The Press.
London, England, 1857-05-23 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

peared to think so, for he declared the canal
scheme next to impracticable, and devoted
all his energies to the construction of the
railroad. Whether the scheme would ever
pay seems open to doubt. Five thousand tons
of shipping daily passing through is taken by
the projectors as the lowest estimate for profit.
But apart from its commercial advantages,
there are great political considerations in-
volved in the construction of this canal. It is
absurd to say that its use shall be limited to
commerce. One main advantage of the canal
to us would b in placing India within a few
days' sail of our Mediterranean fleet and gar-
risons. If this right be conceded to us, it
must be conceded to other nations; and it is
a question for the consideration of England
whether India, under her present exceptional
system of government, should be placed
within such easy reach of the political in-
fluences of Europe.

The Last Judgment. A Poem in Twelve Books.
London : Longmans.
THE extraordinary literary popularity gained
by the late Rev. Robert Montgomery has pro-
bably tempted the author of this volume to
aspire to the fame of being accepted as a poet.
We readily give him credit for being a con-
scientious Christian and a well-meaning sub-
ject of Queen Victoria, but we cannot praise
his poetry. The subject is truly woeful, and
an attempt to describe it, unless with the sub-
lime imagination of a Milton or a Dante, must
inevitably end in—words. This author has a
large stock of them, and at times he shows
command of versification. He has adopted
the heroic couplet of English verse, and its
clinquant would mar even Miltonic power ap-
plied to such a theme and treated at such
length. We suspect that Homer (secundum
" Mr. Pope") is the great exemplar on which
this aspiring versifier has modelled his style.
The invocation records the lofty ambition of
the author :
Revealing Spirit !—Thou whn didst of old
To favour'd Seers far-distant scenes unfold,
Disclosing to their rapt prophetic gaze
The brighter visions of more glorious days—
Now that those glories shine displayed to view,
Unfold fresh wonders, open vistas new:
And open Thou mine eyes, with glance sublime
To pierce the veil which shrouds the end of Time,
And gaze, undazzled, on those scenes of dread
Which 'rime's great consummation shall outspread.
My tongue unloose; my glowing lips inspire;
And all my soul afflate with heavenly fire.
On wings of ecstasy, empower'd to dare
Sublimest heights, my soaring spirit bear,
While I attempt, 'midst scenes and worlds unknown,
A flight as lofty as th' eternal Throne.
And in a direct appeal to the Divinity lie pro-
ceeds in strains with much piety of sentiment
but with no poetry of thought:—
To Thee, Most High ! I dedicate the song:
Deign to accept. To Thee alone belong
The praise and glory of each virtuous deed,
And thought sublime or pure. From Thee proceed
All good and perfect gifts. If thou dost bless,
This will insure. and far transcend, success.
Though all be dark, Thou canst transform to light ;
Though ali be weakness, Thou canst change to might.
Then take the instrument Thyself bast made,
Direct, restrain, enlighten, hallow, aid :
So shall the work not wholly thwart Thy will,
Nor fail some heavenly purpose to fulfil :
Imperfect ever, though divinely blest;
For human works are human, at the best.
All that is worthy Thee alone is Thine,
And all that's worthless or imperfect, mine.
The awfulness of the subject forbids us to
treat this poem with any levity. Many pas-
sages remind us that the author has read
Milton, and many more show that he does not
understand the distinction between sounding
verse and sonorous poetry. Hero is one of
his best passages :
The trumpet sounds. Angelic chiefs are seen
Speeding their flight celestial ranks between ;
Their squadrons forming, marshalling their train,
And spreading, in vast phalanx, o'er the plain.
Till that long column, broken up and changed,
Appears in mighty circle re-arranged :
Christ in the centre. throned ; while round him stand
Of Cherubim a bright majestic band;
Then seraph choirs, with minstrelsy divine,
And highest archangelic legions, shine ;
Princedoms, dominions, thrones, and heavenly powers,
And angehhosts, fresh from celestial bowers ;
With those who in created worlds abode-
-I'lanets and stars, which with their presence glow'd ;
Unnumber'd hosts of every rank and race,
All bright and fair, and deck'd in heavenly grace;

