334 IS POETRY AT BOTTOM A CRITICISM OF LIFE? 



suit their needs or help them forward on the path of their 

 development. Yet I cannot but think that, had he read 

 Wordsworth, he would have made at least a qualified excep- 

 tion in his favour. 1 Wordsworth is not ' sombre, moody, 

 melancholy/ is certainly not afraid of the ' unconventional,' 

 does not borrow ' artificial beauty * from the classics or else- 

 where. In fact, the faults here found with English poetry 

 in general are contradicted in an eminent degree by his best 

 poetry. But, though this seems clear enough, it remains true 

 that in Wordsworth we find a ponderosity, a personal and 

 patriotic egoism, a pompousness, a self-importance in dwelling 

 upon details that have value chiefly for the poet himself or for 

 the neighbourhood he lives in, which may not unnaturally 

 appear impertinent or irksome to readers of a different 

 nationality. Will the essential greatness of Wordsworth, 

 whereof so much has been already said, his humanity, his 

 wisdom, his healthiness, his bracing tone, his adequacy to 

 the finer inner spirit of a scientific and democratic age 

 will these solid and imperishable qualities overcome the 

 occasionally defective utterance, the want of humour and 

 lightness, the obstinate insularity of character, the somewhat 

 repellent intensity of local interest, which cannot but be found 

 in him ? 



1 This I gather from the modification of the above passage in favour 

 of ' the cheerful ' name of Walter Scott. 



