iv. the faint thread of circumstantial peculiarity and incident. It is true that Wordsworth had scarcely any life in which the world is interested apart from his works, but Dr. Wordsworth goes too far in saying "Let no other Life of Wordsworth be composed beside what has thus been written with his own hand." I have thought that there is a need for some such exposition as this volume professes to be, and while I feel that I have brought to the self-imposed task few other qualifications than affectionate reverence, I still hope that it may prove a not unacceptable companion to some who desire to know the writings of Wordsworth, but have no time to read what cannot be tripped lightly over. To many, the estimate I set on the Poet will seem too high. I regard him as the Third English Poet, and eminently the Poet of our Age. If to Milton we may assign height, and to Shakspeare breadth, to Wordsworth more than either-we must assign depth. If Milton is the mightiest Epic Power, and Shakspeare the mightiest Dramatic Power, Wordsworth is the mightiest Reflective and Subjective Power. He extracts most the spiritual and moral significancies from all things, and penetrates farthest into the meaning of the burden of V. the mystery:-"He entereth into that within the veil" of the human soul. You will think as you read this book that sometimes I have floated away from the more immediate subject on a gossamer, which had not a very close relation to it. In reading the proof, I have sometimes felt this myself; for instance, it may seem the case in the analysis of the elements of tragic genius suggested by poems so short but so full and so vital as those of Laodamia and Dion. And now, dearest of friends, and severest of critics, affectionately, Farewell. NIBLEY, July, 1856. E. P. H. CONTENTS. What is Esthetic Biography-Birth and Childhood—A Mountain Republic-Boyhood at Hawkshead-Childhood of Goethe and FIRST LOVE; THE PASSION OF NATURE. The first Dream of Nature-Pantheism-A Rhapsody-Wordsworth and Milton-Wordsworth's sense of Sound-Sounds in general- Wordsworth in France-Causes of Mental Unrest-The Grief of Life -Wordsworth a Republican-A Crisis in his History-Words- Miss Wordsworth's Journal-Samuel Taylor Coleridge—Alfoxden -The Borderers-Ludicrous Adventures-Grasmere-Marriage- MORAL SUFFERING AND INDIVIDUALITY. The Leech Gatherer-Esthetic Views of Suffering-A Welch Poet -The White Doe of Rylstone-The Nurture of Triptolemus- Moral Suffering-Intense Individuality - John Foster-The Localized Impressions-The Lake Country in the Old Time-Old Times and Old Manners-Social Life in the Last Century-Farm House Life-The Dalesmen-Mountain Echoes-Sunset among the Mountains-Helvellyn-Bolton-Malham and Gordale-Caves and Yew Trees-Rural Registers-Night on the Lakes-Burns and Wordsworth-Michael, a Westmoreland Idyll-The Sands- The Artist Defined-The Three Worlds-The True, The Beautiful, |