profess himself a divine ;-why then censure him for not discharging a duty which belongs to others? He who wishes to be instructed, let him apply to the church he who wishes to be pleased, let him apply to Lord Byron. We must, however, say, that though it is not the business of a poet to preach morality, neither is it his business to expose it to ridicule. He may be luxuriant without being rampant. And we doubt not, when the effervescence of youthful passion begins to give way to the dominion of reason, but that Lord Byron will alter the style and character of his poetry. Until then we have little hopes. Our limits will not permit us to extend our observations on this work further. With the author's opinion on the controversy between Lord Byron and Mr. Bowles, with whom he takes part against his Lordship, we do not agree; but the subject is already so familiar to the public, that we shall not notice it here. We repeat, however, what we asserted at setting out, that the author of this work seems not to have undertaken it in the spirit of enmity to Lord Byron, but through a zeal for what he supposed to be the cause of insulted truth. He selects the finest passages to be met with in his works, and does every justice to his poetic beauties. He acknowledges in the most unequivocal manner, his superiority to all the poets of his age, and if he could only compromise so far as to overlook his moral imperfections, we know not of a more real or zealous admirer of Lord Byron's poetry and poetical genius. European Magazine. WRITERS OF IMAGINATION. Do we not owe much more to writers of imagination than is generally acknowledged? This is a query which I think must be answered affirmatively. Literature has mainly contributed to the present advanced state of civilization; and, in enquiring what branches of it have more particularly tended to those refinements which spring from generous and noble feelings, it must be conceded to our poets and romance writers. Much was gained from the ancients, that produced an influence upon the character of modern nations; but perhaps their writings operated most beneficially, by exciting a love of research, and arousing genius to exertion. This idea gathers strength from the fact, that the study of the ancients, did little in awakening the flame of civil liberty.* They were long the inmates of cloisters and of courts, but they effected no direct change in favour of liberal feelings. Inquisitors tortured, popes duped, monks cheated, and princes trampled on mankind, but no spontaneous spirit of resistance was roused among the people by the free circulation of the classics. They were, no doubt, an indirect cause of original thinking and the uncontrouled operations of genius, by propagating a taste for study, and feeding the flame of emulation; but, The editor begs leave to say, that he thinks this correpondent utterly at fault, in his opinion, respecting the influence of classical learning on the progress of liberty in the modern world. directly, they were harmless enough to be tolerated by the present Czar of Muscovy, or the feudal sovereign of Hungary himself. It will be found that their present state of literature, or, at least, that state in which there is the most extensively diffused taste for letters, is a pretty good criterion of the gradations of the different nations of Europe in refinement. Whatever each separate class of authors may have contributed to this end, the diffusion of high and generous feelings is principally owing to writers of imagination. To them we are largely indebted for the better sentiments of the age, and for all that, by exciting the passions, leads to eminence and renown. This is mainly owing to their prominent principle of keeping the mind dissatisfied with common-place things, their power of creating images superior, in every respect, to reality, which we admire, and would fain imitate; and the admiration they infuse for what is good and excellent, sublime and daring. Writers on science have meliorated the physical condition of man, enlarged his stock of information, and increased his luxuries. In devoting themselves to their peculiar studies, they were urged on by the desire of improvement, which very desire, the moving spring of all, is increased by the dislike of standing still; and the spirit of ambition which imaginative writers greatly assist nature in sustaining. Like the trophies of Miltiades, that would not let Themistocles rest, the visions and day-dreams that haunt the mind and fill the soul with things better than the world and society afford it, by making us discontented, spur us to pursue those beyond our reach, and keep us in progression. WRITERS OF IMAGINATION. Do we not owe much more to writers of imagination than is generally acknowledged? This is a query which I think must be answered affirmatively. Literature has mainly contributed to the present advanced state of civilization; and, in enquiring what branches of it have more particularly tended to those refinements which spring from generous and noble feelings, it must be conceded to our poets and romance writers. Much was gained from the ancients, that produced an influence upon the character of modern nations; but perhaps their writings operated most beneficially, by exciting a love of research, and arousing genius to exertion. This idea gathers strength from the fact, that the study of the ancients, did little in awakening the flame of civil liberty.* They were long the inmates of cloisters and of courts, but they effected no direct change in favour of liberal feelings. Inquisitors tortured, popes duped, monks cheated, and princes trampled on mankind, but no spontaneous spirit of resistance was roused among the people by the free circulation of the classics. They were, no doubt, an indirect cause of original thinking and the uncontrouled operations of genius, by propagating a taste for study, and feeding the flame of emulation; but, * The editor begs leave to say, that he thinks this correpondent utterly at fault, in his opinion, respecting the influence of classical learning on the progress of liberty in the modern world. reasoners. is made by one writer of imagination, than by twenty Reason will never be any other than a regulator. The writer of imagination leads us to better objects and desires than the world exhibits to our senses, and thereby keeps alive a perpetual wish of improvement by the contemplation of what ought to exist, and dissatisfying us with what really does. Let us examine facts. Writers of imagination, far above all others, have been in advance of the time in which they lived. Gifted with a species of intellectual foresight, they have appeared to pour forth their effusions as if in the midst of times they were never destined to see, but in the more refined spirit of which they were fully qualified to partake. They breathed a different intellectual atmosphere from contemporaries, and were acknowledged by those of the highest refinement in their day, with a respect that could only have arisen from a sense of discriminating admiration. Monarchs and courts, till late times, associated with poets and romance-writers, the court formerly being the most enlightened and refined circle in the state, the centre of knowledge and fine feeling, there was a natural affinity between them. As a portion of the people attained a higher state of mental culture, they approached the court itself, and, at least, equalled, and a numerous body of them surpassed, most of the individuals composing it, in cultivated intellect. Writers then naturally felt the tone of a considerable portion of the popular feeling to be most in unison with their own, and the latter became to writers of imagination, what courts had been in earlier times. Part of the people having become as discerning |