[457] See “Advertisement” to “Poetical Sketches.” [458] Introduction to “Songs of Innocence.” [459] “Night.” [460] “Contemplation.” [461] “Book of Thel.” [462] “Inebriety.” [463] “The Village.” [464] “The Choice.” [465] “The Borough” especially Letters I and IX. [466] “Tales of the Hall,” Book IV. [467] In a letter to Newton, November 16, 1791, he wrote: “I would that I could see some of the mountains which you have seen; especially because Dr. Johnson has pronounced that no man is qualified to be a poet who has never seen a mountain. But mountains I shall never see, unless, perhaps, in a dream, or unless there are such in heaven.” [468] See “Task,” i, 764; iv, 254–58. The best lines on the moon are in “Task,” iv, 3, the wintry flood, in which the moon Sees her unwrinkled face reflected bright. [469] “Task,” i, 520; vi, 495. [470] “Truth,” l. 238. [471] “Task,” iv, 322. [472] Illustrative similitudes are those drawn from the thunderstorm “Truth,” l. 238), deer (“Task,” iii, 108), peacocks and pheasants (“Truth,” l. 58), elm and vine (“Retirement,” l. 129), moles (“Task,” i, 276), etc. [473] In a letter to Rev. William Unwin, October, 1784, Cowper wrote, “My descriptions are all from nature; not one of them second-handed.” [474] Letter to Lady Herbert, October 12, 1785. [475] “Task,” v, 58. [476] _Ibid._, 27. [477] _Ibid._, 41. [478] _Ibid._, i, 161. [479] _Ibid._, 358. [480] _Ibid._, vi, 147. [481] _Ibid._, i, 304. [482] “Task,” i, 195. [483] _Ibid._, 185. [484] _Ibid._, 159. [485] _Ibid._, 346. [486] “Task,” vi, 310. [487] _Ibid._, v, 22. [488] _Ibid._, vi, 77. [489] _Ibid._, i, 109, 142. [490] _Ibid._, iv, 700. [491] _Ibid._, 695. [492] See “Hope,” ll. 39–60; “Task,” iii, 721; iv, 780; iii, 301; and other passages. In the passage from “Hope” compare the line: She spreads the morning over Eastern hills, and Wordsworth’s A boy I loved the sun ... for this cause that I had seen him lay His beauty on the morning hills.--“Prelude,” ii, 183. [493] See “Retirement,” ll. 481, 563; “Task,” iii, 314, 306. [494] “Task,” i, 749. [495] “Task,” vi, 109; cf. ll. 84–117 of Wordsworth’s “The Tables Turned”: Books! ’tis a dull and endless strife, * * * * * Come forth into the light of things, Let Nature be your teacher. She has a world of ready wealth Our minds and hearts to bless. * * * * * Sweet is the lore which Nature brings; Our meddling intellect Mis-shapes the beauteous forms of things. See also, “To My Sister”: One moment now may give us more Than years of toiling reason. [496] “Task,” vi, 121–97. [497] _Ibid._, i, 369. [498] “Retirement,” l. 419. [499] “Task,” vi, 181. [500] _Ibid._, 59. [501] Burns, “Works,” V, 185. [502] _Ibid._, I, 28. Cf. lines in the “Epistle to William Simson”: