Years rolled on, and the child becomes a beautiful girl :— To her new beauty largely given From deeper fountains look'd and smiled; And she had reach'd a higher state, * And thus about her youth was spread Jane's mother, a woman of a deep and tender spirit, dies; and the Sexton grieves for her, but digs her grave. To his daughter it seemed as if the world must sink within that grave: still she has sacred duties to perform towards her aged father, and she performs them duly. One season of mournful meditation she claims for herself,-the silent hour of summer dawn,-during which she tends the flowers on her parent's grave, or sits beside, with the Bible resting upon it. Whilst so engaged one morning, she hears a voice beyond the old yew-tree in the churchyard, half in sobs of grief, and half in prayer: it is that of a youth kneeling by his widowed mother's grave : They meet again, and love, though sickness has already marked Henry, the orphan youth, for her own:— Retired and staid was Henry's look, But then at sight of bird or flower, Most flash'd his light when near him shone Whose looks re-echoing every tone, Paid heartfelt words with smiles as true.'-p. 34. The thrifty Sexton at first opposes the lovers' union, except upon the condition of Henry's becoming his assistant in manual labour, but at last gives a general consent, if the parties should remain of the same mind when the spring returned. But ere the winter is past, Jane has watched by the death-bed of her promised husband, and she herself has taken a death-chill. When spring returns, the aged Sexton is left alone on the earth. Upon the spring-clad fields and woods, The churchyard graves and tall church-tower, It whispers o'er the wakening ground, But But round that hoar and haggard man On which no dial meets the eye; A black mill-wheel with grass o'ergrown, Dark palsied mass of severed rock, A shattered grave-stone's time-worn block That only shows the name of―Jane.'—p. 99. 6 We have not noticed parts of this poem, in which the Author shows himself master of a rich vein of classical fancy, as in the fourth and eighth parts; but we read them and the other pieces in the volume of the same kind with pleasure. Amongst these we distinguish Aphrodite,' and 'Dædalus,' although we are not sure that we exactly understand the mythus of this latter poem. The last in the volume, Joan d'Arc,' is a very highly-finished composition, and may be regarded as one of the most successful specimens of versification that have appeared within recent years. We feel confident that, notwithstanding the length of our preceding extracts, the closing apostrophe to the martyred heroine will be read with more or less of the admiration which it excited in us: 'Faithful maiden, gentle heart! Thus our thoughts of grief depart; Where the deep-dyed western sky And And on distant dateless hills Each high peak with radiance fills. And o'er all the beech-crowned meadow, Whom their hour acknowledged not, 'Mid those softest yellow rays To her last eternal home.'-p. 245. We have no wish, in calling attention to a volume of such general excellence as this of Mr. Sterling's, to notice petty defects. We would only venture to caution the Author against an occasional tendency to exaggeration of tone and sentiment, fatally injurious to the lasting influence of poetry. We just refer, as one instance, to the poem entitled Mirabeau,' which appears to us written rather too soon after the study of Mr. Carlyle. It seems to us, also, that such expressions as VOL. LXVI. NO. CXXXI. and 'Thou sky, whose dome, above them bent, 'Thou pervading Soul of All' (p. 32)— and others similar, in different parts of this volume, are neither accurate nor safe, and, literally taken, import or insinuate a doctrine equally remote, we are confident, from Mr. Sterling's philosophy and his religion. We trust, however, that these poems will be read as much as they seem to us justly to deserve; and that their author will in due time, and under proper conditions, be able to present to the world other and still maturer fruits of his genius. ART. VI.-1. An Examination of the new Form of the Statutes, Titt. IV. V., with Hints for establishing a System of Professo rial Teaching. By Robert Hussey, B.D., Censor of Christ Church. Oxford. 1839. 2. Hints on the Formation of a Plan for the safe and effectual Revival of the Professorial System in Oxford. Addressed to the Rev. the Warden of New College by a Resident Member of Convocation. Oxford. 1839. 3. Considerations of a Plan for combining the Professorial System with the System of Public Examinations in Oxford. By a Tutor of a College. Oxford. 1839. THE HE University of Oxford holds such a place in all that relates to the Church, to education, and consequently to the wellbeing and very existence of the nation, that we cannot conceal the interest which we feel in her doings at a very important con juncture. We are not about to plunge into the discussion of the University's theoretical constitution; this would require a book, and a heavy one; but it is not beyond the compass few pages to give some account of what has been done and is doing, and what is the general feeling of the parties immediately interested in reference to the continual and real improvement of the system. of a The three pamphlets above named are by no means the only signs of excitement on the subject; but they are the most considerable and the most original. Mr. Hussey's is very important, from his position on such a foundation as that of Christ Church, and from the public offices in which he has lately served the University. But it has still more real claims to attention: it is the production of an experienced, able man; characterised by clearness of views, and caution in practical matters. We miss |