The Columbia daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1865, 1865-06-21
Wordsworth on Literature.

autobiogfaphical, not merely in that
they bear the impress Of his personal
character. but that they are for the
most part drawn from scenes in the
immediate neighborhood of his birth
place and home, and are descriptive of
incidents happening to himself. They
are the lifelong journal Of almost daily
meditation and experience. On every
page they tell who and what the man
was, where he was borp what inf1u-
ces moulded his infancy; what assoc;-
ations of man and nature accompanied
his growth. His great poem is the
History of his own Mind; and the most
impersoual Of his writings, as the
Lsodarnia, is stamped with the idiosyn-
Grassy Of the man-his pure spirit of
reverence. his o,nni-present awe of
truth. virtue. and fteedom-"the plain
presence Of his dignity"
The Prelude is the especial bio
graphy Of Wordsworth. There he has
told US all which it ia necessary to
know. Gossip can extract little from
the career of such a man. His life
was in his life. As he wrote he lived
But though bearing little. immediately
upon the great world of his times, and
offering US nothing o: the seasoned
anecdo,e which we look for, to turn
our tears into nerriment on the death
ot.ho at illustrious men, the memoirs
now published Of the Poet are not
the less interesting. They are indeed
chiefly illustrations of his writings,
and may one day find their most ap-
pirate place at the foot notes to some
comprehensive edition Of his works; but
they have this peculiarly about them,
IN common with the poems, that the
interest is of a grand and lofty
character. The personality is not a
petty personality, but is merged in the
grandeur Of refined and elevated
character, and becomes a philosophy
of the species. Follow nature, wrote
the Roman moralist, as the best guide
of living we'll; and never was nature
more purely or devotcdly followed
than by William Wordsworth. 1t was
not the nature merely of plants and
flowers, of woods and field, lake and
mountain ,ebut the congenial DISPOSE
ton of heart and soul in unison with
these. II a mountain could think or
brook speak in vocal language, they
would think and speak as Words
worth. By birth, education Of early
years. and above all. by rigid culture
and self-discipIine, the whole man was
tntored to M extreme simplicity.
Goodness and greatness, essential truth
Of living, the home affections, brother
hood, and love Of country were to his
mind real things, substitutes for the
painted. shows Of the metropolis and
the Fictitious of the world. A man Of
letters from his youth, the ordinary
rivalries Of literature, its contests and
excitements, were not for him. He
sought no patronage Of the press; re-
cognlzed no rivals, gave no dinners,
made his way to fame by no subordi-
nate or incidental efforts; had none of
the;acciden,s Of authorship, but quietly
thought and wrote and laid his works
before the world to maintain their
own rank They were assailed,
illuminated, ridiculed; but he saw in
this more misunderstanding than malice
and be quietly held on his even course
wrapped in his own integrity. No
St. Anthony temptation of griuning
and gibing fends in forms Of hostile
reviewers could shake his solid pur-
pose. With every power of his man
hood ne had devoted himself to Ger
tain work, and he would perform it.
In his bovhood. we learn. he was will.