A Metaheuristic Approach To Protein Structure Prediction Algorithms and Insights From Fitness Landscape Analysis 1st Edition Nanda Dulal Jana
A Metaheuristic Approach To Protein Structure Prediction Algorithms and Insights From Fitness Landscape Analysis 1st Edition Nanda Dulal Jana
A Metaheuristic Approach To Protein Structure Prediction Algorithms and Insights From Fitness Landscape Analysis 1st Edition Nanda Dulal Jana
https://textbookfull.com/product/hemoglobin-insights-into-
protein-structure-function-and-evolution-1st-edition-jay-f-storz/
https://textbookfull.com/product/introduction-to-data-science-
data-analysis-and-prediction-algorithms-with-r-1st-edition-by-
rafael-a-irizarry/
https://textbookfull.com/product/from-social-data-mining-and-
analysis-to-prediction-and-community-detection-1st-edition-
mehmet-kaya/
https://textbookfull.com/product/metaheuristic-and-evolutionary-
computation-algorithms-and-applications-hasmat-malik/
Applications of Metaheuristic Optimization Algorithms
in Civil Engineering 1st Edition A. Kaveh (Auth.)
https://textbookfull.com/product/applications-of-metaheuristic-
optimization-algorithms-in-civil-engineering-1st-edition-a-kaveh-
auth/
https://textbookfull.com/product/pragmatic-idealism-and-
scientific-prediction-a-philosophical-system-and-its-approach-to-
prediction-in-science-1st-edition-amanda-guillan-auth/
https://textbookfull.com/product/metaheuristic-algorithms-for-
image-segmentation-theory-and-applications-diego-oliva/
https://textbookfull.com/product/exploring-protein-structure-
principles-and-practice-tim-skern/
https://textbookfull.com/product/essential-algorithms-a-
practical-approach-to-computer-algorithms-using-python-and-c-
second-edition-rod-stephens/
Emergence, Complexity and Computation ECC
A Metaheuristic
Approach to
Protein Structure
Prediction
Algorithms and Insights from Fitness
Landscape Analysis
Emergence, Complexity and Computation
Volume 31
Series editors
Ivan Zelinka, Technical University of Ostrava, Ostrava, Czech Republic
e-mail: ivan.zelinka@vsb.cz
Editorial Board
Ajith Abraham, MirLabs, USA
Ana Lucia C. Bazzan, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto
Alegre, RS, Brazil
Juan C. Burguillo, University of Vigo, Spain
Sergej Čelikovský, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Czech Republic
Mohammed Chadli, University of Jules Verne, France
Emilio Corchado, University of Salamanca, Spain
Donald Davendra, Technical University of Ostrava, Czech Republic
Andrew Ilachinski, Center for Naval Analyses, USA
Jouni Lampinen, University of Vaasa, Finland
Martin Middendorf, University of Leipzig, Germany
Edward Ott, University of Maryland, USA
Linqiang Pan, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
Gheorghe Păun, Romanian Academy, Bucharest, Romania
Hendrik Richter, HTWK Leipzig University of Applied Sciences, Germany
Juan A. Rodriguez-Aguilar, IIIA-CSIC, Spain
Otto Rössler, Institute of Physical and Theoretical Chemistry, Tübingen, Germany
Vaclav Snasel, Technical University of Ostrava, Czech Republic
Ivo Vondrák, Technical University of Ostrava, Czech Republic
Hector Zenil, Karolinska Institute, Sweden
The Emergence, Complexity and Computation (ECC) series publishes new
developments, advancements and selected topics in the fields of complexity,
computation and emergence. The series focuses on all aspects of reality-based
computation approaches from an interdisciplinary point of view especially from
applied sciences, biology, physics, or chemistry. It presents new ideas and
interdisciplinary insight on the mutual intersection of subareas of computation,
complexity and emergence and its impact and limits to any computing based on
physical limits (thermodynamic and quantum limits, Bremermann’s limit, Seth
Lloyd limits…) as well as algorithmic limits (Gödel’s proof and its impact on
calculation, algorithmic complexity, the Chaitin’s Omega number and Kolmogorov
complexity, non-traditional calculations like Turing machine process and its
consequences,…) and limitations arising in artificial intelligence field. The topics
are (but not limited to) membrane computing, DNA computing, immune
computing, quantum computing, swarm computing, analogic computing, chaos
computing and computing on the edge of chaos, computational aspects of dynamics
of complex systems (systems with self-organization, multiagent systems, cellular
automata, artificial life,…), emergence of complex systems and its computational
aspects, and agent based computation. The main aim of this series it to discuss the
above mentioned topics from an interdisciplinary point of view and present new
ideas coming from mutual intersection of classical as well as modern methods of
computation. Within the scope of the series are monographs, lecture notes, selected
contributions from specialized conferences and workshops, special contribution
from international experts.
Jaya Sil
A Metaheuristic Approach
to Protein Structure
Prediction
Algorithms and Insights from Fitness
Landscape Analysis
123
Nanda Dulal Jana Jaya Sil
Department of Computer Science Department of Computer Science
and Engineering and Technology
National Institute of Technology Indian Institute of Engineering Science
Durgapur and Technology
Durgapur, West Bengal Howrah, West Bengal
India India
Swagatam Das
Indian Statistical Institute
Electronics and Communication
Sciences Unit
Kolkata, West Bengal
India
v
vi Foreword
that proteins in living systems are likely to be in constant motion. Our inability to
faithfully recapitulate the correct structure may itself be an artifact of the fuzziness
of the actual process, or our inability to capture the fitness function in a manner that
makes it possible for either physics-based or metaheuristic approaches to succeed.
While we await the exciting decades of experimental protein structural biology
ahead of us, we explore and improve our use of computers to help solve these
problems. This book by Jana, Das, and Sil continues us on that journey that Dayhoff
and others started over 50 years ago.
Proteins are the main building blocks of the dry mass of cells in living organisms.
Proteins perform a huge variety of tasks such as catalyzing certain processes and
chemical reactions, transporting molecules to and from the cell, delivering mes-
sages, sensing signals, and countless other useful functions which are essential for
the preservation of life. Protein is a macromolecule combining with amino acids
that are connected by peptide bonds. During synthesis, protein is folded into a
three-dimensional structure. However, sometimes protein may fold into an incorrect
structure (known as misfolding) leading to a protein substance with the different
properties which can be harmful to organisms. Misfolding of a protein causes many
critical human diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, cystic fibrosis, amyotrophic
lateral sclerosis, cancer, and neurodegenerative disorders. Therefore, the knowledge
of protein structure and its prediction by analyzing the amino acid sequences is a
challenging task in computational biology.
