For the person who stands in this lofty relation to
his fellow men is always the impersonation to them of their
conscience. It is a sufficient proof of the extreme delicacy of this
element, evanescing before any but the most sympathetic vision, that
it has so seldom been employed in the drama and in novels. Mr.
Landor, almost alone among living English writers, has indicated his
perception of it.
These merits make Mr. Landor's position in the republic of
letters one of great mark and dignity. He exercises with a grandeur
of spirit the office of writer, and carries it with an air of old and
unquestionable nobility. We do not recollect an example of more
complete independence in literary history. He has no clanship, no
friendships, that warp him. He was one of the first to pronounce
Wordsworth the great poet of the age, yet he discriminates his faults
with the greater freedom. He loves Pindar, Aeschylus, Euripides,
Aristophanes, Demosthenes, Virgil, yet with open eyes. His position
is by no means the highest in literature; he is not a poet or a
philosopher. He is a man full of thoughts, but not, like Coleridge,
a man of ideas.
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