ept critics of limited view, fail
to recognize in the Epic a distinct addition to their store of
those companions of whom we never grow tired."--_Athenaeum_, March
3rd, 1877.

"We believe that the Epic will approve itself to students as one
of the most considerable and original feats of recent English
poetry."--_Saturday Review_, March 31st, 1877.

"Thought, fancy, music, and penetrating sympathy we have here,
and that radiant, unnamable suggestive delicacy which enhances
the attraction with each new reading."--_British Quarterly
Review_, April, 1877.

"The present work is by far his greatest achievement; the whole
tone of it is noble, and portions, more especially the concluding
lines, are excessively beautiful."--_Westminster Review_, April,
1877.

"The work is one of which any singer might justly be proud. In
fact, the Epic is in every way a remarkable poem, which to be
appreciated must not only be read, but studied."--_Graphic_,
March 10th, 1877.

"We do not hesitate to advance it as our opinion that 'The Epic
of Hades' will enjoy the privilege of being classed amongst the
poems in the English language which will live."--_Civil Service
Gazette_, March 17th, 1877.

"Exquisite beauty of melodious verse.... A remarkable poem, both
in conception and execution. We sincerely wish for the author a
complete literary success."--_Literary World_, March 30th, 1877.

"Will live as a poem of permanent power and charm. It will
receive high appreciation from all who can enter into its
meaning, for its graphic and liquid pictures of external beauty,
the depth and truth of its purgatorial ideas, and the ardour,
tenderness, and exaltation of its spiritual life."--_Spectator_,
May 5th, 1877.

"I have lately been reading a poem which has interested me very
much, a poem called 'The Epic of Hades.' Many of you may never
have heard of it; most of you may never have seen it. It is, as I
view it, another gem added to the wealth of the poetry of our
language."--_Mr. Bright's speech on Cobden, at Bradford_, July
25th, 1877.

"In the blank verse of the 'Epic of Hades,' apt words are so
simply arranged with unbroken melody, that if the work were
printed as prose, it would remain a song, and every word would
still be where the sense required it; not one is set in a wrong