itself to the moralizing influence of all external circumstances working together for good," till whate'er we see, Whate'er we feel, by agency direct Excursion, Book IV. pp. 197, 198. Moreover, the soul possesses the power of self-regeneration, and at her own will, by her own activity, in the process of this mystic intercourse with nature, can raise herself from profligacy and wretchedness to virtue and repose. This the Author has endeavoured to exemplify at great length, and with prodigious effect, in the history of one of his characters, the Wanderer, as well as to establish it by argumentation in the eloquent advice of that character to another, the Solitary, in the fourth book of this poem. Two questions immediately arise out of the contemplation of this dazzling theory:-Is it true? Is it all?-True it undoubtedly is to a certain extent; but as undoubtedly it is not all,-all that is necessary to bring in, and constitute, and secure, happiness to man, at once a mortal and an immortal being. The love of Nature is the purest, the most sublime, and the sweetest emotion of the mind, of which the senses are the ministers; yet the love of Nature alone cannot ascend from earth to heaven, conducting us, as by the steps of Jacob's ladder, to the love of . God; nor can it descend from heaven to earth, leading us by similar gradations to the universal love of Man-otherwise it had not been necessary for Him," who thought it not robbery to be equal with God," to take upon Himself" the form of a servant," and die the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God by HIMSELF." Every system of ethics which insists not on the extinction of sin in the human soul, by the only means through which sin can be extinguished, and everlasting righteousness substituted, is radically defective; and by whatever subtlety of reasoning,or force of language it may be sustained or recommended, it is a snare to him who receives it as sufficient, because excellent and unexceptionable as it may be, so far as it goes, it falls short of the extremity of a sinner's case, and all have sinned." We do not riean to infer, that Mr. Wordsworth excludes from his system the salvation of man, as revealed in the Scriptures, but it is evident that he has not made "Jesus Christ the chief corner-stone" of it: otherwise, throughout this admirable poem, he would not so seldom, or, rather, so slightly have alluded to redemption in His blood." The pastor of the church among the mountains' indeed, touches delightfully on the Christian's hopes on each side of the grave; but this is only in character, and his sentiments are not vitally connected with the system of natural religion, if we may call it so, which is developed in this poem. The sentiments of the Author, when he speaks in his own person, and of the Wanderer, who is his oracle, are connected with it; yet in the fourth book, where a misanthrope and sceptic is to be reclaimed, when there was not only an opportunity, but a necessity for believers in the Gospel to glorify its truths, by sending them home with conviction to the conscience of a sinner, they are rather tacitly admitted, than either avowed or urged; while the soul's own energy to restore itself to moral sanity, by meliorating intercourse with the visible creation, is set forth in strains of the most fervid eloquence, and the theme adorned with the most enchanting illustrations. Now the Wanderer had early learned To reverence the Volume which displays and the Author, in the exordium of the sixth book, sufficiently proclaims his orthodoxy by a votive panegyric on the Church of England. If then salvation can be obtained only through faith in the sacrifice of Christ, according to that Volume' which the Wanderer reverenced, and according to the doctrines of that Church' which the Author acknowledges, how came the terrors of the Lord, and the consolations of His Spirit to make no part even of that discourse which these two zealous preachers of righteousness held with the unbeliever, at the time when his heart might be supposed most accessible to their influence,-when the arrow of Death had just passed him by, and slain at his feet one of the four beings, who were the whole human race to him in his little world of solitude? This is not a captious inquiry: we are sure that Mr. Wordsworth must have thought much on the subject; we would hope he thinks rightly. If he does not, we are sorry for his own sake, and not for his only, but for the sake of the thousands, in future generations, who may be his readers; for had the Gospel occasion to be recommended by "the words which man's wisdom teacheth," no one living is more eminently gifted for the purpose than Mr. Wordsworth. It is true, that the Gospel has not occasion to be thus recommended, yet on what theme can the greatest talents be better employed? It is the cant of ignorance to say, that the truths of religion are unsuitable themes for poetry of the highest order, for then were they unsuitable themes for the harp of David, and for the songs of Angels. It is the cant of scepticism, to say that genius is debased by evangelical notions, and that all sacred poetry must needs be akin to the strains of Sternhold and Hopkins-Milton and Cowper have rescued these subjects from so ill-founded, so inane a charge. The discussion of this topic would however carry us too far. Mr. Wordsworth could so sing of Christ's kingdom, if it has indeed come into his heart, as would for ever set the question at rest; and we hope that in the promised prelude or sequel to this volume, he will. "A Philosophical Poem, containing