unless some change, at some time or other takes place, we may expect to find our libraries converted into cobbler shops; the boasted chivalry and independence of the press, the superfluous offscourings of a rusting copying machine; and our schools of morals, a burlesque on human life. Hence it is, also, that our own dramatic writers have sought in vain to add to the slender legitimate resources of the stage. This is the diseased state of public sentiment, which publishers feed and grow rich on. In gratifying this insatiable hankering after "strange things," policy only becomes a matter of consultation. From the catalogue of such, however, we could except, among others, the work named at the head of this article. "Festus" is certainly a most wonderful effort of genius. Bulwer characterizes it as a "most remarkable production." Mrs. Hall says it contains some of the most wonderful things she ever read; and another testimonial from pretty high authority, classes the author amongst the first, if not the first, of living poets. Though a work of a religious character, we cannot but consider its tendency dangerous. Its creed is an incomprehensible intermingling of Calvinistic and universalist. The hero, despite his close allegiance to the tempter, has been, nevertheless, pre-ordained to eternal reward. The "fallen angel" himself, through all ages an outcast from heaven, is finally admitted to the society of the redeemed. The tone and spirit of the argument are founded in christian humility, but the language in some respects is not at all calculated to secure for the author a free acquittal of the charge of irreverence which has been brought against him not without some show of justice, and of which the preface industriously goes to work to prove his innocence. In many instances, what are called the less important characteristics of genuine artistical poetry, meet with but little consideration from our author, and several indispensable requisites of the faultless bard are lost in the bold flights of fancy, into which his vivid imagination impels him. The poem, is notwithstanding, a really sublime effortt; he allegory a beautiful and admirable connection of flowing imagery; the colloquy an apparently exhaustless store of impressive logic and high-toned sentiment; the aim a lofty one, rarely attempted, and as rarely successfully executed. The poom of "Festus" contains many of the sublimest passages which it has ever fallen to our lot to meet with. The author is evidently destined to be a poet of the first order. He is gifted with unusual facility of expression; an ardent soaring imagination, with the most lofty aspirations, but too often overleaping the confines which should operate as salutary restraints upon this apt to be abused, faculty; a knowledge of human nature, which enables its almost incomprehensible mysteries to be displayed to the best advantage; a sanguine temperament, developed by the bold touches of moving eloquence, glowing passion, and vivid description, interspersed throughout the composition of this poem. Mr. Bailey has so far a combination of indispensable requisites for success, which with a little more attention to a few other equally important points, may eventually obtain for him, a reputation, of which "Festus" has already constructed a very substantial ground-work. We have instituted objections to its creed. Not that we wish to wage a sectarian war, or indulge illiberal prejudice against any class of believers. Far from it. We view it entirely in its moral influence upon society, untrammelled by doctrinal preferences of any kind whatever. We believe that any book conveying the most remote ideas of unequal justice in the dispensation of spiritual grace to men, living in an equally enlightened sphere of Christian knowledge, contributes to the promulgation of theories at variance even with the most corrupt and depraved ideas of common justice, and the plainest protestations of common sense. Actuated by the purest of motives, the author has nevertheless, we fear, succeeded but too well, in endorsing and impressing sentiments, the wholesome tendency of which is, to say the least, doubtful. Lucifer, the fallen angel, is represented first making this petition, and receiving acceptance at the throne of the Almighty: The Holy Ghost. And I will hallow him to the ends of Heaven, That though he plunge his soul in sin, like a sword In water, it shall no wise cling to him. He is of Heaven! All things are known in Heaven Again, Lucifer, who has now at his own request received a commission from God, to select a victim from earth, with whom to carry on the foul work of temptation, asks, "How Can souls begotten to predestined doom, From and before all worlds, be deemed of earth?" To which Festus replies: "Things spiritual as belonging to God, Are known unto Him and predestined from Eternity; nor these alone-but flesh Forms not, nor does it need the care of fate." Again, in the scene depicting the Judgment of Earth, the Supreme Ruler is represented as addressing the multitude around the throne: "Ye elect! And all ye angels with God's love informed, Who reign with me o'er earth and Heaven, assume For His Son's sake, and shall be forgiven." The Saints and Archangel's reply; and then the voice of Festus, is heard in thanksgiving: Festus. "My Maker! let me thank Thee; I have lived And live a deathless witness of thy grace; And thee, the Holy One who has chosen me From old eternity, while yet I lay Hid, like a thought in God, unuttered." Festus is made a strong believer in this doctrine during the course of temptation, in which Lucifer, for a long time his guardian spirit, seeks to seduce him from his proper allegiance. He becomes persuaded by this pernicious system VOL. XI.-No. 21. 10 of logic, that he had been given over by God to the captivity of the fallen Angel, and therefore cast off from the num ber of "the favoured few!" The effect of this is seen plainly in his determination, expressed in answer to the fair speeches of his troublesome companion: "If 'twas God's will That thou should'st visit me, He shall not send By a special interposition of Providence, the tempted one is at length saved. This would hardly appear to be the natural consequence of the temptation, as to few in his situation could the conviction of having been given over to destruction have proved salutary in its results. But we forbear on this topic-as it is one involving religious differences, and therefore, would seem at first view irrelevant to our design. Without saying thus much however, we should have been deprived of the privilege of making even the most remote allusion to the very ground-work of the poem itself. On the score of inartistical inconsistencies, we would not do more than point out a few of the grossest and most inexcusable departures from commonly received axioms, and content ourselves with overlooking those minor defects to which its intrinsic elegance as a production of mind, must render the general reader almost insensible. The extreme length of the poem is decidedly objectionable. Characters are introduced, for the purpose of still further elaborating the colloquial portion of the narrative to an extent, by no means justified by the bearing in which the scenes in which they are introduced, have upon the general plot. In these, it is true, are some of the author's most splendid efforts. They appeal to the acutest sensibilities of our nature. The mind is amused, the heart purified, the attention bound as it were with an adamantine chain, and the disposition to cavil or find fault effectually hushed by the mighty power with which the whole being is carried along with the current of vigorous thought with which even subsidiary incidents of the plot are strengthened and animated. The parting of Festus and Elissa, is one of these: Festus. "Yet it is luxury to feel Inflamed-to glow within ourselves like fire-opals. Now stay thy pretty little tuneful tongue, Pass. No, not one more word! I must away; I have staid too long already, for my word. [Goes.] Elissa. And he is gone! And the world seems gone with him Without sadness, for ye are too beautiful; Some would regard such errors as the following as trifling in themselves, but it would not need many such to spoil the most superior production in other respects. Poetic feeling might as well be expressed in prose, if strict recognition of boundary lines never held in dispute, is ever to be dispensed with. Here are examples: "No! every great or good man's death is a stepFirm set towards their end." "Is a step" is metrically incorrect, and "their" in such a connection, ungrammatical. Here is another: Mind and night Will meet though in silence, like forbidden lovers." Again: "The world's which man hath constellated, hold No fellowship in nature; nor perchance As he hath systematized life, mind, and soul." * * * "Death is he mad world's asylum. There is peace, Destruction's quiet and equality.”" |