sage wisdom's hue"-forth steps, insolent with animal spirits, and attired in the garb of a reality, the joyous apparition. When, on the contrary, the writer is to give utterance to the lessons of wisdom, to the strains of pensive reflection on the mixed nature of man, to the eloquence inspired by strong sympathy with all created things-to any of those ennobling thoughts, in short, with which a good man would fain in life associate his name, and in death his memorythen the poet and moralist comes forward to speak in his own character-the obedient spirit hies to his confine, and Christopher subsides into a shadow.

flicker of a sunbeam on the surface, hiding the depth of some perennial well.

From this perpetual interchange of humor and earnestness, playful trifling and sound philosophy, these volumes stimulate the feeling of curiosity in a high degree. We soon feel that we have resigned ourselves into the hands of a companion and guide, the eccentricities of whose course it is impossible to calculate. The line of curves by which Sterne illustrates the no-progress of Tristram Shandy is its only parallel. Start with him from what latitude you may, no one can foresee in what zone the excursion is to terminate, or Considerable changes, we perceive, have through what strange scenes or devious taken place on these Essays since they first wanderings we shall be led. The title of appeared in a periodical form. Large re- the essay, or the nature of the subject, trenchments are here and there perceptible; throws but the feeblest light upon the pro. considerable additions have been made in babilities of its treatment. It is soon perother parts; greater rounding and compact- ceived to be not in the least unlikely that ness are generally discernible ;-yet in all, a criticism on Wordsworth may merge in essentially-and wisely we think-they re- a riotous description of a Highland Still; tain their original character. For, unques- or that a dinner with Dr. Kitchener may tionably, not a little of their peculiar charm produce discourse that would have more was derived from the contrast between the fitly graced a banquet with Socrates. Inoccasional nature of their origin, and the deed, in the perusal of the "Recreations," depth and permanent importance of the we can scarcely say we are reasonably asviews which many of them embodied; sured of any one thing beforehand; except from observing how frequently it happened that in all probability every mood of mind that slight hints, caught up as if by acci- in which the subject can be viewed will be dent, and handled in a spirit of sportive dal-run through, and in quick succession; the liance, were made by some secret and cun- note of mirth suddenly passing into the ning alchymy to change thier nature and to mournful, and again, by delicate resolution, expand into speculations of deep and wide modulating back into the key of cheerfulsignificance, connected with human nature, ness. Experience soon teaches us that or the principles of poetry and art; and the presiding influence under which these how, from a foundation that seemed at volumes were composed is Mutability; and first slender and unsubstantial, if not mean" that nothing here long standeth in one and misplaced, a stately fabric of philosophc truth, studded with imagery and stored with wisdom, rose before us like a bright and noiseless exhalation. Thus the sight of a solitary starling, among the decaying remains of an old castle, is found to lead to aby some mysterious occular deception, we majestic passage on Ruins, their deep hold on the imaginative mind, and the sources of that influence. The note of the cushat, during a walk in the depths of a dark and primeval Caledonian forest, is the prelude to reflections not less striking on the terrors of con- Or Laughter holding both his sides." science, and the longing after immortality. There are some classes of minds to which Under the playful guise of a eulogy on illi- these rapid changes of scale, and this blend. cit distillation, are insinuated views equally ing of different elements within the same kindly, just, and practical, on the character composition, may appear illegitimate and and condition of our Highland population; barbarous ;-particularly the department of -while in the "Soliloquy on the Seasons," literary criticism. Many seem to think, like what a world of solemn and touching asso- the French critics and dramatists of another ciation lies beneath that covering of wit day, that humor and pathos cannot dwell and humor which invests the strain and together in unity, and consequently insist disguises its deeper meaning-like the on a separate maintenance for those whom

sway." Often, when we have fixed our eyes upon what appears to be the veritable form of Tragedy, the outlines of the figure begin to tremble and waver, till, when they settle themselves into shape, we find that,

are contemplating the features of her comic sister; or while we have been listening to the strains of Contemplation, suddenly enters, with blithe step and changeful vesture,