509

In circles vast, extending far and wide,
Yet spreading still, like ocean's boundless tide ;
While, bordering the whole, a tuneful band
Of harpers, from all worlds, united stand ;
And cherubs tall, sustaining banners bright,
The mighty circle fringe with dazzling light.
Before the throne their crowns archangels fling,
And, prostrate, heaven's high hosts adore their King.
Seraphic choirs take up the grateful song,
And all assembled worlds the strains prolong,
Till from the centre to the outmost hound
Of that vast circle, notes of worship sound.
There are many more composed in the same
style of emphatic verbiage. We are painfully
reminded of the scene in the Critic by the fol-
lowing passage, which, by way of description,
tells the reader of the things not to be seen in
the other world :
In that fair world no noxious weed shall blow,
No poisonous plant, no deadly ti pas grow.
No lion fierce shall through the forest rove,
Nor prowling tiger fright the peaceful grove.
No scorching sun its fervid rays shall cast ;
No freezing cold, no chilly northern blast ;
But one mild genial lustre from on high,
Beneath the inter and ecliptic sky.
No pestilential vapours shall arise,
No thunders roar, no lightnings pierce the skies;
No wild tornado, with resistless force,
Shall sweep along destruction in its course;
No storm, no tempest by its fiery breath
Shall devastation spread and doom to death ;
No drenching flood relieve the expanded cloud,
No mists the hills, nor fogs the vales, enshroud :
But gentle dews shall silently distil,
Refresh the earth, and swell the purling rill ;
While fragrant breezes from their balmy wing
Though all the air Sabmean odours fling.
We cannot help recollecting, after this hurri-
cane of " noes," of Shetidan's burlesque, and
especially of tho line,
The Spanish fleet be cannot see, because 'tis not in sight.
In the last page of the twelfth book we read
verses like these :

Bliss—bliss celestial—through each spirit thrills—
Expands the soul ; the soul, expanded, fills ;
Expands ; is filled ; again, expanded, grows ;
And, as it still expands, still overflows.
Unspeakable, ineffable, untold,
The bliss they feel, the wonders they behold.
Unutter'd yet those joys by mortal tongue,
By earthly Bard yet unexpress'd, unsung;

" Enough" will cry any reader who deF,:res
to examine the epic pretensions of this author.
Should he again address the public itt verse,
we advise him to take English subjects,within
the bounds of sense and reflection, and to
confine himself to detailed description of actual
nature. It is beyond his strength of wing to
soar into the regions of the unknown.

NEW NOVELS.

1. Darchester Towers. By Anthony Trollope,

Author of " The Warden." London :
Longmans.
2. Nightshade. A Novel. By William Johnston,

M.A. London : Bentley.
3. Below the Surface. London : Smith and

Elder.

4. Glenwood Manor house.

By Esther Bako-

well. London : Hall and Virtue.
THE talent for sketching clerical peculiarities
seems to abide in the Trollope family. Strong
sense is the prevailing characteristic of the
present author, and he consequently looks
with no great favour upon the extravagances
of either extreme theological school. But it
is inevitable that a mind of this texture
should find the affectations of ultra-High
Churchmen less offensive than those of their
antagonists, and that in his heart he should
rather lean towards that good old school of
divines who produced our standard Church
literature, and who united to learning and
scholarship the accomplishments and high
bred courtesy of English gentlemen. The
public are, perhaps, beginning to discover that
the gradual disappearance of the so-called
"high and dry" school of clergy is not an un-
qualified advantage to the Church. Their
"highness" was perfectly Protestant, and
their " dryness " had plenty of the milk of
human kindness. Such, at all events, seems to
be the opinion of Mr. Trollope, who, in " Bar-
chester Towers," has exhibited types of the
high and dry, and the low and uncta---
will not readily bo forgotten. His st,
many respects P. continuation of
Warden." Mrs. Bold is the heroine,

MS ln LIIV
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