public notice the great stores and treasures of poetry which lay hid in the records of our older literature. Akenside attempted a sort of classical and philosophical rapture, which no elegance of language could easily have rendered popular, but which had merits of no vulgar order for those who could study it. Goldsmith wrote with perfect elegance and beauty, in a style of mellow tenderness and elaborate simplicity. He had the harmony of Pope without his quaintness, and his selectness of diction without his coldness and eternal vivacity. And, last of all, came Cowper, with a style of complete originality,—and, for the first time, made it apparent to readers of all descriptions, that Pope and Addison were no longer to be the models of English poetry. In philosophy and prose writing in general the case was nearly parallel. The name of Hume is by far the most considerable which occurs in the period to which we have alluded. But, though his thinking was English, his style is entirely French; and being naturally of a cold fancy, there is nothing of that eloquence or richness about him which characterises the writings of Taylor, and Hooker, and Bacon-and continues, with less weight of matter, to please in those of Cowley and Clarendon. Warburton had great powers; and wrote with more force and freedom than the wits to whom he succeeded-but his faculties were perverted by a paltry love of paradox, and rendered useless to mankind by an unlucky choice of subjects, and the arrogance and dogmatism of his temper. Adam Smith was nearly the first who made deeper reasonings and more exact knowledge popular among us; and Junius and Johnson the first who again familiarised us with more glowing and sonorous diction—and made us feel the tameness and poorness of the serious style of Addison and Swift. Edin. Rev., 1816. Works, i. 162, etc. 218. Robert Southey, 1774-1843. (Handbook, pars. 234, 512.) The Holly Tree. Oh Reader! hast thou ever stood to see The Holly Tree ? The eye that contemplates it well perceives Ordered by an Intelligence so wise, As might confound the Atheist's sophistries. Below, a circling fence, its leaves are seen Wrinkled and keen; No grazing cattle through their prickly round But, as they grow where nothing is to fear, I love to view these things with curious eyes, And in this wisdom of the Holly Tree Can emblems see, Wherewith perchance to make a pleasant rhyme, One which may profit in the after-time. Thus, though abroad perchance I might appear To those, who on my leisure would intrude, Gentle at home amid my friends I'd be, And should my youth, as youth is apt I know, Some harshness show, All vain asperities I day by day Would wear away, Till the smooth temper of my age should be And as when all the summer trees are seen The Holly leaves a sober hue display Less bright than they; But, when the bare and wint'ry woods we see What then so cheerful as the Holly Tree?. So serious should my youth appear among So would I seem amid the young and gay That in my age as cheerful I might be Love. They sin who tell us Love can die. Its holy flame for ever burneth; From Heaven it came, to Heaven returneth; From The Curse of Kehama, bɛ. x. The Doctor's Family-Feeling. It behoves the high For their own sakes to do things worthily.-BEN JONSON. No son ever regarded the memory of his father with more reverential affection than this last of the Doves. There never lived a man, he said, to whom the lines of Marcus Antonius Flaminius (the sweetest of all Latin poets in modern times, or perhaps of any age) could more truly be applied. • Vixisti, genitor, bene, ac beate, Nec pauper, neque dives; eruditus Satis, et satis eloquens; valente Jucundus, pietate singulari.' 'What if he could not with the Heveninghams of Suffolk count five and twenty knights of his family, or tell sixteen knights successively with the Tilneys of Norfolk, or with the a From The Doctor-a book of curious learning, and quaint humour, though sometimes coarse: a modern Burton, with the attractiveness of a story of its own. Thou hast lived, my ancestor, well and happily, neither poor nor rich; learned enough, eloquent enough; ever with a sound mind in a sound body; delightful to thy friends, eminent in thy pie y. Nauntons show where his ancestors had seven hundred pounds a year before the Conquest,' he was, and with as much, or perhaps more, reason, contented with his parentage. Indeed his family feeling was so strong, that if he had been of an illustrious race, pride, he acknowledged, was the sin which would most easily have beset him; though on the other hand, to correct this tendency, he thought there could be no such persuasive preachers as old family portraits, and old monuments in the family church. He was far, however, from thinking that those who are born to all the advantages, as they are commonly esteemed, of rank and fortune, are better placed for the improvement of their moral and intellectual nature, than those in a lower grade. Fortunatinimium sua si bona nôrint! he used to say of this class, but this is a knowledge which they seldom possess; and it is rare indeed to find an instance in which the high privileges which hereditary wealth conveys are understood by the possessors, and rightly appreciated and put to their proper use. The one and the two talents are, (Oh! bright occasions of dispensing good, How seldom used, how little understood !) in general, more profitably occupied than the five; the five indeed are not often tied up in a napkin, but still less often are they faithfully employed in the service of that Lord from whom they are received in trust, and to whom an account of them must be rendered. A man of family and estate,' said Johnson, ought to consider himself as having the charge of a district over which he is to diffuse civility and happiness.'-Are there fifty men of family and estate in the three kingdoms who feel and act as if this were their duty? Are there five and forty?—Forty ?— Thirty?-Twenty?—Or can it be said with any probability of belief that 'peradventure ten shall be found there?' - in sangue illustre e signorile, In uom d'alti parenti al mondo nato La viltà si raddoppia, e più si scorge Here in England stood a village, within the memory of man, ■ Fuller. In noble and illustrious blood,--in men of high birth,--all baseness displays itself more evidently than it would it those of low station.' no matter where,- close by the castle of a noble proprietor,-no matter who. •-il figlio Del tale, ed il nipote del cotale, It contained about threescore houses, and every cottager had ground enough for keeping one or two cows. The noble proprietor looked upon these humble tenements as an eyesore; and one by one, as opportunity offered, he purchased them, till at length he became owner of the whole, one field excepted, which belonged to an old Quaker. The old man resisted many offers, but at last he was induced to exchange it for a larger and better piece of land in another place. No sooner had this transaction been completed, than the other occupants, who were now only tenants-at-will, received notice to quit; the houses were demolished, the enclosures levelled, hearthsteads and homesteads, the cottage garden and the cottage field disappeared, and the site was in part planted, in part thrown into the park. The Quaker, who, unlike Naboth, had parted with the inheritance of his fathers, was a native of the village; but he knew not how dearly he was attached to it till he saw its demolition; it was his fault, he said; and if he had not exchanged his piece of ground, he should never have lived to see his native place destroyed. He took it deeply to heart; it preyed upon his mind, and he soon lost his senses and died. I tell the story as it was related, within sight of the spot, by a husbandman who knew the place and the circumstances, and well remembered that many people used to come every morning from the adjacent parts to buy new milk there-'a quart of milk for a half-penny, and a quart of old given with it.' Naboth has been named in relating this, but the reader will not suppose that I have any intention of comparing the great proprietor to Ahab,-or to William the Conqueror. There was nothing unjust in his proceedings, nothing iniquitous; and (though there may have been a great want of proper feeling) nothing cruel. I am not aware that any hardship was inflicted apon the families who were ejected, further than the inconvenience of a removal. He acted as most persons in the same circumstances probably would have acted, and no doubt he thought that his magnificent habitation was greatly improved by the demoli The son of this, and the nephew of that, having for his mother such a one.' |