No More Learning

Whoever, in attempting to describe their sublime features, should
confine himself to the cold rules of painting would give his reader but
a very imperfect idea of those emotions which they have the irresistible
power of communicating to the most impassive imaginations. The fact is,
that controuling influence, which distinguishes the Alps from all other
scenery, is derived from images which disdain the pencil. Had I wished
to make a picture of this scene I had thrown much less light into it.
But I consulted nature and my feelings. The ideas excited by the stormy
sunset I am here describing owed their sublimity to that deluge of
light, or rather of fire, in which nature had wrapped the immense forms
around me; any intrusion of shade, by destroying the unity of the
impression, had necessarily diminished its grandeur. ]


[Footnote P: Pike is a word very commonly used in the north of England,
to signify a high mountain of the conic form, as Langdale pike, etc. ]


[Footnote Q: For most of the images in the next sixteen verses I am
indebted to M. Raymond's interesting observations annexed to his
translation of Coxe's 'Tour in Switzerland'. ]


[Footnote R: The rays of the sun drying the rocks frequently produce on
their surface a dust so subtile and slippery, that the wretched
chamois-chasers are obliged to bleed themselves in the legs and feet in
order to secure a footing. ]


[Footnote S: The people of this Canton are supposed to be of a more
melancholy disposition than the other inhabitants of the Alps: this, if
true, may proceed from their living more secluded. ]


[Footnote T: These summer hamlets are most probably (as I have seen
observed by a critic in the 'Gentleman's Magazine') what Virgil alludes
to in the expression "Castella in tumulis. "]


[Footnote U: Sugh, a Scotch word expressive of the sound of the wind
through the trees. ]


[Footnote V: This wind, which announces the spring to the Swiss, is
called in their language Foen; and is according to M. Raymond the Syroco
of the Italians. ]


[Footnote W: This tradition of the golden age of the Alps, as M. Raymond
observes, is highly interesting, interesting not less to the philosopher
than to the poet. Here I cannot help remarking, that the superstitions
of the Alps appear to be far from possessing that poetical character
which so eminently distinguishes those of Scotland and the other
mountainous northern countries. The Devil with his horns, etc. , seems to
be in their idea, the principal agent that brings about the sublime
natural revolutions that take place daily before their eyes. ]


[Footnote X: Alluding to several battles which the Swiss in very small
numbers have gained over their oppressors the house of Austria; and in
particular, to one fought at Naeffels near Glarus, where three hundred
and thirty men defeated an army of between fifteen and twenty thousand
Austrians. Scattered over the valley are to be found eleven stones, with
this inscription, 1388, the year the battle was fought, marking out as I
was told upon the spot, the several places where the Austrians
attempting to make a stand were repulsed anew. ]


[Footnote Y: As Schreck-Horn, the pike of terror. Wetter-Horn, the pike
of storms, etc. etc. ]


[Footnote Z: The effect of the famous air called in French Ranz des
Vaches upon the Swiss troops removed from their native country is well
known, as also the injunction of not playing it on pain of death, before
the regiments of that nation, in the service of France and Holland. ]


[Footnote Aa: Optima quaeque dies, etc. ]


[Footnote Bb: This shrine is resorted to, from a hope of relief, by
multitudes, from every corner of the Catholick world, labouring under
mental or bodily afflictions. ]


[Footnote Cc: Rude fountains built and covered with sheds for the
accommodation of the pilgrims, in their ascent of the mountain. Under
these sheds the sentimental traveller and the philosopher may find
interesting sources of meditation. ]


[Footnote Dd: This word is pronounced upon the spot Chamouny, I have
taken the liberty of reading it long thinking it more musical. ]


[Footnote Ee: It is only from the higher part of the valley of Chamouny
that Mont Blanc is visible. ]


[Footnote Ff: It is scarce necessary to observe that these lines were
written before the emancipation of Savoy. ]


[Footnote Gg: A vast extent of marsh so called near the lake of
Neuf-chatel. ]


[Footnote Hh: This, as may be supposed, was written before France became
the seat of war. ]


[Footnote Ii: An insect so called, which emits a short, melancholy cry,
heard, at the close of the summer evenings, on the banks of the Loire. ]


