The Press.
London, England, 1856-03-29 00:00:00

VIRTUE OF NO CONDITION.

MARQUIS.
It were to be indeed a king, if kings
Had more of greatness than a meaner man.
But all for us! the world's nobility
Is not named noble for its nobleness.
Virtue is as the universal sky
That kisseth all alike the hills and dales;
And ye shall meet her, oh ! as easily
In huts where Poverty and Sorrow wait
To bar her path, as in the halls of kings,
Where gilded doorways gape to take her in;
Ever she makes her house in noble hearth,
Careless of clime or creed, like birds that build
Under mosque•roof or Christian basilic
Their nests for loves and lives But birth and blood,
What are these to her, when, alas! my lords,
Not the nice palate of the graveyard worm
Knows the cast shell of vassal from a king's.
Ye smile, sirs,—sooth, fur all your smiles and mine,
It may be, that in God's great book of life
The blood a peasant poureth for his lord,
Is writ more precious than the stream that warms
The heart he died to keep at even beating.

NATURE

GRISELDA.
Oh, sing a simple song, for I have thought,
Listening to many a modern line and lay
Of minstrelsy excelling, that their strings
Strove for too great an utterance, and so missed
The ready road that quiet music finds
Right to the heart ; like as an 3'erstrained bow
Shoots past the butt.. Dame Nature dotl► not thus,
And minstrels are her children, and should stand
Close at their mother's knee to learn of her.
Look ! when she will be beau►iful or great,
She strains not for her rainbows or her stars,
But with deft finger works her wonders in
With an unruffled quiet, a soul-felt
And unregardful strength—so that her storms,
Her calms, night, day, moon-risings and sunsets,
Wood songs and river-songs, and waves and winds,
Come without noise of coming. Ah ! I love,
When 'tis voiced tenderly, a simple song.—
A song whereto the caught ear listens close,
To hear a heart, and not a chord speak out
Musical truthfulness.
These passages are Shakesperian in spirit,
and are tinctured with the manner and music
of the master. The next extract is front the
scene in which Griselda's daughter is re•
moved. It is an example of the pathos of the

GRISELDA.
I fear I read
A bitter meaning in your broken speech :
But I'll not think so—you are not to take her ;
Your hands are hard with arquebuss and sword,
Used to the clench of iron. You are fierce,
And soldierlike, and stern ; your gentleness
Would crush this little life. What canst thou do
With her whose bed has been of silks and down—
Whose food were delicates—whose rosy beauty
Nought harder than a kiss hath ever touched
It is not true—tell me it is not true !
MAItTINO.

So true, that I shall take what yon refuse me,
If you refuse it longer than my leave.
GIUSELDA.
Keep uff ! I bad forgotten ! it is true!
Stand there, sir ; yuu shall have her—take her—so.
(Gives the child.)

MAItTINO.
"Pis well ! thou (lost this wisely ; and I go.
Pardon the needful pain.
GRIBELDA.

Oh ! stay, good sergeant.
( Sweet angels make me strong !) Thou askest pardon
Thou shalt have thanks ; render me back my child.
MARTINO.
Nay, madam !
GRISELDA.

But a minute—she is thine.
Hath he not so commanded ? Ah ! dear love,
Lie back a breathing space upon this breast—
Thy home no more !—thy home and life no more !

My little sleeping girl—my silent daughter !^
To-night thou diest for the fault of me,
Thine o'er-fond mother. Therefore, pretty one !
Aye, smile on so—even as thy father smiled,
And I shall get the heart to say the word—
Therefore, farewell—farewell ! and let me take
Thine earthly sorrows off with this last kiss :
Thy soul, my little child, is His to have
Who died upon the cross, whereof in token
1 sign thee with the sign. Take ! here again,
Good sergeant, your young maid.
In the minor poems Mr. Arnold appears
to great advantage. The installation ad-
dress to Lord Derby is, in our opinion, the
best of them. Mr. Arnold writes the herbic
metre with more grace and strength combined
than any poet of the present day. His lines
have the swing and resonance of " majestic
Dryden," and we are inclined to think that in
the revival of that noble measure he may,
perhaps, discover his true vocation. The ma-
jority of these poems have alr.mdy appeared
in various periodicals. "Vernier,' published
in Blackwood's Magazine, is truly poetical,
though dashed with resemblance to Tenny-
son ; "Dreamland," from Fraser, has great
imaginative charm, but too ideal for the
taste of the day ; and the lines on " The Sea,"
which appeared in Bentley, are uncommonly
spirited and striking. Most of the " Songs
for the Time" have appeared in THE PRESS
and, without at all wishing to applaud contri-
butions to our columns, we must express our
honest opinion that the piece entitled " The
Tiger" is by far the finest lyric of modern
day. We pity the taste, too, which cannot
appreciate the beauty of the verses, " The
Vigil," and " In Memoriam."

Sermons, Doctrinal and Practical. By the
Rev. William Archer Butler, M.A., late
Professor of Moral Philosophy in the Uni-
versity of Dublin. Edited from the Author's
MSS by James Amiraux Jeremie, D.D.
Cambridge : Macmillan and Co.
THE author, now no more, of these sermons
was an Irish clergyman of rare intellectual
endowments. Since his decease, about seven
years ago, his reputation as a divine has
gradually been rising, and the " United Church
" of Great Britain and Ireland " has in late
years produced few more remarkable natures
than Archer Butler. Though his friends and
admirers might have desired for him a longer
career, he lived long enough to gain a lasting
name. Nothing but sterling merit could gain
the posthumous fame which has been accorded
to Mr. Butler.
The merits of these sermons, and of all Mr.
Butler's writings, lie in their union of subtle
thinking, poetical illustration, and pure senti-
ment. We know of but few recent religious
teachers so endowed with a high spirituality.
His faith intensely apprehended " the things
unseen." In detached passages there is un-
common eloquence of a scholarly character,
and every sermon bears witness to his aspiring
conceptions of Christianity. We are glad to
see that they have been edited under the
auspices of the Regius Professor at Cambridge
After disclaiming responsibility for the putt