times danger in attempting to restrain the ardor and luxunance of a glowing fancy-but we think that the taste of the age inclines to the imitation of those chaste and simple modeis, familiar to most literary men, and to none more so than Mr. Chapin himself. We repeat that we heartily commend this well-printed, and well-stored volume from the Boston press, to the universal consideration and attention of YOUNG MEN; and we are by no means sure that even erudite and experienced age would not derive from it many valuable lessons and important truths. Differing as we do with the Eloquent author, as to his peculiar theological views, we are happy to assure our readers that the lectures, wheresoever they refer to the subject ofr eligion, breathe nothing but the spirit of charity, and are not in the slightest degree tinged with sectarianism. Both sexes, of every age and every shade of opinion-moral, political or religious-may read the with pleasure and with profit.

H. E. J.

Specimens in Literature; or Scraps and Sketches, from a
Prater's Portfolio. By George B. Wallis-Cincinnati,
Otio-1840.

In our attentions, Mr. Editor, to the Past Masters in Poetry, we are apt to neglect the claims of the entered apprentes of the sublime order. The credentials of the candiLate under consideration, have, perhaps, been too inconsiderately examined by the ministering priests of the Sacred Temple; or he might have been formally invited to the serices at its altar. Indulge me, dear sir, in a brief reTew of his pretensions.

He

opens his pamphlet with a "prelimination," in the Spaserian strain, in which he meets the anticipated charge zory-seeking, in a prompt yet courteous denial; and with one of the most pleasing comparisons:

"The Indian robin, who, alone, descants
His evening raptures in the forest dim,
Had taught us in our visits to his haunts,
Long ere the birth of this immodest whim,
Our spiritual similitude to him.

For like that humble bird, we had desired

To be the songster of the hermit grim

In his secluded walk; nor once aspired To sound abroad the tones which then our bosom fired." Next follows a sketch of the author's life, in which he ts of his physiognomical resemblance to the murmurCalde Harold," of the various hardships of an itinetypographer's peregrinations, and of the fortitude with ach he has borne them. As an incident in his adventures, relates the following:

"I encountered one evening, among the mountains, at light, a family of my acquaintance bound for the West. ey had encamped in a romantic little valley, on a green ot overshadowed by lofty pines. It was an appropriate ace; but a translucent fountain, which gurgled from the se of an adjacent rock, had no doubt been the chief ataction. They readily persuaded me to share their "potk, and stay all night." Domestic news entertained us till per; after which, the mother and daughter requested ➡to draw off a hime" for the occasion. Craving their siare a short time, I took my station by the pine fire, and ́ed something like the following for their consideration, ach was gladly accepted, and sung with spirit by the my and their favored guest:

TUNE-From Greenland's icy mountains.

How beauteously the mountains
Stand in the glowing sky;

How joyfully the fountain's

Bright waters murmur by:

How sweet the breeze of even,
How bright the stars above;
How all of earth and Heaven
Is whispering of His love.
How pleasant is the feeling

Of His Spirit breathing round;
How tenderly 'tis stealing,

In every passing sound,
Our hearts to adoration,

Our thoughts to its control-
How sweet the contemplation
It awakens in the soul.
The spirit that rejoices

Those in the land of bliss,
Will bear away our voices,

Up to the Throne from this.
God of the mountains-Spirit!
As here we feebly raise
Our thanks, may we inherit

The blessings of thy praise.
Guide of the Pilgrims, screen us,

Beneath whose sheltering wing,
Though mountains rise between us,
Kindred and friends may sing.
Staff of the traveller-guard him
Until his journeying's past,
And may his toils reward him
With happiness at last."

His third "specimen," is the Saviour's Baptism, a paraphrase. We select three stanzas:

"To the flowery bank where Jordan's streams
Of rolling waters darkly frown,
Conversing on the mighty Scheme,

The Saviour and the saint came down;
And where they stood, that hallowed sod
Was brightened by the foot of God.
Now circled by the glowing tide,

The happy Prophet and the Son
Stand for a moment side by side-
And now the sacred rite is done;
And now descend from those on high,
The Alleluias of the sky.

The sky is open'd and displays

The glories of the land above,
And, settling in a radiant blaze,

The beauteous semblance of a dove-
The Spirit, bearing on its wings

The Blessing of the King of Kings."

Article 6, is a complimentary review of "Printer-Poets." After a hurried exordium, he feelingly introduces "the old oaken bucket," and dismisses its bearer with a blessing, in this consoling language :

"But, patience, our good uncle, a little while, and thou shalt be called in mercy to the place of rest. It is a cold, and dark, and dreary cell, and thy fellow-worm awaits thee there; but there, dismissed of thy sorrows, thou shalt lie down to a repose as pleasant as that of the fisher-boy, when he sinks into the sleeping visions of peace, under the noonday shadow of the summer-tree."

