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[On the opposite side of the Tomb.]
DOUGLAS SMITH,

THE ELDEST SON OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH,
AND OF

CATHERINE AMELIA, HIS WIFE.

HE WAS BORN FEBRUARY 27, 1805; HE DIED APRIL 15, 1829.

HIS LIFE WAS BLAMELESS.

HIS DEATH WAS THE FIRST SORROW

HE EVER OCCASIONED HIS PARENTS,

BUT IT WAS DEEP AND LASTING.

A beautiful epitaph. But what is an epitaph? He was a great, noble, honest, fearless man. He never was the client of a Minister, or the beggar of an ecclesiastical superior. Free in mind; true in heart; a Christian in conduct; bright in genius; a man in every thing, yet he died with no higher diguity than that of Canon. He was moral; he was an able advocate of his party; he was a Whig in the days of Whiggish exile from office and from power; he was faithful to his party in all their many days of difficulty and trial, yet he died without the mitre! Years before his death he had abandoned all hope of ever reaching the bench, but to his last hour of life he felt, bitterly, that he had been neglected by his party, a party which he had helped to form, and which he had solidified, advocated, and defended.

He did not spend his "May of life" in groping amongst Greek accents or in toadying a Bishop. Too honest and too true to remain silent whilst he could help the oppressed or relieve the long suffering, in politics or in religion, he endured the penalty of rectitude-neglect. Had he been more pliant he would have been richer; had he forgot his principles, he would have been of higher rank in the Church; but neither tact, nor honesty, nor plain speaking, can make a party grateful, and thus, and therefore, Sydney Smith died a Canon of St. Paul's, whilst men of mean talents, and meaner principles, were raised to the highest offices in the profession.

We have stated that these volumes are interesting, we should have written that they are something more, in the grave suggestive topics introduced: none can read them without wonder, without admiration, without instruction: they are an important addition to the splendid biographies of those who have been a glory to the Literature of our Nation.

ART. IV. THE POETS OF AMERICA.

SECOND PAPER.

1. The Poetical Works of John G. Whittier. Author of " Old Portraits," &c., &c. London: George Routledge and Co., 2 and 3, Farringdon-street. 1852.

2. Poe's Tales of Mystery and Imagination; and Poems. London: Clarke, Beeton, and Co., Fleet-street.

3. The Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell. Edited with an Introduction, by Andrew R. Scoble. London: George Routledge and Co., Farringdon-street. 1853.

4. Poems by Thomas Buchanan Read.

Illustrated by Kenny

Meadows. London: Delf and Trübner, 12, Paternosterrow. 1852.

5. The Poetical Works of N. P. Willis. Author of "Pencillings By the Way." London: George Routledge and Co., Solo-square. 1850.

We do not see to what we can more fittingly compare the beneficial tendency of the productions of the American Poets, which are so calculated to counteract the multiform evil influences which exist in that country, than to the waters of the Nile, which when the country around has been rendered sterile by the scorching and terrific heat of a tropical sun, profusely irrigate the plains, restoring lusty vegetation to the soil, and golden prosperity to the Egyptian people. Like that generous river, the collective waters of these authors' genius flow on peerlessly, gladdening many an arid mind, and producing an invigorating effect upon many an intellect, which had been weakened and well nigh destroyed by the raving doctrines of the Mormonite, or the brazen and blasphemous lucubrations of the apostles of ignorance, or socialism. It is very consoling to the true American, and to all well wishers of America to reflect, that their fine Poets afford such a sheet anchor, wherewith to keep at their safe moorings, those comprehensive principles, and invaluable adaptations of ethical rules, upon the observance of which so much future greatness depends, and that these authors constitute such a happy safeguard against

the vast religious dissensions, the great opposing political interests, civil wars, and other ill omened visions which are so gravely announced as, "looming in the future," by a countless host of Journalists, Essayists, and Pamphleteers.

This would be a sufficient reason, indeed, for entitling the faults of such Authors to considerable palliation; but there are others. A traveller after a long and wearisome journey through a barren and uninteresting country, suddenly arriving at a position from whence he beholds a stupendous object of sublimity, which impresses its image on his mind with a solemn and irresistible power, is not generally induced to indulge in fastidious criticism, or disposed to dissect analytically the scene which affords him such exalted gratification. As therefore all must grant that the works which form the subject of our remarks bear strong analogy to the situation we have supposed, in their noble simplicity, sublime morality, and splendid contrast to the tiresome jargon of affectation and insipidity which has been so long, and so unceasingly ringing in our ears, there will be nothing in our abstinence from the exhibition of petty imperfections, to "make the judicious grieve;" but rather we should humbly trust, much to make them smile in an approving sense, at our consistence with our well meaning design, as expressed in a former paper, to gain for the Poets of America, collectively considered, a favourable introduction to the public. Although the Authors we have considered, and those we are about to notice, have the strongest resources in themselves, wherewith eventually to secure no limited appreciation, we all easily admit the truth of the ancient proverb, regarding the strength of early impressions, and are naturally too much aware of the courtesy due in an eminent degree to "the strange in clime" to insist upon a rigid exposure, and a severe condemnation of their smallest blemishes upon their first appearance among the people of this country, in a truly collective, impartial form: a source of pleasure to the indulgence in which we have every honest claim, and which we publicly declare is ours.*