[Footnote Jj: The river Loiret, which has the honour of giving name to a
department, rises out of the earth at a place, called La Source, a
league and a half south-east of Orleans, and taking at once the
character of a considerable stream, winds under a most delicious bank on
its left, with a flat country of meadows, woods, and vineyards on its
right, till it falls into the Loire about three or four leagues below
Orleans. The hand of false taste has committed on its banks those
outrages which the Abbe de Lille so pathetically deprecates in those
charming verses descriptive of the Seine, visiting in secret the retreat
of his friend Watelet. Much as the Loiret, in its short course, suffers
from injudicious ornament, yet are there spots to be found upon its
banks as soothing as meditation could wish for: the curious traveller
may meet with some of them where it loses itself among the mills in the
neighbourhood of the villa called La Fontaine. The walks of La Source,
where it takes its rise, may, in the eyes of some people, derive an
additional interest from the recollection that they were the retreat of
Bolingbroke during his exile, and that here it was that his
philosophical works were chiefly composed. The inscriptions, of which he
speaks in one of his letters to Swift descriptive of this spot, are not,
I believe, now extant. The gardens have been modelled within these
twenty years according to a plan evidently not dictated by the taste of
the friend of Pope. ]


[Footnote Kk: The duties upon many parts of the French rivers were so
exorbitant that the poorer people, deprived of the benefit of water
carriage, were obliged to transport their goods by land. ]


[Footnote Ll:

--And, at his heels,
Leash'd in like hounds, should Famine, Sword, and Fire,
Crouch for employment. ]





* * * * *





APPENDIX II

The following is Wordsworth's Itinerary of the Tour, taken by him and
his friend Jones, which gave rise to 'Descriptive Sketches'.


July
13. Calais.
14. Ardres.
17. Peronne.
18. Village near Coucy.
19. Soissons.
20. Chateau Thierry.
21. Sezanne.
22. Village near Troyes.
23. Bar-le-Duc.
24. Chatillon-sur-Seine.
26. Nuits.
27. Chalons.
28. Chalons.
29. On the Saone.
30. Lyons.
31. Condrieu.

August
1. Moreau.
2. Voreppe.
3. Village near Chartreuse.
4. Chartreuse.
6. Aix.
7. Town in Savoy.
8. Town on Lake of Geneva.
9. Lausanne.
10. Villeneuve.
11. St. Maurice in the Valais.
12. Chamouny.
13. Chamouny.
14. Martigny.
15. Village beyond Sion.
16. Brieg.
17. Spital on Alps.
18. Margozza.
19. Village beyond Lago Maggiore.
20. Village on Lago di Como.
21. Village beyond Gravedona.
22. Jones at Chiavenna; W. W. at Samolaco.
23. Sovozza.
24. Splugen.
25. Flems.
26. Dissentis.
27. Village on the Reuss.
28. Fluelen.
29. Lucerne.
30. Village on the Lake of Zurich.
31. Einsiedlen.


September

1. Glarus.
2. Glarus.
3. Village beyond Lake of Wallenstadt.
4. Village on road to Appenzell.
5. Appenzell.
6. Keswill, on Lake of Constance.
7. On the Rhine.
8. On the Rhine.
9. On road to Lucerne.
10. Lucerne.
11. Saxeln.
12. Village on the Aar.
13. Grindelwald.
14. Lauterbrunnen.
15. Village three leagues from Berne.
16. Avranches.
19. Village beyond Pierre Pertuises.
20. Village four leagues from Basle.
21. Basle.
22. Town six leagues from Strasburg.
23. Spires.
24. Village on Rhine.
25. Mentz. Mayence.
27. Village on Rhine, two leagues from Coblentz.
28. Cologne.
29. Village three leagues from Aix-la-Chapelle.


The pedestrians bought a boat at Basle, and in it floated down the Rhine
as far as Cologne, intending to proceed in the same way to Ostend; but
they returned to England from Cologne by Calais. In the course of this
tour, Wordsworth wrote a letter to his sister, dated "Sept. 6, 1790,
Keswill, a small village on the Lake of Constance," which will be found
amongst his letters in a subsequent volume. --Ed.





* * * * *





APPENDIX III

The following two variants in 'Descriptive Sketches' are from MS. notes
written in the late Lord Coleridge's copy of the edition of 1836-7.

l. 247.
Yet the world's business hither finds its way
At times, and unsought tales beguile the day,
And tender thoughts are those which Solitude


l. 249.

Yet tender thoughts dwell there. No Solitude
Hath power Youth's natural feelings to exclude.





