dream. My writing is wholly illegible--at least I fear so; I had +better, therefore, release you. + + Believe me, my dear Wrangham, + Your affectionate friend, + W. WORDSWORTH.[95] + + +59. _Poems of Edward Moxon_. + +LETTER TO MOXON. + + (Postmark) Dec. 8. 1826. + +DEAR SIR, + +It is some time since I received your little volume, for which I now +return you my thanks, and also for the obliging letter that accompanied +it. + +Your poem I have read with no inconsiderable pleasure; it is full of +natural sentiments and pleasing pictures: among the minor pieces, the +last pleased me much the best, and especially the latter part of it. +This little volume, with what I saw of yourself during a short +interview, interest me in your welfare; and the more so, as I always +feel some apprehension for the destiny of those who in youth addict +themselves to the composition of verse. It is a very seducing +employment, and, though begun in disinterested love of the Muses, is too +apt to connect itself with self-love, and the disquieting passions which +follow in the train of that our natural infirmity. Fix your eye upon +acquiring independence by honourable business, and let the Muses come +after rather than go before. Such lines as the latter of this couplet, + + 'Where lovely woman, chaste as heaven above. + Shines in the golden virtues of her love,' + +and many other passages in your poem, give proof of no common-place +sensibility. I am therefore the more earnest that you should guard +yourself against this temptation. + +Excuse this freedom; and believe me, my dear Sir, very faithfully, + + Your obliged servant, + WM. WORDSWORTH.[96] + +[95] _Memoirs_, ii. 205-9. + +[96] _Ibid._ ii. 211-12. + + +60. _Of Hamilton's 'It haunts me yet' and Miss Hamilton's 'Boys' +School.'_ + +LETTER TO W.R. HAMILTON, ESQ., OBSERVATORY, NEAR DUBLIN. + + Rydal Mount, near Kendal, Sept. 24. 1827. + +MY DEAR SIR, + +You will have no pain to suffer from my sincerity. With a safe +conscience I can assure you that in my judgment your verses are animated +with true poetic spirit, as they are evidently the product of strong +feeling. The sixth and seventh stanzas affected me much, even to the +dimming of my eye and faltering of my voice while I was reading them +aloud. Having said this, I have said enough; now for the _per contra_. + +You will not, I am sure, be hurt, when I tell you that the workmanship +(what else could be expected from so young a writer?) is not what it +ought to be; even in those two affecting stanzas it is not perfect: + + 'Some touch of human sympathy find way, + And whisper that though Truth's and Science' ray + With such serene effulgence o'er thee shone.' + +Sympathy might whisper, but a '_touch_ of sympathy' could not. 'Truth's +and Science' ray,' for the ray of truth and science, is not only +extremely harsh, but a 'ray _shone_' is, if not absolutely a pleonasm, a +great awkwardness: 'a ray fell' or 'shot' may be said, and a sun or a +moon or a candle shone, but not a ray. I much regret that I did not +receive these verses while you were here, that I might have given you, +_viva voce_, a comment upon them, which would be tedious by letter, and +after all very imperfect. If I have the pleasure of seeing you again, I +will beg permission to dissect these verses, or any other you may be +inclined to show me; but I am certain that without conference with me, +or any benefit drawn from my practice in metrical composition, your own +high powers of mind will lead you to the main conclusions. + +You will be brought to acknowledge that the logical faculty has +infinitely more to do with poetry than the young and the inexperienced, +whether writer or critic, ever dreams of. Indeed, as the materials upon +which that faculty is exorcised in poetry are so subtle, so plastic, so +complex, the application of it requires an adroitness which can proceed +from nothing but practice, a discernment which emotion is so far from +bestowing that at first it is ever in the way of it. Here I must stop: +only let me advert to two lines: + + 'But shall despondence therefore _blench_ my _brow_, + Or pining sorrow sickly ardor o'er.' + +These are two of the worst lines in mere expression. 'Blench' is perhaps +miswritten for 'blanch;' if not, I don't understand the word. _Blench_ +signifies to flinch. If 'blanch' be the word, the next ought to be +'_hair_.' You cannot here use _brow_ for the _hair_ upon it, because a +white brow or forehead is a beautiful characteristic of youth. 'Sickly +ardor o'er' was at first reading to me unintelligible. I took 'sickly' +to be an adjective joined with 'ardor,' whereas you mean it as a portion +of a verb, from Shakspeare, 'Sicklied o'er with the pale cast of +thought.' But the separation of the parts or decomposition of the word, +as here done, is not to be endured. + +Let me now come to your sister's verses, for which I thank you. They are +surprisingly vigorous for a female pen, but occasionally too rugged, and +especially for such a subject; they have also the same faults in +expression as your own, but not, I think, in quite an equal degree. Much +is to be hoped from feelings so strong, and from a mind thus disposed. I +should have entered into particulars with these also, had I seen you +after they came into my hands. Your sister is, no doubt, aware that in +her poem she has trodden the same ground as Gray, in his 'Ode upon a +distant Prospect of Eton College.' What he has been contented to treat +in the abstract, she has represented in particular, and with admirable +spirit. But again, my dear Sir, let me exhort you (and do you exhort +your sister) to deal little with modern writers, but fix your attention +almost exclusively upon those who have stood the test of time. _You_ +have not leisure to allow of your being tempted to turn aside from the +right course by deceitful lights. My household desire to be remembered +to you in no formal way. Seldom have I parted, never I was going to say, +with one whom after so short an acquaintance, I lost sight of with more +regret. I trust we shall meet again, if not [sentence cut off with the +autograph]. Postscript. Pray do not forget to remember me to Mr. Otway. +I was much pleased with him and with your fellow-traveller Mr. Nimmo, +as I should have been, no doubt, with the young Irishman, had not our +conversation taken so serious a turn. The passage in Tacitus which +Milton's line so strongly resembles is not in the 'Agricola,' nor can I +find it, but it exists somewhere. + +W. WORDSWORTH.[97] + + +61. _Of Collins, Dyer, Thomson, &c._ + +LETTER TO REV. ALEXANDER DYCE. + + Rydal Mount, Kendal, Jan. 12. 1829. + +DEAR SIR, + +I regret to hear of the indisposition from which you have been +suffering. + +That you are convinced[98] gives me great pleasure, as I hope that every +other editor of Collins will follow your example. You are at perfect +liberty to declare that you have rejected Bell's copy in consequence of +my opinion of it; and I feel much satisfaction in being the instrument +of rescuing the memory of Collins from this disgrace. I have always felt +some concern that Mr. Home, who lived several years after Bell's +publication, did not testify more regard for his deceased friend's +memory by protesting against this imposition. Mr. Mackenzie is still +living; and I shall shortly have his opinion upon the question; and if +it be at all interesting, I shall take the liberty of sending it to you. + + +[97] _Memoirs_, ii. 212-14, with important additions from the original. +G. + +[98] _i.e._ convinced by what Wordsworth had remarked to me, that those +portions of Collins's 'Ode on the Superstitions of the Highlanders,' +which first appeared in Bell's edition of that Ode, were forgeries. +_A.D._ + +Dyer is another of our minor poets--minor as to quantity--of whom one +would wish to know more. Particulars about him might still be collected, +I should think, in South Wales, his native country, and where in early +life he practised as a painter. I have often heard Sir George Beaumont +express a curiosity about his pictures, and a wish to see any specimen +of his pencil that might survive. If you are a rambler, perhaps you may, +at some time or other, be led into Carmarthenshire, and might bear in +mind what I have just said of this excellent author. + +I had once a hope to have learned some unknown particulars of Thomson, +about Jedburgh, but I was disappointed. Had I succeeded, I meant to +publish a short life of him, prefixed to a volume containing 'The +Seasons,' 'The Castle of Indolence,' his minor pieces in rhyme, and a +few extracts from his plays, and his 'Liberty;' and I feel still +inclined to do something of the kind. These three writers, Thomson, +Collins, and Dyer, had more poetic imagination than any of their +contemporaries, unless we reckon Chatterton as of that age. I do not +name Pope, for he stands alone, as a man most highly gifted; but +unluckily he took the plain when the heights were within his reach. + +Excuse this long letter, and believe me, + + Sincerely yours, + WM. WORDSWORTH.[99] + +[99] _Memoirs_, ii. 214-16. + + +62. _Verses and Counsels_. + +LETTER TO PROFESSOR HAMILTON, OBSERVATORY, DUBLIN. + + Rydal Mount, July 24. 1820. + +MY DEAR SIR, + +I have been very long in your debt. An inflammation in my eyes cut me +off from writing and reading, so that I deem it still prudent to employ +an Amanuensis; but I had a more decisive reason for putting off payment, +nothing less than the hope that I might discharge my debt in person: it +seems better, however, to consult you beforehand. I wish to make a Tour +in Ireland, and _perhaps_ along with my daughter, but I am ignorant of +so many points, as where to begin, whether it be safe at this _rioting_ +period, what is best worth seeing, what mode of travelling will furnish +the greatest advantages at the least expense. Dublin of course--the +Wicklow mountains--Killarney Lakes--and I think the ruins not far from +Limerick would be among my objects, and return by the North; but I can +form no conjecture as to the time requisite for this, and whether it +would be best to take the steamboat from Liverpool to Cork, beginning +there, or to go from Whitehaven to Dublin. To start from Whitehaven by +steam to Dublin would suit me as being nearer this place and a shorter +voyage; besides my son is settled near Whitehaven, and I could +conveniently embark from his abode. + +I have read with great pleasure the 'Sketches in Ireland' which Mr. +Otway was kind enough to present to me; but many interesting things he +speaks of in the West will be quite out of my reach. In short I am as +unprepared with Tourists' information as any man can be, and sensible as +I am of the very great value of your time, I cannot refrain from begging +you to take pity upon my ignorance and to give me some information, +keeping in mind the possibility of my having a female companion. + +It is time to thank you for the verses you so obligingly sent me. + +Your sister's have abundance of spirit and feeling; all that they want +is what appears in itself of little moment, and yet is of incalculably +great,--that is, workmanship,--the art by which the thoughts are made to +melt into each other, and to fall into light and shadow, regulated by +distinct preconception of the best general effect they are capable of +producing. This may seem very vague to you, but by conversation I think +I could make it appear otherwise. It is enough for the present to say +that I was much gratified, and beg you would thank your sister for +favouring me with the sight of compositions so distinctly marked with +that quality which is the subject of them ['Genius']. Your own verses +are to me very interesting, and affect me much as evidences of high and +pure-mindedness, from which humble-mindedness is inseparable. I like to +see and think of you among the stars, and between death and immortality, +where three of these poems place you. The 'Dream of Chivalry' is also +interesting in another way; but it would be insincere not to say that +something of a style more terse, and a harmony more accurately balanced, +must be acquired before the bodily form of your verses will be quite +worthy of their living soul. You are probably aware of this, tho' +perhaps not in an equal degree with myself; nor is it desirable you +should, for it might tempt you to labour, which would divert you from +subjects of infinitely greater importance. + +Many thanks for your interesting account of Mr. Edgeworth. I heartily +concur with you in the wish that neither Plato nor any other profane +author may lead him from the truths of the Gospel, without which our +existence is an insupportable mystery to the thinking mind. + +Looking for a reply at your early convenience, + + I remain, my dear Sir, faithfully, your obliged + WM. WORDSWORTH.[100] + +[100] _Memoirs_, ii. 216-17. + + +63. _'Annuals' and publishing Roguery_. + +LETTER TO C. HUNTLY GORDON, ESQ. Rydal Mount, July 29. 1829. + +MY DEAR SIR, + +I hope you have enjoyed yourself in the country, as we have been doing +among our shady woods, and green hills, and invigorated streams. The +summer is passing on, and I have not left home, and perhaps shall not; +for it is far more from duty than inclination that I quit my dear and +beautiful home; and duty pulls two ways. On the one side my mind stands +in need of being fed by new objects for meditation and reflection, the +more so because diseased eyes have cut me off so much from reading; and, +on the other hand, I am obliged to look at the expense of distant +travelling, as I am not able to take so much out of my body by walking +as heretofore. + +I have not got my MS. back from the ----,[101] whose managers have, +between them, used me shamefully; but my complaint is principally of the +editor, for with the proprietor I have had little direct connection. If +you think it worth while, you shall, at some future day, see such parts +of the correspondence as I have preserved. Mr. Southey is pretty much in +the same predicament with them, though he has kept silence for the +present.... I am properly served for having had any connection with such +things. My only excuse is, that they offered me a very liberal sum, and +that I have laboured hard through a long life, without more pecuniary +emolument than a lawyer gets for two special retainers, or a public +performer sometimes for two or three songs. Farewell; pray let me hear +from 3-011 at your early convenience, + + And believe me faithfully your + Much obliged + WM. WORDSWORTH.[102] + +[101] An Annual, to which Wordsworth had been induced to become a +contributor. + +[102] _Memoirs_, ii. 217-18. + + +64. _Works of George Peele_. + +LETTER TO REV. ALEXANDER DYCE. + + Rydal Mount, Kendal, Oct. 16. 1829. + +MY DEAR SIR, + +On my return from Ireland, where I have been travelling a few weeks, I +found your present of George Peele's works, and the obliging letter +accompanying it; for both of which I offer my cordial thanks. + +English literature is greatly indebted to your labours; and I have much +pleasure in this occasion of testifying my respect for the sound +judgment and conscientious diligence with which you discharge your duty +as an editor. Peele's works were well deserving of the care you have +bestowed upon them; and, as I did not previously possess a copy of any +part of them, the beautiful book which you have sent me was very +acceptable. + +By accident, I learned lately that you had made a Book of Extracts, +which I had long wished for opportunity and industry to execute myself. +I am happy it has fallen into so much better hands. I allude to your +_Selections from the Poetry of English Ladies_. I had only a glance at +your work; but I will take this opportunity of saying, that should a +second edition be called for, I should be pleased with the honour of +being consulted by you about it. There is one poetess to whose writings +I am especially partial, the Countess of Winchelsea. I have perused her +poems frequently, and should be happy to name such passages as I think +most characteristic of her genius, and most fit to be selected. + +I know not what to say about my intended edition of a portion of +Thomson. There appears to be some indelicacy in one poet treating +another in that way. The example is not good, though I think there are +few to whom the process might be more advantageously applied than to +Thomson. Yet, so sensible am I of the objection, that I should not have +entertained the thought, but for the expectation held out to me by an +acquaintance, that valuable materials for a new Life of Thomson might be +procured. In this I was disappointed. + + + With much respect, I remain, dear Sir, + Sincerely yours, + WM. WORDSWORTH.[103] + +[103] _Memoirs_, ii. 219-220. + + +65. _Of Lady Winchelsea, Tickell, &c.: Sonnets, &c._ + +LETTER TO REV. ALEXANDER DYCE. + + Rydal Mount, Kendal, May 10. 1830. + +MY DEAR SIR, + +My last was, for want of room, concluded so abruptly, that I avail +myself of an opportunity of sending you a few additional words free of +postage, upon the same subject. + +I observed that Lady Winchelsea was unfortunate in her +models--_Pindarics_ and _Fables_; nor does it appear from her +_Aristomenes_ that she would have been more successful than her +contemporaries, if she had cultivated tragedy. She had sensibility +sufficient for the tender parts of dramatic writing, but in the stormy +and tumultuous she would probably have failed altogether. She seems to +have made it a moral and religious duty to control her feelings lest +they should mislead her. Of love, as a passion, she is afraid, no doubt +from a conscious inability to soften it down into friendship. I have +often applied two lines of her drama (p. 318) to her affections: + + 'Love's soft bands, + His gentle cords of hyacinths and roses, + Wove in the dewy Spring when storms are silent.' + +By the by, in the next page are two impassioned lines spoken to a person +fainting: + + 'Then let me hug and press thee into life, + And lend thee motion from my beating heart.' + +From the style and versification of this, so much her longest work, I +conjecture that Lady Winchelsea had but a slender acquaintance with the +drama of the earlier part of the preceding century. Yet her style in +rhyme is often admirable, chaste, tender, and vigorous, and entirely +free from sparkle, antithesis, and that overculture, which reminds one, +by its broad glare, its stiffness, and heaviness, of the double daisies +of the garden, compared with their modest and sensitive kindred of the +fields. Perhaps I am mistaken, but I think there is a good deal of +resemblance in her style and versification to that of Tickell, to whom +Dr. Johnson justly assigns a high place among the minor poets, and of +whom Goldsmith rightly observes, that there is a strain of +ballad-thinking through all his poetry, and it is very attractive. Pope, +in that production of his boyhood, the 'Ode to Solitude,' and in his +'Essay on Criticism,' has furnished proofs that at one period of his +life he felt the charm of a sober and subdued style, which he afterwards +abandoned for one that is, to my taste at least, too pointed and +ambitious, and for a versification too timidly balanced. + +If a second edition of your 'Specimens' should be called for, you might +add from Helen Maria Williams the 'Sonnet to the Moon,' and that to +'Twilight;' and a few more from Charlotte Smith, particularly, + + 'I love thee, mournful, sober-suited Night.' + +At the close of a sonnet of Miss Seward are two fine verses: + + 'Come, that I may not hear the winds of night. + Nor count the heavy eave-drops as they fall.' + +You have well characterised the poetic powers of this lady; but, after +all, her verses please me, with all their faults, better than those of +Mrs. Barbauld, who, with much higher powers of mind, was spoiled as a +poetess by being a dissenter, and concerned with a dissenting academy. +One of the most pleasing passages in her poetry is the close of the +lines upon 'Life,' written, I believe, when she was not less than eighty +years of age: + + 'Life, we have been long together,' &c.[104] + +You have given a specimen of that ever-to-be-pitied victim of Swift, +'Vanessa.' I have somewhere a short piece of hers upon her passion for +Swift, which well deserves to be added. But I am becoming tedious, which +you will ascribe to a well-meant endeavour to make you some return for +your obliging attentions. + + I remain, dear Sir, faithfully yours, + WM. WORDSWORTH.[105] + +[104] It was on hearing these lines repeated by his friend, Mr. H.C. +Robinson, that Wordsworth exclaimed, 'Well! I am not given to envy other +people their good things; but I _do_ wish I had written _that_.' He much +admired Mrs. Barbauld's Essays, and sent a copy of them, with a +laudatory letter upon them, to the Archbishop of Canterbury. + +[105] _Memoirs_, ii. 220-22. + + +66. _Hamilton's 'Spirit of Beauty:' Verbal Criticism: Female Authorship: +Words_. + +Where there is so much sincerity of feeling in a matter so dignified as +the renunciation of poetry for science, one feels that an apology is +necessary for verbal criticism. I will therefore content myself with +observing that 'joying' for joy or joyance is not to my taste. Indeed I +object to such liberties upon principle. We should soon have no language +at all if the unscrupulous coinage of the present day were allowed to +pass, and become a precedent for the future. One of the first duties of +a Writer is to ask himself whether his thought, feeling, or image cannot +be expressed by existing words or phrases, before he goes about creating +new terms, even when they are justified by the analogies of the +language. 'The cataract's steep flow' is both harsh and inaccurate: +'thou hast seen me bend over the cataract' would express one idea in +simplicity and all that was required. Had it been necessary to be more +particular, 'steep flow' are not the words that ought to have been used. +I remember Campbell says in a composition that is overrun with faulty +language, 'And dark as winter was the _flow_ of Iser rolling rapidly;' +that is, 'flowing rapidly.' The expression ought to have been 'stream' +or 'current...' These may appear to you frigid criticisms, but depend +upon it no writings will live in which these rules are disregarded.... + +Female authorship is to be shunned as bringing in its train more and +heavier evils than have presented themselves to your sister's ingenuous +mind. No true friend I am sure will endeavour to shake her resolution to +remain in her own quiet and healthful obscurity. This is not said with a +view to discourage her from writing, nor have the remarks made above any +aim of the kind; they are rather intended to assist her in writing with +more permanent satisfaction to herself. She will probably write less in +proportion as she subjects her feelings to logical forms, but the range +of her sensibilities so far from being narrowed will extend as she +improves in the habit of looking at things thro' a steady light of +words; and, to speak a little metaphysically, words are not a mere +vehicle, but they are powers either to kill or animate.[106] + +[106] Extract of letter to Professor Hamilton, Dublin, Dec. 23d, 1829. + +67. _His 'Play:' Hone: Eyesight failing, &c._ + + TO CHARLES LAMB, ESQ. + Jan. 10. 1830. +MY DEAR LAMB, + +A whole twelvemonth have I been a letter in your debt, for which fault I +have been sufficiently punished by self-reproach. + +I liked your Play marvellously, having no objection to it but one, which +strikes me as applicable to a large majority of plays, those of +Shakspeare himself not entirely excepted--I mean a little degradation of +character for a more dramatic turn of plot. Your present of Hone's book +was very acceptable; and so much so, that your part of the book is the +cause why I did not write long ago. I wished to enter a little minutely +into notice of the dramatic extracts, and, on account of the smallness +of the print, deferred doing so till longer days would allow me to read +without candle-light, which I have long since given up. But, alas! when +the days lengthened, my eyesight departed, and for many months I could +not read three minutes at a time. You will be sorry to hear that this +infirmity still hangs about me, and almost cuts me off from reading +altogether. But how are you, and how is your dear sister? I long much, +as we all do, to know. + +For ourselves, this last year, owing to my sister's dangerous illness, +the effects of which are not yet got over, has been an anxious one and +melancholy. But no more of this. My sister has probably told everything +about the family; so that I may conclude with less scruple, by assuring +you of my sincere and faithful affection for you and your dear sister. + + WM. WORDSWORTH.[107] + +68. _Summer: Mr. Quillinan: Draining, &c._ + +LETTER TO G. HUNTLY GORDON, ESQ. + + Rydal Mount, April 6. 1830. + +MY DEAR MR. GORDON, + +You are kind in noticing with thanks my rambling notes.[108] + +We have had here a few days of delicious summer weather. + +[107] _Memoirs_, ii. 223. + +[108] On a proposed tour. + +It appeared with the suddenness of a pantomimic trick, stayed longer +than we had a right to expect, and was as rapidly succeeded by high +wind, bitter cold, and winter snow, over hill and dale. + +I am not surprised that you are so well pleased with Mr. Quillinan. The +more you see of him the better you will like him. You ask what are my +employments. According to Dr. Johnson they are such as entitle me to +high commendation, for I am not only making two blades of grass grow +where only one grew before, but a dozen. In plain language, I am +draining a bit of spungy ground.[109] In the field where this goes on I +am making a green terrace that commands a beautiful view of our two +lakes, Rydal and Windermere, and more than two miles of intervening vale +with the stream visible by glimpses flowing through it. I shall have +great pleasure in showing you this among the other returns which I hope +one day to make for your kindness. + + Adieu, yours, + W.W.[110] + + +69. _Works of Webster, &c.: Elder Poets: Dr. Darwin: 'Excursion:' +Collins, &c._ + +LETTER TO REV. ALEXANDER DYCE. + +[No date, but Postmark, 1830.] + +I am truly obliged, my dear Sir, by your valuable present of Webster's +Dramatic Works and the 'Specimens.'[111] Your publisher was right in +insisting upon the whole of Webster, otherwise the book might have been +superseded, either by an entire edition separately given to the world, +or in some _corpus_ of the dramatic writers. The poetic genius of +England, with the exception of Chaucer, Spenser, Milton, Dryden, Pope, +and a very few more, is to be sought in her drama. How it grieves one +that there is so little probability of those valuable authors being read +except by the curious! I questioned my friend Charles Lamb whether it +would answer for some person of real taste to undertake abridging the +plays that are not likely to be read as wholes, and telling such parts +of the story in brief abstract as were ill managed in the drama. He +thought it would not. I, however, am inclined to think it would. + +[109] In the field to the S.W. below the garden at Rydal. + +[110] _Memoirs_, ii. 224. + +[111] _Specimens of British Poetesses. A.D._ + +The account of your indisposition gives me much concern. It pleases me, +however, to see that, though you may suffer, your industry does not +relax; and I hope that your pursuits are rather friendly than injurious +to your health. + +You are quite correct in your notice of my obligation to Dr. +Darwin.[112] In the first edition of the poem it was acknowledged in a +note, which slipped out of its place in the last, along with some +others. In putting together that edition, I was obliged to cut up +several copies; and, as several of the poems also changed their places, +some confusion and omission, and, in one instance, a repetition, was the +consequence. Nothing, however, so bad as in the edition of 1820, where a +long poem, 'The Lament of Mary Queen of Scots,' was by mistake +altogether omitted. Another unpleasantness arose from the same cause; +for, in some instances, notwithstanding repeated charges to the printer, +you have only two Spenserian stanzas in a page (I speak now of the last +edition) instead of three; and there is the same irregularity in +printing other forms of stanza. + +You must indeed have been fond of that ponderous quarto, 'The +Excursion,' to lug it about as you did.[113] In the edition of 1827 it +was diligently revised, and the sense in several instances got into less +room; yet still it is a long poem for these feeble and fastidious times. +You would honour me much by accepting a copy of my poetical works; but I +think it better to defer offering it to you till a new edition is called +for, which will be ere long, as I understand the present is getting low. + +[112] In Mr. W.'s lines 'To Enterprise.' _A.D._ + +[113] I had mentioned to Mr. W. that, when I had a curacy in Cornwall, I +used frequently to carry 'The Excursion' down to the sea-shore, and read +it there. _A.D._ + +A word or two about Collins. You know what importance I attach to +following strictly the last copy of the text of an author; and I do not +blame you for printing in the 'Ode to Evening' 'brawling' spring; but +surely the epithet is most unsuitable to the time, the very worst, I +think, that could have been chosen. + +I now come to Lady Winchelsea. First, however, let me say a few words +upon one or two other authoresses of your 'Specimens.' British poetesses +make but a poor figure in the 'Poems by Eminent Ladies.'[114] + +[114] Two volumes, 1755. _A.D._ + +But observing how injudicious that selection is in the case of Lady +Winchelsea, and of Mrs. Aphra Behn (from whose attempts they are +miserably copious), I have thought something better might have been +chosen by more competent persons who had access to the volumes of the +several writers. In selecting from Mrs. Pilkington, I regret that you +omitted (look at p. 255) 'Sorrow,' or at least that you did not abridge +it. The first and third paragraph are very affecting. See also +'Expostulation,' p. 258: it reminds me strongly of one of the +Penitential Hymns of Burns. The few lines upon St. John the Baptist, by +Mrs. Killigrew (vol. ii. p. 6), are pleasing. A beautiful Elegy of Miss +Warton (sister to the poets of that name) upon the death of her father, +has escaped your notice; nor can I refer you to it. Has the Duchess of +Newcastle written much verse? her Life of her Lord, and the extracts in +your book, and in the 'Eminent Ladies,' are all that I have seen of +hers. The 'Mirth and Melancholy' has so many fine strokes of +imagination, that I cannot but think there must be merit in many parts +of her writings. How beautiful those lines, from 'I dwell in groves,' to +the conclusion, 'Yet better loved, the more that I am known,' excepting +the four verses after 'Walk up the hills.' And surely the latter verse +of the couplet, + + 'The tolling bell which for the dead rings out; + A mill where rushing waters run about;' + +is very noticeable: no person could have hit upon that union of images +without being possessed of true poetic feeling. Could you tell me +anything of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu more than is to be learned from +Pope's letters and her own? She seems to have been destined for +something much higher and better than she became. A parallel between her +genius and character and that of Lady Winchelsea her contemporary +(though somewhat prior to her) would be well worth drawing. + +And now at last for the poems of Lady Winchelsea. I will transcribe a +note from a blank leaf of my own edition, written by me before I saw the +scanty notice of her in Walpole. (By the by, that book has always +disappointed me when I have consulted it upon any particular occasion.) +The note runs thus: 'The "Fragment," p. 280, seems to prove that she was +attached to James II., as does p. 42, and that she suffered by the +Revolution. The most celebrated of these poems, but far from the best, +is "The Spleen." "The Petition for an absolute Retreat," and the +"Nocturnal Reverie," are of much superior merit. See also for favourable +specimens, p. 156; "On the Death of Mr. Thynne," p. 263; and p. 280, +"Fragment." The Fable of "Love, Death, and Reputation," p. 29, is +ingeniously told.' Thus far my own note. I will now be more particular. +P. 3, 'Our Vanity,' &c., and p. 163 are noticeable as giving some +account from herself of her authorship. See also p. 148, where she +alludes to 'The Spleen.' She was unlucky in her models, Pindaric Odes +and French Fables. But see p. 70, 'The Blindness of Elymas,' for proof +that she could write with powers of a high order when her own individual +character and personal feelings were not concerned. For less striking +proofs of this power, see p. 4, 'All is Vanity,' omitting verses 5 and +6, and reading 'clouds that are lost and gone,' &c. There is merit in +the two next stanzas; and the last stanza towards the close contains a +fine reproof for the ostentation of Louis XIV., and one magnificent +verse, + + 'Spent the astonished hours, forgetful to adore.' + +But my paper is nearly out. As far as 'For my garments,' p. 36, the poem +is charming; it then falls off; revives at p. 39, 'Give me there;' p. +41, &c., reminds me of Dyer's 'Grongar Hill;' it revives p. 47, towards +the bottom, and concludes with sentiments worthy of the writer, though +not quite so happily expressed as other parts of the poem. See pages 82, +92, 'Whilst in the Muses' paths I stray;' p. 113. 'The Cautious Lovers,' +p. 118, has little poetic merit, but is worth reading as characteristic +of the author. P. 143, 'Deep lines of honour,' &c., to 'maturer age.' P. +151, if shortened, would be striking; p. 154, characteristic; p. 159, +from 'Meanwhile, ye living parents,' to the close, omitting 'Nor could +we hope,' and the five following verses; p. 217, last paragraph; p. 259, +_that_ you have;[115] pp. 262, 263; p. 280, Was Lady W. a R. Catholic? +p. 290, 'And to the clouds proclaim thy fall;' p. 291, omit 'When +scatter'd glow-worms,' and the next couplet. I have no more room. Pray, +excuse this vile scrawl. + +Ever faithfully yours, W.W. + +P.S. I have inconsiderately sent your letter to my daughter (now +absent), without copying the address. I knew the letter would interest +her. I shall direct to your publisher.[116] + +Rydal Mount. + +[115] Mr. W. means, that I _have_ inserted that poem in my 'Specimens.' +_A.D._ + +[116] _Memoirs_, ii. 225-30. + + +70. _French Revolution_, 1830. + +LETTERS TO G. HUNTLY GORDON, ESQ. + +MY DEAR MR. GORDON, + + * * * * * + +I cannot but deeply regret that the late King of France and his +ministers should have been so infatuated. Their stupidity, not to say +their crimes, has given an impulse to the revolutionary and democratic +spirit throughout Europe which is premature, and from which much +immediate evil may be apprehended, whatever things may settle into at +last. Whereas had the Government conformed to the increasing knowledge +of the people, and not surrendered itself to the counsels of the priests +and the bigoted Royalists, things might have been kept in an even +course, to the mutual improvement and benefit of both governed and +governors. + +In France incompatible things are aimed at--a monarchy and democracy to +be united without an intervening aristocracy to constitute a graduated +scale of power and influence. I cannot conceive how an hereditary +monarchy can exist without an hereditary peerage in a country so large +as France, nor how either can maintain their ground if the law of the +Napoleon Code, compelling equal division of property by will, be not +repealed. And I understand that a vast majority of the French are +decidedly adverse to the repeal of that law, which, I cannot but think, +will ere long be found injurious both to France and, in its collateral +effects, to the rest of Europe. + + Ever, dear Mr. Gordon, + Cordially and faithfully yours, + WM. WORDSWORTH. + +MY DEAR MR. GORDON, + +Thanks for your hint about Rhenish: strength from wine is good, from +water still better. + + * * * * * + +One is glad to see tyranny baffled and foolishness put to shame; but the +French King and his ministers will be unfairly judged by all those who +take not into consideration the difficulties of their position. It is +not to be doubted that there has long existed a determination, and that +plans have been laid, to destroy the Government which the French +received, as they felt, at the hands of the Allies, and their pride +could not bear. Moreover, the Constitution, had it been their own +choice, would by this time have lost favour in the eyes of the French, +as not sufficiently democratic for the high notion _that_ people +entertain of their fitness to govern themselves; but, for my own part, +I'd rather fill the office of a parish beadle than sit on the throne +where the Duke of Orleans has suffered himself to be placed. + +The heat is gone, and but that we have too much rain again the country +would be enchanting. + + With a thousand thanks, + I remain ever yours, + WM. WORDSWORTH.[117] + + +71. _Nonsense: Rotten Boroughs: Sonnets: Pegasus: Kenelm Digby: +Tennysons_. + +LETTERS TO PROFESSOR HAMILTON. + + Trinity Lodge, Cambridge, November 26. 1830. + +MY DEAR MR. HAMILTON, + +I reached this place nine days ago, where I should have found your +letter of the 23d ult., but that it had been forwarded to Coleorton +Hall, Leicestershire, where we stopped a week on our road. I am truly +glad to find that your good spirits put you upon writing what you call +nonsense, and so much of it; but I assure you it all passed with me for +very agreeable sense, or something better, and continues to do so even +in this learned spot; which you will not be surprised to hear, when I +tell you that at a dinner-party the other day, I heard a Head of a +House, a clergyman also, gravely declare, that the rotten boroughs, as +they are called, should instantly be abolished without compensation to +their owners; that slavery should be destroyed with like disregard of +the _claims_ (for rights he would allow none) of the proprietors, and a +multitude of extravagances of the same sort. Therefore say I, Vive la +Bagatelle; motley is your only wear. + +[117] _Memoirs_, ii. 230-1. + +You tell me kindly that you have often asked yourself where is Mr. +Wordsworth, and the question has readily been solved for you. He is at +Cambridge: a great mistake! So late as the 5th of November, I will tell +you where I was, a solitary equestrian entering the romantic little town +of Ashford in the Waters, on the edge of Wilds of Derbyshire, at the +close of day, when guns were beginning to be left [let?] off and squibs +to be fired on every side. So that I thought it prudent to dismount and +lead my horse through the place, and so on to Bakewell, two miles +farther. You must know how I happened to be riding through these wild +regions. It was my wish that Dora should have the benefit of her pony +while at Cambridge, and very valiantly and economically I determined, +unused as I am to horsemanship, to ride the creature myself. I sent +James with it to Lancaster; there mounted; stopped a day at Manchester, +a week at Coleorton, and so reached the end of my journey safe and +sound, not, however, without encountering two days of tempestuous rain. +Thirty-seven miles did I ride in one day through the worse of these +storms. And what was my resource? guess again: writing verses to the +memory of my departed friend Sir George Beaumont, whose house I had left +the day before. While buffetting the other storm I composed a Sonnet +upon the splendid domain at Chatsworth, which I had seen in the morning, +as contrasted with the secluded habitations of the narrow dells in the +Park; and as I passed through the tame and manufacture-disfigured +country of Lancashire I was reminded by the faded leaves, of Spring, and +threw off a few stanzas of an ode to May. + +But too much of self and my own performances upon my steed--a descendant +no doubt of Pegasus, though his owner and present rider knew nothing of +it. Now for a word about Professor Airey. I have seen him twice; but I +did not communicate your message. It was at dinner and at an evening +party, and I thought it best not to speak of it till I saw him, which I +mean to do, upon a morning call. + +There is a great deal of intellectual activity within the walls of this +College, and in the University at large; but conversation turns mainly +upon the state of the country and the late change in the administration. +The fires have extended to within 8 miles of this place; from which I +saw one of the worst, if not absolutely the worst, indicated by a +redness in the sky--a few nights ago. + +I am glad when I fall in with a member of Parliament, as it puts me upon +writing to my friends, which I am always disposed to defer, without such +a determining advantage. At present we have two members, Mr. Cavendish, +one of the representatives of the University, and Lord Morpeth, under +the Master's roof. We have also here Lady Blanche, wife of Mr. +Cavendish, and sister of Lord Morpeth. She is a great admirer of Mrs. +Hemans' poetry. There is an interesting person in this University for a +day or two, whom I have not yet seen--Kenelm Digby, author of the +'Broadstone of Honor,' a book of chivalry, which I think was put into +your hands at Rydal Mount. We have also a respectable show of blossom in +poetry. Two brothers of the name of Tennison, in particular, are not a +little promising. Of science I can give you no account; though perhaps I +may pick up something for a future letter, which may be long in coming +for reasons before mentioned. Mrs. W. and my daughter, of whom you +inquire, are both well; the latter rides as often as weather and regard +for the age of her pony will allow. She has resumed her German labours, +and is not easily drawn from what she takes to. Therefore I hope Miss +Hamilton will not find fault if she does not write for some time, as she +will readily conceive that with this passion upon her, and many +engagements, she will be rather averse to writing. In fact she owes a +long letter to her brother in Germany, who, by the bye, tells us that he +will not cease to look out for the Book of Kant you wished for. +Farewell, with a thousand kind remembrances to yourself and sister, and +the rest of your amiable family, in which Mrs. W. and Dora join. + + Believe me most faithfully yours, + WM. WORDSWORTH.[118] + +[118] Here first printed. G. + + +72. _Verses: 'Reform Bill:' Francis Edgeworth: Eagles: 'Yarrow +Revisited.'_ + + Rydal Mount, Oct. 27 [1831]. + +MY DEAR MR. HAMILTON, + +A day or two before my return from Scotland arrived your letter and +verses; for both of which I thank you, as they exhibit your mind under +those varied phases which I have great pleasure in contemplating. My +reply is earlier than it would have been, but for the opportunity of a +frank from one of the Members for the University of Oxford--a friend of +Mr. Southey's and mine, who by way of recreating himself after the +fatigues of the last Session, had taken a trip to see the Manchester +railway, and kindly and most unexpectedly came on to give a day apiece +to Southey and me. He is, like myself, in poor heart at the aspect of +public affairs. In his opinion the Ministers when they brought in the +Bill neither expected nor wished it to be carried. All they wanted was +an opportunity of saying to the people, 'Behold what great things we +would have done for you had it been in our power: we must now content +ourselves with the best we can get.' But, to return to your letter. To +speak frankly, you appear to be at least three-fourths gone in love; +therefore, think about the last quarter in the journey. The picture you +give of the lady makes one wish to see her more familiarly than I had an +opportunity of doing, were it only to ascertain whether, as you +astronomers have in your observatories magnifying glasses for the stars, +you do not carry about with you also, when you descend to common life, +coloured glasses and Claude Loraine mirrors for throwing upon objects +that interest you enough for the purpose, such lights and hues as may be +most to the taste of the intellectual vision. In a former letter you +mention Francis Edgeworth. He is a person not to be forgotten. If you be +in communication with him pray present him my very kind respects, and +say that he was not unfrequently in my thoughts during my late poetic +rambles; and particularly when I saw the objects which called forth a +Sonnet that I shall send you. He was struck with my mention of a sound +in the eagle's notes, much and frequently resembling the yelping and +barking of a dog, and quoted a passage in Eschylus where the eagle is +called the flying hound of the air, and he suggested that Eschylus might +not only allude by that term to his being a bird of chase or prey, but +also to this barking voice, which I do not recollect ever hearing +noticed. The other day I was forcibly reminded of the circumstances +under which the pair of eagles were seen that I described in the letter +to Mr. Edgeworth, his brother. It was the promontory of Fairhead, on the +coast of Antrim, and no spectacle could be grander. At Dunally Castle, a +ruin seated at the tip of one of the horns of the bay of Oban, I saw +the other day one of these noble creatures cooped up among the ruins, +and was incited to give vent to my feelings as you shall now see: + + 'Dishonoured Rock and Ruin! that by law + Tyrannic, keep the Bird of Jove imbarred, + Like a lone criminal whose life is spared. + Vexed is he and screams loud:--The last I saw + Was on the wing, and struck my soul with awe, + Now wheeling low, then with a consort paired, + From a bold headland their loved aery's guard, + Flying, above Atlantic waves,--to draw + Light from the fountain of the setting sun. + Such was this prisoner once; and, when his plumes + The sea-blast ruffles as the storm comes on, + In spirit, for a moment he resumes + His rank 'mong free-born creatures that live free; + His power, his beauty, and his majesty.' + +You will naturally wish to hear something of Sir Walter Scott, and +particularly of his health. I found him a good deal changed within the +last three or four years, in consequence of some shocks of the +apoplectic kind; but his friends say that he is very much better, and +the last accounts, up to the time of his going on board, were still more +favourable. He himself thinks his age much against him, but he has only +completed his 60th year. But a friend of mine was here the other day, +who has rallied, and is himself again, after a much severer shock, and +at an age several years more advanced. So that I trust the world and his +friends may be hopeful, with good reason, that the life and faculties of +this man, who has during the last six and twenty years diffused more +innocent pleasure than ever fell to the lot of any human being to do in +his own life-time, may be spared. Voltaire, no doubt, was full as +extensively known, and filled a larger space probably in the eye of +Europe; for he was a great theatrical writer, which Scott has not proved +himself to be, and miscellaneous to that degree, that there was +something for all classes of readers: but the pleasure afforded by his +writings, with the exception of some of his Tragedies and minor Poems, +was not pure, and in this Scott is greatly his superior. + +As Dora has told your sister, Sir W. was our guide to Yarrow. The +pleasure of that day induced me to add a third to the two poems upon +Yarrow, 'Yarrow Revisited.' It is in the same measure, and as much in +the same spirit as matter of fact would allow. You are artist enough to +know that it is next to impossible entirely to harmonise things that +rest upon their poetic credibility, and are idealised by distance of +time and space, with those that rest upon the evidence of the hour, and +have about them the thorny points of actual life. I am interrupted by a +stranger, and a gleam of fine weather reminds me also of taking +advantage of it the moment I am at liberty, for we have had a week of +incessant rain. + + [Ever faithfully yours, + WM. WORDSWORTH.][119] + +[119] _Memoirs_, ii. 241-2. Given completely (instead of the brief +extract) from the original. The autograph, &c. cut away. G. + + +73. _Tour in Scotland_. + +LETTER TO LADY FREDERICK BENTINCK. + + Rydal Mount, Nov. 9. + +MY DEAR LADY FREDERICK, + + * * * * * + +You are quite right, dear Lady F., in congratulating me on my late +ramble in Scotland. I set off with a severe inflammation in one of my +eyes, which was removed by being so much in the open air; and for more +than a month I scarcely saw a newspaper, or heard of their contents. +During this time we almost forgot, my daughter and I, the deplorable +state of the country. My spirits rallied, and, with exercise--for I +often walked scarcely less than twenty miles a day--and the employment +of composing verses, amid scenery the most beautiful, and at a season +when the foliage was most rich and varied, the time flew away +delightfully; and when we came back into the world again, it seemed as +if I had waked from a dream, that never was to return. We travelled in +an open carriage with one horse, driven by Dora; and while we were in +the Highlands I walked most of the way by the side of the carriage, +which left us leisure to observe the beautiful appearances. The rainbows +and coloured mists floating about the hills were more like enchantment +than anything I ever saw, even among the Alps. There was in particular, +the day we made the tour of Loch Lomond in the steamboat, a fragment of +a rainbow, so broad, so splendid, so glorious, with its reflection in +the calm water, it astonished every one on board, a party of foreigners +especially, who could not refrain from expressing their pleasure in a +more lively manner than we are accustomed to do. My object in going to +Scotland so late in the season was to see Sir Walter Scott before his +departure. We stayed with him three days, and he quitted Abbotsford the +day after we left it. His health has undoubtedly been much shattered, by +successive shocks of apoplexy, but his friends say he is so much +recovered, that they entertain good hopes of his life and faculties +being spared. Mr. Lockhart tells me that he derived benefit by a change +of his treatment made by his London physicians, and that he embarked in +good spirits. + +As to public affairs, I have no hope but in the goodness of Almighty +God. The Lords have recovered much of the credit they had lost by their +conduct in the Roman Catholic question. As an Englishman I am deeply +grateful for the stand which they have made, but I cannot help fearing +that they may be seduced or intimidated. Our misfortune is, that the +disapprovers of this monstrous bill give way to a belief that nothing +can prevent its being passed; and therefore they submit. + +As to the cholera, I cannot say it appals me much; it may be in the +order of Providence to employ this scourge for bringing the nation to +its senses; though history tells us in the case of the plague at Athens, +and other like visitations, that men are never so wicked and depraved as +when afflictions of that kind are upon them. So that, after all, one +must come round to our only support, submission to the will of God, and +faith in the ultimate goodness of His dispensations. + +I am sorry you did not mention your son, in whose health and welfare, +and progress in his studies, I am always much interested. Pray remember +me kindly to Lady Caroline. All here join with me in presenting their +kindest remembrances to yourself; and believe me, dear Lady Frederick, + + Faithfully and affectionately yours, + WM. WORDSWORTH.[120] + +[120] _Memoirs_, ii. 242-4. + + +74. _Sir Walter Scott_. + +EXTRACT OF LETTER TO MRS. HEMANS. + +Rydal Mount, Aug. 20. 1833. + +The visit which occasioned the poem ['Yarrow Revisited'] addressed to +Sir Walter Scott, that you mention in terms so flattering, was a very +melancholy one. My daughter was with me. We arrived at his house on +Monday noon, and left it at the same time on Thursday, the very day +before he quitted Abbotsford for London, on his way to Naples. On the +morning of our departure he composed a few lines for Dora's Album, and +wrote them in it. We prize this memorial very much, and the more so as +an affecting testimony of his regard at a time when, as the verses +prove, his health of body and powers of mind were much impaired and +shaken. You will recollect the little green book which you were kind +enough to write in on its first page. + +Let me hope that your health will improve, so that you may be enabled to +proceed with the sacred poetry with which you are engaged. Be assured +that I shall duly appreciate the mark of honour you design for me in +connection with so interesting a work.[121] + +[121] _Memoirs_, ii. 244. + + +75. _Of Advices that he would write more in Prose_. + +LETTER TO REV. J.K. MILLER, VICAR OF WALKERINGHAM. + + Rydal Mount, Kendal, Dec. 17. 1831. + +MY DEAR SIR, + +You have imputed my silence, I trust, to some cause neither disagreeable +to yourself nor unworthy of me. Your letter of the 26th of Nov. had been +misdirected to Penrith, where the postmaster detained it some time, +expecting probably that I should come to that place, which I have often +occasion to visit. When it reached me I was engaged in assisting my wife +to make out some of my mangled and almost illegible MSS., which +inevitably involved me in endeavours to correct and improve them. My +eyes are subject to frequent inflammations, of which I had an attack +(and am still suffering from it) while that was going on. You would +nevertheless have heard from me almost as soon as I received your +letter, could I have replied to it in terms in any degree accordant to +my wishes. Your exhortations troubled me in a way you cannot be in the +least aware of; for I have been repeatedly urged by some of my most +valued friends, and at times by my own conscience, to undertake the task +you have set before me. But I will deal frankly with you. A conviction +of my incompetence to do justice to the momentous subject has kept me, +and I fear will keep me, silent. My sixty-second year will soon be +completed, and though I have been favoured thus far in health and +strength beyond most men of my age, yet I feel its effects upon my +spirits; they sink under a pressure of apprehension to which, at an +earlier period of my life, they would probably have been superior. There +is yet another obstacle: I am no ready master of prose writing, having +been little practised in the art. This last consideration will not weigh +with you; nor would it have done with myself a few years ago; but the +bare mention of it will serve to show that years have deprived me of +_courage_, in the sense the word bears when applied by Chaucer to the +animation of birds in spring time. + +What I have already said precludes the necessity of otherwise confirming +your assumption that I am opposed to the spirit you so justly +characterise.[122] To your opinions upon this subject, my judgment (if I +may borrow your own word) 'responds.' Providence is now trying this +empire through her political institutions. Sound minds find their +expediency in principles; unsound, their principles in expediency. On +the proportion of these minds to each other the issue depends. From +calculations of partial expediency in opposition to general principles, +whether those calculations be governed by fear or presumption, nothing +but mischief is to be looked for; but, in the present stage of our +affairs, the class that does the most harm consists _of +well-intentioned_ men, who, being ignorant of human nature, think that +they may help the thorough-paced reformers and revolutionists to a +_certain_ point, then stop, and that the machine will stop with them. +After all, the question is, fundamentally, one of piety and morals; of +piety, as disposing men who are anxious for social improvement to wait +patiently for God's good time; and of morals, as guarding them from +doing evil that good may come, or thinking that any ends _can_ be so +good as to justify wrong means for attaining them. In fact, means, in +the concerns of this life, are infinitely more important than ends, +which are to be valued mainly according to the qualities and virtues +requisite for their attainment; and the best test of an end being good +is the purity of the means, which, by the laws of God and our nature, +must be employed in order to secure it. Even the interests of eternity +become distorted the moment they are looked at through the medium of +impure means. Scarcely had I written this, when I was told by a person +in the Treasury, that it is intended to carry the Reform Bill by a new +creation of peers. If this be done, the constitution of England will be +destroyed, and the present Lord Chancellor, after having contributed to +murder it, may consistently enough pronounce, in his place, its _eloge +funebre_! + +[122] As revolutionary. + +I turn with pleasure to the sonnets you have addressed to me and if I +did not read them with unqualified satisfaction it was only from +consciousness that I was unworthy of the enconiums they bestowed upon +me. + +Among the papers I have lately been arranging are passages that would +prove as forcibly as anything of mine that has been published, you were +not mistaken in your supposition that it is the habit of my mind +inseparably to connect loftiness of imagination with that humility of +mind which is best taught in Scripture. + +Hoping that you will be indulgent to my silence, which has been, from +various causes, protracted contrary to my wish, + + Believe me to be, dear Sir, + Very faithfully yours, + WM. WORDSWORTH.[123] + +[123] _Memoirs_, ii. 252-4. + + +76. _Of Poetry and Prose: Milton and Shakspeare: Reform, &c._ + +LETTER TO PROFESSOR HAMILTON, DUBLIN. + + Nov. 22. 1831. + +MY DEAR MR. HAMILTON, + +You send me showers of verses, which I receive with much pleasure, as do +we all; yet have we fears that this employment may seduce you from the +path of Science, which you seem destined to tread with so much honour to +yourself and profit to others. Again and again I must repeat, that the +composition of verse is infinitely more of an art than men are prepared +to believe; and absolute success in it depends upon innumerable +minutiae, which it grieves me you should stoop to acquire a knowledge +of. Milton talks of 'pouring easy his unpremeditated verse.' It would be +harsh, untrue, and odious, to say there is anything like cant in this; +but it is not true to the letter, and tends to mislead. I could point +out to you five hundred passages in Milton upon which labour has been +bestowed, and twice five hundred more to which additional labour would +have been serviceable. Not that I regret the absence of such labour, +because no poem contains more proofs of skill acquired by practice. +These observations are not called out by any defects or imperfections in +your last pieces especially: they are equal to the former ones in +effect, have many beauties, and are not inferior in execution; but again +I do venture to submit to your consideration, whether the poetical parts +of your nature would not find a field more favourable to their exercise +in the regions of prose: not because those regions are humbler, but +because they may be gracefully and profitably trod with footsteps less +careful and in measures less elaborate. And now I have done with the +subject, and have only to add, that when you write verses you would not +fail, from time to time, to let me have a sight of them; provided you +will allow me to defer criticism on your diction and versification till +we meet. My eyes are so often useless both for reading and writing, that +I cannot tax the eyes and pens of others with writing down observations +which to indifferent persons must be tedious. + +Upon the whole, I am not sorry that your project of going to London at +present is dropped. It would have grieved me had you been unfurnished +with an introduction from me to Mr. Coleridge; yet I know not how I +could have given you one--he is often so very unwell. A few weeks ago he +had had two attacks of cholera, and appears to be so much broken down +that unless I were assured he was something in his better way I could +not disturb him by the introduction of any one. His most intimate friend +is Mr. Green, a man of science and a distinguished surgeon. If to him +you could procure an introduction he would let you know the state of +Coleridge's health; and to Mr. Green, whom I once saw, you might use my +name with a view to further your wish, if it were at all needful. + +Shakspeare's sonnets (excuse this leap) are not upon the Italian model, +which Milton's are; they are merely quatrains with a couplet tacked to +the end; and if they depended much upon the versification they would +unavoidably be heavy. + +One word upon Reform in Parliament, a subject to which, somewhat +reluctantly, you allude. You are a Reformer! Are you an approver of the +Bill as rejected by the Lords? or, to use Lord Grey's words, anything +'as efficient?'--he means, if he means anything, for producing change. +Then I earnestly entreat you to devote hours and hours to the study of +human nature, in books, in life, and in your own mind; and beg and pray +that you would mix with society, not in Ireland and Scotland only, but +in England; a fount of destiny which, if once poisoned, away goes all +hope of quiet progress in well doing. The constitution of England, which +seems about to be destroyed, offers to my mind the sublimest +contemplation which the history of society and government have ever +presented to it; and for this cause especially, that its principles have +the character of preconceived ideas, archetypes of the pure intellect, +while they are, in fact, the results of a humble-minded experience. +Think about this, apply it to what we are threatened with, and farewell. + +WM. WORDSWORTH.[124] + + +77. _Of the Reform Bill_. + +EXTRACT OF LETTER TO LORD LONSDALE. + + Rydal Mount, Feb. 17. 1832. + +MY LORD, + + * * * * * + +If, after all, I should be asked how I would myself vote, if it had been +my fortune to have a seat in the House of Lords, I must say that I +should oppose the second reading, though with my eyes open to the great +hazard of doing so. My support, however, would be found in standing by a +great _principle_; for, without being unbecomingly personal, I may state +to your Lordship, that it has ever been the habit of my mind to trust +that expediency will come out of fidelity to principles, rather than to +seek my principles of action in calculations of expediency. + +[124] _Memoirs_, ii. 255-7, with important additions from the original. +G. + +With this observation I conclude, trusting your Lordship will excuse my +having detained you so long. + + I have the honour to be, most faithfully, + Your much obliged, + WM. WORDSWORTH.[125] + + +78. _Of Political Affairs_. + +EXTRACT OF LETTER TO LADY FREDERICK BENTINCK. + +You were not mistaken in supposing that the state of public affairs has +troubled me much. I cannot see how the government is to be carried on, +but by such sacrifices to the democracy as will, sooner or later, upset +everything. Whoever governs, it will be by out-bidding for popular +favour those who went before them. Sir Robert Peel was obliged to give +way in his government to the spirit of Reform, as it is falsely called; +these men are going beyond him; and if ever he shall come back, it will +only, I fear, be to carry on the movement, in a shape somewhat less +objectionable than it will take from the Whigs. In the mean while the +Radicals or Republicans are cunningly content to have this work done +ostensibly by the Whigs, while in fact they themselves are the Whigs' +masters, as the Whigs well know; but they hope to be preserved from +destruction by throwing themselves back upon the Tories when measures +shall be urged upon them by their masters which they may think too +desperate. What I am most afraid of is, alterations in the constituency, +and in the duration of Parliament, which will bring it more and more +under the dominion of the lower and lowest classes. On this account I +fear the proposed Corporation Reform, as a step towards household +suffrage, vote by ballot, &c. As to a union of the Tories and Whigs in +Parliament, I see no prospect of it whatever. To the great Whig lords +may be truly applied the expression in _Macbeth_, + + 'They have eaten of the insane root + That takes the reason prisoner.' + + * * * * * + +I ordered two copies of my new volume to be sent to Cottesmere. And now +farewell; and believe me, + + Dear Lady Frederick, ever faithfully yours, + W. WORDSWORTH.