New-York daily tribune., 1845-12-27
THE TRIBUNE.

/ chics and Critical NOLce, oy " W. TOS4f-E ''~'
York: J. s Redheld, Clinton Hall.
VIZ are very glad to see this handsome copy of
..,ev ready for those who have long been vainly
.,,irny a, all the book stores for such an one.
+, Europe the fame of Shelley has risen superior
-. clouds that darkened its earlier days, hiding
t1e image from his fellow mcn,-and from his
| ~ sad ewes oiten,imes the common light OF day.
Il, thinker, men have learnt TO pardon what they
,,,;der errors in opinion for the sake of singular
,,ylsness, purity and love in his main tendency or
,dt. Asa poet, the many faults of bis works hav-
lns been acknowledged there is room and place TO
admire his far more numerous and exquisite beau
lies
Tho heart Of the man few, who have hearts of
,,e;r own refuse 10 reverence and many, even OF
davoo,est Christians would not refuse the book
which contains Queen Nab as q Christmas gift
70, it has been recognized that the founder of the
CHRISTIAN Church would have suffered one to come
,,,o him, who was in faith and love so truly what
he .ough, in disciple, without regard to the form
Ri, doctrine assumed.
The qualities of his poetry have often been anal
wed and the sevcrer critics impatient OF his eXuber-
,nce or unable to use their accustomed spectacles
the golden mist that broods over all he has done
5spy him high honors, bat the soul of aspiring
vouh untrammeled by the canons of taste, and
uu,smed by scholarly discipline swells into rapture
Al hi, lyric sweetness, finds ambrosal refreshment
from his pentcous iances catches fire at his daring
,boueht and melts into boundless weeping at his
tender sadness,-thc sadness of soul betrothed to
,p Ideal unattanable i'll this present sphere.
with fhe HOryrlU-
o;,,, or the critics We cannot speak dispassion-
sely of an influence that has been so dear to US.
Nearer than the nearest companions OF life actual
b,, Shelley been TO us. Many other great ones
have sbope upon US and all who ever did SO shine
are still rcsp.endent in cur armament for our men,
,al life has not been broken and contradictory but
,brs far we =" see what we foresaw.' But Shelley
seemed to us an incarnation Of what was sought IN
ina synpahies and desires OF instructive life, light
ofdswn and foreshowing OF the weather OF this
cay.
When still in childish years fell in our way the
"Hymn 10 Intellectual Beauty In green mea-
dow, skirted by rich wood watered by lovely
rivuet made picturesque by mill n little farther
down, sat party Of young persons gayer than and
almost as inventive as those that told the tales record
ed dby Boccacco. They were passing few days
in scene of deep secusion there uncared for by
tutor or duenna, and with no bar of routine 10 check
he pranks of their gay, childish fancies Every day
they assumed parts which through the waking hours
must be acted out One day it was the characters
one of Richardson's novels, and most solemnly
We INV deared" each other with richest brocade OF
.Ebity. and interchanged in long stiff phrase our
sentimental secrets ard prim opinions. But to-day
We sought relief in personating birds or insects and
DOW it was the Libellnla who, tired of wild fitting
md dar,ng rested the grassy bank and read aloud
5s"Hymn 10 Intellectual Beauty Torn by chance
tom the leaf of foreign magazine.
Il was one OF these chances which we ever re-
member as the interpostion OF some good ange! IN
our fate. Solemn tears marked the change of mood
hour little party, and with the words
"Hsve not kept my vow T.
bsan chain of thoughts whose golden links still
lind the years together.
Two or three years after, il frosty Christmas
uoow tho trees cracked with their splendid bur
isa ice the old wooden country house was bank
sdupwi,h high drifts of the beautiful snow when the
Libellula became the owner of Sheley's poems 1t
vs her Christmas box, and for three days and
three nights she ceased not 10 extract its sweets
and how familiar still in memory every object seen
from the chair in which she sat enchanted there
three days mem orabe 10 her those of July to the
French nation The fire, the position of the lamp
bs vayiegated shadows of that allowed room, the
stars winter bright up 10 which she looked with
sach feeling Of congenality from the contempa-
toa Of this starry soul,-O could bat De Quincy
describe those days in which the bridge between
the real and idealrose unbroken He would not do
L. though as Suspiy1d dc ProfundiS but as sighs
o'Joy upon the mountain hight.
The poems we read then are what every
one stil reads, the Julian and Maddalo' with
It's profound revelations of the inward life
Asstor, the soul sweeping like breeze through
naiure,-and some of the minor poems, Queen
MAI" the "Promeiheus' and other more formal
works We have not been able TO read much. Il,
was not when he tried TO express opinions which
me wrongs OF the world had put into his head, but
when he abandoned himself 10 the feelings which
nature had implanted in his own breast tha, Shelley
seeued to US so full ofinspiration, and it is so still.
In reply TO all that can be urged against him by
people whom we do not wish to abuse, for surely
they know not what they do we are wont
simply to refer TO the fact that he was the only man
who redeemed the human from suspicion 70
the embittered soul of Byron. Why" said BY.
ron he is man who would willingly die for others
an sure Of IT.
Yes balance that agains, all the i'll yoa can think
fhim that he was man able 10 live wretched for
he sake of speaking sincerely what he supposed 10
oetuth, willing TO die for the good OF his fellows.
Mr.. Foster has spoken well of him as q man;
., First Of the man. Shelley-ot his sad experience OF
e-his fierce and bitter struggles with the storm which
sn own electric gathered ebou, him-his weary
gste single handed with world in arms-there is NJ
Nc 70 be said in words but that lle Is pregnant with
uep meaning il the memoir OF hero and prophet
aio wilhou; outward and visible deeds OF heroism-s
pCpnet without honor IN his country, or earnest
sSalsnce any where earth-who poured out the IN
pissons with which his soul traught whether men
Oeo es,en or and because he impelled oy a
,n toe instinct and could NOT torbear.
@ shel!eys personal character, it is enough to say
ss 80. was wholly peryaded by the same unbounded
- ohaues;ioning love for his fellow men-the same
10y ana ierv!d hope in their ultimate virtue and hspp
s-'ne same scorn OF baseness and haired OF oppres
uss-whieh beam forth in all his writings with pure
a constant light The theory which he wrote the
hNa h,1l N.kt.. I'D