recommend themselves to the indulgence of many judicious readers, but
even to beget among a pretty numerous class of persons, a sort of
admiration of the very defects by which they were attended. It was upon
this account chiefly, that we thought it necessary to set ourselves
against this alarming innovation. Childishness, conceit, and
affectation, are not of themselves very popular or attractive; and
though mere novelty has sometimes been found sufficient to give them a
temporary currency, we should have had no fear of their prevailing to
any dangerous extent, if they had been graced with no more seductive
accompaniments. It was precisely because the perverseness and bad taste
of this new school was combined with a great deal of genius and of
laudable feeling, that we were afraid of their spreading and gaining
ground among us, and that we entered into the discussion with a degree
of zeal and animosity which some might think unreasonable toward
authors, to whom so much merit had been conceded. There were times and
moods indeed, in which we were led to suspect ourselves of unjustifiable
severity, and to doubt, whether a sense of public duty had not carried
us rather too far in reprobation of errors, that seemed to be atoned
for, by excellences of no vulgar description. At other times, the
magnitude of these errors--the disgusting absurdities into which they
led their feebler admirers, and the derision and contempt which they
drew from the more fastidious, even upon the merits with which they were
associated, made us wonder more than ever at the perversity by which
they were retained, and regret that we had not declared ourselves
against them with still more formidable and decided hostility.

In this temper of mind, we read the _annonce_ of Mr Wordsworth's
publication with a good deal of interest and expectation, and opened his
volumes with greater anxiety, than he or his admirers will probably give
us credit for. We have been greatly disappointed certainly as to the
quality of the poetry; but we doubt whether the publication has afforded
so much satisfaction to any other of his readers:--it has freed us from
all doubt or hesitation as to the justice of our former censures, and
has brought the matter to a test, which we cannot help hoping may be
convincing to the author himself.

Mr Wordsworth, we think, has now brought the question, as to the merit
of his new school of poetry, to a very fair and decisive issue. The
volum