Wordsworth | Page 9

is
the first element in our conception of God,--this dark pathway also was
not without its outlet into the day. For the God in Nature is not only a
God of Beauty, but a God of Law; his unity can be apprehended in
power as well as in glory; and Wordsworth's mind, "sinking inward
upon itself from thought to thought," found rest for the time in that
austere religion,--Hebrew at once and scientific, common to a Newton
and a Job,--which is fostered by the prolonged contemplation of the
mere Order of the sum of things.
Not in vain I had been taught to reverence a Power That is the visible
quality and shape And image of right reason.
Not, indeed, in vain! For he felt now that there is no side of truth,
however remote from human interests, no aspect of the universe,
however awful and impersonal, which may not have power at some
season to guide and support the spirit of man. When Goodness is
obscured, when Beauty wearies, there are some souls which still can
cling and grapple to the conception of eternal Law.
Of such stem consolations the poet speaks as having restored him in his

hour of need. But he gratefully acknowledges also another solace of a
gentler kind. It was about this time (1795) that Wordsworth was
blessed with the permanent companionship of his sister, to whom he
was tenderly attached, but whom, since childhood, he had seen only at
long intervals. Miss Wordsworth, after her father's death, had lived
mainly with her maternal grandfather, Mr. Cookson, at Penrith,
occasionally at Halifax with other relations, or at Forncott with her
uncle Dr. Cookson, Canon of Windsor. She was now able to join her
favourite brother: and in this gifted woman Wordsworth found a gentler
and sunnier likeness of himself; he found a love which never wearied,
and a sympathy fervid without blindness, whose suggestions lay so
directly in his mind's natural course that they seemed to spring from the
same individuality, and to form at once a portion of his inmost being.
The opening of this new era of domestic happiness demands a separate
chapter.
CHAPTER III.
MISS WORDSWORTH--LYRICAL BALLADS--SETTLEMENT AT
GRASMERE.
From among many letters of Miss Wordsworth's to a beloved friend,
(Miss Jane Pollard, afterwards Mrs. Marshall, of Hallsteads), which
have been kindly placed at my disposal, I may without impropriety
quote a few passages which illustrate the character and the affection of
brother and sister alike. And first, in a letter (Forncett, February 1792),
comparing her brothers Christopher and William, she says:
"Christopher is steady and sincere in his attachments. William has both
these virtues in an eminent degree, and a sort of violence of affection, if
I may so term it, which demonstrates itself every moment of the day,
when the objects of his affection are present with him, in a thousand
almost imperceptible attentions to their wishes, in a sort of restless
watchfulness which I know not how to describe, a tenderness that never
sleeps, and at the same time such a delicacy of manner as I have
observed in few men." And again (Forncett, June 1793), she writes to
the same friend: "I have strolled into a neighbouring meadow, where I
am enjoying the melody of birds, and the busy sounds of a fine

summer's evening. But oh! How imperfect is my pleasure whilst I am
alone! Why are you not seated with me? And my dear William, why is
he not here also? I could almost fancy that I see you both near me. I
hear you point out a spot, where if we could erect a little cottage and
call it our own we should be the happiest of human beings. I see my
brother fired with the idea of leading his sister to such a retreat. Our
parlour is in a moment furnished, our garden is adorned by magic; the
roses and honeysuckles spring at our command; the wood behind the
house lifts its head, and furnishes us with a winter's shelter and a
summer's noonday shade. My dear friend, I trust that ere long you will
be without the aid of imagination, the companion of my walks, and my
dear William may be of our party.... He is now going upon a tour in the
west of England, with a gentleman who was formerly a
schoolfellow,--a man of fortune, who is to bear all the expenses of the
journey, and only requests the favour of William's company. He is
perfectly at liberty to quit this companion as soon as anything more
advantageous offers. But it is enough to say that I am likely to have the
happiness of introducing you to my beloved brother. You must forgive
me for talking so much of him; my affection hurries