The Prose Works of William Wordsworth: For the First Time Collected, With Additions from Unpublished Manuscripts. In Three Volumes

By William Wordsworth

DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "The Prose Works of William Wordsworth" (For the First Time Collected, With Additions from Unpublished Manuscripts. In Three Volumes) by William Wordsworth. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.

• Language: English
• Publisher: DigiCat
• Release date: Sep 16, 2022
• ISBN: 8596547352167

William Wordsworth

William Wordsworth was born on 7 April 1770 at Cockermouth, in the English Lake District, the son of a lawyer. He was one of five children and developed a close bond with his only sister, Dorothy, whom he lived with for most of his life. At the age of seventeen, shortly after the deaths of his parents, Wordsworth went to St John’s College, Cambridge, and after graduating visited Revolutionary France. Upon returning to England he published his first poem and devoted himself wholly to writing. He became great friends with other Romantic poets and collaborated with Samuel Taylor Coleridge on Lyrical Ballads. In 1843, he succeeded Robert Southey as Poet Laureate and died in the year ‘Prelude’ was finally published, 1850.

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William Wordsworth

The Prose Works of William Wordsworth

For the First Time Collected, With Additions from Unpublished Manuscripts. In Three Volumes

EAN 8596547352167

DigiCat, 2022

Contact: [e-mail]

Table of Contents

VOL. I.

CONTENTS OF THREE VOLUMES

CONTENTS OF VOL. I.

CONTENTS OF VOL. II.

CONTENTS OF VOL. III.

INDEX.

CONTENTS OF VOL. I.

TO THE QUEEN.

PREFACE.

VOL. I.

VOL. II.

VOL. III.

I. POLITICAL.

I. APOLOGY FOR THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 1793.

APPENDIX to Bishop Watson's Sermon.

II. THE CONVENTION OF CINTRA 1809.

ADVERTISEMENT

CONCERNING THE CONVENTION OF CINTRA

APPENDIX.

POSTSCRIPT

III. VINDICATION OF OPINIONS IN THE TREATISE ON THE 'CONVENTION OF CINTRA'

IV. TWO ADDRESSES TO THE FREEHOLDERS OF WESTMORELAND. 1818.

ADVERTISEMENT

TO THE FREEHOLDERS, &c.

SECOND ADDRESS.

V. OF THE CATHOLIC RELIEF BILL, 1829.

II. ETHICAL.

I. OF LEGISLATION FOR THE POOR, THE WORKING CLASSES, AND THE CLERGY: APPENDIX TO POEMS.

1835.

II. ADVICE TO THE YOUNG.

III. OF EDUCATION.

(a) ON THE EDUCATION OF THE YOUNG.

(b) OF THE PEOPLE, THEIR WAYS AND NEEDS.

(c.) EDUCATION.

(d) EDUCATION OF DUTY.

(e) SPEECH ON LAYING THE FOUNDATION-STONE OF THE NEW SCHOOL IN THE VILLAGE OF BOWNESS, WINDERMERE, 1836.

I. POLITICAL.

II. ETHICAL.

THE PROSE WORKS OF WILLIAM WORDSWORTH.

BY THE REV. ALEXANDER B. GROSART, ST. GEORGE'S, BLACKBURN, LANCASHIRE.

VOL. II.

CONTENTS OF VOL. II

AESTHETICAL AND LITERARY.

I. OF LITERARY BIOGRAPHY AND MONUMENTS.

LETTER

A FRIEND OF ROBERT BURNS

AN INTENDED REPUBLICATION

THE ACCOUNT OF THE LIFE OF BURNS,

BY DR. CURRIE;

BY WILLIAM WORDSWORTH.

(a) A LETTER TO A FRIEND OF ROBERT BURNS.

(b) OF MONUMENTS TO LITERARY MEN.

(c) OF SIR THOMAS BROWNE, A MONUMENT TO SOUTHEY, &c.

II. UPON EPITAPHS.

(a) UPON EPITAPHS.

(b) THE COUNTRY CHURCH-YARD, AND CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF ANCIENT EPITAPHS

(c) CELEBRATED EPITAPHS CONSIDERED.

(a) OF THE PRINCIPLES OF POETRY AND THE 'LYRICAL BALLADS' (1798-1802) .

(b) OF POETIC DICTION.

(c) POETRY AS A STUDY.

(d) OF POETRY AS OBSERVATION AND DESCRIPTION.

(e) OF 'THE EXCURSION.'

(f) LETTERS TO SIR GEORGE AND LADY BEAUMONT AND

OTHERS ON THE POEMS AND RELATED SUBJECTS.

(g) LETTER TO THE RIGHT HON. CHARLES JAMES FOX.

(h) OF THE PRINCIPLES OF POETRY AND HIS OWN POEMS.

IV. DESCRIPTIVE.

GUIDE

DISTRICT OF THE LAKES

BY WILLIAM WORDSWORTH.

KENDAL

PUBLISHED BY HUDSON AND NICHOLSON,

CONTENTS.

DIRECTIONS AND INFORMATION FOR THE TOURIST.

DESCRIPTION OF THE SCENERY OF THE LAKES.

MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS.

EXCURSIONS

ODE.

ITINERARY.

DIRECTIONS AND INFORMATION FOR THE TOURIST.

WINDERMERE.

AMBLESIDE,

CONISTON

ULPHA KIRK

ROAD FROM AMBLESIDE TO KESWICK.

GRASMERE.

THE VALE OF KESWICK.

BUTTERMERE AND CRUMMOCK

LOWES-WATER.

WASTDALE

ULLSWATER,

DESCRIPTION OF THE SCENERY OF THE LAKES.

SECTION FIRST.

SECTION SECOND.

SECTION THIRD.

MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS.

EXCURSIONS TO THE TOP OF SCAWFELL AND ON THE BANKS OF ULSWATER.

ODE.

THE PASS OF KIRKSTONE.

ITINERARY OF THE LAKES,

FOR THE USE OF TOURISTS.

LANCASTER To KENDAL, by Kirkby Lonsdale, 30 miles.

LANCASTER to KENDAL, by Burton, 21¾ miles.

LANCASTER to KENDAL, by Milnthorpe, 21¼ miles.

LANCASTER to ULVERSTON, over Sands, 21 miles.

LANCASTER to ULVERSTON, by Levens-Bridge, 35½ miles.

ULVERSTON to HAWKSHEAD, by Coniston Water-Head, 19 miles.

ULVERSTON to BOWNESS, by Newby-Bridge, 16 miles.

HAWKSHEAD to AMBLESIDE, 5 miles.

HAWKSHEAD to BOWNESS, 5½ miles.

KENDAL to AMBLESIDE, 13½ miles.

KENDAL to AMBLESIDE, by Bowness, 15 miles.

A Circuit from and back to AMBLESIDE, by Little and Great Langdale, 18 miles.

AMBLESIDE to ULLSWATER, 10 miles.

AMBLESIDE to KESWICK, 16¼ miles.

EXCURSIONS FROM KESWICK.

To BORROWDALE, and ROUND THE LAKE, 12 miles.

To BORROWDALE and BUTTERMERE.

Two Days' Excursion to WASTDALE, ENNERDALE, and LOWES-WATER.

KESWICK round BASSENTHWAITE WATER.

KESWICK to PATTERDALE, and by Pooley-Bridge to PENRITH.

KESWICK to POOLEY-BRIDGE and PENRITH.

KESWICK to PENRITH, 17½ miles.

WHITEHAVEN to KESWICK, 27 miles.

WORKINGTON to KESWICK, 21 miles.

Excursion from PENRITH to HAWESWATER.

CARLISLE to PENRITH, 18 miles.

PENRITH to KENDAL, 26 miles.

KENDAL AND WINDERMERE RAILWAY.

TWO LETTERS

RE-PRINTED FROM THE MORNING POST.

REVISED, WITH ADDITIONS.

SONNET ON THE PROJECTED KENDAL AND WINDERMERE RAILWAY.

KENDAL AND WINDERMERE RAILWAY.

AESTHETICAL AND LITERARY.

END OF VOL. II.

BY THE REV. ALEXANDER B. GROSART, ST. GEORGE'S, BLACKBURN, LANCASHIRE.

VOL. III.

CONTENTS OF VOL. III.

CRITICAL AND ETHICAL.

CRITICAL AND ETHICAL.

1. * Prefatory Lines .

