1828.] [ 633 ] 



MONTHLY REVIEW OF LITERATURE, DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN. 



Eccelino da Romana, by Lord Dillon. 

 1828.. Though hitherto publishing anony- 

 mously,* Lord Dillon's name is far from 

 being unknown in the ranks of literature. 

 So long ago as 1805, he published " A 

 Letter to the Noblemen and Gentlemen 

 who composed the Deputation of the Catho- 

 lics of Ireland;" and some years after, 

 while colonel, we believe, of the 100th 

 regiment of foot, " A Commentary, in two 

 volumes, on the Military Establishments of 

 the British Empire." But he is better and 

 more favourably known as the author of 

 " Maltravers," and also of a second story, 

 in both of which he enlists the doctrines of 

 fatalism into the service of the novel-reader 

 not to inculcate for inculcation, in a matter 

 of this kind, can do nothing but to vary 

 the interest and excite the imagination, by 

 introducing a new set of motives new prin- 

 ciples of action just as where fairies or 

 witches are used, or the Wandering Jew, 

 or Frankenstein, or any other agency, super- 

 human, or infra-human, or extra-human. 

 Belief of these things is beside the purpose ; 

 but, harmlessly, we suppose, we may suffer 

 the fancy to roam, without making ourselves 

 worse citizens, or less capable of sustaining 

 and tasting the domestic charities of life. 

 Strictly, fatalism is inseparable from a belief 

 in the acknowledged attributes of the Deity ; 

 but no man of common sense, because he 

 professes to believe, or does believe, in the 

 omniscience and foreknowledge of the Crea- 

 tor of all, considers such doctrine as bearing 

 upon his conduct,. in any other light than a 

 moral one to put him on his guard. No 

 man, do what he will, or argue as he will, 

 can get rid of the consciousness of his free- 

 dom of action, in the popular sense of the 

 term. The source of mistakes if mistakes 

 there really be is the confounding the phi- 

 losophical and the popular senses of liberty. 

 Inculcation, for practical purposes, is little 

 likely to affect any body's conduct. If the 

 doctrine be true, it can do no harm, ob- 

 viously ; and if it be false, it may be safely 

 left to its own imbecility it exerts no 

 influence. The consciousness of liberty can- 

 not be extinguished. If any man allege the 

 excuse, for but the turn of a finger, he will 

 be laughed at ; and if he murders under the 

 impression of fatalism, he will be hanged ; 

 and hanging, after all that has been urged, 

 we have no doubt, is the best possible check 

 upon human crime. The man who should 

 justify a wrong on this ground, would be 

 set down, by the common apprehension, as 

 a rogue ; and no philosophy, though there 

 be secrets in it yet undreamed of, will ever 

 establish his innocence. But Lord Dillon 

 has other peculiarities, and very strong ones. 



.* His translation; of " The Tactics of 

 exceptcd ; a volume in 4to., with numerous illus 

 trative plates. 



M.M. New Series __ VOL. V. No. 30. 



Not to notice, now, his bold and avowed 

 abhorrence of political corruption he has 

 started from the beaten track, and indulged 

 and revelled in the extraordinary- with the 

 vague expectation and hope of penetrating 

 the dense cloud that wraps the future, and 

 which is, indeed, destined to be no farther 

 penetrable than experience of the past and 

 present will carry us. Dreams, and omens, 

 and warnings, have seized upon his fancy ; 

 the darkness of metaphysics has appeared to 

 him a darkness visible, and the forms which 

 people obscurity have operated upon his 

 sensations like defined realities. He has 

 cherished chimeras, but they work well in 

 the regions of feeling and fancy. 



But of himself, if more be sought, his 



lordship has a right to be heard and he 



will speak in language which will furnish 



no unfavourable specimen of his muse. 



Should any ask, perchance, who 'twas that 



pour'd 



This unpremeditated lay, ofttimes 

 In unharmonious verse most quaintly cloth'd. 

 Oh, Clio, say, 'twas one who Fate decreed 

 Should wander from his hall and bower; who 



Fate 



Decreed, though willing, should not glory reap 

 In tented fields, though he had sought it far 

 In the vast wilderness, beyond the bounds 

 Where the Atlantic waves in mountains roll, 

 And on the dun Iberian plains ; one in 

 The senate mute ; one, for whom Ceres shakes 

 Her spiky head in vain, in vain doth shower 

 Her golden grains ; one who, with buoyant heart, 

 O'er-rode the stormy wave and tempest high, 

 That persevering Fate had round him rais'd : 

 Who gazing on the sun liv'd and rejoic'd! 

 Of artificial man rejected, who, 

 Save Nature boon, no other parent own'd ; 

 The mighty mother from whose paps he drew 

 This nourishment ; she is my goddess, she 

 My parent dear, in her vast book I read. 

 And in her breast rejoicing still I live. 

 Nature, abhorr'd of tyrants and of fools ; 

 Nature, whose pure code impious man doth blur, 

 Accept th' oblations of my grateful heart, 

 And if thon canst not govern fate, let me 

 Repose in thy kind arms ; give me at least 

 My health and liberty. To thee I pour 

 My matin prayer, grateful to the bright smiles 

 Of the all-seeing sun, and when he bends 

 His western way, in gentle sleep repose. 

 Still Nature love I that all anguish soothes 

 That from blind artificial man arose. 



But who and what is this Eccelino da 

 Romana ? A poem of 10,000 lines, in the 

 old heroic measure, and in blank verse. 

 But the hero ? A demon literally, the 

 son of a demon. Historically, Eccelino is 

 known to the readers of Italian story and 

 Sismondi, or, for shortness, Perceval, may 

 be referred to as the tyrant of Padua, 

 Verona, and the neighbouring region, in the 

 13th century, who, under the sanction of 

 the Emperor, headed the Ghibelline forces 



4 M 



