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    CItEASY'S INVASIONS OF ENGLAND. The Inva...

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    Shelley's Lettjers. Letters Of Percy Bys...

    tteir Iimiis , in cofirmipg ft . -Mj-P . j" £ tS lo ^¦ £ ? SlT ^ SiiiBi se > . ¦ * "One whose heart a strangers tear might wear As water-drops the sandy fountain stone ; Who loved and pitied all things , and could moan "For woes which others hear not , and could see The absent with the glass of phantasy , And near the poor and trampled sit and weep , Following the captive to his dungeon deep-One who was as a nerve o ' er which do creep

    The else-unfelt oppressions of this earth . " Such sympathy with his kind was evidently developed in him to an extraordinary and even morbid degree , at a period when the general intellectual powers it was impatient to put in motion , were immature or deficient . " This is both truly and finely said , and , as applied to natures like Shelley ' s , admits of no qualification ; but with regard to more versatile and manysided natures , the same would not hold rigorously , unless the impulses oi the moment , the moods and caprices , the jests and the despondencies which would necessarily vary their correspondence , were considered as not affecting the general and permanent mood . There are thoughtful and noteworthy passages in this Essay , some oi which we shall quote elsewhere ; and all Shelley ' s admirers will thank Browning for his appreciation , with which , in the main , they will agree . Here is a passage worth pondering : —

    "I conjecture , from a review of the various publications of Shelley ' s youth , that one of the causes of his failure at the outset was the peculiar practicalness of his mind , which was not without a determinate effect on his progress m theorizing . An ordinary youth , who turns his attention to similar subjects , discovers falsities , incongruities , and various points for amendment , and , in the natural advance of the purely critical spirit , unchecked by considerations of remedy , keeps up before his young eyes so many instances of the same error and wrong , that he finds himself unawares arrived at the startling conclusion , that all must be changed—or nothing : in the face of which plainly impossible achievement , he is apt ( looking perhaps a little more serious by thejime he touches at the decisive issue , ) to feel , either carelessly or considerately , that his own attempting a single piece of service would be worse than useless even , and to refer the whole task to another age and person— -safe in proportion to his incapacity .

    " Wanting words to speak , he has never made a fool of himself by epeaking . But , in Shelley ' s case , the early fervour and power to see , was accompanied by as pre * cocious a fertility to contrive : he endeavoured to realize as he went on idealizing ; every wrong had simultaneously its remedy ; and ,-out of the strength-of his hatred for the former , he took the strength of his confidence in the latter—till suddenly he stood pledged to the defence of a set of miserable little expedients , just as if they represented great principles , and to an attack upon various great principles , really so , without leaving himself time to examine whether , because they were antagonistical to the remedy he had suggested , they must therefore be identical or even essentially connected with the wrong he sought to cure , — playing with blind passion into the hands of his enemies , and dashing at whatever red cloak was held forth to him , as the cause of the fireball he had last been stung with—mistaking Churchdom for Christianity , and for marriage , ' the sale of love' and the law of sexual oppression .

    " Gradually , however , he was leaving behind him this low practical dexterity , unable to keep up with his widening intellectual perception ; and , in exact proportion as he did so , his true power strengthened and proved itself . Gradually he was raised above the contemplation of spots and the attempt at effacing them , to the great Abstract Light , and , through the discrepancy of the creation , to the sufficiency of the First Cause . Gradually he was learning that the best way of removing abuses is to stand fast by truth . Truth is one , as they are manifold ; and innumerable negative effects are produced by the upholding of one positive

    principle . I shall say what I think , —had Shelley lived he would have finally ranged himself with the Christians : his very instinct for helping the weaker side ( if numbers make strength ) , his very ' hate of hate , ' which at first mistranslated itself into delirious Queen Mab notes and the like , would have got clear-sighted by exercise . The preliminary step to following Christ , is the leaving the dead to bury their dead—not clamouring on His doctrine for an especial solution of difficulties which are referable to the general problem of the universe . Already he had attained to a profession of ' a worship to the Spirit of good within , which

