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poets ,, and the most poetical of philosophers . And in our apprehension he is both . But our critical compeers , notwithstanding their universal humour of laudation , must excuse us in adding that , in his particular case , each of these characters detracts from the other , instead of constituting , as it commonly would , a great and
glorious addition . We must bear the imputation , if proved upon us , of imperfect apprehension ; but to us it does seem that Wordsworth is frequently philosophical at the expense of his poetry , and poetical at the expense of his philosophy . His powers play at cross-purposes . He thrusts with his shield , and wards with his sword . The division of labour is not rightly kept up
between the picture gallery of his imagination , and the logical workshop of his understanding . The process that belongs to the one is often conducted in the other , and his admirers require of us that we shall not repine at the want of beauty or adornment because the poem is a philosophy , and yet that we shall not question the truth of facts , positions , or influences , because the philosophy is a poem . The two classes of qualities , the poetical and the
philosophical , approach too near to a perfect equality in Wordsworth . Their happiest combination requires the decided predominance of one or the other . The greatest philosopher must be a poet , as Bacon was . The greatest poet must be a philosopher , as Shakspeare and Milton were . But in each , the species of power , which the individual was formed to exercise , is distinct and continuous . That power is the greater in the logic of the philosopher , because it is ever
reason , and not feeling or fancy , that forms the connecting chain of association , although its massy links may often be wreathed with their fairest flowers ; and the greater in the lay of the poet , because it is by fancy and feeling that its strains are chanted and pro ^ longed , although , from time to time , wisdom may throw up into the air his hand fulls of seeds of truth , to be borne hither and thither ,
and germinate as fruitfully as if deposited by the most careful sower that ever , following the plodding ploughman , went forth into the fields to sow . In both cases we submit our minds to an undivided though not an unaided influence . The intellectual region through
which we are invited to ramble has a lord paramount , whose reign we everywhere recognise , notwithstanding that , in a different sphere , he himself may be only the minister of another ' s grandeur . The constituted authorities of Wordsworth's mind , like the two kings of Brentford , may go on very lovingly together , but still they do
modify and mollify one another . He is always thinking , so thinking as to keep his feeling in check , and impair the poetical character of his compositions ; and what makes it more aggravating is , that very often he does not , to our apprehension at least , think soundly . So that the poetry we expected to enjoy is sacrificed to a metaphysical or political principle , which again balks us by the insufficiency of its evidences or the mischievousness of its tendencies .
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Wordtworth ' * Poem * . 401
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1835, page 431, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2646/page/67/
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