"When vigor failed the towering fantasy, But yet the will rolled onward, like a wheel In even motion by the love impelled That moves the sun in heaven, and all the stars."
We ought to say, in behalf of this publication, that whosoever wants Cary's version will rejoice, at last, as do we, to possess it in so fair and legible guise.
Before leaving the Italians, we must mourn over the misprints of our homages to the great tragedian in the preceding review. Our manuscripts being as illegible as if we were a great genius, we never complain of these errata, except when we are made to reverse our meaning on some vital point. We did not say that Alfieri was perfect _in person_, nor sundry other things that are there; but we do mourn at seeming to say of our friends, "_Why_ they felt they care little, but _what_ they felt they _scarcely_ knew," when in fact we asserted, "what they felt they _surely_ knew."
In the article on the Celestial Empire we had made this assertion of the Chinese music: "Like _their_ poetry, the music is of the narrowest monotony;" in place of which stands this assertion: "Like _true_ poetry, their music is of the narrowest monotony." But we trust the most careless reader would not think the merely human mind capable of so original a remark, and will put this blasphemy to account of that little demon who has so much to answer for in the sufferings of poor writers before they can get their thoughts to the eyes of their fellow-creatures, in print, that there seems scarcely a chance of his being redeemed as long as there is one author in existence to accuse him.[11]
Such is the title of a volume just issued from the press; a grand title, which suggests the epic poet or the philosopher. The purpose of the work, however, is modest. It is merely a compilation, from which those who have lived at some distance from the great highway may get answers to their questions, as to events and circumstances which may have escaped them. It is one of those books which will be valued in the backwoods.
It would be a great book indeed, and one that would require the eye and heart of a great man,--great as a judge, great as a seer, and great as a prophet,--that should select for us and present in harmonious outline the true American facts. To choose the right point of view supposes command of the field.
