early in life we witnessed experiments of every sort and we were too easily satisfied with their results then came the intellectual necessity of and explaining such amazing phenomena that is to say of and them with the sphere of science a little band of fellow students looked to us for such a service and the which has been above was the product of our eager meditations having seen reason however to question the of evidence our poor is now advanced as nothing more than a playful of the intellect in so � as all the more of are concerned whatever may be its worth or as a piece of thought its value as a contribution is exactly equal to and we do not entertain the very faintest e wish or expectation concerning its future fortunes in the world the earth hath as the water hath and this is of them the of art ii � the poetry of we shall not be accused of popular approbation in tbe selection of a subject for the following essay the english poet whose name is written above is with few exceptions ihe least known among us true he has admirers among the of genuine poetry but the great verse devouring public cannot stop to and appreciate the beauties of writers like him like and therefore mrs cook mrs and are the names by which modem english poetry is commonly represented among us there are exceptions to these remarks has long been before the public in a form and is at last coming into notice since it has become fashionable to read the princess has but lately appeared in a manner worthy his merits one only of charming volumes has strayed among us but its modest presence wag forgotten amid the flourish of trumpets that announced the new and home the authors of bells and and are yet to come perhaps we ought not to complain of this it is easier to read songs than study the bells of rhyme sound pleasantly enough to ears not to the sphere bom melody of the singer but we may certainly be excused in our attempt to write a few imperfect words on a poet widely in several ways from all other living english or american writers this peculiarity is the of the beautiful in nature and life with a corresponding beauty of form poets of this class have little of the of the higher spiritual insight of which we shall hereafter speak as the characteristics of the lowest and highest species of poetry represents beauty as it itself in outward forms not from any moral purpose but simply from a love of the beautiful in itself he is an artist of the first degree his at times in forms of surpassing beauty as in the eve of st and portions rf such being the feature of this writer it seems necessary previous to a review of his works to indicate the relation of the beautiful to poetry this will require a definition of poetry which we will endeavour to give in a brief the poetry of space though at the risk of repeating t hat has been better said by critics before what then is the essence of the poetical with what objects material or spiritual is poetry concerned the least informed reader of the will discover that every man has an answer to this one tells us poetry is imitation another creation another that its legitimate province is the beautiful another that it should be a teacher of truth and morality in fact the subtle spirit seems to the grasp of all no sooner have the critics built their walls of around it than it lightly scales them and off into every original poet finds the materials of his art lying in by places and comers which had been given over by common consent to the dominion of the we must not look to criticism to teach us the possibilities of poetry it can deal only with the past and explaining what has been done it must follow in the train of genius content with being her the weather prophet may sit in the fields on a bright day surrounded with his and instruments and the changes of the elements but the sudden rising of a thunder storm all his fine calculations and sends him dripping to his home our of poetry must not be narrow any theory of the art is which the door against the future we must accept the past acknowledge and it if we will but stand m reverence before the awful coming of every new bard the of all these critical at once appears when we attempt to define our ideas of the beautiful the true and the good the very terms employed to limit the art what is this beauty this truth this love which are separately or considered the of poetry as far as our vision extends truth love and beauty appear to complete the circle of being they are perceived by what we call the intellectual and imaginative faculties of the this distinction seems the least arbitrary of any we can make it is one which the mind appears naturally to recognize this is all we are now permitted to know of absolute being as much of the deity as he is pleased to reveal to us as much perhaps as our faculties in their present state can comprehend but here arises a difficulty are truth love and separate elements or is being one revealing itself in these forms in nature are the forces of heat and the poetry of attraction different or only one force acting in different circumstances in morals are humility piety self denial separate virtues or is there but one essential virtue receiving these names from its several these questions especially the first which the others are of the first importance to the decision of our subject for if there be but 