Biologists define a hierarchy of protein structures with four levels in order to
more accurately characterize the structure properties. The primary structure is
simply the linear protein chain, i.e., a sequence of amino acids. The secondary
structure is the local conformation of protein structures. There are two types of
major secondary structures, known as alpha-helix and beta-sheet. The tertiary
structure is the global three-dimensional structures. Sometimes, multiple protein
chains united together and form hydrogen bonds between each other, resulting in
the quaternary structures. Therefore, the protein structure prediction (PSP) is the
process of determining the three-dimensional structure of a protein from its
sequence of amino acids.
The experimental techniques such as X-ray crystallography and nuclear mag-
netic resonance (NMR) have been used to determine a protein structure from its
sequence of amino acids. For instance, it may take months of concerted efforts to
crystallize a single protein in order to enable X-ray diffraction methods that
determine its 3D structure. The major limitations of experimental techniques are
extremely time-consuming and labor-intensive, strict laboratory setup, and heavy
operational burdens. As a result, the gap between the protein sequences and the
known structures is increasing rapidly day by day. For example, there are 78028152
vii
viii Preface
protein sequences but the structure is known only for 117184 of them as of January
2017. Therefore, researchers from multiple disciplines and with diverse domains of
knowledge are involved in predicting protein structure from its sequence of amino
acids using computational methods.
Computational approaches have the potential to predict the structure of a protein
from its primary sequence in order to overcome the difficulties associated with the
experimental approaches. Basically, a computational technique is a process of
finding a three-dimensional structure by arranging a sequence of basic structural
elements. Depending on the database information, computational methods are
divided into three category: homology or comparative, threading or fold recogni-
tion, and ab-initio or denovo PSP. Homology modeling is based on the similarity
comparison of the sequence while threading approach is a process to thread together
likely short sub-conformation of the corresponding subsequence. These two tech-
niques fully depend on the availability of similar sequence information exists in the
database. i.e.. these are template-based methods and the results may become
unconvincing for dissimilar sequences. On the other hand, ab-initio method predicts
three-dimensional structure of a protein from its primary sequence directly based on
the intrinsic properties (namely, hydrophobic, and hydrophilic) of amino acids, so it
is a template-free approach. The concept of ab-initio method is based on the
Anfinsen’s thermodynamic hypothesis where the theory of thermodynamics states
that conformation of a protein corresponds to the global minimum free energy
surface and the conformation is called a native structure of the protein. A native
structure is a stable structure of a protein which always consumes minimum energy
among all the conformations of the protein. Therefore, ab-initio based PSP
approach is transformed into a global optimization problem where energy function
would be minimized.
The ab-initio based PSP has two important key parts. The first part is to state the
simplified mathematical model that corresponds to a protein energy function, i.e.,
the objective function. The second part is to develop a computationally efficient
searching or optimization algorithm which can find the global minimum of the
energy function. A number of a computational model have been proposed and
developed that derive the protein energy function for the PSP problem. Among
these physical models, hydrophobic-polar (HP) lattice model is a simple model
widely used for structure prediction. It can be represented in two dimension or three
dimension and consumes less computation time, but the level of accuracy of the
predicted structure is not enough to use in rational drug designing. The off-lattice
model is also a computational model that brings good interactions between amino
acid residues and their environments. The AB off-lattice is such a type of model
where amino acid residues are characterized as hydrophobic (A) and hydrophilic
(B) residues. It represents the intramolecular interactions between residues which
are connected by rigid unit length bonds, and the angles between the bonds change
freely in two or three dimension. So, the AB off-lattice model provides a structure of
a protein at much higher atomic details than the lattice model. The energy function
for the AB off-lattice model is expressed as a weighted sum of bending energy of
protein backbone, independent of the sequence. The non-bonded potential energy
Preface ix
overcome the difficulties associated with the PSP problem without imposing any
serious additional computational burden. Drop Developed Variants of particle
swarm optimization (PSO), bees algorithm (BA), biogeography-based optimization
(BBO), and harmony search (HS) algorithms are developed in order to overcome
the difficulties associated with the landscape structure while solving the PSP
problem. The proposed algorithms are compared with several state-of-the-art PSP
algorithms over many artificial and real data sets reflect the superior performance
of the proposed schemes in terms of final accuracy, speed, and robustness. We also
study the implication of the proposed hybrid technique which is configured based
on the structural features for obtaining the better minimum energy value of the PSP
problem.
The book is divided into eight chapters. Chapter 1 presents the overview of the
PSP problem and discusses the importance to the research community in the
domain of computational biology. The chapter begins with a discussion of the basic
concepts of proteins structure and gradually elaborates the various terminology
about the structure prediction of a protein. It also discusses the computational
models. Next, the chapter provides the basic fundamentals and different types of
metaheuristic algorithms. It explains some widely used metaheuristic techniques
such as DE, PSO, BA, BBO, and HS in details.
Chapter 2 presents a literature review of metaheuristic techniques based PSP, a
scope of the work and contribution to the book chapters. Initially, a critical analysis
of the existing metaheuristic techniques employed in PSP problem are presented.
Next, we explain the scope of the work. The main contributions of the book are
briefly outlined at the end of the chapter.
Chapter 3 investigates continuous fitness landscape structure with random walk
(RW) algorithm. The chapter develops two chaos-based random walk (CRW)
algorithm for generating sample points in the search space and fitness landscape is
created based on the relative fitness of the neighboring sample points. The chaotic
map is used to generate the chaotic pseudo-random numbers (CPRN) for deter-
mining variable scaled step size and direction of the proposed RW algorithm.
Histogram analysis provides better coverage of the search space by the CRW
algorithm compared to the existing random walk algorithms in the literature. The
chapter also presents empirical results over complex benchmark functions and PSP
problem to validate the efficiency of the proposed method.
Chapter 4 determines the characteristics of PSP problem or its structural features
using FLA based on which the most appropriate algorithm can be recommended for
solving the problem. The chapter describes protein landscape structure generated by
using the quasi-random sampling technique and city block distance. The structural
properties of the PSP problem are analyzed with the help of information and
statistical landscape measures. The chapter also reports an important investigation
of six well-known real-coded optimization algorithms over the same set of protein
sequences and the performances are subsequently analyzed based on the structural
features. Finally, it suggests the most appropriate algorithms for solving the PSP
problem.
