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he was by general consent the first of living poets in England.

Early Career. — The life of Wordsworth is, with a single exception, remarkably uneventful. His parents dying while he was young, he was sent to school at Penrith, and afterwards to Hawkshead, in Lancashire. Here he grew up a sharer in all the merry, boisterous sports of an English public school, but preserving a decided poetic individuality. He has bequeathed to us, in his posthumous work, The Prelude, a beautiful description of his school-boy life, and of the “ gray-haired dame" with whom he lived. From school he went to Cambridge, where he took his degree of B. A. in 1791.

His Republicanism. — Before graduation, however, Wordsworth had visited France, then in the throes of the great Revolution, and had become intimately acquainted with some of the Girondists. The impression made upon the young poet by the scenes and characters of the Revolution was never to be effaced. He became for the time an ardent republican, so much so that he could not even sympathize with his country in her war upon France.

The Reaction. In time came the reaction, brought about by the crimes and anarchy of the Revolution itself, and Wordsworth turned back in righteous horror. But the original impression still remained. It had deepened the poet's sensibilities, and enkindled a strong, undying love of humanity; it had been the "storm-and-stress" period of an otherwise placid soul. The shock of disappointment had turned the poet into a philosopher, seeking to reconcile God's ways to the human understanding. Henceforth Wordsworth was to be the great preacher of honor gained only through trial, of self-discipline, of abiding trust in Divine wisdom. From this time on, the poet's life became one of tranquil meditation and composition.

Domestic Quiet. - From Raisley Calvert, an intimate friend and admirer of his genius, Wordsworth received a legacy, small in itself, but enough to satisfy his modest wants. His sister Dorothy-his other self-came to live with him. For a few years they lived in retirement at Racedown Lodge, Dorsetshire. Wordsworth had already published two poems, The Evening Walk, and Descriptive Sketches, which are not remarkable in themselves, but which already reveal the poet's characteristics.

Connection with Coleridge. — In 1797 Wordsworth removed to Alforden, to be near Coleridge, whose acquaintance he had made, and who was from the first an unhesitating believer in Wordsworth's genius. Out of this intercourse sprang the famous Lyrical Ballads published in 1798. The understanding was that Coleridge should "take up the supernatural and romantic," while Wordsworth undertook to "give the charm of novelty to the things of every day, and to excite a feeling analogous to the supernatural by awakening the mind's attention to the lethargy of custom, and by

directing to the loveliness and the wonders of the world around us." Accordingly, Coleridge produced The Ancient Mariner, and Wordsworth a number of short pieces, among them some of his very best, such as An Anecdote for Fathers, We are Seven, Lines written in Early Spring, Tintern Abbey. Others again, like the Idiot Boy, are unquestionably weak. Not only did the Lyrical Ballads meet with no favor; it was condemned in unmeasured terms by critics of high and low degree. Coleridge came off more lightly, but Wordsworth's share of the venture was denounced as the veriest “trash" and "twaddle."

But Wordsworth was a law unto himself. Apparently unruffled by severity and ridieule, he moved on in his self-appointed way. His circumstances grew easier by the payment of a long-standing debt owed to his father's estate. He married, in 1802, his cousin, Mary Hutchinson, by whom he had five children. After living for some years at Grasmere, and then at Allan Bank, he settled permanently, in 1813, at Rydal Mount, in Cumberland; and there calmly awaited the slow-coming verdict of the public.

The records of literature present scarcely another such instance of a poet's growing into supreme favor and repute in despite of determined opposition. At first Wordsworth had only the admiration of a few appreciative friends — Coleridge, De Quincey, Southey-and the almost adoration of his wife and sister. But slowly, year after year, prejudice was disarmed, ridicule was silenced, the circle of admirers grew larger, the popular understanding of the poet's genius was quickened. At his death, Wordsworth was not only the official poet-laureate, but the acknowledged monarch of English letters.

Wordsworth himself contributed nothing beyond his works towards bringing about this wonderful revolution in popular opinion. No poet probably ever went less out of his way to seek favor or notice, cared less for the thoughts and opinions of contemporaries, read less either for information or pleasure. What he gave to the world was elicited by close communion with nature in her myriad shapes and hues, or evolved little by little from the slow-working loom of his own imagination and meditation.

His Works. After publishing, in 1802, a second, and enlarged, edition of his Lyrical Ballads, he next gave to the world, in 1807, two volumes of Poems. In 1814, appeared The Excursion; in 1815, The White Doe of Rylstone; in 1819, Peter Bell; in 1820, The River Duddon; in 1820, Memorials of a Tour on the Continent; in 1835, Yarrow Revisited; in 1838, the book of Sonnets. The Prelude was published after his death, but it was begun as far back as 1789, and finished in 1805.