A reviewer in one of the Dublin papers, disposed to question this claim of ours as set forth in the last Number of this REVIEW, supported his asseveration by referring to the New Monthly, which bore date about a twelvemonth earlier than our paper. We have perused an Article on "American Authorship" in the New Monthly for June, 1854, and find that instead of Sir Nathaniel's title embodying a collective review "in esse," it has only the power of doing so " in posse," inasmuch as the

We should then respectfully commend to our readers the adoption of the old adage,

"Be to their faults a little blind,

Be to their virtues very kind."

If metaphysical platitudes, egotistical pomposity, and an unexceptionable exhibition, and unmerciful use of all those refined and ingenious instruments of intellectual torture, which glitter coldly on the table of the critic's laboratory, are sometimes necessary, we must remember that they are more applicable to old and hardened offenders called up to the bar of indignant public opinion, than to those young aspirants to European consideration, whose genius has as yet received but little justice at our hands, and who naturally expect in the old countries of civilized Europe, generous sympathy, and kind attention, instead of bitter malevolence, and pitiless dissection. When established as a body whose merits are sufficiently acknowledged, and whose genius becomes properly respected, the American Poets may hold up their heads in this country as fearlessly as in their own, we shall then be the first to chide the artificial conceit, and to expose the wanton error; but until then we must beg to be excused from joining the bristling ranks, drawn up against an unoffending band, or from levelling those ruthless javelins whose points are dipped in poison, against the breasts of ingenuous, and confiding strangers. Further, therefore, than a fair and unflinching statement of their prominent deficiencies is not the province of this paper, but to that extent we have already gone in our former notice, and in our present task we promise our readers that from the same honest course no divergence shall be perceptible.

One of the most charming peculiarities of the American Poets, is the intense devotion and admiration which they display for the magnificent scenery of their country. They almost all exhibit the liveliest delight in chaunting the gigantic natural wonders of Wood, and Earth, and Water in which it abounds, and in their incomparable descriptions of flood and field there is evident the strongest power of observation, and the most

paper of which we speak is confined to the consideration of one poet merely, and the tone of dissertation, notwithstanding the ability displayed, is so caustic and satirical, as to shut out completely, the possibility of its being considered a fair introduction to the public, of the individual whose works are submitted to analytical investigation.

plenteous "harvest of a quiet eye." Moreover, the manner in which these fresh and beautiful ideas are expressed, are perfectly in consonance with the matter they embody, and the rythm used, possesses the exquisite changeable power of the Kaleidoscope, in adapting itself to the diverse nature of the scenic sketches which inspire the Poet's imagination. Their philosophical beauties in like manner are most remarkable, and equally as varied, as they are remarkable. For these reasons, as well as for the many other strong peculiarities common to these Poets, we are induced to conclude, that in order that we may form an adequate idea of the Poetry of the American Authors, and to the end that a taste may be acquired for becom ing familiar with their works, it is absolutely necessary that quotations should be given, which by their length and fitness might exemplify their merits. One gem, no matter how brilliant, can hardly afford a just idea of a coronal which is composed of many, and if there be the smallest risk of a Poet's reputation becoming imperilled by parsimonious exemplification, it would be far better to desist altogether from commenting upon his productions, than to persevere in doing that, which bears the semblance of tampering with his celebrity. Strongly impressed with the soundness of this impression, we shall now proceed to the completion of our undertaking, and we feel a strong, though humble, assurance, that the end will prove the justice of an assumption, which is neither the result of immature reflection, or prejudiced

inclination.

Whittier is a poet who reflects the magnificence of his country in the majesty of his verse, who embodies all the iron vigor, and enterprising spirit of her sons, in his nervous, ringing language; and all the bold, lofty, and free aspirations of her statesmen, in the unbending and devoted love of freedom, which breathes through his works, like the sighing of the wind through a forest of his native pine trees. Whittier is pre-eminently the American Poet; he is the bard of her solemn forests, and her princely rivers, of all that bewitching picturesque beauty of scenery, and of all the romantic, imaginative characteristics of the native Indian, which Cooper has immortalized in prose: but he possesses a requisite still more essential for a Poet, who is ambitious of becoming the exponent of his country's most cherished glories, and most exalted wishes; he is the interpreter of the spirit which characterizes

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