The
method, if method there be, is so slight and artificial, that it is
quite overlaid and lost in the unvaried details of treachery and
violence. Hallam's sketches of the same history were greatly more
luminous and memorable, partly from the advantage of his design,
which compelled him to draw outlines, and not bury the grand lines of
destiny in municipal details. Italy furnished in that age no man of
genius to its political arena, though many of talent, and this want
degrades the history. We still remember with great pleasure, Mr.
Hallam's fine sketch of the external history of the rise and
establishment of the Papacy, which Mr. Ranke's voluminous researches,
though they have great value for their individual portraits, have not
superseded.
It was a brighter day than we have often known in our literary
calendar, when within the twelvemonth a single London advertisement
announced a new volume of poems by Wordsworth, poems by Tennyson, and
a play by Henry Taylor. Wordsworth's nature or character has had all
the time it needed, in order to make its mark, and supply the want of
talent.
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