“The melancholy slackening that ensued Upon these tidings by the peasant given, Was soon dislodged. Downwards we hurried fast, And with the half-shaped road which we had missed, Entered a narrow chasm. The brook and road Were fellow-travellers in this gloomy strait, And with them did we journey several hours, At a slow pace. The immeasurable height Of woods decaying, never to be decayed, The stationary blasts of waterfalls,-- And in the narrow rent, at every turn Winds thwarting winds, bewildered and forlorn, The torrents shooting from the clear blue sky, The rocks that muttered close upon our ears, Black drizzling crags that spake by the wayside, As if a voice were in them; the sick sight And giddy prospect of the raving stream, The unfettered clouds, and region of the Heavens, Tumult and peace, the darkness of the light-- Were all like workings of one mind, the features Of the same face, blossoms upon one tree; Characters of the great Apocalypse, The types, and symbols of eternity, Of first, and last, and midst, and without end.” This Swiss tour furnishes the materials for many autobiographical passages in the “Prelude,” which was written about ten years afterwards--and more immediately for the poem entitled “Descriptive Sketches,” written in 1791-2, and dedicated to Mr. Jones. These sketches, and another poem, called “The Evening Walk,” were published by Johnson, of Cambridge, in 1793. They are, according to De Quincy, who bought up the remainder, in 1805, as presents, and as future curiosities in literature--“forcibly picturesque, and the selection of circumstances is very original and felicitous.” I cannot speak of these poems at first hand, for they were never republished, and only a few extracts are included in the poet’s collected works. De Quincy, however--himself the greatest master of our language, and the highest literary judge in Britain--is good to speak after. “The Evening Walk” is dedicated to the poet’s sister, and was written during his school and college days. It is an ideal representation of the Lake scenery. The “Sketches” were composed chiefly in the poet’s wandering on the banks of the Loire, 1791-2. From the specimens I have seen of them, they appear to be founded, like the earlier pieces already quoted, upon the style of Pope, though they are clothed in high and dignified language, and glow with all the gorgeous colouring which poetry can command and apply. They are totally unlike his mature poems, and have a different artistic base and execution. It will be seen from them, however, that what is called the “meanness” and “poverty” of Wordsworth’s latest effusions, is not the result of incapacity, but of theoretic principle. The “Sketches” fell into the hands of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, in 1794, and were the means of introduction between these two great men, and of a life-enduring friendship.