IN WORDSWORTH'S COUNTRY. 



No other English poet had touched me quite so 

 closely as Wordsworth. All cultivated men delight 

 in Shakespeare ; he is the universal genius ; but 

 Wordsworth's poetry has more the character of a 

 message, and a message special and personal, to a 

 comparatively small circle of readers. He stands 

 for a particular phase of human thought and experi- 

 ence, and his service to certain minds is like an ini- 

 tiation into a new order of truths. Note what a rev- 

 elation he was to the logical mind of John Stuart 

 Mill. His limitations make him all the more private 

 and precious, like the seclusion of one of his moun- 

 tain dales. He is not and can never be the world's 

 poet, but more especially the poet of those who love 

 solitude and solitary communion with nature. Shake- 

 speare's attitude toward nature is for the most part 

 like that of a gay, careless reveler, who leaves his 

 companions for a moment to pluck a flower or gather 

 a shell here and there, as they stroll 



" By paved fountain, or by rushy brook, 

 Or on the beached margent of the sea." 



He is, of course, preeminent in all purely poetic 

 achievements, but his poems can never minister to 

 the spirit in the way Wordsworth's do. 

 11 



