Page:Ferrier's Works Volume 3 "Philosophical Remains" (1883 ed.).djvu/548

538 which the poet gives utterance may be altogether unobjectionable in themselves, and yet their introduction may have the effect of ruining his poetry in the estimation of all competent judges. So delicate a thing is poetical composition, that a poet is almost sure to mar the effect of his best creations whenever he attempts to mix up mere subjective feeling with the objective ideas of beauty and sublimity which are imparting their own tenderness and their own grandeur to his compositions. As an instance of this, let me read to you the following passage from Lord Byron, descriptive of the Cataract of Velino:—