2. * Prelude to the Last Volume . [As supra.]

I. POEMS WRITTEN IN YOUTH.

3. * Extract from the Conclusion of a Poem, composed in anticipation of leaving School. [I.]

4. Of the Poems in this class, 'The Evening Walk' and 'Descriptive Sketches' were first published in 1793. They are reprinted with some alterations that were chiefly made very soon after their publication.

5. * An Evening Walk. Addressed to a Young Lady . [III.]

5a. Intake (l. 49) .

6. Ghyll (l. 54) .

7. Line 191.

8. * Lines written while sailing in a Boat at Evening . [IV.]

9. Descriptive Sketches taken during a Pedestrian Tour among the Alps .

10. * Descriptive Sketches .

11. The Cross .

12. Rivers .

13. Vallombre .

14. Sugh .

15. Pikes .

16. Shrine .

17. Sourd .

18. Lines left upon a Seat in a Yew-tree, which stands near the Lake of Esthwaite, on a desolate Part of the Shore, commanding a beautiful Prospect. [VII.]

19. Guilt and Sorrow; or Incidents upon Salisbury Plain .[VIII.]

20. * The Female Vagrant .

21. * Guilt and Sorrow; or Incidents upon Salisbury Plain . [VIII.]

22. Charles Farish .

23. * The Forsaken. Poems founded on the Affections . [XII.]

24. * The Borderers: a Tragedy .

26.

II. POEMS REFERRING TO THE PERIOD OF CHILDHOOD.

27. * My Heart leaps up when I behold . [I.]

28. * To a Butterfly . [II.]

29. * The Sparrow's Nest , [III.]

30. * Foresight , [IV.]

31. * Characteristics of a Child three Years old . [V.]

32. * Address to a Child , [VI.]

33. * The Mother's Return , [VII.]

34. * Alice Fell; or Poverty . [VIII.]

35. * Lucy Gray; or Solitude . [IX.]

36. * We are Seven . [X.] The Ancient Mariner and Coleridge, &c. &c.

37. The Idle Shepherd Boys; or Dungeon-Ghyll Force: a Pastoral . [XI.]

39. Anecdote for Fathers . [XII.]

40. Rural Architecture . [XIII.]

42. The Pet Lamb: a Pastoral . [XIV.]

43. Influence of Natural Objects, &c. [XVI.]

44. The Longest Day . [XVII.]

45. The Norman Boy . [XVIII.]

III. POEMS FOUNDED ON THE AFFECTIONS.

46. The Brothers . [I.]

48. Artegal and Elidure . [II.]

49. To a Butterfly . [III.]

50. A Farewell . [IV]

51. * Stanzas written in my Pocket-copy of Thomson's 'Castle of Indolence.'

52. * Louisa. After accompanying her on a mountain Excursion . [VI.]

53. * Strange Fits of Passion have I known . [VII.]

54. * Ere with cold Beads of midnight Dew . [X.]

55. * To ——. [XI.]

56. * 'Tis said that some have died for Love . [XIII.]

57. * A Complaint . [XIV.]

58. To ——. [XV.]

59. *' How rich that Forehead's calm Expanse !'[XVII.]

60. To ——. [XIX]

61. Lament of Mary Queen of Scots . [XX.]

62. The Complaint of a forsaken Indian Woman . [XXI.]

63. Ibid.

64. The Last of the Flock . [XXII.]

65. Repentance [XXIII.]

66. The Affliction of Margaret ——. [XXIV.]

67. The Cottager to her Infant . [XXV.]

68. Maternal Grief .

69. The Sailor's Mother . [XXVII.]

70. The Childless Father . [XXVIII.]

71. Funeral Basin .

72. The Emigrant Mother . [XXIX.]

73. Vaudracour and Julia . [XXX.]

74. Ibid.

75. The Idiot Boy .

76. Michael . [XXXII.]

77. Clipping .

78. The Widow on Windermere Side . [XXXIV.]

79. The Armenian Lady's Love . [XXXIV.]

81. * Loving and Liking . [XXXV.]

82. * Farewell Lines . [XXXVI.]

83. (1) The Redbreast .

84. *(2)

85. * Her Eyes are wild . [XXXVIII.]

IV. POEMS ON THE NAMING OF PLACES.

86. Advertisement .

87. * It was an April Morn, &c. [I.]

88. *' May call it Emmas Dell' (I. 47) .

89. * To Joanna Hutchinson . [II.]

90. Inscriptions .

91. * There is an Eminence, &c. [III.]

92. *' A narrow Girdle of rough Stones and Crags' [IV.]

93. * To Mary Hutchinson . [V.]

94. * When to the Attractions, &c. [VI.]

95. Captain Wordsworth .

V. POEMS OF THE FANCY.

96. * A Morning Exercise . [I.]

97. * Birds .

98. * A Flower-garden . [II.]

99. * A Whirl-blast from behind the Hill . [III.]

100. * The Waterfall and the Eglantine . [IV.]

101. * The Oak and the Broom; a Pastoral . [V.]

102. * To a Sexton . [VI.]

103. * To the Daisy . [VII.]

104. * To the same Flower . [VIII.]

105. * To the small Celandine . [XI.]

106. The Seven Sisters .

107. * The Redbreast chasing the Butterfly . [XV.]

108. * Song for the Spinning-wheel . [XVI.]

109. * Hint from the Mountains . [XVII.]

110. * On seeing a Needle-case in the Form of a Harp . [XVIII.] 1827.

111. * The Contrast: the Parrot and the Wren .

112. * The Danish Boy . [XXII.]

113. * Song for the Wandering Jew . [XXIII.] 1800.

114. * Stray Pleasures . [XXIV.]

115. * The Pilgrim's Dream; or the Star and the Glowworm . [XXV.]

116. * The Poet and the caged Turtle-dove . [XXVI.]

117. A Wren's Nest . [XXVII.]

118. Love lies bleeding . [XXVIII.]

119. Rural Illusions . [XXV.]

120. The Kitten and the falling Leaves . [XXXI.]

121. The Waggoner . [XXXIII.]

122. The Waggoner .

123. Benjamin 'the Waggoner.'

124. The Dor-Hawk .

125. Helmcrag (c. i. l. 168) .

126. Merrynight (c. ii. l. 30) .

127. Ghimmer-Crag (c. iii. l. 21) .

VI. POEMS OF THE IMAGINATION.

128. * There was a Boy . [I.]

129. * To the Cuckoo . [II.] Composed in the Orchard at Town-End, 1804.

130. * A Night-piece . [III.]

131. * Yew-trees . [V.]

132. * Nutting . [VI.]

133. * She was a Phantom of Delight . [VIII.]

134. * The Nightingale . [IX.]

135. * Three Years she grew, &c. [X.]

136. I wandered lonely as a Cloud . [XII.] [= 'The Daffodils.']

137. The Daffodils . [xii.]

138. * The Reverie of poor Susan . [XIII.]

139. * Power of Music . [XIV.]

140. * Star-gazers . [XV.] Observed by me in Leicester Square, as here

141. * Written in March . [XVI.]

142. * Beggars . [XVIII.]

143. * Gipsies . [XX.]

144. * Ruth .

145. * Resolution and Independence . [XXII.]

146. * The Thorn . [XXIII.]

147. Hart-Leap Well . [XXIV.]

148. Ibid.

149. Song at the Feast of Brougham Castle . [XXV.]

150. * Ibid.

151. Sir John Beaumont .

152. The undying Fish of Bowscale Tarn (l. 122) .

153. The Cliffords .

154. * Tintern Abbey . [XXVI.]

155. * It is no Spirit, &c. [XXVII.]

156. French Revolution . [XXVIII.]

157. * Yes, it was the Mountain Echo . [XXIX.]

158. To a Skylark . [XXX.]

159. * Laodamia . [XXXI.]

161. * Dion . [XXXII.]

162. Fair is the Swan, &c. [XXXIII.] (See supra , 161.)

163. * The Pass of Kirkstone .

164. * To ——. [XXXV.]

165. * To a Young Lady . [XXXVI.]

166. * Water-fowl . [XXXVII.]

167. * View from the Top of Black Comb . [XXXVIII.]

168. * The Haunted Tree . [XXXIX.]

169. * The Triad . [XL.]

170. The Wishing-gate . [XLI.]

171. The Wishing-gate destroyed .

172. * The Primrose of the Rock . [XLIII.]

