VII 



IN WORDSWORTH'S COUNTRY 



other English poet had touched me quite so 

 closely as Wordsworth. All cultivated men 

 delight in Shakespeare; he is the universal genius; 

 but AVordsworth'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 expe- 

 rience, and his service to certain minds is like an 

 initiation into a new order of truths. Note what 

 a revelation 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 mountain 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. Shakespeare's attitude toward nature 

 is for the most part like that of a gay, careless rev- 

 eler, 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 



