When he came to consider the poems more in detail, he perceived three principles under which they might be grouped : they might be arranged according to the themes of which they treat; or secondly, according to the moulds or forms in which they are cast; or, thirdly, according to the powers of mind, predominant in their production; finally, these three principles might be made to work together, and preside in harmonious confederacy over the whole.

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Wordsworth decided in favour of the last of these methods. The whole body of his work was arranged so as to have a beginning, middle, and end on the model of its theme of human life. First, as belonging to his own early years he placed the Poems written in Youth," next the poems referring generally to the Period of Childhood. The collection closed with Poems referring to Old Age," "Epitaphs and Elegiac Pieces," suggested by Death, and the "Ode- Intimations of Immortality." The first poem of those of Childhood, that which tells of the binding together of all our days in "natural piety," furnishes a motto for the "Ode" which takes up the same thought and develops it, and which forms the headstone of the entire edifice, or shall we say? - the highaltar of the church. Having passed the poems of Childhood, we find the principle of arrangement according to the predominant faculty introduced; and under this principle the first group is that of Poems founded on the Affections." The attentive reader will notice that the pieces under this heading do not follow one another at hap-hazard. While the method is not one of absolute rigidity, in general the poems observe the sequence in which our affections are naturally developed, first the love of brothers and sisters; next the passions of friends and of lovers; then the affection of husband and wife, and finally the loves and griefs of parents. So we pass from "The Brothers" and "Artegal and Elidure to the stanzas which tell of Wordsworth's companionship

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with Coleridge and the "Lucy" group, from these to poems connected with Mary Wordsworth, and again to "The Childless Father," "The Emigrant Mother," and "Michael." • The "Poems on the Naming of Places" introduces a new principle of classification, that in which the mould or form determines the group. The moulds of poetry are enumerated by Wordsworth as the Narrative, the Dramatic, the Lyrical (including Hymn, Elegy, Ode, Song, Ballad), the Idyllium, Didactic poetry, and lastly Philosophical Satire. Under the Idyllium he places not only the Idyl proper, but the Epitaph, the Inscription, the Sonnet, and such loco-descriptive poems as those on the Naming of Places. But the names given to rock and grove, to woodland pool and mountain peak, are derived from beloved persons-John's Grove, Emma's Dell, Joanna's Rock, Mary's and Sarah's rocks; the poems are thus connected with the affections, and they appropriately follow the Poems founded on the Affections."

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The psychological classification based on the predominant faculties is continued in the " Poems of the Fancy," "Poems of the Imagination" and "Poems of Sentiment and Reflection." But under the second of these headings are many subordinate groups, some formed, as the several series of Itinerary Poems, by virtue of a community of subject, others, as the Miscellaneous Sonnets, by virtue of identity of form. In arranging the individual pieces which make up these groups Wordsworth was guided by a desire to exhibit their mutual illustration, while at the same time he aimed at preserving due proportion and introducing an agreeable variety. How carefully all this was considered and carried out may be seen by any one who will turn to the "Miscellaneous Sonnets in any complete edition which preserves Wordsworth's arrangement. These sonnets were written at various times and seasons, and if chronologically placed many that stand side by side would be severed from one

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another; as arranged by their author they form not a linked chain of sonnets, but a sequence, so far as a sequence can be made from disconnected poems by happy ordering. I may be permitted to refer the reader to a note in the Aldine edition of Wordsworth (vol. iii, pp. 327, 328), where I have exhibited in detail the sequence of the Miscellaneous Sonnets, Part I. Here it may suffice to call attention to the mutual illustration afforded by Sonnets iii-xvi of Part II; written at various intervals from 1815 to 1827, these poems are so disposed as to constitute a continuous pleading against despondency and in favour of heroic effort, courage, tranquillity, and cheerful hope. But no one can have read the "Poems of the Imagination," which are placed first in that group, and have failed to perceive the importance of Wordsworth's arrangement. Beggars," for example and "Gipsies," which stand side by side, may be said to belong to each other; so again with "Laodamia' and "Dion"; so with "StarGazers" and the "Power of Music"; so with "The Pass of Kirkstone" and "To Enterprise." In fact, Wordsworth had not overstated the matter when he says that for him who reads with reflection the arrangement will "serve as a commentary," unostentatiously directing him to the poet's purposes both particular and general. He admits that there is necessarily a certain amount of cross division between the groups; the poems of the Fancy and those of the Imagination might without impropriety, he says, have been enlarged from the Poems founded on the Affections," as these might be enlarged from the former classes and from the group" proceeding from Sentiment and Reflection." Still, in assigning their positions to the several poems he exercised his best judgment, and it is worth something to us to stand at the writer's point of view. If we obliterate his arrangement, we efface no insignificant part of the expression of his mind.

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The several groups founded on the predominant faculties may in the general arrangement, presenting the course of human life, be said to represent the maturity of manhood, when the faculties have attained their full development, and are still untouched by decline. To complete the large design, it only remains to add to these the poems referring to Old Age, to Death, and to Immortality. Whether Wordsworth's scheme justifies itself or not to a reader's intelligence, there, at all events, it is: something which Wordsworth himself considered of high importance; something which he pondered long; and something therefore deserving of careful study, which an editor of the complete poetical works is bound to preserve as an essential and a characteristic feature of the whole.

VI. THE TEXT OF WORDSWORTH'S POEMS.1

No English poet was a more careful and conscientious craftsman than Wordsworth; he could not be content if he had done less than his best. His judgment was excellent, and his sensibility and skill in all matters of detail increased as he continued to practise his art. But of course to rehandle in a critical mood work which was produced in the fervour of creation is a process attended with risks. When the emotions are aroused and the mind is all vital, remote relations are apprehended, occult connections are felt, which it is hardly possible to keep before the mental vision while the eye moves critically from point to point. Wordsworth began the revision of his poems at the earliest possible moment, in 1800; in each new edition - in 1803, 1805, 1815, 1820, 1827, 1832 — omissions, additions, and altera

1 In this section I have made use of some passages already printed in the article on the same subject in my "Transcripts and Studies."

tions were made.

For the first stereotyped edition, that of 1836-1837, a very searching revisal was carried out; in 1840 the work was begun anew; further changes were made in the text of 1845, and many earlier readings were then restored. Even the edition completed in 1850, the year of Wordsworth's death, shows that to the last he had his eye upon perfection. Among readers who have not carefully studied Wordsworth's text, an impression is common that he did his work much wrong. The impression, if we have regard to the final result, is certainly erroneous. A few poems suffered loss, but, on the whole, the gain was great. The latest text is the best text. It was a most happy circumstance that Wordsworth lived long enough to consider from a sufficient distance in time the alterations of 1836-1837. Many of them were improvements; but the poet, having taken in hand a thorough revisal of his works for that edition, seems to have acquired a certain pleasure in the process of effecting alterations; what should have been the task of his best moments became a daily business; he was sometimes entangled in new thoughts; his insight was often perplexed; his discretion occasionally failed; and the rehandling was carried a great deal too far. In 1845 Wordsworth retained what was best from the revision of 1836-1837, and perceiving the error of his ways, he cancelled most of the changes that were injudicious, and in these passages recovered the text of earlier years. Substantially his labours of nearly half a century were completed by the year 1845.

From no other English poet can lessons in the poetic craft so full, so detailed, and so instructive be obtained as those to be had by one who follows Wordsworth through the successive editions, and puts to himself the repeated question "For what reason was this change, for what reason was that, introduced?" A reason there always was, though now and again it may have been an insufficient reason.