hopes. Consoling himself for a time with a wayward course of living, in which license of conduct took the place of disinterested zeal for liberty, he determined to leave Europe and seek the home of freedom in America. Here again, even in the remote west, he found the contradiction between ideals and facts too much for him, and at last settled down to the solitary life in which the author and the Wanderer find him. The present passage sums up the attraction which the French revolution in its earlier stages offered to ardent minds, such as those of Wordsworth and Coleridge, and illustrates the important influence which it exercised upon the Romantic movement in literature.

4. the dread Bastille] The Bastille, the royal stronghold on the east side of Paris, long used as a state prison, was destroyed by the mob on 14 July, 1789.

9. a golden palace] Figurative. The fall of the Bastille was the symbol of the end of tyranny, and a promise of hope to the framers of the new Constitution, which had already been taken in hand by the Constituent assembly. The Declaration of the Rights of Man, which was intended to be a preface to the Constitution, was agreed upon on 27 Aug. The Solitary's conviction that a new golden age was beginning is typical of the childlike confidence which possessed men's minds after the sudden victory over despotism. See Prelude, VI, 339-41: But Europe at that time was thrilled with joy, France standing on the top of golden hours, And human nature seeming born again.

II.

mild paternal sway] The monarchy of France, under the new order of things, became constitutional. On 4 August, 1789, the Constituent assembly passed a number of decrees which abolished the feudal system in France, and Louis XVI was proclaimed the Restorer of French liberty. The headlong haste with which the whole of the ancient order of things was destroyed in a night was naturally responsible for the anarchy which followed.

14. the blind mist] The fruitless speculations in which the Solitary had lost himself before this sudden awakening.

18, 19. The prospect of a reign of universal peace embodied in this prophecy was soon disappointed. France found herself at war with Europe, and her successful efforts to repel her enemies led her into a long war of conquest.

21.

The tree of Liberty] The anniversary of the fall of the Bastille was kept in Paris by a national feast of federation, at which a general oath was taken in approval of the decrees of the Assembly. Such federal feasts were kept throughout France, and trees emblematic of liberty were planted in each town and

commune.

27. mutual and reflected wealth] Well-being, moral and material, shared by every member of the community, all goods being held in common, and every man communicating his store of wealth and happiness to his less fortunate neighbours.

30, 31. He was consoled for the loss of his wife by his joy in a regenerated society, and for that of his children by the unsubstantial hopes which seemed to him realities.

41. sober conclave] Numerous political associations were founded in England during the epoch of the French revolution, to further the principles of social reform which had worked the great change in France. The most important of these were the Constitutional and Corresponding societies, the second of which, organised on a democratic basis, held mass meetings such as those mentioned in ll. 44-7. The Constitutional society came to an end in 1794; but the Corresponding society, which gathered strength after the failure of the government to sustain the prosecution of the English revolutionary leaders, did not come to an end until the aggressive policy of the Directory had turned English sympathy against France.

51. Saturnian rule] The reign of Saturn, before Jupiter overthrew the old order of Olympus, was the traditional golden age of peace and prosperity. Cf. Vergil, Ecl. iv, 6: 'Iam redit et virgo, redeunt Saturnia regna.'

V. NATURAL RELIGION IN GREECE.

From book IV (Despondency Corrected), 851-87. In this book the Wanderer endeavours to impress upon the Solitary the dangers of the morbid avoidance of his fellow-creatures and indifference to human feeling which he cultivates. In pointing out the influences which bring peace of mind to man, he lays stress upon religious feeling, which, in all ages of the world and under a variety of forms, has called man to a higher perception of life. In these lines he shews

The face which rural solitude might wear

To the unenlightened swains of pagan Greece,

who invested the powers of Nature presiding over their own occupations with kindred interests, and gave to each visible object a divine personality. Previously, in 11. 718 sqq., he has touched upon the same subject: the gods of Greece were imaged in metal and stone and surrounded with superstitious legends, but, in spite of the influence of the senses upon worship, the presence of one divine spirit was felt to animate the face of Nature, and each natural object became a manifestation of its power.