[126] + +[125] _Memoirs_, ii. 257. + +[126] _Ibid._ ii. 258-9. Y + +79. _Family Affliction and State of Public Affairs_. + +LETTER TO THE REV. DR. WORDSWORTH. + + Rydal Mount, April 1. 1832. + +MY DEAR BROTHER, + +Our dear sister makes no progress towards recovery of strength. She is +very feeble, never quits her room, and passes most of the day in, or +upon, the bed. She does not suffer much pain, and is very cheerful, and +nothing troubles her but public affairs and the sense of requiring so +much attention. Whatever may be the close of this illness, it will be a +profound consolation to you, my dear brother, and to us all, that it is +borne with perfect resignation; and that her thoughts are such as the +good and pious would wish. She reads much, both religious and +miscellaneous works. + +If you see Mr. Watson, remember me affectionately to him. + +I was so distressed with the aspect of public affairs, that were it not +for our dear sister's illness, I should think of nothing else. They are +to be envied, I think, who, from age or infirmity, are likely to be +removed from the afflictions which God is preparing for this sinful +nation. God bless you, my brother. John says you are well; so am I, and +every one here except our sister: but I have witnessed one revolution in +a foreign country, and I have not courage to think of facing another in +my own. Farewell. God bless you again. + + Your affectionate Brother, + W.W.[127] + +[127] _Memoirs_, ii. 259-60. + + +80. _Illness of Sister: Reform: Poems: Oxford and Cambridge, &c._ + +LETTER TO PROFESSOR HAMILTON, DUBLIN. + + Moresby, June 25. 1832. + +MY DEAR MR. HAMILTON, + +Your former letter reached me in due time; your second, from Cambridge, +two or three days ago. I ought to have written to you long since, but +really I have for some time, from private and public causes of sorrow +and apprehension, been in a great measure deprived of those genial +feelings which, thro' life, have not been so much accompaniments of my +character, as vital principles of my existence. + +My dear sister has been languishing more than seven months in a +sick-room, nor dare I or any of her friends entertain a hope that her +strength will ever be restored; and the course of public affairs, as I +think I told you before, threatens, in my view, destruction to the +institutions of the country; an event which, whatever may rise out of it +hereafter, cannot but produce distress and misery for two or three +generations at least. In any times I am but at best a poor and +unpunctual correspondent, yet I am pretty sure you would have heard from +me but for this reason; therefore let the statement pass for an apology +as far as you think fit. + +The verses called forth by your love and the disappointment that +followed I have read with much pleasure, tho' grieved that you should +have suffered so much; as poetry they derive an interest from your +philosophical pursuits, which could not but recommend the verses even to +indifferent readers, and must give them in the eyes of your friends a +great charm. The style appears to me good, and the general flow of the +versification harmonious; but you deal somewhat more in dactylic endings +and identical terminations than I am accustomed to think legitimate. +Sincerely do I congratulate you upon being able to continue your +philosophical pursuits under such a pressure of personal feeling. + +It gives me much pleasure that you and Coleridge have met, and that you +were not disappointed in the conversation of a man from whose writings +you had previously drawn so much delight and improvement. He and my +beloved sister are the two beings to whom my intellect is most indebted, +and they are now proceeding, as it were, _pari passu_, along the path of +sickness, I will not say towards the grave, but I trust towards a +blessed immortality. + +It was not my intention to write so seriously: my heart is full, and you +must excuse it. + +You do not tell me how you like Cambridge as a place, nor what you +thought of its buildings and other works of art. Did you not see Oxford +as well? Surely you would not lose the opportunity; it has greatly the +advantage over Cambridge in its happy intermixture of streets, +churches, and collegiate buildings. + +I hope you found time when in London to visit the British Museum. + +A fortnight ago I came hither to my son and daughter, who are living a +gentle, happy, quiet, and useful life together. My daughter Dora is also +with us. On this day I should have returned, but an inflammation in my +eyes makes it unsafe for me to venture in an open carriage, the weather +being exceedingly disturbed. + +A week ago appeared here Mr. W.S. Landor, the Poet, and author of the +_Imaginary Conversations_, which probably have fallen in your way. We +had never met before, tho' several letters had passed between us; and as +I had not heard that he was in England, my gratification in seeing him +was heightened by surprise. We passed a day together at the house of my +friend Mr. Rawson, on the banks of Wastwater. His conversation is lively +and original; his learning great, tho' he will not allow it, and his +laugh the heartiest I have heard of a long time. It is not much less +than twenty years since he left England for France, and afterwards +Italy, where he hopes to end his days, nay [he has] fixed near Florence +upon the spot where he wishes to be buried. Remember me most kindly to +your sisters. Dora begs her love and thanks to your sister Eliza for her +last most interesting letter, which she will answer when she can command +a frank. + + Ever faithfully yours, + WM. WORDSWORTH.[128] + +[Postscript added on first page:] I have desired Messrs. Longman to put +aside for you a copy of the new edition of my poems, compressed into +four vols. It contains nothing but what has before seen the light, but +several poems which were not in the last. Pray direct your Dublin +publisher to apply for it. + +[128] _Memoirs_, ii. 260, with important additions from the original. +G. + + +81. '_Remains of Lucretia Davidson:' Public Events: Miss Jewsbury, &c._ + +LETTER TO MRS. HEMANS. + + Rydal Mount, Nov. 22 [1832]. + +DEAR MRS. HEMANS, + +I will not render this sheet more valueless than at best it will prove, +by tedious apologies for not answering your very kind and welcome letter +long and long ago. I received it in London, when my mind was in a most +uneasy state, and when my eyes were useless both for writing and +reading, so that an immediate reply was out of my power; and, since, I +have been doubtful where to address you. Accept this, and something +better, as my excuse, that I have very often thought of you with +kindness and good wishes for your welfare, and that of your fine boys, +who must recommend themselves to all that come in their way. Let me +thank you in Dora's name for your present of _The Remains of Lucretia +Davidson_, a very extraordinary young creature, of whom I had before +read some account in Mr. Southey's review of this volume. Surely many +things, not often bestowed, must concur to make genius an enviable gift. +This truth is painfully forced upon one's attention in reading the +effusions and story of this enthusiast, hurried to her grave so early. +You have, I understand, been a good deal in Dublin. The place I hope has +less of the fever of intellectual, or rather literary, ambition than +Edinburgh, and is less disquieted by factions and cabals of _persons_. +As to those of parties they must be odious and dreadful enough; but +since they have more to do with religion, the adherents of the different +creeds perhaps mingle little together, and so the mischief to social +intercourse, though great, will be somewhat less. + +I am not sure but that Miss Jewsbury has judged well in her +determination of going to India. Europe is at present a melancholy +spectacle, and these two Islands are likely to reap the fruit of their +own folly and madness, in becoming, for the present generation, the two +most unquiet and miserable spots upon the earth. May you, my dear +friend, find the advantage of the poetic spirit in raising you, in +thought at least, above the contentious clouds! Never before did I feel +such reason to be grateful for what little inspiration heaven has +graciously bestowed upon my humble intellect. What you kindly wrote +upon the interest you took during your travels in my verses, could not +but be grateful to me, because your own show that in a rare degree you +understand and sympathise with me. We are all well, God be thanked. I am +a wretched correspondent, as this scrawl abundantly shows. I know also, +that you have far too much, both of receiving and writing letters, but I +cannot conclude without expressing a wish, that from time to time you +would let us hear from you and yours, and how you prosper. All join with +me in kindest remembrance to yourself and your boys, especially to +Charles, of whom we know most. Believe me, dear Mrs. Hemans, not the +less for my long silence, + +Faithfully and affectionately yours, + +WM. WORDSWORTH.[129] + + +82. _Tuition at the University_. + +LETTER TO A NEPHEW. + +Rydal Mount, June 17. 1833. + +MY DEAR C----, + + +You are welcome to England after your long ramble. I know not what to +say in answer to your wish for my opinion upon the offer of the +lectureship. + + * * * * * + +I have only one observation to make, to which I should attach importance +if I thought it called for in your case, which I do not. I mean the +moral duty of avoiding to encumber yourself with private pupils in any +number. You are at an age when the blossoms of the mind are setting, to +make fruit; and the practice of _pupil-mongering_ is an absolute blight +for this process. Whatever determination you come to, may God grant that +it proves for your benefit: this prayer I utter with earnestness, being +deeply interested, my dear C----, in all that concerns you. I have said +nothing of the uncertainty hanging over all the establishments, +especially the religious and literary ones of the country, because if +they are to be overturned, the calamity would be so widely spread, that +every mode of life would be involved in it, and nothing survive for +hopeful calculation. + +[129] _Memoirs_, ii. 261-2. + +We are always delighted to hear of any or all of you. God bless you, my +dear C----. + + Most faithfully, your affectionate, + W. WORDSWORTH.[130] + + +83. _On the Admission of Dissenters to graduate in the University of +Cambridge_. + + May 15. 1834. + +MY DEAR C----, + +You will wonder what is become of us, and I am afraid you will think me +very unworthy the trouble you took in writing to us and sending your +pamphlet. A thousand little things have occurred to prevent my calling +upon Mrs. Wordsworth, who is ever ready to write for me, in respect to +the question that you have so ably handled. Since the night when the +Reform Bill was first introduced, I have been convinced that the +institutions of the country cannot be preserved.... It is a mere +question _of time_. A great majority of the present parliament, I +believe, are in the main favourable to the preservation of the Church, +but among these many are ignorant how that is to be done. Add to the +portion of those who with good intentions are in the dark, the number +who will be driven or tempted to vote against their consciences by the +clamour of their sectarian and infidel constituents under the Reform +Bill, and you will have a daily augmenting power even in this +parliament, which will be more and more hostile to the Church every week +and every day. You will see from the course which my letter thus far has +taken, that I regard the prayer of the Petitioners to whom you are +opposed as formidable still more from the effect which, if granted, it +will ultimately have upon the Church, and through that medium upon the +Monarchy and upon social order, than for its immediate tendency to +introduce discord in the universities, and all those deplorable +consequences which you have so feelingly painted as preparatory to their +destruction. + +I am not yet able to use my eyes for reading or writing, but your +pamphlet has been twice read to me.... + +God bless you.... + + Affectionately yours, + WM. WORDSWORTH.[131] + +[130] _Memoirs_, ii. 263-4. + +[131] _Ibid._ ii. 267-8. + +84. _The Poems of Skelton_. + +LETTER TO THE REV. ALEXANDER DYCE. + + Rydal Mount, Kendal, Jan. 7. 1833. + +MY DEAR SIR, + +Having an opportunity of sending this to town free of postage, I write +to thank you for your last obliging letter. Sincerely do I congratulate +you upon having made such progress with Skelton, a writer deserving of +far greater attention than his works have hitherto received. Your +edition will be very serviceable, and may be the occasion of calling out +illustrations, perhaps, of particular passages from others, beyond what +your own reading, though so extensive, has supplied. I am pleased also +to hear that 'Shirley' is out. + + * * * * * + +I lament to hear that your health is not good. My own, God be thanked, +is excellent; but I am much dejected with the aspect of public affairs, +and cannot but fear that this nation is on the brink of great troubles. + +Be assured that I shall at all times be happy to hear of your studies +and pursuits, being, with great respect, + + Sincerely yours, + WM. WORDSWORTH.[132] + + +85. _The Works of James Shirley_. + +LETTER TO THE REV. ALEXANDER DYCE. + + Rydal Mount, March 20. 1833. + +MY DEAR SIR, +I have to thank you for the very valuable present of +Shirley's works, just received. The preface is all that I have +yet had time to read. It pleased me to find that you sympathised +with me in admiration of the passage from the Duchess +of Newcastle's poetry; and you will be gratified to be told that +I have the opinion you have expressed of that cold and false-hearted +Frenchified coxcomb, Horace Walpole. + +Poor Shirley! what a melancholy end was his! and then to be so treated +by Dryden! One would almost suspect some private cause of dislike, such +as is said to, have influenced Swift in regard to Dryden himself. + +[132] _Memoirs_, ii. 274-5. + +Shirley's death reminded me of a sad close of the life of a literary +person, Sanderson by name, in the neighbouring county of Cumberland. He +lived in a cottage by himself, though a man of some landed estate. His +cottage, from want of care on his part, took fire in the night. The +neighbours were alarmed; they ran to his rescue; he escaped, dreadfully +burned, from the flames, and lay down (he was in his seventieth year) +much exhausted under a tree, a few yards from the door. His friends, in +the meanwhile, endeavoured to save what they could of his property from +the flames. He inquired most anxiously after a box in which his +manuscripts and published pieces had been deposited with a view to a +publication of a laboriously-corrected edition; and, upon being told +that the box was consumed, he expired in a few minutes, saying, or +rather sighing out the words, 'Then I do not wish to live.' Poor man! +though the circulation of his works had not extended beyond a circle of +fifty miles' diameter, perhaps, at furthest, he was most anxious to +survive in the memory of the few who were likely to hear of him. + +The publishing trade, I understand, continues to be much depressed, and +authors are driven to solicit or invite subscriptions, as being in many +cases the only means for giving their works to the world. + +I am always pleased to hear from you; and believe me, + +My dear Sir, + + Faithfully your obliged friend, + WM. WORDSWORTH.[133] + +86. _Literary Criticism and News: Men of Science, &c._ + +LETTER TO PROFESSOR HAMILTON, OF DUBLIN. + + Rydal Mount, May 8. 1833. + +MY DEAR SIR, + +My letters being of no value but as tokens of friendship, I waited for +the opportunity of a frank, which I had reason to expect earlier. +Sincerely do we all congratulate you upon your marriage. Accept our best +wishes upon the event, and believe that we shall always be deeply +interested in your welfare. Make our kind regards also to Mrs. Hamilton, +who of course will be included in every friendly hope and expectation +formed for yourself. + +[133] _Memoirs_, ii. 275-6. + +We look with anxiety to your sister Eliza's success in her schemes,--but +for pecuniary recompense in literature, especially poetical, nothing can +be more unpromising than the present state of affairs, except what we +have to fear for the future. Mrs. Godwyn, who sends verses to Blackwood, +is our neighbour. I have had no conversation with her myself upon the +subject, but a friend of hers says she has reason to believe that she +has got nothing but a present of books. This however is of no moment, as +Mrs. G. being a person of easy fortune she has not probably bargained +for a return in money. Mrs. Hemans I see continues to publish in the +periodicals. If you ever see her, pray remember me affectionately to +her, and tell her that I have often been, and still am, troubled in +conscience for having left her obliging letter so long unanswered; but +she must excuse me as there is not a motive in my mind urging me to +throw any interest into my letters to friends beyond the expression of +kindness and esteem; and _that_ she does not require from me. Besides my +friends in general know how much I am hindered in all my pursuits by the +inflammation to which my eyes are so frequently subject. I have long +since given up all exercise of them by candle-light, and the evenings +and nights are the seasons when one is most disposed to converse in that +way with absent friends. News you do not care about, and I have none for +you, except what concerns friends. My sister, God be thanked, has had a +respite. She can now walk a few steps about her room, and has been borne +twice into the open air. Southey to whom I sent your Sonnets had, I +grieve to say, a severe attack of some unknown and painful complaint, +about ten days ago. It weakened him much, but he is now I believe +perfectly recovered. Coleridge I have reason to think is confined to his +bed; his mind vigorous as ever. Your Sonnets I think are as good as +anything you have done in verse. We like the 2d best; and I single it +out the more readily as it allows me an opportunity of reminding you of +what I have so often insisted upon, the extreme care which is necessary +in the composition of poetry. + + 'The ancient image _shall not_ depart + From my soul's temple, the refined gold + Already prov'd _remain_.' + +Your meaning is that it shall remain, but according to the construction +of our language, you have said 'it shall not.' + + 'The refined gold, + Well proved, shall then remain,' + +will serve to explain my objection. + +Could not you take us in your way coming or going to Cambridge? If Mrs. +H. accompanies you, we should be glad to see her also. + +I hope that in the meeting about to take place in Cambridge there will +be less of mutual flattery among the men of science than appeared in +that of the last year at Oxford. Men of science in England seem, indeed, +to copy their fellows in France, by stepping too much out of their way +for titles, and baubles of that kind, and for offices of state and +political struggles, which they would do better to keep out of. + +With kindest regards to yourself and Mrs. H., and to your sisters, +believe me ever, + +My dear Mr. H., + Faithfully yours, + W.W.[134] + +[134] _Memoirs_, ii. 276-7, with important additions from the original. + + +87. _Of 'Elia:' Miss Wordsworth_. + +LETTER TO CHARLES LAMB, ESQ. + + Rydal Mount [Friday, May 17. 1833, or thereabouts]. + +MY DEAR LAMB, + +I have to thank you and Moxon for a delightful volume, your last (I hope +not) of 'Elia.' I have read it all except some of the 'Popular +Fallacies,' which I reserve.... The book has much pleased the whole of +my family, viz. my wife, daughter, Miss Hutchinson, and my poor dear +sister, on her sick bed; they all return their best thanks. I am not +sure but I like the 'Old China,' and the 'Wedding,' as well as any of +the Essays. I read 'Love me and my Dog' to my poor sister this morning. + + * * * * * + +I have been thus particular, knowing how much you and your dear sister +value this excellent person, whose tenderness of heart I do not honestly +believe was ever exceeded by any of God's creatures. Her loving-kindness +has no bounds. God bless her for ever and ever! Again thanking you for +your excellent book, and wishing to know how you and your dear sister +are, with best love to you both from us all, + + I remain, my dear Lamb, + Your faithful friend, + W. WORDSWORTH.[135] + + +88. _'Specimens of English Sonnets:' Criticisms, &c._ + +LETTER TO THE REV. ALEXANDER DYCE. + + [No date to this Letter, but written in 1833.] + +MY DEAR SIR, + +The dedication[136] which you propose I shall esteem as an honour; nor +do I conceive upon what ground, but an over-scrupulous modesty, I could +object to it. + +[135] _Memoirs_, ii. 277-8. + +[136] I had requested permission to dedicate a little book, _Specimens +of English Sonnets_, to Mr. W. _A.D._ + +Be assured that Mr. Southey will not have the slightest unwillingness to +your making any use you think proper of his 'Memoir of Bampfylde:' I +shall not fail to mention the subject to him upon the first opportunity. + +You propose to give specimens of the best _sonnet-writers_ in our +language. May I ask if by this be meant a selection of the _best +sonnets, best_ both as to _kind_ and _degree_? A sonnet may be excellent +in its kind, but that kind of very inferior interest to one of a higher +order, though not perhaps in every minute particular quite so well +executed, and from the pen of a writer of inferior genius. It should +seem that the best rule to follow would be, first, to pitch upon the +sonnets which are best _both_ in kind and perfectness of execution, and, +next, those which, although of a humbler quality, are admirable for the +finish and happiness of the execution, taking care to exclude all those +which have not one or other of these recommendations, however striking +they might be, as characteristic of the age in which the author lived, +or some peculiarity of his manner. The 10th sonnet of Donne, beginning +'Death, be not proud,' is so eminently characteristic of his manner, and +at the same time so weighty in the thought, and vigorous in the +expression, that I would entreat you to insert it, though to modern +taste it may be repulsive, quaint, and laboured. There are two sonnets +of Russell, which, in all probability, you may have noticed, 'Could, +then, the babes,' and the one upon Philoctetes, the last six lines of +which are first-rate. Southey's 'Sonnet to Winter' pleases me much; but, +above all, among modern writers, that of Sir Egerton Brydges, upon 'Echo +and Silence.' Miss Williams's 'Sonnet upon Twilight' is pleasing; that +upon 'Hope' of great merit. + +Do you mean to have a short preface upon the construction of the sonnet? +Though I have written so many, I have scarcely made up my own mind upon +the subject. It should seem that the sonnet, like every other legitimate +composition, ought to have a beginning, a middle, and an end; in other +words, to consist of three parts, like the three propositions of a +syllogism, if such an illustration may be used. But the frame of metre +adopted by the Italians does not accord with this view; and, as adhered +to by them, it seems to be, if not arbitrary, best fitted to a division +of the sense into two parts, of eight and six lines each. Milton, +however, has not submitted to this; in the better half of his sonnets +the sense does not close with the rhyme at the eighth line, but +overflows into the second portion of the metre. Now it has struck me +that this is not done merely to gratify the ear by variety and freedom +of sound, but also to aid in giving that pervading sense of intense +unity in which the excellence of the sonnet has always seemed to me +mainly to consist. Instead of looking at this composition as a piece of +architecture, making a whole out of three parts, I have been much in the +habit of preferring the image of an orbicular body,--a sphere, or a +dew-drop. All this will appear to you a little fanciful; and I am well +aware that a sonnet will often be found excellent, where the beginning, +the middle, and the end are distinctly marked, and also where it is +distinctly separated into _two_ parts, to which, as I before observed, +the strict Italian model, as they write it, is favourable. Of this last +construction of sonnet, Russell's upon 'Philoctetes' is a fine specimen; +the first eight lines give the hardship of the case, the six last the +consolation, or the _per-contra_. + +Ever faithfully + + Your much obliged friend and servant, + W. WORDSWORTH. + +P.S. In the case of the Cumberland poet, I overlooked a most pathetic +circumstance. While he was lying under the tree, and his friends were +saving what they could from the flames, he desired them to bring out the +box that contained his papers, if possible. A person went back for it, +but the bottom dropped out, and the papers fell into the flames and were +consumed. Immediately upon hearing this, the poor old man expired.[137] + + +89. _The Poems of Lady Winchelsea, Skelton, &c._ + +LETTER TO THE REV. ALEXANDER DYCE. + + Lowther Castle, Sept. 23 [qu. Aug. 1833. + No date of the Year.] + +MY DEAR SIR, + +I have put off replying to your obliging letter till I could procure a +frank; as I had little more to say than to thank you for your attention +to Lady Winchelsea,[138] and for the extracts you sent me. + +[137] _Memoirs_, ii. 278-81. + +[138] _i.e._ To Mr. W.'s request that I would, if possible, furnish him +with some particulars about her. _A.D._ + +I expected to find at this place my friend, Lady Frederick Bentinck, +through whom I intended to renew my request for materials, if any exist, +among the Finch family, whether manuscript poems, or anything else that +would be interesting; but Lady F., unluckily, is not likely to be in +Westmoreland. I shall, however, write to her. Without some additional +materials, I think I should scarcely feel strong enough to venture upon +any species of publication connected with this very interesting woman, +notwithstanding the kind things you say of the value of my critical +remarks. + +I am glad you have taken Skelton in hand, and much wish I could be of +any use to you. In regard to his life, I am certain of having read +somewhere (I thought it was in Burns's 'History of Cumberland and +Westmoreland,' but I am mistaken), that Skelton was born at Branthwaite +Hall, in the county of Cumberland. Certain it is that a family of that +name possessed the place for many generations; and I own it would give +me some pleasure to make out that Skelton was a brother Cumbrian. +Branthwaite Hall is about six miles from Cockermouth, my native place. +Tickell (of the _Spectator_), one of the best of our minor poets, as +Johnson has truly said, was born within two miles of the same town. +These are mere accidents, it is true, but I am foolish enough to attach +some interest to them. + +If it would be more agreeable to you, I would mention your views in +respect to Skelton to Mr. Southey: I should have done so before, but it +slipped my memory when I saw him. Mr. Southey is undoubtedly much +engaged, but I cannot think that he would take ill a letter from you on +any literary subject. At all events, I shall, in a few days, mention +your intention of editing Skelton, and ask if he has anything to +suggest. + +I meditate a little tour in Scotland this autumn, my principal object +being to visit Sir Walter Scott; but as I take my daughter along with +me, we probably shall go to Edinburgh, Glasgow, and take a peep at the +western Highlands. This will not bring us near Aberdeen.[139] If it +suited you to return to town by the Lakes, I should be truly glad to see +you at Rydal Mount, near Ambleside. You might, at all events, call on +Mr. Southey in your way; I would prepare an introduction for you, by +naming your intention to Mr. S. I have added this, because my Scotch +tour would, I fear, make it little likely that I should be at home about +the 10th September. Your return, however, may be deferred. + + Believe me, my dear Sir, + Very respectfully, your obliged, + W. WORDSWORTH. + +P.S. I hope your health continues good. I assure you there was no want +of interest in your conversation on that or any other account.[140] + +[139] Where I then was. _A.D._ + +[140] _Memoirs_, ii. 281-3. + + +90. _'Popularity' of Poetry_. + +LETTER TO E. MOXON, ESQ. + + Lowther Castle, Westmoreland, Aug. 1833. +MY DEAR MR. MOXON, + + * * * * * + +There does not appear to be much genuine relish for poetical +publications in Cumberland, if I may judge from the fact of not a copy +of my poems having been sold there by one of the leading booksellers, +though Cumberland is my native county. Byron and Scott are, I am +persuaded, the only _popular_ writers in that line,--perhaps the word +ought rather to be that they are _fashionable_ writers. + +My poor sister is something better in health. Pray remember me very +affectionately to Charles Lamb, and to his dear sister, if she be in a +state to receive such communications from her friends. I hope Mr. Rogers +is well; give my kindest regards to him also. + + Ever, my dear Mr. Moxon, + Faithfully yours, + W. WORDSWORTH.[141] + + +91. _Sonnets, and less-known female Poets: Hartley Coleridge, &c._ + +LETTER TO THE REV. ALEXANDER DYCE. /$ Rydal Mount, Dec. 4. 1833. + +MY DEAR SIR, $/ + +Your elegant volume of Sonnets,[142] which you did me the honour to +dedicate to me, was received a few months after the date of the +accompanying letter; and the copy for Mr. Southey was forwarded +immediately, as you may have learned long ago, by a letter from himself. +Supposing you might not be returned from Scotland, I have deferred +offering my thanks for this mark of your attention: and about the time +when I should otherwise probably have written, I was seized with an +inflammation in my eyes, from the _effects_ of which I am not yet so far +recovered as to make it prudent for me to use them in writing or +reading.[143] + +[141] _Memoirs_, ii. 283. + +[142] _Specimens of English Sonnets. A.D._ + +[143] This letter is in the handwriting of Miss D. Wordsworth, but +signed by Mr. W. _A.D._ + +The selection of sonnets appears to me to be very judicious. If I were +inclined to make an exception, it would be in the single case of the +sonnet of Coleridge upon 'Schiller,' which is too much of a rant for my +taste. The one by him upon 'Linley's Music' is much superior in +execution; indeed, as a strain of feeling, and for unity of effect, it +is very happily done. I was glad to see Mr. Southey's 'Sonnet to +Winter.' A lyrical poem of my own, upon the disasters of the French army +in Russia, has so striking a resemblance to it, in contemplating winter +under two aspects, that, in justice to Mr. Southey, who preceded me, I +ought to have acknowledged it in a note; and I shall do so upon some +future occasion. + +How do you come on with Skelton? And is there any prospect of a new +edition of your _Specimens of British Poetesses_? If I could get at the +original works of the elder poetesses, such as the Duchess of Newcastle, +Mrs. Behn, Orinda, &c., I should be happy to assist you with my judgment +in such a publication, which, I think, might be made still more +interesting than this first edition, especially if more matter were +crowded into a page. The two volumes of _Poems by Eminent Ladies_, Helen +Maria Williams's works, Mrs. Smith's Sonnets, and Lady Winchelsea's +Poems, form the scanty materials which I possess for assisting such a +publication. + +It is a remarkable thing, that the two best ballads, perhaps, of modern +times, viz. 'Auld Robin Grey' and the 'Lament for the Defeat of the +Scots at Flodden-field,' are both from the pens of females. + +I shall be glad to hear that your health is improved, and your spirits +good, so that the world may continue to be benefited by your judicious +and tasteful labours. + +Pray let me hear from you at your leisure; and believe me, dear Sir, + + Very faithfully yours, + W. WORDSWORTH. + +P.S. It is a pity that Mr. Hartley Coleridge's Sonnets had not been +published before your Collection was made, as there are several well +worthy of a place in it. Last midsummer I made a fortnight's tour in the +Isle of Man, Staffa, Iona, &c., which produced between thirty and forty +sonnets, some of which, I think, would please you. + +Could not you contrive to take the Lakes in your way, sometimes, to or +from Scotland? I need not say how glad I should be to see you for a few +days. + +What a pity that Mr. Heber's wonderful collection of books is about to +be dispersed![144] + +[144] _Memoirs_, ii. 284-6. + +92. _Proposed Dedication of Poems to Wordsworth_. + +LETTER TO MRS. HEMANS. + + Rydal Mount, April 1834. + +MY DEAR MRS. HEMANS, + * * * * * + +You have submitted what you intended as a dedication of your poems to +me. I need scarcely say that, as a _private letter_, such expressions +from such a quarter could not have been received by me but with pleasure +of _no ordinary kind_, unchecked by any consideration but the fear that +my writings were overrated by you, and my character thought better of +than it deserved. But I must say, that a _public_ testimony, in so high +a strain of admiration, is what I cannot but shrink from: be this +modesty true or false, it is in me; you must bear with it, and make +allowance for it. And, therefore, as you have submitted the whole to my +judgment, I am emboldened to express a wish that you would, instead of +this dedication, in which your warm and kind heart has overpowered you, +simply inscribe them to me, with such expression of respect or gratitude +as would come within the limits of the rule which, after what has been +said above, will naturally suggest itself. Of course, if the sheet has +been struck off, I must hope that my shoulders may become a little more +Atlantean than I now feel them to be. + +My sister is not quite so well. She, Mrs. W., and Dora, all unite with +me in best wishes and kindest remembrances to yourself and yours; and + + Believe me, dear Mrs. Hemans, + To remain faithfully yours, + WM. WORDSWORTH.[145] + +[145] _Memoirs_, ii. 286-7. + + + +93. _Verse-Attempts_. + +LETTER TO LIEUTENANT-GENERAL SIR WM. M. GOMM. + + Rydal Mount, April 16. 1834. + +MY DEAR SIR, + +Your verses, for which I sincerely thank you, are an additional proof of +the truth which forced from me, many years ago, the exclamation, 'O, +many are the poets that are sown by nature!'[146] The rest of that +paragraph also has some bearing upon your position in the poetical +world. The thoughts and images through both the poems, and the feelings +also, are eminently such as become their several subjects; but it would +be insincerity were I to omit adding, that there is here and there a +want of that skill in _workmanship_, which I believe nothing but +continued practice in the art can bestow. I have used the word _art_, +from a conviction, which I am called upon almost daily to express, that +poetry is infinitely more of an art than the world is disposed to +believe. Nor is this any dishonour to it; both for the reason that the +poetic faculty is not rarely bestowed, and for this cause, also, that +men would not be disposed to ascribe so much to inspiration, if they did +not feel how near and dear to them poetry is. + +[146] _Excursion_, book i. + +With sincere regards and best wishes to yourself and Lady Gomm, + + Believe me to be very sincerely yours, + W. WORDSWORTH.[147] + +[147] _Memoirs_, ii. 287-8. + + +94. _The Poems of Mrs. Hemans_. + +LETTER TO MRS. HEMANS. + + Rydal Mount, Sept. 1834. + +MY DEAR MRS. HEMANS, + +I avail myself gladly of the opportunity of Mr. Graves's return, to +acknowledge the honour you have done me in prefixing my name to your +volume of beautiful poems, and to thank you for the copy you have sent +me with your own autograph. Where there is so much to admire, it is +difficult to select; and therefore I shall content myself with naming +only two or three pieces. And, first, let me particularise the piece +that stands second in the volume, 'Flowers and Music in a Sick Room.' +This was especially touching to me, on my poor sister's account, who has +long been an invalid, confined almost to her chamber. The feelings are +sweetly touched throughout this poem, and the imagery very beautiful; +above all, in the passage where you describe the colour of the petals of +the wild rose. This morning, I have read the stanzas upon 'Elysium' with +great pleasure. You have admirably expanded the thought of +Chateaubriand. If we had not been disappointed in our expected pleasure +of seeing you here, I should have been tempted to speak of many other +passages and poems with which I have been delighted. + +Your health, I hope,[148] is by this time reestablished. Your son, +Charles, looks uncommonly well, and we have had the pleasure of seeing +him and his friends several times; but as you are aware, we are much +engaged with visitors at this season of the year, so as not always to be +able to follow our inclinations as to whom we would wish to see. I +cannot conclude without thanking you for your Sonnet upon a place so +dear to me as Grasmere: it is worthy of the subject. With kindest +remembrances, in which unite Mrs. W., my sister, and Dora, I remain, +dear Mrs. Hemans, + + Your much obliged friend, + WM. WORDSWORTH. + +I have written very hastily to spare my eyes; a liberty which you will +excuse.[149] + +[148] This hope, alas! was not realised. Mrs. Hemans died in the +following year, May 16, 1835. + +[149] _Memoirs_, ii. 291-2. + + +95. _Of the Church of England, &c._ + +LETTER TO THE VENERABLE ARCHDEACON WRANGHAM. + + Rydal Mount, Feb. 2. 1835. + +MY DEAR WRANGHAM, + +Sincere thanks are due from me for the attention you paid to Mrs. W.'s +letter, written during my absence. You know the favourable opinion I +entertain of Mr. Graves; and I was under a promise to let him know, if +any vacancy occurred in the neighbourhood, and to do all I could, +without infringing upon prior or stronger claims, to promote the +attainment of his wishes. + + * * * * * + +The mind of every thinking man who is attached to the Church of England +must at this time be especially turned to reflections upon all points of +ecclesiastical polity, government, and management, which may tend to +strengthen the Establishment in the affections of the people, and +enlarge the sphere of its efficiency. It cannot, then, I feel, be +impertinent in me, though a layman, to express upon this occasion my +satisfaction, qualified as it is by what has been said above, in +finding from this instance that our diocesan is unwilling to station +clergymen in cures with which they are locally connected. Some years +ago, when the present Bishop of London, then of Chester, was residing in +this neighbourhood, I took the liberty of strenuously recommending to +him not to ordain young men to curacies where they had been brought up, +or in the midst of their own relatives. I had seen too much of the +mischief of this, especially as affecting the functions and characters +of ministers born and bred up in the lower classes of society. It has +been painful to me to observe the false position, as the French would +call it, in which men so placed are. Their habits, their manners, and +their talk, their acquaintanceships, their friendships, and, let me say, +their domestic affections, naturally and properly draw them one way, +while their professional obligations point out another; and, +accordingly, if they are sensible of both, they live in a perpetual +conflict, and are liable to be taxed with pride and ingratitude, as +seeming to neglect their old friends, when they only associate with them +with that reserve, and under those restraints, which their sacred +profession enjoins. If, on the other hand, they fall into unrestrained +familiarity with the associates of their earlier life and boyish days, +how injurious to their ministry such intercourse would be, must flash +upon every man's mind whose thoughts have turned for a moment to the +subject. Allow me to add a word upon the all-important matter of +testimonials. The case of the Rector of ---- and of ---- presses it +closely upon my mind. Had the individuals who signed those documents +been fitly impressed with the awfullness of the act they were about to +engage in, they could not have undertaken it.... Would it not be a good +plan for bishops to exclude testimonials from relatives and near +connections? It is painful to notice what a tendency there is in men's +minds to allow even a slight call of private regard to outweigh a very +strong claim of duty to the public, and not less in sacred concerns than +in civil. + +Your hands, my dear friend, have failed, as well as my eyes, so that we +are neither of us in very flourishing trim for active correspondence: be +assured, however, I participate the feelings you express. Last year has +robbed me of Coleridge, of Charles Lamb, James Losh, Rudd, of Trinity, +Fleming, just gone, and other schoolfellows and contemporaries. I cannot +forget that Shakspeare, who scarcely survived fifty (I am now near the +close of my sixty-fifth year), wrote, + + 'In me that time of life thou dost behold, + When yellow leaves, or few, or none, do hang + Upon the bough.' + +How much more reason have we to break out into such a strain! Let me +hear from you from time to time; I shall feel a lively interest in all +that concerns you. I remain faithfully yours, + + W.W.[150] + +[150] _Memoirs_, ii. 292-4. + + +96. _Of 'The Omnipresence of the Deity,' &c._ + +LETTER TO THE REV. ROBERT MONTGOMERY. + + Feb. 1835. + +MY DEAR SIR, + +On my return home, after an absence of some length, I have had the +pleasure of receiving your two volumes. + + * * * * * + +With your 'Omnipresence of the Deity'[151] I was acquainted long ago, +having read it and other parts of your writings with much pleasure, +though with some abatement, such as you yourself seem sufficiently aware +of, and which, in the works of so young a writer, were by me gently +judged, and in many instances regarded, though in themselves faults, as +indications of future excellence. In your letter, for which also I thank +you, you allude to your Preface, and desire to know if my opinion +concurs with yours on the subject of sacred poetry. That Preface has +been read to me, and I can answer in the affirmative; but at the same +time allow me frankly to tell you that what _most_ pleased me in that +able composition is to be found in the few concluding paragraphs, +beginning 'It is now seven years since,' &c. + +[151] Mr. Montgomery informed the (now) Bishop of Lincoln that 'this +poem when forwarded to Wordsworth was not in the condition in which it +is now, but that it had been almost rewritten, and was also his earliest +poem--composed when he was nineteen.' G. + + * * * * * + +I cannot conclude without one word of literary advice, which I hope you +will deem my advanced age entitles me to give. Do not, my dear Sir, be +anxious about any individual's opinion concerning your writings, however +highly you may think of his genius or rate his judgment. Be a severe +critic to yourself; and depend upon it no person's decision upon the +merit of your works will bear comparison in point of value with your +own. You must be conscious from what feeling they have flowed, and how +far they may or may not be allowed to claim, on that account, permanent +respect; and, above all, I would remind you, with a view to tranquillise +and steady your mind, that no man takes the trouble of surveying and +pondering another's writings with a hundredth part of the care which an +author of sense and genius will have bestowed upon his own. Add to this +reflection another, which I press upon you, as it has supported me +through life, viz. that Posterity will settle all accounts justly, and +that works which deserve to last will last; and if undeserving this +fate, the sooner they perish the better. + + Believe me to be faithfully, + Your much obliged, + W. WORDSWORTH.[152] + +[152] _Memoirs, ii_. 294-6. + + +97. _A new Church at Cockermouth_. + +LETTER TO JAMES STANGER, ESQ. + +MY DEAR SIR, + +The obstacle arising out of conflicting opinions in regard to the +patronage, one must be prepared for in every project of this kind. +Mutual giving-way is indispensable, and I hope it will not ultimately be +wanting in this case. + +The point immediately to be attended to is the raising a sufficient sum +to insure from the Church Building Societies a portion of the surplus +fund which they have at command, and which I know, on account of claims +from many places, they are anxious to apply as speedily as possible. If +time be lost, that sum will be lost to Cockermouth. + +In the question of the patronage as between the bishop and the people, I +entirely concur with you in preference of the former. Such is now the +force of public opinion, that bishops are not likely to present upon +merely selfish considerations; and if the judgment of one be not good, +that of his successor may make amends, and probably will. But elections +of this sort, when vested in the inhabitants, have, as far as my +experience goes, given rise to so many cabals and manoeuvres, and caused +such enmities and heart-burnings, that Christian charity has been +driven out of sight by them: and how often, and how soon, have the +successful party been seen to repent of their own choice! + +The course of public affairs being what it is in respect to the Church, +I cannot reconcile myself to delay from a hope of succeeding at another +time. If we can get a new church erected at Cockermouth, great will be +the benefit, with the blessing of God, to that place; and our success +cannot, I trust, but excite some neighbouring places to follow the +example. + +The little that I can do in my own sphere shall be attempted +immediately, with especial view to insure the cooperation of the +societies. Happy should I be if you and other gentlemen would +immediately concur in this endeavour. + + I remain, &c. + WM. WORDSWORTH.[153] + + +98. _Of the Same_. + + Rydal Mount, Jan. 1836. +MY DEAR C----, + +Now let me tell you, but more for your father's sake than yours, that in +a letter which I received from Lord Lonsdale yesterday he generously +proposes to endow a new church at Cockermouth with 150_l._ per annum. +From a conversation with him in the autumn, I expected he would do as +much, though he did not then permit me, as he has done now, to mention +it publicly.[154] + + +99. _Classic Scenes: Holy Land_. + +We often think with much interest of your sister Eliza, and with a +thousand good wishes that her bold adventure may turn out well. If she +finds herself at liberty to move about, her sensitive, imaginative, and +thoughtful mind cannot but be profitably excited and substantially +enriched by what she will see in that most interesting part of the world +(Smyrna, and the coast of Asia Minor). How should I like, old as I am, +to visit those classic shores and the Holy Land, with all its +remembrances so sweet and solemn![155] + +[153] _Memoirs_, ii. 296-7. + +[154] Extract: _Memoirs_, ii. 298. + +[155] Extract of letter to Sir W.R. Hamilton, Dublin, Jan. 11, 1836. +Here first printed. + +100. _American Edition of Poems, &c_ LETTER TO PROFESSOR HENRY REED, OF +PHILADELPHIA. + + London, August 19 [1837]. + +My Dear Sir, + +Upon returning from a tour of several months upon the Continent, I find +two letters from you awaiting my arrival, along with the edition of my +Poems you have done me the honour of editing. To begin with the former +letter, April 25, 1836: It gives me concern that you should have thought +it necessary (not to _apologise_, for that you have not done, but) to +explain at length why you addressed me in the language of affectionate +regard. It must surely be gratifying to one, whose aim as an author has +been the hearts of his fellow-creatures of all ranks and in all +stations, to find that he has succeeded in any quarter; and still more +must he be gratified to learn that he has pleased in a distant country +men of simple habits and cultivated taste, who are at the same time +widely acquainted with literature. Your second letter, accompanying the +edition of the Poems, I have read, but unluckily have it not before me. +It was lent to Serjeant Talfourd, on account of the passage in it that +alludes to the possible and desirable establishment of English copyright +in America. I shall now hasten to notice the edition which you have +superintended of my Poems. This I can do with much pleasure, as the +book, which has been shown to several persons of taste, Mr. Rogers in +particular, is allowed to be far the handsomest specimen of printing in +double columns which they have seen. Allow me to thank you for the pains +you have bestowed upon the work. Do not apprehend that any difference in +our several arrangements of the poems can be of much importance; you +appear to understand me far too well for that to be possible. I have +only to regret, in respect to this volume, that it should have been +published before my last edition, in the correction of which I took +great pains, as my last labour in that way, and which moreover contains +several additional pieces. It may be allowed me also to express a hope +that such a law will be passed ere long by the American legislature, as +will place English authors in general upon a better footing in America +than at present they have obtained, and that the protection of copyright +between the two countries will be reciprocal. The vast circulation of +English works in America offers a temptation for hasty and incorrect +printing; and that same vast circulation would, without adding to the +price of each copy of an English work in a degree that could be grudged +or thought injurious by any purchaser, allow an American remuneration, +which might add considerably to the comforts of English authors, who may +be in narrow circumstances, yet who at the same time may have written +solely from honourable motives. Besides, Justice is the foundation on +which both law and practice ought to rest. + +Having many letters to write on returning to England after so long an +absence, I regret that I must be so brief on the present occasion. I +cannot conclude, however, without assuring you that the acknowledgments +which I receive from the vast continent of America are among the most +grateful that reach me. What a vast field is there open to the English +mind, acting through our noble language! Let us hope that our authors of +true genius will not be unconscious of that thought, or inattentive to +the duty which it imposes upon them, of doing their utmost to instruct, +to purify, and to elevate their readers. That such may be my own +endeavour through the short time I shall have to remain in this world, +is a prayer in which I am sure you and your life's partner will join me. +Believe me gratefully, + + Your much obliged friend, + W. WORDSWORTH.[156] + + +101. _Of the Poems of Quillinan, and Revision of his own Poems_. + +LETTER TO EDWARD QUILLINAN, ESQ. + + Brinsop Court, Sept. 20. 1837. + +MY DEAR MR. QUILLINAN, + +We are heartily glad to learn from your letter, just received, that, in +all probability, by this time, you must have left the unhappy country in +which you have been so long residing. I should not have been sorry if +you had entered a little more into Peninsular politics; for what is +going on there is shocking to humanity, and one would be glad to see +anything like an opening for the termination of these unnatural +troubles. + +[156] _Memoirs_, ii. 344-6. + +The position of the Miguelites, relatively to the conflicting, so +called, liberal parties, is just what I apprehended, and expressed very +lately to Mr. Robinson.... + +He came down with us to Hereford with a view to a short tour on the +banks of the Wye, which has been prevented by an unexpected attack of my +old complaint of inflammation in the eye; and in consequence of this, +Dora will accompany me home, with a promise on her part of returning to +London before the month of October is out. Our places are taken in +to-morrow's coach for Liverpool; so that, since we must be disappointed +of seeing you and Jemima here, we trust that you will come on to Rydal +from Leeds. This very day Dora had read to me your poem again: it +convinces me, along with your other writings, that it is in your power +to attain a permanent place among the poets of England. Your thoughts, +feelings, knowledge, and judgment in style, and skill in metre, entitle +you to it; and, if you have not yet succeeded in gaining it, the cause +appears to me merely to lie in the subjects which you have chosen. It is +worthy of note how much of Gray's popularity is owing to the happiness +with which his subject is selected in three places, his 'Hymn to +Adversity,' his 'Ode on the distant Prospect of Eton College,' and his +'Elegy.' I ought, however, in justice to you, to add, that one cause of +your failure appears to have been thinking too humbly of yourself, so +that you have not reckoned it worth while to look sufficiently round you +for the best subjects, or to employ as much time in reflecting, +condensing, bringing out and placing your thoughts and feelings in the +best point of view as is necessary. I will conclude this matter of +poetry and my part of the letter, with requesting that, as an act of +friendship, at your convenience, you would take the trouble--a +considerable one, I own--of comparing the corrections in my last edition +with the text in the preceding one. You know my principles of style +better, I think, than any one else; and I should be glad to learn if +anything strikes you as being altered for the worse. You will find the +principal changes are in 'The White Doe,' in which I had too little of +the benefit of your help and judgment. There are several also in the +Sonnets, both miscellaneous and political: in the other poems they are +nothing like so numerous; but here also I should be glad if you would +take the like trouble. Jemima, I am sure, will be pleased to assist you +in the comparison, by reading, new or old, as you may think fit. With +love to her, I remain, + +My dear Mr. Quillinan, + + Faithfully yours, + WILLIAM WORDSWORTH.[157] + + +102. _On a Tour_. + +LETTER TO THE EARL OF LONSDALE. + +After having had excellent health during my long ramble [in +Herefordshire], it is unfortunate that I should thus be disabled at the +conclusion. The mischief came to me in Herefordshire, whither I had gone +on my way home to see my brother-in-law, who, by his horse falling with +him some time ago, was left without the use of his limbs. + +I was lately a few days with Mr. Rogers, at Broadstairs, and also with +the Archbishop of Canterbury, at Addington Park; they were both well, +and I was happy to see the Archbishop much stronger than his slender and +almost feeble appearance would lead one to expect. We walked up and down +in the park for three hours one day, and nearly four the next, without +his seeming to be the least fatigued. I mention this as we must all feel +the value of his life in this state of public affairs. + +The cholera prevented us getting as far as Naples, which was the only +disappointment we met with. As a man of letters I have to regret that +this most interesting tour was not made by me earlier in life, as I +might have turned the notices it has supplied me with to more account +than I now expect to do. With respectful remembrances to Lady Lonsdale, +and to your Lordship, in which Mrs. W. unites, + + I remain, my dear Lord, faithfully, + Your much obliged servant, + WM. WORDSWORTH,[158] + +[157] _Memoirs_, ii. 347-8. + +[158] _Ibid._ ii. 349. + + +103. _Of Bentley and Akenside_. + +LETTER TO THE REV. ALEXANDER DYCE. + + Dec. 23. 1837. + +MY DEAR SIR, + +I have just received your valuable present of Bentley's works, for +which accept my cordial thanks, as also for the leaf to be added to +Akenside. + +Is it recorded in your Memoir of Akenside,--for I have not leisure nor +eyesight at present to look,--that he was fond of sitting in St. James's +Park with his eyes upon Westminster Abbey? This, I am sure, I have +either read or heard of him; and I imagine that it was from Mr. Rogers. +I am not unfrequently a visitor on Hampstead Heath, and seldom pass by +the entrance of Mr. Dyson's villa on Goulder's Hill, close by, without +thinking of the pleasure which Akenside often had there. + +I cannot call to mind a reason why you should not think some passages in +'The Power of Sound' equal to anything I have produced. When first +printed in the 'Yarrow Revisited,' I placed it at the end of the volume, +and, in the last edition of my Poems, at the close of the Poems of +Imagination, indicating thereby my _own_ opinion of it. + +How much do I regret that I have neither learning nor eyesight +thoroughly to enjoy Bentley's masterly 'Dissertation upon the Epistles +of Phalaris'! Many years ago I read the work with infinite pleasure. As +far as I know, or rather am able to judge, it is without a rival in that +department of literature; a work of which the English nation may be +proud as long as acute intellect, and vigorous powers, and profound +scholarship shall be esteemed in the world. + +Let me again repeat my regret that in passing to and from Scotland you +have never found it convenient to visit this part of the country. I +should be delighted to see you, and I am sure Mr. Southey would be the +same: and in his house you would find an inexhaustible collection of +books, many curious no doubt; but his classical library is much the +least valuable part of it. The death of his excellent wife was a +deliverance for herself and the whole family, so great had been her +sufferings of mind and body. + +You do not say a word about Skelton; and I regret much your +disappointment in respect of Middleton. + + I remain, my dear Sir, + Faithfully, your much obliged, + WM. WORDSWORTH.[159] + +[159] _Memoirs_, ii. 350-1. + + +104. _Presidency of Royal Dublin Society: Patronage of Genius: Canons of +Criticism: Family News_. + +LETTER TO SIR WILLIAM R. HAMILTON. + + Rydal Mount, Dec. 21 [1837]. + +MY DEAR SIR WILLIAM, + +The papers had informed me of the honour conferred upon you, and I was +intending to congratulate you on the occasion, when your letter arrived. +The electors have done great credit to themselves by appointing you, and +not a little by rejecting the ultra-liberal Archbishop, and that by so +decided a majority. We are much pleased that your sister, who we +conclude is well, has sent her Poems to press, and wish they may obtain +the attention we are sure they will merit. Your own two Sonnets, for +which I thank you, we read, that is Mrs. W. and myself (Dora is in the +South), with interest. But to the main purport of your letter. You pay +me an undeserved compliment in requesting my opinion, how you could best +promote some of the benefits which the Society, at whose head you are +placed, aims at. As to patronage, you are right in supposing that I hold +it in little esteem for helping genius forward in the fine arts, +especially those whose medium is words. Sculpture and painting _may_ be +helped by it; but even in those departments there is much to be dreaded. +The French have established an Academy at Rome upon an extensive scale; +and so far from doing good, I was told by every one that it had done +much harm. The plan is this: they select the most distinguished students +from the school or academy at Paris and send them to Rome, with handsome +stipends, by which they are tempted into idleness, and of course into +vice. So that it looks like a contrivance for preventing the French +nation and the world at large profiting by the genius which nature may +have bestowed, and which left to itself would in some cases, perhaps, +have prospered. The principal, I was indeed told the only, condition +imposed upon these students is, that each of them send annually some +work of his hands to Paris. When at Rome, I saw a good deal of English +artists. They seemed to be living happily and doing well, tho', as you +are aware, the public patronage any of them receive is trifling. + +Genius in poetry, or any department of what is called the Belles +Lettres, is much more likely to be cramped than fostered by public +support: better wait to reward those who have done their work, tho' even +here national rewards are not necessary, unless the labourers be, if not +in poverty, at least in narrow circumstances. Let the laws be but just +to them and they will be sure of attaining competence, if they have not +misjudged their own talents or misapplied them. + +The cases of Chatterton, Burns, and others, might, it should seem, be +urged against the conclusion that help beforehand is not required; but I +do think that in the temperament of the two I have mentioned there was +something which, however favourable had been their circumstances, +however much they had been encouraged and supported, would have brought +on their ruin. As to what Patronage can do in Science, discoveries in +Physics, mechanic arts, &c., you know far better than I can pretend to +do. + +As to 'better canons of criticism and general improvement of scholars,' +I really, speaking without affectation, am so little of a Critic or +Scholar, that it would be presumptuous in me to _write_ upon the subject +to you. If we were together and you should honour me by asking my +opinion upon particular points, that would be a very different thing, +and I might have something to say not wholly without value. But where +could I begin with so comprehensive an argument, and how could I put +into the compass of a letter my thoughts, such as they may be, with +anything like order? It is somewhat mortifying to me to disappoint you. +You must upon reflection I trust perceive, that in attempting to comply +with your wish I should only lose myself in a wilderness. I have been +applied to to give lectures upon Poetry in a public institution in +London, but I was conscious that I was neither competent to the office, +nor the public prepared to receive what I should have felt it my duty to +say, however [inadequately?]. + +I have [had] a very pleasant and not profitless tour on the Continent, +tho' with one great drawback, the being obliged on account of the +cholera to return without seeing Naples and its neighbourhood. Had it +not been for the state of my eyes, which became inflamed after I got +back to England, I should have been able to take Liverpool in my way +home, at the time you were there. The attack continued for a long time, +and has left a weakness in the organ which does not yet allow me either +to read or write; but with care I hope to come about. + +My sister continues in the same enfeebled state of mind and body. Mrs. +W. is well; but your godson, we hear, is suffering from derangement of +the stomach, so that at present he is not a thriving child, but his +elder brother is now remarkably so, and he about the same age was +subject to the same trials. We trust that your little family are all +flourishing, and with our united affectionate regards believe me, +faithfully, + + Dear Sir W., yours, + WM. WORDSWORTH. + +I am sorry that I cannot send this thro' Lord Northampton, because he +tells me he is coming northward.[160] + +[160] Here first printed. G. + + +105. _Prose-writing: Coleridge: Royal Dublin Society: Select Minds: +Copyright: Private Affairs_. + +LETTER TO SIR WILLIAM R. HAMILTON. + + Rydal Mount, Jan. 4. 