Pare Books
Cairns

AY

11

1325 1837

PREFACE.

THE office of true poetry is to elevate, purify and soften the human character, and thus promote civil, moral and religious advancement. Poetry aids the improvement of society in a threefold manner-by inculcating reverence and love towards God, or piety—awakening the spirit of national aggrandizement, or policy -teaching the true relations of men to each other, or philosophy. All poetry which has not one, at least, of these three aims, is false to its trust, and, whatever may be its temporary popularity, will die and be forgotten.

Truth only is immortal; and as ideality, of all those faculties which man possesses, is the one gifted to ascend, as it were, to heaven, to bring thence the holy fire to illumine reason and to kindle up the moral feelings, and is also fitted for continual progress towards perfection, it follows, that individuals having this endowment in a superior degree, are delegated to discover and display those aspects and relations of truth, which God, for purposes of wise discipline, no doubt, has placed within the compass of man's genius, but has not revealed to his instincts and senses: yet this truth must be understood and obeyed before he can be good, wise and happy.

We may see, in this constitution of man's nature, why there are periods when poetry seems to decline and lose its power. These are seasons of transition; when the mass of mankind, having applied to the purposes of social and moral advancement the old forms of truth, are restless for some new development of her power, usefulness and beauty; while the poet, instead of ministering to this craving of the soul, only serves up the ancient models in new modes of expression. As easily might he reanimate an Egyptian mummy by clothing it in modern habiliments, as now impose on the world those forms of truth which made the wisdom of the Egyptians. The perfection of the

In such thoughts and feelings the soul of woman participates largely. Her heart is attuned to the music of nature, and poetry is the common language of her thoughts. She comprehends with that fine feeling portrayed by Coleridge:

"A light in sound, a sound-like power in light,

Rhythm in all thought, and joyance everywhere."

And in the last and highest region of the Muse, where the sunshine of Hope and Faith is never obstructed by the clouds and storms of this uncertain, changing world, it is the privilege of woman's nature to rise and expatiate. Devotional hymns are the breathings of her tender and trusting spirit, which feels the need of a Friend and Savior on whom to rely.

"Who the Creator love, created might

Dread not."

She can

Piety is essential to the exercise of genius in a woman. not but look upward, for her heart and imagination crave that which is nobler, lovelier, purer than actual life supplies. She was not created from "dust," and her affections are rarely absorbed by the things of the world. It is with human sympathies and loves, or the better and holier thoughts of an invisible and divine existence, where all is beauty, peace and happiness, that she communes! Hence it is that so much of her poetry is devotional. To those who think religion is all comprised in sermonizing, this term devotion may sound the same as monotony; but the subject of poetry always receives the impress of the mind through which it passes, as light takes a hue from stained glass. No person can truly estimate the genius of woman who has not moral delicacy of taste, and a reverence for things holy and divine.

We are aware that there are critics who always speak of the "true feminine style"-as though there was only one manner in which ladies could properly write poetry. Let such critics compare the poems of Mrs. Hemans and Mary Howitt-of Miss Taylor and Miss Landon-of Mrs. Sigourney and Miss Gould. Are not all these productions beautifully feminine? And yet all differ in their style of beauty. The truth is, woman has not such unlimited range of subjects as man has, but in the manner of treating those within her province, she has a freedom as perfect as his; and the delicate shades of genius are as varied and as distinctly marked in one sex

as its bold outlines are in the other. There are more varieties of the rose than of the oak.

One objection has been urged against the encouragement of female poetic genius; it has been suggested that the peculiar constitution of mind requisite for the poet, unfitted woman for her domestic duties. The remark of Moore, introduced to palliate the misconduct of his hero Lord Byron, that "men of the higher order of genius rarely show themselves fitted for the calm affections and comforts of domestic life," is applied to illustrate the danger to household order and tranquillity which the cultivation of female talent may realize.

But this reasoning is very partial and inconclusive. It was not the genius of Byron, but the passions and vices he indulged, that made him wretched, and the source of discomfort to all with whom he was connected in private life. That men of the higher order of genius are thus usually passionate and profligate cannot be shown, and will not be asserted. One example does not establish an axiom; or the perfect connubial happiness of Klopstock and his Meta would prove the case in favor of genius. Far the greater number of married poets have been, to all appearance, happy in their domestic life, some of them eminently so. The love they excited in their families has seemed like the adoration to some superior being. Of female poets we do not recollect one of any eminence who has been found guilty of disregarding or violating the duties which her domestic relations have imposed. The tenderness, sensibility and fervor which the cultivation of high genius induces, has the tendency to render objects of love and care absolutely necessary to the soul; and if it be true that "all high poetry is religious"-and, as we believe, it will ever be found that the feeling of devotion or piety is inseparable from real genius in a woman-it follows of course, that she could not indulge in any forbidden passion; her affections must be pure as they are deep; and will be lavished on those she can call her own, can love without reproach. And how deep and tender and self-sacrificing this love is when it centres in the mother, let the moving strains of Mrs. Hemans portray; and the warm, confiding and exalting affection of a sister cannot be better exemplified than in that exquisite model "Jane de Montfort," which Miss Baillie has exhibited in her own character as well as displayed by her genius.

In conjugal life there are also examples of the purest tendency. We may not quote living and cotemporary names, but Mrs. Barbauld,

Vittoria Collonna and Clotilde de Surville will be sufficient for our

purpose.

The tendency of female poetry is always to hallow and exalt the household affections. No person can constantly indulge in the contemplation of a standard of excellence and happiness without desiring and striving to attain it; hence we see why the poetical genius of woman, employed, as it has always been, to purify the feelings, exalt the hopes, sanctify the affections and beautify the humble duties of life, should have a salutary effect on the writer as well as the reader of her works.

"No one who once the glorious sun hath seen,
And all the clouds, and felt his bosom clean
For his great Maker's presence, but must know
What 't is I mean, and feel his bosom glow:
Therefore no insult will I give his spirit,

By telling what he sees from native merit."

Wherever the sceptre of a woman truly sways the Muse, the Graces and the Charities must follow in her train. And hence the enduring moral power of female genius. The poetry of man exalts the intellect, kindles the passions and fosters the pride of man; but the poetry of woman purifies the affections, refines the sense, and opens the soul to those impressions of the beautiful and the good, which dispose the heart to the love of truth and nature, to the hope of heaven, to faith in God, and a desire to be holy as He is holy!