The Sun.
London, England, 1854-02-20 00:00:00

Criticisms. By the Rev. John W. Lester. Third
edition. Longman and Company.
Criticisms these are by a man of refined taste, of
tender sensibility, and of most graceful imagination.
A third edition having appeared in 1853 of a work
of this particular character, published originally
not further back than 1847, must be regarded as a
circumstance sufficiently indicative at once of its
excellence and of its popularity. Otherwise two in-
troductory editions would not have been so speedily
exhausted, especially in an age when the col-
lected writings of Macaulay, and Alison, and Car-
lyle, and Rogers, and Wilson, and Stephens, and
Jeffrey, and Macintosh have rendered the public
naturally somewhat fastidious in this peculiar de-
partment of literature. A period when it is rather
more difficult for the critic to satisfy his reader's
judgment than in the days when Malone, and.
Bryant, and Tyrwhitt awarded the bay or the birch
to the competitors for the poetic crown of immor-
tality. If there be any one among the critics of
the present day with whose style that of Mr. Les-
ter might be brought into comparison, it would
probably be that of his distinguished northern con-
temporary, the Rev. George Gilfillan—to whose first
volume we had the gratification of according an ear-
nest welcome before his name was generally known,
certainly before he himself could have had any con-
jecture whatever of the rapid growth of his now
extended reputation. Nevertheless, while there is
somethingkindredin the florid style of the Rev. John
Lester and that of the Rev. George Gilfillan, the
former is very far indeed from lacking in originality.
He is no servile imitator. He speaks not as an echo,
but out of the fulness of his own heart. Indeed the
date of the original edition of this charming volume
of "Criticisms" must be taken in proof that its
writer, who, though he may probably have drunk
in with rapture the eloquence of the earlier series
of " Literary Portraits," shortly before putting pen
to paper in the composition of these graceful
tributes of admiration—was at the same time
gifted with a manner peculiarly his own, and
with a judgment distinguished by its indepen-
dence. Otherwise, let us add once more, the
book could never have run through so many
editions, it could never have won for itself so many
admirers, it could never have secured for its author
the advantages of his present unquestionable
popularity, it could never have induced more
than some half-dozen journalists who might
-Iftippeu • to— be perstMal Wilds of :11 author
(which, by the way, we are not—we may,
perhaps, be permitted to observe, unfortu-
nately) to adventure thus upon the apparent
anomaly of reviewing a reviewer The in-
cumbent of Ashton Hayes, Cheshire, for as such
we find the writer designated upon his very title-
page, we must commend at once as the most genial
of critics—judging of him, at least, from these
selected " Criticisms." He has chosen, in fact,
for consideration those only whose effusions have
awakened in his heart sympathetic emotions of
joy or sorrow—and all the while he has been
advancing to a holier mission than might be
implied by any such occupations advancing,
that is to say, towards the time when he should
more seriously and more exclusively minister in
the temple of Religion. As he himself expresses it
—" We have plucked a few flowers, sunbeamed,
while on our way to the temple of the Holiest
[blossoms of praise which he has scattered around
him with no unstinting hand among the throng of
his favourite contemporaries], and ever and anon
has arisen a wish [he confesses to us] that they
might not fade." Let us echo his aspiration—" May
the desire be realised." It were scarcely possible, in-
deed, to feel churlishly towards the author while
turning over the pages of these generous criti-
cisms. He himself, so gentle in his treatment of
others, commands some cordiality of appreciation.
He has his crotchets, of course, like most of us.
He has his own peculiar views and opinions about
our current literature. Frequently, no doubt,
we:are, therefore, forced to differ from him—to differ
from him, in truth, sometimes diametrically. Never-
theless, we do so—simply, and without the
smallest sense of irritation. For in no instance have
we found Mr. Lester perversely or annoyingly
dogmatical. He expresses his sentiments with
earnestness—that he could not help doing, think-
ing, and feeling, and believing as he does not by
halves, but thoroughly. Yet, when we most dis-
sent from his notions of things, we never even then
find ourselves goaded into any harsh antagonism.
He thinks, and feels, and believes, we say, not by
halves, but thoroughly. Speaking of Philip
Bailey, he regards ins " Festus " as " essentially
the poem of the age "—the italics being his own,
Speaking of Thomas Carlyle, he
remember.
calls him "colossal." Speaking of another, he
magnificent.' His eclecticism leads him
trllove variously
variously the beauties associated with the
oevss of Keats and Wordsworth, of Cowper and.
Coleridge, of Heber and Hazlitt, of Croly and
Carrington. Among the dii minores of the poesy
of the day, too, he can squander appropriate sen-
tences of commendation—panegyrising whatever he
regards as meritorious in the writings of Heraud,
and Hervey, and authors of that description. What
is particularly noteworthy,
, moreover, in this volume,
is the circumstance
thMr. Lester speaks with
all his heart and soul, in terms of unrestricted
and unaffected eulogium, of young poets who are
but just rising into the sunshine of reputation.
Conspicuous among these are two—James Orton
and Sydney Yendys—of whose initial volumes
we ourselves spoke at the period of their ori-
ginal appearance in words of praise calculated, let
us hope, to prove incentives to their energy during
the process of their intellectual development. Re-
ferring in a particular manner to the former, Mr.
Lester proffers the meed of his eulogium to the
young critic of " Excelsior," and the young bard
of " The Enthusiast." At different times he speaks
of Mr. Orton as a " true genius," as " a fine gene-
rous genius," as " a true and ofty genius"—add-
ing, with reason, of his " Enthusiast, or the Stray-
ing Angel," that it is " a poem of much beauty,
sweetness, and melody." Closing his tribute, more-
over, with the gentle aspiration (one we may
repeat also, as admirers, in like manner, of
both Mr. Orton's "Excelsior" and "Enthusiast,
that on his home and hearth might
Sunlight ! Numerous other writers are passed
under review by Mr. Lester, in company with
those already mentioned. It may be observed,
cursorily, that among these are Alford, and Blair,
and Davis, and Irving, and Pollok, and Wolfe, and
Tighe, and Atherstone_while in treating
uitlypcans
he
all
of whose writings, Mr. Lester contrives to cull
criticism—not always
many and many a flowerooffgrace a
advances along the path
rugged, but with him ever picturesque.

133mbroke-plac.e, Dublin, on Monday
DRAM OF LORD NETTERVILLIC.—Thisnobleman died
demise without issue the title becomes
alast
.his rßesyidheinsce,
extinct.