h have a
"demon," but Sartor's is exceedingly fierce, dwelling among the
tombs--Wordsworth's a mild eremite, loving the rocks and the woods.
Sartor's experience has been frightfully peculiar, and Wordsworth's
peculiarly felicitous. Both have passed through the valley of the shadow
of death; but the one has found it as Christian found it, dark and
noisy--the other has passed it with Faithful, by daylight. Sartor is
more of a representative man than Wordsworth, for many have had part at
least of his sad experiences, whereas Wordsworth's soul dwells apart:
his joys and sorrows, his virtues and his sins, are alike his own, and
he can circulate his being as soon as them. Sartor is a brother man in
fury and fever--Wordsworth seems a cherub, almost chillingly pure, and
whose very warmth is borrowed from another sun than ours. We love and
fear Sartor with almost equal intensity--Wordsworth we respect and
wonder at with a great admiration.

Compare their different biographies. Sartor's is brief and abrupt as a
confession; the author seems hurrying away from the memory of his
woe--Wordsworth lingers over his past self, like a lover over the
history of his courtship. Sartor is a reminiscence of Prometheus--the
"Prelude" an account of the education of Pan. The agonies of Sartor are
connected chiefly with his own individual history, shadowing that of
innumerable individuals besides--those of Wordsworth with the fate of
nations, and the world at large. Sartor craves, but can not find a
creed--belief seems to flow in Wordsworth's blood; to see is to believe
with him. The lives of both are fragments, but Sartor seems to shut his
so abruptly, because he dare not disclose all his struggles; and
Wordsworth, because he dares not reveal all his peculiar and
incommunicable joys. To use Sartor's own words, applied to the poet
before as, we may inscribe upon Wordsworth's grave, "Here lies a man who
did what he intended;" while over Sartor's, disappointed ages may say,
"Here lies a man whose intentions were noble, and his powers gigantic,
but who from lack of proper correspondence between them did little or
nothing, said much, but only told the world his own sad story."

MILTON AND WORDSWORTH.

The points of resemblance between Milton and Wordsworth are
numerous--both were proud in spirit, and pure in life--both were
intensely self-conscious--both essayed the loftiest things in
poetry--both looked with considerable contempt on their