Next is given a poetical tribute to the Father of his Country. It requires no super-eminent efforts for a high flight, "on Truth's immaculate wings :"

His soul was with his country; and his life
Was given to her. Nor asked he recompense
For having stood throughout the desperate strife
The ruling spirit of her brave defence,

"Ike Island stood upon the mountain's top. In lisping childhood, when beneath the spangled summer canopy, his mother's finger pointed him the various squadrons of the shining host, he had fancied that his native valley was the world; that the far blue mountains God had drawn around it, were the firm abutments of the ethereal arch; that, then, if standing in his present place, when the harmonious myriads of rejoicing stars gladdened the midnight sky, he could look through earth's transparent dome, and see the spirits of The Triumph of Peace; and other poems-New York. departed playmates, a happy company of white-robed cherubim, and lay his ear against the door of Heaven and hear the angels sing."

PUBLISHED MONTHLY AT FIVE DOLLARS PER ANNUM-THOMAS W. WHITE, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR.

VOL. VI.

RICHMOND, JUNE, 1840.

SABBATH RECOLLECTIONS.

That grassy lane! how oft 'twill rise
In memory bright before mine eyes;
In dreams I sometimes see the spot;
In busy life 'tis ne'er forgot;
Across my path a ray it flings,
And fills my soul with better things.

My thoughts are of a school-house there,
Of morning hymns, and evening prayer,
Of cheerful looks, and voices kind,
Of Sabbath bells borne on the wind;
And lips, long hushed, have still a tone
In fancy's ear, though years have flown.
I see the grave-yard now, as when
We read the tombstones in the glen,-
Yes! every scene is pictured fair,
As when we all were seated there;
All, all are present to my sight.
Their forms come near my bed at night,
And seem to chain me with a spell
To pleasant thoughts I love so well!
Boston, June 1840.

SHELLEY,

J. T. FIELDS.

"Was cradled into poetry by wrong,
And learned in suffering what he taught in song."

BY H. T. TUCKERMAN.

NO. 6.

on the other hand, it is only necessary to look around on the world as it is, or back upon its past records, to lose all surprise that this fine specimen of humanity was sadly misunderstood and his immediate influence perverted. The happy agency which as an independent thinker and humane poet might have been prophesied of Shelley, presupposed a degree of consideration and sympathy, not to say delicacy and reverence, on the part of society-a wisdom in the process of education-a scope of youthful experience-an entire integrity of treatment, to be encountered only in the dreams of the Utopian. To have elicited in forms of unadulterated good the characteristics of such a nature, "when his being overflowed," the world should have been to him,

"As a golden chalice to bright wine

Which else had sunk into the thirsty dust."*

Instead of this, at the first sparkling of that fountain, the teachings of the world, and the lessons of life, were calculated to dam up its free tide in the formal embankments of custom and power. What wonder, then, that it overleaped such barriers, and wound waywardly aside into solitude to hear no sound "save its own dashings?"

The publication of the posthumous proset of Shelley, is chiefly interesting from the fact that it It is now about eighteen years since the waters perfectly confirms our best impressions of the man. of the Mediterranean closed over one of the most We here trace in his confidential letters, the love delicately organized and richly endowed beings of and philanthropy to which his muse was devoted. our era. A scion of the English aristocracy, the All his literary opinions evidenced the same sinnobility of his soul threw far into the shade all cerity. His refined admiration of nature-his habits conventional distinctions; while his views of life of intense study and moral independence, have not and standard of action were infinitely broader and been exaggerated. The noble actions ascribed to more elevated than the narrow limits of caste. him by partial friends, are proved to be the natural Highly imaginative, susceptible and brave, even results of his native feelings. The peculiar sufin boyhood he reverenced the honest convictions ferings of body and mind, of experience and imaof his own mind above success or authority. With gination, to which his temperament and destiny a deep thirst for knowledge, he united a profound subjected him, have in no degree been overstated. interest in his race. Highly philosophical in his His generosity and high ideal of intellectual greattaste, truth was the prize for which he most ear-ness and human excellence, are more than indicated nestly contended; heroical in his temper, freedom in the unstudied outpourings of his familiar correspondence. he regarded as the dearest boon of existence; of a tender and ardent heart, love was the grand hope and consolation of his being, while beauty formed the most genial element of his existence.

Love, according to Shelley, is the sum and essence of goodness. While listening to the organ in the Cathedral of Pisa, he sighed that charity instead of faith was not regarded as the substance

of universal religion. Self he considered as the poisonous "burr" which especially deformed mo

Of such a nature, when viewed in a broad light, were the elements of Shelley's character. Nor is it difficult to reconcile them with the details of his opinions and the tenor of his life. It is easy to imagine a state of society in which such a being + Essays, Letters from Abroad, Translations and Fragmight freely develope, and felicitously realize prin- ments. By Percy Bysshe Shelley. Edited by Mrs. Shelciples and endowments so full of promise; while, ley: London. 1840.

