The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-12-24 00:00:00

ttteraturr.

POETRY.

THE WRECK OF THE MIDGE

(For the Liverpool Standard )
A Mr. Wood, 'tis understood,
Went on a wind, day,
•
To take a steer on Windermere,
And pass his time away.
Those sailors who for pleasure go,
And take so much delight
Their skill to try when winds are high, ,
Should see that all is right.
If a mists' e they chance to make,
And sails upset the boat,
For trips so gay their lives must pay,
nless like Wood they flcat.
The.day we name the tempest came.
Each swelling wave ran high;
But Mr. Wood, with courage good,
Did swelling waves defy.
The wind it blew, the Midge she flew,
Each wave broke on her deck,
Till at the la-t a sudden blast
Made her a total wreck.
The boat she sank, and every plank
Deserted Mr. Wood,
And left him there, upon the Mare*,
To shift as best he could.
And strange to tell, he shifted well,
For he took in each hand
An oar strong. and lie swam along
In hopes to reach the land.
With spirit bold he kept his hold
Amidst his watery way;
He had no fear but he could steer,
And land about the Wrayt.
But glad am I he'd not to try
His skill upon the raft,
For such a day and length of way
Required a better craft.
While hope and fear around the Mere
Fill'd many a breast with awe,
A gallant boat which was afloat
Did to his succour draw.
The surge ran high, the low'ring sky
Seemed on destruction bent,
Yet without fear the crew drew near
And a willing hand they lent.
He took his leave, nor did he grieve,
Nor hat nor wig deplore ;
He lett his raft for a bet er craft,
And he landed safe on shore.
Ambleside. JAMES GIBSON.
* Wray Castle, the residence of James Dawson, Esq.
t Windermere, the Queen of the Lakes.

ON THE RECONCILIATION OF MR. WOOLLEY
WITH MISS BRYARS.

The sheep that treads the thorny brake
Some portion of its fleece shall shed—
All things that move on land or lake,
Are by some secret influence led.
Dame-Nature owns a tr ctive power,
Each mind some kindred mind inspires;
What wonder, then, in witching hour,
A Woolley should be fixed by Briars?
Hereford, Dec. 15, 1844.

NOTICES.

Mount Grace Abbey: a Poem. By the Rev. James
Bolme, A. 8., Vicar of Kirkleatbam ; author of " Lei-
sure Musings," " Memoir of Mrs. Presgrave," &c.
London : W. E. Painter, 342, Strand.

We took up the little volume before us with an expec-
tation, induced by its title, that the story and incidents
would be directed to illustrate this fine old relic of the
monastic ages, and to paint the splendid scenery by which
it is surrounded. In this, however, we were disappointed,
the incidents having no relation to Mount Grace, except
that the first canto narrates the death of its founder, the
Earl of surrey, and that the remainder assume the form
of " lays," recited, by a minstrel who has taken refuge
there, for the edification of the worthy priors assembled
within its walls. Canto second is devoted to a narrative
of the life of the minstrel himself, with a description of
part of the magnificent scenery bordering the east coast
of Yorkshire from Whitby to the Teesmouth. • The re-
maining four cantos contain some stirring details of the
wars of Edward the Fourth, concluding with a descrip-
tion of the Battle of Crecy, and the subsequent marriage
of his noble son, Edward the Black Prince.
The versification and form of the work are after the
manner of Sir Walter Scott; and although its reverend
author never approaches closely the excellence of the
model which he has chosen, he has succeeded in piodu-
cing several fine descriptive and other passages, which,
if not highly poeti al, are marked by great chasteness of
feeling and perception of the beautiful. Some of the
sacred melodies, with which the first and second cantos
are interspersed, are elegantly and forcibly written. As
a whole, indeed, " Mount Grace Abbey " is a creditable
production, although we rather question whether its reve-
rend author, in producing it, has selected the line best
suited for the display—or most likely to conduce to the
usefulness—of his evident talents, and particularly of that
research in historical and theological subjects which ap-
pears in the notes to this volume.

The Chimes: a Goblin Story. By Charles Dickens.
London : Chapman and Hall.

" Another Christmas Carol ! " was the involuntary
exclamation of all the reading world, young and old,
grave and gay, on perusing the announcement of this
little volume ; and puzzled and curious were all to learn
what could be the story of " some bells that rang an old
year out and *new year in." By this time tens of thou-
sands—literally tens of thousands—have gratified their
curiosity. We have ourselves read it twice, for a reason
which we shall presently inform our readers, who must
not, by the bye, suppose that we are here about to present
to them the book itsel, as some critical people are in the
habit of doing when a popular author is in the case, but
merely to express our opinion of its artistic merits.

