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Book, page 191 / 276 Swainish, coarse, and nothing worth, these moments of exaltation pass, and the singer finds himself a mere man, with an unusually rich sensuous nature, Eager for good, not hating ill; On his tense chords all strokes are felt, The good, the bad, with equal zeal. It is not unheard-of to find a poet who, despite occasional expressions of confidence in the power of beauty to sustain him, loses his courage at other times, and lays down a system of rules for his guidance that is quite as strict as any which puritans could formulate. Wordsworth's _Ode to Duty_ does not altogether embody the aesthetic conception of effortless right living. One may, perhaps, explain this poem on the grounds that Wordsworth is laying down principles of conduct, not for poets, but for the world at large, which is blind to aesthetic principles. Not thus, however, may one account for the self-tortures of Arthur Clough, or of Christina Rossetti, who was fully aware of the disagreeableness of the standards which she set up for herself. She reflected grimly, Does the road wind uphill all the way? Yes, to the very end! Will the day's journey take the whole long day? From morn till night, my friend. [Footnote: _Uphill._] It cannot be accidental, however, that wherever a poet voices a stern conception of virtue, he is a poet whose sensibility to physical beauty is not noteworthy. This is obviously true in the case of both Clough and Christina Rossetti. At intervals it was true of Wordsworth, whereas in the periods of his inspiration he expressed his belief that goodness is as a matter of good taste. The pleasures of the imagination were then so intense that they destroyed in him all desire for dubious delights. Thus in the _Prelude_ he described an unconscious purification of his life by his worship of physical beauty, saying of nature, If in my youth I have been pure in heart, If, mingling with the world, I am content
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