true
test of poetry; a test which many immortal verses cannot abide, for it
will bear translation into prose without loss of beauty or power: it
contains more thoughts than lines, and although abounding in high poetic
imaginings, the spirit of true philosophy which it contains is superior to
the poetry.

Of Mr. LOWELL'S shorter specimens we may remark, in contradistinction to
what has been said of the Legend of Brittany, that so far as they resemble
the _kind_ of his former productions, so far in short as they are
re-castings of himself, they do him injustice. We now feel that he is
capable of stronger and loftier efforts, and are unwilling to overlook in
his later compositions the flaws that are wilfully copied from his own
volume. The public demand that he should go onward, and not wander back to
dally among flowers that have been plucked before, and were then accepted
for their freshness. He must devote himself to subjects of wider
importance, and give his imaginations a more permanent foothold upon the
hearts of men. His love-poems, though many of them would have added grace
to his _first_ collection, fail to excite our admiration _equally_ in
this. We do not say that he had exhausted panegyric before; far less would
we insinuate that passion itself is exhaustible; and yet there is a point
where to pause might be more graceful than to go on: '_Sunt certi denique
fines._' Did any one ever wish that even PETRARCH had written more? Mr.
LOWELL then ought to consider this, and begin to build upon a broader
foundation than his own territory, beautiful as it may be, of private and
personal fancies and affections. Perhaps there is no exception to the law
that love should always be the first impulse that leads an ardent soul to
poesy. (By poesy we do not mean school-exercises, and prize heroics
approved by a committee of literary gentlemen.) On this account, it may
be, that a young poet is always anxious to walk upon the ground where he
first felt his strength, considering that a minstrel without love were as
powerless, to adopt the Rev. SIDNEY SMITH'S jocose but not altogether
clerical illustration, as Sampson in a wig. Mr. LOWELL evinces the firmest
faith in his passion, which is evidently as sincere as it is
well-bestowed. It is from this perhaps that he derives a corresponding
faith in his productions, which always seems proportionate to his love of
his subject. Let him be assured however that he is not always the
strong