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over the shoulders, gives to all this expression | learn only to feel our weakness. But in the of high yet soft emotion, a finishing grace and sacred place where all that could perish of our completeness. This figure displays such un- orators, philosophers, and poets, is reposing, we speakable sweetness tempering such prophetic feel our mortality only to lend us a stronger fire; such religious and saintly purity, mingled and more ethereal sense of our eternal being. with so genial a compassion; it is at once so Life and death seem met together, as in a holy individual and so ideal; so bordering on the fane, in peaceful concord. While we feel that celestial, and yet so perfectly within the range the mightiest must yield to the stern law of of human sympathies; that it is difficult to necessity, we know that the very monuments say, whether the delicious emotions which it which record the decay of their outward inspires partake most of wonder or of love. frame, are so many proofs and symbols that The image seemed, like sweet music, to sink they shall never really expire. We feel that into the soul, there to remain for ever. To see those whose remembrance is thus extended such a piece is really to be made better and beyond the desolating power of the grave happier. The recollection is a precious trea-over whose fame death and mortal accidents sure for the feelings and the imagination, of which nothing, while they endure, can deprive them.

have no power, are not themselves destroyed. And when we recollect the more indestructible monuments of their genius, those works, which live not only in the libraries of the studious, but in the hearts and imaginations of men; we are conscious at once, that the spirit which conceived, and the souls which appreciate and love them, are not of the earth, earthy. Our thoughts are not wholly of humiliation and sorrow! but stretch forward, with a pensive majesty, into the permanent and the immortal.

The church at Belem, a fortified place on the Tagus, three or four miles from Lisbon, where the kings and royal family of Portugal have, for many generations, been interred, must not be forgotten. It is one of the most ancient buildings in the kingdom, having originally been erected by the Romans, and splendidly adorned by the Moorish sovereigns. Formed of white stone, it is now stained to a reddish brown by the mere influence of years, Having inspected the city, I was naturally and frowns over the water "cased in the un- anxious to visit the celebrated Aqueduct, which feeling armour of old time." Its shape is is carried across a deep valley two or three oblong, its sides of gigantic proportions, and miles from Lisbon. Having passed the suits massive appearance most grand and awe-burbs, and reached the open country, I saw, at inspiring. The principal entrance is by a a sudden turn in the pathway, the mighty obdeep archway, reaching to a great height, and ject of my wanderings. I found myself on the circular within, ornamented above and around summit of a gently sloping declivity, at a little with the most crowded, venerable, and yet distance from the foot of which a hill rose to fantastic devices-martyrs and heroes of chi- an equal height, with a bold and luxuriant sweep. valry-swords and crosiers-monarchs and It is across the expanse thus formed, that the saints-crosses and sceptres-"the roses and stupendous bridge runs, in two straight lines flowers of kings" and the sad emblems of from each eminence, which form an obtuse mortality-all wearing the stamp of deep anti-angle in the centre. The whole is supported quity, all appearing carved out of one eternal rock, and promising by their air of solid grandeur to survive as many stupendous changes as those which have already left them unshaken. The interior of this venerable edifice is not less awe-breathing or substantial. Eight huge pillars of barbaric architecture, and covered all over with strange figures and grotesque ornaments in relievo, support the roof, which is white, ponderous, and of a noble simplicity, being only divided into vast square compartments by the beams which cross it. Such a pile, devoted to form the last restingplace of a line of kings who have, each in his brief span of time, held the fate of millions at his pleasure, cannot fail to excite solemn and pensive thought. And yet what are the feelings thus excited, to those meditations to which the great repository of the illustrious deceased in England invites us! Here we think of nothing but the perishableness of man in his best estate-the emptiness of human honours the low and frail nature of all the distinctions of earth. A race of monarchs ⚫ccupy but a narrow vault: they were kings, and now are dust; and this idea forced home upon us, makes us feel that the most potent and enduring of worldly things-thrones, dynasties, and the peaceable succession of high families-are but as feeble shadows. We

