poet's character, and a good deal of felicity and copiousness of diction, united with rather poetical imagery. The lines in italics strike us as possessing no inconsiderable merit.

"How glorious and how beautiful a life

Must thine have been among the hills and streams!
From the far world, and its eternal strife,
But one gray shadow cast upon thy dreams,
Tinging their sacred and nymph-haunted glory
With something of a mournful---mortal hue.
Ah! if the Spirits of the olden story

Yet linger---and the Ascræan's verse be true,
If Unseen Habitants, yet earth-bound, rove
By the still brook, or the melodious grove,
And ever o'er Man's state the while they wonder,
With a high thought, but tender memory ponder:
If the pure ghosts of the Saturnian Race,

Who o'er the sinless pastures led their herds;
Oh! if they yet claim haunt and dwelling-place
Where the air gladdens with the summer-birds;
Methinks to them familiar thy sublime

And undiurnal melody which breathes
A pastoral sweetness from the golden time:
And, as o'er ruin'd fanes the ivy wreaths,
So cling thy fancies in their green embrace
Around a dim and antique holiness;
And, with a loving yet a solemn grace,
At once a freshness and an awe expressed!

'Musing on Man' amid the mountains lone,
What must have pass'd in thy unfathom❜d breast!
How, on the lyre, within, must many a tone,
Solemn and deep, have risen---unconfess'd,
Save to thyself, and the still ear of GOD!

And from the full and silent Heart of Things,
As o'er the hills thy unwatched footsteps trod,
Didst thou not draw the patriarchal springs
Of love for Man and Nature, which the hues
Of thy transparent verse all livingly suffuse?
Higher thy theme than Cæsar's, or the Pomp
Borne o'er the dusty earth in weary gaud;
Ambition's mask, and Glory's brazen tromp,

The embattled Murder, and the ermin'd Fraud !
Sweeter thy theme than aught which thro' the lays
Of the Rose Garden's sons may softly flow!
And earthlier fires before the Rhean blaze

Lit on thine altar-sicken from their glow!
Man in his simple grandeur, which can take

From Power but poor increase: the Truth which lies

Upshining in the Well of Homely Life;"

The Winds, the Waters, and their Mysteries

The Morn and moted Noon, the Stars which make
Their mirror in the heart; the Earth all rife
With warnings and with wisdom; the deep lore
Which floateth airlike over lonely places---
These made thy study and thy theme; and o'er
The Beauty of thy Soul no Paphian Graces,
But a religious and a reverent Awe,

Breathed Sanctity and Music --inspiration,
Not from the dark Obscure of priestly law,

But that which burns---the Centre of Creation---
A Love, a Mystery, and a Fear-the unseen
Source of all worship since the world hath been!
How must thy lone and lofty soul have gone
Exulting on its way, beyond the loud
Self-taunting mockery of the scoffers, grown
Tethered and dull'd to Nature, in the crowd!
Earth has no nobler no more moral sight

Than a great poet whom the world disowns,
But stills not, neither angers: from his height,
As from a star, float forth his spherelike tones ;
He wits not whether the vex'd herd may hear
The music wafted to the reverent ear;

And far Man's wrath, or scorn, or heed, above,
Smiles down the calm disdain of his majestic love!"

pp. 295, 296.

Upon the whole, however, we should think it more profitable to Mr. Bulwer, both for his present emolument and his future reputation, to confine himself to prose. He writes very good novels-if not the best, as they certainly are not, yet second only to those which are surpassed by none. But the gods have not made him a true poet. He can aspire to nothing that is not within the reach of persevering and cultivated mediocrity. But cui bono add another lack-lustre name to the "galaxy," as it is called, of (unreadable) " British Poets?" He may be right in thinking that the present age is not very apt to admire any kind of poetry; but it is still more certain, that there is only one kind of poetry which will be read by posterity, and such, we will undertake to predict, will never be the fruit of his pen.

Our readers will have observed that we say nothing of the satirical allusions in the " Siamese Twins." We are of course, at this distance, unable properly to appreciate or even to perceive their application. We have treated the book exclusively in reference to its fitness to be republished and read in America, and to those attributes which are not confined by locality.

ART. VIII.-Voyages and Discoveries of the Companions of Columbus. By WASHINGTON IRVING. 1 vol. 8vo. Philadelphia. 1831.

THE success of Columbus in discovering the new world, opened to the adventurous spirits of Europe, and especially of Spain, a sphere of enterprise full of peril and privation, but as they fondly dreamed, of corresponding riches and renown. Without going out of our way, as we think Mr. Irving has done, to ascribe the ardour and fearlessness with which this field of dangerous distinction was occupied, to the fierce and long-continued warfare between Spaniard and Moor, or to the more general influence of chivalry, we can find, in the cupidity and ambition of human nature, motives sufficiently strong to have tempted to their ruin, men less fitted, by their nurture and discipline, to encounter the hardships and dangers of an unknown and unconquered world.

But there was not mingled with these allurements of anticipated wealth and power any foreboding of disappointment or discomfiture. The early voyagers had returned flushed with triumph, and covered with glory. Their accidents, by flood and field, were so mixed up with tales of surprising novelty and wonderful romance, that instead of inspiring dread, they excited ambition and whetted avarice. Every scene was gilded with the brightness of their own fancies, or had caught a hue from the brilliant dreams of their enthusiastic commander. Whatever miseries they may have endured in this country of their creation, were forgotten or despised, while they described, in glowing language, not only the bright skies and blue waters and verdant fields which they had seen, but pictured, beyond the happy shores which discovery had attained, fairy-lands of unbounded wealth and surpassing magnificence.

