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critical and just observations of the friend above mentioned, upon this unhappy error. "The expression as it has been printed, is

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common-place; that for which it was igno

rantly substituted, is original and affecting. "The poet did not merely mean to tell us "the fact, that the comrades of Moore gazed

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on the face of their dead chief, -but he

meant to convey an idea of the impression " which that form of death made upon them. "They gazed on the face that was dead,

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gives not merely the fact, but the sentiment " of death. It is like some of those fine scrip"tural expressions where the simplest terms

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are exuberant with imagination. It inti"mates the awful contrast between the heroic "animation which kindled up that counte

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nance just before in action, and its now cold, ghastly, and appalling serenity." -- Upon another error which has universally prevailed, in the seventh stanza, the same eloquent friend has observed, "The third and fourth lines " have been thus given,

And we heard by the distant and random gun, 'That the foe was suddenly firing:

" But it was originally written,

' And we heard the distant and random gun
' Of the enemy sullenly firing.'*

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I need scarcely point out to any reader " of the least poetic taste the superiority of

" this passage to the fictitious one. The state

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ment of the foe being suddenly firing, implies a new and vigorous attack, which was contrary to fact. The lines, as Wolfe wrote

them, are better poetry, and more agreeable " to truth. They represent the enemy, who " had come on with the flush of anticipated

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victory, now sullen in defeat, firing rather " from vain irritation than useful valour, keep

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ing up a show of hostilities by 'the distant " and random gun, but not venturing on any " fresh and animated onset. In this way, the

* The writer of the above observation seems not to have been aware, that the fourth line of this stanza was at first written by the author as I have copied it. It was subsequently altered in the way he gives it, at the suggestion of a literary friend; but it seems proper to print it as it actually stands in the author's own manuscript, from which I take it. There is no difference in sense; but, perhaps, some may think the rhythm better as it was originally written.

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passage becomes as picturesque as it is con"cise and energetic."

It appears from the interesting conversation in which the above poem was assigned so high a place in the lyrical compositions of our language, that Campbell's Hohenlinden was also brought forward by some of the company as one of the finest specimens of the same order. This powerfully descriptive and sublime ode was a peculiar favourite with our author. The awful imagery presented in such a rapid succession of bold and vivid flashes, -the burning thoughts which break forth in such condensed energy of expression, - and the incidental touches of deep and genuine pathos which characterise the whole poem, never failed intensely to affect his imagination, and to draw out the most rapturous expressions of admiration. It was, indeed, the peculiar temperament of his mind, to display its emotions by the strongest outward demonstrations.

Such were his intellectual sensibilities, and the corresponding vivacity of his animal spirits, that the excitation of his feelings generally discovered itself by the most lively expressions, and sometimes by an unrestrained vehemence of gesticulation, which often afforded amusement to his more sedate or less impressible acquaintances.

Whenever, in the company of his friends, any thing occurred in his reading, or to his memory, which powerfully affected his imagination, he usually started from his seat, flung aside his chair, and paced about the room, giving vent to his admiration in repeated exclamations of delight, and in gestures of the most - animated rapture. Nothing produced these emotions more strongly than music, of the pleasures of which he was in the highest degree susceptible. He had an ear formed to enjoy, in the most exquisite manner, the simplest melody, or the richest harmony. With but little cultivation, he had acquired sufficient skill in the theory of this accomplishment to relish its highest charms, and to exercise a discriminative taste in the appreciation of any composition or performance in that delightful art. Sacred music, above all, (especially the compositions of Handel,) had the most subduing, the most transporting effect upon his feelings, and seemed to enliven and sublimate his devotion to the highest pitch.

He understood and felt all the poetry of music, and was particularly felicitous in catching the spirit and character of a simple air or a national melody. One or two specimens of the adaptation of his poetical talents to such subjects may give some idea of this.

He was so much struck by the grand national Spanish air, "Viva el Rey Fernando," the first time he heard it played by a friend, that he immediately commenced singing it over and over again, until he produced an English song admirably suited to the tune. The air, which has the character of an animated march, opens in a strain of grandeur, and suddenly subsides, for a few bars, into a slow and pathetic modulation, from which it abruptly starts again into all the enthusiasm of martial spirit. The words are happily adapted to these transitions; but the air should be known, in order that the merits of the song should be duly esteemed. The first change in the expression of the air occurs at the ninth line of the song, and continues to the end of the twelfth line.

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