Modern Review February 1912

Himself the heir of the richest baronet in the whole of Sussex he illustraed in practice the principles of equality and fraternity which were the refrain of so many of his poems. [...] The masterly manner in which he analysed the genius of"SHELLEY'S PERSONALITY 129 the author his lucid interpretation of the story and the ease with which he translated into our language the most subtle and imaginative passages of the Spanish poet were marvellous as was his command of the two languages. [...] We can study the spirit of the Revolution Period at its best not in the theatrical pages of Byron not in the grossly one-sided picture of Burke not even in the half-sympathetic half-cynical pages of Carlyle but in the pure lyric of Shelley. [...] The danger lies not in that direction but rather in the weakening of high ideals by brooding on the memories of the past — "To lend our hearts and spirits wholly To the influence of mild-eyed melancholy ; To muse and brood and live again in memory With those old faces of our infancy Heaped over with a mound of grass Two handfuls of white dust shut in an urn of brass." One of the best cordials [...] The result of the struggle of the individual in our generation ought to be the starting-point of the race in the next.