156 THE VALLEY OF THE NYMPHS. 



tenuatory plea the public have nothing whatever to 

 do : whether Mr. Johns wrote a book in a month or 

 in an hour is not for the consideration of poetical read- 

 ers, their business is with the thing produced not witli 

 the time occupied in producing it. An old saw tells us 

 that " whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing 

 well ;" if, then, the " Valley of the Nymphs" were at 

 all worthy Mr. Johns' pen, his voluntary confession of 

 slovenliness or indolence, whichever it be, is indefensi- 

 ble ; and that he was careless and negligent at times 

 the occasional occurrence of unmusical and prosaic 

 lines sufficiently indicates. 



Bryan Waller Proctor or, as he has baptised himself, 

 Barry Cornwall, can write with vigour, delicacy, and 

 grace ; nevertheless, he hits spoiled some of his best 

 productions by mannerism and affectation ; one instance 

 of which is his nauseous dandling and petting the word 

 FINE, he shows it on every possible occasion just as 

 a child-proud mother exhibits a puny, smart, snivel- 

 linn baby : we recollect repeated perversions of this de- 

 I irate monosyllable, by the ingenious Barry, hisy/W 

 bird, y///e power, y/we care ,y///t' c^e. &c. &c. are still ting- 

 ling in our ears. Mr. Johns has thought this point in 

 Proctor, a \vorthy model lor imitation, thereby evin- 

 cing a distrust in his own powers which is to be regret- 

 ted, and the more so as he has given ample proof that 

 he endures neither poverty of thought nor lack of ex- 

 pression when he chooses to rely on himself. To 

 proceed, we have in the " Valley of the Nymphs" 

 " somejine reed or chord/' p. 14, 

 "ay/Wjoy," p. 1, 



"ay&*e horror," p. 9, 



"fine ethereal sleep," p. 19, 



"they/we light/' p. 31, 



" ourjine being/' p. 36, 



"Jine spirit," p. 46, 



Each of these fine words may have a special and dis- 

 tinct meaning of its own, or it may have any significa- 

 tion the gentle reader choose to attach to it. We will 

 take the liberty of adding another case of the use of the 



