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upon the trees outside told that the light had its origin in a flickering fire only the visitor after the third knocking stepped a little to the left in order to gain a view of the interior and threw back the hood from her face the dancing yellow revealed the fair and anxious countenance of inside the house this was enough to the room distinctly and to show that the furniture of the cottage was superior to what might have been expected from so an exterior it also showed to that the room was empty beyond the light quiver and of the flames nothing moved or was audible therein she turned the handle and entered throwing off the cloak which enveloped her under which she appeared without hat or bonnet and in the sort of half country people ordinarily dine in then advancing to the foot of the staircase she called distinctly but somewhat fearfully c mrs no answer with a look of relief and regret combined that ease came to the heart and disappointment to the brain paused for several minutes as if how to act to wait she sat a pair of eyes down on a chair the minutes drew on and after sitting on the thorns of impatience for half an hour she searched her pocket took a letter and tore off the blank leaf then taking out a pencil she wrote upon the paper dear mrs i have been to visit you i wanted much to see you but i cannot wait any longer i came to beg you not to execute the threats you have repeated to me do not i you mrs let any one know i ran away from home it would ruin me with him and break my heart i will do anything for you if you will be kind to me in the name of our common womanhood do not i you make a scandal of me yours she folded the note directed it and placed it on the table then again drawing the hood over her curly head she emerged silently as she had come whilst this episode had been in action at mrs s cottage knight had gone from the into the drawing room and found mrs there alone has vanished upstairs or somewhere she said and i have been reading an article in an old number of the present that i lighted on by chance a short time ago it is an article you once told us was yours well harry with due deference to your literary powers allow me to say that this is all nonsense in my opinion what is it about said knight taking up the paper and reading there don t get red about it own that experience has taught you to be more charitable i have never read such sentiments in my life a pair of eyes from a man i mean there i forgive you it was before you knew c oh yes said knight looking up c i remember now the text of that sermon was not my own at all but was suggested to me by a young man named smith the same whom i have mentioned to you as coming from this parish i thought the idea rather ingenious at the time and enlarged it to the weight of a few guineas because i had nothing else in my head which idea do you call the text i am curious to know that well this said knight somewhat unwillingly that experience teaches and your sweetheart no less than your tailor is necessarily very imperfect in her duties if you are her first patron and the sweetheart who is graceful under the kiss must be supposed to have had some practice in the trade and do you mean to say that you wrote that upon the strength of another man s remark without having tested it by practice yes indeed i do then i think it was for and unfair and how do you know it is true i expect you regret it now since you bring me into a serious mood i will speak candidly i do believe that remark to be perfectly true and having written it i would defend it anywhere but i do often regret having ever written it as well as others of the sort i have grown older since and i find such a tone of writing is calculated to do harm in the world every literary jack becomes a gentleman if he can only pen a few indifferent upon women themselves too have taken to the trick and so upon the whole i begin to be rather ashamed of my companions ah henry you have fallen in love since and it a a a pair of blue eyes makes a difference said mrs with a faint tone of that s true but that is not my reason c having found that in a case of your own experience a so called goose was a swan it seems absurd to deny such a possibility in other men s experiences you can hit cousin said knight you are like the boy who puts a stone inside his and i shall play with you no longer excuse me i am going for my evening stroll though knight had spoken this incident and conversation had caused him a sudden depression coming rather singularly just after his discovery that had known what it was to love warmly before she had known him his mind dwelt upon the subject and the familiar pipe he smoked whilst pacing up and down the path failed to be a solace he thought again of those idle words hitherto quite forgotten about the first kiss of a girl and the theory seemed more than reasonable of course their sting now lay in their bearing on under knight s kiss had certainly been a very different	45
woman from herself under s whether for good or for ill she had well learnt a lady s part and the fascinating finish of her in this second campaign did probably arise from her encouragement of knight with all the rapidity of jealous upon some words she had let fall about an which he had only partially understood at the time it was during that kiss by the little we must be careful i lost the other by doing this a flush which had in it as much of wounded pride as of sorrow passed over knight as he thought of what he had so frequently said to her in his simplicity i a pair of blue eyes always meant to be the first comer in a woman s heart fresh lips or none for me how blind he must have seemed to this mere girl how she must have laughed at him inwardly he absolutely as he thought of the confession she had wrung from him on the boat in the darkness of night the one conception which had sustained his dignity when drawn out of his shell on that occasion that of her charming ignorance of all such matters how absurd it was this man whose imagination had been fed up to size by lonely study and silent observations of his kind whose emotions had been drawn out long and delicate by his seclusion like plants in a cellar was now absolutely in pain moreover several years of poetic study and if the truth must be told poetic efforts had tended to develop the side of his constitution still further in proportion to his active faculties it was his belief in the absolute of to which had constituted her charm he began to think it was as hard to be earliest in a woman s heart as it was to be first in the pool of that knight should have been thus constituted that s second lover should not have been one of the great mass of bustling mankind little given to whose good nature might have for any lack of was the chance of things that her throbbing self heart should have to defend itself against the keen scrutiny and logical power which knight now that his suspicions were awakened would sooner or later be sure to exercise against her was her misfortune a miserable was apparent in the circumstance of a strong mind its upon a heart which the owner of that mind loved better than his own s devotion to knight was now its own a pair of blue eyes enemy clinging to him so she taught him in time to presume upon that devotion a lesson men are not slow to learn a slight occasionally would have done him no harm and would have been a world of advantage to her but she him and was proud to be his bond servant a worm v the bud one day the said c let us go to the again and without consulting her wishes he moved as if to start at once the cliff of our dreadful adventure she inquired with a shudder death me in the face in the person of that cliff nevertheless so entirely had she sunk her individuality in his that the remark was not uttered as an and she immediately prepared to accompany him no not that place said knight it is ghastly to me too that other i mean what is its name windy windy was the second cliff in height along that coast and as is frequently the case with the natural features of the globe no less than with the intellectual features of men it enjoyed the reputation of being the first moreover it was the cliff to which had ridden with smith on a well remembered morning of his summer visit so though thought of the former cliff had caused her to shudder at the perils to which her lover and a of blue self had there been exposed by being associated with knight only it was not so objectionable as windy that place was worse than gloomy it was a perpetual reproach to her but not liking to refuse she said it is further than the other yes but you can ride c and will you too no walk a of her original arrangement with some must be hanging over her head but she ceased very well harry i ll ride she said meekly a quarter of an hour later she was in the saddle but how different the mood from that of the former time she had indeed given up her position as queen of the less to be of the greater here was no showing off now no out of sight with to and tire her companion no remarks on la dame was with the very intensity of her love knight did most of the talking along the journey silently listened and entirely resigned herself to the motions of the horse upon which she sat alternately rising and sinking gently like a sea bird upon a sea wave when they had reached the limit of a s possibilities in walking knight tenderly lifted her from the saddle tied the horse and on with her to the seat in the rock knight sat down and drew beside him and they looked over the sea two or three degrees above that melancholy and level line the ocean horizon hung a sun of brass with no visible rays in a sky of hue it was a sky the sun did not or as is usual at this sheet of sky was met by the salt mass of gray water here and there with a pair of blue eyes white a of occasionally rose to their faces which was probably spray from the blows of the sea upon the foot of the cliff wished it could be a longer	45
