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BLACKWOOD'S

EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.

NO. CCCLVI. JUNE, 1845. VOL. LVII.


Transcriber's note: Minor typos have been corrected and footnotes moved
to the end of the article. The index for Volume 57 is included at the
end of this issue.


CONTENTS.


PUSHKIN, THE RUSSIAN POET. No. I.,                             657

THE NOVEL AND THE DRAMA,                                       679

MARSTON; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF A STATESMAN. PART XVII.,           688

LEBRUN'S LAWSUIT,                                              705

CENNINO CENNINI ON PAINTING,                                   717

AESTHETICS OF DRESS. NO. IV.,                                   731

SUSPIRIA DE PROFUNDIS: BEING A SEQUEL TO THE CONFESSIONS
OF AN ENGLISH OPIUM-EATER,                                     739

HANNIBAL,                                                      752

STANZAS WRITTEN AFTER THE FUNERAL OF ADMIRAL SIR DAVID
MILNE, C.G.B.,                                                 766

STANZAS TO THE MEMORY OF THOMAS HOOD,                          768

NORTH'S SPECIMENS OF THE BRITISH CRITICS. NO. V.--DRYDEN
ON CHAUCER--CONCLUDED,                                         771

INDEX,                                                         794


EDINBURGH: WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, 45, GEORGE STREET; AND 22,
PALL-MALL, LONDON.

_To whom all Communications (post paid) must be addressed._

SOLD BY ALL THE BOOKSELLERS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM.

PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND HUGHES, EDINBURGH.




BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.

NO. CCCLVI. JUNE, 1845. VOL. LVII.




PUSHKIN, THE RUSSIAN POET.

NO. I.

SKETCH OF PUSHKIN'S LIFE AND WORKS, BY THOMAS B. SHAW, B.A. OF
CAMBRIDGE, ADJUNCT PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH LITERATURE IN THE IMPERIAL
ALEXANDER LYCEUM, TRANSLATOR OF "THE HERETIC," &C. &C.


Among the many striking analogies which exist between the physical and
intellectual creations, and exhibit the uniform method adopted by
Supreme Wisdom in the production of what is most immortal and most
precious in the world of thought, as well as of what is most useful and
beautiful in the world of matter, there is one which cannot fail to
arise before the most actual and commonplace imagination. This is, the
great apparent care exhibited by nature in the preparation of the
_nidus_--or matrix, if we may so style it--in which the genius of the
great man is to be perfected and elaborated. Nature creates nothing in
sport; and as much foresight--possibly even more--is displayed in the
often complicated and intricate machinery of concurrent causes which
prepare the development of great literary genius, as in the elaborate
in-foldings which protect from injury the germ of the future oak, or the
deep-laid and mysterious bed, and the unimaginable ages of growth and
hardening, necessary to the water of the diamond, or to the purity of
the gold.

Pushkin is undoubtedly one of that small number of names, which have
become incorporated and identified with the literature of their country;
at once the type and the expression of that country's nationality--one
of that small but illustrious bard, whose