and the rose, the flower with sacred passion red.' A spiritual sense of springtime runs through the little book. This is the measure of it : As ordered flower succeeds to flower, And May the ladder of her sweets From scale to scale, what heart but beats? Some Presence veiled, in fields and groves And thrills the soul with such discourse As they, perchance, that wondering pair We make, 'The night is near us. . . . Stay!' In 1858 followed Mr. Aubrey de Vere's little volume of Select Specimens of the English Poets, with Biographical Notices &c., from the preface to which a few lines have been quoted. In 1861 appeared his next volume, The Sisters, Inisfail, and other Poems (Longmans). The Sisters is a touching story of the gentlest form of Irish character. It is set in discourse between two friends, English and Irish, which repeats desire for that closer union between England and Ireland which can only come of a right understanding, and will give each people strength. Inisfail is a series of lyrics founded upon traditions and facts of Irish history. Two years later, Inisfail, a Lyrical Chronicle of Ireland, in Three Parts, was republished as a separate book in Dublin. In 1864 Mr. Aubrey de Vere gathered into one volume, with a few additions, those of his own poems which he was least willing to let die. This volume, The Infant Bridal and other Poems (Macmillan), was named after a piece then for the third time reproduced, and included The Search after Proserpine. In 1866, Mr. Aubrey de Vere published a pamphlet on the Irish Church question, The Church Settlement of Ireland, or Hibernia Pacanda, in which he argued against the injustice of an endowed minority, and held that the revenues of the Irish Church Establishment should be not secularised, but fairly distributed to meet all forms of aid to spiritual life. In the following year he published another pamphlet in support of his view, examining the various Pleas for Secularisation. His next volume of poems, dedicated to the memory of Wordsworth,' told afresh old tales of Oisin and Patrick, with many kindred Legends of St. Patrick (H. S. King & Co. 1872). Then followed, in 1874 and 1876, a couple of dramatic poems, Alexander the Great, already referred to, of whom it is said that expectant centuries condensed themselves into a few brief years to work his will; and St. Thomas of Canterbury. In the latter play there is a view of Becket that would not please Mr. Froude. He upholds liberties of the Church against Henry's Cæsarism. A dramatic element in Mr. Aubrey de Vere's poetry helps to mark its family likeness to that of his father. He has not yet equalled Sir Aubrey's Mary Tudor, but from the father's Julian the Apostate in 1822 to the son's St. Thomas of Canterbury in 1876 is a period of more than half a century wherein by father and son one name has been associated with poetic work in which the educated reader feels the presence of fine taste, generous temper, and a noble aim. These plays of our day suggest others, and the question touched upon when reference was made to the dramatic work of Robert Browning may be worth fuller discussion in another paper. Dramatic poetry is not by any means in this nineteenth century extinct in England, though it has lost force by its separation from the stage. Mr. Aubrey de Vere's last volume, The Fall of Rora, is again chiefly a collection of the pieces, published heretofore, by which he is most willing to be remembered. His first published poem, The Waldenses, or the Fall of Rora, is now represented only by its best passages. The Infant Bridal reappears, and also The Search after Proserpine. A reader who cares really for poetry, knows when the song is true, and has an ear for all varieties of singing, will find the genius of Aubrey de Vere well represented by this book. The religious poems are to be in a companion volume. The Infant Bridal is a dainty legend of long strife between two kingdoms, in which two kings fell: and then counsel went forth, perhaps from some old chief bereft of all his sons, perhaps from some sad maid deserted for the war, counsel that peace should be secured by wedding of the infant son of one of the dead kings to the infant daughter of the other. With delicate touch the poet paints the bridal of the infants and their growth together from the day when they were curtained in one cradle; a growth year by year in innocence of love. Then came the time when the boy was of age to go to the crusades. for the faith, came home a man, and found his child bride changed, husband and wife whilome, now loved and lover.' No more remains of all this ancient story. They loved with love eternal: spent their days In peace, in good to man, in genuine glory : No spoils unjust they sought, nor unjust praise. Their children loved them and their people blessed— God grant us all such lives-in Heaven for aye such rest. He fought The Search after Proserpine is both lyrical and dramatic; a masque, dedicated to Sir Henry Taylor, whose name again suggests how far they are astray who think dramatic genius to be extinct in England. Mr. Aubrey de Vere treats the story of the search for Proserpine in the spirit that gives form and beauty to The Epic of The Fall of Rora, The Search after Proserpine, and other Poems Meditative and Lyrical, by Aubrey de Vere. H. S. King & Co. 1877. Hades. It is full of that deeper sense of life and its mysteries which unites ancient Greek and modern English minds. The Rape of Proserpine signified the disappearance of flowers at the end of the year; the Search for Proserpine, sad