The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1892-12-20

towards a solution by asserting that the
great defect of this metaphysical schooi
was it's separation from nature, and that
return TO nature was the triumph
achieved by the school of Pope. This ao-
surd paradox makes the whole matter
plain. Nature, or "the natural, was
to the rationalizing mind OF the
early eighteenth century synonym
Gus with what is IN accord Win
common sense: and the common sense OF
that age could not grasp the conception
of nature which the metaphysical poets
presented That conception was sympoi-
ical, aud, making allowance Tor the ar
ferences in age aud surroundings, Is luen-
tical with Whittiers conception OF ma,
ture. Whittier would have encountered
Dr. Johnson's anathema, ana tor the
same reason. :,
IL is almost startling at first to find
Whittier in the company OF group OF
poets of the Church OF England, but the
fact is Interesting and slgnlncaht. w MT
tier disliked no poetry more than the
mediocre verses OF English Non-coh-
| formists of the 18th century. / say mon
conformists" for the sake of literary pre-
cision, because there were only Two
| kinds of religious lyrical poetry IN that
| age, and this was the bad KIND. Ihe
characteristic shrug which Whlttler mas
| for Thomas E.lwood answers for the
| whole school:
~.
| A stranger to the heather nlne,
sang with a somewhat nasal whine
Contrast with such standa rds OF litera-
ture the noble outburst OF the martyred
| Jesuit priest. Robert Scuthwell: Christ
| Himself, by making hymn the conclu-
| sion of His last supper, and the prologue
| TO the first pageant of His Passion, gave
| his spouse method TO initiate, as In the
| Office OF the church 1t appeareth; anu TO
| all men pattern, to know the true use
| a. "A 1gfU la
at once is given the point OF comparison
with Whittier. For the English Church
| as for the Roman, the spouse OF Chrlst
| the Church, is the universe WITHIN whlcn
religious poetry moved. Coleridge even
| thought that the competent reader OIL
| George Herbert must not only De "a
Christian, devout aud devotional, as well
as the subject Of poetical sensloillty and
culture, but further must DE an anec-
tionate and dutiful child OF the church
(of England"
But readers OF Herbert, who are also
readers OF Whittier. would not assent TO
this. Herbert's poem The Temple, is
more Catholic than Herbert's creed. "As
| surely as "A man is a poet, so surely Is he
| humane, overgrowing every pale VIVA
ever, aud possessed of blessings for all
men, But this has its limits for
lierbert, and George Macdonald in crlti-
cizing him, mas by virtu. OF this criti-
cism shown the wider range nd deeper
truth of A Whittier. cit is in the temple
of Nature aud not in the temple of the
Church, the things made by the
hands of Col, and not the things made
by the hands of man, that afford the
truest symbol OF truth" On the other
hand, Whittier and the metaphysical poets
are alike in this, that the earth Is to Them
and To him still the Eden of God. In the
First Gift" US5D Whittier has ex-
pressed this, half in belief and half ia
longing.
| said: This fruit peseems no world Of sin,
| Its pa -ent vine, rooted in Para Iise,
o,eresept the wall and never PAID the lee price
| Edens exotic somehow Snug sed In
| To kes ~ the thorn and thisties company
/ A sir gle vine slip as she passed the gate,
Where the dread sword alternate Played and
And the stern angel, plying her fate,
| Foryaye the lovely trespasssr, and turned
| Aside his face of nre.
Whittier was inspired by nature, as
writers like Herbert were inspired by th e
| Bible ana though he is constantly throw
| ing away the shell for the kernel, he /.
| exauisitely sensitive TO grace and beauty
He says of himself in MY Namesake -
His eve was beauty's powerless slave,
| And his the ear which discord pains.
There is another poet, greater thar
Herbert. with whom Whittier should b,
compared aliude to Henry Vaughan
the iiberist. 1t is not likely that Whit
tier mad read more than the few pieces o
his which had appeared In Bishol
Trench's Household Book of Poetry,
for the book was excessively rare betor
the new edition in 1872 appeared 1t i
now known that Wordsworth had copy
| Of VauChan's chief work "Silex ScintIl
lans" IN his library, and that he was pro
foundly influenced Dy IL, particularly III
his "Intimations of Immortality IRON
the Recolectious OF Early Life" Whit
tiers relation to him Is independent, Du
by no means accidental.
| They are like two flowers Of similar hut
| and fra srance Whittier being tue greater
but not necessarily the deeper, poet
Saintbury's ill-uatured fling at Vaughai
| i'm his "EilZabethan Literature has n'
sienificance beyond indicating for Whit
tier as well as for Vaughan the reason 1
their lack OF vogue among critics OF
certain class Saintbury acknowledge,
in him, as he would have TO acknowl
edge in Whittier, the extreme beauty o
his thought, but excludes him from con
sidetation on the ground that he is no
master of the expression suitable TO hi
noble and precious thought" The az
demands form, aud who shall say this i
not "A healthy demand9 But IL goes too
far. and poets ike Whittier are the frs
TO suffer. But to return To Henry Vaughan
Ills poem "The Retreat" of which
shall read part, must be compared wit
| Whittier:
Happy those early dayes, when
| Shind la my angell infancy
Before 1 understood this place
Appointed for my seCona race,
Or tau gnt my sodl To ian cy ought,
But "A white, celestlall thoughts
Wnen yet 4 had not walk Il above
|, A mile or two from my FIRST love,
And Looking back at that short space,
1ouid see a glimpse Of this bright face;
When ON some guided cloud, or hOwre
Nv gazing soul would dwell an houro.
Ana tn those We aker gories spy
some shadows OF eternity;
Hrfpre taught my tongue TO wound
NV conscience with "a sinful sound,
Or had the black art TO dispense
| A seV'rall sin 20 ey'ry sense,
But fet through all this fieshey dresse,
bright shoots OF eVerlastingnesse.
Compare with this, Whittier's "Hu
man Sacrifices"
80 underneath IT, clouds ~ sin.
| The heart ~ man retaineuiNet
| Glcatne- " IT, holy origin
, | Aud half-quenChed star. that never set,
| -..i...aa 90 a. fadcd