173. * Presentiments . [XLIV.]

174. * Vernal Ode . [XLV.]

175. * Devotional Incitements . [XLVI.]

176. * The Cuckoo-Clock . [XLVII.]

177. * To the Clouds . [XLVIII.]

178. * Suggested by a Picture of the Bird of Paradise . [XLIX.]

179. * A Jewish Family . [L.]

180. * On the Power of Sound . [LI.]

181. Peter Bell: a Tale .

182. Peter Bell: the Poem .

VII. MISCELLANEOUS SONNETS.

PART I.

183. * Commencement of writing of Sonnets .

184. Admonition .

185. * Sonnet IV.

186. * Sonnet VI.

187. * Sonnet VIII.

188. ' The Genius .'

189. * Sonnet IX.

190. * Sonnet XI.

191. * Sonnet XV.

192. * Sonnet XIX.

193. * Sonnet XXII.

194. * Sonnets XXIV. XXV. XXVI.

195. * Sonnet XXVII.

196. * Sonnets XXVIII. XXIX.

197. * Sonnet XXX.

198. * Sonnet XXXVI.

PART II.

199. * Sonnet IV.

200. * Sonnet V.

201. * Sonnet VI.

202. Sonnet VII.

203. Sonnet VIII.

204. * Sonnet X.

205. * Sonnet XI.

206. * Sonnet XIII.

207. * Sonnet XIV.

208. * Sonnet XV.

209. * Sonnet XVIII.

210. * Sonnet XIX.

211. * Sonnet XXIX.

212. * Sonnet XXX. 'Four fiery steeds,' &c.

213. * Sonnet XXXI. 'Brook! whose society,' &c.

214. * Sonnets XXXIII.-V. 'Waters.'

PART III.

215. * Sonnet IV. 'Fame tells of Groves,' &c.

216. * Sonnet VII. 'Where lively ground,' &c.

217. * Sonnet IX. 'A stream to mingle,' &c.

218. Sonnet XI. In the Woods of Rydal.

219. * Sonnet XIII. 'While Anna's peers,' &c.

220. * Sonnet XV. 'Wait, prithee wait,' &c.

221. * Sonnet XVI. 'Unquiet childhood,' &c.

222. * Sonnet XVII. 'Such age how beautiful!' &c.

223. * Sonnet XVIIII. 'Rotha! my spiritual child,' &c.

224. The Rotha . 'The peaceful mountain stream,' &c.

225. * Sonnet XIX. 'Miserrimus.'

226. * Sonnet XX. 'While poring,' &c.

227. * Sonnet XXI.

228. * Sonnet XXII.

229. * Sonnet XXIII.

230. * Sonnet XXIV.

231. Sonnet XXV.

232. * Sonnet XXVI.

233. * Sonnet XXVII.

234. * Sonnet XXVIII.

235. * Sonnet XXIX.

236. * Sonnet XXXII.

237. * Sonnet XXXVI.

238. * Sonnet XXXVII.

239. Sonnet XLII.

240. Sonnet XLIII.

VIII. MEMORIALS OF A TOUR IN SCOTLAND, 1803.

241. * Setting out .

242. * To the Sons of Burns after visiting the Grave of their Father .

243. * Ellen Irwin, or the Braes of Kirtle . [v.]

244. * To a Highland Girl . [VI.]

245. Stepping Westward . [VII.]

246. * Address to Kilchurn Castle . [X.]

247. * Rob Roys Grave . [XI.]

248. * Sonnet composed at —— Castle , 1803. [XII.]

249. Yarrow Unvisited . [XIII.]

250. The Matron of Jedborough [Jedburgh] and her Husband . [XV.]

251. * Sonnet, 'Fly, some kind Harbinger.' [XVI.]

252. * The Blind Highland Boy . [XVII.]

IX. MEMORIALS OF A SECOND TOUR IN SCOTLAND, 1814.

253. * Suggested by a beautiful Ruin upon one of the islands of Loch Lomond: a place chosen for the retreat of a solitary individual, from whom this Habitation acquired the name of the Brownie's Cell . [I.]

254. * Composed at Corra Linn, in sight of Wallace Tower .[II.]

255. * Effusion in the Pleasure-ground on the Banks of the Braw, near Dunkeld. [III.]

256. * Yarrow Visited .[IV.]

257. Robert Jones .

258. I grieved for Buonaparte. [Sonnet IV.]

259. The King of Sweden and Toussaint L'Ouverture .

260. September 1, 1802. [Sonnet IX.]

261. *' Two Voices are there,' &c. [Sonnet XII.]

262. *' O Friend! I know not which Way .' [Sonnet XIII.]

263. * War in Spain .

264. * Zaragossa . [Sonnet XVI.]

265. * Lines on the expected Invasion , 1803. [Sonnet XXVI.]

266. Fulke Greville, Lord Brooke . [Sonnet XXVII.]

267. The Oak of Guernica . [Part II. Sonnet XXVI.]

268. Thanksgiving Ode . [Part II. XLVI.]

269. * Ibid.

270. Spenser . [Part II. Sonnet XLIII.]

XI. MEMORIALS OF A TOUR ON THE CONTINENT, 1820.

271. * Introductory Remarks .

272. The Fishwomen of Calais , [I.]

273. * Incident at Bruges . [IV.]

274. Between Namur and Liege . [VI.]

275. ' Miserere Domine .' [X.]

276. The Danube . [XI.]

277. The Staub-bach . [XII.]

278. Memorial near the Outlet of the Lake of Thun . [XIV.]

279. Engelbery . [XVIII.]

280. Our Lady of the Snow . [XIX.]

281. Effusion in presence of the painted Tower of Tell at Altorf .

282. The Town of Schwytz . [XXI.]

283. The Church of San Salvador, seen from the Lake of Lugano . [XXIV.]

285. 'The Last Supper' of Leonardo da Vinci . [xxvi.]

286. Statues on Milan Cathedral . [XXVII.]

287. A Religious Procession . [XXXII.]

288. Elegiac Stanzas . [XXXIII.]

290. The Tower of Caligula . [XXXV.]

291. Herds of Cattle . [XXXVI.]

292. The Forks . ['Desultory Stanzas,' l. 37.]

292a. The Landenberg . [Ibid. ll. 49-51.]

293. Pictures in Bridges of Switzerland . [Ibid. l. 56.]

294. * At Dover . [XXXVII.]

XII. MEMORIALS OF A TOUR IN ITALY, 1837.

295. * Introductory Remarks .

296. Ibid.

297. * Musings at Aquapendente, April 1837. [I.]

298.

299. ' Over waves rough and deep ' (line 122) .

300. ' How lovely — didst thou appear, Savona ' (ll. 209-11) .

301. ' This flowering Broom's dear Neighbourhood ' (l. 378) . p/

302. The Religious Movement in the English Church .

302a. *' The Pine-tree of Monte Mario ,' [II.]

303. ' Is this, ye gods .' [III. l. 1.]

304. ' At Rome .'

305. * At Albano . [IX]

306. * Cuckoo at Laverna . [XIV.]

307. Camaldoli . [XV.]

308. Monk-visitors of Camaldoli .

309. * At Vallombrosa . [XVIII.]

310. * Sonnet at Florence . [XIX.]

311. * The Baptist . [XX.]

312. * Florence .

312a. * Among the Ruins of a Convent in the Apennines . [XXIII.]

313. * Sonnets after leaving Italy . [XXV.]

314. * Composed at Rydal on May morning , 1838.

315. * Pillar of Trajan . [XXVIII.]

316. * The Egyptian Maid .

XIII. THE RIVER DUDDON: A SERIES OF SONNETS.

317. Introduction .

318. ' The River Duddon .'

319. * The Sonnets on the River Duddon .

320. The Wild Strawberry: Sympson . [Sonnet VI. ll. 9-10.]

321. ' Return' and 'Seathwaite Chapel .' [Sonnets XVII. and XVIII.]

322. Memoir of the Rev. Robert Walker .

323. Milton .

324. The White Doe of Rylstone; or the Fate of the Nortons .

325. * The White Doe of Rylstone .

326. William Hazlitt's Quotation .

327. Bolton Alley .

328. ' When Lady Aäliza mourned ' (c. i. l. 226) .

328a. Brancepeth .

329. The Battle of the Standard .

330. Bells of Rylstone (c. vii. l. 212) .

331. ' The grassy rock-encircled Pound ' (c. vii. l. 253) .

