ing out of sight with speed of the sharpest edge, will often tempt an inhabitant to congratulate himself on belonging to a country of mists, and clouds, and storms, and make him think of the blank sky of Egypt, and the cerulean vacancy of Italy, as an unanimated and even a sad spectacle." Finally, he says that as "in human life there are moments worth ages, so, in the climate of England, there are, for the lover of nature, days which are worth whole months, I might say even years. It is in autumn that days of such affecting influence most frequently intervene; the atmosphere seems refined, and the sky rendered more crystalline, as the vivifying heat of the year abates; the lights and shadows are more delicate; the colouring is richer and more finely harmonised; and in this season of stillness, the ear being unoccupied, or only gently excited, the sense of vision becomes more susceptible of its appropriate enjoyments. A resident in a country like this which we are treating of, will agree with me that the presence of a lake is indispensable to exhibit in perfection the beauty of one of these days; and he must have experienced, while looking on the unruffled waters, that the imagination, by their aid, is carried into recesses of feeling otherwise impenetrable. The reason of this is that the heavens are not only brought down into the bosom of the earth, but that the earth is neces

sarily looked at, and thought of, through the medium of a purer element.'

Perhaps Wordsworth's finest description (in prose) of the outward features of any single object in Nature is that contained in a letter to Coleridge, giving an account of his visit to the waterfall near Hardrane in Yorkshire, on his way to Grasmere, to settle down there, in 1799.

In that chapter of his 'Guide' in which he speaks of the best time for visiting the district, he mentions successively certain features of Nature,— which afford a good illustration of the way in which he passed from the external features of a scene, or those of which the senses take cognisance, to its underlying spirit. He first refers to "the tender green of the after-grass upon the meadows, interspersed with islands of gray or mossy rock." He then alludes to the notes of birds, which, "when listened to, by the side of broad still waters, or heard in unison with the murmuring of mountain brooks, have the compass of their powers enlarged accordingly;" next, of the "imaginative influence of the voice of the cuckoo when that voice has taken possession of a deep mountain valley." Again he writes: "He is the most fortunate who chances to be involved in vapours which open, and 1 Guide, section 1.

2 Memoirs, vol. i. p. 150, etc.

let in an extent of country partially, or, dispersing suddenly, reveal the whole region from centre to circumference."

" 1

In order to show what Wordsworth saw in Nature, and how he saw it, I must, of necessity, quote very largely from the Poems; and, in doing so, I shall depart from the poet's own arrangement of them, and follow an order partly chronological and partly topographic. It seems natural to begin with Cockermouth, his birthplace, and to pass thence to Hawkshead, where his wonderful school-time' was passed, and where his spirit received the most powerful influences of nature; going on to Grasmere, where he settled at the end of last century; and with that for our centre, radiating in different directions, to Langdale, Paterdale, and Keswick. A chronological edition of the

poems is much needed. Were it accompanied with brief explanatory notes, embodying the whole of the I. F. MSS., and clearing up every local allusion, with fifty to a hundred illustrations of the places in the district, to which the poems refer, it would be a most valuable memorial of the Poet, and a real addition to the standard works in English Literature. It would be welcomed not so much by those who delight in making pilgrimages to the shrines of the illustrious, as by those-and their number is increasing year by 1 Guide, section 4.

year-who have been helped to understand Nature and Human Life by this great teacher of the nineteenth century.

A different arrangement of certain of the poems is given in this volume. They are grouped together according to the districts to which they refer, and which they describe. This leads of necessity to a partial dismemberment of the poems, which would be altogether inadmissible in a collective edition of the poet's works. But a volume of Selections, limited to those which allude to localities in the Lake country, with the relevant portions of the I. F. MSS. appended to each extract, would be found to cast an unexpected flood of light upon the whole district, and the poet's work in connection with it. Although I attempt to do a little more than merely to select and rearrange, any value which this book may have will be in proportion to the ease with which the commentary is forgotten in the realisation of the poems themselves.

It remains for me to express my obligation, in the (sometimes difficult) task of identifying obscure places and tracing out obscure allusions, to Dr. Cradock, the Principal of Brasenose College, Oxford-who knows more of the district, in connection with Wordsworth, than any one I have met with,—and to Lady Richardson; also, through the medium of Dr. Cradock, to

the Cookson family-neighbours and friends of the poet, during a large portion of his life. The extent of my indebtedness to Dr. Cradock will be apparent in the volume itself. I only wish that he had undertaken the work, instead of myself.

My thanks are also due to Mr. William Wordsworth, the son of the poet, for permission to make use of those passages from The Prelude, and other copyright poems, which I have quoted,—permission which he has generously granted.

I append a Lecture on Wordsworth, delivered this spring at Cockermouth, to "The Cumberland Association for the Advancement of Literature and Science ;" and afterwards to "The Ladies' Association for the Promotion of the higher Education of Women," in Cork.

In all quotations from the poems, I refer to the small 'pocket edition' of 1849, in six volumes, as being probably more widely used, if not more generally known, than the larger edition of 1857, or the Centenary one. The quotations from The Prelude are from the octavo edition of 1850. In alluding to the I. F. MSS. I quote from the version given in The Prose Works published in 1876, rather than from the extracts given in the Memoirs, or in the 1857 and Centenary edition of the Poems, since the editor assures us that they are given "completely and in