"Sport, that wrinkled care derides,

nature has joined together. A jest jars surdity of that contracted view of tragedy, against their sense of propriety. They will and its aim and instruments, which excluded not allow the even tenor of an argument to from its province the resources of the be quickened even by a flood of humorous comic, the low, or even the common, and illustration. With them the course of cri- which reduced to one regular and conventicism must be a kind of royal progress- tional march, the desultory and unequal measured and decorous as a Spartan march. movements of that world of life, "where We are not at present inquiring how far good and evil, joy and sorrow, are mingled in these volumes the transitions from grave in endless variety of proportion, and innuto gay, and indeed from the extreme of one merable modes of combination ;"-where to that of another, may not at times be too the most startling extremes are constantly violent; or whether the writer may not oc- meeting each other face to face-" in which casionally have resigned himself too unhesi- at the same time the reveller is hasting to tatingly to the guidance of that "Friar's his wine, and the mourner burying his lantern" of wild humors which he follows, friend."* No one has more completely till he leaves both himself and his readers proved the justice of transferring to poetry somewhat wide of the mark ;-or may not combinations found so effective in life itself, at other times have allowed himself to be or more triumphantly vindicated the sucless inspired, than overmastered, by that cess of the union as displayed in the creapassion of sympathy with which he regards tions of Shakespeare. "Whatever," says all forms of nature, animate or inanimate; he, "be his purpose, whether to gladden or so as on the one hand to accumulate, with a depress, or to conduct the story without wasteful excess, the materials of the ludi- vehemence or emotion, through tracts of crous; and on the other to give vent to his easy and familiar dialogue, he never fails to strong sensibilities in words and images too attain that purpose: as he commands us, glowing for the colder temperament of his we laugh or mourn, or sit silent with quiet readers-unprepared for such rapidity of expectation, in tranquillity without indiftransition between the extremes of contra- ference." dictory emotion. On these points, opinions will probably remain much divided in regard to these "Recreations:" they are certain, in fact, to differ, according to the varying dispositions and susceptibilities of the reader: one person, from habit and education, preferring the so-called classic style of criticism, which views every essay as a treatise to be composed in one key, and according to rules of rigorous deduction; another leaning more towards the romantic, by admitting the blending of many elements, and employing without scruple the agency of the imagination, or of the sportive faculty of humor, even in addressing the reason. But surely, in any view, the principle must be erroneous which would exclude from the criticism of poetry and art-or from those views and observations on life, and character, and morals, which are generally, though rather vaguely, classified under the term Essays a wide field of humor, an extensive range of excursive fancy, and a union of the comic and serious elements, such as meet us daily in every scene of life itself.

But if this be so, is not much of the same latitude and variety of view which is here conceded to poetical and imaginative creations, to be admitted also as legitimate in the critical estimate of such productions? Will not the province of high and original criticism be enlarged by recognising in the critic a right to deal with them in the same plastic spirit in which they were ceived?-To arrest and pour out with a congenial warmth and homely strength of expression, the shifting feelings--elevated, pathetic, or ludicrous-which present themselves to a many-sided mind, in the contemplation of a great work of art, as in the observation of nature ?

con

No doubt, this variable and imaginative style may be unsuited to formal treatises, and systems of criticism, of poetry or art. When the main object is to arrange and systematize long-established results; to present these in a compact shape; to compile a Hand-Book of Criticism for everyday use, we grudge every excursion of fancy, and press on as one who bates not till his In poetical creation, even the sternest and journey's end.' The goal being plain from most formal of critics admit the legitimacy the first, the object is to make the highway of such a union. Dr. Johnson, however lit- to it as short and smooth as possible. But tle he may have extended the rule in prac-it is otherwise with the non inventa sed tice to his own critical investigations, fully quærenda :-Where criticism comes to deal recognized its application to the dramatic with new products of imagination; to sound representation of characters and events.

