The connexion of religion with intellect and literature is yet to be pointed out. We conclude with expressing our strong conviction that the human mind will become more various, piercing, and all-comprehending, more capable of understanding and expressing the solemn and the sportive, the terrible and the beautiful, the profound and the tender, in proportion as it shall be illumined and penetrated by the true knowledge of God. Genius, intellect, imagination, taste, and sensibility, must all be baptized into religion, or they will never know, and never make known, their real glory and immortal power. ART. II.-1. Mrs Hemans's Earlier Poems.-Poems. By Mrs FELICIA HEMANS. A new Collection. 2 vols. 18mo. Boston. Hilliard, Gray, Little, and Wilkins. 1828. 2. Records of Woman; with other Poems. By FELICIA HEMANS. Boston. Hilliard, Gray, Little, and Wilkins. 1828. 8vo. pp. 253. WE have formerly had an opportunity of expressing our opinion of the general characteristics of Mrs Hemans's Poetry.* It is the principal purpose of the present article, to give some account of the two publications, the titles of which stand at its head. The volumes entitled 'Mrs Hemans's Earlier Poems,' consist of various works, many of them of considerable length, which had not before been collected. With much to please, and with nothing to offend, they do not, in general, possess the higher and peculiar characteristics of her later poetry. They display, however, the same elegance and cultivation of mind, and show a command of language and ease of versification, which has been surpassed by very few poets. What, indeed, she had imagined and described in one of the poems in this collection, she has since executed. She has given proof of her power to pour forth a strain 'So wildly sweet, its notes might seem *See Christian Examiner, vol. iii. p. 403, seqq. A spirit's voice from worlds unknown, We may quote still further, 'Oh! many a pang the heart hath proved- We are disposed to give an extract respecting her earlier productions, from one of Mrs Hemans's letters written long since. We have felt some hesitation about it, considering the delicacy with which she has always withdrawn herself personally from public observation. But the same character which has led her to do so, is equally discovered in the passage to be quoted. After remarking upon the proposed publication of her Earlier Poems, and expressing a wish, that they might be arranged in the order of time, she observes; "The first of them, "The Restoration of the Works of Art," having been written at a comparatively early age, I fear that poem, and several of its immediate successors, may appear very deficient in interest, the nature of the subjects admitting so little expression of passion or feeling. But this circumstance naturally arose from my situation at the time. I wrote them in unpractised youth, in thorough retirement, without one literary friend to aid or advise, and cheered only by one voice of unwavering encouragement. All these things made me timid; and though urged onward by a spirit of hope, upon which, when I recollect the many obstacles thrown in my path, I now look back with surprise, I was yet glad to shelter myself under the shadow of mighty names; and accordingly chose such subjects, as would oblige me rather to restrain, than to give way to the expression of my own peculiar thoughts and feelings. I had no guide on whom to depend; and, therefore, with a woman's apprehensiveness of attack or ridicule, I first turned to that track, in which it seemed that facts and authorities would best secure me from either. I almost fear that I must weary you with all this egotism, and yet I rather wished to explain to you, and such of my American friends as may take any interest in the subject, the total difference of manner, which must be observed between my early and later writings. The Earlier Poems, beside their intrinsic merit, which gives them a title to a high, though not to the highest rank, have a particular interest, as showing the gradual developement of that genius whose power is now so universally felt. They exhibit the mind of their author, under a different aspect from that in which it is seen in her later works. Compared with these, they serve to show, what seems to be so often practically disbelieved, that the finest productions of poetry, like those of the other beautiful arts, are the result, not of natural genius alone, but of the power, freedom, and skill in its exercise, which is produced only by long discipline, cultivation, and continued efforts. It has been said, that a poet is born a poet, while an orator is to be made. But one individual is as much and as little born a poet, as another is an orator, or a sculptor, or a painter. Each must make himself. The earlier productions of Mrs Hemans show with how rich a mind, rich in each gift of art as well as nature, she was preparing herself for the production of her later works. Of the two volumes of Earlier Poems, the first and a part of the second contain five separate publications, under the following titles;-1. "The Restoration of the Works of Art to Italy;' 2. 'Tales and Historic Scenes;' 3. 'Translations from Camoens, and other Poets, with Original Poetry;' 4. "The Sceptic, a Poem;' 5. Stanzas to the Memory of the late King. These publications were favorably noticed in the fortyseventh number of the Quarterly Review. The poem which has, on the whole, given us most pleasure, is the longest, the Abencerrage, one of the historic tales. During the reign of Abo Abdeli, the last Moorish king of Granada, Hamet, the chief of the Abencerrages, or Aben-Zurrahs, is represented as revolting from that monarch, and joining the enemies of his nation, the Spaniards. He does so in a spirit of bitter revenge for the injuries inflicted on his tribe, and the murder of his father and brother. He is present, fighting in company with the Spanish forces, at the conquest of Granada. Before his defection he had become deeply attached to a Moorish maiden, who is described as possessing all that beautiful union of qualities which Mrs Hemans knows so well how to combine in her female characters. When driven from his country, but before his purpose of revenge is known to her, he seeks a last interview with Zayda. 'A step treads lightly through the citron shade, 'Tis he-but changed that eye, whose glance of fire Stern thoughts and fierce resolves-now veiled in shade, And now in characters of fire portrayed. Changed e'en his voice-as thus its mournful tone "Zayda, my doom is fixed-another day, In me the glories of my race must end, E'en in life's morn, my dreams of pride are o'er, ""Ask not, if such my love! oh! trust the mind To grief so long, so silently resigned ! Let the light spirit, ne'er by sorrow taught Rise with elastic power o'er each regret! When doomed to weep in loneliness, 't will be ""But thou, my Hamet, thou canst yet bestow So shall it soothe me 'midst my heart's despair, Vol. I. pp. 51-54. With this speech of Zayda we may contrast part of another equally powerful and affecting, which she addresses to Hamet, after his joining the enemies of his country. ""Oh! wert thou still what once I fondly deemed, My love had been devotion-till in death Was pure Hadst thou but died, ere yet dishonor's cloud |