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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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ON THE CONNEXION BETWEEN POETRY AND RELIGION . — Art , $ .
Untitled Article
DIDACTIC AND DEVOTIONAL SPIRIT OF THE MODERN POETS . JAMES HOGG . That we are not one of those who furnish the periodical market with Articles on the Modern Poets , No . 1 , Scott ; No . 2 , Byron ;' &C- &c , will , we think , be apparent from the most cacopho * nous name which we have placed at the head of this paper . We
never designed to arrange the subjects of our remarks in the order of merit , or , in fact , in any order whatever . Even the collective opinion of the age is but a fallacious anticipation of the future award me nts of posterity , which will re-judge its justice , ' and * in many cases , reverse its decrees . Much less can an individual —even under the privilege of the regal and critical we—presume
to settle the order of contemporary merit and fame . We give up the proud attempt , and leave it entirely to chance or inclination to determine the order of succession—without much apprehension of renewing the Wars of the Roses . For obvious reasons , it will indeed be probable that the greatest names will be among the last we shall mention . Excursions to inferior eminences will
give us vigour and courage to approach those poetical jung ~ frausy which lift their heads apart and alone , with their shining weight of imperishable fame . To these we shall come—but not until we are better prepared to do them justice . We will take the throstle ' s nest from the thicket , and the ring-dove ' s from the larch , before we attempt to scale the eagle ' s in the cedar .
The literature of Scotland is rich in the works of men who have risen to distinction by the mere force of their talents . Of this number is Mr . Hogg , —more poetically known by the romantic and appropriate alias of * the Kttrick Shepherd . ' Many stars have shot higher towards the zenith , but few have risen from so low an horizon . He was a peasant , and , we believe , a
peasant of the lowest grade . But a Scottish peasant has advantages which do not always fall to the . lot of the peasantry of the sister kingdoms . Every poor man ' s son is there made early acquainted with the writings of the bible ; and , though they be darkened and defaced by the running comments of Calvinism , yet the impression of religious principle upon the mind is deep and solemn , influential and lasting . Upon this , however , we may
have more to say on another occasion . The young peasant , of whom we are to speak , shared in this respect the common advantages of his country . Devotion , however , ( though he was by no means devoid of it , ) does not appear to have been the leading energy of his mind ; its influence was divided with two powerful r ivals- —tradition and superstition . If he listened with reverence to the glowing imagery and sublime descriptions of the Old Testament , his heart beat high at a legend of marauding chivalry , and
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1832, page 618, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1820/page/42/
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