.

ven? The embarrassments under which this subject lies, in ordinary Theology, are not, small; but, to describe the Omnipotent as thus occupied while alone, while unopposed, and before opposition wa's possible, is placing the notion in the most,offensive point of view.

Neither is it credible that the reader pointed place, as a'creation purposely should conceive of Chaos as an ap situated to answer the designs of him who thus stationed it. Chaos implies confusion, and the greater the confusion the more Chaotic: but, by Mr. T's. disposal of it, it becomes an arrangemeht, a regular ingredient in the whole mass; as necessary in its place as any

pensable necessary, if not rather a prins cipal, in the general scheme and plan. But that we may not do Mr. T. injustice, we subjoin a part of his Introduction, from which the reader will form his own judgment.

angels, and his devils, as beings, are not equally well pourtrayed; and in his most exalted personages, where essential spirit only could be contemplated, that falling short is evident, which language, poetry, imagination, every thing, must expect and cannot but experience, from the nature of the subject, and the finite powers of human capability. With conceptions, the wildest of the wild, Mr. Southey produced his Kehama. He delighted himself: he delighted his readers; but neither one, nor the other, could believe a stanza of his Poem. The mind glowed as the eye read; but the understanding knew itself to be dazzled, and refused assent, though it admitted, and admired the scene depicted.-other; not a dislocation, but an indis On occasion of Mr. Southey's Poem, we concluded, that he had studied Hindoo originals, not merely for the sake of novelty, but with design of emulating, and of surpassing them. His work was a series of shifting pictures, a kind of Eidophusikon, each of which bespoke the master. He transported us alterImagination, if guided by caution and nately from Heaven to Hell; led us in itself the order in which the Deity acted judgment, may endeavour to picture to mid air; carried us through fire, and in the creation of the World: the pattern through water; and associated our fan- of the Universe must have been ever precies as companion-travellers with his sent to his pervading Mind. own. Mr. Townsend has determined on posed the first act of the Omnipotence, I have sup taking a range, beyond comparison more of God to have been the Creation of Heaextensive than any poet had ventured to ven, the residence of the more peculiar assume as the basis of his Epic. His manifestation of his Glory. His Omnilunits-if limits they may be called, could be absolutely perfect, (perfection science perceived that no being but himself are-from eternity a parte ante, to eternity a parte post : from the endless, being an attribute of God only) and a place before Time began, to the endless after who should depart from their Allegiance= of punishment was next prepared for those Time shall be no more. He will find between these opposite Worlds of Happithis too much for his readers. If he, nes and Misery, Chaos was commanded to himself, can imagine these extremes roll, partly occupying that portion of inthey cannot. If he can witness the birth fiuity, in which the stars now move: for of this world,—of all worlds, they cannot. not even Chaos, though supposed to be If he can conceive, creation, absolute the origin of the material Universe, could creation, out of nothing, they cannot. ther attribute of God only) and if created, have been eternal, (Eternity being anoHis theme is not within the compass of it must have been created for the accommortal minds; and the difficulties it in-plishment of some purpose. cludes are insurmountable. The Philo- ation of leaven, Hell, and Chaos, the deAfter the cre sopher too, led to contemplate the opera- fection that had been forescen took place, tions of infinite Felicity, and Goodness, and the followers of evil were consigned will be shocked to find, that before he to the darkness prepared for them. In my gave birth to beings, the All-benevolent endeavour to answer the question, what prepared a place for their punishmenting the stars, I have adhered to the tra was the object of the Deity in thus creat whence should the idea of punishment dition of the Jews, and the inferences ap arise, when only perfection existed?parently deducible from Scripture: I hope Whence the necessity for this Hell foi- I am sanctioned by these Guides in sup lowing immediately the creation of Hea- posing, not only that the Earth, but the

U 2

whole number of the Suns around it, were created, and filed with, beings, to be received, after sufficient probation, into the presence of their Maker, in the room of the offending Angels; if they escape the allurements, and temptations to evil, to which all created Beings were equally exposed.

Arguing from the existence of natural evil, Mr. T. infers the existence of moral evil, but he restricts moral evil to this earth. A more accurate view of things would have led him to infer that other worlds bear too near a resemblance to our own, to be free from the possibilities implied in a state of probation. They have their clouds, their storms, their tempests, their severities of the seasons, as well we have. Their poles are oblique to the plane of their ecliptic, as well as those of the earth: and while Mr. T. introduces that as a part of our punishment, or as a proof of our subjection to evil, he raises in the philosophic mind, a question adverse to the theory, and therefore injurious to the theme, of his poem.

Neither does the philosophic mind, led by the poet to witness the beginning of the immensity in which creation rolls, and the stars exist, readily bring it self to the microscopic consideration of Britain, though the reader's own country. It is less than a speck among mountains. It is a diminutive constantly diminishing. The author indeed apologizes for "the frequent mention of our own great and good country;"-we accept his apology as a patriot, but it does not cover his faults, as a poet.

