183].] Oxford ; a Poem. . 425 



evidently considers poetry as an effort of memory, not of feeling or inven- 

 tion ; as a thing of sound, not of sense. If he can only tickle the ear he 

 is satisfied ; for the intellect he scorns to cater. The majority of his best 

 thoughts are borrowed : the worst are decidedly his own. To Words- 

 worth he is indebted for the only good idea in his book. The lines 



" Life still is young, but not the world, to me : 



For where the freshness I was wont to see ? 



A bloom hath vanished from the face of things" 



is an impudent, unacknowledged plagiarism from the great Lake poet's 

 analysis of his Own matured feelings. 



" What though the glory which was once so bright, 



Be now for ever vanished from my sight ; 



Though nothing can bring back the hour 



Of splendour in the grass, of freshness in the flower," &c. 



The sole secret of Mr. Montgomery's popularity lies in the extensive 

 puffing he has enjoyed. He has been styled by those who should have 

 known better, a Juvenal a Milton a Byron, and has even been made 

 the subject of astrological speculation. Lest the reader should doubt 

 this assertion, we quote the following from a book published in 1828,, 

 (just about the time the "Omnipresence of the Deity" appeared) and 

 entitled, A Manual of Astrology: " THE NATIVITY OF A MODERN 

 SATIRICAL POET." ' The author of The Age Reviewed/ a Satire. 

 KM. born July 16th, 1807, 8 h. 30m. A.M. Mean Solar Time, 

 51. 27'. N. The recent production of this 'modern Juvenalist/ hav- 

 ing excited much curiosity in the literary world, is the author's chief 

 reason for inserting his horoscope. The student will readily perceive 

 the close zodiacal A of the ]) with $ and the planet $ arising in t% in 

 parellel to 5 , as the cause of his being a poet ; but the desire for the 

 extraordinary, which his satirical talent evinces, is solely produced by 

 the almost perfect semiquartile of the ]> and J#, which never fails to give 

 originality of genius, as we have previously observed in a former part of 

 the work. We predict that l the author of The Age Reviewed/ is des- 

 tined to great celebrity in the twenty -.second year of his life, probably by 

 some eminent exertion of his poetical genius !" 



Notwithstanding this disgusting this unprecedented puffing, the 

 works of Robert Montgomery are rapidly declining to their proper 

 station in literature. The flood is abating; the swollen rivulet is 

 shrinking back into its natural puny dimensions. Though an Eng- 

 lish public is at times apt to be led away by what is shewy and allur- 

 ing, it seldom fails in the long-run to find out its mistake and amend its 

 judgment. Besides, it is the nature of genius no matter what be its 

 advantages, or what its obstacles to rise or fall to its level. Had 

 Mr. Montgomery evinced the slightest promise in the way of thought, 

 sentiment, or style, we should have hesitated ere we expressed a decided 

 opinion. But, alas ! he is a thing of shreds and patches. He has been 

 to a feast of poetry, where he sat below the salt, and carried away all 

 the scraps. Pope and Campbell he has pillaged largely, nor have the 

 daintiest bits of Wordsworth escaped him. The consequence of this is, 

 that his poems are mere incongruous rhapsodies. There is no keeping 

 in them no harmony no nice adjustment of parts no completeness as 

 a whole. Moonlight thunder-storms sunsets and pastoral land- 



M.M. New Scries. VOL. XL No. 64. 3 I 



