thought, and patient meditation. Unquestionably, however, there has been a dash of wildness, too often bordering on the fantastic and grotesque extravagancies of German romance, shading and tincturing even the finest conceptions of superlative genius, which the age-fruitful as it continues happily to be of works bearing indeed the impress of exalted abilityhas produced. I do not here presume to speak in terms of authoritative condemnation of this admitted character of modern verse; but I must be allowed to intimate, that, in my judgment, it constitutes an offence of considerable magnitude against the high and severe canons of the ars poetica.

In olden times-in the glorious youth of British song-it was far otherwise at least, among the mighty masters of the art. Let any one of strong and cultivated understanding attempt to analyze the specific constitution of the genius of Shakspeare, Spencer, or Milton; and he shall find that the very creative power which lies obvious to the most superficial contemplation of their imperishable writings, is not more essentially an element of their visible strength, than the depth and energy of reflection, the intense, abstract thought, by which it is accompanied. Some of your readers will probably be tempted, for a moment, to differ from me in the application of my remarks they may have been accustomed to suppose, that of the three unequally distinguished bards whom I have just selected as examples, the last alone affords a practical and magnificent illustration of the position which I am anxious to establish. Farther on I shall be enabled, by an unavoidable implication, to elucidate this point more fully for the present, let it suffice to observe, with respect particularly to Spencer, that the simple exhibition of abstract virtues, or forms of virtue, of vice and error and hypocrisy, in all the various shapes and changing hues of their appearance, was, in itself, a task which not merely demanded, as essential to its striking and successful execution, the finest tact in the delineation and arrangement of the several groups and figures of the picture; but which, at the same time, called for the utmost nicety of metaphysical discrimination and distinction, to identify and characterize each individual portrait. It is not to be conceived, indeed, that of all the multitudinous, the active and reacting powers of that vastly comprehending mind, imagination only was permitted to take part in the construction of the immortal fable of the Faery Queene' it is not possible to dream that the precise fitness of the sign to the thing signified, the mutual adaptation of the substance and the shadow, could be determined by the poet, any more than by an equally thoughtful admirer of his celebrated allegory, without long and scrutinizing investigation of the general idea, with all its attriVOL. III.--January, 1832. 7

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butes, and their necessary or accidental relations. But when to this consideration we add another,-that, namely, of the obligation which devolved upon the poet to humanize his characters, to invest the presentations of mere abstract qualities, the most absolute of fictions, with the vital flesh and blood of our own sentient being, so that they should pass before us on the stage, seemingly warm with the affections of our nature, and laying claim to every instinctive sympathy as living and breathing creatures, like ourselves; we come, then, to know something of the transcending force and majesty of that triumphant genius which was able both to neutralize and obviate the difficulties that incumbered its exertions, and to subdue and bend them to its own invincible will; to convert them to its own ends; and actually constrain them to assist and glorify its victorious progress.

Of Shakspeare, it would be quite irrelevant to say more than may serve to exemplify the principle for which I am contending. But it is of no slight importance to the present inquiry to note distinctly the philosophical tone and bearing of all his most elaborated dramas. This observation has reference, not so much to the innumerable passages of isolated moral beauty, the grave and pointed aphorisms, the impressive enunciations of solemn truths and memorable reasonings on matters of abstruse discussion, which are variously introduced by Shakspeare in his inimitable works; as to the informing spirit and final tendency of his more elevated compositions. It were abundantly easy to multiply examples of the singularly felicitous method which he adopted, of inculcating with conspicuous force and clearness some profound and indistinctly apprehended moral truth. The demonstrations of mathematical science are not more decisive and infallible than the processes of illustrative ratiocination which he employed. He brought home the implied, and perhaps informal propositions, which formed the argument and substance of his labour; and appealed, for their unhesitating acknowledgment and attestation, to those fundamental intuitions, arising out of native passion and experimental feeling, on which is based the fabric of all human knowledge.

Now, without attempting to elaborate these introductory remarks which, if pursued to any considerable length, might lead me into far too wide a field of discussion; let it be observed that the prevailing tendency of genius, in all its moods of deep and commanding inspiration, is, necessarily, to the revelation of that constitution of our spiritual life which has to do with the mysterious impulses of religion. Undoubtedly, there have been poets of surpassing energy, endowed with endless powers of subtlest thinking, and with immeasurable opulence

of imagery, who have looked calmly down into the black abysses of their own mighty spirits, and have conjured thence the appalling forms of spectral horror, and of terrible misgiving : men to whom the awful truths of Christianity, as imaged in the broken or distorted reflections of souls that quaked and shuddered under the heavenly influences against which they were still vainly struggling, in impotent and self-confounding rebellion, seemed but the nightmare visions of diseased imagination, or the frightfully bewildering illusions of insane and slavish folly. The specific causes of this stupendous error are by no means inexplicable. They have their origin in the persevering depravity of the moral mind; the stern and insubmissive refusal of a perverted will to undergo the holy processes of purity, and of divine purgation from those base desires of earth and things of earth, that palsy, as it were, its fitful aspirations after nobler good..

But, even in these cases of voluntary depravation, we find that all truly elevated genius, how widely soever it may have casually swerved from its legitimate and appointed purpose, still strives to fathom and explore the invisible recesses of the human soul. Its aim is, constantly to look into itself; and beyond its own immediate workings to observe the inward sources of its ever active being; to mark the wondrous combinations, the connections and analogies and mutual dependencies of intellectual and spiritual principles; to define their various eclipses and ascendencies; and, finally, to reflect upon the broad and stainless mirror of imagination, their several forms of exhibition or evolvement.