by thirty-six arches, which, as the ground from each extremity sinks, increase in height, or rather depth, till in the middle of the pile, the distance to which they ascend from the vale is fearful. This huge structure is composed of dark gray stone, the deep colour of which gives to its massiveness an air of the sternest grandeur. The water is conveyed across the level thus formed, through a chain of building which occupies its centre, and appears almost like a line of solid and unbroken rock. Above this erection, turrets of still greater height, and of the same materials, are reared at regular intervals, and crown the whole. The road is thus divided into two passes, which are secured by high ridges of stone, in the long, uninterrupted straight lines, which have an air of so awful a grandeur in the noblest remains of Roman art. The view from the southern road, though romantic, is, for the most part, confined within narrow boundaries, as rugged hills arise on this side almost from the foot of the Aqueduct, to a height far above its towers, cultivated only towards the lower parts, and covered on the loftier spots with a thin grass and shapeless blocks or masses of granite. This mountainous ridge breaks, however, in the centre, and abruptly displays a piece of the Tagus, like an inland lake, with its tenderly rimpled blue, and the wild and lofty banks

which rise precipitously beyond it. As the sun was declining when I traversed this path, the portion of craggy shore thus disclosed, and the shrubs which flourish among its steeps, were overcast with the richest tints from the west, and the vessels gently gliding through the opening made by the shaggy declivities of the nearer hills, completed the feeling of genial composure diffused over the scene. From the northern side, the prospect appears arrayed in far gayer charms. The valley here, from the narrow point at which it is seen, spreads out into a fanlike form, till the eminences on each side seem gradually to melt away, and the open country lies in full expanse to the view. It is a scene of fresh, reposing, and perfect beauty. Not an angular intersection breaks the roundness, or interrupts the grace, which characterize the whole. The hills in the foreground sink from each side of the Aqueduct, gradually to the depth of the vale, covered with the freshest verdure, fluctuating in a wave-like motion; and the more distant landscape appears composed of a thousand gentle undulations, thrown up by Nature in her sweetest mood, as though the earth were swelling with an exuberant bounty, even to the rim of the circling sky, with the form of which all is harmonious. The green in which the prospect is clothed, is of a softer and more vivid hue than in England; the pastures seem absolutely to sparkle on the eye; and, amidst this "splendour in the grass, this glory in the flower," the lively groves of orange and the villas of purest white scattered thickly around, give to the picture a fairy brightness. And yet, setting individual associations aside, I prefer the scenery of my own country to this enchanted vale. This is a landscape to visit as a spectacle, not to live in. There is no solemnity about it,-no austere beauty,-no retiring loveliness; there are no grand masses of shade, no venerable oaks, which seem coeval with the hills over which they cast their shadows, no vast colonnades, in which the fine spirit of the elder time seems yet to keep its state. Nature wears not the pale livery which inspires meditation or solemn joy; her face seems wreathed in a perpetual smile. The landscape breathes, indeed, of intoxicating delight; it invites to present joy; but it leads to no tender reminiscences of the past, nor gives solemn indications of the future. It is otherwise in the very deficiencies, as they are usually regarded, of our happier land. There" the pale primrose that dies unmarried" among the scanty hedge-rows, as an emblem of innocence peeping forth amidst a cheerless world, suggests more pensive yet delicious musing, than the gaudiest productions of this brighter clime. The wild roses, thinly interspersed among our thickets, with their delicate colouring and faint perfume, afford images of rustic modesty, far sweeter and more genial than the rich garlands which cluster here. Those "echoes from beyond the grave," which come to us amid the stillness of forests which have outlived generations of men, are here unheard. In these valleys we are dazzled, surprised, enchanted ;-in ours we are moved

with solemn yet pleasing thoughts, which "do often lie too deep for tears."

