PRESUMPTUOUS POETRY. 19 



" Omniscient Spirit ! Seer of the past ! 

 Rend, rend the veil ; unblasted^let me look 

 Into the Holiest ! on that dial's front 

 Whose hours are ages ; bid the sun return, 

 That I may read their history aloud ; 

 Disperse the mist from ocean's monstrous face, 

 And purge my sight that I may see beyond ! 

 Prayer hath prevailed. The deep yields up her dead ; 

 What brings the Spirit to my musing ear ?" 



Having got through his first book, Mr. Heraud takes breath, and 

 begins to look upon himself as booked for immortality and not in 

 the dickey. The second book commences thus : 



" To re-create the past, and to create 

 Being and Passion for its occupance 

 Is mine. What poet but might quail beneath 

 The mighty task. What excellence of thought, 

 What strength of soul it needs, to wrestle well 

 With the ancient of such far-off days obscure ! 

 Though wounded in the conflict though my brain 

 Be with the effort in the end collapsed, 

 Dilated, till enfeebled, then o'erthrown 

 Yet I will on, until it be complete. 

 What should I fear to lose for my theme's sake ? 

 Yea, the great globe is valueless and void ! 

 My country or the world may guerdon me, 

 So let, or let them not ; and to themselves 

 Be deathless shame, or honour on us both ; 

 For time discovers truth, and where 'tis due, 

 The eternal meed of Fame, though late, confers." 



Not an if in the whole passage. His success was certain ; not a 

 doubt of it so far as he was concerned. " Reward me, and you do 

 yourselves honour ; but mark I deathless shame upon you if you do 

 not/' The modesty of genius is proverbial. 



In the fifth book Mr. Heraud breaks out again. He cannot let 

 himself alone. He speaks of certain warnings : 



" To me revealed by Him, ancient of days, 

 Who hath baptized me with the gift of song 

 And grace to sing this theme : at first a spark 

 Deep buried in my soul, then blazed abroad, 

 Wakening a spirit able to support, 

 Even to the end, the energy of faith." 



The incipient spark thus spoken of, which now, it seems, is glow- 

 ing away "like blazes," gives occasion to a simile: A fire burning 

 in a huge forest by a gradual wind is fanned into a conflagration, 

 which, increasing more and more, invests the tops of loftiest trees, 

 with 



Cherubick billows terribly sublime ! 



But Mr. Heraud has something more to say for himself, and it 

 were a pity that we should deny him the gratification of setting forth 

 his merits at length : 



" Nor had I now so dauntless seized the harp, 

 But that, O Wisdom ! to this argument 