time ago that she had sat there with as her lover and agreed to be his wife the significant of that time to the present was another item to add to the list of passionate fears which were with her now yet knight was very tender this evening and sustained her close to him as they sat not a word had been uttered by either since sitting down when knight said looking still afar i wonder if any lovers in past years ever sat here with arms locked as we do now probably they have for the place seems formed for a seat her recollection of a well known pair who had and the much talked of loss which had ensued and how the young man had been sent back to look for the missing article led to glance down to her side and behind her back many people who lose a involuntarily give a momentary look for it in passing the spot ever so long afterwards they do not often find it in turning her head saw something shine weakly from a in the rocky only for a few minutes during the day did the sun light the to its and but these were the minutes now and its level rays did the good or evil turn of revealing the lost ornament s thoughts instantly to the words she had uttered upon what had been going on when the was lost and she was immediately seized with a that knight on seeing the object would be reminded of her words her instinctive act therefore was to secure it privately it was so deep in the crack that could not pull it out with her hand though she made several trials a pair of blue eyes what are you doing said knight noticing her attempts and looking behind him likewise she had the endeavour but too late knight peered into the joint from which her hand had been withdrawn and saw what she had seen he instantly took a from his pocket and by dint of and brought the out upon open ground it is not yours surely he inquired yes it is she said quietly well that is a most extraordinary thing that we should find it like this knight then remembered more circumstances c what is it the one you have told me of yes the unfortunate remark of hers at the kiss came into his mind if eyes were ever an index to be trusted trying to repress the words he yet spoke on the subject more to obtain assurance that what it had seemed to imply was not true than from a wish to into were you really engaged to be married to that lover he said looking straight forward at the sea again c yes but not exactly yet i think i was engaged to be married he murmured it would have been called a secret engagement i suppose but don t look so disappointed don t blame me no no why do you say no no in such a way sweetly enough but so barely knight made no direct reply to this i told you once he said following out his thoughts that i never kissed a woman as a sweetheart until i kissed you a kiss is not much i suppose and it happens to few young people to be able to avoid all and a pair of blue eyes attentions except from the one they afterwards marry but i have peculiar weaknesses and because i have led a peculiar life i must suffer for it i suppose i had hoped well what i had no right to hope in connection with you you naturally granted your former lover the privileges you grant me a yes came from her like the last sad whisper of a breeze and he used to kiss you of course he did yes and perhaps you allowed him a more free manner in his love making than i have shown in mine no i did not this was rather more spoken but he adopted it without being allowed yes how much i have made of you and how i have kept aloof said knight in deep and shaken tones so many days and hours as i have hoped in you i have feared to kiss you more than those two times and he made no scruples to she crept closer to him and trembled as if with cold her dread that the whole story with random additions would become known to him caused her manner to be so agitated that knight was alarmed and perplexed into stillness the actual innocence which made her think so fearfully of what as the world goes was not a great matter her apparent guilt it may have said to knight that a woman who was so in the must have a to her tale i know continued knight with an indescribable drag of manner and i know i am scrupulous about you that i want you too exclusively mine in your past before you knew me from your very cradle i wanted to think you had been mine i would make you mine by main force he went on vehemently i can t help this jealousy over you it is my nature and must be so and i hate a a pair of blue eyes the fact that you have been before yes hate it she drew a long deep breath which was half a sob knight s face was hard and he never looked at her at all still fixing his gaze far out to sea which the sun had now resigned to the shade in high places it is not long from sunset to night dusk being in a measure banished and though only evening where they sat it had been twilight in the valleys for half an hour upon	45
the dull expanse of sea there gradually itself into existence the gleam of a distant light ship when that lover first kissed you was it in such a place as this yes it was you don t tell me anything but what i out of you why is that why have you suppressed all mention of this when casual confidences of mine should have suggested confidence in return on board the why were you so secret it seems like being made a fool of to think that when i was teaching you how desirable it was that we should have no secrets from each other you were in words but in act me confidence would have been so much more promising for our happiness if you had had confidence in me and told me willingly i should be different but you suppress everything and i shall question you did you live at at that time c yes she said faintly where were you when he first kissed you c sitting in this seat ah i thought so said knight rising and facing her and that accounts for everything the exclamation which you explained and all forgive the harsh word forgive it he smiled a surface smile as he continued what a poor mortal i am a of blue ey s to play second fiddle in everything and to be by oh don t say it don t harry c where did he kiss you besides here c sitting on a tomb in the churchyard and other places she answered with slow never mind never mind he exclaimed on seeing her tears and i don t want to grieve you i don t care but knight did care it makes no difference you know he continued seeing she did not reply c i feel cold said shall we go home yes it is late in the year to sit long out of doors we ought to be off this ledge before it gets too dark to let us see our footing i the horse is impatient knight spoke the merest commonplace to her now he had hoped to the last moment that she would have volunteered the whole story of her first attachment it grew more and more distasteful to him that she should have a secret of this nature such entire confidence as he had pictured as about to exist between himself and the innocent young wife who had known no lover s tones save his was this its beginning he lifted her upon the horse and they went along the poison of suspicion was doing its work well an incident occurred on this homeward journey which was long remembered by both as adding shade to shadow knight could not keep from his mind the words of adam s reproach to eve in paradise lost and at last whispered them to himself and by him thou i by thee c what did you say inquired it was only a quotation they had now dropped into a hollow and the church tower made its appearance against the pale evening a pair of sky its lower part being hidden by some intervening trees being denied an answer was looking at the tower and trying to think of some quotation she might use to regain his tenderness after a little thought she said in winning tones c thou hast been my hope and a strong tower for me against the enemy they passed on a few minutes later three or four birds were seen to fly out of the tower the strong tower moves said knight with surprise a corner of the square mass swayed forward sank and vanished a loud followed and a cloud of dust arose where all had previously been so clear the church have done it said at this minute mr was seen approaching them he came up with a bustling apparently much engrossed by some business in hand c we have got the tower down i he exclaimed it came rather quicker than we intended it should the first idea was to take it down stone by stone you know in doing this the crack considerably and it was not believed safe for the men to stand upon the walls any longer then we decided to it and three men set to work at the corner this afternoon they had left off for the evening intending to give the final blow to morrow morning and had been home about half an hour when down it came a very successful job a very fine job indeed but he was a tough old fellow in spite of the crack here mr wiped from his face the perspiration his excitement had caused him c poor old tower said c yes i am sorry for it said knight it was an interesting piece of antiquity a local record of local art ah but my dear sir we shall have a new one a pair of eyes mr c a splendid tower designed by a first rate london man in the style of art and full of christian feeling indeed said knight oh yes not in the barbarous clumsy architecture of this neighbourhood you see nothing so rough and pagan anywhere else in england when the men are gone i would advise you to go and see the church before anything further is done to it you can now sit in the and look down the through the west arch and through that far out to sea in fact said mr significantly if a wedding were performed at the altar to morrow morning it might be witnessed from the deck of a ship on a voyage to the south seas with a good glass however after dinner when the moon has risen go up and see for yourselves knight assented with feverish readiness he had decided within	45
