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LITERATURE.
THE BRITISH QUARTERLY REVIEW.
No. VIH.
tin
A -4

Whether poetry is in a manner antecedent to
civilisation, or simultaneous with it, is a question
frequently advanced but seldom conclusively an-
swered. A contributor to the British Quarterly
Review, in a very ostentatious article, undertakes to
demonstrate "that the highest mental culture, and
the severest intellectual discipline, are not unpropi-
tious to the grandest efforts of imagination." This
proposition is only introduced to the reader's
attention after a kind •of moral flourish, or
fanfarronade of trumpets. Even then the words are
printed in the most legible italics. The writer ad-
vances with the most elaborate parade of valour to
annihilate all those who have the audacity to deny
the possibility of a great poetical genius making his
appearance in an age of civilization. He insists
that, supposing such an egregious doctrine to be
founded upon experience, epics ought to be dis-
covered in as much profusion as spontaneous fruit in
" the sombre forests of New Zealand, and
the thirsty wildernesses of Australia." He
blunders through a multitude of grandiloquent
sentences for the purpose of thoroughly elucidating
his meaning, and at last congratulates himself upon
having tolerably well demonstrated the justice of his
theory. His theory, indeed ! Why, the same notion
has been long ago submitted to similar arguments,
and has produced infinitely better conclusions. That
poetry of a superior order might be and has been
penned in periods of high intellectual cultiva-
tion, is sufficiently manifest of itself. Expe-
rience and common sense would enable one
to recognise that fact ; and the wherefore
has been most admirably defined by Mr. Macaulay in
the Edinburgh Review. In his florid but exquisite
critical essay upon Milton, that elegant thinker has
enumerated the difficulties with which the poet is
surrounded by civilization, and he has likewise ex-
plained how all those difficulties may be vanquished,
and how; being vanquished, the bard may, with the
requisite amount of genius, achieve greater things
than supposing he had flourished in a period
of national barbarism. Mr. Macaulay has
there acknowledged that poetry is naturally
more spontaneous and real when society existed in its
primitive condition, when the landscapes were young,
and the " vernal woods unshorn," when the shep-
herds carolled. their madrigals and the huntsmen
seemed to drink in from the pure atmosphere a na-
tural taste for song. But beyond this he has shown
how the greatest of all the masterpieces of poetical
art was produced in an age when knowledge was rife,
he has shown how Milton with all the obstructions of his
erudition, with all the hindrances of his accomplish-
ments, will all the drawbacks of his refined judgment,
and all the obstacles of his fastidious taste, wrote his
colossal poem and thereby achieved his unparalleled
glory. He has shown how Milton was enabled, not-
withstanding so many preventatives, to sing of the
divine magnificence of Heaven, to descend in spirit
to the realms of perdition, to paint the
loveliness of paradise, to span the abysses of
chaos. He has shown how Milton, despite the extra-
ordinary cultivation of his intellect, and the pre-
valence of learning amongst his contemporaries, was
still enabled to produce the tender lamentations of
" Lycidas ;" the fantastic, but not less moving, mask
of " Comus ;" the gladsome and sparkling " Allegro ;"
the sombre and touching " Pensoroso." He has
has shown how Milton was enabled to accomplish
all this, and he has shown that he was only
enabled to accomplish it by descending from the
throne of his erudition, by resigning the armour of
gold and adamant by which his scholastic nature was
clad, by throwing aside the sceptre of science and the
crown of knowledge—and becoming for the time a
child. The reasoning employed by M. r. Macaulay in
unravelling the woof of his beautiful theory, the
adroitness with which he distinguishes between

