philosophy and of human want equally shew that she intends for it. It becomes us, it is true, to reverence and think the best of all the operations of nature, including those yearnings, let them apparently terminate as they may. But it does not become us to asserton the contrary, it may be very pernicious, and undesired by nature, (except as matter of consolation and reconcilement to us, in default of our being able to do anything),—that she intends to perpetuate any mixture of evil or contradiction in her works; or that she cannot work without their aid. Better believe in a fugitive exception to good, however mysterious, generated by some convulsion in the great lapses of time, and of necessity worked off by the energy of the planet that suffers under it, till the star resumes the golden state of tranquillity natural to its heavenly brotherhood, than take for granted any kind of perpetuation, equally gratuitous, a great deal more contradictory, and infinitely more saddening. Where there is a choice of opinions, it is wise to adopt the best; especially when we consider that mankind has a natural impulse towards endeavour, and that nature herself has given us both the endeavour and the choice. -But I am taking large measure, indeed, of the word " gossiping," when a copy of verses makes me ramble after this fashion! when a butterfly leads me a chace among the stars!

More is said of the Gentle Armour, as well as of some of the other poems, in their places in the volume. It is here published for the first time; and is the first poem of any length, which I have written for many years, having been debarred from that delight by ill health, and the constant necessity of writing prose. What I felt, when I found I could again recreate myself in this way, and when the verses came flowing again, I will not say; lest I should excite awkward comparisons between what I delight in doing, and what it amounts to when done. But as Gray wished that he could lie all his life upon sofas, reading reading "eternal new novels of Marivaux and Crebillon," so, notwithstanding the helps afforded us by the grander notions of the age, or rather in consequence of the very helps they afford, I can conceive no mode of existence more exquisite (apart from the affections) than after contributing a portion of one's morning to the furtherance of the common good-the better if in the same way-to devote the rest of one's time to reading romantic adventures, and versifying the best of them.* What golden days

*It has been calculated, according to Franklin, that if every body worked four hours a day, all the rest of it might be passed by the whole community in peace and luxury. One would think such an experiment worth trying, even by those who enjoy the privileges of ennui.

would not such be for a builder of palaces "with words!" What country-houses would he not possess in all quarters of the world, and of time! What flights not take from Greece to Araby, from Normandy to Cathay, from the Courts of Charlemagne and of Arthur, to the corners of the sea, and the House of Morpheus! With what transport not wake up, and find himself in, the company of his beloved old books, content to be master of the world when he had his wings on, and to look for no better footing for the sole of his feet, than the hearth of an uninsulted poverty. O felix ter et amplius! No man ever deserved even to wish to be a poet, who could not think in this manner, or not think it as much at forty as at twenty.

The poem of Hero and Leander, as well as the Story of Rimini, I have corrected since it first appeared, the former indeed considerably altered; I hope with improvement to it as an unhalting and consistent narrative. They ought, it is true, to have been so written at first, as to require nothing which it was in my power to do for them afterwards; but I was conscious of letting some of the passages slip from me too carelessly. The long description, by the way, of the garden in the Story of Rimini, I have suffered to remain, though it may seem injurious to the progress of the action; but

in spirit I thought it not so; because the heroine is to be prepared as gradually as possible for the change in her conduct; and a luxurious enjoyment of the works of nature, in the present perplexed condition of the world, is too often rendered an additional means of confusion, instead of being, as it ought to be, one of the final modes of the common good. The great point however is, whether the reader would rather have the description or not. Laws in poetry are nothing but the conclusions which critics have come to, respecting the means adopted by the best poets, for giving the greatest amount of pleasure. The ap

* In all which the writer intimates, here or in any other place, respecting the happiness which mankind may attain to in this life, he is far from wishing to imply any thing against the existence of another. He is of opinion with Selden in that matter, in his famous argument derived from the subject in hand, a garden; where he says, that he sees no reason why a man should not make himself as happy as possible in one beautiful place, because the giver of it has promised him another. If it be argued that evil here is necessary in order to enhance good in another world, so let it be argued; it is well and wise; but this consideration is for comfort, and not for action. No doctrines inculcate human endeavour, for the sake of the species and their improvement, more than those of Christianity.

peal always lies from the law-makers to the reader's feeling. No laws whatever have yet been perfected, because in no art or science has the entire circle of truth been run round. There is one thing in Shakspeare himself which is unnatural, and it pervades almost all his plays; namely, the making his people talk so wonderfully well, with a profusion of thought and imagery to be found only in a mind like his own. It suits the excess of reflection in such characters as Hamlet and Lear, but scarcely any one else; and yet who would wish it away? Nature is included still, and that is sufficient. The drama itself is in nature : art is in nature: and provided no requisite beauty be omitted, it is a fine thing to see how far a poet can enrich his entertainment without oppressing delight.

The next composition, the Feast of the Poets, was the earliest of my grown productions in verse. I was full of animal spirits when I wrote it, and have a regard for it accordingly, like that for one's other associations of youth. It was however a good deal more personal than at present, and showed me the truth of what has been observed respecting the danger of a young writer's commencing his career with satire: for I have reason to believe, that its offences, both of