e of the
subjects treated by the two poets: and to those who content themselves
with a superficial examination of the question--those "who have not
attayned," as Sir Thomas Browne quaintly phrases it, "to the
deuteroscophie or second sight of thinges"--these analogies may appear
conclusive; but we trust to be able to show, that between these two
great men there exists a difference wide and marked enough to satisfy
the most critical stickler for originality.

The next production of Pushkin's pen was a brilliant "Epilogue" to the
poem of "Ruslan and Liudmila"--in which he replies to the strictures
which had appeared in the various literary journals. This piece was
immediately followed (in 1822) by his "Prisoner of the Caucasus," a
romantic poem, which breathes the very freshness of the mountain breeze,
and must be considered as the perfect embodiment, in verse, of the
sublime region from whence it takes its title. So deep was the
impression produced by this splendid and passionate poem, that it was
reprinted four times before it was incorporated into the edition of the
author's collected works;--the impressions having been exhausted in
1822, 24, 28, and 35. The reader, in order to appreciate the avidity
with which the poem was read, must bear in mind the small amount of
literary activity in Russia, as compared with England, with Germany, or
with France. We shall not attempt to give, in this place, any analysis
of this, or the other works of Pushkin, as it is our conviction that
short and meagre fragments--all that our space would admit of--are very
unsatisfactory and insufficient grounds on which to judge a work of
fiction, and particularly a work of poetry in a language absolutely
unknown to almost all our readers, many of the chief peculiarities
depending too upon the nationality of which that language is the
expression and vehicle. It is, however, our intention, should the
specimens of lyric poetry presented in the translations accompanying
this notice be favourably received in England, to extend the sphere of
our humble labours, and to endeavour to Daguerreotype, by faithful
versions, portions of the longer poems (and in particular the narrative
pieces) of the great writer whose portrait we are attempting to trace.
We shall, we trust, by so doing succeed in giving our countrymen a more
just idea of the merit and peculiar manner of our poet, than we could
hope to do by exhibiting to the reader the bare anatomy--the mer