The Approach to Philosophy

mediate delight in " youth,s sweet-scented manuscript" is part of a consciousness that vaguely sees, though it cannot grasp, " this sorry scheme of things entire." " Drink for you know not whence you come, nor why; Drink for you know not why you go, nor where." § 12. But the poet in his world-view ordinarily sees other than darkness. The same innate spir- Wordsworth. itual enterprise that sustains religious faith leads the poet more often to find the universe positively congenial to his ideals, and to ideals in general. He interprets human experience in the light of the spirituality of all the world. It is to Wordsworth that we of the present age are chiefly indebted for such imagery, and it will profit us to consider somewhat carefully the philosophical quality of his poetry. Walter Pater, in introducing his appreciation of Wordsworth, writes that " an intimate consciousness of the expression of natural things, which weighs, listens, penetrates, where the earlier mind passed roughly by, is a large element in the complexion of modern poetry." We recognize at once the truth of this characterization as applied to Wordsworth. But there is something more distinguished about this poet,s sensibility even than its extreme fineness and delicacy; a quality that is suggested, though not made explicit, by Shelley,s allusion to Wordsworth,s experience as " a sort of thought in sense." Nature possessed for him not merely enjoyable and describable characters of great variety... --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.