devoted to the infancy and school-time of
the poet; four to the period of his University life; two to a brief
residence in London immediately subsequent to his leaving Cambridge,
and a retrospect of the progress 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 contest between the Girondins and Robespierre. Five
books are then occupied with an analysis of the internal struggle
occasioned by the contradictory influences of rural and secluded
nature in boyhood, and of society when the young man first mingles
with the world. The surcease of the strife is recorded in the
fourteenth book, entitled "Conclusion."

The poem is addressed to Coleridge; and apart from its poetical
merits, is interesting as at once a counterpart and a supplement to
that author's philosophical and beautiful criticism of the _Lyrical
Ballads_ in his _Biographia Literaria_. It completes the explanation,
there given, of the peculiar constitution of Wordsworth's mind, and of
his poetical theory. It confirms and justifies our opinion that that
theory was essentially partial and erroneous; but at the same time it
establishes the fact that Wordsworth was a true and a great poet in
despite of his theory.

The great defect of Wordsworth, in our judgment, was want of sympathy
with and knowledge of men. From his birth till his entry at college,
he lived in a region where he met with none whose minds might awaken
his sympathies, and where life was altogether uneventful. On the
other hand, that region abounded with the inert, striking, and most
impressive objects of natural scenery. The elementary grandeur
and beauty of external nature came thus to fill up his mind to
the exclusion of human interests. To such a result his individual
constitution powerfully contributed. The sensuous element was
singularly deficient in his nature. He never seems to have passed
through that erotic period out of which some poets have never emerged.
A soaring, speculative imagination, and an impetuous, resistless
self-will, were his distinguishing characteristics. From first to last
he concentrated himself within himself; brooding over his own fancies
and imaginations to the comparative disregard of the incidents and
impressions which suggested them; and was little susceptible of ideas
originating in other minds. We behold the result. He lives al