Christianity, in the world. But it is one in which the eye of our bishops and church-rulers is most likely to be dimmed by the frosts of age, and their natural force abated by the instincts of priestly power, or the habits of official reserve and prudence. There would need a triple sacrifice of their taste, their dignity, their prejudices, and in many cases, perhaps, even a change of their conscientious convictions, before they would take any step in a direction which they might conceive to be full of dangers. Destructives, in times like these, are cheap as blackberries: even prudent conservatives are usually to be met with in abundance. But wise and temperate, yet earnest and zealous Reformers, are a rare and precious gift of God. The limbs of the Church of England do greatly need healing of the stiffness caused by the tight ligature of her canons and acts of uniformity— Papal, or at best, Judaical, rather than Christian in their tone. Some public sign ought to be given, that men like Robert Hall, Carey, and Marshman, Morrison, Howard, and Williams, are not still counted nothing more than wilful schismatics-excommunicated until they repent of their wicked errors; while a host of profligates live and die unchallenged and unrebuked, as good members of the Church of England. It is strange, it is unnatural, it is sinful, after the Bible and Tract Societies have worked in harmony for fifty years, and three or four Dissenting societies share largely with our Church the perils and the rewards of missionary enterprize; and while the divisions of Christians are the grand argument of infidels that the Gospel has lost its power-that members of our Church should dwell side by side with nearly an equal number of worshippers, as devout and moral, to all appearance, as themselves, and no effort be made to bridge over the gulf of separation, and to provide for occasional fellowship of mind and heart, until fuller union can be regained. The death of perhaps ten thousand soldiers, brave and loyal, was the price, last winter, of the want of a few miles of good road between the British camp and its naval supplies. Is there no resemblance to that sorrowful history in this narrow ecclesiastical quagmire, which separates, not widely but impassably, one half of British Christians from the rest, in all the main helps of sympathy, united acts of prayer and praise, and seasons of personal converse on the hopes and duties of Christians? Our bishops and rulers, with the help, if necessary, of our Christian statesmen, are the proper persons to make this road. True; but even with the best will to the work, they have much upon their hands; and it may also be doubted whether the pride of official rank is friendly to the drudgery of road-making; and whether they have the spiritual foresight to see how vital it is to the success of the great moral campaign. It was said once, by a native wit, that the Church of England would die of dignity. There is some danger, in these days, lest it should expire under a plethory of cautions. In the history of churches, as in private life, honesty is the best policy, and convictions are almost worthless if they are stifled in the heart, through the fear of possible inconvenience in their expression. If we believe that Presbyterians and Dissenters the earnest, and pious, and orthodox among them--are our brethren in Christ, members of one and the same mystical body, and fellowheirs of heaven; then, whether we are archbishops, bishops, presbyters, or laymen, we ought to avow our conviction, and let no fear of canons or acts of uniformity, no censure or sarcasm from admirers of a Laudian policy, stand in the way. We are bound even to do more than simply avow our conviction: in some way or other we are bound to act upon it, and to show our sense of brotherhood in a manner which needs no Edipus to expound it; but in a frank, open, direct recognition, which the Church and the world can understand. If our archbishops and bishops take part in the work in good earnest, we are bound to honour their office, and gladly to yield to their "godly judgment," with reference to the particular means by which the object may be attained: but should they, unhappily, neglect their duty, our own, as members of the Church of England, and still more, of the Church of Christ, whether clergymen or laymen, remains unaltered. The road is wanted and must be made. A railway might be better, if engineers and materials are at hand; but if the engineers are not in readiness, an imperfect road is better than none, better even than a long delay. It would be a joyful day for the highest interests of the Church of England, as a chosen handmaiden of Christ, when the need for an Evangelical Alliance should cease, by a cautious and wise relaxation of her restrictive terms of ministerial communion, so as to recover numbers who have seceded back to her bosom; and by opening wider the arms of charity, and own as brethren in Christ many faithful men, whose consciences might still forbid their return. But should this be too much to hope for, and the official guides of the Church be still too busied with questions of stocks and pipe-clay, of candles lighted or unlighted on stone or wooden altars, to see the need that something be done to abate an intolerable evil, and pelt those with untimely cautions who do something earnestly, however feebly, to supply their want of true foresight-we may then be content to thank God, imperfect as its friends would own it to be, for the Evangelical Alliance. Till that happier hour shall arrive, we would earnestly invite all faithful members of our Church, whether clergy or laity, who prize the truth of God and the love of his brethren, to take part in its noble work, of endeavouring to heal the breaches of Zion, and thus to prepare the way for new moral triumphs of a reunited Church over the corruptions of Christendom, and the moral desolations of the heathen world. ART. IV.-1. Poems. By ALEXANDER SMITH. 2. Balder. Roman." Second Edition. and Co. 1854. 1854. Third By the Author of "The 3. The Ballad of Babe Christabel with other Lyrical Poems. By GERALD MASSEY. Fifth Edition. London: Bogue. 1855. 