Preface xi
xiii
xiv Contents
Abbreviations
ABC Artificial Bee Colony
APM Adaptive Polynomial Mutation
BA Bees Algorithm
BBO Biogeography-Based Optimization
CLPSO Comprehensive Learning Particle Swarm Optimization
CMA-ES Covariance Matrix Adaptation Evolution Strategy
CR Crossover Ratio
CRW Chaotic Random Walk
DE Differential Evolution
DMP-HS Difference Mean-based Perturbation Harmony Search
EA Evolutionary Algorithm
FDC Fitness Distance Correlation
FLA Fitness Landscape Analysis
GA Genetic Algorithm
HM Harmony Memory
HMCR Harmony Memory Considering Rate
HMS Harmony Memory Size
HP Hydrophobic-Polar
HPSODE Hybrid PSO and DE
HS Harmony Search
HSI Habitat Suitability Index
LdDE Lévy distributed Differential Evolution
NMR Nuclear Magnetic Resonance
PAR Pitch Adjusting Rate
PSL Protein Sequence Length
PSO Particle Swarm Optimization
PSOLS Particle Swarm Optimization with Local Search
PSP Protein Structure Prediction
QPSO Quantum-based Particle Swarm Optimization
xvii
xviii Abbreviations and Symbols
RW Random Work
SI Swarm Intelligence
SIV Suitability Index Variable
TS Tabu Search
TSM Tabu Search Mechanism
TSR Tabu Search Recombination
Symbols
H Hydrophobic or nonpolar amino acid
P Hydrophilic or polar amino acid
hi The ith bend angle
bi The ith torsion angle
rij The distance between ith and jth amino acid of the chain
ni The ith amino acid
tmax The maximum generations or iterations
xi;t The ith vector at tth generation
xmin
j The lower bound of the jth component of a vector
xmax
j The upper bound of the jth component of a vector
D Dimensions of the problem
NP The population size
ki The ith immigration rate
li The ith emigration rate
vi ðtÞ The velocity of the ith particle at generation t
x An inertia weight
F Fitness landscape
x Vector
fi The ith fitness value
N/ ðxi Þ Neighborhood of xi
x The global minimum
R
P Real number
Q Sum
Product
List of Figures
xix
xx List of Figures
Fig. 3.10 Mean of HðeÞ over different values of e for all the functions
in 20-dimension using CCRW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 70
Fig. 3.11 Mean of HðeÞ over different values of e for all the functions
in 30-dimension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 77
Fig. 3.12 Ruggedness characteristics for selected benchmark functions
in different dimensions using four random walk algorithms . . .. 81
Fig. 3.13 Ruggedness characteristics for real protein sequences over
different values of e using four RW algorithms. . . . . . . . . . . . .. 84
Fig. 4.1 An example of a rugged landscape structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 90
Fig. 4.2 An example of a funnel landscape structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 94
Fig. 4.3 Distributions of pseudo random sampling and quasi
random sampling. The quasi random sampling points
do not form clusters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 96
Fig. 4.4 Mean entropy, HðeÞ for ASs in 2D model: a AS1 - AS6 2 GA1 ,
b AS6 - AS10 2 GA2 , c AS11 - AS19 2 GA3 , d AS20 - AS25
2 GA4 , e AS26 - AS35 2 GA5 and f AS2, AS8, AS18, AS22
and AS35 taken from each group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Fig. 4.5 Mean entropy, HðeÞ for RSs in 2D model: a RS1 - RS6 2 GR1 ,
b RS7 - RS12 2 GR2 , c RS13 - RS17 2 GR3 , d RS18 - RS23
2 GR4 , e RS24 - RS30 2 GR5 and a RS3, RS9, RS15, RS22
and RS28 taken from each group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Fig. 4.6 Mean partial information content measure, MðeÞ curves for
artificial protein sequences in 2D AB off-lattice model:
a AS1 - AS6 2 GA1 , b AS6 - AS10 2 GA2 , c AS11 - AS19
2 GA3 , d AS20 - AS25 2 GA4 , e AS26 - AS35 2 GA5
and f AS2, AS8, AS18, AS22 and AS35 taken from
each group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Fig. 4.7 Mean partial information content measure, MðeÞ curves for real
protein sequences in 2D AB off-lattice model: a RS1 - RS6
2 GR1 , b RS7 - RS12 2 GR2 , c RS13 - RS17 2 GR3 ,
d RS18 - RS23 2 GR4 , e RS24 - RS30 2 GR5 and a RS3, RS9,
RS15, RS22 and RS28 taken from each group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Fig. 4.8 Scatter plots of fitness versus distance to the global minimum
ðX Þ for artificial protein sequence in 2D AB off-lattice model:
a AS4 with length 23, b AS7 with lenght 34, c AS21 with
lenght 50, d AS24 with lenght 60, e AS34 with lenght 64
and f AS2, AS8, AS18, AS22 and AS35 taken
from each group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Fig. 4.9 Scatter plots of fitness versus distance to the global minimum
ðx Þ for real protein sequences in 2D AB off-lattice model:
a RS1 with lenght 13, b RS10 with lenght 25, c RS15 with
lenght 29, d RS23 with lenght 46, e RS30 with lenght 98
and f RS3, RS9, RS15, RS22 and RS28 taken
from each group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
List of Figures xxi
Fig. 4.18 Scatter plots of fitness versus distance to the global minimum
ðX Þ for artificial protein sequences in 3D AB off-lattice
model: a AS4 with lenght 23, b AS7 with lenght 34, c AS21
with lenght 50, d AS24 with lenght 60, e AS34 with lenght 64
and f AS2, AS8, AS18, AS22 and AS35 taken
from each group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Fig. 4.19 Scatter plots of fitness versus distance to the global minimum
ðX Þ for real protein sequence in 3D AB off-lattice model:
a RS1 with lenght 13, b RS10 with lenght 25, c RS15 with
lenght 29, d RS23 with lenght 46, e RS30 with lenght 98
and f RS3, RS9, RS15, RS22 and RS28 taken
from each group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Fig. 4.20 Correlograms for artificial protein sequences in 3D AB
off-lattice model: a AS1 - AS6 2 GA1 , b AS6 - AS10 2 GA2 ,
c AS11 - AS19 2 GA3 , d AS20 - AS25 2 GA4 , e AS26 - AS35
2 GA5 and f AS2, AS8, AS18, AS22 and AS35 taken from
each group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Fig. 4.21 Correlograms for real protein sequences in 3D AB off-lattice
model: a RS1 - RS6 2 GR1 , b RS7 - RS12 2 GR2 ,
c RS13 - RS17 2 GR3 , d RS18 - RS23 2 GR4 , e RS24 - RS30
2 GR5 and a RS3, RS9, RS15, RS22 and RS28 taken from
each group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Fig. 4.22 Dispersion for artificial protein sequences in 3D AB off-lattice
model: a AS1 - AS6 2 GA1 , b AS6 - AS10 2 GA2 ,
c AS11 - AS19 2 GA3 , d AS20 - AS25 2 GA4 , e AS26 - AS35
2 GA5 and f AS2, AS8, AS18, AS22 and AS35 taken from
each group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Fig. 4.23 Dispersion for real protein sequences in 3D AB off-lattice
model: a RS1 - RS6 2 GR1 , b RS7 - RS12 2 GR2 ,
c RS13 - RS17 2 GR3 , d RS18 - RS23 2 GR4 , e RS24 - RS30
2 GR5 and a RS3, RS9, RS15, RS22 and RS28 taken from
each group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Fig. 4.24 Convergence curve of algorithms for ASs in 2D AB off-lattice
model: a AS1 with length 13, b AS6 with length 25, c AS8
with length 36, d AS15 with length 48, e AS23 with length 58
and f AS35 with length 64 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Fig. 4.25 Convergence curve of algorithms for RSs in 2D AB off-lattice
model: a RS1 with length 13, b RS8 with length 24, c RS15
with length 29, d RS22 with length 38, e RS26 with length 64
