[Footnote ED: See Wordsworth's note, p. 387.--ED.]
[Footnote EE: Compare Milton's _Ode on the Nativity_, l. 119.--ED.]
[Footnote EF: St. Matt. xi. 19.--ED.]
[Footnote EG: See Wordsworth's note, p. 387.--ED.]
[Footnote EH: Samuel Daniel; from his poem, _To the Lady Margaret,
Countess of Cumberland_. In his note Wordsworth says, "The two last lines
printed in italics, are by him" (_i.e._ Daniel) "translated from Seneca."
The passage is: "O quam contempta res est homo, nisi supra humana
surrexerit" (_Natur. quaest._ lib. i. praef. 4). The discovery of this
passage cost the late Bishop of St. Andrews several long days' hunting
through Seneca's works. He wrote me afterwards: "The passage has nothing
to do with moral elevation, the next words are 'quam diu cum affectibus
colluctamur quid magnifici facimus.'"
The following occurs in _The Soul's Conflict_, by Richard Sibbes (1635),
ch. ix.--"We see likewise hence a necessity of having something in the
soul above itself. It must be partaker of a diviner nature than itself;
otherwise, when the most refined part of our souls, the very spirit of
our minds, is out of frame, what shall bring it in again?" See also the
extract from Bacon's Essay, XVI., prefixed to _The White Doe of Rylstone_
(vol. iv. p. 105).--ED.]
[Footnote EI: The fact of the eagle having once haunted the Cumbrian and
Westmoreland valleys is proved by the number of rocks, crags, etc., that
are named from it.--ED.]
[Footnote EJ: The following occurs in the Fenwick note to the lines
addressed _To Joanna_ in the "Poems on the naming of Places" (vol.
ii. p. 157): "The effect of the reverberation of voices in some parts
of the mountains is very striking. There is, in _The Excursion_, an
allusion to the bleat of a lamb thus re-echoed, and described without
any exaggeration, as I heard it, on the side of Stickle Tarn, from the
precipice that stretches on to Langdale Pikes." The "precipice" referred
to is Pavy Ark.--ED.]
[Footnote EK: There are many ant-hills in this district of Westmoreland.
Note that the description here is of the effect of a lake seen from
above, looking down on it.--ED.]
[Footnote EL: The fieldfares have a habit of settling together, and
sitting perfectly still, till they are disturbed; when they fly off, and
settling again, sit silently as before.--ED.]
[Footnote EM: Blea Tarn.--ED.]
[Footnote EN: Compare "Rules and Lessons" in Henry Vaughan's _Silex
Scintillans_.--ED.]
[Footnote EO: The heights of Blake Rigg and Lingmoor.--ED.]
[Footnote EP: Possibly a misprint in the editions of 1814 and 1820.--ED.]
[Footnote EQ: Compare the _Poet's Epitaph_ (vol. ii. p. 75).--ED.]
[Footnote ER: Compare Genesis iii. 8.--ED.]
[Footnote ES: Genesis xviii. 1, 2.--ED.]
[Footnote ET: Genesis iii. 24.--ED.]
[Footnote EU: Genesis iii. 16, 17.--ED.]
[Footnote EV: Exodus vi. 3.--ED.]
[Footnote EW: Exodus xxxiii. 9; xxxiv. 5.--ED.]
[Footnote EX: Exodus xxxvii. 1; Hebrews ix. 4.--ED.]
[Footnote EY: Exodus xxv. 22.--ED.]
[Footnote EZ: Exodus xv. 25; xvi. 4, etc. etc.--ED.]
[Footnote FA: Exodus vii.-xi.--ED.]
[Footnote FB: The ancient Persian religion was nature worship.--ED.]
[Footnote FC: Compare _Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey_,
II. 100-102 (vol. ii. p. 55)--
A motion and a spirit, that impels
All thinking things, all objects of all thought,
And rolls through all things. ED.
]
[Footnote FD: Herodotus thus describes the temple of Belus:--"... A
square enclosure two furlongs each way, with gates of solid brass; which
were also remaining in my time. In the middle of the precinct there was
a tower of solid masonry, a furlong in length and breadth, upon which
was raised a second tower, and on that a third, and so up to eight. The
ascent to the top is on the outside, by a path which winds round all
the towers. When one is about half way up, one finds a resting place
and seats, where persons are wont to sit some time in their way to the
summit. On the topmost tower there is a spacious Temple, and inside the
Temple stands a couch of unusual size, richly adorned, with a golden
table by its side. There is no statue of any kind set up in the place....
The Chaldeans, the priests of this God, declare--but I, for my part, do
not credit it--that the God comes down nightly into this chamber and
sleeps upon the couch."--Herodotus, i. 181. See Rawlinson's version, vol.
i. pp. 319, 320. Compare also Josephus, _Ant. Jud._ x. 11, and Strabo,
16.--ED.]
[Footnote FE: Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, Mercury--the only planets
known to the ancients, the Earth not being included.--ED.]
[Footnote FF: The reference here is still apparently to the "planetary
Five," which are _all_ described as "radiant Mercuries" (although one of
them was Mercury), because they all--
seemed to move
Carrying through ether, in perpetual round,
Decrees and resolutions of the Gods;
And, by their aspects, signifying works
Of dim futurity.
