Yea, in these evil days from their reading Though the Courts that were manifold dwindle And no fire from your face may rekindle Though we cannot regard the Apprentice of Lincoln's Inn' as having always been quite successful in finding funny points in his cases,' sufficient to sustain for them a claim to rank on the higher ground of independent humour, as it is too clear that he aimed at doing, yet it must be admitted that he has almost succeeded in this' Dedi by John Vaux, on a ground of trespass, to of the six carpenters,' the point of the Sed per totam curiam 'twas well resolved view. The Apprentice' has spoiled his purpose of parody by limiting the field of motif. To make a book of 'leading cases,' than his form of parody admitted, was unless with an allowance of broader fun almost to court monotony. cation.' Nothing could well be more effect ive than the point that is made on the Romeward tendency.' If J. S. shall go to Rome in three days is the standing example of an impossible condition' in these old law-books. In all the other instances, with exotic forms has given a specimen of Mr. Swinburne in his various experiments however, the desire to compass a double the French Ballade, which would be very purpose, that is, to convey 'substantial legal fun' under cover of parody, has, in perfect were it not for one or two awkwardour idca, failed, and failed nowhere more nesses in the feminine-rhymes such as conspicuously than in that imitation of Mr. snows is' and 'grows is,' which would Browning, which we cannot help thinking ordinary English form; while another point hardly be deemed happy rhymes in any was suggested by Mr. Calverley's mach hap-is that he gets over a difficulty by the expepier effort in the same line that piece, dient of such words as part,' apart,' and again, suggesting the idea of the whole book. These are a few of the Appren- identical words-an expedient, as we know, Appren-dispart-hardly rhymes in strictness, but tice's' Browningese lines-he improves a point on Mr. Calverley in adopting that not uncommon in French poetry, and sancodd, regular, rhyming couplet which Mr. tioned even by Dante in Italian, but, in Browning used with such effect in one of the very license which, as Mr. Gosse has such a case, surely introducing somewhat of his later volumes : Facts o' case first. At Milborne Port Was fair-day, October the twenty and eight, Here, precisely as in one of the other 'Leading Cases,' where an effort is made well said in his Plea for certain exotic forms of verse,' it is the special object of I hid my heart in a nest of roses, Mr. Gosse really justify such expedients in the *Cornhill Magazine' for July, 1877. Would English sonnet? What bids the lids of thy sleep dispart? Only the tick of an eight-day clock. I wait in vain for the charm that encloses The green land of dreams in sleep's mystical chart, For the fruit of its trees and the breath of its roses, More sweet than are sold in the merchants' mart. So close to its border, why fails my heart? What holdeth it back, tho' my dim brain rock? Without, the noise of the nightman's cart, Within, the tick of an eight-day clock. Envoi. Erewhile in hope I had chosen my part, To sleep for a season as sound as a block, With never a thought of a nightman's cart, Or the hateful tick of an eight-day clock. One parody of Mr. Swinburne which is distinctly ingenious and sustained, and which would have been less faulty had the subject been different and less personal, is, we have been led to believe, of American origin. It may be described as a 'glorification of the hat.' It comes too close on being offensive here and there, but parts of it are exquisite, and it runs through many varieties of the metres much affected by Mr. Swinburne, even down to a comic travesty of his famous Atalanta choruses. one bit : Before the beginning of years, An ulster, a coat, and all that- ERAL LIBRARY ICHIGAN Nor is this parodist unhappy in his blank verse, which he skilfully runs into sharpest caricature: I would fain forget the cold See Bacchus's self dancing among the grapes ; Bacchus was crowned, and rode triumphant, borne By lithe and spotted leopards out of the sea. Shall 1, an uncrowned crown, discrowned of Fate, Bare to the breath of winds Blown every way, And chill the burning brain it bears beneath? To give specimens of all the varieties of parody that are in their way worthy of citation, were impossible. Particularly do we recall a very clever parody of Mr. Browning's blank verse, with his affectedly prosaic spelling of Greek proper names, in the Examiner,' and another as good in several respects, in 'The World.' There are nowadays a whole class of clever satirical journals which make this a kind of feature, passing even into the refinements of Rondels and Rondeaus, &c., so that the supply is far from likely to fail. But it needs to be said that parody, though artificial in its nature, must not be too conspicucusly forced, else the standard of requirement will be lowered. We see some tendency in this direction already parodies are printed every week whose only claim to notice is their coarseness, and whose vulgar personality is their only point. Luckily they serve their purpose and pass; but, evanescent as this form of verse is, it has its own influence on the general taste, and it were to be wished that the editors of satirical journals were sometimes a little more alive to this point of view. II. A. P. ART. VIII.