4. Night and the Soul; a Dramatic Poem. By J. STANYAN BIGG. London: Groombridge. 1854. WE class these books together, not only because there is a palpable bond of union among them, but because they have frequently been thus classified, both for praise and blame. Now that the hubbub of gratulation on the one hand, and of depreciation on the other, has subsided, we may be permitted, perhaps, to take a calm survey of those who were the occasion of both. Now that the combatants on both sides have withdrawn, we may be allowed to offer a few remarks on the merits of the question about which they contended. In selecting these volumes for special remark and comment under the title of the present article, we do not wish to insinuate that they are the only recent works which have any claim to such consideration. In regarding the young poets whose names stand in connexion with the title-pages of the volumes which we have chosen for review, as poets of the present era, we do not wish it to be understood that our period has given birth to no other young poets. It is far from our purpose to be, or to appear to be, so exclusive. VARIETY OF OPINION. 329 But while Matthew Arnold has slided quietly into literary drawing-rooms, and William Allingham has had a patient and approving auditory for his "Day and Night Songs,' and Owen Meredith bids fair to take his place by many an intelligent fire-side circle, without noise, and without commotion, it has fallen to the lot of our authors to meet with a very different reception. Everything in connexion with their appearance has been noisy. The plaudits and the hisses which awaited their entrance on the public stage, were very noisy plaudits and very noisy hisses. Critical lungs were distended to the utmost in shouts of approval and cries of disapprobation. Dismal, indeed, were the groans of the dissentients;-clear, and clarion-like, and triumphant the voice of the encomiasts. By some, they were regarded as the peculiar products of our own era, destined to be its representatives to all future generations. By others, they were treated as literary innovators, having very serious, and very sinister designs on the republic of letters. One critic gravely assured his readers that they were banded together for no less an object than that of corrupting the whole English language, and substituting in its stead a gibberish of their own,-somewhat after the fashion of Joe Smith's famous attempt at the Unknown Tongues. Another critic as gravely assured his readers, that England had been wanting in poets until now. They have generally been praised together, and blamed together; and have had more of both bestowed upon them than any other of their poetical contemporaries. In a word, we believe we are not exceeding the strict limits of truth, when we state that they have created more excitement among critical coteries, and have attracted more public attention, than all the other poetical aspirants of the last few years put together. It is our present purpose to see in what respects they may be regarded as worthy of the attention which they have received. It may be thought, perhaps, that we have already said enough to justify us in speaking of these works collectively. But we wish to guard against the assumption, that they possess so much in common, that what may be affirmed of the whole, as such, may be affirmed of each; or that what may be said of one may, with equal truth and justice, be said of another. On the contrary, the tie which connects the volumes together is rather accidental than essential. It is true that they have many points of resemblance; it is no less true that they have far more points of difference. There is a certain family likeness to be traced among them, undoubtedly; but each separate member of the family has a distinctive character of his own, for which alone he is responsible, and by which alone he ought to be tested. It may suit the purposes of indiscriminate or interested criticism,-as well for the object of undue praise, as for that of unmerited censure,-to class three or four writers together under one denomination, and proceed at once to pronounce a wholesale verdict upon one from the assumed character of the whole, or upon the whole from the characteristics-real or imputed-of one. A disaffected critic may thus summon around the central figure, on whom he wishes to cast ridicule, all the faults and absurdities, genuine or imaginary, of the "School" to which he is supposed to belong, and may thus make his merits bear a similar proportion to his demerits, which Falstaff's infinitessimal quantum of bread bore to his preposterous allowance of sack; or a critic of an opposite temper may, by the same plan, and with equal partiality, give some single favourite writer credit for beauties which are only to be found in the volumes of several, and may thus have the effect of hiding his defects in a heap of laurels, to scarcely one of which he is properly entitled. In either case an act of injustice is committed. In the latter, towards the public, who in this manner may be led to look for excellencies which they will not find; in the former, towards the author, who is thus charged with offences which he has not committed, and for which he is therefore not responsible. We are painting no imaginary picture. In describing what" may be," we are only depicting what has been, again and again. This species of injustice has been repeatedly perpetrated towards the authors in question, and towards many other authors who have been spoken of collectively, in the form of schools and coteries. Its folly, as well as its injustice, ought however, by this time, to be fully apparent. As hate is generally even more indiscriminate than love, this kind of criticism has far more frequently been brought into play for purposes of undue detraction than for those of unwarranted and unmeasured laudation. Every one will remember the absurdities and inconsistencies spoken and written about the "Lake School," and the "Cockney School," of a former period. And every one, capable of reflection, will deprecate the revival of a similar spirit in the criticism of our own day. It is as senseless as it is unfair. It is charging Wordsworth with the want of profundity be |