[381] 1845.

[382] 1827.

[383] 1836.

[384] 1827.

[385] 1827.

[386] 1836.

[387] 1827.

[388] 1827.

[389] 1840.

[390] 1827.

[391] 1845.

[392] 1827.

[393] 1827.

[394] 1836.

[395] 1836.

[396] 1827.

[397] 1827.

[398] 1814.

[399] 1845.

[400] 1827.

[401] 1827.

[402] 1836.

[403] 1827.

[404] 1827.

[405] 1827.

[406] 1836.

[407] 1845.

[408] 1827.

[409] 1836.

[410] 1836.

[411] 1836.

[412] 1827.

[413] 1827.

[414] 1845.

[415] 1845.

[416] Added in C.

[DW] In January 1849, the year before Wordsworth's death, he was asked by Mr. Francis C. Yarnall of Philadelphia for his autograph, for a lady in America; and, in reply, he wrote the four lines, beginning

They were doubtless suggested to him at the time by the death of his own daughter. See Mr. Yarnall's paper on "Wordsworth's Influence in America," in the Transactions of the Wordsworth Society, No. v.—ED.

[DX] With this whole passage compare the teaching of Kant's three Kritiken.—ED.

[DY] Compare the Ode, Intimations of Immortality—

[DZ] Compare book i. l. 200.—ED.

[EA] Compare book i. ll. 215-16.—ED.

[EB] Compare Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey, ll. 83-85 (vol. ii. p. 54)—

[EC] See Matthew Sylvester's Reliquiæ Baxterianæ, or the Life of Richard Baxter, book i. part i. l. 213, p. 32: "To despise earth is easy to me; but not so easy to be acquainted and conversant in Heaven. I have nothing in this world which I could not easily let go: but to get satisfying apprehension of the other world is the great and grievous difficulty."

See also Wordsworth's note, p. 387.—ED.

[ED] See Wordsworth's note, p. 387.—ED.

[EE] Compare Milton's Ode on the Nativity, l. 119.—ED.

[EF] St. Matt. xi. 19.—ED.

[EG] See Wordsworth's note, p. 387.—ED.

[EH] Samuel Daniel; from his poem, To the Lady Margaret, Countess of Cumberland. In his note Wordsworth says, "The two last lines printed in italics, are by him" (i.e. Daniel) "translated from Seneca." The passage is: "O quam contempta res est homo, nisi supra humana surrexerit" (Natur. quaest. lib. i. praef. 4). The discovery of this passage cost the late Bishop of St. Andrews several long days' hunting through Seneca's works. He wrote me afterwards: "The passage has nothing to do with moral elevation, the next words are 'quam diu cum affectibus colluctamur quid magnifici facimus.'"

The following occurs in The Soul's Conflict, by Richard Sibbes (1635), ch. ix.—"We see likewise hence a necessity of having something in the soul above itself. It must be partaker of a diviner nature than itself; otherwise, when the most refined part of our souls, the very spirit of our minds, is out of frame, what shall bring it in again?" See also the extract from Bacon's Essay, XVI., prefixed to The White Doe of Rylstone (vol. iv. p. 105).—ED.

[EI] The fact of the eagle having once haunted the Cumbrian and Westmoreland valleys is proved by the number of rocks, crags, etc., that are named from it.—ED.

[EJ] The following occurs in the Fenwick note to the lines addressed To Joanna in the "Poems on the naming of Places" (vol. ii. p. 157): "The effect of the reverberation of voices in some parts of the mountains is very striking. There is, in The Excursion, an allusion to the bleat of a lamb thus re-echoed, and described without any exaggeration, as I heard it, on the side of Stickle Tarn, from the precipice that stretches on to Langdale Pikes." The "precipice" referred to is Pavy Ark.—ED.

[EK] There are many ant-hills in this district of Westmoreland. Note that the description here is of the effect of a lake seen from above, looking down on it.—ED.