the last few minutes that he could not rest another night without further talk with upon the subject which now divided them he was determined to know all and relieve his in some way would gladly have escaped further converse alone with him that night but it seemed inevitable just after they left the house how little any expectation of the moonlight prospect which was the reason of their pilgrimage had to do with knight s real motive in getting the gentle girl again upon his arm no less than himself well knew had i before i it was now october and the night air was chill after looking to see that she was well wrapped up knight took her along the path they had ascended so many times in each other s company when doubt was a thing unknown on reaching the church they found that one side of the tower was as the had stated entirely removed and lying in the shape of rubbish at their feet the tower on its eastern side still was firm and might have the shock of storms and the siege of years for many a generation even now they entered by the side door went eastward and sat down by the altar steps the heavy arch the of tower and formed to night a black frame to a distant misty view stretching for westward just outside the arch came the heap of fallen stones then a portion of churchyard then the wide and sea behind it was a which had never been possible since the first attached the old tower to the older church it dignified and hence must be supposed to have had an interest apart from that of simple moonlight on ancient wall and sea and shore any a pair op blue eyes mention of which has by this time it is to be feared become one of the cries which are heard but not regarded rays of crimson blue and purple shone upon the twain from the east window behind them wherein saints and angels with each other in primitive surroundings of landscape and sky and threw upon the pavement at the feet a softer of the same hues amid which the shadows of the two living heads of knight and were and prominent presently the moon became covered by a cloud and the died away there it is gone said knight i ve been thinking that this place we sit on is where we may hope to kneel together soon but i am restless and uneasy and you know why before she replied the moonlight returned again that portion of churchyard within their view it brightened the near part first and against the background which the cloud shadow had not yet uncovered stood brightest of all a white the tomb of young knight still alive on the subject of s secret thought of her words concerning the kiss that it once had occurred on a tomb in this churchyard he said with a superficial which did not half cover an of reproach do you know i think you might have told me voluntarily about that past of kisses and without giving me so much uneasiness and trouble was that the tomb you alluded to as having sat on with him she waited an instant yes she said the of his random shot startled knight though considering that almost all the other in the churchyard were upright upon which nobody could possibly sit it was not so wonderful did not even now go on with the explanation a pair of blue eyes her lover wished to have and her began to him as before he was inclined to read her a lecture why don t you tell me all he said somewhat indignantly there is not a single subject upon which i feel more strongly than upon this that everything ought to be cleared up between two persons before they become husband and wife see how desirable and wise such a course is in order to avoid disagreeable in the form of discoveries afterwards for a secret of no importance at all may be made the basis of some misunderstanding only because it is discovered and not confessed they say there never was a couple of whom one had not some secret the other never knew or was intended to know this may or may not be true but if it be true some have been happy in spite rather than in consequence of it if a man were to see another man looking significantly at his wife and she were blushing crimson and appearing startled do you think he would be so well satisfied with for instance her truthful explanation that once to her great annoyance she accidentally fainted into his arms as if she had said it voluntarily long ago before the circumstance occurred which forced it from her suppose that admirer you spoke of in connection with the tomb yonder should turn up and bother me it would our lives if i were then half in the dark as i am now knight spoke the latter sentences with growing force it cannot be she said why not he asked sharply was distressed to find him in so stern a mood and she trembled in a confusion of ideas probably not intending a wilful she answered hurriedly a pair of blue eyes if he s dead how can you meet him is he dead oh that s different altogether said knight immensely relieved but let me see what did you say about that tomb and him that s his tomb she continued faintly what was he who lies buried there the man who was your lover knight asked in a distinct voice yes and i didn t love him or encourage him but you let him kiss you you said so you know she made no	45
reply why said knight circumstances by degrees you surely said you were in some degree engaged to him and of course you were if he kissed you and now you say you never encouraged him and i have been you said i am almost sure you did that you were sitting with him on that tomb good god he cried suddenly starting up in anger are you telling me why should you play with me like this i ll have the right of it we shall never be happy there s a upon us or me or you and it must be cleared off before we marry knight moved away as if to leave her she jumped up and clutched his arm don t go harry don t tell me then said knight sternly and remember this no more or upon my soul i shall hate you heavens that i should come to this to be made a fool of by a girl s don t don t treat me so cruelly o harry harry have pity and withdraw those dreadful words i am truthful by nature i am and i don t know how i came to make you but i was frightened she quivered so in her that she shook him with her did you say you were sitting on that tomb he asked ab a pair of eyes yes and it was true then how in the name of heaven can a man sit upon his own tomb that was another man forgive me harry won t you c what a lover in the tomb and a lover on it t yes then there were two before me i suppose so now don t be a silly woman with your supposing i hate all that said knight contemptuously almost well we learn strange things i don t know what i might have done no man can say into what shape circumstances may him but i hardly think i should have had the conscience to accept the of a new lover whilst sitting over the poor remains of the old one upon my soul i don t knight in moody meditation continued looking towards the tomb which stood staring them in the face like an ghost c but you wrong me oh so she cried i did not any such thing believe me harry i did not it only happened so quite of itself well i suppose you didn t intend such a thing he said nobody ever does he sadly continued and him in the grave i never once loved i suppose the second lover and you as you sat there vowed to be faithful to each other for ever only replied by quick heavy showing she was on the brink of a sob you don t choose to be anything but reserved then he said of course we did she responded of course you seem to treat the subject very lightly it is past and is nothing to us now it is a nothing which though it may make a pair of eyes a careless man laugh cannot but make a genuine one grieve it is a very pain tell me straight through all of it never o harry how can you expect it when so little of it makes you so harsh with me now listen to this you know that what you have told only the fancies in one after all the feeling i have about it would be called and is mere and i don t want you to suppose that an ordinary previous engagement of a straightforward kind would make any practical difference in my love or my wish to make you my wife but you seem to have more to tell and that s where the wrong is is there more not much more she wearily answered knight preserved a grave silence for a minute not much more he said at last i should think not indeed his voice assumed a low and steady pitch you must not mind my saying a strange sounding thing for say it i shall it is this that if there were much more to add to an account which already all the particulars that a broken marriage engagement could possibly include with propriety it must be some exceptional thing which might make it impossible for me or any one else to love you and marry you knight s disturbed mood led him much further than he would have gone in a moment and even as it was had she been to any degree he would not have been so and had she been a stronger character more practical and less imaginative she would have made more use of her position in his heart to influence him but the confiding tenderness which had won him is ever accompanied by a sort of self to the stream of events leading every such woman to trust more to the kindness of fate for good results than to any argument of her own a pair op blue eyes well well he murmured c i won t say it is your fault it is my ill luck i suppose i had no real right to question you everybody would say it was but when we have misunderstood we feel injured by the subject of our misunderstanding you never said you had had nobody else here making love to you so why should i blame you i beg your pardon no no i would rather have your anger than that cool politeness do drop that harry why should you inflict that upon me it me to the level of a mere acquaintance you do that with me why not confidence for confidence yes but i didn t ask you a single question with regard to your past i didn t wish	45
his reverie was broken by the sound of wheels and a horse s tramp the door opened to admit the surgeon lord and a mr for the division who had been attending at castle that very day and was having an after dinner chat with the doctor when lord arrived next came two female nurses and some mr after a examination pronounced the woman dead from induced by intense pressure on the organs and arrangements were made that the inquiry should take place on the following morning before the return of the to st s shortly afterwards the house of the widow was deserted by all its living occupants and she abode in death as she had in her life during the past two years entirely alone yea happy shall he be that thee as thou hast served us sixteen hours had passed knight was entering the ladies at the upon his return from attending the touching the death of mrs was not in the apartment mrs made a few inquiries concerning the verdict and circumstances then she said the came this morning the minute after you left the house there was only one letter for you and i have it here she took a letter from the lid of her and handed it to him knight took the but struck by its appearance murmured a few words and left the room the letter was fastened with a black seal and the handwriting in which it was addressed had lain under his eyes long and only the evening before knight was greatly agitated and looked about for a spot where he might be secure from interruption it was the season of heavy which lay on the in shady places all the day long nevertheless he entered a small patch of neglected grass enclosed a pair of blue by the and there the letter which he had opened on his way thither the handwriting the seal the paper the words all had told on the instant that the letter had come to him from the hands of the widow now dead and cold he had instantly understood that the unfinished notes which caught his eye were intended for nobody but himself he had remembered some of the words of in her sleep on the steamer that somebody was not to fell him of something or it would be her ruin a circumstance hitherto deemed so trivial and that he had well nigh