76 INFLUENCES ON CHARACTER. 



AMICUS. There are puzzling features in both 

 people : as mountaineers, from what I have 

 heard and seen of those of this country, they 

 are nowise an impulsive or imaginative people, 

 are poor in traditionary lore, little tainted with 

 superstition, and not remarkable for religious 

 feeling. The Lake-poets, I believe, were not of 

 the district ; respected in their adopted country, 

 as they all were, it was, I am assured, rather 

 as men than as poets. You will smile at what 

 I am about to mention, and perhaps with 

 better knowledge may question its truth, 

 how a farmer's wife, a shrewd woman in 

 her way, when one of these distinguished 

 men was taken to his last home, on the 

 family of the deceased poet becoming the 

 subject of conversation, naively remarked, 



she supposed Mrs. , the widow, " would 



carry on the business." Such was her view of 

 the divine art. 



PISCATOR. There is a consistency in cha- 

 racter. How the character of a people is 

 formed is commonly a difficult problem to 

 solve. Its formation seems to depend on a 

 variety of circumstances, something probably 

 on race, a good deal db initio on climate and 