We have read the work twice over, then, because a first
perusal impressed us with the idea that it was not quite
equal to Mr. Dickens' former productions, and was espe-
cially inferior to his " Christmas Carol." Not that we
failed to observe, in some of the characters delineated,
the fine hand of the painter of Tiny Tim and Bob
Cratchit, Tom Pinch and the sweet little Ruth. Trotty
Veck is a thorough Boz, an undoubted original. We
have met with coarse specimens of the character in actual
life again and again ; but Trotty is its spiritualization—a
concentration of the excellencies of the entire genus, di-
vested of that portion of it which is, in an offensive de-
gree, "of the earth, earthy." Meg Veck, his daughter,
is such a creation as the genius of Dickens only has suc-
ceeded in pourtraying ; and Richard and poor Lilias are
equally fine specimens of his pencil. But with some of
the other and repulsive characters we were not satisfied,
nor were we with the framework of the story. Mr.
Dickens' bells, though sweet, we thought were " jangled
out of tune" ; and we set about another perusal to satisfy
ourselves.

That second perusal, we must say, has not satisfied us,
although, like a second and a third perusal of every book
of this writer, it has disclosed to us a hundred beauties
unnoticed in the first—a hundred fine tints and shades of
colouring—a hundred scintillations of creative genius—a
hundred finely-drawn traits of character, which, like the
paintings of a Landseer or a Wilkie, only shew their dis-
tinctive and minute beauties after we have mastered the
effect of the whole, and are scrutinising the execution of
the parts. Thus, in the somewhat repulsive character of
Will Ferns, the discontented, threatening labourer, and
at last the incendiary, we are brought to recognise an
under-stratum of noble humanity which prompts him to
undertake, with his straitened means and almost hopeless
prospects, the care of his brother's orphan child—the
germs of a nature made for better things ; and are com-
pelled to acknowledge and deplore that vicious system of
treatment of the class to which he belongs, which drags
down so large a portion of it to a felon's practice and a
felon's doom. Lillian the beautiful, whose fall we have
too hastily set down to the it'll ulse of womanly vanity
and weakness, becomes more worthy of our sympathy
and pity, when we reflect upon the disproportion of the
burthens which she had to bear to the strength of the
nature which had to bear them. Perhaps, t.io, the pic-
ture held out to us may teach us to visit less uncharitably
the errors of her sex. Still, however, a few of the other
characters introduced remain, what they were perhaps
intended for, caricatures.
As a whole, we cannot yet think these " Chimes" equal
to the average of Mr. Dickens' writings. There is, how-
ever, a fine healthy rein of morality and genuine philan-
thropy running through them, and a genuine English
reprobation of the heartless quackeries of Malthusianism,
as well as of the more estimable, so far as motive and
feeling are concerned, although ill-directed projects of
that new party amongst us which would give the agricul-
tural labourer a cricket-ball or a May-pole when his fa-
mily wants a loaf, and the artizan the knowledge of the
Athenaeum or the Mechanics' Institute when his more
urgent need is a knowledge of his own nature and of his
God.

Monastic Institutions; their Origin, Progress, Nature,
and Tendency. By Samuel Phillips Day, lately con-
nected with the Monastery of the Presentation Order
at Youghal. _ Dublin Curry and Co. ; London :

Longm;n and Co. 1814.

The writer of this book is a young man, who has seen
the errors of Popery, and has become acquainted with a
better way. His " local habitation" while in the service
of Rome was at Youghal, where, our readers may remem-
ber, a bungling attempt at miraculous power was made
some time ago in a monastery. On that occasion the
editor of an English paper, conducted by Roman Catho-
lics, and favourable to Romanism, was obliged, after a
personal examination of the whole matter, to retire with
horror and disgust. In this town Mr. Day was located
as a member of a monastic body. That he had opportu-
nities of knowing something of the system, cannot be
denied ; for his intimate connexion with the daily working
of the whole process of monastic duties would at once
give the lie to such a denial. In order to be of some ser-
vice to the good cause which is now the child of his adop-
tion, he gives his undivided attention to the consideration
of the monastic orders from their earliest period down to
the present day ; and he publishes the result of his labours
in a condensed form, not omitting to put on record his
own experience, and to introduce us into the penetralia
of modern monachism. We take for granted that his
evidence is worthy of respect, as the reverend gentleman
who has kindly written a preface to the Work, states that
"he bears an unsullied character." He further says—
" The impression left upon my mina is, that he is per-
fectly conversant with the subject he has taken in hand,
and that he has seceded from the ranks of the Apostacy
with a character even above suspicion." `tie are not to
expect a laboured history of " religions houses in.a work
upon so limited a scale; but it would appear that it con-
tains information sufficient to let us into the secrets of