[EL] The fieldfares have a habit of settling together, and sitting perfectly still, till they are disturbed; when they fly off, and settling again, sit silently as before.—ED.

[EM] Blea Tarn.—ED.

[EN] Compare "Rules and Lessons" in Henry Vaughan's Silex Scintillans.—ED.

[EO] The heights of Blake Rigg and Lingmoor.—ED.

[EP] Possibly a misprint in the editions of 1814 and 1820.—ED.

[EQ] Compare the Poet's Epitaph (vol. ii. p. 75).—ED.

[ER] Compare Genesis iii. 8.—ED.

[ES] Genesis xviii. 1, 2.—ED.

[ET] Genesis iii. 24.—ED.

[EU] Genesis iii. 16, 17.—ED.

[EV] Exodus vi. 3.—ED.

[EW] Exodus xxxiii. 9; xxxiv. 5.—ED.

[EX] Exodus xxxvii. 1; Hebrews ix. 4.—ED.

[EY] Exodus xxv. 22.—ED.

[EZ] Exodus xv. 25; xvi. 4, etc. etc.—ED.

[FA] Exodus vii.-xi.—ED.

[FB] The ancient Persian religion was nature worship.—ED.

[FC] Compare Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey, II. 100-102 (vol. ii. p. 55)—

[FD] Herodotus thus describes the temple of Belus:—"... A square enclosure two furlongs each way, with gates of solid brass; which were also remaining in my time. In the middle of the precinct there was a tower of solid masonry, a furlong in length and breadth, upon which was raised a second tower, and on that a third, and so up to eight. The ascent to the top is on the outside, by a path which winds round all the towers. When one is about half way up, one finds a resting place and seats, where persons are wont to sit some time in their way to the summit. On the topmost tower there is a spacious Temple, and inside the Temple stands a couch of unusual size, richly adorned, with a golden table by its side. There is no statue of any kind set up in the place.... The Chaldeans, the priests of this God, declare—but I, for my part, do not credit it—that the God comes down nightly into this chamber and sleeps upon the couch."—Herodotus, i. 181. See Rawlinson's version, vol. i. pp. 319, 320. Compare also Josephus, Ant. Jud. x. 11, and Strabo, 16.—ED.

[FE] Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, Mercury—the only planets known to the ancients, the Earth not being included.—ED.

[FF] The reference here is still apparently to the "planetary Five," which are all described as "radiant Mercuries" (although one of them was Mercury), because they all—

This astrological allusion makes it clear that the reference is to the supposed "planetary influence," and to the movements of these bodies—controlled by the gods—with which the fate of mortals was believed to be upbound. For an account of the Gods of the Five Planets, see Chaldean Magic, by François Lenormant, pp. 26 and 118.—ED.

[FG] Compare Lycidas, 1. 154—

and note that Charles Lamb, who was familiar with The Excursion, quotes the above line ("Distant Correspondents") thus—

[FH] The strolling Greek minstrels from Homer onwards, predecessors of the Troubadours.—ED.

[FI] The reference is doubtless to Pausanias, i. 37, 3. "Before you cross the Cephisus, there is the monument of Theodorus, who excelled all his contemporaries as an actor in tragedy; and near to the river, there are [two] statues, one of Mnesimache, another of her son, in the act of cutting off his hair [over the stream and presenting it] as a votive offering to the Cephisus." See Note D in the Appendix to this volume, p. 396.—ED.

[FJ] Compare King Henry VI., Part III. act ii. scene v. ll. 23-35—

[FK] Apollo.—ED.

[FL] Diana.—ED.

[FM] The ναἴάδες (water-nymphs) and ὁρειάδες (mountain-nymphs), with others of the meadows woods and dales, sprung from the fertile imagination of the Greeks. Wordsworth's explanation of the origin of these myths from natural causes is not peculiar to him, although his lines are a locus classicus on the subject; but his explanation of the "lurking Satyrs," as due to the sight of the horns of the deer, or the goats, in the woods, is probably his own.—ED.

