The manuscript, unlike most of his, is largely in WORDSWORTH'S own handwriting—the earlier portion in (it is believed) partly Miss WORDSWORTH'S and partly Mrs. WORDSWORTH'S. In the 'Memoirs' this letter is quoted largely (vol. ii. pp. 136-140). It is now given completely from the manuscript itself, not without significant advantage. It does not appear whether this letter were actually sent to the Bishop of London. There is no mention of it in Bishop Blomfield's 'Life;' and hence probably it never was sent to him. In his letters there are many references to the present topics (cf. vol. iii. pp. 258-9, 263-4, &c.).
II. ETHICAL.
I. Of Legislation for the Poor, the Working Classes, and the Clergy:
Appendix to Poems, 1835.
This formed one of WORDSWORTH'S most deliberate and powerful Appendices to his Poems (1835), and has ever since been regarded as of enduring worth. It has all the Author's characteristics of deep thinking, imaginative illustration, intense conviction and realness. Again, accept or dissent, this State Paper (so to say) is specially Wordsworthian.
It seems only due to WORDSWORTH to bear in recollection that, herein and elsewhere, he led the way in indicating CO-OPERATION as the remedy for the defects and conflicts in the relations between our capitalists and their operatives, or capital and labour (see the second section of the Postscript, and remember its date—1835).
II. Advice to the Young.
(a) Letter to the Editor of 'The Friend,' signed Mathetes.
(b) Answer to the Letter of Mathetes, 1809.
'Mathetes' proved to be Professor JOHN WILSON, 'eminent in the various departments of poetry, philosophy, and criticism' ('Memoirs,' i. 423), and here probably was the commencement of the long friendship between him and WORDSWORTH. As a student of WILSON'S, the Editor remembers vividly how the 'old man eloquent' used to kindle into enthusiasm the entire class as he worked into his extraordinary lectures quotations from the 'Excursion' and 'Sonnets' and 'Poems of the Imagination.' Among the letters ([vol. iii. p. 263]) is an interesting one refering to 'Advice to the Young;' and another to Professor WILSON ([ vol. ii. pp. 208-14]).
III. OF EDUCATION.
(a) On the Education of the Young: Letter to a Friend, 1806.
(b) Of the People, their Ways and Needs: Letter to Archdeacon
Wrangham, 1808.
(c) Education: Two Letters to the Rev. H.J. Rose, 1828.
(d) Education of Duty: Letter to Rev. Dr. Wordsworth, 1830.
(e) Speech on laying the Foundation-stone of the New School in the Village of Bowness, Windermere, 1836.