- Professor Henry Rogers. In the preface to the first edition of Greyson's Correspondence' Mr. Rogers writes: Should any inquisitive reader ask to know a little more of Mr. Greyson's history than is disclosed in his own correspondence, I answer that his biography, if ever written -and he took infinite pains to prevent any one having the materials for the purposemust be written by one who knew him in his younger days much better than I did. I apprehend, however, that there would be but little to tell. Few men ever led a more recluse life, or one more barren of incidents that could at all interest the public.' Mr. Rogers almost always wrote anonymously. 'R. E. H. Greyson' is an anagram upon his own name, so that in the sentence we have quoted he is speaking of himself. His life was singularly retired and uneventful. We might indeed recite a number of minute incidents of his personal and family history that would not be without interest to those who knew him, but any inclination to do so is repressed by the certain conviction that our late friend would emphatically have deprecated all such attempts. It is quite true that a man's wishes, in this respect, may sometimes very properly be disregarded; but we are at present not disposed so to deal with one who but yesterday was amongst us, and from the spell of whose personal influence we do not affect to be set free. Our readers will, however, not be sorry to have such a sketch of Mr. Rogers as may justifiably be given. He occupied au honourable and almost a unique position amongst Congregationalists; and by his powerful pen he addressed, in the highest regions of Christian thought and controversy, a circle far wider than the limits of his own denomination. Henry Rogers was the son of a much respected medical man, and was a native of St. Alban's, where he first saw the light in the year 1806. In his boyhood he discovered considerable precocity in the attainment of languages, and in a passion for reading. Of the two instructors to whom chiefly his early education was entrusted, he remembered with gratitude and affection Mr. J. C. Thorowgood, whose name seems to have been a symbol of his character. Thorowgood was then eighteen years of age. He had creditably completed his studies at Mill Hill School, and, with his sisters, resided near the school, and was master of the junior or preparatory department. Rogers lived in the same house, and studied with Thorowgood, till the latter left for Totteridge, and established a school there in partnership with a brother-in-law. Rogers remembered with feelings, in which there mingled little affection and no gratitude, another schoolmaster under whose tuition he was placed when separated from Thorowgood, and from whom he received no good, and whose chief function seems to have been to teach the boys how to waste their time. Those who are familiar with Professor Rogers's writings, will remember many instances in which medical pursuits furnish him with apt illustrations for adorning and enforcing his argument. His irony and his humour. - always exercised with kindliness-are frequently employed at the expense of the professors of the healing art. The orthodox practitioner, no more than the quack and the impostor, escapes the sallies of his wit. This may be accounted for by the fact that on leaving school it was towards medicine that his intentions were first directed. But the science and the art of the apothecary did not long detain him. He was soon led aside into a very different path. It gradually grew irresistibly clear to him that the Christian ministry was the path he must follow, though subsequent events proved that the form in which his prophecyings were to be delivered to the world was not yet surmised. We are not aware that any sudden light, like the revelation to Saul on the Damascus road, had fallen upon young Rogers. The circumstances of his early youth were happily such as to give him prepossessions towards the service of Christ, and to present the Christian religion in its true attractiveness; but it was the perusal of Howe's 'Redeemer's Tears wept over Lost Souls '-which, Rogers says, is deservedly ranked amongst the most valuable pieces of practical divinity in the English language that led him to solemn, definite consecration, and ere long the resolve was formed to devote himself to the | or 1833, and in January, 1837, he became ministry of the gospel. He determined to Professor of English Language and Literasubunit his powers to the best training that ture in the recently founded University Colcould be