Line 10. that inward eye. See "The Daffodils," note, and the other poems on Mrs. Wordsworth : She was a Phantom of delight," O dearer far than life and light are dear," "Let other bards of angels sing," "Such age how beautiful! O Lady bright," "What heavenly smiles! O Lady mine," " 'In trellised shed with clustering roses gay.

"In a letter of Wordsworth to his daughter (printed in the Cornhill Magazine, March, 1893) he writes of this and the following poem: 'Dearest Dora, Your mother tells me she shrinks from copies being spread of these sonnets; she does not wish one, at any rate, to be given to Miss Gillies, for that, without blame to Miss G., would be like advertising them. I assure you her modesty and humble-mindedness were so much shocked, that I doubt if she had more pleasure than pain from these compositions though I never poured out anything more from the heart.'" DowDEN.

It is interesting to note that (in June, 1841) when Wordsworth was receiving honor at home and abroad for the great fight he had fought, Carlyle wrote a letter to Browning (just published), regarding "Sordello" and " Pippa Passes," in which he lays down the following distinctive doctrine for which Wordsworth had contended both in verse and prose. Unless

poetic faculty means a higher power of common understanding, I know not what it means. One must first take a true intellectual representation of a thing before any poetic interest that is true will supervene.

1842

This year Wordsworth was granted £300 for the Civil List for distinguished service in the cause of literature.

Page 766. "WHEN SEVERN'S SWEEPING FLOOD," ETC.

The occasion of this sonnet was a bazaar held in Cardiff Castle to aid in building a new church on the site of one destroyed by floods two hundred years before."— KNIGHT.

Page 769. MISCELLANEOUS SONNETS. SONNET I. A Poet! He hath put his heart to school. In the first four verses of this sonnet

Wordsworth reveals something of the method of the poets of the Restoration, who, as Keats says, taught that to write poetry was

"to smooth, inlay, and clip and fit.
easy was the task,

A hundred handicraftsmen wore the mask
Of Poesy."

It was against such a perversion of art that Wordsworth did battle even to the last; he insisted that art was the product of the whole nature, intellect, sensibility, and will, aglow with a lofty spiritual imagination,

SONNET VII. Men of the Western World, etc. These lines were written several years ago, when reports prevailed of cruelties committed in many parts of America, by men making a law of their own passions. A far more formidable, as being a more deliberate mischief, has appeared among those States, which have lately broken faith with the public creditor in a manner so infamous. I cannot, however, but look at both evils under a similar relation to inher ent good, and hope that the time is not distant when our brethren of the West will wipe off this stain from their name and nation.

ADDITIONAL NOTE

I am happy to add that this anticipation is already partly realised; and that the reproach addressed to the Pennsylvanians in the sonnet on page 784 is no longer applicable to them. I trust that those other States to which it may yet apply will soon follow the example now set them by Philadelphia, and redeem their credit with the world.-1850. W. W.

Page 771. THE POET'S DREAM.

Line 28. Chapel Oak of Allonville. Among ancient Trees there are few, I believe, at least in France, so worthy of attention as an Oak which may be seen in the Pays de Caux.” about a league from Yvetot, close to the church, and in the burial-ground of Allonville.

The height of this Tree does not answer to its girth; the trunk, from the roots to the summit, forms a complete cone; and the inside of this cone is hollow throughout the whole of its height.

Such is the Oak of Allonville in its state of nature. The hand of Man, however, has endeavoured to impress upon it a character still more interesting, by adding a religious feeling to the respect which its age naturally inspires.

The lower part of its hollow trunk has been transformed into a Chapel of six or seven feet in diameter, carefully wainscoted and paved, and an open iron gate guards the humble Sanetuary.

Leading to it there is a staircase, which twists round the body of the Tree. At certain seasons of the year, divine service is performed in this Chapel.

The summit has been broken off many years, but there is a surface at the top of the trunk, of the diameter of a very large tree, and from it rises a pointed roof, covered with slates, in the form of a steeple, which is surmounted with an iron Cross, that rises in a picturesque manner from the middle of the leaves, like an ancient hermitage above the surrounding Wood.

Over the entrance to the Chapel an Inscrip tion appears, which informs us it was erected by the Abbé du Détroit, Curate of Allonville

in the year 1696; and over a door is another, dedicating it "To our Lady of Peace."

Vide 14 No. Saturday Magazine. W. W.

Page 774. AIREY-FORCE Valley.

Near Lyulph's Tower, Ullswater. See" The Somnambulist," note, and "I wandered lonely as a cloud." The Natural Trust for preserving places of historic interest in England has recently (1904) called for subscriptions that this section of over 700 acres with one mile of frontage to the Lake, rights of fishing, and boating, the deer forest, the woods and the waterfall may be obtained as a natural possession."

Page 778. ON THE PROJECTED KENDAL AND WINDERMERE RAILWAY.

The degree and kind of attachment which many of the yeomanry feel to their small inheritances can scarcely be over-rated. Near the house of one of them stands a magnificent tree, which a neighbour of the man advised him to fell for profit's sake. "Fell it!" exclaimed the yeoman, "I had rather fall on my knees and worship it." It happens, I believe, that the intended railway would pass through this little property, and I hope that an apology for the answer will not be thought necessary by one who enters into the strength of the feeling. W. W. Wordsworth sent this sonnet to Gladstone

with a letter calling his attention to the "desecrating project."

