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Gentleman's Magazine 1851 part 1 p.10
but his poetry, we think, received no accession but that of
the "Vision of Judgment." The result of this entire work is
interesting and instructive, and we can scarcely regret its
length, or the insertion of many unimportant portions. The
career of a man of virtue and genius cannot be contemplated
without benefit. In Mr. Southey the strictest principles and
soundest views of religion were softened and rendered
amiable by a lightness and cheerfulness of temper and mind,
to which certainly they are not too often united. He
wrote very warmly because he felt very strongly, and the
depth of his impression was commensurate with the weight of
the subject. He hated the mischievous and the mean, for he
felt how much their evil doings would affect the public
happiness and private welfare; but he never "broke
butterflies on a wheel," and certainly his later works, as
his Book of the Church and his Colloquies, shew with what
force the realities of present things pressed upon him.
Without saying that his views were always right and his
opinions always justly formed, we must allow that his
approaches to the discovery of truth shew a sagacious,
clear, and reflective mind. To his poetic creed we have
little to object, though we think there is in it a
silent disparagement of the school of Pope, which we
do not approve. We believe his political opinions to be in
the main just, though perhaps if carried into practice they
would have possessed, from a fond and just admiration of the
past, too little flexibilty and accommodation for the
rapidly advancing progress of the present. His theology was
formed out of the great stores and treasure-houses of our
best divinity in its best days, and consequently took root
in the sound and stedfast doctrines of the Church of
England.
Mr. Southey has filled a very eminent station in the
literature of his day. Two poems, more especially Kehama and
Roderick, bear lasting witness to his poetical talent. His
prose writings are distinguished for their natural,
idiomatic, and truly English style; his literature was
formed of the very nest and most solid materials. Even
mention of the books which he recommended must have been of
service; and if he too early and too constantly left the
waters of Elyssus and the banks of the Tiber to wander by
his own wilder and more beloved streams, it arose from the
impossibility in the present day of any one, however
industrious, however indefatigable, being able to do more
than select some partial and separate province from the
boundless realms of knowledge, where his employment may be
advantageous because commensurate with his strength - his
discoveries, however bounded, far more useful and more
praiseworthy than casual and uncertain glances over a wider
sphere, ambitious sketches of unfinished projects, and a
dream of intellectual conquests, magnificent indeed to the
view, but requiring time, and leisure, and opportunities not
often granted by the necessary duties, the varying
occupations, and the uncertain tenure and general term of
"our little life."
Vol.v. p.21. "A fashion for poetry has been imported which
has had a great run, and is in a fair way of being worn out.
It is of Italian growth, and adaptation of Pulci, Berni, and
Ariosto in his sportive mood. Frere began it. What he
produced was too good in itself, and too inoffensive, to
become popular, for it attacked nothing and nobody, and it
had the fault of his Italian models, that the transition
from what was serious to what was burlesque was capricious,"
&c.
list, The poem alluded to, "The Monks and Giants. Prospectus
and Specimen of an intended National Work, by William and
Robert Whistlecraft, &c." was designed with admirable
skill and elegant wit, but was far too refined and
delicately executed to excire any feeling from the public,
who did not understand it. As a composition, its beauties
have been felt and acknowledged by all whose estimation is
of value. See for instance Rose's Introd. to "Orlando
Inamorato," p.xvii.; "Retrospective REview," vol.xii. p.107:
"The glowing contrasts of which (Don Juan), compared to the
easy shadowing of Whistlecraft, seem to illustrate
the difference between a natural mode of writing and an
unnatural one." See also another work, "Thoughts and
Reflections, by One of the Last Century," pp.211-237; and
"Qtrly Review," No.clxxiv. p.293: "Mr Frere, but for
pension, indolence, and Malta, might have bequeathed a name
second to few in the English library." Per-
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