Ah, well for him if here his sufferings ceased, Or through his frame reviving ardour burn, [sore, His half-heal'd wounds inflamed; again the wheels With open jaws the moment of thy fate, Shall boast of mighty loads that Dobbin drew; Though faithful to a proverb we regard By night a murderer, lurking for his prey ;) The deed discover'd, and the news once spread, And all the glorious pageantry of heaven. Low, on the utmost boundary of the sight, Whilst thus the loiterer's utmost stretch of soul High o'er his home, and all his little woes, But O, the fearful task! yet well I know shower,) Stands singly down this solitary way, knows The solid gain that from conviction flows; The dreariest task that winter nights can bring, For this he's doom'd awhile disguised to range, For this his predecessor's skin he wears, The humbler shepherd here with joy beholds E'en Giles, for all his cares and watchings past, Teach me still more to wonder, more to know! WILLIAM WORDSWORTH. WILLIAM WORDSWORTH, the founder of what is called the Lake school of poetry, was born in 1770, of a respectable family, at Cockermouth, in Cumberland. He received his early education at the grammar-school of Hawkshead, where he greatly excelled in his classical studies, and was remarkable for his thoughtful disposition, and taste for poetry, in which he made his first attempt, when at the age of thirteen. In 1787, he was removed to St. John's College, Cambridge, where he graduated B. A. and M. A.; and, in 1793, he published a poetical account of a pedestrian tour on the continent, entitled Descriptive Sketches in Verse, &c., followed by the Evening Walk, an epistle, in verse, addressed to a young lady. In alluding to the Descriptive Sketches, says Coleridge," seldom, if ever, was the emergence of an original poetic genius above the literary horizon more evidently announced." After wandering about in various parts of England, our author took a cottage at Alforton, in Somersetshire, near the then residence of Coleridge, where they were regarded by the good people of the neighbourhood as spies and agents of the French Directory. Our benevolent author, however, appears to have been considered the more dangerous character of the two. "As to Coleridge," one of the parish authorities is said to have remarked, "there is not so much harm in him, for he is a wild brain that talks whatever comes uppermost; but that (Wordsworth) he is the dark traitor. You never hear him say a syllable on the subject." In 1798, he published a volume of his Lyrical Ballads, which met with much abuse and few admirers, but those who applauded, applauded enthusiastically. morials of a Tour on the Continent; also a Description of the Scenery of the Lakes in the North of England, with illustrative remarks on the scenery of the Alps. His last publication was Yarrow Revisited, which appeared in 1834. The genius of Mr. Wordsworth has been a matter of critical dispute ever since he first made pretension to any, and it is yet a question with some, whether his productions are not those of " an inspired idiot.” It would be, however, useless to deny him the reputation of a poet, though between the equally extravagant adoration and censure, of which he has been the object, it is difficult to define the exact position which will be ultimately assigned him in the rank of literature. Coleridge, who, as might be expected, is one of his most enthusiastic admirers, says that, "in imaginative powers, Wordsworth stands nearest of all modern writers to Shakspeare and Milton, and yet in a kind perfectly unborrowed, and his own." The author of an essay on his theory and writings, printed in Blackwood's Magazine for 1830, gives a very fair estimate of his poetical genius. "The variety of subjects," he observes, "which Wordsworth has touched; the varied powers which he has displayed; the passages of redeeming beauty interspersed even amongst the worst and dullest of his productions; the originality of detached thoughts, scattered throughout works, to which, on the whole, we must deny the praise of originality; the deep pathos, and occasional grandeur of his style; the real poetical feeling which generally runs through its many modulations; his accurate observation of external nature; and the success with which he blends the purest and most devotional thoughts with the glories of the visible universe-all these are merits, which so far make up in number what they want in weight,' that, although insufficient to raise him to the shrine, they fairly admit him within the sacred temple of poesy." For our own parts, though we are not among those who call, as some of his admirers do, the poetry of Wordsworth" an actual revelation," we admit to have found in his works beauties which no other poet, perhaps, could have struck out of the peculiar sphere to which he has confined his imagination. His Recollections of Early Childhood, and a few others, are sublime compositions; whilst, on the other hand, his lines to a Glow-worm, et id omne genus, are despicable and ridiculous. In 1803, he married a Miss Mary Hutchinson, of Penrith, and settled at Grassmere, in Westmoreland, for which county, as well as that of Cumberland, he was subsequently appointed distributor of stamps. In 1807, he gave to the public a second