234 Monthly Review of Literature. FfiB. 



scholarship, a mind which has drank deeply of those precious waters, which the 

 intellect of the mighty dead has poured out with such abundance, and their 

 refreshing influence is liberally diffused over his pages. These powers, and more 

 than these, has he brought to the production of a new work, which rivals, 

 perhaps surpasses, all his others. Eugene Aram, who is known to all by the 

 beautiful and impressive poem of that name written by Thomas Hood, comes 

 before us ushered in with a Dedication to Sir Walter Scott, written with great 

 good taste, and full of liberal and modest sentiments. The story is of one who 

 made much stir in the world about the middle of the last century. The author 

 has made him here a character of extraordinary power and wonderful effect ; a 

 being of superior mould to those of common humanity, and who does not, even 

 in his fall from virtue, seem " less than Archangel ruined." He is a scholar, 

 left at an early age poor and friendless ; books become to him friends, knowledge 

 his wealth, and the world his home. But with his limited means he soon 

 exhausted the learning within his reach, and his soul panted with the most 

 restless and daring aspirations for an increase. Though his yearnings were 

 ambitious, they pointed to a noble and a glorious end the enlightenment of his 

 race. How his proud but generous heart, was clogged and bowed down by the 

 bitterness of his lot how he was tempted by a villain, to wrest from a meaner 

 and more despicable villain, who had taunted him with his poverty, and whom 

 his soul hated as a wretch " aged with vice forestalling time tottering on to a 

 dishonoured grave soiling all that he touched on his way with grey hairs, and 

 filthy lewdness, the rottenness of the heart, not its passion, a nuisance and a 

 curse to the world," the means by which he might accomplish a more general 

 philanthropy ; all this is as finely described as any delineation of the progress and 

 result of human passions in the language. The three volumes are full of poetry, and 

 profound thought. The characters are strongly marked, and skilfully drawn ; 

 though not numerous, they are various. The worthy Corporal, " a man of the 

 world," whose notions on many subjects we particularly admire, is a good set-off 

 to the kind and benevolent 'Squire ; the fiery and impetuous Walter is in strong 

 contrast with the deep villainy of Houghton ; and the gentle and affectionate 

 Ellinor, forms a sweet relief to the high poetical enthusiasm of her sister. But 

 the intense object of the reader's interest is Eugene Aram ; for him it never flags 

 from his first appearance, to the closing chapter. The plot is arranged with 

 much skill, and the effect its developement produces is strong and lasting. We 

 had marked many passages for quotation, but our space is so limited that we 

 regret being obliged to leave them out ; but probably it would be needless, for 

 before this Review comes before our readers, the work to which we have but 

 feebly endeavoured to render the justice which its merits deserve, will be in the 

 hands of all those who wish to be amused, or desire to be instructed. 



THE WORKS OF LORD BYRON, WITH HIS LETTERS AND JOURNALS, AND HIS 

 LIFE. BY THOMAS MOORE, ESQ. IN FOURTEEN VOLS. VOL. I. 12mo. 



How little did we expect to see the day, some few seasons gone by, when, in 

 the spring-glow of life, of lavish fame, and Don Juan quartos, he had just fleshed 

 his maiden sword in the reputation of English Bards and Scotch Reviewers, to 

 see the lordly Byron himself the facile princeps of his tribe, and the most 

 aristocratic of peers or poets reduced, by the levelling and radical conversion of 

 Mr. Murray, to bow his laurelled head before the prolific age of cheap editions, 

 cloth covers, and curtailed five shilling volumes : alas, for the aristocracy of 

 letters : 



" The mighty Caesar dead, and turned to clay, 

 May stop some hole to keep the wind away." 



But whether " Lords of the Lyre," or of the earth, and to whatever " vile uses 

 they may come at last," one common fate seems to be prepared for them, and 

 the greatest of their age and order are doomed to appear by the side of the most 

 plebeian the minors or the minnows, who could scarce produce a ripple on the 

 surface of the deep streams of time, to be fathomed only by the sacred few. But 



