_Sonnet on the Rev. Joseph Blanco White._--Some years ago, I copied the
following sonnet from a newspaper. Can you say where it first made its
appearance? After the annexed testimony of Coleridge, it is needless to
say anything in its praise.
"SONNET ON THE REV. JOSEPH BLANCO WHITE.
Mysterious Night! When our first parent knew
Thee from report divine, and heard thy name,
Did he not tremble for this lovely frame,
This glorious canopy of light and blue?
Yet 'neath a curtain of translucent dew,
Bathed in the rays of the great setting flame,
Hesperus, with the host of heaven, came,
And lo! Creation widen'd in man's view.
Who could have thought such darkness lay conceal'd
Within thy beams, O Sun! Or who could find,
Whilst fly, and leaf, and insect, stood reveal'd,
That to such countless orbs thou mad'st us blind?
Why do we then shun death with anxious strife?
If light can thus deceive--wherefore not life?"
Coleridge is said to have pronounced this "The finest and most grandly
conceived in our language; at least, it is only in Milton's and in
Wordsworth's sonnets that I recollect any rival."