ment upon this new offspring. The effect was certainly to injure the sale of the poem. But the poet did not suffer from the blow. His work exhibits the change which had passed upon himself since his early manhood. He anticipated equal changes in the public mind towards himself. In thirteen years a thousand copies of the "Excursion" supplied the whole demand. "How many thousands of copies of poems," says he, "which are now forgotten, were purchased in that time!" On the publication of the "Excursion," he writes to Southey, "Let the age continue to love its own darkness; I shall continue to write, with, I trust, the light of heaven upon me." So indomitable a character as this, imbued with the gentleness and serenity which marked the chastened temper of Wordsworth, is surely of very rare occurrence amongst poets. "The White Doe of Rylstone" was published in 1815. Subsequently the author, drawn into Latin studies by the superintendence of his son's education, occupied much time in translating Virgil. His friend and constant admirer, Coleridge, cannot commend the result, although it abounds in felicities. Wordsworth gives it up. Determination Wordsworth wrote on as he had determined. was indeed necessary, for his meed was generally ridicule. At length the retirement of Scott from the field of poetry, and the disfavour and subsequent death of Lord Byron, left a void which few could aspire to supply. Wordsworth had created readers for himself, in spite of adverse critics. The tide began to flow in favour of the poet who floated independently of it. His adherents, though few, were assiduous, and in the lull they found audience with the public. After 1820 the name of Wordsworth began to be mentioned with general favour. Of public institutions, Durham University took the lead in honouring him. In 1839 he received from the University of Oxford the degree of Doctor of Laws. In the intermediate period the calm current of his life was varied with little save the travels at home and abroad with which he was frequently gratifying himself. His family was now grown up, and his daughter Dora became to him almost what his sister had been. In 1832 the latter became a confirmed invalid. His sister-in-law, Sarah Hutchinson, who had been long an inmate of his house, died in 1836. In 1841 his daughter was married to Mr. Edward Quillinan. She died in 1847. In 1842 Wordsworth retired from his office of distributor of stamps, which was conferred on his son. The same year Sir Robert Peel placed his name on the civil list for a pension of £300 a-year. The death of Southey, in 1843, rendered the laureateship vacant. The office was pressed on Wordsworth, and accepted by him with the understanding that it imposed no duties. If it had, he would have been incompetent to perform them. The independent Laker had never obeyed any voice but that of his own spontaneous inspiration. In the days of his energy he had been unresting. His presence among his native hills was known to the natives by his continual "booing," as he trudged amongst them along the roads and fields, and over the pathless wilds. He had left vast stores of laboured thought enshrined in musical words, for a perpetual property to the possessors of the English tongue. His old age was nearly silent; but, strange to say, he reverted to his former devotion to public questions. In youth ardently hoping for beneficial changes, he became in age heartily conservative of what he thought beneficial institutions. But this sphere was not truly his own, and few of his prose writings will ever be read again. The only produce of this sort truly congenial to his pen was a description of scenery in Cumberland, Westmorland, and Lancashire, which has been several times reprinted. Wordsworth completed his eightieth year on the 7th April 1850. He had reaped the anticipation of old age made by Scott for himself at Patterdale, a few years before his death: "I mean to live till I am eighty, and shall write as long as I live." Scott had been buried nearly eighteen years. Wordsworth had an attack of inflammation of the chest on the 14th March 1850, arising from exposure on the previous Sunday, when he had attended at Rydal chapel. On his birthday, in April, being in danger from the weakening effects of the medical treatment by which his disorder was subdued, he was prayed for in that place morning and afternoon. On the 20th he became so weak as to suggest to his son the idea of inquiring whether he wished to partake of the holy communion. "That is just what I want," he replied. His wife said to him, about this time, in order to break to him the near prospect evident to all observers, "William, you are going to Dora." He made no reply; but, some hours after, hearing a curtain moved in his chamber, he asked, "Is that Dora?" as if awaking from sleep. On the 23d he calmly expired, while the clock was striking twelve at noon. On the 27th he was buried at Grasmere, beside his children's remains. Wordsworth was slightly above the middle height. His ap pearance was not commanding, although his features were highly expressive of benignity and intelligence. His eyes were weak, and he made, during many years, little use of them in reading or writing. His mouth was not expressive of the delicacy of feeling which characterized him. It was large, and did not even indicate the natural firmness of his character. His cheeks were loose, and his chin small. But his forehead rose high and His nose, smooth over a face to which it imparted dignity. also, was a prominent feature, and indicated the exercise of the powers which the dome above declared. It seemed thus as if the animal propensities indicated by the lower features of the face had been neutralized and defeated by the superior force of the intellectual powers. Although, at home, precluded from the exercise of brilliant conversation and contest of any sort, he could yet, when occasion offered, during his frequent tours, hold his own in any company, and was equally unabashed in the presence of royalty in the unusual dress of a courtier, and in front of reviewers in the garb of poetical homespun that moved their laugh. ter. The poet could laugh too, and used to show his hearty appreciation of fun by outbursts of "genuine grunting laughter." Good deeds of all sorts were his delight, and pleasant sights his pleasure. He has not left "a line which, dying, he himself would wish to blot." WORDSWORTH'S POETICAL WORKS. Poems referring to the Period of Childhood. I. My heart leaps up when I behold So was it when my life began; So be it when I shall grow old, The child is father of the man; And I could wish my days to be II. TO A BUTTERFLY. STAY near me do not take thy flight! Much converse do I find in thee, Historian of my infancy! Float near me; do not yet depart! Dead times revive in thee: Thou bring'st, gay creature as thou art! A solemn image to my heart, My father's family. Oh! pleasant, pleasant were the days, |