A LIST OF BOOKS - JScholarship

30 INTEODUCTOEY ESSAY.
he uses in exhibiting it to the world.
How
shaU we help beHeving Shelley to have been,
in his ultimate attainment, the splendid spirit
of his own best poetry, when we find even
his carnal speech to agree faithfully, at faintest
as at strongest, with the tone and rhythm of
his most oracular utterances 1
For the rest, these new letters are not
offered as presenting any new feature of the
poet's character. Regarded in themselves, and
as the substantive productions of a man, their
importance would be slight. But they possess
interest beyond their limits, in confirming the
evidence just dwelt on, of the poetical mood
of Shelley being only the intensification of
his habitual mood; the same
tongue only
speaking, for want of the special excitement to
sing.
The very first letter, as one instance
for aU, strikes the key-note of the predominating
sentiment of Shelley throughout his
whole life—his sympathy with the oppressed.