"come and it cometh," while Coleridge used his words. like a Necromancer, with a more vivid and subtle power. It would have been a fine spectacle for those who delight to enter the mind's Colliseum to behold these two most powerful talkers of their age, in gladiatorial conflict together, and to be assured that in the light flash of Hall's dazzling pinions, and the gleam of Coleridge's ethereal force, the mind of either was contendingDemosthenes and Plato. To the Allfoxden period belong most of the lyrical ballads; the scenery of many of them is laid among the Quantock Hills; Ruth, and the Thorn, and several others. Then too, Peter Belland the Ancient Mariner of Coleridge were written, and written together; indeed nearly all the poetry of Coleridge, and all the most remarkable, dates from this place. His acquaintance with Wordsworth seemed to strike fire into his spirit. Wordsworth did something, but thought much more, he appears at this time like a man measuring his powers-it was a time of great reciprocal action; these two minds extracted much from each other. Wordsworth indeed matured his thoughts into a system, and built for years after upon the plan then formed; but Coleridge began there in rearing his pillars and palaces of cloud and rainbow; his achievements seldom passed beyond the utterance of the plan. with the tongue, or the passing sketch with the pen.

In our desire to notice the localities in which our poet resided, and which exercised more or less influence over him, we must now follow him to Germany. He pro

ber, 1798; at Hamburgh he saw and spent an afternoon with Klopstock, and both he and Coleridge have put the greater portion of the conversation on record. It does not exalt our conceptions of either the mental or moral power of that poet. They left Hamburgh, and thence went to Luneburg and Brunswick, but their destination was Goslar, the old imperial city. Coleridge left them and went to Ratzburg. The main purpose of all the parties was to acquire a knowledge of German language and German society, but for this objeet there were two impediments in the way. Coleridge writes to him, "You have two things against you: your not loving smoke, and your sister. If the manners of Goslar resemble those of Ratzeburg, it is almost necessary to be able to bear smoke. Can Dorothy endure smoke? Here, when my friends come to see me, the candle nearly goes out, the air is so thick." It seems in some particulars they were unhappily situated-they were there during the bitterest winter in the last century. "So severe," says Wordsworth, "was the cold of this winter, that when we passed out of the parlour warmed by the stove, our cheeks were struck by the air as by cold iron."

Goslar is a romantic town-here the German Emperors of the Franconian line were accustomed to keep their Court, and like all such places it retains some relics of its antient importance. It is situated too on the edge of the Hartz Forest. While here, some of the sweetest of our author's poems were written-the Poet's Epitaph, and Ruth; some of the passages of the Pre

lude also, before the more connected commencement of that Poem; and that cluster of sweet and philosophical verses descriptive of the Village SchoolmasterTaylor. His writings were not for the most part, at all affected by his residence, they were the production of memory and reflection.

In 1799 they returned to England, thus their residence in Germany was not of long continuance, and one might notice it as very remarkable that such a time should be chosen for the visit, and such a place should bound their visit-the most cold and uninteresting season of the year-and the dreary and deserted, but perhaps suggestive magnificence of Goslar. But as yet, there were few facilities for travelling, and the purse too was far from heavy yet; at any rate he left Goslar with pleasure. He commenced the Prelude almost as soon as the gates were left in the distance; the cold winds had not chilled his poetic raptures and ardours, but they did give a joy and freshness to his soul as he was leaving them behind him. He cannot be said to have increased his acquaintance much with German society and literature from this flying visit, but it deepened his regard for England; his nationality flamed forth anew in several beautiful lyrics, among the sweetest ever produced from his pen. Early in the spring of 1799 we find him at Durham.

In the autumn of 1799 we have to follow Wordsworth to his first settled home in Grasmere, where he lived for a period of eight years, between "the two divine sisters

beautifully called them. Most of our readers we will presume have seen this lovely spot, and the memory will go back very readily to it, and to the well remembered and humble cottage where so many happy years were passed. It is a part of the Lake scenery, full of beauty, nor far from sublimity. There is more of the spirit of unearthly tranquility than in any other portion of the district-less town-like than Keswick, if somewhat less magnificent and Alpine in its outline. The Lake of Grasmere stretches out a vast sheet of water an

image of repose and love. On the one side Rydal with its exquisite little islands, and on the other to be seen from a slight elevation, Thirlmere; while the village lies right under the rock and cliff. Beyond Grasmere, and on the same side, the traveller is delighted by the bold and magnificent promontory of Helm Crag, and on the opposite side the long sweeping range of Fairfield, and the Ridge of Steel Fell. Grasmere like a beautiful Princess, slumbering in a Giant's cave. Thirlmere like a moody and dark-browed beauty reflects the haughty features of Helvellyn, at whose feet it rollsthe two are separated in the prospect from the road by the elevated Cairne of Dunmail Raise, a heap of stones piled over the grave of Dunmail, the last King of Cumberland-and this traditionary tomb too, separates the Counties of Westmoreland and Cumberland. In this most suggestive neighbourhood Wordsworth fixed his home in the autumn of 1799. His wanderings now appear to have been confined mostly to his own neighbourhood; he was a close student, but his studies were

of Nature and Man, looked at through the medium of Abstract Truth, and now his works began to excite the splenetic fun of the Reviewers; they had produced little impression on the public mind. Messrs. Longman who have usually been liberal publishers, would not offer more than £100 for the two editions of his two volumes of Lyrical Ballads; he received a letter somewhat complimentary at this time from Charles James Fox, but it may be doubted whether that Statesman appreciated, or was fitted to appreciate the sentiments or the diction of the Ballads; and so we find our Poet quietly walking to and fro, and putting down the feelings which came to him in his lonely ramblings or musings with his sister, in those most unfrequented regions. In the year 1802 they both broke away from their solitude and visited Paris; returning thence they terminated their merely binary, lonely existence, and took another to share their solitude and their life.

On the 4th of October, 1802, Wordsworth was married to his old playfellow Mary Hutchinson, and on the 6th of the same month we find them all safely lodged again within the cottage at Town End in Grasmere, henceforth to be the place of their home; whose church was to be the place of their sabbath worship; whose churchyard was to be the place of their infants' rest, and the Poet's last sleep.

The final step then is taken; Wordsworth is settled in life. His actual income at this time was very small, but his life was very frugal, and his wants were therefore small. He might perhaps have passed through life

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