To hear a voice that cried,

To the whole city, 'Sleep no more!'"

These scenes are said to have made so deep an impression on him, that for years afterwards they haunted him in his dreams!

Appalled by what he saw, and stung with disappointment that no great spirit had emerged to crush the impious leaders of "the atheist crew," he began to forebode the approach of the Reign of Terror. Yet, as if by some mysterious spell, he seemed fascinated by what he saw, and felt riveted to the fatal spot. Fortunately for him, however, circumstances compelled him to return to England, and he reluctantly tore himself away. Had he remained but a little longer, he would, in all probability, have been swept away with the innumerable victims that perished in the excesses of that sanguinary period. He afterwards gratefully acknowledged that he had been rescued "by the gracious providence of Heaven” from a bloody and untimely end.

Yet, notwithstanding what he had witnessed, he clung for some years unfalteringly to his republican faith. Gradually, however, as he grew older, his political opinions changed, and he ultimately became "the constant advocate of a strong government, which should rigidly administer the institutions matured in a long course of ages, and only suffer them to be altered slowly and gradually according to the dictates of experience." In other words, he became a Conser vative in politics. For this change in his political opinions, however, he was frequently and bitterly attacked. And there cannot be a doubt but that much of the hostility which greeted the literary efforts of his earlier years arose from the strong feelings engendered by a knowledge of this fact. For in those times party spirit ran so high, that the light in which a man's productions were regarded, whether in literature, science, or art, depended almost entirely on the spirit political bias of the party regarding them. In reference to this change, however, the poet, in his defence, said, “I should think that I had lived to little purpose if my notions on the subject of government had undergone no modification. My youth must, in that case, have been without enthusiasm, and my manhood endued with small capability of profiting by reflection." His conservatism, he asserted, arose from reflection on the frightful excesses he had seen perpetrated on the soil of France in the sacred name of Liberty; and from indignation and abhorrence at the insane ambition and sanguinary and oppressive measures of the imperial despot who had sprung phoenix-like from the ashes of that Liberty whose coming had been so long and so hopefully looked for, and whose birth had been so universally and so enthusiastically welcomed, but whose existence, alas ! had been at once so brief and so bloody.

In 1793 his first pieces appeared-"The Evening Walk" and "Descriptive Sketches." They attracted little public attention; but Coleridge, into whose hands they had fallen, thought highly of them, and asserted with some warmth, that seldoni, if ever, was the emergence of an original poetic genius above the literary horizon more evidently announced."

For the next year or two Wordsworth wandered about, making various pedestrian excursions, accompanied by his sister Dorothy; who, for the rest of his days, was to be the faithful and revered companion of his life and labours. And during this period he seems to have become gradually impressed with the belief that the vocation of the poet was the calling for which he had been born. But while he thought so. he was, for the time, compelled to look about for some other means of liveli hood. He planned a monthly publication-The Philanthropist—which was to have been republican, but not revolutionary; but it came to nothing. He then tried to find employment in connexion with the metropolitan newspaper press; and while he was still in doubt as to whether he should succeed, the liberality of an amiable young friend, whose sick-bed he had attended, placed him for a time beyond all anxiety on this score. This generous friend-Raisley Calvert, son of a gentleman who was steward to the Duke of Norfolk-was so impressed with the belief that Wordsworth, if possessed of independent means, would benefit mankind by his writings, that he left him a legacy of £900 that he might devote himself to the vocation that was to be the sole business of his life. Upon the interest of this sum, £400 having been laid out in annuity, with £200 deducted from the principal, and £100, a legacy his sister had been left, and £100 more which he had for "The Lyrical Ballads," his sister and himself contrived to live for nearly eight years, a the end of which period Lord Lonsdale died, and his successor at once discharge the debt due to the Wordsworth family, which amounted to £8500. Of this su £1800 apiece fell to his sister and himself, an amount which, for their moderate desires, amply sufficed to support them in comfort for many additional years.