forgotten it all these things into him an emotion intense in power and distressing in quality the paper in his hand quivered as he read the valley sir a woman who has not much in the world to lose by any censure this act may bring upon her wishes to give you some hints concerning a lady you love if you will to accept a warning before it is too late you will notice what your correspondent has to say you are deceived can such a woman as this be worthy one who encouraged an honest youth to love her then him so that he died one who next took a man of no birth as a lover who was forbidden the house by her father c one who secretly left her home to be married to that man met him and went with him to london one who for some reason or other returned again unmarried c one who in her after correspondence with him went so far as to address him as her husband one who wrote the enclosed letter to ask me who a pair op blue better than anybody else knows the story to keep the scandal a secret i hope soon to be beyond the reach of either blame or praise but before removing me god has put it in my power to the death of my son the letter enclosed was the note in pencil that had written in mrs s cottage dear mrs i have been to visit you i wanted much to see you but i cannot wait any longer i came to beg you not to execute the threats you have repeated to me do not i you mrs let any one know i ran away from home it would ruin me with him and break my heart i will do anything for you if you will be kind to me in the name of our common womanhood do not i you make a scandal of me yours e knight turned his head wearily towards the house ground rose rapidly on the in which he stood raising it almost to a level with the first floor of the s dressing room lay in the angle in this direction and it was lighted by two windows in such a position that from knight s standing place his sight passed through both windows and the room was there she was pausing between the two windows looking at her figure in the glass she regarded herself long and attentively in front turned flung back her head and observed the reflection over her shoulder nobody can as to her object or fancy she may have done the deed in the very abstraction of deep sadness she may have been moaning from the bottom of her heart how unhappy am i but the impression produced on knight was not a good one he a pair of blue eyes dropped his eyes the dead woman s letter had a virtue in the accident of its juncture far beyond any it exhibited circumstance lent to evil words a ring of pitiless justice echoing from the grave knight could not endure their possession he tore the letter into fragments he heard a brushing among the bushes behind and turning his head he saw following him the fair girl looked in his face with a wistful smile of hope too hopeful to the firmly established dread beneath it his severe words of the	45
previous night still sat heavy upon her i saw you from my window harry she said timidly the dew will make your feet wet he observed as one deaf don t mind it there is danger in getting wet feet yes harry what is the matter oh nothing shall i resume the serious conversation i had with you last night no perhaps not perhaps i had better not oh i cannot tell how wretched it all is ah i wish you were your own dear self again and had kissed me when i came up why didn t you ask me for one why don t you now too free in manner by half he heard murmur the voice within him it was that hateful conversation last night she went on c oh those words last night was a black night for me kiss i hate that word don t talk of kissing for god s sake i should think you might with advantage have shown tact enough to keep back that word kiss considering those you have accepted she became very pale and a rigid and desolate took possession of her face that face was so delicate and tender in appearance now that one a pair of blue eyes could fancy the pressure of a finger upon it would cause a livid spot knight walked on and with him silent and he opened a gate and they entered a path across a field perhaps i intrude upon you she said as he closed the gate shall i go away no listen to me knight s voice was low and unequal i have been honest with you will you be so with me if any connection has existed between yourself and a of mine tell it now it is better that i know it now even though the knowledge should part us than that i should discover it in time to come and suspicions have been awakened in me i think i will not say how because i despise the means a discovery of any mystery of your past would our lives knight waited with a slow manner of calmness his eyes were sad and imperative they went farther along the path will you forgive me if i tell you all she exclaimed i can t promise so much depends upon what you have to tell could not endure the silence which followed are you not going to love me she burst out harry harry love me and speak as usual do i you harry are you going to act fairly by me said knight with rising anger or are you not what have i done to you that i should be put off like this be caught like a bird in a everything intended to be hidden from me why is it that s what i ask you in their agitation they had left the path and were wandering among the wet and knowing or it a pair of blue eyes what have done she faltered what how can you ask what when you know so well you know that i have been kept in ignorance of something to you which had i known of it might have altered all my conduct and yet you say what she drooped visibly and made no answer not that i believe in malicious letter writers and not i i don t know whether i do or don t upon my soul i can t tell i know this a religion was building itself upon you in my heart i looked into your eyes and thought i saw there truth and innocence as pure and perfect as ever embodied by god in the flesh of woman perfect truth is too much to expect but ordinary truth i will have or nothing at all just say then is the matter you keep back of the importance or is it not i don t understand all your meaning if i have hidden anything from you it has been because i loved you so and i feared feared to lose you since you are not given to confidence i want to ask you some plain questions have i your permission yes she said and there came over her face a weary resignation say the words you can i will bear them there is a scandal in the air concerning you and i cannot even combat it without knowing definitely what it is it may not refer to you entirely or even at all knight in the very bitterness of his feeling in the time of the french revolution a master was by mistake for a captain of the king s guard i wish there was another e in the neighbourhood look at this he handed her the letter she had written and left on the table at mrs s she looked over it a pair of eyes it is not so much as it seems she pleaded c it seems to look at now but it had a much more natural origin than you think my sole wish was not to our love o harry that was all my idea it was not much harm yes yes but of the poor miserable creature s remarks it seems to imply something wrong what remarks those she wrote me now torn to pieces did you run away with a man you loved that was the statement has such an accusation life in it really truly yes she whispered knight s countenance sank to be married to him came from his lips yes oh forgive me i had never seen you harry to london c yes but i answer my questions say nothing else did you ever deliberately try to marry him in secret no not deliberately but did you do it a feeble red passed over her face yes she said and after that did you	45
write to him as your husband and did he address you as his wife listen listen it was do answer me only answer me then yes we did her lips shook but it was with some little dignity that she continued i would gladly have told you for i knew and know i had done wrong but i dared not i loved you too well oh so well you have been everything in the world to me and you are now will you not forgive me it is a melancholy thought that men who at first a pair of blue eyes will not allow the verdict of perfection they pronounce upon their or wives to be disturbed by god s own testimony to the contrary will once suspecting their purity morally hang them upon evidence they would be ashamed to admit in judging a dog the reluctance to tell which arose from s simplicity in thinking herself so much more than she really was had been doing fatal work in knight s mind the man of many ideas now that his first dream of impossible things was over too far in the contrary direction and her every movement of every every confused word was taken as so much proof of her we must bid good bye to compliment said knight we must do without politeness now look in my face and as you believe in god above tell me truly one thing more were you away alone with him yes did you return home the same day on which you left it no the word fell like a bolt and the very land and sky seemed to suffer knight turned aside meantime s countenance wore a look indicating utter despair of being able to explain matters so that they would seem no more than they really were a despair which not only the hope of direct explanation but wearily gives up all chances of the scene was engraved for years on the of knight s eye the dead and brown the weeds among it the distant belt of shutting out the view of the house the leaves of which were now red and sick to death you must forget me he said we shall not marry how much anguish passed into her soul at those a pair of blue eyes words from him was told by the look of supreme torture she wore what meaning have you harry you only say so do you she looked up at him and tried to laugh as if the of his words must be you are not in earnest i know i hope you are not surely i belong to you and you are going to keep me for yours i have been speaking too roughly to you i have said what i ought only to have thought i like you and let me give you a word of advice marry your man as soon as you can however weary of each other you may feel you belong to each other and i am not going to step between you do you think i would do you think i could for a moment if you cannot marry him now and another makes you his wife do not reveal this secret to him after marriage if you do not before honesty would be then bewildered by his expressions she exclaimed no no i will not be a wife unless i am yours and i must be yours if we had married i but you don t mean that that you will go away and leave me and not be anything more to me oh you don t sobs took all nerve out