That Wordsworth's spirit is still potent to save the Lakes for "Nature and Mankind," is evidenced by the work of the Lake District Defence Society, which has prevented the promoters from invading Borrowdale, Buttermere, and Braithwaite. In this good work it has had substantial aid from England, from across the Border, and from America. Many dalesmen may be found on the Lakes as loyal to its beauties as was that one referred to by the poet himself. So long as this feeling prevails Mr. Ruskin's prophecy that there would in time be built "A railway for Cook's excursion trains up Scaw Fell, another up Helvellyn, and a third up Skiddaw with a circular tour to connect all three branches," will not become true.

Line 9. Orrest-head. The height north of Windermere, back of Elleray, the home of Christopher North, from which there is a magnificent view of Windermere and its surroundings.

Page 779. AT FURNESS ABBEY.

The tourist visiting the Lakes from the south should enter by Furness, where he will find the sentiment of the sonnet still splendidly realized. Furness is now the property of the Duke of Devonshire.

Page 780. THE WESTMORELAND GIRL.

The scene of this poem is on the western side of Grasmere Lake, at the right of the road leading to Red Bank, where the brook descends from Silver How. The cottage known as Wyke Cottage still stands.

Page 784. "So FAIR, SO SWEET."

The circumstance which gave rise to this poem was a walk in July, 1844, from Windermere, by Rydal and Grasmere, to Loughrigg Tarn, made by Wordsworth in company with J. C. Hare, Sir William Hamilton, Prof. Butler, and others. One of the party writes of it as follows:

"When we reached the side of Loughrigg Tarn the loveliness of the scene arrested our steps

and fixed our gaze. When the Poet's eyes were satisfied with their feast on the beauties familiar to them, they sought relief in search, to them a happy vital habit, for new beauty in the flower-enamelled turf at his feet. There his attention was arrested by a fair smooth stone, of the size of an ostrich's egg, seeming to imbed at its centre, and at the same time to display a dark star-shaped fossil of most distinct outline. Upon closer inspection this proved to be the shadow of a daisy projected upon it. The Poet drew the attention of the rest of the party to the minute but beautiful phenomenon, and gave expression at the time to thoughts suggested by it, which so interested Professor Butler that he plucked the tiny flower, and, saying that it should be not only the theme but the memorial of the thought they had heard,' bestowed it somewhere for preservation.". KNIGHT.

Ruskin says of the first six lines: "This is a little bit of good, downright, foreground painting and no mistake about it, daisy, and shade, and stone texture and all. Our painters must come to this before they have done their duty." Modern Painters, vol. i. part ii., section ii., chapter vii.

Prof. Dowden thinks this was composed between 1835 and 1842.

to hang on the staircase at Rydal. It was brought from Italy by the poet's eldest son.

1847

Page 788. ODE ON THE INSTALLATION OF HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS.

Wordsworth's beloved daughter Dora was taken ill early in this year, and when he was anxious over her condition he was requested to write the ode on the installation of the Prince Consort as Chancellor of the University of Cambridge. He accepted the invitation, but was not able to complete the work, and was assisted by his nephew Christopher. Dora died in July and the poet wrote, "Our sorrow is for life, but God's will be done!" He never again retouched his harp.

Wordsworth has laboured long; if for himself, yet more for men, and over all I trust for God. Will he ever be the bearer of evil thoughts to any mind? Glory is gathering round his later years on earth, and his later works especially indicate the spiritual ripening of his noble soul." - W. E. GLADSTONE. Mor ley's Life of Gladstone, vol. i. p. 136.

Hon. George F. Hoar, reviewing Wordsworth's relation to righteousness and liberty as wrought out in the conduct of states, says: 66 The influence of William Wordsworth, -it is the greatest power for justice, and righteousness, and liberty, that has been on the planet since Milton. The knights, the good and brave champions of freedom, as they take upon their lips the vows of consecration, bathe themselves in Wordsworth as in a pure and clear fountain. The love of liberty under law, the loftiest political philosophy, snowy purity of life, sympathy with every human sorrow, breathe from every line Wordsworth ever wrote, until at the age of eighty the mighty power passed from the earth, and,

The man from God sent forth,
Did yet again to God return.'

International Monthly, October, 1900.

worth. Quam nihil ad genium, Papiniane, tuum! Fourth Edition. London: printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, & Orme, by R. Taylor and Co., 38 Shoe Lane. 1805. 8vo.

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POEMS, in two volumes, By William Wordsworth, Author of the Lyrical Ballads. Posterius graviore sono tibi Musa loquetur Nostra: dabunt cum securos mihi tempora fructus. Vol. I. [Vol. II.] London: printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, Paternoster Row. 1807. 12mo.

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CONCERNING THE RELATIONS OF GREAT BRITAIN, SPAIN, AND PORTUGAL, TO EACH OTHER, AND TO THE COMMON ENEMY, AT THIS CRISIS; and specifically as affected by the Convention of Cintra: The whole brought to the test of those principles by which alone the Independence and Freedom of Nations can be Preserved or Recovered. Qui didicit patriæ quid debeat; - Quod sit conscripti, quod judicis officium; quæ Partes in bellum missi ducis. By William Wordsworth. London: printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, Paternoster-Row. 1809. 8vo.

POEMS BY WILLIAM WORDSWORTH: including Lyrical Ballads, and the Miscellaneous Pieces of the Author. With additional Poems, a new Preface, and a Supplementary Essay. In two volumes. Vol. I. [Vol. II.] London: printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, Paternoster Row. 1815. 8vo.

This is the first collected Edition (to date) of Wordsworth's Poems, excluding "The Excursion." In it the poet for the first time arranges the pieces under various headings, viz. "Poems referring to the Period of Childhood," "Juvenile Pieces," Poems founded on the Affections," etc. (T.)

66