The young man whose death gave occasion to this poem was named Charles Gough, and had come early in the Spring to Patterdale for the sake of angling.  While attempting to cross over Helvellyn to Grasmere he slipped from a steep part of the rock where the ice was not thawed, and perished.  His body was discovered as described in this poem.  Walter Scott heard of the accident, and both he and I, without either of us knowing that the other had taken up the subject, each wrote a poem in admiration of the dog’s fidelity.  His contains a most beautiful stanza: 

    ’How long didst thou think that his silence was slumber! 
    When the wind waved his garment how oft didst thou start!’

I will add that the sentiment in the last four lines of the last stanza of my verses was uttered by a shepherd with such exactness, that a traveller, who afterwards reported his account in print, was induced to question the man whether he had read them, which he had not.

437. *_Ode to Duty_. [XIX.]

This Ode, written in 1805, is on the model of Gray’s ‘Ode to Adversity,’ which is copied from Horace’s ‘Ode to Fortune.’

Many and many a time have I been twitted by my wife and sister for having forgotten this dedication of myself to the stern law-giver.  Transgressor indeed I have been, from hour to hour, from day to day; I would fain hope however not more flagrantly or in a worse way than most of my tuneful brethren.  But these last words are in a wrong strain.  We should be rigorous to ourselves, and forbearing, if not indulgent, to others, and if we make comparisons at all it ought to be with those who have morally excelled us. [In pencil—­But is not the first stanza of Gray’s from a chorus of Aeschylus?  And is not Horace’s Ode also modelled on the Greek?]

438. *_Character of the Happy Warrior_. [XX.]

The course of the great war with the French naturally fixed one’s attention upon the military character; and, to the honour of our country, there are many illustrious instances of the qualities that constitute its highest excellence.  Lord Nelson carried most of the virtues that the trials he was exposed to in his department of the service necessarily call forth and sustain, if they do not produce the contrary vices.  But his public life was stained with one great crime, so that, though many passages of these lines were suggested by what was generally known as excellent in his conduct, I have not been able to connect his name with the poem as I could wish, or even to think of him with satisfaction in reference to the idea of what a warrior ought to be.  For the sake of such of my friends as may happen to read this note I will add, that many elements of the character here portrayed were found in my brother John, who perished by shipwreck, as mentioned elsewhere.  His messmates used to call him ‘the Philosopher;’ from which it must be inferred that the qualities and dispositions I allude to had not escaped their notice.  He