The writer who includes in one work the whole of existence, who describes the Millenium, the general Resurrection, the battle of Armageddon, the world where the mysteries of providence, the difficulties of philosophy, the secrets of nature, and the depths of science shall be all laidopen, may deserve commendation for his courage, may live in the delights of his own imagination; but the imagination of others will not follow him and he will find that mercy to himself, had also been mercy to his readers.

The deities of India are enrolled as the principals of opposition to the Di

vine, Will before time begant. This is idol powers, better known to us from less happy than Milton's reference to the Scriptures we esteem sacred. As to councils held by these chiefs, a land of solid fire, and other infernal properties, they cannot but remind us of their originals in Pandemonium.

the change of the living then on earth, The work opens with the end of time, and the general Resurrection. This last event is thus described.

Nów, from her chequered surface, softly

rose

A thickening mist, as Earth resigned her stores
Of all that once was human; from the dry
And barren wilderness, from mighty depths
Of either Polar sea, where never breath
of heaven had blowa upon a freighted bark,
The drifted and neglected atoms soared :
The lofty mounds that raised by savage hands
Concealed their slaughtered, dead; the moss-
grown cairns,

The sacred temples, the forgotten tombs,
Where in oblivion slept the deluged world,
With rocks, and vales, dissolved, and crumb-
Fing join

The gathering cloud of life: while, from the
As every aton songht its former mate,
ground,
Immortal and complete, a murmuring sound,
And all the good in radiant beauty rose,

Louder and louder swelling into toues
Of deepening thunder, broke: "We come!
We come !"

It seemed to say; and back from Pole to Pole
Echoed the sound, as from the dying mist

The wondering beings shone : the same they

stood

In substance, shape, and dignity : alike
In splendor and in glory : every form
As if of amber flame appeared, begirt
With shining robes of heaven: and on the
head

Of all the smiling millions, that possessed
The purer Faith, and died in peace with Him,
Whose blood alone can save, a beaming light
Celestial lustre shed, the Spirit's dread seal
In this great day, when all the heirs of bliss
First meet, to part no more! aud; with the Just,
Rose, as a spot upon the face of heaven,
The self-condemned; the living trembling saw
The Earth dissolve beneath their feet, o'er-
spread

With darkness, that dispersing, as the đew Before the morning sun, revealed the form's, Seen, heard by all, but, as the light, wufelt, The Heathen ask, what is to be their doow? The answer bids them confide in the mercy of God. But all the heathen ought not to be thus encouraged:-Conscience should have been assigned as the agonizing tormentor of the wicked among thein.

The blessed ascend to heaven;but heaven would be nothing without music; a song recounts the origin of all things, the fall of Lucifer, the substitution of man; sin enters the earth. The scene changes to hell, whence, after due consultation, the demons issue forth to destroy the creation of God, at least for a time. Ithream and Brahma travel among the stars till they reach the sun; but during the journey, their discourse turns on man and his nature. The argument of the seventh book is,

There gazing as they stood, before their sight
A glimmering vision floats; and pallid fear
'And silent horror seize their daring frames,
Recoiling from the 'dull, and loathsome shape
That unknown dread iúspired: shade of a
'shade,

Confused and indistinct, the phantom seemed,
Mantled in moving clouds; a hovering mist
Now on the deep it rested, now on high
It soared, and cast a nameless terror round.
As some proud bark that holds its gallant way
At midnight, strikes upon some barren rock
And checks with furling sail her wary course:
So o'er the shadow of the rolling Earth
The mystic gloom arrests them; the rich Sun
Poured the full splendour of his golden ray
Upon th' impassive darkness, that absorbed
The living glory of his perfect beams;
Nor was the light reflected, nor the vast
And black profound illumined: 'twas ̧

throne

Of Death; that hopeless of his future prey
Waited the fall of nature: now he sees
The rebel Lords, and, swifter than the wing

the

In solemn stillness waving his dark clouds,
Ambitious in his fierce despair to enclose
Th' immortal Chieftains in the net of fate;
They, spurning the dread King, remained an-
bart,

Though racked with fear of undiscovered ill,
Till Brahma, shrinking from the Phantom
spake.

Destruction of the Solar system. Brahma and Ithream, leaving the Sun,Of angels, rose above their bending heads, discover Death, hovering in the shadow of the deserted Earth-their conferencethey proceed to the Polar star-from whence Brahma hurls a Comet from its orbit, guiding it among the attraction of surrounding stars to the solar system-Saturn is drawn to the Comet-Venus falls into the Sun-Earth is moved from its axis, and deluged with fire-the Moon torn away-The Georgian Star remains unThe description in which the Poet touched the Comet, still directed by the Demons, is plunged from the solar system indulges himself of how the earth among the stars-in the mean time, the looked while ou fire, and how in ruins after two armies approach Armageddon the it was burnt, proves him to be a son of leaders of the angelic army-their march- earth, unable to shake off his natural they stop at the place where Man was judg- partiality for his mother.—The folthe army of Satan rises from the op-lowing books, including the ninth, to the posite quarter.

ed

The opening of this book is a favourable specimen of the poetic talents of

the author.

