The Sun.
London, England, 1835-05-01 00:00:00

MAGAZINE DAY.

BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE.
Elaborate notices of some of Southey's and Words-
twhorth's best poems form no inconsiderable portion of
It's Number. That on Wordsworth is as eloquent in
),,,anner, and profound in matter as any that has yet
1,.711 Written on the subject. We cordially coincide
.ktlehurn
~,tll. the Reviewer's praises of those fine lines on
Inh Castle." There is a grave, moral sub-
-itY about them unsurpassed since the days of
it ~hhon• They are also more condensed in point of
biY et.han is usually the case with Wordsworth, whose
(1:11t verse, though stately and sonorous, is apt to
weight
at times, particularly in the "Excursion," from a
th of verbiage. One of his noblest and most
%Aqui passages that we mean commencing with,

" As the ample moon
loks In the deep stillness of a summer even "
\\7 half its effect from this surplusage of epithet.
he
extract the following impassioned testimony to
Wordsworth's rrenius, in which our readers will
recognizeth_
."Teet that the Lyrical Ballads" had on his ima-
hatie .
w 11, the writer goes on to say—
Srlt ahe_llro privileged to speak thus—for we remember the
ot„, rPearance of this great, poet. Seemed then to us a
iiikeTarll risen on mid-day I' Five-and-thirty years have
*hieLuel Over our heads—but in the midst of many changes
tune hasbpe wrought in our inner world, no chane h
awakened
!IteileetPoetry of Wordsworth. No change—but a perpetual
Wgrnoing and strengthening, and sanctifying—our love grow-
the ne re solemn, and at times sadder, in the consciousness of
top,ia3l. approach of our life to its close-- the revelations made
tl'a Poet being contemplated now by the light of our
by fas,. they were then by that of our rising sun I In the
ht ref, :"ea all at once brightened our whole being, and that
hett ;_() be one with the joy of nature beautified by a new
kod 'I the friend—the friends dearest to our human heart-
-414 with whom
, We had up to that grand era in our existence
40::117ro; rverse together on all that in common we most
expat,:;----Partook as largely as that love desired ; and in
*ere, and elevation of our spirits we too felt as if we
tlr,L_s' Nor were we altogether deceived ;—for profound
'"'"glii inspired. from without, and, as with.us then, '
4,.1 agency of a superior spirit—and it was as if an angel
lie 112 on the way, and spoken to us of a new world and a
11114 leven beneath the very skies and on the very earth with
ities, ^2 had been familiar in youth's often unthinking ha:ph-
ottlic--becomes in its bliss creative, and brightens wit
tfiusl of its own the visions which highest genius brings from
!iolig'ut_sail Over its head like a company of clouds more glo-
feet7ltad ever before filled the firmament, or to surround
.IWisht-fi"Ke flocks of flowers lovelier than Spring had ere then
" on the earth, dmdal now indeed, and burdened with
lid of lustre on which the soul laid itself down in transport,
1114442 k away among the incense into imagination's dreams,
trkter-avered in a region still and sweet as blended air and
k the holy confusion of earth and heaven."
plie 'gilts at Mess " is feebler and more common-
e than usual. But nenzo nzortaliunz,• &c. mi_
Nike`lne evinces a caustic power of thought, not
Swift's manner in the " Tale of a Tub." The
3 drift, however, is not sufficiently apparent.
thiels°hscure and confused in places. " Despondency
Aspiration" is a lyric, penned in Mrs. Hemans s
2at
. tfthe
Midge"
and felicitous manner. In the " Cruise
ktki •
ibldge„ there is some bold, rough, sea-painting ;
of di tithee " Change of Ministry," the usual amount
against the Whigs.

