under rocks which had arched themselves over him, and little injured: he
too is brought up safe, and all ends joyfully, say the Newspapers.

Such a piece of manful promptitude, and salutary human heroism, was
worth investigating. It was investigated; found to be accurate to the
letter,--with this addition and explanation, that Will, an honest,
ignorant good man, entirely given up to Methodism, had been perfect in
the "faith of assurance," certain that _he_ should get to Heaven if
he died, certain that Jack would not, which had been the ground of his
decision in that great moment;--for the rest, that he much wished
to learn reading and writing, and find some way of life above ground
instead of below. By aid of the Misses Fox and the rest of that family,
a subscription (modest _Anti_-Hudson testimonial) was raised to this
Methodist hero: he emerged into daylight with fifty pounds in his
pocket; did strenuously try, for certain months, to learn reading and
writing; found he could not learn those arts or either of them; took his
money and bought cows with it, wedding at the same time some religious
likely milkmaid; and is, last time I heard of him, a prosperous modest
dairyman, thankful for the upper light and safety from the wrath to
come. Sterling had some hand in this affair: but, as I said, it was the
two young ladies of the family that mainly did it.

In the end of 1841, after many hesitations and revisals, _The Election_
came out; a tiny Duodecimo without name attached; [24] again inquiring of
the public what its suffrage was; again to little purpose. My vote had
never been loud for this step, but neither was it quite adverse; and
now, in reading the poor little Poem over again, after ten years'
space, I find it, with a touching mixture of pleasure and repentance,
considerably better than it then seemed to me. My encouragement, if not
to print this poem, yet to proceed with Poetry, since there was such a
resolution for it, might have been a little more decided!

This is a small Piece, but aims at containing great things; a _multum
in parvo_ after its sort; and is executed here and there with undeniable
success. The style is free and flowing, the rhyme dances along with a
certain joyful triumph; everything of due brevity withal. That mixture
of mockery on the surface, which finely relieves the real earnestness
within, and flavors even what is not very earnest and might even be
insipid otherwise, is not ill managed: a