238 THE JOURNEYMAN. 



Churchyard were quoted in magazine and newspaper 

 throughout the length and breadth of the United King- 

 dom, and the author was assured that they displayed 

 ' a refinement of thought, an elegance and propriety of 

 language, that would do honour to the most accomplished 

 poet of the day.' Had Miller not had the making of a 

 poet in him, the like of this would have led him at 

 once to exalt his horn as a prodigy of genius, too fine 

 to work at his craft, who had only to put his name to 

 a copy of verses to make them immortal, and whom 

 the human species were bound to supply with the 

 necessaries of life gratis. The plaudits profoundly 

 gratified Miller, but did not move him a hair's- 

 breadth from the rhadamanthine sternness of his judg- 

 ment on himself, or shake in his bosom c that serene and 

 unconquerable pride which no applause, no reprobation, 

 could blind to its shortcoming or beguile of its reward.' 

 The question may be gravely put, whether he did 

 not err in determining, as he did, to abandon poetical 

 composition and devote himself, for a time at least, to 

 prose. The pieces which he printed were no doubt 

 defective, and his best verse is inferior in poetical 

 qualities, not only to his best, but to his second or third 

 rate prose. The essential point to determine, however, 

 is whether there are grounds for believing that, if he 

 had brought the whole energies of his soul to the task 

 of perfecting his verse, if he had invincibly striven to 

 beat out those notes of music, delicate and strong, which 

 lay deep in his nature and were never clearly articulated, 

 he would or would not have realized a higher beauty, 

 and expressed a deeper truth, than he actually attained. 

 It was within the capacity of Miller to produce reflective 

 and descriptive poetry equal to any in the English 

 language. On the other hand, he fell short both in 



