1-14. In what other poems does Wordsworth describe "the education of nature?" 8. Nature's teaching is never sordid nor mercenary, but always purifying and ennobling. 10. PURIFYING, also SANCTIFYING (l. 12), refer to "Soul" (l. 2). 12-14. Human cares are lightened in proportion to our power of sympathising with nature. The very beatings of our heart acquire a certain grandeur from the fact that they are a process of nature and linked thus to the general life of things. It is possible that "beatings of the heart" may figuratively represent the mere play of the emotions, and thus have a bearing upon the words "pain and fear" in line 13. 15. FELLOWSHIP. Communion with nature in her varying aspects as described in the following lines. 31. VILLAGE CLOCK. The village was Hawkshead. 35. CONFEDERATE. Qualifies "we," or "games." Point out the different shades of meaning for each agreement. 42. TINKLED LIKE IRON. "When very many are skating together, the sounds and the noises give an impulse to the icy trees, and the woods all round the lake _tinkle_." S. T. Coleridge in _The Friend_, ii, 325 (1818). 42-44. The keenness of Wordsworth's sense perceptions was very remarkable. His susceptibility to impressions of sound is well illustrated in this passage, which closes (l. 43-46) with a color picture of striking beauty and appropriateness. 50. REFLEX=_reflection_. _Cf_.: Like the _reflex_ of the moon Seen in a wave under green leaves. Shelley, _Prometheus Unbound_, iii, 4. In later editions Wordsworth altered these lines as follows: To cut across the image. 1809. To cross the bright reflection. 1820. 54-60. The effect of rapid motion is admirably described. The spinning effect which Wordsworth evidently has in mind we have all noticed in the fields which seem to revolve when viewed from a swiftly moving: train. However, a skater from the low level of a stream would see only the fringe of trees sweep past him. The darkness and the height of the banks would not permit him to see the relatively motionless objects in the distance in either hand. 57-58. This method of stopping short upon one's heels might prove disastrous. 58-60. The effect of motion persists after the motion has ceased. 62 63. The apparent motion of the cliffs grows feebler by degrees until "all was tranquil as a summer sea." In _The_ [Transcriber's note: the rest of this footnote is missing from the original book because of a printing error.] TO THE REV. DR. WORDSWORTH (WITH THE SONNETS TO THE RIVER DUDDON, AND OTHER POEMS IN THIS COLLECTION, 1820). The minstrels played their Christmas tune To-night beneath my cottage-eaves; While, smitten by a lofty moon, The encircling laurels, thick with leaves, Gave back a rich and dazzling sheen, 5 That overpowered their natural green.