XIV. ECCLESIASTICAL SONNETS.

332. Ecclesiastical Sonnets in Series .

333. * Introductory Remarks .

PART I. FROM THE INTRODUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY INTO BRITAIN TO THE CONSUMMATION OF THE PAPAL DOMINION.

334. St. Paul never in Britain .

335. Water-fowl . [Sonnet III. l. 1.]

336. Hill at St. Allan's: Bede .

337. Hallelujahs .

338. Samuel Daniel and Thomas Fuller . [Ibid. ll. 9-10.]

339. Monastery of Old Bangor . [Sonnet XII.]

340. Paulinus . [Sonnet XV.]

341. King Edwin and the Sparrow .

342. ' Near fresh Streams .' [Sonnet XVII. l. 12.]

343. The Clergy . [Sonnet XIX.]

343a. Bede . [Sonnet XIII. l. 14.]

344. Zeal .

345. Alfred .

346. Crown and Cowl .

347. The Council of Clermont .

PART II. TO THE CLOSE OF THE TROUBLES IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I.

348. Cistertian Monastery . [Sonnet III.]

349. Waldenses .

350. Borrowed Lines .

351. Transfiguration .

352. Craft .

353. The Virgin Mountain . [Sonnet XLIII.]

354. Laud . [Sonnet XLV.]

355. The Pilgrim Fathers . [Sonnet XIII.]

356. The Clergyman .

357. Rush-bearing . [Sonnet XXXII.]

358. George Dyer .

359. Apprehension .

360. The Cross .

361. Monte Rosa .

XV. 'YARROW REVISITED,' AND OTHER POEMS.

363. * Yarrow Revisited .

364. * A Place of Burial in the South of Scotland . [III.]

365. * On the Sight of a Manse in the South of Scotland . [IV.]

366. * Composed in Roslin Chapel during a Storm . [V.]

367. * The Trosachs . [VI.]

368. * Composed in the Glen of Lock Etive . [VIII.]

369. Eagles: composed at Dunollie Castle in the Bay of Oban . [IX.]

370. * In the Sound of Mull . [X.]

371. ' Shepherds of Etive Glen .' [X.]

372. Highland Broach . [XV.]

373. The Brownie . [XVI.]

374. * Bothwell Castle . [XVIII.]

375. * The Avon: a Feeder of the Avon . [XX. l. 2.]

376. * Suggested by a View from an Eminence in Inglewood Forest .

377. Hart's-Horn Tree, near Penrith . [XXII.]

378. Fancy and Tradition . [XXIII.]

379. Countess' Pillar . [XXIV.]

XVI. EVENING VOLUNTARIES.

380. Lines composed on a high part of the coast of Cumberland, Easter Sunday, April 7th, the Author's sixty-third birthday . [II.]

381. * By the Sea-side . [III.]

382. Not in the lucid intervals of life . [IV.]

383. The leaves that rustled on this oak-crowned hill . [VII.]

384. Impromptu . [VIII.]

384a. * Ibid.

385. * Composed upon an Evening of extraordinary Splendour and Beauty . [IX.]

386. Alston: American Painter .

387. Mountain-ridges . [ Ibid. IV. l. 20.]

XVII. POEMS COMPOSED OR SUGGESTED DURING A TOUR IN THE SUMMER OF 1833.

388. Advertisement .

389. The Greta .

390. Brigham Church .

391. * Nun's Well, Brigham . [VIII.]

392. * To a Friend . [IX.]

393. Mary Queen of Scots landing at Workington . [X.]

394. * Mary Queen of Scots .[X.]

395. St. Bees and Charlotte Smith . [XI.]

396. Requiems .

397. Sir William Hillary .

398. Isle of Man . [XVI. l. 14.]

399. * Isle of Man . [XVII.]

400. * By a retired Mariner . [XIX.]

401. * At Bala Sala . [XX.]

402. * Tynwald Hill .

403. Snafell .

404. Eagle in Mosaic . [Sonnet XXV.]

405. * In the Frith of Clyde .— Ailsa Crag during an eclipse of the sun, July 17, 1833 . [XXIII.]

406. * On the Frith of Clyde .— In a Steamboat , [XXIV.]

407. ' There, said a Stripling .' [XXXVII.]

408. * Written on a Blank Leaf of Macpherson's 'Ossian .' [XXVII]

409. Cave of Staffa . [XXIX.]

410. Ox-eyed Daisy .

411. Iona . [XXXIII.]

412. River Eden , [XXXVIII.]

413. Ibid.

414. * Monument of Mrs. Howard . [XXXIX.]

415. Nunnery . [XLI.]

416. Scene at Corby . [XLII.]

417. * Druidical Monument . [XLIII.]

418. * Lowther . [XLIV.]

419. To the Earl of Lonsdale . [XLV.]

420. * The Somnambulist . [XLVI.]

XVIII. POEMS OF SENTIMENT AND REFLECTION.

421. Expostulation and Reply . [I.]

422. The Tables turned . [II.]

423. * Lines written in early Spring . [III.]

424. * A Character .

425. * To my Sister . [V.]

426. * Simon Lee, the old Huntsman . [VI.]

427. * Lines written in Germany . 1798-9. [VII.]

428. * To the Daisy . [IX.]

429. Matthew . [X.]

430. * Matthew . [X.]

431. * Personal Talk . [XIII.]

432. * To the Spade of a Friend . 1804. [XIV.]

433. * A Night Thought . [XV.]

434. * An Incident characteristic of a favourite Dog . [XVI.]

435. Tribute to the Memory of the same Dog . [XVII.]

436. Fidelity . [XVIII.]

437. * Ode to Duty . [XIX.]

438. * Character of the Happy Warrior . [XX.]

439. * The Force of Prayer . [XXI.]

440. * A Fact and an Imagination . [XXII.]

441. * A little Onward . [XXIII.]

442. Ode to Lycoris . [XXIV.]

443. * Ibid.

444. Memory . [XXVIII.]

445. This Lawn . [XXIX.]

446. Humanity . [XXX.]

447. Thought on the Seasons . [XXXI.]

448. To ——, on the Birth of her first Child . [XXXII.]

449. The Warning: a Sequel to the Foregoing . [XXXIII.]

450. The Labourer's Noon-day Hymn . [XXXV.]

451. * Ode composed on May Morning . [XXXVI.]

452. * Lines suggested by a Portrait from the Pencil of F. Stone .

453. * Upon seeing a coloured Drawing of the Bird of Paradise in an Album . [XLI.]

454. Change , [iv. 1. 14.]

455. American Repudiation . [VIII.]

456. To the Pennsylvanians . [IX.]

457. * Feel for the Wrongs, &c. [XIV.]

458. Sonnets upon the Punishment of Death ,[XX.]

XX. MISCELLANEOUS POEMS.

459. Epistle to Sir G. H. Beaumont, Bart .[1.]

460. * Upon perusing the foregoing Epistle, thirty Years after its thirty Years after its Compositon .

461. Ibid.

462. * Gold and Silver Fishes in a Vase .[II.]

463. * Liberty (Sequel to the above) . [III.]

464. Liberty . [III.]

465. Poor Robin . [IV.]

466. * Ibid.

467. * To the Lady le Fleming . [IX.]

468. * To a Redbreast (in Sickness) . [VI.]

469. * Floating Island . [VII.]

470. * Once I could hail, &c. [VIII.]

471. * The Gleaner (suggested by a Picture) .

472. Nightshade . [IX. ii. 6.]

473. Churches—East and West . [X.]

474. The Horn of Egremont Castle . [XI.]

475. * Goody Blake and Harry Gill . [XII.]

476. * To a Child: written in her Album . [XIV.]

477. * Lines written in the Album of the Countess of Lonsdale . [XV.]

478. The Russian Fugitive . [XVII.]

479. * Ibid.

XXI. INSCRIPTIONS.

XXII. SELECTIONS FROM CHAUCER MODERNISED.

487. Of the Volume in which the 'Selections' appeared .

488. The Prioress's Tale .

XXIII. POEMS REFERRING TO THE PERIOD OF OLD AGE.

489. The Old Cumberland Beggar . [I.]

490. * Ibid.

491. The Farmer of Tilsbury Vale .

492. Ibid.

493. The small Celandine . [III.]

494. * The two Thieves . [IV.]

495. * Animal Tranquillity and Decay . [V.]

