a sharp east wind blowing at the time. On reaching home he felt unwell, and retired early to rest. His illness continuing, medical aid was sought, but exhaustion and lethargy ensued.

On Sunday, April 7, 1850, when he completed his 8oth year, he was lying in so prostrated a condition that prayers were offered up for him in Rydal Church, where for so many years his venerable head had bowed in worship. In a state hovering between life and death, he continued for some days, when he awoke as from a quiet sleep. The last word he was heard to utter was the name of his beloved daughter. On the 23rd of April he calmly breathed his last, and on the 27th, followed by his sorrowing relatives, and a vast concourse from the neigbourhood, his mortal remains were deposited in Grasmere church-yard.

'A hallowed spot

Nestled among its trees, that let in gleams
And holy glimmerings on the lonesome turf,
Touching with pensive light the gentle tombs.
And soothing voices breathe around us here,
That whisper of Eternal Love to Peace,
That whisper of Eternal Peace to Love.

Here tender hearts should rest: and hither they,
Who fain would win such tenderness, should come,
And meditating lone, amidst the dead

Feel their pure presence'.

Those who are not familar with the poetry of Wordsworth, inay form some idea of its excellence from a perusal of the selection contained in the following pages, and after a closer study of his writings in a more complete form, may be ready to endorse the opinion expressed by one well able to pronounce, that he has achieved a great, a high, a holy work, the value of which is not to be measured by its success, but by its truth'.

EXTRACTS FROM THE 'EXCURSION'.

AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO THE EDITION OF 1814.

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,