these unworthy verses was not less delicate and fragile than it was
beautiful; and, where canker-worms abound, what wonder if its young
flower was blighted in the bud? The savage criticism on his _Endymion_
which appeared in the _Quarterly Review_ produced the 35 most violent
effect on his susceptible mind. The agitation thus originated ended in
the rupture of a blood-vessel in the lungs; a rapid consumption ensued;
and the succeeding acknowledgments, from more candid critics, of the
true greatness of his powers, were ineffectual to heal the wound thus
wantonly inflicted.

40 It may be well said that these wretched men know not what they do.
They scatter their insults and their slanders without heed as to whether
the poisoned shaft lights on a heart made callous by many blows, or one,
like Keats's, composed of more penetrable stuff. One of their associates
is, to my knowledge, a most base and unprincipled 45 calumniator. As to
_Endymion_, was it a poem, whatever might be its defects, to be treated
contemptuously by those who had celebrated with various degrees of
complacency and panegyric _Paris_, and _Woman_ and _A Syrian Tale_, and
Mrs. Lefanu, and Mr. Barrett, and Mr. Howard Payne, and a long list of
the illustrious 50 obscure? Are these the men who, in their venal
good-nature, presumed to draw a parallel between the Rev. Mr. Milman and
Lord Byron? What gnat did they strain at here, after having swallowed
all those camels? Against what woman taken in adultery dares the
foremost of these literary prostitutes to cast his opprobrious stone? 55
Miserable man! you, one of the meanest, have wantonly defaced one of the
noblest, specimens of the workmanship of God. Nor shall it be your
excuse that, murderer as you are, you have spoken daggers, but used
none.

The circumstances of the closing scene of poor Keats's life were 60 not