Part 34

"Siquod verò Natura nobis dedit spectaculum, in hâc tellure, verè gratum, et philosopho dignum, id semel mihi contigisse arbitror; cùm ex celsissimâ rupe speculabundus ad oram maris Mediterranei, hinc æquor cæruleum, illinc tractus Alpinos prospexi; nihil quidem magìs dispar aut dissimile, nec in suo genere, magìs egregium et singulare. Hoc theatrum ego facile prætulerim Romanis cunctis, Græcisve, atque id quod natura hîc spectandum exhibet, scenicis ludis omnibus, aut amphitheatri certaminibus. Nihil hîc elegans aut venustum, sed ingens et magnificum, et quod placet magnitudine suâ et quâdam specie immensitatis. Hinc intuebar maris æquabilem superficiem, usque et usque diffusam, quantum maximùm oculorum acies ferri potuit; illinc disruptissimam terræ faciem, et vastas moles variè elevatas aut depressas, erectas, propendentes, reclinatas, coacervatas, omni situ inæquali et turbido: Placuit ex hâc parte Naturæ unitas et simplicitas, et inexhausta quædam planities; ex alterâ, multiformis confusio magnorum corporum, et insanæ rerum strages: quas cùm intuebar, non urbis alicujus aut oppidi, sed confracti mundi rudera, ante oculos habere mihi visus sum.

"In singulis ferè montibus erat aliquid insolens et mirabile, sed præ cæteris mihi placebat ilia, quâ sedebam, rupes; erat maxima et altissima, et quâ terram respiciebat, molliori ascensu altitudinem suam dissimulabat: quà verò mare, horrendúm præceps, et quasi ad perpendiculum facta instar parietis. Prætereà facies ilia marina adeò erat lævis ac uniformis (quod in rupibus aliquando observare licet) ac si scissa fuisset à summo ad imum, in illo plano, vel terræ motu aliquo, aut fulmine divulsa.

"Ima pars rupis erat cava, recessusque habuit, et saxeos specus, euntes in vacuum montem; sive naturâ pridem factos, sive exesos mari, et undarum crebris ictibus: In hos enim cum impetu ruebant, et fragore æstuantis maris fluctus, quos iterum spumantes reddidit antrum, et quasi ab imo ventre evomuit.

"Dextrum latus mentis erat præruptum, aspero saxo et nudâ caute; sinistrum non adeò neglexerat Natura, arboribus utpote ornatum: et prope pedem montis rivus limpidæ aquæ prorupit, qui cùm vicinam vallem irrigaverat, lento motu serpens, et per varios mæandros, quasi ad protrahendam vitam, in magno mari absorptus subito periit. Denique in summo vertice promontorii, commodè eminebat saxum, cui insidebam contemplabundus. Vale augusta sedes, Rege digna: Augusta rupes, semper mihi memoranda!" P. 89. _Telluris Theoria sacra, etc. Editio secunda._--W. W. 1814).

Page 139.

_Of Mississippi, or that northern stream._

"A man is supposed to improve by going out into the _World_, by visiting _London_. Artificial man does; he extends with his sphere; but, alas! that sphere is microscopic; it is formed of minutiæ, and he surrenders his genuine vision to the artist, in order to embrace it in his ken. His bodily senses grow acute, even to barren and inhuman pruriency; while his mental become proportionally obtuse. The reverse is the Man of Mind: he who is placed in the sphere of Nature and of God, might be a mock at Tattersall's and Brooks's, and a sneer at St. James's: he would certainly be swallowed alive by the first _Pizarro_ that crossed him:--But when he walks along the river of Amazons; when he rests his eye on the unrivalled Andes; when he measures the long and watered savannah; or contemplates, from a sudden promontory, the distant, vast Pacific--and feels himself a freeman in this vast theatre, and commanding each ready produced fruit of this wilderness, and each progeny of this stream--his exaltation is not less than imperial. He is as gentle, too, as he is great: his emotions of tenderness keep pace with his elevation of sentiment; for he says, 'These were made by a good Being, who, unsought by me, placed me here to enjoy them.' He becomes at once a child and a king. His mind is in himself; from hence he argues, and from hence he acts, and he argues unerringly, and acts magisterially; his mind in himself is also in his God; and therefore he loves, and therefore he soars."--From the notes upon _The Hurricane_, a Poem, _by William Gilbert_.[LJ]

