Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1874-01-14
q Character or soufhcy.

I country people living near him; neve
rode on horseback took no outdooI
c exercise save that of walking, and thi.
= often from q mere sense of duty, ant
with book in his hand; and, although
g living in one of the loveliest spots in al
England, and not insensible to it.
charms, preferred the shelves of hi
S library to the finest prospect in the
. world. He found his relaxation whert
I he found his daily labor, within the
walls of his study. 81 can't Afford" hs
wrote, "to do one thing at time; no
nor two neither; and it is only by doing
many things that I contrive to do sc
much; for cannot work long at any
5 thing without hunting myself, and dc
every thing by heats then, by the time
am tired OF one, my inclination foi
another is at hand" '' a''o. '' 'i'
Southey was an affectionate husband
; and fond father; and whenever, in
his correspondence, he alludes to his
home happiness, il is with tenderness
and warmth of feeling that are eminently
beautiful. Moreover, he was a constant,
and, at. all times, noble. friend, ready
even when in straits himself to help
VIII ulDutf WItf Ills pcu luOSc WHO
were more straitened. No one ever
acted better the part of the good Sama-
tritan, and while he never forgot bene-
fit received, il would seem as if his own
magnanimous charity had no place in
his memory. The story of his life
abounds in instances OF the most gene
rous self-denial, and of steadfast good
ness Of heart which neyer shrunk from
Ithe demands made upon it. Heavily
burdened as he was with work, he was
continually accepting fresh literary
labor in order to benefit others nor
was thiG all, for he received, under his
own roof, his vife's widowed sister,
Mrs. Lowell and when Coleridge, in
that strange waywardness ofmood which
his vice of opium eating csp alone ex-
plain, deserted his wife and children,
it was with Southey that they found a
home. There is O beautiful anecdote
\ given by Lockhart of poor music
master offering Scott all his savings in
the hour of his adversity a similar
story NAV be told of Southey, who,
4 when his friend May, an early benefae-
tor of the poet, fell into difficulties, sent
him more than six hundred pounds,
WIS Ill ltlc lOoStSScu.
Ii the poet had strong and generous
affections he was also good hater, but
/ this feeling WAS shown 10 principles
rather than to persons, and If, which
was not seldom, political animosity led
him to write bitterly against his anita
gonists, there was not one of them for
whom, after the moment of writing, he
retained an ankindiy feeling. IL is said
that he seldom spoke harshly of any
man with whom he had once conversed !;
he had too large a heart for petty ani-
mosities, and be. was wholly free from
envy. AT the time when a whole years
sale of ponderous epic failed to pro-
duce the poet five pounds, Scott was
gaining his thousands, but not word of
bitterness falls from So1they on this
score; and the praise he bestowed on
! his contemporaries, few of them more
distinguished than himself, but the
! larger number men of far inferior power,
is frequently more generous than just.
Although not, as We have said, sociable
man, he had the good fortune to know
intimately most of the illustrious
authors who made the early part of this
century so famous, and, long before
Wordsworth had received the public
recognition which was his due as theS
greatest poet of the age, Southey, like
Coleridge, expressed his admiration of
his friend and neighbor in no niggard
terms. This noble triumyirate. blythe
way, reminds US that probably not since
Shakespeare's day have three men OF
equal mark lived together on terms of
intimacy and affection. Landor called
them ''three towers of one castle" and,
as all the world knows, they have been
absurdly classed together as forming
school of poetry. I .-..F a
Southey had but little ear for har-
mony, and it was therefore all the more
unfortunate for his fame that he elected
which is without the dignity of heroic |
blank verse, or the soothing, satisfying
charm of rhyme. Landor saw his friends /
mistake in this respect, and observed,
very justly: "Are we not little too
fond Of novelty and experiment, and is
it not reasonable to prefer those kinds /,
of versifcation which the best poets |
have adopted and the best judges have
cherished for the longest time ?" But
Southey, on the contrary, was well |
pleased with his experiment. thinking
that, while it gave the poet a wider range |
of expression, it satisfied the ear of the |
reader. So far is this from being the |
case, that no one familiar with the lovely |
hsrmoDy Of Shelhy's. verse, Of With the
delicate music OF Coleridge, to say moth
ing of earlier and later poets, is likely
to gain delight from the strange and |
fitfuI, and sometimes jarring notes of
Southey. But there is strength in his |
verse, if not harmony, and "rhalaba,"
while it has its wildernesses and arid I
deserts, can also boast, as indeed all |
Southey s epics may, many a fair scene |
of richness and beauty. Splendor of !
diction and felicity of description occur
frequently, but frequently also the ac-
ton halts, the verse drsgs, and the
reader feels inclined to.resign himself
to slumber. On the whole, perhaps,
the erndition lavished on the poem is /
more striking than its -poetical wealth,
and it il sometimes q a-rellef to turn aeide
from the text to the curious and highly
entertaining notes which serve to illus
trate it. Southey himself judged Rod
erick" to be the finest of all his poems,
and Landor, in writing to him, said:
"There is no poem In existence that l
shall read so often" Charles Lamb,
however, an. admirable judge. and
Wordsworth also, preferred The Curse
of Kehama," and, without endeavoring
to compare the value of the two works,
there can be no doubt that they are the.
poets greatest and least wearisome
efforts. IT is singular that in none of
Southey's epics are there passages /
which lay hold of the memory, and be-
come, as it were, . part Of ones life
No doubt, the first consideration of the
poet should be to have worthy action,
and the more he strives after this OBJ
ject, the less will he concern himself
with the beauty of particular passages,
but the lack of what may be called
"beauties" in Southey's poetry is due,
ne think, less to the severity Of his taste
than to the diffusiveness of his style,
which has, as it were, no points for the