651922 THE "CHANDOS CLASSICS.” THE POETS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. SELECTED AND EDITED BY THE REV. ROBERT ARIS WILLMOTT. ILLUSTRATED WITH ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY-FIVE ENGRAVINGS, DRAWN BY EMINENT ARTISTS, AND ENGRAVED BY THE BROTHERS DALZIEL. London: AND NEW YORK. PREFACE. VE ́ERY suggestive of musical and pleasant thoughts is the Picture-gallery which this Preface opens; and among them is the recollection of the manner in which these choice Wordpaintings have been contributed by the Authors, or their representatives; always with liberal promptness, and sometimes with expressions of personal good-will, to be gratefully treasured. Nor can I forget the generous enterprise of the Publishers, and the tasteful skill of the Brothers Dalziel, by whom the grace and the beauty of the pencil have been translated into the popular language of their own Art. The Volume begins with the century; the first Canto of the Minstrel appeared in 1771; Beattie survived Cowper only three years; while Percy, exchanging the friendship of Goldsmith for that of Scott, lived into the eleventh year of this century. The dates of these poets might seem to exclude them from our calendar; but, in truth, the fancy of the present age was largely inspired and moulded by the past; and the sentiment of the Minstrel," the naturalness of the "Task," and the simplicity of the 'Reliques," very strikingly reappear in Campbell, Wordsworth, and Scott. Nor has the embellished landscape of Darwin been without imitators. One member of the classic band will be less familiar to general readers: I allude to Professor Crowe, whose descriptive poem is written with fine taste and in choice numbers. The Traveller walking from Charmouth to Lyme, discovers Lewesdon Hill on the right hand, and forming one of the boundaries to a rich vale chequered by enclosures. 66 Our Poetry owes many beauties to womanly genius, and in the following pages some specimens of it will be found. The Songs of Mrs. Hemans are many of them beautiful. It was her |