Italia, Italia! oh tu cui feo la sorte Che in fronte scritti per gran doglia porte, Ti amasse men, chi dal tuo bello ai rai Pugnar col brando di straniere genti, Wordsworth has seen with the prophetic eye of genius that the sonnet was capable of being restored to its true dignity as a vehicle for lofty and moral reflection: and his Sonnets are perhaps the most valuable part of his works. « Scorn not the Sonnet, critic, he says, in (') one of them, which contains, in a rich enchasement of highly finished diction, thoughts as pure and beautiful as gems "Scorn not the Sonnet, critic, you have frowned, It cheered mild Spenser, called from Fairy-land The thing became a trumpet, whence he blew The Sonnet of Wordsworth, unlike those feeble and flashy fireworks which have usurped the name, rises a pyramid of calm fire, till in the last line it breaks into light, dissolving into a shower of liquid radiance. Perhaps no poem of () Vol. II. P. 125. VOL. II. 13 equal length contains more thought, majesty, energy, and true sublimity, than the following lines, the thought of a Briton on the subjugation of Switzerland.» (1) " Two voices are there: one is of the Sea, One of the Mountains; each a mighty voice; Thou foughtst against him; but hast vainly striven, Then cleave, oh cleave to that which still is left; And neither awful voice be heard by thee.» In the longer poems of Wordsworth, the Excursion, the Ballads, and indeed in all that he has written, the reader cannot fail to remark the points which we have ventured to adduce as the characteristics of his genius. The same profound and delicate appreciation of nature, the same patient and delicate portraiture even of her slightest shades and evanescent varieties the same rapturous and abstracted sympathy with this breathing world. » (2) « All about him does express, (Fancy and wit in richest dress), A Sicilian fruitfulness. » Yet, high as are these aims, and difficult as they are of attainment, Wordsworth does not stop here: his poetical horizon does not bound itself here. All that is beautiful, tender, and sublime, in external nature" the mute and the material things » – but lead him upward to a wider scene of contemplation. To him the palace of Nature is but, if we may adopt the exquisite words of Johann Paul Richter, the ethnic porch and fore-court to the great () Vol. II. P. 257. ( Lamb. . " These Temple of the Infinite in which he worships. « abilities are the inspired gift of God, rarely bestowed, but yet to some, (though most abuse) in every nation; and are of power, beside the office of a pulpit, to inbreed and cherish in a great people, the seeds of virtue and public civility, to allay the perturbations of the mind, and set the af⚫fections in right tune, to celebrate in glorious and lofty hymns, the throne and equipage of Gods almightiness, and what he works, and what he suffers to be wrought, with high pro«vidence in his Church; to sing victorious agonies of martyrs and saints, the deeds and triumphs of just and pious nations, doing valiantly through faith against the enemies of « Christ. » (1) " So lofty and so pure being his views, we need not wonder that his genius has been misjudged, and his poetry, for a while, neglected he has however, confident in the truth of his system-how justly confident we need not say-gone on rejoicing in his strength-turning neither to the right hand nor to the left, and has the satisfaction of seeing those mists of ill-judgment and miscomprehension which it seems are fated to obscure the rising of every truly great and original poet, gradually melting before the beams of Truth knowing, as he does, that (2) «Thus it is with writers who are to have a currency through ages. In the beginning they are confounded with most others; soon they fall into some secondary class; next into one rather less obscure and humble by degrees they are liberated from the dross and lumber that hamper them; and being once above the heads of contemporaries, rise slowly and waveringly, then regularly and erectly, then rapidly and majestically, till the vision strains and aches as it pursues them in their ethereal elevation. » His studies, the purity and simplicity of his life, fulfilling and exemplifying his own definition of what should be the existence of a poet- plain living and high thinking »—the high objects to which he devotes his muse, the patient hopefulness " () Milton, Reason of Church Government urged against Prelaty. (') Walter Savage Landor. Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen. Second Series. Vol. II. P. 7. with which he long awaited that change in the judgments of his countrymen which has, with a slow justice, acknowledged him to be the great poet of this century; and which will gradually but surely place him so high among the great poets of the world, appear to us to afford a remarkable similarity and parallel between him and his great master Milton, in whose words we shall conclude our remarks, applying them-as we are convinced he himself might have applied them, to the description of a poet, little inferior to himself, Lastly, whatsoever in religion is holy and sublime, in virtue amiable or grave, whatsoever hath passion or admiration in all the changes of that which is called fortune from without, or the wily subtleties and refluxes of man's thoughts from within; all these things, with a solid and treatable smoothness to paint out and describe, teaching over the whole book of sanctity and virtue, through all the instances of example, with such delight to those especially of soft and delicious temper, who will not so much as look upon truth herself, unless they see her elegantly dressed; that whereas the paths of honesty and good life appear now rugged and difficult, though they be indeed easy and pleasant, they will then appear to all men both easy and pleasant, though they were rugged and difficult indeed. () Milton. MISCELLANEA. SUB-MARINE DAINTIES.--A Wooden box, marked Conserve Artichena de Citron, Marseilles, and containing twelve tin cases, has very lately been brought on shore from the wreck of the Royal George. The canisters were air-tight, and closely filled with boiled French beans, neither vinegar nor spice was to be detected. A dish of these curious vegetables on being dressed was pronounced excellent, and, although at least fifty-seven years old, was nearly as tender and full of flavour as though it had been just purchased in Covent Garden Market. (ATLAS.) THAMES TUNNEL.-The contract for the erection of the circular staircases for foot-passengers, and also the carriage-ways, has been taken, and will be commenced forthwith. The labours of Sir J. Brunel, as regards the tunnel itself, are completed; the key-brick of the last arch on the Middlesex side was inserted by the King of Prussia, during his Majesty's visit, and the workmen have for the last month passed under the river from Rotherhithe to Wapping, and vice verså, as well as many visitors, by special orders from the directors and secretary, without the least inconvenience; but it is shortly intended to close the tunnel for a few weeks, to prevent any interruptions to the operations of the workmen while forming the circular staircases, and about the second or third week in April the Thames Tunnel will be finally opened to the public, who will be enabled to pass from one side of the river to the other on payment of a small toll, which has not |