CONTENTS OF NO. VII. The Complete Poetical Works of William Words- II. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF NEW YORK. Reports on the Geological Survey of the State of Origines Liturgica, or Antiquities of the English Ritual, with a Dissertation on Primitive Liturgies. IV. STEAM NAVIGATION. NEW YORK LEGISLATION. Origin, Progress, and Prospects of Steam Navi- gation across the Atlantic Ocean, etc. 3. Critical and Miscellaneous Essays. By THO- MAS CARLYLE. THE NEW YORK REVIEW. No. VII. JANUARY, 1839. ART. I.-The complete Poetical Works of WILLIAM WORDSWORTH, edited by HENRY REED, Professor of English Literature in the University of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: 1837. 1 vol. The Poetical Works of WILLIAM WORDSWORTH. London: 1837. 6 vols. THE era of English poetry, if dated from the birth of Chaucer, is a period of five hundred years. Resumed after a long silence during seven reigns of disputed legitimacy, from the time of the ill-fated Surrey to the present day there has been a continuous strain, often sounding in its noblest tone, and often sinking into a feeble and sickly key. If it were possible to behold at one view all the efforts of all the minds that have sought utterance in the measured words of our language-to summon, as it were, from the grave those who in the flesh had been inmates of the court, or the camp, or the garret, the poets of each age-the sinal names commemorated by Johnson, and the great names omitted by him-the most worthy of all times, down to the puniest versifier of our own day,-what a strange variety of intellect and heart would be presented!-a few of gigantic stature, many of the common mould, with dwarfs innumerable! Now to assign to each one of this throng his rightful rank would transcend the power of the boldest criticism, for no philosophy could |