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they took shelter. Many of the cannon were moved by the fury of the wind; and they dreaded every moment either that the guns over their heads would be dismounted and crush them by their fall, or that some of the flying ruins would put an end to their existence. Sir George Rodney, in his official despatch, says: "That nothing but an earthquake could have occasioned the foundations of the strongest buildings to be rent;" and he was "convinced that the violence of the wind must have prevented the inhabitants from feeling the earthquake which certainly attended the storm."

Colonel Reid concludes his work with four chapters of a miscel laneous character, and containing many valuable observations. He treats of the storms in high latitudes; on anemometers for remeasuring the wind's force; on the adaptation of buildings to resist hurricanes; on waterspouts and smaller whirlwinds; on the apparent connection of storms with electricity and magnetism; on Arctic squalls and African tornadoes; and he concludes with rules for laying ships to in hurricanes.

We have thus endeavored to convey some idea of the nature and value of Colonel Reid's work. Following in the steps of Mr. Redfield, he has done ample justice to his prior labors; and has in every respect confirmed, while he has widely extended the reasonings and views of the American philosopher. The concurrence of two such inquirers in the same general theory gives it additional claims to our support; but though we readily adopt it as the best generalization of the phenomena of storms, we are sufficiently aware of the peculiar character of the facts upon which it rests and therefore consider the subject as still open to farther inquiry. Another theory, indeed, by an American author, renders a careful revision of it still more necessary; and if the new theory shall not succeed in supplanting its rival, it cannot fail to lead the abettors of both to a more rigorous examination of their data. According to Mr. Espy, the wind in every hurricane blows to one point in its centre; and in the case of the storm of June, 1835, which passed over New-Jersey, Professor Bache, of Philadelphia, has strengthened Mr. Espy's opinion, in so far as he finds that the objects thrown down by the wind were directed toward a centre.

But, however accurate these views and observations may be, we cannot for a moment consider them as invalidating the results deduced by Mr. Redfield and Colonel Reid in reference to the grand hurricanes which have swept over the Atlantic; and unless Mr. Espy can show that in such hurricanes the idea of a focal convergence of the wind explains the admitted phenomena, we must regard his theory as applicable only to mere atmospherical disturbances. The indications of the barometer, too, so consonant with the rotatory theory, stand in direct opposition to Mr. Espy's; and Mr. Redfield assures us that he has "not met with the statement of a single fact which is at variance with his explanations, except in two or three instances, which proved, on farther inquiry, to have been erroneously stated.*

Some insight into the physical constitution of hurricanes might perhaps be obtained from a consideration of the purposes which they seem intended to answer in the economy of nature. The sup*American Journal of Science, vol. xxviii, p. 316.

port of animal and vegetable life is, doubtless, the main function of the element in which it is carried on; and for this purpose the air of our atmosphere is pre-eminently adapted. The very processes, however, which preside over the growth and decay of organic structures vitiate the salubrious medium; and various natural causes in the interior and on the surface of our globe concur in its deterioration.

An atmosphere thus disorganized becomes the birth-place of fever and pestilence; and, if not periodically cleared, would soon be the grave of every thing that lives and breathes. That the Parent of life, therefore, has contrived some means for remedying such an evil can scarcely be doubted by those who witness daily the beneficent system of reproduction by which the decays in their own frames are so mysteriously supplied.

The diurnal rotation of our globe under a vertical sun necessarily involves a variety of movements in the aerial envelop which surrounds it; but these movements, however rapid, would be inadequate either in their rectilineal course, or even if converged to a focus, to reunite the straggling ingredients of a vitiated atmosphere. It is only by a rotatory movement, combined with a progressive velocity, that a sufficiently tumultuous agitation can be excited and propagated through the malarious mass. In the alembic of such a tornado its isolated poisons will be redistilled; by the electric fires which it generates their deleterious sublimations will be deflagrated; and thus will the great Alchymist neutralize the azotic elements which he has let loose, and shake the medicinal draught into salu brity.

After perusing the preceding details, our readers will, we doubt not, agree with us in opinion that a real step has been made in the statistics and philosophy of storms; and we venture to predict that no sailor will study these records of atmospherical convulsions without feeling himself better armed for a professional struggle with the elements. The navigator, indeed, who may quit the shores of Europe for either Indies without Colonel Reid's book, will discover when it is too late that he has left behind him his best chronometer and his surest compass. In his attempts to escape the Scylla of its incipient gales, he may recklessly plunge himself into the Charybdis of the hurricane.

