Orts Made At This Time In Parliament, By So Many Persons, To Extend Manufacturing And Commercial Industry At The Expense Of Agricultural, Though We Have Recently Had Abundant Proofs That The Apprehensions Expressed By The Wanderer Were Not Groundless. "I Spake Of Mischief By The Wise Diffused With Gladness, Thinking That The More It Spreads The Healthier, The Securer, We Become Delusion Which A Moment May Destroy!" The Chartists Are Well Aware Of This Possibility, And Cling To It With An Ardour And Perseverance Which Nothing But Wiser And More Brotherly Dealing Towards The Many, On The Part Of The Wealthy Few, Can Moderate Or Remove. "While, From The Grassy Mountain'S Open Side, We Gazed, In Silence Hushed." The Point Here Fixed Upon In My Imagination Is Half-Way Up The Northern Side Of Loughrigg Fell, From Which The Pastor And His Companions Were Supposed To Look Upwards To The Sky And Mountain- Tops, And Round The Vale, With The Lake Lying Immediately Beneath Them. "But Turned Not Without Welcome Promise Made, That He Would Share The Pleasures And Pursuits Of Yet Another Summer'S Day, Consumed In Wandering With Us." When I Reported This Promise Of The Solitary, And Long After, It Was My Wish, And I Might Say Intention, That We Should Resume Our Wanderings, And Pass The Borders Into His Native Country, Where, As I Hoped, He Might Witness, In The Society Of The Wanderer, Some Religious Ceremony A Sacrament, Say, In The Open Fields, Or A Preaching Among The Mountains Which, By Recalling To His Mind The Days Of His Early Childhood, When He Had Been Present On Such Occasions In Company With His Parents And Nearest Kindred, Might Have Dissolved His Heart Into Tenderness, And So Have Done More Towards Restoring The Christian Faith In Which He Had Been Educated, And, With That, Contentedness And Even Cheerfulness Of Mind, Than All That The Wanderer And Pastor, By Their Several Effusions And Addresses, Had Been Able To Effect. An Issue Like This Was In My Intentions. But, Alas! "'Mid The Wreck Of Is And Was, Things Incomplete And Purposes Betrayed Make Sadder Transits O'Er Thought'S Optic Glass Than Noblest Objects Utterly Decayed!" _____________ To The Right Hon. William, Earl Of Lonsdale, K.G. Etc. Etc. Oft, Through Thy Fair Domains, Illustrious Peer! In Youth I Roamed, On Youthful Pleasures Bent: And Mused In Rocky Cell Or Sylvan Tent, Beside Swift-Flowing Lowther'S Current Clear. Now, By Thy Care Befriended, I Appear Before Thee, Lonsdale, And This Work Present, A Token (May It Prove A Monument!) Of High Respect And Gratitude Sincere. Gladly Would I Have Waited Till My Task Had Reached Its Close; But Life Is Insecure, And Hope Full Oft Fallacious As A Dream: Therefore, For What Is Here Produced, I Ask Thy Favour; Trusting That Thou Wilt Not Deem The Offering, Though Imperfect, Premature. William Wordsworth. Rydal Mount, Westmoreland, July 29, 1814. Preface To The Edition Of 1814 The Title-Page Announces That This Is Only A Portion Of A Poem; And The Reader Must Be Here Apprised That It Belongs To The Second Part Of A Long And Laborious Work, Which Is To Consist Of Three Parts. The Author Will Candidly Acknowledge That, If The First Of These Had Been Completed, And In Such A Manner As To Satisfy His Own Mind, He Should Have Preferred The Natural Order Of Publication, And Have Given That To The World First; But, As The Second Division Of The Work Was Designed To Refer More To Passing Events, And To An Existing State Of Things, Than The Others Were Meant To Do, More Continuous Exertion Was Naturally Bestowed Upon It, And Greater Progress Made Here Than In The Rest Of The Poem; And As This Part Does Not Depend Upon The Preceding To A Degree Which Will Materially Injure Its Own Peculiar Interest, The Author, Complying With The Earnest Entreaties Of Some Valued Friends, Presents The Following Pages To The Public. It May Be Proper To State Whence The Poem, Of Which "The Excursion" Is A Part, Derives Its Title Of The Recluse. Several Years Ago, When The Author Retired To His Native Mountains, With The Hope Of Being Enabled To Construct A Literary Work That Might Live, It Was A Reasonable Thing That He Should Take A Review Of His Own Mind, And Examine How Far Nature And Education Had Qualified Him For Such Employment. As Subsidiary To This Preparation, He Undertook To Record, In Verse, The Origin And Progress Of His Own Powers, As Far As He Was Acquainted With Them. That Work [The Prelude], Addressed To A Dear Friend, Most Distinguished For His Knowledge And Genius, And To Whom The Author'S Intellect Is Deeply Indebted, Has Been Long Finished; And The Result Of The Investigation Which Gave Rise To It Was A Determination To Compose A Philosophical Poem, Containing Views Of Man, Nature, And Society; And To Be Entitled, "The Recluse"; As Having For Its Principal Subject The Sensations And Opinions Of A Poet Living In Retirement. The Preparatory Poem 1 Is Biographical, And Conducts The History Of The Author'S Mind To The Point When He Was Emboldened To Hope That His Faculties Were Sufficiently Matured For Entering Upon The Arduous Labour Which He Had Proposed To Himself; And The Two Works Have The Same Kind Of Relation To Each Other, If He May So Express Himself, As The Ante- Chapel Has To The Body Of A Gothic Church. Continuing This Allusion, He May Be Permitted To Add, That His Minor Pieces, Which Have Been Long Before The Public, When They Shall Be Properly Arranged, Will Be Found By The Attentive Reader To Have Such Connection With The Main Work As May Give Them Claim To Be Likened To The Little Cells, Oratories, And Sepulchral Recesses, Ordinarily Included In Those Edifices. The Author Would Not Have Deemed Himself Justified In Saying, Upon This Occasion, So Much Of Performances Either Unfinished Or Unpublished, If He Had Not Thought That The Labour Bestowed By Him Upon What He Has Heretofore And Now Laid Before The Public Entitled Him To Candid Attention For Such A Statement As He Thinks Necessary To Throw Light Upon His Endeavours To Please And, He Would Hope, To Benefit His Countrymen. Nothing Further Need Be Added, Than That The First And Third Parts Of "The Recluse" Will Consist Chiefly Of Meditations In The Author'S Own Person; And That In The Intermediate Part ("The Excursion") The Intervention Of Characters Speaking Is Employed, And Something Of A Dramatic Form Adopted. It Is Not The Author'S Intention Formally To Announce A System; It Was More Animating To Him To Proceed In A Different Course; And If He Shall Succeed In Conveying To The Mind Clear Thoughts, Lively Images, And 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 Kind Of "Prospectus" Of The Design And Scope Of The Whole Poem.