Of shouting angels, and the empyreal thrones
I pass them, unalarmed-Not Chaos, not
The darkest pit of lowest Erebus,

Nor aught of blinder vacancy-scooped

out

By help of dreams, can breed such fear and awe As fall upon us often when we look

Into our minds, the mind of man

My haunt, and the main region of my song.
Beauty-a living presence of the Earth
Surpassing the most fair ideal forms

Which craft of delicate spirits hath compos'd
From Earth's materials--waits upon my steps;
Pitches her tents before me, as I move
An hourly neighbour.-Paradise and groves
Elysian, Fortunate Fields like those of old
Sought in the Atlantic main-why should they be
A history only of departed things,

Or a mere Fiction of what never was?
For the discerning intellect of man,
When wedded to this goodly universe
In love and holy passion, shall find these
A simple produce of the common day !—
I-long before this blissful hour arrives,
Would chaunt in lonely peace, the sponsal verse
Of this great consummation;-and by words
Which speak of nothing more than what we are
Would I arouse the sensual from their sleep
Of death, and win the vacant and the vain
To noble raptures;-while my voice proclaims
How exquisitely the individual mind
(And the progressive pow'rs perhaps no less
Of the whole species) to the external world
Is fitted; and how exquisitely too

(Theme this but little heard of among men)
The external world is fitted to the mind;
And the Creation (by no lower name

Can it be call'd) which they with blended might
Accomplish; this is our high argument!-
Such grateful haunts forgoing, if I oft
Must turn elsewhere-to travel near the tribes
And fellowship of men, and see ill sights
Of madd'ning passions mutually inflamed;
Must hear Humanity in fields and groves
Pipe solitary anguish; or must hang
Brooding above the fierce confederate storm
Of sorrow barricadoed evermore

Within the walls of cities; may these sounds Have their authentic comment,-that even these

possess

'Hearing, I be not downcast or forlorn!-
Come, thou prophetic spirit, that inspirest
The human soul of universal Earth
Dreaming on things to come; and dost
A metropolitan temple in the hearts
Of mighty poets, upon me bestow
A gift of genuine insight; that my song
With starlike virtue in its place may shine;
Shedding benignant influence and secure
Itself from all malevolent effect

Of those mutations that extend their sway
Throughout the nether sphere! And if with this
I mix more lowly matter; with the thing
Contemplated, describe the mind and man
Contemplating; and who and what he was,
The transitory being that beheld

This vision, when and where and how he lived;-
Be not this labour useless!-If such theme

May sort with highest objects then, dread Power,'
Whose gracious favour is the primal source
Of all illumination, may ny life

Express the image of a better time,

More wise desires, and simpler manners;-nurse
My heart in genuine freedom;-all pure thoughts
Be with me;-so shall thy unfailing love

Guide and support, and cheer me to the end!!"

The interest of our readers will already be excited by the perusal of this specimen, given as a prospectus of the whole poem of The Recluse, and they will perceive that the powers of its author are nearly allied to those which have immortalized the muse of Milton.

It might not be deemed improper, previous to the introduction of our friends amid the scenes of The Excursion, to make them acquainted with the characters and dispositions of their fellow travellers. But minute details of all these conversational agents would delay our outset too long; and they are better able when called on to speak for themselves.-Nevertheless, in exception to this remark, we feel inclined to say a little on the character of the Wanderer.

Some critics have objected to the introduction of this personage, as being deficient in dignity and interest, because holding no higher station in life than that of an itinerant pedlar"A vagrant merchant bent beneath his load."

Is such a character, say they, fit companion for the high and lofty muse? Can such noble sentiments and doctrines proceed

7

from the mouth of vagrant Industry? Can such a being descant upon the order and beauty of Nature, and describe in glowing colours the relations between the upper and the lower world? or, to sum up the whole, Can a low-born pedlar think like a philosopher, and speak like an orator?

Such objections at first sight seem just and reasonable, but vanish on a nearer view of the picture, when Truth has corrected the false colouring in which association had confounded the portraits of the ancient and modern, the northern and southern pedlars. Now the unfitness of companionship, which has been urged against the character of the Wanderer, may be easily obviated, by observing that all travellers, whether poets or not, should, if necessary, take such guides as are best qualified by occupation and pursuit to point out the intended route, and to describe the objects of interest (be they material or intellectual) which pervade it. Innumerable examples in support of this opinion may be quoted both from the ancient and modern poets; and we must still insist upon the propriety of our author's selecting this peripatetic philosopher for the companion of his excursion, which leads him among secluded vales and mountain fastnesses, whose inhabitants and annals were best known to that person who had made the former the constant agents of his traffic, and the latter the common-place-book of his memory.

