‘Verschmerzen werd’ ich diesen Schlag, das weiss ich;
Denn was verschmerzte nicht der Mensch!’—Ed.
[58] I quote concerning Mr. Marsh the following extract from Earl Stanhope’s Historical Essays, 1849, p. 242; and have permission to state that Sir Robert Peel was ‘the living statesman’ who made the observation, and who instanced Mr. Marsh in proof.—‘We have heard a most eminent living statesman observe how very erroneous an idea as to the comparative estimation of our public characters would be formed by a foreigner, who was unacquainted with our history, and who judged only from Hansard’s Debates. Who, for instance, now remembers the name of Mr. Charles Marsh? Yet one of the most pointed and vigorous philippics which we have read in any language stands in the name of Mr. Marsh, under the date of the 1st of July, 1813.’—Ed.
[59] A pocket-book for 1819, in the title-page of which these words are written.—Ed.
[60] The lines referred to are those beginning—
‘But man is born to suffer.’
In proof that not a word is said here more than was absolutely felt, I may quote a few sentences, apparently unfinished, and not meant I suppose for any eye, in which, three or four years later, the writer seeks to account for the somewhat cold reception a poem of such grace and beauty found. ‘Mr. Rogers’ little bark of Human Life, made for blue skies and light breezes, was launched in the moment most unfavourable for its prosperous voyage. The world was in a high state of effervescence, moral, physical, literary, political, and social. We were drinking deep of that intoxicating cup held out by Childe Harold, which at that time still sparkled to the brim. We had seen stars just rise above the horizon, awakening all the hope attendant on novelty, which have since disappeared. We were dazzled by the splendour of the Northern Lights, and we had not tasted the sedative waters of St. Ronan’s Well. The political world was full of commotion, and fear and hope have since subsided into certainty, which then perplexed not monarchs alone, but all who thought and felt. We were all craving for excitement, and the demand was indeed plentifully supplied. At that moment Mr. Rogers had the courage to produce a poem founded on the best and kindliest feelings of human nature—those feelings depicted with a truth and delicacy which can only be fully appreciated when there exists something corresponding to it in the mind of the reader.’—Ed.
[61] This journal is one of the many which have never reached my hands.—Ed.
[62] Marks indicate that a page had here been pinned into the journal; this, which no doubt contained the conclusion of this lecture, has dropt out and been lost.—Ed.