[FN] St. Fillan. There were two Scottish saints of that name. The first, and most famous, the particulars of whose life are recorded in the Breviary of Aberdeen, Felanus, or Fœlanus, Fælan, Fillanus, Filane, or Phillane, the son of Kentigern. In Perthshire, the scene of his labours, a river and a strath are called after him, and a Church dedicated to him. He was associated with the battle of Bannockburn. (See Kalendars of Scottish Saints, by A. P. Forbes, Bishop of Brechin.)—ED.

[FO] For the legendary History of St. Giles see the Breviary of the Roman Church. (It has been translated recently by the Marquis of Bute.) Dr. Cameron Lees, minister of St. Giles' Cathedral Church, Edinburgh, sends me the following notice of the Saint:—"How St. Giles became the patron Saint of Edinburgh is not known. His 'hind' is upon the arms of the city.[FQ] An arm bone of St. Giles was one of the chief treasures of the church. It was brought from France by Preston of Gorton, who procured it by the 'assistance of the King of France.' This relic was contained in a richly jewelled shrine, and carried through Edinburgh in procession on the Saint's day, the 1st September. An account of this procession is given by Sir D. Lindsay and by Knox. The only other church in Scotland under the dedication of St. Giles was at Elgin."—ED.

[FP] Now happily accomplished through the labour and the munificence of the late Dr. Chambers.—ED.

[FQ] For reference to the "Hind," see the Breviary.—ED.

[FR] Compare the Poet's Epitaph (vol. ii. p. 75).—ED.

[FS] Voltaire.—ED.

[FT] In his eighty-fourth year, Voltaire went up to Paris from Ferney in Switzerland (where he had lived for twenty years), and amid the tumultuous enthusiasm of the Parisians, he was crowned at the Comédie Française, as the Athenian poets used to be. "The Court of the Louvre, vast as it is, was full of people waiting for him. As soon as his notable vehicle came in sight, the cry arose, Le voilà! The Savoyards, the apple-women, all the rabble of the quarter had assembled there, and the acclamations Vive Voltaire! resounded as if they would never end.... There was no end till he placed himself on the front seat, beside the ladies. Then rose a cry La Couronne! and Brizard, the actor, came and put the garland on his head. Ah Dieu! vous voulez donc me faire mourir? cried M. de Voltaire, weeping with joy, and resisting the honour.... The Prince de Beauvan, seizing the laurel, replaced it on the head of our Sophocles, who could refuse no longer." (Memoires sur Voltaire, par Longchamp et Wagnière.)—ED.

[FU] Compare Walter Savage Landor, Gebir, book i. l. 159—

Compare also the Fenwick note to the Evening Voluntary, beginning—

[FV] The nightingale is not heard farther north than the Trent valley, and there are no woodlarks in the Lake country, as hawks are numerous.—ED.

[FW] See note FV on previous page.

[FX] The following occurs in Dorothy Wordsworth's Grasmere Journal, July 27, 1800:—"After tea we rowed down to Loughrigg Fell, visited the white foxglove, gathered wild strawberries, and walked up to view Rydale. We lay a long time looking at the lake; the shores all dim with the scorching sun. The ferns were turning yellow, that is, here and there one was quite turned. We walked round by Benson's wood home. The lake was now most still, and reflected the beautiful yellow and blue and purple and grey colours of the sky. We heard a strange sound in the Bainriggs wood, as we were floating on the water: it seemed in the wood, but it must have been above it, for presently we saw a raven very high above us. It called out, and the dome of the sky seemed to echo the sound. It called again and again as it flew onwards, and the mountains gave back the sound, seeming as if from their centre; a musical bell-like answering to the bird's hoarse voice. We heard both the call of the bird, and the echo, after we could see him no longer."

Compare the Fenwick note to the Evening Voluntary (1834), beginning—