822 
views? In fact that poem dropped 
almost still-born from the press, for 
want of exertion on the part of the 
publisher or the author: yet he who 
reads it will confess freely, that the 
author is really a poet. The entire of 
Ossian’s flight from this world to the 
next— 
Until they came to the last cold shore 
Which our aged sun is shining 0’er,— 
Is happily imagined, and described 
with great spirit and brilliancy. In 
my next letter I shall give some ex- 
tracts from Mr. B.’s poem; for the 
resent I have only to observe, that 
he work displays throughout a deli- 
eacy of sentiment and a wildness of 
imagination that stamps it as the pro- 
duction of a man of genius. 
Mr. Thomas Furlong, the author of 
“the Misanthrope,” is another young 
writer whose name, it is possible, is 
but: little known “beyond the Chan- 
nel.” Hisvolume of poems, I believe, 
has had no great sale here, although 
praised by the most of our newspapers 
and magazines; in short, nothing is 
read here but what comes from Lon- 
don, and he was simple enough to 
publish at home. TI have turned over 
his book in search of some short piece, 
that may give an idea of his style and 
manner; but I could find nothing de- 
tached except the following, entitled 
“A Character :”— 
The years wore fast aivay, and still she rose 
In stature and in beauty; the soft winds 
Of twenty changing springs had cross’d her cheek, 
And made its hue more lovely. In her shape 
Was all the lightness of the fairest ozier, 
And all its ease, and all its flexibility, 
Her eye when resting had # east of gentleness; 
But, when in mirth it mov’d, in its gay glance 
Centred a liveliness, thro? which the spirit 
Beam’d in bewildering brightness. 
In my nextT shall give some further 
extracts, with remarks on the writings 
of Mr. J. B. Clarke, author of the tra- 
gedy of *‘ Ramiro.” G. W. H. 
Trimty College, Dublin. 
ee 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF CONTEM- 
PORARY CRITICISM. 
NO. XXVI. 
Elinburgh Review, No. 73. June 1822. 
N the prosecution of the task which 
we have prescribed to ourselves, 
of sketching, for the information and 
amusement of our readers, an outline 
of the principal critical publications of 
the day, it must not unfrequently hap- 
pen to us to tread upon beaten ground; 
and, after pursuing the doublings of an 
unfortunate author through maga- 
zines and literary gazettes without 
The Philosophy of Contemporary Criticism, No. XXVI. [Nov. 1, 
number, to witness the final consumma- 
tion of his fate, whether received into 
the sheltering arms of the Edinburgh, 
or doomed to the fangs of ‘the rout 
who make the hideous roar” in the 
Quarterly. To these two great cham- 
pions we must necessarily confine our 
principal attention, and suffer the infe- 
rior war of monthly, weekly, and 
almost daily criticism, to rage-un- 
marked; but the result of this state of 
things is, that a publication in these 
days, submitted 1o so many and such 
different judges, and so frequently 
analyzed with various degrees of talent 
and judgment, is sure to be placed in 
every possible light, and to have a 
speedy and just estimate formed of its 
merits and imperfections. Given so 
many grave pages of Edinburgh praise, 
so many, from the Quarterly, of caustic 
ridicule; as many, from the Monthly 
Review, of very sober prose; and ten 
times the quantity of common-place 
and quotation from twenty other perio- 
dicals, to find the value of \a certain 
work; and, though we grant the pro- 
cess may be dull, the result would 
not be erroneous. 
As the first article in the present 
number of the Edinburgh Review, we 
are again introduced to the Memoirs of 
Horace Walpole, on which we had 
occasion to remark in our No, xxiv. 
p. 131. They are here considered in 
conjunction with Lord Waldegrave’s 
Memoirs; and from these, as well as 
other sources, printed and manuscript, 
the reviewer has compiled a succinct 
account of the spirit and fluctuations 
of parties since the accession of the 
house of Hanover. These details re- 
late, for the most part, to petty and 
contemptible struggles for place and 
power, in which the people, with the 
exception of their enthusiastic and 
triumphant support of Lord Chatham, 
had little concern. Such works as the 
Memoirs in question, in addition to the 
amusement afforded by their personal 
and historical anecdotes, have afurther 
precious use. We may here read. and 
be convinced in what manner, and 
with what motives, public affairs are 
administered by an oligarchy, who are 
identified neither in feelmg’ nor in 
interest with the body of the people ; 
and we see, at once, how necessary it 
becomes for the welfare of a nation to 
take, through the medium of honest 
and genuine representatives, the ma- 
nagement of its business intaits own 
hands. These volumes may truly be 
called, practical lessons of reform; 
and 