No one saw or felt more strongly the ab

* Johnson's Preface to Shakespeare.

and fathom the currents and tendencies of has found expression-and have applied to a new literature, springing up out of the the study and appreciation of these, the changing aspects of things; to point out same variety of view and range of emotion the mode of its growth, the probability of which they would have permitted to themits direction; its relation to that which pre-selves in poetical representation-that most ceded it ;-in what respects it is the inde- of what is original or valuable in our critipendent expression of the individual mind, cism is to be traced. in what the result of a mere social necessity; what in it is likely to be permanent and unchangeable-what the mere reflection of temporary tastes and fashions and prejudices, soon to be superseded by other modes, as transitory, in their turn ;-fully to perform this task, criticism must be indulged with a Poetry no less than a Philosophy. Not breadth of view alone, or clear logical deduction, but deep and luminous insight into men, is necessary; the critic must not only look around, but into, and even beyond the things with which he deals. He must strive to penetrate the true nature of that complex and perplexing whole which he contemplates; not by the mere application of the judgment and the reasoning faculties, which will at best furnish him only with its outward measurement and proportions, but by flashing upon it also the light of imagination, nay, testing it at times in the fire of ridicule and playful wit,-till, under the influence of so many combined forces, its true essence is yielded up, and its vital spirit apprehended."

It will perhaps be said, that though this may be true as a general principle, the objection, in this case, lies rather to its application; that, on the one hand, the test of the ludicrous, as applied to the criticism of literature, is too systematically employed, and urged beyond its due bounds; and, on the other, that the opposite feeling of admiration and reverence which great works awaken in the minds of poetical spirits, though vivifying the composition with the eloquence of conviction, is apt to overpower the judgment, and to result in vague eulogy rather than discriminating criticism. Either would be a formidable objection if it existed; and we are prepared to expect, that to some minds both may seem apparent in these volumes. To our own, it appears very plain that the two charges in a great measure neutralize each other--that they are, in fact, inconsistent in their nature; and that in neither case does there exist any substantial ground of objection.

If, indeed, the writer of these volumes had applied his power of presenting what Hence, almost all our great or original he pleases in the most irresistibly comic criticism has been the production either of light, to things which, either in nature or poets, or of those who, though they never art, should be exempt from ridicule, we 'penned their inspiration,' had in them should be the last to vindicate such a permuch that was akin to poetry. It is by version of talent. But from this charge he such discoveries that the first meridians are is completely free. Those feelings which drawn across the map, and the first passage the human heart consecrate as holy, are made into unexplored climes. Afterwards sacred to him. Religion, love, honor, selfthe new country is soon occupied, and its devotion-all the charities of the soul-are cultivation or further survey may be safely cherished and embalmed by him in words committed to inferior hands. Judgment, of music. In no instance, so far as we are scholarship, patient study of prior models, will do much where the great landmarks have been once set up by minds of inventive power; but when the path was first to be sought through the wilderness, imagination and sympathy, the main constituents of genius, were necessary to raise the critic to something of the level of the poet, and enable him to see as from a tower the end of all.'

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We believe, then, that it is to those thinkers who have approached the criticism of poetry or art, in this spirit-and have viewed the great productions of literature, not as mere combinations of dead elements, joined together by dexterous opposition, but as so many living forms, in which the spirit of humanity, under a divine guidance,

aware, is that which is truly good or great presented by him under a ludicrous point of view. Even in dealing with the great creations of art, the same feeling of veneration is perceptible. When he seeks to fathom their spirit, or explain their structure, the reverence of his words denotes his consciousness that a certain sacredness resides within. But all compositions in poetry and art are not great compositions; few, indeed, are entitled to the name, though they may have enjoyed a wide popularity, and perhaps may have been entitled to it. Nor are even those which may be justly included in the class of great works, without flaws and blemishes, some of which strike deep into, and deform their whole structure. But more particularly among the