XXIV. EPITAPHS AND ELEGIAC PIECES.

496. * From Chiabrera . [I. to IX.]

497. * By a blest Husband, &c.

498. Cenotaph .

499. * Epitaph in the Chapel-yard of Langdale, Westmoreland . [IV.]

500. * Address to the Scholars of the Village School .

501. Elegiac Stanzas suggested by a Picture of Peel Castle . [VI.]

502. Elegiac Verses . [VIII.]

503. Moss Campion (Silene acaulis) . [ Ibid. II. l. 5.]

504. Lines .

505. * Invocation to the Earth . [x.]

506. * Elegiac Stanzas. Addressed to Sir G.H.B . [XII.]

507. * Elegiac Musings in the Grounds of Coleorton Hall .[XIII.]

508. Charles Lamb . [XIV.]

509. * Ibid.

510. * Extempore Effusion upon the Death of James Hogg . [XV.]

511. Dead friends: 'Immortals.' [XV.]

512. * Ode: Intimations of Immortality, from Recollections of early Childhood . [Headed in I.F. MSS. 'The Ode.']

XXV. 'THE EXCURSION.'

513. * On the leading Characters and Scenes of the Poem .

514. The Aristocracy of Nature .

515. Eternity .

516. 'Of Mississippi, or that Northern Stream;' William Gilbert .

517. Richard Baxter .

518. Endowment of immortal Power .

519. Samuel Daniel and Countess of Cumberland . ['Excursion,' ibid.

520. Spires .

521. Sycamores .

522. The Transitory .

523. Dyer and 'The Fleece.'

524. Dr. Bell .

II. LETTERS AND EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS.

1. Autobiographical Memoranda dictated by William Wordsworth, P.L., at Rydal Mount, November 1847 .

2. His Schoolmistress, Mrs. Anne Birkett, Penrith .

3. Books and Reading .

4. Tour on the Continent , 1790.

5. In Wales .

6. Melancholy of a Friend .

7. Holy Orders .

8. The French Revolution: 1792.

9. Failure of Louvets Denunciation of Robespierre .

10. Of inflammatory Political Opinions .

11. At Milkhouse, Halifax : 'Not to take orders .'

12. Literary Work: Evening Walk and Descriptive Sketches : 1794.

13. Employment on a London Newspaper .

14. Raisley Culvert's last Illness .

15. Family History .

16. Reading: 1795 .

17. Satire: Poetical Imitations of Juvenal: 1795 .

18. Visit to Thelwall .

19. Poetry added to: April 12th, 1798 .

20. On the Wye .

21. At Home again .

22. Early Visit to the Lake District .

23. On a Tour, 1799 .

24. At the Lakes .

25. Inconsistent Opinions on his Poems .

26. On his Scottish Tour .

27. The Grove: Captain John Wordsworth .

28. Spenser and Milton .

29. Death of Captain John Wordsworth .

30. Of Dryden .

31. Of Marmion .

32. Topographical History , & c .

33. The War in Spain: Benefactors of Mankind, &c.

34. The Convention of Cintra: the Roman Catholics .

35. The Tractate on 'The Convention of Cintra.'

36. Of 'The Convention of Cintra,' &c.

37. Home at Grasmere: 'The Parsonage.'

38. On Education of the Young .

39. Roman Catholics: Bible Society, &c.

40. Death of Children: Politics, &c.

41. Letter of Introduction: Humour .

42. The Peninsular War .

43. Of the Writings of Southey .

44. Of alleged Changes in Political Opinions .

45. Of his Poems and others .

46. Of the Thanksgiving Ode and 'White Doe of Rylston.'

47. Of Poems in Stanzas .

48. The Classics: Translation of Aeneid, &c.

49. On the same: Letters to Earl Lonsdale .

50. Tour on the Continent, 1820 .

51. Shakespeare's Cliff at Dover .

52. Of Affairs on the Continent , 1828.

53. Style: Francis Edgeworth's 'Dramatic Fragment:' Criticisms .

54. Of the 'Icôn Basiliké,' &c. LETTER TO SOUTHEY.

55. Of the Roman Catholic Question .

56. Of the Roman Catholic Emancipation Bill .

57. Of Ireland and the Poor Laws, &c.

58. Of the Earl of Lonsdale: Virgil: Book-buying: Gifts of Books: Commentaries.

59. Poems of Edward Moxon .

60. Of Hamilton's 'It haunts me yet' and Miss Hamilton's 'Boys' School.'

61. Of Collins, Dyer, Thomson, &c.

62. Verses and Counsels .

63. 'Annuals' and publishing Roguery .

64. Works of George Peele .

65. Of Lady Winchelsea, Tickell, &c.: Sonnets, &c.

66. Hamilton's 'Spirit of Beauty:' Verbal Criticism: Female Authorship: Words.

67. His 'Play:' Hone: Eyesight failing, &c.

68. Summer: Mr. Quillinan: Draining, &c.

69. Works of Webster, &c.: Elder Poets: Dr. Darwin: 'Excursion:' Collins, &c.

70. French Revolution , 1830.

71. Nonsense: Rotten Boroughs: Sonnets: Pegasus: Kenelm Digby: Tennysons.

72. Verses: 'Reform Bill:' Francis Edgeworth: Eagles: 'Yarrow Revisited.'

73. Tour in Scotland .

74. Sir Walter Scott .

75. Of Advices that he would write more in Prose .

76. Of Poetry and Prose: Milton and Shakspeare: Reform, &c.

77. Of the Reform Bill .

78. Of Political Affairs .

79. Family Affliction and State of Public Affairs .

80. Illness of Sister: Reform: Poems: Oxford and Cambridge, &c.

81. ' Remains of Lucretia Davidson:' Public Events: Miss Jewsbury, &c.

82. Tuition at the University .

83. On the Admission of Dissenters to graduate in the University of of Cambridge.

84. The Poems of Skelton .

85. The Works of James Shirley .

86. Literary Criticism and News: Men of Science, &c.

87. Of 'Elia:' Miss Wordsworth .

88. 'Specimens of English Sonnets:' Criticisms, &c.

89. The Poems of Lady Winchelsea, Skelton, &c.

90. 'Popularity' of Poetry .

91. Sonnets, and less-known female Poets: Hartley Coleridge, &c.

93. Verse-Attempts .

94. The Poems of Mrs. Hemans .

95. Of the Church of England, &c.

96. Of 'The Omnipresence of the Deity,' &c.

97. A new Church at Cockermouth .

98. Of the Same .

99. Classic Scenes: Holy Land .

100. American Edition of Poems, &c

101. Of the Poems of Quillinan, and Revision of his own Poems .

102. On a Tour .

103. Of Bentley and Akenside .

104. Presidency of Royal Dublin Society: Patronage of Genius: Canons of Criticism: Family News.

105. Prose-writing: Coleridge: Royal Dublin Society: Select Minds: Copyright: Private Affairs.

106. Of his own Poems and posthumous Fame .

107. the Sheldonian Theatre .

108. New Edition of his Poems .

109. Death of his Nephew, John Wordsworth .

110. Of the Same .

111. On the Death of a young Person .

112. Religion and Versified Religion .

113. Memorandum of a Conversation on Sacred Poetry (by Rev. R. P. Graves.

114. Visit of Queen Adelaide to Rydal Mount .

115. Ecclesiastical Duties and Revenues Act, &c.

116. Samuel Rogers and Wordsworth together .

117. An alarming Accident, Nov . 11, 1840.

118. Of Alston and Haydon, &c.

119. Of Peace's 'Apology for Cathedrals.'

120. Of 'The Task' of Cowper and Shenstone .

121. On a Tour .

122. Marriage of Dora .

123. Letters to his Brother .

124. Episcopal Church of America: Emerson and Carlyle .

125. Old Haunts revisited .

126. No Pension sought .

127. The Master of Trinity .

128. Of Alston's Portrait of Coleridge .

129. Of Southey's Death .

130. Tropical Scenery: Grace Darling: Southey, &c.

131. Contemporary Poets: Southey's Death: 'The Excursion,' &c.

132. Offer of the Laureateship on Death of Southey .

133. Laureateship: Walter Savage Landor and Quillinan: Godson .

134. Alston the Painter: Home Occupations .

135. Socinianism .

136. Sacred Hymns .

137. Bereavements .

138. Birthday in America and at Home: Church Poetry .

139. Class-fellows and School-fellows .

140. 'From Home:' The Queen: Review of Poems, &c.