Views of Man, Nature, and Society," would be miserably imperfect if it involved no contemplations on the eternal destiny of man. Nature may indeed teach her worshipper, by reason and analogy, that in a future state the good must be happy; but neither reason nor analogy will justify the presumption that the wicked can be so. What becomes then of man, when, to use the poet's own phrase, borrowed from Scripture, he who came from God Mr. Wordsworth must have been haunted in his retirement by this inquiry, and it is not conceivable that he can have contented himself with a doubtful answer to it. A poet, who scems all eye when he sees, all ear when he listens, all intellect when he reasons, all sensibility when he is touched, cannot have been indifferently affected by the awful burthen of that revelation from God, the authenticity of which he allows, and in the meaning of which he must feel himself as deeply interested, as if all the threatenings of the law, and all the promises of the Gospel, were addressed personally to him, and to him alone. We long, therefore, to learn his 'sensations and opinions' on this subject, for we are not satisfied with the scanty intimations of them scattered through this volume. On other subjects we are willing to pay to Mr. Wordsworth, the homage due to his exalted genius, and on this we are anxious to have an opportunity of listening to him with equal deference. But once for all, we must avow our conviction, that the moral system' of any man professing Christianity, which does not include, as its immortal principle, "redemption through the blood of Christ," is inconsistent with the Author's own creed; and however glorious or beautiful in appearance, it will prove a pageant as unsubstantial as Prospero's vision, which, even while it is contemplated, will vanish, and After these long preliminaries, which we have introduced to avoid much obscurity and digression hereafter, we shall briefly-we lament that we can only briefly--advert to the contents of this volume. The Excursion, it appears, is only a portion of a Poem,' and belongs to the second part of a long and laborious work, which is to consist of three parts. This section is published first, because it refers more to passing events, and to an existing state of things, than the others were meant to do ;' nor does it depend on the preceding' so much as to injure its particular interest. The whole work is to be entitled "THE RECLUSE," being a philosophical Poem, containing views of Man, Nature, and Society; and having for its principal Subject the sensations and opinions of a Poet living in retirement.' We are further informed, that the Author has written a preparatory piece, which is biographical, and conducts the history of his mind to the point, when he was emboldened to hope that his faculties were sufficiently matured for entering upon the arduous labour' of constructing a literary work that might live. We love to pry curiously into the secrets of a human heart; and since no living Author affords such familiar and complete access to his heart as Mr. Wordsworth does, we rejoice in every opportunity of visiting and exploring its inexhaustible riches of thought, imagery, and sentiment. How these were originally discovered, and how they have been gradually accumulated, we are desirous of knowing; and it is earnestly to be wished, by all his admirers, that he will not withhold from them so reasonable a gratification, as this introduc-· tory poem has been long finished. The preface to "The Excursion" concludes with an extract from the preceding portion of the Poem, in which the Author commences his plan, and invokes celestial aid. 6 Urania, I shall need 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.' pp. xi, xii. We have said, that Mr. Wordsworth discerns throughout Nature an omnipresent Spirit, and that it is sometimes difficult to distinguish the reverence which he pays to it, from the homage due to God alone. In the following lines we do not clearly comprehend who is the prophetic spirit,' and who the dread. power;' whether they are two or one;- -a creature of the imagination, or the Creator himself; or whether the first be not the creature of imagination, and the second the Creator. If the dread power' means not God, it is difficult to imagine how the Author can justify the language which immediately follows that phrase, as addressed to any other being. -Come thou prophetic Spirit, that inspir'st ; Of those mutations that extend their sway This Vision, when and where, and how he lived ;- May sort with highest objects, then, dread Power, Express the image of a better time, More wise desires, and simpler manners;-nurse My Heart in genuine freedom :-all pure thoughts Guide, and support, and cheer me to the end?' pp. xiii. xiv. Nothing can be more artless than the narrative, or externally more unpretending than the characters of The Excursion; nor would any thing be more easy (according to the fashionable practice of reviewers) than, with that insidious candour, which tells the truth so as to insinuate a lie, and secure a false impression, to detail the story, and exhibit the persons in such a nanner as to cast unmerited ridicule both on the Author and on his subject. With us, however, it is no self-denial to forego the occasion of attempting to shine at the expense of genius such as Mr. Wordsworth's. Selecting men of low estate, and incidents of every-day occurrence, he throws around both such a colouring of imagination as to exalt them far above the stalking heroes, and monstrous adventures of romance. His powers are pecu |