Having traversed both sides of the aqueduct, I resolved to ascend one of the hills beyond it, for the purpose of obtaining a still more extensive view. After a most weary ascent, of which my eye had taken a very inadequate estimate, I reached the summit and was amply rewarded for my toils. To the north lay the prospect which I have endeavoured to describe, softened in the distance; beneath was the huge pile, with its massive arches and lone turrets bridging the vale. To the south was the Tagus, and, a little onward, its entrance, where it gently blended with the sea. Completely round the north-eastern side of the horizon, the same mighty and beautiful river appeared flowing on far beyond Lisbon in a noble curve, which seemed to dissolve in the lighter blue of the heavens. And full to the west beyond the coast of Portugal, now irradiated with the most brilliant colouring, was the free and circling ocean, on which amidst visionary shapes of orange and saffron glory, the sun was, for his last moment, resting. Soon the sky became literally "fretted with golden fire," and the hills seemed covered with a tender haze of light, which rendered them yet lovelier. The moon began to blend her mild radiance with the sweet twilight, as I took the last glance at the vale, and hastened to Lisbon.

On Thursday, the 21st of May, a grand festival was holden in honour of Saint George, who is held in peculiar reverence in Lisbon. On this most sacred occasion, all the buildings around the vast area of the Rocio were hung with crimson tapestry; a road was formed of fine gravel, guarded by lines of soldiers; and the troops, to a great number, in splendid uniforms, occupied the most conspicuous passages. When all was prepared, the train issued from a church in one of the angles of the square, and slowly paraded round the path prepared for it. It consisted of all the ecclesiastical orders, attired in their richest vestments, and bearing, alternately, crosses of gold and silver; canopies of white, purple, orange, and crimson silk, bordered with deep fringes; and gorgeous banners, decorated with curious devices. The canopy which floated over the consecrated wafer, formerly borne by the king and the princes, was, on this occasion, carried by the chief persons of the regency. But the most remarkable object was the Saint himself, who, "not to speak it profanely," is no other than a wooden figure, and, I am afraid, must yield in proportion and in grace to that unconsecrated work, the Apollo Belvidere. He was seated on a noble horse, and arrayed in a profusion of gems, which, according to the accounts of the Portuguese, human power could hardly calculate. His boots were of solid silver; his whole person begirt with jewels, and his hat glittered in the sun like one prodigious diamond. He descended in state from the castle to the church, whence the procession issued, and remained there during the solemnities. He was saluted on leaving his mansion, with a discharge of artillery, and re

ceived the same compliment on his return to that favoured residence. The people, who were of course assembled in great crowds, did not appear to me to look on the magnificent display before them with any feeling of religious awe, or to regard it in any other light than, at the most, a national spectacle.

Of the national character of the Portuguese in general, I can say very little, as my personal intercourse with them was extremely limited. Were I to believe all that some English residents in Lisbon have told me, I should draw a gloomy picture of human degradation unrelieved by a single redeeming grace. I should say that the common people are not only ignorant and filthy, but universally dishonest; that they blend the vices of savage and social life, and are ready to become either pilferers or assassins; that they are cruel to their children, lax in friendship, and implacable in revenge; that the higher orders are at once the dupes and tyrants of their servants, familiar with them one moment, and brutally despotic the next; that they are in constant jealousy of their wives, and not without reason; and that even their vices are without dignity or decorum. All this can never be true, or Lisbon would not be subsisting in order and peace. To me, the inhabitants appear in a more amiable light. Filthy and ignorant the common people doubtless are; but they are sober; and those dreadful excesses and sorrows which arise from the use, in England, of ardent spirits, are consequently unknown. They are idle; but the warmth of the climate may, in some degree, excuse them. No rank is destitute of some appearance of native courteousness. The rich are not, indeed, Howards or Clarksons; they have no idea of exerting themselves to any great degree, to draw down blessings on the heads of others or their own; they do not go in search of wretchedness in order to remove it, but when misery is brought before them, as it is constantly here, in a thousand ghastly forms, they are far from withholding such aid as money can render. The gardens of their country villas, which are exceedingly elegant, are always open in the evenings to any of the populace who choose to walk there, so that the citizen, on the numerous holidays which the Romish church affords, is not compelled to inhale the dust in some wretched tea-garden, which is a libel at once on nature and art, but may rove with his children through groves of orange and thickets of roses. When the company thus indulged meet any of the family which reside in the mansion, they acknowledge the favour which they are enjoying by obeisances not ungracefully made, which are always returned with equal courtesy. I am assured, that this privilege is never abused; even the children walk amidst the flowers and the fruits, without the slightest idea of touching them. This circumstance alone would induce me to doubt the justice with which some have attempted to fix the brand of dishonesty on the inferior classes of Portugal. The people want not the natural tenderness and gentle movements of the heart; all their deficiencies arise from the absence of high principle, the languishing of intellect, and the decay of the loftier