Wordsworth's position in English literature is now fully understood. He is preeminently the poet of the reflective imagination. He has not the passion of Byron or of Tennyson, or the myriad mind of Shakespeare. He has not the vigor of Milton, but he stands next to Milton in purity, sweetness, gravity of thought and style, and broad humanity. His demerit- the one that aroused at first such a storm of hostile criticism is that he often takes the fatal step from the sublime, or at least the imaginative, to the ridiculous.

A signal example of this defect is to be found in Peter Bell. The description of the potter is wonderfully artistic; in short, the character is a creation. But the concluding lines are simply puerile. That a hardened outlaw may be converted from the error of his ways no one denies. Only the artist must show us fully, step by step, how the change is wrought; and when he succeeds, we say that he has produced a masterpiece of psychological analysis. But to motive such a conversion through the instrumentality of a braying ass, and to dispose of the potter by saying that he

Forsook his crimes, renounced his folly,

And after ten months' melancholy

Became a good and honest man,

is simply an outrage upon common sense. Wordsworth seems at times to be wanting in the sense of the incongruous, and he is always wanting in true passion. While able to depict passionate characters, he fails to detect the subtle connection between motive and action, character and life.

With all his defects, however, Wordsworth is a great poet. He has ennobled the poetic style, and given to it philosophic depth: he has awakened a love for the lowly both in nature and in man; he has given a healthier tone to popular sentiment.

No two men ever differed more widely in personal character than Wordsworth and Dickens, the one serene, contemplative; the other bustling, eager, ostentatious. Yet the poet's exaltation of the lowly prepared the public for the folk-sketches of the great novelist.

Wordsworth's longer works are less read than his shorter pieces. The Excursion and The Prelude, abounding as they do in beautiful passages, are not so generally known and cherished as the little poems to Lucy, the Lines written in Early Spring, We are Seven, Resolution and Independence, the Sonnets, the Ode on the Intimations of Immortality, and a hundred others which it would be superfluous to name.

The reader who wishes to form an idea of the slow and impeded growth of Wordsworth's popularity will do well to consult Henry Crabb Robinson's Diary. The diarist, who was from the first a devoted friend, never neglected an opportunity to do battle for the poet, and his record gives us a rare glimpse into the ways and workings of the literary world at that time.

CHRISTOPHER WORDSWORTH, D. D., 1774-1846, Master of Trinity, and brother of the poet, was educated at Cambridge, and held various appointments in the University and in the church, the most important being that of Master of Trinity, which he held from 1820 till 1841.

He published Six Letters on the Use of the Greek Article in the New Testament; Ecclesiastical Biography, 6 vols., 8vo, a selection from various sources, with notes; Christian Institutes, 4 vols., 8vo, also a selection from the writings of eminent divines; Reasons for declining to subscribe to the Bible Society (several pamphlets); Who Wrote the Eikon Basilike? (several pamphlets.) Dr. Wordsworth maintained that the book was written by King Charles himself, and not by Bishop Gauden.

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Bishop of St. An

CHARLES WORDSWORTH, D. C. L., 1806 drew's, Scotland, son of Christopher Wordsworth, and nephew of the poet, was born at Bocking, in Essex, and educated at Oxford, where he gained great distinction for classical scholarship.

Besides several Greek and Latin school-books, he has published, Christian Boyhood at a Public School, a Collection of Sermons and Lectures, delivered at Winchester College; History of the College of St. Mary Winton; A United Church of Scotland, England, and Ireland Advocated; Shakespeare's Knowledge and Use of the Bible; Christian Instruction Preparatory to Confirmation and First Communion, etc. He became Bishop in 1852.

CHRISTOPHER WORDSWORTH, D. D., 1808

Bishop of Lincoln,

and also son of the preceding, was educated at Cambridge, where he won the highest honors for scholarship.

He graduated B. A. in 1830; travelled in Greece in 1832, '33; was elected Fellow of Trinity; was appointed Public Orator at Cambridge in 1836; was Head Master of Harrow from 1836 to 1844; became Canon of Westminster in 1844; and Bishop of Lincoln in 1869.

Bishop Wordsworth's writings are in the highest repute for scholarship, and for the vigorous grasp which he gives to whatever he has in hand. Among his publications on classical subjects may be named, Athens and Attica, Journal of a Residence there; Greece, Pictorial, Descriptive, and Historical; Inscriptiones Pompeianæ, ancient writings copied from the walls of the city of Pompeii. Other works: Preces Selectæ, prayers for the use of the Harrow School: Sermons, preached at Harrow; Discourses on Public Education; The Destructive Character of the Church of Rome; On the Canon of Scriptures; Lectures on the Apocalypse; The Apocalypse, an edition with translations and notes; Is the Church of Rome the Babylon of the Apocalypse? The New Testament in the Original Greek, with Notes, 4 vols., 8vo, a work of uncommon value; The Inspiration of the Bible; The Interpretation of the Old and New Testament; The Holy Bible, with Notes and Introductions, 5 vols., 8vo; Memoirs of William Wordsworth, 2 vols., 8vo; The Church of Ireland, her history and claims; and a large number of other volumes and pamphlets. Bishop Wordsworth is indeed one of the most voluminous writers of the day.

