The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-11-29 00:00:00

Are crnsh'd beneath onr tread.

We stand among the fallen leaves
In our own autumn day,
And, tottering on, with feeble steps
Pursue our cheerless way.
We look not back—too long ago
Bath all we loved been lost ;
Nor forward—for we may not live

To see our new hope cross'd ;
But on we go; the sun's faint beam
A feeble warmth imparts;
Childhood, without its joy, returns—
The present fills our hearts. MRS. Nonrox.

REVIEWS OF BOOKS.

lfilfon's Poetical Workg. With Life, Critical
Dissertation, and Explanatory Notes. By the
Rev. Geo. Gilfillan. Edinburgh : James Nichol.
This very handsome library edition of the
poetical works of Milton constitutes the two first
volumes of a series, which, under the name of the
4` Library Edition of the British Poets," has now
.3.eacheethe publication of its fifth volume ; the
third and fourth being devoted to the poetical
works of Thomson and George Herbert. The plan
of the publication is by yearly subscription, a mode
embraced by the publishers of several very impor-
tant and valuable classes of works, which, from
their success, appear to have answered the expec-
tations of both the public and the publishers ; and
'so far as mere appearances can be taken as indi-
cative, there seems no ground for doubting that
the present will be as successful as any one series
of its predecessors. If we might " hint a fault,"
without either "hesitating" or implying " dislike,"
it would be done by expressing our inability to
amderstand why, in Thomson's poetical works, all
his dramatic compositions are left out. Are we to
understand by this that the rev. and erudite editor
considers the dramatic muses as illegitimate sisters
of Calliope, and unworthy of her high companion-
ship ? Our present business, however, is more
immediately with the series as it exists than with
speculations as to what it might have been. In
point of typographical beauty and correctness, it
wall bear a favourable comparison with most of the
iworks at present issuing from the press : it is cora-
Trehensive in its design, that design is ably worked
out, and the cost of the works is asolutely a trifle
in reality, and much more trifling still when com-
pared with the beauty and accuracy of the edition.
The above remarks apply to the series generally,
is() far as it has been published. We must now
attend with more minuteness to the claims of the
two volumes whose titles stand at the head of this
motive. The first is opened by a brief but nervous
biographical memoir of Milton from the pen of
11r. Gilfillan. In the rapid sketch of Milton's
character and position given in this memoir,
differentparties will concur in varying degrees ;
the political as well as theological partialities of
.31r. Gilfillan having lent their willing aid to colour
• the portrait. His general estimate of the poet's
intellect will meet with a much wider circle of
sympathising admirers. The author of the "Bards
of the Bible," Mr. Gallon, is well blown as an
ambitious writer, and not a few regard him as an
original thinker. The short biographical sketch
awe are now considering will go far in justification
of the opinions of each of these classes. As a
favourable specimen of his descriptive aptitude, we
extract the following
PERSONAL PORTRAIT OP MILTON.
He wished, besides, to visit Italy for the sake of its
music, and designed to form a collection of it whilst there.
Having obtained directions as to his travels from Sir
Henry Wotton, to whom he had communicated his pur-
pose, he set out in 1638, attended by a single servant. We
remember few finer subjects for contemplation or picture
than that of Milton in the prime of his life—with youth
and manhood mingling. on his brow—with his long auburn Hair—with his beautiful Grecian face—with la
mild ma-
jestic enthusiasm glowing in his eves—with cheek tenderly
lashed by exercise and country air—with a form erect and
'buoyant with hope—with a body and soul pure and un-
contaminated—and bearing, like one of the ancient gods,
musical instrument in his hand, leaving the Horton
solitude upon his travels to the lands of romance and
poetry. How different from the spectacle presented nearly
two centuries afterwards, of Byron, soured, satiated, old in
passion and misery, although younger than Milton in
3'ears, setting out on his journey in search of oblivion !
l'he one seemed a monstrous mixture of Apollo the beau-
tiful, and Vulcan the vicious and lame; the other the
very god of poesy himself, as when he kept the Rocks of
-Admetus, or tuned his lute—
" Sole sitting on the shores of old romance."
Of the peculiar taste which could load so elabo-
- -rate and ably delineated a picture with the adjunct
which we have marked in italics, it cannot be too
mulch to say, its uncalled-for fidelity mars the
-lea* without enhancing the truthfulness of the
'delineation.

