ensured to him much of the happiness of his unusually happy life. On October the 4th, 1802, he married Mary Hutchinson, his old playmate at the school at Penrith. His increased means had rendered this step one no longer improvident, for at the death of Lord Lonsdale, who had so long doggedly refused to pay the debt due to Wordsworth's father, his successor immediately disbursed not only the original sum, £5000, but also £3,500 as interest upon it. The wife of Wordsworth must be known and loved by all who admire the genius, and are acquainted with the writings of her husband. He has proclaimed her household virtues, and praised her gentle nature in lines of simple beauty which are familiar to all, and present a charming contrast to such extravagant erotics as the few poets who have not quarrelled with their wives, have sung to their honour.
Wordsworth was keenly alive to the charms of woman's society, and no one ever learned more from it. His sister had been for years before his marriage his constant companion. He has rejoiced to record, and his biographers to repeat, that upon his moral and intellectual nature she exercised an influence the most benign. Indeed, so keen was her perception of the beautiful in external nature, as the extracts from her journals abundantly testify, that we cannot doubt but that she was one of the many "who have never penned their inspiration," and that, had not William frequently clothed her thoughts in poetry, she would have herself indulged the fine frenzy. Fondly as he loved his wife, and beautifully as he has described the graces of her character, it is his sister who will be more closely associated with his poetic fame. She was often his amanuensis, sometimes his critic, and always his admirer. If they did not in partnership "compose at once a slipper and a song," they at any rate sometimes simultaneously produced a sonnet and a stocking.
