any other critics overlook the overruling necessities
of the situation? They argue as though Wordsworth had selected a pedlar
under some abstract regard for his office of buying and selling: in
which case undoubtedly a wholesale man would have a better chance for
doing a 'large stroke of business' in philosophy than this huckstering
retailer. Wordsworth however fixed on a pedlar--not for his commercial
relations--but in spite of them. It was not for the _essential_ of his
calling that a pedlar was promoted to the post of central philosopher in
his philosophic poem, but for an accident indirectly arising out of it.
This accident lay in the natural privilege which a pedlar once had
through all rural districts of common access to rich and poor, and
secondly, in the leisurely nature of his intercourse. Three conditions
there were for fulfilling that ministry of philosophic intercourse which
Wordsworth's plan supposed. First, the philosopher must be clothed with
a _real_ character, known to the actual usages of the land, and not
imaginary: else this postulate of fiction at starting would have
operated with an unrealizing effect upon all that followed. Next, it
must be a character that was naturally fitted to carry the bearer
through a large circuit of districts and villages; else the _arena_
would be too narrow for the large survey of life and conflict demanded:
lastly, the character must be one recommending itself alike to all ranks
in tracts remote from towns, and procuring an admission ready and
gracious to him who supports that character. Now this supreme advantage
belonged in a degree absolutely unique to the character of pedlar, or
(as Wordsworth euphemistically terms it) of 'wandering merchant.' In
past generations the _materfamilias_, the young ladies, and the visitors
within their gates, were as anxious for his periodic visit as the
humblest of the domestics. They received him therefore with the
condescending kindness of persons in a state of joyous expectation:
young hearts beat with the anticipation of velvets and brocades from
Genoa, lace veils from the Netherlands, jewels and jewelled trinkets;
for you are not to think that, like Autolycus, he carried only one
trinket. They were sincerely kind to him, being sincerely pleased.
Besides, it was politic to assume a gracious manner, since else the
pedlar might take out his revenge in the price of his wares; fifteen per
cent. would be the least he could reasonably clap