CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 135 



not hesitate to award the highest meed of approbation to the obla- 

 tion to the poet Shelley. For force of expression and sublimity of 

 sentiment it has no equal. The subject and the song are alike un- 

 paralleled :— 



« SHELLEY. 



*' Holy and mighty Poet of the Spirit 



That broods and breathes along the Universe ! 



In the least portion of whose starry verse 



Is the great breath the sphered heaven's inherit — 



No human song is eloquent as thine ; 



For by a reasoning instinct all divine, 



Thou feel'st the soul of things ; and thereof singing, 



With all the madness of a skylark springing 



From earth to heaven, the intenseness of thy strain, 



Like the lark's music all around us ringing, 



Laps us in God's own heart, and we regain 



Our primal life etherial ! Men profane 



Blaspheme thee : I have heard thee dreamer styled — 



I've mused upon their wakefulness — and smiled." 



We have heard this from the lips of a fine elocutionist : the effect 

 was marvellous. — Here is something that, if we mistake not, will 

 find its way to the heart : — 



«AN EXHORTATION TO MANKIND. 



" When will it be that men shall kinder grow 



In human intercourse ; and not thus, savagely. 



Spring upon each occasion to o'erthrow 



Their fellow-travellers through mortality ? 



God hath apportioned us enough of woe 



In this brief journey ; from within derived, 



And fi-om the elements, in which we sicken. 



Grow weak and die : let not man be deprived 



By man of that poor solace which doth quicken 



The flagging heart and the o'erlabour'd brain, 



And temper to endurance, when self-stricken, 



Or time and storm-worn. Transient thing ! refirain ! 



Stine not thy brother insect till he perish : 



A lire brief as thine own, vex not ; but cherish." 



We trust Mr. Wade will pardon us if, for a moment, we relax 

 our critical dignity, and, flinging aside our pen^ leap from our cri- 

 tical perch, and fold him to our heart. 



Prose praise would be a poor return for these soul-filling strains. 

 But before we close this brief notice with our expression of rever- 

 ence of the author's genius, we would ask Mr. Wade why, when 

 the choice was open to him, why did he not write for the middle- 

 rate, muddy-minded million ? What chance has he of popularity ? 

 Why is he so " abstruse V* He will understand us, we opine. 



Howsoever much we may regret, the fact cannot be disguised that 

 poetry of this supreme order is not likely to meet with extensive 

 sympathy. Few and far between are the minds that will fully ap- 



