ch can be brought against an Author; namely, that of an
indolence which prevents him from endeavouring to ascertain what is his
duty, or, when his duty is ascertained, prevents him from performing it.

The principal object, then, proposed in these Poems was to choose
incidents and situations from common life, and to relate or describe
them, throughout, as far as was possible in a selection of language
really used by men, and, at the same time, to throw over them a certain
colouring of imagination, whereby ordinary things should be presented to
the mind in an unusual aspect; and, further, and above all, to make
these incidents and situations interesting by tracing in them, truly
though not ostentatiously, the primary laws of our nature: chiefly, as
far as regards the manner in which we associate ideas in a state of
excitement. Humble and rustic life was generally chosen, 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 co-exist 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. The language, too, of
these men has been adopted (purified indeed from what appear to be its
real defects, from all lasting and rational causes of dislike or
disgust) because such men hourly communicate with the best objects from
which the best part of language is originally derived; and because, from
their rank in society and the sameness and narrow circle of their
intercourse, being less under the influence of social vanity, they
convey their feelings and notions in simple and unelaborated
expressions. Accordingly, such a language, arising out of repeated
experience and regular feelings, is a more permanent, and a far more
philosophical language, than that which is frequently substituted for it
by Poets, who think that they are conferring honour upon themselves and
their art, in proportion as they separate themselves from the sympathies
of men, and indulge in arbitrary