"The Poet, it is true, is the son of his time; but pity for him if he is its pupil, or even its favourite! Let some beneficent deity snatch him when a suckling from the breast of his mother, and nurse him with the milk of a better time; that he may ripen to his full stature beneath a distant Grecian sky. And having grown to manhood, let him return, a foreign shape, into his century; not however to delight it by his presence, but dreadful like the son of Agamemnon, to purify it."-SCHILLER. LETTERS FROM ABROAD, TRANSLATIONS AND FRAGMENTS. BY PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY. EDITED BY MRS. SHELLEY. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. A NEW EDITION. LONDON: EDWARD MOXON, DOVER STREET. 1852. THESE Volumes have long been due to the public; they form an important portion of all that was left by Shelley, whence those who did not know him may form a juster estimate of his virtues and his genius than has hitherto been done. We find, in the verse of a poet, "the record of the best and happiest moments of the best and happiest minds." But this is not enough—we desire to know the man. We desire to learn how much of the sensibility and imagination that animates his poetry was founded on heartfelt passion, and purity, and elevation of character; whether the pathos and the fire emanated from transitory inspiration and a power of weaving words touchingly; or whether the poet acknowledged the might of his art in his inmost soul; and whether his nerves thrilled to the touch of generous emotion. Led by such curiosity, how many volumes have been filled with the life of the Scottish plough-boy and the English peer; we welcome with delight every fact which proves that the patriotism and tenderness * "A Defence of Poetry." |