Harper's New Monthly Magazine, No. V, October, 1850, Volume I

Harper's New Monthly Magazine, No. V, October, 1850, Volume I.

In a late article on Southey, we alluded to the solitary position of Wordsworth in that lake country where he once shone the brightest star in a large galaxy. Since then, the star of Jove, so beautiful and large, has gone out in darknessthe greatest laureate of England has expiredthe intensest, most unique, and most pure-minded of our poets, with the single exceptions of Milton and Cowper, is departed. And it were lesemajesty against his mighty shade not to pay it our tribute while yet his memory, and the grass of his grave, are green. It is singular, that only a few months have elapsed since the great antagonist of his literary fameLord Jeffrey (who, we understand, persisted to the last in his ungenerous and unjust estimate), left the bench of human, to appear at the bar of Divine justice. Seldom has the death of a celebrated man produced a more powerful impression in his own city and circle, and a less powerful impression on the wide horizon of the world. In truth, he had outlived himself. It had been very different had he passed away thirty years ago, when the Edinburgh Review was in the plenitude of its influence. As it was, he disappeared like a star at midnight, whose descent is almost unnoticed while the whole heavens are white with glory, not like a sun going down, that night may come over the earth. One of the acutest, most accomplished, most warm-hearted, and generous of men, Jeffrey wanted that stamp of universality, [pg 578] that highest order of genius, that depth of insight, and that simple directness of purpose, not to speak of that moral and religious consecration, which give the world assurance of a man. He was the idol of Edinburgh, and the pride of Scotland, because he condensed in himself those qualities which the modern Athens has long been accustomed to covet and admiretaste and talent rather than geniussubtlety of appreciation rather than power of originationthe logical understanding rather than the inventive insightand because his name had sounded out to the ends of the earth. But nature and man, not Edinburgh Castle, or the Grampian Hills merely, might be summoned to mourn in Wordsworth's departure the loss of one of their truest high-priests, who had gazed into some of the deepest secrets of the one, and echoed some of the loftiest aspirations of the other. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 33452
Release Date: Aug 17, 2010
Format: eBook
Language: English