    requires ( before it sends that inspiration forth , which impresses its likeness upon all it creates ) devoted and disinterested homage , as Coleridge says , '—and Paul likewise , And we find in on © of his last exquisite fragments , avowedly a , record of one of his own mornings and its experience , as it dawned on him at his bouI and body ' s best in his boat on the Serchio—that aa surely as " ' The stars burnt out in the pale blue air , And tho thin white moon lay withering there —• Day hnd kindled tho dewy woods , And the rocks above , and the stream below , And the vapours in their multitudes , And tho Appeninc ' s shroud of summer snow—Day had awakened nil things tlmt he ;' just bo surely ho tells us ( stopping forward from this delicious dance-music , choragus-like , into tho grander moasuro befitting the final enunciation ) ,

    "' AH rose to do tho tnsk lie set to each , Who shaped us to his ends and not our own ; The million rose to loom , and One to teach What none yet ever knew or enn be known . ' "No more difforonco than this , from David ' s prognaut conclusion so long ago ! " Meantime , as I call Sholloy a moral man , bocuuHo ho was truo , simplo-hparted , and bravo , and foocauso what ho actod corroHpondbd- to what ho know , so I call him a man of roligiouB mind , booauHO ovory audacious negative cast up by him against tho Divino , wan interpenetrated with a mood of reverence and adoration , and bccauBO I find him ovorywhero taking for granted some of tho capital dogmas of Christianity , whilo moot vohomontly donying thoir historical basomont . "

    Self-Sacrifice—is a fact as certain as that Shelley lived ; but we altoffeth dissent from Browning's position , that Shelley would finally have ranS himself with the ' Christians ; if by that be meant a recognition of the tS of that body of dogmas which theologians very properly insist upon » constituting Christianity . As he grew older , the antagonism whiclire 3 CpS his heart and obscured his intellect would assuredl y have dwindled , h would have become more tolerant of speculative diflerences ; but he wouM not , we think , have learned to see Tbruth in that creed from which hia mind had so thoroughly emancipated itself . ; : ? ... . .. . . _^

    Let us hear Browning on the predominating characteristic of Shelley aa a poet : — - . .. ¦ ¦ ¦ . . : ; " ¦ ¦¦ . ¦ . ' \ \ ; . ' ¦ , ., ¦ ¦ ¦ . - .. , ' < This I call his simultaneous perception of Power and Love in the absolute and of Beauty and Good in the concrete , while he throws , from his poet ' s station between both , swifter , subtler , and more numerous films for the connexion of each with each , than have been thrown by any modern artificer of whom I have knowledge ; proving how , as he says > " The spirit of the worm within the sod , la love and worship blends itself with God . '

    " I would rather consider Shelley ' s poetry as a sublime fragmentary essay towards a presentment of the correspondency of the universe to Deity , of the natural to the spiritual , and of the actual to the ideal , than I would isola te and separately appraise the worth of many detachable portions which might be acknowledged as utterly perfect in a lower moral point of view * , under the : mere conditions of art . It would be easy to take my stand on successful instances of objectivity in Shelley : there is the unrivalled Cenci ; there is the Julian and Maddalo , too j there is the magnificent Ode to Naples ; why not regard , it may be . ' said , the less organised matter as the radiant elemental foam and solution , out of which would have peen evolved , eventually , creations as perfect even as those ? But I prefer to look for the lushest attainment , not simply the high , —and , seeing it , I hold by h of the work to be known

    it . There is surely enoug ' Shelley' enduringly amoug men , and , I believe , to be accepted of God , as human work may ; and around the imperfect proportions of such , the most elaborated productions of ordinary art must arrange themselves as inferior illustrations . " The Letters themselves are of interest solely because they were written by that pure and affectionate being , and as such , are welcome . But why does not Mr . Moxon publish that long and splendid letter sent from Italy on the occasion of Eichard Carlile ' s trial ? It was once in our possession , but we gave it up to be published by Mrs . Shelley , in the first collection of the Letters ; and we hoped to find it in this . Is Mr . Moxon afraid of it , or has he never seen it P . We will conclude this slight notice with a charming passage : —