1838. + +MY DEAR SIR WILLIAM, + +From a hope of something starting up in my mind which might prevent my +letter being an utter disappointment, I have not answered yours, as I +wished to do, by return of post. But I am really still as much at a loss +how to make my letter worth reading as if I had replied immediately. +Allow me, however, to thank you for your last, which has completely done +away with the vagueness of the former; I now distinctly understand you, +and as to one of your leading points, viz. availing myself of +publication through your Society, I may say that if there had been among +my papers anything of the kind you wish for, I should have gladly +forwarded it to you. But it is not so, nor dare I undertake to promise +anything of the kind for the future. Though prevailed upon by Mr. +Coleridge to write the first Preface to my Poems, which tempted, or +rather forced, me to add a supplement to it, and induced by my +friendship for him to write the Essay upon Epitaphs now appended to 'The +Excursion,' but first composed for 'The Friend,' I have never felt +inclined to write criticism, though I have talked, and am daily talking, +a great deal. If I were several years younger, out of friendship to you +mainly, I would sit down to the task of giving a body to my notions +upon the essentials of Poetry; a subject which could not be properly +treated, without adverting to the other branches of fine art. But at +present, with so much before me that I could wish to do in verse, and +the melancholy fact brought daily more and more home to my conviction, +that intellectual labour, by its action on the brain and nervous system, +is injurious to the bodily powers, and especially to my eyesight, I +should only be deceiving myself and misleading you, were I to encourage +a hope that, much as I could wish to be your fellow-labourer, however +humbly, I shall ever become so. + +Having disposed of this rather painful part of the subject of your +letter, let me say, that though it is principally matters of science in +which publication through your Society would be serviceable, and indeed +in that department eminently so, I concur with you in thinking, that the +same vehicle would be useful for bringing under the notice of the +thinking part of the community critical essays of too abstract a +character to be fit for popularity. There are obviously, even in +criticism, two ways of affecting the minds of men--the one by treating +the matter so as to carry it immediately to the sympathies of the many; +and the other, by aiming at a few select and superior minds, that might +each become a centre for illustrating it in a popular way. Mr. +Coleridge, whom you allude to, acted upon the world to a great extent +thro' the latter of these processes; and there cannot be a doubt that +your Society might serve the cause of just thinking and pure taste +should you, as president of it, hold up to view the desirableness of +first conveying to a few, thro' that channel, reflections upon +literature and art, which, if well meditated, would be sure of winning +their way directly, or in their indirect results to a gradually widening +circle. + +May I not encourage a hope that during the ensuing summer, or at the +worst at no distant period, you and I might meet, when a few hours' +conversation would effect more than could come out of a dozen letters +dictated, and hastily, as I am obliged to dictate this, from an +unexpected interruption when Mrs. W. and I were sitting down with the +pen in her hand? + +You are right in your recollection that I named to you the subject of +foreign piracy, as injurious to English authors; and I may add now that +if it could be put a stop to, I believe that it would rarely happen that +successful writers, on works of imagination and feeling at least, would +stand in need of pensions from Government, or would feel themselves +justified in accepting them. Upon this subject I have spoken a great +deal to M.P.'s of all parties, and with several distinguished Americans. +I have also been in correspondence with the present Chancellor of the +Exchequer upon it, and dwelt upon the same topic in a letter which I had +occasion to write to Sir Robert Peel. Mr. Lytton Bulwer, as perhaps you +know, drew the attention of Parliament to it during the late Session. +Lord Palmerston said in answer to him, that the attention of Government +had already been directed to the measure, and that it would not be lost +sight of, or something to that purpose. I may claim some credit for my +exertions in this business, and full as much, or more, for the pains +which I have taken for many years, to interest men in the H[ouse] of +C[ommons] in the extension of the term of copyright--a measure which I +trust is about to be brought to a successful close by the exertions of +my admirable friend Serjeant Talfourd. To him I have written upon the +argument more than once. When this is effected, I trust the other part +of the subject will be taken up with spirit, and if the Foreign +Secretary, in whose department the matter lies, should be remiss, I +trust he will be stimulated thro' Parliament, to which desirable end the +services of distinguished societies like yours, and the notice of the +question, by men of letters, in reviews or otherwise, would greatly +contribute. Good authors, if justice were done to them by their own and +foreign countries, now that reading is spread and spreading so widely, +would very few of them be in need, except thro' their own fault. + +When I was in town last August, the American minister, Mr. Stephenson, +spoke to me with much indignation of the law and practice by which +copyright was secured in England for American authors, while there was +no reciprocity for English writers in America. + +But I must conclude, or I shall miss the post. The father of your godson +is here, and begs to be remembered to you. + +Did I ever mention to you that owing to the sea having swallowed up his +father-in-law's coal-pits, ... income is much reduced; and he therefore +feels it necessary to endeavour to procure a couple of pupils, who could +afford to pay rather handsomely for the advantages they would have under +his roof? By this time he would have succeeded, but parents in the +South have an unaccountable objection to sending their sons so far +North. As the same might not be felt in Ireland, I take the liberty of +mentioning his wish to you, being persuaded that if you can you will +assist him in his views. If your address to your Society should be +published, could you send it me, and acquaint me with what you have +done? + + Affectionately yours, + WM. WORDSWORTH.[161] + +[161] Here first printed. G. + + + +106. _Of his own Poems and posthumous Fame_. + +LETTER TO HENRY REED, ESQ., PHILADELPHIA. + + Rydal Mount, Dec. 23. 1839. + +MY DEAR SIR, + +The year is upon the point of expiring; and a letter of yours, dated May +7th, though not received till late in June (for I was moving about all +last spring and part of the summer), remains unacknowledged. I have also +to thank you for the acceptable present of the two volumes which reached +me some time afterwards. + + * * * * * + +Your letters are naturally turned upon the impression which my poems +have made, and the estimation they are held, or likely to be held in, +through the vast country to which you belong. I wish I could feel as +lively as you do upon this subject, or even upon the general destiny of +those works. Pray do not be long surprised at this declaration. There is +a difference of more than the length of your life, I believe, between +our ages. I am standing on the brink of that vast ocean I must sail so +soon; I must speedily lose sight of the shore; and I could not once have +conceived how little I now am troubled by the thought of how long or +short a time they who remain on that shore may have sight of me. The +other day I chanced to be looking over a MS. poem, belonging to the year +1803, though not actually composed till many years afterwards. It was +suggested by visiting the neighbourhood of Dumfries, in which Burns had +resided, and where he died; it concluded thus: + + 'Sweet Mercy to the gales of heaven + This minstrel led, his sins forgiven; + + The rueful conflict, the heart riven + With vain endeavour, + And memory of earth's bitter leaven + Effaced for ever.' + +Here the verses closed; but I instantly added, the other day, + + 'But why to him confine the prayer, + When kindred thoughts and yearnings bear + On the frail heart the purest share + With all that live? + The best of what we do and are. + Just God, forgive!' + +The more I reflect upon this last exclamation, the more I feel (and +perhaps it may in some degree be the same with you) justified in +attaching comparatively small importance to any literary monument that I +may be enabled to leave behind. It is well, however, I am convinced, +that men think otherwise in the earlier part of their lives; and why it +is so, is a point I need not touch upon in writing to you. + +Before I dismiss this subject let me thank you for the extract from your +intelligent friend's letter; and allow me to tell you that I could not +but smile at your Boston critic placing my name by the side of Cowley. I +suppose he cannot mean anything more than that the same measure of +reputation or fame (if that be not too presumptuous a word) is due to us +both. + +German transcendentalism, which you say this critic is infected by, +would be a woeful visitation for the world. + +The way in which you speak of me in connection with your possible visit +to England was most gratifying; and I here repeat that I should be truly +glad to see you in the delightful spot where I have long dwelt; and I +have the more pleasure in saying this to you, because, in spite of my +old infirmity, my strength exceeds that of most men of my years, and my +general health continues to be, as it always has been, remarkably good. +A page of blank paper stares me in the face; and I am not sure that it +is worth while to fill it with a sonnet which broke from me not long ago +in reading an account of misdoings in many parts of your Republic. Mrs. +Wordsworth will, however, transcribe it. + + 'Men of the Western World! in Fate's dark book, + Whence these opprobrious leaves, of dire portent?' + +To turn to another subject. You will be sorry to learn that several of +my most valued friends are likely to suffer from the monetary +derangements in America. My family, however, is no way directly +entangled, unless the Mississippi bonds prove invalid. There is an +opinion pretty current among discerning persons in England, that +Republics are not to be trusted in money concerns,--I suppose because +the sense of honour is more obtuse, the responsibility being divided +among so many. For my own part, I have as little or less faith in +absolute despotisms, except that they are more easily convinced that it +is politic to keep up their credit by holding to their engagements. What +power is maintained by this practice was shown by Great Britain in her +struggle with Buonaparte. This lesson has not been lost on the leading +monarchical states of Europe. But too much of this. + + Believe me to remain, + Faithfully yours, + Wm. Wordsworth.[162] + + +107. _the Sheldonian Theatre_. + +LETTER TO JOHN PEACE, ESQ., CITY LIBRARY, BRISTOL. + + Rydal Mount, Aug. 30. 1839. + +MY DEAR SIR, + +It was not a little provoking that I had not the pleasure of shaking you +by the hand at Oxford when you did me the honour of coming so far to +'join in the shout.' I was told by a Fellow of University College that +he had never witnessed such an outburst of enthusiasm in that place, +except upon the occasions of the visits of the Duke of Wellington--one +unexpected. My Nephew, Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, was +present, as well as my son, William, who, I am happy to say, is much +better in health than when you saw him in Oxford. He is here, and +desires to be kindly remembered to you. [163] + +[162] _Memoirs_, ii. 351-4. + +[163] Extract: _Memoirs_, ii. 357-8. + + +108. _New Edition of his Poems_. + +LETTER TO EDWARD MOXON, ESQ. + + Rydal Mount, Dec. 11. 1838. + +DEAR MR. MOXON, + +I am in hopes that my nephew, Mr. John Wordsworth, of Cambridge, will +correct the proofs for me: he promised to do so, when he was here a few +weeks ago; but I grieve to say he has been very unwell since, and may +not be equal to the task; but I shall write to him on the subject. He is +the most accurate man I know; and if a revise of each sheet could be +sent to him the edition would be immaculate. + + W. Wordsworth.[164] + + +109. _Death of his Nephew, John Wordsworth_. + +LETTER TO LADY FREDERICK BENTINCK. + + Rydal Mount, Ambleside (not Kendal), Jan. 3 [1840]. + +MY DEAR LADY FREDERICK, + +Yesterday brought us melancholy news in a letter from my brother, Dr. +Wordsworth, which announced the death of his eldest son. He died last +Tuesday, in Trinity College, of which he was a fellow, having been +tenderly nursed by his father during rather a long illness. He was a +most amiable man, and I have reason to believe was one of the best +scholars in Europe. We were all strongly attached to him, and, as his +poor father writes, the loss is to him, and to his sorrowing sons, +irreparable on this side of the grave. + + W. W.[165] + +[164] _Memoirs_, ii. 358. + +[165] _Ibid._ ii. 360. + + +110. _Of the Same_. + +LETTER TO THE REV. THE MASTER OF TRINITY COLLEGE. CAMBRIDGE. + + Friday, Jan. 3 [1840]. + +MY VERY DEAR BROTHER, + +It is in times of trouble and affliction that one feels most deeply the +strength of the ties of family and nature. We all most affectionately +condole with you, and those who are around you, at this melancholy time. +The departed was beloved in this house as he deserved to be; but our +sorrow, great as it is for our own sakes, is still heavier for yours and +his brothers'. He is a power gone out of our family, and they will be +perpetually reminded of it. But the best of all consolations will be +with you, with them, with us, and all his numerous relatives and +friends, especially with Mrs. Hoare, that his life had been as blameless +as man's could well be, and through the goodness of God, he is gone to +his reward. + + I remain your loving brother, + Wm. Wordsworth.[166] + + +111. _On the Death of a young Person_.[167] + + Rydal Mount, Ambleside, May 21. 1840. + +MY DEAR SIR, + +Pray impute to anything but a want of due sympathy with you in your +affliction my not having earlier given an answer to your letter. In +truth, I was so much moved by it, that I had not, at first, sufficient +resolution to bring my thoughts so very close to your trouble, as must +have been done had I taken up the pen immediately. I have been myself +distressed in the same way, though my two children were taken from me at +an earlier age, one in her fifth, the other in his seventh year, and +within half a year of each other. I can, therefore, enter into your +sorrows more feelingly than for others is possible, who have not +suffered like losses. + +Your departed daughter struck me as having one of the most intelligent +and impressive countenances I ever looked upon, and I spoke of her as +such to Mrs. Wordsworth, Miss Fenwick, and to others. The indications +which I saw in her of a somewhat alarming state of health, I could not +but mention to you, when you accompanied me a little way from your own +door. You spoke something encouraging; but they continued to haunt me; +so that your kind letter was something less of a shock than it would +otherwise have been, though not less of a sorrow. + +[166] _Memoirs_, ii. 360-1. + +[167] Ellen Parry (daughter of Dr. Parry), who died April 28, 1840. +Wordsworth saw her April 28, 1839. He was again at Summer Hill, Bath, in +April 1840. + +How pathetic is your account of the piety with which the dear creature +supported herself under those severe trials of mind and body with which +it pleased God to prepare her for a happier world! The consolation which +_children_ and very young persons, who have been religiously brought up, +draw from the Holy Scriptures, ought to be habitually on the minds of +_adults_ of all ages, for the benefit of their own souls, and requires +to be treated in a loftier and more comprehensive train of thought and +feeling than by writers has been usually bestowed upon it. It does not, +therefore, surprise me that you hinted at my own pen being employed upon +the subject, as brought before the mind in your lamented daughter's own +most touching case. I wish I were equal to anything so holy, but I feel +that I am not. It is remarkable, however, that within the last few days +the subject has been presented to my mind by two several persons, both +unknown to me; which is something of a proof how widely its importance +is felt, and also that there is a feeling that I am not wholly unworthy +of treating it. + +Your letter, my dear Sir, I value exceedingly, and shall take the +liberty, as I have done more than once, with fit reverence, of reading +it in quarters where it is likely to do good, or rather, where I know it +must do good. + +Wishing and praying that the Almighty may bestow upon yourself, the +partner in your bereavement, and all the fellow-sufferers in your +household, that consolation and support which can proceed only from His +grace, + + I remain, my dear Dr. Parry, + Most faithfully, your much obliged, + W. Wordsworth.[168] + + +112. _Religion and Versified Religion_. + +LETTER TO THE REV. H. (AFTERWARDS DEAN) ALFORD. + + (Postmark) Ambleside, Feb. 21. 1848. + +MY DEAR SIR, + +Pray excuse my having been some little time in your debt. I could plead +many things in extenuation, the chief, that old one of the state of my +eyes, which never leaves me at liberty either to read or write a tenth +part as much as I could wish, and as otherwise I ought to do. + +[168] _Memoirs_, ii. 362-3. + +It cannot but be highly gratifying to me to learn that my writings are +prized so highly by a poet and critic of your powers. The essay upon +them which you have so kindly sent me seems well qualified to promote +your views in writing it. I was particularly pleased with your +distinction between religion in poetry, and versified religion. For my +own part, I have been averse to frequent mention of the mysteries of +Christian faith; not from a want of a due sense of their momentous +nature, but the contrary. I felt it far too deeply to venture on +handling the subject as familiarly as many scruple not to do. I am far +from blaming them, but let them not blame me, nor turn from my +companionship on that account. Besides general reasons for diffidence in +treating subjects of Holy Writ, I have some especial ones. I might err +in points of faith, and I should not deem my mistakes less to be +deprecated because they were expressed in metre. Even Milton, in my +humble judgment, has erred, and grievously; and what poet could hope to +atone for his apprehensions[169] in the way in which that mighty mind +has done? + +I am not at all desirous that any one should write an elaborate critique +on my poetry.[170] There is no call for it. If they be from above, they +will do their own work in course of time; if not, they will perish as +they ought. But scarcely a week passes in which I do not receive +grateful acknowledgments of the good they have done to the minds of the +several writers. They speak of the relief they have received from them +under affliction and in grief, and of the calmness and elevation of +spirit which the poems either give or assist them in attaining. As these +benefits are not without a traceable bearing upon the good of the +immortal soul, the sooner, perhaps, they are pointed out and illustrated +in a work like yours, the better. + +[169] Sic: qu. 'Misapprehensions.' _H.A._ + +[170] Sic: 1. 'Poems.' _II. A_. + +Pray excuse my talking so much about myself: your letter and critique +called me to the subject. But I assure you it would have been more +grateful to me to acknowledge the debt we owe you in this house, where +we have read your poems with no common pleasure. Your 'Abbot of +Muchelnage' also makes me curious to hear more of him. + +But I must conclude, + +I was truly sorry to have missed you when you and Mrs. Alford called at +Rydal. Mrs. W. unites with me in kind regards to you both; and believe +me, + + My dear Sir, + Faithfully yours, + Wm. Wordsworth.[171] + + +113. _Memorandum of a Conversation on Sacred Poetry (by Rev. R. P. +Graves)_. + +I must try to give you a summary of a long conversation I had with +Wordsworth on the subject of _sacred poetry,_ and which I wish I were +able to report in full. In the course of it he expressed to me the +feelings of reverence which prevented him from venturing to lay his hand +on what he always thought a subject too high for him; and he accompanied +this with the earnest protest that his works, as well as those of any +other poet, should not be considered as developing all the influences +which his own heart recognised, but rather those which he considered +himself able as an artist to display to advantage, and which he thought +most applicable to the wants, and admitted by the usages, of the world +at large. This was followed by a most interesting discussion upon +Milton, Cowper, the general progress of religion as an element of +poetry, and the gradual steps by which it must advance to a power +comprehensive and universally admitted; steps which are defined in their +order by the constitution of the human mind, and which must proceed with +vastly more slowness in the case of the progress made by collective +minds, than it does in an individual soul.[172] + + +114. _Visit of Queen Adelaide to Rydal Mount_. + +LETTER TO LADY FREDERICK BENTINCK. + + July 1840. + +I hope, dear Lady Frederick, that nothing will prevent my appearance at +Lowther towards the end of next week. But I have for these last few +years been visited always with a serious inflammation in my eyes about +this season of the year, which causes me to have fears about the +fulfilment of any engagement, however agreeable. Pray thank Lord +Lonsdale, on my part, for his thinking of me upon this occasion. + +[171] _Memoirs_, ii. 364-6. + +[172] _Ibid._ ii. 366. + +On Monday morning, a little before nine, a beautiful and bright day, +the Queen Dowager and her sister appeared at Rydal. I met them at the +lower waterfall, with which her Majesty seemed much pleased. Upon +hearing that it was not more than half a mile to the higher fall, she +said, briskly, she would go; though Lord Denbigh and Lord Howe felt that +they were pressed for time, having to go upon Keswick Lake, and thence +to Paterdale. I walked by the Queen's side up to the higher waterfall, +and she seemed to be struck much with the beauty of the scenery. Her +step was exceedingly light; but I learned that her health is not good, +or rather that she still suffers from the state of her constitution, +which caused her to go abroad. + +Upon quitting the park of Rydal, nearly opposite our own gate, the Queen +was saluted with a pretty rural spectacle; nearly fifty children, drawn +up in avenue, with bright garlands in their hands, three large flags +flying, and a band of music. They had come from Ambleside, and the +garlands were such as are annually prepared at this season for a +ceremony called 'the Rush-bearing;' and the parish-clerk of Ambleside +hit upon this way of showing at Rydal the same respect to the Queen +which had been previously shown at Ambleside. I led the Queen to the +principal points of view in our little domain, particularly to that, +through the summer house, which shows the lake of Rydal to such +advantage. The Queen talked more than once about having a cottage among +the lakes, which of course was nothing more than a natural way of giving +vent to the pleasure which she had in the country. You will think, I +fear, that I have dwelt already too long upon the subject; and I shall +therefore only add, that all went off satisfactorily, and that every one +was delighted with her Majesty's demeanour. Lord and Lady Sheffield were +the only persons of her suite whom I had seen before. Lord Howe was +pleased with the sight of the pictures from his friend Sir George +Beaumont's pencil, and showed them to the Queen, who, having sat some +little time in the house, took her leave, cordially shaking Mrs. +Wordsworth by the hand, as a friend of her own rank might have done. She +had also inquired for Dora, who was introduced to her. I hope she will +come again into the country, and visit Lowther. + +Pray excuse the above long story, which I should not have ventured upon, +but that you expressed a wish upon the subject. + +What enchanting weather! I hope, and do not doubt, that you all enjoy +it, my dear Lady Frederick, as we are doing. + +I ought not to forget, that two days ago I went over to see Mr. Southey, +or rather Mrs. Southey, for he is past taking pleasure in the presence +of any of his friends. He did not recognise me till he was told. Then +his eyes flashed for a moment with their former brightness, but he sank +into the state in which I had found him, patting with both hands his +books affectionately, like a child. Having attempted in vain to interest +him by a few observations, I took my leave, after five minutes or so. It +was, for me, a mournful visit, and for his poor wife also. His health is +good, and he may live many years; though the body is much enfeebled. + + Ever affectionately yours, + Wm. Wordsworth. + +We hope your lameness will soon leave you, that you may ramble about as +usual.[173] + + +115. _Ecclesiastical Duties and Revenues Act, &c._ + +LETTER TO THE REV. T. BOYLES MURRAY. + + Rydal Mount, Ambleside, Sept. 24. 1840. + +DEAR SIR, + +Upon returning home after an absence of ten days, I have the pleasure of +finding your obliging letter, and the number of the _Ecclesiastical +Gazette_ containing the 'Ecclesiastical Duties and Revenues Act:' for +both marks of attention I beg you to accept my sincere thanks. As soon +as I can find leisure, I will carefully peruse the Act; at present I can +only say that I look upon changes so extensive and searching with a +degree of alarm proportionate to my love and affection for the +Establishment with which they are connected. + +As you have put me in possession of the _Gazette_, I can scarcely feel +justified in looking to the fulfilment of your promise to send me the +Act, separately printed. Indeed, I feel that it would be giving yourself +more trouble than there is occasion for. + +[173] _Memoirs_, ii. 367-9. + +It pleases me much to learn that Mrs. Murray and you enjoyed your +ramble among the lakes. + + Believe me to be, dear Sir, faithfully, + Your obliged servant, + Wm. Wordsworth.[174] + + +116. _Samuel Rogers and Wordsworth together_. + +LETTER TO LADY FREDERICK BENTINCK. + + Rydal Mount, Sept. 26. 1840. + +DEAR LADY FREDERICK, + +Mr. Rogers and I had a pleasant journey to Rydal the day we left all our +kind friends at Lowther. We alighted at Lyulph's Tower, and saw the +waterfall in great power after the night's rain, the sun shining full +into the chasm, and making a splendid rainbow of the spray. Afterwards, +walking through Mr. Askew's grounds, we saw the lake to the greatest +possible advantage. Mr. R. left on Thursday, the morning most beautiful, +though it rained afterwards. I know not how he could tear himself away +from this lovely country at this charming season. I say charming, +notwithstanding this is a dull day; but yesterday was most glorious. I +hope our excellent friend does not mean to remain in London. + +We have had no visits from strangers since my return, so that the press +of the season seems to be over. The leaves are not changed here so much +as at Lowther, and of course not yet so beautiful, nor are they ever +quite so as with you, your trees being so much finer, and your woods so +very much more extensive. We have a great deal of coppice, which makes +but a poor show in autumn compared with timber trees. + +Your son George knows what he has to expect in the few sheets which I +enclose for him. + +With many thanks for the endless kind attentions which I received from +you, and others under your father's hospitable roof, and with my +grateful respects to him, and a thousand good wishes for all, I remain, +my wife and daughter joining in these feelings, My dear Lady Frederick, +affectionately yours, + + Wm. Wordsworth.[175] + +[174] _Memoirs_, ii. 369-70. + +[175] _Ibid._ ii. 370-1. + +117. _An alarming Accident, Nov_. 11, 1840. + +LETTER TO LADY FREDERICK BENTINCK. + + Rydal Mount, Monday Evening. + +The accident after which you inquire, dear Lady Frederick, with so much +feeling, might have been fatal, but through God's mercy we escaped +without bodily injury, as far as I know, worth naming. These were the +particulars: About three miles beyond Keswick, on the Ambleside road, is +a small bridge, from the top of which we got sight of the mail coach +coming towards us, at about forty yards' distance, just before the road +begins to descend a narrow, steep, and winding slope. Nothing was left +for J----, who drove the gig in which we were, but to cross the bridge, +and, as the road narrowed up the slope that was in our front, to draw up +as close to the wall on our left (our side of the road) as possible. +This he did, both of us hoping that the coachman would slacken his pace +down the hill, and pass us as far from our wheel as the road would +allow. But he did neither. On the contrary, he drove furiously down the +hill; and though, as we afterwards ascertained, by the track of his +wheels, he had a yard width of road to spare, he made no use of it. In +consequence of this recklessness and his want of skill, the wheel of his +coach struck our wheel most violently, drove back our horse and gig some +yards, and then sent us all together through a small gap in the wall, +with the stones of the wall tumbling about us, into a plantation that +lay a yard perpendicular below the level of the road from which the +horse and gig, with us in it, had been driven. The shafts were broken +off close to the carriage, and we were partly thrown and partly leaped +out. After breaking the traces, the horse leaped back into the road and +galloped off, the shafts and traces sticking to him; nor did the poor +creature stop till he reached the turnpike at Grasmere, seven miles from +the spot where the mischief was done. We sent by the coach for a chaise +to take us to Rydal, and hired a cart to take the broken gig to be +mended at Keswick. + +The mercy was, that the violent shock from the coach did not tear off +our wheel; for if this had been done, J----, and probably I also, must +have fallen under the hind wheels of the coach, and in all likelihood +been killed. We have since learned that the coachman had only just come +upon the road, which is in a great many places very dangerous, and that +he was wholly unpractised in driving four-in-hand. Pray excuse this long +and minute account. I should have written to you next day, but I waited, +hoping to be able to add that my indisposition was gone, as I now trust +it is. + +With respectful remembrances to Lord Lonsdale, and kindest regards to +yourself and Miss Thompson, I remain, + + Dear Lady Frederick, + Affectionately yours, + Wm. Wordsworth.[176] + +[176] _Memoirs_, ii. 371-3. + + +118. _Of Alston and Haydon, &c._ + + +LETTER TO HENRY REED, ESQ., PHILADELPHIA. + + Rydal Mount, Jan. 13. 1841. +MY DEAR MR. REED, + +It is gratifying to learn that through your means Mr. Alston has been +reminded of me. We became acquainted many years ago through our common +friend Mr. Coleridge, who had seen much of Mr. Alston when they were +both living at Rome. + + * * * * * + +You mention the Sonnet I wrote upon Haydon's picture of the Duke of +Wellington. I have known Haydon, and Wilkie also, from their +contemporaneous introduction to the world as artists; their powers were +perceived and acknowledged by my lamented friend Sir George Beaumont, +and patronised by him accordingly; and it was at his house where I first +became acquainted with them both. Haydon is bent upon coming to Rydal +next summer, with a view to paint a likeness of me, not as a mere +matter-of-fact portrait, but one of a poetical character, in which he +will endeavour to place his friend in some favourite scene of these +mountains. I am rather afraid, I own, of any attempt of this kind, +notwithstanding my high opinion of his ability; but if he keeps in his +present mind, which I doubt, it will be in vain to oppose his +inclination. He is a great enthusiast, possessed also of a most active +intellect, but he wants that submissive and steady good sense which is +absolutely necessary for the adequate development of power in that art +to which he is attached. + +As I am on the subject of painting, it may be worth while to add, that +Pickersgill came down last summer to paint a portrait of me for Sir +Robert Peel's gallery at Drayton Manor. It was generally thought here +that this work was more successful than the one he painted some years +ago for St. John's College, at the request of the Master and +Fellows.[177] + +[177] _Memoirs_, ii. 373-4. + + +119. _Of Peace's 'Apology for Cathedrals.'_ + +I have no especial reason for writing at this moment of time, but I have +long wished to thank you for the 'Apology for Cathedrals,' which I have +learned is from your pen. The little work does you great credit; it is +full of that wisdom which the heart and imagination alone could +adequately supply for such a subject; and is, moreover, very pleasingly +diversified by styles of treatment all good in their kind. I need add no +more than that I entirely concur in the views you take: but what avails +it? the mischief is done, and they who have been most prominent in +setting it on foot will have to repent of their narrow comprehension; +which, however, is no satisfaction to us, who from the first foresaw the +evil tendency of the measure.[178] + +[178] Extract of letter to John Peace, Esq., Jan. 19, 1841: _Memoirs_, +ii. 376. + +120. _Of 'The Task' of Cowper and Shenstone_. + +Though I can make but little use of my eyes in writing or reading, I +have lately been reading Cowper's 'Task' aloud; and in so doing was +tempted to look over the parallelisms, for which Mr. Southey was in his +edition indebted to you. Knowing how comprehensive your acquaintance +with poetry is, I was rather surprised that you did not notice the +identity of the thought, and accompanying illustrations of it, in a +passage of Shenstone's Ode upon Rural Elegance, compared with one in +'The Task,' where Cowper speaks of the inextinguishable love of the +country as manifested by the inhabitants of cities in their culture of +plants and flowers, where the want of air, cleanliness, and light, is +so unfavourable to their growth and beauty. The germ of the main thought +is to be found in Horace, + + 'Nempe inter varias nutritur sylva columnas, + Laudaturque domus longos quae prospicit agros; + Naturam expellas furca, tamen usque recurret.' + +Lib. i. Epist. x. v. 22. + +Pray write to me soon. Ever, my dear friend, + + Faithfully your obliged, + WM. WORDSWORTH.[179] + + +121. _On a Tour_. + +LETTER TO JOHN PEACE, ESQ. + + 12 North Parade, Bath, April 19. 1841. + +MY DEAR MR. PEACE, + +Here I am and have been since last Wednesday evening. I came down the +Wye, and passed through Bristol, but arriving there at the moment the +railway train was about to set off, and being in the company of four +ladies (Miss Fenwick, and Mrs. Wordsworth, and my daughter and niece), I +had not a moment to spare, so could not call on you, my good friend, +which I truly regretted. Pray spare an hour or two to come here, and +then we can fix a day, when, along with my daughter, I can visit +Bristol, see you, Mr. Cottle, and Mr. Wade. + + * * * * * + + All unite in kindest regards. + Ever yours, + WM. WORDSWORTH.[180] + + +122. _Marriage of Dora_. + +TO THE SAME. + + Bath, May 11. 1841. +MY DEAR MR. PEACE, + +This morning my dear daughter was married in St. James's in this place. + +Tomorrow we leave Bath for Wells, and thence to the old haunts of Mr. +Coleridge, and myself, and dear sister, about Alfoxden. + + Adieu, + W. W.[181] + +[179] Extract of letter to John Peace, Esq., January 19, 1841: +_Memoirs_, ii. 376. + +[180] _Memoirs_, ii, 377. + +[181] _Ibid._ ii. 378. + + +123. _Letters to his Brother_. + +TO THE REV. DR. WORDSWORTH, MASTER OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. + +MY DEAR BROTHER, + +Your affectionate and generous kindness to your, I trust, deserving +niece has quite overpowered me and her mother, to whom I could not +forbear communicating the contents of your letter. + +[The above relates to an act of kindness which the late Master of +Trinity had the happiness of performing, on the occasion of Dora +Wordsworth's marriage. + +The following refers to a serious accident which occurred to him at +Cambridge, by a fall from his horse.] + + Feb. 16. 1841. + +MY DEAR BROTHER, + +The good accounts which we receive from time to time of your progress +towards perfect recovery from your late severe accident embolden me to +congratulate you in my own name, and the whole of my family. + + * * * * * + +It remains now for us to join heartily, as we all do, in expressing a +wish that, being convalescent, you would not be tempted to over-exert +yourself. I need scarcely add, that we all unite with you and your sons, +with Susan, and your other relations, and all your friends, in fervent +thanks to Almighty God for His goodness in preserving you. + +As a brother I feel deeply; and regarding your life as most valuable to +the community, I the more rejoice in the prospect of your life being +prolonged. + + Believe me, my dear Brother, + Most affectionately yours, + WM. WORDSWORTH.[182] + +[182] _Memoirs_, ii. 382-3. + +124. _Episcopal Church of America: Emerson and Carlyle_. + +TO PROFESSOR REED. + + Rydal Mount, Ambleside, Aug. 16. 1841. + +MY DEAR MR. REED, + +I have lately had the pleasure of seeing, both in London and at my own +house, the Bishop of New Jersey. He is a man of no ordinary powers of +mind and attainments, of warm feelings and sincere piety. Indeed, I +never saw a person of your country, which is remarkable for cordiality, +whose manner was so thoroughly cordial. He had been greatly delighted +with his reception in England, and what he had seen of it both in Art +and Nature. By the by, I heard him preach an excellent sermon in London. +I believe this privilege is of modern date. The Bishop has furnished me +with his funeral sermon upon Bishop White, to assist me in fulfilling a +request which you first made to me, viz. that I would add a Sonnet to my +Ecclesiastical Series, upon the union of the two Episcopal churches of +England and America.[183] I will endeavour to do so, when I have more +leisure than at present, this being the season when our beautiful region +attracts many strangers, who take up much of my time. + +Do you know Miss Peabody of Boston? She has just sent me, with the +highest eulogy, certain essays of Mr. Emerson. Our Mr. Carlyle and he +appear to be what the French used to call _esprits forts_, though the +French idols showed their spirit after a somewhat different fashion. Our +two present Philosophes, who have taken a language which they suppose to +be English for their vehicle, are verily 'par nobile fratrum,' and it is +a pity that the weakness of our age has not left them exclusively to +this appropriate reward--mutual admiration. Where is the thing which now +passes for philosophy at Boston to stop? + + Ever faithfully yours, + WM. WORDSWORTH.[184] + +[183] Dr. Seabury was consecrated bishop (of Connecticut) by Scottish +bishops at Aberdeen, on 14th November 1784. Dr. White and Dr. Provoost +were consecrated bishops (of New York and Pennsylvania) at Lambeth, 4th +February 1787. + +[184] _Memoirs_, ii. 383-4. + +125. _Old Haunts revisited_. + +LETTER TO JOHN PEACE, ESQ. + + Rydal Mount, Sept. 4. 1841. + +MY DEAR PEACE, + + * * * * * + +Mrs. W. is quite well. We were three months and as many weeks absent +before we reached our own home again. We made a very agreeable tour in +Devonshire, going by Exeter to Plymouth, and returning along the coast +by Salisbury and Winchester to London. In London and its neighbourhood +we stayed not quite a month. During this tour we visited my old haunts +at and about Alfoxden and Nethertowey, and at Coleorton, where we stayed +several days. These were farewell visits for life, and of course not a +little interesting.... + + Ever faithfully yours, + W. WORDSWORTH.[185] + + +126. _No Pension sought_. + +In the summer of 1842, Wordsworth resigned his office of Stamp +Distributor; not, however, on a retiring pension, as has been sometimes +asserted. In a letter, dated March 2, 1840, and addressed to Lord +Morpeth, he says, 'I never did seek or accept a pension from the present +or any other administration, directly or indirectly.' But the duties, +and also the emoluments, of the Distributorship were transferred to his +son William, who had for some time acted as his deputy at Carlisle.[186] + + +127. _The Master of Trinity_. + +LETTER TO A NEPHEW. + + Rydal, Nov. 5. 1841. + +MY DEAR C----, + +Your father left us yesterday, having been just a week under our roof. +The weather was favourable, and he seemed to enjoy himself much. His +muscular strength, as proved by the walks we took together, is great. +One day we were nearly four hours on foot, without resting, and he did +not appear in the least fatigued. + + * * * * * + +[185] _Memoirs_, ii. 384-5. + +[186] _Ibid._ ii. 387. + +We all thought him looking well, and his mind appears as active as ever. +It was a great delight to us to see him here. + +He was anxious to see Charles; he will reach Winchester this afternoon, +I hope without injury. Yours, &c. + +W. W.[187] + + +128. _Of Alston's Portrait of Coleridge_. + +Poor Mr. Wade! From his own modest merits, and his long connection with +Mr. Coleridge, and with my early Bristol remembrances, he was to me an +interesting person. His desire to have my address must have risen, I +think, from a wish to communicate with me upon the subject of Mr. +Alston's valuable portrait of Coleridge. Pray tell me what has, or is +likely to, become of it. I care comparatively little about the matter, +provided due care has been taken for its preservation, and in his native +country. It would be a sad pity if the late owner's intention of sending +it to America be fulfilled. It is the only likeness of the great +original that ever gave me the least pleasure; and it is, in fact, most +happily executed, as every one who has a distinct remembrance of what C. +was at that time must with delight acknowledge, and would be glad to +certify.[188] + + +129. _Of Southey's Death_. + +The papers will have informed you, before you receive this, of poor dear +Southey's decease. He died yesterday morning about nine o'clock. Some +little time since, he was seized with typhus fever, but he passed away +without any outward signs of pain, as gently as possible. We are, of +course, not without sadness upon the occasion, notwithstanding there has +been, for years, cause why all who knew and loved him should wish for +his deliverance.[189] + + +130. _Tropical Scenery: Grace Darling: Southey, &c._ + +LETTER TO LIEUTENANT-GENERAL SIR WM. GOMM.[190] + +[187] _Memoirs_, ii. 385. + +[188] Extract of letter to John Peace, Esq., Dec. 12, 1842: _ibid._ ii. +390-1. + +[189] Extract of letter to Nephew, March 22, 1843: _ibid._ ii. 391. + +[190] The venerable and illustrious soldier has only very recently died. +Within ten days of his death he wrote the present Editor tenderly and +reverentially of Wordsworth. G. + + Rydal Mount, March 24. 1843. + +MY DEAR SIR WILLIAM, + +Nothing should have prevented my answering your kind letter from the +Cape, long ago, but the want of matter that seemed worth sending so far, +unless I confined myself to what you must he well assured of, my sincere +esteem and regard for yourself and Lady Gomm, and the expression of good +wishes for your health and happiness. I am still in the same difficulty, +but cannot defer writing longer, lest I should appear to myself unworthy +of your friendship or respect. + +You describe the beauties of Rio Janeiro in glowing colours, and your +animated picture was rendered still more agreeable to me by the sight, +which I had enjoyed a little before, of a panorama of the same scene, +executed by a friend of mine, who in his youth studied at the Academy +with a view to practise painting as a profession. He was a very +promising young artist, but having a brother a Brazilian merchant, he +changed his purpose and went to Rio, where he resided many years, and +made a little fortune, which enabled him to purchase and build in +Cumberland, where I saw his splendid portrait of that magnificent +region. What an intricacy of waters, and what boldness and fantastic +variety in the mountains! I suppose, taking the region as a whole, it is +scarcely anywhere surpassed. + +If the different quarters of the globe should ever become subject to one +empire, Rio ought to be the metropolis, it is so favoured in every +respect, and so admirably placed for intercourse with all the countries +of the earth. Your approach to the Cape was under awful circumstances, +and, with three great wrecks strewn along the coast of the bay, Lady +Gomm's spirit and fortitude, as described by you, are worthy of all +admiration, and I am sure she will sympathise with the verses I send, to +commemorate a noble exploit of one of her sex. The inhumanity with which +the shipwrecked were lately treated upon the French coast impelled me to +place in contrast the conduct of an English woman and her parents under +like circumstances, as it occurred some years ago. Almost immediately +after I had composed my tribute to the memory of _Grace Darling_, I +learnt that the Queen and Queen Dowager had both just subscribed towards +the erection of a monument to record her heroism, upon the spot that +witnessed it. + +Of public news I say nothing, as you will hear everything from quarters +more worthy of attention. I hope all goes on to your satisfaction, +mainly so at least, in your new government, and that the disposition +which you will have taken with you to benefit the people under your rule +has not been, nor is likely to be, frustrated in any vexatious or +painful degree. + +Yesterday I went over to Keswick to attend the funeral of my excellent +friend, Mr. Southey. His genius and abilities are well known to the +world, and he was greatly valued for his generous disposition and moral +excellence. His illness was long and afflicting; his mind almost +extinguished years before the breath departed. Mr. Rogers I have not +been in communication with since I saw you in London, but be assured I +shall bear in memory your message, and deliver it, if he and I live to +meet again. And now, my dear Sir Wm., repeating the united best good +wishes of Mrs. W. and myself, for you and Lady Gomm, and for your safe +return to your own country, I remain, in the hope of hearing from you +again, + + Most faithfully your much obliged, + W. WORDSWORTH. + +My nephew is still in the Ionian Islands.[191] + +[191] _Memoirs_, ii. 392-4. + + +131. _Contemporary Poets: Southey's Death: 'The Excursion,' &c._ + +TO PROFESSOR REED. + + Rydal Mount, March 27. 1843. + +MY DEAR MR. REED, + + * * * * * + +You give me pleasure by the interest you take in the various passages in +which I speak of the poets, my contemporaries, who are no more: dear +Southey, one of the most eminent, is just added to the list. A few days +ago I went over to Keswick to attend his remains to their last earthly +abode. For upwards of three years his mental faculties have been in a +state of deplorable decay; and his powers of recognition, except very +rarely and but for a moment, have been, during more than half that +period, all but extinct. His bodily health was grievously impaired, and +his medical attendant says that he must have died long since but for the +very great strength of his natural constitution. As to his literary +remains, they must be very considerable, but, except his epistolary +correspondence, more or less unfinished. His letters cannot but be very +numerous, and, if carefully collected and judiciously selected, will, I +doubt not, add greatly to his reputation. He had a fine talent for that +species of composition, and took much delight in throwing off his mind +in that way. Mr. Taylor, the dramatic author, is his literary executor. + +Though I have written at great, and I fear tiresome, length, I will add +a few words upon the wish you express that I would pay a tribute to the +English poets of past ages, who never had the fame they are entitled to, +and have long been almost entirely neglected. Had this been suggested to +me earlier in life, or had it come into my thoughts, the thing in all +probability would have been done. At present I cannot hope it will; but +it may afford you some satisfaction to be told, that in the MS. poem +upon my poetic education there is a whole book, of about 600 lines,[192] +upon my obligations to writers of imagination, and chiefly the poets, +though I have not expressly named those to whom you allude, and for +whom, and many others of their age, I have a high respect. + +The character of the schoolmaster, about whom you inquire, had, like the +'Wanderer,' in 'The Excursion,' a solid foundation in fact and reality, +but, like him, it was also, in some degree, a composition: I will not, +and need not, call it an invention--it was no such thing; but were I to +enter into details, I fear it would impair the effect of the whole upon +your mind; nor could I do it to my own satisfaction. I send you, +according to your wish, the additions to the 'Ecclesiastical Sonnets,' +and also the last poem from my pen. I threw it off two or three weeks +ago, being in a great measure impelled to it by the desire I felt to do +justice to the memory of a heroine, whose conduct presented, some time +ago, a striking contrast to the inhumanity with which our countrymen, +shipwrecked lately upon the French coast, have been treated. + + Ever most faithfully yours, + WM. WORDSWORTH. + +I must request that 'Grace Darling' may not be reprinted. I should be +much obliged if you will have the enclosed Sonnets copied and sent to +Bishop Doane, who has not given me his address. + + W.W.[193] + +[192] Prelude, book v. + +[193] _Memoirs_, ii. 394-6. + + +132. _Offer of the Laureateship on Death of Southey_. + +LETTER TO THE RIGHT HON. EARL DE LA WARR, LORD CHAMBERLAIN. + + Rydal Mount, Ambleside, April 1. 1843. + +MY LORD, + +The recommendation made by your Lordship to the Queen, and graciously +approved by her Majesty, that the vacant office of Poet Laureate should +be offered to me, affords me high gratification. Sincerely am I sensible +of this honour; and let me be permitted to add, that the being deemed +worthy to succeed my lamented and revered friend, Mr. Southey, enhances +the pleasure I receive upon this occasion. + +The appointment, I feel, however, imposes duties which, far advanced in +life as I am, I cannot venture to undertake, and therefore must beg +leave to decline the acceptance of an offer that I shall always remember +with no unbecoming pride. + +Her Majesty will not, I trust, disapprove of a determination forced upon +me by reflections which it is impossible for me to set aside. + +Deeply feeling the distinction conferred upon me, and grateful for the +terms in which your Lordship has made the communication, + + I have the honour to be, + My Lord, + Your Lordship's most, obedient humble servant, + W.W. + +[He thus communicates the particulars of the offer to Lady F. Bentinck:] + +The Lord Chamberlain, in terms the most honourable, has, with the +Queen's approbation, offered me the vacant Laureateship. Had I been +several years younger I should have accepted the office with pride and +pleasure; but on Friday I shall enter, God willing, my 74th year, and on +account of so advanced an age I begged permission to decline it, not +venturing to undertake its duties. For though, as you are aware, the +formal task-work of New Year and Birthday Odes was abolished[194] when +the appointment was given to Mr. Southey, he still considered himself +obliged in conscience to produce, and did produce, verses, some of very +great merit, upon important public occasions. He failed to do so upon +the Queen's Coronation, and I know that this omission caused him no +little uneasiness. The same might happen to myself upon some important +occasion, and I should be uneasy under the possibility; I hope, +therefore, that neither you nor Lord Lonsdale, nor any of my friends, +will blame me for what I have done. + +[194] Southey's account in his _Life and Correspondence_ renders this +statement questionable. + +I was slow to send copies of 'Grace Darling' about, except to female +friends, lest I should seem to attach too much importance to the +production, though it was on a subject which interested the whole +nation. But as the verses seem to have given general pleasure, I now +venture to send the enclosed copies, one for Mr. Colvill, and the other +for my old friend Mr. O'Callaghan, begging that you would present them +at your own convenience. With the best of good wishes, and every kind +and respectful remembrance to Lord Lonsdale, who we are happy to learn +is doing so well, and also not forgetting Miss Thompson, I remain, dear +Lady Frederick, + + Most faithfully and affectionately yours, + WM. WORDSWORTH. + +[Wordsworth's letter did not, however, prevent the Lord Chamberlain from +pressing the offer upon him, with an assurance that the duties of +Laureate had not recently extended beyond the Annual Ode, and might in +his case be considered as merely nominal, and would not in any way +interfere with his repose and retirement. + +The same post brought also the following letter:] + + 'Whitehall, April 3. 1843. + +'MY DEAR SIR, + +'I hope you may be induced to reconsider your decision with regard to +the appointment of Poet Laureate. + +'The offer was made to you by the Lord Chamberlain, with my entire +concurrence, not for the purpose of imposing on you any onerous or +disagreeable duties, but in order to pay you that tribute of respect +which is justly due to the first of living poets. + +'The Queen entirely approved of the nomination, and there is one +unanimous feeling on the part of all who have heard of the proposal +(and it is pretty generally known), that there could not be a question +about the selection. + +'Do not be deterred by the fear of any obligations which the appointment +may be supposed to imply. I will undertake that you shall have nothing +_required_ from you. + +'But as the Queen can select for this honourable appointment no one +whose claims for respect and honour, on account of eminence as a poet, +can be placed in competition with yours, I trust you will not longer +hesitate to accept it. + + 'Believe me, my dear Sir, + 'With sincere esteem, + 'Most faithfully yours, + 'ROBERT PEEL. + +'I write this in haste, from my place in the House of Commons.' + + +[These letters had the desired effect in removing the aged Poet's +scruples, and he was well pleased that the laureate wreath should be +twined round his silver hair: + + 'Lauru cinge volens, Melpomene, comam.' + +He replied as follows:] + +TO THE RIGHT HON. THE EARL DE LA WARR. + + Rydal Mount, Ambleside, April 4. 1843. + +MY LORD, + +Being assured by your Lordship's letter and by one from Sir Robert Peel, +both received this day, that the appointment to the Laureateship is to +be considered merely honorary, the apprehensions which at first +compelled me to decline accepting the offer of that appointment are +entirely removed. + +Sir Robert Peel has also done me the honour of uniting his wish with +that which your Lordship has urged in a manner most gratifying to my +feelings; so that, under these circumstances, and sanctioned as the +recommendation has been by her Majesty's gracious approval, it is with +unalloyed pleasure that I accept this high distinction. + + I have the honour to be, my Lord, most gratefully, + Your Lordship's obedient humble servant, + WILLIAM WORDSWORTH. + +TO THE RT. HON. SIR ROBERT PEEL, BART., M.P. + + Rydal Mount, Ambleside, April 4. 1843. + +DEAR SIR ROBERT, + +Having since my first acquaintance with Horace borne in mind the charge +which he tells us frequently thrilled his ear, + + 'Solve senescentem mature sanus equum, ne + Peccet ad extremum,' + +I could not but be deterred from incurring responsibilities which I +might not prove equal to at so late a period of life; but as my mind has +been entirely set at ease by the very kind and most gratifying letter +with which you have honoured me, and by a second communication from the +Lord Chamberlain to the same effect, and in a like spirit, I have +accepted, with unqualified pleasure, a distinction sanctioned by her +Majesty, and which expresses, upon authority entitled to the highest +respect, a sense of the national importance of poetic literature; and so +favourable an opinion of the success with which it has been cultivated +by one who, after this additional mark of your esteem, cannot refrain +from again assuring you how deeply sensible he is of the many and great +obligations he owes to your goodness, and who has the honour to be, + + Dear Sir Robert, + Most faithfully, + Your humble servant, + WILLIAM WORDSWORTH. + +133. _Laureateship: Walter Savage Landor and Quillinan: Godson_. + +LETTER TO SIR W.R. HAMILTON, DUBLIN. + + [Undated: but 1843.] + +MY DEAR SIR WILLIAM, + +The sight of your handwriting was very welcome, and not the less so +because your sister had led me to expect a letter from you. + +The Laureateship was offered to me in the most flattering terms, by the +Lord Chamberlain, of course with the approbation of the Queen; but I +declined it on account of my advanced age. I then received a second +letter from his Lordship, urging my acceptance of it, and assuring me +that it was intended merely as an honorary distinction for the past, +without the smallest reference to any service to be attached to it. +From Sir R. Peel I had also a letter to the same effect, and the +substance and manner of both were such that if I had still rejected the +offer, I should have been little at peace with my own mind. + +Thank you for your translations. The longer poem[195] would have given +me more pain than pleasure, but for your addition, which sets all right. + +[195] Referring to a translation by Sir W.R.H. of _Die Ideale_ of +Schiller, to which a stanza was added by Sir W.--G. + +The attack upon W.S.L. to which you allude was written by my son-in-law; +but without any sanction from me, much less encouragement; in fact I +knew nothing about it or the preceding article of Landor, that had +called it forth, till after Mr. Q.'s had appeared. He knew very well +that I should have disapproved of his condescending to notice anything +that a man so deplorably tormented by ungovernable passion as that +unhappy creature might eject. His character may be given in two or three +words: a mad-man, a bad-man, yet a man of genius, as many a mad-man is. +I have not eyesight to spare for Periodical Literature, so with +exception of a newspaper now and then, I never look into anything of the +kind, except some particular article may be recommended to me by a +friend upon whose judgment I can rely. + +You are quite at liberty to print when and where you like any verses +which you may do me the honour of writing upon, or addressing to, me. + +Your godson, his sister, and four brothers, are all doing well. He is a +very clever boy, and more than that, being of an original or rather +peculiar structure of intellect, and his heart appears to be not +inferior to his head, so that I trust he will as a man do you no +discredit. + + +134. _Alston the Painter: Home Occupations_. + +LETTER TO PROFESSOR REED. + + Rydal Mount, Aug. 2. 1843. + +MY DEAR MR. REED, + +A few days ago I received a letter from a countryman of yours, the Rev. +R.C. Waterston of Boston, communicating the intelligence of the death of +that admirable artist and amiable man, my old friend, Mr. Alston. Mr. W. +and I are not acquainted, and therefore I take it very kindly that he +should have given me this melancholy information, with most interesting +particulars of the last few hours of the life of the deceased. He also +sent me a copy of verses addressed by himself to me, I presume some +little time ago, and printed in the 'Christian Souvenir.' You have +probably seen the lines, and, if so, I doubt not, you will agree with me +that they indicate a true feeling of the leading characteristics of my +poems. At least I am sure that I wished them such as he represents them +to be, too partially no doubt. + +It would give me pleasure could I make this letter, so long due, more +worthy of perusal, by touching upon any topics of a public or private +nature that might interest you; but beyond the assurance which I can +give you, that I and mine are and have been in good health, I know not +where to find them. This Spring I have not left home for London, or +anywhere else; and during the progress of it and the Summer I have had +much pleasure in noting the flowers and blossoms, as they appeared and +disappeared successively; an occupation from which, at least with +reference to my own grounds, a residence in town for the three foregoing +Spring seasons cut me off. Though my health continues, thank God, to be +very good, and I am active as most men of my age, my strength for very +long walks among the mountains is of course diminishing; but, weak or +strong in body, I shall ever remain, in heart and mind, + + Faithfully, your much obliged friend, + WM. WORDSWORTH. + +P.S. Mr. Southey's literary executors are making a collection of his +letters, which will prove highly interesting to the public, they are so +gracefully and feelingly written.[196] + +[196] _Memoirs_, ii. 404-5. + + +135. _Socinianism_. + +LETTER TO JOSEPH COTTLE, ESQ. + + Nov. 24. 1843. + +MY DEAR MR. COTTLE, + +You have treated the momentous subject[197] of Socinianism in a masterly +manner; entirely and absolutely convincing. + +[197] The title of Mr. J. Cottle's work is _Essays on Socinianism_, by +Joseph Cottle. Lond.: Longmans. + + Believe me to remain, my good old friend, + With great respect, + Faithfully yours, + WM. WORDSWORTH.[198] + + +136. _Sacred Hymns_. + +LETTER TO THE REV. (AFTERWARDS DEAN) HENRY ALFORD.[199] + + Rydal Mount, Feb. 28. 1844. + +MY DEAR SIR, + +I am pleased to hear what you are about, but I am far too advanced in +life to venture upon anything so difficult to do as hymns of devotion. + +The one of mine which you allude to is quite at your service; only I +could wish the first line of the fifth stanza to be altered thus: + + 'Each field is then a hallowed spot.' + +Or you might omit the stanza altogether, if you thought proper, the +piece being long enough without it. + +Wishing heartily for your success, and knowing in what able hands the +work is, + + I remain, my dear Sir, + Faithfully yours, + WM. WORDSWORTH.[200] + +[198] _Memoirs_, ii. 405-6. + +[199] This was written in answer to an inquiry whether Wordsworth had by +him any hymns calculated for a collection which I was making, and asking +permission to insert his 'Noon-day Hymn.' _H.A._ + +[200] _Memoirs_, ii. 406. + + +137. _Bereavements_. + +LETTER TO LADY FREDERICK BENTINCK. + + March 31. 1844. + +MY DEAR LADY FREDERICK, + +We have known each other too long and too intimately for you not to be +well aware of the reasons why I have not earlier condoled with you upon +your bereavement.