Having such impressions of the vast importance of this subject, we earnestly implore Mr. Redfield' and Colonel Reid,* whose names will be for ever associated with it, to continue their invaluable labors, and to press upon their respective governments the necessity of some liberal arrangements for investigating more effectually the origin and laws of these disturbers of the deep. If we cannot bind them over to keep the peace, we may, at least, organize an efficient police to discover their ambush and watch their movements. If the bolts and bars of mechanism cannot secure our sea-borne dwellings from the angry spirit of the storm, we may, at least, track his course and fall into the wake of his fury. If the landsman is unable

Since this article was written, Colonel Reid has been appointed governor and commander-in-chief of the Bermudas, a position peculiarly favorable for carrying on his valuable researches. This appointment, so honorable to Colonel Reid, is not less so to the government.

to protect himself by ordinary bulwarks of stone, let him vitrify his walls, and oppose gables of least resistance to the tempest ;-and if these last auxiliaries of science shall fail, let him provide a subterranean retreat for the reception of his family. When there is safety either in peace, or in resistance,-where a change of direc. tion or an antagonist force are the remedies, human skill may go far to facilitate the one or to supply the other. It is only over the pestilence that walks by noon-day-over the enemy that haunts no locality and sounds no alarm-that knowledge has acquired no physical power, and can therefore wield no weapon of mercy.

For the Methodist Magazine and Quarterly Review.

WORDSWORTH'S POEMS.

The Complete Poetical Works of William Wordsworth, edited by HENRY REED, Professor of English Literature in the University of Pennsylvania. Phila delphia, 1837. I vol. 8vo.

A LATE writer in the Edinburgh Review makes the remark, that even while many of our best poets are yet alive, poetry herself is dead, or entranced-the star of the engineer must be on the wane before that of the poet can culminate again." That the remark is a just one cannot be denied; perhaps a different cause may be justly assigned. The present sleep of poetic genius is but the reaction which always follows a period of high and continued excitement. For forty years has the English ear been filled with strains of the sweetest melody, and the English heart stirred with the loftiest trumpet-notes of the spirit of poesy, roused to vigorous activity by the wild energy of the human mind in that day of great enterprises and preternatural excitements-the era of the French revolution. Within forty years the English nation has known poets of the sweetest and the strongest voice; from the mild, home-like, old-fashioned effusions of "Lamb, the frolic and the gentle," to the startling and powerful offspring of Byron's misanthropic muse ;from the exquisitely polished verses of Campbell, to the anomalous and irregular, yet splendid creations of Southey;-from the ethereal softness and oriental voluptuousness of Moore, to the stern and cheerless pictures of the poet of poverty, Crabbe. We had almost forgotten, too, that within the same period, Sir Walter Scott has stood before the world as a candidate for the honors of the highest of all arts; but Marmion and the Lady of the Lake, although abundantly popular in their day, have ceased to be spoken of: they were read, but they are forgotten-for with all his powers of description and mastery of poetic diction, Sir Walter was no poet,— he wrote nothing that could live, because he wrote nothing illustrative of human character, or that could add one tittle to our knowledge either of human nature or its destiny Shelley, too, within the same period, has bewildered himself in a maze of vain speculation, and endeavored to involve others in the same unhappiness; and too many youthful minds, fascinated by the brilliancy of his fancy and the energy of his language, have overlooked his want of good sense, and imbibed from his writings the poison of a God-less VOL. X.-Oct., 1839.

57

philosophy;-while, on the other hand, the pure mind of Montgomery has given birth to some of the sweetest poetry in the language, richly fraught with the spirit of religion, and breathing the benevolence of a heart at peace with God and man.

