So he through learning, and through fancy took His flight sublime; and on the loftiest top Of Fame's dread mountain sat: not soiled and worn, up, But as some bird of heavenly plumage fair, He looked, which down from higher regions came, The nations gazed, and wondered much, and praised. Confounded fell; and made debasing signs To catch his eye; and stretched, and swelled themselves Of admiration vast: and many too, Many that aimed to imitate his flight, With weaker wing, unearthly fluttering made, And gave abundant sport to after days. Great man! the nations gazed, and wondered much, And praised and many called his evil good. Wits wrote in favour of his wickedness; He died-he died of what? Of wretchedness. Of fame; drank early, deeply drank; drank draughts And all his sympathies in being died. As some ill-guided bark, well built and tall, And then retiring, left it there to rot And moulder in the winds and rains of heaven; So he, cut from the sympathies of life, And cast ashore from pleasure's boisterous surge A wandering, weary, worn, and wretched thing; A gloomy wilderness of dying thought Repined, and groaned, and withered from the earth. Ashamed to ask, and yet he needed help."-Book IV. pp. 84-87. The first image of the following passage appears to us as original as it is gorgeous and brilliant. It is worthy of Shakspeare-approaching, like some of his, the very border of ex travagance, but still not passing it, and dazzling the curious eye of criticism that would scan its propriety too strictly. "And there were too-harp! lift thy voice on high, Of Nature's scenery-and there were day Of thousand cherubim, had been shorn off, And there were moons, and stars, and darkness streaked With bloom, and fruit, and fields of hoary grain. Old wizard haunts, and dancing seats of mirth; Dark owlet nooks, and caves, and battled rocks: The breadth of ocean, sleeping on his waves."-Book V. pp.99-100. We select at random the only other extract which our limits admit of, for the purpose of exemplifying that extraordinary vigour of style for which Mr. Pollok is remarkable, and to which he never scruples to sacrifice mere elegance and a finical delicacy. Many readers may find some of his descriptions revolting and disgustful, merely from their severe accuracy-but the poet's maxim seems to be "rien n'est beau que le vrai"-and this homely strength of expression and painful minuteness of delineation in painting objects that can be properly described in no other way, is, in our opinion, an excellence of no mean order. It is one for which Spenser is eminently distinguished. "Of comely form she was, and fair of face; As honey from the comb, most large of promise, Nor wonder thou! for she was really fair; gay Were rotten: consumption licked her blood, and drank Many her haunts, they might'st have seen her now But chief she loved the scene of deep debauch, And at the shadowy twilight-in the dark [Book III. pp. 46–47. Upon the whole, we regard this volume as an accession to English literature, and as destined to attain to permanent celebrity and reputation, not, perhaps, among men of the world, but throughout the great community of Christian readers, and all whose minds have been brought by the disappointments of life, to deep and solemn reflection upon its emptiness and illusions. It ought not to be forgotten too, that it was the first elaborate production of a young man, who had come late to his studies, and whose taste might have been expected to improve much by subsequent discipline. Had he recovered his health under the glowing sky of Italy, what might not have been expected of his ripened genius ten years hence? We might have dwelt upon his faults-some peculiarities might even have been ridiculed with success, but we had no disposition to do so after a candid and attentive perusal of the whole work. ART. VII.—1. Message from the President of the United States, transmitting the information in relation to expenditures incident or relating to Internal Improvements, for the years 1824-1825. (April 3, 1826.) Washington. 1826. 2. Letter from the Secretary of War, transmitting information respecting the surveys of Roads and Canals, and of their relative importance. (February 19, 1827.) Washington. 1827. 3. Documents accompanying the President's Message to Congress at the commencement of the first Session of the Twentieth Congress. (December 4, 1827.) Washington. 1827. 4. Letter from the Secretary of War, transmitting the information and in relation to the amount deemed necessary in the execution and completion of each work of Internal Improvement specified in the Report made on the 4th of March, 1828. (April 29, 1828.) Washington. 1828. 5. Speech of the Hon. William Smith, of South-Carolina, in the Senate of the United States, on the bill making appropriation for Internal Improvements, delivered on the 11th of April, 1828. Washington, printed-Charleston, re-printed, 1828. THERE are three subjects pressing upon the public attention and feelings with an increasing power, threatening even to prostrate the fair fabric of our hopes and of our prosperity, and to obscure the lustre of that example which the United States were expected to exhibit for the instruction of mankind. It is remarkable, but it will not appear extraordinary to these who study carefully, the history and condition, and local peculiari ties of our country, that these sources of disquietude have all arisen from that improvident, we might truly say, unpropitious extension of the powers of the government, which we have had already too much reason to deprecate, which times to come may have so many causes to deplore. The framers of the Constitution gave to their new system, openly and unequivocally, all the powers which they supposed necessary to secure the safety, and ensure the welfare of the country-they gave wisely and they gave liberally. They knew also the peculiar circumstances of the several States-their various habits and domestic establishments, the difficulty, nay, the impossibility of uniting them in one consolidated government, and they prudently withheld some prerogatives. But amidst the vague and accidental expressions of an instrument, generally guarded in its phraseology, later times have culled some latent meanings, and statesmen have been found, rash or heedless enough, to call into exercise these ambiguous powers, and to put in jeopardy the happiness of the people, rather than forego the advantages which these prerogatives would afford to the administrators of the government. The Union was formed by compromise, by mutual concession, by a sense of mutual benefit. It must be preserved by discretion, by forbearance, by a regard to the mutual wants and feelings of the different members of the confederacy. It is not by requiring unconditional submission to every arbitrary exercise of disputed jurisdiction, it is not by raising the cry of treason, the common watchword of despotic governments, against all who oppose encroachment, bnt by exercising with moderation the authority actually placed in its hands, and by forbearing to press its doubtful claims on a reluctant people, that a government will continue to preserve harmony and good order among its citizens. How much more prudent and wise would it be to obtain as an amendment to the Constitution, any powers which may be considered necessary or even beneficial, than to assume them on the strength of a doubtful construction and against the opinions of a very large portion, even if that portion should be a minority of the citizens of the United States. The three subjects to which we alluded, at the commencement of this article, are the Tariff, the system of Internal Improvements, and the Slave Question. On the first, if for a time postponed, we have much to say-we hope the good sense * Majestatem minuere, est aliquid de republicâ, cum potestatem non habeas, administrare. Cic. de inventione, lib. ii. c. 18. According, therefore, to this accurate definition of Cicero, it is he who enacts an unconstitutional law, not he who resists it, that commits treason. |