IN FOUR ESSAYS. BY HENRY TAYLOR. AUTHOR OF "NOTES FROM LIFE," "PHILIP VAN ARTEVELDE," ETC. LONDON: JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 1849. PREFACE. ALTHOUGH I have always intended to reprint those few writings of mine in periodical works, which are not necessarily and by the nature of the subjects ephemeral, I should not have chosen for the republication this time of political excitement, were it not that there is to be found in one of these Essaysthe second of the series-an exposition of the views taken by our greatest Poets of the nature of liberty; which exposition, if it justly represent those views, will not be unaptly put forward for present consideration. Our great Poets have been, perhaps, our best political philosophers; and if the reading and study of poetry be put aside by political commotions, |