...The Poems, ed. John O. Hayden, 2 vols. (London: Penguin Books, 1977), 1:867-96; here pp. 870-71. 46. "The most effective of these causes are the great...rapid communication of intelligence hourly gratifies" (ibid., pp. 872-73). 47. "The Man of Science seeks truth as a remote and unknown benefactor; he cherishes...

...combined force to blunt the discriminating powers of the mind, and unfitting it for all voluntary exertion to reduce it to a state of almost savage torpor. The...national events which are daily taking place, and the encreasing accumulation of men in cities, where the uniformity of their occupations produces a craving...

...cities is bad for the mind. "The discriminating powers of the mind" are being "blunted" in part by "the increasing accumulation of men in cities, where...rapid communication of intelligence hourly gratifies." Like Gray, Wordsworth often associates the sublime with mountains. In 1809 he wrote a Guide to the...

...national events," like the French Revolution, and in great social changes brought about by urbanization ("the increasing accumulation of men in cities, where...occupations produces a craving for extraordinary incident") and by "the rapid communication of intelligence" (through the nascent mass media). These historical...

...force to blunt the discriminating powers of the mind, and, unfitting it for all voluntary exertion, to reduce it to a state of almost savage torpor. The...rapid communication of intelligence hourly gratifies [through newspapers] [...] The invaluable works of our elder writers [...] are driven into neglect...

...Ballads [ 1 800], p. 249. the great national events which are daily taking place, and the encreasing accumulation of men in cities, where the uniformity...which the rapid communication of intelligence hourly gratifies.94 One such commentator claimed that the metropolitan setting enabled 'large bands of labourers',...