In the autumn of 1795, Wordsworth and his sister were settled at Racedown Lodge, in Dorsetshire, where they industriously employed themselves in reading, writing, and gardening. Here he wrote his tragedy of "The Borderers," which he sent to Mr. Harris, who was then manager of Covent Garden Theatre; but which that gentleman returned as unsuited for the stage. It appears to have been thrown aside, as it was not published till nearly fifty years afterwards (1842). Here, also, he first made the acquaintance of Coleridge, whom he described at that time as a noticeable man, with large grey eyes," but "depressed by weight of musing fantasy." The two poets appear to have been so delighted with each other's society, that they became eager for closer intimacy. In July, 1797, therefore, Wordsworth and his sister removed to Alfoxden, a beautiful and romantic spot in the neighbourhood of Nether-Stowey, in Somersetshire, where Coleridge then resided. The house they occupied is described by Miss Wordsworth as charmingly situated on a slope within sight of the sea, and "in the midst of woods as wild as fancy ever painted." Here they remained for about a year-a period which the poet describes as a most pleasant and productive time of his life,

It was during his residence here, also, that the " Lyrical Ballads" originated. Their plan was the joint production of himself and Coleridge, and a distinct part in its execution was assigned to each. It had arisen out of the idea that a series of poems might be composed of two sorts. In the one the incidents and agents were to be in part supernatural; in the other, the subjects were to be chosen from ordinary life.

Accordingly, the supernatural or romantic section was assigned to Coleridge, while
Wordsworth was 66
to give the charm of novelty to things of every day," and to
awaken "the mind's attention to the lethargy of custom, and to direct it to the
loveliness and the wonders of the world around us." In the autumn of 1798,
therefore, the "Lyrical Ballads" were published in one volume, consisting of
twenty-three poems ("The Ancient Mariner" and two others having been contri-
buted by Coleridge), by Joseph Cottle, a bookseller of Bristol, who gave thirty
guineas for the copyright.

The poems were published as a protest against the prevailing artificial
literature of the period. The false and unnatural diction of that literature, its
general inattention to the beauties of external nature, and its utter want of
sympathy with the ordinary events and common feelings of mankind, the poet
had long perceived and lamented; and he felt that he possessed the power of
producing poetry in which these faults should not only be avoided, but in
which he should "impart moral grandeur to poverty, and invest the objects of
irrational and inanimate nature with a beauty and grace, of which, it seemed to
him, they had long been stripped by a heartless and false taste pretending to the
title of delicacy and refinement." But in this his first attempt to run full
tilt against the popular taste, he was singularly unfortunate. The refined and sen.
timental school of verse, with its elegant and polished diction, had far too firm a
hold of the public mind to be so easily overthrown. And the transition from such
polish and refinement to the extreme simplicity, and, in many instances, childish
nature, of the subjects of the "Lyrical Ballads," and the homely and colloquial
style in which they were treated, was far too great either to escape censure or insure
success. But although assailed on all hands by a storm of ridicule, they succeeded
in creating a public for themselves; and the poet was, therefore, not without hope
that he should ultimately succeed in freeing men's minds from the fetters of a false
and pernicious system of ethics and of art, and in leading them into the freedom
of the broad, clear light of day, where they might behold, with unveiled eyes, and
face to face, the surpassing beauty and sublime grandeur of external nature; and
where, while they gazed, chastened and subdued, they might feel "a sense
sublime"-
'—a pervading “presence,”-

"Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
And the round ocean, and the living air,

And the blue sky, and in the mind of man !"

Strong in resolution, and firm in his faith in himself and in the future, he set out in September, 1798, accompanied by his sister and Coleridge, for Germany. At Hamburg the party separated-Coleridge going on to Ratzeburg, and Wordsworth and his sister proceeding to Goslar, in Hanover, a town situated at the foot of a cluster of mountains which form part of the Hartz forest, and where they spent the winter of 1798-99, the severest of the century. Here he wrote several of his most beautiful pieces, such as Ruth," Lucy Grey," " Nutting," and the blank-verse lines beginning "There was a boy," and "Wisdom and Spirit of the universe.".

33 66

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Here, also, he began his great blank-verse poem, "The Prelude," the subject of which was to be the growth of his mind and his personal history-"his travels, hopes, aspirations, disappointments, and distresses-his inward conflicts and perplexities."

During his absence from England, the sale of the "Lyrical Ballads," (the edition of which consisted of 500 copies,) had been so small, and the severity of the leading reviews so great, that his publisher thought their progress to oblivion seemed certain. And some idea may be formed of the general estimate in which they were held, when it is stated, that, when the publisher, shortly after their publication, gave up business, and transferred all his copyrights to Messrs. Longman and Co., of London, the copyright of the "Ballads” was valued at nil. The publisher therefore begged that it might be returned, which it was, and he presented it to the author.

