book ix

. l. 614.--ED.]

[Footnote E: Alas! no longer as they were in Wordsworth's time. See the note to _Yew-Trees_, vol. ii. p. 371.--ED.]

[Footnote F: "Mr. Pearson." Pencilled on the opposite page of the MS.--ED.]

[Footnote G: Pencilled on the opposite page of the MS.--"This boathouse, badly built, gave way, and was rebuilt. It again tumbled, and was a third time reconstructed, but in a better fashion than before. It is not now, _per se_, an ugly building, however obtrusive it may be."--ED.]

[Footnote H: Compare the sonnet _Malham Cove_ in volume vi., to which these lines belong.--ED.]

[Footnote I: The following note from Wordsworth to Mr. Dyce, shews his estimation of the text of the first octavo edition, as compared with that of the earlier quarto edition.

"MY DEAR SIR,--When you read _The Excursion_ do not read the quarto. It is improved in the 8vo E.:--but I thought the quarto might have its value with you as a collector.--Believe me, faithfully yours,

"W. WORDSWORTH." 7th April, my birthday--61, 12 Bryanston Street.

In 1820 there are very few departures from the text of 1814.--ED.]

[Footnote J: In a subsequent letter (August 29th) he corrects this, and calls it "that celestial splendour of the mist going off."--ED.]

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE WILLIAM, EARL OF LONSDALE, K.G., ETC. ETC.

Oft, through thy fair domains,[K] illustrious Peer! In youth I roamed, on youthful pleasures bent; And mused in rocky cell or sylvan tent, Beside swift-flowing Lowther's current clear.[L] --Now, by thy care befriended, I appear Before thee, LONSDALE, and this Work present, A token (may it prove a monument!) Of high respect and gratitude sincere. Gladly would I have waited till my task Had reached its close; but Life is insecure, And Hope full oft fallacious as a dream: Therefore, for what is here produced, I ask Thy favour; trusting that thou wilt not deem The offering, though imperfect, premature.

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH.

RYDAL MOUNT, WESTMORELAND, _July_ 29, 1814.

PREFACE TO THE EDITION OF 1814

The Title-page announces that this is only a portion of a poem; and the Reader must be here apprised that it belongs to the second part of a long and laborious Work, which is to consist of three parts.--The Author will candidly acknowledge that, if the first of these had been completed, and in such a manner as to satisfy his own mind, he should have preferred the natural order of publication, and have given that to the world first; but, as the second division of the Work was designed to refer more to passing events, and to an existing state of things, than the others were meant to do, more continuous exertion was naturally bestowed upon it, and greater progress made here than in the rest of the poem; and as this part does not depend upon the preceding, to a degree which will materially injure its own peculiar interest, the Author, complying with the earnest entreaties of some valued Friends, presents the following pages to the Public.

It may be proper to state whence the poem, of which _The Excursion_ is a part, derives its Title of THE RECLUSE.--Several years ago, when the Author retired to his native mountains, with the hope of being enabled to construct a literary Work that might live, it was a reasonable thing that he should take a review of his own mind, and examine how far Nature and Education had qualified him for such employment. As subsidiary to this preparation, he undertook to record, in verse, the origin and progress of his own powers, as far as he was acquainted with them. That Work,[A] addressed to a dear Friend, most distinguished for his knowledge and genius, and to whom the Author's Intellect is deeply indebted, has been long finished; and the result of the investigation which gave rise to it was a determination to compose a philosophical poem, containing views of Man, Nature, and Society; and to be entitled, _The Recluse_; as having for its principal subject the sensations and opinions of a poet living in retirement.--The preparatory poem[M] is biographical, and conducts the history of the Author's mind to the point when he was emboldened to hope that his faculties were sufficiently matured for entering upon the arduous labour which he had proposed to himself; and the two Works have the same kind of relation to each other, if he may so express himself, as the ante-chapel has to the body of a gothic church. Continuing this allusion, he may be permitted to add, that his minor Pieces, which have been long before the Public, when they shall be properly arranged,[N] will be found by the attentive Reader to have such connection with the main Work as may give them claim to be likened to the little cells, oratories, and sepulchral recesses, ordinarily included in those edifices.

The Author would not have deemed himself justified in saying, upon this occasion, so much of performances either unfinished, or unpublished, if he had not thought that the labour bestowed by him upon what he has heretofore and now laid before the Public, entitled him to candid attention for such a statement as he thinks necessary to throw light upon his endeavours to please and, he would hope, to benefit his countrymen.--Nothing further need be added, than that the first and third parts of _The Recluse_ will consist chiefly of meditations in the Author's own person; and that in the intermediate part (_The Excursion_) the intervention of characters speaking is employed, and something of a dramatic form adopted.

It is not the Author's intention formally to announce a system: it was more animating to him to proceed in a different course; and if he shall succeed in conveying to the mind clear thoughts, lively images, and strong feelings, the Reader will have no difficulty in extracting the system for himself. And in the mean time the following passage, taken from the conclusion of the first book of _The Recluse_, may be acceptable as a kind of _Prospectus_ of the design and scope of the whole Poem.