141. The Laureateship: Contemporaries, &c.: Tennyson .

142. 'Poems of Imagination:' New Edition, &c.: Portrait, &c.

143. Of the College of Maynooth, &c.

144. Of the 'Heresiarch of the Church of Rome.'

145. Family Trials .

146. Bishop White: Mormonites, &c.

147. Governor Malartie: Lord Hector of Glasgow University, &c.

148. Death of 'Dora.'

149. Of the Same: Sorrow .

150.

151. Illness and Death of a Servant at Rydal Mount .

152. Humility .

153. Hopefulness .

III. CONVERSATIONS AND PERSONAL REMINISCENCES OF WORDSWORTH.

(b) PERSONAL REMINISCENCES (1836) , BY THE HON. MR. JUSTICE COLERIDGE.

(c) RECOLLECTIONS OF TOUR IN ITALY, BY H.C. ROBINSON.

(d) REMINISCENCES OF WORDSWORTH.

(e) CONVERSATIONS AND REMINISCENCES RECORDED BY THE (NOW) BISHOP OF LINCOLN, &c.

(f) REMINISCENCES OF THE REV. R.P. GRAVES, M.A., FORMERLY OF WINDERMERE, NOW OF DUBLIN.

(g) ON THE DEATH OF COLERIDGE.

(h) FURTHER REMINISCENCES OF WORDSWORTH BY THE SAME, SENT TO THE PRESENT EDITOR.

(i) AN AMERICAN'S REMINISCENCES.

(j) RECOLLECTIONS OF WORDSWORTH.

(k) FROM 'RECOLLECTIONS OF THE LAST DAYS OF SHELLEY AND BYRON.'

(l) FROM 'LETTERS, EMBRACING HIS LIFE, OF JOHN JAMES TAYLER, B.A., PROFESSOR OF ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIBLICAL THEOLOGY, AND PRINCIPAL OF MANCHESTER NEW COLLEGE. LONDON, 1872' (TWO VOLS. 8vo) .

(m) ANECDOTE OF CRABBE.

(n) LATER OPINION OF LOUD BROUGHAM.

INDEX.

BY THE REV. ALEXANDER B. GROSART, ST. GEORGE'S, BLACKBURN, LANCASHIRE.

CONTENTS OF THREE VOLUMES

CONTENTS OF VOL. I.

CONTENTS OF VOL. II.

CONTENTS OF VOL. III.

INDEX.

IN THREE VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

Table of Contents

POLITICAL AND ETHICAL.

LONDON: EDWARD MOXON, SON, AND CO. 1 AMEN CORNER, PATERNOSTER ROW.

1876.

AMS Press, Inc. New York 10003 1967

Manufactured in the United States of America

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CONTENTS OF THREE VOLUMES

Table of Contents

CONTENTS OF VOL. I.

CONTENTS OF VOL. II.

CONTENTS OF VOL. III.

INDEX.

Table of Contents

---

CONTENTS OF VOL. I.

Table of Contents

---

*** A star [*] designates publication herein for the first time G.

The Dedication to the Queen

*Poem addressed to her Majesty with a Gift-copy of the Poems

The Preface

I. POLITICAL

*I. Apology for the French Revolution, 1793

Appendix to Bishop Watson's Sermon

II. The Convention of Cintra

Appendix by De Quincey

III. Vindication of Opinions in the Treatise on the 'Convention of Cintra'

(a) Letter to Major-General Sir Charles W. Pasley, K.C.B. on his 'Military Policy and Institutions of the British Empire,' 1811

*(b) Letter enclosing the Preceding to a Friend unnamed

IV. Two Addresses to the Freeholders of Westmoreland, 1818

*V. Of the Catholic Relief Bill, 1829

II. ETHICAL.

I. Of Legistration for the Poor, the Working Classes and the Clergy: Appendix to Poems, 1835

II. Advise to the Young:

(a) Letter to the Editor of 'The Friend,' signed 'Mathetes'

(b) Answer to the Letter of 'Mathetes,' 1809

III. Of Education:

(a) On the Education of the Young: Letter to a Friend, 1806

(b) Of the People, their Ways and Needs: Letter to Archdeacon Wrangham, 1808

(c) Education: Two Letters to the Rev. Hugh James Rose, Horsham, Sussex

(d) Education of Duty: Letter to Rev. Dr. Wordsworth, 1839

*(e) Speech on Laying the Foundation-stone of the New School in the Village of Bowness, Windermere, 1836

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS

Footnotes

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TO THE QUEEN.

Table of Contents

MADAM,

I have the honour to place in your Majesty's hands the hitherto uncollected and unpublished Prose Works of

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

—name sufficient in its simpleness to give lustre to any page.

Having been requested thus to collect and edit his Prose Writings by those who hold his MSS. and are his nearest representatives, one little discovery or recovery among these MSS. suggested your Majesty as the one among all others to whom the illustrious Author would have chosen to dedicate these Works, viz. a rough transcript of a Poem which he had inscribed on the fly-leaf of a gift-copy of the collective edition of his Poems sent to the Royal Library at Windsor Castle. This very tender, beautiful, and pathetic Poem will be found on the other side of this Dedication. It must 'for all time' take its place beside the living Laureate's imperishable verse-tribute to your Majesty.

I venture to thank your Majesty for the double permission so appreciatively given—of this Dedication itself and to print (for the first time) the Poem. The gracious permission so pleasantly and discriminatingly signified is only one of abundant proofs that your Majesty is aware that of the enduring names of the reign of Victoria, Wordsworth's is supreme as Poet and Thinker.

Gratefully and loyally,

ALEXANDER B. GROSART.

Deign, Sovereign Mistress! to accept a lay,

No Laureate offering of elaborate art;

But salutation taking its glad way

From deep recesses of a loyal heart.

Queen, Wife, and Mother! may All-judging Heaven

Shower with a bounteous hand on Thee and Thine

Felicity that only can be given

On earth to goodness blest by grace divine.

Lady! devoutly honoured and beloved

Through every realm confided to thy sway;

Mayst Thou pursue thy course by God approved,

And He will teach thy people to obey.

As Thou art wont, thy sovereignty adorn

With woman's gentleness, yet firm and staid;

So shall that earthly crown thy brows have worn

Be changed for one whose glory cannot fade.

And now, by duty urged, I lay this Book

Before thy Majesty, in humble trust

That on its simplest pages Thou wilt look

With a benign indulgence more than just.

Nor wilt Thou blame an aged Poet's prayer,

That issuing hence may steal into thy mind

Some solace under weight of royal care,

Or grief—the inheritance of humankind.

For know we not that from celestial spheres,

When Time was young, an inspiration came

(Oh, were it mine!) to hallow saddest tears,

And help life onward in its noblest aim?

W.W.

9th January 1846.

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PREFACE.

Table of Contents

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In response to a request put in the most gratifying way possible of the nearest representatives of WORDSWORTH, the Editor has prepared this collection of his Prose Works. That this should be done for the first time herein seems somewhat remarkable, especially in the knowledge of the permanent value which the illustrious Author attached to his Prose, and that he repeatedly expressed his wish and expectation that it would be thus brought together and published, e.g. in the 'Memoirs,' speaking of his own prose writings, he said that but for COLERIDGE'S irregularity of purpose he should probably have left much more in that kind behind him. When COLERIDGE was proposing to publish his 'Friend,' he (WORDSWORTH) had offered contributions. COLERIDGE had expressed himself pleased with the offer, but said, I must arrange my principles for the work, and when that is done I shall be glad of your aid. But this arrangement of principles never took place. WORDSWORTH added: "I think my nephew, Dr. Wordsworth, will, after my death, collect and publish all I have written in prose.... On another occasion, I believe, he intimated a desire that his works in Prose should be edited by his son-in-law, Mr. Quillinan."[1] Similarly he wrote to Professor REED in 1840: 'I am much pleased by what you say in your letter of the 18th May last, upon the Tract of the Convention of Cintra, and I think myself with some interest upon its being reprinted hereafter along with my other writings [in prose]. But the respect which, in common with all the rest of the rational part of the world, I bear for the DUKE OF WELLINGTON will prevent my reprinting the pamphlet during his lifetime. It has not been in my power to read the volumes of his Despatches, which I hear so highly spoken of; but I am convinced that nothing they contain could alter my opinion of the injurious tendency of that or any other Convention, conducted upon such principles. It was, I repeat, gratifying to me that you should have spoken of that work as you do, and particularly that you should have considered it in relation to my Poems, somewhat in the same manner as you had done in respect to my little volume on the Lakes.'[2]

It is probable that the amount of the Prose of WORDSWORTH will come as a surprise—surely a pleasant one—on even his admirers and students. His own use of 'Tract' to describe a goodly octavo volume, and his calling his 'Guide' a 'little volume' while it is a somewhat considerable one, together with the hiding away of some of his most matterful and weightiest productions in local and fugitive publications, and in Prefaces and Appendices to Poems, go far to explain the prevailing unacquaintance with even the extent, not to speak of the importance, of his Prose, and the light contentment with which it has been permitted so long to remain (comparatively) out of sight. That the inter-relation of the Poems to the Prose, and of the Prose to the Poems—of which above he himself wrote—makes the collection and publication of the Prose a duty to all who regard WILLIAM WORDSWORTH as one of the supreme intellects of the century—as certainly the glory of the Georgian and Victorian age as ever SHAKESPEARE and RALEIGH were of the Elizabethan and Jacobean—will not be questioned to-day.

