[1] It features the poet's second play as well as some of his major works, including "The Creek of the Four Graves", "To an Echo on the Banks of the Hunter" and "Lines Suggested by the Appearance of a Comet".
[1] G. B. Barton, writing in Literature in New South Wales (1866) opined that "The dramatic production with which the volume commences is not entitled to much praise, either on the score of its poetry, or of the power of construction displayed in it; but at the same time, it contains passages which shew that it was written by a poet.
The title of the play sufficiently indicates its character...Mr Harpur has undoubtedly made the best of his subject; but it is much to be regretted that the labour devoted to it was not employed on a higher theme."
In New South Wales it will be deemed by many to approach the nature of a marvel, and will, at all events, be suggestive of novel reflection to men who, however little given to literary pursuits in the abstract, are alive to every indication of progress, and will be especially interested in the so early emergence of the higher spiritual life in a community like our own.
Public interest in the matter will doubtless deepen when it is stated that the writer of this remarkable volume, a native-born Australian, has, we believe, never been beyond the shores of this continent.