nes it as that exercise of the reason into which
the heart enters--a structure of the understanding rising out of the
moral and spiritual nature. Then follows a section on _Children_,
which explodes not a few educational fallacies, and propounds certain
articles of faith and practice wholesome for these times, though it
will probably wear a prim and quakerish aspect to the admirers of Jean
Paul's famous tractate[10] on the same theme. The concluding paper in
this series, entitled _The Life Poetic_, is the liveliest, if not the
most valuable of the six: it has, however, been charged, with
considerable show of justice, with a tendency to strip genius of all
that is individual and spontaneous, or to accredit it only 'when it
moves abroad sedately, clad in the uniform of a peculiar college.' Mr
Taylor's 'solicitous and premeditated formalism' of poetical doctrine
is, it must be confessed, a little too strait-laced. The true poet is
born, not made. Still, in their place, our author's dogmas have their
use, and might, if duly marked and inwardly digested, annually deter
many aspirants who are _not_ poets from proving so incontestably to
the careless public that negative fact.

_Notes from Books_ followed within a few months, but met with a less
cordial reception. Of the four essays comprised in this volume, three
are reprinted contributions to the _Quarterly Review_, being
criticisms on the poetry of Wordsworth and Aubrey de Vere; and
worthily do they illustrate--those on Wordsworth at least--Mr Taylor's
composite faculty of depth and delicacy in poetical exposition. Of
Wordsworth's many and gifted commentators--among them Wilson,
Coleridge, Hazlitt, De Quincey, Lamb, Moir, Sterling--few have shewn a
happier insight into the idiosyncrasy, or done more justice to the
beauties of the patriarch of the Lakes. With Wordsworth for a subject,
and the _Quarterly Review_ for a 'door of utterance,' Mr Taylor is
quite in his element. The fourth essay, on the _Ways of the Rich and
Great_, is enriched with wise saws and modern instances. Its
_materiel_ is composed of ripe observation and reflective good sense;
but the manner is objected to as marred by conceits of style--a sin
not very safely to be committed by so stern a censor of it in others.
His authoritative air in laying down the law is also occasionally
unpleasing to some readers; and great as his tact in essay-writing is,
he wants that easy grace and pervading _bonhomie_ which imp