In February, 1799, Wordsworth and his sister returned to England; and, in the end of the same year, he took up his abode, which was to be a life-long one, among the lakes and mountains of his native district, having settled, with his sister, in a small cottage, pleasantly situated in the midst of a plot of orchard ground, overlooking the lake of Grasmere. Here he remained for eight years.

About the close of 1800, the second volume of the "Lyrical Ballads" was published, along with a reprint of the first. For two editions of the two volumes, the poet received from Messrs. Longman & Co., of London, his publishers, the sum of £100. This time, their appearance excited even more intense hostility than at first, the critics almost to a man being against them. And this hostility was chiefly provoked by the preface prefixed to the second edition, in which the poet, with considerable power, sets forth and defends certain principles of poetry which he deemed the main articles of his philosophical and poetical creed. What these principles were, and whether true or false, need not now be discussed. As embodied in his works, with some few modifications of his maturer years, they have been so long before the world, and have formed the subject of so many elaborate and laudatory essays by some of the ablest intellects of the age, that, in their present popularity, we may almost be said to hear the judgment of posterity on them. But no amount of adverse criticism had the slightest effect upon the poet. He kept the noiseless tenor of his way, and continued to write and publish, regardless of the storm he raised.

In October, 1802, he bade a brief "Farewell!" to the "little nook of mountain ground," his residence at Grasmere, and set out for Penrith, in company with his sister, to bring home one who was to be his bride-the school companion of his boyish days-Mary Hutchinson

"A perfect woman, nobly planned,

To warn, to comfort, and command;"

and to whose graces of person, charms of manner, and sweetness of temper, his poems pay warm and beautiful tributes. To this lady he now united himself in marriage.

In 1803, accompanied by his sister and Coleridge, he paid a visit to Scotland. Of this tour his sister kept a very interesting diary, from which it appears that he visited the house and grave of Burns, Loch Lomond, the Trosachs, the Pass of Killicrankie, and a host of other places hallowed by their sacred associations, celebrated for their beauty, famous in history, or renowned in tradition and song. And wherever he went his genius kindled and poured itself forth in consecrating and antistrophic song. On their return south, they met with Scott at Melrose, who conducted them to the abbey, pointed out its beauties, and related its history, and with whom they afterwards dined at the inn there, he being at that time travelling to the assizes at Jedburgh in his capacity of Sheriff of Selkirk. They seem to have been delighted with him, and long remembered the visit with pleasure.

Shortly after the poet's return home, he became acquainted with Sir George Beaumont, a descendant of the celebrated Elizabethan dramatist, in whom he found a generous and admiring friend, and at whose seat of Coleorton, in Leicestershire, he was a frequent and welcome guest.

In February, 1805, he sustained a severe shock in the loss of his brother, Captain Wordsworth, who went down in the Abergavenny, East Indiaman, off the coast of Weymouth. A man of warm and susceptible temperament, of pure and simple manners, and of remarkable literary taste and critical discernment, considering the calling he followed, his untimely death seems to have been one of the heaviest blows the poet ever experienced. In this year Scott visited Grasmere, and, in company with Wordsworth and Sir Humphry Davy, ascended to the top of Helvellyn. In this year, also, were composed "The Waggoner," the "Ode to Duty," and "The Happy Warrior;" and the autobiographical poem of "The Prelude" was finished, and consigned to the poet's desk for the next fortyfive years.

Undeterred by the reception given to the two volumes of the "Lyrical Ballads,” in 1807 he gave to the world two other volumes of poems, which had been composed since the publication of the second volume of the former. They con. sisted, in addition to some very fine ballads, and a number of the most beautiful of his smaller pieces, of "Miscellaneous Sonnets," "Sonnets Dedicated to Liberty," and the "Memorials of a Tour in Scotland." But the poet's persistency in his principles, and the evident vitality of his poetic powers, would seem to have provoked afresh the hostility of his critics; for no sooner had the poems appeared, than they were assailed with a fierceness of feeling and a licence of language wholly disproportioned to the faults condemned-which nothing could justify, and which few indeed would have had the courage to combat or the spirit to endure. But his opponents, says his nephew, were irritated by the energy of that which they despised. Their own character for critical acumen seemed to be at stake; and they conspired to crush a reputation whose existence was a practical protest against their own literary principles and practice, and which doubtless appeared to them to be fraught with pernicious consequences to the dignity of English literature, and the progress of English intelligence." The effect of these ungenerous strictures in