Longfellow's _Poetical Works_ which has appeared in England is ushered in
by "An Introductory Essay" by the Rev. G. Gilfillan, A.M. I had lived in
hopes, through each successive edition, that either the good taste of the
publishers would strike out the preface entirely, or the amended taste of
its author curtail some of its redundancies. As neither has been the case,
but the 4th edition of the book now lies before me, I beg to offer the
following examples:

1. Of Ancient History:

"His [Longfellow's] ornaments, unlike those of the _Sabine_ maid, have
not crushed him."

2. Of Modern History--_Dickens a Poet_:

"A prophet may wrap himself up in austere and mysterious solitude: a
poet must come 'eating and drinking.' Thus came Shakspeare, Dryden,
Burns, Scott, Goethe; and thus have come in our day, _Dickens_, Hood,
and Longfellow."

Is the song of "The Ivy Green" in _Pickwick_ sufficient to justify this
appellation? I do not remember any other "Poem" by Charles Dickens.

3. Of Metaphors. Out of sixteen pages it is difficult to make a selection,
but the following are striking:

"If not a prophet, _torn by a secret burden, and uttering it_ in wild
tumultuous strains,... he has found inspiration ... in the legends of
other lands, whose _native vein_, in itself exquisite, has been _highly
cultivated_ and _delicately cherished_."

"Excelsion," we are told, "is one of those happy thoughts which seem to
drop down, like fine days, from some serener region, or _like moultings
of the celestial dove_, which _meet instantly the ideal_ of all minds,
_and run on afterwards_, and for ever, _in the current of the human
heart_."

Does not this almost come up to Lord Castlereagh's famous metaphor? It
certainly goes beyond Mr. Gilfillan's own praise of Longfellow, whose
sentiment is described as "never false, nor strained, nor mawkish. It is
_always mild_,... and _sometimes_ it _approaches the sublime_." Mr. G. goes
one step farther.

W. W.

Northamptonshire.

_Sir Walter Raleigh._--I find the following remonstrance in defence of this
distinguished man, against the imputation of Hume, in a letter addressed by
Dr. Parr to Charles Butler:

"Why do you follow Hume in representing Raleigh as an infidel? For
Heaven's sake, dear Sir, look to his preface to his _History of the
World_; look at his _Letters_, in a little 18mo., and here, but here
only, you