[201] I feel it deeply, and sympathise with you as much +and as truly as you possibly could wish. I have also grieved for the +rest of your family and household, and not the least for Miss Thompson, +whose faithful and strong attachment to your revered father I have, for +a long time, witnessed with delight and admiration. Through my kind +friend Mr. O'Brien I have heard of you both; and in his second letter he +informs me, to my great sorrow, that Miss Thompson has been exceedingly +ill. God grant that she may soon recover, as you both will stand in need +of all your bodily strength to support you under so sad a loss. But, how +much is there to be thankful for in every part of Lord Lonsdale's life +to its close! How gently was he dealt with in his last moments! and with +what fortitude and Christian resignation did he bear such pains as +attended his decline, and prepared the way for his quiet dissolution! Of +my own feelings upon this loss I shall content myself with saying, that +as long as I retain consciousness I shall cherish the memory of your +father, for his inestimable worth, and as one who honoured me with his +friendship, and who was to myself and my children the best benefactor. +The sympathy which I now offer, dear Lady Frederick, is shared by my +wife and my daughter, and my son William; and will be also participated +in by my elder son, when he hears of the sad event. + +[201] Lord Lonsdale's death. + +I wrote to Dr. Jackson[202] to inquire whether the funeral was to be +strictly private, and learnt from him that it is to be so; otherwise I +should not have deprived myself of the melancholy satisfaction of +attending. Accept, dear Lady Frederick, my best wishes; and be assured +of my prayers for your support; and believe me, + + Your very affectionate friend, + WM. WORDSWORTH.[203] + +[202] The respected Rector of Lowther, and Chancellor of the Diocese. + +[203] _Memoirs_, ii. 407-8. + + +138. _Birthday in America and at Home: Church Poetry_. + +LETTER TO PROFESSOR REED. + + 1844. + +In your last letter you speak so feelingly of the manner in which my +birthday (April 7) has been noticed, both privately in your country, and +somewhat publicly in my own neighbourhood, that I cannot forbear adding +a word or two upon the subject. It would have delighted you to see the +assemblage in front of our house, some dancing upon the gravel +platform, old and young, as described in Goldsmith's travels; and +others, children, I mean, chasing each other upon the little plot of +lawn to which you descend by steps from the platform. We had music of +our own preparing; and two sets of casual itinerants, Italians and +Germans, came in successively, and enlivened the festivity. There were +present upwards of 300 children, and about 150 adults of both sexes and +all ages, the children in their best attire, and of that happy and, I +may say, beautiful race, which is spread over this highly-favoured +portion of England. The tables were tastefully arranged in the open +air[204]--oranges and gingerbread in piles decorated with evergreens and +Spring flowers; and all partook of tea, the young in the open air, and +the old within doors. I must own I wish that little commemorations of +this kind were more common among us. It is melancholy to think how +little that portion of the community which is quite at ease in their +circumstances have to do in a _social_ way with the humbler classes. +They purchase commodities of them, or they employ them as labourers, or +they visit them in charity for the sake of supplying their most urgent +wants by alms-giving. But this, alas, is far from enough; one would wish +to see the rich mingle with the poor as much as may be upon a footing of +fraternal equality. The old feudal dependencies and relations are almost +gone from England, and nothing has yet come adequately to supply their +place. There are tendencies of the right kind here and there, but they +are rather accidental than aught that is established in general manners. +Why should not great land-owners look for a substitute for what is lost +of feudal paternity in the higher principles of christianised humanity +and humble-minded brotherhood? And why should not this extend to those +vast communities which crowd so many parts of England under one head, in +the different sorts of manufacture, which, for the want of it, are too +often the pests of the social state? We are, however, improving, and I +trust that the example set by some mill-owners will not fail to +influence others. + +[204] The fete was given by Miss Fenwick, then at Rydal. + +It gave me pleasure to be told that Mr. Keble's Dedication of his +'Praelectiones' had fallen in your way, and that you had been struck by +it.[205] + +[205] See _Memoirs_, c. xlv. + +It is not for me to say how far I am entitled to the honour which he +has done me, but I can sincerely say that it has been the main scope of +my writings to do what he says I have accomplished. And where could I +find a more trustworthy judge? + +What you advise in respect to a separate publication of my Church +Poetry, I have often turned in my own mind; but I have really done so +little in that way compared with the magnitude of the subject, that I +have not courage to venture on such a publication. Besides, it would +not, I fear, pay its expenses. The Sonnets were so published upon the +recommendation of a deceased nephew of mine, one of the first scholars +of Europe, and as good as he was learned. The volume did not, I believe, +clear itself, and a great part of the impression, though latterly +offered at a reduced price, still remains, I believe, in Mr. Moxon's +hands. In this country people who do not grudge laying out their money +for new publications on personal or fugitive interests, that every one +is talking about, are very unwilling to part with it for literature +which is unindebted to temporary excitement. If they buy such at all, it +must be in some form for the most part that has little to recommend it +but low price. + +And now, my dear Sir, with many thanks for the trouble you have been at, +and affectionate wishes for your welfare, + + Believe me faithfully yours, + WM. WORDSWORTH. + + +139. _Class-fellows and School-fellows_. + +LETTER TO BASIL MONTAGU, ESQ. + + Rydal Mount, Oct. 1. 1844. + +MY DEAR MONTAGU, + +Absence from home has prevented my replying earlier to your letter, +which gave me much pleasure on many accounts, and particularly as I +learned from it that you are so industrious, and to such good effect. I +don't wonder at your mention of the friends whom we have lost by death. +Bowles the poet still lives, and Rogers--all that survive of the +poetical fraternity with whom I have had any intimacy. Southey, +Campbell, and Cary, are no more. Of my class-fellows and schoolfellows +very few remain; my _intimate_ associates of my own college are all +gone long since. Myers my cousin, Terrot, Jones my fellow-traveller, +Fleming and his brother Raincock of Pembroke, Bishop Middleton of the +same college--it has pleased God that I should survive them all. Then +there are none left but Joseph Cottle of the many friends I made at +Bristol and in Somersetshire; yet we are only in our 75th year. But +enough of this sad subject; let us be resigned under all dispensations, +and thankful; for that is our duty, however difficult it may be to +perform it. I send you the lock of hair which you desired, white as +snow, and taken from a residue which is thinning rapidly. + +You neither mention your own health nor Mrs. Montagu's; I conclude, +therefore, that both of you are doing well. Pray remember me kindly to +her; and believe me, my dear Montagu, your faithful and affectionate +friend, + + WM. WORDSWORTH. + +In speaking of our Bristol friends I forgot to mention John Pinney, but +him I have neither seen nor heard of for many years.[206] + +[206] _Memoirs_, ii. 411-12. + + +140. _'From Home:' The Queen: Review of Poems, &c._ + +LETTER TO PROFESSOR REED. + + Nov. 18. 1844. + +MY DEAR MR. REED, + +Mrs. Wordsworth and I have been absent from home for a month past, and +we deferred acknowledging your acceptable letter till our return. Among +the places to which we went on visits to our friends was Cambridge, +where I was happy to learn that great improvement was going on among the +young men. They were become much more regular in their conduct, and +attentive to their duties. Our host was the master of Trinity College, +Dr. Whewell, successor to my brother, Dr. Wordsworth, who filled the +office for more than twenty years highly to his honour, and resigned +before he was disqualified by age, lest, as his years advanced, his +judgment might be impaired, and his powers become unfit for the +responsibility without his being aware of it. This, you will agree with +me, was a noble example: may it be followed by others! + +On our return home we were detained two hours at Northampton by the vast +crowd assembled to greet the Queen on her way to Burleigh House. Shouts +and ringing of bells there were in abundance; but these are things of +course. It did please us, however, greatly to see every village we +passed through for the space of twenty-two miles decorated with +triumphal arches, and every cottage, however humble, with its little +display of laurel boughs and flowers hung from the windows and over the +doors. The people, young and old, were all making it holiday, and the +Queen could not but be affected with these universal manifestations of +affectionate loyalty. As I have said, we were detained two hours, and I +much regret that it did not strike me at the moment to throw off my +feelings in verse, for I had ample time to have done so, and might, +perhaps, have contrived to present through some of the authorities the +tribute to my Royal Mistress. How must these words shock your republican +ears! But you are too well acquainted with mankind and their history not +to be aware that love of country can clothe itself in many shapes. + +I need not say what pleasure it would give us to see you and Mrs. Reed +in our beautiful place of abode. + +I have no wish to see the review of my poems to which you allude, nor +should I read it if it fell in my way. It is too late in life for me to +profit by censure, and I am indifferent to praise merely as such. Mrs. +Wordsworth will be happy to write her opinion of the portrait as you +request. + + Believe me, my dear Mr. Reed, + Faithfully yours, + WM. WORDSWORTH.[207] + +[207] _Memoirs_, ii. 412-13. + + +141. _The Laureateship: Contemporaries, &c.: Tennyson_. + +LETTER TO PROFESSOR REED. + + Rydal Mount, Ambleside, July 1. 1845. + +MY DEAR MR. REED, + +I have, as usual, been long in your debt, which I am pretty sure you +will excuse as heretofore. It gave me much pleasure to have a glimpse of +your brother under circumstances which no doubt he will have described +to you. He spoke of his health as improved, and I hope it will continue +to do so. I understood from him that it was probable he should call at +Rydal before his return to his own country. I need not say to you I +shall be glad, truly glad, to see him both for his own sake, and as so +nearly connected with you. My absence from home lately was not of more +than three weeks. I took the journey to London solely to pay my respects +to the Queen upon my appointment to the Laureateship upon the decease of +my friend Mr. Southey. The weather was very cold, and I caught an +inflammation in one of my eyes, which rendered my stay in the south very +uncomfortable. I nevertheless did, in respect to the object of my +journey, all that was required. The reception given me by the Queen at +her ball was most gracious. Mrs. Everett, the wife of your minister, +among many others, was a witness to it, without knowing who I was. It +moved her to the shedding of tears. This effect was in part produced, I +suppose, by American habits of feeling, as pertaining to a republican +government. To see a grey-haired man of seventy-five years of age, +kneeling down in a large assembly to kiss the hand of a young woman, is +a sight for which institutions essentially democratic do not prepare a +spectator of either sex, and must naturally place the opinions upon +which a republic is founded, and the sentiments which support it, in +strong contrast with a government based and upheld as ours is. I am not, +therefore, surprised that Mrs. Everett was moved, as she herself +described to persons of my acquaintance, among others to Mr. Rogers the +poet. By the by, of this gentleman, now I believe in his eighty-third +year, I saw more than of any other person except my host, Mr. Moxon, +while I was in London. He is singularly fresh and strong for his years, +and his mental faculties (with the exception of his memory a little) not +at all impaired. It is remarkable that he and the Rev. W. Bowles were +both distinguished as poets when I was a school-boy, and they have +survived almost all their eminent contemporaries, several of whom came +into notice long after them. Since they became known, Burns, Cowper, +Mason the author of 'Caractacus' and friend of Gray, have died. Thomas +Warton, Laureate, then Byron, Shelley, Keats, and a good deal later[208] +Scott, Coleridge, Crabbe, Southey, Lamb, the Ettrick Shepherd, Cary the +translator of Dante, Crowe the author of 'Lewesdon Hill,' and others of +more or less distinction, have disappeared. And now of English poets, +advanced in life, I cannot recall any but James Montgomery, Thomas +Moore, and myself, who are living, except the octogenarian with whom I +began. + +[208] + +Walter Scott died 21st Sept. 1832. S.T. Coleridge " 25th July 1834. +Charles Lamb " 27th Dec. 1834. Geo. Crabbe " 3rd Feb. 1832. Felicia +Hemans " 16th May 1835. Robert Southey " 21st March 1843. + + +I saw Tennyson, when I was in London, several times. He is decidedly the +first of our living poets, and I hope will live to give the world still +better things. You will be pleased to hear that he expressed in the +strongest terms his gratitude to my writings. To this I was far from +indifferent, though persuaded that he is not much in sympathy with what +I should myself most value in my attempts, viz. the spirituality with +which I have endeavoured to invest the material universe, and the moral +relations under which I have wished to exhibit its most ordinary +appearances. I ought not to conclude this first portion of my letter +without telling you that I have now under my roof a cousin, who some +time ago was introduced, improperly, I think, she being then a child, to +the notice of the public, as one of the English poetesses, in an article +of the _Quarterly_ so entitled. Her name is Emmeline Fisher, and her +mother is my first cousin. What advances she may have made in latter +years I do not know, but her productions from the age of eight to twelve +were not less than astonishing. She only arrived yesterday, and we +promise ourselves much pleasure in seeing more of her. Our dear friend +Miss Fenwick is also under our roof; so is Katharine Southey, her late +father's youngest daughter, so that we reckon ourselves rich; though our +only daughter is far from us, being gone to Oporto with her husband on +account of her enfeebled frame: and most unfortunately, soon after her +arrival, she was seized with a violent attack of rheumatic fever caused +by exposure to the evening air. We have also been obliged lately to part +with four grandsons, very fine boys, who are gone with their father to +Italy to visit their mother, kept there by severe illness, which sent +her abroad two years ago. Under these circumstances we old people keep +our spirits as well as we can, trusting the end to God's goodness. + +Now, for the enclosed poem,[209] which I wrote the other day, and which +I send to you, hoping it may give you some pleasure, as a scanty +repayment for all that we owe you. Our dear friend, Miss Fenwick, is +especially desirous that her warmest thanks should be returned to you +for all the trouble you have taken about her bonds. But, to return to +the verses: if you approve, pray forward them with my compliments and +thanks for his letter to ----. In his letter he states that with others +he is strenuously exerting himself in endeavours to abolish slavery, +and, as one of the means of disposing the public mind to that measure, +he is about to publish selections from various authors in behalf of +_humanity_. He begs an original composition from me. I have nothing +bearing directly upon slavery, but if you think this little piece would +serve his cause indirectly, pray be so kind as to forward it to him. He +speaks of himself as deeply indebted to my writings. + +[209] The poem enclosed is 'The Westmoreland Girl,' dated June 6, 1845. +The text corresponds with that in the one volume edition, with the +exception of the two stanzas added in the next letter; and in the 1st +stanza 'thoughtless' has been substituted for 'simple;' and in the 18th +'is laid' for 'must lie.' _H.R._ + +I have not left room to subscribe myself more than + + Affectionately yours, + WM. WORDSWORTH.[210] + +[210] _Memoirs_, ii. 414-17. + + +142. _'Poems of Imagination:' New Edition, &c.: Portrait, &c._ + +LETTER TO PROFESSOR REED. + + Brinsop Court, Sept. 27 [1845]. + +MY DEAR MR. REED, + +The sight of your letter was very welcome, and its contents proved most +agreeable. It was well that you did not forward my little poem to the +party, he entertaining the opinions he holds, and being of the character +you describe. I shall therefore be gratified if you, as you propose, +write him a note, expressing that I have nothing among my MSS. that +would suit his purpose. The verses are already printed in the new +edition of my poems (double column), which is going through the press. +It will contain about 300 verses not found in the previous edition. I do +not remember whether I have mentioned to you that, following your +example, I have greatly extended the class entitled 'Poems of the +Imagination,' thinking, as you must have done, that if imagination were +predominant in the class, it was not indispensable that it should +pervade every poem which it contained. Limiting the class as I had done +before seemed to imply, and to the uncandid or unobserving it did so, +that the faculty, which is the _primum mobile_ in poetry, had little to +do, in the estimation of the author, with the pieces not arranged under +that head. I, therefore, feel much obliged to you for suggesting by your +practice the plan which I have adopted. In respect to the Prefaces, my +own wish would be that now the Poems should be left to speak for +themselves without them; but I know that this would not answer for the +purposes of sale. They will, therefore, be printed at the end of the +volume; and to this I am in some degree reconciled by the matter they +contain relating to poetry in general, and the principles they +inculcate. I hope that, upon the whole, the edition will please you. In +a very few instances I have altered the expression for the worse, on +account of the same feeling or word occurring rather too near the +passage. For example, the Sonnet on Baptism begins '_Blest_ be the +Church.' But unfortunately the word occurs some three or four lines just +before or after; I have, therefore, though reluctantly, substituted the +less impressive word, '_Dear_ be the Church.' I mention this solely to +prevent blame on your part in this and a few similar cases where an +injurious change has been made. The book will be off my hands I hope in +about two weeks. + + * * * * * + +Mrs. Wordsworth and I left home four days ago, and do not intend to +return, if all goes well, in less than five or six weeks from this time. +We purpose in our way home to visit York, the cathedral of which city +has been restored; and then we shall go to Leeds, on a visit to our +friend Mr. James Marshall, in full expectation that we shall be highly +delighted by the humane and judicious manner in which his manufactory is +managed, and by inspecting the schools which he and his brother have +established and superintended. We also promise ourselves much pleasure +from the sight of the magnificent church, which, upon the foundation of +the old parish church of that town, has been built through the exertions +and by the munificence of the present incumbent, that excellent and able +man Dr. Hook, whom I have the honour of reckoning among my friends. + +This letter is written by the side of my brother-in-law, who, eight +years ago, became a cripple, confined to his chair, by the accident of +his horse falling with him in the high road, where he lay without power +to move either hand or leg, but left in perfect possession of his +faculties. His bodily sufferings are by this time somewhat abated, but +they still continue severe. His patience and cheerfulness are so +admirable that I could not forbear mentioning him to you. He is an +example to us all; and most undeserving should we be if we did not +profit by it. His family have lately succeeded in persuading him to have +his portrait taken as he sits in his arm-chair. It is an excellent +likeness, one of the best I ever saw, and will be invaluable to his +family. This reminds me of Mr. Inman and a promise which he made that he +would send us a copy of your portrait of myself. I say a promise, though +it scarcely amounted to that absolutely, but it was little short of it. +Do you think he could find time to act upon his own wish in this matter? +in which I feel interested on Mrs. Wordsworth's account, who reckons +that portrait much the best both as to likeness and execution of all +that have been made of me, and she is an excellent judge. In adverting +to this subject, I of course presume that you would have no objection to +the picture being copied if the artist were inclined to do it. + +My paper admonishes me that I must conclude. Pray let me know in your +next how Mrs. Reed and your family are in health, and present my good +wishes to her. + + Ever your faithful and much obliged friend, + WM. WORDSWORTH.[211] + + +143. _Of the College of Maynooth, &c._ + +LETTER TO A NEPHEW. + + Rydal Mount, June 30. 1845. + +MY DEAR C----, + +I ought to have acknowledged my debt to you long ago, but the +inflammation in one of my eyes which seized me on my first arrival in +London kept its ground for a long time. I had your two first pamphlets +read to me, and immediately put them into circulation among my friends +in this neighbourhood; but wishing to read them myself I did not like to +write to you till I had done so, as there were one or two passages on +which I wished to make a remark. + +[211] _Memoirs_, ii. 418-21. + +As to your arguments, they are unanswerable, and the three tracts do you +the greatest possible credit; but the torrent cannot be stemmed, unless +we can construct a body, I will not call it a party, upon a new and true +principle of action, as you have set forth. Certain questions are forced +by the present conduct of government upon the mind of every observing +and thinking person. First and foremost, are we to have a _national_ +English Church, or is the Church of England to be regarded merely as a +sect? and is the _right to the Throne to be put on a new foundation_? Is +the present ministry prepared for this, and all that must precede and +follow it? Is Ireland an integral and inseparable portion of the Empire +or not? If it be, I cannot listen to the argument in favour of endowing +Romanism upon the ground of superiority of _numbers_. The Romanists are +not a majority in England and Ireland, taken, as they ought to be, +together. As to Scotland, it has its separate kirk by especial covenant. +Are the ministers prepared to alter fundamentally the basis of the Union +between England and Ireland, and to construct a new one? If they be, let +them tell us so at once. In short, they are involving themselves and the +Nation in difficulties from which there is no escape--for them at least +none. What I have seen of your letter to Lord John M---- I like as well +as your two former tracts, and I shall read it carefully at my first +leisure moment.[212] + +[212] _Memoirs_, ii. 151-2. + + +144. _Of the 'Heresiarch of the Church of Rome.'_ + +LETTER TO JOSEPH COTTLE, ESQ. + + Rydal Mount, Dec. 6. 1845. + +MY DEAR OLD FRIEND, + +Now for your little tract, 'Heresiarch Church of Rome.' I have perused +it carefully, and go the whole length with you in condemnation of +Romanism, and probably _much further_, by reason of my having passed at +least three years of life in countries where Romanism was the prevailing +or exclusive religion; and if we are to trust the declaration 'By their +fruits ye shall know them,' I have stronger reasons, in the privilege I +have named, for passing a severe condemnation upon leading parts of +their faith, and courses of their practice, than others who have never +been eye-witnesses of the evils to which I allude. Your little +publication is well timed, and will I trust have such an effect as you +aimed at upon the minds of its readers. + +And now let me bid you affectionately good bye, with assurance that I do +and shall retain to the last a remembrance of your kindness, and of the +many pleasant and happy hours which, at one of the most interesting +periods of my life, I passed in your neighbourhood, and in your company. + + Ever most faithfully yours, + WILLIAM WORDSWORTH.[213] + +[213] _Memoirs_, ii. 152-3. + + +145. _Family Trials_. + +LETTER TO PROFESSOR REED. + + Rydal Mount, Jan. 23. 1846. + +MY DEAR MR. REED, + + * * * * * + +I hope to be able to send you an impression of an engraving, from a +picture of Mr. Haydon, representing me in the act of climbing Helvellyn. +There is great merit in this work, and the sight of it will show my +meaning on the subject of _expression_. This, I think, is attained; but, +then, I am stooping, and the inclination of the head necessarily causes +a foreshortening of the features below the nose, which takes from the +likeness accordingly; so that, upon the whole, yours has the advantage, +especially under the circumstance of your never having seen the +original. Mrs. Wordsworth has been looking over your letters in vain to +find the address of the person in London, through whose hands any parcel +for you might be sent. Pray take the trouble of repeating the address in +your next letter, and your request shall be attended to of sending you +my two letters upon the offensive subject of a Railway to and through +our beautiful neighbourhood. + + * * * * * + +You will be sorry to hear that Mrs. Wordsworth and I have been, and +still are, under great trouble and anxiety. Our daughter-in-law fell +into bad health between three and four years ago. She went with her +husband to Madeira, where they remained nearly a year; she was then +advised to go to Italy. After a prolonged residence there, her six +children, whom her husband returned to England for, went, at her earnest +request, to that country, under their father's guidance: there he was +obliged, on account of his duty as a clergyman, to leave them. Four of +the number resided with their mother at Rome, three of whom took a fever +there, of which the youngest, as noble a boy, of nearly five years, as +ever was seen, died, being seized with convulsions when the fever was +somewhat subdued. The father, in a distracted state of mind, is just +gone back to Italy; and we are most anxious to hear the result. My only +surviving brother, also, the late Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, +and an inestimable person, is in an alarming state of health; and the +only child of my eldest brother, long since deceased, is now languishing +under mortal illness at Ambleside. He was educated to the medical +profession, and caught his illness while on duty in the Mediterranean. +He is a truly amiable and excellent young man, and will be universally +regretted. These sad occurrences, with others of like kind, have thrown +my mind into a state of feeling, which the other day vented itself in +the two sonnets which Mrs. Wordsworth will transcribe as the best +acknowledgment she can make for Mrs. Reed's and your kindness. + + Ever faithfully and affectionately yours, + WM. WORDSWORTH.[214] + +[214] _Memoirs_, ii. 422-3. + + +146. _Bishop White: Mormonites, &c._ + +LETTER TO PROFESSOR REED. + + February 3. 1846. + +MY DEAR MR. REED, + +I was much shocked to find that my last had been despatched without +acknowledgment for your kindness in sending me the admirable engraving +of Bishop White, which I was delighted, on many accounts, to receive. +This omission was owing to the distressed state of mind in which I +wrote, and which I throw myself on your goodness to excuse. I ought to +have written again by next post, but we really have been, and still are, +in such trouble from various causes, that I could not take up the pen, +and now must beg you to accept this statement as the only excuse which I +can offer. We have had such accounts from my daughter-in-law at Rome, +that her mother and brother are just gone thither to support her, her +mother being seventy years of age. + +Do you know anything of a wretched set of religionists in your country, +_Superstitionists_ I ought to say, called Mormonites, or latter-day +saints? Would you believe it? a niece of Mrs. Wordsworth's has just +embarked, we believe at Liverpool, with a set of the deluded followers +of that wretch, in an attempt to join their society. Her name is ----, a +young woman of good abilities and well educated, but early in life she +took from her mother and her connections a methodistical turn, and has +gone on in a course of what she supposes to be piety till she has come +to this miserable close. If you should by chance hear anything about +her, pray let us know. + +The report of my brother's decease, which we look for every day, has not +yet reached us. My nephew is still lingering on from day to day. + + Ever faithfully and affectionately yours, + WM. WORDSWORTH. + +The print of Bishop White is noble, everything, indeed, that could be +wished.[215] + +[215] _Memoirs_, ii. 424-5. + + +147. _Governor Malartie: Lord Hector of Glasgow University, &c._ + +LETTER TO SIR W. GOMM. &c. &c., PORT LOUIS, MAURITIUS. + + Rydal Mount, Ambleside, Nov. 23. 1846. + +DEAR SIR WILLIAM, + +Your kind letter of the 4th of August I have just received; and I thank +you sincerely for this mark of your attention, and for the gratification +it afforded me. It is pleasing to see fancy amusements giving birth to +works of solid profit, as, under the auspices of Lady Gomm, they are +doing in your island. + +Your sonnet addressed to the unfinished monument of Governor Malartie is +conceived with appropriate feeling and just discrimination. Long may the +finished monument last as a tribute to departed worth, and as a check +and restraint upon intemperate desires for change, to which the +inhabitants of the island may hereafter be liable! + +Before this letter reaches you the newspapers will probably have told +you that I have been recently put in nomination, unknown to myself, for +the high office of Lord Rector of the University of Glasgow; and that +there was a majority of twenty-one votes in my favour, in opposition to +the premier, Lord John Russell. The forms of the election, however, +allowed Lord John Russell to be returned, through the single vote of the +sub-rector voting for his superior. To say the truth, I am glad of this +result; being too advanced in life to undertake with comfort any +considerable public duty, and it might have seemed ungracious to decline +the office. + +Men of rank, or of high station, with the exception of the poet +Campbell, who was, I believe, educated at this university, have almost +invariably been chosen for a rector of this ancient university; and that +another exception was made in my favour by a considerable majority +affords a proof that literature, independent of office, does not want +due estimation. I should not have dwelt so long upon this subject, had +anything personal to myself occurred in which you could have taken +interest. + +As you do not mention your own health, or that of Lady Gomm, I infer +with pleasure that the climate agrees with you both. That this may +continue to be so is my earnest and sincere wish, in which Mrs. +Wordsworth cordially unites. + + Believe me, dear Sir William, + Faithfully yours, + WILLIAM WORDSWORTH.[216] + + +148. _Death of 'Dora.'_ + + [Received July 10. 1847.] + +MY DEAR C----, + +Last night (I ought to have said a quarter before one this morning), it +pleased God to take to Himself the spirit of our beloved daughter, and +your truly affectionate cousin. She had latterly much bodily suffering, +under which she supported herself by prayer, and gratitude to her +heavenly Father, for granting her to the last so many of His blessings. + +[216] _Memoirs_, ii. 432-3. + +I need not write more. Your aunt bears up under this affliction as +becomes a Christian. + +Kindest love to Susan, of whose sympathy we are fully assured. + +Your affectionate uncle, and the more so for this affliction, + +WM. WORDSWORTH.[217] + +Pray for us! + + +149. _Of the Same: Sorrow_. + +We bear up under our affliction as well as God enables us to do. But oh! +my dear friend, our loss is immeasurable. God bless you and yours.[218] + +Our sorrow, I feel, is for life; but God's will be done![219] + +[217] _Memoirs_, ii. 434. + +[218] To Mr. Moxon, Aug. 9, 1847. + +[219] 29th Dec. 1847. + + +150. + +TO JOHN PEACE, ESQ. + + Brigham [Postmark, 'Cockermouth, + Nov. 18. 1848']. + +MY DEAR FRIEND, + +Mrs. Wordsworth has deputed to me the acceptable office of answering +your friendly letter, which has followed us to Brigham, upon the banks +of the river Derwent, near Cockermouth, the birthplace of four brothers +and their sister. Of these four, I, the second, am now the only one +left. Am I wrong in supposing that you have been here? The house was +driven out of its place by a railway, and stands now nothing like so +advantageously for a prospect of this beautiful country, though at only +a small distance from its former situation. + +We are expecting Mr. Cuthbert Southey to-day, from his curacy, seven or +eight miles distant. He is busy in carrying through the press the first +volume of his father's letters, or rather, collecting and preparing them +for it. Do you happen to have any in your possession? If so, be so kind +as to let me or his son know what they are, if you think they contain +anything which would interest the public. + + * * * * * + +Mrs. W. and I are, thank God, both in good health, and possessing a +degree of strength beyond what is usual at our age, being both in our +seventy-ninth year. The beloved daughter whom it has pleased God to +remove from this anxious and sorrowful world, I have not mentioned; but +I can judge of the depth of your fellow-feeling for us. Many thanks to +you for referring to the text in Scripture which I quoted to you so long +ago.[220] 'Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done.' He who does not find +support and consolation there, will find it nowhere. God grant that it +may he continued to me and mine, and to all sufferers! Believe me, with +Mrs. W.'s very kind remembrance, + + Faithfully yours, + WM. WORDSWORTH. + + * * * * * + +When you see Mr. Cottle, pray remember us most affectionately to him, +with respectful regards to his sister.[221] + + +151. _Illness and Death of a Servant at Rydal Mount_. + +Our anxieties are over, and our sorrow is not without heartfelt, I may +say heavenly, consolation. Dear, and good, and faithful, and dutiful +Jane breathed her last about twelve o'clock last night. The doctor had +seen her at noon; he found her much weaker. She said to him, 'I cannot +stand now,' but he gave us no reason to believe her end was so very +near. You shall hear all particulars when we are permitted to meet, +which God grant may be soon. Nothing could be more gentle than her +departure. + +Yesterday Mary read to her in my presence some chapters from the New +Testament, and her faculties were as clear as any one's in perfect +health, and so they have ever been to the last.[222] + +[220] [Note by Mr. Peace.] At Rydal Mount in 1838. Ephesians v. 20. 'My +favourite text,' said he. + +[221] _Memoirs_, ii. 435-6. + +[222] _Ibid._ ii. 501-2. + + +152. _Humility_. + +Writing to a friend, he says: 'I feel myself in so many respects +unworthy of your love, and too likely to become more so.' (This was in +1844.) 'Worldly-minded I am not; on the contrary, my wish to benefit +those within my humble sphere strengthens seemingly in exact proportion +to my inability to realise those wishes. What I lament most is, that the +spirituality of my nature does not expand and rise the nearer I +approach the grave, as yours does, and as it fares with my beloved +partner. The pleasure which I derive from God's works in His visible +creation is not with me, I think, impaired, but reading does not +interest me as it used to do, and I feel that I am becoming daily a less +instructive companion to others. Excuse this egotism. I feel it +necessary to your understanding what I am, and how little you would gain +by habitual intercourse with me, however greatly I might benefit from +intercourse with you.'[223] + + +153. _Hopefulness_. + +Writing to a friend at a time of public excitement, he thus speaks: +'After all (as an excellent Bishop of the Scotch Church said to a +friendly correspondent of mine), "Be of good heart; the affairs of the +world will be conducted as heretofore,--by the foolishness of man and +the wisdom of God."'[224] + +[223] _Memoirs_, ii. 502-3. + +[224] _Ibid._ ii. 503. + + + + +III. CONVERSATIONS AND PERSONAL REMINISCENCES OF WORDSWORTH. + +(_a_) FROM 'SATYRANE'S LETTERS:' KLOPSTOCK. + +(_b_) PERSONAL REMINISCENCES OF THE HON. MR. JUSTICE COLERIDGE. + +(_c_) RECOLLECTIONS OF A TOUR IN ITALY, BY H.C. ROBINSON. + +(_d_) REMINISCENCES OF LADY RICHARDSON AND MRS. DAVY. + +(_e_) CONVERSATIONS AND REMINISCENCES RECORDED BY THE BISHOP OF LINCOLN. + +(_f_) REMINISCENCES OF REV. R.P. GRAVES, M.A., DUBLIN. + +(_g_) ON DEATH OF COLERIDGE. + +(_h_) FURTHER REMINISCENCES AND MEMORABILIA, BY REV. R.P. GRAVES, M.A., +DUBLIN, NOW FIRST PUBLISHED. + +(_i_) AN AMERICAN'S REMINISCENCES. + +(_j_) RECOLLECTIONS OF AUBREY DE VERE, ESQ., NOW FIRST PUBLISHED. + +(_k_) FROM 'RECOLLECTIONS OF THE LAST DAYS OF SHELLEY AND BYRON,' BY +E.J. TRELAWNY, ESQ. + +(_l_) FROM LETTERS OF PROFESSOR TAYLER (1872). + +(_m_) ANECDOTE OF CRABBE, FROM DIARY OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. + +(_n_) WORDSWORTH'S LATER OPINION OF LORD BROUGHAM. + +NOTE. + +On these 'Personal Reminiscences' see the Preface in Vol. I. G. + + +(_a_) KLOPSTOCK: NOTES OF HIS CONVERSATION. + +From 'Satyrane's Letters' (_Biographia Literaria_, vol. ii. pp. 228-254, +ed. 1847). + + Ratzeburg. + +No little fish thrown back again into the water, no fly unimprisoned +from a child's hand, could more buoyantly enjoy its element, than I this +clean and peaceful house, with this lovely view of the town, groves, and +lake of Ratzeburg, from the window at which I am writing. My spirits +certainly, and my health I fancied, were beginning to sink under the +noise, dirt, and unwholesome air of our Hamburg hotel. I left it on +Sunday, Sept. 23rd. with a letter of introduction from the poet +Klopstock, to the _Amtmann_ of Ratzeburg. The _Amtmann_ received me with +kindness, and introduced me to the worthy pastor, who agreed to board +and lodge me for any length of time not less than a month. The vehicle, +in which I took my place, was considerably larger than an English +stage-coach, to which it bore much the same proportion and rude +resemblance, that an elephant's ear does to the human. Its top was +composed of naked boards of different colours, and seeming to have been +parts of different wainscots. Instead of windows there were leathern +curtains with a little eye of glass in each: they perfectly answered the +purpose of keeping out the prospect and letting in the cold. I could +observe little, therefore, but the inns and farm-houses at which we +stopped. They were all alike, except in size: one great room, like a +barn, with a hay-loft over it, the straw and hay dangling in tufts +through the boards which formed the ceiling of the room, and the floor +of the loft. From this room, which is paved like a street, sometimes +one, sometimes two smaller ones, are enclosed at one end. These are +commonly floored. In the large room the cattle, pigs, poultry, men, +women, and children, live in amicable community: yet there was an +appearance of cleanliness and rustic comfort. One of these houses I +measured. It was an hundred feet in length. The apartments were taken +off from one corner. Between these and the stalls there was a small +interspace, and here the breadth was forty-eight feet, but thirty-two +where the stalls were; of course, the stalls were on each side eight +feet in depth. The faces of the cows &c. were turned towards the room; +indeed they were in it, so that they had at least the comfort of seeing +each other's faces. Stall-feeding is universal in this part of Germany, +a practice concerning which the agriculturist and the poet are likely to +entertain opposite opinions--or at least, to have very different +feelings. The wood-work of these buildings on the outside is left +unplastered, as in old houses among us, and, being painted red and +green, it cuts and tesselates the buildings very gaily. From within +three miles of Hamburg almost to Molln, which is thirty miles from it, +the country, as far as I could see it was a dead flat, only varied by +woods. At Molln it became more beautiful. I observed a small lake nearly +surrounded with groves, and a palace in view belonging to the King of +Great Britain, and inhabited by the Inspector of the Forests. We were +nearly the same time in travelling the thirty-five miles from Hamburg to +Ratzeburg, as we had been in going from London to Yarmouth, one hundred +and twenty-six miles. + +The lake of Ratzeburg runs from south to north, about nine miles in +length, and varying in breadth from three miles to half a mile. About a +mile from the southernmost point it is divided into two, of course very +unequal, parts by an island, which, being connected by a bridge and a +narrow slip of land with the one shore, and by another bridge of immense +length with the other shore, forms a complete isthmus. On this island +the town of Ratzeburg is built. The pastor's house or vicarage, together +with the _Amtmann's, Amtsschreiber's_, and the church, stands near the +summit of a hill, which slopes down to the slip of land and the little +bridge, from which, through a superb military gate, you step into the +island-town of Ratzeburg. This again is itself a little hill, by +ascending and descending which, you arrive at the long bridge, and so to +the other shore. The water to the south of the town is called the Little +Lake, which however almost engrosses the beauties of the whole: the +shores being just often enough green and bare to give the proper effect +to the magnificent groves which occupy the greater part of their +circumference. From the turnings, windings, and indentations of the +shore, the views vary almost every ten steps, and the whole has a sort +of majestic beauty, a feminine grandeur. At the north of the Great +Lake, and peeping over it, I see the seven church towers of Lubec, at +the distance of twelve or thirteen miles, yet as distinctly as if they +were not three. The only defect in the view is, that Ratzeburg is built +entirely of red bricks, and all the houses roofed with red tiles. To the +eye, therefore, it presents a clump of brick-dust red. Yet this evening, +Oct. 10th. twenty minutes past five, I saw the town perfectly beautiful, +and the whole softened down into _complete keeping_, if I may borrow a +term from the painters. The sky over Ratzeburg and all the east was a +pure evening blue, while over the west it was covered with light sandy +clouds. Hence a deep red light spread over the whole prospect, in +undisturbed harmony with the red town, the brown-red woods, and the +yellow-red reeds on the skirts of the lake. Two or three boats, with +single persons paddling them, floated up and down in the rich light, +which not only was itself in harmony with all, but brought all into +harmony. + +I should have told you that I went back to Hamburg on Thursday (Sept. +27th.) to take leave of my friend, who travels southward, and returned +hither on the Monday following. From Empfelde, a village half way from +Ratzeburg, I walked to Hamburg through deep sandy roads and a dreary +flat: the soil everywhere white, hungry, and excessively pulverised; but +the approach to the city is pleasing. Light cool country houses, which +you can look through and see the gardens behind them, with arbours and +trellis work, and thick vegetable walls, and trees in cloisters and +piazzas, each house with neat rails before it, and green seats within +the rails. Every object, whether the growth of Nature or the work of +man, was neat and artificial. It pleased me far better, than if the +houses and gardens, and pleasure fields, had been in a nobler taste: for +this nobler taste would have been mere apery. The busy, anxious, +money-loving merchant of Hamburg could only have adopted, he could not +have enjoyed the simplicity of Nature. The mind begins to love Nature by +imitating human conveniences in Nature; but this is a step in intellect, +though a low one--and were it not so, yet all around me spoke of +innocent enjoyment and sensitive comforts, and I entered with +unscrupulous sympathy into the enjoyments and comforts even of the busy, +anxious, money-loving merchants of Hamburg. In this charitable and +_catholic_ mood I reached the vast ramparts of the city. These are huge +green cushions, one rising above the other, with trees growing in the +interspaces, pledges and symbols of a long peace. Of my return I have +nothing worth communicating, except that I took extra post, which +answers to posting in England. These north German post chaises are +uncovered wicker carts. An English dust-cart is a piece of finery, a +_chef d'oeuvre_ of mechanism, compared with them: and the horses!--a +savage might use their ribs instead of his fingers for a numeration +table. Wherever we stopped, the postilion fed his cattle with the brown +rye bread of which he eat himself, all breakfasting together; only the +horses had no gin to their water, and the postilion no water to his gin. +Now and henceforward for subjects of more interest to you, and to the +objects in search of which I loft you: namely, the _literati_ and +literature of Germany. + +Believe me, I walked with an impression of awe on my spirits, as W---- +and myself accompanied Mr. Klopstock to the house of his brother, the +poet, which stands about a quarter of a mile from the city gate. It is +one of a row of little common-place summer-houses, (for so they looked,) +with four or five rows of young meagre elm trees before the windows, +beyond which is a green, and then a dead flat intersected with several +roads. Whatever beauty, (thought I,) may be before the poet's eyes at +present, it must certainly be purely of his own creation. We waited a +few minutes in a neat little parlour, ornamented with the figures of two +of the Muses and with prints, the subjects of which were from +Klopstock's odes.[225] + +[225] 'There is a rhetorical amplitude and brilliancy in the Messias,' +says Mr. Carlyle, 'which elicits in our critic (Mr. Taylor) an instinct +truer than his philosophy is. Neither has the still purer spirit of +Klopstock's odes escaped him. Perhaps there is no writing in our +language that offers so correct an emblem of him as this analysis.' I +remember thinking Taylor's 'clear outline' of the Messias the most +satisfying account of a poem I ever read: it fills the mind with a +vision of pomp and magnificence, which it is pleasanter to contemplate, +as it were, from afar, massed together in that general survey, than to +examine part by part. Mr. Taylor and Mr. Carlyle agree in exalting that +ode of Klopstock's, in which he represents the Muse of Britain and the +Muse of Germany running a race. The piece seems to me more rhetorical +than strictly poetical; and if the younger Muse's power of keeping up +the race depends on productions of this sort, I would not give a penny +for her chance, at least if the contest relates to pure poetry. +Klopstock's _Herman_ (mentioned afterwards,) consists of three +chorus-dramas, as Mr. Taylor calls them: _The Battle of Herman_, _Herman +and the Princes_, and _The Death of Herman_. Herman is the Arminius of +the Roman historians. S.C. + +The poet entered. I was much disappointed in his countenance, and +recognised in it no likeness to the bust. There was no comprehension in +the forehead, no weight over the eye-brows, no expression of +peculiarity, moral or intellectual, on the eyes, no massiveness in the +general countenance. He is, if anything, rather below the middle size. +He wore very large half-boots, which his legs filled, so fearfully were +they swollen. However, though neither W---- nor myself could discover +any indications of sublimity or enthusiasm in his physiognomy, we were +both equally impressed with his liveliness, and his kind and ready +courtesy. He talked in French with my friend, and with difficulty spoke +a few sentences to me in English. His enunciation was not in the least +affected by the entire want of his upper teeth. The conversation began +on his part by the expression of his rapture at the surrender of the +detachment of French troops under General Humbert. Their proceedings in +Ireland with regard to the committee which they had appointed, with the +rest of their organizing system, seemed to have given the poet great +entertainment. He then declared his sanguine belief in Nelson's victory, +and anticipated its confirmation with a keen and triumphant pleasure. +His words, tones, looks, implied the most vehement Anti-Gallicanism. The +subject changed to literature, and I inquired in Latin concerning the +history of German poetry and the elder German poets. To my great +astonishment he confessed, that he knew very little on the subject. He +had indeed occasionally read one or two of their elder writers, but not +so as to enable him to speak of their merits. Professor Ebeling, he +said, would probably give me every information of this kind: the subject +had not particularly excited his curiosity. He then talked of Milton and +Glover, and thought Glover's blank verse superiour to Milton's.[226] + +[226] _Leonidus_, an epic poem, by R. Glover, first appeared in May, +1737: in the fifth edition, published in 1770, it was corrected and +extended from nine books to twelve. Glover was the author of Boadicea +and Medea, tragedies, which had some success on the stage. I believe +that _Leonidas_ has more merit in the conduct of the design, and in the +delineation of character, than as poetry. + +'He write an epic poem,' said Thomson, 'who never saw a mountain!' +Glover had seen the sun and moon, yet he seems to have looked for their +poetical aspects in Homer and Milton, rather than in the sky. 'There is +not a single simile in _Leonidas_,' says Lyttleton, 'that is borrowed +from any of the ancients, and yet there is hardly any poem that has such +a variety of beautiful comparisons.' The similes of Milton come so flat +and dry out of Glover's mangle, that they are indeed quite _another +thing_ from what they appear in the poems of that Immortal: _ex. gr._ + + Like wintry clouds, which, opening for a time, + Tinge their black folds with gleams of scattered light:-- + +Is not this Milton's 'silver lining' stretched and mangled? + + The Queen of Night + Gleam'd from the centre of th' etherial vault, + And o'er the raven plumes of darkness shed + Her placid light. + +This is flattened from the well-known passage in Comus. + + Soon will savage Mars + Deform the lovely _ringlets of thy shrubs_. + +A genteel improvement upon Milton's 'bush with frizzled hair implicit.' +Then we have + + --delicious to the sight + Soft dales meand'ring show their flowery laps + Among rude piles of nature, + +spoiled from + + --the flowery lap + Of some irriguous valley spread its store. + +Thus does this poet shatter and dissolve the blooming sprays of another +man's plantation, instead of pushing through them some new shoots of his +own to crown them with fresh blossoms. + +Milton himself borrowed as much as Glover. Aye, ten times more; yet +every passage in his poetry is Miltonic,--more than anything else. On +the other hand, his imitators _Miltonize_, yet produce nothing worthy of +Milton, the important characteristic of whose writings my father well +expressed, when he said 'The reader of Milton must be always on his +duty: _he is surrounded with sense_.' A man must have his sense to +imitate him worthily. How we look through his words at the Deluge, as he +floods it upon us in Book xi. l. 738-53!--The Attic bees produce honey +so flavoured with the thyme of Hymettus that it is scarcely eatable, +though to smell the herb itself in a breezy walk upon that celebrated +Mount would be an exceeding pleasure; thus certain epic poems are +overpoweringly flavoured with herbs of Milton, while yet the fragrant +balm and fresh breeze of his poetry is not to be found in them. S.C. + +W---- and myself expressed our surprise: and my friend gave his +definition and notion of harmonious verse, that it consisted, (the +English iambic blank verse above all,) in the apt arrangement of pauses +and cadences, and the sweep of whole paragraphs, + + ----'with many a winding bout + Of linked sweetness long drawn out,' + +and not in the even flow, much less in the prominence or antithetic +vigour, of single lines, which were indeed injurious to the total +effect, except where they were introduced for some specific purpose. +Klopstock assented, and said that he meant to confine Glover's +superiority to single lines.[227] + +[227] The 'abrupt and laconic structure' of Glover's periods appears at +the very commencement of _Leonidas_, which has something military in its +movement, but rather the stiff gait of the drilled soldier than the +proud march of the martial hero. + + The virtuous Spartan who resign'd his life + To save his country at th' Oetaen straits, + Thermopylae, when all the peopled east + In arms with Xerxes filled the Grecian plains, + O Muse record! The Hellespont they passed + O'erpowering Thrace. The dreadful tidings swift + To Corinth flew. Her Isthmus was the seat + Of Grecian council. Orpheus thence returns + To Lacedaemon. In assembly full, &c. + +Glover's best passages are of a soft character. This is a pleasing +_Homerism_: + + Lycis dies, + For boist'rous war ill-chosen. He was skill'd + To tune the lulling flute, and melt the heart; + Or with his pipe's awak'ning strains allure + The lovely dames of Lydia to the dance. + They on the verdant level graceful mov'd + In vary'd measures; while the cooling breeze + Beneath their swelling garments wanton'd o'er + Their snowy breasts, and smooth Cayster's streams + Soft-gliding murmur'd by. The hostile blade, &c. Bk. VIII. + +And here is a pleasing expansion of Pindar, Olymp. II. 109: + + Placid were his days, + Which flow'd through blessings. As a river pure, + Whose sides are flowery, and whose meadows fair, + Meets in his course a subterranean void; + There dips his silver head, again to rise, + And, rising, glide through flow'rs and meadows new; + So shall Oileus in those happier fields, + Where never tempests roar, nor humid clouds + In mists dissolve, nor white descending flakes + Of winter violate th' eternal green; + Where never gloom of trouble shades the mind, + Nor gust of passion heaves the quiet breast, + Nor dews of grief are sprinkled. Bk. X. S.C. + + +He told us that he had read Milton, in a prose translation, when he was +fourteen.[228] I understood him thus myself, and W--- interpreted +Klopstock's French as I had already construed it. He appeared to know +very little of Milton or indeed of our poets in general. He spoke with +great indignation of the English prose translation of his MESSIAH. All +the translations had been bad, very bad--but the English was _no_ +translation--there were pages on pages not in the original: and half the +original was not to be found in the translation. W--- told him that I +intended to translate a few of his odes as specimens of German +lyrics--he then said to me in English, 'I wish you would render into +English some select passages of THE MESSIAH, and _revenge_ me of your +countryman!' + + + +[228] This was accidentally confirmed to me by an old German gentleman +at Helmstadt, who had been Klopstock's school and bed-fellow. Among +other boyish anecdotes, he related that the young poet set a particular +value on a translation of the PARADISE LOST, and always slept with it +under his pillow. + +It was the liveliest thing which he produced in the whole conversation. +He told us, that his first ode was fifty years older than his last. I +looked at him with much emotion--I considered him as the venerable +father of German poetry; as a good man as a Christian; seventy-four +years old; with legs enormously swollen; yet active, lively, cheerful, +and kind, and communicative. My eyes felt as if a tear were swelling +into them. In the portrait of Lessing there was a toupee periwig, which +enormously injured the effect of his physiognomy--Klopstock wore the +same, powdered and frizzled. By the bye, old men ought never to wear +powder--the contrast between a large snow-white wig and the colour of an +old man's skin is disgusting, and wrinkles in such a neighbourhood +appear only channels for dirt. It is an honour to poets and great men, +that you think of them as parts of Nature; and anything of trick and +fashion wounds you in them, as much as when you see venerable yews +clipped into miserable peacocks.--The author of THE MESSIAH should have +worn his own grey hair.--His powder and periwig were to the eye what +_Mr_. Virgil would be to the ear. + +Klopstock dwelt much on the superiour power which the German language +possessed of concentrating meaning. He said, he had often translated +parts of Homer and Virgil, line by line, and a German line proved always +sufficient for a Greek or Latin one. In English you cannot do this. I +answered, that in English we could commonly render one Greek heroic line +in a line and a half of our common heroic metre, and I conjectured that +this line and a half would be found to contain no more syllables than +one German or Greek hexameter. He did not understand me:[229] and I, who +wished to hear his opinions, not to correct them, was glad that he did +not. + +[229] Klopstock's observation was partly true and partly erroneous. In +the literal sense of his words, and, if we confine the comparison to the +average of space required for the expression of the same thought in the +two languages, it is erroneous. I have translated some German hexameters +into English hexameters, and find, that on the average three English +lines will express four lines German. The reason is evident: our +language abounds in monosyllables and dissyllables. The German, not less +than the Greek, is a polysyllable language. But in another point of view +the remark was not without foundation. For the German possessing the +same unlimited privilege of forming compounds, both with prepositions +and with epithets, as the Greek, it can express the richest single Greek +word in a single German one, and is thus freed from the necessity of +weak or ungraceful paraphrases. I will content myself with one example +at present, viz. the use of the prefixed participles _ver_, _zer_, +_ent_, and _weg_: thus _reissen_ to rend, _verreissen_ to rend away, +_zerreissen_ to rend to pieces, _entreissen_ to rend off or out of a +thing, in the active sense: or _schmelzen_ to melt--_ver_, _zer_, _ent_, +_schmelzen_--and in like manner through all the verbs neuter and active. +If you consider only how much we should feel the loss of the prefix +_be_, as in bedropt, besprinkle, besot, especially in our poetical +language, and then think that this same mode of composition is carried +through all their simple and compound prepositions, and many of their +adverbs; and that with most of these the Germans have the same privilege +as we have of dividing them from the verb and placing them at the end of +the sentence; you will have no difficulty in comprehending the reality +and the cause of this superior power in the German of condensing +meaning, in which its great poet exulted. It is impossible to read half +a dozen pages of Wieland without perceiving that in this respect the +German has no rival but the Greek. And yet I feel, that concentration or +condensation is not the happiest mode of expressing this excellence, +which seems to consist not so much in the less time required for +conveying an impression, as in the unity and simultaneousness with which +the impression is conveyed. It tends to make their language more +picturesque: it _depictures_ images better. We have obtained this power +in part by our compound verbs derived from the Latin: and the sense of +its great effect no doubt induced our Milton both to the use and the +abuse of Latin derivatives. But still these prefixed particles, +conveying no separate or separable meaning to the mere English reader, +cannot possibly act on the mind with the force or liveliness of an +original and homogeneous language such as the German is, and besides are +confined to certain words. + +We now took our leave. At the beginning of the French Revolution +Klopstock wrote odes of congratulation. He received some honorary +presents from the French Republic, (a golden crown I believe,) and, like +our Priestley, was invited to a seat in the legislature, which he +declined. But when French liberty metamorphosed herself into a fury, he +sent back these presents with a _palinodia_, declaring his abhorrence of +their proceedings: and since then he has been perhaps more than enough +an Anti-Gallican. I mean, that in his just contempt and detestation of +the crimes and follies of the Revolutionists, he suffers himself to +forget that the revolution itself is a process of the Divine Providence; +and that as the folly of men is the wisdom of God, so are their +iniquities instruments of his goodness. From Klopstock's house we walked +to the ramparts, discoursing together on the poet and his conversation, +till our attention was diverted to the beauty and singularity of the +sunset and its effects on the objects around us. There were woods in the +distance. A rich sandy light, (nay, of a much deeper colour than sandy,) +lay over these woods that blackened in the blaze. Over that part of the +woods which lay immediately under the intenser light, a brassy mist +floated. The trees on the ramparts, and the people moving to and fro +between them, were cut or divided into equal segments of deep shade and +brassy light. Had the trees, and the bodies of the men and women, been +divided into equal segments by a rule or pair of compasses, the portions +could not have been more regular. All else was obscure. It was a fairy +scene!--and to increase its romantic character, among the moving +objects, thus divided into alternate shade and brightness, was a +beautiful child, dressed with the elegant simplicity of an English +child, riding on a stately goat, the saddle, bridle, and other +accoutrements of which were in a high degree costly and splendid. Before +I quit the subject of Hamburg, let me say, that I remained a day or two +longer than I otherwise should have done, in order to be present at the +feast of St. Michael, the patron saint of Hamburg, expecting to see the +civic pomp of this commercial Republic. I was however disappointed. +There were no processions, two or three sermons were preached to two or +three old women in two or three churches, and St. Michael and his +patronage wished elsewhere by the higher classes, all places of +entertainment, theatre, &c. being shut up on this day. In Hamburg, there +seems to be no religion at all; in Lubec it is confined to the women. +The men seem determined to be divorced from their wives in the other +world, if they cannot in this. You will not easily conceive a more +singular sight, than is presented by the vast aisle of the principal +church at Lubec seen from the organ-loft: for, being filled with female +servants and persons in the same class of life, and all their caps +having gold and silver cauls, it appears like a rich pavement of gold +and silver. + +I will conclude this letter with the mere transcription of notes, which +my friend W---- made of his conversations with Klopstock, during the +interviews that took place after my departure. On these I shall make but +one remark at present, and that will appear a presumptuous one, namely, +that Klopstock's remarks on the venerable sage of Koenigsburg are to my +own knowledge injurious and mistaken; and so far is it from being true, +that his system is now given up, that throughout the Universities of +Germany there is not a single professor who is not either a Kantean or a +disciple of Fichte, whose system is built on the Kantean, and +presupposes its truth; or lastly who, though an antagonist of Kant, as +to his theoretical work, has not embraced wholly or in part his moral +system, and adopted part of his nomenclature. 