The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth — Volume 5 (of 8)

Printed by Wittmann Paris
EDITED BY
WILLIAM KNIGHT
VOL. V
London
MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD.
NEW YORK: MACMILLAN & CO. 1896
All rights reserved

Composed 1795-1814.—Published 1814

But had I been born in a class which would have deprived me of what is called a liberal education, it is not unlikely that, being strong in body, I should have taken to a way of life such as that in which my Pedlar passed the greater part of his days. At all events, I am here called upon freely to acknowledge that the character I have represented in his person is chiefly an idea of what I fancied my own character might have become in his circumstances. Nevertheless much of what he says and does had an external existence, that fell under my own youthful and subsequent observation.