and f RS30 with length 98 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Fig. 4.26 Convergence curve of algorithms for ASs in 3D AB off-lattice
model: a AS1 with length 13, b AS6 with length 25, c AS8
with length 36, d AS15 with length 48, e AS23 with length 58
and f AS35 with length 64 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
List of Figures xxiii
xxv
xxvi List of Tables
xxix
Chapter 1
Backgrounds on Protein Structure
Prediction and Metaheuristics
1.1 Introduction
Proteins are the main building blocks of dry mass cells in all living organisms. All
cell activities are performed with the help of proteins. Proteins are complex macro-
molecules combining with amino acids that are connected by peptide bonds. During
synthesis, an individual protein is folded into a three-dimensional structure [1], pro-
vides essential biological functions and properties which are playing important role in
biological science, medicine, drug design and carries disease prediction, pharmaceu-
ticals and much more [2, 3]. Sometimes, proteins may fold into an incorrect structure
(known as misfolding) leads to a protein with the different properties which can be
harmful to the organisms [4–8]. The knowledge of protein structure is, therefore,
crucial in protein research.
Biologists have defined a hierarchy of protein structures with four levels in order
to better characterize the structure properties. The primary structure is simply the
linear protein chain, i.e. a sequence of amino acids. The secondary structure is
the local conformation of protein structures. There are three types of major sec-
ondary structures, known as alpha-helix, beta-sheet, and coils (or loops). The tertiary
structure is the global three-dimensional structures. Sometimes, multiple protein
chains unit together and form hydrogen bonds between each other, resulting in the
quaternary structures. Thus, the protein structure prediction (PSP) is the meaning of
determining the three-dimensional structure of a protein from its primary structure
i.e. a sequence of amino acids.
In general, the experimental techniques such as X-ray crystallography and Nuclear
Magnetic Resonance (NMR) have been used to determine a protein structure from
its sequence of amino acids [9, 10]. However, these experimental techniques are not
always feasible due to very expensive, time-consuming, strict laboratory require-
ments and heavy operational burdens [11]. As a result, the gap between the protein
sequences and the known structures are increasing rapidly day by day [12]. For
example, there are 78028152 protein sequences but the structure is known only for
117184 of them as of January 2017 [13]. As a rough estimation of a protein structure
is usually more useful than no structure at all, a number of computational methods
have been developed for PSP in the last two decades [14–16].
The computational approaches are based on utilization of computer resources
and free from laboratory activities. These methods have the potential to correlate
and predict the structure of a protein from its primary sequence in order to overcome
the difficulties associated with the experimental approaches. Based on template or
template-free modeling, computational approaches are dived into three category [15]:
homology or comparative modeling, threading or fold recognition and ab-initio or
denovo method. Homology modeling is based on the similarity comparison of the
sequence while threading approach is a process to thread together likely short sub-
conformation of the corresponding sub-sequence. These two techniques are totally
depended on the availability of similar sequence in the database i.e. these are template
based methods and the results may become unconvincing for dissimilar sequences
[17]. Consequently, the ab-initio method predicts three-dimensional structure of an
individual protein from its primary sequence directly based on intrinsic properties
(namely, hydrophobic and hydrophilic) of amino acids i.e. template-free approach.
The concept of ab-initio structure prediction method is based on the Anfinsen’s
thermodynamic hypothesis where the theory of thermodynamics [18] states that con-
formation of a protein corresponds to the global minimum free energy surface which
is called a native structure of the protein. Thus, a native structure is a stable structure
of a protein which always consume minimum energy among all the conformations
of the protein. Therefore, PSP based on ab-initio approach can be transformed into
a global optimization problem where energy function would be minimized.
The ab-initio based protein structure prediction has two important key parts. The
first part is to state the simplified mathematical model that corresponds to a protein
energy function. The second part is to develop a computationally efficient optimiza-
tion algorithm which can find the global minimum of the potential energy function.
A number of simplified models that derived the protein energy function for the PSP
have been proposed in [19–22]. The simplest computational model for the PSP prob-
lem is known as Hydrophobic-Polar (HP) or lattice model, both are two and three
dimensions. Another widely used physical model that extended from former model
known as the AB off-lattice model. The off-lattice model reveals the structure of pro-
teins at much higher atomic details and represents in both two and three dimensions
[21]. Unfortunately, the models are used in computational techniques that belong to
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
GRASMERE.
The wandering minstrel and his sister—that great-hearted, most beautiful,
and devoted sister, whom we cannot help loving so devoutly,—went in the
spring of 1799 to visit their friends, the Hutchinsons, at Stockton-on-Tees,
and remained there, with occasional exceptions, until the close of the year.
Here dwelt Miss Mary Hutchinson, for whom the poet had begun to
conceive such passion as he was capable of from the time of her visit to him
and his sister, at Alfoxden. For although Dr. Wordsworth is silent also
respecting this visit, De Quincy tells us that it actually took place.—And
now the lovers—in their saturnine way—had leisure to cement their
attachment, and what is more, they took advantage of it, as their subsequent
marriage, about the commencement of the present century, sufficiently
proves.—Many other things, however, occupied the poet’s attention beside
this, and we find him, September 20, planning another tour, and this time
through the lake district, with his friends Cottle and Coleridge. It was the
first time that the latter had seen the lake country, and he, in writing to Miss
Wordsworth, thus speaks of it:—
“At Temple Sowerby we met your brother John, who accompanied us to
Hawes-water, Ambleside, and the divine sisters, Rydal and Grasmere. Here
we stayed two days. We accompanied John over the fork of Helvellyn, on a
day when light and darkness co-existed in contiguous masses, and the earth
and sky were but one. Nature lived for us in all her grandest accidents. We
quitted him by a wild turn, just as we caught a sight of the gloomy
Ullswater.