The Reader, I am sure, will thank me for the above quotation, which, though from a strange book, is one of the finest passages of modern English prose.--W.W. (1814).

Page 149.

_'Tis, by comparison, an easy task_ _Earth to despise_, etc.

See, upon this subject, Baxter's most interesting review of his own opinions and sentiments in the decline of life. It may be found (lately reprinted) in Dr. Wordsworth's _Ecclesiastical Biography_.--W.W. (1814).

Page 152.

_Alas! the endowment of immortal Power,_ _Is matched unequally with custom, time_, etc.

This subject is treated at length in the _Ode, Intimations of Immortality_.--W.W. (1814).

Page 156.

_Knowing the heart of man is set to be_, etc.

The passage quoted from Daniel is taken from a poem addressed to the Lady Margaret, Countess of Cumberland, and the two last lines, printed in Italics, are by him translated from Seneca. The whole Poem is very beautiful. I will transcribe four stanzas from it, as they contain an admirable picture of the state of a wise Man's mind in a time of public commotion.

Nor is he moved with all the thunder-cracks Of tyrant's threats, or with the surly brow Of Power, that proudly sits on others' crimes; Charged with more crying sins than those he checks. The storms of sad confusion that may grow Up in the present for the coming times, Appal not him; that hath no side at all, But of himself, and knows the worst can fall.

Although his heart (so near allied to earth) Cannot but pity the perplexed state Of troublous and distressed mortality, That thus make way unto the ugly birth Of their own sorrows, and do still beget Affliction upon Imbecility; Yet seeing thus the course of things must run, He looks thereon not strange, but as fore-done.

And whilst distraught ambition compasses, And is encompassed, while as craft deceives, And is deceived: whilst man doth ransack man, And builds on blood, and rises by distress; And th' Inheritance of desolation leaves To great-expecting hopes: He looks thereon, As from the shore of peace, with unwet eye, And bears no venture in Impiety.

Thus, Lady, fares that man that hath prepared A rest for his desires; and sees all things Beneath him; and hath learned this book of man, Full of the notes of frailty; and compared The best of glory with her sufferings: By whom, I see, you labour all you can To plant your heart! and set your thoughts as near His glorious mansion as your powers can bear. (1814.)

Page 221.

_Or rather, as we stand on holy earth. And have the dead around us._

_Leo._ You, Sir, could help me to the history Of half these graves?

_Priest._ For eight-score winters past, With what I've witnessed, and with what I've heard, Perhaps I might; ... By turning o'er these hillocks one by one, We two could travel, Sir, through a strange round; Yet all in the broad highway of the world.

See the Author's poem of _The Brothers_, published in the "Lyrical Ballads," in the year 1800.--W.W. (1814).

Page 233.

_And suffering Nature grieved that one should die._

_Southey's Retrospect_.--W.W. (1814).

Page 233.

_And whence that tribute? wherefore these regards?_

The sentiments and opinions here uttered are in unison with those expressed in the ... Essay upon Epitaphs, which was furnished by me for Mr. Coleridge's periodical work, _The Friend_; and as they are dictated by a spirit congenial to that which pervades this and the two succeeding books, the sympathising reader will not be displeased to see the Essay here annexed.[LK]--W.W. (1814).

Page 236.

