We can call to mind
no dissenting voice. Yet the nature, and, most especially the
manner, of the expressed opinions in this case, should be considered
as somewhat equivocal, and but too frequently must have borne to the
mind of the poet doubts and dissatisfaction. The edition now before us
may be supposed to embrace all such of his poems as he deems not
unworthy his name. These (amounting to about one hundred) have been
"carefully revised." With the exception of some few, about which
nothing could well be said, we will speak briefly of them one by
one, but in such order as we may find convenient.
The Ages, a didactic piece of thirty-five Spenserian stanzas, is the
first and longest in the volume. It was originally printed in 1821,
With about half a dozen others now included in this collection. The
design of the author in this poem is "from a survey of the past ages
of the world, and of the successive advances of mankind in knowledge
and virtue, to justify and confirm the hopes of the philanthropist for
the future destinies of the human race." It is, indeed, an essay on
the perfectability of man, wherein, among other better arguments
some in the very teeth of analogy, are deduced from the eternal
cycle of physical nature, to sustain a hope of progression in
happiness. But it is only as a poem that we wish to examine The
Ages.
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