volume of his Ballads; and, in 1809, with an intention to recommend a vigorous prosecution of the war with Spain, he published his only prose production, concerning the relations of Great Britain, Spain, and Portugal to each other. In 1814, appeared, in quarto, his Excursion, a poem, which has been highly extolled, and is undoubtedly one of his most original and best compositions. It was followed, in 1815, by the White Doe of Rylstone; and, in 1819, by his Peter Bell, to the merits of which we must confess ourselves strangers. During the same year, he published his Wagonner, a tale; followed, The private character of Mr. Wordsworth has in 1820, by the River Duddon, a series of sonnets; never been impeached by his most virulent enemies, and Vaudracour and Julia, with other pieces; and if he has any; and no man is more esteemed and Ecclesiastical Sketches. In 1822, he printed Me- | respected for his amiable qualities. THE EXCURSION, BEING A PORTION OF THE RECLUSE, PREFACE. 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. THE title announces that this is only a portion of a poem ; and the reader must be here apprized 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, com- "On man, on nature, and on human life, plying with the earnest entreaties of some valued Musing in solitude, I oft perceive friends, presents the following pages to the public. Fair trains of imagery before me rise, It may be proper to state whence the poem, of Accompanied by feelings of delight which the Excursion is a part, derives its title of Pure, or with no unpleasing sadness mixt; the Recluse. Several years ago, when the author And I am conscious of affecting thoughts retired to his native mountains, with the hope of And dear remembrances whose presence soothes being enabled to construct a literary work that | Or elevates the mind, intent to weigh might live, it was a reasonable thing that he should The good and evil of our mortal state. take a review of his own mind, and examine how -To these emotions, whensoe'er they come, far nature and education had qualified him for such Whether from breath of outward circumstance, employment. As subsidiary to this preparation, heOr from the soul-an impulse to herself, undertook to record, in verse, the origin and pro- I would give utterance in numerous verse. gress of his own powers, as far as he was acquaint-Of truth, of grandeur, beauty, love, and hope— ed with them. That work, addressed to a dear And melancholy fear subdued by faith; friend, most distinguished for his knowledge and Of blessed consolations in distress; genius, and to whom the author's intellect is of moral strength, and intellectual power; deeply indebted, has been long finished; and the Of joy in widest commonalty spread; result of the investigation which gave rise to it was Of the individual mind that keeps her own a determination to compose a philosophical poem, Inviolate retirement, subject there containing views of man, nature, and society; and To conscience only, and the law supreme to be entitled, the Recluse; as having for its Of that Intelligence which governs all; principal subject the sensations and opinions of a I sing: fit audience let me find though few!' poet living in retirement.-The preparatory poem "So pray'd, more gaining than he ask'd, the is biographical, and conducts the history of the bard, author's mind to the point when he was imboldened 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 antichapel 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 connexion 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. Holiest of men.-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 world 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 thronesI pass them unalarm'd. Not chaos, not The darkest pit of lowest Erebus, Nor aught of blinder vacancy-scoop'd out By help of dreams, can breed such fear and awe As fall upon us often when we look The author would not have deemed himself Into our minds, into the mind of man, Justified in saying, upon this occasion, so much of My haunt, and the main region of my song. performances either unfinished, or unpublished, if-Beauty-a living presence of the earth, Surpassing the most fair ideal forms Which craft of delicate spirits hath composed Or a mere fiction of what never was Within the walls of cities; may these sounds Of mighty poets; upon me bestow A gift of genuine insight; that my song Of those mutations that extend their sway More wise desires, and simpler manners ;-nurse *Not mine own fears, nor the prophetic soul My heart in genuine freedom :-all pure thoughts TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE WILLIAM, EARL OF LONSDALE, K. G. &c. &c. OFT, through thy fair domains, illustrious peer! Rydal Mount, Westmoreland, July 29, 1814. THE EXCURSION. ARGUMENT. A summer forenoon. The author reaches a ruined cottage upon a common, and there meets with a revered friend the Wanderer, of whom he gives an account. The Wanderer while resting under the shade of the trees that surround the cottage relates the history of its last inha bitant. BOOK FIRST. THE WANDERER. 'Twas summer, and the sun had mounted high: Where the wien warbles; while the dreaming man, Half conscious of the soothing melody, Upon that open level stood a grove, |