The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1879-03-20

"sp In them al ralsnCs mulAbIlIie."
It has become q commonplace reflection
this reign and power Of Change" Bu
the treatment lIere is not superficial, but
Thoughtful. There Is little Of the barrer
and easy moraliEing which belongs 10 thil
theme. The great Napoleon might have
been spared us, pehaps, In XIV; aud tha
Objectionable old "sage, In the preface
who is "stock" answerer, as the "youth''
Is stock putter, OF moral questions. In
general, however, the soundings are taken
deep, and there Is much Of iar.reaching
suggestion.
And II Is poetic treatment. There is
but little prose cut into lengths. There
are the same happy touches Of description
and picturesque laying out OF scene and
story which were striking In the former
dramatic poems. Norseman and Arab,
Hindoo and Christian, and their hopes
Of heaven, are well painted in XVI. It
y good firm drawing Of Egypt,
Carthage, Macedon, and Rome In
IN. In Will, the great procession OF
races is well pictured, from mound.bui
ers and the lwellers in Yucatan to the
European who has displaced them:-
"Ihs silent relics Of that sariy lace 500
have yet voice. ~ hath the ancient sphinx
who sta embedded 10 the sands Of Nile
And iiono Worl could cross the mOVsless lips
OtEgypts god, or statues Of Copan,
Those stony mouths would surely utter 'ChAngsI'"
1t is lovely night.landscape ION D. 1877,
well observed and delicately wrought. And
the, "preadamatic visions" ION p. 30) seem
TO be true to such Nature as there was
when the world was forming.
There is not a little OF science and met
aphysics here. These are rocks on which
poesy risks going to pieces. "Pleisto.
Gene" and Miocene,' "Conceptive"
Consciousness" and such arc hazardous
in poem. Thegods have not made these
PoetiCal any more than Touchstone'sI
Audrey. Yet these and their belongings
OF scientific term, fact or metaphysical
theorlzlng are managed more than fairly
well. Mr.. Swivellef might hint that, in
". and ". the wing Of poesy "moults a
feather" But the flight Is poetic enough.
The last two cantos draw off from further
statement or treatment Of the problem OF
Change" and turn to suggest some
answer. Theansweris found in that which
to some. seems reply, but to others
SAiI - ASAuBo. AuoAllSuI-uL tue post OIL
the thoughtful and earnest man-is made
to furnish an answer; the best, perhaps,
which may come Of our intellectual crop.
ings or flights. On idea,
nThemaster-t -thOught,
OF which ali Nature s The imsssry.r
and on its power OF life more and more,
Change cannot work It's alterations and
-. f.....TE
IT. all along this poem, there be many a
that we too are atoms in the
grasp and grind Of "Change," there are al.
80, all along, many compensations OF more
cheerful thought in further outlooks OF
the mind and freedom OF the spirit. In
his preface, the poet is
"Sure Of an eternal government
Above all change, and rests In calm eoutentn
Midway his book he suggests
nPerbaps It's problem whaIe solution
y, Shall AoWly bring us intellectual growth,
Aud hpen mental strength, as step BY step
D WOrise 10 level Of each higher thought
That brings US nearer to the perfect plAn."
And this is his close Of his book and con,
clusion Of the natter \
"ehauge s the movement Of the Masters hand,
And constant purpose 10 dIVinsly whispered
Beneath Its touehi 70 are We EVER drawn
By what 10 best In Us 10 what IS best
And wisestoEOr all.