s
have been proved, and, therefore, the enthusiasm with which I speak of
them must necessarily appear overcharged and absurd. It, might, perhaps,
have been more prudent to have withheld the full expression of it till I
had shown the full grounds for it; but once written, such expression
must remain till I have justified it. And, indeed, I think there is
enough, even in the foregoing pages, to show that these works are, as
far as concerns the ordinary critics of the press, above all
animadversion, and above all praise; and that, by the public, they are
not to be received as in any way subjects or matters of opinion, but of
Faith. We are not to approach them to be pleased, but to be taught; not
to form a judgment, but to receive a lesson. Our periodical writers,
therefore, may save themselves the trouble either of blaming or
praising: their duty is not to pronounce opinions upon the work of a man
who has walked with nature threescore years; but to impress upon the
public the respect with which they are to be received, and to make
request to him, on the part of the people of England, that he would now
touch no unimportant work--that he would not spend time on slight or
small pictures, but give to the nation a series of grand, consistent,
systematic, and completed poems. We desire that he should follow out his
own thoughts and intents of heart, without reference to any human
authority. But we request, in all humility, that those thoughts may be
seriously and loftily given; and that the whole power of his unequalled
intellect may be exerted in the production of such works as may remain
forever for the teaching of the nations. In all that he says, we
believe; in all that he does we trust.[81] It is therefore that we pray
him to utter nothing lightly--to do nothing regardlessly. He stands upon
an eminence, from which he looks back over the universe of God, and
forward over the generations of men. Let every work of his hand be a
history of the one, and a lesson to the other. Let each exertion of his
mighty mind be both hymn and prophecy,--adoration, to the
Deity,--revelation to mankind.

FOOTNOTES

[79] Of course this assertion does not refer to the differences in
mode of execution, which enable one painter to work faster or slower
than another, but only to the exertion of mind, commonly manifested
by the artist, according as he is sparing or prodigal of production.

[80] "Talk of improving nature when it _