e ground
With history."

"Strange fragments
Of forms once held divine, and still, _like angels_,
_Immortal every where_."

"The poet,
In some rapt moment of intense attendance,
The skies being genial, and the earthly air
Propitious, catches on the inward ear
The awful and unutterable meanings
Of a divine soliloquy."

"The very stars themselves are nearer to us than to-morrow."

"The great man ... is set
Among us pigmies, with a heavenlier stature,
And brighter face than ours, that we must _leap_
_Even to smite it._"

"Great merchants, men
Who dealt in kingdoms; ruddy aruspex,
And pale philosopher, who bent beneath
The keys of wisdom."

"The Coliseum ... stood out dark
With thoughts of ages: like some mighty captive
Upon his death-bed in a Christian land,
And lying, through the chant of Psalm and Creed
Unshriven and stern, with peace upon his brow,
And on his lips strange gods."

Our readers must perceive from such extracts, that our author belongs
more to the masculine than to the mystic school. Deep in thought, he is
clear in language and in purpose. Since Byron's dramas, we have seldom
had such fiery and vigorous verse. He blends the strong with the tender,
in natural and sweet proportions. His genius, too, vaults into the lyric
motion with very great ease and mastery. He is a minstrel as well as a
bard, and has shown power over almost every form of lyrical composition.
His sentiment is clear without being commonplace, original, yet not
extravagant, and betokens, as well as his style, a masculine health,
maturity, and completeness, rarely to be met with in a first attempt.
Above all, his tone of mind, while sympathizing to rapture with the
liberal progress of the age, is that of one who feels the eternal
divinity and paramount power of the Christian religion; that what God
has once pronounced true can never become a lie; that what was once
really alive may change, but can never die; that Christianity is a fact,
great, real, and permanent, as birth or death; and that its seeming
decay is only the symptom that it is putting off the old skin, and about
to renew its mighty youth.

We have thus found many, if not all, the qualities of our ideal poet
united in the author of the "Roman," and are not ashamed to say that we
expec