VOL. VI-50

Prometheus Unbound.

dern society; and to overthrow this "dark idola- ment, also, he habitually acted. The maintenance try," he embarked on a lonely but most honorable of his opinions cost him, among other sacrifices, a crusade. The impetuosity of youth doubtless gave fine estate. So constant and profuse was his libeto the style of his enterprize an aspect startling to rality towards impoverished men of letters, and the some of his well-meaning fellow-creatures. All indigent in general, that he was obliged to live social reformers must expect to be misinterpreted with great economy. He subjected himself to seand reviled. In the case of Shelley, the great rious inconvenience while in Italy, to assist a cause for regret is that so few should have paid friend in introducing steam-navigation on the Mehomage to his pure and sincere intentions; that so diterranean. It was his disposition to glory in and many should have credited the countless slanders support true merit wherever he found it. He was heaped on his name; and that a nature so gifted one of the first to recognize the dawning genius of and sensitive, should have been selected as the ob- Mrs. Hemans, to whom he addressed a letter of ject of such wilful persecution. The young poet encouragement when she was a mere girl. He saw men reposing supinely upon dogmas, and advocated a dietic reform, from a strong conviction hiding cold hearts behind technical creeds, instead that abstinence from spirituous liquors and animal of acting out the sublime idea of human brother-food would do much to renovate the human race. hood. His moral sense was shocked at the injus- Upon this idea his own habits were based. But tice of society in heaping contumely upon an erring the most obnoxious of Shelley's avowed opinions, woman, while it recognizes and honors the author was his non-concurrence in the prevalent system of her disgrace. He saddened at the spectacle so of Religion. To the reflective student of his often presented, of artifical union in married life-writings, however, the poet's atheism is very difthe enforced constancy of unsympathizing beings-ferent from what interested critics have made it. hearts dying out in the long struggle of an uncon-School and its associations were inexpressibly trygenial bond. Above all, his benevolent spirit bled ing to his free and sensitive nature; and a series of for the slavery of the mass-the superstitious en- puzzling questions of a metaphysical character, thralment of the ignorant many. He looked upon which he encountered in the course of his recreathe long procession of his fellow-creatures plod- tive reading, planted the seeds of skepticism in his ding gloomily on to their graves, conscious of social mind, which enforced religious observances and bondage yet making no effort for freedom, groan- unhappy experience soon fertilized. Queen Mab, ing under self-imposed burdens yet afraid to cast the production of a collegian in his teens, is rather them off, conceiving better things yet executing an attack upon a creed than Christianity; and was nothing. Many have felt and still feel thus. Shel-never published with the author's consent. It ley aspired to embody in life action, and to illus-should be considered as the crude outbreak of jutrate in life and literature the reform which his venile talent eager to make trial of the new wea whole nature demanded. He dared to lead forth pons furnished by the logic of Eton. Yet it was at a public ball the scorned victim of seduction, impertinently dragged again into notice to blight and appal the hypocritical crowd by an act of true the new and rich flowers of his maturer genius, moral courage. As a boy, he gave evidence of his and meanly quoted against Shelley in the chancery attachment to liberty by overthrowing a system of suit by which he was deprived of his children. school tyranny; and this sentiment, in after life, Instead of smiling at its absurdities, or rejecting, found scope in his Odes to the Revolutionists of with similar reasoning its arguments, the force of Spain and Italy. He fearlessly discussed the sub-authority, the very last to alarm such a spirit, was ject of marriage, and argued for abolishing an in-alone resorted to. What wonder if the ardent stitution which he sincerely believed perverted the boy's doubts of the popular system were increased, very sentiment upon which it is professedly based. his views of social degradation confirmed; that he "If I have conformed to the usages of the world, came to regard custom as the tyrant of the unon the score of matrimony," says one of his let-verse, and proposed to abandon a world from whose ters, "it is that disgrace always attaches to the bosom he had been basely spurned? If an intense weaker sex." In relation to this and other of his attachment to truth, and an habitual spirit of disin theories, the language of a fine writer in reference terestedness constitute any part of Religion, Sheto a kindred spirit is justly applicable to Shelley. ley was eminently religious. For the Divine cha"He conceived too nobly for his fellows he racter portrayed in the Gospels, he probably, in his raised the standard of morality above the reach of latter years, had a truer reverence than the mahumanity; and, by directing virtue to the most jority of Christians. If we are to credit one of his airy and romantic heights, made her paths dangerous, solitary, and impracticable." Shelley entertained a perfect disgust for the consideration attached to wealth, and observed, with impatient grief, the shadow property throws over modest worth and unmonied excellence. Upon this senti

most intimate friends, the Beatitudes constituted his delight and embodied his principles of faith. As far as the Deity is worshipped by a profound sensibility to the wonders and beauty of his unverse, a tender love of His creatures and a cherished veneration for the highest revelations of humanity,

