Polynesian. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu], Hawaii) 1844-1864, 1850-12-07

1 hunting, under any circumstances, is decid-
edly dangerous pursuit. 1t may never
theless be followed, to a certain extent, with
comparative safety by those who have natu-
rally turn for that sort Of thing A reck-
iessness of death, perfect GOODNESS and self.
possession, an acquaintance with the dispo-
sltIon and manners of lions, and tolerable
knowledge of the use of the rifle, are indis
pensable to him who would shine in the
overpoweringly exciting pastime of hunting
this justly-celebrated king of beasts.
WORDswoRrH's PosrHUMoUs PoEMs-This is
a voice that speaks to us across gulf of nearly
| fifty years. A few months ago Wordsworth wa.
taken from US at the ripe age of fourscore, ye
:. here we have him addressing the public, as foI
the first time, with all the fervor, the unworr
freshness, the hopeful confidence of thirty. We
are carried back to the period when COeridge
| Byron, Scott, Rogers, and Moore were in theiI
youthful prime. We live again in the stirring
days when the poets who divided public atren.
ton and interest with the Fabian struggle in Por-
tuga and Spain, with the wild and terrible events
OF the Russian campaign, with the uprising OF
the Teutonic nations, and the overthrow Of Ma
poleon, were IN a manner hut commencing their
| cycle OF songs. This is to renew, to antedate
the youth of the majority of the living genera.
/
carries them so far back, can feel within then
any reflex of that eager excitement, with which
the news of battles fought and won, or mail-cOach
copies of some new work of Scott, or Byron, OF
the Edinburgh Review were looked for in those
already old days.
| We need not remind the readers Of the {" Ex-
cursion," that when Wordsworth was enabled,
| by the generous enthusiasm of Raisley Calvert
to retire with n slender independence into his
mi thora
sively to his art his first step was to review and
record in verse, the origin and progress Of his
own powers, as far rs he was acquainted with
them. This was ut once an exercise in versifi-
cation, and test of the kind of poetry for which
he was by temperament fitted. The result was
a determination TO compose a philosophical
poem, containing views of man, of nature and
society. This ambitious conception has been
doomed to share the fate of many other colossal
undertakings. Of the three parts of his "Re.
cluse," thus planned, only the second (.s The
Excursion" published in lS1S), has been com.
pleted. Of the other two there exists only the
first book of the first. and the plan of the third
The "Recluse'' - will remain in fragmentary
greatness, poetical Cathedral of Cologne.
| Matters standing thus, it has not been without
a melancholy sense of the uncertainty OF human
| projects, and of the contrast between the san
guine enterprise and its silent evaporation, 81
| often s'the history of an ndv vidual mind"), that
we have perused this 'sPrelude," which no COM
pleted strain was destined 10 follow Yet in the
poem itself there is nothing to inspire depres-
sion. 1t is animated throughout with the hope
ful confidence in the poets own powers, so nat
ural to the time of life at which it was composed
it evinces power and. soar of imagination un-
surpassed in any of his writings; and its images
and incidents have a freshness and distinctness
which they not seldom lost, when they came
to be elaborated, many of them were, in his
minor poems of later date.
The "Prelude," as the title page indicates is
a poetcal autobiography, commencing with the
earliest "reminiscences Of the author, and con-
tinued TO the time at which it was composed
We are told that it was begun in 1899 and COM
pleted IN 1905. 1t consists of fourteen books
Two are devoted to the infancy and school-time
of the poet; four to the period of his University
life; two to brief residence in London inme-
diately subsequent to his leaving Cambridge, and
a retrospect of the progress that his mind had
then made; and three to a residence in France,
chiefly in the Loire, but partly in Paris, during
the stormy period of Louis the Sixteenth's flight
and capture, and the fierce contes, between the
Girondns and Robespierre. Five books are
then occupied in an analysis of the internal
struggle Occasioned by the contradictory nflu-
ences Of rural and secluded nature in boy hOoj,
and of society when the young man first mingles
with the world. The surcease of the strife is
recorded in the fourteenth book, entitled 4" Con-
clusion."
The poem is addressed to Coleridge; and
apart from its poetcal merits, is interesting at
once counterpart and supplement to that au-
thor's philosophical and beautiful criticism of
the Lyrical Ballads in his 'Biographia Liter
aria" 1t completes the explanation there given
of the peculiar constitution Of Wordsworth's
mind, and of his poetical theory. II confirms and
justfys opinion, that that theory was par.:sii
and erroneous; but at the sae time it establ;.aes
the fact that W or,isworth was true and q great
poet in despite OF his theory
The great defect Of Wordsworth, in our iudg-
ment, was want Of sympathy with, and know
ledge of men. From his birth till his entry of
College, he lived in region where he met with
none whose minds might awaken his sympathes
the other hand, that region alpounded with the
inert, striking ard most impressive objects of
natural scenery. The elementary grandeur and
beauty Of external nature came thus TO fill up his
mind 10 the exclusion Of human interests. To
such result his individual constitution power
fully contributed. The sensuous element was
singularly defective in his nature. He never
seems to have passed through that erratc period
out OF which some poets have never emerged.
A soaring, speculative, imagination, and an I'M
petuous resistless self-wilI, his distinguish
ing characteristics. From first to last he concen
tra,ed himself within himself; brooding over his
own fances and imaginations TO the comparative
disregard of the incidents and impressions which |
suggested them; and was little susceptible of ideas
originating in other minds And we behold the |
result. He lives alone in world Of mountains,
streams, and atmospheric phenomena, dealing
with moral distractions, and rarely encountered
by even shadowy spectres of beings oufwar,lly
resembling himself: There is measureIess power
and grandeur in his moral speculatons. There
S intense reality in his pictures of external na-
lure. But though his human characters are pre-
'ented with great skill of metaphysical analysis,
hey have rarely life or animation. He is always
he prominent, and often the exclusive, object OF
MS own song.
Upon mind so constituted, with its psyche
ogical peculiariries so cherished and confirmed,
he fortunes and fates of others, and the stirring
events of his time made vivid but very transient
IMPRESSIONS The conversation and writings of
trained among books, and with
The Prelude, OF Grrwh Of Poets Mind Aatobi0