'Klopstock having wished +to see the CALVARY of Cumberland, and asked what was thought of it in +England, I went to Remnant's (the English bookseller) where I procured +the Analytical Review, in which is contained the review of Cumberland's +CALVARY. I remembered to have read there some specimens of a blank verse +translation of THE MESSIAH. I had mentioned this to Klopstock, and he +had a great desire to see them. I walked over to his house and put the +book into his hands. On adverting to his own poem, he told me he began +THE MESSIAH when he was seventeen: he devoted three entire years to the +plan without composing a single line. He was greatly at a loss in what +manner to execute his work. There were no successful specimens of +versification in the German language before this time. The first three +cantos he wrote in a species of measured or numerous prose. This, though +done with much labour and some success, was far from satisfying him. He +had composed hexameters both Latin and Greek as a school exercise, and +there had been also in the German language attempts in that style of +versification. These were only of very moderate merit.--One day he was +struck with the idea of what could be done in this way--he kept his room +a whole day, even went without his dinner, and found that in the evening +he had written twenty-three hexameters, versifying a part of what he had +before written in prose. From that time, pleased with his efforts, he +composed no more in prose. To-day he informed me that he had finished +his plan before he read Milton. He was enchanted to see an author who +before him had trod the same path. This is a contradiction of what he +said before. He did not wish to speak of his poem to any one till it was +finished: but some of his friends who had seen what he had finished, +tormented him till he had consented to publish a few books in a journal. +He was then, I believe, very young, about twenty-five. The rest was +printed at different periods, four books at a time. The reception given +to the first specimens was highly flattering. He was nearly thirty years +in finishing the whole poem, but of these thirty years not more than two +were employed in the composition. He only composed in favourable +moments; besides he had other occupations. He values himself upon the +plan of his odes, and accuses the modern lyrical writers of gross +deficiency in this respect. I laid the same accusation against Horace: +he would not hear of it--but waived the discussion. He called +Rousseau's ODE TO FORTUNE a moral dissertation in stanzas.[230] I spoke +of Dryden's ST. CECILIA; but be did not seem familiar with our writers. +He wished to know the distinctions between our dramatic and epic blank +verse. + +[230] (A la Fortune. Liv. II. Ode vi. Oeuvres de Jean Baptiste Rousseau, +p.121, edit. 1820. One of the latter strophes of this ode concludes with +two lines, which, as the editor observes, have become a proverb, and of +which the thought and expression are borrowed from Lucretius: _cripitur +persona, manet res:_ III. v. 58. + + Montrez nous, guerriers magnanimes, + Votre vertu dans tout son jour: + Voyons comment vos coeurs sublimes + Du sort soutiendront le retour. + Tant que sa faveur vous seconde, + Vous etes les maitres du monde, + Votre gloire nous eblouit: + Mais au moindre revers funeste, + _Le masque tombe, l'homme reste, + Et le heros s'evanouit_. + +Horace, says the Editor, en traitant ce meme sujet, liv. X. ode XXXV. et +Pindare en l'esquissant a grands traits, au commencement de sa douzieme +Olympique, n'avoient laisse a leurs successeurs que son cote moral a +envisager, et c'est le parti que prit Rousseau. The general sentiment of +the ode is handled with great dignity in Paradise Regained. Bk. III. l. +43--157--a passage which, as Thyer says, contains the quintessence of +the subject. Dante has some noble lines on Fortune in the viith canto of +the _Inferno_,--lines worthy of a great mystic poet. After referring to +the vain complaints and maledictions of men against this Power, he +beautifully concludes: + + Ma ella s'e beata e cio non ode: + Con l'altre prime creature lieta + _Volve sua spera, e beata si gode_. + +J.B. Rousseau was born in 1669, began his career at the close of the age +of Louis Quatorze, died at Brussels, March 17, 1741. He had been +banished from France, by an intrigue, on a false charge, as now seems +clear, of having composed and distributed defamatory verses, in 1712; +and it was engraved upon his tomb that he was 'thirty years an object of +envy and thirty of compassion.' Belonging to the classical school of the +17th century, of which he was the last survivor, he came somewhat into +conflict with the spirit of the 18th, which was preparing a new vintage, +and would have none but new wine in new bottles. Rousseau, however, was +a very finished writer in his way, and has been compared to Pindar, +Horace, Anacreon and Malherbe. His ode to _M. le Comte du Luc_ is as +fine an example as I know of the modern classical style. This is quite +different from that which is exemplified in Wordsworth's Laodamia and +Serjeant Talfourd's Ion; for in them the subjects only are ancient, +while both the form and spirit are modern; whereas in the odes of +Rousseau a modern subject is treated, as far as difference of times and +language will allow, in the manner and tone of the Ancients. Samson +Agonistes and Goethe's Iphigenia in Tauris are conformed to ancient +modes of thought, but in them the subject also is taken from antiquity. +Rousseau's works consist of Odes, Epistles in verse, Cantatas, Epigrams, +&c. &c. He wrote for the stage at the beginning of his literary life, +but with no great success. S.C.) + +He recommended me to read his HERMANN before I read either THE MESSIAH +or the odes. He flattered himself that some time or other his dramatic +poems would be known in England. He had not heard of Cowper. He thought +that Voss in his translation of THE ILIAD had done violence to the idiom +of the Germans, and had sacrificed it to the Greeks, not remembering +sufficiently that each language has its particular spirit and +genius.[231] He said Lessing was the first of their dramatic writers. I +complained of NATHAN as tedious. He said there was not enough of action +in it; but that Lessing was the most chaste of their writers. He spoke +favourably of Goethe; but said that his SORROWS OF WERTER was his best +work, better than any of his dramas: he preferred the first written to +the rest of Goethe's dramas. Schiller's ROBBERS he found so extravagant, +that he could not read it. I spoke of the scene of the setting sun.[232] +He did not know it. He said Schiller could not live. He thought DON +CARLOS the best of his dramas; but said that the plot was +inextricable.--It was evident he knew little of Schiller's works: +indeed, he said, he could not read them. Buerger, he said, was a true +poet, and would live; that Schiller, on the contrary, must soon be +forgotten; that he gave himself up to the imitation of Shakespeare, who +often was extravagant, but that Schiller was ten thousand times more +so.[233] + +[231] Voss, who lived from Feb. 20, 1751, to March, 1826, was author of +the Luise, 'a rural epopaea of simple structure divided into three +idyls, which relate the betrothment and marriage of the heroine.' This +is a pleasing and very peculiar poem, composed in hexameter verse. 'The +charm of the narrative,' says Mr. T., 'consists in the minute +description of the local domestic manners of the personages.' The charm +consists, I think, in the blending of these manners with the beauty of +Nature, and the ease and suitability of the versification. Voss's +translation of the Odyssey is praised for being so perfect an imitation +of the original. The Greek has been rendered, 'with a fidelity and +imitative harmony so admirable, that it suggests to the scholar the +original wording, and reflects, as from a mirror, every beauty and every +blemish of the ancient poem.' Hist. Survey, pp. 61-68. S. C. + +[232] Act III. Sc. 2. The night scene, which is the 5th of Act iv, is +fine too in a frantic way. The songs it contains are very spirited. That +sung by the Robbers is worthy of a Thug; it goes beyond our notions of +any European bandit, and transports us to the land of Jaggernat. S. C. + +[233] The works of Buerger, who was born on the first day of 1748, died +June 8, 1794, consist of Poems (2 vols.), Macbeth altered from +Shakespeare, (pronounced by Taylor,--no good judge of _Shakespeare_,--in +some respects superiour to the original,) Munchauesen's Travels; +Translations; (of the six first books of the Iliad, and some others); +Papers philological and political. His fame rests chiefly on three +ballads, The Wild Hunter, The Parson's Daughter, and Lenore. The +powerful diction and admirable harmony,--rhythm, sound, rhyme of these +compositions Mr. Taylor describes as the result of laborious art; it +strikes me, from the outline which he has given of Buerger's history, +that the violent feelings, the life-like expression of which constitutes +their power and value, may have been partly the reflex of the poet's own +mind. His seems to have been a life of mismanagement from youth till +middle age. Like Milton, he lost a beloved second wife by childbed in +the first year of marriage: like him, he married a third time, but +without his special necessity--blindness and unkind daughters. He wedded +a lady who had fallen in love with his poetry, or perhaps his poetical +reputation: an union founded, as it appears, in vanity, ended in +vexation of spirit: and as Death, which had deprived him of two wives, +did not release him from a third, he obtained his freedom, at the end of +little more than three years, from a court of justice. Why did Klopstock +undervalue, by preference of such a poet, the lofty-minded Schiller--the +dearest to England of all German bards; perhaps because the author of +Wallenstein was a philosopher, and had many things in his philosophy +which the author of The Messiah could not find in _his_ heaven and +earth. S.C. + +He spoke very slightingly of Kotzebue, as an immoral author in the +first place, and next, as deficient in power. At Vienna, said he, they +are transported with him; but we do not reckon the people of Vienna +either the wisest or the wittiest people of Germany. He said Wieland was +a charming author, and a sovereign master of his own language: that in +this respect Goethe could not be compared to him, nor indeed could any +body else. He said that his fault was to be fertile to exuberance. I +told him the OBERON had just been translated into English. He asked me +if I was not delighted with the poem. I answered, that I thought the +story began to flag about the seventh or eighth book; and observed, that +it was unworthy of a man of genius to make the interest of a long poem +turn entirely upon animal gratification. He seemed at first disposed to +excuse this by saying, that there are different subjects for poetry, and +that poets are not willing to be restricted in their choice. I answered, +that I thought the _passion_ of love as well suited to the purposes of +poetry as any other passion; but that it was a cheap way of pleasing to +fix the attention of the reader through a long poem on the mere +_appetite_. Well! but, said he, you see, that such poems please every +body. I answered, that it was the province of a great poet to raise +people up to his own level, not to descend to theirs. He agreed, and +confessed, that on no account whatsoever would he have written a work +like the OBERON. He spoke in raptures of Wieland's style, and pointed +out the passage where Retzia is delivered of her child, as exquisitely +beautiful.[234] + + + +[234] Oberon, Canto viii. stanzas 69-80. The little touch about the new +born babe's returning its mother's kiss is very romantic: though put +modestly in the form of a query: + + --Und scheint nicht jeden Kuss + Sein kleiner mund dem ihren zu entsaugen? + +The word _entsaugen (suck off)_ is expressive--it very naturally +characterises the kiss of an infant five minutes of age. Wieland had +great nursery experience. 'My sweetest hours,' says he, in a letter +quoted in the Survey,' are those in which I see about me, in all their +glee of childhood, my whole posse of little half-way things between apes +and angels.' + +Mr. Sotheby's translation of the Oberon made the poem popular in this +country. The original first appeared in 1780. S. C. + +I said that I did not perceive any very striking passages; but that I +made allowance for the imperfections of a translation. Of the thefts of +Wieland, he said, they were so exquisitely managed, that the greatest +writers might be proud to steal as he did. He considered the books and +fables of old romance writers in the light of the ancient mythology, as +a sort of common property, from which a man was free to take whatever he +could make a good use of. An Englishman had presented him with the odes +of Collins, which he had read with pleasure. He knew little or nothing +of Gray, except his ELEGY written in a country CHURCH-YARD. He +complained of the fool in LEAR. I observed that he seemed to give a +terrible wildness to the distress; but still he complained. He asked +whether it was not allowed, that Pope had written rhymed poetry with +more skill than any of our writers--I said I preferred Dryden, because +his couplets had greater variety in their movement. He thought my reason +a good one; but asked whether the rhyme of Pope were not more exact. +This question I understood as applying to the final terminations, and +observed to him that I believed it was the case; but that I thought it +was easy to excuse some inaccuracy in the final sounds, if the general +sweep of the verse was superiour. I told him that we were not so exact +with regard to the final endings of lines as the French. He did not seem +to know that we made no distinction between masculine and feminine (i.e. +single or double,) rhymes: at least he put inquiries to me on this +subject. He seemed to think, that no language could be so far formed as +that it might not be enriched by idioms borrowed from another tongue. I +said this was a very dangerous practice; and added, that I thought +Milton had often injured both his prose and verse by taking this liberty +too frequently. I recommended to him the prose works of Dryden as models +of pure and native English. I was treading upon tender ground, as I have +reason to suppose that he has himself liberally indulged in the +practice. + +The same day I dined at Mr. Klopstock's, where I had the pleasure of a +third interview with the poet. We talked principally about indifferent +things. I asked him what he thought of Kant. He said that his reputation +was much on the decline in Germany. That for his own part he was not +surprised to find it so, as the works of Kant were to him utterly +incomprehensible--that he had often been pestered by the Kanteans; but +was rarely in the practice of arguing with them. His custom was to +produce the book, open it and point to a passage, and beg they would +explain it. This they ordinarily attempted to do by substituting their +own ideas. I do not want, I say, an explanation of your own ideas, but +of the passage which is before us. In this way I generally bring the +dispute to an immediate conclusion. He spoke of Wolfe as the first +Metaphysician they had in Germany. Wolfe had followers; but they could +hardly be called a sect, and luckily till the appearance of Kant, about +fifteen years ago, Germany had not been pestered by any sect of +philosophers whatsoever; but that each man had separately pursued his +inquiries uncontrolled by the dogmas of a master. Kant had appeared +ambitious to be the founder of a sect; that he had succeeded: but that +the Germans were now coming to their senses again. That Nicolai and +Engel had in different ways contributed to disenchant the nation;[235] +but above all the incomprehensibility of the philosopher and his +philosophy. He seemed pleased to hear, that as yet Kant's doctrines had +not met with many admirers in England--did not doubt but that we had too +much wisdom to be duped by a writer who set at defiance the common sense +and common understandings of men. We talked of tragedy. He seemed to +rate highly the power of exciting tears--I said that nothing was more +easy than to deluge an audience, that it was done every day by the +meanest writers.' + +I must remind you, my friend, first, that these notes are not intended +as specimens of Klopstock's intellectual power, or even '_colloquial +prowess_,' to judge of which by an accidental conversation, and this +with strangers, and those two foreigners, would be not only +unreasonable, but calumnious. Secondly, I attribute little other +interest to the remarks than what is derived from the celebrity of the +person who made them. Lastly, if you ask me, whether I have read THE +MESSIAH, and what I think of it? I answer--as yet the first four books +only: and as to my opinion--(the reasons of which hereafter)--you may +guess it from what I could not help muttering to myself, when the good +pastor this morning told me, that Klopstock was the German Milton----'a +very _German_ Milton indeed!!!'----Heaven preserve you, +and S.T. COLERIDGE. + +[235] These _disenchanters_ put one in mind of the ratcatchers, who are +said and supposed to rid houses of rats, and yet the rats, somehow or +other, continue to swarm. The Kantean rats were not aware, I believe, +when Klopstock spoke thus, of the extermination that had befallen them: +and even to this day those acute animals infest the old house, and steal +away the daily bread of the children,--if the old notions of Space and +Time, and the old proofs of religious verities by way of the +_understanding_ and _speculative reason,_ must be called such. Whether +or no these are their true spiritual sustenance, or the necessary guard +and vehicle of it, is perhaps a question. + +But who were Nicolai and Engel, and what did they against the famous +enchanter? The former was born in 1733, at Berlin, where he carried on +his father's business of book-selling, pursued literature with marked +success, and attained to old age, full of literary honours. By means of +three critical journals (the _Literatur-Briefe,_ the _Bibliothek der +Schoenen Wissenschaftern,_ and the _Allgemeine Deutsche Bibliothek,_) +which he conducted with the powerful cooperation of Lessing, and of his +intimate friend Mendelssohn, and to which he contributed largely +himself, he became very considerable in the German world of letters, and +so continued for the space of twenty years. Joerdens, in his Lexicon, +speaks highly of the effect of Nicolai's writings in promoting freedom +of thought, enlightened views in theology and philosophy, and a sound +taste in fine literature--describes him as a brave battler with +intolerance, hypocrisy, and confused conceptions in religion; with empty +subtleties, obscurities, and terminologies, that can but issue in vain +fantasies, in his controversial writings on the 'so-named critical +philosophy.' He engaged with the _Kritik der reinen Vernunft,_ on its +appearance in 1781, in the _Allgemeine Deutsche Bibliothek;_ first +explained his objections to it in the 11th vol. of his +_Reisebeschreibung_, (Description of a Journey through Germany and +Switzerland in the year 1781,) and afterwards, in his romance entitled +The Life and Opinions of Sempronius Gundibert, a German Philosopher, +sought to set forth the childish crotchets and abuses imputable to many +disciples of this philosophy in their native absurdity. The _ratsbone_ +alluded to by Klopstock, was doubtless contained in the above-named +romance, which the old poet probably esteemed more than Nicolai's more +serious polemics. + +Gundibert has had its day, but in a fiction destined to a day of longer +duration,--Goethe's Faust,--the Satirist is himself most effectively +satirised. There he is, in that strange yet beautiful temple, pinned to +the wall in a ridiculous attitude, to be laughed at as long as the +temple itself is visited and admired. This doom came upon him, not so +much for his campaign against the Kanteans, as for his _Joys of +Werter_,--because he had dared to ridicule a book, which certainly +offered no small temptations to the parodist. Indeed he seems to have +been engaged in a series of hostilities with Fichte, Lavater, Wieland, +Herder, and Goethe. + +(See Mr. Hayward's excellent translation of Faust, of which I have heard +a literary German say that it gave a better notion of the original than +any other which he had seen.) + + +In the _Walpurgisnacht_ of the Faust he thus addresses the goblin +dancers:-- + + Ihr seyd noch immer da! Nein das ist unerhoert! + Verschwindet doch! Wir haben ja aufgeklaert! + + 'Fly! Vanish! Unheard of impudence! What, still there! + In this enlightened age too, when you have been + Proved not to exist?'--_Shelley's Translation_. + +Do we not see the doughty reviewer before us magisterially waving his +hand and commanding the apparitions to vanish?--then with despondent +astonishment exclaiming: + + Das Teufelspack es fragt nach keiner Regel. + Wir sind so klug und dennoch spukt's in Tegel. + +So wise we are! yet what fantastic fooleries still stream forth from my +contemporary's brains; how are we still haunted! The speech of Faust +concerning him is mis-translated by Shelley, who understood the humour +of the piece, as well as the poetry, but not the particular humours of +it. Nothing can be more expressive of a conceited, narrow-minded +reviewer. 'Oh he!--he is absolutely everywhere,--What others dance, he +must decide upon. If he can't chatter about every step, 'tis as good as +not made at all. _Nothing provokes him so much as when we go forward_. +If you'd turn round and round in a circle, as he does in his old mill, +he'd approve of that perhaps; especially if you'd consult him about it.' + +'A man of such spirited habitudes,' says Mr. Carlyle, after affirming +that Nicolai wrote against Kant's philosophy without comprehending it, +and judged of poetry, as of Brunswick Mum, by its utility, 'is now by +the Germans called a _Philister_. Nicolai earned for himself the painful +pre-eminence of being _Erz Philister_, Arch Philistine.' 'He, an old +enemy of Goethe's,' says Mr. Hill, in explanation of the title in which +he appears in the _Walpurgisnacht_, 'had published an account of his +phantasmal illusions, pointing them against Fichte's system of idealism, +which he evidently confounded with what Coleridge would have called +Subjective Idolism.' + +Such was this wondrous _disenchanter_ in the eyes of later critics than +Klopstock: a man strong enough to maintain a long fight against genius, +not wise enough to believe in it and befriend it. How many a +controversialist seems a mighty giant to those who are predisposed to +his opinions, while, in the eyes of others, he is but a blind +floundering Polyphemus, who knows not how to direct his heavy blows; if +not a menacing scarecrow, with a stake in his hand, which he has no +power to drive home! I remember reading a thin volume in which all +metaphysicians that had ever left their thoughts behind them were +declared utterly in the wrong--all up to, but not including, the valiant +author himself. The world had lain in darkness till he appeared, like a +new Phoebus, on the scene. This great man despatched Kant's +system--(never having read a syllable of any work of Kant's)--in a page +and a quarter! and the exploit had its celebraters and admirers. Yet +strange to say, the metaphysical world went on just as if nothing had +happened!--after the sun was up, it went groping about, as if it had +never been enlightened, and actually ever since has continued to talk as +if Locke, Berkeley, Hume, Kant, and other metaphysicians understood the +nature of the things they wrote about rather _more_ than the mass of +mankind, instead of _less! Verschwindet doch_! might this author say, as +Nicolai said to the spectres of the Brocken and the phantoms of +literature, + + Verschwindet doch! _Wir haben ja aufgeklaert_. + +Engel opposed Kant in philosophical treatises, one of which is entitled +_Zwei Gerpraeche den Werth der Kritik betreffend_. He too occupied a +considerable space in Literature--his works fill twelve volumes, besides +a few other pieces. 'To him,' says Joerdens, 'the criticism of taste and +of art, speculative, practical, and popular philosophy, owe many of +their later advances in Germany.' Joerdens pronounces his romance, +entitled _Lorenz Stark_, a masterpiece in its way, and says of his +plays, that they deserve a place beside the best of Lessing's. He was +the author of a miscellaneous work, entitled The Philosopher for the +World, and is praised by Cousin as a meritorious anthropologist. Engel +was born September 11, 1741, at Parchim, of which his father was pastor, +in Mecklenburg-Schwerin; died June 28, 1802. Neither Nicolai nor Engel +is noticed by Cousin among the adversaries of Kant's doctrine: the +intelligent adversaries,--who assailed it with skill and knowledge, +rather proved its strength than discovered its weakness. _Fortius acri +ridiculum_; but this applies only to transient triumphs, where the +object of attack, though it furnishes _occasion_ for ridicule, affords +no just _cause_ for it. S.C. + + * * * * * + + +(_b_) PERSONAL REMINISCENCES (1836), BY THE HON. MR. JUSTICE COLERIDGE. + +In the summer of 1836 I went on the Northern Circuit with Baron Parke. +We took Bowness and Storrs, in our way from Appleby to Lancaster; and I +visited Wordsworth, and my dear friend Arnold from Storrs. It was my +fortune to have to try the great Hornby Castle cause, as it was called; +this I did at the end of the circuit, returning from Liverpool to +Lancaster for the purpose. Arnold was kind enough to lend me his house +(Foxhow) for the vacation; and when the circuit ended, my wife and +children accompanied me to it, and we remained there six weeks. During +that time Mr. and Mrs. Wordsworth were our only neighbours, and we +scarcely saw any one besides; but we needed no other addition to the +lovely and loveable country in which we were. He was extremely kind, +both in telling us where to go, and very often going with us. He was +engaged in correcting the press for a new edition of his poems. The +London post, I think, went out at 2 P.M., and then, he would say, he was +at our service. A walk with him in that country was a real treat: I +never met with a man who seemed to know a country and the people so +well, or to love them better, nor one who had such exquisite taste for +rural scenery: he had evidently cultivated it with great care; he not +only admired the beauties, but he could tell you what were the peculiar +features in each scene, or what the incidents to which it owed its +peculiar charm. He combined, beyond any man with whom I ever met, the +unsophisticated poetic delight in the beauties of nature with a somewhat +artistic skill in developing the sources and conditions of them. In +examining the parts of a landscape he would be minute; and he dealt with +shrubs, flower-beds, and lawns with the readiness of a practiced +landscape-gardener. His own little grounds afforded a beautiful specimen +of his skill in this latter respect; and it was curious to see how he +had imparted the same faculty in some measure to his gardener--James +Dixon, I think, was his name. I found them together one morning in the +little lawn by the Mount. 'James and I,' said he, 'are in a puzzle here. +The grass here has spots which offend the eye; and I told him we must +cover them with soap-lees. "That," he says, "will make the green there +darker than the rest." "Then," I said, "we must cover the whole." He +objected: "That will not do with reference to the little lawn to which +you pass from this." "Cover that," I said. To which he replies, "You +will have an unpleasant contrast with the foliage surrounding it."' + +Beside this warm feeling and exquisite taste, which made him so +delightful a guide, his favourite spots had a human interest engrafted +on them,--some tradition, some incident, some connection with his own +poetry, or himself, or some dear friend. These he brought out in a +striking way. Apart from these, he was well pleased to discourse on +poetry or poets; and here appeared to me to be his principal +scholarship. He was extremely well read in English poetry; and he would +in his walk review a poem or a poet with admirable precision and +fairness. He did not intrude his own poetry or himself, but he did not +decline to talk about either; and he spoke of both simply, unboastingly, +and yet with a manly consciousness of their worth. It was clear he +thought he had achieved a high place among poets: it had been the aim of +his life, humanly speaking; and he had taken worthy pains to accomplish +and prepare himself for the enterprise. He never would sacrifice +anything he thought right on reflection, merely to secure present +popularity, or avert criticism which he thought unfounded; but he was a +severe critic on himself, and would not leave a line or an expression +with which he was dissatisfied until he had brought it to what he liked. +He thought this due to the gift of poetry and the character of the poet. +Carelessness in the finish of composition he seemed to look on almost as +an offence. I remember well, that after speaking with love and delight +of a very popular volume of poetry, he yet found great fault with the +want of correctness and finish. Reciting one of the poems, and pointing +out inaccuracies in it, he said, 'I like the volume so much, that, if I +was the author, I think I should never rest till I had nearly rewritten +it.' No doubt he carried this in his own case to excess, when he +corrected so largely, in the decline of life, poems written in early +manhood, under a state of feelings and powers which it was impossible to +reproduce, and yet which was necessary, generally speaking, for +successful alteration. I cannot but agree with many who think that on +this account the earlier copies of his poems are more valuable than the +later. + +1836. _September_. Wednesday 21.--Wordsworth and I started in my +carriage for Lowther, crossed Kirkstone to Paterdale, by Ulleswater, +going through the Glenridding Walks,[236] and calling at Hallsteads. We +reached the castle time enough before dinner for him to give me a walk. + +[236] I remember well, asking him if we were not trespassing on private +pleasure-grounds here. He said, no; the walks had, indeed, been +inclosed, but he remembered them open to the public, and he always went +through them when he chose. At Lowther, we found among the visitors, the +late Lord W----; and describing our walk, _he_ made the same +observation, that we had been trespassing; but Wordsworth maintained his +point with somewhat more warmth than I either liked, or could well +account for. But afterwards, when we were alone, he told me he had +purposely answered Lord W---- stoutly and warmly, because he had done a +similar thing with regard to some grounds in the neighbourhood of +Penrith, and excluded the people of Penrith from walking where they had +always enjoyed the right before. He had evidently a pleasure in +vindicating these rights, and seemed to think it a duty. J.T.C. + +After luncheon, on Thursday 22d, we had an open carriage, and proceeded +to Haweswater. It is a fine lake, entirely unspoilt by bad taste. On one +side the bank rises high and steep, and is well clothed with wood; on +the other it is bare and more sloping. Wordsworth conveyed a personal +interest in it to me, by telling me that it was the first lake which my +uncle[237] had seen on his coming into this country: he was in company +with Wordsworth and his brother John. Wordsworth pointed out to me +somewhere about the spot on the hill-side, a little out of the track, +from which they first saw the lake; and said, he well remembered how his +face brightened, and how much delight he appeared to feel. Yesterday +morning we returned to this place. We called on our way and took our +luncheon at Hallsteads, and also called at Paterdale Hall. At both it +was gratifying to see the cordial manner of W.'s reception: he seemed +loved and honoured; and his manner was of easy, hearty, kindness to +them. + +[237] See _Memoirs_, vol. i. pp. 147-8. + +My tour with him was very agreeable, and I wish I could preserve in my +memory more of his conversation than I shall be able to do. I was +anxious to get from him anecdotes of himself and my uncle, and of their +works. He told me of himself, that his first verses were a Popian copy +written at school on the 'Pleasure of Change;' then he wrote another on +the 'Second Centenary of the School's Foundation;' that he had written +these verses on the holidays, and on the return to school; that he was +rather the poet of the school. The first verses from which he remembered +to have received great pleasure, were Miss Carter's 'Poem on Spring,' a +poem in the six-line stanza, which he was particularly fond of, and had +composed much in, for example, 'Ruth.' He said there was some foundation +in fact, however slight, for every poem he had written of a narrative +kind; so slight indeed, sometimes, as hardly to deserve the name; for +example, 'The Somnambulist' was wholly built on the fact of a girl at +Lyulph's Tower being a sleep-walker; and 'The Water Lily,' on a ship +bearing that name. 'Michael' was founded on the son of an old couple +having become dissolute and run away from his parents; and on an old +shepherd having been seven years in building up a sheepfold in a +solitary valley: 'The Brothers,' on a young shepherd, in his sleep, +having fallen down a crag, his staff remaining suspended midway. Many +incidents he seemed to have drawn from the narration of Mrs. Wordsworth, +or his sister, 'Ellen' for example, in 'The Excursion;' and they must +have told their stories well, for he said his principle had been to give +the oral part as nearly as he could in the very words of the speakers, +where he narrated a real story, dropping, of course, all vulgarisms or +provincialisms, and borrowing sometimes a Bible turn of expression: +these former were mere accidents, not essential to the truth in +representing how the human heart and passions worked; and to give these +last faithfully was his object. If he was to have any name hereafter, +his hope was on this, and he did think he had in some instances +succeeded;[238] that the sale of his poems increased among the classes +below the middle; and he had had, constantly, statements made to him of +the effect produced in reading 'Michael' and other such of his poems. I +added my testimony of being unable to read it aloud without interruption +from my own feelings. 'She was a phantom of delight' he said was written +on 'his dear wife,' of whom he spoke in the sweetest manner; a manner +full of the warmest love and admiration, yet with delicacy and reserve. +He very much and repeatedly regretted that my uncle had written so +little verse; he thought him so eminently qualified, by his very nice +ear, his great skill in metre, and his wonderful power and happiness of +expression. He attributed, in part, his writing so little, to the +extreme care and labour which he applied in elaborating his metres. He +said, that when he was intent on a new experiment in metre, the time and +labour he bestowed were inconceivable; that he was quite an epicure in +sound. Latterly he thought he had so much acquired the habit of +analysing his feelings, and making them matter for a theory or argument, +that he had rather dimmed his delight in the beauties of nature and +injured his poetical powers. He said he had no idea how 'Christabelle' +was to have been finished, and he did not think my uncle had ever +conceived, in his own mind, any definite plan for it; that the poem had +been composed while they were in habits of daily intercourse, and almost +in his presence, and when there was the most unreserved intercourse +between them as to all their literary projects and productions, and he +had never heard from him any plan for finishing it. Not that he doubted +my uncle's _sincerity_ in his subsequent assertions to the contrary; +because, he said, schemes of this sort passed rapidly and vividly +through his mind, and so impressed him, that he often fancied he had +arranged things, which really and upon trial proved to be mere embryos. +I omitted to ask him, what seems obvious enough now, whether, in +conversing about it, he had never asked my uncle how it would end. The +answer would have settled the question. He regretted that the story had +not been made to end the same night in which it begun. There was +difficulty and danger in bringing such a personage as the witch to the +daylight, and the breakfast-table; and unless the poem was to have been +long enough to give time for creating a second interest, there was a +great probability of the conclusion being flat after such a +commencement. + +[238] You could not walk with him a mile without seeing what a loving +interest he took in the play and working of simple natures. As you +ascend Kirkstone from Paterdale, you have a bright stream leaping down +from rock to rock, on your right, with here and there silent pools. One +of Wordsworth's poor neighbours worked all the week over Kirkstone, I +think in some mines; and returning on Saturday evenings, used to fish up +this little stream. We met him with a string of small trout. W. offered +to buy them, and bid him take them to the Mount. 'Nay,' said the man, 'I +cannot sell them, Sir; the little children at home look for them for +supper, and I can't disappoint them.' It was quite pleasant to see how +the man's answer delighted the Poet. J.T.C. + + * * * * * + +A great number of my uncle's sonnets, he said, were written from the +'Cat and Salutation,' or a public-house with some such name, in +Smithfield, where my uncle imprisoned himself for some time; and they +appeared in a newspaper, I think he said the _Morning Chronicle_. + +He remembered his writing a great part of the translation of +'Wallenstein,' and he said there was nothing more astonishing than the +ease and rapidity with which it was done. + +_Sept. 29th, Foxhow_.--We are just setting out, in a promising day, for +a second trip to Keswick, intending, if possible, to penetrate into +Wastdale, over the Sty Head. Before I go, I wish to commemorate a walk +with the Poet, on a drizzly muddy day, the turf sponging out water at +every step, through which he stalked as regardless as if he were of +iron, and with the same fearless, unchanged pace over rough and smooth, +slippery and sound. We went up by the old road[239] from Ambleside to +Keswick, and struck off from the table-land on the left, over the fell +ground, till he brought me out on a crag, bounded, as it were, by two +ascents, and showing me in front, as in a frame, Grasmere Lake, 'the one +green island,' the church, village, &c., and the surrounding mountains. +It is a lovely scene, strikingly described in his verses beginning, + + 'When to the attractions of the busy world, + Preferring studious leisure,' &c.[240] + +_Oct. 7th_.--Yesterday Wordsworth drove me to Low-wovel; and then we +ascended a great way towards Kirkstone by Troutbeck, passing by many +interesting cots, barns, and farm-houses, where W. had constantly +something to point out in the architecture, or the fringes of moss, +fern, &c., on the roofs or walls. We crossed the valley, and descended +on Troutbeck Church, whence we came down to the turnpike road, and I +left the Poet, who was going on to assist Sir T. Pasley in laying out +his grounds. I turned homeward, till I met my horse. + + * * * * * + +[239] This old road was very steep, after the fashion of former days, +crossing the hill straight over its highest point. A new cut had been +made, somewhat diminishing the steepness, but still leaving it a very +inconvenient and difficult ascent. At length another alteration was +made, and the road was carried on a level round the foot of the hill. My +friend Arnold pointed these out to me, and, quizzing my politics, said, +the first denoted the old Tory corruption, the second bit by bit, the +third Radical Reform. J.T.C. + +[240] See Poems on the naming of Places. + +As we walked, I was admiring the never-ceasing sound of water, so +remarkable in this country. 'I was walking,' he said, 'on the mountains, +with ----, the Eastern traveller; it was after rain, and the torrents +were full. I said, "I hope you like your companions--these bounding, +joyous, foaming streams." "No," said the traveller, pompously, "I think +they are not to be compared in delightful effect with the silent +solitude of the Arabian Desert." My mountain blood was up. I quickly +observed that he had boots and a stout great-coat on, and said, "I am +sorry you don't like this; perhaps I can show you what will please you +more." I strode away, and led him from crag to crag, hill to vale, and +vale to hill, for about six hours; till I thought I should have had to +bring him home, he was so tired.' + + * * * * * + +_October 10th_.--I have passed a great many hours to-day with +Wordsworth, in his house. I stumbled on him with proof sheets before +him. He read me nearly all the sweet stanzas written in his copy of the +'Castle of Indolence,'[241] describing himself and my uncle; and he and +Mrs. W. both assured me the description of the latter at that time was +perfectly accurate; that he was almost as a great boy in feelings, and +had all the tricks and fancies there described. Mrs. W. seemed to look +back on him, and those times, with the fondest affection. Then he read +me some lines, which formed part of a suppressed portion of 'The +Waggoner;' but which he is now printing 'on the Rock of Names,' so +called because on it they had carved out their initials: + +W.W. Wm. Wordsworth. +M.H. Mary W. +D.W. Dorothy Wordsworth. +S.T.C. Samuel Taylor Coleridge. +J.W. John Wordsworth. +S.H. Sarah Hutchinson. + +[241] Poems founded on the Affections. + +This rock was about a mile beyond Wythburn Chapel, to which they used to +accompany my uncle, in going to Keswick from Grasmere, and where they +would meet him when he returned. This led him to read much of 'The +Waggoner' to me. It seems a very favourite poem of his, and he read me +splendid descriptions from it. He said his object in it had not been +understood. It was a play of the fancy on a domestic incident and lowly +character: he wished by the opening descriptive lines to put his reader +into the state of mind in which he wished it to be read. If he failed in +doing that, he wished him to lay it down. He pointed out, with the same +view, the glowing lines on the state of exultation in which Ben and his +companions are under the influence of liquor. Then he read the sickening +languor of the morning walk, contrasted with the glorious uprising of +Nature, and the songs of the birds. Here he has added about six most +exquisite lines. + +We walked out on the turf terrace, on the Loughrigg side of Rydal Water. +Most exquisitely did the lake and opposite bank look. Thence he led me +home under Loughrigg, through lovely spots I had never seen before. His +conversation was on critical subjects, arising out of his attempts to +alter his poems. He said he considered 'The White Doe' as, in +conception, the highest work he had ever produced. The mere physical +action was all unsuccessful; but the true action of the poem was +spiritual--the subduing of the will, and all inferior passions, to the +perfect purifying and spiritualising of the intellectual nature; while +the Doe, by connection with Emily, is raised as it were from its mere +animal nature into something mysterious and saint-like. He said he +should devote much labour to perfecting the execution of it in the mere +business parts, in which, from anxiety 'to get on' with the more +important parts, he was sensible that imperfections had crept in, which +gave the style a feebleness of character. + +He talked of Milton, and observed how he sometimes indulged himself, in +the 'Paradise Lost,' in lines which, if not in time, you could hardly +call verse, instancing, + + 'And Tiresias and Phineus, prophets old;' + +and then noticed the sweet-flowing lines which followed, and with regard +to which he had no doubt the unmusical line before had been inserted. + +'Paradise Regained' he thought the most perfect in _execution_ of +anything written by Milton; that and the 'Merchant of Venice,' in +language, he thought were almost faultless: with the exception of some +little straining in some of the speeches about the caskets, he said, +they were perfect, the genuine English expressions of the ideas of +their own great minds. Thomson he spoke of as a real poet, though it +appeared less in his 'Seasons' than in his other poems. He had wanted +some judicious adviser to correct his taste; but every person he had to +deal with only served to injure it. He had, however, a true love and +feeling for Nature, and a greater share of poetical imagination, as +distinguished from dramatic, than any man between Milton and him. As he +stood looking at Ambleside, seen across the valley, embosomed in wood, +and separated from us at sufficient distance, he quoted from Thomson's +'Hymn on Solitude,' and suggested the addition, or rather insertion, of +a line at the close, where he speaks of glancing at London from Norwood. +The line, he said, should have given something of a more favourable +impression: + +'Ambition---- [242] and pleasure vain.' + + + + +_October 14th, Foxhow_.--We have had a delightful day to-day. The +weather being fine, Wordsworth agreed to go with us into Easedale; so we +got three ponies, for Mary and Madge, and Fred and Alley, alternately, +and walked from Grasmere, he _trudging_[243] before, with his green +gauze shade over his eyes, and in his plaid jacket and waistcoat. First, +he turned aside at a little farm-house, and took us into a swelling +field, to look down on the tumbling stream which bounded it, and which +we saw precipitated at a distance, in a broad white sheet, from the +mountain. A beautiful water-break of the same stream was before us at +our feet, and he noticed the connection which it formed in the landscape +with the distant waterfall. Then, as he mused for an instant, he said, +'I have often thought what a solemn thing it would be, if we could have +brought to our mind, at once, all the scenes of distress and misery, +which any spot, however beautiful and calm before us, has been witness +to since the beginning. That water-break, with the glassy, quiet pool +beneath it, that looks so lovely, and presents no images to the mind but +of peace,--there, I remember, the only son of his father, a poor man, +who lived yonder, was drowned. He missed him, came to search, and saw +his body dead in the pool.' We pursued our way up the stream, not a very +easy way for the horses, near to the waterfall before mentioned, and so +gradually up to the Tarn. Oh, what a scene! The day one of the softest +and brightest in autumn; the lights various; the mountains in the +richest colouring, fern covering them with reddish gold in great part; +here and there, trees in every variety of autumn foliage; and the rock +itself of a kind of lilac tint; the outlines of the mountains very fine; +the Tarn, which might almost be called a lake for size and abundance of +water, with no culture, or trees, or habitation around it, here and +there a great rock stretching into it like a promontory, and high +mountains surrounding it on three sides, on two of them almost +precipitate; on the fourth side, it is more open, and on this the +stream, crossed by four great stepping-stones, runs out of it, and +descends into Grasmere vale and lake. He pointed out the precipitous +mountain at the head of the Tarn, and told us an incident of his sister +and himself coming from Langdale, which lies on the other side. He +having for some reason parted, she encountered a fog, and was +bewildered. At last, she sat down and waited; in a short time it began +to clear; she could see that a valley was before her. In time, she saw +the backs of cattle feeding, which emerged from the darkness, and at +last the Tarn; and then found she had stopped providentially, and was +sitting nearly on the edge of the precipice. Our return was somewhat +more perilous for the riders than the ascent; but we accomplished it +safely, and, in our return, turned in Butterlip How, a circular, soft, +green hill, surrounded with oak trees, at the head of Grasmere. It is +about twenty acres, and belongs to a London banker, purchased, as I +suppose, with a view to building on it. It is a lovely spot for a house, +with delicious views of the lake and church, Easedale, Helm Crag, &c. I +have seen no place, I think, on which I should so much like to build my +retreat. + +[242] I cannot fill the blank. J.T.C. + +[243] I used the word _trudging_ at the time; it denoted to me his bold +way of walking. J.T.C. + +_October 16th_.--Since church, we have taken our last walk with +Wordsworth. M. was mounted on Dora W.'s pony. He led us up on Loughrigg, +round to the Tarn, by the back of Loughrigg to the foot of Grasmere +Lake, and so home by this side of Rydal; the weather warm and fine, and +a lovely walk it was. The views of the mountains, Langdale Way, the Tarn +itself and its banks, and the views on Grasmere and Rydal Waters, are +almost beyond anything I have seen, even in this country. + +He and Mrs. W. came this evening to bid us farewell. We parted with +great, I believe mutual, regret; certainly they have been kind to us in +a way and degree which seemed unequivocally to testify good liking to +us, and them it is impossible not to love. The more I have seen of +Wordsworth, the more I admire him as a poet and as a man. He has the +finest and most discriminating feeling for the beauties of Nature that I +ever witnessed; he expresses himself in glowing and yet manly language +about them. There is much simplicity in his character, much _naivete_, +but it is all generous and highly moral.[244] + +[244] _Memoirs_, ii. 300-15. + + * * * * * + + + + +(_c_) RECOLLECTIONS OF TOUR IN ITALY, BY H.C. ROBINSON. + + + Oct. 18. 1850. + +MY DEAR SIR, + +I feel quite ashamed, I assure you, of sending you the Itinerary of my +journey with Mr. Wordsworth, so poorly accompanied as it must be, and +the more, because Mr. Wordsworth seems to have thought that I might be +able to make a contribution to your work worth your acceptance. At the +same time, I am much relieved by recollecting that he himself cared +nothing for the connection which a place might have with a great poet, +unless an acquaintance with it served to illustrate his works. He made +this remark in the Church of St. Onofrio at Rome, where Tasso lies +buried. The place which, on this account, interested him more than any +other on the journey was _Vaucluse_, while he cared nothing for Arezzo, +which claims to be the place of Petrarch's birth. Indeed, a priest on +the spot, on another visit, said it is not certain that he was born +there, much less in the house marked with his name. Mr. W. was not +without the _esprit de corps_, even before his official dignity, and +took great interest in Savona, on account of Chiabrera, as appears in +the 'Musings near Aquapendente,' perhaps the most beautiful of these +Memorials of the Italian tour--'alas too few!' As he himself repeatedly +said of the journey, 'It is too late.' 'I have matter for volumes,' he +said once, 'had I but youth to work it up.' It is remarkable how in this +admirable poem meditation predominates over observation. It often +happened that objects of universal attraction served chiefly to bring +back to his mind absent objects dear to him. When we were on that noble +spot, the Amphitheatre at Nismes, I observed his eyes fixed in a +direction where there was the least to be seen; and, looking that way, I +beheld two very young children at play with flowers; and I overheard him +say to himself, 'Oh! you darlings, I wish I could put you in my pocket +and carry you to Rydal Mount.' + +It was Mr. Theed, the sculptor, who informed us of the pine tree being +the gift of Sir George Beaumont. This incident occurred within a few +minutes after our walking up the Pincian Hill. And this was the very +first observation Mr. W. made at Rome. + +It was a remark justly made on the Memorials of the Swiss Journey in +1820, that Mr. W. left unnoticed the great objects which have given rise +to innumerable common-place verses and huge piles of bad prose, and +which every body talks about, while he dwelt on impressions peculiar to +himself. As a reproach, nothing can be more idle and unmeaning. I +expected it would be so with these latter poems, and so I found it. +There are not more than two others which bring anything to my mind. + +The most important of these is the 'Cuckoo at Laverna.' I recollect +perfectly well that I heard the cuckoo at Laverna twice before he heard +it; and that it absolutely fretted him that my ear was first favoured; +and that he exclaimed with delight, 'I hear it! I hear it!' It was at +Laverna, too, that he led me to expect that he had found a subject on +which he would write; and that was the love which birds bore to St. +Francis. He repeated to me a short time afterwards a few lines, which I +do not recollect among those he has written on St. Francis in this poem. +On the journey, one night only I heard him in bed composing verses, and +on the following day I offered to be his amanuensis; but I was not +patient enough, I fear, and he did not employ me a second time. He made +inquiries for St. Francis's biography, as if he would dub him his +Leib-heiliger (body-saint), as Goethe (saying that every one must have +one) declared St. Philip Neri to be his. + +The painter monk at Camaldoli also interested him, but he heard my +account only in addition to a _very poor_ exhibition of professional +talent; but he would not allow the pictures to be so very poor, as +every nun ought to be beautiful when she takes the veil. + +I recollect, too, the pleasure he expressed when I said to him, 'You are +now sitting in Dante's chair.' It faces the south transept of the +cathedral at Florence. + +I have been often asked whether Mr. W. wrote anything on the journey, +and my answer has always been, 'Little or nothing.' Seeds were cast into +the earth, and they took root slowly. This reminds me that I once was +privy to the conception of a sonnet, with a distinctness which did not +once occur on the longer Italian journey. This was when I accompanied +him into the Isle of Man. We had been drinking tea with Mr. and Mrs. +Cookson, and left them when the weather was dull. Very soon after +leaving them we passed the church tower of Bala Sala. The upper part of +the tower had a sort of frieze of yellow lichens. Mr. W. pointed it out +to me, and said, 'It's a perpetual sunshine.' I thought no more of it, +till I read the beautiful sonnet, + + 'Broken in fortune, but in mind entire;'[245] + +and then I exclaimed, I was present at the conception of this sonnet, at +least of the combination of thought out of which it arose. + +I beg to subscribe myself, with sincere esteem, + + Faithfully yours, + H.C. ROBINSON.[246] + +[245] See _Memoirs_, ii. 246. + +[246] _Ibid._ ii. 329-32. + + * * * * * + +(_d_) REMINISCENCES OF WORDSWORTH. + +BY LADY RICHARDSON, AND MRS. DAVY, OF THE OAKS, AMBLESIDE. + +(1.) LADY RICHARDSON. + +Lancrigg, Easedale, August 26. 1841. + +Wordsworth made some striking remarks on Goethe in a walk on the terrace +yesterday. He thinks that the German poet is greatly overrated, both in +this country and his own. He said, 'He does not seem to me to be a great +poet in either of the classes of poets. At the head of the first class I +would place Homer and Shakspeare, whose universal minds are able to +reach every variety of thought and feeling without bringing their own +individuality before the reader. They infuse, they breathe life into +every object they approach, but you never find _themselves_. At the head +of the second class, those whom you can trace individually in all they +write, I would place Spenser and Milton. In all that Spenser writes you +can trace the gentle affectionate spirit of the man; in all that Milton +writes you find the exalted sustained being that he was. Now in what +Goethe writes, who aims to be of the first class, the _universal_, you +find the man himself, the artificial man, where he should not be found; +so consider him a very artificial writer, aiming to be universal, and +yet constantly exposing his individuality, which his character was not +of a kind to dignify. He had not sufficiently clear moral perceptions to +make him anything but an artificial writer. + +Tuesday, the 2d of May, Wordsworth and Miss F. came early to walk about +and dine. He was in a very happy kindly mood. We took a walk on the +terrace, and he went as usual to his favourite points. On our return he +was struck with the berries on the holly tree, and said, 'Why should not +you and I go and pull some berries from the other side of the tree, +which is not seen from the window? and then we can go and plant them in +the rocky ground behind the house.' We pulled the berries, and set forth +with our tool. I made the holes, and the Poet put in the berries. He was +as earnest and eager about it, as if it had been a matter of importance; +and as he put the seeds in, he every now and then muttered, in his low +solemn tone, that beautiful verse from Burns's 'Vision:' + + 'And wear thou this, she solemn said, + And bound the holly round my head. + The polished leaves and berries red + Did rustling play; + And like a passing thought she fled + In light away.' + +He clambered to the highest rocks in the 'Tom Intake,' and put in the +berries in such situations as Nature sometimes does with such true and +beautiful effect. He said, 'I like to do this for posterity. Some people +are selfish enough to say, What has posterity done for me? but the past +does much for us.' + + +(II.) ADDITIONAL SENT TO THE PRESENT EDITOR BY LADY RICHARDSON. + +_August 28th_, 1841.--Mr. Wordsworth, Miss Fenwick, and Mrs. Hill came +to dine, and it rained on the whole day, but happily the Poet talked on +from two to eight without being weary, as we certainly were not. After +dinner, when we came to the drawing-room, the conversation turned on the +treatment of Wordsworth by the reviews of the day. I had never heard him +open out on it before, and was much struck with the manner in which he +did it; from his present elevation looking calmly back on the past, and +at the same time feeling that an irreparable injury had been done to him +at the time when life and hope were young. As nearly as I can I shall +record his words as they were spoken. He said: + +'At the time I resolved to dedicate myself to poetry and separate myself +from the ordinary lucrative professions, it would certainly have been a +great object to me to have reaped the profits I should have done from my +writings but for the stupidity of Mr. Gifford and the impertinence of +Mr. Jeffrey. It would have enabled me to purchase many books which I +could not obtain, and I should have gone to Italy earlier, which I never +could afford to do until I was sixty-five, when Moxon gave me a thousand +pounds for my writings. This was the only kind of injury Mr. Jeffrey did +me, for I immediately perceived that his mind was of that kind that his +individual opinion on poetry was of no consequence to me whatever, that +it was only by the influence his periodical exercised at the time in +preventing my poems being read and sold that he could injure me; for +feeling that my writings were founded on what was true and spiritual in +human nature, I knew the time would come when they must be known, and I +never therefore felt his opinion of the slightest value, except in +preventing the young of that generation from receiving impressions which +might have been of use to them through life. I say this, I hope not in a +boasting spirit, but I am now daily surprised by receiving letters from +various places at home and abroad expressive of gratitude to me from +persons I never saw or heard of. As this occurs now, I may fairly +conclude that it might have been so when the poems appeared, but for the +tyranny exercised over public opinion by the _Edinburgh_ and _Quarterly +Reviews_.' + +_December_ 1841.--Wordsworth and Miss Fenwick spent the shortest day of +the year with us; he brought with him his Epitaph on Southey, and as we +sat round the fire after dinner, my mother asked him to read it to us, +which he did in his usual impressive manner. He asked our impression of +it. My mother ventured to tell him of one word, or rather two, which she +thought might be altered with advantage. They were these: + + 'Wide was his range, but ne'er in human breast + Did private feeling find a holier nest.' + +'Holier nest' were the words she objected to, as not being a correct +union of ideas. He took the suggestion most kindly, and said it had been +much discussed in his own mind and in his family circle, but that he saw +the force of what she said, and that he was aware many others would see +it also. He said there was yet time to change it, and that he should +consult Judge Coleridge whether the line, as he once had it, + + 'Did private feeling meet in holier rest,' + +would not be more appropriate to the simplicity of an epitaph where you +con every word, and where every word is expected to bear an exact +meaning. We all thought this was an improvement. During tea he talked +with great animation of the separation of feeling between the rich and +poor in this country; the reason of this he thinks is the greater +freedom we enjoy; that the line of demarcation not being so clearly laid +down in this country by the law as in others, people fancy they must +make it for themselves. He considers Christianity the only cure for this +state of things. He spoke of his own desire to carry out the feeling of +brotherhood with regard to servants, which he all along endeavoured to +do. He doubted whether he might not have had better servants on a +different system; but he thought it right to endeavour to inspire your +domestics with a feeling of common interest. My mother said she entirely +agreed with him, but she had always found it most difficult. + + +(III.) LADY RICHARDSON (CONTINUED). + +_November_ 1843.--Wordsworth holds the critical power very low, +infinitely lower than the inventive; and he said to-day that if the +quantity of time considered in writing critiques on the works of others +were given to original composition, of whatever kind it might be, it +would be much better employed; it would make a man find out sooner his +own level, and it would do infinitely less mischief. A false or +malicious criticism may do much injury to the minds of others; a stupid +invention, either in prose or verse, is quite harmless. + +_December_ 22_d_, 1843.