I have been led into this train of reflection, while perusing, for the third or fourth time, the fine introductory Essay of Mr. Montgomery, prefixed to his beautiful selection of English Psalms and Hymns. It is now about two years since I had first the pleasure of meeting with this unpretending little volume; and, but that commendatory reviews, from far abler hands than mine, were not wanting at the period of its publication, I should have been tempted, by my cordial admiration of the distinguished editor's talents and virtues, to turn critic myself. My approbation, however, small as may be its value, of that gentleman's mode of executing his delightful task, was not, even then, by any means, undivided. I could not be persuaded that Mr. Montgomery's general arrangement, and frequent alterations in their metrical structure of some of the finest specimens of sacred poetry in our own or any other language, were either necessary or judicious. But the feelings of dissatisfaction, if not disappointment, which have gradually taken possession of my mind, were suggested chiefly by an apprehension of certain not very palpable deficiencies in the

prefatory Essay: not that I dreamed of having discovered in the matter of that discourse any decidedly objectionable propositions, or striking and eminently censurable omissions; but because it seemed to me that Mr. Montgomery ought, on such a subject, and with his undisputed powers of energetic composition, to have written better than he has done. His introduction, I have thought, is too superficial in its criticisms; too hasty and careless in its judgments. The tone of all its observations is wanting in distinct and reasonable emphasis : nor has the writer condescended to state, with sufficient clearness, the premises from which his conclusions were deduced. It would ill become me to hazard the utterance of a suspicion, that the editor of the Christian Psalmist' had paid but small attention to the more extensive bearings of the question which he proposed to discuss. As little should I presume to insinuate that his peculiar opinions were formed without mature deliberation, or founded upon vague and unintelligible prejudices. Although I must be permitted to dissent from some of them, I do not now attack the doctrines of the Essay. As the determinate sentiments of a man of unquestionable genius,himself an artist of deserved celebrity in the same department with those, the relative value of whose works he undertakes to appraise,-I am bound to respect them. I do so cordially. But what I am now complaining of is, the absence of recorded reasons which, if they could not justify, might, at least, have given a semblance of fairness and consistency to strictures,marked, indeed, with something of judicial authority in their enunciation; but withal so independent of any obvious or acknowledged rule of critical adjudication, as to present only the substance of a few isolated dogmas for admission or denial.

With these impressions concerning Mr. Montgomery's Essay, I have judged it proper to preface my own observations by a general outline of those principles by which I shall endeavour both to try the primary question of the natural fitness of poetry, as a form of composition, for subjects of sacred character and interest; and also to determine the relative excellence, in that particular style of the art, of the few superior poets who have attempted the adaptation of verse to doctrinal theology and religious exercises.

In continuation, then, of the remarks already offered, I have a few words to add, in objection to a passage of considerable length, and which, perhaps, is as likely at first sight to command the assent of pious readers, as any other in the thirty pages of Mr. Montgomery's lecture. As the Christian Psalmist' is not in every body's possession, I shall give the author's notices on this point at length. They are as follows:

* But turning more directly to the subject of these remarks, in connection with the contents of this volume; though our elder poets, down even to the Revolution, often chose to exercise their vein on religious topics; since that time, there has been but one, who bears a great name among them, who has condescended to compose hymns, in the commonly accepted sense of that word. Addison, who has left several which may be noticed hereafter, though he ranks in the first class of prose writers, must take a place many degrees lower in verse. Cowper, therefore, stands alone among the "mighty masters" of the lyre, as having contributed a considerable number of approved and popular hymns, for the purposes of public or private devotion. Hymns, looking at the multitude and mass of them, appear to have been written by all kinds of persons except poets; and why the latter have not delighted in this department of their own art is obvious. Just in proportion as the religion of Christ is understood and taught in primitive purity, those who either believe not in its spirituality, or have not proved its converting influence, are careful to avoid meddling with it: so that, if its sacred mysteries have been less frequently and ostentatiously honored by the homage of our poets, within the last hundred and fifty years, they have been less disgraced and violated by absurd and impious associations. The offence of the cross has not ceased; nay, it exists, perhaps most inveterately, though less apparently, in those countries where the religion of the state has been refined from the gross superstitions of the dark ages; for there the humbling doctrines of the Gospel are, as of old, a stumbling block to the self-righteous, and foolishness to the wise in their own esteem. Many of our eminent poets have belonged to one or the other of these classes: it cannot be surprising, then, that they either knew not, or contemned the truth as it is in Jesus.

There is an idle prejudice, founded upon the misapprehension of a passage in Dr. Johnson's Life of Waller, and a hint of the like nature in his Life of Watts,-that sacred subjects are unfit for poetry, nay, incapable of being combined with it. That their native majesty and grace cannot be heightened by any human art or embellishment, is most freely admitted; but that verse, as well as prose, may be advantageously associated with whatsoever things are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, and of good report, in religion, we have the evidence of the Scriptures themselves, " in the law of Moses and the Prophets, and in the Psalms;" where they testify concerning Christ and his sufferings, in strains the most exalted that poesy can boast. We have evidence to the same effect in many of the most perfect and exquisite compositions of uninspired poets, both in our own and in other countries. The editor of The Christian Psalmist hopes