This astrological allusion makes it clear that the reference is to
the supposed "planetary influence," and to the movements of these
bodies--controlled by the gods--with which the fate of mortals was
believed to be upbound. For an account of the Gods of the Five Planets,
see _Chaldean Magic_, by François Lenormant, pp. 26 and 118.--ED.]
[Footnote FG: Compare _Lycidas_, 1. 154--
Ay me! whilst thee the shores and sounding seas,
and note that Charles Lamb, who was familiar with _The Excursion_, quotes
the above line ("Distant Correspondents") thus--
Aye me! while thee the seas and sounding shores. ED.
]
[Footnote FH: The strolling Greek minstrels from Homer onwards,
predecessors of the Troubadours.--ED.]
[Footnote FI: The reference is doubtless to Pausanias, i. 37, 3. "Before
you cross the Cephisus, there is the monument of Theodorus, who excelled
all his contemporaries as an actor in tragedy; and near to the river,
there are [two] statues, one of Mnesimache, another of her son, in the
act of cutting off his hair [over the stream and presenting it] as a
votive offering to the Cephisus." See Note D in the Appendix to this
volume, p. 396.--ED.]
[Footnote FJ: Compare _King Henry VI._, Part III. act ii. scene v. ll.
23-35--
To sit upon a hill, as I do now,
To carve out dials quaintly, point by point,
Thereby to see the minutes how they run. ED.
]
[Footnote FK: Apollo.--ED.]
[Footnote FL: Diana.--ED.]
[Footnote FM: The ναἴάδες (water-nymphs) and ὁρειάδες (mountain-nymphs),
with others of the meadows woods and dales, sprung from the fertile
imagination of the Greeks. Wordsworth's explanation of the origin of
these myths from natural causes is not peculiar to him, although his
lines are a _locus classicus_ on the subject; but his explanation of the
"lurking Satyrs," as due to the sight of the horns of the deer, or the
goats, in the woods, is probably his own.--ED.]
[Footnote FN: St. Fillan. There were two Scottish saints of that name.
The first, and most famous, the particulars of whose life are recorded
in the Breviary of Aberdeen, Felanus, or Fœlanus, Fælan, Fillanus,
Filane, or Phillane, the son of Kentigern. In Perthshire, the scene of
his labours, a river and a strath are called after him, and a Church
dedicated to him. He was associated with the battle of Bannockburn. (See
_Kalendars of Scottish Saints_, by A. P. Forbes, Bishop of Brechin.)--ED.]
[Footnote FO: For the legendary History of St. Giles see the Breviary
of the Roman Church. (It has been translated recently by the Marquis
of Bute.) Dr. Cameron Lees, minister of St. Giles' Cathedral Church,
Edinburgh, sends me the following notice of the Saint:--"How St. Giles
became the patron Saint of Edinburgh is not known. His 'hind' is upon
the arms of the city.[FQ] An arm bone of St. Giles was one of the chief
treasures of the church. It was brought from France by Preston of Gorton,
who procured it by the 'assistance of the King of France.' This relic
was contained in a richly jewelled shrine, and carried through Edinburgh
in procession on the Saint's day, the 1st September. An account of this
procession is given by Sir D. Lindsay and by Knox. The only other church
in Scotland under the dedication of St. Giles was at Elgin."--ED.]
[Footnote FP: Now happily accomplished through the labour and the
munificence of the late Dr. Chambers.--ED.]
[Footnote FQ: For reference to the "Hind," see the Breviary.--ED.]
[Footnote FR: Compare the _Poet's Epitaph_ (vol. ii. p. 75).--ED.]
[Footnote FS: Voltaire.--ED.]
[Footnote FT: In his eighty-fourth year, Voltaire went up to Paris from
Ferney in Switzerland (where he had lived for twenty years), and amid the
tumultuous enthusiasm of the Parisians, he was crowned at the Comédie
Française, as the Athenian poets used to be. "The Court of the Louvre,
vast as it is, was full of people waiting for him. As soon as his notable
vehicle came in sight, the cry arose, _Le voilà!_ The Savoyards, the
apple-women, all the rabble of the quarter had assembled there, and the
acclamations _Vive Voltaire!_ resounded as if they would never end....
There was no end till he placed himself on the front seat, beside the
ladies. Then rose a cry _La Couronne!_ and Brizard, the actor, came and
put the garland on his head. _Ah Dieu! vous voulez donc me faire mourir?_
cried M. de Voltaire, weeping with joy, and resisting the honour.... The
Prince de Beauvan, seizing the laurel, replaced it on the head of our
Sophocles, who could refuse no longer." (_Memoires sur Voltaire_, par
Longchamp et Wagnière.)--ED.]
[Footnote FU: Compare Walter Savage Landor, _Gebir_, book i. l. 159--
But I have sinuous shells of pearly hue
Within, and they that lustre have imbibed
In the Sun's palace-porch, where when unyoked
His chariot-wheel stands midway in the wave:
Shake one and it awakens, then apply
Its polish'd lips to your attentive ear,
And it remembers its august abodes,
And murmurs as the ocean murmurs there.