Mr. Boom has written a work called the Principles of
English Composition. The principles are, however, no more the princi- ples of English than of other languages ; and a man might study them to eternity without being one jot nearer to good composition. The work contains definitions, with examples, of all the scholastic figures of speech, and descriptions of the various kinds and forms into which composition has been divided,—as, for instance, Prose, Verse, Lyric and Epic Poetry ; the whole of which we consider sound and fury, signifying nothing." All the time a pupil is learning this book, the mind is starving. The character of Mr. BOOTH'S criticism may be estimated by the following passage.
"'The Deserted Village' and The Traveller' preceded those now men- tioned, and stand on too high an eminence to regard either our praise or our censure. Goldsmith was the poet of nature and of the poor. The cold-blooded doctrines of the modern political economists were to him unknown. The word country, in his vocabulary, included others besides the rich and the powerful. That compulsory emigration, which the igno- rant and heartless statesman of modern times would enforce by legal enactments, is feelingly described and deplored."
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