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This poem is essentially tragic in its aim and construction, the progress 

 of the story being shewn, and the characters of the personages being 

 developed by what they themselves say or do, not by what the author 

 uan'ates of them. Hence, the first object of enquiry will naturally be, 

 whether the characters of the poem are such as might probably be 

 found in the age chosen by the poet; and next, whether they are 

 animated by the broad principles of our common humanity, modified 

 and diversified by the special peculiarities of their vai'ious mental 

 idiosyncrasies. We consider that these questions will best be answered 

 by an analysis of the piece. 



The hero, who finds himself at twenty-five, 



" Sick, sick to the heart of life," 

 occasioned by the family misfortunes that had overwhelmed him, and 

 over which he had continued to brood whilst 



" Living alone in an empty house," 

 is evidently a being gifted, or cursed, as opinion may incline, with a 

 . more than ordinary sensibility of temperament, which leads him to take 

 delight in dissecting the misery which afflicts him. From private 

 gi'ief to public wrong the transition is easy ; those who groan under 

 personal sorrow, occasioned by wrongs inflicted by their fellow-men, 

 often look beyond their individual woes to the general law which seems 

 to prevail in such cases. The hero is one of these ; and the lamenta- 

 tions in which he indulges throughout the poem are as often directed 

 against the social wrong wliich pervades the world, as agaiust the 

 individual wrong which afflicts himself. That such characters do 

 exist at the present day, of deep, sensitive, even morbid natures, there 

 cannot be a doubt, and we consider that the poet scarcely requires a 

 justification for having chosen such a one for his hero; but we are 

 bound to consider with deeper thought the subjects that he chooses for 

 his invectives. 



We have stated enough to shew that the mind of the hero is in no 

 healthy state, but is in that morbid, hysterical condition which is nearly 

 allied to madness. We state this clearly in the outset, for a charge has 

 been promulgated against the poem that it is morbid, whilst we hope to 

 shew that the poem is as free from such a charge as "Hamlet" itself. 

 This point, however, we must leave tiU we reach the denouement. 



To a mind gifted with a deep sympathy for the wrongs of suffering 

 humanity, the evils that exist around us at the present day must bo 

 particularly grievous. Poets in all ages have been among the first to 

 see and denounce the evil tendencies of their time, and have too 

 generally met wnth that neglect or scorn which bore witness to the 