_And spires whose 'silent finger points to heaven.'_

An instinctive taste teaches men to build their churches in flat countries with spire-steeples, which as they cannot be referred to any other object, point as with silent finger to the sky and stars, and sometimes, when they reflect the brazen light of a rich though rainy sunset, appear like a pyramid of flame burning heaven-ward. See _The Friend_, by S. T. Coleridge, No. 14, p. 223.--W. W. (1814).

Page 308.

_That sycamore, which annually holds_ _Within its shade, as in a stately tent._

This Sycamore oft musical with Bees; _Such Tents_ the Patriarchs loved.

_S. T. Coleridge_.--W.W. (1814).

(It is in his _Inscription for a fountain on a Heath_.--ED.)

Page 323.

_Perish the roses and the flowers of kings._

The "Transit gloria mundi" is finely expressed in the Introduction to the Foundation-charters of some of the ancient Abbeys. Some expressions here used are taken from that of the Abbey of St. Mary's, Furness, the translation of which is as follows:--

"Considering every day the uncertainty of life, that the roses and flowers of Kings, Emperors, and Dukes, and the crowns and palms of all the great, wither and decay; and that all things, with an uninterrupted course, tend to dissolution and death: I therefore," etc.--W.W. (1814).

Page 331.

----_Earth has lent_ _Her waters, Air her breezes._

In treating this subject, it was impossible not to recollect, with gratitude, the pleasing picture, which, in his Poem of _The Fleece_, the excellent and amiable Dyer has given of the influences of manufacturing industry upon the face of this Island. He wrote at a time when machinery was first beginning to be introduced, and his benevolent heart prompted him to augur from it nothing but good. Truth has compelled me to dwell upon the baneful effects arising out of an ill-regulated and excessive application of powers so admirable in themselves.--W. W. (1814).

Page 363.

_Binding herself by statute._

The discovery of Dr. Bell affords marvellous facilities for carrying this into effect; and it is impossible to over-rate the benefit which might accrue to humanity from the universal application of this simple engine under an enlightened and conscientious government.--W. W. (1814).

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote LJ: _The Hurricane, a Theosophical and Western Eclogue, etc._, by William Gilbert, London, 1797. Compare Wordsworth's notes to _The Brothers_.--ED.]

[Footnote LK: In this edition, it finds a more appropriate place in the _Prose Works_.--ED.]

APPENDIX

NOTE A

(See p. 2)

The grave of James Patrick,--the pedlar whose character and habits gave rise to "The Wanderer" of _The Excursion_,--may still be seen in the church-yard within the town of Kendal. The following extract from the _Papers, Letters, and Journals of William Pearson_, edited by his widow, and printed in London, in 1863, for private circulation, refers to Patrick. "He" (_i.e._ William Pearson) "sometimes went to Kendal on Sundays, in order to worship with Unitarians, in the old Presbyterian _meeting-house_. This quiet secluded building, though situated in the heart of the town, is overshadowed by trees, beneath which rest many worthies of departed times: one of whom, James Patrick, was the prototype of 'The Wanderer' of _The Excursion_. A plain mural slab, outside the east wall of the chapel--which was his spiritual home--bears the following inscription:--

NEAR THIS PLACE ARE BURIED JOHN PATRICK OF BARNARD CASTLE, WHO DIED MAY 10TH, 1753, AGED 51 YEARS; MARGARET, THE DAUGHTER OF JAMES AND MARY PATRICK, WHO DIED NOVEMBER 26TH, 1767, IN HER INFANCY; JAMES PATRICK OF KENDAL, WHO DIED MARCH 2D, 1787, AGED 71 YEARS.

"When staying in Kendal, with his friend Mr. Thomas Cookson, Mr. Wordsworth himself was an occasional worshipper, along with the family, at this chapel; and thus became acquainted with the minister, the Reverend John Harrison, and with one of his congregation, the well-known blind mathematician and botanist, Mr. John Gough, with the delineation of whose remarkable powers and character the poet has enriched his _Excursion_; and in turn, has, by the touch of his genius, imparted to them a lustre that will not fade, whilst English Literature shall endure." (p. 13).

