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draught of fame, offered at length a vain oblation upon his early grave. To such passages we can only refer as admirably illustrative of the peculiar glories and sorrows of Genius—of the dignified, yet dangerous lot of the Poet. Had we room for citation here, we would select pp. 15. 153. 162. of "The Golden Violet;" pp. 10. 12. of "The Troubadour;" pp. 55. 256. of "The Venetian Bracelet." Many passages from "The Improvvisatrice" and from "Miscellaneous Pieces," and the entire poems of "Erinna" and "The History of the Lyre."
Subjects intimately connected with Moral Philosophy have also a home in L. E. L.'s just portraitures of various characters and their appropriate conduct; in her delineations of social life; and especially in the eloquent and truthful sentiments which abound in her papers. Strange it is that an author, whose writings are replete with wisdom and with truth, illustrative of human nature, should ever be considered a frivolous, or at best a fanciful writer!* [1]
- ↑ * Not long since, in the course of conversation, happening to quote the lines of L. E. L., not less morally true than poetically beautiful,—
"Alas! we make
A ladder of our thoughts, where angels step,
But sleep ourselves at the foot;—our high resolves
Look down upon our slumbering acts,"—a friend who was present (a decided enemy, by the by, to what was termed "all such poetry as Miss Landon’s"), exclaimed, "Ah! that is something like poetry; none of your modern versifiers will ever equal the olden poets; I always do so admire Young." The most effective way of silencing such cavils would be to make a collection of quotations, arranged under different heads, from L. E. L.'s works; thus might be best proved how much of thought, of correct sentiment and true feeling, these works contain.
