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    the summum bonum , the cosmogenesis , and the ^ like-profitless generalizations . The modern may choose his grouttdV " - $ Hfe may give himself to the fruitful prosecution of any . ooe ^ oi * more put of some hundreds or even thousands of objeGts . Th ^ re rti ay , indeed , be those who see with aversion this diviskm and subdivi ~ sioti of labour ; who discern in it nothing but a fresh - indication of

    the imbecility and littleness of modern intellect . With such we cannot hold for a moment : we think the polarization of light , the theory of musical harmonics ,, the phenomena of electro-magneti&Bfi * or any other of the multifarious nooks and crannies of moderii science , to the full as worthy to occupy a great mirid as , the splendid day-dreams of Plato , or the substantial forms of Aristotle . We are very sure they are altogether as useful .

    - If such be the state of the case with respect to scientific genius , it is the same , in scarcely a less eminent degree * with poetic . That the present age * is a highly poetical one , we regard as a thing of course * We do not see how it could be otherwise . If poetry be founded on the nature of man , in his joys and his sorrows , his loves and his hates , his strength and his weakness , if it he * part and parcel of his constitution / it must grow in life and

    power with our knowledge of that nature and that constitution . At least , it is iour own fault if it does not . For every new view of the relations , the wants , the destinies of man ' s spiritual and moral nature , every bold discovery , every stirring event which bears in any way qtr his well-being , places a new instrument and new theme in the poet ' s hands .

    A late number ( XXVII . ) of the Westminster Review contains a forcible exposition of some great truths connected with our present design . * Why should not those species of poetry which may be termed its music and its painting , which spring from , and appeal to , our sense of the beautiful in form , or colour , and of harmonious modulation , abound as much as heretofore ? He is no lover of

    nature who has any notion that the half of her loveliness has ever yet been told . Descriptive poetry is the most exhaustible ; but our coal mines will fail us much sooner . No man ever yet saw all the beauty of a landscape : he may have watched it from the rising to the setting sun , and through the twilight , and the moonlight , and the starlight , and all round the seasons , but he is deceived if he thinks it has nothing more for him . * * *

    Nature will never cease , to be poetical , nor society either : spears and shields , gods , goddesses , and muses , and all the old scenery and machineryf may indeed w , earout . That is of little consequence . The age of chivalry was but one , and poetry has many ages . The classical and romantic schools are both but sects of-a religion which is universal * Even the fields which have been most frequently reaped will still bear harvests , and rich ones too * ? We here take in the last ten or twelve years .

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    On ( he bfivelopmenio / Genius * 6 # i

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1832, page 561, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1818/page/57/