The Sun.
London, England, 1830-07-15 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

BEAUTIES OF SHELLEY. LONDON, 1830.
This little volume will, we hope, be the means
of causing a re-action in Mr. Shelley's favour.
With his political principles we have nothing to
do; they are but in too many instances vague,
visionary, and incoherent ; specious in theory,
but dangerous in practice ; the high-flown ideas
of a poet and a philosopher, who looks on the
world as a sort of Utopia, to be best governed
by the most eloquent, imaginative, and theore-
tical. With such principles, we repeat—how-
ever sincerely and disinterestedly advocated—we
have'nothing to do, further than to express our
objection to them. But with Mr. Shelley's poetry
the case is widely different. Here we are at full
liberty to admire him as one of the most original,
high-minded, and impassioned writers that Eng-
land everproduced. Most sincerely are we of opi-
nion that no book of the same compass, in the
wide circle of our literature, abounds in greater,
more numerous, more exquisitely poetical beau-
ties, than the little volume before us. From every
page something may be gleaned to excite asto-
nishment and admiration. Unrivalled felicity oflan-
'gunge, copious, but not redundant ; an elevated
tone of feeling which Wordsworth only, among the
moderns, and Milton, among the more ancient
of our poets, has equalled ; a quick, lively
appreciation of the beauties of nature, and a
power of steeping them in the richest lights of
the imagination ;—these are a few among the
various strong claims that Mr. Shelley has upon
his readers. Already, we are glad to learn, he
is taking his proper rank as a poet of the highest
class. At Cambridge he is universally read,
and as universally admired, and by the literary
influential circles in the metropolis stands out
as a poet as far superior to Byron in imagination,
as he is inferior to him in versatility of talent,
in general knowledge of the world, and in the ex-
tended range of his passion. Had Shelley been less
lof a metaphysician he would have been infinitely
more popular than he has yet been, or is ever
,ikely to be. But his darling habit of abstract
speculation, which he in vain strives to lay
aside, by compelling his readers to think, has
laid a burden upon their attention which is not
to be thought of in the present slight and super.
ficial state of our literature, We will select a
few passages at random, from this delightful
little volume. In an " Ode to Liberty"—than
which Pindar never produced anything finer or
more majestic—occurs a description of Athens,
the splendid yet chaste and appropriate richness
of which needs no comments of our own to re

commend it :
" Athens arose : a, city such as vision
Builds from the purple crags and silver towers
Of hattlemented cloud, as in derision
Of kingbolt masonry ; the ocean-floors
Pave it; the evening sky pavilions it;
Its portals are inhabited
By thunder-zoned winds, each head
Within its cloudy wings with sunfire garlanded,
A divine work ! Athena diviner yet
Gleamed with its crest of columns, on the will
Of man, as on a mount of diamond, set;
For thou wart,* and thine all-creative skill
Peopled with forms that mock the eternal dead
In marble immortality, that hill
Which was thine earliest throne and latest oracle.
'Within the surface of Time's fleeting river
Its wrinkled image lies, as then it lay
Immoveably unquiet, and for ever
It trembles, but it cannot pass away !"
From the dramatic poem of " Prometheus
Unbound" we select a description of what the
Editor of this little volume calls " a rocky Pin-
uncle." The simile which concludes it, is among)
the very few original ideas that modern times
have produced. The classical reader will also
not fail to admire the graceful manner in which
Mr. Shelley adopts the compound epithets of the
Greek dramatists :

A ROCKY PINNACLE.
" ASIA. Fit throne for such a Power ! Magnificen
How glorious art thou, Earth And if thou be
The shadow of some spirit lovelier still,
Though evil stain its work, and it should be
Like its creation, weak yet beautiful,
I could fall down and worship that and thee.
even now my heart adoreth : Wonderful!
Look, sister, ere the vapour dim thy brain:
Beneath is a wide plain of billowy mist,
As a lake, paving in the morning sky,
With azure waves which burst in silver light,
Some Indian vale. Behold it, rolling on
Under the curdling winds, and islanding
The peak whereon we stand, midway, around
Encinctured by the dark and blooming forest*,
Dim twilight-lawns, and stream-illumined caves,
And wind-enchanted shapes of wandering mkt ;
And fir on high the keen sky-cleaving mountains
From icy spires of sun-like radiance fling
The dawn, as lifted Ocean's dazzling spray,
From some Atlantic islet scattered up,
Spangles the wind with lamp-like water-drops.
The vale is girdled with their walls, a howl
Of cataracts from their thaw-cloven ravines
Satiates the listening wind, continuous, vast,
Awful as silence. Hark ! the rushing snow !
The sun-awakened avalanche ; whose mass,
Thrice sifted by the storm, had gathered there
Flake after flake, in heaven•defying minds
As thought by thought is piled, till some great truth
Is loosened, and the nations echo round,
Shaken to their roots, as do the mountains now."

Want of room prevents us saying anything
more at present on the subject of this volume.
'We may probably, however, revert to it, as.
time and opportunity permit. Meanwhile we
may assure our readers that there is nothing in
this edition, whether in sentiments or politics,
for the most fastidious moralist to condemn.

LIFE OF KING JAMES THE FIRST.
ICAINHURGII, 1830.

This forms the Fifty-sixth Number of Con-
[stable's Miscellany, and fully sustains the repu-
tation acquired by that work, both as regards
'research, ingenuity of argument, and simpla,
forcible, plain matter-of-fact writing. Mr.
Chambers is a useful contributor to a popular
Miscellany of this nature, where an eye must
'necessarily be had to condensation and arrange-1
meat.

SONGS OF THE AFFECTIONS--Enztoußam, 1830.
The poetry of Mrs. nemans is so well known,
and so generally appreciated, that any attempts
to analyse its excellencies is superfluous. Wei
shall therefore content ourselves with observin
• Mr. Shelley here allude., to liberty. gl

that the present volume, if not altogether ealcu-1
lated to increase to an eminent degree the high
reputation of the fair authoress, will most asH
suredly not derogate from it. Its only defect is'
its monotonous character. There is a want of
variety in the subject as well in the way of treat-
ing them. Mrs. Hemans should strive to en-
large the range of her poetical ideas. Within a
somewhat contracted sphere she is omnipotent.,
Let her strive to extend that sphere, and the
number of her admirers will no doubt be propor.
tionately increased.