ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the published text to address far more traditional readings of it in terms of its content as a ‘philosophical’ work. Wordsworthian philosophy is about local links and connections between people and place, past and present, men and women, and the strength that can be drawn from this for both character and reader. Philosophy as a ‘system’ is replaced by an interactive process leading to internalised understanding of the value of a certain way of thinking. In the ‘Essay on Morals’ the reading of William Wordsworth's position can be seen to be strongly reinforced by his writing on the subject of philosophical teaching. Without being tied to the very specific structure and intentions of a theodicy, it could nevertheless be the case that the poem has a religious intention in terms of the kind of moral guidance it offers.