And just and free and mild."*

victims of pain and disease. The object of constant malice, he never degenerated into a satirist. "Alas, good friend, what profit can you see

the calumniated poet was singularly devout. "Fools | indicate their characters. Where can we find an rush in where Angels fear to tread," is true of hu- individual in modern history of more exalted aims man conduct not less in its so called religious than than Shelley? While a youth, he was wont to stray its other aspects. We live in an atmosphere of from his fellows, and thoughtfully resolve doubt. To attain to clear and unvarying convic"To be wise tions, in regard to the mysteries of our being, is not the lot of all. There are those who cannot When suffering poverty in London, after his choose but wonder at the unbounded confidence of banishment, his benevolence found exercise in the theologians. It is comparatively easy to be a hospitals, which he daily visited to minister to the church-goer, to conform to religious observances, to acquiesce in prevailing opinions; but to how many all this is but a part of the mere machinery of life! There are those who are slow to profess and quick to feel, who can only bow in meekness, and hope with trembling. Shelley's nature was peculiarly reverential, but he entertained certain speculative doubts-and with the ordinary displays If I am the Narcissus, you are free of Christianity he could not sympathize. The To pine into a sound with hating me."+ popular conception of the Divinity did not meet Though baffled in his plans, and cut off from frehis wants; and so the world attached to him the quent enjoyment by physical anguish, love and brand of Atheist, and, under this anathema, hunted hope still triumphed over misanthropy and despair. him down. "The shapings of our Heavens," He was adored by his friends, and beloved by the says Lamb," are the modifications of our constitu- poor. Even Byron curbed his passions at Shelley's tions." Shelley's ideal nature modified his reli- wise rebuke, hailed him as his better angel, and gious sentiment.

"I loved, I know not what; but this low sphere

And all that it contains, contains not thee; Thou whom seen nowhere, I feel everywhere, Dim object of my soul's idolatry."*

In hating such a hateless thing as me?

*

There is no sport in hate, when all the rage
Is on one side.

Of your antipathy

transfused something of his elevated tone into the later emanations of his genius.

"Fearless he was and scorning all disguise,

What he dared do or think, though men might start,
He spoke with mild yet unaverted eyes;

Liberal he was of soul and frank of heart;
And to his dearest friends, who loved him well,

His Hymn to Intellectual Beauty is instinct with the spirit of pure devotion, directed to the highest conception of his nature. Unthinking, in- Whate'er he knew or felt he would impart."‡ deed, is he who can for a moment believe that And yet this is the man who was disgraced and such a being could exist without adoration. Dr. banned for his opinions-deemed by a court of his Johnson says that Milton grew old without any country unworthy to educate his own children— visible worship. The opinions of Shelley are no disowned by his kindred, and forced from his namore to be regarded as an index to his heart, than tive land! What a reflection to a candid mind, that the blind bard's quiet musings as a proof that the slander prevented all acquaintance and communion fire of devotion did not burn within. Shelley's ex-between Shelley and Lamb! How disgusting the pulsion from college, for questioning the validity of thought of those vapid faces of the travelling Christianity, or perhaps more justly asserting its English, who have done more to disenchant Italy abuses, was the turning point in his destiny. This than all her beggars, turned in scorn from the event, following immediately upon the disappoint-poet, as they encountered him on the Pincian or ment of his first attachment, stirred the very depths Lung 'Arno! With what indignation do we think of of his nature—and, in all probability, transformed that beautiful head being defaced by a blow! Yet the future man, from a good English squire, to a politician and reformer. Then came his premature marriage, to which impulsive gratitude was the blind motive-the bitter consequences of his error his divorce and separation from his chil- As a poet Shelley was strikingly original. He dren-his new and happy connection founded on maintained the identity of poetry and philosophy; true affection and intellectual sympathy-his ad- and the bent of his genius seems to have been to venturous exile and sudden death. How long, we are tempted to ask in calmly reviewing his life, will it require, in this age of wonders, for the truth to be recognized that opinions are independent of the will, and therefore not, in themselves, legitimate subjects of moral approbation or blame? has been said that the purposes of men most truly

*The Zucca.

It

we are told, when Shelley was inquiring for letters at a continental post-office, some ruffian, under color of the common prejudice, upon hearing his name, struck him to the earth.

present philosophical speculations, and "beautiful idealisms of moral excellence," in poetical forms. He was too fond of looking beyond the obvious and tangible to form a merely descriptive poet, and too metaphysical in his taste to be a purely sentimental one. He has neither the intense egotism of Byron, nor the simple fervor of Burns. In * Revolt of Islam. † Sonnet. Prince Athanase.