Book Fourth.

DESPONDENCY CORRECTED.

ARGUMENT.

State of feeling produced by the foregoing Narrative-A belief in a superintending Providence the only adequate support under affliction -Wanderer's ejaculation-Acknowledges the difficulty of a lively faith-Hence immoderate sorrow-Exhortations-How receivedWanderer applies his discourse to that other cause of dejection in the Solitary's mind—Disappointment from the French RevolutionStates grounds of hope, and insists on the necessity of patience and fortitude with respect to the course of great revolutions—Knowledge the source of tranquillity-Rural Solitude favourable to knowledge

1 1827.

1836.

Wanderer's ejaculation to the supreme Being— 1814.

Account of his own devotional feelings in youth involved
in it-

1814.

1827.

Implores that he may retain in age the power to find
repose among enduring and eternal things—

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1927.

What these latter are

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2

1836.

1836.

sorrow-but doubt or despondence not therefore to be in-
ferred-

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7 1827.

Rural life and solitude particularly favourable to a 1814.

of the inferior Creatures; Study of their habits and ways recommended;1 exhortation to bodily exertion and communion2 with Nature -Morbid Solitude pitiable3-Superstition better than apathy― Apathy and destitution unknown in the infancy of society-The various modes of Religion prevented it-Illustrated in the Jewish, Persian, Babylonian, Chaldean, and Grecian modes of belief-Solitary interposes— Wanderer points out the influence of religious and imaginative feeling in the humble ranks of society, illustrated from present and past times-These principles tend to recal exploded superstitions and popery-Wanderer rebuts this charge, and contrasts the dignities of the Imagination with the presumptuous littleness of certain modern Philosophers-Recommends other lights and guides-Asserts the power of the Soul to regenerate herself; Solitary asks how1o—Reply— Personal appeal "—Exhortation to activity of body renewed-How to

1 1827.

recommended for its influence on the affections and the
imagination-

1814.

feeling in the mind in the humble ranks of society, in
rural life especially-This illustrated

1814,

10 1827.

11 1836.

Philosophers, whom the Solitary appears to esteem―
Recommends to him

Solitary agitated, and asks how

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Happy for us that the imagination and affections in our
own despite mitigate the evils of that state of intellectual
Slavery which the calculating understanding is so apt to
produce-

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Happy that the imagination and the affections mitigate
the evils of that intellectual slavery

1827.

r

commune with Nature-Wanderer concludes with1 a legitimate union of the imagination, affections, understanding, and reason—. -Effect of his discourse2—Evening; Return to the Cottage.

How Nature is to be communed with—Wanderer con-
cludes with a prospect of a

Effect of the Wanderer's discourse—

HERE closed the Tenant of that lonely vale
His mournful narrative-commenced in pain,
In pain commenced, and ended without peace:
Yet tempered, not unfrequently, with strains
Of native feeling, grateful to our minds;
And yielding surely some relief to his,'
While we sate listening with compassion due.
A pause of silence followed; then, with voice
That did not falter though the heart was moved,2
The Wanderer said

"One adequate support

For the calamities of mortal life

Exists-one only; an assured belief
That the procession of our fate, howe'er
Sad or disturbed, is ordered by a Being
Of infinite benevolence and power;
Whose everlasting purposes embrace
All accidents, converting them to good.
-The darts of anguish fix not where the seat
Of suffering hath been thoroughly fortified
By acquiescence in the Will supreme

1 1849.

1814.

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L

For time and for eternity; by faith,
Faith absolute in God, including hope,
And the defence that lies in boundless love
Of his perfections; with habitual dread
Of aught unworthily conceived, endured
Impatiently, ill-done, or left undone,
To the dishonour of his holy name.

Soul of our Souls, and safeguard of the world!
Sustain, thou only canst, the sick of heart;
Restore their languid spirits, and recal.

Their lost affections unto thee and thine!"*

Then, as we issued from that covert nook,

He thus continued, lifting up his eyes

To heaven

"How beautiful this dome of sky;

And the vast hills, in fluctuation fixed

At thy command, how awful! Shall the Soul,
Human and rational, report of thee

Even less than these ?-Be mute who will, who can,
Yet I will praise thee with impassioned voice:
My lips, that may forget thee in the crowd,
Cannot forget thee here; where thou hast built,
For thy own glory, in the wilderness !

Me didst thou constitute a priest of thine,

In such a temple as we now behold

Reared for thy presence: therefore, am I bound

To worship, here, and everywhere-as one

Not doomed to ignorance, though forced to tread,

* In January 1849, the year before Wordsworth's death, he was asked by Mr Ellis Yarnall of Philadelphia for his autograph, for a lady in America ; and, in reply, he wrote the four lines, beginning

"Soul of our souls, and safeguard of the world!"

They were doubtless suggested to him at the time by the death of his own daughter. See Mr Yarnall's paper on "Wordsworth's Influence in America," in the Transactions of the Wordsworth Society, No. V.-ED.

From childhood up, the ways of poverty;
From unreflecting ignorance preserved,

And from debasement rescued.-By thy grace V
The particle divine remained unquenched;
And, 'mid the wild weeds of a rugged soil,
Thy bounty caused to flourish deathless flowers,
From paradise transplanted: wintry age
Impends; the frost will gather round my heart;
If the flowers wither, I am worse than dead!1
-Come, labour, when the worn-out frame requires
Perpetual sabbath; come, disease and want;
And sad exclusion through decay of sense;
But leave me unabated trust in thee-
And let thy favour, to the end of life,
Inspire me with ability to seek

Repose and hope among eternal things-
Father of heaven and earth and I am rich,
And will possess my portion in content!

And what are things eternal ?-powers depart,"
The grey-haired Wanderer stedfastly replied,
Answering the question which himself had asked,
"Possessions vanish, and opinions change,
And passions hold a fluctuating seat:
But, by the storms of circumstance unshaken,
And subject neither to eclipse nor wane,2

Duty exists;-immutably survive,

For our support, the measures and the forms,
Which an abstract intelligence supplies;