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REVIEW.
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Art * I . —Arvnageddon : A Poemf in twelve Books . By the Rev . George Townsend , B . \ . of Trinity College , Cambridge , The first Eight Books . 4 to . \ l . 11 s . 6 d . THE poet has chosen to apply his powers of invention and
expression to a design of which , though it were executed with the most transcendant ability it never could be sr ^ id , materiem superat opus . The action of the poem commences with the last judgment , and terminates in the
consummation of all things . Under such a subject , as the author says modestly add truly , the greatest mental powers must inevitably sink . Milton ' s Paradise Lost was a less adventurous song , for though he pursued
Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyipej , " his fable was bounded compared with that of Armageddon , which is boundless as the universe . Of the literary merit of the work we shall say but little , less perhaps than it deserves . The . author does not shrink from his
own imaginations as if he feared they might be too vast for his art or too bold for his expression . On the contrary , his outline is always distinctly marked , and the colours are so far from being water-colours , that they are dipt not indeed in heaven , but in
just such a hell as he has described . It might be remarked , that the descriptions are often too diffuse , that speech and dialogue instead of carrying on the action sometimes supply the place of it , and that the images * re such as to overwhelm with terror
instead of delighting by thei r beauty , or elevating by their sublimity . But it would be trifling to apply the ordinary rules of literary criticism to a work of imagination which is so perfectly supra-human and extra-mundane that time and nature are said to have
Fulfilled their destiiTd course "' before the action of the poem com * peaces . Who would demand that •« Tower of Babel , which was to * s *
does not rise above the clouds ? Re * garding the poem , therefore , solely as a poetical fiction , it is not easy , and perhaps not just , to try it by the rules which critics have laid down for the construction of the Epos . Upon the whole , the execution is such as would
not , we think ; have disappointed the expectation of Mr , Cumberland , who gave the public some account of the projected work , had he lived to sea it in its present state of forwardness . But it is necessary to take another view of this extraordinary poem , and
such a view as dismisses all the toys of criticism from the mind , and leaves room only for deep and solemn feeljng * Let the author describe the object of it in his own terms . " My great object has been to represent the God of nature as the God of Christianity , to
unite his mysterious dispensations with regard to man with his government of the universe , to reconcile his justice and his love , to shew the reasonableness of Christianity and the necessity of obedience to the divine law . " Such are the objects of the
poem which , he says , " is not a sys * tem of divinity but the speculations of fancy within the regions of truth delighting itself with the elevating * contemplations connected with our future existence . " We shall now proceed to open before our readers a view
into those regions which bound the author ' s flight , and to enable them to participate those contemplations with which the poet ' s fancy is so much delighted . The song- of the Cherub Jediel after an invocation of G od , the Author of all being , relates the fall of
I ^ ucifer and his angels ; the remedy provided in heaven against , the effects of disobedience , should sin again pollute the works of God ; the decree to create worlds , this provision having been made ; and amongst these worlds tlie earth ,
u A shining atom in the wide expanse . " 46 Thro' eternity uV abyss Would still between the heavens and hell have rolled , The radiant train of stars had never been . Nor fallen man , nor sinless million * fiHM ' Their shining : spheres 5 but « ow th * 11 ^ perfect Son ,
•* Still pleased to praise , yet not afraid toblame . " - —Popk .
REVIEW .
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