of her utterance she checked them and continued to look in his face for the ray of hope that was not to be found there i i am going indoors said knight i you will not follow me i wish you not to oh no indeed i will not and then i am going to castle good bye he spoke the farewell as if it were but for the day lightly as he had spoken such temporary many times before and she seemed to understand it as such knight had not the power to tell her plainly a pair of blue eyes that he was going for ever he hardly knew for certain that he was whether he should rush back again upon the current of an irresistible emotion or whether he could sufficiently conquer himself and her in him to establish that parting as a supreme farewell and present himself to the world again as no woman s ten minutes later he had left the house leaving directions that if he did not return in the evening his luggage was to be sent to his chambers in london whence he intended to write to mr as to the reasons of his sudden departure he descended the valley and could not forbear turning his head he saw the field and a slight girlish figure in the midst of it up against the sky as ever had hardly moved a step for he had said remain he looked and saw her again he saw her for weeks and months he withdrew his eyes from the scene swept his hand across them as if to brush away the sight breathed a low groan and went on and wilt thou leave me thus say nay say nay he scene to knight s chambers in s inn it was late in the evening of the day following his departure from a rain descended upon london forming a and dreary over every well lighted street the rain had not yet been long enough to give to rapid that clear and distinct rattle which follows the thorough washing of the stones by a rain but was just sufficient to make	45
d ye do s do you mean ay with their how d ye do s and shaking of hands asking me in and tender inquiries for you john these words formed part of a conversation between john smith and his wife on a saturday evening in the spring which followed knight s departure from england had long since returned to india and the couple themselves had from lord s park at to a comfortable roadside dwelling about a mile out of st s where john had opened a small stone and slate yard in his own name when we came here six months ago continued mrs smith though i had paid ready money so many years in the town my would only speak over the counter meet em in the street half after and they d treat me with staring ignorance of my face look through ye as through a glass d a pair op blue eyes yes the brazen ones would the quiet and cool ones would glance over the top of my head past my side over my shoulder but never meet my eye the gentle modest would turn their south if i were coming east down a passage if i were about to the pavement with them there was the young would play the same tricks the butcher s daughters the s young men hand in glove when doing business out of sight with you but caring nothing for a old woman when playing the genteel away from all signs of their trade true enough maria well to day tis all different i d no sooner got to market than mrs rushed up to me in the eyes of the town and said my dear mrs smith now you must be tired with your walk come in and have some lunch i insist upon it knowing you so many years as i have don t you remember when we used to go looking for feathers together in the castle ruins there s no knowing what you may need so i answered the woman i hadn t got to the corner before that young lawyer sweet who s quite the ran after me out of breath mrs smith he says excuse my but there s a on the tail of your dress which you ve dragged in from the country allow me to pull it off for you if you ll believe me this was in the very front of the town hall what s the meaning of such sudden love for a old woman can t say unless tis repentance repentance was there ever such a fool as you john did anybody ever repent with money in s pocket and fifty years to live now i ve been thinking too said john passing over the as hardly that i ve had more loving kindness from folks to day than i ever have before since we moved here why old a pair op blue e es walked out to the middle of the street where i was to shake hands with me so a did having on my working clothes i thought twas odd ay and there was young who s he why the man in hill street who plays and trumpets and and grand he was talking to that very small with money in the funds i was going by i m sure without thinking or expecting a nod from men of that when in my working clothes you always will go into town in your working clothes beg you to change how i will tis no use well however i was in my working clothes saw me ah mr smith a fine morning excellent weather for building says he out as loud and friendly as if i d met him in some deep hollow where he could get nobody else to speak to at all twas odd for is one of the very of the fast class at that moment a tap came to the door the door was immediately opened by mrs smith in person you ll excuse us i m sure mrs smith but this beautiful spring weather was too much for us yes and we could stay in no longer and i took mrs upon my arm directly we d had a cup of tea and out we came and seeing your beautiful in such a bloom we ve taken the liberty to enter we ll step round the garden if you don t mind not at all said mrs smith and they walked round the garden she lifted her hands in amazement directly their backs were turned goodness send us grace who be they said her husband actually mr the bank manager and his wife a pair op blue john smith staggered in mind went out of doors and looked over the garden gate to collect his ideas he had not been there two minutes when wheels were heard and a carriage and pair rolled along the road a distinguished looking lady with the of a within when opposite smith s gate she turned her head and instantly commanded the coachman to stop ah mr smith i am glad to see you looking so well i could not help stopping a moment to congratulate you and mrs smith upon the happiness you must enjoy joseph you may drive on and the carriage rolled away towards st s out rushed mrs smith from behind a laurel bush where she had stood pondering just going to touch my hat to her said john just for all the world as i would have to poor lady years ago lord who is she the public house woman what s her name mrs mrs at the public house woman the of the smith family you might say the landlady of the hotel since we are in for politeness the people are ridiculous enough but give them their due the possibility is that	45
mrs smith was getting in spite of herself by these remarkably friendly phenomena among the people of st s and in justice to them it was quite desirable that she should do so the interest which the ones of this town expressed so was genuine of its kind and equal in worth to the more polished smiles of larger by this time mr and mrs were returning from the garden ill ask em flat whispered john to his wife i ll say we be in a fog you h excuse my asking a i a pair op blue question mr and mrs how is it you all be so friendly to day hey sound right and sensible wouldn t it not a word good mercy when will the man have manners it must be a proud moment for you i am sure mr and mrs smith to have a son so celebrated said the bank manager advancing ah tis i knew it said mrs smith triumphantly to herself we don t know particulars said john not know no why tis all over town our worthy mayor alluded to it in a speech at the dinner last night of the every man his own maker club and what about urged mrs smith why your son has been ted by and princes and nobody knows who in india is hand in glove with and is to design a large palace and cathedral and halls and by the general consent of the ruling powers christian and pagan alike twas sure to come to the boy said mr smith tis in yesterday s st chronicle and our worthy mayor in the chair introduced the subject into his speech last night in a manner twas very good of the worthy mayor in the chair i m sure said s mother i hope the boy will have the sense to keep what he s got but as for men they are a simple sex some woman will hook him well mr and mrs smith the evening in and we must be going and remember this that every saturday when you come in to market you are to make our house as your own there will be always a tea cup and for you as you know there has been for a pair op blue eyes months though you may have forgotten it i m a plain speaking woman and what i say i mean when the visitors were gone and the sun had set and the moon s rays were just beginning to assert themselves upon the walls of the dwelling john smith and his wife sat down to the newspaper they had hastily procured from the town and when the reading was done they considered how best to meet the new social settling upon them which mrs smith considered could be done by new furniture and house alone and john mind one thing she said in conclusion in writing to never by any means mention the name of again we ve left the place and know no more about her except by he seems to be getting free of her and glad am i for it it was a cloudy hour for him when he first set eyes upon the girl that family s been no good to him first or last so let them keep their blood to themselves if they want to he thinks of her i know but not so hopelessly so don t try to know anything about her and we can t answer his questions she may die out of his mind then that shall be it said john v after many days k night south under colour of studying continental he paced the lofty of by abbey climbed into the strange towers of and then he went to and examined its and quaint carving then he about he rowed beneath the base of st and caught the varied of the crumbling it st s knew him for days so did and many a monument besides the inspection of early french art with the same haste as he had shown in undertaking it he went further and lingered about and with he tried the roman next he observed moonlight and effects by the bay of he turned to became and depressed on and plains and was refreshed again by breezes on the of the then he found himself in greece he visited the plain of and strove to imagine the a pair of eyes defeat to hill to picture st paul addressing the ancient to and to run through the facts and traditions of the second invasion the result of his being more or less knight grew as weary of these places as of all others then he felt the shock of an earthquake in the islands and went to here he shot in up and down the winding of the grand canal and on and at night when the were undisturbed by a ripple and no sound was to be heard but the stroke of the midnight clock afterwards he remained for weeks in the galleries and of and paris and thence came home time thus rolls us on to a february afternoon divided by fifteen months from the parting of and her lover in the brown field towards the sea two men obviously not and with a touch of in their look met by accident on one of the gravel walks leading across park the younger more given to looking about him than his fellow saw and noticed the approach of his senior some time before the latter had raised his eyes from the ground upon which they were bent in an abstracted gaze that seemed habitual with him c mr knight indeed it is i exclaimed the younger man ah smith said knight operations might now have been observed in both the result being that an expression less frank and impulsive	45
