Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Volume 1, No. 4, September, 1850Various
History
Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Volume 1, No. 4, September, 1850
Various
American literature -- Periodicals; Civilization -- Periodicals; Culture -- Periodicals
Mr. Wordsworth's conversation was eminently rich, various, and
instructive. Attached to his mountain home, and loving solitude as the
nurse of his genius, he was no recluse, but keenly enjoyed the pleasures
of social intercourse. He had seen much of the world, and lived on terms
of intimate friendship with some of the most illustrious characters of
his day. His reading was extensive, but select; indeed, his mind could
assimilate only the greater productions of intellect. To criticism he
was habitually indifferent; and when solicited for his opinions, he was
generally as reserved in his praise as he was gentle in his censures.
For some of his contemporaries he avowed the highest respect; but
Coleridge was the object of his deepest affection as a friend, and of
his veneration as a philosopher. Of the men who acted important parts in
the political drama of the last century, the homage of his highest
admiration was given to Burke, who, after Shakspeare and Bacon, he
thought the greatest being that Nature had ever created in the human
form.
The last few years of Mr. Wordsworth's life were saddened by
affliction. They who were admitted to the privilege of occasional
intercourse with the illustrious poet in his later days will long dwell
with deep and affectionate interest upon his earnest conversation while
he wandered through the shaded walks of the grounds which he loved so
well, and ever and anon paused to look down upon the gleaming lake as
its silver radiance was reflected through the trees which embosomed his
mountain home. Long will the accents of that "old man eloquent" linger
in their recollection, and their minds retain the impression of that
pensive and benevolent countenance. The generation of those who have
gazed upon his features will pass away and be forgotten. The marble,
like the features which it enshrines, will crumble into dust. _Ut vultus
hominum ita simulacra vultus imbecilla ac mortalia sunt, forma mentis
æterna_; the attributes of his mighty intellect are stamped for ever
upon his works which will be transmitted to future ages as a portion of
their most precious inheritance.
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