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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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The trackless wild of waters ! For , be sure , The land thou seekest , did it not before Exist , from out the silent deep would rise , Such dariug to reward ! With Genius , Nature A sacred league hath struct ; and whatsoe ' er Genius hath promised , Nature must confirm !"—P . 50 .
The Iris , edited by the Rev . Thomas Dale , the Professor of English Literature in the London University , bears avowedly a more religious character than any of these works which we have yet noticed . Its theology is moderate Churchof-Englandism , and the peculiarities of that faith are very apparent , as it is natural to expect they should be ; but they are not made offensively prominent , and the general spirit of the work is liberal and devotional . It contains eleven
engraviugs , from old masters , on sacred subjects . They are chiefly from the life of Christ , arranged as a series , and accompanied with illustrative verses from the pen of the Editor . Mr . Dale ' s composition is polished , harmonious , and graceful ; more free from faults than rich in beauties . The overcontributions are very much of a similar description .
This publication possesses a great charm in its unity of design and tendency . In this particular , with one exception to be hereafter noticed , ( the Landscape Annual , ) it stands alone . Beyond the very general purpose of sweeping together whatever of verse , prose , and picture , may be amusing and saleable , the rest seem perfectly objectless . The consequence is a prevailing sameness which is very tiresome , and makes them
scarcely distinguishable in the memory ; together with not unfrequent discordancies as to style , taste , and moral tone , brought closely together in the same work , which are very annoying . They would all be the better for having something peculiar to aim at , it would scarcely matter what , which should give them more unity and harmony . While all classes of readers might still be amused , some one class should be interested . In
the different schools of poetry and painting , in the various regions of the great world of literature , such objects might easily be found . So long as purchasers were secure of having beautiful engravings , talented compositions , and that not very limited variety which would still be admissible and be required , there need be no apprehension of limiting the sale ,
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and the great advantage would be gained of a much higher degree of literary worth and permanent interest . The Bijou is little to our taste . The second title should be amended , or rather should be ' * worsened , ' * to make it correspond with the work ; for we can scarcely call it an " Animal of Literature
and the Arts , " while its compositions are so jejune and paltry as those of the present volume , and its illustrations almost exclusively copies of portraits . They are the best of their class ; three are from paintings by Sir Thomas Lawrence , and there is , besides , a Bag-piper , from Wiikie , which we take to be a
portrait , for no man of taste would make such a face for his own amusement ; still , this is a very inferior department of the art . It can only recommend the Bijou to the drawing-rooms of a vain and unlettered portion of the aristocracy . The poem on * ' The King" seems scarcely good enough even for that
meridian . It reads so very like the first of the Rejected Addresses , that , but that we cannot perceive what joke there would be in such a hoax , we should imagine their facetious authors had imposed upon the loyal simplicity of the Etritor . For instance ; Regent Street and the Quadrant are thus poetized :
" Shall London swell the verse ? By his command Where hovels stood palacious dwellings stand . The chartered air may now the town explore , And light console the thresholds of the poor /" Well may the modest author apologize ; and say ,
He who pretends to celebrate The King , Should paint like Lawrence , or like Southey sing . " It won ' t do ; no , uot as a trial Ode for the Laureatship . The Amulet this year is very , very rich . Amid a host of good and beautiful things it has two of first-rate excellence ; The
Crucifixion , by Le Keux , from Martin , and a Ballad , entitled the Old Man ' s Story , by Mary Howitt . We shall not attempt either to describe the one , or criticize the other ; but of the latter we must say , that it has raised the name of Mary Howitt prodigiously in our estimation " ; that although It strongly reminds us , in several passages , of Coleridge ' s Ancient Mariner , the remiutacQnce does
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Monthly Report of General Literature . 873
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1829, page 873, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2579/page/57/
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