PERCY liYSSHE SHELLEY. 25 



in his tragedy of the Cenci, he paints hideous manners and atrocious 

 crimes, he darkens still more the natural hues of the portrait, and 

 strives to render it more odious than the reality itself. Yet the poe- 

 try of Shelley is full of mind. In perusing it we feel that we have 

 arisen into the beautiful world; his genius has been well likened 

 to the old Church pictures of the Cherubim,, a winged head unable 

 to walk the earth, but at home when soaring through the heavens. 

 Such, however, was his love for nature, that every page of his writ- 

 ings reflects the loveliest scenes of the countries which he visited. 

 There is no modern poet who betrays such an intimate knowledge of 

 Nature in her various aspects. The memory of Switzerland and 

 Italy was ineffaceable in him. In all his books, says Captain Med- 

 win, he used to scrawl pines, and alpine summit raised upon alpine 

 summit, only to be scaled by Oceanides, with some spectral being 

 stalking from peak to peak. Judging from the abstract and symboli- 

 cal taste of modern poetry, one may perhaps be allowed to predict 

 that a time will come when the works of the most imaginative of 

 poets the poet of metaphysicians will be more read and understood 

 than they are at present. His poems, as Passeri said of Guido's 

 heads, "have an air of Paradise," and this characteristic element 

 runs throughout all his works whatever be their subject. " The 

 Masque of Anarchy/' lately published, is an instance of this, which 

 although written in the familiar style of his " Rosalind and Helen," 

 and intended to be as forcible and energetic as language could speak, 

 is full of poetry and elegance. It would seem that his Muse, like 

 the Delia of Tibullus, in whatever she does, and to whatever employ- 

 ment she turns, is sure to betray the furtive grace which pervades 

 her soul and animates all her motions 



Illam quicquid agat, quoque vestigia vertat 

 Coraponit furtim, subsequiturque Decor. 



M. M. No. 91. 