" What would offend the e,
In a good picture, the painter castsyediscreetly
Into shade."

The matrimonial infelicities of Milton are
-touched by Mr. Gilfillan with inoffensive generality
and pleasing delicacy ; while his controversial spirit
is glanced at without elaborate admiration.
The opening of the second volume is devoted to
a " critical estimate of the genius and poetical works" of Milton, and here the bold speculative
spirit of the editor stands out in full, and, it must
be admitted, interestine, relief. With unhesitating
eye he glances into and through the opinions of
the early critical commentators on Milton's poetry,
and with little ceremony, although in no rude
manner, he disposes of their leading fallacies, while
with equal candour and readiness he concurs in
several points of their opinions. An agreeable
ispechnen, if it deserve no higher name, of his style
of deduction, will be found in the annexed

ESTIMATE OF MILTON'S INTELLECTUAL BEARING.
The consecration of Milton's mind, too, sprang greatly
-from the large wholeness of his being. It is into frag-
lnentary minds, especially into minds where there is some
treat deficiency, some gap as hopeless as it is wide,—into
minds deficient, like Hume's, in imagination, or like
Itousseau's, in common sense, or like Voltaire's in rever-
*nee, or like Shelley's, in balance, that fiendish doubts as
to the Divine origin and purpose of the universe are apt
to insinuate themselves. Le Sage speaks of one Diable
Itoiteux, but in reality all the fiends are lame ; and it is
Parti9 because they are so that they are fiends. In pro-
Portion to the general power of a mind is ever its intense
Perception of any vital deficiency in itself ; and ridepception often leads, not to humility, but to that p and
.r.discontent which are the soul of irreligion or Atheism.
-"lose, on the other hand, who approach to entireness of
nintellect, present in their soul a rounded mirror calculated
0 reflect fully, not only literature and nature, but that
*Near, yet far off, ever present and never visible, One, who
Vth immensity,—and such a soul was Milton's. Some-
ries troubled, but never turbid ; sometimes shadowed,
nt never sullen n; sometimes cold, but never frozen ; some-
times heated, but never glaring—the broad lake of his
Father and gives back he awful countenance of his
Father and God.
It is marvellous how thoroughly in Milton the " Conse-
•cration" and the " Poet's Dream" are attempered and eeconciled. His dreams are always holy dreams, as though
maven ere sl
Wumbering with his own angels in the vales of
, or at the foot of the
"Flaming whose top
Brightness had M
madeount invisible.
and vTel hishis fancy is always under severe restraint,
and muten,,geraUS at times does dance, it is a measured
wed hill. dance, like that of the seraphim around the
n
%L. His use of the Pagan Mythology has often
Sor the feted to him as inconsistent with his reverence
introdupese lief and the Book of God. But he never
caPtives, ntejleathen gods except as tributaries and
teserved his poet fall down before Jehovah ; he has
e images ors Ix'etrY as in a vast museum, not a temple,
11l on the the fallen deities, with the word "idols"
Interest.
curic'sitY or poetic not of belief or reverence, but of
Having tak e
while even irlenll) much space with extracts—
rather by thei,,,e's_in.g so we have felt hampered
littleesrty than by their copiousness—
we have left "'"
We must therefore °on? to indulge in comment.
ourse eres-
*ins. a general approbsaatt!sfYlon of thelves with
xp
wit
in which

Mr. Gilfillan has discharged the important task
committed to his care ; the execution of which, if
continued as it has been begun, will deservedly
add to his reputation, while it will also confer a
valuable boon on the reading portion of society.
The sagacity and enterprise of the publisher in
originating and so creditably caruing through
this extensive undertaking are also >deserving of
high praise and liberal encouragement.

Hogg's Instructor. Edinburgh : James Hogg.
The number for November opens with a clever,
though rather cynical article on Sheridan, under
the title of " Modern British Orators." It is from
the pen of the Rev. George Gilfillan, and bears in-
tuitive evidence of his mode of thinking, tinctured
also with his marked predilection for antithetic
writing. This is strongly evidenced by the following