1. Bibliotheca Classica Latina, sive Collectio Auc- torum Classicorum Latinorum, cum Notis et In- 2. Family Classical Library, No. 47. Report of a Committee of the General Court of Massachusetts upon the Petition of W. Tuckerman and Others for the Repeal of the Laws against Usury. V. THE FREE CITIES OF FLANDERS 1. Histoire des Ducs de Bourgogne de la Maison 2. Histoire de la Flandre depuis le Comte Gui de VI. LIFE AND WRITINGS OF CRABBE Life and Poetical Works of the Reverend GEORGE Key to History. Parts I., II., and III By IX. ORIGIN and Character of the old PARTIES 1. History of the Hartford Convention, with a Re- view of the Policy of the United States' Government, which led to the War of 1812. By THEODORE DWIGHT, Secretary of the Convention. 2. Familiar Letters on Public Characters and NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. No. LXXXIV. JULY, 1834. ART. I.-Life of Schiller. The Life of Friedrich Schiller. Comprehending_an Examination of his Works. From the London Edition. Boston. 1833. POETS are the priests of nature, endowed at birth with the pre-eminent qualities requisite for this high function. The power, too, thus bestowed on them, unlike other human possessions, is as well secured from the detractions of envy, by the pleasure which its exercise diffuses, as it is from attack by its unquestionable supremacy. The poet speaks to the heart, and ever in a voice of music, whether, like the nurse who lulls the crying infant with song, he mingle his soothing notes with the plaints of wo, or, like the spirit-stirring trumpet, quicken the pulse's wildest throbs. He communes with the inmost soul of man: he penetrates to the source of his feelings; he analyzes, he interprets, he anticipates, he reveals them. Yet his deep insight awakens no jealousy; for he derives it from sympathy, and he manifests it in forms of beauty. It is an error of the half-knowledge drawn from superficial and partial appearances, to regard genius and common sense as incompatible. As much so are they as beauty is incompatible with strength, or uncomeliness of feature with gentleness of disposition. Genius is the original intensity of power in a mental faculty, whereby it performs its function with in VOL. XXXIX.—No. 84. 1 Examples of stantaneous rapidity and unerring accuracy. musical and mathematical genius, familiar to all, distinctly illustrate the difference between genius and talent. To reach its end, genius performs the same operation that common intellect does; but it darts from the beginning to the conclusion with such quickness, as to preclude itself from consciousness of progress, and to impress others, as incapable of understanding the process as itself is of following it,-with the idea of supernatural power. When it shall be shown that the absence of all such intuitive capacity is attended by an extra-efficiency of common sense, it will be time enough to prove that its presence has no bearing upon that quality. Cases are abundant to show the entire independence of each on the other, without going into a theoretical demonstration of it, were that admissible here. If our definition of genius be correct, it will lead us to understand the nature of poetry. Poetical genius is the intense sensibility to the beautiful. As musical genius stands to musical talent, thus stands the poet in relation to the multitude of men. Susceptibility to beauty is a quality common to mankind: the degree in which it is possessed distinguishes the poet. Crowds listen with delight to the music of Mozart, and millions rejoice over Shakspeare, through the medium of the same faculties by which these great men, possessing them in higher degrees, excelled all others. A word on the fine arts, before proceeding further in our attempt to obtain a clear idea of the poet. They might be called the poetical arts, for their essence is beauty;-in it they have their being, and according to their power to awaken the susceptibility to the beautiful are they prized. Without a high degree of this susceptibility in himself, the architect sinks to the master-builder, the musician is little more than the performer on a hand-organ. Even in the secondary branch of painting and sculpture, the copying of the living countenance, -this quality must assist at the artist's labor; and a portrait, that has not an ideal heightening, is a failure as a work of art. Herein it is, that the artist is different from and is raised above the artisan. He works with the same materials, and he needs the same knowledge of their relations and uses; but he combines them for a different end, and, lifting himself above physical appliances, appeals to feelings, the gratification of which is as much a want of human nature as that of its daily desires, |