I have often applied to idiots, in my own mind, that sublime expression of Scripture that ’their life is hidden with God.’ They are worshipped, probably from a feeling of this sort, in several parts of the East.  Among the Alps, where they are numerous, they are considered, I believe, as a blessing to the family to which they belong.  I have, indeed, often looked upon the conduct of fathers and mothers of the lower classes of society towards idiots as the great triumph of the human heart.  It is there that we see the strength, disinterestedness, and grandeur of love; nor have I ever been able to contemplate an object that calls out so many excellent and virtuous sentiments without finding it hallowed thereby, and having something in me which bears down before it, like a deluge, every feeble sensation of disgust and aversion.

There are, in my opinion, several important mistakes in the latter part of your letter which I could have wished to notice; but I find myself much fatigued.  These refer both to the Boy and the Mother.  I must content myself simply with observing that it is probable that the principal cause of your dislike to this particular poem lies in the word Idiot.  If there had been any such word in our language, to which we had attached passion, as lack-wit, half-wit, witless, &c., I should have certainly employed it in preference; but there is no such word.  Observe (this is entirely in reference to this particular poem), my ‘Idiot’ is not one of those who cannot articulate, and such as are usually disgusting in their persons: 

    Whether in cunning or in joy,
    And then his words were not a few, &c._

and the last speech at the end of the poem.  The ‘Boy’ whom I had in my mind was by no means disgusting in his appearance, quite the contrary; and I have known several with imperfect faculties, who are handsome in their persons and features.  There is one, at present, within a mile of my own house, remarkably so, though [he has something] of a stare and vacancy in his countenance.  A friend of mine, knowing that some persons had a dislike to the poem, such as you have expressed, advised me to add a stanza, describing the person of the Boy [so as] entirely to separate him in the imaginations of my readers from that class of idiots who are disgusting in their persons; but the narration in the poem is so rapid and impassioned, that I could not find a place in which to insert the stanza without checking the progress of it, and [so leaving] a deadness upon the feeling.  This poem has, I know, frequently produced the same effect as it did upon you and your friends; but there are many also to whom it affords exquisite delight, and who, indeed, prefer it to any other of my poems.  This proves that the feelings there delineated are such as men may sympathise with.  This is enough for my purpose.  It is not enough for me as a Poet, to delineate merely such feelings as all men do sympathise with; but it is also highly desirable to add to these others, such as all men may sympathise with, and such as there is reason to believe they would be better and more moral beings if they did sympathise with.