9.

Greece.

a beardless Youth] Apollo or Phoebus, the personification of the sun and the god of music.

II. nightly] By night. Cf. Milton, P. L. II, 642: Ply stemming nightly toward the pole.'

15. a beaming Goddess] Artemis or Cynthia, sister of Apollo, and goddess of the moon, represented as a huntress with an attendant train of nymphs.

16. lawn] A clearing in a forest.

20.

Glance rapidly] The moon and stars seem to move through the sky, as they are hidden by and emerge from the flying clouds drifting beneath them. For 'glance' cf. the quotation in note on 1. 26 below.

23. The Naiad] The nymph supposed to have her local habitation in each stream or fountain.

26. Oreads] Mountain nymphs. Cf. Excursion, VI, 829: Oread or Dryad glancing through the shade

What time the hunter's earliest horn is heard

Startling the golden hills.

27. Zephyrs] The westerly breezes personified.

36. Pan] See note on the sonnet Composed by the side of Grasmere Lake, 12, p. 137 above. Pan and his attendant Satyrs were represented with the horns, hoofs and beards of goats.

VI. THE INWARD POWER OF THE SOUL.

From book iv, 1058-77. The Wanderer has just contrasted wilful and self-centred solitude with the seclusion of the soul in which the call of duty is obeyed and humility takes the place of pride, producing true content and enjoyment with freedom from apprehension of the future.

1-5. The soul, man's immortal part, possesses an inherent virtue or power, the capacity of triumphing over the material circumstances which seem to hinder it. Such impediments, which threaten to hide and darken the soul's natural brightness, thus appear in their true form as foils which set off and enhance the splendour of the soul superior to their influence. Cf. Milton, Comus, 373-5:

Virtue could see to do what virtue would

By her own radiant light, though sun and moon
Were in the flat sea sunk.

2. interpositions] Cf. Prelude, selection ix, 57, 58 (p. 91 above): 'a mild Interposition.' These interpositions are the doubts and anxieties which interpose themselves between the soul and the proper objects of its contemplation.

4. Contingencies of pomp] Mere accidents which attend the soul's unclouded progress. 'Pomp' literally means 'procession,' as in Milton, P. L. vII, 564: 'While the bright pomp

ascended jubilant.' In the present case the word refers at once to the triumphant progress of the soul whose inner virtue is superior to obstacles, and to the splendour associated with such progress.

10. umbrage] See note on Yew-Trees, 22, p. 128 above. For this passage, cf. Excursion, VII, 598, 599:

Light birch, aloft upon the horizon's edge,

A veil of glory for the ascending moon.

14. virtue] Virtus is literally the quality which is proper to a man (vir), manliness, courage. It is the specific name for that inner power of the soul which Wordsworth describes, the power which finds an incentive to its exercise in 'the encumbrances of mortal life.' For 'virtue' in the sense of 'active power,' cf. St Luke vi, 19: 'there went virtue out of him, and healed them all.' In the ancient division of the angels into three hierarchies, the second order of the middle hierarchy was that of the Virtues, to whom was appropriated the active ministry of working: nothing, it is said in The Golden Legend, was impossible for them 'to execute which that is commanded to them, for to them is given power to do all things difficult which be pertaining to divine mystery, and therefore it is attributed to them to do miracles.' The ordinary sense of 'virtue' is applied to the moral qualities which are the manifestations of this secret faculty of the soul in its active employment.

18. nay, from guilt] The soul finds material for the use of its power even in contemplating and experiencing the worst evils of daily life. Similarly, one of the cardinal doctrines of Browning's poetry is that the existence of evil in the world is as a mere foil to the splendour of goodness; but he goes further to the conclusion that, without the contrast of evil, goodness would be too dazzling for mortal eyes.

senses.

20. palpable oppressions] Oppressions which affect the The justice of Heaven, while allowing the soul to be attacked by despair, provides even in this extremity an opportunity for the triumph of its inner strength.