"I do not conceive that Wordsworth could have been an amiable boy;
he was austere and unsocial, I have reason to think, in his habits;
not generous; and above all, not self-denying. Throughout his
later life, with all the benefits of a French discipline, in the
lesser charities of social intercourse he has always exhibited a
marked impatience of those particular courtesies of life. . . .
Freedom,--unlimited, careless, insolent freedom,--unoccupied
possession of his own arms,--absolute control over his own legs and
motions,--these have always been so essential to his comfort that
in any case where they were likely to become questionable, he would
have declined to make one of the party."
Wordsworth has been accused of excessive penuriousness, of overwhelming
conceit, and of being slovenly and regardless of dress. For the first
accusation there seems little warrant, other than that he was prudent
and thrifty, and knew the value of money. His most intimate friends
exonerate him from meanness of any sort, and often praise his kindness
to the poor and dependent. As regards conceit there can probably be no
denial, though doubtless the stories told of it are much exaggerated. He
is said never to have read any poetry but his own, and to have been
exceedingly ill-natured and contemptuous in his estimate of his
contemporaries. His estimate of Dickens is well known:--
"I will candidly avow that I thought him a very talkative, vulgar
young person,--but I dare say he may be very clever. Mind, I don't
want to say a word against him, for I have never read a word he has
written."