NOTE B

(See p. 115)

The following is an extract from Dr. Daniel G. Brinton's work, the _Myths of the New World_.

"As in oriental legends, the origin of man from the earth was veiled under the story that he was the progeny of some mountain by the embrace of Mithras or Jupiter, so the Indians often pointed to some height or some cavern as the spot whence the first of men issued, adult and armed, from the womb of the All-mother Earth. The oldest name of the Alleghany Mountains is Paemotinck, or Pemolnick, an Algonkin word, the meaning of which is said to be "The origin of the Indians."

"The Witchitas, who dwelt on the Red River among the mountains named after them, have a tradition that their progenitors issued from the rocks about their homes, and many other tribes, the Tahkalis, Navajos, Coryoteras, and the Hailians, for instance, set up this claim to be autochthones....

"All those tribes, the Creeks, Seminoles, Choctaws, Chicasaws, and Natchez, who, according to tradition, were in remote times banded into one common confederacy under the headship of the last-mentioned, unanimously located their earliest ancestry near an artificial eminence in the valley of the Big Black River, in the Natchez country, whence they pretended to have emerged....

"A parallel to this southern legend occurs among the Six Nations of the north. They with one consent, if we may credit the account of Cusic, looked to a mountain near the falls of the Oswego River, in the State of New York, as the locality where the forefathers first saw the light of day, and that they had some such legend the name Oneida, people of the Stone, would seem to testify....

"An ancient legend of the Aztecs derived their nation from a place called Chicomoztoc, the Seven Caverns, located north of Mexico. Antiquaries have indulged in all sorts of speculations as to what this means.... Caverns and hollow trees were in fact the homes and temples of our first parents, and from them they went forth to conquer and adorn the world; and from the inorganic constituents of the soil acted on by Light, treated by Divine Force, vivified by the Spirit, did in reality the first of men proceed.

"This cavern, which thus dimly lingered in the memories of nations, occasionally expanded to a nether world, imagined to underlie this of ours, and still inhabited by beings of our kind, who have never been lucky enough to discover its exit. The Mandans and Minnetarees, on the Missouri River, supposed this exit was near a certain hill in their territory...."--_Myths of the New World_, pp. 224-8.

Mr. Edward B. Tylor, Oxford, suggests that the legend referred to may be that described in Falkner's account of the Moluches.

"They believe that their good deities made the world, and that they first created the Indians in their caves, gave them the lance, the bow and arrows, and the stone-bowls, to fight and hunt with, and then turned them out to shift for themselves. They imagine that the deities of the Spaniards did the same by them.... They have formed a belief that some of them after death return to their divine caverns," etc. (Falkner's _Description of Patagonia and the adjoining parts of South America, etc._, chap. v. pp. 114-5, by Thomas Falkner, Hereford, 1774.)

See also Edward B. Tylor's _Early History of Mankind_, p. 313.--ED.

NOTE C

(See p. 140)

For the following letters in reference to the "Muccawiss," I am indebted to Mr. Henry Reed,--son of the late Professor Reed of Philadelphia,--whose assistance in all matters relating to Wordsworth in America has been invaluable.

"NO. 400 CHESTNUT STREET, PHILADELPHIA, "_September 26th, 1883_.

"MY DEAR MR. KNIGHT--Dr. Brinton tells me that Muccawiss is the Algonquin for whip-poor-will, and he will ascertain for me the precise spelling, and, if possible, the book from which W. W. probably got his information.--Yours sincerely,

HENRY REED."

"115 SOUTH SEVENTH STREET, "_September 27th, 1883_.

"DEAR SIR--I have failed to find the exact word used by Wordsworth--muccawiss. The nearest to it is 'moshkaois,' which signifies 'bittern,' a water-fowl of the diver class, to which the name has reference, it being a derivative from a verb meaning to rise to the surface of the water. The word is no doubt of Algonkin origin, and I would suggest that you write to the Algonkin scholar, _par excellence_, of our country, Colonel J. Hammond Trumbull, Hartford, Conn., who is both able and willing to solve all the enigmas of that difficult tongue.--Very truly yours,

D. G. BRINTON."

"Henry Reed, Esq."