"On Man, on Nature, and on Human Life, Musing in solitude, I oft perceive Fair trains of imagery before me rise, Accompanied by feelings of delight Pure, or with no unpleasing sadness mixed; 5 And I am conscious of affecting thoughts And dear remembrances, whose presence soothes Or elevates the Mind, intent to weigh The good and evil of our mortal state. --To these emotions, whencesoe'er they come, 10 Whether from breath of outward circumstance, Or from the Soul--an impulse to herself-- I would give utterance in numerous verse. Of Truth, of Grandeur, Beauty, Love, and Hope, And melancholy Fear subdued by Faith; 15 Of blessed consolations in distress; Of moral strength, and intellectual Power; Of joy in widest commonalty spread; Of the individual Mind that keeps her own Inviolate retirement, subject there 20 To Conscience only, and the law supreme Of that Intelligence which governs all-- I sing:--'fit audience let me find though few!'[O]

"So prayed, more gaining than he asked, the Bard-- In holiest mood.[1] Urania,[P] I shall need 25 Thy guidance, or a greater Muse, if such Descend to earth or dwell in highest heaven! For I must tread on shadowy ground, must sink Deep--and, aloft ascending, breathe in worlds To which the heaven of heavens is but a veil. 30 All strength--all terror, single or in bands, That ever was put forth in personal form-- Jehovah--with his thunder, and the choir Of shouting Angels, and the empyreal thrones-- I pass them unalarmed. Not Chaos, not 35 The darkest pit of lowest Erebus, Nor aught of blinder vacancy, scooped out By help of dreams--can breed such fear and awe As fall upon us often when we look Into our Minds, into the Mind of Man-- 40 My haunt, and the main region of my song. --Beauty--a living Presence of the earth, Surpassing the most fair ideal Forms Which craft of delicate Spirits hath composed From earth's materials--waits upon my steps; 45 Pitches her tents before me as I move, An hourly neighbour. Paradise, and groves Elysian, Fortunate Fields--like those of old Sought in the Atlantic Main[Q]--why should they be A history only of departed things, 50 Or a mere fiction of what never was? For the discerning intellect of Man, When wedded to this goodly universe In love and holy passion, shall find these A simple produce of the common day. 55 --I, long before the blissful hour arrives, Would chant, in lonely peace, the spousal verse Of this great consummation:--and, by words Which speak of nothing more than what we are, Would I arouse the sensual from their sleep 60 Of Death, and win the vacant and the vain To noble raptures; while my voice proclaims How exquisitely the individual Mind (And the progressive powers perhaps no less Of the whole species) to the external World 65 Is fitted:--and how exquisitely, too-- Theme this but little heard of among men-- The external World is fitted to the Mind; And the creation (by no lower name Can it be called) which they with blended might 70 Accomplish:--this is our high argument. --Such grateful haunts foregoing, if I oft Must turn elsewhere--to travel near the tribes And fellowships of men, and see ill sights Of madding passions mutually inflamed; 75 Must hear Humanity in fields and groves Pipe solitary anguish; or must hang Brooding above the fierce confederate storm Of sorrow, barricadoed evermore Within the walls of cities--may these sounds 80 Have their authentic comment; that even these Hearing, I be not downcast or forlorn!-- Descend, prophetic Spirit![2] that inspir'st The human Soul of universal earth, Dreaming on things to come;[R] and dost possess 85 A metropolitan temple in the hearts Of mighty Poets: upon me bestow A gift of genuine insight; that my Song With star-like virtue in its place may shine, Shedding benignant influence, and secure, 90 Itself, from all malevolent effect Of those mutations that extend their sway Throughout the nether sphere!--And if with this I mix more lowly matter; with the thing Contemplated, describe the Mind and Man 95 Contemplating; and who, and what he was-- The transitory Being that beheld This Vision; when and where, and how he lived;-- Be not this labour useless. If such theme May sort with highest objects, then--dread Power! Whose gracious favour is the primal source 101 Of all illumination--may my Life Express the image of a better time, More wise desires, and simpler manners;--nurse My Heart in genuine freedom:--all pure thoughts 105 Be with me;--so shall thy unfailing love Guide, and support, and cheer me to the end!"

VARIANTS:

[Footnote 1: 1845.

Holiest of Men.-- ... 1814. ]

[Footnote 2: 1827.

--Come thou prophetic Spirit, ... 1814. ]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote K: The grounds of Lowther Castle. Compare the sonnet in "Poems, composed or suggested during a Tour, in the Summer of 1833," beginning--

Lowther! in thy majestic Pile are seen. ED. ]

[Footnote L: The Lowther stream, rising among the Shap Fells, joins the Emont at Brougham Castle.--ED.]

[Footnote M: _The Prelude_.--ED.]

[Footnote N: As they were--according to their Author's somewhat arbitrary classification--in the editions of 1815 and subsequent years.--ED.]

[Footnote O: See _Paradise Lost_,