Volume II Part 41 (1/2)

Gray, we suspect, could have given a reason for disposing the allegorical attendants of Edward thus. But to proceed, ”Flower of Austria” is stolen from Byron. ”Dropp'd” is false English.

”Perish'd in the storm” means nothing at all; and ”thy look obedience” means the very reverse of what Mr. Robert Montgomery intends to say.

Our poet then proceeds to demonstrate the immortality of the soul:

”And shall the soul, the fount of reason, die, When dust and darkness round its temple lie?

Did G.o.d breathe in it no ethereal fire.

Dimless and quenchless, though the breath expire?”

The soul is a fountain; and therefore it is not to die, though dust and darkness lie round its temple, because an ethereal fire has been breathed into it, which cannot be quenched though its breath expire. Is it the fountain, or the temple, that breathes, and has fire breathed into it?

Mr. Montgomery apostrophises the

”Immortal beacons,--spirits of the just,”--

and describes their employments in another world, which are to be, it seems, bathing in light, hearing fiery streams flow, and riding on living cars of lightning. The deathbed of the sceptic is described with what we suppose is meant for energy. We then have the deathbed of a Christian made as ridiculous as false imagery and false English can make it. But this is not enough.

The Day of Judgment is to be described, and a roaring cataract of nonsense is poured forth upon this tremendous subject. Earth, we are told, is dashed into Eternity. Furnace blazes wheel round the horizon, and burst into bright wizard phantoms. Racing hurricanes unroll and whirl quivering fire-clouds. The white waves gallop.

Shadowy worlds career around. The red and raging eye of Imagination is then forbidden to pry further. But further Mr.

Robert Montgomery persists in prying. The stars bound through the airy roar. The unbosomed deep yawns on the ruin. The billows of Eternity then begin to advance. The world glares in fiery slumber. A car comes forward driven by living thunder,