SOURCE: Review of A New Spirit of the Age. Edited by R. H. Horne, Author of “Orion,” “Gregory VII,” etc. Southern Quarterly Review 7 (April 1845): 312-33.

In the following excerpt, the critic reviews Horne's A New Spirit of the Age from an American perspective and provides a close reading of Horne's epic poem Orion.

There is some little pretension in the title chosen for this volume, of the propriety of which we are far from certain. To our notion, it is a misnomer. What constitutes the spirit of our age,—of any age? Is it the literary genius by which it is distinguished, or its intrinsic triumphs of morality and art?—Its quiet, inner, unobtrusive evidences of a contemplative soul in letters;—or its open, outward progress in strength and civilization,—those characteristics, no matter of what sort, in which a race exhibits the most earnest action, and to...