"NO. 400 CHESTNUT STREET, PHILADELPHIA, "_October 2nd, 1883_.

"MY DEAR MR. KNIGHT--I enclose a letter from Colonel Trumbull, which I think you will find satisfactory.--Yours very sincerely,

HENRY REED."

"HARTFORD, CONN., _September 29th, 1883_.

"HENRY REED, Esq., Philadelphia.

"DEAR SIR--Wordsworth's 'Muccawis' was, certainly, a Whip-poor-will, and he must have taken the Indian name, directly or at second-hand, from Carver's _Travels_. Among the birds 'found in the interior parts of North America,' Carver (chap. 18) describes 'the Whipper-will, or, as it is termed by the Indians, the _Muckawis_.... As soon as night comes on, these birds will place themselves on the fences, stumps, or stones that lie near some house, and _repeat their melancholy notes without any variation_ till midnight,' etc. So Wordsworth's

Melancholy muccawis Repeated, o'er and o'er, his plaintive cry.

"I have an impression--which I have not just now leisure to verify--that Carver's description of this and some other American birds was reprinted in the _Gentleman's Magazine_. Two or three English editions of the _Travels_ had been printed before _The Excursion_ was written.

"I find no other authority for this 'Indian' name. The Chippeway name for the Whip-poor-will is (as given by Tanner or Dr. E. James) _Wâwonaissa_. Nuttall states, the Delaware name was _Wecoâlis_: Zeisberger wrote it _Wecoolis_.--Yours sincerely,

J. HAMMOND TRUMBULL."

"_P.S._--Carver did not name 'the merry mocking-bird'--which Wordsworth makes the companion of the 'Muccawis'; but Campbell had heard of 'the _merry mock-bird's_ song,' and copied a description of it from Ashe's _Travels in America_, in a note to _Gertrude of Wyoming_ (1809), pt. i. st. 3."

Since receiving these letters I have ascertained that Wordsworth had in his library at Rydal Mount--whether he had it at Allan Bank I cannot say--a copy of one of the English editions of Carver's _Travels_.

Compare _Wanderings in South America, etc._, by Charles Waterton--a work which was also in Wordsworth's library at Rydal. I quote from a recent edition (1879). See pp. 99, 111, 199, and 488:--

"When in thy hammock, should the thought of thy little crosses and disappointments, in thy ups and downs through life, break in upon thee, and throw thee into a pensive mood, the owl will bear thee company. She will tell thee that hard has been her fate too; and at intervals 'Whip-poor-will' and 'Willy-come-go' will take up the tale of sorrow. Ovid has told thee how the owl once boasted the human form, and lost it for a very small offence; and were the poet alive now, he would inform thee, that 'Whip-poor-will' and 'Willy-come-go' are the shades of these poor African and Indian slaves, who died worn out and broken-hearted. They wail and cry, 'Whip-poor-will' and 'Willy-come-go' all night long; and often, when the moon shines, you see them sitting on the green turf, near the houses of those whose ancestors tore them from the bosom of their helpless families, which all probably perished through grief and want, after their support was gone." (p. 99).

"The Caprimulgus wheels in busy flight around the canoe, while 'Whip-poor-will' sits on the broken stump near the water's edge, complaining as the shades of night set in" (p. 111).

The following is from _Ornithological Biography, or an Account of the Habits of the Birds of America_, vol. i. p. 422, by John James Audubon, Edinburgh, 1831.

