27th June 1888
VI. WORDSWORTH
The Complete Poetical Works of William Wordsworth. With an
Introduction by John Morley. Macmillans.
The Recluse. By William Wordsworth. Macmillans.
Selections from Wordsworth. By William Knight and other Members of
the Wordsworth Society. With Preface and Notes. Kegan Paul.
[91] THE appearance, so close to each other, of Professor Knight's
careful and elaborately annotated Selections from William Wordsworth,
of Messrs. Macmillan's collected edition of the poet's works, with the
first book of The Recluse, now published for the first time, and of
an excellent introductory essay by Mr. John Morley, forms a welcome
proof that the study of the [92] most philosophic of English poets is
increasing among us. Surely nothing could be better, hardly anything
more directly fitted than careful reading of Wordsworth, to counter
the faults and offences of our busy generation, in regard both to
thought and taste, and to remind people, amid the enormous expansion,
at the present time, of all that is material and mechanical in life,
of the essential value, the permanent ends, of life itself. In the
collected edition the poems are printed with the dates, so far as can
be ascertained, in the order of their composition--an arrangement
which has indisputable recommendations for the student of
Wordsworth's genius; though the former method of distributing his
work into large groups of subject had its value, as throwing light
upon his poetic motives, and more especially as coming from himself.
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