The present Editor can only express his satisfaction at being called to execute a task which, from a variety of circumstances, has been too long delayed; but only delayed, inasmuch as the members of the Poet's family have always held it as a sacred obligation laid upon them, with the additional sanction that WORDSWORTH'S old and valued friend, HENRY CRABB ROBINSON, Esq., had expressed a wish in his last Will (1868) that the Prose Works of his friend should one day be collected; and which wish alone, from one so discriminating and generous—were there no other grounds for doing so—the family of WORDSWORTH could not but regard as imperative. He rejoices that the delay—otherwise to be regretted—has enabled the Editor to furnish a much fuller and more complete collection than earlier had perhaps been possible. He would now briefly notice the successive portions of these Volumes:

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VOL. I.

Table of Contents

I. POLITICAL.

(a) Apology for the French Revolution, 1793.

This is from the Author's own MS., and is published for the first time. Every reader of 'The Recluse' and 'The Excursion' and the 'Lines on the French Revolution, as it appeared to Enthusiasts at its Commencement'—to specify only these—is aware that, in common with SOUTHEY and the greater COLERIDGE, WORDSWORTH was in sympathy with the uprising of France against its tyrants. But it is only now that we are admitted to a full discovery of his youthful convictions and emotion by the publication of this Manuscript, carefully preserved by him, but never given to the world. The title on the fly-leaf—'Apology,' &c., being ours—in the Author's own handwriting, is as follows:

A

LETTER

TO THE

BISHOP OF LANDAFF

ON THE EXTRAORDINARY AVOWAL OF HIS

POLITICAL PRINCIPLES,

CONTAINED IN THE

APPENDIX TO HIS LATE SERMON:

BY A

REPUBLICAN.

It is nowhere dated, but inasmuch as Bishop WATSON'S Sermon, with the Appendix, appeared early in 1793, to that year certainly belongs the composition of the 'Letter.' The title-page of the Sermon and Appendix may be here given;

A

SERMON

PREACHED BEFORE THE

STEWARDS

OF THE

WESTMINSTER DISPENSARY,

AT THEIR

ANNIVERSARY MEETING,

CHARLOTTE STREET CHAPEL, APRIL 1785.

WITH AN APPENDIX, BY R. WATSON, D.D.

LORD BISHOP OF LANDAFF.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR T. CADELL IN THE STRAND; AND T. EVANS

IN PATERNOSTER ROW.

1793 [8vo].

In the same year a 'second edition' was published, and also separately the Appendix, thus:

STRICTURES

ON THE

FRENCH REVOLUTION

AND THE

BRITISH CONSTITUTION,

AS WRITTEN IN 1793

IN AN

APPENDIX TO A SERMON

PREACHED BEFORE THE

STEWARDS OF THE WESTMINSTER DISPENSARY,

AT THEIR

ANNIVERSARY MEETING,

CHARLOTTE STREET CHAPEL, APRIL 1785,

BY R. WATSON, D.D.

LORD BISHOP OF LANDAFF.

Reprinted at Loughborough,

(With his Lordship's permission) by Adams, Jun.

and

Recommended by the Loughborough Association

For the Support of the Constitution to

The Serious Attention of the Public.

Price Twopence, being one third of the original price,

1793 [small 8vo],

The Sermon is a somewhat commonplace dissertation on 'The Wisdom and Goodness of God in having made both Rich and Poor,' from Proverbs xxii. 2: 'The rich and poor meet together, the Lord is the Maker of them all.' It could not but be most irritating to one such as young WORDSWORTH—then in his twenty-third year—who passionately felt as well with as for the poor of his native country, and that from an intimacy of knowledge and intercourse and sympathy in striking contrast with the serene optimism of the preacher,—all the more flagrant in that Bishop Watson himself sprang from the very humblest ranks. But it is on the Appendix this Letter expends its force, and, except from BURKE on the opposite side, nothing more forceful, or more effectively argumentative, or informed with a nobler patriotism, is to be found in the English language. If it have not the kindling eloquence which is Demosthenic, and that axiomatic statement of principles which is Baconian, of the 'Convention,' every sentence and epithet pulsates—as its very life-blood—with a manly scorn of the false, the base, the sordid, the merely titularly eminent. It may not be assumed that even to old age WILLIAM WORDSWORTH would have disavowed a syllable of this 'Apology.' Technically he might not have held to the name 'Republican,' but to the last his heart was with the oppressed, the suffering, the poor, the silent. Mr. H. CRABB ROBINSON tells us in his Diary (vol. ii. p. 290, 3d edition): 'I recollect once hearing Mr. WORDSWORTH say, half in joke, half in earnest, I have no respect whatever for Whigs, but I have a great deal of the Chartist in me;' and his friend adds: 'To be sure he has. His earlier poems are full of that intense love of the people, as such, which becomes Chartism when the attempt is formally made to make their interests the especial object of legislation, as of deeper importance than the positive rights hitherto accorded to the privileged orders.' Elsewhere the same Diarist speaks of 'the brains of the noblest youths in England' being 'turned' (i. 31, 32), including WORDSWORTH. There was no such 'turning' of brain with him. He was deliberate, judicial, while at a red heat of indignation. To measure the quality of difference, intellectually and morally, between WORDSWORTH and another noticeable man who entered into controversy with Bishop WATSON, it is only necessary to compare the present Letter with GILBERT WAKEFIELD'S 'Reply to some Parts of the Bishop of Landaff's Address to the People of Great Britain' (1798).

The manuscript is wholly in the handwriting of its author, and is done with uncharacteristic painstaking; for later, writing was painful and irksome to him, and even his letters are in great part illegible. One folio is lacking, but probably it contained only an additional sentence or two, as the examination of the Appendix is complete. Following on our ending are these words: 'Besides the names which I.'

That the Reader may see how thorough is the Answer of WORDSWORTH to Bishop WATSON, the 'Appendix' is reprinted in extenso. Being comparatively brief, it was thought expedient not to put the student on a vain search for the long-forgotten Sermon. On the biographic value of this Letter, and the inevitableness of its inclusion among his prose Works, it cannot be needful to say a word. It is noticed—and little more—in the 'Memoirs' (c. ix. vol. i. pp. 78-80). In his Letters (vol. iii.) will be found incidental allusions and vindications of the principles maintained in the 'Apology.'

(b) Concerning the Relations of Great Britain, Spain, and Portugal, to each other and 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. 1809.

