New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1843-03-17

this especial age no specia! harm to hear. They,
(The Shepherd and Christopher talk for time
about Shakespeare and Othello; North asks him
if he sees his drift ;; James candidly coniesses
he does not, whereupon he is exborted thus:
NORTH WE'LL then, mark my drit, James
We doIize Genius, to the neglect of the worship
of Virtue. To our thoughts. Genius is all in all
Virtue absolutely nothing. HumaR nature seems
to be gorifed in Shakespeare, because his intellect
was various and vast, and because it comprehend.
ed knowledge OF all the workings, perhaps, OF
human being. But if there be truth in that faith
to which the Christian world is bound, how dare
we, on that ground, 10 look on Shakespeare as al
most greater and better than Man? Why, 10 crit
icise one of his works poorly, or badly. or inso-
lently, is it held to be basphemyl Why? Is
Genius so sacred, so holy thing, per Sc and apart
from Virtue Folly ali Oae truly good action
performed is worth all that ever Shakespeare wrote.
Who is the Swan OF Avon in comparison TO the
humbles, being that ever purified bis spirit in the
waters of eternal life I!
SHEPHERD. Speak ava | II no interrupt you
blu; whether agree vi you or no 5 aaither cues
ton.
NORTH Only listen, James to our eulogies on
Genius How Virtue must veil her radiant tore
head before that idol How the whole world
Of Genius How silent as frost, when Virtue
pines Let young poet poison himself in wrath
ful desrar-and all the Muses. weep over his un
haowed bier. Let young Christian die under
the visitation of God, who weers No eye but
his mothers We know that sucll deaths arc every
day-every hour-but the thong affects US not
we have no thong heap after heap Is ad
ded, unbewalIed, to city or country churcbyard
But let poet, forsooth, die in youth-pay the debt
of nature early-and nature herself throughout her
elements, must in turn pay tribute TO his shade.
'SHErHERD. Dinna max me unhappy, sir
dinna max me sac very unhapPy,sir, beseech you
try and explain ava what you hae said, to The
satisfaction O. our hearts and understandings
NORTH Impossible. We are base idolaters
T is infatuation-not religion. Is 1t Genius OF IS
it Virtue, that shall send soul to Heaven
.SuErHERD Virtue; thero 5 nae denying that;
Virtue sir Virtue.
NORTH Let US then feel, think, speak, and
act, as if we so believed. Is poetry necessary to
our salvation {? Is Paradise Lost better than the
New Testament?
SHELTERED. Oh Dina max unhappy. Say
again that poetryis religion.
NORTH Religion has in it the finest ruest
spirit of poetry and the iHest aud trtest spirit OF
poetry has in it The spirit of religion. But
SHELTERED. Say nae rlair, say nae mair. | m
satisfied wi that
NORTH Oh! James, it makes my very soul
sick within me to hear the puny winnings poured
by philosophical sentimentasts over the tailIngs,
the errors, the vices Of Genius! There has been,
fear, TOO much Of that tratorous screllction OF
the only true faith, even in some eloquent euogies
on the dead, which I have been the means OF CIV
ing to the world. Have you not often felt that,
when reading what has been said about our own
immortal Burns
'SHEpuERD. 1 have in my calmer moments
NeRTH While the hypocritical and the base
exaggerated all that ius.rious mans ALTERATIONS
from the right cath, nor had the heart to acknow'
ede re the manifold temptations stTewed around bis
feet,-the enthusiastic and the generous ran into
the other extreme, and weakly must cot say
wickedy-strove TO extenuale them INTO mere ltl-
hes-in too many instances to deny them aitogeth-
er; and when too Aagrant to be denied, dared 10
declare tina. we were bound to forget and forgive
them on the score of The poets geuius-as II gen
Jus, the guardian Of virtue, could everbe regarded
as the pandcr to vice, and the slave of sin. Thus
they were willing to sacrifice morality, rather than
the idol set I'D before their mag ination should be
degraded and did far worse injury, and offered
far worse insult to virtue and religion, by thus
slurring over the offences of Burns against both,
than ever was done by those offences themselves
Cor Burns bitterly rcpented what they almost can
onized; ard the evil practice OF one man can never
do so much evil TO society as the evil theory OF
thousand Burns erred greatly and grieyousiy
and since the world knows that he did, es well
from friends as from foes let Us be lcnien and mer-
ciful TO him. whose worth was great; but Just ana
faithful to that law of right, which must on no con-
sideration be violated by our judgements, out
which must maintain and exercise It's severe ana
sovereign power all transgressons, ana more
especially over the transgressions OF those 10 "Eon
nature has granted endowments that might have
BEEN had their possessors wlled 1t, the ministers
of unmingled good to themselves ana the whole hu-
man race
We are making but slow progress-but we can
not pass over this splendid passage BY The Opium
Eater, De QUINCY, who, after time found adj
mittance into the magic circle, and put the SheP-
herd TO sleep with his logic, and reused him again
to an eestacy of delight by his fine bursts OF eio
qucnt imagining The Shepherd asks him how
many children he has, and receives this tine an
swer-after being told Seven :
OPIUM EATER. 1t seeneth strange the time
when as vet those spirits were not IN tue
hody-and the air which breathed partook not "f
that bessedness which now 10 me Is my lie. AGO
Their sun, another moon other stars, since the tace
of my f;rsr-bora. Another earth, another heaven!
loved methought--before that face snled-the
LIGHTS and the shadows, the flowers and the dewS'
the rivueis that sing to pilgrims in the wild; the
mountain wells, where all alone the oooAo Do
somed pilgrim stitch down; and 10 far below
the many rivered wales sweeping each 10 It's own
lake-how dearly did love.e ALL Yet was that
love fantastical-and verify not of the deeper soul
Imagination over this avisible diurnal sphere
spread ou, her own spiritual qualities, and made
the beauty that beamed back upon her dreams.
Nor wanted tenderest touches of humanity, my