turning the leaves over carelessly with his finger a pair op blue eyes when some time later was out of the room knight proceeded to pass the interval by looking at the sketches more carefully the first crude ideas to dwellings of all kinds were roughly on the different pages had been copied fragments of indian columns colossal statues and ornament from the temples of and were carelessly upon by outlines of modern doors windows roofs cooking and household furniture everything in short which comes within the range of a s experience who travels with his eyes open among these occasionally appeared rough of subjects for carving or illumination heads of saints and was not a free hand but he drew the human figure with and skill in its numerous on the sides and edges of the leaves knight began to notice a peculiarity all the feminine saints had one type of feature there were large and small about their drooping heads but the face was always the same that how well knight knew that had there been but one specimen of the familiar countenance he might have passed over the resemblance as accidental but a repetition meant more knight thought anew of smith s hasty words earlier in the day and looked at the sketches again and again on the young man s entry knight said with palpable agitation who are those intended for looked over the book with utter saints and angels done in my leisure moments they were intended as designs for the stained glass of an english church but whom do you by that type of woman you always adopt for the virgin a pair of blue eyes nobody and then a thought along s mind and he looked up at his friend the truth is s introduction of s had been so unconscious that he had not at first understood his companion s drift the hand like the tongue easily the trick of repetition by without calling in the mind to assist at all and this had been the case here young men who cannot write verses about their loves generally take to them and in the early days of his attachment smith had never been weary of the lay figure of s sketches now an of many things knight had recognized her the opportunity of comparing notes had come to whom i was engaged he said quietly i know what you mean by speaking like that was it you the man yes and you are thinking why did i conceal the fact from you that time at are you not yes and more more i did it for the best blame me if you will i did it for the best and now say how could i be with you afterwards as i had been before i don t know at all i can t say knight remained fixed in thought and once he murmured i had a suspicion this afternoon that there might be some such meaning in your words about my taking her away but i dismissed it how came you to know her he presently asked in almost a tone i went down about the church years ago now c when you were with of course of course well i can t understand it his tones rose i don t as a pair of blue eyes know what to say your me like this for so long i don t see that i have you at all yes yes but knight arose from his seat and began pacing up and down the room his face was pale and his voice as he said you did not act as i should have acted towards you under those circumstances i feel it deeply and i tell you plainly i shall never forget it what your behaviour at that meeting in the family vault when i told you we were going to be married deception everywhere all the world s of a piece did not much like this of his motives even though it was but the hasty conclusion of a friend disturbed by emotion could do no otherwise than i did with due regard to her he said stiffly indeed said knight in the bitterest tone of reproach nor could you with due regard to her have married her i suppose i have hoped longed that he who turns out to be you would ultimately have done that i am much obliged to you for that hope but you talk very mysteriously i think i had about the best reason anybody could have had for not doing that oh what reason was it that i could not you ought to have made an opportunity you ought to do so now in bare justice to her cried knight carried beyond himself that you know very well and it hurts and wounds me more than you dream to find you never have tried to make any to a woman of that kind so trusting so apt to be run away with by her feelings poor little fool so much the worse for her a pair of blue eyes why you talk like a madman you took her away from me did you not picking up what another throws down can scarcely be called taking away however we shall agree too well upon that subject so we had better part but i am quite certain you something most said shaken to the bottom of his heart what have i done tell me i have lost but is that such a sin was it her doing or yours was what that you parted i will tell you honestly it was hers entirely entirely what was her reason i can hardly say but i ll tell the story without reserve until to day had held that she grew tired of him and turned to knight but	45
he did not like to advance the statement now or even to think the thought to fancy otherwise accorded better with the hope to which knight s had given birth that love for his friend was not the direct cause but a result of her of love for himself such a matter must not be allowed to breed discord between us knight returned into a manner which concealed all his true feeling as if confidence now was intolerable i do see that your towards me in the vault may have been dictated by considerations he concluded it was a strange thing altogether but not of much importance i suppose at this distance of time and it does not concern me now though i don t mind hearing your story these words from knight with such an air of and apparent indifference prompted smith to speak on perhaps with a little complacency a pair of blue eyes of his old secret engagement to he told the details of its origin and the words and actions of her father to their love knight in the tone and manner of a disinterested it had become more than ever imperative to screen his emotions from s eye the young man would otherwise be less frank and their meeting would be again what was the use of had now arrived at the point in his narrative where he left the because of her father s manner knight s interest increased their love seemed so innocent and thus far it is a nice point in he observed to decide whether you were or not in not telling that your friends were of his it was only human nature to hold your tongue under the circumstances well what was the result of your dismissal by him that we agreed to be secretly faithful and to this we thought we would marry knight s suspense and agitation rose higher when entered upon this phase of the subject do you mind telling on he said his manner of speech oh not at all then gave in full the particulars of the meeting with at the railway station the necessity they were under of going to london unless the ceremony were to be postponed the long journey of the afternoon and evening her timidity and of feeling its on reaching london the crossing over to the down platform and their immediate departure again solely in obedience to her wish the journey all night their anxious watching for the dawn their arrival at st s at last were detailed and he told how a village woman named was a pair op blue eyes the only person who recognized them either going or coming and how dreadfully this terrified he told how he waited in the fields whilst this then sweetheart went for her pony and how the last kiss he ever gave her was given a mile out of the town on the way to these things related with a will he believed that in doing so he established word by word the of his claim to curse her curse that woman that miserable letter that parted us o god knight began pacing the room again and uttered this at further end what did you say said turning round say did i say anything oh i was merely thinking about your story and the of my having a fancy for the same woman afterwards and that now i i have forgotten her almost and neither of us care about her except just as a friend you know eh knight still continued at the further end of the room somewhat in shadow exactly said inwardly for he was really deceived by knight s off hand manner yet he was deceived less by the completeness of knight s disguise than by the power which lay in the fact that knight had never before deceived him in anything so this supposition that his companion had ceased to love was an enormous of the weight which had turned the scale against him s admitting that could love another man after you said the elder under the same of careless criticism she was none the worse for that experience the worse of course she was none the worse did you ever think it a wild and thoughtless thing for her to do a pair of blue indeed i never did said i persuaded her she saw no harm in it until she decided to return nor did i nor was there except to the extent of directly she thought it was wrong she would go no further that was it i had just begun to think it wrong too such a childish might have been by any evil disposed person might it not it might but i never heard that it was nobody who really knew all the circumstances would have done otherwise than smile if all the world had known it would still have remained the only one who thought her action a sin poor child she always persisted in thinking so and was frightened more than enough do you love her now well i like her i always shall you know he said and with all the love suggested but i have not seen her for so long that i can hardly be expected to love her do you love her still how shall i answer without being ashamed what beings we men are men may love strongest for a while but women love longest i used to love her in my way you know yes i understand ah and i used to love her in my way in fact i loved her a good deal at one time but travel has a tendency to early fancies it has it has truly perhaps the most extraordinary feature in this conversation was the circumstance that though each had at first his suspicions of the other s abiding passion	45
