"The preface, from which we have already quoted, expresses a hope 'that in any future recital of the names of writers who have contributed to the stock of genuine English poetry, Thomas Hood will find honorable mention. Before it can be otherwise, not only must the character of genuine English poetry be altogether changed, but with it the recollections, fancies, affections, and very nature of men. "We may be allowed to add one parting word; not of the Author, but the deceased friend. That he was a man of a most free and noble spirit, who harbored none of the grudging jealousies too often attendant on the pursuit of literature; who found no detraction from his own merits in the success and praise of another; who, beset by great infirmity of body, and many sharp anxieties of mind, could travel far out of his way to swell, with his generous pen, the triumph of a young writer, with whom he had, at that time, little or no acquaintance, saving through his works ;no one living should know better, than the writer of this faltering tribute to his memory." |