And now they leave the orient sun, and rise
Above the circling Planets; till the eye
Of Brahma marked the fiery comet move
Around the polar star, his arm should plunge
Among the clear Cerulean, to disturb
The solar way: high o'er the Earth they flew,
And saw the long black shadow throw its
night

Of empty darkness through the depths of air,
Veiling, sad last eclipse, the silver moon.

twelfth, are unpublished: they describe the battle of Armageddon, in which the angels are at first defeated, and Satan advances to the very gate of heaven →→ but, attempting to enter heaven he is repulsed: then is vanquished; and is adjudged by the Messiah to hell; Satan and sin linger at the gates of hell, but are forced in. Lastly, creation is destroyed, as having answered its purpose; and the consummation of all things is completed.

The very abstract of the prodigious extent of this poem sufficiently speaks its

nature. Never was worse policy than in publishing eight books, without the conclusion. Thut may be a chef d'œuvre, and we persuade ourselves it is so; but, we know not well, how the poet can diversify his remaining scenes from what has already been familiar to General View of the Political State of

esting. Into what hands the Govern- | from the line of demarkation which was

ment of France may fall, none can divine but, the consideration is not of importance to France only; all Europe is interested; and our own country not less than any other.

The Allies certainly did not foresee that they should enter Paris, and in what character, till the moment arrived for their entry. They therefore had laid down no fixed rules for their conduct on that occasion; and it might be that they were uncertain whether to consider Buonaparte as sovereign, or not, till they found Paris willing to receive another ruler. This writer affirms that the voices of the Parisians, Vive Louis XVIII! first determined the mind of the Emperor Alexander.

drawn between the two classes, and from the privileges attached to the noblesse, that the bourgeois had in general an aversion for the nobles They complained only of their privileges but these privileges, shocked them much less, than the contempt in which they imagined they were held by the Nobles, and wounded vanity, in France more than elsewhere, is seldom completely cured.

The noblesse or nobility in France, as in most of the continental states, formed a numerous order, of which each member transmitted his rights and privileges to all his descendants for ever. from the best authority, that at the beginI have been told ning of the revolution, there were about sixteen thousand noble families in France, of which about one thousand were styled of quality, and were the descendants of noble families which existed during the time of the crusades, and which were supposed (though often without any founda tion) to be coeval with the monarchy. Such an Order would increase in number without any new recruits, but in France, where families of distinction, for several reasons, are much less numerous thandu this country, and where younger children centuries gradually diminishing, notwithseldom married, it had been for several standing the numerous new creations of between families of quality and other no nobility. There was no legal distinction

But, to give somewhat of order to our extracts, we shall transcribe, for our readers' perusal, the character given by this writer of the Noblesse of France. We have no such body, or order, in our country, and very few Englishmen can form an idea of this description or rank of the community, as it really existed. It is certain, the jealousy, and one may even say, the aversion which before the revolution, the bourgeois, or non-nobles, felt for the nobles, on account of their privileges, still remained, and every legal dis-ble families, but it had been introduced at tinction founded on birth displeased the most honest of those, who could not parLake of it. The same vanity that is de lighted with distinctions of honours and titles, produces a love of equality in those who cannot obtain them; thus the vainest pation in the world is the same in which there is the greatest aversion for superiority of rank. The desire of pleasing, or which often supplied the place of it, the vanity of politeness, tempered in France, the effect of the vanity of rank, and making each man reflect that his neighbour might be as vain as himself, produced in private society a more seeming equality than in any other country in Europe. Every man received in good company was considered as the equal of all those who composed it, and no man from his rauk alone, would have pretended to any marked distinction, The French nobles formed a kind of repubJic, but those who were not members of that republic had no right of citizenship. A bourgeois, unless very rich or remarkable for his talents, was not received in the first company, and that appellation was often taken in a contemptuous sense. It resulted

the Duke of Duras, then first gentleman of court by Louis XV. at the suggestion of the bedchamber; and since that time, to be presented at court and ride in one of the court carriages, or to have one's wife presented, it was requisite to prove one's de scent from a family of quality. With a particular order, however, any gentleman these orders were not very common, and or lady might have been presented, but clared a plebeian origin, vanity had often instead of asking for a favour which des

* Legal proofs of a noble descent were necessary as far back as the year 1400, with some title affording a fair presump tion, that an ancestor of the family had been styled knight before that epoch, Of ficers in the army could go to court, but unless they made their proofs, they could not ride in the court carriages nor could their wives be presented. The members of the parliancuts, even those few among them who were of quality, were not received at court, nor could their wives b presented,,