The Sun.
London, England, 1826-09-09 00:00:00

SATURDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 9, 1826.

mental commissions, have been granted promotion on half-pay,

iz. :---

Brevet Major William Webber. Brevet Major Wm. Miller.
Royal Regiment of Artillery—Second Captain Browne Willis,
from half-pay, to be Second Captain, vice Webber, promoted.
Second Captain and Brevet Major Daniel Macnutnata
Buur-
chier to be Captain, vice Miller, promoted.
Second Captain Benjamin Hutcheson Vaughan, from half-pay,
to be Second Captain, vice Bourchier.

LITERATURE.

THE INSPECTOR AND LITERARY REVIEW.—Lou.
don, 1826.
This is an amusing little periodical, built up (to
use an architectural phrase) after the model of the
" Magnet," with a new dashing portico, or title 'page
a noble entrance door, or leading article on Weber,
and a set of light rooms, or papers ; all which give the
work, in this age of show and assumption,' a goodly
external and internal appearance. Among its better
contributions we are tempted to notice an article, en.,
titled " Gems of Poetry,' which professes to give the
most striking aphoristic and poetic remarks of our
living minstrels which might otherwise, from their terSe-
ness or modesty, be, overlooked. The idea is happy,
as much so indeed as the subject, who is no less than
our first philosophic poet Wordsworth.;. a writer who
has stamped the age, in its mere imaginative proper-
ties, with a spirit peculiarly his own. It is late:in
the day to discuss thii author's mind (the most ori-
ginal, with the eXceptiOn Of Burns, of any since the
times of Shakspeare), hut thus much we may say,
.
that most of our popular minstrels, Byrqn, Shelley,
Hunt, Southey, Wilson, and Watts,,, have drawn
.
largely, from his inspired pages.. Byron especially
.has impregnited his third Canto of Childe Harold
throUghOut with the spirit of Wordsworth, that spirit
which was the first to throw over inanimate nature
a life, a character, a freshness, that • Pope and his arti-
ficial school of imitators had done their best to
explode. Would any one but a poet of the first
order have composed the, following " Sonnet'on West-
minster Bridge," in which the most common place
objects are invested with a romance' and sentiment,
as striking as the homely but poetic lenguage in
which they are robed ? The " Inspector" has shown
great taste in its selection.
" Earth has not any thing to spew more fair :
Dull would he be of soul, who could poor by
A sight so touching, in its majesty :
This city now 'loth like a garment Wear
The beauty of the wonting ;"silent, bare,
Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie
Open unto the fields, and to the sky,
All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.
Never did sun more beautifully steep
In his first splendour valley, rock, or hill;
Ne'er. saw I, never felt, a calm so deep !
The river glideth at his own sweet will ;
Dear God ! the very houses seem asleep,
And all that mightylteart is lying still!"

The observant reader will not fail to remark the in-

tense feeling of the last line, in which London, a
mere inanimate object to an ordinary spectator, is
invested with life and spirit, and compared to " the

mighty heart" of soma superior being, whose energies
when awake are calculated to awe the world, but who
now lies sleeping in all the motionless grantlar of re-
pose. To say that London, at four o'clock in the
Morning, is a magnificent speCtacle, is nothing ; every
one says it, and every one would describe it as such ;
but to make it a sentient being, anti thus convey to the
tnind a striking sense of the very .sublimity and
helplessneSs of its repose ; this was left for the imagina-
tion ofWordswdtth. The next paper, entitled " My First
Appearance in the Metropolis," is pretty but puerile :
who .cares for the opinions of a boy on such a subject?
we want the strong masenline thought that in a su-
perior mind would be drawn forth on such an occa-
sion, not the luxuriant nottingnesses of childhood.
" A visit to the parsonage," is a good, but by no
means uncommon Magazine article ; it is far too

showy and splendid in its style, and wants character ;
it might, indeed, be just as aptly called " a Visit to
the. Sun Newspaper office ;" the. Editor of which
Journal, as flu. as we can see to the. contrary, is es fit
a subject for inspiring sentiment,
(particularly when
the anxious nature of his vocation is considered) as
even the Parson himself. The following remark, how-
ever, is pleasing:---" I confess my fondness for the
sounds of the village, church bells : their simplicity has
a romantic and imaginative soothingness, which steals
over the awakened spirit, raising and depressing it
with exquisite sensations." This is true ; and for this
especial reason, that the village bells are linked inti-
mately with the most impressive incidents of life.
They are the same melodious monitors who announced
our birth; rang a merry peal at our marriage; and
will, when our idle dream of life is ended, ring out a
dirge over out grave. Moreover, they are in every sense
the correctest parish newspaper ; does a great man
make his appearance in the village ? the Editor of
the village bells is the first to announce the fact ;
and should a birth, death, or marriage take place
within any reasonable circumference, even the
Gentleman s Magazine itself is less scrupulo us
in recording the accident. But to return : the
article, entitled " On the degraded State of the Drama"
is the next that merits, consideration. In this Essay—
the evident production of a young hand—the author
attributes the stage's degradation to the present rage
'for splendour and pantomime. This is literally true
but is it not the fault of the Managers who thus mis-
lead the public ? It is their province to cater for us ;
not we for them ; and if we can get nothing but fo •
reign kick-shaws, hi lieu of substantial English viands,
the blame attaches to those only whe thus tastelessly
provide for us. It is, however, a general opinion that
the public have lost all relish for the drama; and the
Quarterly Review which, like the Times Newspaper,
always follows in the wake
it
Popular opinion without
,
once attempting to direct t ; took up this notion by
asserting broadly that were the greatest possible dra-
matic
genius to arise, be would inevitably fail.
A little thought will serve to show the utter
fallacy
of this opinion, for so far from discouraging the
drama, the public are more than ever prepossessed in
its favour. Look, for instance, at our literature a , • few
'ears back its character was entirely descriptive, and it
is now as entirely dramatic. Compare ourslar
P
living novelists with Fielding, Saloum, theh on,
and then judge whether the prejudice hi favour of stage
' interest is extinct. No author, at least, in the walls
of fiction or fancy, whether in prose or verse! succeeds

