What pleasing seemed, for her now pleases more,
She most, and in her look seems all delight:
Such pleasure took the Serpent to behold
This flowery flat, the sweet recess of Eve
Thus early, thus alone.”
[16] From Dr. Clerk’s new translation of Ossian.
[17] How greatly to be desired is an edition of Wordsworth’s entire works, in which the poems should be printed in the exact chronological order of their composition, along with those notes on them which the poet dictated late in life. Such an arrangement of them is absolutely essential to a right understanding of their meaning, and those who desire to attain such an understanding are obliged to make the chronological arrangement for themselves, at great trouble, and at best very imperfectly. The time when such an edition can be made, with the fullest means for accuracy, is fast passing, if it is not already past. Is there no hope that those in whose hands the thing lies will still render this great and much-needed service to the great poet’s memory?