In fact, Moore dwelt too much on the surfaces of things ; he
was too fond of gaudy glitter and ornament to be a deep thinker,
capable of diving into the heart of social phenomena, or of
interesting himself in any phase of humanity not surrounded
with the vulgar pomps of civilization. Want of refinement,
with Moore, was a cardinal sin, which cut him off from congenial
sympathy with threee-fourths of the human species. With the
nymphs of May Fair, with the belles of the drawing-room, with
those circles of society which can invest nature with all the
resources of art, Moore's heart beat in genuine unison. He
could also appreciate, as well as any man, beautiful scenery
interspersed with rock and wood gleaming with cascades, — here
expanding into lakes, there contracting into rivers, — and even
with towering mountains, provided they stood out in dark



ROMANTIC SCHOOL. 229

masses against a roseate sky. But if his fellow-creatures did
not deal largely in cosmetics, or if the landscape simply
consisted of

Mountains bare,
Bare trees, and the green fields,

both one and the other were more likely to provoke his censure
than elicit his admiration. Nature, as well as society, required
a brilliant setting to engage Moore's attention. He appears to
have taken an interest in both only in proportion to the amount
of gilding with which they were embellished ; and it is to be
feared he preferred all the foibles and lying vanities of con-
ventional life, entrenched beneath a large array of upholstery,
to the humbler virtues, without. It is this lack of clear insight
into humanity, that causes the poet to make up for deep touches
of nature, by false glitter and overstrained refinement ; it is this
incapacity of identifying himself with man's loftiest destinies,
which leads him to touch with lame wing the heights of philo-
sophy, and to be thoroughly at home in no other region than the
wanton bower of love. But this passion has such wide-encircling
ramifications, stretches over such an infinity of joys and sorrows,
so completely colours with its hues all the objects and vitalizes
all the energies of human life, that to be master of its emotions
is to be sovereign of a universe.
