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Vol. I. CHAP. XIV. Occasion of the Lyrical Ballads, and the objects origi-
nally proposed-Preface to the second edition-The ensuing con-
troversy, its causes and acrimony-Philosophic definitions of a
Poem and Poetry with scholia

i

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CHAP. XV. The specific symptoms of poetic power elucidated in a
critical analysis of Shakspeare's Venus and Adonis, and Rape of
Lucrece

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441 O

453

CHAP. XVI. Striking points of difference between the Poets of the
present age and those of the fifteenth or sixteenth centuries-
Wish expressed for the union of the characteristic merits of both 464
CHAP. XVII. Examination of the tenets peculiar to Mr. Wordswort
-Rustic life (above all, low and rustic life) especially unfavorable
to the formation of a human diction-The best parts of language
the product of philosophers, not of clowns or shepherds-Poetry
essentially ideal and generic-The language of Milton as much
the language of real life, yea, incomparably more so than that of
the cottager

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42.4

CHAP. XVIII Language of metrical composition, why and wherein
essentially different from that of prose-Origin and elements of
metre-Its necessary consequences, and the conditions thereby
imposed on the metrical writer in the choice of his diction

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CHAP. XIX. Continuation.-Concerning the real object which, it is
probable, Mr. Wordsworth had before him in his critical preface
-Elucidation and application of this

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CHAP. XX. The former subject continued-The neutral style, or
that common to Prose and Poetry, exemplified by specimens from
Chaucer, Herbert, and others

CHAP. XXII. The characteristic defects of Wordsworth's poetry,
with the principles from which the judgment, that they are de-
fects, is deduced-Their proportion to the beauties-For the
greatest part characteristic of his theory only

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can properly be said to defraud another, nor ought to be so spoken of, who has not a fraudulent intention: but it never yet has been proved, after all the pains that have been taken to this effect, that Mr. Coleridge intended to deprive Schelling of any part of the honor that rightfully belongs to him, or that he has, by Mr. Coleridge's means, been actually deprived of it, even for an hour. With regard to the first ground of accusation, it is doubtless to be regretted by every friend of the accused, that he should have adopted so important a portion of the words and thoughts of Schelling without himself making those distinct and accurate references, which he might have known would eventually be required as surely as he succeeded in his attempt to recommend the metaphysical doctrines contained in them to the attention of students in this country. Why did Mr. Coleridge act thus, subjecting himself, as he might well have anticipated, aware as he was of the hostile spirit against his person and principles, that existed in many quarters, to suspicion from the illiberal, and contumelious treatment at the hands of the hard and unscrupulous? Why he so acted those who best knew him can well understand, without seeing in his conduct evidence of unconscientiousness: they see the truth of the matter to be this, that to give those distinct and accurate references, for the neglect of which he is now so severely arraigned, would have caused him much trouble of a kind to him peculiarly irksome, and that he dispensed himself from it in the belief, that the general declaration which he had made upon the subject was sufficient both for Schelling and for himself. This will be the more intelligible when it is borne in mind, that, as all who knew his literary habits will believe, the passages from Schelling, which he wove into his own work, were not transcribed for the occasion, but merely transferred from his notebook into the text, some of them, in all likelihood, not even from his note-book immediately, but from recollection of its contents. It is most probable that he mistook some of these translated passages for compositions of his own, and quite improbable, as all who know his careless ways will agree, that he should have noted down accurately the particular works and portions of works from which they came.

"But even with the fullest conviction," says Archdeacon Hare,

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