1850] GRASMERE CHURCHYARD 437 Dorothy Wordsworth and Mrs. Wordsworth spent their remaining years at Rydal Mount, the former never recovering her mental health, the latter strong and serene to the last. Dorothy died January 25, 1855, and Mrs. Wordsworth, January 17, 1859. Their bodies lie in the same corner of Grasmere churchyard with those of their brother and husband and of Dora Quillinan, Hartley Coleridge, the two children Thomas and Catherine, and Sara Hutchinson. There, too, stands a stone in memory of the sailor brother John. Wordsworth's fame spread slowly during his lifetime. Since his death it has increased with sound and constant growth. His appreciative readers were confined at first to the small circle of persons who knew him or were acquainted with his purposes. Upon them the force of his character operated almost as much as the charm of his poetry. Then the best lovers of literature in the English-speaking world began to appreciate the exalted quality of his verse and the fineness of his feeling; many of the strongest minds, statesmen, philosophers, men of science, perceived and valued the truth of his report about nature and the human heart; influential critics proclaimed him the greatest poet of his age, great in the purity and elevation of his work, and no less in the peculiarly poetic view which he took of the world. For a time this last quality of his writings was the most generally understood. Men spoke of the Wordsworthian attitude, the Wordsworthian conception of nature, and his many-sidedness was not sufficiently acknowledged. But as "The Prelude " became better known, and after the "Fragment of the Recluse " appeared, unexpected depths were revealed, his intellectual complexity and power were more fully realized, and he was thought of as something more than the simple poet of quiet nature. His unique position as interpreting, through personal experience, one of the most tremendous political changes in history has only begun to be recognized. The French Revolution itself is coming to be more sympathetically understood, and Wordsworth's attitude to the Revolution is seen in a truer light. In the crisis through which the world is now passing, his countrymen have turned to him as never before. His poems of liberty and independence impart strength and confidence in a season of bitter trial. That Wordsworth gives serenity to those who love him is true, but he never found the way to peace himself. His soul was never at rest. He was always consumed with passionate joy or passionate distress. He will be venerated for the honesty of his work and the height of his ideals as long as our English tongue endures. He dealt seriously with poetry, honouring himself and humankind. INDEX " ADDRESSES to the Freeholders of Westmorland," ii. 289 Aders, ii. 346 " Affliction of Margaret description of, i. 313 leased to Wordsworth, i. 315 "Ancient Mariner," its origin, i. an injury to" Lyrical Ballads," Annette, i. 141, 142, 292; ii. 30, 31, Anti-Jacobin, The, i. 359-360 Armathwaite, i. 237 Arnold, Miss, ii. 127 n., 436 Arnold, Thomas, ii. 357, 372, 389, Axson, Stockton, i. 189 n. Bailey, a French republican, i. 179 Barker, Mrs., the poet's cousin, Barton, Bernard, ii. 307 Bassigny regiment, i. 157, 161, 168 Beaudouin, Eustace, ii. 211, 217 Burke, Edmund, Wordsworth Burns, Robert, a distinct human Wordsworth reads Kilmarnock Burns, Robert, Letter to a Friend the Wordsworths and Cole- Byron attacks Wordsworth, ii. 141 Caird, Edward, i. 134, 256 Calvert, William, i. 202, 203, 205, Wordsworth's discontent with, moral condition of, i. 56 compulsory chapel, i. 70 returns after graduation, i. 118, Chalons sur Saône, possibly visited Chester, John, i. 362 Chevallier, Dr., i. 54, 61 Christianity, Wordsworth's accept- Cintra, the Convention of, ii. 174, Clark, author of "A Survey of the Clarkson, Thomas, i. 413; ii. 114, 171 Clarkson, Mrs. Thomas, ii. 17, 22, Classification, Wordsworth's system Cockermouth, i. 18-28; ii. 390 place, ii. 70, 94, 97-99, 159, 332 Coleridge, Henry Nelson, articles in Coleridge, S. T., his ailment, ii. 3 INDEX 441 Collins, the poet, quoted by Words- Complaint, The," ii. 107-109 Continental tour in 1820, ii. 314- 320, 323 Convict, The," reflects Words- Cookson, Christopher Crackanthorp, Cookson, Dorothy, born Crackan- Cookson, Mrs., born Cowper, wife Cookson, Rev. William, the poet's Cookson, William, the poet's grand- Cooper, Lane, i. 290 Copyright, international, Words- Cottle, Joseph, i. 277, 282, 296, Courier, The, ii. 194 Cowper, William, Wordsworth's in- his Zyrocinium," i. 48, |