powers and energies which dignify man. They have no enthusiasm, no devoted admiration, or love, for objects unconnected with the necessities of their mortal being, or the low gratifications of sense. They have a few mighty names to lend them an inspiration, which might supply the place of contemporary genius; and with those, of which they ought to be fond in proportion to their rarity, they appear scarcely acquainted. Of the rich stores of poetry and romance, which they might enjoy from the neighbouring country and almost similar language of Spain, they are, for the most part, unconscious. Not only has the spirit of chivalry departed from these mountains, where it once was glowing; but its marvellous and golden tales are neglected or forgotten.

The degradation of the public mind in Lisbon is increased by the notorious venality of the ministers of justice. There is no crime for which indemnity may not be purchased by a bribe. Even offences against the government of the king may be winked at, if the culprit is able to make an ample pecuniary sacrifice. It is a well-known fact that some of the chief conspirators in the plot to assassinate Marshal Beresford, and change the whole order of things in Portugal, were able to make their peace with the judges, and, on the ground of some technical informality, were dismissed without trial. When any one is accused of an offence, he is generally sent at once to prison, where he remains until he can purchase his freedom. There does not seem, however, any disposition to persecution for opinions, or to exercise wanton cruelty. The Inquisition is no longer an engine in the hands of the priests, but is merely a tribunal for the examination and the punishment of political offences. Death is rarely inflicted; for it brings no gain to the magistrate. Criminals guilty of the highest offences are kept in prison until they are forgotten, without any one knowing or caring about their fate. In the absence of the sovereign almost all the civil authorities have become totally corrupted, for there is no patriot to watch, and no public voice to awe them. The people appear sunk in apathy to all excepting gain; and the greater number of them crawl on with little hope, except to supply the cravings of hunger. The city, notwithstanding its populousness, exhibits all the marks of decay-buildings in ruins amidst its stateliest streets, and houses begun on a magnificent scale, and left unfinished for years. The foreign merchants, especially the British, who use it as a central port, give it an arti ficial life, without which its condition would be most wretched. In bidding farewell to this bright abode of degraded humanity, I felt it impossible to believe that it was destined gradually to become desolate and voiceless. Glo rious indeed would be the change, if knowledge should expand the souls now so low and contracted, into a sympathy with the natural wonders around them-if the arts should once more adorn the romantic city-and the orange groves and lovely spots among the delicate cork trees, should be vocal with the innocent

gayety of happy peasants, or shed their influences on the hearts of youthful bards. If, indeed, the people were awakened into energy,

and their spirit was regulated by wise and beneficent governors, the capital of Portugal would assuredly become the fairest of cities.

MR. CHARLES LLOYD'S POEMS.*

[LONDON MAGAZINE.]