* * * * *





APPENDIX IV

'Anecdote for Fathers'

See Eusebius' 'Praeparatio Evangelica', vi. 5. --[Greek: kleie bi_en
kartos te log_on pseud_egora lex_o]--which was Apollo's answer to
certain persons who tried to force his oracle to reply. --Ed.





* * * * *





APPENDIX V

'The Thorn'

William Taylor's translation of Burger's 'Pfarrer's Tochter' appeared in
'The Monthly Magazine' (1796), and as the same volume contained
contributions by Coleridge and Lamb, it is possible that Wordsworth saw
it. Burger's Pastor's Daughter murdered her natural child, but it is her
ghost which haunts its grave, which she had torn

With bleeding nails beside the pond,
And nightly pines the pool beside.





* * * * *





APPENDIX VI

'Simon Lee'

It was found impossible fully to describe, within the limits of a
footnote, the endless shiftings to and fro of the stanzas and half
stanzas of 'Simon Lee'. The first eight stanzas of the edition of 1798
are therefore reprinted in this Appendix; and a Table is added, by means
of which the various transpositions effected from time to time may be
readily ascertained. In the Table 'a' stands for lines 1-4, and 'b' for
lines 5-8 of a stanza.


In the sweet shire of Cardigan,
Not far from pleasant Ivor-hall,
An old man dwells, a little man,
I've heard he once was tall.
Of years he has upon his back,
No doubt, a burthen weighty;
He says he is three score and ten,
But others say he's eighty.

A long blue livery-coat has he,
That's fair behind, and fair before;
Yet, meet him where you will, you see
At once that he is poor.
Full five and twenty years he lived
A running huntsman merry;
And, though he has but one eye left,
His cheek is like a cherry.

No man like him the horn could sound,
And no man was so full of glee;
To say the least, four counties round
Had heard of Simon Lee;
His master's dead, and no one now
Dwells in the hall of Ivor;
Men, dogs, and horses, all are dead;
He is the sole survivor.

His hunting feats have him bereft
Of his right eye, as you may see:
And then, what limbs those feats have left
To poor old Simon Lee!
He has no son, he has no child,
His wife, an aged woman,
Lives with him, near the waterfall,
Upon the village common.

And he is lean and he is sick,
His little body's half awry
His ancles they are swoln and thick;
His legs are thin and dry.
When he was young he little knew
Of husbandry or tillage;
And now he's forced to work, though weak,
--The weakest in the village.

He all the country could outrun,
Could leave both man and horse behind;
And often, ere the race was done,
He reeled and was stone-blind.
And still there's something in the world
At which his heart rejoices;
For when the chiming hounds are out,
He dearly loves their voices!

Old Ruth works out of doors with him,
And does what Simon cannot do;
For she, not over stout of limb,
Is stouter of the two.
And though you with your utmost skill
From labour could not wean them,
Alas! 'tis very little, all
Which they can do between them.

Beside their moss-grown hut of clay,
Not twenty paces from the door,
A scrap of land they have, but they
Are poorest of the poor.
This scrap of land he from the heath
Enclosed when he was stronger;
But what avails the land to them,
Which they can till no longer?



Editions Editions Edition Edition Editions
1798 and 1800. 1802-1815. 1820. 1827. 1832-1849.

1 1 1 a 1 a 1 a
2 b 2 b 2 b

2 2 3 4 a 3 a
3 b 5 b

3 3 4 a 3 a 6
5 b 5 b

4 6 6 6 4 a
3 b

5 4 5 a 5 a 5 a
4 b 4 b 4 b

6 5 7 8 8

7 7 8 7 7

8 8 9 9 9





APPENDIX VII

'Lines written in Early Spring', ll. 11, 12

Compare the 'Laws of Manu', i. 49:

"Vegetables, as well as animals, have internal consciousness, and are
sensible of pleasure and pain. "

This I have received from a correspondent, but I have never seen the
English version. --Ed.





* * * * *





APPENDIX VIII

'An Evening Walk'


(1) l. 219,

"His neck, a varying arch, between his towering wings. "

Compare 'Paradise Lost', book vii. l. 438.


(2) l. 286, in the footnote reading of 1793, the line occurs

"Or clock, that blind against the wanderer borne. "

This refers to the winged beetle, the buzzard-clock.


(3) l. 323, "The bird, etc. " The owl. Compare Cowper's 'Task', i. ll.
205, 206.


END OF VOL. I.





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