autumn; the hope of restoration. was perhaps an omen of the spring before winter sets in. The fable, however,' says the author of this Search after Proserpine, has its moral significance also, being connected with that great mystery of Joy and Grief, of Life and Death, which pressed so heavily on the mind of Pagan Greece, and imparts to the whole of her mythology a profound interest, spiritual as well as philosophical. It was the restoration of Man, not of flowers-the victory over Death, not over Winter-with which that high intelligence felt itself to be really concerned. In Lines written under Delphi, Mr. Aubrey de Vere thus puts the essence of this noble Hellenism into words of verse:- Our thoughts soar high to light our paths on earth; Their impress in man's science: stars unreached There yet remains a word to say upon one other form of the poetic interpretation of Nature, and that is simple lyric utterance of its own music by a single life. We have this from another Irishman in Mr. William Allingham's collection of his Songs, Ballads, and Stories. It contains the fresh result of genial impulses to song. Not a piece seems to have been written for the sake of writing it; each reads like the true music of the hour when it was born. There are delicate fairy strains, tales, ballads, lyric utterances both of grief and joy, wisdom in mirth, and now and then a solemn stirring of the depths; and all within the cover of one modest volume. One volume will suffice to hold the work of many a good lyric poet of the days of Elizabeth or Charles the First, and of these books some that we still read do not contain better music of a life than the collection of the songs of William Allingham. There should be placed by its side Mr. Allingham's Laurence Bloomfield in Ireland, published in 1864, a tale in verse that finds even for the nature of Irish politics a poetic interpretation. HENRY MORLEY. 'Songs, Ballads, and Stories. By William Allingham (author of Laurence Bloomfield, &c.). Including many now first collected, the rest Revised and Rearranged. George Bell & Sons. 1877. BOOKS RECOMMENDED TO READERS. METAPHYSICS AND THEOLOGY. A Dissertation on the Epistle of S. Barnabas. By the Rev. L. Cunningham. With the Greek Text, the Latin Version, and a new English Translation and Commentary. (Macmillan.) A Popular Exposition of the Epistles to the Seven Churches of Asia. By Professor Plumptre. (Hodder & Stoughton.) Christian Life and Practice in the Early Church. By E. de Pressensé, D.D. Translated by Annie Harwood Holmden. (Hodder & Stoughton.) Expository Essays and Discourses. By Samuel Cox. Stoughton.) The Methods of Ethics. By Henry Sidgwick, M.A. (Macmillan.) (Hodder & 2nd edition. SCIENCE. Physiography: An Introduction to the Study of Nature. By T. H. Huxley, F.R.S. (Macmillan.) A book of the highest scientific order for luminous method and interesting accuracy. The uninstructed reader is taken step by step from the familiar to the unknown, from the banks of the Thames up to the Sun itself, understanding each step as he goes, until he finds himself landed on a height whence a clearer and more definite picture of Nature lies before him than he has ever seen before. Old or young, of whatsoever creed or speculative belief, may safely take such a guide-book in their hands as simply containing entirely trustworthy evidence about Facts by the most skilful and competent witness attainable. A Treatise on Chemistry. By H. E. Roscoe, F.R.S., and C. Schorlemmer, F.R.S., Professors of Chemistry in Owens College, Manchester. Vol. I. The Non-metallic Elements. (Macmillan.) : Lectures on Welsh Philology. By John Rhys, M.A. (Trübner.) HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY. Memoir of Alexander Ewing, D.C.L., Bishop of Argyll and the Isles. By Alexander J. Ross, B.D. (Daldy & Isbister.) A sympathetic account of a good, it may be even said a great man, one who was an original thinker and made his mark on the world, though hindered in doing the great work that lay before him by physical weakness and a certain want of mental articulateness. Lives of the Lords Strangford. By E. B. de Fonblanque. (Cassell.) The Life and Teachings of Theodore Parker. By Peter Dean. (Williams & Norgate.) The Life of Edward William Lane. By Stanley Lane Poole. (Williams & Norgate.) Sir William Fergusson: a Biographical Sketch. By Henry Smith, Professor of Surgery at King's College. (J. & A. Churchill.) Camille Desmoulins and his Wife. Translated from the French of Jules Clarotie by Mrs. Cashell Hoey. (Smith & Elder.) Lancashire Worthies. By Francis Espinasse. Second Series. (Simpkin & Marshall. Manchester: Heywood.) Sir Robert Peel, the elder and the younger, Dalton, the chemist, Dr. William Roscoe, Dr. Whewell, and De Quincey are among the 'worthies' whom Mr. Espinasse commemorates in his carefully executed work. The Dawn of History: a Contribution to Prehistoric Study. Edited by C. F. Keary, M.A. (Mozley & Smith.) Five Years' Penal Servitude. By One who has endured it. (Bentley.) An undoubtedly genuine record of experiences of which it is not easy to get a truthful and intelligible account. London in the Jacobite Times. 2 vols. By Dr. Doran. (Bentley.) Life and Letters of Charles Sumner. Edited by P. L. Pierce. (Sampson Low). The Life of the Prince Consort. By Theodore Martin. Vol. III. (Smith & Elder.) Memorials of Charlotte Williams-Wynn. Edited by her Sister. (Longmans.) New Ireland. By A. M. Sullivan, M.P. 2 vols. (Sampson Low.) Memoirs of the Right Hon. William 2nd Viscount Melbourne. By W. M. Torrens, M.P. (Macmillan.) |