During all this period-nay, longer, for his earliest poem bears the date of 1786-has WILLIAM WORDSWORTH been devoted to the art of poetry. Cherishing the same high sentiments as Milton in regard to the dignity of that art; and knowing, as that great bard expressed it," what glorious and magnificent use might be made of poetry, both in divine and human things;" and feeling, in his inmost spirit, that consciousness of power which animates all who are endowed with the highest of intellectual gifts-"the vision and the faculty divine"-he formed at an early period his determination to write something that might live; and, having adopted a theory of his own in regard both to the nature and objects of genuine poetry, he set himself manfully to exhibit the high truths which are the common property of humanity, in all the varied lights of imagination and fancy, yet in the simplest language of ordinary life. With a keen sense of the value of fame justly acquired, he well knew that fame is valueless, unless as the echo of the mind's own conscious self-approval; that the praise of men delights and soothes the spirit only when it confirms, and is responsive to, the voice of conscience within us; that, although in a thousand ways a man may fix the gaze of his fellows upon himself, and obtain by the sacrifice of principle a temporary triumph,-though the huzzas of the populace may be enthusiastic, and the shouts of applause loud and universal, though his eye may for a time be dazzled by the glare that surrounds him, and his ear stunned by the echoes of a world's tumultuous praise,—it does not reach his heart, it cannot satisfy his spirit, because it is not just in itself; and he feels that he is a deceiver, while he knows that they who praise him are deluded. Knowing all this, Wordsworth chose well the better part, and determined to forego all the pleasure and profit of an immediate reputation, with a certain confidence that in laboring for the cause of truth and religion he should not labor in vain, and that the products of his industry should endure. Men err in supposing-to quote the nervous and elevated language of the philosophic poet himself" that there is no test of excellence in poetry, but that all men should run after its productions, as if urged by an appetite, or constrained by a spell! The qualities of writing best fitted for eager reception are either such as startle the world into attention by their audacity and extravagance; or they are chiefly of a superficial kind, lying upon the surfaces of manners; or arising out of a selection and arrangement of incidents by which the mind is kept upon the stretch of curiosity, and the fancy amused without the trouble of thought. But in every thing which is to send the soul into herself, to be admonished of her weakness, or to be made conscious of her power;-wherever life and nature are described as operated upon by the creative virtue of the imagination;—there the poet must reconcile himself for a season to few and scattered hearers. Grand thoughts, as they are most naturally and most fitly conceived in solitude, so they cannot be brought forth in the midst of plaudits, without some violation of their sanctity."

For many years Wordsworth was far from being a popular poet. Indeed, the man who could discern the beauty and appreciate the high-souled sentiments of his earlier poems, was reduced to the alternative of keeping his opinions to himself, or of sharing with the poet the contempt and abuse of those who were either morally or intellectually incapable of relishing his simple illustrations of natural objects, or his sweet delineations of human feeling as exhibited among the lowly inhabitants of his own hills, among "sheep-cotes, and hamlets, and peasants' mountain haunts." From the dictator of the world of letters, the terrible Jeffrey-whose frown was destruction to the hopes and aspirations of common men-to the humbler spirits of the Monthly Review, the critics made common cause against the innovator, as Wordsworth was styled; and every cur felt himself at liberty to echo the growlings of the great mastiff of the north, who thought himself, as others thought him, to have crushed one of the noblest of Wordsworth's productions, by an ex cathedra, "This will never do!"

It was a glorious spectacle! On the one hand were arrayed the literary authorities of the land, filled with all the prejudices of a false poetical taste, and all the great names embalmed in the hearts of the people of England; and on the other, the poet, almost alone, yet in the consciousness of his own power smiling upon the contest which his "adventurous song" had called into being; and still, in his retirement, nourishing his soul by communion with nature, with the mighty spirits of the past-(especially with Milton, with whose solitary soul-upliftings, he could deeply sympathize)—and with

"God-dread source,

Prime, self-existing cause, and end of all
That in the scale of being fill their place,
Above our human region, or below,
Set and sustained,"

and still, with unwavering faith in the holy impulses that urged him, pouring forth, in numerous and various verse, the solemn lessons of his pure philosophy-the self-study of a mighty mind, humbled by a sense of its own weakness, and elevated by a consciousness of its own dignity-and the flood of natural images, which, however insignificant in themselves, received a beauty and a glory from their association with the emotions of a heart which gave its own hues of joy or sadness to every object, thought, and incident. Slowly, but surely was the triumph preparing which now gladdens the heart of the "old man eloquent;"one by one were his adversaries subdued ; and here and there were voices heard, faint at first and fearful, speaking his praise. But, in the lapse of years, their number grew, and their power; the mists of prejudice were gradually dispelled; the sweet yet powerful tones of the mountain poet awoke a sympathy and an echo in many a heart; and those faint voices swelled into a hymn of praise, and now the almost universal chorus of homage to the majesty of his genius, and to the constancy of his religious devotion to his noble art, rises from every hill and valley of his native land, and from all pure hearts in her towns and cities; and even on these "strange shores" there are multitudes to be found

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