“Your brother John is one of you; a man who hath solitary usings of his
own intellect, deep in feelings, with a subtle tact, a swift instinct of truth
and beauty; he interests me much.
“You can feel what I cannot express for myself, how deeply I have been
impressed by a world of scenery, absolutely new to me. At Rydal and
Grasmere I received, I think, the deepest delight; yet Hawes-water, through
many a varying view, kept my eyes dim with tears; and the evening
approaching, Derwent-water, in diversity of harmonious features, in the
majesty of its beauties, and in the beauty of its majesty ... and the black
crags close under the snowy mountains, whose snows were pinkish with the
setting sun, and the reflections from the rich clouds that floated over some,
and rested over others!—it was to me a vision of a fair country: why were
you not with us?”
It was in this tour that Wordsworth resolved to settle at Grasmere. First
he thought of building a house by the lake side, and to enable him to do
this, his brother John offered to give him £40 to buy the land. There was a
small house to let, however, at Grasmere, which, after much deliberation
with his sister, he finally hired, and the two inseparables entered upon it on
St. Thomas’s Day, 1799.
One of the very finest of all Wordsworth’s letters—written to Coleridge
four days after the settlement at Grasmere—details, with a graphic and truly
poetic power, the wanderings of the sister and brother from Sockburn to
their new home. It is too long, however, to quote here, and for a perusal of it
the reader is referred to the Memoirs.[H]
The poet lived at Grasmere with his sister for eight years.[I] “The
cottage,” says Dr. Wordsworth, in which Wordsworth and his sister took up
their abode, and which still retains the form it wore then, stands on the right
hand, by the side of what was then the coach road, from Ambleside to
Keswick, as it enters Grasmere, or, as that part of the village is called,
“Town End.” The front of it faces the lake; behind is a small plot of orchard
and garden-ground, in which there is a spring, and rocks; the enclosure
shelves upward towards the woody sides of the mountain above it.—Many
of his poems, as the reader will remember, are associated with this fair spot:
In the first book of the “Recluse,” still unpublished, he thus expresses his
feelings in settling in this house at Grasmere, and in looking down from the
hills which embosom the lake.
All this is a burst of quiet, yet beautiful, and almost ecstatic, enthusiasm
—the like of which is not to be met with elsewhere, I think, in poetry.
Surely, Wordsworth was worthy of his sweet cottage, and sweeter and
dearer sister, and his glorious lake, with its one green island,—his
mountains, and woods, and dales,—his church, and the cottages, “clustered
like stars,” around it; for he had the great heart, and large brain, which
Nature makes the condition for all those who would share her communion.
And, then, his tastes were so simple, natural, and unaffected; he lived so
close to Nature, and knew so many of her secrets, and loved her too, with
the passion of a first and only love. Yes, surely, he was worthy of all he
enjoyed.
During the three years which elapsed, between the poet’s entering upon
the cottage at Grasmere, and his marriage, he was very industriously, and
even laboriously, employed in cultivating his art; for he had resolved that
poetry should be the business and not the pastime of his life. We find
Coleridge urging him to continue the “Recluse,”—by which he meant, as
Dr. Wordsworth informs us, the “Prelude;”—in the summer of 1799, and
again in October of the same year, he says he will hear of nothing else but
the “Recluse;” for in the mood he was in at that time, he was wholly against
the publication of any small poems. He desired that his friend should build,
what my friend J. H. Stirling calls an “Opus;” but Wordsworth, though still
at work upon the foundations of his opus, cannot rest without making little
oratories—holy cells—in the pauses of his labour. Hence a new volume of
poems was soon ready for publication; and as the 12mo. edition of the
“Lyrical Ballads,” was by this time exhausted, Wordsworth determined to
reprint them, and add this new volume to the work, calling the two
conjointly “Lyrical Ballads, in two Volumes.” The pieces now presented to
the public, included some of his finest lyrical effusions. Amongst others,
“Lucy Gray,” “Nutting,” “The Brothers,” “Ruth,” “Poor Susan,” “The
Waterfall, and the Eglantine.” This new edition was published, in 1800, by
Messrs. Longmans, who offered the poet £100 for two editions of the two
volumes.
In 1801, Wordsworth presented a copy of the “Lyrical Ballads” to the
Right Hon. C. J. Fox, accompanied by a characteristic letter; in reply to
which, Mr. Fox expresses his high admiration of many of the poems,
particularly of “Harry Gill,” “We are Seven,” “The Mad Mother,” and “The
Idiot Boy.” Mr. Fox, however, takes exception to blank verse, as a vehicle
for subjects which are to be treated with simplicity.
Other poems of deep interest succeeded these new lyrics; and I will
name “The Leech Gatherer,” and the “Ode to Immortality,” because these
poems have always been great favourites with me; and, further, because I
wish to add here the notes which the poet has furnished respecting them.
And first of all “The Leech Gatherer:”—speaking of this poem to his
friends he says,—
“I will explain to you in prose, my feelings in writing that poem. I
describe myself as having been exalted to the highest pitch of delight by the
joyousness and beauty of Nature; and then as depressed, even in the midst
of these beautiful objects, to the lowest dejection and despair. A young poet
in the midst of the happiness of Nature is described as overwhelmed by the
thoughts of the miserable reverses which have befallen the happiest of all
men—viz., poets. I think of this till I am so deeply impressed with it, that I
consider the manner in which I was rescued from my dejection and despair
almost as an interposition of Providence. A person reading the poem with
feelings like mine, will have been awed and controlled, expecting
something spiritual or supernatural. What is brought forward? A lonely
place, ‘a pond by which an old man was, far from all house and home;’ not
stood, nor sat, but was. The figure presented in the most naked simplicity
possible. This feeling of spirituality or supernaturalness is again referred to
as being strong in my mind in this passage. How came he here? thought I,
or what can he be doing? I then describe him, whether ill or well is not for
me to judge with perfect confidence; but this I can confidently affirm, that
though I believe God has given me a strong imagination, I cannot conceive
a figure more impressive than that of an old man like this, the survivor of a
wife and children, travelling alone among the mountains, and all lonely
places, carrying with him his own fortitude in the necessities which an
unjust state of society has laid upon him. You speak of his speech as
tedious. Everything is tedious when one does not read with the feelings of
the author. The ‘Thorn’ is tedious to hundreds; and so is the ‘Idiot Boy.’ It
is in the character of the old man to tell his story, which an impatient reader
must feel tedious. But, good heavens! should he ever meet such a figure in
such a place; a pious, self-respecting, miserably infirm old man telling such
a tale!”
