part i

. l. 213, p. 32: "To despise earth is easy to me; but not so easy to be acquainted and conversant in Heaven. I have nothing in this world which I could not easily let go: but to get satisfying apprehension of the other world is the great and grievous difficulty."

See also Wordsworth's note, p. 387.--ED.]

[Footnote ED: See Wordsworth's note, p. 387.--ED.]

[Footnote EE: Compare Milton's _Ode on the Nativity_, l. 119.--ED.]

[Footnote EF: St. Matt. xi. 19.--ED.]

[Footnote EG: See Wordsworth's note, p. 387.--ED.]

[Footnote EH: Samuel Daniel; from his poem, _To the Lady Margaret, Countess of Cumberland_. In his note Wordsworth says, "The two last lines printed in italics, are by him" (_i.e._ Daniel) "translated from Seneca." The passage is: "O quam contempta res est homo, nisi supra humana surrexerit" (_Natur. quaest._ lib. i. praef. 4). The discovery of this passage cost the late Bishop of St. Andrews several long days' hunting through Seneca's works. He wrote me afterwards: "The passage has nothing to do with moral elevation, the next words are 'quam diu cum affectibus colluctamur quid magnifici facimus.'"

The following occurs in _The Soul's Conflict_, by Richard Sibbes (1635), ch. ix.--"We see likewise hence a necessity of having something in the soul above itself. It must be partaker of a diviner nature than itself; otherwise, when the most refined part of our souls, the very spirit of our minds, is out of frame, what shall bring it in again?" See also the extract from Bacon's Essay, XVI., prefixed to _The White Doe of Rylstone_ (vol. iv. p. 105).--ED.]

[Footnote EI: The fact of the eagle having once haunted the Cumbrian and Westmoreland valleys is proved by the number of rocks, crags, etc., that are named from it.--ED.]

[Footnote EJ: The following occurs in the Fenwick note to the lines addressed _To Joanna_ in the "Poems on the naming of Places" (vol. ii. p. 157): "The effect of the reverberation of voices in some parts of the mountains is very striking. There is, in _The Excursion_, an allusion to the bleat of a lamb thus re-echoed, and described without any exaggeration, as I heard it, on the side of Stickle Tarn, from the precipice that stretches on to Langdale Pikes." The "precipice" referred to is Pavy Ark.--ED.]

[Footnote EK: There are many ant-hills in this district of Westmoreland. Note that the description here is of the effect of a lake seen from above, looking down on it.--ED.]

[Footnote EL: The fieldfares have a habit of settling together, and sitting perfectly still, till they are disturbed; when they fly off, and settling again, sit silently as before.--ED.]

[Footnote EM: Blea Tarn.--ED.]

[Footnote EN: Compare "Rules and Lessons" in Henry Vaughan's _Silex Scintillans_.--ED.]

[Footnote EO: The heights of Blake Rigg and Lingmoor.--ED.]

[Footnote EP: Possibly a misprint in the editions of 1814 and 1820.--ED.]

[Footnote EQ: Compare the _Poet's Epitaph_ (vol. ii. p. 75).--ED.]

[Footnote ER: Compare Genesis iii. 8.--ED.]

[Footnote ES: Genesis xviii. 1, 2.--ED.]

[Footnote ET: Genesis iii. 24.--ED.]

[Footnote EU: Genesis iii. 16, 17.--ED.]

[Footnote EV: Exodus vi. 3.--ED.]

[Footnote EW: Exodus xxxiii. 9; xxxiv. 5.--ED.]

[Footnote EX: Exodus xxxvii. 1; Hebrews ix. 4.--ED.]

[Footnote EY: Exodus xxv. 22.--ED.]

[Footnote EZ: Exodus xv. 25; xvi. 4, etc. etc.--ED.]

[Footnote FA: Exodus vii.-xi.--ED.]

[Footnote FB: The ancient Persian religion was nature worship.--ED.]

[Footnote FC: Compare _Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey_, II. 100-102 (vol. ii. p. 55)--

A motion and a spirit, that impels All thinking things, all objects of all thought, And rolls through all things. ED. ]

[Footnote FD: Herodotus thus describes the temple of Belus:--"... A square enclosure two furlongs each way, with gates of solid brass; which were also remaining in my time. In the middle of the precinct there was a tower of solid masonry, a furlong in length and breadth, upon which was raised a second tower, and on that a third, and so up to eight. The ascent to the top is on the outside, by a path which winds round all the towers. When one is about half way up, one finds a resting place and seats, where persons are wont to sit some time in their way to the summit. On the topmost tower there is a spacious Temple, and inside the Temple stands a couch of unusual size, richly adorned, with a golden table by its side. There is no statue of any kind set up in the place.... The Chaldeans, the priests of this God, declare--but I, for my part, do not credit it--that the God comes down nightly into this chamber and sleeps upon the couch."--Herodotus, i. 181. See Rawlinson's version, vol. i. pp. 319, 320. Compare also Josephus, _Ant. Jud._ x. 11, and Strabo, 16.--ED.]

[Footnote FE: Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, Mercury--the only planets known to the ancients, the Earth not being included.--ED.]

[Footnote FF: The reference here is still apparently to the "planetary Five," which are _all_ described as "radiant Mercuries" (although one of them was Mercury), because they all--

seemed to move Carrying through ether, in perpetual round, Decrees and resolutions of the Gods; And, by their aspects, signifying works Of dim futurity.

This astrological allusion makes it clear that the reference is to the supposed "planetary influence," and to the movements of these bodies--controlled by the gods--with which the fate of mortals was believed to be upbound. For an account of the Gods of the Five Planets, see _Chaldean Magic_, by François Lenormant, pp. 26 and 118.--ED.]

[Footnote FG: Compare _Lycidas_, 1. 154--

Ay me! whilst thee the shores and sounding seas,

and note that Charles Lamb, who was familiar with _The Excursion_, quotes the above line ("Distant Correspondents") thus--

Aye me! while thee the seas and sounding shores. ED. ]

[Footnote FH: The strolling Greek minstrels from Homer onwards, predecessors of the Troubadours.--ED.]

[Footnote FI: The reference is doubtless to Pausanias, i. 37, 3. "Before you cross the Cephisus, there is the monument of Theodorus, who excelled all his contemporaries as an actor in tragedy; and near to the river, there are [two] statues, one of Mnesimache, another of her son, in the act of cutting off his hair [over the stream and presenting it] as a votive offering to the Cephisus." See Note D in the Appendix to this volume, p. 396.--ED.]

[Footnote FJ: Compare _King Henry VI._,