6 AUGUST 1864, Page 22

Judas Maccabocus. An heroic poem in twelve books. By Edmund

Peel. (Macmillan and Co.)—The mind of the author is evidently

familiar with high and noble thoughts, and his verses are those of a man of cultivated and even severe taste. But neither in his conception of character nor in his diction do we find either that vigour or fertility of imagination the union of which is necessary to make a poet. If, however, Mr. Peel has not written an epic poem which is likely to live, he has produced what may very fairly rank with Southey's " Madoc."