witthhew-h
ipehrimatidveelineaatneds
ethiveilispoedetpicealet,
tchaep
the moral conquest gained by Milton, the historian,
eloquenceac ty
the statesman, the politician, the scholar, the courtier,
over himself, are entirely disregarded by the writer
of this article upon " Poetry and Civilisation." The
latter, indeed, endeavours to appropriate to himself
the spoil of the arguments of Mr. Macaulay, and to
introduce that spoil as the result of his own
blundering hypothesis. Instead of acknowledging
that wonderful poems have been written in the
bloom of human intelligence, before nations had been
developed by civilisation, or society modulated by
morality and learning, he undertakes to show that
great poets are incompatible with any but civilised
times or highly-cultivated generations. He regards
Homer as the denizen of such times, and Thespis,
and Pratinax, and Carcinus, and Phrynichus,
and .schylus, and Sophocles. " With Euri-
pides," he observes, " both the virtue and
genius of Athens began to decline." The
effusions of Anacreon, of Sappho, and of Pindar, he
considers to be likewise those of a civilized period.
Although the Roman literature was of an intensely
imitative and plundering character, he insists that its
greatest poets were those who flourished during its
highest state of cultivation. Among these, he con-
siders Virgil, Horace, and Lucretius, to be numbered.
Juvenal is regarded as a companion to Euripedes—as
the antepenultimates of Roman and Grecian civi-
lisation. Upon this theory the whole ex-
tension of time would embrace the history of
the highest state of intellectual cultivation.
according to that system, the whole range of our
national history, from Chaucer upwards, has been one
protracted period of national elevation in knowledge.
We cannot perceive either the utility or justice of
such a conclusion. The notion, in fact is absolutely
preposterous. And the consequences of such a diseased
argument is in keeping with its frivolity ; it closes
with a sweeping condemnation of the " New Timon."
In constructiveness it is very elegantly spoken of as
inferior to " the spawn of the Minerva press." Its
peculiarities of language, metaphor and incident are
mentioned in equally critical terms, and altogether a
very delightful little paragraph of abuse closes a very
long and extravagant paper. The quotation from
Keat's matchless ode to the nightingale is spoilt by
being wrongly given ; the closing couplet is—
" That I might drink, and leave the world unseen,
And with thee fade away into the forest dim."
r In some instances the language of the contributor is
most redundant, as where he speaks of flowers being
" fragrant with odoriferous perfumes." The critical no-
tice of the writings of Sir James Mackintosh is elabo-
rate and intelligent. The chronological arrangement is
admirable. An attempt to disprove the facts of
phrenology is made in this number, and to say the
very least of it, is most ingenious. We have not the
leisure to enter into the merits of the writer's
curious and original proposal. " The Covenan-
ters in the North of Scotland," and " The Apos-
tolic Fathers," form subjects for two interest-
ing contributions. In articles entitled " Supplies
of Water," and " Popular Education," the sa-
natory elevation and moral improvement of the people
are variously considered, and when we reflect upon
the impetus which has already been given to Go-
vernment in those particulars, we should have re-
garded this Quarterly as almost incomplete without
' such papers. As a whole, this number of the British
Quarterly Review is valuable.

THE GALE OF FRIDAY.
THE SOUTH DEVON LINE STOPPED.
The weather since midnight has been exceedingly
boisterous, and this morning blew a furious gale from
the south and southeast. Every storm at once calls
people's attention to the South Devon Railway, and we
regret to hear that the line is again in peril from the
gale. The timber truck of Mr. Hennett, the con-
tractor, came safely up as far as thel boat house at Pow-
derham-park this morning, there a vessel had broken
from her moorings in the river, and been driven with
great force against the railway, causing considerable
damage to the wall, and leaving the vessel in such a
position that her bowsprit was directly across the line;
the breaks were put on by the driver, but it was impos-
sible to stop the train, which came with such force
against the bowsprit as to cut it in two; with this ex-
ception, the train arrived safe at the station. The first
up-train was started from Teignmouth at the usual hour,
and passed safely over the scene of the last disaster near
the Holcombe tunnel, and arrived at Dawlish and pro-
ceeded up the line; on arriving at the other side of Lang-
ston Cliff, the line was found to be covered by the sea,
and much washed from the fury of the waves beating
over it. It was, therefore, deemed advisable not to run
the risk of passing, until the tide had receded
ag done.
e
suffi-
ciently to ascertain the nature of the damage
close-, until c?
Holcombe, it was apprehended The train was therefore
over
rackthede
dtsomaTgedeignpmarotuteht,
and as it again passed
line
swtohuelrde
fbeerep
feorri ot
hu s
to again attempt to pass e
t altogether.
el the damage done can be
present the gale and the height
(fit.nded that from the violence of
thTehetidlien,
and
clearly ascertained, and the traffic between the
Teignmouth is carried on by coaches
station
omnibuses. This is the second interrup-
i7odn which this line has sustained since its
both interruptions having occurred
tideias.y,lt must, however, be borne in mind
damage done by the last gale has not been
at
tpaet springntie in l
efficiently repaired. General Pasley, the Government
Inspector, arrived in this city this morning, and at once
proceeded to the scone of disaster. Since writing the
above, we understand that it is not likely the working of
the line will be resumed for some days. In the mean-
time every vehicle is put in requisition, and the company
are conveying passengers., between Teignmouth and
Exeter at railway fares, an expensive game for them,
and a very inconvenient one for the public. No less than
five vehicles arrived at the Red Cow Station, some time
after one to-day, about five minutes after the up train
had started, although the superintendant, Mr. Ashbee
had delayed the train a quarter of an hour.—Western
I'
Times.

DEATH CAUSED BY LEVERETS.--AS Joseph Flem-
ing, coachman to the Messrs. Felgate, Bowdesley Bury,
was riding a spirited mare, three leverets, which he had
in his pocket, commenced squeaking. Their noise
frightened the mare, and she dashed away at a full gallop,
Pitching off Fleming, who was killed on the spot.