The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1882-1884, 1883-04-26

pear in his writings. Gray was the
Moses who had marched across the
desert, and came in full view Of the
Promised Land; Cowper was the
Joshua who bravely crossed the flood
and displayed his banner on the
other side. The stream once passed.
an army of fellow poets marched in
to obtain full possession of the dis
covered territory Burns. that magic
child of Scotland. who gave voice
to the humbles. things; Goldsln ith.
an innocent abroad; B. ron. an in.
spired demoniac; Sir Walter Scott.
the wizard Of the North :" Cam
pbell, Moore, Rogers. and. above all
that Big Thunderer. Wordsworth,
with his Lake Poess," including
Coleridge, Southey, De Quincy, and
Wilson, a magnificent band, who
jOlned in the chorus OF the new song.
| What the meek and undoubting
Joshna was unable t. no, was ac-
complished by these princes Of 1.-The
vision of the faculty divine" They
went through the length and breadth
of the land /; they put the Philistines
to tribute, and destro ;ed the sons Of
Anak.
Without stopping here to charac-
terize these individual. writer's, it may
he proper to notice the broad lines of
distinction between the new school
and the old. In place Of the classi
Cal themes cherished by the poets of
the Restoration, the new regime like
the older bards of Chaucer's and
Queen Bess' times, turned with ar
dent sympathy to nature. But it
was nature in her broader and com
mon aspects, as we'll as in her mar
velous forms. Cowper sang of the
clock behind the dopr. the garden.
One of his tenderest pieces is that on
his mothers picture, in which his
ever-sad life is strangely interviewer
with the memories of his mother
Wordsworth glorified out door nature
Under the magic touch of his pen
field and forest, river side and lake
the dusty roadway and meadow take
on freshness and beauty. Until one
reads these modern revelations he
hardly realizes how inlaid will
-, beauty are the vulgar things abou
him. Rufus Choate, the great adyo
cate, the elegant ssholar. on goins
into the county exclaimed, ''Th'
+, common things, after all, are th
=, Ebest." So thought our poets, ant
their office was to open their excel
Ilencies to untutored eyes and unin'
j., spired brains.
But with our modern poets nature i
animate with beast, bird, fish, insect
above all, with man, the under lor'
=, of this terrestrial paradise. Th
!, Restoration literature magnifies title
men, the upper class, the elite, an
makes them honorable the new Learn
( ing recognizes the people. In the ag
> of Dryden there were no people
@ After lifting their heads for momer
s under the commonwealth. the return
;" ING Stuarts scornfully trample thel
l'e under foot. None Of the great writer
u of the period add. essed a gener'
u public; they wrote for the coteri
q" But with Gray change began, an
all after Cowper addressed then
y selves to the great modern democr
~ CIV. The peoples English takes tt
>e place Of the Kings.
''' Again, under the old school, for
:" took precedence ofsuhstance; und'
' the new, the substance is set forth
style borrowed from the old al
~ improved. The older poe is were col
., naughty. supercllious, often scoffir
." at the most sacred things; the ne
- are warm. gentle, and reveren:. III
90 arctic winter which prevailed duril
III the age of Dryden and Pope was sol
D, ened by the warm wave which swe
'is over England in the eighteenth ce
- tury. The religious revival was lii
'o' the breath of Spring. which brin
!" greenness to the fields and fills t
groves with the music Of BIRDS.
Y. Christian AdUocote.
Se CHINESE AND AME2ICANS.-A CHA
W. TER OF CONTRARIETIES.