THERE is no more remarkable instance of the ciates-offering a child-like feebleness in con"cant of criticism," than the representation trast to Wordsworth's nerve-and ranging currently received as distinctive, whereby through mythologies and strange fantasies, not several authors, chiefly residing in the neigh- only with less dominion than Coleridge, but bourhood of the lakes, were characterized merely portraying the shapes to which they gave as belonging to one school of poetry. In existence, instead of discovering the spirit of truth, propinquity of residence, and the bonds truth and beauty within them. Nor does the of private friendship, are the only circum- author before us, often combined with these stances which have ever given the slightest by the ignorance or the artifice of criticism, colour to the hypothesis which marked them differ less widely from them. Without Wordsout as disciples of the same creed. It is worth's intuitive perception of the profoundest scarcely possible to conceive individuals more truths, or Coleridge's feeling of beauty, he has dissimilar in the objects of their choice, or in a subtile activity of mind which supplies the the essential properties of their genius. Who, place of the first, and a wonderful power of for example, can have less in common than minute observation, which, when directed to Wordsworth and Coleridge, if we except lovely objects, in a great degree produces the those faculties which are necessarily the effect of the latter. All these three rise on portion of the highest order of imaginative some occasions to the highest heaven of thought minds? The former of these has sought for and feeling, though by various processeshis subjects among the most ordinary oc- Wordsworth reaching it at once by the divine currences of life, which he has dignified and wingedness of his genius-Coleridge ascendexalted, from which he has extracted the ing to it by a spiral track of glory winding on holiest essences of good, or over which he through many a circuit of celestial light-and has cast a consecrating and harmonizing Lloyd stepping thither by a firm ladder, like light "which never was by sea or land." that of Jacob, by even steps, which the feet The latter, on the other hand, has spread of angels have trodden! abroad his mighty mind, searching for his materials through all history and all science, penetrating into the hidden soul of the wildest superstitions, and selecting the richest spoils of time from the remotest ages. Wordsworthings were overcast by a gentle melancholy, is all intensity-he sees nothing, but through the hallowing medium of his own soul, and represents all things calm, silent, and harmonious as his own perceptions. Coleridge throws himself into all the various objects which he contemplates, and attracts to his own imagery their colours and forms. The first, seizes only the mighty and the true with a giant grasp;-the last has a passionate and almost effeminate love of beauty and tenderness which he never loses. One looks only on the affections in their inmost home, while the other perceives them in the lightest and remotest tints, which they cast on objects the strangest and most barbarous. All the distinction, in short, between the intense and the expansive the severe and the lovely-the philosophic and the magical-really separates these great poets, whom it has been the fashion to censure as united in one heresy. If we cast the slightest glance at Southey's productions, we shall find him unlike either of these, his asso

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The peculiar qualities of Mr. Lloyd's genius have never been so clearly developed as in the chief poem of the work before us. In his Nugæ Canoræ," all his thoughts and feel

which rendered their prominences less distinct, as it shed over them one sad and sober hue. Even, however, in his most pensive moods, the vigorous and restless activity of his intellect might be discerned, curiously inquiring for the secret springs of its own distress, and regarding its sorrows as high problems worthy of the most painful scrutiny. While he exhibited to us the full and pensive stream of emotion, with all the images of soft clouds and delicate foliage reflected on its bosom, he failed not to conduct us to its deep-seated fountains, or to lay open to our view the jagged caverns within its banks. Yet here the vast intellectual power was less conspicuous than in his last poems, because the personal emotion was more intense, single, and pervading. He is now, we rejoice to observe, more "i' the sun," and consequently, the nice workings of his reason are set more distinctly before us. The 'Desultory Thoughts in London" embrace a great variety of topics, associated in the mind of the author with the metropolis, but many of them belonging to those classes of abstraction which might as fitly be contemplated in a

66

The blind as well might doubt of sense and sight;
Peruse their lives, who thus bave vow'd pursuit
Of heavenly communion: in despite

Their singleness of heart: except ye fight

Of all your arguments ye can't dispute

'Gainst facts, ye, self-convicted, must be mute.
Will ye deny, that they've a secret found
To baille fate, and heal each mortal wound?
Will ye deny, to them alone 'tis given,
Who its existence, as a faith, embraced
'Tis mainly requisite, to partake of heaven,
That the heart's treasures there should first be placed.
According to thy faith shall it be given

To thee, with spiritual glories, to be graced.
As well all facts whence man experience hath,
As doubt immunities bound up in faith.
'Tis easy thing to say, that men are knaves;
'Tis easy thing to say, that men are fools;
'Tis easy thing to say, an author raves;

Easy, to him who always ridicules
The incomprehensible, to allege--and saves
Trouble of farther thought-that oft there rules
Fanatic feeling in a madman's brain:

That half-pretence oft ekes out half-insane.

