strength and the character of his mind you see in 'The Excursion;' and his life does not belie his writings, for in every relation of life he is a truly exemplary and admirable man."
We have sought to narrate the events of the poet's career in that spirit of respect and veneration which a life so full of virtue, love, and gentleness must ever command. It now remains that we should speak, with no timid reticence, our opinions on his mental characteristics, the merits of his writings, his position in literature, and his influence on the age. Such a criticism, to be in any way ample or satisfactory, would fill the volume of which this memoir constitutes but a few pages. Much indeed as has been even of late written on Wordsworth's genius, it yet remains for some one, with special qualifications for the task, to calmly and candidly investigate the soundness of his poetical system, and to pronounce upon the success with which he carried it out. We can only state concisely the results of the reasoning process which has led us to our conclusions.
His moral character we have unreservedly praised; and by this we mean, first, that he was unexceptionable in all matters of what has been flippantly called "tea-table morality;" and, secondly, that he was generous and compassionate to the poor and suffering, a good husband, a kind father, and, notwithstanding a complaint of Mr. De Quincey's, a faithful friend. But he had weaknesses of a mixed character, in those parts of our nature where the intellectual and moral elements interpenetrate each other. His warmest admirers would find it difficult to defend him against the charges of vanity, egotism, and obstinacy. Even his relative and biographer is forced into the confession, expressed with considerable alliterative power, that Wordsworth, in persisting to exaggerate some of the peculiarities which the critics had condemned, was guilty of