productions of our own age, or of a com- being once ascertained, why should not our paratively recent date, how strangely min- criticism avail itself of all the resources of gled in general are great beauties with ludicrous combination ;-that weapon which great faults; strange misconceptions of in society itself, and in the dealings of man human nature as a whole, with partial ex- with man, is found, like the dagger of mercy hibitions, which are both true and beau- in the days of chivalry, to be the shortest, tiful; or limited and exclusive views as to sharpest, and most conclusive end of strife? the nature of poetry or art, leading to erro- Does the power of this weapon, or the neous, though often ingenious and plausible consciousness of the effect with which it theories of style-affectation, mannerism, can be wielded, lead necessarily, or even monotony of execution. Are such compo- probably, to its abuse? We do not well sitions, powerful, brilliant-or better than see why it should be so; for, in general, the brilliant, it may be to be entitled to the very minds in which the sense of the comic same immunities as those which we accord most readily arises, are those which are the to the great poets of antiquity, or the elder first to appreciate the solemn, the sublime, worthies of our own country-" the dead or the profound. For both spring from one but sceptred sovereigns, who still rule our power, and rapidity of apprehension, which, spirits from their urns ?" The thing, if it in its own nature, embraces all the elements were desirable, would be impossible; for of nature with indifference; and though, by no effort can we invest the present with like streams which have flowed from a the same feeling of reverence with which common fountain, they in some cases we regard the past. Let their force, then, diverge widely enough, so as never again their freedom of movement, their beauty, to be brought within the same range of be admitted, in a spirit of generous ac- vision; yet, in other and happier instances. knowledgment: but let their affectations, they flow on in channels which run side either in thought or style, their perverse by side, and which, by a thousand currents theories, their false vehemence, their phi- on the surface or underneath, are perpetulosophical commonplaces, their occasional ally intermingling their waters. But, as gross ignorance of human nature, be ex- the best practical refutation of such belief, posed with the same openness and candor. And how is this to be best done, if not by directing against them the same weapon by which in real life such follies most effectually are exposed? Against a grave argument addressed to a man's follies or prejudices, some show of argument can always be opposed; sometimes, in the opinion of others, the party challenged may even leave the field a victor; but present the obnoxious weakness in its naked absurdity, surround it with all its comic accessories, cover it with a pile of ludicrous absurdity, and it shall go hard but that conviction will be produced, if not in his own mind, at least in those of all who witness the gentle Passage of Arms.

we would ask with confidence, in the present case, whether the author's almost unequalled command of the humorous and the ludicrous has tended in any degree to impair his sensibility to what is really elevated or poetical? or whether the consciousness of his power of ridicule has led him to use it tyrannously or like a giant? Has its tendency been to convert the writer into a critical Dragon, treating the field of literature as a province bound to supply him with an annual contingent of youthful victims ?

On the contrary, towards true poetry, or even the very germs and indications of poetry-and towards all who cultivate it in sincerity and truth, however unknown to fame, or of however little mark or likelihood. He who does this, as it is done occasion- there never, perhaps, was criticism so inally in these volumes, and still more so in dulgent and encouraging. Justly is he enother compositions of the same kind, (not titled to the praise he claims for himself, of included here only, we hope, because they "guarding from mildew the laurels on the are reserved for a Second Series,) does an brow of the Muses' sons." If, amidst the essential service to literature. A bold and noisy Babel of ephemeral strains which assweeping application of ridicule does more sails his ear, he catches the melody of the to clear it of false taste, conceit, or exag-simplest verse that embodies in truthful geration, than all the sapping and mining of words a true emotion, he does not willingly subtle argument, or logical deduction could let it die. It is to him a labor of love to ever effect. Let us make sure that the preserve it, to prolong its echo into the subject is one which deserves ridicule; that world; to find for it, by graceful and kindly we are not presumptuously pointing our introduction, 'fit audience and that not few.' shafts against mail of proof, from which And where beauties are seen struggling they will recoil upon ourselves; but, that with faults, but a true poetical instinct is

may cease from troubling, and the agitation of alienating questions may be at rest-and contending parties may lower and fold their banners as if beneath the roof of a common sanctuary, or above some honored and lamented grave.

