_Paracelsus_
Mr. Browning was known to us before, by a little book called
"Pippa Passes," full of bold openings, motley with talent like this,
and rich in touches of personal experience. A version of the thought
of the day so much less penetrating than Faust and Festus cannot
detain us long; yet we are pleased to see each man in his kind
bearing witness, that neither sight nor thought will enable to attain
that golden crown which is the reward of life, of profound
experiences and gradual processes, the golden crown of wisdom. The
artist nature is painted with great vigor in Aprile. The author has
come nearer that, than to the philosophic nature. There is music in
the love of Festus for his friend, especially in the last scene, the
thought of his taking sides with him against the divine judgment is
true as poesy.
_Past and Present_
By Thomas Carlyle.
Here is Carlyle's new poem, his Iliad of English woes, to
follow his poem on France, entitled the History of the French
Revolution. In its first aspect it is a political tract, and since
Burke, since Milton, we have had nothing to compare with it.
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