finally the indictment against her was made less severe, and we are left with a hope that after her appointed time of pain is passed, she may be restored to sacred communion with her husband. This is not the place to discuss questions of justice or of mercy; the reader will find among the notes to the poem Wordsworth's statement with respect to his change of view. mate. 16. Personification. In his earliest poems, "An Evening Walk" and "Descriptive Sketches," Wordsworth does not shrink from personifications in the manner of his poetical predecessors of the eighteenth century, though perhaps less facile than some of them. A reaction followed, and the poet often preferred to speak of inanimate objects as inaniBut gradually he came to feel that it is natural for the passions to transfer their own life to objects by which they are moved, and that the rule which imposes the literalness of the understanding upon the feelings is an arbitrary and artificial rule. Accordingly in many instances in the later text "he" or "she" replaces "it," and "his" or "her" replaces "its." One or two examples sufficiently illustrate this class of alterations. In "Michael," 1. 233, in 1827, the sun himself Has scarcely been more diligent than I. In "The replaces the earlier reading "the sun itself." Excursion," Book iii, 522, we find previous to 1827 : See, rooted in the earth, its kindly bed, The unendangered myrtle. In 1827 and onwards, "her kindly bed." her kindly bed." The soul, the heart, the voice in earlier editions are frequently neuter; in later editions, feminine. A remarkable example is in the sonnet addressed to Milton (" London, 1802 "): and yet thy heart The lowliest duties on herself did lay. (1820). Previously "itself"; and the change was made although if any heart was masculine Milton's might be so described. Similarly in "The Excursion," Book ii, ll. 411, 412 (the Solitary speaking) : my voice Delivering her decisions. (1827.) Previously "its decisions." The voice, an emanation from the soul, is feminine; but the touch, a passive function of the body, is neuter. An interesting example occurs in "The Excursion," Book viii, ll. 325-327: And even the touch, so exquisitely poured Through the whole body, with a languid will So stood the text in the first, and so it stands in the final edition. But in edd. 1827-1832, probably observing that he had attributed "will" to the touch, Wordsworth introduced the reading "her functions." In 1837 he returned to the original text, and this notwithstanding the attribution to the touch of a will. 17. Deepening Religious Feeling.—The change which took place in Wordsworth's feelings may be understood in one of its aspects if we set side by side the words from the Tintern Abbey poem of 1798: Knowing that Nature never did betray The heart that loved her and words from an "Evening Voluntary" of 1834: But who is innocent? By grace divine, In Wordsworth's earlier temper there was something of stoicism, which as years went by was replaced or tempered by Christian faith. Perhaps the most striking example of this class of alterations will be found at the close of the story of Margaret in the first book of "The Excursion." The auditor of the story is touched with sorrow; the Wanderer, who has related the tale, exhorts him to check all excess of vain despondency or regret : Be wise and cheerful; and no longer read The forms of things with an unworthy eye. So stood the passage from 1814 to 1845; in the latter of these years the lines became the following: Nor more [i.e. of sorrow] would she have craved as due to One Who, in her worst distress, had ofttimes felt The unbounded might of prayer; and learned, with soul From sources deeper far than deepest pain, For the meek Sufferer. Why then should we read The Wanderer proceeds to tell how, reading aright the forms of things, he recognized in all the emblems of desolation about the ruined cottage so still an image of tranquillity that transitory sorrow and despair Appeared an idle dream, that could not live So from 1814 to 1845. In the latter year: Appeared an idle dream, that could maintain, Upon the breast of faith. This list could be much extended; but enough has been said to quicken the attention of the student of Wordsworth. He should consider for himself the reason of each emendation; the reason is seldom very obscure, and much will be learnt from such research. VII. WORDSWORTH'S PROSE WORKS AS ILLUSTRATING HIS POEMS. WORDSWORTH's prose writings (which Dr. Grosart has collected into three volumes) well deserve to be read for their own sake; but they are also of importance as a commentary on his poetical work. They fall into four chief divisions: First, those which are literary, including Wordsworth's Prefaces, his essays upon Epitaphs, the "Letter to a Friend of Robert Burns," the notes on his own poems dictated in 1843 to Isabella Fenwick, and certain letters to various correspondents; secondly, letters and other writings dealing with education, with which may be connected the admirable advice to the young, published in "The Friend” as a reply to" Mathetes" (John Wilson), who had sought for counsel in the mental and moral difficulties of ardent and aspiring youth; thirdly, writings which may be called by a word of Wordsworth's employment "loco-descriptive," in particular his "Guide through the District of the Lakes," and the two letters on the Kendal and Windermere Railway; last, political and social writings, - the "Apology for the French Revolution," the pamphlet suggested by the Convention of Cintra, the "Two Addresses to the Freeholders of Westmoreland," 1818, a posthumous paper on the Catholic Relief Bill, 1829, and the long note on Legislation for the Poor, the Working Classes, and the Church Establishment, which appeared in 1835 as a Postscript to " Yarrow Revisited and Other Poems." Wordsworth's general views on the nature of poetry, on truth of language, and on the functions of metre will be found in the "Preface to the Lyrical Ballads" and the appendix on Poetic Diction," which first appeared in 1802. If we ९९ are to define the end or object of poetry, it may be stated as "the production of excitement in co-existence with an overbalance of pleasure"; that is to say, its end is rather emotional than intellectual; the truths of science, if once taken into the general consciousness of humanity, and dwelling there as the possession of enjoying and suffering men, may become genuine material or sources of song: "Poetry is the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge, it is the impassioned expression which is in the countenance of all science . .. 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." But the poet does not create with the deliberate end in view of moving his fellows; he creates because he is prompted to utterance by his own feelings; not, however, by feelings in their crude form, when they tend to action, or to some realization of themselves in the real world. Poetry is "the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings," but its origin is from those feelings "recollected in tranquillity; the emotion is contemplated till, by a species of reaction, 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." No description of Wordsworth's own method of composition could be more accurate. Passion is idealized before it is expressed; and if the passion be of a tragic or pathetic kind the pain is subdued and an overbalance of pleasure is secured partly through the influence of metre, which tends to restrain as well as excite emotion, which divests language, in a certain degree, of its reality, and which communicates a series of small but continual and regular impulses of pleasurable surprise. that The first collected edition of Wordsworth's poems of 1815-contained two essays on his art; the Preface, which deals with the classification of his poems, and especially attempts to determine the difference between Fancy |