This was not all. The feverish excitement and restless curiosity which had been awakened, might have been calmed, had not reality almost outdone imagination. But scarcely had one voice of wonder died away upon the listening ears of Europe, than another caught the sound, and proclaimed some mightier marvel. Scene opened after scene, in apparently illimitable prospect, until the mind was lost in the vastness of its conceptions, and hope became a burning passion, and usurped the place of reason.

To these sources of delusion must be added the highly coloured representations of their discoveries and anticipations which the adventurers of the new world regularly transmitted to the government of Spain, not forgetting to accompany them with such specimens of barbaric gold and pearl," as they could collect. These accounts were magnified, partly from a sincere conviction of their probability, and partly through policy. Columbus had impressed so deeply upon the minds of his followers, that there was yet undiscovered a land, far exceeding in brightness and glory any which they had reached, that the hope of success never died within them. However harassed by famine or disease, however pressed by fierce and relentless enemies, however beset with misery within, or lurking danger without, let some idle or ignorant savage but point his finger to the East, and say, "there lies the region of your hopes; beyond those mountains are the realms of which you dream," and their sorrows were assuaged, and their spirits cheered. But to the realization of these splendid visions the favour of the government, and the enthusiasm of the people were necessary; the one that they might be vested with authority to carry on their schemes, and the other, that fresh adventurers might flock in to fill up the gaps which disease and war and famine so unceasingly occasioned. There was but one way to gain the good will of the king, and they failed not to pour out their hard-earned treasures at his feet, but the people required nothing more than fanciful descriptions and magnificent promises.

The preparation of Pedrarias and his armament to take possession of the government of Darien, and prosecute Balboa's discovery of the countries bordering on the Southern ocean, is so striking an instance of the deceptive nature of these enticing representations, and of the utter ignorance of the Spanish adventurers of the kind and degree of hardship they were destined to undergo, that we cannot refrain from contrasting, in this connexion, their gay embarkation, and melancholy fate.

"Vasco Nuñez de Balboa now flattered himself that he had made a discovery calculated to silence all his enemies at court, and to elevate him to the highest favour with his sovereign. He wrote letters to the king, giving a detail of his expedition, and setting forth all that he had seen or heard of this Southern sea, and of the rich countries upon its borders. Besides the royal fifths of the profits of the expedition, he prepared a present for the sovereign, in the name of himself and his companions, consisting of the largest and most precious pearls they had collected.

*

"The avarice and ambition of Ferdinand were inflamed by the tidings. He rewarded the bearers of the intelligence, and, after consulting with bishop Fonseca, resolved to despatch immediately a power

ful armada, with twelve hundred men, under the command of Pedrarias, to accomplish the enterprise.

"Just about this time, the famous Gonsalvo Hernandez de Cordova, commonly called the great captain, was preparing to return to Naples, where the allies of Spain had experienced a signal defeat, and had craved the assistance of this renowned general to retrieve their fortunes. The chivalry of Spain thronged to enlist under the banner of Gonsalvo. The Spanish nobles, with their accustomed prodigality, sold or mortgaged their estates to buy gorgeous armour, silks, brocades, and other articles of martial pomp and luxury, that they might figure, with becoming magnificence, in the campaigns of Italy. The armament was on the point of sailing for Naples with this host of proud and gallant spirits, when the zealous mind of Ferdinand took offence at the enthusiasm thus shown towards his general, and he abruptly countermanded the expedition. The Spanish cavaliers were overwhelmed with disappointment at having their dreams of glory thus suddenly dispelled; when, as if to console them, the enterprise of Pedrarias was set on foot, and opened a different career of adventure. The very idea of an unknown sea and splendid empire, where never European ship had sailed, or foot had trodden, broke upon the imagination with the vague wonders of an Arabian tale. Even the countries already known, in the vicinity of the settlement of Darien, were described in the usual terms of exaggeration. Gold was said to lie on the surface of the ground, or to be gathered with nets out of the brooks and rivers ; insomuch, that the region, hitherto called Terra Firma, now received the pompous and delusive appellation of Castilla del Oro, or Golden Castile.

* *

"Excited by these reports, many of the youthful cavaliers, who had prepared for the Italian campaign, now offered themselves as volunteers to Don Pedrarias. He accepted their services, and appointed Seville as the place of assemblage. The streets of that ancient city soon swarmed with young and noble cavaliers, splendidly arrayed, full of spirits, and eager for the sailing of the Indian Armada. Happy did he think himself who could in any manner and by any means, get admitted on board of the squadron. Nor was this eagerness for the enterprise confined merely to young and buoyant and ambitious adventurers; we are told that there were many covetous old men, who offered to go at their own expense, without seeking any pay from the king. Thus every eye was turned with desire to this squadron of modern Argonauts, as it lay anchored on the bosom of the Gaudalquiver." pp. 212-216.

"The town of Darien was situated in a deep valley surrounded by lofty hills, which while they kept off the breezes so grateful in a sultry climate, reflected and concentrated the rays of the sun, insomuch, that at noon-tide the heat was insupportable; the river which passed it was shallow, with a muddy channel and bordered by marshes; overhanging forests added to the general humidity, and the very soil on which the town was built was of such a nature, that on digging to the depth of a foot there would ooze forth brackish water.