"Whip-poor-will, _Caprimulgus vociferus_, a species of Night-jar. Immediately after the arrival of these birds their notes are heard in the dusk and through the evening, in every part of the thickets, and along the skirts of the woods. They are clear and loud, and to me are more interesting than those of the Nightingale.... The Whip-poor-will continues its lively song for several hours after sunset, and then remains silent until the first dawn of day, when its notes echo through every vale, and along the declivities of the mountains, until the beams of the rising sun scatter the darkness that overhung the face of Nature. Hundreds are often heard at the same time in different parts of the wood, each trying to outdo the others.... The cry consists of three distinct notes, the first and last of which are emphatical and sonorous, the intermediate one less so. These three notes are preceded by a low cluck, which seems preparatory to the others. A fancied resemblance which its notes have to the syllables _whip-poor-will_ has given rise to the common name of the bird."

NOTE D

(See p. 173)

A translation of the passage from Pausanias is quoted in the text. I append extracts from some letters I have received on the subject. The first are from Mr. Heard, Fettes College, Edinburgh.

_October 5th._

"I cannot find a reference to Cephisus; but I send you a passage in point from Homer, _Iliad_, 23, 140. I rather suspect Wordsworth had this passage in mind, for no commentator I have quotes a parallel; in which case he has either forgotten _Spercheius_ as the river, or substituted, on purpose, the better known Attic river.

"Achilles offers to the dead Patroclus the locks which his father had vowed to Spercheius, if ever he returned to his native land:

ἔνθ᾿ αὖτ ἄλλ᾿ ἐνόησε ποδάρκης δῖος Αχιλλεύς στὰς ἀπάνευθε πυρῆς ξανθὴν ἀπεκείρατο χαίτην τήν ῥα Σπερχειῷ ποταμῷ τρέφε τηλεθόωσαν ὀχθήσας δ᾿ ἄρα εἶπεν ιδὼν ἐπὶ οἴνοπα πόντον Σπερχεί᾿, ἄλλως σοίγε πατὴρ ἠρήατο Πηλεὺς κεῖσέ με νοστήσαντα ϕίλην ἐς πατρίδα γαῖαν σοί τε κόμην κερέειν.

_October 13th._

"I have discovered the reference to the Cephisus. It is from Pausanias, 1, 37, 3. I transcribe the passage: you will notice the reference to the Spercheius of the _Iliad_.

"πρὶν δὲ διαβαεναι τὸν Καεφισόν, Θεοδώρου μνῆμά ἐστι τραγῳσίαν ὑποκριναμένου τῶν καθ᾿ αὑτὸν ἄριστα. ἀγάλματα δὲ ἐπὶ τῷ ποταμῷ Μνησιμάχης, τὸ δὲ ἐτερον ἀνάθημα κειρομένου οἰ τὴν κόμην τοῦ παιδὸς ἐπὶ τῷ Καϕισῷ. καθεστάναι δὲ ἐκ παλαιοῦ καὶ τοῖς πᾶσι τοῦτο ῞Ἑλλαεσι τῇ Ὁμήρου τις ἂν τεκμαίροιτο ποιήσει, ἃς τὸν Παελέα εὄξασθαί ϕησι τῷ Σπερχειῷ κερεῖν ἀνασωθέντος ἐκ Τροίας Αχιλλέως τὴν κόμην.

"There can be little doubt that Wordsworth had this passage in mind. The Cephisus is the Attic one; this is a statue, which Pausanias saw on the banks of the river, of the son of Mnesimache cutting his locks over the stream."

Professor Campbell writes:--"The Homeric passage is _Iliad_, 23, 140-151, where Achilles cuts off for Patroclus the lock of hair, which _his father Peleus_ had vowed to the river Spercheius in case of his son's safe return. This is referred to by Plato,--_Rep._ 3, 391 B,--who regards it as an act of impiety to have given that, which was sacred to the river, to a dead body.

"Unless the passage in Pausanias is singularly apposite, I should think that this passage must have been in Wordsworth's mind, and that by a perfectly legitimate use of poetic freedom, in speaking of the later Greek civilisation, he had put the Attic in place of the Phthiotic river."