Page:Biographical and critical studies by James Thomson ("B.V.").djvu/366

 350 CRITICAL STUDIES the popular (and idiotic) Moody and Sankey heaven, an infinite and inexhaustible sweetstuff shop, where all the big and little Christian babies shall suck and crunch to their heart's content for ever and evermore. IV My readers will have gathered from the previous sections that the writer considers Dr. Wilkinson's faith in a peculiar Divine inspiration of his poems not only a delusion but a delusion very noxious to them and to himself. A delusion, because in essence it is that claimed in common by all the loftiest poets, and con- ceded by the loftiest philosophers ; a noxious delusion, because it has prevented him from using his natural faculties to correct and perfect conception and expres- sion, and because it has impelled him to yield his natural sanity to the absolute sway of uncontrolled fantasy, following this flitting marsh meteor as if it were the lode-star of truth. His gain from the Spirit or spirits is a heavy loss. I find nothing in this book comparable for scope and depth and solid grandeur to the great passages of the " Remarks on the Economy of the Animal Kingdom " or " The Human Body." Nor can this inferiority be fairly attributed to a want of the gift of verse, a gift which many great writers have lacked ; for, as I have said, the poems not only mani- fest marvellous facility but likewise uncommon felicity (despite headlong haste) in the use of metre ; and if he had taken time to correct and condense, co-ope- rating with his inspiration, I have no doubt that his