procured. Of course he could not lege. He occupied this chair, while still enter an English university. He was a engaged at Highbury, for two years. In loyal subject, of high moral character and December, 1838, he accepted an invitation of an amiable disposition, and in his intel- from Spring Hill College, Birmingham, lectual ability and attainments he was far which had not till then filled up its staff of above the average. But he had one unpar- tutors. Mr. Rogers did not enter on his donable sin, which at that time proved a duties there till September, 1839. He remore effectual barrier to his admission to mained in Birmingham for nineteen years, either of the great national seats of learning as Professor of English Language and Litethan any other doctrinal heresy, or than any rature, Mathematics, and Mental Philosoimmorality. He was a Nonconformist, and phy. In 1858 he was appointed Principal he would have knocked in vain at the doors of of the Lancashire Independent College, Oxford or of Cambridge. It is idle to specu- Manchester, succeeding Dr. Robert Vaughlate upon the effect a university life might an. He occupied this post till 1869, and have had upon him, or to inquire which for two more years, though not resident at was the greater loser by such unjust exclu- the college, he continued to lecture on Phision, the university or the student. But, losophy and on Dogmatic Theology. The shut out from the universities, Rogers could suspicion that his powers were failing, and not have taken a better course than that the desire for well-earned rest, combined to which he actually followed. He entered lead him, in 1871, to surrender professorial Highbury College, and had the advantage work, which he had followed for very nearof the bracing and stimulating influence of ly forty years. The Lancashire students, the late Dr. Halley. From Highbury he on his retirement, presented him with his went to Poole, in Dorsetshire, where the bust, in marble. This graceful compliment well-known Independent minister, Mr. Du- was a fitting though avowedly but a faint rant, was in the habit of availing himself of expression of the veneration in which he the assistance of younger men. Soon after was held. As a teacher, he inspired great his settlement there he married, in 1830, affection: he invested with a charm pecnand in a few months he was visited with a liarly his own every subject that he touched. calamity which almost overwhelmed him. It was the death of his wife; and this affliction was speedily followed by another (though only an apparent one), which had as great an effect on his public career as his bereavement had upon his domestic bistory. His voice failed him. After many vain endeavours to arrest and to remedy the growing weakness of the throat, the conclusion had to be accepted that public speaking, and of course the pastoral office, must be given up. Much to his own disappointment, and much to the grief of Mr. Durant and the Church at Poole, amongst whom Mr. Rogers had made many warm friends, the young minister-not yet ordained-was compelled to seek another vocation. After a little doubt as to the course that should be pursued, the way was soon opened, and Rogers fell into what was to be his life's work-teaching and writing. In April, 1832, he took up his abode in London, and gave himself to close study. Amongst other things, he acquired a knowledge of the Anglo-Saxon and the German languages, attainments that were necessary to qualify him for the post he afterwards held of professor of English. His first tutorship was in the college where he had studied-Highbury. He was appointed to this in 1832 For those who did not know him, his writings sufficiently serve to show that he possessed in a remarkable degree the power of presenting a subject in a luminous and attractive manner. When it was necessary to give conceit a little trimming, dulness a gentle stimulus, carelessness and indolence a grave censure, his satire never rankled in the minds of those he rebuked. If a man had any possibility of cherishing a thirst for knowledge, or any capacity for literary cultivation, Mr. Rogers would evoke it. Hundreds of students look back thankfully to his tuition for the wisdom and the inspiration of its guidance. On the ministry of Congregationalists his influence has been, and will continue to be, both wide and deep and valuable, and his memory will long be cherished. His death occurred on August the 20th, 1877, at Pennal Tower, near Machynlleth, whither he had retired soon. after leaving Lancashire College. Mr. Rogers was a most diligent and vol uminous writer. When we consider that for cot much less than forty years he was engaged in constant professorial duties, which most men find quite enough for their powers, we may well be surprised at the number and the worth of the productions of his pen. It may be remembered, how ever, that he took no part in public affairs, | It entailed immense labour, as a vast numand entered but little into society. He ber