poetry, the arts of painting, gardening, &c., besides essays on morals and politics." "The Philanthropist" was to have been "REPUBLICAN, but not REVOLUTIONARY." Though, like all new journals, it was, as a matter of course, to have ameliorated everybody's condition, and conferred incalculable advantages on society at large, yet Wordsworth could excite no enthusiasm in coadjutors, nor inspire a publisher or a capitalist with confidence. The scheme fell to the ground, and the promising young paper never saw the light. He was therefore anxious to gain his livelihood as a writer for established journals. He writes again to his young friend, Matthews: "You say a newspaper would be glad of me. Do you think you could insure me employment in that way on terms similar to your own? I mean, also, in an opposition paper, for I cannot abet, in the smallest degree, the measures pursued by the present Ministry. They are already so deeply advanced in iniquity that, like Macbeth, they cannot retreat."
Fortunately for Wordsworth at this most critical period of his life, a kind and generous friend, Raisley Calvert, whom he had nursed on his death-bed, left him the sum of £900. This act, as Dr. Wordsworth very truly remarks, may be regarded in "a public light, as affecting the interests of literature and the welfare, not only of England and the present century, but of future ages and distant lands. If it had not been for Raisley Calvert, or rather for the spirit of love moving in his heart, Wordsworth's best days might have been spent in writing leading articles for 'The Courier,' and the world would never have seen 'The Excursion.'"
The poet has poured forth his gratitude to his benefactor in a sonnet, and also thus alluded to him in "The Prelude:"
