st be allowed, was a singular beginning of connubial
felicity; but there is no doubt that Johnson, tho he thus showed a
manly firmness, proved a most affectionate and indulgent husband to
the last moment of Mrs. Johnson's life: and in his "Prayers and
Meditations," we find very remarkable evidence that his regard and
fondness for her never ceased, even after her death.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: From Boswell's "Life of Johnson."]

[Footnote 2: The author of the "Lectures on Rhetoric," who was born in
1718 and died in 1800.]

[Footnote 3: From Boswell's "Life of Johnson."]

[Footnote 4: From Boswell's "Life of Johnson." Wilkes was the famous
publicist and political agitator who was expelled from Parliament,
imprisoned and outlawed, but afterward elected Lord Mayor of London
and allowed to sit in Parliament many years.]

[Footnote 5: From Boswell's "Life of Johnson." Johnson was married in
1734, when his age was twenty-five.]

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

Born in 1770; died in 1850; graduated from Cambridge in
1791; traveled on the Continent in 1790-92; settled at
Grasmere in 1799; married Mary Hutchinson in 1802; settled
at Rydal Mount in 1813; traveled in Scotland in 1814 and in
1832; traveled on the Continent again in 1820 and in 1837;
became poet laureate in 1843; published his first volume in
1793 and his last, "The Prelude," in 1850.

A POET DEFINED[6]

Taking up the subject upon general grounds, I ask what is meant by the
word Poet? What is a poet? To whom does he address himself? And what
language is to be expected from him? He is a man speaking to men: a
man, it is true, endued with more lively sensibility, more enthusiasm
and tenderness, who has a greater knowledge of human nature, and a
more comprehensive soul, than are supposed to be common among mankind;
a man pleased with his own passions and volitions, and who rejoices
more than other men in the spirit of life that is in him; delighting
to contemplate similar volitions and passions as manifested in the
goings on of the universe, and habitually impelled to create them
where he does not find them. To these qualities he has added a
disposition to be affected more than other men by absent things as if
they were present; an ability of conjuring up in himself passions,
which are indeed far from being the same as those produced by real
events, yet especially in those parts of the general sympathy which
are ple