the 'Courier' newspaper. In this shape it attracted the notice of no
less a reader than Sir WALTER SCOTT, who thus writes of it: 'I have read
WORDSWORTH'S lucubrations[3] in the 'Courier,' _and much agree with
him_. Alas! we want everything but courage and virtue in this desperate
contest. Skill, knowledge of mankind, ineffable unhesitating villany,
combination of movement and combination of means, are with our
adversary. We can only fight like mastiffs--boldly, blindly, and
faithfully. I am almost driven to the pass of the Covenanters, when they
told the Almighty in their prayers He should no longer be their God; and
I really believe a few Gazettes more will make me turn Turk or
infidel.'[4]

[3] Lucubrations = meditative studies. It has since deteriorated in
meaning.

[4] Lockhart's 'Life of Scott,' vol. iii. pp. 260-1 (edition, 1856).

What WORDSWORTH'S own feelings and impulses were in the composition of
the 'Convention of Cintra' are revealed with unwonted as fine passion in
his 'Letters and Conversations' (vol. iii. pp. 256-261, &c.), whither
the Reader will do well to turn, inasmuch as he returns and re-returns
therein to his standing-ground in this very remarkable and imperishable
book. The long Letters to (afterwards) Sir CHARLES W. PASLEY and
another--_never before printed_--which follow the 'Convention of Cintra'
itself, are of special interest. The Appendix of Notes, 'a portion of
the work which WORDSWORTH regarded as executed in a masterly manner, was
drawn up by De Quincey, who revised the proofs of the whole' ('Memoirs,'
i. 384). Of the 'Convention of Cintra' the (now) Bishop of Lincoln
(WORDSWORTH) writes eloquently as follows: 'Much of WORDSWORTH'S life
was spent in comparative retirement, and a great part of his poetry