210 
NEWS FROM PARNASSUS. 
Sid darted Pier. Pe 
Tv. is long since we have had a paper 
of this denomination—partly from 
therareness of productions ofhigh poetic 
mérit, or attraction; and partly because 
the encreased attention regularly paid 
to the critical department has super- 
seded, in some degree, the necessity 
of detached articles upon the subject. 
But there have recently two poems 
issued. from the press, one of which, 
from its sterling merit,—and the other, 
though partly from a species of merit 
also, still more from temporary éclat, 
demand a more extended notice, than 
we can have space for in the pages 
expressly assigned to our. Literary 
Review: we allude, of course, to Sou- 
they’s “Tale of Paraguay,” and Miss 
Landon’s “Troubadour.” We shall give, 
(waving our gallantry to the claims of 
justice,) precedency to Mr. Southey ; 
both because L.E.L. hath already had 
her trumpeter, sounding, we think, her 
praises more loudly than discreetly ; and 
because we think that from the perverted 
propensity there is, in what should be 
criticism, to mingle political considera- 
tions with questions of literature—the 
other poem is not likely to have quite 
as candid a reception. We eagerly 
embrace the opportunity of shewing, 
that party considerations have no weight 
with us; and that we can hold the lite- 
rary balance with a steady hand, for 
Tory as well as for Radical. 
A Tale of Paraguay. By Roxsert 
Sournry, Esq. 11.p., Poet Laureate, 
Menber, &c. §c. §c., 12mo.—We do 
not think Mr. Southey very happy in 
the selection of his subject—which is 
simply this ;—One of the native Ameri- 
can tribes, 
“A feeble nation of Guarani race,” 
had been extinguished, all but one man 
and woman (to whom the poet has 
given the names of Quiara and Mobn-: 
nema), by the small-pox. These forlorn 
survivors journey into the woods, to find 
a convenient place to suspend their ham- 
mock and fix their lonely habitation. A 
son, whom they name Yeruti, is born to 
them in their solitude. Five years after- 
wards, Quiara while hunting is killed by 
a juguar; and the afflicted Monnema, 
shortly after, brings another child into the 
world—a posthumous daughter, Mooma. 
Fhe bounty of nature, however, and 
the simplicity of theirwants, enabled the 
widowed mother and her orphans to sub- 
News from Parnassus. 
[Oct. I, 
sist in this state of isolation, till the 
* youthhed” of the son had matured to 
manhood, and that of the daughter was 
approaching womanhood :— y temas 
“ The boy in sun and shower 
Rejoicing in his strength to youthhed grew ; 
And Mooma, that beloved girl, a dower . 
Of gentleness from bounteous nature drew, 
With all that should the heart of woman- 
hood endue.” 
Herethey are at length discovered, and 
are visited by the celebrated missionary 
Dobrizhoffer—the founder ef the Jesuit 
Theocracy, or Pantisocracy of Paraguay, 
who conducts them to the capital of 
his colony, and converts these wild in- 
habitants of the woods, from. mere wor- 
shippers of nature, into good passively 
obedient Christian machines. This the 
poet seems to think, but does not very 
clearly shew, was doing them a vast 
kindness, and conferring upon them an 
inestimable benefit: though supersti- 
tious forms and visionary credulity 
seem to have been all the. religion they 
were converted to; and in a very short 
time all three of them died—the mother 
and daughter of a sick heart, resulting 
from so sudden and excessive a transi- 
tion in their mode of life ; and the son 
of that peculiar melancholy species of 
brain fever or mental derangement,— 
visionary superstition. If Mr. Southey 
can produce no better instances of the 
blessings of Jesuit missionaryship, he 
will not, we should think, very:much 
adyance the semi-papistry of his axtodox 
(for webelieve even High Church will not 
permit us to call it his orthodor) creed. 
Yet, such is obviously the moral object 
of his poem, 
But little as we can commend either 
the selection of the subject or the pur- 
posed tendency of the “ Tale of Para- 
guay,” it gives us real pleasure to speak 
in terms more commendatory ‘of the 
poetical execution of his task, When 
Robert Southey can be himself—his 
poetical self—we can forget the Lau- 
reate, andexcuse the theologian; and 
in the merits of the man of genius, can 
overlook the apostacy of the. politician. 
And that Southey is a man of genius, 
let spleen and resentment say what they 
will to the contrary, candour cannot 
deny. That he is a poet—notwith- 
standing the nonsense he has: lately 
scattered in palinodes and hexameters 
—is equally incontestable ; and that he 
has an ear, when affectation does not 
plug it up, for the harmony of sweetly 
attuned verse (notwithstanding the gross 
misapprehension of the genuine consti- 
tuents 