    A TASTE FOB FLOWEBS . ' I reckon two advantages of a taste for flowers . The first is produced by the culture of thenif which > since it excludes all wilfulness , haste , and impatience , quietB-. the mind , cheers it by ever-cherished hope , and , since this seldom deceives , gladdens it with quiet joy . But the second and chief advantage consists in thisthat every flower is in miniature the-image . 6 f entire nature , and contains all its security , order , peace , and beauty . The flower unf 61 di » . U ; 8 elfsilently " according to necessary laws , and under necessary conditions ; and if ¦ thoiib- ' -fcil , it cannot flourish . Like a child upon the mother's bosom , so it hangs upon and sucks ik » sun and air , the earth and water ; it is but a part of the great whole of nature , from which it cannot live separated . It is fairest in blossom , but in every stage of development it has peculiar charms . How fair the tender plant , which creeps and full of mtima

    forth to the light ! how lovely the juicy green ! how mysterious - tions the swelling bud ? Some flowers are fairer than others , but only a few are odious , and none without some property . And how manifold their beauty Thereby they are the truest image of nature , which spreads itself before our view in infinite variety , and thus unveils the unfathomable riches of the Creator . Partial florists may prefer the fragrant hyacinth , or the showy auricula , or the rich carnation , or any others ; but who can say which is fairer than the othen and what feeling friend of nature will not love even the less fair ? All are the lovely children of nature ; and , as a mother fondly presses all her offspring to her heart , because she discovers in all the beloved features of the father , so the true lover of nature fondly embraces all she brings forth , because her life is exhibited in all , however diverse . Who can say what colour of the rainbow is the fairest , since all are born from the same ray of light ? As nature is without evil , so are tnem

    flowers the image of innocence and harmlessness , and the sight of soomw and calms , like the countenance of a conscientious man , who is without reserve and guile . The abode of the first man , in his innocence , was a garden . in a garden , among the lovely children of spring , we again find paradise , here we dream of the bliss of innocence , here soothe tumultuous desires , ana a gentle longing fills the heart . The lake-rose swims and bathes in the moist J ^' ment , which , fertilising , pervades the earth , and lifts up its crown to the sun , » ko a clear , calm eye . Who thus can swim in the fulness of universal life , wasne pure from all selfishness , and thus look up , unshrinking , with pure eye ? " Lovely , bright , radiant flowers ! are ye not like stars , which the Creator i » scattered to illumine and adorn the dark earth ? Are ye not as heavenly mes ^ r gers , who have come down upon the sunbeams , to bring us tidings of ft won wiiinii all lilnoniH in beant . v . rantnrn . r > R $ ir >«? TliHr « fnre is it that the children , Wj ;

    too , have come from heaven , and still retain their innocence , play with you so sisters ; therefore is it that woman loves yon , who bears in her feoling neari ^ mations of heaven ; therefore wo deck with you the graves of the beloved , ue you point upward , when they have gone to rest . "

    That Sholloy was oininontly a roligious man—that ho was imbued with what wo almost air call Christianity , understanding thereby an exaltation of our moral aspirations , and a belief in the practicability of Goodnees and

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    Citeasy's Invasions Of England. The Inva...

    CItEASY'S INVASIONS OF ENGLAND . The Invasions and Projected Invasions of England from the Saxon Times . Remarks on the present Emergencies . By E , S . Creasy , M . A . - " A timely volume , carefull y compiled , and presenting an historical eJc ^ L- which will be very acceptable to tho debaters of this exciting topic . . *• Creasy has chosen his subject and restricted himsolf to it . In' * . ?' [ O . lation of his narrative ho has kept an open eyo to the more recent ^ rical works , at . tho same time that he has avoided all unnecessary pa , Except in some superfluous twaddle about the finger of Providcfaccuw ^ to bo discernible in the accidents which thwarted all the previous attenu at invasion , tho book is sensibly written . c oUr Tlio series commonccs with tho Norman conquest , and a 0 urvcv . i of national dofencos in tho early years of our history . Iho flttac _ Francis I . on tho Isle ofWiehfc , and the ill-fated Spanish Armada , ^ considered next , and followed b y interesting pages on the JLmtcJi * ^ Medway , and our perils from France and jbnerica in the last conv

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 28, 1852, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_28021852/page/18/