nevertheless perceptible under the false taste of those kindred essays to which we have with which it is superficially encrusted, or alluded, there is not only nothing harsh or errors of theoretical belief with which cir- unkind towards those of opposite senticumstances and education have encumber- ments; but, we might more truly say, an ed it; while he pours out upon the latter a absolute negation of the very feeling of pomerciless flood of merriment, that compels litical difference. Genius is revered and even the subject of the criticism, like one embraced as of no party; for the domain of of the spell-bound dancers under the influ-poetry is here regarded as a peaceful and ence of Oberon's horn, to join in the infec- hallowed ground-a Gottes-acker where, if tious laugh against himself, with what a to-nowhere else on this side of time, politics lerant and gentle spirit does he at the same time recognise and point out to others those redeeming traits of genius with which these blemishes are associated, and lend his aid to the young poet as he climbs "with difficulty and labor hard" the steep of fame. A momentary burst of a more truculent character-a quos ego-may escape him, when, on the strength of a little good-natured commendation bestowed on a copy of verses some young bard will insist in rushing before the public with an impotent octavo; or when another, quietly appropriating the praise received as a matter of right, flings back the good advices he had received along with it in the face of the critic;-but even these displays of presumption or petulance do not long ruffle the temper of his mind, or materially affect the tenor of the criticism. We are told it was not always so -and some imperfect recollections of our own, point back to times when offences against the code of feeling and good taste did not escape so easily; but years and experience have in this case produced their usual effect, in softening down those early asperities. For, as we grow older, the knowledge of the pain which even one harsh word can inflict on a sensitive mind, seeking, after the best of its ability, to win respect from the respected, perpetually gives us pause; and makes us hesitate to employ the language of censure even where conscience tells us the censure would be just. In criticism, as in other things, the views we form and express after the close of our Eighth lustre, are widely different from those we took under the consulship of Plancus.

Thus much for the spirit in which these observations on art and literature are composed. As little foundation is there, we think, for the other supposition, that the criticism they contain is exaggerated in its praise or censure, unaccompanied with definite reasons, or leading to no sufficiently tangible result. Indeed, as regards the contents of these volumes, and generally all the later criticism of the same writer, the supposition would be eminently inapplicable. In the paper entitled, "An hour's talk on Poetry," the manner in which the works of the great poets of the present age are dealt with, in considering the question whether any of them have produced a work entitled to be called a great poem, sufficiently shows with what discrimination of good and bad-of performance and failure-the claims of contemporary genius are estimated. But above all, the manner in which the critic deals with Wordsworth, is in itself a sufficient refutation of the idea of that indiscriminating style of criticism which can see no blemish in a favorite, as it can recognise no merit in an opponent. No one has labored so assiduously as the author of these Recreations in the task of conversion of the public mind, first to tolerate, and at last to admire Wordsworth. His earliest efforts were directed to open the eyes of his countrymen to the deep meaning of his poeThe absence of another element which is try, avoiding as it did all the ordinary and potoo apt to trouble our views of literature, pular means of excitement, and to attune is remarkable in these volumes. It is true their ears to its solemn and soothing harmothat political feeling, whatever may be the nies. He states no more than the simple truth extent to which, in such a country as Great when he says, with a just pride in having Britain, it must always affect society, now achieved what he believes to be a high and mingles far less than it did with the criti- useful end, that he has been the means of cism of literature. The courtesies of hon- diffusing Wordsworth's poetry not only over orable warfare, at least, are generally ob- this island, but the farthest dependencies of served; and not unfrequently, nor ungener- the British empire, and throughout the states ously, is the tribute of praise paid to the of America. "Many thousands," he adds, successful efforts of a political antagonist." have owed to us their emancipation from But in the criticism of these volumes, and the prejudices against it under which they