--The shortest day is past, and it was a very +pleasant one to us, for Wordsworth and Miss Fenwick offered to spend it +with us. They came early, and, although it was misty and dingy, he +proposed to walk up Easedale. We went by the terrace, and through the +little gate on the Fell, round by Brimmer Head, having diverged a little +up from Easedale, nearly as far as the ruined cottage. He said, when he +and his sister wandered there so much, that cottage was inhabited by a +man of the name of Benson, a waller, its last inhabitant. He said on the +terrace, 'This is a striking anniversary to me; for this day forty-four +years ago, my sister and I took up our abode at Grasmere, and three days +after we found out this walk, which long remained our favourite haunt.' +There is always something very touching in his way of speaking of his +sister; the tones of his voice become more gentle and solemn, and he +ceases to have that flow of expression which is so remarkable in him on +all other subjects. It is as if the sadness connected with her present +condition was too much for him to dwell upon in connection with the +past, although habit and the 'omnipotence of circumstance' have made its +daily presence less oppressive to his spirits. He said that his sister +spoke constantly of their early days, but more of the years they spent +together in other parts of England than those at Grasmere. As we +proceeded on our walk he happened to speak of the frequent unhappiness +of married persons, and the low and wretched principles on which the +greater number of marriages were formed. He said that unless there was a +strong foundation of love and respect, the 'unavoidable breaks and +cataracts' of domestic life must soon end in mutual aversion, for that +married life ought not to be in theory, and assuredly it never was in +practice, a system of mere submission on either side, but it should be a +system of mutual cooperation for the good of each. If the wife is always +expected to conceal her difference of opinion from her husband, she +ceases to be an equal, and the man loses the advantage which the +marriage tie is intended to provide for him in a civilised and +Christian country. He then went on to say, that, although he never saw +an amiable single woman without wishing that she were married, from his +strong feeling of the happiness of a well-assorted marriage, yet he was +far from thinking that marriage always improved people. It certainly did +not, unless it was a congenial marriage.[247] + + +(IV.) Mrs. DAVY. + +'The Oaks, Ambleside, Monday, Jan. 22. 1844. + +While Mrs. Quillinan was sitting with us to-day, Henry Fletcher ran in +to say that he had reserved his summons for Oxford (he had been in +suspense about rooms as an exhibitioner at Balliol), and must be off +within an hour. His young cousins and I went down with him to wait for +the mail in the marketplace. We found Mr. Wordsworth walking about +before the post-office door in very charming mood. His spirits were +excited by the bright morning sunshine, and he entered at once on a full +flow of discourse. He looked very benevolently on Henry as he mounted on +the top of the coach, and seemed quite disposed to give an old man's +blessing to the young man entering on an untried field, and then (nowise +interrupted by the hurrying to and fro of ostlers with their smoking +horses, or passengers with their carpet bags) he launched into a +dissertation, in which there was, I thought, a remarkable union of his +powerful diction, and his practical, thoughtful good sense, on the +subject of college habits, and of his utter distrust of all attempts to +nurse virtue by an avoidance of temptation. He expressed also his entire +want of confidence (from experience he said) of highly-wrought religious +expression in youth. The safest training for the mind in religion he +considered to be a contemplating of the character and personal history +of Christ. 'Work it,' he said, 'into your thoughts, into your +imagination, make it a real presence in the mind.' I was rejoiced to +hear this plain, loving confession of a Christian faith from Wordsworth. +I never heard one more earnest, more as if it came out of a devoutly +believing heart. + +[247] The close of Lady Richardson's 'Reminiscences' here in the +_Memoirs_ is not given, as being more fully introduced under December +1841, p. 438. The repetition of the same sentiments in 1843, however, is +noticeable. For a vivid and sweetly toned paper on Wordsworth by Lady +Richardson--based on the _Memoirs_--see _Sharpe's London Magazine_ for +March 1853, pp. 148-55. G. + + The Oaks, March 5. 1844. + +On our way to Lancrigg to-day, we called at Foxhow. We met Mr. +Wordsworth there, and asked him to go with us. It was a beautiful day, +one of his very own 'mild days' of this month. He kindly consented, and +walked with us to meet the carriage at Pelter Bridge. On our drive, he +mentioned, with marked pleasure, a dedication written by Mr. Keble, and +sent to him for his approval, and for his permission to have it prefixed +to Mr. Keble's new volumes of Latin Lectures on Poetry delivered at +Oxford. Mr. Wordsworth said that he had never seen any estimate of his +poetical powers, or more especially of his aims in poetry, that appeared +to him so discriminating and so satisfactory. He considers praise a +perilous and a difficult thing. On this subject he often quotes his +lamented friend, Sir George Beaumont, whom, in his intercourse with men +of genius, literary aspirants, he describes as admirable in the modesty +which he inculcated and practised on this head. + +The Oaks, Ambleside, July 11. 1844. + +Mr. and Mrs. Wordsworth at dinner, along with our family party. Mr. and +Mrs. Price (from Rugby), two aunts of Mrs. P.'s, and her brother, Mr. +Rose, a young clergyman (a devout admirer of Wordsworth), joined us at +tea. A circle was made as large as our little parlour could hold. Mr. +Price sat next to Mr. Wordsworth, and by design or fortunate accident, +introduced some remark on the powers and the discourse of Coleridge. Mr. +Wordsworth entered heartily and largely on the subject. He said that the +liveliest and truest image he could give of Coleridge's talk was 'that +of a majestic river, the sound or sight of whose course you caught at +intervals, which was sometimes concealed by forests, sometimes lost in +sand, then came flashing out broad and distinct, then again took a turn +which your eye could not follow, yet you knew and felt that it was the +same river: so,' he said, 'there was always a train, a stream, in +Coleridge's discourse, always a connection between its parts in his own +mind, though one not always perceptible to the minds of others.' Mr. +Wordsworth went on to say, that in his opinion Coleridge had been spoilt +as a poet by going to Germany. The bent of his mind, which was at all +times very much to metaphysical theology, had there been fixed in that +direction. 'If it had not been so,' said Wordsworth, 'he would have +been the greatest, the most abiding poet of his age. His very faults +would have made him popular (meaning his sententiousness and laboured +strain), while he had enough of the essentials of a poet to make him +deservedly popular in a higher sense.' + + * * * * * + +Mr. Price soon after mentioned a statement of Coleridge's respecting +himself, recorded in his 'Table Talk,' namely, that a visit to the +battle-field of Marathon would raise in him no kindling emotion, and +asked Mr. Wordsworth whether this was true as a token of his mind. At +first Mr. Wordsworth said, 'Oh! that was a mere bravado, for the sake of +astonishing his hearers!' but then, correcting himself, he added, 'And +yet it might in some sense be true, for Coleridge was not under the +influence of external objects. He had extraordinary powers of summoning +up an image or series of images in his own mind, and he might mean that +his idea of Marathon was so vivid, that no visible observation could +make it more so.' 'A remarkable instance of this,' added Mr. Wordsworth, +'is his poem, said to be "composed in the Vale of Chamouni." Now he +never was at Chamouni, or near it, in his life.' Mr. Wordsworth next +gave a somewhat humorous account of the rise and progress of the +'Ancient Mariner.' 'It arose,' he said, 'out of the want of five pounds +which Coleridge and I needed to make a tour together in Devonshire. We +agreed to write jointly a poem, the subject of which Coleridge took from +a dream which a friend of his had once dreamt concerning a person +suffering under a dire curse from the commission of some crime.' 'I,' +said Wordsworth, 'supplied the crime, the shooting of the albatross, +from an incident I had met with in one of Shelvocke's voyages. We tried +the poem conjointly for a day or two, but we pulled different ways, and +only a few lines of it are mine.' From Coleridge, the discourse then +turned to Scotland. Mr. Wordsworth, in his best manner, with earnest +thoughts given out in noble diction, gave his reasons for thinking that +as a poet Scott would not live. 'I don't like,' he said, 'to say all +this, or to take to pieces some of the best reputed passages of Scott's +verse, especially in presence of my wife, because she thinks me too +fastidious; but as a poet Scott _cannot_ live, for he has never in +verse written anything addressed to the immortal part of man. In making +amusing stories in verse, he will be superseded by some newer versifier; +what he writes in the way of natural description is merely rhyming +nonsense.' As a prose writer, Mr. Wordsworth admitted that Scott had +touched a higher vein, because there he had really dealt with feeling +and passion. As historical novels, professing to give the manners of a +past time, he did not attach much value to those works of Scott's so +called, because that he held to be an attempt in which success was +impossible. This led to some remarks on historical writing, from which +it appeared that Mr. Wordsworth has small value for anything but +contemporary history. He laments that Dr. Arnold should have spent so +much of his time and powers in gathering up and putting into imaginary +shape the scattered fragments of the history of Rome.[248] + +These scraps of Wordsworth's large, thoughtful, earnest discourse, seem +very meagre as I note them down, and in themselves perhaps hardly worth +preserving and yet this is an evening which those who spent it in his +company will long remember. His venerable head; his simple, natural, and +graceful attitude in his arm-chair; his respectful attention to the +slightest remarks or suggestions of others in relation to what was +spoken of; his kindly benevolence of expression as he looked round now +and then on the circle in our little parlour, all bent to 'devour up his +discourse,' filled up and enlarged the meaning which I fear is but ill +conveyed in the words as they are now set down. + + +(V.) LADY RICHARDSON: WORDSWORTH'S BIRTH-DAY. + +On Tuesday, April the 7th, 1844, my mother[249] and I left Lancrigg to +begin our Yorkshire journey. We arrived at Rydal Mount about three +o'clock, and found the tables all tastefully decorated on the esplanade +in front of the house. The Poet was standing looking at them with a very +pleased expression of face; he received us very kindly, and very soon +the children began to arrive. The Grasmere boys and girls came first, +and took their places on the benches placed round the gravelled part of +the esplanade; their eyes fixed with wonder and admiration on the tables +covered with oranges, gingerbread, and painted eggs, ornamented with +daffodils, laurels, and moss, gracefully intermixed. The plot soon began +to thicken, and the scene soon became very animated. Neighbours, old and +young, of all degrees, ascended to the Mount to keep the Poet's +seventy-fourth birthday, and every face looked friendly and happy. Each +child brought its own mug, and held it out to be filled with tea, in +which ceremony all assisted. Large baskets of currant cakes were handed +round and liberally dispensed; and as each detachment of children had +satisfied themselves with tea and cake, they were moved off, to play at +hide and seek among the evergreens on the grassy part of the Mount. The +day was not bright, but it was soft, and not cold, and the scene, viewed +from the upper windows of the house, was quite beautiful, and one I +should have been very sorry not to have witnessed. It was innocent and +gay, and perfectly natural. Miss F----, the donor of the fete, looked +very happy, and so did all the Poet's household. The children, who +amounted altogether to above 300, gave three cheers to Mr. Wordsworth +and Miss F----. After some singing and dancing, and after the division +of eggs, gingerbread, and oranges had taken place, we all began to +disperse. We spent the night at the Oaks, and set off on our journey the +following morning. The gay scene at the Mount often comes before me, as +a pleasant dream. It is perhaps the only part of the island where such a +reunion of all classes could have taken place without any connection of +landlord and tenant, or any clerical relation, or school direction. +Wordsworth, while looking at the gambols on the Mount, expressed his +conviction that if such meetings could oftener take place between people +of different condition, a much more friendly feeling would be created +than now exists in this country between the rich and poor. + +[248] But see _Memorials of Italy_, 'Sonnets on Roman Historians.' + +[249] Mrs. Fletcher. + + * * * * * + +_July 12th,_ 1844.--Wordsworth spoke much during the evening of his +early intercourse with Coleridge, on some one observing that it was +difficult to carry away a distinct impression from Coleridge's +conversation, delightful as every one felt his outpourings to be. +Wordsworth agreed, but said he was occasionally very happy in clothing +an idea in words; and he mentioned one which was recorded in his +sister's journal during a tour they all made together in Scotland. They +passed a steam engine, and Wordsworth made some observation to the +effect that it was scarcely possible to divest oneself of the impression +on seeing it that it had life and volition. 'Yes,' replied Coleridge, +'it is a giant with one idea.' + + * * * * * + +He discoursed at great length on Scott's works. His poetry he considered +of that kind which will always he in demand, and that the supply will +always meet it, suited to the age. He does not consider that it in any +way goes below the surface of things; it does not reach to any +intellectual or spiritual emotion; it is altogether superficial, and he +felt it himself to be so. His descriptions are not true to Nature; they +are addressed to the ear, not to the mind. He was a master of bodily +movements in his battle-scenes; but very little productive power was +exerted in popular creations. + + +DUDDON EXCURSION + +On Friday, the 6th September 1844, I set off to breakfast at Rydal +Mount, it being the day fixed by Mr. Wordsworth for our long-projected +excursion to the Valley of the Duddon. + + * * * * * + +The rain fell in torrents, and it became doubtful whether we should set +off or not; but as it was a thunder-shower, we waited till it was over, +and then Wordsworth, Mr. Quillinan, Miss Hutchinson, and I, set forth in +our carriage to Coniston, where we were to find the Rydal Mount carriage +awaiting us with Mr. Hutchinson. Wordsworth talked very agreeably on the +way to Coniston, and repeated several verses of his own, which he seemed +pleased that Serjeant Talfourd had repeated to him the day before. He +mentioned a singular instance of T. Campbell's inaccuracy of memory in +having actually printed as his own a poem of Wordsworth's, 'The +Complaint:' he repeated it beautifully as we were going up the hill to +Coniston. On reaching the inn in the village of Coniston, the rain again +fell in torrents. At length, the carriages were ordered to the door with +the intention of our returning home; but just as they were ready the sun +broke out, and we turned the horse's head towards Ulpha Kirk. The right +bank of Coniston was all new to me after we passed the village, and Old +Man of Coniston. The scenery ceases to be bold and rugged, but is very +pleasing, the road passing through hazel copses, the openings showing +nice little cornfields and comfortable detached farms, with old +uncropped trees standing near them; some very fine specimens of old ash +trees, which I longed to transport to Easedale, where they have been so +cruelly lopped. The opening towards the sea, as we went on, was very +pleasing; but the first striking view of the Duddon was looking down +upon it soon after we passed Broughton, where you turn to the right, and +very soon after perceive the peculiar beauty of the valley, although it +does not take its wild and dreamlike beauty till you pass Ulpha Kirk. We +reversed the order of the sonnets, and saw the river first, 'in radiant +progress tow'rd the deep,' instead of tracing this 'child of the clouds' +from its cradle in the lofty waste. We reached the Kirk of Ulpha between +five and six. The appearance of the little farm-house inn at once made +anything approaching to a dinner an impossibility had we wished it ever +so much; but in due time we had tea and boiled ham, with two eggs +apiece, and were much invigorated by this our first Duddonian meal. The +hostess was evidently surprised that we thought of remaining all night, +so humbly did she think of the accommodation she had to offer. She +remembered Mr. Wordsworth sleeping there fifteen years ago, because it +was just after the birth of her daughter, a nice comely girl who +attended us at tea. Mr. Quillinan showed great good nature and +unselfishness in the arrangements he made, and the care he took of the +admirable horse, which I saw him feeding out of a tub, a manger being +too great a refinement for Ulpha. + + * * * * * + +After tea, although it was getting dark, we went to the churchyard, +which commands a beautiful view towards Seathwaite, and we then walked +in that direction, through a lane where the walls were more richly +covered by moss and fern than any I ever saw before. A beautiful +dark-coloured tributary to the Duddon comes down from the moors on the +left hand, about a mile from Ulpha; and soon after we had passed the +small bridge over this stream, Mr. Wordsworth recollected a well which +he had discovered some thirty or forty years before. We went off the +road in search of it, through a shadowy, embowered path; and as it was +almost dark we should probably have failed in finding it, had we not +met a very tiny boy, with a can of water in his hand, who looked at us +in speechless amazement, when the Poet said, 'Is there a well here, my +little lad?' We found the well, and then joined the road again by +another path, leaving the child to ponder whether we were creatures of +earth or air. + + * * * * * + +Saturday morning was cloudy but soft, and lovely in its hazy effects. +When I went out about seven, I saw Wordsworth going a few steps, and +then moving on, and stopping again, in a very abstracted manner; so I +kept back. But when he saw me, he advanced, and took me again to the +churchyard to see the morning effects, which were very lovely. He said +he had not slept well, that the recollection of former days and people +had crowded upon him, and, 'most of all, my dear sister; and when I +thought of her state, and of those who had passed away, Coleridge, and +Southey, and many others, while I am left with all my many infirmities, +if not sins, in full consciousness, how could I sleep? and then I took +to the alteration of sonnets, and that made the matter worse still.' +Then suddenly stopping before a little bunch of harebell, which, along +with some parsley fern, grew out of the wall near us, he exclaimed, 'How +perfectly beautiful that is! + + "Would that the little flowers that grow could live, + Conscious of half the pleasure that they give."' + +He then expatiated on the inexhaustible beauty of the arrangements of +Nature, its power of combining in the most secret recesses, and that it +must be for some purpose of beneficence that such operations existed. +After breakfast, we got into the cart of the inn, which had a seat swung +into it, upon which a bolster was put, in honour, I presume, of the Poet +Laureate. In this we jogged on to Seathwaite, getting out to ascend a +craggy eminence on the right, which Mrs. Wordsworth admired: the view +from it is very striking. You see from it all the peculiarities of the +vale, the ravine where the Duddon 'deserts the haunts of men,' 'the +spots of stationary sunshine,' and the homesteads which are scattered +here and there, both on the heights and in the lower ground near +protecting rocks and craggy steeps. Seathwaite I had a perfect +recollection of; and the way we approached it twenty years ago, from +Coniston over Walna Scar, is the way Mr. Wordsworth still recommends as +the most beautiful. We went on some distance beyond the chapel, and +every new turning and opening among the hills allured us on, till at +last the Poet was obliged to exercise the word of command, that we +should proceed no further. The return is always a flat thing, so I shall +not detail it, except that we reached our respective homes in good time; +and I hope I shall never cease to think with gratitude and pleasure of +the kindness of my honoured guide through the lovely scenes he has +rescued from obscurity, although it happily still remains an unvitiated +region, 'which stands in no need of the veil of twilight to soften or +disguise its features: as it glistens in the morning's sun it fills the +spectator's heart with gladsomeness.' + +_November 21_.--My mother and I called at Rydal last Saturday, to see +the Wordsworths after their autumnal excursion. We found him only at +home, looking in great vigour and much the better for this little change +of scene and circumstance. He spoke with much interest of a +communication he had had from a benevolent surgeon at Manchester, an +admirer of his, who thinks that a great proportion of the blindness in +this country might be prevented by attention to the diseases of the eye +in childhood. He spoke of two very interesting blind ladies he had seen +at Leamington, one of whom had been at Rydal Mount a short time before +her 'total eclipse,' and now derived the greatest comfort from the +recollection of these beautiful scenes, almost the last she looked on. +He spoke of his own pleasure in returning to them, and of the effect of +the first view from 'Orrest Head,' the point mentioned in his +'unfortunate[250] sonnet, which has,' he said, 'you are aware, exposed +me to the most unlooked for accusations. They actually accuse me of +desiring to interfere with the innocent enjoyments of the poor, by +preventing this district becoming accessible to them by a railway. Now I +deny that it is to that class that this kind of scenery is either the +most improving or the most attractive. For the very poor the great God +of Nature has mercifully spread out His Bible everywhere; the common +sunshine, green fields, the blue sky, the shining river, are everywhere +to be met with in this country; and it is only an individual here and +there among the uneducated classes who feels very deeply the poetry of +lakes and mountains; and such persons would rather wander about where +they like, than rush through the country in a railway. It is not, +therefore, the poor, as a class, that would benefit morally or mentally +by a railway conveyance; while to the educated classes, to whom such +scenes as these give enjoyment of the purest kind, the effect would be +almost entirely destroyed.' + +[250] See the Sonnet and Letters on the Furness Railway (vol. ii. p. +321). G. + +_Wednesday, 20th Nov_.--A most remarkable halo was seen round the moon +soon after five o'clock to-day; the colours of the rainbow were most +brilliant, and the circle was entire for about five minutes. + +Thursday, Mr. Wordsworth dined here with the Balls, Davys, and Mr. +Jefferies. Mr. W. spoke with much delight of the moon the day before, +and said his servant, whom he called 'dear James,' called his attention +to it. + + * * * * * + +_Wednesday, Dec. 18th_.--The Wordsworths and Quillinans sat two hours +with us. He said he thought [Dr. Arnold] was mistaken in the philosophy +of his view of the danger of Milton's Satan being represented without +horns and hoofs; that Milton's conception was as true as it was grand; +that making sin ugly was a common-place notion compared with making it +beautiful outwardly, and inwardly a hell. It assumed every form of +ambition and worldliness, the form in which sin attacks the highest +natures. + + * * * * * + +This day, Sunday, the 9th of February, the snow is again falling fast, +but very gently. Yesterday, the 8th, was a beautiful day. We had a very +pleasant visit of above an hour from Wordsworth and his wife. He was in +excellent spirits, and repeated with a solemn beauty, quite peculiar to +himself, a sonnet he had lately composed on 'Young England;' and his +indignant burst 'Where then is _old_, our dear old England?' was one of +the finest bursts of Nature and Art combined I have ever heard. My dear +mother's face, too, while he was repeating it, was a fine addition to +the picture; and I could not help feeling they were both noble specimens +of 'dear old England.' Mrs. Wordsworth, too, is a goodly type of another +class of old England, more thoroughly English perhaps than either of the +others, but they made an admirable trio; and Mrs. Wordsworth's face +expressed more admiration of her husband in his bardic mood than I ever +saw before. He discussed mesmerism very agreeably, stating strongly his +detestation of clairvoyance; not only on the presumption of its being +altogether false, but supposing it, for argument sake, to be true, then +he thinks it would be an engine of enormous evil, putting it in the +power of any malicious person to blast the character of another, and +shaking to the very foundations the belief in individual responsibility. +He is not disposed to reject without examination the assertions with +regard to the curative powers of mesmerism. He spoke to-day with +pleasure of having heard that Mr. Lockhart had been struck by his lines +from a MSS. poem, printed in his Railway-Sonnet pamphlet. + + * * * * * + +_February 24th_.--Snow still on the ground. It has never been quite +clear of snow since the 27th January. Partial thaws have allowed us to +peep out into the world of Ambleside and Rydal; and last Saturday we +drank tea at Foxhow, and met the Wordsworths and Miss F----. He is very +happy to have his friend home again, and was in a very agreeable mood. +He repeated his sonnet on the 'Pennsylvanians,' and again that on 'Young +England,' which I admire so much. + + * * * * * + +_March 6th_.--Wordsworth, whom we met yesterday at dinner at the Oaks, +expressed his dislike to monuments in churches; partly from the +absurdity and falsehood of the epitaphs which sometimes belonged to +them, and partly from their injuring the architectural beauties of the +edifice, as they grievously did in Westminster Abbey and many other +cathedrals. He made an exception in favour of those old knightly +monuments, which he admitted added to the solemnity of the scene, and +were in keeping with the buildings; and he added, 'I must also except +another monument which once made a deep impression on my mind. It was in +a small church near St. Alban's; and I once left London in the +afternoon, so as to sleep at St. Alban's the first night, and have a few +hours of evening light to visit this church. It was before the invention +of railways, and I determined that I would always do the same; but, the +year after, railways existed, and I have never been able to carry out my +project again: all wandering is now over. Well, I went to this small +country church; and just opposite the door at which you enter, the +figure of the great Lord Bacon, in pure white, was the first thing that +presented itself. I went there to see his tomb, but I did not expect to +see himself; and it impressed me deeply. There he was, a man whose fame +extends over the whole civilised world, sitting calmly, age after age, +in white robes of pure alabaster, in this small country church, seldom +visited except by some stray traveller, he having desired to be interred +in this spot, to lie near his mother.' + +On referring to Mallet's Life of Bacon, I see he mentions that he was +privately buried at St. Michael's church, near St. Alban's; and it adds, +'The spot that contains his remains lay obscure and undistinguished, +till the gratitude of a private man, formerly his servant' (Sir Thomas +Meautys), 'erected a monument to his name and memory.' This makes it +probable that the likeness is a correct one. + +_November 8th_, 1845.--On our way to take an early dinner at Foxhow +yesterday, we met the Poet at the foot of his own hill, and he engaged +us to go to tea to the Mount on our way home to hear their adventures, +he and his Mary having just returned from a six weeks' wander among +their friends. During their absence we always feel that the road between +Grasmere and Ambleside is wanting in something, beautiful as it is. We +reached the Mount before six, and found dear Mrs. Wordsworth much +restored by her tour. She has enjoyed the visit to her kith and kin in +Herefordshire extremely, and we had a nice comfortable chat round the +fire and the tea-table. After tea, in speaking of the misfortune it was +when a young man did not seem more inclined to one profession than +another, Wordsworth said that he had always some feeling of indulgence +for men at that age who felt such a difficulty. He had himself passed +through it, and had incurred the strictures of his friends and relations +on this subject. He said that after he had finished his college course, +he was in great doubt as to what his future employment should be. He did +not feel himself good enough for the Church, he felt that his mind was +not properly disciplined for that holy office, and that the struggle +between his conscience and his impulses would have made life a torture. +He also shrank from the law, although Southey often told him that he was +well fitted for the higher parts of the profession. He had studied +military history with great interest, and the strategy of war; and he +always fancied that he had talents for command; and he at one time +thought of a military life, but then he was without connections, and he +felt if he were ordered to the West Indies his talents would not save +him from the yellow fever, and he gave that up. At this time he had only +a hundred a year. Upon this he lived, and travelled, and married, for it +was not until the late Lord Lonsdale came into possession that the money +which was due to them was restored. He mentioned this to show how +difficult it often was to judge of what was passing in a young man's +mind, but he thought that for the generality of men, it was much better +that they should be early led to the exercise of a profession of their +own choice. + +_December_ 1846.--Henry Fletcher and I dined at the Mount on the 21st of +this month. The party consisted of Mr. Crabb Robinson (their Christmas +guest), Mrs. Arnold, Miss Martineau, and ourselves. My mother's cold was +too bad to allow her to go, which I regretted, as it was, like all their +little meetings, most sociable and agreeable. Wordsworth was much +pleased with a little notice of his new edition in the _Examiner_; he +thought it very well done. He expressed himself very sweetly at dinner +on the pleasant terms of neighbourly kindness we enjoyed in the valleys. +It will be pleasant in after times to remember his words, and still more +his manner when he said this, it was done with such perfect simplicity +and equality of feeling, without the slightest reference to self, and I +am sure without thinking of himself at the time as more than one of the +little circle whose friendly feeling he was commending. + + * * * * * + +_October_ 1846.--Wordsworth dined with us one day last week, and was in +much greater vigour than I have seen him all this summer. + + * * * * * + +He mentioned incidentally that the spelling of our language was very +much fixed in the time of Charles the Second, and that the attempts +which had been made since, and are being made in the present day, were +not likely to succeed. He entered his protest as usual against +[Carlyle's] style, and said that since Johnson no writer had done so +much to vitiate the English language. He considers Lord Chesterfield the +last good English writer before Johnson. Then came the Scotch +historians, who did infinite mischief to style, with the exception of +Smollett, who wrote good pure English. He quite agreed to the saying +that all great poets wrote good prose; he said there was not one +exception. He does not think Burns's prose equal to his verse, but this +he attributes to his writing his letters in English words, while in his +verse he was not trammelled in this way, but let his numbers have their +own way. + +_Lancrigg, November_.--Mr. and Mrs. Wordsworth took an early dinner with +us on the 26th of this month. He was very vigorous, and spoke of his +majority at Glasgow, also of his reception at Oxford. He told us of an +application he had just had from a Glasgow publisher that he should +write a sonnet in praise of Fergusson and Allan Ramsay, to prefix to a +new edition of those Poets which was about to appear. He intended to +reply, that Burns's lines to Fergusson would be a much more appropriate +tribute than anything he could write; and he went on to say that Burns +owed much to Fergusson, and that he had taken the plan of many of his +poems from Fergusson, and the measure also. He did not think this at all +detracted from the merit of Burns, for he considered it a much higher +effort of genius to excel in degree, than to strike out what may be +called an original poem. He spoke highly of the purity of language of +the Scotch poets of an earlier period, Gavin Douglass and others, and +said that they greatly excelled the English poets, after Chaucer, which +he attributed to the distractions of England during the wars of York and +Lancaster. + +_December 25th_, 1846.--My mother and I called at Rydal Mount yesterday +early, to wish our dear friends the blessings of the season. Mrs. W. met +us at the door most kindly, and we found him before his good fire in the +dining-room, with a flock of robins feasting at the window. He had an +old tattered book in his hand; and as soon as he had given us a cordial +greeting, he said, in a most animated manner, 'I must read to you what +Mary and I have this moment finished. It is a passage in the Life of +Thomas Elwood.' He then read to us the following extract: + +'Some little time before I went to Alesbury prison, I was desired by my +quondam master, Milton, to take an house for him in the neighbourhood +where I dwell, that he might get out of the city, for the safety of +himself and his family, the pestilence then growing hot in London. I +took a pretty box for him in Giles-Chalford, a mile from me, of which I +gave him notice; and intended to have waited on him, and seen him well +settled in it, but was prevented by that imprisonment. + +'But now being released, and returned home, I soon made a visit to him, +to welcome him into the country. + +'After some common discourses had passed between us, he called for a +manuscript of his, which being brought, he delivered to me, bidding me +take it home with me and read it at my leisure; and when I had so done, +return it to him with my judgment thereupon. + +'When I came home, and had set myself to read it, I found it was that +excellent poem which he entituled 'Paradise Lost.' After I had with the +best attention read it through, I made him another visit, and returned +him his book with due acknowledgment of the favour he had done me in +communicating it to me. He asked me how I liked it, and what I thought +of it, which I modestly, but freely told him; and after some further +discourse about it, I pleasantly said to him, "Thou hast said much here +of Paradise lost, but what hast thou to say of Paradise found?" He made +me no answer, but sate some time in a muse; then brake off that +discourse, and fell upon another subject. After the sickness was over, +and the city well cleansed and become safely habitable again, he +returned thither; and when afterwards I went to wait on him there (which +I seldom failed of doing whenever my occasions drew me to London), he +showed me his second poem, called "Paradise Regained;" and in a +pleasant tone said to me, "This is owing to you, for you put it into my +head by the question you put to me at Chalford, which before I had not +thought of." _But from this digression I return to the family I then +lived in.'_ + +Wordsworth was highly diverted with the _apology_ of the worthy Quaker, +for _the digression_, which has alone saved him from oblivion. He +offered to send us the old book, which came a few days after; and I +shall add another digression in favour of John Milton, to whom he +appears to have been introduced about the year 1661, by a Dr. Paget. It +is thus notified _apropos_ to Thomas Elwood feeling a desire for more +learning than he possessed, which having expressed to Isaac Pennington, +with whom he himself lived as tutor to his children, he says, 'Isaac +Pennington had an intimate acquaintance with Dr. Paget, a physician of +note in London, and he with John Milton, a gentleman of great note for +learning throughout the learned world, for the accurate pieces he had +written on various subjects and occasions. This person having filled a +public station in the former times, lived now a private and retired life +in London, and, having wholly lost his sight, kept always a man to read +to him, which usually was the son of some gentleman of his acquaintance, +whom in kindness he took to improve in his learning. + +'He received me courteously, as well for the sake of Dr. Paget, who +introduced me, as of Isaac Pennington who recommended me, to both whom +he bore a good respect; and having inquired divers things of me, with +respect to my former progression in learning, he dismissed me to provide +myself of such accommodations as might be most suitable to my future +studies. + +'I went, therefore, and took myself a lodging as near to his house, +which was then in Jewin-street, as conveniently I could, and from +thenceforward went every day in the afternoon (except on the first days +of the week), and sitting by him in his dining-room, read to him in such +books in the Latin tongue as he pleased to hear me read.' + + +(VI.) MRS. DAVY (CONTINUED). + +The Oaks, Ambleside, Jan. 15. 1845. + +We dined to-day at Rydal Mount. Mr. Wordsworth, during dinner, grave and +silent, till, on some remark having been made on the present condition +of the Church, he most unreservedly gave his own views; and gave +expression, as I have only once heard him give before, to his own +earnest, devout, humble feelings as a Christian. In the evening, being +led by some previous conversation to speak of St. Paul, he said, 'Oh, +what a character that is! how well we know him! How human, yet how +noble! How little outward sufferings moved him! It is not in speaking of +these that he calls himself wretched; it is when he speaks of the inward +conflict. Paul and David,' he said, 'may be called the two Shakspearian +characters in the Bible; both types, as it were, of human nature in its +strength and its weakness. Moses is grand, but then it is chiefly from +position, from the office he had entrusted to him. We do not know Moses +as a man, as a brother man.' + +_April_ 7, 1846.--I went to the Mount to-day, to pay my respects to Mr. +Wordsworth on his birthday. I found him and dear Mrs. Wordsworth very +happy, in the arrival of their four grandsons. The two elder are to go +to Rossall next week. Some talk concerning schools led Mr. Wordsworth +into a discourse, which, in relation to himself, I thought very +interesting, on the dangers of emulation, as used in the way of help to +school progress. Mr. Wordsworth thinks that envy is too likely to go +along with this, and therefore would hold it to be unsafe. 'In my own +case,' he said, 'I never felt emulation with another man but once, and +that was accompanied by envy. It is a horrid feeling.' This 'once' was +in the study of Italian, which, he continued, 'I entered on at college +along with ----' (I forget the name he mentioned). 'I never engaged in +the proper studies of the university, so that in these I had no +temptation to envy any one; but I remember with pain that I _had_ +envious feelings when my fellow-student in Italian got before me. I was +his superior in many departments of mind, but he was the better Italian +scholar, and I envied him. The annoyance this gave me made me feel that +emulation was dangerous for _me_, and it made me very thankful that as a +boy I never experienced it. I felt very early the force of the words, +"Be ye perfect even as your Father in heaven is perfect," and as a +teacher, or friend, or counsellor of youth, I would hold forth no other +motive to exertion than this. There is, I think, none other held forth +in the gospels. No permission is given to emulation there.... There must +always be a danger of incurring the passion of vanity by emulation. If +we try to outstrip a fellow-creature, and succeed, we may naturally +enough be proud. The true lesson of humility is to strive after +conformity to that excellence which we never can surpass, never even by +a great distance attain to.' There was, in the whole manner as well as +matter of Mr. Wordsworth's discourse on this subject, a deep veneration +for the will of God concerning us, which I shall long remember with +interest and delight--I hope with profit. 'Oh! one other time,' he +added, smiling, 'one other time in my life I felt envy. It was when my +brother was nearly certain of success in a foot race with me. I tripped +up his heels. This _must_ have been envy.' + + * * * * * + + Lesketh How, Jan. 11. 1847. + +In a morning visit by our fireside to-day from Mr. Wordsworth, something +led to the mention of Milton, whose poetry, he said, was earlier a +favourite with him than that of Shakspeare. Speaking of Milton's not +allowing his daughters to learn the meaning of the Greek they read to +him, or at least not exerting himself to teach it to them, he admitted +that this seemed to betoken a low estimate of the condition and purposes +of the female mind. 'And yet, where could he have picked up such +notions,' said Mr. W., 'in a country which had seen so many women of +learning and talent? But his opinion of what women ought to be, it may +be presumed, is given in the unfallen Eve, as contrasted with the right +condition of man before his Maker: + + "He for God only, she for God in him." + +Now that,' said Mr. Wordsworth, earnestly, '_is_ a low, a very low and a +very false estimate of woman's condition.' He was amused on my showing +him the (almost) contemporary notice of Milton by Wycherly, and, after +reading it, spoke a good deal of the obscurity of men of genius in or +near their own times. 'But the most singular thing,' he continued, 'is, +that in all the writings of Bacon there is not one allusion to +Shakspeare.' + +Lasketh How, Jan. 10. 1849. + +A long fireside visit from Mr. Wordsworth this morning, in highly +sociable spirits; speaking much of old days and old acquaintances. He +spoke with much regret of Scott's careless views about money, and said +that he had often spoken to him of the duty of economy, as a means to +insure literary independence. Scott's reply always was, 'Oh, I can make +as much as I please by writing.' 'This,' said Mr. W., 'was marvellous to +me, who had never written a line with a view to profit.' Speaking of his +own prose writing, he said, that but for Coleridge's irregularity of +purpose he should probably have left much more in that kind behind him. +When Coleridge was proposing to publish his 'Friend,' he (Mr. +Wordsworth) offered contributions. Coleridge expressed himself pleased +with the offer, but said, 'I must arrange my principles for the work, +and when that is done I shall be glad of your aid.' But this +'arrangement of principles' never took place. Mr. Wordsworth added, 'I +think my nephew, Dr. _Conversations and Personal Reminiscences_. + +Wordsworth,[251] will, after my death, collect and publish all I have +written in prose.' + +On this day, as I have heard him more than once before, Mr. Wordsworth, +in a way very earnest, and to me very impressive and remarkable, +disclaimed all value for, all concern about, posthumous fame.[252] + +_(e)_ CONVERSATIONS AND REMINISCENCES RECORDED BY THE (NOW) BISHOP OF +LINCOLN, &c. + +Remember, first read the ancient classical authors; _then_ come to +_us_; and you will be able to judge for yourself which of us is worth +reading. + +The first book of Homer appears to be independent of the rest. The plan +of the _Odyssey_ is more methodical than that of the _Iliad_. The +character of Achilles seems to me one of the grandest ever conceived. +There is something awful in it, particularly in the circumstance of his +acting under an abiding foresight of his own death. One day, conversing +with Payne Knight and Uvedale Price concerning Homer, I expressed my +admiration of Nestor's speech, as eminently natural, where he tells the +Greek leaders that _they_ are mere children in comparison with the +heroes of _old_ whom _he_ had known[253]. 'But,' said Knight and Price, +'that passage is spurious.' However, I will not part with it. It is +interesting to compare the same characters (Ajax, for instance) as +treated by Homer, and then afterwards by the Greek dramatists, and to +mark the difference of handling. In the plays of Euripides, politics +come in as a disturbing force: Homer's characters act on physical +impulse. There is more _introversion_ in the dramatist: whence +Aristotle rightly calls him _tsagichhotatos_. The tower-scene, where +Helen comes into the presence of Priam and the old Trojans, displays one +of the most beautiful pictures anywhere to be seen. Priam's speech[254] +on that occasion is a striking proof of the courtesy and delicacy of the +Homeric age, or, at least, of Homer himself. + +[251] On another occasion, I believe, he intimated a desire that his +works in Prose should be edited by his son-in-law, Mr. Quillinan. +(_Memoirs,_ ii. 466.) + +[252] _Memoirs,_ ii. 437-66. + +[253] _Iliad_, i. 260. + +[254] _Ibid._ iii. 156. + +Catullus translated literally from the Greek; succeeding Roman writers +did not so, because Greek had then become the fashionable, universal +language. They did not translate, but they paraphrased; the ideas +remaining the same, their dress different. Hence the attention of the +poets of the Augustan age was principally confined to the happy +selection of the most appropriate words and elaborate phrases; and hence +arises the difficulty of translating them. + +The characteristics ascribed by Horace to Pindar in his ode, 'Pindarum +quisquis,' &c. are not found in his extant writings. Horace had many +lyrical effusions of the Theban bard which we have not. How graceful is +Horace's modesty in his 'Ego _apis_ Matinae More modoque,' as contrasted +with the Dircaean Swan! Horace is my great favourite: I love him dearly. + +I admire Virgil's high moral tone: for instance, that sublime 'Aude, +hospes, contemnere opes,' &c. and 'his dantem jura Catonem!' What +courage and independence of spirit is there! There is nothing more +imaginative and awful than the passage, + + '----Arcades ipsum + Credunt se vidisse Jovem,' &c.[255] + +In describing the weight of sorrow and fear on Dido's mind, Virgil shows +great knowledge of human nature, especially in that exquisite touch of +feeling[256], + + 'Hoc visum nulli, _non ipsi effata sorori.'_ + +The ministry of Confession is provided to satisfy the natural desire for +some relief from the load of grief. Here, as in so many other respects, +the Church of Rome adapts herself with consummate skill to our nature, +and is strong by our weaknesses. Almost all her errors and corruptions +are abuses of what is good. + +I think Buchanan's 'Maiae Calendae' equal in sentiment, if not in +elegance, to anything in Horace; but your brother Charles, to whom I +repeated it the other day, pointed out a false quantity in it[257]. +Happily this had escaped me. + +[255] _Aen_. viii. 352. + +[256] _Ibid._ iv. 455. + +[257] If I remember right, it is in the third line, + +'Ludisque dicatae, jocisque;' + +a strange blunder, for Buchanan must have read Horace's, + +'Quid dedicatum poscit Apolliuem,' + +a hundred times. + +When I began to give myself up to the profession of a poet for life, I +was impressed with a conviction, that there were four English poets whom +I must have continually before me as examples--Chaucer, Shakspeare, +Spenser, and Milton. These I must study, and equal _if I could_; and I +need not think of the rest[258]. + +[258] This paragraph was communicated by Mr. H.C. Robinson. + +I have been charged by some with disparaging Pope and Dryden. This is +not so. I have committed much of both to memory. As far as Pope goes, he +succeeds; but his Homer is not Homer, but Pope. + +I cannot account for Shakspeare's low estimate of his own writings, +except from the sublimity, the superhumanity, of his genius. They were +infinitely below his conception of what they might have been, and ought +to have been. + +The mind often does not think, when it thinks that it is thinking. If we +were to give our whole soul to anything, as the bee does to the flower, +I conceive there would be little difficulty in any intellectual +employment. Hence there is no excuse for obscurity in writing. + +'Macbeth,' is the best conducted of Shakspeare's plays. The fault of +'Julius Caesar,' 'Hamlet,' and 'Lear,' is, that the interest is not, and +by the nature of the case could not be, sustained to their conclusion. +The death of Julius Caesar is too _overwhelming_ an incident for _any_ +stage of the drama but the _last_. It is an incident to which the mind +clings, and from which it will not be torn away to share in other +sorrows. The same may be said of the madness of Lear. Again, the opening +of 'Hamlet' is full of exhausting interest. There is more mind in +'Hamlet' than in any other play, more knowledge of human nature. The +first act is incomparable.... There is too much of an every-day sick +room in the death-bed scene of Catherine, in 'Henry the Eighth'--too +much of leeches and apothecaries' vials.... 'Zanga' is a bad imitation +of 'Othello.' Garrick never ventured on Othello: he could not submit to +a blacked face. He rehearsed the part once. During the rehearsal Quin +entered, and, having listened for some time with attention, exclaimed, +'Well done, David! but where's the teakettle?' alluding to the print of +Hogarth, where a black boy follows his mistress with a teakettle in his +hand.... In stature Garrick was short.... A fact which conveys a high +notion of his powers is, that he was able to _act out_ the absurd +stage-costume of those days. He represented Coriolanus in the attire of +Cheapside. I remember hearing from Sir G. Beaumont, that while he was +venting, as Lear, the violent paroxysms of his rage in the awful tempest +scene, his wig happened to fall off. The accident did not produce the +slightest effect on the gravity of the house, so strongly had he +impregnated every breast with his own emotions. + +Some of my friends (H.C. for instance) doubt whether poetry on +contemporary persons and events can be good. But I instance Spenser's +'Marriage,' and Milton's 'Lycidas.' True, the 'Persae' is one of the +worst of Aeschylus's plays; at least, in my opinion. + +Milton is falsely represented by some as a democrat. He was an +aristocrat in the truest sense of the word. See the quotation from him +in my 'Convention of Cintra.'[259] Indeed, he spoke in very proud and +contemptuous terms, of the populace. 'Comus' is rich in beautiful and +sweet flowers, and in exuberant leaves of genius; but the ripe and +mellow fruit is in 'Samson Agonistes.' When he wrote that, his mind was +Hebraized. Indeed, his genius fed on the writings of the Hebrew +prophets. This arose, in some degree, from the temper of the times; the +Puritan lived in the Old Testament, almost to the exclusion of the New. + +The works of the old English dramatists are the gardens of our language. + +One of the noblest things in Milton is the description of that sweet, +quiet morning in the 'Paradise Regained,' after that terrible night of +howling wind and storm. The contrast is divine.[260] + +[259] Page 174 (vol. i.), where Milton speaks of the evils suffered by a +nation,' unless men more than vulgar, bred up in the knowledge of +ancient and illustrious deeds, conduct its affairs.' + +[260] _Paradise Regained_, iv. 431. + +What a virulent democrat ---- is! A man ill at ease with his own +conscience is sure to quarrel with all government, order, and law. + +The influence of Locke's Essay was not due to its own merits, which are +considerable; but to external circumstances. It came forth at a happy +opportunity, and coincided with the prevalent opinions of the time. The +Jesuit doctrines concerning the papal power in deposing kings, and +absolving subjects from their allegiance, had driven some Protestant +theologians to take refuge in the theory of the divine right of kings. +This theory was unpalatable to the world at large, and others invented +the more popular doctrine of a social contract, in its place; a doctrine +which history refutes. But Locke did what he could to accommodate this +principle to his own system. + +The only basis on which property can rest is right derived from +prescription. + +The best of Locke's works, as it seems to me, is that in which he +attempts the least--his _Conduct of the Understanding_. + +In the Summer of 1827, speaking of some of his contemporaries, +Wordsworth said, T. Moore has great natural genius; but he is too lavish +of brilliant ornament. His poems smell of the perfumer's and milliner's +shops. He is not content with a ring and a bracelet, but he must have +rings in the ears, rings on the nose--rings everywhere. + +Walter Scott is not a careful composer. He allows himself many +liberties, which betray a want of respect for his reader. For instance, +he is too fond of inversions; _i.e._ he often places the verb before the +substantive, and the accusative before the verb. W. Scott quoted, as +from me, + + 'The swan on _sweet_ St. Mary's lake + Floats double, swan and shadow,' + +instead of _still_; thus obscuring my idea, and betraying his own +uncritical principles of composition. + +Byron seems to me deficient in _feeling_. Professor Wilson, I think, +used to say that 'Beppo' was his best poem; because all his faults were +there brought to a height. I never read the 'English Bards' through. His +critical prognostications have, for the most part, proved erroneous. + +Sir James Mackintosh said of me to M. de Stael, Wordsworth is not a +great poet, but he is the greatest man among poets.' Madame de Stael +complained of my style. + +Now whatever may be the result of my experiment in the subjects which I +have chosen for poetical composition--be they vulgar or be they not,--I +can say without vanity, that I have bestowed great pains on my _style_, +full as much as any of my contemporaries have done on theirs. I yield to +none in _love for my art_. I, therefore, labour at it with reverence, +affection, and industry. My main endeavour as to style has been that my +poems should be written in pure intelligible English. Lord Byron has +spoken severely of my compositions. However faulty they may be, I do not +think that I ever could have prevailed upon myself to print such lines +as he has done; for instance, + + 'I stood at Venice on the Bridge of Sighs, + A palace and a prison on each hand.' + +Some person ought to write a critical review, analysing Lord Byron's +language, in order to guard others against imitating him in these +respects. + +Shelley is one of the best _artists_ of us all: I mean in workmanship of +style. + +At Calgarth, dining with Mrs. and the Miss Watsons ... a very fine +portrait of the late Bishop in the dining-room.... Mr. Wordsworth there: +a very agreeable party. Walked home with him in the evening to Rydal. It +rained all the way. We met a poor woman in the road. She sobbed as she +passed us. Mr. Wordsworth was much affected with her condition: she was +swollen with dropsy, and slowly hobbling along with a stick, having been +driven from one lodging to another. It was a dark stormy night. Mr. +Wordsworth brought her back to the Lowwood Inn, where, by the landlord's +leave, she was housed in one of his barns. + +One day I met Mr. M.T. Sadler at the late Archbishop's. Sadler did not +know me; and before dinner he began to launch forth in a critical +dissertation on contemporary English Poetry. 'Among living poets, your +Grace may know there is one called Wordsworth, whose writings the world +calls childish and puerile, but I think some of them wonderfully +pathetic.' 'Now, Mr. Sadler,' said the Archbishop, 'what a scrape you +are in! here is Mr. Wordsworth: but go down with him to dinner, and you +will find that, though a great poet, he does not belong to the "genus +irritabile."' This was very happy. + +After returning one day from church at Addington, I took the liberty of +saying a few words on the sermon we had heard. It was a very homely +performance. 'I am rather surprised, my Lord Archbishop, that when your +Grace can have the choice of so many preachers in England, you do not +provide better for yourself.' 'Oh!' said he, 'I think I can bear bad +preaching better than most people, and I therefore keep it to myself.' +This seemed to me a very pleasing trait in the gentle and loveable +character of that admirable man. + +Patriarchal usages have not quite deserted us of these valleys. This +morning (new year's day) you were awakened early by the minstrels +playing under the eaves, 'Honour to Mr. Wordsworth!' 'Honour to Mrs. +Wordsworth!' and so to each member of the household by name, servants +included, each at his own window. These customs bind us together as a +family, and are as beneficial as they are delightful. May they never +disappear! + +In my Ode on the 'Intimations of Immortality in Childhood,' I do not +profess to give a literal representation of the state of the affections +and of the moral being in childhood. I record my own feelings at that +time--my absolute spirituality, my 'all-soulness,' if I may so speak. At +that time I could not believe that I should lie down quietly in the +grave, and that my body would moulder into dust. + +Many of my poems have been influenced by my own circumstances when I was +writing them. 'The Warning' was composed on horseback, while I was +riding from Moresby in a snow-storm. Hence the simile in that poem, + + 'While thoughts press on and feelings overflow, + And quick words round him fall like _flakes of snow_.' + +In the 'Ecclesiastical Sonnets,' the lines concerning the Monk (Sonnet +xxi.), + + 'Within his cell. + Round the decaying trunk of human pride. + At morn, and eve, and midnight's silent hour, + Do penitential cogitations cling: + Like ivy round some ancient elm they twine + In grisly folds and strictures serpentine; + Yet while they strangle, a fair growth they bring + For recompence--their own perennial bower;'-- + +were suggested to me by a beautiful tree clad as thus described, which +you may remember in Lady Fleming's park at Rydal, near the path to the +upper waterfall. + +S----, in the work you mentioned to me, confounds _imagery_ and +_imagination_. Sensible objects really existing, and felt to exist, are +_imagery_; and they may form the materials of a descriptive poem, where +objects are delineated as they are. Imagination is a subjective term: it +deals with objects not as they are, but as they appear to the mind of +the poet. + +The imagination is that intellectual lens through the medium of which +the poetical observer sees the objects of his observation, modified both +in form and colour; or it is that inventive dresser of dramatic +_tableaux_, by which the persons of the play are invested with new +drapery, or placed in new attitudes; or it is that chemical faculty by +which elements of the most different nature and distant origin are +blended together into one harmonious and homogeneous whole. + +A beautiful instance of the modifying and _investive_ power of +imagination may be seen in that noble passage of Dyer's 'Ruins of +Rome,'[261] where the poet hears the voice of Time; and in Thomson's +description of the streets of Cairo, expecting the arrival of the +caravan which had perished in the storm,[262] + +Read all Cowley; he is very valuable to a collector of English sound +sense.... Burns's 'Scots wha hae' is poor as a lyric composition. + +Ariosto and Tasso are very absurdly depressed in order to elevate Dante. +Ariosto is not always sincere; Spenser always so. + +I have tried to read Goethe. I never could succeed. Mr. ---- refers me +to his 'Iphigenia,' but I there recognise none of the dignified +simplicity, none of the health and vigour which the heroes and heroines +of antiquity possess in the writings of Homer. The lines of Lucretius +describing the immolation of Iphigenia are worth the whole of Goethe's +long poem. Again, there is a profligacy, an inhuman sensuality, in his +works which is utterly revolting. I am not intimately acquainted with +them generally. But I take up my ground on the first canto of 'Wilhelm +Meister;' and, as the attorney-general of human nature, I there indict +him for wantonly outraging the sympathies of humanity. Theologians tell +us of the degraded nature of man; and they tell us what is true. Yet man +is essentially a moral agent, and there is that immortal and +unextinguishable yearning for something pure and spiritual which will +plead against these poetical sensualists as long as man remains what he +is. + +[261] 1. 37: + + 'The pilgrim oft, + At dead of night, 'mid his oraison, hears + Aghast the voice of TIME, disparting towers,' &c. + + +[262] Thomson's 'Summer,' 980: + + 'In Cairo's crowded streets, + The impatient merchant, wondering, waits in vain, + And Mecca saddens at the long delay.' + +Scientific men are often too fond of aiming to be men of the world. +They crave too much for titles, and stars, and ribbons. If Bacon had +dwelt only in the court of Nature, and cared less for that of James the +First, he would have been a greater man, and a happier one too. + +I heard lately from young Mr. Watt a noble instance of magnanimity in an +eminent French chemist. He had made a discovery, which he was informed +would, if he took out a patent, realise a large fortune. 'No,' said he, +'I do not live to amass money, but to discover Truth; and as long as she +attends me in my investigations so long will I serve her and her only.' + +Sir ---- I know from my own experience was ruined by prosperity. The age +of Leo X. would have shone with greater brilliance if it had had more +clouds to struggle with. The age of Louis XIV. was formed by the Port +Royal amid the storms and thunders of the League. Racine lived in a +court till it became necessary to his existence, as his miserable death +proved. Those petty courts of Germany have been injurious to its +literature. They who move in them are too prone to imagine themselves to +be the whole world, and compared with the whole world they are nothing +more than these little specks in the texture of this hearth-rug. + +As I was riding Dora's pony from Rydal to Cambridge, I got off, as I +occasionally did, to walk. I fell in with a sweet-looking peasant girl +of nine or ten years old. She had been to carry her father's dinner, who +was working in the fields, and she was wheeling a little wheelbarrow, in +which she collected manure from the roads for her garden at home. After +some talk I gave her a penny, for which she thanked me in the sweetest +way imaginable. I wish I had asked her whether she could read, and +whether she went to school. But I could not help being struck with the +happy arrangement which Nature has made for the education of the heart, +an arrangement which it seems the object of the present age to +counteract instead of to cherish and confirm. I imagined the happy +delight of the father in seeing his child at a distance, and watching +her as she approached to perform her errand of love. I imagined the joy +of the mother in seeing her return. I am strongly of opinion (an opinion +you, perhaps, have seen expressed by me in a letter to Mr. Rose[263]) +that this is the discipline which is more calculated by a thousand +degrees to make a virtuous and happy nation than the all-engrossing, +estranging, eleemosynary institutions for education, which perhaps +communicate more _knowledge_. In these institutions what the pupils gain +in _knowledge_ they often lose in _wisdom_. This is a distinction which +must never be lost sight of. + +[263] See vol. i. pp. 340-8. G. + +Education should never be wholly eleemosynary. But must the parent +suffer privations for the sake of the child? Yes; for these privations +endear the child to the parent, and the parent to the child; and +whatever education the parent may thus gain or lose for his child, he +has thus gained the noblest result of the most liberal education for +himself--the habit of self-denial. + +Next to your principles, and affections, and health, value your +time.