one as the other. This
makes that equality of power in farce, tragedy, narrative, and
love-songs; a merit so incessant, that each reader is
incredulous of the perception of other readers.--EMERSON.

DOWDEN'S "LIFE OF SHELLEY"

This Shelley biography is a literary cake-walk. The ordinary
forms of speech are absent from it. All the pages, all the
paragraphs, walk by sedately, elegantly, not to say mincingly,
in their Sunday-best, shiny and sleek, perfumed, and with
_boutonnieres_ in their button-holes; it is rare to find even
a chance sentence that has forgotten to dress. If the book
wishes to tell us that Mary Godwin, child of sixteen, had
known afflictions, the fact saunters forth in this nobby
outfit: "Mary herself was not unlearned in the lore of
pain."--MARK TWAIN.

MILTON'S "LYCIDAS"

One of the poems on which much praise has been bestowed, is
"Lycidas"; of which the diction is harsh, the rhymes
uncertain, and the numbers unpleasing. What beauty there is we
must therefore seek in the sentiments and images. It is not to
be considered as the effusion of real passion; for passion
runs not after remote allusions and obscure opinions. Passion
plucks no berries from the myrtle and ivy, nor calls upon
Arthur and Mincius, nor tells of rough satyrs and "fauns with
cloven heel." Where there is leisure for fiction, there is
little grief.
SAMUEL JOHNSON.

EMERSON

And, in truth, one of the legitimate poets Emerson, in my
opinion, is not. His poetry is interesting, it makes one
think; but it is not the poetry of one of the born poets. I
say it of him with reluctance, although I am sure that he
would have said it of himself; but I say it with reluctance,
because I dislike giving pain to his admirers, and because all
my own wish, too, is to say of him what is favorable. But I
regard myself, not as speaking to please Emerson's admirers,
not as speaking to please myself; but rather, I repeat, as
communing with Time and Nature concerning the productions of
this beautiful and rare spirit, and as resigning what of him
is by their unalterable decree touched with caducity, in order
the better to mark and secure that in him which is
immortal.--MATTHEW ARNOLD.

GEORGE ELIOT

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