INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. XIX 



who were amongst the first to call back our poetry 

 from Art to Nature, must not be passed in silence ; 

 Shelley, Keats, Leigh Hunt, three noble poets, 

 classed in the same school, yet each widely differ- 

 ing from the other, have greatly promoted her 

 influence, the last in much beautiful prose; Bloom- 

 field and Clare, Burns and Elliot, all strong and 

 true sons of Nature, and the last of whom is 

 never more inspired and inspiring than when he 

 climbs Stanedge, and rejoices in its dark majesty, 

 amid the winds, and crags, and dashing streams of 

 mountain moorlands, must each have his own 

 appropriate niche; the names of Mrs. Hemans, 

 Miss Bowles, and Miss Mitford, amongst our 

 female writers, claim in this, as in other respects, 

 the highest honours ; and Wordsworth has so 

 gazed upon Nature, not only with the eyes of love, 

 but of philosophy he has so completely retired to 

 the perpetual contemplation of her charms and the 

 communion with her spirit, and has so fully ex- 

 pressed all that I am anxious to testify of her moral 

 influence, that I must make from him one quotation. 



Nature never did betray 



The heart that loved her ! 'Tis her privilege, 

 Through all the years of this our life, to lead 

 From joy to joy, for she can so inform 

 The mind that is within us, so impress 

 With quietness and beauty, and so feed 

 With lofty thoughts, that neither evil tongues, 

 Rash judgments, nor the sneers of selfish men, 

 Nor greetings where no kindness is, nor all 

 The dreary intercourse of common life, 



