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"TIMBUCTOO."
25

poem. These productions have often been ingenious and elegant, but we have never before seen one of them which indicated really first-rate poetical genius, and which would have done honour to any man that ever wrote. Such, we do not hesitate to affirm, is the little work before us; and the examiners seem to have felt it like ourselves, for they have assigned the prize to its author, though the measure in which he writes was never before, we believe, thus selected for honour. We extract a few lines to justify our admiration. [Here fifty lines (62-112) are quoted.] How many men have lived for a century who could equal this?"[1]

  1. This notice was probably written either by John Sterling or Frederick Maurice, who were at that time joint editors of the "Athenæum." Let us honour the critic, whoever he was, who had the foresight and the courage to write such words.