open and set forth his poetic praises and claim the laurel for his
literary merits; when the crown of song is to be conferred upon
him, we shall interpose to beg that the chaplet may be accompanied
by some mark, or some inscription which shall declare,

"This is the reward of moral excellence."

For the success of our special purpose, in this notice, which is
to consider and make apparent the specific character which belongs
to General Morris as a literary artist and a poetic creator,
to explain his claims to that title which the common voice of the
country has given to him--of The Song-Writer of America--it would
have probably been more judicious had we kept out of view the
matters of which we have just spoken. It is recorded of a Grecian
painter, that having completed the picture of a sleeping nymph, he
added on the foreground the figure of a satyr gazing in amazement
upon her beauty; but finding that the secondary form attracted
universal praise, he erased it as diverting applause from that
which he desired to have regarded as the principal monument of his
skill. There is in this anecdote a double wisdom; the world is as
little willing to yield to a twofold superiority as it is able to
appreciate two distinct objects at once.

In a review of literary reputations, perhaps nothing is fitted to
raise more surprise than the obvious inequality in the extend and
greatness of the labors to which an equal reward of fame has been
allotted. The abounding energy and picturesque variety of Homer
are illustrated in eight-and-forty books: the remains of Sappho
might be written on the surface of a leaf of the laurus nobilis.
Yet if the one expands before us with the magnificent extent, the