of passion and of war which so strangely and
powerfully contrast with the bitter sneer and gay irony forming the
basis of the Don; but, on the other hand, the interest of the reader
(scattered, in Byron's work, upon the various, unconnected, and somewhat
monotonous outlines of female characters in Julia, Haidee, Gulbeyas,
&c.,) is in "Evgenii Oniegin" most powerfully concentrated upon the
heroine, Tatiana--one of the most exquisite tributes that poetry has
ever paid to the nobility of woman. To show the difficulty of judging of
this work, we need only mention, that while many compare it to "Don
Juan," others consider is as rather resembling "Childe Harold;" while
the author himself professed that it was rather to be placed in the
category of "Beppo."

On leaving Odessa, (in 1824,) Pushkin, who appears to have loved the sea
with all the fervour of Shelley himself, bade farewell to the waves with
which he had communed so earnestly, and whose deep voices his verse so
nobly echoed, in some grand stanzas "To the Sea," of which a translation
will be given in a subsequent part.

It is to this epoch that we must ascribe the first outline of the
historical tragedy to which we have alluded; but which did not appear
till a much later period. We shall recur to this work when we reach the
date of its completion.

As the composition of "Evgenii Oniegin" extended over a considerable
space of time, our readers may not be displeased at our reverting
occasionally to the progress of this work and to the character of its
merits. This production must be considered as the fullest and most
complete embodiment that exists in Russian literature, of the
nationality of the country. It will be found to be the expression of
those apparently discordant elements the union of which composes that
hard riddle--the Russian character. A passage of Pushkin's dedication
will not incorrectly exhibit the variety of its tone:--

"Accept this heap of motley traits,
Half gay, half sad, half false, half real,
Half every-day, yet half ideal,
The careless fruit of idle days,
Of sleepless nights; slight inspirations
Of unripe years, of wasted art--
The reason's frigid observations,
And sad conclusions of the heart."

During the most tranquil and laborious portion of Pushkin's life, which
passed principally at Mikhailovskoe, and which occupies the period from
his leaving Odessa at the end of the year 1824 to 1826, he continued