[264] + +[264] _Memoirs_, ii. pp. 467-80. + + * * * * * + + + + +(_f_) REMINISCENCES OF THE REV. R.P. GRAVES, M.A., FORMERLY OF +WINDERMERE, NOW OF DUBLIN. + +I remember Mr. Wordsworth saying that, at a particular stage of his +mental progress, he used to be frequently so rapt into an unreal +transcendental world of ideas that the external world seemed no longer +to exist in relation to him, and he had to reconvince himself of its +existence _by clasping a tree_, or something that happened to be near +him. I could not help connecting this fact with that obscure passage in +his great Ode on the 'Intimations of Immortality,' in which he speaks of + + 'Those obstinate questionings + Of sense and outward things; + Fallings from us, vanishings: + Blank misgivings of a creature, + Moving about in worlds not realised,' &c. + +I heard him once make the remark that it would be a good habit to watch +closely the first involuntary thoughts upon waking in the morning, as +indications of the real current of the moral being. + +I was struck by what seemed to me a beautiful analogy, which I once +heard him draw, and which was new to me--that the individual characters +of mankind showed themselves distinctively in childhood and youth, as +those of trees in Spring; that of both, of trees in Summer and of human +kind in middle life, they were then alike to a great degree merged in a +dull uniformity; and that again, in Autumn and in declining age, there +appeared afresh all their original and inherent variety brought out into +view with deeper marking of character, with more vivid contrast, and +with greater accession of interest and beauty. + +He thought the charm of _Robinson Crusoe_ mistakenly ascribed, as it +commonly is done, to its _naturalness_. Attaching a full value to the +singular yet easily imagined and most picturesque circumstances of the +adventurer's position, to the admirable painting of the scenes, and to +the knowledge displayed of the working of human feelings, he yet felt +sure that the intense interest created by the story arose chiefly from +the extraordinary energy and resource of the hero under his difficult +circumstances, from their being so far beyond what it was natural to +expect, or what would have been exhibited by the average of men; and +that similarly the high pleasure derived from his successes and good +fortunes arose from the peculiar source of these uncommon merits of his +character. + +I have heard him pronounce that the Tragedy of _Othello_, Plato's +records of the last scenes of the career of Socrates, and Isaac Walton's +_Life of George Herbert_, were in his opinion the most pathetic of human +compositions. + +In a walk one day, after stopping, according to his custom, to claim +admiration for some happy aspect of the landscape, or beautiful +_composition_ on a smaller scale of natural objects, caught by him at +the precisely best point of view in the midst of his conversation on +other subjects, he added, good-humouredly, that there were three +callings for success in which Nature had furnished him with +qualifications--the callings of poet, landscape-gardener, and critic of +pictures and works of art. On hearing this I could not but remember how +his qualifications for the second were proved by the surprising variety +of natural beauties he managed to display to their best advantage, from +the very circumscribed limits of the garden at Rydal Mount, 'an +invisible hand of art everywhere working' (to use his own exquisite +expression) 'in the very spirit of Nature,' and how many there were who +have owed the charm of their grounds and gardens to direction sought +from his well-known taste and feeling. As to works of art, his criticism +was not that of one versed in the history of the schools, but, always +proceeding upon first principles, the 'prima philosophia,' as he called +it; and it was, as it appeared to me, of the highest order. + +He was a very great admirer of _Virgil_, not so much as a creative poet, +but as the most consummate master of language, that, perhaps, ever +existed. From him, and Horace, who was an especial favourite, and +Lucretius, he used to quote much.[265] + +[265] _Memoirs_, ii. 467-83. + + * * * * * + + + +(_g_) ON THE DEATH OF COLERIDGE. + +The death of Coleridge was announced to us by his friend Wordsworth. It +was the Sunday evening after the event occurred that my brother and I +walked over to the Mount, where we found the Poet alone. One of the +first things we heard from him was the death of one who had been, he +said, his friend for more than thirty years. He then continued to speak +of him; called him the most _wonderful_ man that he had ever +known--wonderful for the originality of his mind, and the power he +possessed of throwing out in profusion grand central truths from which +might be evolved the most comprehensive systems. Wordsworth, as a poet, +regretted that German metaphysics had so much captivated the taste of +Coleridge, for he was frequently not intelligible on this subject; +whereas, if his energy and his originality had been more exerted in the +channel of poetry, an instrument of which he had so perfect a mastery, +Wordsworth thought he might have done more permanently to enrich the +literature, and to influence the thought of the nation, than any man of +the age. As it was, however, he said he believed Coleridge's mind to +have been a widely fertilising one, and that the seed he had so lavishly +sown in his conversational discourses, and the Sibylline leaves (not the +poems so called by him) which he had scattered abroad so extensively +covered with his annotations, had done much to form the opinions of the +highest-educated men of the day; although this might be an influence not +likely to meet with adequate recognition. After mentioning, in answer to +our inquiries about the circumstances of their friendship, that though a +considerable period had elapsed during which they had not seen much of +each other, Coleridge and he had been, for more than two years, +uninterruptedly, in as close intimacy as man could be with man, he +proceeded to read to us the letter from Henry Nelson Coleridge which +conveyed the tidings of his great relation's death, and of the manner of +it. It appeared that, his death was a relief from intense pain, which, +however, subsided at the interval of a few days before the event; and +that shortly after this cessation of agony, he fell into a comatose +state. The most interesting part of the letter was the statement, that +the last use he made of his faculties was to call his children and other +relatives and friends around him, to give them his blessing, and to +express his hope to them that the manner of his end might manifest the +depth of his trust in his Saviour Christ. As I heard this, I was at once +deeply glad at the substance, and deeply affected by Wordsworth's +emotion in reading it. When he came to this part his voice at first +faltered, and then broke; but soon divine faith that the change was a +blest one overcame aught of human grief, and he concluded in an equable +though subdued tone. Before I quit this subject, I will tell you what I +was interested in hearing from a person of the highest abilities,[266] +whom I had the good fortune of meeting at Rydal Mount. He said that he +had visited Coleridge about a month before his death, and had perceived +at once his countenance pervaded by a most remarkable serenity. On being +congratulated on his appearance, Coleridge replied that he did now, for +the first time, begin to hope, from the mitigation of his pains, that +his health was undergoing a permanent improvement (alas! he was +deceived; yet may we not consider this hopeful feeling, which is, I +believe, by no means uncommon, to be under such circumstances a valuable +blessing?); but that what he felt most thankful for was the deep, calm +peace of mind which he then enjoyed; a peace such as he had never before +experienced, or scarcely hoped for. This, he said, seemed now settled +upon him; and all things were thus looked at by him through an +atmosphere by which all were _reconciled and harmonised_.[267] + +[266] Dr. Whewell. G. + +[267] Extract of a letter to a friend, by Rev. R.P. Graves, M.A., +formerly of Windermere, now of Dublin: _Memoirs_, pp. 288-90. + + +(_h_) FURTHER REMINISCENCES OF WORDSWORTH BY THE SAME, SENT TO THE +PRESENT EDITOR. + +I remember to have been very much struck by what appeared to me the +wisdom of a plan suggested by Wordsworth, for the revision of the +authorised version of the Bible and of the Book of Common Prayer. + +With regard to the former, no one, he said, could be more deeply +convinced of the inestimable value of its having been made when it was, +and being what it is. In his opinion it was made at the happy juncture +when our language had attained adequate expansion and flexibility, and +when at the same time its idiomatic strength was unimpaired by excess of +technical distinctions and conventional refinements; and these +circumstances, though of course infinitely subordinate to the spiritual +influence of its subject-matter, he considered to be highly important in +connection with a volume which naturally became a universally recognised +standard of the language; for thus the fresh well of English undefiled +was made a perennial blessing to the nation, in no slight degree +conducive to the robust and manly thinking and character of its +inhabitants. He was satisfied, too, as to its general and most impartial +accuracy, and its faithfulness in rendering not only the words but the +style, the strength, and the spirit and the character of the original +records. He attached too the value one might suppose he would attach to +the desirableness of leaving undisturbed the sacred associations which +to the feelings of aged Christians belonged to the _ipsissima verba_ +which had been their support under the trials of life. + +And so with regard to the Prayer Book, he reverenced and loved it as the +Church's precious heritage of primitive piety, equally admirable for its +matter and its style. It may be interesting to add, that in reference to +this latter point I have heard him pronounce that many of the collects +seemed to him examples of perfection, consisting, according to his +impression, of words whose signification filled up without excess or +defect the simple and symmetrical contour of some majestic meaning, and +whose sound was a harmony of accordant simplicity and grandeur; a +combination, he added, such as we enjoy in some of the best passages of +Shakespeare. + +But notwithstanding that he held these opinions, which will evince that +he was not one who would lightly touch either sacred volume, he did not +think that plain mistakes in the translation of the Bible, or obsolete +words, or renderings commonly misunderstood, should be perpetually +handed down in our authorised version of the volume of inspiration, or +that similar blemishes in the Prayer Book, which, as being of human +composition, would admit of freer though still reverential handling, +should be permitted to continue as stumbling-blocks interfering with its +acceptableness and usefulness. + +The plan which he suggested as meeting the difficulties of the case was +the following: + +That by proper authority a Committee of Revision of the English Bible +should be appointed, whose business should be, retaining the present +authorised version as a standard to be departed from as little as +possible to settle upon such indubitable corrections of meaning and +improvements of expression as they agreed ought to be made, and have +these printed _in the margin_ of all Bibles published by authority. +That, as an essential part of the scheme, this Committee of Revision +should be renewed periodically, but not too frequently--he appeared to +think that periods of fifty years might serve--at which times it should +be competent to the Committee to authorise the transference from the +margin into the text of all such alterations as had stood the test of +experience and criticism during the previous period, as well as to fix +on new marginal readings. + +He was of opinion that in the constitution of the Committee care should +be taken to appoint not only divines of established reputation for sound +theology, and especially for their knowledge in connection with the +original languages of the sacred volume, but some one author at least +noted for his mastery over the vernacular language. + +It will be seen that this plan, while it provides for corrections of +errors and substitution of understood for obsolete or mistaken +expressions, leaves undisturbed the associations of aged Christians, and +prepares the younger generation for receiving the marginal amendments +into the text. Wordsworth conceived that fixing the duration of the +period of revision was of great consequence, both as obviating all +agitation in the way of call for such a process, and as tending in the +matter of critical discussions respecting the sanctioning, cancelling, +and proposing of amendments to bring them to something of definitiveness +in preparation for each era of revision. + +The same process, under certain modifications, he thought applicable to +the Book of Common Prayer. In this he deprecated all tampering with +doctrine, considering that alterations ought to be confined to changes +rendering the services more clearly understood or more conveniently +used. It is fair to add, however, that I have heard him express a strong +desire that the Athanasian Creed were rid of the so-called damnatory +clauses; at the same time declaring that no one was ever more profoundly +convinced than himself of the truth of the doctrine of the Trinity. + +He was in favour of a collection of metrical hymns, more peculiarly +Christian in character than the Psalter, being set forth by authority +for use in the Church; and for the choice of such hymns he thought a +Committee should be appointed in which the knowledge of divine, of poet, +and of laymen trusted for common sense and experience in life should be +severally and conjointly engaged. As a practical suggestion of moment in +the _composition_ of such hymns he advised that composers should not in +the four-line stanza do more than make the second and fourth lines +rhyme; leaving the other two unrhymed, he said, would give an important +addition of freedom both to the sense and the style. + +R.P. GRAVES. Windermere, 1850. + +To the above memorandum I now (Sept. 1874) add two items, of which I +retain a distinct remembrance. + +(1) He was in favour of the officiating clergyman being allowed to +introduce into his reading of the Lessons in church the authorised +marginal corrections. + +(2) He expressed in very strong terms his opinion that the prefatory +portion of the Marriage Service should be altered so as to make it not +only less repulsive to modern feelings, but more accordant with the +higher aspects of the union to be solemnised. + +_Passion in Poetry_.--One day, speaking of passion as an element of +poetry, he referred to his own poems, and said that he thought there was +a stronger fire of passion than was elsewhere to be found among them in +the lyrical burst near the conclusion of 'The Song at the Feast of +Brougham Castle:' + + 'Armour rusting in his halls, + On the blood of Clifford calls: + "Quell the Scot," exclaims the Lance-- + "Bear me to the heart of France," + Is the longing of the Shield.' + +_Chronological Classification of Poems_.--Many years ago I expressed to +Wordsworth a wish that his poems were printed in the order of their +composition, assigning as reasons for the wish the great interest which +would attach to observing the progressive development of the poet's +thought, and the interpretative value of the light mutually reflected by +poems of the same period. I remember being surprised by the feeling akin +to indignation which he manifested at the suggestion. He said that such +proceeding would indicate on the part of a poet an amount of egotism, +placing interest in himself above interest in the subjects treated by +him, which could not belong to a true poet caring for the elements of +poetry in their right proportion, and designing to bring to bear upon +the minds of his readers the best influences at his command in the way +best calculated to make them effectual. I felt that his ground of +objection made me revere him the more both as a man and as a poet; yet I +retained the opinion that much might be said on the reader's part in the +case of a great poet for such an arrangement of his poems as I had been +suggesting, and I welcomed in after-days the concession made by him in +consenting to put dates to the poems, while adhering to their +classification according to subject or predominant element. + +_Verbal Criticism_.--Wordsworth not only sympathised with the feelings +expressed in Southey's touching lines upon The Dead, but admired very +much the easy flow of the verse and the perfect freedom from strain in +the expression by which they are marked. Yet in the first two stanzas he +noted three flaws, and suggested changes by which they might have been +easily avoided. I have underlined the words he took exception to: + + 'My days among the dead are past; + Around me I behold, + + Where'er _these casual eyes_ are cast, + The mighty minds of old; + My never-failing friends are they, + With whom I _converse_ day by day. + + With them I take delight in weal, + And seek relief in woe; + And while I understand and feel + How much to them I owe, + My cheeks have often been bedew'd + With tears of thoughtful gratitude.' + +In the first stanza, for 'Where'er _these casual eyes_ are cast,' which +he objected to as not simple and natural, and as scarcely correct, he +suggested 'Where'er _a casual look I cast_;' and for '_converse_,' the +accent of which he condemned as belonging to the noun and not to the +verb, he suggested '_commune_.' In the second stanza he pointed out the +improper sequence of tenses in the third and fifth lines, which he +corrected by reading in the latter '_My cheeks are oftentimes bedew'd_.' +Of the narrative poems of his friend, well executed as he considered +them, and of the mainly external action of imagination or fancy in which +they deal, I have certainly heard him pronounce a very depreciatory +opinion; whether I ever heard him use the hard words attributed to him, +'I would not give five shillings for a ream of them,' I cannot now +assert, but if used, they were said in reference to the nobler kind of +imaginative power which reveals to man the deep places and sublimer +affinities of his own being. But to some others of Southey's verses, as +well as to the lines above quoted, and to his prose writings in general, +he was wont to give liberal praise; and no one could doubt the sincerity +and warmth of his admiration of the intellect and virtues of the man, or +the brotherly affection towards him which he not unfrequently expressed. + +R.P. GRAVES. Dublin, 1875. + + +(i) AN AMERICAN'S REMINISCENCES. + +To PROFESSOR HENRY REED. + + Philadelphia, Sept. 1850. + +MY DEAR FRIEND, + +You have asked me to write out as fully as I can an account of my visit +to Wordsworth last Summer, of which your letter of introduction was the +occasion. Feeling very grateful to you for the pleasure which that visit +gave me, and desiring to make a more minute record of it than either the +letter I addressed to you from Keswick, or my journal written at the +time contains, I gladly comply with your request. + +It was about noon on the 18th of August 1849, that I set out with my +friends, from their house near Bowness, to ride to Ambleside. Our route +was along the shore of Lake Windermere. It was my first day among the +English Lakes, and I enjoyed keenly the loveliness which was spread out +before me. My friends congratulated me on the clearness of the +atmosphere and the bright skies. Twilight is all-important in bringing +out the full beauty of the Lake Region, and in this respect I was very +fortunate. I had already been deeply moved by the tranquil beauty of +Windermere, for, as I came out of the cottage, formerly Professor +Wilson's, where I had passed the night, there it lay in all its +grandeur, its clear waters, its green islands, and its girdle of solemn +mountains. It was quite dark when I had been conducted to this cottage +the night before, so that I saw the Lake for the first time in the light +of early morning. The first impression was confirmed by every new +prospect as we rode along. The vale seemed a very paradise for its sweet +seclusion. I had been told that after Switzerland, I should find little +to attract me in this region, but such was not the case. Nothing can be +more lovely than these lakes and mountains, the latter thickly wooded, +and rising directly from the water's edge. The foliage is of the darkest +green, giving to the lake in which it is reflected the same sombre hue. +It seemed the fittest dwelling-place for a Poet, amid all this quiet +beauty. + +It was half-past one when we reached Ambleside, where I left Mr. and +Mrs. B., and walked on alone to Rydal Mount. I was full of eager +expectations as I thought how soon I should, perhaps, be in the presence +of Wordsworth--that after long years of waiting, of distant reverential +admiration and love, I was, as I hoped, to be favoured with a personal +interview with the great poet-philosopher, to whom you and I, and so +many, many others, feel that we are under the deepest obligation for the +good which has come to us from his writings. At two o'clock I was at the +wicket gate opening into Wordsworth's grounds. I walked along the gravel +pathway, leading through shrubbery to the open space in front of the +long two-story cottage, the Poet's dwelling. Your sketch of the house by +Inman is a correct one, but it gives no idea of the view _from_ it, +which is its chief charm. Rydal Mere with its islands, and the mountains +beyond it, are all in sight. I had but a hasty enjoyment of this beauty; +nor could I notice carefully the flowers which were blooming around. It +was evident that the greatest attention had been paid to the grounds, +for the flower-beds were tastefully arranged, and the gravel walks were +in complete order. One might be well content, I thought, to make his +abode at a spot like this. + +A boy of about twelve years was occupied at one of the flower-beds, as I +passed by; he followed me to the door, and waited my commands. I asked +if Mr. Wordsworth was in.... He was dining--would I walk into the +drawing-room, and wait a short time?... I was shown into the +drawing-room, or study, I know not which to call it.... Here I am, I +said to myself, in the great Poet's house. Here his daily life is spent. +Here in this room, doubtless, much of his poetry has been written--words +of power which are to go down with those of Shakspeare, and Spenser, and +Milton, while our English tongue endures. It was a long apartment, the +ceiling low, with two windows at one end, looking out on the lawn and +shrubbery. Many engravings were on the walls. The famous Madonna of +Raphael, known as that of the Dresden Gallery, hung directly over the +fire-place. Inman's portrait of the Poet, your gift to Mrs. Wordsworth, +being a copy of the one painted for you, had a conspicuous place. The +portrait of Bishop White, also your gift (the engraving from Inman's +picture), I also noticed. + + * * * * * + +I could have waited patiently for a long time indulging the thoughts +which the place called up. In a few minutes, however, I heard steps in +the entry, the door was opened, and Wordsworth came in, it could be no +other--- a tall figure, a little bent with age, his hair thin and grey, +and his face deeply wrinkled.... The expression of his countenance was +sad, mournful I might say; he seemed one on whom sorrow pressed heavily. +He gave me his hand, and welcomed me cordially, though without smiling. +'Will you walk out, Sir, and join us at the table?' said he. 'I am +engaged to dine elsewhere.' 'But you can sit with us,' said he; so, +leading the way, he conducted me to the dining-room. At the head of the +table sat Mrs. Wordsworth, and their three grandchildren made up the +party.... It was a humble apartment, not ceiled, the rafters being +visible; having a large old-fashioned chimney-place, with a high +mantelpiece. + + * * * * * + +Wordsworth asked after Mr. Ticknor of Boston, who had visited him a few +months before, and for whom he expressed much regard. Some other +questions led me to speak of the progress we were making in America in +the extension of our territory, the settlements on the Pacific, &c.; all +this involving the rapid spread of our English tongue. Wordsworth at +this looked up, and I noticed a fixing of his eye as if on some remote +object. He said that considering this extension of our language, it +behoved those who wrote to see to it, that what they put forth was on +the side of virtue. This remark, although thrown out at the moment, was +made in a serious thoughtful way; and I was much impressed by it. I +could not but reflect that to him a deep sense of responsibility had +ever been present: to purify and elevate has been the purpose of all his +writings. Such may have been at that moment his own inward meditation, +and he may have had in mind the coming generations who are to dwell upon +his words. + + * * * * * + +Queen Victoria was mentioned--her visit to Ireland which had just been +made--the courage she had shown. 'That is a virtue,' said he, 'which she +has to a remarkable degree, which is very much to her credit.' + + * * * * * + +Inman's portrait of him I alluded to as being very familiar to me, the +copy which hung in the room calling it to mind, which led him to speak +of the one painted by Pickersgill for St. John's College, Cambridge. 'I +was a member of that College, he said, 'and the fellows and students +did me the honour to ask me to sit, and allowed me to choose the artist. +I wrote to Mr. Rogers on the subject, and he recommended Pickersgill, +who came down soon afterwards, and the picture was painted here.' He +believed he had sat twenty-three times. My impression is he was in doubt +whether Inman's or Pickersgill's portrait was the better one. + + * * * * * + +He spoke with great animation of the advantage of classical study, Greek +especially. 'Where,' said he, 'would one look for a greater orator than +Demosthenes; or finer dramatic poetry, next to Shakspeare, than that of +Aeschylus and Sophocles, not to speak of Euripides?' Herodotus he +thought 'the most interesting and instructive book, next to the Bible, +which had ever been written.' Modern discoveries had only tended to +confirm the general truth of his narrative. Thucydides he thought less +of. + + * * * * * + +France was our next subject, and one which seemed very near his heart. +He had been much in that country at the out-break of the Revolution, and +afterwards during its wildest excesses. At the time of the September +massacres he was at Orleans. Addressing Mrs. W. he said, 'I wonder how I +came to stay there so long, and at a period so exciting.' He had known +many of the abbes and other ecclesiastics, and thought highly of them as +a class; they were earnest, faithful men: being unmarried, he must say, +they were the better able to fulfil their sacred duties; they were +married to their flocks. In the towns there seemed, he admitted, very +little religion; but in the country there had always been a great deal. +'I should like to spend another month in France,' he said, 'before I +close my eyes.' He seemed to feel deep commiseration for the sorrows of +that unhappy country. It was evidently the remembrance of hopes which in +his youth he had ardently cherished, and which had been blighted, on +which his mind was dwelling. I alluded to Henry the Fifth, to whom many +eyes were, I thought, beginning to turn. With him, he remarked, there +would be a principle for which men could contend--legitimacy. The +advantage of this he stated finely. + +There was tenderness, I thought, in the tones of his voice, when +speaking with his wife; and I could not but look with deep interest and +admiration on the woman for whom this illustrious man had for so many +years cherished feelings of reverential love. + + 'Peace settles where the intellect is meek,' + +is a line which you will recall from one of the beautiful poems +Wordsworth has addressed to her; and this seemed peculiarly the temper +of her spirit--_peace_, the holy calmness of a heart to whom love had +been an 'unerring light.' Surely we may pray, my friend, that in the +brief season of separation which she has now to pass, she may be +strengthened with divine consolation. + +I cannot forbear to quote here that beautiful passage, near the end of +the great poem, 'The Prelude,' as an utterance by the author of tender +feelings in his own matchless way. After speaking of his sister in tones +of deepest thankfulness, he adds, + + 'Thereafter came + One, whom with thee friendship had early prized; + She came, no more a phantom to adorn + A moment, but an inmate of the heart; + And yet a spirit, there for me enshrined, + To penetrate the lofty and the low; + Even as one essence of pervading light + Shines in the brightness of ten thousand stars, + And the meek worm that feeds her lonely lamp + Couched in the dewy grass.' + +I have been led away from my narrative; but I wished to record the +feelings which had arisen within me with regard to this excellent lady; +she who has been, as ---- has so happily expressed it in his letter to +you, 'almost like the Poet's guardian angel for near fifty years.' + + * * * * * + +I may here mention, that throughout the conversation Wordsworth's manner +was animated, and that he took pleasure in it evidently. His words were +very choice: each sentence seemed faultless. No one could have listened +to his talk for five minutes, even on ordinary topics, without +perceiving that he was a remarkable man. Not that he was brilliant; but +there was sustained vigour, and that mode of expression which denotes +habitual thoughtfulness. + +When the clock struck four, I thought it time for me to go. Wordsworth +told me to say to his friends in America, that he and his wife were +well; that they had had a great grief of late, in the loss of their only +daughter, which he supposed they would never get over. This explained, +as I have already mentioned, the sadness of his manner. Such strength of +the affections in old age we rarely see. And yet the Poet has himself +condemned, as you remember, in 'The Excursion,' long and persevering +grief for objects of our love 'removed from this unstable world,' +reminding one so sorrowing of + + 'that state + Of pure, imperishable blessedness + Which reason promises, and Holy Writ + Ensures to all believers.' + +But, as if foreseeing his own case, he has added, with touching power, + + 'And if there be whose tender frames have drooped + Even to the dust, apparently through weight + Of anguish unrelieved, and lack of power + An agonising sorrow to transmute; + Deem not that proof is here of hope withheld + When wanted most; a confidence impaired + So pitiably, that having ceased to see + With bodily eyes, they are borne down by love + Of what is lost, and perish through regret.' + +The weakness of his bodily frame it was which took away his power of +tranquil endurance. Bowed down by the weight of years, he had not +strength to sustain this further burden, grief for a much-loved child. +His mind, happily, retained its clearness, though his body was decaying. + + * * * * * + +He walked out into the entry with me, and then asked me to go again into +the dining-room, to look at an oak chest or cabinet he had there--a +piece of old furniture curiously carved. It bore a Latin inscription, +which stated that it was made 300 years ago, for William Wordsworth, who +was the son of, &c. &c. giving the ancestors of said William for many +generations, and ending, 'on whose souls may God have mercy.' This +Wordsworth repeated twice, and in an emphatic way, as he read the +inscription. It seemed to me that he took comfort in the religious +spirit of his ancestors, and that he was also adopting the solemn +ejaculation for himself. There was something very impressive in his +manner. + +I asked to see the cast from Chantrey's bust of him, which he at once +showed me; also a crayon sketch by Haydon, which, I understood him to +say, West had pronounced the finest crayon he had ever seen. He referred +also to another sketch, by Margaret Gillies, I think, which was there. + +We then went out together on the lawn, and stood for a while to enjoy +the views, and he pulled open the shrubbery or hedge in places, that I +might see to better advantage. He accompanied me to the gate, and then +said if I had a few minutes longer to spare he would like to show me the +waterfall which was close by--the lower fall of Rydal. I gladly +assented, and he led the way across the grounds of Lady Fleming, which +were opposite to his own, to a small summer-house. The moment we opened +the door, the waterfall was before us; the summer-house being so placed +as to occupy the exact spot from which it was to be seen; the rocks and +shrubbery around closing it in on every side. The effect was magical. +The view from the rustic house, the rocky basin into which the water +fell, and the deep shade in which the whole was enveloped, made it a +lovely scene. Wordsworth seemed to have much pleasure in exhibiting this +beautiful retreat; it is described in one of his earlier poems, 'The +Evening Walk.' + +As we returned together he walked very slowly, occasionally stopping +when he said anything of importance; and again I noticed that looking +into remote space of which I have already spoken. His eyes, though not +glistening, had yet in them the fire which betokened the greatness of +his genius. This no painter could represent, and this it was which gave +to his countenance its high intellectual expression. + + * * * * * + +Hartley Coleridge he spoke of with affection.... 'There is a single +line,' he added, 'in one of his father's poems which I consider explains +the after-life of the son. He is speaking of his own confinement in +London, and then says, + + "But thou, my child, shalt wander like a breeze." + + * * * * * + +Of Southey he said that he had had the misfortune to outlive his +faculties. His mind, he thought, had been weakened by long watching by +the sick-bed of his wife, who had lingered for years in a very +distressing state. + +The last subject he touched on was the international copyright +question--the absence of protection in our country to the works of +foreign authors. He said, mildly, that he thought it would be better +_for us_ if some acknowledgment, however small, was made. The fame of +his own writings, as far as it was of pecuniary advantage to him, he had +long regarded with indifference; happily, he had an income more than +sufficient for all his wants.... He remarked, he had once seen a volume +of his poems published in an American newspaper. + +I happened to have in my pocket the small volume of selections, which +you made some years ago. I produced it, and asked at the same time if he +had ever seen it. He replied he had not. He took it with evident +interest, turned to the title-page, which he read, with its motto. He +began the preface then, in the same way. But here I must record a +trifling incident, which may yet be worth noting. We were standing +together in the road, Wordsworth reading aloud, as I have said, when a +man accosted us asking charity--a beggar of the better class. +Wordsworth, scarcely looking off the book, thrust his hands into his +pockets, as if instinctively acknowledging the man's right to beg by +this prompt action. He seemed to find nothing, however; and he said, in +a sort of soliloquy, 'I have given to four or five, already, to-day,' as +if to account for his being then unprovided. + +Wordsworth, as he turned over one leaf after another, said, 'But I shall +weary you, sir.' 'By no means,' said I; for I could have been content to +stand there for hours to hear, as I did, the Poet read from time to +time, with fitting emphasis, the choice passages which your preface and +biographical sketch contain. Imagine with what delight I listened to the +venerable man, and to hear, too, from his own lips, such words as these, +your own most true reflection: '_His has been a life devoted to the +cultivation of the poet's art for its best and most lasting uses--a +self-dedication as complete as the world has ever witnessed_.' Your +remark with regard to his having outlived many of his contemporaries +among the poets, he read with affecting simplicity; his manner being +that of one who looked backward to the past with entire tranquillity, +and forward with sure hope. I felt that his honoured life was drawing +rapidly to a close, and with him there was evidently the same +consciousness. + +He made but little comment on your notice of him. Occasionally he would +say, as he came to a particular fact, 'That's quite correct;' or, after +reading a quotation from his own works, he would add, 'That's from my +writings.' These quotations he read in a way that much impressed me; it +seemed almost as if he was awed by the greatness of his own power, the +gifts with which he had been endowed. It was a solemn time to me, this +part of my interview; and to you, my friend, it would have been a +crowning happiness to stand, as I did, by his side on that bright summer +day, and thus listen to his voice. I thought of his long life; that he +was one who had felt himself from early youth 'a renovated spirit +singled out for holy services'--one who had listened to the teachings of +Nature, and communed with his own heart in the seclusion of those +beautiful vales, until his thoughts were ready to be uttered for the +good of his fellow-men. And there had come back to him offerings of +love, and gratitude, and reverent admiration, from a greater multitude +than had ever before paid their homage to a living writer; and these +acknowledgments have been for benefits so deep and lasting, that words +seem but a poor return. But I will not attempt to describe further the +feelings which were strongly present to me at that moment, when I seemed +most to realise in whose presence I stood. + + * * * * * + +He walked with me as far as the main road to Ambleside. As we passed the +little chapel built by Lady Fleming, which has been the occasion, as you +remember, of one of his poems, there were persons, tourists evidently, +talking with the sexton at the door. Their inquiries, I fancied, were +about Wordsworth, perhaps as to the hour of service the next day +(Sunday), with the hope of seeing him there. One of them caught sight of +the venerable man at the moment, and at once seemed to perceive who it +was, for she motioned to the others to look, and they watched him with +earnest gaze. I was struck with their looks of delighted admiration. He +stopped when we reached the main road, saying that his strength would +not allow him to walk further. Giving me his hand, he desired again to +be remembered to you and others in America, and wished me a safe return +to my friends, and so we parted. I went on my way, happy in the +recollection of this, to me, memorable interview. My mind was in a +tumult of excitement, for I felt that I had been in the familiar +presence of one of the noblest of our race; and this sense of +Wordsworth's intellectual greatness had been with me during the whole +interview. I may speak, too, of the strong perception of his moral +elevation which I had at the same time. No word of unkindness had fallen +from him. He seemed to be living as if in the presence of God, by +habitual recollection. A strange feeling, almost of awe, had impressed +me while I was thus with him. Believing that his memory will be had in +honour in all coming time, I could not but be thankful that I had been +admitted to intimate intercourse with him then, when he was so near the +end of life. To you, my dear friend, I must again say I owe this +happiness, and to you it has been denied. You also, of all others of our +countrymen, would have most valued such an interview, for to you the +great Poet's heart has been in an especial manner opened in private +correspondence. No other American has he honoured in the same degree; +and by no one else in this country has the knowledge and appreciation of +his poetry been so much extended. The love which has so long animated +you has been such, that multitudes have been influenced to seek for joy +and refreshment from the same pure source. + +I have been led, as I said at the beginning of my letter, to make this +record, partly from your suggestion, and partly from a remark of Southey +which I have lately seen, to the effect that Wordsworth was one of whom +posterity would desire to know all that can be remembered. You will not, +I trust, deem the incidents I have set down trivial; or consider any +detail too minute, the object of which was only to bring the living man +before you. Now that he has gone for ever from our sight in this world, +I am led to look back to the interview with a deeper satisfaction; and +it may be that this full account of it will have value hereafter. To you +it was due that I should make the record; by myself these remembrances +will ever be cherished among my choicest possessions. + +Believe me, my dear friend, yours faithfully, + +Ellis Yarnall.[268] + +[268] _Memoirs_, ii. 483-500. + + + + +(j) RECOLLECTIONS OF WORDSWORTH. + +By Aubrey de Vere, Esq. + +_(Sent to the present Editor, and now first published)_ + + +PART I. + +It was about eight years before his death that I had the happiness of +making acquaintance with Wordsworth. During the next four years I saw a +good deal of him, chiefly among his own mountains, and, besides many +delightful walks with him, I had the great honour of passing some days +under his roof. The strongest of my impressions respecting him was that +made by the manly simplicity, and lofty rectitude, which characterised +him. In one of his later sonnets he writes of himself thus: 'As a true +man who long had served the lyre:'--it was because he was a _true_ man +that he was a true poet; and it was impossible to know him without being +reminded of this. In any case he must have been recognised as a man of +original and energetic genius; but it was his strong and truthful moral +nature, his intellectual sincerity, the abiding conscientiousness of his +imagination, which enabled that genius to do its great work, and +bequeath to the England of the future the most solid mass of +deep-hearted and authentic poetry which has been the gift to her of any +poet since the Elizabethan age. There was in his nature a veracity, +which, had it not been combined with an idealising imagination not less +remarkable, would to many have appeared prosaic; yet, had he not +possessed that characteristic, the products of his imagination would +have lacked reality. They might still have enunciated a deep and sound +philosophy; but they would have been divested of that human interest +which belongs to them in a yet higher degree. All the little incidents +of the neighbourhood were to him important. + +The veracity and the ideality which are so signally combined in +Wordsworth's poetic descriptions of Nature, made themselves at least as +much felt whenever Nature was the theme of his discourse. In his intense +reverence for Nature he regarded all poetical delineations of her with +an exacting severity; and if the descriptions were not true, and true in +a twofold sense, the more skilfully executed they were, the more was his +indignation roused by what he deemed a pretence and a deceit. An untrue +description of Nature was to him a profaneness, a heavenly message +sophisticated and falsely delivered. He expatiated much to me one day, +as we walked among the hills above Grasmere, on the mode in which Nature +had been described by one of the most justly popular of England's modern +poets--one for whom he preserved a high and affectionate respect. 'He +took pains,' Wordsworth said; 'he went out with his pencil and +note-book, and jotted down whatever struck him most--a river rippling +over the sands, a ruined tower on a rock above it, a promontory, and a +mountain ash waving its red berries. He went home, and wove the whole +together into a poetical description.' After a pause, Wordsworth resumed +with a flashing eye and impassioned voice, 'But Nature does not permit +an inventory to be made of her charms! He should have left his pencil +and note-book at home; fixed his eye, as he walked, with a reverent +attention on all that surrounded him, and taken all into a heart that +could understand and enjoy. Then, after several days had passed by, he +should have interrogated his memory as to the scene. He would have +discovered that while much of what he had admired was preserved to him, +much was also most wisely obliterated. That which remained--the picture +surviving in his mind--would have presented the ideal and essential +truth of the scene, and done so, in a large part, by discarding much +which, though in itself striking, was not characteristic. In every scene +many of the most brilliant details are but accidental. A true eye for +Nature does not note them, or at least does not dwell on them.' On the +same occasion he remarked, 'Scott misquoted in one of his novels my +lines on _Yarrow_. He makes me write, + + "The swans on sweet St. Mary's lake + Float double, swans and shadow;" + +but I wrote + + "The _swan_ on _still_ St. Mary's lake." + +Never could I have written "swans" in the plural. The scene when I saw +it, with its still and dim lake, under the dusky hills, was one of utter +loneliness: there was _one_ swan, and one only, stemming the water, and +the pathetic loneliness of the region gave importance to the one +companion of that swan, its own white image in the water. It was for +that reason that I recorded the Swan and the Shadow. Had there been many +swans and many shadows, they would have implied nothing as regards the +character of the scene; and I should have said nothing about them.' He +proceeded to remark that many who could descant with eloquence on Nature +cared little for her, and that many more who truly loved her had yet no +eye to discern her--which he regarded as a sort of 'spiritual +discernment.' He continued, 'Indeed I have hardly ever known any one but +myself who had a true eye for Nature, one that thoroughly understood her +meanings and her teachings--except' (here he interrupted himself) 'one +person. There was a young clergyman, called Frederick Faber,[269] who +resided at Ambleside. He had not only as good an eye for Nature as I +have, but even a better one, and sometimes pointed out to me on the +mountains effects which, with all my great experience, I had never +detected.' + +[269] Afterwards Father Faber of the Oratory. His 'Sir Launcelot' +abounds in admirable descriptions. + +Truth, he used to say--that is, truth in its largest sense, as a thing +at once real and ideal, a truth including exact and accurate detail, and +yet everywhere subordinating mere detail to the spirit of the +whole--this, he affirmed, was the soul and essence not only of +descriptive poetry, but of all poetry. He had often, he told me, +intended to write an essay on poetry, setting forth this principle, and +illustrating it by references to the chief representatives of poetry in +its various departments. It was this twofold truth which made Shakspeare +the greatest of all poets. 'It was well for Shakspeare,' he remarked, +'that he gave himself to the drama. It was that which forced him to be +sufficiently human. His poems would otherwise, from the extraordinarily +metaphysical character of his genius, have been too recondite to be +understood. His youthful poems, in spite of their unfortunate and +unworthy subjects, and his sonnets also, reveal this tendency. Nothing +can surpass the greatness of Shakspeare where he is at his greatest; but +it is wrong to speak of him as if even he were perfect. He had serious +defects, and not those only proceeding from carelessness. For instance, +in his delineations of character he does not assign as large a place to +religious sentiment as enters into the constitution of human nature +under normal circumstances. If his dramas had more religion in them, +they would be truer representations of man, as well as more elevated, +and of a more searching interest.' Wordsworth used to warn young poets +against writing poetry remote from human interest. Dante he admitted to +be an exception; but he considered that Shelley, and almost all others +who had endeavoured to out-soar the humanities, had suffered deplorably +from the attempt. I once heard him say, 'I have often been asked for +advice by young poets. All the advice I can give may be expressed in two +counsels. First, let Nature be your habitual and pleasurable study, +human nature and material nature; secondly, study carefully those +first-class poets whose fame is universal, not local, and learn from +them: learn from them especially how to observe and how to interpret +Nature.' + +Those who knew Wordsworth only from his poetry might have supposed that +he dwelt ever in a region too serene to admit of human agitations. This +was not the fact. There was in his being a region of tumult as well as a +higher region of calm, though it was almost wholly in the latter that +his poetry lived. It turned aside from mere _personal_ excitements; and +for that reason, doubtless, it developed more deeply those special +ardours which belong at once to the higher imagination and to the moral +being. The passion which was suppressed elsewhere burned in his 'Sonnets +to Liberty,' and added a deeper sadness to the 'Yew-trees of +Borrowdale.' But his heart, as well as his imagination, was ardent. When +it spoke most powerfully in his poetry it spoke with a stern brevity +unusual in that poetry, as in the poem 'There is a change and I am +poor,' and the still more remarkable one, 'A slumber did my spirit +seal,' a poem impassioned beyond the comprehension of those who fancy +that Wordsworth lacks passion, merely because in him passion is neither +declamatory nor, latently, sensual. He was a man of strong affections, +strong enough on one sorrowful occasion to withdraw him for a time from +poetry.[270] + +[270] 'For us the stream of fiction ceased to flow' (Dedicatory Stanzas +to 'The White Doe of Rylstone'). + +Referring once to two young children of his who had died about forty +years previously, he described the details of their illnesses with an +exactness and an impetuosity of troubled excitement, such as might have +been expected if the bereavement had taken place but a few weeks before. +The lapse of time appeared to have left the sorrow submerged indeed, but +still in all its first freshness. Yet I afterwards heard that at the +time of the illness, at least in the case of one of the two children, it +was impossible to rouse his attention to the danger. He chanced to be +then under the immediate spell of one of those fits of poetic +inspiration which descended on him like a cloud. Till the cloud had +drifted he could see nothing beyond. Under the level of the calm there +was, however, the precinct of the storm. It expressed itself rarely but +vehemently, partaking sometimes of the character both of indignation and +sorrow. All at once the trouble would pass away, and his countenance +bask in its habitual calm, like a cloudless summer sky. His indignation +flamed out vehemently when he heard of a base action. 'I could kick such +a man across England with my naked foot,' I heard him exclaim on such an +occasion. The more impassioned part of his nature connected itself +especially with his political feelings. He regarded his own intellect as +one which united some of the faculties which belong to the statesman +with those which belong to the poet; and public affairs interested him +not less deeply than poetry. It was as patriot, not poet, that he +ventured to claim fellowship with Dante.[271] He did not accept the term +'Reformer,' because it implied an organic change in our institutions, +and this he deemed both needless and dangerous; but he used to say that +while he was a decided Conservative, he remembered that to preserve our +institutions we must be ever improving them. He was, indeed, from first +to last, preeminently a patriot, an impassioned as well as a thoughtful +one. Yet his political sympathies were not with his own country only, +but with the progress of Humanity. Till disenchanted by the excesses and +follies of the first French revolution, his hopes and sympathies +associated themselves ardently with the new order of things created by +it; and I have heard him say that he did not know how any +generous-minded _young_ man, entering on life at the time of that great +uprising, could have escaped the illusion. To the end his sympathies +were ever with the cottage hearth far more than with the palace. If he +became a strong supporter of what has been called 'the hierarchy of +society,' it was chiefly because he believed the principle of 'equality' +to be fatal to the well-being and the true dignity of the poor. +Moreover, in siding politically with the Crown and the coronets, he +considered himself to be siding with the weaker party in our democratic +days. + +[271] See his Sonnet on the seat of Dante, close to the Duomo at +Florence (_Poems of Early and Late Years_). + +The absence of love-poetry in Wordsworth's works has often been +remarked upon, and indeed brought as a charge against them. He once told +me that if he had avoided that form of composition, it was by no means +because the theme did not interest him, but because, treated as it +commonly has been, it tends rather to disturb and lower the reader's +moral and imaginative being than to elevate it. He feared to handle it +amiss. He seemed to think that the subject had been so long vulgarised, +that few poets had a right to assume that they could treat it worthily, +especially as the theme, when treated unworthily, was such an easy and +cheap way of winning applause. It has been observed also that the +Religion of Wordsworth's poetry, at least of his earlier poetry, is not +as distinctly 'Revealed Religion' as might have been expected from this +poet's well-known adherence to what he has called emphatically 'The +lord, and mighty paramount of Truths.' He once remarked to me himself on +this circumstance, and explained it by stating that when in youth his +imagination was shaping for itself the channel in which it was to flow, +his religious convictions were less definite and less strong than they +had become on more mature thought, and that when his poetic mind and +manner had once been formed, he feared that he might, in attempting to +modify them, have become constrained. He added that on such matters he +ever wrote with great diffidence, remembering that if there were many +subjects too low for song, there were some too high. Wordsworth's +general confidence in his own powers, which was strong, though far from +exaggerated, rendered more striking and more touching his humility in +all that concerned Religion. It used to remind me of what I once heard +Mr. Rogers say, viz. 'There is a special character of _greatness_ about +humility for it implies that a man can, in an unusual degree, estimate +the _greatness_ of what is above us.' Fortunately his diffidence did not +keep Wordsworth silent on sacred themes; his later poems include an +unequivocal as well as beautiful confession of Christian faith; and one +of them, 'The Primrose of the Rock,' is as distinctly Wordsworthian in +its inspiration as it is Christian in its doctrine. Wordsworth was a +'high churchman,' and also, in his prose mind, strongly anti-Roman +Catholic, partly on political grounds; but that it was otherwise as +regards his mind poetic is obvious from many passages in his Christian +poetry, especially those which refer to the monastic system, and the +Schoolmen, and his sonnet on the Blessed Virgin, whom he addresses as + + 'Our tainted nature's solitary boast.' + +He used to say that the idea of one who was both Virgin and Mother had +sunk so deep into the heart of Humanity, that there it must ever remain. + +Wordsworth's estimate of his contemporaries was not generally high. I +remember his once saying to me, 'I have known many that might he called +very _clever_ men, and a good many of real and vigorous _abilities_, but +few of genius; and only one whom I should call "wonderful." That one was +Coleridge. At any hour of the day or night he would talk by the hour, if +there chanced to be _any_ sympathetic listener, and talk better than the +best page of his writings; for a pen half paralysed his genius. A child +would sit quietly at his feet and wonder, till the torrent had passed +by. The only man like Coleridge whom I have known is Sir William +Hamilton, Astronomer Royal of Dublin.' I remember, however, that when I +recited by his fireside Alfred Tennyson's two political poems, 'You ask +me why, though ill at ease,' and 'Of old sat Freedom on the heights,' +the old bard listened with a deepening attention, and when I had ended, +said after a pause, 'I must acknowledge that those two poems are very +solid and noble in thought. Their diction also seems singularly +stately.' He was a great admirer of _Philip van Artevelde_. In the case +of a certain poet since dead, and never popular, he said to me, 'I +consider his sonnets to be the best of modern times;' adding, 'Of course +I am not including my own in any comparison with those of others.' He +was not sanguine as to the future of English poetry. He thought that +there was much to be supplied in other departments of our literature, +and especially he desired a really great History of England; but he was +disposed to regard the roll of English poetry as made up, and as leaving +place for little more except what was likely to be eccentric or +imitational. + +In his younger days Wordsworth had had to fight a great battle in +poetry, for both his subjects and his mode of treating them were +antagonistic to the maxims then current. It was fortunate for posterity, +no doubt, that his long 'militant estate' was animated by some mingling +of personal ambition with his love of poetry. Speaking in an early +sonnet of + + 'The poets, who on earth have made us heirs + Of truth, and pure delight, by heavenly lays,' + +he concludes, + + 'Oh! might my name be numbered among theirs, + Then gladly would I end my mortal days.' + +He died at eighty, and general fame did not come to him till about +fifteen years before his death. This perhaps might have been fifteen +years too soon, if he had set any inordinate value on it. But it was not +so. Shelley tells us that' Fame is love disguised;' and it was +intellectual sympathy that Wordsworth had always valued far more than +reputation. 'Give me thy love; I claim no other fee,' had been his +demand on his reader. When Fame had laid her tardy garland at his feet +he found on it no fresher green than his 'Rydalian laurels' had always +worn. Once he said to me, 'It is indeed a deep satisfaction to hope and +believe that my poetry will be, while it lasts, a help to the cause of +virtue and truth--especially among the young. As for myself, it seems +now of little moment how long I may be remembered. When a man pushes off +in his little boat into the great seas of Infinity and Eternity, it +surely signifies little how long he is kept in sight by watchers from +the shore.' + +Such are my chief recollections of the great poet, whom I knew but in +his old age, but whose heart retained its youth till his daughter Dora's +death. He seemed to me one who from boyhood had been faithful to a high +vocation; one who had esteemed it his office to minister, in an age of +conventional civilisation, at Nature's altar, and who had in his later +life explained and vindicated such life-long ministration, even while he +seemed to apologise for it, in the memorable confession, + + 'But who is innocent? By grace divine, + Not otherwise, O Nature, are we thine.'[272] + +[272] 'Evening Voluntary.' + +It was to Nature as first created, not to Nature as corrupted by +'disnatured' passions, that his song had attributed such high and +healing powers. In singing her praise he had chosen a theme loftier than +most of his readers knew--loftier, as he perhaps eventually discovered, +than he had at first supposed it to be. Utterly without Shakspeare's +dramatic faculty, he was richer and wider in the humanities than any +poet since Shakspeare. Wholly unlike Milton in character and in +opinions, he abounds in passages to be paralleled only by Milton in +solemn and spiritual sublimity, and not even by Milton in pathos. It was +plain to those who knew Wordsworth that he had kept his great gift pure, +and used it honestly and thoroughly for that purpose for which it had +been bestowed. He had ever written with a conscientious reverence for +that gift; but he had also written spontaneously. He had composed with +care--not the exaggerated solicitude which is prompted by vanity, and +which frets itself to unite incompatible excellences; but the diligence +which shrinks from no toil while eradicating blemishes that confuse a +poem's meaning, and frustrate its purpose. He regarded poetry as an art; +but he also regarded Art not as the compeer of Nature, much less her +superior, but as her servant and interpreter. He wrote poetry likewise, +no doubt, in a large measure, because self-utterance was an essential +law of his nature. If he had a companion, he discoursed like one whose +thoughts must needs run on in audible current; if he walked alone among +his mountains, he murmured old songs. He was like a pine grove, vocal as +well as visible. But to poetry he had dedicated himself as to the +utterance of the highest truths brought within the range of his life's +experience; and if his poetry has been accused of egotism, the charge +has come from those who did not perceive that it was with a human, not a +mere personal interest that he habitually watched the processes of his +own mind. He drew from the fountain that was nearest at hand what he +hoped might be a refreshment to those far off. He once said, speaking of +a departed man of genius, who had lived an unhappy life and deplorably +abused his powers, to the lasting calamity of his country, 'A great poet +must be a great man; and a great man must be a good man; and a good man +ought to be a happy man.' To know Wordsworth was to feel sure that if he +had been a great poet, it was not merely because he had been endowed +with a great imagination, but because he had been a good man, a great +man, and a man whose poetry had, in an especial sense, been the +expression of a healthily happy moral being. + +AUBREY DE VERE. + + Curragh Chase, March 31, 1875. + +P.S. Wordsworth was by no means without humour. When the Queen on one +occasion gave a masked ball, some one said that a certain youthful poet, +who has since reached a deservedly high place both in the literary and +political world, but who was then known chiefly as an accomplished and +amusing young man of society, was to attend it dressed in the character +of the father of English poetry, grave old Chaucer. 'What,' said +Wordsworth, 'M. go as Chaucer! Then it only remains for me to go as M.!' + + * * * * * + + + + +PART II. + +SONNET--RYDAL WITH WORDSWORTH. + +BY THE LATE SIR AUBREY DE VERE. + + + 'What we beheld scarce can I now recall + In one connected picture; images + Hurrying so swiftly their fresh witcheries + O'er the mind's mirror, that the several + Seems lost, or blended in the mighty all. + Lone lakes; rills gushing through rock-rooted trees: + Peaked mountains shadowing vales of peacefulness: + Glens echoing to the flashing waterfall. + Then that sweet twilight isle! with friends delayed + Beside a ferny bank 'neath oaks and yews; + The moon between two mountain peaks embayed; + Heaven and the waters dyed with sunset hues: + And he, the Poet of the age and land, + Discoursing as we wandered hand in hand.' + +The above-written sonnet is the record of a delightful day spent by my +father in 1833 with Wordsworth at Rydal, to which he went from the still +more beautiful shores of Ulswater, where he had been sojourning at +Halsteads. He had been one of Wordsworth's warmest admirers, when their +number was small, and in 1842 he dedicated a volume of poems to +him.