As stated in its 'Advertisement,' two portions of this treatise (rather than 'Tract'), 'extending to p. 25' of the completed volume, were originally printed in the months of December and January (1808-9), in the 'Courier' newspaper. In this shape it attracted the notice of no less a reader than Sir WALTER SCOTT, who thus writes of it: 'I have read WORDSWORTH'S lucubrations[3] in the 'Courier,' and much agree with him. Alas! we want everything but courage and virtue in this desperate contest. Skill, knowledge of mankind, ineffable unhesitating villany, combination of movement and combination of means, are with our adversary. We can only fight like mastiffs—boldly, blindly, and faithfully. I am almost driven to the pass of the Covenanters, when they told the Almighty in their prayers He should no longer be their God; and I really believe a few Gazettes more will make me turn Turk or infidel.'[4]

What WORDSWORTH'S own feelings and impulses were in the composition of the 'Convention of Cintra' are revealed with unwonted as fine passion in his 'Letters and Conversations' (vol. iii. pp. 256-261, &c.), whither the Reader will do well to turn, inasmuch as he returns and re-returns therein to his standing-ground in this very remarkable and imperishable book. The long Letters to (afterwards) Sir CHARLES W. PASLEY and another—never before printed—which follow the 'Convention of Cintra' itself, are of special interest. The Appendix of Notes, 'a portion of the work which WORDSWORTH regarded as executed in a masterly manner, was drawn up by De Quincey, who revised the proofs of the whole' ('Memoirs,' i. 384). Of the 'Convention of Cintra' the (now) Bishop of Lincoln (WORDSWORTH) writes eloquently as follows: 'Much of WORDSWORTH'S life was spent in comparative retirement, and a great part of his poetry concerns natural and quiet objects. But it would be a great error to imagine that he was not an attentive observer of public events. He was an ardent lover of his country and of mankind. He watched the progress of civil affairs in England with a vigilant eye, and he brought the actions of public men to the test of the great and lasting principles of equity and truth. He extended his range of view to events in foreign parts, especially on the continent of Europe. Few persons, though actually engaged in the great struggle of that period, felt more deeply than WORDSWORTH did in his peaceful retreat for the calamities of European nations, suffering at that time from the imbecility of their governments, and from the withering oppression of a prosperous despotism. His heart burned within him when he looked forth upon the contest, and impassioned words proceeded from him, both in poetry and prose. The contemplative calmness of his position, and the depth and intensity of his feelings, combined together to give a dignity and clearness, a vigour and splendour, and, consequently, a lasting value, to his writings on measures of domestic and foreign policy, qualities that rarely belong to contemporaneous political effusions produced by those engaged in the heat and din of the battle. This remark is specially applicable to his tract on the Convention of Cintra.... Whatever difference of opinion may prevail concerning the relevance of the great principles enunciated in it to the questions at issue, but one judgment can exist with respect to the importance of those principles, and the vigorous and fervid eloquence with which they are enforced. If WORDSWORTH had never written a single verse, this Essay alone would be sufficient to place him in the highest rank of English poets.... Enough has been quoted to show that the Essay on the Convention of Cintra was not an ephemeral production, destined to vanish with the occasion which gave it birth. If this were the case, the labour bestowed upon it was almost abortive. The author composed the work in the discharge of what he regarded a sacred duty, and for the permanent benefit of society, rather than with a view to any immediate results.'[5] The Bishop adds further these details: 'He foresaw and predicted that his words would be to the public ear what midnight storms are to men who sleep:

"I dropp'd my pen, and listen'd to the wind,

That sang of trees uptorn and vessels tost—

A midnight harmony, and wholly lost

To the general sense of men, by chains confined

Of business, care, or pleasure, or resign'd

To timely sleep. Thought I, the impassion'd strain,

Which without aid of numbers I sustain,

Like acceptation from the world will find.

Yet some with apprehensive ear shall drink

A dirge devoutly breath'd o'er sorrows past;

And to the attendant promise will give heed—

The prophecy—like that of this wild blast,

Which, while it makes the heart with, sadness shrink,

Tells also of bright calms that shall succeed."[6]

It is true that some few readers it had on its first appearance; and it is recorded by an ear-witness that Canning said of this pamphlet that he considered it the most eloquent production since the days of Burke;[7] but, by some untoward delays in printing, it was not published till the interest in the question under discussion had almost subsided. Certain it is, that an edition, consisting only of five hundred copies, was not sold off; that many copies were disposed of by the publishers as waste paper, and went to the trunkmakers; and now there is scarcely any volume published in this country which is so difficult to be met with as the tract on the Convention of Cintra; and if it were now reprinted, it would come before the public with almost the unimpaired freshness of a new work.'[8] In agreement with the closing statement, at the sale of the library of Sir James Macintosh a copy fetched (it has been reported) ten guineas. Curiously enough not a single copy was preserved by the Author himself. The companion sonnet to the above, 'composed while the author was engaged in writing a tract occasioned by the Convention of Cintra, 1808,' must also find a place here:

'Not 'mid the world's vain objects that enslave

The free-born soul—that world whose vaunted skill

In selfish interest perverts the will,

Whose factions lead astray the wise and brave—

Not there; but in dark wood and rocky cave,

And hollow vale which foaming torrents fill

With omnipresent murmur as they rave

Down their steep beds, that never shall be still,

Here, mighty Nature, in this school sublime

I weigh the hopes and fears of suffering Spain;

For her consult the auguries of time,

And through the human heart explore my way,

And look and listen—gathering where I may

Triumph, and thoughts no bondage can restrain.'[9]

(c) Letter to Major-General Sir Charles W. Pasley, K.C.B., on his 'Military Policy and Institutions of the British Empire,' with another—now first printed—transmitting it.

The former is derived from the 'Memoirs' (vol. i. pp. 405-20). In forwarding it to the (now) Bishop of Lincoln, Sir CHARLES thus wrote of it: 'The letter on my Military Policy is particularly interesting.... Though WORDSWORTH agreed that we ought to step forward with all our military force as principals in the war, he objected to any increase of our own power and resources by continental conquest, in which I now think he was quite right. I am not, however, by any means shaken in the opinion then advanced, that peace with Napoleon would lead to the loss of our naval superiority and of our national independence, ... and I fully believe that the Duke of Wellington's campaigns in the Spanish Peninsula saved the nation, though no less credit is due to the Ministry of that day for not despairing of eventual success, but supporting him under all difficulties in spite of temporary reverses, and in opposition to a powerful party and to influential writers.' The letter transmitting the other has only recently been discovered on a reëxamination of the Wordsworth MSS. Both letters have a Shakespearian-patriotic ring concerning 'This England.' It is inspiring to read in retrospect of the facts such high-couraged writing as in these letters.

(d) Two Addresses to the Freeholders of Westmoreland, 1818.

The 'Mr. BROUGHAM' of these 'Two Addresses' was, as all the world knows, the (afterwards) renowned and many-gifted HENRY, Lord BROUGHAM and VAUX. In his Autobiography he refers very good-humouredly to his three defeats in contesting the representation of Westmoreland; but there is no allusion whatever to WORDSWORTH. With reference to his final effort he thus informs us: 'Parliament was dissolved in 1826, when for the third time I stood for Westmoreland; and, after a hard-fought contest, was again defeated. I have no wish to enter into the local politics of that county, but I cannot resist quoting an extract from a letter of my esteemed friend Bishop BATHURST to Mr. HOWARD of Corby, by whose kindness I am enabled to give it: "Mr. BROUGHAM has struggled nobly for civil and religious liberty; and is fully entitled to the celebrated eulogy bestowed by Lucan upon Cato—

'Victrix causa Diis placuit, sed victa Catoni.'

How others may feel I know not, but for my own part I would much rather be in his situation than in that of the two victorious opponents; notwithstanding the cold discouraging maxim of Epictetus, which is calculated to check every virtuous effort—'

Greek

[=You may be invincible if you never go down into the arena when you are not secure of victory: Enchiridion, cxxv.]. He will not, I hope, suffer from his exertions, extraordinary in every way. I respect exceedingly his fine abilities, and the purpose to which he applies them" (Norwich, July 10, 1826). As Cato owed Lucan's panegyric to the firmness he had shown in adhering to the losing cause, and to his steadfastness to the principles he had adopted, so I considered the Bishop's application of the lines to me as highly complimentary' ('Life and Times,' vol. ii. pp. 437-8). It seemed only due to the subject of WORDSWORTH'S invective and opposition to give his view of the struggle and another's worthy of all respect. Unless the writer has been misinformed, WORDSWORTH and BROUGHAM came to know and worthily estimate each other when the exacerbations and clamours of provincial politics had long passed away, and when, except the 'old gray head' of WELLINGTON, none received more reverence from the nation than that of HENRY BROUGHAM. In the just-issued 'Memoirs of the Reigns of George IV. and William IV.' by GREVILLE, BROUGHAM and WORDSWORTH are brought together very pleasingly. (See these works, vol. iii. p. 504.)

The Author's personal relations to the Lowthers semi-unconsciously coloured his opinions, and intensified his partisanship and glorified the commonplace. But with all abatements these 'Two Addresses' supply much material for a right