APPENDIX
BLAKE AUTOGRAPH
BEING EXTRACTS FROM WORDSWORTH'S PREFACE TO THE EXCURSION AND FROM THE RECLUSE COPIED WITH THE ANNOTATIONS HERE GIVEN[1]
It is not the Author's intention formally to announce a System. It was more animating to him to proceed on a different course & if he shall succeed in conveying to the Mind clear thoughts, lively images & strong feelings, the Reader will have no difficulty in extracting the system for himself. And in the meantime the following passage, taken from the conclusion of the first book of the Recluse may be acceptable as a Prospectus of the design of the scope of the whole Poem. [Wordsworth.]
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On Man, on Nature, and on Human Life,
Musing in solitude, I oft perceive
Fair trains of imagery before me rise.
Accompanied by feelings of delight.
Pure, or with no unpleasing sadness mixed;
And I am conscious of affecting thoughts
And dear remembrances, whose presence soothes
Or elevates the Mind, intent to weigh
The good and evil of our mortal state.
—To these emotions, whencesoe'er they come,
Whether from breath of outward circumstance.
Or from the Soul—an impulse to herself—
I would give utterance in numerous verse.
Of Truth, of Grandeur, Beauty, Love, and Hope,
And melancholy Fear subdued by Faith;
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- ↑ [Cf. ante, pp. 5, 11, and 15. The Blake autograph is preserved at the end of the last volume of H. Crabb Robinson's Correspondence (1864—67) in Dr. Williams's Library.]
