add, that his minor Pieces, which have been long before the public, when they shall be properly arranged, 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 inIcluded 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would not have deemed himself justified in saying, upon this occasion, so much of performances either unfinished or unpublished, if he had not thought that labor bestowed by him upon what he has heretofore and now laid before the Public, entitled him to candid attention for such a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 endeavors 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 an-. nounce 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,

P'ure, or with no unpleasing sadness mixed;
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,
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;
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

To Conscience only, and the law supreme
Of that Intelligence which governs all, -

I sing: 'fit audience let me find, though few!'

"So prayed, more gaining than he asked, the Bard, In holiest mood. Urania, I shall need

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.
All strength, all terror, single or in bands,
That ever was put forth in personal form, —
Jehovah, with his thunder, and the choir

1

Of shouting Angels, and the empyreal thrones, — I pass them unalarmed. Not Chaos, not

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,

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;
Pitches her tents before me as I move,

An hourly neighbor. Paradise, and groves
Elysian, Fortunate Fields, like those of old
Sought in the Atlantic Main,—why should they be
A history only of departed things,

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.
- 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
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
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 migut
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;
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
Have their authentic comment; that, even these
Hearing, I be not downcast or forlorn!
Descend, prophetic Spirit! that inspir'st
The human Soul of universal earth,
Dreaming on things to come; and dost possess
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,
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

Contemplating; and who and what he was, -
The transitory Being that beheld

This Vision; when and where, and how he lived;

Be not this labor useless. If such theme

May sort with highest objects, then- dread Power!

Whose gracious favor is the primal source

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

be with me; so shall thy unfailing love

Guide, and support, and cheer me to the end!"

BOOK FIRST.

THE WANDERER