216 THE AUTHOR OF ^^ DARTMOOR." 



tears, the slender cross for faith to twine round ; the 

 neat marble monument, the painted wreaths thrown 

 upon them, to freshen memory and mark the hand of 

 friendship. 



The fresh plants and trees that wave over our (En- 

 glish) graves ; the cold marble that contains our ashes 5 

 the secluded scene that collects our wandering thoughts, 

 the innocent, natural flowers that spring up unconsci- 

 ous of our loss, objects like these, at once cherish and 

 soften our regrets, while the others are like galvanic at- 

 tempts to recall the fleeting life — they neither falter the 

 dead nor become the living ! " Now hear Carrington. 



"There 

 Rich sounds of Autumn ever shall be heard — 

 Mysterious, solemn music, waked by winds 

 To hymn the closing year ! And when the touch 

 Of sullen Winter blights the last, last gem 

 That bloomed around the tomb — O, there should be 

 The polished and enduring laurel — there 

 The green and glittering ivy, and all plants — 

 All hues and forms delicious that adorn 

 The brumal reign, and often waken hopes 

 Refreshing. Let eternal verdure clothe 

 The silent fields where rest the honoured dead, 

 While mute affliction comes, and lingers round 

 With slow, soft step, and pensive pause, and sigh 

 And tear all holy." p.p. 122, 123. 



This may be less philosophical than Hazlitt but we ven- 

 ture to affirm that it is more consonant with human 

 feelings. 



Having thus with candour considered the writings of 

 our own Devonshire poet, we may safely assert that 

 they are a valuable addition to British poesy, that thev 

 will not perish when other productions have decayed, 

 and that the author is worthy of immortality, because 

 he has chosen for his subjects forms of nature which 

 will be always dear to the reflecting and imaginative 

 mind — because he has raised our ideas on these sub- 

 jects — because he has written much which is capable 

 of producing moral good to many — and because he has 

 never published a line which is calculated to produce 

 a bad tendency in his reader or to lower his own cha- 

 racter as a Christian or a man. tentatus. 