Having thus shown the feelings of the poet in writing “The Thorn,” I
will quote, secondly and lastly, the note to the celebrated “Ode.” “This,” he
says, “was composed during my residence at Town End, Grasmere. Two
years at least passed between the writing of the first four stanzas and the
remaining part. To the attentive and competent reader the whole sufficiently
explains itself; but there may be no harm in adverting here to particular
feelings or experiences of my own mind on which the structure of the poem
partly rests. Nothing was more difficult for me in childhood than to admit
the notion of death as a state applicable to my own being. I have said
elsewhere—
“A simple child
That lightly draws its breath,
And feels its life in every limb,
What should it know of death?”
But it was not so much from the source of animal vivacity that my
difficulties came, as from a source of the indomitableness of the spirit
within me. I used to brood over the stories of Enoch and Elijah, and almost
to persuade myself that, whatever might become of others, I should be
translated in something of the same way to heaven. With a feeling congenial
to this, I was often unable to think of external things as having externally
existence, and I communed with all that I saw as something not apart from,
but inherent in my own immaterial nature. Many times, when going to
school, have I grasped at a wall or tree to recall myself from this abyss of
idealism to the reality. At that time I was afraid of such processes. In later
periods of life I have deplored, as we have all reason to do, a subjugation of
an opposite character, and have rejoiced over the remembrances, as is
expressed in the lines “Obstinate Questionings,” &c. To that dream-like
vividness of splendour which invests objects of sight in childhood, every
one, I believe, if he would look back, could bear testimony, and I need not
dwell upon it here; but having in the poem regarded it as presumptive
evidence of a prior state of existence, I think it right to protest against such
a conclusion which has given pain to some good and pious persons, that I
meant to inculcate such a belief. It is far too shadowy a notion to be
recommended to faith as more than an element in our instincts of
immortality. But let us bear in mind that, though the idea is not advanced in
revelation, there is nothing there to contradict it, and the fall of man
presents an analogy in its favour. Accordingly, a pre-existent state has
entered into the popular creeds of many nations, and among all persons
acquainted with classic literature is known as an ingredient in Platonic
philosophy. Archimedes said that he could move the world if he had a point
whereon to rest his machine. Who has not felt the same aspirations as
regards the world of his own mind? Having to wield some of its elements
when I was impelled to write this poem on the ‘Immortality of the Soul,’ I
took hold of the notion of pre-existence, as having sufficient foundation in
humanity for authorising me to make for my purpose the best use of it I
could as a poet.”
Now, in this note, and in the “Ode” which it illustrates, will be found the
key to all Wordsworth’s philosophy, and to the secret of his mind as a poet.
The mystic spiritualism which imbues all his writings, is the great
distinguishing feature which marks and separates him from merely didactic
and descriptive poets; and, were this element wanting in him, we should
have a fine reporter of Nature’s doings—a fine painter of objective effects
—but no creator—no idealist, and therefore, properly speaking, no poet, in
the high signification of that term. Luckily, however, for Wordsworth and
for the world, he possessed the spiritual faculty, and kept it always active;
so that his eye, even in the presence of the meanest objects, was open to the
ideal things of which the symbols they were. The infinite was ever present
to his mind, and he saw all objects through that medium of light and
relationship. But the great band of critics outside the fine region in which
Wordsworth dwelt, could not of course understand this “Ode,” or the
general tone of Wordsworth’s poetry, and therefore they denounced it, as
incomprehensible, mystic, and absurd. But because they had no faculty with
which to appreciate spiritual representation, or even to believe in spirituality
as a fact belonging to the nature of man, that was no reason in the
estimation of our poet, that he should cease to sing his wonted strains in his
wonted manner. In alluding to this depreciation of his poems, he very
sorrowfully says, somewhere in his letters or notes, that it is a fact that
“nineteen out of every twenty persons are unable to appreciate poetry;” and
we are bound to confess that this hard judgment is truth. Even the better sort
of “Reviews,” in which we should have expected at least a recognition of
the genius and noble aims of the poet, stood out dead against him; and
Jeffrey’s “This will never do,” in speaking of “The Excursion,” shows how
blindly bigotted and intolerant were such critics in those days. As a sample
of the abuse, and utter want of judgment which characterised Wordsworth’s
critics, take the following anecdotes, which are recorded by the writer on
“Wordsworth,” (Chamber’s Tracts) as a good joke, or I will hope, as a
picture of the folly of the time.
“A writer in Blackwood for November, 1829, gives an amusing sketch of
a party where the ‘Intimations of Immortality,’ revered by the initiated as
the ‘Revelation,’ was read aloud by a true disciple, in a kind of
unimaginable chant then peculiar to the sect. There were one or two
believers present, with a few neophytes, and one or two absolute and
wicked sceptics! No sooner had the recitation fairly commenced, than one
of the sceptics, of laughing propensities, crammed his handkerchief half-
way down his throat; the others looked keen and composed: the disciples
groaned, and the neophytes shook their heads in deep conviction.’ The
reciter proceeded with deeper unction, till on being asked by a neophyte to
give an explanation, which he was unable to give, he got angry, and
‘roundly declared, that things so out of the common way, so sublime, and so
abstruse, could be conveyed in no language but their own. When the reciter
came to the words, ‘Callings from us,’ the neophyte again timidly requested
an explanation, and was informed by one of the sceptics, that they meant
the child’s transitory gleams of a glorious pre-existence, that fall away and
vanish almost as soon as they appear. The obstinate neophyte only replied,
in a tone of melancholy, ‘When I think of my childhood, I have only visions
of traps and balls, and whippings. I never remember being “haunted by the
eternal mind.” To be sure I did ask a great many questions, and was
tolerably obstinate, but I fear these are not the “obstinate questionings” of
which Mr. Wordsworth speaks.’ This is but a small sample of the
Wordsworthian scenes and disputations then of every-day occurrence. In
1816 a kind of shadow of Horace Smith again took the field. It seems that
Hogg intended to publish an anthology of the living British bards, and had
written to some of them for specimens. A wag, who had heard of the
project, immediately issued an anthology, purporting to be this, but
containing merely the coinage of his own brain. As may be imagined,
Wordsworth occupied a prominent corner; and indeed some of the
imitations—for most were imitations rather than parodies—did him no
discredit. ‘The Flying Tailor,’ however, was not an infelicitous burlesque of
the poet’s blank verse:—
“Ere he was put
By his mother into breeches, Nature strung
The muscular part of his anatomy
To an unusual strength; and he could leap,
All unimpeded by his petticoats,
Over the stool on which his mother sat,
More than six inches—o’er the astonished stool!”