We know all this; but we know also well,
These men we speak of tried by every test

Admissible, all other men excel

Are they, stern Fate, spite of thy direst spell :
In virtue, and in happiness. Since bless'd

Infection, loathsome maladies, each pest
And plague,-for these have they,-should they assail
A panacea which will never fail.

desert. Among these are "Fate, free-will, foreknowledge absolute," the theories of manners and morals-the doctrines of expediency and self-interest-with many speculations relating to the imaginative parts of literature, and the influences of religion upon them-all of which are grasped by the hand of a master. The whole range of controversial writing scarcely affords an example of propositions stated so lucidly, qualified so craftily, and urged with such exemplary fairness and candour as in this work. It must, indeed, be admitted, that the admirable qualities of the argument render it somewhat unfit for marriage "with immortal verse." Philosophical poetry, when most attractive, seizes on some grand elemental truths, which it links to the noblest material images, and seeks rather to send one vast sentiment to the heart through the medium of the imagination, than to lead the mind by a regular process of logic, to the result which it contemplates. Mere didactic poetry, as Pope's Essay on Man, succeeds not by the nice balance of reasons, but by decking out some obvious common-place in a gorgeous rhetoric, or by expressing a familiar sentiment in such forcible language as will give it a singular charm to all who have felt its justice in a plainer garb. In general, the poet, no less than the woman, who deliberates, is lost. But Mr. Lloyd's effusions are in a great measure exceptions to this rule;-for though they are sometimes" harsh and crabbed," and sometimes too minute, they are marked by so hearty an earnestness, and adorned by such variety of illustration, and imbued with such deep sentiment, that they often enchant while they convince us. Although his processes are careful, his results belong to the stateliest range of truths. His most laborious reasonings lead us to elevated views of humanity-Hear what the wrapped, transfigured Guion says to the sense of a might above reason itself-to those objects which have inspired the most glorious enthusiasm, and of which the profoundest bards have delighted to afford us glimpses. It is quite inspiring to follow him as he detects the inconsistencies of worldly wisdom, as he breaks the shallow reasonings of the advocates of expediency into pieces, or as he vindicates their prerogatives to faith and hope. He leads us up a steep and stony ascent, step by step; but cheers us by many a ravishing prospect by the way, and conducts at last to an eminence, not only above the mists of error, but where the rainbow comes, and whence the gate of heaven may be seen as from the Delectable Mountains which Bunyan's Pilgrim visited.

We scarcely know how to select a specimen which shall do justice to an author whose speculations are too vast to be completed within a short space, and are connected with others by delicate links of thought. We will give, however, his vindication of the enthusiastic and self-denying spirit, which, however associated with absurdity, is the soul of all religion and virtue.

Reasoners, that argue of ye know not what,
Do not, as mystical, my strain deride :
By facts' criterion be its doctrine tried.

God is their rock, their fortress of defence,
For them the wrath of man is impotence;
In time of trouble, a defence most holy;

His pride, a bubble; and his wisdom, folly.
That "peace" have they-unspeakable intense,-
"Which passeth understanding!" Melancholy
Life's gauds to them: the unseen they explore:

Rooted in heaven, to live is-to adore!
Ye, that might cavil at these humble lays,
Peruse the page of child-like Fenelon :

With ills of body such as few have known;-
Tedious imprisonment; in youthful days

To poverty devoted, she defies
Its sorest ills, blessing the sacrifice.

To luxuries used, they all aside are thrown;

Was e'er an instance known, that man could taste
True peace of mind, and spurn religion's laws?
In other things were this alliance traced;

We scruple not to call them; or, at least,

Constant coincidence; effect, and cause,

Condition indispensable, whence draws
The one, the other. This coincidence
But grant me here;-and grant the consequence.
Facts, facts, are stubborn things! We trust the sense
Warrants our trust in it. Now, tell me whence
Of sight, because the experience of each day
It is, no mortal yet could dare to say,
Man trusted in his God for his defence,

And was confounded? cover'd with dismay ?
Loses he friends? Religion dries his tears!
Loses he life? Religion calms his fears!
Loses he health? Religion balms his mind,

And pains of flesh seem ministers of grace,
And wait upon a rapture more refined,
Than e'en in lustiest health e'er found a place.
Loses he wealth? the pleasure it can find

He had before renounced; thus he can trace
No difference, but that now the heart bestows
What through a hand less affluent scantier flows.

He too as much enjoys the spectacle

of good, when done by others as by him:

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