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 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 alone in a world of mountains, streams, and
atmospheric phenomena, dealing with moral abstractions, and rarely
encountered