awakened by several little acts neither would allow himself to see that his friend might now be speaking as well as he resumed knight now that matters are a pair of blue eyes smooth between us i think i must leave you you won t mind my hurrying off to my quarters you ll stay to some sort of supper surely why didn t you come to dinner you must really excuse me this once then you ll drop in to breakfast to morrow i shall be rather pressed for time an early breakfast which shall interfere with nothing i ll come said knight with as much readiness as it was possible to upon a huge stock of reluctance yes early eight o clock say as we are under the same roof any time you like eight it shall be and knight left him to wear a mask to his feelings as he had in their late miserable conversation was such torture that he could support it no longer it was the first time in knight s life that he had ever been so entirely the player of a part and the man he had thus deceived was who had looked up to him from youth as a superior of integrity he went to bed and allowed the fever of his excitement to rage it was only he who was the rival only there was an of absurdity which knight wretched and conscience stricken as he was could not help was but a boy to him where the great grief lay was in perceiving that the very innocence of in reading her little fault as one so grave was what had him had with any degree of coolness asserted that she had done no harm the poisonous breath of the dead mrs would have been why did he not make his little girl tell more if on that subject he had only exercised the customary with him on others all might have been revealed it smote his heart like a pair of blue eyes a when he remembered how gently she had borne his speeches never answering him with a single reproach only assuring him of her unbounded love knight blessed for her sweetness and forgot her fault he pictured with a vivid fancy those fair summer scenes with her he again saw her as at their first meeting timid at speaking yet in her eagerness to be borne forward almost against her will how she would wait for him in green places without showing any of the ordinary womanly of indifference how proud she was to be seen walking with him bearing in her eyes the thought that he was the greatest genius in the world he formed a resolution and after that could make pretence of slumber no longer rising and dressing himself he sat down and waited for day that night was restless too not because of the of a return to english scenery not because he was about to meet his parents and settle down for awhile to english cottage life he was indulging in dreams and for the the of and the plains and of were but a shadow s shadow his dream was based on this one of fact and knight had become separated and their engagement was as if it had never been their must have occurred soon after s discovery of the fact of their union and went on to think what so probable as that a return of her affection to himself was the cause s opinions in this matter were those of a lover and not the balanced judgment of an spectator his naturally sanguine spirit built hope upon hope till scarcely a doubt remained in his mind that her lingering tenderness for him had in some way been perceived by knight and had provoked their parting a pair op blue eyes to go and see was the suggestion of impulses it was impossible to withstand at any rate to run down from st s to castle a distance of less than twenty miles and glide like a ghost about their old haunts making stealthy inquiries about her would be a fascinating way of passing the first spare hours after reaching home on the day after the morrow he was now a richer man than heretofore standing on his own bottom and the definite position in which he had rooted himself old local distinctions he had become illustrious even sanguine judging from the tone of the worthy mayor of st s each to the loved one s side he friends and rivals together the next morning not a word was said on either side upon the matter discussed the previous evening so and so was absorbed the greater part of the time in wishing he were not forced to stay in town yet another day i i don t intend to leave for st s till to morrow as you know he said to knight at the end of the meal what are you going to do with yourself to day i have an engagement just before ten said knight deliberately and after that time i must call upon two or three people i ll look for you this evening said yes do you may as well come and dine with me that is if we can meet i may not sleep in london to night in fact i am absolutely unsettled as to my movements yet however the first thing i am going to do is to get my baggage shifted from this place to s inn good bye for the present i ll write you know if i can t meet you it now wanted a quarter to nine o clock when knight was gone felt yet more impatient of a pair op blue the circumstance that another day would have to drag itself away wearily before he could set out for that spot of	45
earth whereon a soft thought of him might perhaps be nourished still on a sudden he admitted to his mind the possibility that the engagement he was waiting in town to keep might be postponed without much harm it was no sooner perceived than attempted looking at his watch he found it wanted forty minutes to the departure of the ten o clock train from which left him a quarter of an hour before it would be necessary to start for the station a hasty note or two one putting off the business meeting another to knight for not being able to see him in the evening paying his bill and leaving his heavier luggage to follow him by he jumped into a cab and rattled off to the great western station shortly afterwards he took his seat in the railway carriage the guard paused on his whistle to let into the next to smith s a man of whom had caught but a hasty glimpse as he ran across the platform at the last moment smith sank back into the carriage by perplexity the man was like knight like him was it possible it could be he to have got there he must have driven like the wind to s inn and hardly have alighted before starting again no it could not be he that was not his way of doing things during the early part of the journey smith s thoughts busied themselves till his brain seemed swollen one subject was concerning his own approaching actions he was a day earlier than his letter to his parents had stated and his arrangement with them had been that they should meet him at a plan which pleased the worthy couple beyond expression once before the same engagement had been made which he a pair of blue eyes had then by his arrival this time he would go right on to castle in that well known neighbourhood during the evening and next morning making inquiries and return to to meet them as arranged a contrivance which would leave their cherished project undisturbed his own impatience also at there was a little waiting and some and of carriages looked out at the same moment another man s head emerged from the adjoining window each looked in the other s face knight and confronted one another you here said the younger man yes it seems that you are too said knight strangely yes the selfishness of love and the cruelty of jealousy were fairly at this moment each of the two men looked at his friend as he had never looked at him before each was troubled at the other s presence c i thought you said you were not coming till tomorrow remarked knight c i did it was an to come to day this journey was your engagement then no it was not this is an of mine too i left a note to explain it and account for my not being able to meet you this evening as we arranged so did i for you you don t look well you did not this morning i have a headache you are paler to day than you were i too have been suffering from headache we have to wait here a few minutes i think they walked up and down the platform each one more and more concerned with the a pair of blue eyes awkwardness of his friend s presence they reached the end of the and paused in sheer s vacant eyes rested upon the operations of some who were shifting a dark and curious looking van from the rear of the train to another which was between it and the fore part of the train this operation having been concluded the two friends returned to the side of their carriage will you come in here said knight not very warmly i have my rug and and umbrella with me it is rather to move now said reluctantly why not you come here i have my traps too it is hardly worth while to shift them for i shall see you again you know oh yes and each got into his own place just at starting a man on the platform held up his hands and stopped the train looked out to see what was the matter one of the officials was exclaiming to another c that carriage should have been attached again can t you see it is for the main line quick what fools there are in the world what a confounded nuisance these are exclaimed knight impatiently looking out from his c what is it c that singular carriage we saw has been from our train by mistake it seems said he was watching the process of it the van or carriage which he now recognized as having seen at before they started was rich and solemn rather than gloomy in aspect it seemed to be quite new and of modern design and its impressive personality attracted the notice of others beside himself he beheld it gradually wheeled forward by two men on each side slower and more sadly it seemed to approach a pair of blue eyes then a slight and they were connected with it and off again sat all the afternoon pondering upon the reason of knight s unexpected was he going as for as castle if so he could only have one object in view a visit to and what an idea it seemed at smith partook of a little refreshment and then went round to the side from which the train started for the new station near castle and knight was already there walked up and stood beside him without speaking two men at this moment crept out from among the wheels of the waiting train the carriage is light enough said one in a grim tone light as vanity full of nothing nothing	45