Enough, however, has been said about these critics, for the present, at
least. Wordsworth’s was a struggle to get for poetry, once more, a true
utterance; to annihilate the old dead, mechanical form which it had for the
most part assumed, from the time of Pope downwards to him; for although
Burns and Cowper had sounded the first trumpet in this morning of the
resurrection, it was reserved for Wordsworth to awake the dead, and infuse
into them a new and living soul.
During the residence of the poet at Grasmere, his sister kept a diary of
the proceedings of their little household, which, with Wordsworth’s letters,
are the chief biographical records of this period, respecting the poet himself.
The following extracts will give some idea of the calm and beautiful life
which they led together:—
“As we were going along, we were stopped at once, at the distance,
perhaps of fifty yards from our favourite birch-tree; it was yielding to the
gust of wind, with all its tender twigs; the sun shone upon it, and it glanced
in the wind like a flying sunshiny shower; it was a tree in shape, with a stem
and branches, but it was like a spirit of water....
When we were in the woods before Gowbarrow Park, we saw a few
daffodils close to the water-side.... As we went along there were more, and
yet more; and at last, under the boughs of the trees, we saw there was a long
belt of them along the shore. I never saw daffodils so beautiful. They grew
among the mossy stones about them; some rested their heads on these
stones, as on a pillow; the rest tossed, and reeled, and danced, and seemed
as if they verily laughed with the wind, they looked so gay and glancing.”
The poet was frequently indebted to this beautiful sister for the material
of his poems; and many of the minor pieces are a musical transformation of
her descriptions of natural scenery, and the feelings with which she beheld
it. The poem of “The Beggars” is an instance of this; and if the reader will
peruse “The Daffodils,” and compare it with Miss Wordsworth’s description
of these fair flowers, as quoted above, he will perhaps discover how much
the poet is indebted to her, in this instance also. Here is the poem.
But strange it is to tell, that in these eyes of vesper gentleness, there was
a considerable obliquity of vision; and much beyond that slight obliquity
which is often supposed to be an attractive foible of the countenance; and
yet though it ought to have been displeasing or repulsive, in fact it was not.
Indeed, all faults, had they been ten times and greater, would have been
swallowed up or neutralised by that supreme expression of her features, to
the intense unity of which every lineament in the fixed parts, and every
undulation in the moving parts or play of her countenance, concurred, viz.,
a sunny benignity—a radiant perception—such as in this world De Quincy
says he never saw equalled or approached.”
Such, then, is the portrait of Mrs. Wordsworth; and now for that of
sweet, musical, romantic, true and generous Dorothy. She was much
shorter, much slighter, and perhaps in other respects as different from Mrs.
Wordsworth in personal characteristics as could have been wished for the
most effective contrast. “Her face was of Egyptian brown: rarely in a
woman of English birth had a more determined gipsy tan been seen. Her
eyes were not soft, as Mrs. Wordsworth’s, nor were they fierce or bold; but
they were wild and startling, and hurried in their motion. Her manner was
warm, and even ardent; her sensibility seemed constitutionally deep; and
some subtle fire of impassioned intellect apparently burned within her,
which, being alternately pushed forward into a conspicuous expression by
the irrepressible instinct of her temperament, and then immediately checked
in obedience to the decorum of her sex and age, and her maidenly condition
(for she had rejected all offers of marriage, out of pure sisterly regard to her
brother, and subsequently to her sister’s children) gave to her whole
demeanour and to her conversation, an air of embarrassment and even of
self conflict, that was sometimes distressing to witness. Even her very
utterance, and enunciation often, or rather generally, suffered in point of
clearness and steadiness, from the agitation of her excessive organic
sensibility, and perhaps from some morbid irritability of the nerves. At
times the self-contracting and self-baffling of her feelings, caused her even
to stammer, and so determinedly to stammer, that a stranger who should
have seen her, and quitted her in that state of feeling, would have certainly
set her down for one plagued with that infirmity of speech, as distressingly
as Charles Lamb himself.... The greatest deductions from Miss
Wordsworth’s attractions, and from the exceeding interest which
surrounded her in right of her character, her history, and the relation which
she fulfilled towards her brother, was the glancing quickness of her
motions, and other circumstances in her deportment—such as her stooping
attitude when walking, which gave an ungraceful, and even an unsexual
character to her appearance when out of doors. She did not cultivate the
graces which preside over the person and its carriage. But on the other hand
she was a person of very remarkable endowments intellectually; and in
addition to the other great services which she rendered to her brother, this
may be mentioned as greater than all the rest, and it was one which equally
operated to the benefit of every casual companion in a walk—viz., the
extending sympathy, always ready, and always profound, by which she
made all that one could tell her, all that one could describe, all that one
could quote from a foreign author, reverberate as it were a plusieurs
reprises to one’s own feelings, by the manifest pleasure it made upon her....
Her knowledge of literature was irregular, and not systematically built up.
She was content to be ignorant of many things; but what she knew and had
really mastered, lay where it could not be disturbed—in the temple of her
own most fervid heart.”... At the time this sketch was written, both the
ladies were about twenty-eight years old. “Miss Wordsworth,” continues De
Quincy, “had seen most of life, and even of good company; for she had
lived, when quite a girl, under the protection of a near relation at Windsor,
who was a personal favourite of the royal family, and consequently of
George the Third.” Nevertheless, De Quincy thinks that “Mrs. Wordsworth
was the more ladylike person of the two.”
The last figure, and the greatest, in this little group of portraits, is
Wordsworth’s, and it is certainly hit off, like the others, with a free and
discriminating hand.
