The Sun.
London, England, 1860-04-30 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

The Poetical Works of ,Tohn Edmund .Reade
New edition. Two vols. Longman.
The poems of Mr. Reade have been frequently
before the public, and, though not showing any
high degree of poetical genius, or originality, they
are not without their admirers. They have been
published at intervals extending over a space of
thirty years, and have frequently made their
appearance in a collected form. This new edition
has several features to recommend it. A great
part of the poetry has been remoulded and even re-
written, new poems have been added, some old
ones omitted, and all much condensed. In addition
to these manifest advantages, the volumes are of
handsome size, the paper is good, the type clear and
excellent, and the whole appearance of the new
edition altogether more attractive than its prede-
cessors. Some of the verses evidence an unconscious
imitation of other authors, but many of the less
pretentious ones show taste and feeling. The chief
poems are on so large a scale, and on such ambitious
subjects, that it would need a poet of the highest
order to do them justice, and to avoid invidious
comparison with the masters of song who
have already treated these lofty themes. A
poem in the Spenserian stanza on Italy I
inevitably provokes the recollection of the
fourth canto of " Childe Harold." Cain the
Wanderer has been before now the subject of a
dramn. "" Man in Paradise" has been sketched by
a mightier hand ; while " The Deluge " of Mr.
Reade is but another version of the same story told
in " The loves of the Angels " of Moore and the
" Heaven and Earth "of Byron. Even treated by
such writers such an attempt must always be little
better than a splendid failure. It is impossible to
invest the angels with angelic attributes, to make
them totally distinct from the race of men. Still
in this new edition many less ambitious and happier
efforts are introduced, and glowing descriptions
and a good command of language are manifest
throughout. The following verses afford a favour-
able sample of Mr. Reade's lyric powers. They
are taken from a poem entitled " The Poet of Art,"
and aptly delineate a cold and artificial writer :
" He watched the flowing tears, and weighed
The salt within them as they fell;
He heard the sobbings that forbade
The heart its agonies to tell :
Each look and gesture conned, with eyes
Considerate, the pen he took,
And noted down the outward guise
Of passions in his lifeless book.
" And thus age withered, but he kept
Unruffled the crystalline flame
The spirit that nor felt nor wept,
That knew the feelings but by name ;
Imagination hid her ray,
And loft the alien uncrowned,
To coin from images of clay,
With a false stamp, the god unfound I
" He told the truths that in him dwelt,
The song of art, staid, calm, and pure ;
The quickening flame within unfelt,
That gives the throbbings which endure;
Life passed, her secrets unconfessed,
Her grandest chords by him untried,
He wore a star upon his breast,
And painted shadows till he died I
" There is a Spirit watching hero
O'er mightiest poets; they depart,
But their songs shed like blossoms sear,
Are gathered by the reverent heart.
Their prophecies all vainly spoken,
Are heard at last, and truth atones,
The ruins of false Idols broken
Become the footsteps to their thrones."

Expository Lectures on St. Paul's Epistles to the
Corinthians. By the late Rev. F. W. Robertson,
I\l.A Smith, Elder, and Co.
The name and writings of the late Mr. Robert-
son are well known to a very large circle. The
regret felt at his premature death by the members
of his own congregation was shared by numbers
who were beyond it. It was felt that the Chuith
had lost one who was fitted, as few indeed are
qualified, for the office of a Christian minister. Pos-
sessing brilliant talents and cultivated taste, his
chief strength lay in his heartfelt earnestness and
sincerity, his unfailing toleration for others, and in
his constant maintenance of the great principles
of his faith above all minor points of difference in
form or dogma. His influence among the working-
classes and those who would not rank themselves
within the pale of the Church, is described as some-
thing wonderful ; and this is scarcely surprising,
when we reflect upon the total absence of that bit-
terness and intolerance unfortunately so common
among fervent believers of all denominations. The
lectures before us are on St. Paul's Epistles to the
Corinthians, and were delivered during the last two
years of Mr. Robertson's life and ministry. It had
been his custom to substitute for the sermon at the
afternoon service an expository lecture on one of
the Books of Scripture. This plan, he thought,
gave him greater freedom, and enabled him to dis-
cuss some subjects which would not find place in a
sermon. Thus, in expounding the Books of
Samuel, and treating of Hebrew national life,
" he discerned lessons for the English people, and
for the men and women who sat before him. Thus
it occurred that topics of national policy, so far as
bearing on individuals—questions of social life—of
morals, as they are connected with everyday .
arose naturally, and were treated with unshrinking
faithfulness. The period (1848) was one of great
political excitement, and these lectures may em-
phatically be said to have been preached to the
times." After expounding several other books of
Scripture, he selected St. Paul's Epistles to the
,Corinthians, because they afforded the largest scope
for considering a variety of general questions. For
lie was not content with a mere historical com-
mentary or doctrinal investigation of his subject.
He strove to reduce the lessons to practice, to bring
home to the daily life of the men and women of a
fashionable wateringplace in the nineteenth cen-
tury those truths which St. Paul had spoken to
the early Grecian Church in the first. The sub-
stance of these admirable lectures is contained in this
volume, partly gathered from his own notes, partly
from those of his hearers, and occasionally from a
transcript of the lecture written out by himself at the
request of friends. It is not surprising to learn
that these lectures were the result of much thought
and study, but nncortunately much of them is lost,
since it was Mr. Robertson's custom to preach from
notes which were, of course, fragmentary and un-
equal in their character. The volume before us
shows what they were, though bearing evidence of
the difficulties with which the collection has been
attended in the occasional abruptness of style; the
repetition on some topics and incompleteness
with which others are treated. It is neverthe-
less,'• notwithstanding any such deficiencies, im-
possible to misunderstand the spirit
it ofhe tshoe
faourtehi
bort;
impossible not to realise the truths
y
essTahried pvii'go touuir-
iwmi
tphr ews she
which
1 or i:h teo
bringsquestionh theem feoarr%nv ea sr td. n
neat idea throughout the whole \yolk is
conedhich
has lately become more generally recog and
of which Mr. Caird'e celebrated sermon was an ex-
cellent exponent—that religion is not a thing of
forms and ceremonies, felt only by the restrictions
it imposes, but the moving spirit whose sphere of
action is in the busy world rather than the hermit's
cell, who has as much to do with the toils and
struggles of the man of business, or the mott er of
a family as with the meditations of the recluse ;
[ and whom, if it is carefully excluded from six days
of the week, it is little use to honour on the seventh.