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and the many

mingled goodness of his heart, his melting charity, his exalted principles, his enlarged moral notions, sublime virtues of his mixed and unhappy life. But this is not all: according to the sentiments I have expressed, I necessarily go even further To me it appears that some of his most offensive eccentricities were strongly connected with his most prominent excellencies.

To the constant abstraction of his mind, to the perpetual occupation of thinking, we must surely attribute much of the neglect of his person, much of his inattention to polished manners, and the etiquette of the world, and much of his irregular mode of life. But to this also is certainly attributable the clearness and arrangement of his ideas, the readiness of his thoughts upon every subject that was presented to him, and the perspicuity and happiness of his style.

Let us héar no more reflections then on the "morbid❞ sensibility of the votaries of fancy. He, whose feelings are not acute, sometimes even to disease, can never touch the true chords of the lyre. To be in constant terror of exceeding the cold bounds of propriety, to be perpetually on the watch against any transient extravagance of mind, is not to be a poet. It is true that eccentricity alone does not constitute genius; and he who is known only by its foibles, unaccompanied by its advantages, de

serves little mercy. meet with it, if he recollects that in the censorious eye of the world, even the happiest attainments of mental excellence, will make but little amends for the smallest deviations from prudence of conduct.

And little can he expect to

That chilling philosophy, which demands the reconcilement of qualities nearly incompatible, has always appeared to me far from true wisdom. We may lament, but we should attempt to soothe and treat leniently, the little ebullitions of that fire, which at other times is exerted to enlighten and charm us. We should pity rather than despise the occasional lamentations from the pain of the thorn, which is too often at the breast of those who delight us by their songs.

In thus venturing opinions so uncongenial with those of the great as well as little vulgar, I am aware of the extent to which I expose myself. The selfish worldling, the interested parent, the struggler in the paths of ordinary ambition, the stupid, the sterile-hearted, and the sensual, all will exclaim, "If such be the effects of poetry, heaven defend me and all my connections, from being poets!"' Poor wretches! They need not fear: poets, they may rest assured, are not made out of such materials!

Jan. 21, 1905.

N° CI.

On the Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson.

THIS is a book of singular interest, and indeed importance, of which, though lately published, yet Laving been written so many years past, the notice at this time will not be out of place.

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Surely,"

observes the Editor, we risk little in saying that the history of a period the most remarkable in the British annals, written one hundred and fifty years ago by a lady, of elevated birth, of a most comprehensive and highly cultivated mind, herself a witness of many of the scenes she describes, and active in several of them, is a literary curiosity of no mean sort."

It is indeed the most impressive of all the books on that side of the question, which I recollect to have read. The character of a man of inflexible virtue, actuated solely by the purest principles of patriotism, opposing tyranny without a taint of the hatred of greatness; seeking the post of difficulty and danger without a wish for the vanity of rank and honours; a zealous and energetic supporter of his cause; yet frank and discriminative; and free

from the virulence, and rant, and prejudices of party, when party raged in its utmost fury, commands such respect and admiration, that we listen to his sentiments and pursue his actions, with feelings of involuntary inclination towards them!

Under the influence of opinions founded on the experience of a series of various and complicated events which have since occurred, I have hitherto thought that, had I lived in those times, I should have been a fixed and undoubting Royalist. But perhaps the principles of Col. Hutchinson, as enforced by the arguments and eloquence of his heroic, virtuous, and highly- accomplished wife, might then have made me hesitate. No rational man can question that the `principles and conduct of the Monarch and his Ministry, did actually not only threaten, but intrench upon, the just liberties of the people. Some resistance became necessary: circumstances, in which both parties were perhaps to blame, at length caused the scabbard to be thrown away; and from that moment the purest and wisest patriots might think, and perhaps think rightly, that there was no medium between victory and despotism.

It cannot be denied, that they, who taxed Charles I. with insincerity, had strong appearances on their side. Perhaps it resulted from some of the many amiable traits in his character; from that

ductility, and diffidence of his own opinions and resolves, which made him a dupe to artful, yet less wise, advisers; but whether the origin was amiable or unamiable, the effect was equally to be dreaded. A monarch, against whom his subjects have been once driven to resistance, must go out of the contest with too much, or too little power! Had I therefore engaged in that cause, for which Col. Hutchinson's view of it was at least an honest and a generous justification, I think I should have departed from it, as he seems to have done, a stern Republican.

If it be pleaded that there were many artifices used to inflame the people, and many leaders engaged, whose views were apparently private and selfish; and that these things, which could not escape the notice of a man of sagacity and virtue, should in his eyes have damned their cause, it may surely be answered, that in the imperfect condition of human affairs, we are not to refuse to seek a paramount good, because, in its progress, there may be mingled with it some evil instruments, whose motives or actions are impure! For the same reason a strict Loyalist might have deserted the defence of the Crown, because he must have observed that there were many on the same side, who were actuated by ambition, or love of power, or desire to retain emoluments extorted from the op

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