my stating my opinion to you so freely, which I should not do if I did not really admire many of the poems in the collection, and many parts even of those in blank verse. Of the poems which you state not to be yours, that entitled 'Love' appears to me to be the best, and I do not know who is the author. 'The Nightingale' I understand to be Mr. Coleridge's, who combats, I think, very successfully, the mistaken prejudice of the nightingale's note being melancholy. I am, with great truth,

"Sir,

"Your most obedient servant,
(Signed)

"St. Ann's Hill, May 25. [1801.]”

"C. J. Fox.

In connection with the above the following observations addressed by Wordsworth to some friends may find a place here.

Speaking of the poem of the Leech-Gatherer', sent in MS. he says:

"It is not a matter of indifference whether you are pleased with his figure and employment, it may be comparatively whether you are pleased with this Poem; but it is of the utmost importance that you should have had pleasure in contemplating the fortitude, independence, persevering spirit, and the general moral dignity of this old man's character."

And again, on the same poem:

"I will explain to you, in prose, my feelings in writing that poem. I describe myself as having been exalted to the highest pitch of delight by the joyousness and beauty of nature; and then as depressed,

1 Entitled "Resolution and Independence." Vol. ii. See below, p. 189.

p.

124.

even in the midst of those beautiful objects, to the lowest dejection and despair. A young poet in the midst of the happiness of nature is described as overwhelmed by the thoughts of the miserable reverses which have befallen the happiest of all men, viz. poets. I think of this till I am so deeply impressed with it, that I consider the manner in which I was rescued from my dejection and despair almost as an interposition of Providence. A person reading the poem with feelings like mine will have been awed and controlled, expecting something spiritual or supernatural. What is brought forward? A lonely place, "a pond, by which an old man was, far from all house or home:" not stood, nor sat, but was — the figure presented in the most naked simplicity possible. This feeling of spirituality or supernaturalness is again referred to as being strong in my mind in this passage. How came he here? thought I, or what can he be doing? I then describe him, whether ill or well is not for me to judge with perfect confidence ; but this I can confidently affirm, that though I believe God has given me a strong imagination, I cannot conceive a figure more impressive than that of an old man like this, the survivor of a wife and ten children, travelling alone among the mountains and all lonely places, carrying with him his own fortitude and the necessities which an unjust state of society has laid upon him. him. You speak of his speech as tedious. Every thing is tedious when one does not read with the feelings of the author. The Thorn is tedious to hundreds; and so is the Idiot Boy to hundreds. It is in the character of the old man to tell his story, which an impatient reader must feel tedious. But, good heavens! such a figure, in such a place; a pious,

self-respecting, miserably infirm and pleased old man telling such a tale!"

"Your feelings upon the 'Mother and the Boy, with the Butterfly,' were not indifferent: it was an affair of whole continents of moral sympathy.

"I am for the most part uncertain about my success in altering poems; but in this case," speaking of an insertion, "I am sure I have produced a great improvement."

Such is a specimen of an authentic report of the inward feelings with which these poems were composed. The author, it is clear, who wrote them, was not to be disturbed by the opinions pronounced on them by the world, especially as those opinions were remarkably inconsistent with each other; of which he gives the following amusing evidence at the close of a note sent by the waggon (Benjamin's waggon), which served as a post-mail, to his friend Coleridge, at Keswick.

"HARMONIES OF CRITICISM.

Another edition of the "Lyrical Ballads" was published in 1802. Two of the poems, printed in the former editions, do not appear in this, viz., "The Dungeon," and "A Character." A new edition followed in 1805. All these editions are in 12mo.

CHAPTER XVIII.

RESIDENCE AT GRASMERE.

SHORT VISIT TO FRANCE.

The

DAY after day passed on at the cottage, Grasmere, with little variation, except what was derived from seeing new scenes and composing new poems. following brief notes, extracted from a diary kept by Miss Wordsworth, may serve to give a correct idea of the life there. This journal is full of vivid descriptions of natural beauty, as observed at Grasmere.

In perusing these extracts the reader will observe notices of the occasions on which several of Mr. Wordsworth's poems were composed.

"Friday, October 3. 1800. Very rainy all-the morning. William walked to Ambleside after dinner; I went with him part of the way.

His

"When William and I returned from accompanying Jones, we met an old man almost double. face was interesting. He was of Scotch parents, but had been born in the army. He had had a wife, ‘a good woman, and it pleased God to bless us with ten children;' all these were dead but one, of whom he had not heard for many years, a sailor. His trade was to gather leeches, but now leeches were scarce, and he had not strength for it. He had been hurt in driving a cart, his leg broke, his body driven over, his skull fractured; he felt no pain till he recovered from his first insensibility. It was then late in the evening when the light was just going away."