Wordsworth’s age was one of stirring events and great changes. The character of his poetry is in startling contrast to that age. It is passionless, a record of the poet’s own mind; simple and austere, emanating from his own independent thoughts and fancies; receiving little of its form and colour from external events, or the feelings and opinions of men. For eighty long years, Wordsworth would almost appear to have lived ‘_among_ men, not _of_ them;’ sympathising as little with the ephemeral pursuits of his contemporaries as the colossal Memnon does with the Copts, Turks, and Arabs who now tenant the banks of the Nile. William Wordsworth was born in the little county town of Cockermouth; his father was an attorney—not a wealthy man, but in circumstances that enabled him to give his family a fair education. One son entered the merchant service, rose to command a vessel, and perished at sea. Another has acquired a name as master of Harrow, and the author of a delightful book on Greece, full of delicate beauty and fine classical feeling. The allusions by William to his favourite sister are among the most touching passages in his poems; and one or two little pieces of verse, and some extracts from her journals, which he has published, show that she was every way deserving of his love. The poetical dedication of the River Duddon to Dr. Wordsworth, is full of delightful allusions to the boyhood of the brothers, and conveys a pleasing impression of their family relations. Our poet received the rudiments of his education at the grammar school of Hawkeshead, in Westmoreland, conducted in his time by a master of more than ordinary attainments. In 1787, he matriculated at St. John’s College, Cambridge. Even in his boyhood it was obvious that he possessed superior abilities, but they were not of the showy and ambitious kind which achieve school or college distinction. He was partial to solitary rambles; fond of reading and reciting verses; a boy whom elder men ‘singled out for his grave looks,’ as he has said in the Excursion, and liked to converse with. It was intended that he should enter the Church, the family circumstances rendering it necessary that he should adopt a profession. But, independently of his wish to devote himself exclusively to literary pursuits, he had caught the prevalent spirit of the time—the aversion to conventional forms and opinions. A moderate income, settled upon him by Raisley Calvert, the victim of a premature decline, enabled him to follow his inclinations. This benefit the poet has gratefully acknowledged:—