selves.

The work of Arthur Hugh Clough now before us, (we feel warranted in
the dropping of the _Mr._ even at his first work,) unites the most
enduring forms of nature, and the most unsophisticated conditions of
life and character, with the technicalities of speech, of manners,
and of persons of an Oxford reading party in the long vacation. His
hero is

"Philip Hewson, the poet,
Hewson, the radical hot, hating lords and scorning ladies;"

and his heroine is no heroine, but a woman, "Elspie, the quiet, the
brave."

The metre he has chosen, the hexametral, harmonises with the spirit
of primitive simplicity in which the poem is conceived; is itself a
background, as much as are "Knoydart, Croydart, Moydart, Morrer, and
Ardnamurchan;" and gives a new individuality to the passages of
familiar narrative and every day conversation. It has an intrinsic
appropriateness; although, at first thought of the subject, this
will, perhaps, be scarcely admitted of so old and so stately a
rhythmical form.

As regards execution, however, there may be noted, in qualification
of much pliancy and vigour, a certain air of experiment in occasional
passages, and a license in versification, which more than warrants a
warning "to expect every kind of irregularity in these modern
hexameters." The following lines defy all efforts at reading in
dactyls or spondees, and require an almost complete transposition of
accent.

"There was a point which I forgot, which our gallant Highland
homes have;"--
"While the little drunken Piper came across to shake hands with
Lindsay:"--
"Something of the world, of men and women: you will not refuse me."

In the first of these lines, the omission of the former "_which_,"
would remove all objection; and there are others where a final
syllable appears clearly deficient; as thus:--

"Only the road and larches and ruinous millstead between"
[_them_]:--
"Always welcome the stranger: I may say, delighted to see
[_such_] Fine young men:"--
"Nay, never talk: listen now. What I say you can't apprehend"
[_yet_]:--
"Laid her hand on her lap. Philip took it. She did not resist"
[_him_]:--

Yet the following would be scarcely improved by greater exactness:

"Roaring after their prey, do seek their meat from God;"

Nor, perhaps, ought this to be made correct:

"Close as the bodies and intertwining limbs of athletic wrestlers."

The aspect of _fact_ pervading "th