Biographia Literaria | Page 2

former subject continued--The neutral style, or that common to
Prose and Poetry, exemplified by specimens from Chaucer, Herbert,
and others
XXI Remarks on the present mode of conducting critical journals
XXII The characteristic defects of Wordsworth's poetry, with the
principles from which the judgment, that they are defects, is
deduced--Their proportion to the beauties--For the greatest part
characteristic of his theory only
SATYRANE'S LETTERS
XXIII Critique on Bertram
XXIV Conclusion

So wenig er auch bestimmt seyn mag, andere zu belehren, so wuenscht

er doch sich denen mitzutheilen, die er sich gleichgesinnt weis, (oder
hofft,) deren Anzahl aber in der Breite der Welt zerstreut ist; er
wuenscht sein Verhaeltniss zu den aeltesten Freunden dadurch wieder
anzuknuepfen, mit neuen es fortzusetzen, und in der letzten Generation
sich wieder andere fur seine uebrige Lebenszeit zu gewinnen. Er
wuenscht der Jugend die Umwege zu ersparen, auf denen er sich selbst
verirrte. (Goethe. Einleitung in die Propylaeen.)
TRANSLATION. Little call as he may have to instruct others, he
wishes nevertheless to open out his heart to such as he either knows or
hopes to be of like mind with himself, but who are widely scattered in
the world: he wishes to knit anew his connections with his oldest
friends, to continue those recently formed, and to win other friends
among the rising generation for the remaining course of his life. He
wishes to spare the young those circuitous paths, on which he himself
had lost his way.

BIOGRAPHIA LITERARIA

CHAPTER I
Motives to the present work--Reception of the Author's first
publication--Discipline of his taste at school--Effect of contemporary
writers on youthful minds--Bowles's Sonnets--Comparison between the
poets before and since Pope.
It has been my lot to have had my name introduced both in
conversation, and in print, more frequently than I find it easy to explain,
whether I consider the fewness, unimportance, and limited circulation
of my writings, or the retirement and distance, in which I have lived,
both from the literary and political world. Most often it has been
connected with some charge which I could not acknowledge, or some
principle which I had never entertained. Nevertheless, had I had no
other motive or incitement, the reader would not have been troubled
with this exculpation. What my additional purposes were, will be seen
in the following pages. It will be found, that the least of what I have
written concerns myself personally. I have used the narration chiefly
for the purpose of giving a continuity to the work, in part for the sake

of the miscellaneous reflections suggested to me by particular events,
but still more as introductory to a statement of my principles in Politics,
Religion, and Philosophy, and an application of the rules, deduced from
philosophical principles, to poetry and criticism. But of the objects,
which I proposed to myself, it was not the least important to effect, as
far as possible, a settlement of the long continued controversy
concerning the true nature of poetic diction; and at the same time to
define with the utmost impartiality the real poetic character of the poet,
by whose writings this controversy was first kindled, and has been
since fuelled and fanned.
In the spring of 1796, when I had but little passed the verge of
manhood, I published a small volume of juvenile poems. They were
received with a degree of favour, which, young as I was, I well know
was bestowed on them not so much for any positive merit, as because
they were considered buds of hope, and promises of better works to
come. The critics of that day, the most flattering, equally with the
severest, concurred in objecting to them obscurity, a general turgidness
of diction, and a profusion of new coined double epithets [1]. The first
is the fault which a writer is the least able to detect in his own
compositions: and my mind was not then sufficiently disciplined to
receive the authority of others, as a substitute for my own conviction.
Satisfied that the thoughts, such as they were, could not have been
expressed otherwise, or at least more perspicuously, I forgot to inquire,
whether the thoughts themselves did not demand a degree of attention
unsuitable to the nature and objects of poetry. This remark however
applies chiefly, though not exclusively, to the Religious Musings. The
remainder of the charge I admitted to its full extent, and not without
sincere acknowledgments both to my private and public censors for
their friendly admonitions. In the after editions, I pruned the double
epithets with no sparing hand, and used my best efforts to tame the
swell and glitter both of thought and diction; though in truth, these
parasite plants of youthful poetry had insinuated themselves into my
longer poems with such intricacy of union, that I was often obliged