His
grace,

I remain, my dear Dr. Parry,
Most faithfully, your much obliged,
W. Wordsworth.[168]

112. _Religion and Versified Religion_.

LETTER TO THE REV. H. (AFTERWARDS DEAN) ALFORD.

(Postmark) Ambleside, Feb. 21. 1848.

MY DEAR SIR,

Pray excuse my having been some little time in your debt. I could plead
many things in extenuation, the chief, that old one of the state of my
eyes, which never leaves me at liberty either to read or write a tenth
part as much as I could wish, and as otherwise I ought to do.

[168] _Memoirs_, ii. 362-3.

It cannot but be highly gratifying to me to learn that my writings are
prized so highly by a poet and critic of your powers. The essay upon
them which you have so kindly sent me seems well qualified to promote
your views in writing it. I was particularly pleased with your
distinction between religion in poetry, and versified religion. For my
own part, I have been averse to frequent mention of the mysteries of
Christian faith; not from a want of a due sense of their momentous
nature, but the contrary. I felt it far too deeply to venture on
handling the subject as familiarly as many scruple not to do. I am far
from blaming them, but let them not blame me, nor turn from my
companionship on that account. Besides general reasons for diffidence in
treating subjects of Holy Writ, I have some especial ones. I might err
in points of faith, and I should not deem my mistakes less to be
deprecated because they were expressed in metre. Even Milton, in my
humble judgment, has erred, and grievously; and what poet could hope to
atone for his apprehensions[169] in the way in which that mighty mind
has done?

I am not at all desirous that any one should write an elaborate critique
on my poetry.[170] There is no call for it. If they be from above, they
will do their own work in course of time; if not, they will perish as
they ought. But scarcely a week passes in which I do not receive
grateful acknowledgments of the good they have done to the minds of the
several writers. They speak of the relief they have received from them
under affliction and in grief, and of the calmness and elevation of
spirit which the poems either give or assist them in attaining. As these
benefits are not without a traceable bearing upon the good of the
immortal soul, the sooner, perhaps, they are pointed out and illustr