of volumes had to be searched. The dwelt amongst his own people.' In com- introduction was written by James Montpany, his genial disposition made him the gomery, but Rogers did the work. most charming of companions. He pos- But by far the most important instance sessed conversational powers of the very in which Mr. Rogers has rendered service highest order, and he exercised them with to another man's reputation, and widely exmodest unobtrusiveness. His wide and ac- tended a predecessor's usefulness, is seen in curate knowledge, his endless fund of anec- his edition of the Works of John Howe. dote, and his rare wit, enabled him to illu- There is much interest attaching to this reminate every passing topic. But he cared production of the great Puritan's writings. little to mingle in general society; indeed, Rogers's relationship to Howe was peculiar he shrank from doing so; and though his and affecting. Ilis youthful mind, as we company was repeatedly sought by some of have seen, had been deeply impressed, and those conspicuous and even illustrious men indeed his whole future career largely conwith whom his literary labours brought him trolled, by the persual of one of Howe's into contact, he seldom travelled beyond his books. While at Poole, and when looking own immediate circle. It was this love of forward to active duties as pastor and retirement-remarkable in a man so rich in preacher, Rogers had closely studied Howe, all companionable qualities-that gave him and had written his life. The bereavement leisure to produce works both numerous and we have already mentioned very nearly hinvaluable. It will, we believe, not be possi- dered the completion of this work. He ble, supposing it should ever be attempted, says in the preface: 'I began it at a period to issue a complete republication of Mr. which would have allowed ample time to Rogers's writings. Generally, as we have effect my purpose; but scarcely had I writsaid, he wrote anonymously, cither using ten the first chapter, when I was visited various designations, or indeed no nom de with a calamity which, it is scarcely figuraplume at all, so that it would be difficult to tive language to say, paralyzed for a conrecover much that might worthily be pre-siderable time all power of thought and acserved. But no collection, however com- tion.' He however bravely resumed the plete, of his original compositions, could do work and finished it, and the 'Life' was justice to the amount of his literary toil. published in 1836. Growing years appear The most tedious of his labours would not to have deepened Rogers's appreciation of appear, for his industry was taxed by his Howe, though he thinks the remark made generous desire to enhance the value of to him once by Robert Hall, that, as a minother men's productions, as truly as by the ister, he bad derived more benefit from labour he spent upon his own. Three in- Howe than from all other divines put stances, the first comparatively trifling, may together,' was rather an utterance of fervid be given of this. At the request of the admiration than one which should be in-Tract Society, he wrote an Introductory Es- terpreted literally. He, however, detersay to Lyttleton's 'Letter on the Conversion mined to undertake the immense toil of reof St. Paul,' and, to say the least of it, the editing Howe, correcting his punctuation, Essay is worthy of the Letter. St. Paul and freeing his style from almost incespreached Jesus Christ, Lyttleton admirably sant blemishes, while at the same time discoursed on the Apostle Paul, and Pro- scrupulously adhering to the ipsissimis fessor Rogers has emphasized and com- verbis of the text. Mr. Rogers modestmended Lord Lyttleton. We need not in-ly says: While I have endeavoured to quire whether the Divine Founder of Christianity and the great Apostle of the Gentiles will survive while other teachers come and go, but such a question has no impertinence when applied to Lyttleton, and we may safely say that he has received a new vitality from the good service done him by Mr. Rogers. A more noticeable instance of playing a subordinate part, and holding up the light of the genius of other men, is seen in Rogers's collection of the Letters of Eminent Christian Men and Women, which goes by the name of Montgomery's Christian Correspondent.' The work appeared in 1837, while Rogers was living in London. exhibit him in a more attractive guise to the reader, I shall think myself well repaid for much drudgery if I have in any measure attained that object.' We have heard him say that no work on which he was ever engaged so heavily taxed his patience. His reward and that of the Tract Society, by whose good offices the work was undertaken, is to be found in this, that Rogers's edition must take the place of every other, and that the patience, the skill, and the fidelity he bestowed, have so trimmed the torch of Truth as handed to him by Howe, that it will burn with a purer radiance and diffuse a wider light through coming years. |