now-a-days, unless he has what is called a knowledge
of theatric effect; witness Wilson's City of the
,Plague,
Byron's heroes, all essentially dramatic in themselves ;
Scott's magnificent novels—and Banim's promising
" Tales of the O'Hara Family." All these can make,
and some have' Made, very popular dramas ; but who,
with the utmost stretch of ability, could ever convert
such intractable novels as Tom. Jones,Clarissa Har-
lowe, Joseph Andrews, Peregrine Pickle, or Hum-
idity Clinker, into any thing approximating to with-
in ten degrees of a drama We might as well attempt
to convert Sir William Curtis into Columbine !
The reason is, that the characters and incidents in
these last named publications are all told ; while now—
such is the populir rage for excitement—,we require to
see them acted, or at least to, deieribe themselves.
Bat to go deeper into the subject, to show by unde-
niable proof how widely the seeds of theatric ability
are scattered abroad ; let us turn to the daily columns
of the newspapers—those shrewd caterers to public
taste—and see how dramatically even a Police Report,
or a boxing-match, is manufactured. Or let us -look
to a once celebrated preacher; whose sober claims to
public notoriety, consisted in his complete acquaint-
ance with the drama—to his appearance, similar im-
posing in itself; and still more to his discourses ;
which abounded throughout with theatric turn and
description, We return then, to the argument with
Which we set out, namely, that if the stage be,—as it
undoubtedly is—degraded ; the sole fault lies with the
Managers, and not with the public, all whose prejudices
are manifestly and decidedly in its favour. The next
article is 'entitled A Review on Lessons of Criticism,
by William Bowles, in answer to Mr. Roscoe's Stric-
tures, and those of the Quarterly Review, on his
poetic notions.. 'the origin of this controversy is curious;
many years since, Mr. Bowles, a " Sonnetteer” of no
mean consideration, published an edition of Pope, in
which he not only condemned his moral character, but
even ventured to vituperate his poetry. This roused the
ire of Gifford and his Quarterly Reviewers, who in-
stantly put forth an article abusing Mr. Bowles as a
slanderer ; and, what to a hard must have been still more
galling, as a man of no taste. While the contest was thus
" adhuc sub, judice," Lord Byron entered the lists ;
then followed Campbell, then followed Mr. Octavius
Gilchrist ; then Hazlitt ; and lastly, a silly Irish
metaphysician, who answers to the poetic appel-
lative of Mac Dermot; all arrayed on the same"
side against the unfortunate and solitary Bowles.
These adversaries, be it observed, advocated what
is called the artificial, Mr. Bowles, the natural school
of poetry. They asserted that art was equally as sus-
ceptible of a poetic dress as nature ; he said no, or at
least that nature was manifestly superior. Now, the r 6-1
fact, we think, is this : imagination, that peculiar pro-
perty which alone forms the poet, is as much likely to
be roused by the contemplations of art as of nature; b 3
the sight of a ship sailing over the vast expanse of the
ocean, as by the moveless majesty of a mountain.—
Who, then, in a matter so exclusively of sentiment, shall
presume to say, what is, or is not, tit for the purpose
of poetry ? It is the fancy that makes all the differ-
ence ; anti if Mr. Wordsworth, in walking over West-
minster-bridge, and gazing on the houses and even ehi tn-
lies around him,can discern in them subjects for romantic
eontemplation,while others whose imaginations ofa more
limited character, can see nothing poetic except in nature,
all we can say is, (and there we must drop the question)
that both classes of observers may be gifted, but that
Mr. Wordsworth is the most so ; because his mind is
more enlarged, and consequently more poetic in its
character.

Before we conclude this somewhat lengthened
article, we will just say a few words on the heveral
merits of the work before us : these are of no ordinary
merit : they want, however, the impress of individuality,
and we wish to recognize them by something peculiarly
their own, whether in poi
nt of thinking, fancy, or in-
vention. With this hint, put forth in a spirit of sincere
good-will, we bid the "Inspector " and its contributors,
adieu, and shall be glad to say of their next number—
" Ecce iterunt Crispinus."