WORDSWORTH

(A. D. 1770-1850.)

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH, one of the greatest of English poets, was born at Cockermouth, in Cumberland, England, on the 7th of April, 1770. His father, John Wordsworth, was law-agent of Sir James Lowther, afterwards Earl of Lonsdale. The future poet was educated, first at a school in Hawkshead, and then at St. John's College, Cambridge. He travelled and lived during several years in France and elsewhere on the Continent; and, after several changes of English residence, settled with his devoted sister Dorothy in the Westmoreland Lake Country, where the remainder of his life was passed in meditation and poetical composition. He married happily in 1802. In 1843, on the death of his friend Southey, he was appointed Poet Laureate. His death occurred in 1850.

The noble poem quoted below, entitled "The Happy Warrior, was inspired by the death of Lord Nelson, in 1805, following the loss, in that same year, of the poet's brother, John Wordsworth, captain of an East Indiaman, whose ship was sunk by an incompetent pilot. He drew a blended portrait, joining the two heroic memories in one grand ideal. He "had recourse, says Mr. F. W. H. Myers, "to the character of his own brother John for the qualities in which the great Admiral appeared to him to have been deficient. And surely these two natures taken together make the perfect Englishman. Nor is there any portrait fitter than that of The Happy Warrior' to go forth to all lands as representing the English character at its height -a figure not illmatching with Plutarch's men.' For indeed this short poem is itself a manual of greatness; there is a Roman majesty in its simple and weighty speech."

CHARACTER OF THE HAPPY WARRIOR.

(By William Wordsworth.)

Who is the happy warrior? Who is he
Whom every man in arms should wish to be?
-It is the generous spirit, who, when brought
Among the tasks of real life, hath wrought
Upon the plan that pleased his childish thought:
Whose high endeavours are an inward light
That make the path before him always bright;
Who, with a natural instinct to discern

What knowledge can perform, is diligent to learn;
Abides by this resolve, and stops not there,
But makes his moral being his prime care;
Who, doom'd to go in company with pain,
And fear, and bloodshed, miserable train!
Turns his necessity to glorious gain;
In face of these doth exercise a power
Which is our human nature's highest dower;
Controls them and subdues, transmutes, bereaves
Of their bad influence, and their good receives;
By objects which might force the soul to abate
Her feeling, render'd more compassionate;
Is placable because occasions rise

So often that demand such sacrifice;

More skilful in self-knowledge, even more pure
As tempted more; more able to endure,
As more exposed to suffering and distress
Thence, also, more alive to tenderness.

"T is he whose law is reason; who depends Upon that law as on the best of friends; Whence, in a state where men are tempted still To evil for a guard against worse ill,

And what in quality or act is best
Doth seldom on a right foundation rest,
He fixes good on good alone, and owes
To virtue every triumph that he knows;
Who, if he rise to station of command,
Rises by open means; and there will stand
On honourable terms, or else retire

And in himself possess his own desire;
Who comprehends his trust, and to the same
Keeps faithful with a singleness of aim;
And therefore does not stoop, nor lie in wait
For wealth, or honours, or for worldly state;
Whom they must follow; on whose head must fall,
Like showers of manna, if they come at all;
Whose powers shed round him in the common strife,
Or mild concerns of ordinary life,

A constant influence, a peculiar grace;

But who, if he be call'd upon to face

Some awful moment to which Heaven has join'd
Great issues, good or bad for human kind,

Is happy as a lover; and attired

With sudden brightness, like a man inspired;
And through the heat of conflict, keeps the law
In calmness made, and sees what he foresaw;
Or if an unexpected call succeed,

Come when it will, is equal to the need:

He who, though thus endued as with a sense

And faculty for storm and turbulence,

Is yet a soul whose master bias leans

To homefelt pleasures and to gentle scenes;
Sweet images! which, wheresoe'er he be,
Are at his heart; and such fidelity

It is his darling passion to approve;

More brave for this, that he hath much to love:

'T is, finally, the man, who, lifted high,
Conspicuous object in a nation's eye,
Or left unthought of in obscurity,—
Who with a toward or untoward lot,
Prosperous or adverse, to his wish or not,
Plays, in the many games of life, that one
Where what he most doth value must be won;
Whom neither shape of danger can dismay,
Nor thought of tender happiness betray;
Who, not content that former worth stand fast,
Looks forward, persevering to the last,
From well to better, daily self-surpass'd :

Who, whether praise of him must walk the earth,
For ever, and to noble deeds give birth,
Or he must go to dust without his fame,
And leave a dead, unprofitable name,

Finds comfort in himself and in his cause;

And, while the mortal mist is gathering, draws His breath in confidence of Heaven's applause: This is the happy warrior; this is he

Whom every man in arms should wish to be.

ZSCHOKKE

(A. D. 1771-1848.)

JOHANN HEINRICH DANIEL ZSCHOKKE, celebrated as an author, as a teacher, and as a public-spirited citizen, was born at Magdeburg, Germany, in 1771; but settled in Switzerland in 1796, and became a citizen of that republic. He was a voluminous writer, his collected works filling forty volumes, including ten volumes of tales, many of them much admired, besides religious, historical, and economic writings. The most noted of Zschokke's books is the "Stunden der Andacht," translated into English under the title "Meditations on Life, Death, and Eternity," from which the counsel given hereunder is quoted. Its author died in 1848.

ON THE OVERCOMING OF FAULTS.

(From "Meditations on Life, Death, and Eternity," by Zschokke, translated by Frederica Rowan.)

When a man intends to sketch out a plan of some great and important undertaking relative to worldly matters, he first weighs and examines calmly and carefully what means will be most likely to help him to achieve his object; considers the circumstances amid which he will have to act; measures the extent of his own powers in respect of the undertaking; and even calculates the obstacles which he may possibly have to encounter, and ponders beforehand on the best means of overcoming them. . . . Dost thou think that the elevating, perfecting, and sanctifying of thy soul require less effort and reflection than the increase of thy revenue,