"Here it is evident that lights' and 'learns' are used with extreme incorrectness. The construction requires us to suppose that the lover arrives in a dark evening with a lantern, and gropes about the brick wall until he finds the bell. Just look at the circumstance as Jones might relate it to a young lady in the suburbs -I got into the Kennington omnibus yesterday, and in the hope of finding you at home, I light and ring the bell, and learn you gone.' Would such an epistle be understandable? If the object of his devotion be a girl of spirit, she will instantly cut off six heads, and send Jones a copy of Mr. Edwards' Progressive English Exercises by the next post. Will the Germanic cloud-compelling school permit us to recommend to their patient meditation a short saying of Hobbes, which need not be confined to Mr. Tennyson's ear? The order of words, when placed as they ought to be, carries a light before it, whereby a man may foresee the length of his period; as a torch in the night showeth a man the stops and unevenness of the way."'" The justice of these remarks no man of education will be hardy enough to deny then what must be his contempt for a reviewer that should cite this very stanza for its gracefulness! And such was actually done by a writer in " Sharpe's London Journal," by way of facilitating the progress of public enlightenment! Nor be it supposed that the blunder was of accidental occurrence, or that "Sharpe" stands beneath his more ostentatious rivals. By whatever title these public organs are known, as the "Literary Gazette," "The Critic," &c., they are, for the most part, conducted by impudent adventurers, whose periodical spawnings serve but to corrupt the taste and pervert the judgment, of less educated members of the community. In the republic of letters, these men hold the same relation to the practised scholar that the brazen empiric does to the accomplished physician. Even Wordsworth despised them; and it is not too much to say that, had he designated the nameless critic by the two fearful monosyllables that rhyme with "grave and cool," he might easily have justified the propriety of their application. After this exposition of the late Laureate's superficial knowledge of the subject he professed to have most at heart, it may be reasonably asked how one of such feeble pretensions can have risen in public estimation. The question is of easy solution. In the earlier stage of his progress, as already intimated, the reading of critical Reviews was almost wholly confined to men of learning. These instruments then were few; and none but writers of extraordinary parts could find employment on them. No sooner did Wordsworth come under their notice than his worthlessness was discovered, and published to the very ends of the earth. In process of time the Legislature, and all others concerned in the public weal, began to foresee the national benefits that would accrue from the spread of education; and various institutions were raised for the accomplishment of this end. Reading became general; and Reviews multiplied accordingly. But to have put into the hands of this new school a journal teeming with speculative or analytical disquisitions, would have been to excite disgust. Their meaner tastes and capacities demanded a corresponding provision; and teachers were sought who could adapt themselves to the exigencies of the occasion. The choice, mit of extenuation. however, was of necessity confined to those of an inferior class the low price at which a popular journal must be sold to bring it within reach of the million, precluding access to authorities of acknowledged distinction. And thus the conduct of these organs fell to the charge of the comparatively illiterate, who, lacking not the self-reliance of abler men, rushed boldly into the field of criticism. With none to dispute the equitableness of their decisions, whom they would they set up, and whom they would they put down. This was but the natural result of an irresponsible power. Their offences, nevertheless, adFrom the constitutional tone and disposition of their minds, they would entertain a predilection for any effort of genius that should be found in the track of a " Reading made Easy;" whilst they would spurn with becoming indignation an exercise of thought that should surpass their comprehension. Wordsworth to them was a veritable god-send! His feeble nursery rhymes conveyed a charm that no previous combination of simple terms and phrases had revealed: but being occasionally reminded that reviewers of higher character had denounced such rhymes as nonsense, they affected to discover in them a subtile essence, which, by some indefinable process of elaboration, might realise for humanity the blessedness of heaven. To those who could be pleased with Coleridge's philosophy, when, if allowed to start from no premises, and come to no conclusion, he would talk transcendently for two hours, this doctrine may seem very feasible; but beyond that refined circle it is doomed never to pass. Concurrently with the progress of education appeared a growing ambition for poetical renown. A large proportion of those who could K read verse essayed to write it; and, as by common consent, they adopted Wordsworth as their model. Byron was inimitable; Moore equally so: but the parent of the Lake school they could approach. And when having gratified their aspirations, they gladly hailed the verdict that pronounced him to be the most profound of living poets nor will it be until this class shall have been still more highly cultivated, that, by one unanimous voice, he will be declared to have been the greatest literary impostor of his time. THE END. LONDON: SPOTTISWOODES and SHAW, |