With respect to the other alleged characteristic incongruities of mental endowment and low-born origin, these too may be as easily reconciled, unless any should be found hardy enough to assert that genius and talents are the exclusive rights of education and rank; that the gems of wisdom are only to be found united with the baubles of art and circumstance; that physical and mental capacities are not one and the same qualities in the prince and the pedlar; that moral excellence and worth are to be neglected and undervalued because blind fortune wants the instinct, and poverty the power, to cherish them: but let us listen awhile to the Muse, and hear with what beauty and truth she sings of talents uncultured, and of genius unrevealed:

"Oh many are the poets that are sown

By nature; men endowed with highest gifts
The vision and the faculty divine
Yet wanting the accomplishment of verse,
(Which in the docile season of their youth
It was denied them to acquire, thro' lack
Of culture and the inspiring aid of books,
Or haply by a temper too severe

Or a nice backwardness afraid of shame)

Nor having e'er as life advanced, been led
By circumstance to take unto the height
The measure of themselves,-these favor'd beings
All but a scattered few live out their time
Husbanding that which they possess within

And go to the grave unthought-of-strongest minds
Are often those of whom the noisy world
Hears least.-Else surely this man had not left
His graces unrevealed and unproclaimed-
But as the mind was fill'd with inward light,

So not without distinction had he lived

Belov'd and honor'd-far as he was known-"

The occupations of our Wanderer's infancy and boyhood were divided between the school, over which his stepfather presided, and the summer tendance of cattle on the hills of Athol :

"Oh then what soul was his, when on the tops
Of the high mountains he beheld the sun
Rise up and bathe the world in light-he look'd-
Ocean and earth-the solid frame of Earth
And Ocean liquid mass, beneath him lay

In gladness and deep joy-The clouds were touch'd,
And in their silent faces did he read

Unutterable love.-Sound needed none
Nor any voice of joy-his spirit drank
The spectacle-Sensation, soul and form
All melted into him-they swallow'd up
His animal being-in them did he live
And by them did he live-they were his life.
In such access of mind, in such high hour
Of visitation from the living God,
Thought was not, in enjoyment it expired.
No thanks he breathed, he proffered no request;
Rapt into still communion that transcends
The imperfect offices of prayer and praise,
His mind was a thanksgiving to the Power

That made him-it was blessedness and love."

The scanty libraries of this schoolmaster and of the village priest served to people the infant regions of thought with legendary tales-giants, ancient ballads, and the common-place stock of a nursery education. When further advanced in knowledge and years, elementary works of science and the sacred page of song became his constant companions. Pensive habits and pursuits of this kind could not fail to engender in a mind naturally prone to arrange and calculate, that succeeding admiration of the order and harmony in nature, which is so remarkable in all the moral and philosophical reflections of the Wanderer.

In the strict discipline of the Scotch kirk, and under the guidance of a pious mother, were imbibed those principles of veneration for the divine influence which correct the common propensities to vice, and teach the duties and sympathies due to God and man.

No sooner had youthful manhood fortified the body, and education qualified the mind, than this child of promise was summoned by his parents

Of humble Industry which promised best

To yield him no unworthy maintenance."

Not in vain did his mother recommend him to take a school in the adjoining village :-he complied for a short time with her wishes; but the wandering spirit, which he had no power to exorcise, still haunted him, and at last led him forth, amid parental blessings, in the humble calling of a pedlar.

From this time, like the celebrated hero of the Odyssey, he saw cities, men and manners;" and at length, by thrift and honesty, in life's autumn was enabled to reap the golden harvest of competence and content; to look up with grateful ecstasy to that Power which had been pleased to realize the visionary schemes of his youth, and reconduct him to his native hills, where now

"His calling laid aside he lived at ease!

But still he lov'd to pace the public roads

And the wild paths: and when the summer's warmth
Invited him, would often leave his home

And journey far, revisiting those scenes
Which to his memory were most endear'd.
Vigorous in health, of hopeful spirits untouch'd
By worldlymindedness or anxious care;
Observant, studious, thoughtful and refresh'd-
By knowledge gather'd up from day to day,
Thus had he lived a long and innocent life.”

Such is the personage whom our author had known from his childhood, and whom he has chosen for the companion and guide of his excursion. We have already carried our readers into the middle of the first book, where the poet meets with this ancient friend by appointment, and whence their pilgrimage of observation commences. After a short walk they arrive at the ruins of a deserted cottage and garden. The Wanderer relates the history of its last inhabitants, and depicts with beauty and truth the miserable consequences of war, as operating upon the industrious habits of the labouring classes. The story is too long to