[273] He taught me when a boy of 18 years old to admire the great +bard. I had been very enthusiastically praising Lord Byron's poetry. My +father calmly replied, 'Wordsworth is the great poet of modern times.' +Much surprised, I asked, 'And what may his special merits be?' The +answer was, 'They are very various, as for instance, depth, largeness, +elevation, and, what is rare in modern poetry, an _entire_ purity. In +his noble "Laodamia" they are chiefly majesty and pathos.' A few weeks +afterwards I chanced to take from the library shelves a volume of +Wordsworth, and it opened on 'Laodamia.' Some strong, calm hand seemed +to have been laid on my head, and bound me to the spot, till I had come +to the end. As I read, a new world, hitherto unimagined, opened itself +out, stretching far away into serene infinitudes. The region was one to +me unknown, but the harmony of the picture attested its reality. Above +and around were indeed + +[273] _A Song of Faith, Devout Exercises, and Sonnets_ (Pickering). The +Dedication closed thus: 'I may at least hope to be named hereafter among +the friends of Wordsworth.' + + 'An ampler ether, a diviner air, + And fields invested with purpureal gleams;' + +and when I reached the line, + + 'Calm pleasures there abide--majestic pains,' + +I felt that no tenants less stately could walk in so lordly a precinct. +I had been translated into another planet of song--one with larger +movements and a longer year. A wider conception of poetry had become +mine, and the Byronian enthusiasm fell from me like a bond that is +broken by being outgrown. The incident illustrates poetry in one of its +many characters, that of 'the deliverer.' The ready sympathies and +inexperienced imagination of youth make it surrender itself easily +despite its better aspirations, or in consequence of them, to a false +greatness; and the true greatness, once revealed, sets it free. As early +as 1824 Walter Savage Landor, in his 'Imaginary Conversation' between +Southey and Porson, had pronounced Wordsworth's 'Laodamia' to be 'a +composition such as Sophocles might have exulted to own, and a part of +which might have been heard with shouts of rapture in the regions he +describes'--the Elysian Fields. + +Wordsworth frequently spoke of death, as if it were the taking of a new +degree in the University of Life. 'I should like,' he remarked to a +young lady, 'to visit Italy again before I move to another planet.' He +sometimes made a mistake in assuming that others were equally +philosophical. We were once breakfasting at the house of Mr. Rogers, +when Wordsworth, after gazing attentively round the room with a +benignant and complacent expression, turned to our host, and wishing to +compliment him, said, 'Mr. Rogers, I never see this house, so perfect in +its taste, so exquisite in all its arrangements, and decorated with +such well-chosen pictures, without fancying it the very house imaged to +himself by the Roman poet, when, in illustration of man's mortality, he +says, "Linquenda est domus."' 'What is that you are saying?' replied Mr. +Rogers, whose years, between eighty and ninety, had not improved his +hearing. 'I was remarking that your house,' replied Wordsworth, 'always +reminds me of the Ode (more properly called an Elegy, though doubtless +the lyrical measure not unnaturally causes it to be included among +Horace's Odes) in which the Roman poet writes "Linquenda est domus;" +that is, since, ladies being present, a translation may be deemed +desirable, _The house is_, or _has to be, left_; and again, "et placens +uxor"--and the pleasing wife; though, as we must all regret, that part +of the quotation is not applicable on the present occasion.' The Town +Bard, on whom 'no angle smiled' more than the end of St. James's-place, +did not enter into the views of the Bard of the Mountains. His answer +was what children call 'making a great face,' and the ejaculation, +'Don't talk Latin in, the society of ladies.' When I was going away he +remarked, 'What a stimulus the mountain air has on the appetite! I made +a sign to Edmund to hand him the cutlets a second time. I was afraid he +would stick his fork into that beautiful woman who sat next him.' +Wordsworth never resented a jest at his own expense. Once when we had +knocked three times in vain at the door of a London house, I exclaimed, +quoting his sonnet written on Westminster-bridge, + + 'Dear God, the very houses seem asleep.' + +He laughed heartily, then smiled gravely, and lastly recounted the +occasion, and described the early morning on which that sonnet was +written. He did not recite more than a part of it, to the accompaniment +of distant cab and carriage; and I thought that the door was opened too +soon. + +Wordsworth, despite his dislike to great cities, was attracted +occasionally in his later years + + 'To the proud margin of the Thames, + And Lambeth's venerable towers,' + +where his society was courted by persons of the most different +character. But he complained bitterly of the great city. It was next to +impossible, he remarked, to tell the truth in it. 'Yesterday I was at +S. House: the Duchess of S., showing me the pictures, observed, "This is +the portrait of my brother" (naming him), "and it is considered very +like." To this I assented, partly perhaps in absence of mind, but +partly, I think, with an impression that her Grace's brother was +probably a person whose face every one knew, or was expected to know; so +that, as I had never met him, my answer was in fact a lie! It is too bad +that, when more than seventy years old, I should be brought from the +mountains to London in order to tell a lie!' He made his complaint +wherever he went, laying the blame, however, not so much on himself, or +on the Duchess, as on the corrupt city; and some of those who learned +how the most truthful man in England had thus quickly been subverted by +metropolitan snares came to the conclusion that within a few years more +no virtue would be left extant in the land. He was likewise maltreated +in lesser ways. 'This morning I was compelled by my engagements to eat +three breakfasts--one with an aged and excellent gentleman, who may +justly be esteemed an accomplished man of letters, although I cannot +honestly concede to him the title of a poet; one at a fashionable party; +and one with an old friend whom no pressure would induce me to +neglect--although for this, my first breakfast to-day, I was obliged to +name the early hour of seven o'clock, as he lives in a remote part of +London.' + +But it was only among his own mountains that Wordsworth could be +understood. He walked among them not so much to admire them as to +converse with them. They exchanged thoughts with him, in sunshine or +flying shadow, giving him their own and accepting his. Day and night, at +all hours, and in all weather, he would face them. If it rained, he +might fling his plaid over him, but would take no admonition. He must +have his way. On such occasions, dutiful as he was in higher matters, he +remained incurably wayward. In vain one reminded him that a letter +needed an answer, or that the storm would soon be over. It was very +necessary for him to do what he liked; and one of his dearest friends +said to me, with a smile of the most affectionate humour, 'He wrote his +"Ode to Duty," and then he had done with that matter.' This very +innocent form of lawlessness, corresponding with the classic expression, +'Indulge genio,' seemed to belong to his genius, not less than the +sympathetic reverence with which he looked up to the higher and +universal laws. Sometimes there was a battle between his reverence for +Nature and his reverence for other things. The friend already alluded to +was once remarking on his varying expressions of countenance. 'That +rough old face is capable of high and real beauty; I have seen in it an +expression quite of heavenly peace and contemplative delight, as the May +breeze came over him from the woods while he was slowly walking out of +church on a Sunday morning, and when he had half emerged from the +shadow.' A flippant person present inquired, 'Did you ever chance, Miss +F., to observe that heavenly expression on his countenance, as he was +walking into church, on a fine May morning?' A laugh was the reply. The +ways of Nature harmonised with his feelings in age as well as in youth. +He could understand no estrangement. Gathering a wreath of white thorn +on one occasion, he murmured, as he slipped it into the ribbon which +bound the golden tresses of his youthful companion, + + 'And what if I enwreathed my own? + 'Twere no offence to reason; + The sober hills thus deck their brows + To meet the wintry season.' + + * * * * * + + + + +(_k_) FROM 'RECOLLECTIONS OF THE LAST DAYS OF SHELLEY AND BYRON.' + +BY E.J. TRELAWNY. 1858 (MOXON). + +Some days after this conversation I walked to Lausanne, to breakfast at +the hotel with an old friend, Captain Daniel Roberts, of the navy. He +was out sketching, but presently came in accompanied by two English +ladies, with whom he had made acquaintance whilst drawing, and whom he +brought to our hotel. The husband of one of them soon followed. I saw by +their utilitarian garb, as well as by the blisters and blotches on their +cheeks, lips, and noses, that they were pedestrian tourists, fresh from +the snow-covered mountains, the blazing sun and frosty air having acted +on their unseasoned skins as boiling water does on the lobster by dyeing +his dark coat scarlet. The man was evidently a denizen of the north, his +accent harsh, skin white, of an angular and bony build, and +self-confident and dogmatic in his opinions. The precision and +quaintness of his language, as well as his eccentric remarks on common +things, stimulated my mind. Our icy islanders thaw rapidly when they +have drifted into warmer latitudes: broken loose from its anti-social +system, mystic castes, coteries, sets, and sects, they lay aside their +purse-proud, tuft-hunting, and toadying ways, and are very apt to run +risk in the enjoyment of all their senses. Besides, we were compelled to +talk in strange company, if not from good breeding, to prove our breed, +as the gift of speech is often our principal, if not sole, distinction +from the rest of the brute animals. + +To return to our breakfast. The travellers, flushed with health, +delighted with their excursion, and with appetites earned by bodily and +mental activity, were in such high spirits that Roberts and I caught the +infection of their mouth; we talked as loud and fast as if under the +exhilarating influence of champagne, instead of such a sedative compound +as _cafe au lait_. I can rescue nothing out of oblivion but a few last +words. The stranger expressed his disgust at the introduction of +carriages into the mountain districts of Switzerland, and at the old +fogies who used them. + +'As to the arbitrary, pitiless, godless wretches,' he exclaimed, 'who +have removed Nature's landmarks by cutting roads through Alps and +Apennines, until all things are reduced to the same dead level, they +will he arraigned hereafter with the unjust: they have robbed the best +specimens of what men should be of their freeholds in the mountains; the +eagle, the black cock, and the red deer they have tamed or exterminated. +The lover of Nature can nowhere find a solitary nook to contemplate her +beauties. Yesterday,' he continued, 'at the break of day, I scaled the +most rugged height within my reach; it looked inaccessible; this +pleasant delusion was quickly dispelled; I was rudely startled out of a +deep reverie by the accursed jarring, jingling, and rumbling of a +caleche, and harsh voices that drowned the torrent's fall.' + +The stranger, now hearing a commotion in the street, sprang on his feet, +looked out of the window, and rang the bell violently. + +'Waiter,' he said, 'is that our carriage? Why did you not tells us? +Come, lasses, be stirring; the freshness of the day is gone. You may +rejoice in not having to walk; there is a chance of saving the remnants +of skin the sun has left on our chins and noses; to-day we shall he +stewed instead of barbecued.' + +On their leaving the room to get ready for their journey, my friend +Roberts told me the strangers were the poet Wordsworth, his wife and +sister. + +Who could have divined this? I could see no trace, in the hard features +and weather-stained brow of the outer man, of the divinity within him. +In a few minutes the travellers reappeared; we cordially shook hands, +and agreed to meet again at Geneva. Now that I knew that I was talking +to one of the veterans of the gentle craft, as there was no time to +waste in idle ceremony, I asked him abruptly what he thought of Shelley +as a poet. + +'Nothing,' he replied as abruptly. + +Seeing my surprise, he added, 'A poet who has not produced a good poem +before he is twenty-five we may conclude cannot and never will do so.' + +'The "Cenci"!' I said eagerly. + +'Won't do,' he replied, shaking his head, as he got into the carriage: a +rough-coated Scotch terrier followed him. + +'This hairy fellow is our flea-trap,' he shouted out as they started +off. + +When I recovered from the shock of having heard the harsh sentence +passed by an elder bard on a younger brother of the Muses, I exclaimed, + +'After all, poets are but earth. It is the old story,--envy--Cain and +Abel. Professions, sects, and communities in general, right or wrong, +hold together, men of the pen excepted; if one of their guild is worsted +in the battle, they do as the rooks do by their inky brothers--fly from +him, cawing and screaming; if they don't fire the shot, they sound the +bugle to charge.' + +I did not then know that the full-fledged author never reads the +writings of his contemporaries, except to cut them up in a review, that +being a work of love. In after years, Shelley being dead, Wordsworth +confessed this fact; he was then induced to read some of Shelley's +poems, and admitted that Shelley was the greatest master of harmonious +verse in our modern literature. (Pp. 4-8.)[274] + +[274] See our Index, under Shelley, G. + + + + +(_l_) FROM 'LETTERS, EMBRACING HIS LIFE, OF JOHN JAMES TAYLER, B.A., +PROFESSOR OF ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIBLICAL THEOLOGY, AND PRINCIPAL +OF MANCHESTER NEW COLLEGE. LONDON, 1872' (TWO VOLS. 8vo). + + Spring Cottage, Loughrigg, Ambleside, July 26. 1826. + +Rydal, where we now are, has an air of repose and seclusion which I have +rarely seen surpassed; the first few days we were here we perfectly +luxuriated in the purity and sweetness of the air and the delicious +stillness of its pastures and woods. It is interesting, too, on another +account, as being the residence of the poet Wordsworth: his house is +about a quarter of a mile from ours; and since Osler joined us we have +obtained an introduction to him, and he favoured us with his company at +tea one evening last week. He is a very interesting man, remarkably +simple in his manners, full of enthusiasm and eloquence in conversation, +especially on the subject of his favourite art--poetry--which he seems +to have studied in a very philosophical spirit, and about which he +entertains some peculiar opinions. Spenser, Shakspeare, and Milton are +his favourites among the English poets, especially the latter, whom he +almost idolises. He expressed one opinion which rather surprised me, and +in which I could not concur--that he preferred the 'Samson Agonistes' to +'Comus.' He recited in vindication of his judgment one very fine passage +from the former poem, and in a very striking manner; his voice is deep +and pathetic, and thrills with feeling. He is Toryish--at least what +would he considered so--in his political principles, though he disclaims +all connection with party, and certainly argues with great fairness and +temper on controverted topics, such as Parliamentary Reform and Catholic +Emancipation. We took a long walk with him the other evening, to the +scene of one of his Pastorals in the neighbourhood of Grasmere. He has a +good deal of general conversation, and has more the manners of a man of +the world than I should have expected from his poems; but his discourse +indicates great simplicity and purity of mind; indeed, nothing renders +his conversation more interesting than the unaffected tone of elevated +morality and devotion which pervades it. We have been reading his long +poem, the 'Excursion,' since we came here. I particularly recommend it +to your notice, barring some few extra vagancies into which his +peculiar theory has led him: his fourth book, the last, contains +specimens both of versification, sentiment, and imagery, scarcely +inferior to what you will find in the best passages of Milton. He spoke +with great plainness, and yet with candour, of his contemporaries. He +admitted the power of Byron in describing the workings of human passion, +but denied that he knew anything of the beauties of Nature, or succeeded +in describing them with fidelity. This he illustrated by examples. He +spoke with deserved severity of Byron's licentiousness and contempt of +religious decorum. He told us he thought the greatest of modern +geniuses, had he given his powers a proper direction, and one decidedly +superior to Byron, was Shelley, a young man, author of 'Queen Mab,' who +died lately at Rome. (Vol. i. pp. 72-4.) + + Manchester, July 16. 1830. + +....Though I am busy, I feel rather melancholy; and I am continually +reminded how sad my life would be without the society and affection of +those we love, and how terribly awful the dispensation of death must be +to those who cannot anticipate a future reunion, and regard it as the +utter extinction of all human interests and affections. I am solacing +myself with Wordsworth. Do you know, I shall become a thorough convert +to him. Much of his poetry is delicious, and I perfectly adore his +philosophy. To me he seems the purest, the most elevated, and the most +Christian of poets. I delight in his deep and tender piety, and his +spirit of exquisite sympathy with whatever is lovely and grand in the +breathing universe around us. (Vol. i. p. 86.) + + * * * * * + + +(_m_) ANECDOTE OF CRABBE. + +FROM 'DIARY OF SIR WALTER SCOTT.' + +Talking of Wordsworth, he [W.] told Anne a story, the object of which, +as she understood it, was to show that Crabbe had no imagination. +Crabbe, Sir George Beaumont, and Wordsworth were sitting together in +Murray's room in Albemarle-street. Sir George, after sealing a letter, +blew out the candle which had enabled him to do so, and exchanging a +look with Wordsworth, began to admire in silence the undulating thread +of smoke which slowly arose from the expiring wick, when Crabbe put on +the extinguisher. Anne laughed at the instance, and inquired if the +taper was wax; and being answered in the negative, seemed to think that +there was no call on Mr. Crabbe to sacrifice his sense of smell to their +admiration of beautiful and evanescent forms. In two other men I should +have said, 'Why, it is affectations,' with Sir Hugh Evans ['Merry Wives +of Windsor,' act i. scene 1]; but Sir George is the man in the world +most void of affectation; and then he is an exquisite painter, and no +doubt saw where the _incident_ would have succeeded in painting. The +error is not in you yourself receiving deep impressions from slight +hints, but in supposing that precisely the same sort of impression must +arise in the mind of men otherwise of kindred feeling, or that the +common-place folk of the world can derive such inductions at any time or +under any circumstances.[275] + + * * * * * + + + + +(_n_) LATER OPINION OF LOUD BROUGHAM. + +I am just come from breakfasting with Henry Taylor to meet Wordsworth; +the same party as when he had Southey--Mill, Elliot, Charles Villiers. +Wordsworth may be bordering on sixty; hard-featured, brown, wrinkled, +with prominent teeth and a few scattered gray hairs, but nevertheless +not a disagreeable countenance; and very cheerful, merry, courteous, and +talkative, much more so than I should have expected from the grave and +didactic character of his writings. He held forth on poetry, painting, +politics, and metaphysics, and with a great deal of eloquence; he is +more conversible and with a greater flow of animal spirits than Southey. +He mentioned that he never wrote down as he composed, but composed +walking, riding, or in bed, and wrote down after; that Southey always +composes at his desk. He talked a great deal of Brougham, whose talents +and domestic virtues he greatly admires; that he was very generous and +affectionate in his disposition, full of duty and attention to his +mother, and had adopted and provided for a whole family of his brother's +children, and treats his wife's children as if they were his own. He +insisted upon taking them both with him to the Drawing-room the other +day when he went in state as Chancellor. They remonstrated with him, but +in vain.[276] + +[275] 'Diary of Sir Walter Scott,' _Life_, by Lockhart, as before, vol. +ix. pp. 62-3. + +[276] _The Greville Memoirs_. A Journal of the Reigns of King George IV. +and King William IV. By the late Charles C.F. Greville, Esq., Clerk of +the Council to those Sovereigns. Edited by Henry Reeve, Registrar of the +Privy Council. 3 vols. 8vo, fourth edition, 1875. Vol. ii. p. 120. + + + + +NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. + + +P. 5. Footnotes: 5a, 'Intake.' Cf. p. 436 (bottom). + +P. 6, l. 6. 'Gives one bright glance,' &c. From 'The Seasons,' l. 175, +from the end of 'Summer.' Originally (1727) this line ran, 'Gives one +faint glimmer, and then disappears.' + +P. 17, l. 2. Shelvocke's 'Voyages:' 'A Voyage round the World, by the +Way of the Great South Sea.' 1726, 8vo; 2d edition, 1757. + +P. 22, l. 27. Milton, History of England, &c. 'The History of Britain, +that Part especially now called England; from the first traditional +Beginning, continued to the Norman Conquest. In six Books.' Lond. 1670. +(Works by Mitford, Prose, iii. pp. 1-301.) + +P. 24, l. 28. Hearne's 'Journey,' &c.; viz. Samuel Hearne's 'Journey +from the Prince of Wales's Fort in Hudson's Bay to the Northern Ocean.' +1795, 4to. + +P. 31, l. 12. Waterton's 'Wanderings,' &c.; viz. Charles Waterton's +'Wanderings in South America, the North-West of the United States, and +the Antilles.' 1825, 4to. Many subsequent editions, being a book that +has taken its place beside Walton's 'Angler' and White's 'Selborne.' + +P. 32, l. 11. James Montgomery's 'Field Flower.' Nothing gratified this +'sweet Singer' so much as these words of Wordsworth. He used to point +them out to visitors if the conversation turned, or was directed, to +Wordsworth. The particular poem is a daintily-touched one, found in all +the editions of his Poems. + +P. 32, l. 33. 'Has not Chaucer noticed it [the small Celandine]'? +Certainly not under this name, nor apparently under any other. + +P. 33, l. 2. 'Frederica Brun.' More exactly Frederike. She was a minor +poetess; imitator of Matthison, whose own poems can hardly be called +original. (See Gostwick and Harrison's 'Outlines of German Literature,' +p. 355, cxxiii., 7th period, 1770-1830.) + +P. 36, ll. 13-15. Quotation from Thomson, 'The Seasons,' 'Summer,' l. +980. + +P. 44, l. 17. Quotation from Sir John Beaumont, 'The Battle of Bosworth +Field,' l. 100. (Poems in the Fuller Worthies' Library, p. 29.) +Accurately it is, 'The earth assists thee with the cry of blood.' + +P. 47, ll. 17-19. 'The Triad.' Sara Coleridge thus wrote of this poem: +'Look at "The Triad," written by Mr. Wordsworth four-or five-and-twenty +years ago. That poem contains a poetical glorification of Edith Southey +(now W.), of Dora, and of myself. There is _truth_ in the sketch of +Dora, poetic truth, though such as none but a poet-father would have +seen. She was unique in her sweetness and goodness. I mean that her +character was most peculiar--a compound of vehemence of feeling and +gentleness, sharpness and lovingness, which is not often seen' ('Memoirs +and Letters of Sara Coleridge, edited by her Daughter,' 2 vols. 8vo, 3d +edition, 1873, p. 68). Later: 'I do confess that I have never been able +to rank "The Triad" among Mr. Wordsworth's immortal works of genius. It +is just what he came into the poetical world to condemn, and both by +practice and theory to supplant. It is to my mind _artificial_ and +_unreal_. There is no truth in it as a whole, although bits of truth, +glazed and magnified, are embodied in it, as in the lines, "Features to +old ideal grace allied"--a most unintelligible allusion to a likeness +discovered in dear Dora's contour of countenance to the great Memnon +head in the British Museum, with its overflowing lips and width of +mouth, which seems to be typical of the ocean. The poem always strikes +me as a mongrel,' &c. (p. 352). + +P. 56, l. 7. 'Mr. Duppa.' See note in Vol. II. on p. 163, l. 2. + +P. 56, l. 27. '179--.' _Sic_ in the MS. He died in January 1795. + +P. 60, l. 16. 'Mr. Westall;' viz. William Westall's 'View of the Caves +near Ingleton, Gosdale Scar, and Malham Cove, in Yorkshire.' 1818, +folio. + +P. 62, l. 31. 'The itinerant Eidouranian philosopher,' &c. Query--the +Walker of the book on the Lakes noticed in Vol. II. on p. 217? + +P. 63, l. 6. 'I have reason,' &c. Cf. Letter to Sir W.R. Hamilton, first +herein printed, pp. 310-11. + +P. 68, l. 24. Dampier's' Voyages, 'etc.; viz.' Collection of Voyages.' +London, 1729, 4 vols. 8vo. + +P. 72, l. 29. 'Fulke Greville, Lord Brooke.' His complete Works in Verse +and Prose are given in the Fuller Worthies' Library, 4 vols. + +P. 76, l. 14. Spenser. An apparent misrecollection of the 'Fairy Queen,' +b. iii. c. viii. st. 32, l. 7, 'Had her from so infamous fact assoyld.' + +P. 78, l. 6. 'Armstrong;' _i.e._ Dr. John Armstrong, whose 'Art of +Preserving Health,' under an unpromising title, really contains splendid +things. His portrait in the 'Castle of Indolence' is his most certain +passport to immortality. + +P. 80, l. 21. 'The Last Supper of Leonardo da Vinci.' A reproduction of +the head of our Blessed Lord, taken from the fresco (photograph), is +given in the quarto edition of Southwell's complete Poems in the Fuller +Worthies' Library--none the less precious that it pathetically reveals +the marks of Time's 'effacing fingers.' No engraving approaches the +'power' of this autotype of the supreme original. + +P. 88, l. 32. 'Faber.' Among the treasures (unpublished) of the +Wordsworth Correspondence are various remarkable letters of Faber--one, +very singular, announcing his going over to the Church of Rome. + +P. 90, l. 34. 'Mr. Robinson.' Cf. 'Reminiscences' onward. + +P. 97, ll. 9-10, &c. 'Dyer.' Cf. note, Vol. II., on p. 296, l. 35. + +P. 97, l. 18. 'Mr. Crowe;' _i.e._ Rev. William Crowe, Public Orator of +Oxford. His poem was originally published in 1786 (4to); reprinted 1804 +(12mo). + +P. 98, l. 19. 'Armstrong.' See on p. 78, l. 6. + +P. 98, l. 20. 'Burns.' Verse-Epistle to William Simpson, st. 13; but for +'nae' read 'na,' and for 'na' read 'no.' + +P. 101, l. 9. 'Rev. Joseph Sympson.' This poet, so pleasantly noticed by +Wordsworth, appears in none of the usual bibliographical authorities. +Curiously enough, his 'Vision of Alfred' was republished in the United +States--Philadelphia. + +P. 116, ll. 33-34. Quotation, Shakspeare, 'Henry VIII.' iii. 2. + +P. 120, l. 22. Quotation from Milton, 'Paradise Lost,' viii. l. 282. + +P. 125, l. 4. 'Mr. Hazlitt quoted,' &c. See Index, _s.n._ for +Wordsworth's estimate of Hazlitt; also our Preface. + +P. 130, l. 17. Hill at St. Alban's. See 'Eccl. Hist.' _s.n._ + +P. 130, l. 31. 'Germanus.' Bede, 'Eccl. Hist.' b. ii. c. xvi. + +P. 131, l. 10. 'Fuller;' viz. his 'Church History.' + +P. 131, l. 16. 'Turner.' The late laborious Sharon Turner, whose +'Histories' are still kept in print (apparently). + +P. 131, l. 21. 'Paulinus.' Bede, 'Eccl. Hist.' b. ii. c. xvi. + +P. 131, l. 26. 'King Edwin.' Bede, 'Eccl. Hist.' b. ii. c. xiii. + +P. 136, l. 28. 'An old and much-valued friend in Oxfordshire;' viz. Rev. +Robert Jones, as before. + +P. 137, l. 10. 'Dyer's History of Cambridge,' 2 vols. 8vo, 1814. + +P. 137, l. 14. 'Burnet,' in his 'History of the Reformation;' many +editions. + +P. 119, ll. 4-5. Latin verse-quotation, Ovid, 'Metam.' viii. 163, 164. + +P. 151, l. 11. 'Charlotte Smith.' It seems a pity that the Poems of this +genuine Singer should have gone out of sight. + +P. 155, l. 31. 'Russel.' Should be Russell. Some very beautiful Sonnets +of his appear in Dyce's well-known collection, and to it doubtless +Wordsworth was indebted for his knowledge of Russell. He has cruelly +passed out of memory. + +P. 165, ll. 7-9. 'Is not the first stanza of Gray's,' etc. Gray himself +prefixed these lines from Aeschylus, 'Agam.' 181: + + [Greek: Zena + + * * * * * + ton phronein brotous hodo- + santa, ton pathos + thenta kurios echein.] + +He seems to have been rather indebted to Dionysius' Ode to Nemesis, v. +Aratus. + +P. 182, l. 9. 'Dr. Darwin's _Zoonomia_;' _i.e._ 'The Laws of Organic +Life,' 1794-96, 2 vols. 4to. + +P. 182, l. 24. 'Peter Henry Bruce ... entertaining Memoirs.' Published +1782, 4to. + +P. 185, ll. 2-3. Verse-quotation, from Milton, 'Il Penseroso,' ll. +109-110. + +P. 190, l. 27. 'Light will be thrown,' &c. We have still to deplore that +the Letters of Lamb are even at this later day either withheld or +sorrowfully mutilated; _e.g._ among the Wordsworth Correspondence +(unpublished) is a whole sheaf of letters in their finest vein from Lamb +and his sister. Some of the former are written in black and red ink in +alternate lines, and overflow with all his deepest and quaintest +characteristics. His sister's are charming. The same might be said of +nearly all Wordsworth's greatest contemporaries. Surely these MSS. will +not much longer be kept in this inexplicable and, I venture to say, +scarcely pardonable seclusion? + +P. 192, foot-note. This deliciously _naive_ note of 'Dora' to her +venerated father suggests that it is due similarly to demur--with all +respect--to the representation given of Mrs. Hemans (pp. 193-4). Three +things it must be permitted me to recall: (_a_) That the 'brevity's +sake' hardly condones the fulness of statement of an imagined ignorance +of 'housewifery' on the part of Mrs. Hemans. (_b_) That a visitor for a +few days in a family could scarcely be expected to set about using her +needle in home duties. (_c_) That unquestionable testimony, furnished me +by those who knew her intimately, warrant me to state that Wordsworth +was mistaken in supposing that Mrs. Hemans 'could as easily have managed +the spear of Minerva as her needle.' Her brave and beautiful life, and +her single-handed upbringing of her many boys worthily, make one deeply +regret that such sweeping generalisation from a narrow and hasty +observation should have been indulged in. My profound veneration for +Wordsworth does not warrant my suppression of the truth in this matter. +Be it remembered, too, that other expressions of Wordsworth largely +qualify the present ungracious judgment. + +P. 209, l. 8. 'Lord Ashley.' Now the illustrious and honoured Earl of +Shaftesbury. + +P. 212, l. 17. 'Burnet;' _i.e._ Thomas Burnet, whose Latin treatise was +published in 1681 and 1689; in English, 1684 and 1689. Imaginative +genius will be found in this uncritical and unscientific book. + +P. 214, l. 12. 'The Hurricane,' &c.; viz. 'The Hurricane; a Theosophical +and Western Eclogue,' &c. 1797; reprinted 1798. + +P. 216, ll. 4-5. Quotation from Coleridge, from 'Sibylline Leaves,' +Inscription for a Fountain on a Heath. + +P. 216, l. 29. 'Dr. Bell.' Southey edited the bulky Correspondence of +this pioneer of our better education, in 3 vols. 8vo. + +P. 233, ll. 34-36. 'They have been treated,' &c. ('Evening Walk,' &c., +1794.) + +P. 247, foot-note [A]. De Quincey, in his 'Recollections of the Lakes +and the Lake Poets, Coleridge, Wordsworth, and Southey' (Works, vol. ii. +pp. 151-6), gives a very realistic _expose_ of the Lonsdales--abating +considerably the glow of Wordsworth's recurring praise and homage. + +P. 255, l. 31. 'History of Cleveland.' The book is by the Rev. John +Graves, and is entitled 'The History of Cleveland in the North Riding of +the County of York.' Carlisle, 1808. Wordsworth is unjust: it is a +deserving work, if o' times inevitably dry. + +P. 285, l.1. 'Francis Edgeworth's "Dramatic Fragment."' This was Francis +Beaufort Edgeworth, half-brother of Maria Edgeworth. + +P. 285, ll. 29-30. 'Spectator.' From No. 46, April 23, 1711, one of +Addison's own charming papers in his lighter vein of raillery. + +P. 280, ll. 13-16. 'Mr. Page;' viz. Frederick Page, author of (_a_) 'The +Principle of the English Poor Laws illustrated and defended by an +Historical View of Indigence in Civil Society.' Bath, 1822. (_b_) +'Observations on the State of the Indigent Poor in Ireland, and the +existing Institutions for their Relief.' London, 1830. + +P. 290, ll. 25-27. Verse-quotation, from Milton, 'Paradise Regained,' b. +iii. ll. 337-9. + +P. 293, l. 1. Letter to Hamilton. The Rev. R.P. Graves, +M.A.--Wordsworth's friend--is engaged in preparing a Life of this +preeminent mathematician and many-gifted man of genius, than whom there +seems to have been no contemporary who so deeply impressed Wordsworth +intellectually, or so won his heart. The 'Poems' of Miss Hamilton (1 +vol. 1838) sparkle with beauties, often unexpected as the flash of gems. +Space can only be found for one slight specimen of her gift in 'Lines +written in Miss Dora Wordsworth's Album,' as follows: + + 'It is not now that I can speak, while still + Thy lakes, thy hills, thyself are in my sight; + I would be quiet--for the thoughts that fill + My spirit's urn are a confused delight; + They must have time to settle to the clear + Untroubled calm of memory, ere they show, + True as the water-depths around thee here, + These images, that then will come and go, + An everlasting joy. Far, far away + As life, extends the shadow of to-day; + And keenlier present from the past will come + Thy sweet laugh's freshness pure, with all the poet's home. + +'_Rydal Mount_. 1830.' + +'The Boys' School' is the title of Miss Hamilton's poem referred to by +Wordsworth. It occurs in the volume, pp. 126-131. Her brother's was one +commencing, 'It haunts me yet.' The 'Mr. Nimmo' of this letter was a +civil engineer connected with the Ordnance Survey of Ireland. + +P. 299, l. 18; 300, l. 8, &c. 'Countess of Winchelsea.' Sad to say, a +collection of this remarkable English gentlewoman's Poems remains still +an unfurnished _desideratum_. + +P. 306, l. 11. 'The Duchess of Newcastle.' Edward Jenkins, Esq. M.P., +has recently collected some of the Poems of this lady and her lord in a +pretty little volume, which he entitles, 'The Cavalier and the Lady.' + +P. 312, l. 32. 'Eschylus and the eagle. 'The reference doubtless is to +Aeschylus' 'Prometheus Vinctus,' l. 1042: + + [Greek: + Dids de toi + ptenos kuon, daphoinos aietos.] + +Compare + + 'Aischulos' bronze-throat _eagle-bark_ at blood + Has somehow spoiled my taste for twitterings.' + +Robert Browning, 'Aristophanes' Apology' (1875), p. 94. + +P. 321, ll. 32-3. Verse-quotation, from 'Macbeth,' viz. i. 3. + +P. 333, l. 2. 'Russell.' Before misspelled 'Russel' (p. 155). + +P. 337, ll. 17-18. 'Auld Robin Grey' [= Gray], by Lady Ann Lindsay. +'Lament for the Defeat,' &c., viz. 'The Flowers of the Forest,' by (1) +Mrs. Cockburn; 'I've seen the smiling,' &c. (2), Miss Jane Elliot. 'I've +heard the lilting,' &c. + +P. 342, l. 1. 'Shakspeare.' Quotation from Sonnet lxxiii. + +P. 380, ll. 6-7. Horace, Ep. i. l, 8-9. + +P. 382, ll. 27-9. Southey's Letters. Admirably done by his son Cuthbert +in many volumes. The seeming over-quantity have been reduced (to the +look) by the American reproduction in a single handsome volume. + +P. 394. Heading of Letter 144. 'Of the' has by misadventure slipped in a +second time here. Read, 'Of the Heresiarch Church of Rome.' + +P. 449, l. 34 onward. Mrs. Wordsworth. My excellent Correspondent the +Rev. R.P. Graves, of Dublin, thus writes me of Mrs. Wordsworth: 'I +forget whether it has been put on record, as it certainly deserves to +be, that Wordsworth habitually referred to his wife for the help of her +judgment on his poems. Mrs. Wordsworth did not indeed possess the +creative and colouring power of imagination that belonged to his sister +as well as to himself; but her simple truthfulness, her strong good +sense (which no sophistry could impose upon), and her delicate feeling +for propriety, rendered her judgment a test of utmost value with regard +to any subjects of which it could take adequate cognisance. And these +were confined within no narrow range--the workings of Nature as it lived +and moved around her, social equities and charities, religious and moral +truth, tried by the heart as well as by the head, and verbal expression, +required by her to avoid the regions of the merely abstract and +philosophical, and keep to the lower but more poetical ground of +idiomatic strength and transparent logic.' + +P. 457, l. 18. 'The (almost) contemporary notice of Milton.' A still +more significant contemporary notice of Milton than the well-known one +of the text occurs in 'The Censure of the Rota upon Mr. Milton's book +entituled The Ready and Easie Way to establish a Free Commonwealth, +1660, by James Harrington,' as comes out at p. 16 ('_my_ Oceana'). As it +seems to have escaped the commentators, a short quotation must be given +here: 'Though you have scribled your eyes out, your works have never +been printed but for the company of Chandlers and Tobacco-Men, who are +your Stationers, and the onely men that vend your Labors' (pp. 4-5). 'He +[a member of the Rota] said that he himself reprieved the Whole _Defence +of the People of England_ for a groat, that was sentenced to vile +_Mundungus_, and had suffer'd inevitably (but for him), though it cost +you much oyle and the Rump 300_l._ a year,' &c. (ibid.). This of the +'Defence'!!! + +P. 459, l. 7 onward. Horace, Ode iv. 2, 1; ibid. 2, 27. + +P. 462, l. 15. 'Walter Scott is not a careful composer,' &c. This recurs +in Mr. Aubrey do Vere's 'Recollections' (p. 487 onward). I venture as a +Scot to observe that for this one slight misquotation by Scott, on which +so large a conclusion is built, the quotations by Wordsworth from others +would furnish twenty-fold. He was singularly inexact in quotation, as +even these Notes and Illustrations will satisfy in the places--scarcely +in a single instance being verbally accurate. 'Sweet' certainly was a +perfectly fitting word for the sequestered lake of St. Mary in its +serene summer beauty. Moreover, swans are not usually found singly, but +in pairs; and a pair surely differenced not greatly the symbol of +loneliness. The latter remark points to Wordsworth's further objection, +as stated to Mr. de Vere (as _supra_). + +P. 492, l. 26. 'In the case of a certain poet since dead,' &c. I may +record what his own son has not felt free to do, that this was Sir +Aubrey de Vere, whose 'Song of Faith, and other Poems,' has not yet +gathered its ultimate renown. Wordsworth greatly admired the modest +little volume. See one of his Sonnets on page 495. Nor with the +Laureate's poem-play of 'Queen Mary' (Tudor) winning inevitable welcome +ought it to be forgotten--as even prominent critics of it are +sorrowfully forgetting--that Sir Aubrey de Vere, so long ago as 1847, +published _his_ drama of 'Mary Tudor.' I venture to affirm that it takes +its place--a lofty one--beside 'Philip van Artevelde,' and that it need +fear no comparison with 'Queen Mary.' Early and comparatively modern +supreme poetry somehow gets out of sight for long. + +P. 497, 1. 15. Read 'no angel smiled.' I can only offer the plea of an +old Worthy, who said, 'Errata are inevitable, for we are human; and to +have none would imply eyes behind as well as before, or the wallet of +our errors all in front.' G. + + + + +INDEX. + + +* * * As pointed out in the places, the 'Contents' of Vol. III. give the +details of topics in the 'Notes and Illustrations of the Poems' and of +'Letters and Extracts of Letters' so minutely, as to obviate their +record here; thus lightening the Index. G. + + +A. + +Abuses, i. 284. + +Acquiescence, not choice, i. 19. + +Action, springs of, i. 160. + +_Addresses, Two, to the Freeholders of Westmoreland_, i. 211-270; + occasion of writing, i. 214. + +Addison, i. 357, iii. 508. + +Adventurers, i. 241. + +_Advice to the Young_, i. 295-326. + +Admiration, unqualified, i. 312. + +Advancement and preferment of youth, i. 352. + +'Age, present,' supposed moral inferiority of, i. 310. + +Agitators, i. 249. + +Alpedrinha, i. 56. + +Allies, to be supported, i. 138; + how, 138-9, _et seqq._ + +Alban's, St., ii. 46. + +Alston, ii. 193. + +'Altering' of poems, ii. 207. + +Alfoxden, iii. 16.[277] + +[277] This first mention of Alfoxden in the 'Notes and Illustrations of +the Poems' leads the Editor to record here the title-page of a truly +delightful privately-printed volume, by the Rev. W.L. Nichols, M.A., +Woodlands: _The Quantocks and their Associations_ (1873), 41 pp. and +Appendix, xxxii, pp. A photograph of 'Wordsworth's glen, Alfoxden' (p. +6) is exquisite. G. + +'Amends,' how to make, i. 130-1, _et seqq._ + +American war, i. 135-6. + +American edition of poems, iii. 483-4. + +Ambleside, ii. 224-6; + road from, to Keswick, ii. 227-8. + +Anxiety, moderate, i. 324. + +_Appendix_ + _to Bishop Watson's Sermon_, i. 24-30; + _to Contention of Cintra_, i 175-179. + (See preface, I. xiv.-xix.) + +_Apology for the French Revolution_, i. 1-23. + (See preface, I. x.-xix.) + +Arbitrary, + distinctions, i. 16-17; + power, i. 158-9. + +Aristocracy, i. 19. + +Aristarchus, ii. 17. + +Armistice, i. 84; + preamble of, i. 86; + articles of, i. 88-94. + +Armstrong, Dr., iii. 506. + +Army, + British, departure of, i. 38; + Spanish, the people, i. 47; + French, and the French government, i. 95. + +'Arrow,' i. 21. + +Artevelde, van, Philip, iii. 492. + +Art and nature, ii. 157-61. + +Arts and science, i. 154; + fine, i. 323. + +Ashe, i. 360. + +Ashley, iii. 507. + +Assembly, i. 147. + +Asturias, i. 52-3. + + +B. + +'_Bad_ people,' ii. 41. + +'Babes in the wood,' ii. 98. + +Bacon, + quotation from, i. 357; + and Shakespeare, iii. 457. + +Beia, i. 55. + +Benevolence, i. 171. + +'Beck.' i. 336. + +Beaumont, Sir George H. and Lady, + _letters to_, ii. 146-201; + drawings by Sir George, ii. 151. + +Beaumont, Sir John, ii 346, iii. 505. + +Bell, Peter, ii. 182. + +Bell, Dr., iii. 507. + +Bede, iii. 506. + +Biscayans, i. 60. + +Biography, of authors, ii. 11-12. + +Birthday, iii. 443-4. + +Bonaparte, i. 37; + acknowledgment of titles, i. 84-5; + influence of concession on, i. 93-4; + ravager of Europe, i. 115; + formidable yet weak, i. 163-4; + to decrease, i. 200, ii. 18, _et alibi frequenter_. + +Books, religious, i. 335. + +'Bolton, Mr.,' i. 350. + +Boswell's Johnson, ii. 9. + +Bran [misprinted Braw], iii. 69. + +Bleeding, good, i. 86. + +Britain, history of a noble one, i. 101-2. + +Brougham, + public life of, i. 225, _et seqq._, 242-8, _et seqq._ + later opinion of, iii. 504. + +Bruce, Michael, ii. 21, 343. + +Bruce, P.H.. iii. 507. + +Browne, Sir Thomas, ii. 23. + +Browning, Robert, + _letter to the Editor_, i. xxxiv.; + quotation from poem of, iii. 508. + +Brun, Frederica, iii. 505. + +Brooke, Lord, iii. 560. + +Burke, i. 21, 357. + +Burns, Robert, Cottar's Saturday-night, i. 356, 360; + _letter to a friend of_, ii. 1-19; + Gilbert, ii. 5, 19, 343; + fitted to tell the whole truth of, ii. 6-7; + quotations from, ii. 7, 13-14, 331, 343 (bis), 347, iii. 436, 506. + +Building and gardening, ii. 184-191. + +Buttermere and Crummock, ii. 230. + +Burnet, Thomas, ii. 327, 507. + +Burnet, Bishop, iii. 506. + +Buchanan, iii. 459. + +Byron, iii. 462-3, 503. + + +C. + +Calamity, how to be regarded, i. 52. + +Castile, council of, i. 59. + +Cadiz, governor of, i. 92. + +_Catholic Relief Bill_, i. 259-70. + +Camden, ii. 27, 343-4. + +Carter, Miss, 'Spring,' iii. 426. + +Campbell, odd forgetfulness of, ii. 445. + +Celandine, small, iii. 505. + +Church of England, servility of its clergy, i. 3-4; + notices of, i. 262-4, 283, _et seqq._ + +Chamber, personal character of and its chief, ii. 140-1. + +Child and man, i. 170. + +Charles I., tyranny of, i. 310; + epitaph of, ii. 49; + Sydney and, ii. 50. + +Chatterton, ii. 21, 343. + +Churchyard, village, ii. 33-4; + country, ii. 41, _et seqq._; + on sea-coast, ii. 434. + +Chiabiera, ii. 58, 68, _et seqq._ + +Christabelle, ii. 427. + +Chronological classification of poems, iii. 474. + +Clark, Mrs., ii. 66-7, 344-5. + +Clergyman, the, i. 286-7, _et seqq._ + +Classical study, iii. 479. + +Cleveland, history of, iii. 508. + +Courts, corruption of, i. 14. + +Corruption, i. 20. + +_Contention of Cintra_, i. 31-172; + occasion of writing, i. 35, 129; + importance of, i. 37, 143; + impression produced by the, i. 37; + condemned, i. 65; + reception by the people, i. 69; + results of, as a military act, i. 70-1; + critical examination of its terms, i. 71, _et seqq._; + not necessary, i. 82; + military results, i. 84, _et seqq._; + conditions of, thus far examined, i. 99; + injury done to British character, i. 99, 100, 101-2; + sorrow of the nation over, i. 103-4; + punishment demanded, i. 104-5; + to be repudiated, i. 105-6; + disgrace of, i. 121; + _Vindication of the Opinions on_, i. 195 209. + (See preface. Vol. I. xiv.-xix.) + +Courage, i. 50; + intellectual, lacking, i. 74-5. + +Constancy, i. 51. + +Condemnation, inevitable, i. 82-3. + +Cortes, i. 147. + +Companions, i. 229. + +Contradictions, i. 237. + +Counters and stakes, i. 81. + +County elections, entire charge of, i. 251-2. + +Conciliation and concession, i. 265. + +Commissioners, report of, i. 274. + +'Compulsory' relief, i. 278. + +Cooeperation of working people, i. 282. + +Continuous education, i. 355-6. + +Cotton, Charles, and Walton, ii. 89, 345. + +Cotton, Dr., ii. 142-4. + +Contempt, ii, 18. + +'Common life,' ii. 81-2, _et seqq._ + +Cowper, ii. 104, 211, 346. + +Collins, ii. 120, iii. 419. + +Coleridge, ii. 155-6, 163, 164, 166, 167, + 168, 170, 174-5, 183-4, 193, iii. 427, + 441, 442, 444, 469-70, 492, 507, + _et alibi frequenter_. + +Coleridge, Hartley, iii. 482, _et alibi_. + +Coleridge, the Lord, i. xxxiii. + +Coniston, ii. 226-7. + +Conversations and personal reminiscences of Wordsworth, iii. 403-504. + +Cowley, iii. 465. + +Copyright, international, iii. 483. + +Cockburn, Mrs., iii. 509. + +Criticism, false, ii. 175-181; + result of in _Edinburgh Review_ and _Quarterly_, iii. 437; + a low ability for, iii. 438-9; + verbal, iii. 474-5. + +Critic, decision of, ii. 110. + +Crabbe, iii. 503, _et alibi_. + +Crashaw, ii. 344. + +Crowe, iii. 506. + +Cromwell, i. 166, 359. + +Curates, i. 285-6. + +Currie, Dr., ii. 5; + indignation with, ii. 7-8, 12. + +Cuckoo, ii. 136-7. + +Cumberland's Calvary, iii. 415. + + + +D. + +Dalrymple, Sir Hew, i. 72, _et frequenter_. + +Daughter, education of a, i. 329-33. + +Dante, i. 359, _et alibi_. + +Da Vinci, Leonardo, iii. 506. + +Darwin, Dr., iii. 507. + +D'Abrantes, title of, wrongly acknowledged, i. 68, 357. + +Delusions, i. 19. + +Debt, national, i. 20. + +'Declarations,' i. 43-4. + +Defeats and disasters, i. 44-45. + +Delicacy, no, i. 98. + +Defence of fellow-countrymen, i. 113. + +Despotism i. 139-40, 229. + +Despond, those who, i. 171 2. + +Detraction, no, ii. 42. + +Dedication, to the Queen, i. v.; + of 1815, ii. 144. + +De Vere, Sir Aubrey, iii. 495, 509-10. + +De Quincey, i. xxxiii.-iv., iii. 507. + +_Diction, of poetic_, ii. 101-5. + +'Difficulties,' i. 72. + +Diogenes, i. 238. + +Disabilities, civil, i. 269. + +Dissenters, i. 262. + +'Dignity,' individual, i. 292. + +Discrimination in epitaphs, ii. 37-8. + +Doe, White, the, iii. 430, _et alibi_. + +Double sense, ii. 45-6. + +Drummond, Miss. ii. 65-6. + +Dryden, ii. 118, iii. 416, 419. + +Duty, i. 40-1, 129, 326, 349. + +Dupont, i. 358. + +Duppa, ii. 162, 346, iii. 506. + +Dubartas, ii. 111-12. + +Dyer, John, ii. 196-7, 346, iii. 216, 405, 506, _et alibi_. + + +E. + +Economists, unfortunate, i. 233. + +_Education, of_, i. 327-56; + what it is, i. 343-4, _et seqq._, + moral, i. 346-7; + of Scotland, i. 348; + continuous, i. 355-6. + +_Edinburgh Review_, censured, ii. 16, _et alibi_. + +Edwards, John, ii. 33, 344. + +Edgeworth, Francis, iii. 508. + +Egle, bank of, iii. 508. + +Election, free, i. 234. + +Elizabeth, i. 310. + +Elliot, Jane, iii. 509. + +Emerson, i. xxxiv., _et alibi_. + +Ends, i. 80-1. + +Enthusiasm, i. 149. + +_Epitaphs, upon, from 'The Friend,'_ ii. 27-40; + laws of, 31, _et seqq._; + requisites of, ii. 35, _et seqq._; + a perfect, ii. 39; + _The country Churchyard, and critical Examination of ancient_, ii. 41-59; + in Germany, ii. 44; + homeliness, ii. 46-7; + in Westmoreland, ii. 51-2; + of Pope, criticised, ii. 55, _et seqq._; + _Celebrated Epitaphs considered_, ii. 60-75; + favourable examples, ii. 72, _et seqq._ (See preface, I. xxiv.-v.) + +Equality, i. 14, 288. + +Established church and priesthood, i. 232; + preservation of, i. 290. + +Eschylus, iii. 508. + +'Estate,' gift of, ii. 151. + +Europe, state of, i. 220-1. + +Evil, ii. 91. + +Excursion, ii. 145-8, 168-9. + +Executive, the power, i. 13. + + +F. + +Faith, ii. 109-10. + +Fancy and imagination, ii. 134-5, _et seqq._ + +'Favourite spots,' ii. 424. + +Fame, posthumous, iii. 458, 493. + +Faber, iii. 488, 566. + +Family, a single, 215-16. _et seqq._; + defence of the, I. 217-18. _et seqq._ + +Feelings, i. 65. 158, ii. 83-4, _et seqq._; + rely on our, ii. 99. + +Ferguson, General, i. 137. + +Fermor, Mrs., ii. 178. + +Fenwick, Miss, i. xxvi.-xxx. + +Ferdinand VII., i. 358. + +'Fire.' i. 118-19. + +Flowers, iii. 447. + +Florus, i. 359. + +Fortitude, ancient, i. 205-6. + +Forebodings, i. 249-50. + +Fore-feeling, ii. 344. + +Founders of a school to be remembered, i. 351. + +Fool, in Lear, iii. 419. + +Fools, Paradise of, ii. 18. + +_Fox, letter to, on poems_, ii. 202-5; + reply, ii. 205-6. + +Frere, i. 67-8, 96, 358. + +French armies, character of, i. 79-80; + to surrender at discretion, i. 81; + under French government, i. 90. + +'Free,' a nation resolved to be, i. 146. + +Franchise, i. 223, 239. + +Fuller, iii. 506. + + +G. + +Gardening, ii. 174; + and building, ii. 184-191. + +Generals, British, bearing of, i. 79; + political, i. 95; + incompetent and competent, i. 143. + +Girl, peasant, iii. 466-7; + education of, i. 341. + +Goldsmith, ii. 154, 333. + +Goethe, iii. 435-6, 465. + +Grievances, national, i. 4. + +Gregoire, i. 4-5, 357. + +Gratifications, what, i. 315-16. + +Gratuitous instruction, i. 346. + +Grammar, &c., i. 353. + +Gray, ii. 41, 67-8, 85-6, 327, 344, 345, iii. 507. + +Gray, James, ii. 5, 343. + +Grimm, Baron, ii. 113. + +Gratitude for kindnesses, ii. 149. + +Grasmere, ii. 229. + +Graves, Rev. R.P., M.A., i. xxxv.-vi.; + prayer by, i. 359-60. + +_Guide through the District of the Lakes_, ii. 215-313. (See under +_Lakes_ and different places.) + + +H. + +Hamlet, i. 22. + +Hakewell, ii. 113, 345. + +Hamilton, Sir R.W., iii. 492, 506, 508, _et frequenter_. + +Hamilton, Miss, iii. 508. + +Hazlitt, i. xxiv., ii. 168, 177, iii. 125, _et alibi_. + +Hearne, iii. 505. + +Hemans, Mrs., iii. 507. + +Hessians, i. 136. + +High-minded men, i. 76. + +Hope, i. 41, 123-4, 148, 169, 322-3. + +Honour, i. 78. + +Home influences, i. 345. + +Houbraken, ii. 170, 346. + +Homer and the classics, iii. 458-9. + +Horace, i. 357, iii. 509 (_bis_). + +Humanity, i. 78, 274. + +Humility, iii. 491. + +Humour, iii. 495, 496. + +'Hurricane,' iii. 507. + + +I. + +Idiots, ii. 212. + +Impulses, grand, i. 115. + +Imagination, i. 154; + and taste, ii. 126, _et seqq._; + and fancy, ii. 134-5, _et seqq._ + +Immoral, the perishable, i. 163. + +Improvement, process of intellectual, i. 318-20. + +Immortality, ii. 27-30. + +Imbecility, i. 172. + +Imagery and imagination, iii. 464-5. + +Independence and liberty, i. 102-3; + of Spain, i. 151. + +'Indifferent,' i. 110. + +Invasion of our country, supposed, i. 114. + +Infancy and childhood, i. 318. + +Intellect, sharpening of, i. 340. + +Infant-schools, i. 343. + +Inscriptions at Coleorton, ii. 191-2, 195-6. + +'Intimations of immortality,' iii. 464. + +Individual character, iii. 467-8. + +Intake, iii. 505. + +Ireland, i. 267-8, _et alibi_. + + +J. + +James I., ii. 47-8. + +Johnson, Dr., ii. 98, 103-4. + +Jones, Rev. Robert, iii. 506. + +Judges in England, i. 12. + +Junot, i. 55-6. + +'Judicature, court of,' not essential to a verdict on wrong, i. 108-10. + +Justice, i. 116; + moral, i. 118. + + +K. + +Kant, iii. 420. + +Keble, iii. 441. + +_Kendal and Windermere Railway_, two letters on, ii. 321-41, iii. 448-9. + +Keswick, vale of, ii. 229. + +Kirkstone, pass of, ii. 314-15. + +Klopstock, iii. 405-23. + +Knowledge, life and spirit of, i. 309; + for virtue, i. 320. + + +L. + +Laws, partial and oppressive, i. 12-13. + +Laws, delay, i. 20. + +Labour, dishonoured, i. 18. + +Lament for England, i. 112. + +Land, i. 239. + +Landscape gardens, i. 248. + +Lakes, the country of, as formed by Nature, ii. 235-6; + as affected by its inhabitants, ii. 256-69; + changes and rules of taste for preventing their bad effects, ii. 269-86; + miscellaneous observations, ii. 287-301; + excursions to the top of Scawfell, &c., ii. 302-15; + itinerary of, ii. 316-19. + (See preface, I. xxv.-vi.) + +Laodamia, iii. 496. + +Laing, Malcom, ii. 345. + +Lamb, letters of, iii. 507. + +Leon, i. 60. + +_Legislation for the Poor_, &c., i. 271-94. + +Letter-writing, difficulty of, ii. 149-50. + +Leech-gatherer, ii. 206-7. + +Letters and extracts of Letters, ii. 217-401. + (See preface, I. xxx.-ii.) + +Liberty, i. 6; + against oppression, i. 52; + and independence, i. 155-6. + +Life, i. 77-8, 280. + +Library for poor, i. 337-8. + +Lindsay, Lady Ann, iii. 509. + +Louis XVI., 'royal martyr' (so-called), i. 4-5, _et seqq._ + +Loyalty, enthusiasm of, i. 46. + +Lowther family, i. 235, iii. 507-8. + +'Lower orders,' i. 273. + +Loughrigg Tarn, ii. 155. + +Loweswater, ii. 230. + +Locke, iii. 461. + +Loison, i. 357. + +Luff, Mr., ii. 172. + +Lucretius, ii. 347. + +Lyttleton, Lucy, ii. 52; + Lord, monody criticised, ii. 53-4. + +Lyrical ballads, defence of, ii. 79-100. + +Lying, iii. 497-8. + + +M. + +Massaredo, i. 56-8, 357. + +Manufactories, workmen in, i. 282-3. + +_Mathetes, Letter of_, i. 297-308; + _Answer to_, i. 309-26. + +Madras, system of education, i. 341, 343. + +Malignity, ii. 17. + +Mason, William, ii. 62, _et seqq._ + +Matter-of-fact and poetry, ii. 86. + +Macpherson, ii. 122, _et seqq._ + +Madoc, ii. 169, 171. + +Manner in conversation, iii. 480. + +Means, i. 80. + +Memory, ii. 41. + +Metrical language, ii. 95-6, _et seqq._ + +Mearely, ii. 344. + +Mirza, vision of, i. 3. + +Military spirit, i. 48-9; + men to be judged by the people, i. 83-4. + +'Ministry,' the conduct of the, i. 105-6. + +Might, i. 116. + +Miscarriages, national, i. 128-9. + +Misery, effects of, i. 281. + +Milton, i. 358 (_bis_), 359, 360. ii. 6, 40, 114-15, 136, + 142 _et seqq._, 344, 345, 346, iii. 430-1, 449, 453-4, + 461, 505, 506, 507, 508; + contemporary notice of, iii. 509, _et alibi frequenter_. + +Monarchy, objections to, i. 13, _et seqq._ + +'Moral' superiority, i. 165. + +_Monuments to Literary Men_, ii. 20-22; + beauty of, ii. 31-2; + monition of, ii. 32-3; + near churches, ii. 34-5; + in churches, iii. 450-1. + +Montrose, Marquis of, ii. 49, 51, 344. + +_Morning Post_, letter to, ii. 321-41. + +Morla, i. 357-8. + +Montgomery, James, iii. 505. + + +N. + +Nations, the two suffering, i. 63-4; + to speak to representatives of, i. 144-5. + +Nature, i. 317, ii. 60, iii. 493-4; + and art, ii. 157-161. + +Needpath Castle, sonnet on, ii. 152, 345-6. + +Nelson, Lord, ii. 173. + +Necklace, diamond, i. 357. + +Newcastle, Duchess of, iii. 508. + +Nobility, hereditary, a wrong, i. 17. + +_Notes and Illustrations of the Poems_ + (_a_), the notes originally added to the first and successive editions; + (_b_) the whole of the I.F. MSS., iii 1-216. + (For details of these Notes, see minute 'Contents' of Vol. III.) + +O. + +Obliquities of admiration, ii. 116. + +Observation and description, ii. 131-144. + +'Occurrences,' i. 98. + +Offices, i. 18-19. + +Oligarchy, i. 147. + +'Oppression,' i. 168-9. + +'Opposition,' in House of Commons needed, i. 219; + the party of, i. 222; + degenerated, i. 225. + +Originality, ii. 126. + +Oviedo, i. 63. + +Oversight, culpable, i. 68. + +Ovid, iii. 506. + + +P. + +Paine, Thomas, i. 14, 357. + +Parchment, 'dead,' i. 21. + +Past, retrospect of, i. 43-4. + +Passions and passion, i. 115-16, ii. 127, _et seqq._; + in poetry, iii. 473-4; + though not declamatory, iii. 489. + +'Party,' i. 144, 219. + +Patriot, the, i. 150. + +Palafox, i. 167, 359. + +Pasley, letter to, i. 195-206; + essay on the military policy of Great Britain, i. 197, 205, _et seqq._ + +Palmers, ii. 46. + +Page, Frederic, iii. 508. + +'People,' the, i. 10, 11; + Spanish, i. 47-8; + _their ways and needs_, i. 334-339. + +Peasants and mechanics, i. 11-12; + peasantry, i. 159. + +'Petition,' vindication of, i. 107-8, 110. + +'Petty' things, i. 120. + +Peninsula, southern, i. 122-3. + +'Peace,' i. 221. + +Peterkin, ii. 5, 343. + +'Pedlar,' ii. 163, 346. + +Pelayo and Cid, i. 358. + +Petrarch, i. 359. + +Philosophy, i. 316. + +Pity, i. 5. + +Pitt, ii. 174. + +Pluralities, i. 284. + +Pleasures, poetic, ii. 13; + production of, ii. 90. + +Portugal, i. 80-1. + +Portugeze, i. 43, 54-5, 67, 86, 97, 100-1, _et seqq._ + +'Political' generals, i. 78-9, 95. + +Policy, i. 116. + +Poor, laws to be reformed, i. 232; + amendment act, i. 273-4, _et seqq._; + just claims of the, i. 274-7, 278-9. + +Pope, ii. 55, _et seqq._, 116, iii. 419. + +_Poetry, of the Principles of and the 'Lyrical Ballads,'_ ii. 79-100; + _as a study_, ii. 106-130; + kinds of readers of, ii. 106; + _as observation and description_, ii. 131-144; + forms of, ii. 132-3; + of the principle of and Wordsworth's own poems, ii. 208-14. + (See preface, I. xxv.-vi.) + +Poet, what is a, ii. 87, _et seqq._ + +'Popular,' ii. 129; + vox populi, ii. 130. + +Poems, classification of, ii. 133, _et seqq._ + +Power without right, i. 159-60. + +Priesthood, French, i. 6-7. + +Principles, i. 39, 43, 74-5, 144, 145; + of poetry, ii. 79-100. + +Primogeniture, i. 16. + +Prostitution, i. 18. + +'Precautions,' i. 45, 61. + +Prudence, i. 58-9. + +Private, a, individual, i. 83. + +Private property, i. 89-90. + +Preface, Editor's, i. vii-xxxviii. + +Prisoners of war, i. 89. + +Property, a sound basis, i. 240. + +Protestantism and Popery, i. 261. + +Progress, i. 314-15. + +Prosaisms, ii. 85. + +Prose, more of but for Coleridge, iii. 457. + +Purpose, worthy, ii. 82. + +Public, not the people, ii. 130. + +Puny, ii. 347. + +Pyrrhus, i. 359. + + +Q. + +Qualities, moral, i. 49-50. + +Queen, dedication and poem to the, i. v.-vi. + + +R. + +Racine, i. 5-6. + +'Rash' politicians, i. 248. + +Reputation, i. 3. + +Republic, American, i. 10. + +Republican, Wordsworth a, i. 3, 10; + republicanism defended, i. 9, 10, _et seqq._ + +Revolution, i. 6; + war against the French, i. 135, iii. 490. + +Reform, parliamentary, i. 22. + +Representation, universal, i. 11. + +'Rejoicing,' deplorable, i. 69, 105. + +Regeneration, national, i. 122. + +'Remonstrance,' i. 127. + +Representation of Westmoreland, i. 215. + +Religion, in poetry, ii. 108-9, _et seqq._ + +Religious instruction, i. 354. + +Reserve, biographical, ii. 9. + +'Reliques,' ii. 120, _et seqq._ + +Reynolds, Sir Joshua, ii. 153-7, 161-2, 345. + +'Recluse,' the, ii. 163, 105. + +Revision of Authorised Version, &c., iii. 471-3. + +Riddance, i. 115. + +Royalty, no more, in France, i. 5. + +Road, anecdote, i. 22; + old, iii. 428. + +Robespierre, ii. 18. + +Roscius, Young, ii. 164, 165. + +Robinson Crusoe, ii. 468. + +Rogers, iii. 516, _et alibi_. + +'Ruin mouldering.' i. 237. + +Russell, iii. 507, 509. + + +S. + +Saragossa, i. 117, 121, 166, 357. + +Sass, Padre St. Iago, i. 167, 359. + +Scott, i. xiv., iii. 442-30, 445, 457, 462, 487; + vindication of, 509: _et alibi frequenter_. + +Scotland, critics of, ii. 116. + +Schiller, iii. 417. + +Seville, i. 1-3, 60. + +Shelvocke, iii. 505. + +Shelley, iii. 489, 493, 501, 503. + +Shakespeare, ii. 113, 114, 136, 139, 140, 141, 345, 346, + iii. 460, 488, 506, 509, _et alibi frequenter_. + +Silence, ii. 10. + +Simonides, ii. 30. + +Sincerity, ii. 48. + +Slavery, i. 77. + +Smith, Charlotte, iii. 507. + +Southey's Letters, iii. 509. + +Spain and Britain, i. 41-2, 161-2, _et seqq._ + +Spanish people, patriotism of, i. 45-7, _et seqq._, 125-6, _et seqq._ + +Spenser, i. 322, ii. 111-12, 345, 347, iii. 466, 506, _et alibi_. + +_Speech on laying the Foundation stone of Bowness School_, i. 350-6. + +Spelling and style, iii. 452-3. + +Struggle, how the, ought to have been carried on, i. 116. + +Statesmen and courtiers, minds of, i. 130-1, _et seqq._ + +Stagnation, apparent, i. 313. + +Statistical account of Scotland, ii. 44. + +Style, ii. 84, _et seqq._ + +Stevens, George, ii. 113-14. + +Steamboats and railways, ii. 340. + +Superstition, i. 117. + +Superiority, i. 321. + +Sword, not pen, i. 95. + +Sympathy, ii. 38. + +Sydney, Sir Philip, ii. 49-50. + +Sympson, Rev. John, iii. 506. + + +T. + +Tam o'Shanter, ii. 13-14. + +Tempers and dispositions, i. 279. + +Teacher, enlightened, i. 325. + +Tenderness, iii. 480, 489. + +Tennyson, iii. 390, 492, _et alibi_. + +Things, if not men, i. 142. + +Thomson, ii. 117, _et seqq._, 160, iii. 505, _et alibi_. + +Timidity, i. 231. + +Tourist, directions and information for the, ii. 221, _et seqq._ + +Traitors, i. 23. + +Tranquillity from 'Relief Bill' not possible, i. 266-7. + +Truth, love of, i. 323, iii. 488. + +Trespass, iii. 425. + +Tree-planting, iii. 436. + +Transcendental world, iii. 467. + +Triad, iii. 505-6. + +Turner, Sharon, iii. 506. + +Tyrant, the, i. 70, _et seqq._ + +Tyranny, French, basis of, i. 139, 148. + + +U. + +Ulpha, Kirk, ii. 227. + +Ullswater, ii. 230-4. + +Union of nations, i. 152-3. + +Unworthy objects, i. 326. + + +V. + +Vane, Sir George, ii. 47. + +Verse, why write in, ii. 93-4. + +Veracity and ideality, iii. 486. + +Vespers, Sicilian, i. 359. + +Vimiera, i. 43, 75. + +Vindication of opinions, &c. i. 195-209. + +Vice and Virtue, ii, 42-3, 61. + +Virgil, i. 358 (_bis_), iii. 469, _et alibi_. + (See II. 274-9.) + +Virgin, the, iii. 492. + +Voice of the people, i. 113. + +Volunteers, i. 234. + + +W. + +Watson, Bp., i. 3, _et seqq._ + (See preface, I. x.-iiv.) + +Watson, Thomas, ii. 313. + +War, just and necessary, i. 39-40; + opponents of, i. 40; + with France, wished still, i. 201-2, _et seqq._; + varied opinions of, i. 226-7. + +Warrior, happy, ii. 173-4. + +Wales, North, excursion in, ii. 197-201. + +Wastdale, ii. 230. + +Walks, iii. 423. + +Warwick, Sir Philip, i. 359. + +Walker, A., book on the lakes overlooked, ii. 346-7, iii. 506(?). + +Waterton, iii. 506. + +Wealth, i. 15, 189. + +Westmoreland, two letters to freeholders of, i. xix.-xxi., 211, _et seqq._ + +Wellesley (= Wellington), i. 65-6, 68-9, 126-7, _et seqq., et alibi_. + +Weever, John, ii. 27, 50, 344. + +Westall, iii. 506. + +Wickedness, prodigious, i. 170. + +Wilson, Alexander, ii. 346. + +Wilson, Professor, ii. 208-14. + (See under _Mathetes_.) + +Windermere, ii. 223-4. + +Wieland, iii. 418. + +Winchelsea, Countess of, iii. 508. + +Wordsworth, Mrs. iii. 509. + +Workmen in manufactories, i. 282-3. + +Worthlessnesses swept away, i. 311. + +Woman, iii. 457. + + +Y. + +_Young, Advice to the_. i. 295-326, _et alibi_. + (See under Education.) + + +Z. + +Zaragoza, i. 167. + + +FINIS. + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Prose Works of William Wordsworth +by William Wordsworth + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PROSE WORKS OF WILLIAM *** + +***** This file should be named 16550.txt or 16550.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/5/5/16550/ + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Chuck Greif and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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