the apparent naturalness of the
representation, as raised and qualified by an imperceptible infusion
of the author's own knowledge and talent, which infusion does, indeed,
constitute it an imitation as distinguished from a mere copy. The
third cause may be found in the reader's conscious feeling of his
superiority awakened by the contrast presented to him; even as for the
same purpose the kings and great barons of yore retained sometimes
actual clowns and fools, but more frequently shrewd and witty fellows
in that character. These, however, were not Mr. Wordsworth's objects.
He chose low and rustic life, 'because in that condition the essential
passions of the heart find a better soil, in which they can attain
their maturity, are less under restraint, and speak a plainer and more
emphatic language; because in that condition of life our elementary
feelings coexist in a state of greater simplicity, and consequently
may be more accurately contemplated, and more forcibly communicated;
because the manners of rural life germinate from those elementary
feelings; and from the necessary character of rural occupations are
more easily comprehended, and are more durable; and lastly, because in
that condition the passions of men are incorporated with the beautiful
and permanent forms of nature.'

Now it is clear to me, that in the most interesting of the poems, in
which the author is more or less dramatic, as the _Brothers_,
_Michael_, _Ruth_, the _Mad Mother_, &c., the persons introduced are
by no means taken from low or rustic life in the common acceptation of
those words; and it is not less clear, that the sentiments and
language, as far as they can be conceived to have been really
transferred from the minds and conversation of such persons, are
attributable to causes and circumstances not necessarily connected
with 'their occupations and abode'. The thoughts, feelings, language,
and manners of the shepherd-farmers in the vales of Cumberland and
Westmoreland, as far as they are actually adopted in those poems, may
be accounted for from causes, which will and do produce the same
results in every state of life, whether in town or country. As the two
principal I rank that INDEPENDENCE, which raises a man above
servitude, or daily toil for the profit of others, yet not above the
necessity of industry and a frugal simplicity of domestic life; and
the accompanying unambitious, but solid and religious, EDUCATION,
which has rendered few