Omnipresence principally takes up the sublime; its purport is to display the pleasures of contemplative elevation of mind; the feelings of thrilling fear at Almightiness constantly present, with their purifying: and ennobling effects. The subject ascends to the highest regions of imagination: it is a loftier walk of poetry than that of either Rogers or Campbell; and requires a more sinewy and constantly unwearied wing. If all the demands which such a subject exacts from the poet be satisfactorily met,-if the poem be complete, and worthy of the subject in sentiment and diction, the task which he has achieved must be pronounced greater than that of either of those bards. And this notwithstanding slight faults; which, in. reality, are as imputable to them as to him. It cannot be disputed, that, taking the Omnipresence singly, he is inferior to Rogers, in placid sweetness, in steady outline, and philosophical grouping; and often inferior to Campbell in chastened polish, in mellifluous logic, and some of the fascinating graces of minor ornament and detail. He is superior to them, however, in grand simplicity of design and massy sublimity of effect. Campbell has few instances of unmixed. sublimity; Rogers, I think, none-a placid correctness, and agreeable beauty of thought and style, pervade the whole of his poem. The Omnipresence, under this point of view, may be likened to the solemn sternness of a gigantic Egyptian temple—as compared with the elegant ornament and polished gracefulness of a Grecian fane. But I know of no four consecutive lines in this work, that can excel the melting sweetness, and accurate illustration of this short passage in Rogers-notwithstanding the triple alliteration in the last line, which I fear the critics would have pronounced fatal in Montgomery. Lighter than air, Hope's summer visions fly, Lo! Fancy's fairy frostwork melts away. The six gossamer lines, however, which follow, beginning, 'But can the wiles of art,' and close the book, disappoint both the ear and mind by their unsubstantial dilation. Nor does Montgomery rival the flowery luxuriancy, the dreamy but pure voluptuousness, and soothing pathos, of the following passage in Campbell's Pleasures of Hope: Auspicious HOPE! in thy sweet garden grow And sweep the furrow'd lines of anxious thought away. While instituting a comparison, I quote passages with which few readers are unfamiliar, in order fairly to recall, in this first stage of the inquiry, the peculiar beauties of sentiment and diction which characterize the brother bards. Correct metaphor and tender associations form the mental charm of the preceding mellifluous passages in Rogers and Campbell; vivid portraiture, united with delicious cadence, of the succeeding passages from Montgomery : See! not a cloud careers yon pensile sweep— Thrice has the sun upon his green-wav'd bed, Again Sublimely sad! to linger in some aisle, Where, through the blazon'd panes, the vesper smile With pallid radiance quivers in the gloom, In the subjoined landscape, the image of the 'rainbow dropping on the distant hill,' is conceived in the purest spirit of poetry :— First comes the Sun, unveiling half his face; Next breezes murmur with harmonious charm, Nor are the energetic phrases, in the following scene of horror, less impressed with the true mint-mark of genuine poetry No more the tocsin for the carnage tolls, No death-piled tumbril from the slaughter rolls; The next passage will remind the reader of Campbell's defects, though it is still distinguished by Montgomery's forcible peculiarity of diction; for example, the pictural idiom, unrolls the thunder.' The suc 6 ceeding line, unfurls the whirlwind, and upheaves the world,' is, however, an inflated imitation of Campbell's great fault-his balanced inflation. Far as the fancy flies, or life-stream flows, From Georgia's deserts to the Greenland snows, Conducts each vapour, and commands each sea, Again a specimen of the objectionable resemblance with a redeeming difference. Some wear out life in smiles, and some in tears, Some gaily vanish to an unfear'd grave, Fleet as the sun-flash o'er a summer wave. The following passages, descriptive of a Vagrant and a Captive, exhibit the author's differences from and resemblances to Campbell, in character, sentiment, and diction. In these and other beautiful descriptions, a loose phrase, now and then provokingly occurring, induces the inference, that the author, with the impatience of genius, has not rigidly corrected his proofs. The thrice corrected MSS. of paper-saving' Pope, and the thrice elaborated revises of the nervously fastidious Canning, should have taught him the saving virtue of correction. 6 THE VAGRANT. At wintry eve, when warring night-winds blow, And one by one, as happier days appear, To each he pays the homage of a tear; Though homeless, still he love's home's joyous glare, THE CAPTIVE. Within a dungeon, mildew'd by the night, |