Even  where  this  is  not  the  case,  the  extracts  are  too  often
made  without  reference  to  any  general  grounds  or  rules  from

30  which  the  faultiness  or  inadmissibility  of  the  qualities  attrib-
uted may  be  deduced,  and  without  any  attempt  to  show  that


BIOGRAPHIA  LITERARIA.  139

the  qualities  are  attributable  to  the  passage  extracted.     I  have
met  with  such  extracts  from  Mr.  Wordsworth's  poems,  an-
nexed to  such  assertions,  as  lead  me  to  imagine  that  then
reviewer,  having  written  his  critique  before  he  had  read  the ,
work,  had  then  pricked  with  a  pin  for  passages  wherewith  to    5
illustrate  the  various  branches  of  his  preconceived  opinions.'
By  what  principle  of  rational  choice  can  we  suppose  a  critic
to  have  been  directed  (at  least  in  a  Christian  country,  and
himself,  we  hope,  a  Christian)  who  gives  the  following  lines,
portraying  the  fervour  of  solitary  devotion  excited  by  the  10
magnificent  display  of  the  Almighty's  works,  as  a  proof  and
example  of  an  author's  tendency  to  downright  ravings,  and
absolute  unintelligibility  ?

"  O  then  what  soul  was  his,  when  on  the  tops
Of  the  high  mountains  he  beheld  the  sun  15

Rise  up,  and  bathe  the  world  in  light !     He  looked  —
Ocean  and  earth,  the  solid  frame  of  earth,
And  ocean's  liquid  mass,  beneath  him  lay
In  gladness  and  deep  joy.    The  clouds  were  touched,
And  in  their  silent  faces  did  he  read  20

Unutterable  love !     Sound  needed  none,
Nor  any  voice  of  joy :  his  spirit  drank
The  spectacle  !  sensation,  soul,  and  form,
All  melted  into  him.     They  swallowed  up

His  animal  being :  in  them  did  he  live,  25

And  by  them  did  he  live  :  they  were  his  life." 1

Can  it  be  expected  that  either  the  author  or  his  admirers
should  be  induced  to  pay  any  serious  attention  to  decisions
which  prove  nothing  but  the  pitiable  state  of  the  critic's  own
taste  and  sensibility?     On  opening  the  Review  they  see  a  30
favourite  passage,  of  the  force  and  truth  of  which  they  had


140  PRINCIPLES   OF  CRITICISM.