We Is TAIT'S MAGAZINE.
that "Ye read many accounts of the formation o
anomaly in the political world, the late Catholic
t:itiati°n, but none so interesting as the one con-
-"
in the present number of Tait's Magazine.
htreellatb,er is— Ave should rather say was—a gentleman
earl 'lurphy, who died a year or two ago at the
age of twenty-seven, as a brief, but interesting
frowi"l4., appended to his article, informs us. Judging
tesit„t,"e specimen of his talents before us, we have no
kttal"n in saying that had he lived, he would have
ed eminence as a writer, for his style is eloquent
impassioned, and his ideas uniformly characterised
Ca°c4l sense. His account of the first origin of the
\Vie Association is deeply interesting
olthhave heard O'Connell himself state the circumstances
ttrot.rst day of its existence. One of the rules required ten
t° form what, in Parliamentary phrase, is called a
Prcv.„-,,' Such was the deplorable apathy, that for two or three
lte ic' Saturday the meeting had been dissolved, the requi-
htittr her not being present. On the day alluded to it was
:1,814 persons
O'clock, the hour of counting, and no more than
Pgqi,,rerstms were in the rooms. There was a law which made
trileri of all uasions eo facto, members of that Asso-
metiae i O'Connellers ran' down into the shop :he found
ttiNionr or five students from Maynooth, who had just . re-
ey and asked them to come up to form a meeting.
Lesitated, refused, and he pushed them up stairs. The
144tii hesitated,
Mr. O'Connell drew up the report of the Rent.
llregie Processions had lately trampled, as usual, on the North
tBll4r, 4,11,; two or three Catholics had been killed ; a servile
krevryi-tie,~ in the South, a smothered discontent and active
I,l4lltiuroligh the whole kingdom. He set before them thed
bes of the Rent: he proved it the lever. of justice an
The
subscribed for all those of his family then in Ire-
,Ltscet,'"° next Saturday, several persons attended ; a few
1711 1-'ll appeared • the Rent existed ; there was a discus-
irts-,,,:r1d the Association was on the waters. The want of a
,tklliell'ArY had been felt. Petitions cannot be got up without.
tigichs3,l,6 Agents were necessary to refute the calumnies
.with
Pple ;:e Press swarmed • but the bold scheme of a National
;Qtask-Y was formed. It was resolved to raise a revenue.
urt'ople-ils°ciation was to supply the place of Government to the
toe: it was to protect them—to procure justice. for them--
of educes every species of delinquency—to establish a system
'lollt,`"Pon, and to encourage a liberal press. The subscrip-
tlati.o- 41e Catholic Board was five pounds : that to the Asso-
-4.lrok'n°4.4lY one. Here was an improvement ; but the grand
isise.."' Policy was the contribution of one penny a-month.
nt es the Catholic Rent. Thus, in 1823, appeared the
the-,,wn of political and religious liberty. From that period
,'"414 -4actrnent of the Emancipation Bill, no country in the
mich exhibited such a civil phenomenon—never were
tlikte-gighte y results produced from means so seemingly inade-
"d
t° they
there the
Essay headed " What will the Whigs do
disse is much to approve, and little or nothing to
that 1/.it, from. The writer very judiciously observes,
\tell wi';'s the duty of the Whigs, if they desire to stand
ithp, .411 the country, to insist that " some of the most
tertl:bant offices in the State shall not, while they
per nominally in power, continue to be held by
tcris notoriously adverse to their policy." We have
Itith°Libt that Government has made this stipulation
low ,the Court, and that they will henceforth be al-
torea,...to pre:;idc at the helm unmanacled by Toryism.
tie 'vlelbourne is a statesman of acknowledged met-
-117',1411d will not again run the risk of being elbowed
htlee faction notoriously inimical to his views. The
thrern°nious dismissal of last November has, no
kirt, had a beneficial effect on his mind. H.
1,11,g s Childhood, Youthful Years and Wander-
tkollsk' is one of those discriminating notices of new
brat s,f°r which this Magazine is so deservedly cele-
ke e` The original remarks interspersed through it,
It W4t a whit less entertaining than the extracts.
, et.'t Country Exclusives" furnishes us with some,
•lael,l;s"tehes of Scotch character. " The Switzer 's
the
is -worthy to vie in vigor and simplicity with
best of James 111ontgoinery's Odes to Liberty.

FRASER'S MAGAZINE.
il tc Gallery of Literary Characters" contains this
th a likeness of Lady Morgan. The thing is a
s
km Caricature, for her Ladyship looks at least as old
Garrick, in the well-known portrait that was
try.,rl Of her in her ninetieth year. Her Ladyship is
on a new bonnet, too! An apt employment for a
;in,agenarian The Memoir prefixed, though scarcely
tlettcr taste, has yet the recommendation of being
%trotlci,llrcits, and will be sure to be read, because it is
114ds, what
,
seasoned with sarcasm and ill-nature. " Ano-
ITI,n 4 Publications" is by Mr. J. Galt, and recom-
Mr. Bulwer had previously suggested in
tshotioßllgland and the English," that all Reviewers
fi, not' put their names to their criticisms. The idea
arniss, but has this defect—it can never be put
tieitrnictice• The Mask, or Part of a Story," is
'Zheh ert,tuore nor less than exaggerated common place.
%Ns' "a s's of Erasmus" is by Father Prout, and will
Bat 011 scholars with an hour's rational entertainment.
krill: tin of the Number is the " Letter to Francis
an Cold Whipper•ln," which is a piquant
te
of happy irony and broad caricature. Of its

political spirit we say nothing. We look on it only as
a clever sample of fun and humour. " The Visit of
of Helen to the Sean Gate," is a translation from the

Iliad, after the manner of Sir Walter Scott's Marmion.
The translation is fairly enough rendered, but the
writer is mistaken if he supposes he is original. in his
idea. He says, " This is an attempt (the first, I be-
lieve) to turn a passage of the Iliad into the metre
used by Scott." Now it happens to be no such thing.
The first Homeric translation a-la-Marmion, was
made by Sidney Walker, now Fellow of Trinity, in a
volume of poems which he published shortly after leaving
Eton, and was that sublime passage in one of the later
books of the Iliad which describes the march of Neptune.
Another translation was printed in The Sun, some
five or six years since—to which we ourselves plead
guilt}--deseriptive of the achievements of Hector
under the walls of Troy, shortly previous to his death
by Achilles. Moreover, the experiment has been recom- ,
mended at least a dozen times in 7'he Sun, as one likely,
in the hands of such men as Wilson, Lockhart, or
Maginn, to attract attention by its novelty. True,
the metre of Scott is full of all sorts of variety, now
anapestic, now iambic ; and Homer writes only in the
hexameter measure ; still, his hexameters, unlike the
smooth, but monotonous verse of Virgil, are constantly
varying in their melody ; now thundering like a cata-
ract, now falling on the ear as softly and plaintively as
the sigh of an iEolian harp ; at one time sounding on
like the majestic swell of a cathedral organ ; and at an-
other, grating as harshly as a saw drawn across the
edge of a blunt carving-knife. We cannot compli-
ment the author of the present translation on his selec-
tion of a passage from the Iliad. He should have
taken a more stirring and characteristic one—a good
pitched battle—such, for instance, as that where "bully"
Ajax is represented as enacting more wonders than
even Shaw the Life-guardsman,
,at Waterloo.
,Let him
turn this over in his mind, -and.make a second. attempt.