5 JANUARY 1889, Page 23

WORDSWORTH'S SENSE OF FATE.

[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR:]

St,—In your interesting article of December 22nd, 1888, on Mr. John Morley's essay on Wordsworth, you say,—" We cannot agree with Mr. Morley that Wordsworth had not rooted in him the sense of Fate, of the inexorable sequences of things, of the terrible chain that so often binds an awful end to some slight and trivial beginning.'" As I read these words, a passage from "The Borderers," which has been in my memory for more than forty years, occurred to me. As it bears closely on this subject, I venture to send it to you :—

" Action is momentary—a word, a blow, The motion of a muscle this way cr that;

Suffering is long, drear, infinite."

The passage is lengthened, but not, I think, improved, in later