“Wordsworth was, upon the whole, not a well-made man. His legs were
positively condemned by all the female connoisseurs in legs that De Quincy
ever heard lecture on that topic; not that they were bad in any way that
would force itself upon your notice—there was no absolute deformity about
them; and undoubtedly they had been serviceable legs, beyond the average
standard of human requisition; for with these identical legs Wordsworth
must have travelled a distance of one hundred and seventy-five to one
hundred and eighty thousand English miles,—a mode of exertion which to
him stood in the stead of wine, spirits, and all other stimulants whatever to
the animal spirits; to which he has been indebted for a life of unclouded
happiness, and even for much of what is most excellent in his writings. But
useful as they have proved themselves, the Wordsworthian legs were
certainly not ornamental; it was really a pity that he had not another pair for
evening dress parties, when no boots lend their friendly aid to mask our
imperfections from the eyes of female rigourists—the elegantes formarum
spectatrices.... But the worst part of Wordsworth’s person was the bust;
there was a narrowness and a stoop about the shoulders, which became
striking, and had an effect of meanness, when brought into close
juxtaposition with a figure of a most statuesque “order.” ... Further on, De
Quincy relates how he was walking out with Miss Wordsworth, the poet
being before them, deeply engaged in conversation with a person of fine
proportions, and towering figure,—when the contrast was so marked, and
even painful to the poet’s sister, that she could not help exclaiming: “Is it
possible? Can that be William? How very mean he looks!” “And yet,”
continues De Quincy, “Wordsworth was of a good height, just five feet ten,
and not a slender man; on the contrary, by the side of Southey, his limbs
looked thick, almost in a disproportionate degree. But the total effect of
Wordsworth’s person was always worst in a state of motion; for, according
to the remark I have heard from the county people, ‘he walked like a cade;’
a cade being a kind of insect which advances by an oblique motion. This
was not always perceptible, and in part depended (I believe) upon the
position of his arms; when either of these happened (as was very
customary) to be inserted into the unbuttoned waistcoat, his walk had a wry
or twisted appearance; and not appearance only,—for I have known it by
slow degrees gradually to edge off his companion, from the middle to the
side of the high road.’ Meantime his face—that was one which would have
made amends for greater defects of figure; it was certainly the noblest for
intellectual effect, that, De Quincy says, he ever saw. Haydon, the eminent
painter, in his great picture of Christ’s Entry into Jerusalem, has introduced
Wordsworth in the character of a disciple attending his Divine Master....
“Wordsworth’s face was of the long order, often classed as oval, ... and if
not absolutely the indigenous face of the lake district, at any rate a variety
of that face,—a modification of the original type. The head was well filled
out.... The forehead was not remarkably lofty ... but it was, perhaps,
remarkable for its breadth and expansive development. Neither were the
eyes large, ... on the contrary, they were rather small; but that did not
interfere with their effect, which at times was fine, and suitable to his
intellectual character.... The mouth and the region of the mouth—the whole
circumference of the mouth, were about the strongest feature in
Wordsworth’s face. There was nothing especially to be noticed in the mere
outline of the lips, but the swell and protrusion of the parts above and
around the mouth are noticeable.” And then De Quincy tells us why. He had
read that Milton’s surviving daughter, when she saw the crayon drawing
representing the likeness of her father, in Richardson the painter’s thick
octavo volume of Milton, burst out in a rapture of passionate admiration,
exclaiming—“This is my father! this is my dear father!” And when De
Quincy had procured this book, he saw in this likeness of Milton a perfect
portrait of Wordsworth. All the peculiarities, he says, were retained—“A
drooping appearance about the eyelids—that remarkable swell that I have
noticed about the mouth,—the way in which the hair lay upon the forehead.
In two points only there was a deviation from the rigorous truth of
Wordsworth’s features—the face was a little too short and too broad, and
the eyes were too large.—There was also a wreath of laurel about the head,
which, (as Wordsworth remarked,) disturbed the natural expression of the
whole picture; else, and with these few allowances, he also admitted that
the resemblance was, for that period of his life (but let not that restriction be
forgotten;) perfect, or, as nearly so as art could accomplish. This period was
about the year 1807.
Here, then, thanks to De Quincy, who, for these “Lake Reminiscences”
alone, is well worthy of a pension, which, had I been Prime Minister, he
should have had long ago; for no living man is more deserving of this
distinction for the service he has rendered to our literature:—here, I say, we
have portraits of the inmates of the white cottage at Grasmere; and beautiful
portraits they are. One could have wished that Dr. Wordsworth had given a
little more vitality to his biography of these inmates—that he had used his
pallet and brushes a little more freely (for he can paint, if he likes, as the
description of Rydal Mount shows); but instead of vitality, we have dry
facts—which are the mere bones of biography—and these are often strung
together with very indifferent tendons. We have no picture, for example, of
the poet’s wedded life at this time—we cannot get behind the scenes; all we
know is, that a wedding had taken place, and the good doctor tells us, that
the twain were afterwards very happy all the days of their life, just as fairy
tales wind up. There seems to be a good deal of needless reserve about this
matter; and I, for one, do not thank the greedy poet when he says, touching
his private life, that “a stranger intermeddleth not with his joy.” No one
wishes to meddle with it; but to sympathise with it, and to know how this
joy manifested itself in the little household, appear to be legitimate
demands of the curious lovers of Wordsworth, and, indeed of all curious
men, whether lovers of Wordsworth or not. But the doctor has nothing to
say on these points; and all we can gather respecting them is to be found in
the “Prelude,” and one or two other poems. Here is the extract from the
“Prelude,” expressing the poet’s feelings as he left the cottage with his sister
before his marriage:—
And in this place it will be well to give De Quincy’s sketch of the cottage
itself, where this blessed life was lived, and to share which the poet went to
fetch his bride from her father’s house:—“A little semi-vestibule between
two doors, prefaced the entrance into what might be considered the
principal room of the cottage. It was an oblong square, not above eight and
a half feet high, sixteen feet long, and twelve broad; very prettily
wainscotted, from the floor to the ceiling, with dark polished oak, slightly
embellished with carving. One window there was—a perfect and
unpretending cottage window—with little diamond panes, embowered, at
almost every season of the year, with roses; and in the summer and autumn,
with jessamine and other fragrant shrubs. From the exuberant luxuriance of
the vegetation around it, and from the dark hue of the wainscotting, this
window, though tolerably large, did not furnish a very powerful light to one
who entered from the open air.... I was ushered up a little flight of stairs—
fourteen in all—to a little dingy room, or whatever the reader chooses to
call it. Wordsworth himself has described the fire-place of this, his—
It was not fully seven feet six inches high, and in other respects of pretty
nearly the same dimensions as the rustic hall below. There was however, in
a small recess, a library of perhaps three hundred volumes, which seemed to
consecrate the nook as the poet’s study, and composing room; and so
occasionally it was.”
So far then, De Quincy; and the following poem, already alluded to, will
give an idea of the poet’s feelings respecting the bride he brought with him
to share the cottage blessedness of Grasmere.
“She was a phantom of delight,
When first she gleamed upon my sight;
A lovely apparition, sent
To be a moment’s ornament.
Her eyes as stars of twilight fair;
Like twilight too her dusky hair;
But all things else about her drawn
From May time and the cheerful dawn;
A dancing shape, an image gay,
To haunt, to startle, and waylay.