Keble.

John Keble, 1792-1866, gained his chief distinction as a writer of sacred lyrics, though honored also for his theological writings, and held in the highest reverence for the singular sweetness of his disposition and the purity of his life.

Keble was born at Fairford, Gloucestershire, and educated at Oxford. After leaving the University, he was for twenty years Curate for his father in the church at Fairford. He became Professor of Poetry at Oxford in 1833, and Vicar of Hursley in 1835.

Keble's name is intimately associated with that of Newman and Pusey in the socalled Tractarian movement, which caused such excitement in England thirty or forty years ago. According to Newman's statement, Keble was the originator and mastermind of the movement.

His best known works are: The Christian Year, or Thoughts in Verse for the Sundays and Holidays throughout the Year; his Lyra Innocentium, or Thoughts in Verse on Children; his contributions to Tracts for the Times; and his article in the London Quarterly on Sacred Poetry. He was also one of the editors of the Bibliotheca Patrum Ecclesia Catholicæ, or Library of Fathers of the Catholic Church.

Keble appears to have been a man of uncommon talents, and of the most winning disposition. While at Oxford, he was the idol of the University. His subsequent life was mainly one of retirement and parochial duty. His Christian Year is the most valuable contribution to religious poetry made in the present century, and has been received as a household treasure in families of every creed.

"Keble is a poet whom Cowper himself would have loved; for in him piety inspires genius, and fancy and feeling are celestialized by religion. We peruse his book in a tone and temper of spirit similar to that which is breathed on us by some calm day in spring, when

'Heaven and earth do make one imagery,'

and all that imagery is serene and still, -cheerful in the main, yet with a touch and tinge of melancholy which makes all the blended bliss and beauty at once more enduring and profound. We should no more think of criticizing such poetry than of criticizing the clear blue skies, the soft green earth, the 'liquid lapse' of an unpolluted stream that

'Doth make sweet music with the enamelled stones,
Giving a gentle kiss to every flower

It overtaketh on its pilgrimage.'

Beauty is there,

purity and peace; as we look and listen we partake of the universal calm, and feel in nature the presence of Him from whom it emanated.” —Chris topher North.

Croly.

George Croly, LL. D., 1780-1860, attained great celebrity as an author, and was almost equally distinguished as a poet and as a writer of prose.

Croly was a native of Dublin, and was educated at Trinity College, in that city. He was a clergyman of the Church of England, and had a parish in London, where he attained celebrity as a preacher.

His writings are very numerous, and hold a high rank. Most of them are of a popular character. The following are the chief: Catiline, a Tragedy, and Other Poems; Paris in 1815, and Other Poems; The Angel of the World, an Arabian Tale; Sebastian, a Spanish Tale; The Modern Orlando, a Poem; Poetical Works; Salathiel, a Story of the Past, the Present, and the Future; Marston, or the Soldier and Statesman; The Year of Liberation; Tales of the St. Bernard; Historical Sketches, Speeches, and Characters; The History of George IV.; Life of Burke; Works of Alexander Pope, with Memoir and Critical Notes; Works of Jeremy Taylor, with Life and Notes; Beauties of the English Poets; Divine Providence, or the Three Cycles of Revelation; The Apocalypse of St. John, a New Interpretation; The True Idea of Baptism; Speeches on the Papal Aggression; Exposition on Popery and the Popish Question; The Admission of Jews into Parliament; Marriage with a Deceased Wife's Sister; etc., etc.

Dr. Croly succeeded as a poet, as a writer of fiction, as an historian, as a literary editor, as a religious polemic. In this long list of works, there is scarcely one that at the time of its publication did not make its mark. His Catiline, in poetry, his Salathiel, in fiction, his George IV. and Edmund Burke, in history, fall but little short of being of the first class in their several kinds.

Ebenezer Elliott.

EBENEZER ELLIOTT, 1781–1849, is familiarly known as "The CornLaw Rhymer."

Elliott was obliged in his youth to work at the forge in an iron foundry in Yorkshire, and had few advantages of education. But an inward prompting led him to the cultivation of letters by means of private study, and in his case, as in that of several others in like circumstances, the inspiration to verse first came from reading Thomson's Seasons.

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