in size but a good deal in said the other a man of brighter mind and manners smith then perceived that to their train was attached that same carriage of grand and dark aspect which had haunted them all the way from london you are going on i suppose said knight turning to after idly looking at the same object yes we may as well travel together for the remaining distance may we not c certainly we will and they both entered the same door evening drew on it chanced to be the eve of st s that bishop of blessed memory to youthful lovers and the sun shone low under the rim of a thick hard cloud the of the landscape with crowns of orange fire as the train changed its direction on a curve the same rays stretched in through the window and open knight s eyes a pair op blue eyes you will get out at st s i suppose he murmured no said c i am not expected till tomorrow knight was silent and you are you going to said the younger man since you ask i can do no less than say i am continued knight slowly and with more resolution of manner than he had shown all the day i am going to to see if is still free and if so to ask her to be my wife so am i said smith i think you ll lose your labour knight returned with decision naturally you do there was a strong accent of bitterness in s voice you might have said hope instead of think he added i might have done no such thing i gave you my opinion may have loved you once no doubt but it was when she was so young that she hardly knew her own mind thank you said she knew her mind as well as i did we are the same age if you hadn t interfered c don t say don t say it how can you make out that i interfered be just please well said his friend she was mine before she was yours you know that and it seemed a hard thing to find you had got her and that if it had not been for you all might have turned out well for me spoke with a swelling heart and looked out of the window to hide the emotion that would make itself visible upon his face it is absurd said knight in a kinder tone for you to look at the matter in that light what i tell you is for your good you naturally do not like to realize a pair of blue eyes the truth that her liking for you was only a girl s first fancy which has no root ever it is not true said passionately it was you put me out and now you ll be pushing in again between us and me of my chance again my right that s what it is how of you to come anew and try to take her away from me when you had won her i did not interfere and you might i think mr knight do by me as i did by you c don t u mr me you are as well in the world as i am now first love is deepest and that was mine who told you that said knight i had her first love and it was through me that you and she parted i can guess that well enough it was and if i were to explain to you in what way that in parting us i should convince you that you do quite wrong in upon her that as i said at first your labour will be lost i don t choose to explain because the particulars are painful but if you won t listen to me go on for heaven s sake i don t care what you do my boy you have no right to over me as you do just because when i was a lad i was accustomed to look up to you as a master and you helped me a little for which i was grateful to you and have loved you you assume too much now and step in before me it is cruel it is unjust of you to injure me so knight showed himself keenly hurt at this those words are and unworthy of any man and they are unworthy of you you know you wrong me if you have ever by any instruction of mine i am only too glad to know it you know it was given and that i have never once looked upon it as making you in any way a to me s naturally gentle nature was touched and i a pair of blue eyes it was in a troubled voice that he said yes yes i am unjust in that i own it this is st s station i think are you going to get out knight s manner of returning to the matter in hand drew again into himself c no i told you i was going to he resolutely replied knight s features became and he said no more the train continued rattling on and back in his corner and closed his eyes the of evening had turned to the dusky shades and a flying cloud of dust occasionally the window borne upon a breeze which blew from the north east the previously gilded j but now dreary hills began to lose their daylight aspects of and to become black against the sky all nature wearing the cloak that six o clock casts i over the landscape at this time of the year started up in bewilderment after a long still j ness and it was some time before he recollected himself	45
well how real how real he exclaimed brushing his hand across his eyes what is said knight that dream i fell asleep for a few minutes and have had a dream the most vivid i ever remember he wearily looked out into the gloom they were now drawing near to the lighting of the lamps was perceptible through the veil of evening each flame starting into existence at intervals and weakly against the of wind what did you dream said knight oh nothing to be told twas a sort of there is never anything in dreams c i hardly supposed there was i know that however what i so vividly was this since you would like to hear it was the brightest of bright mornings at east church i a pair of blue eyes and you and i stood by the far away in the lord was standing alone cold and and utterly unlike his usual self but i knew it was he inside the altar rail stood a strange clergyman with his book open he looked up and said to lord where s the bride lord said there s no bride at that moment somebody came in at the door and i knew her to be lady who died he turned and said to her i thought you were in the vault below us but that could have only been a dream of mine come on then she came on and in brushing between us she chilled me so with cold that i exclaimed the life is gone out of me and in the way of dreams i awoke but here we are at they were slowly entering the station what are you going to do said knight do you really intend to call on the by no means i am going to make inquiries first i shall stay at the arms to night you will go right on to i suppose at once i can hardly do that at this time of the day perhaps you are not aware that the family her father at any rate is at with me as much as with you didn t know it c and that i cannot rush into the house as an old friend any more than you can certainly i have the privileges of a distant relationship whatever they may be knight let down the window and looked ahead there are a great many people at the station he said c they seem all to be on the look out for us when the train stopped the half friends could perceive by the that the assemblage of enclosed as a a group of men in black a side gate in the platform railing was open a pair of eyes and outside this stood a dark vehicle which they could not at first then knight saw on its upper part forms against the sky like by night and knew the vehicle to be a few people were at the carriage doors to meet the passengers the majority had at this upper end knight and alighted and turned for a moment in the same direction the sombre van which had accompanied them all day from london now began to reveal that their destination was also its own it had been drawn up exactly opposite the open gate the all fell back forming a clear lane from the to the van and the men in entered the latter conveyance they are i fancy said c ah it is strange but i recognize three of them as men rather remarkable this presently they began to come out two and two and under the rays of the lamp they were seen to bear between them a light coloured coffin of satin wood brightly polished and without a nail the eight men took the burden upon their shoulders and slowly crossed with it over to the gate knight and went outside and came close to the procession as it moved off a carriage belonging to the turned round close to a lamp the rays shone in upon the face of the of mr looking many years older than when they had last seen him knight and involuntarily drew back knight spoke to a what has mr to do with that funeral he is the lady s father said the what lady s father said knight in a voice so hollow that the man stared at him the father of the lady in the coffin she died in a pair of blue eyes london you know and has been brought here by this train she is to be taken home to night and buried to morrow knight stood staring blindly at where the had been as if he saw it or some one there then he turned and beheld the form of bowed down like that of an old man he took his young friend s arm and led him away from the light xl welcome proud lady h an hour has passed two miserable men are wandering in the darkness up the miles of road from to c has she broken her heart said henry knight c can it be that i have killed her i was bitter with her and she has died and may god have no mercy upon me c how can you have killed her more than i c why i went away from her stole away almost and didn t tell her i should not come again and at that last meeting i did not kiss her once but let her miserably go i have been a a fool i wish the most abject confession of it before crowds of my countrymen could in any way make amends to my darling for the intense cruelty i have shown her your darling said with a sort of laugh any man can say that i suppose any man can i know this	45
she was my darling before she was yours and after too if anybody has a right to call her his own it is i you talk like a man in the dark which is what a t air of blue eyes you are did she ever do anything for you risk her name for instance for you c yes she did said emphatically c not entirely did she ever live for you prove she could not live without you laugh and weep for you yes c never did she ever risk her life for you no my darling did for me then it was in kindness only when did she risk her life for you to save mine on the cliff yonder the poor child was with me looking at the approach of the and i slipped down we both had a narrow escape i wish we had died there ah but wait pleaded with wet eyes she went on that cliff to see me arrive home she had promised it she told me she would months before and would she have gone there if she had not cared for me at all you have an idea that died for you no doubt said knight with a mournful sarcasm too to support itself never mind if we find that that she died yours i ll say no more ever and if we find she died yours i ll say no more very well so it shall be the dark clouds into which the sun had sunk had begun to drop rain in an increasing volume can we wait somewhere here till this shower is over said as you will but it is not worth while we ll hear the particulars and return don t let people know who we are i am not much now they had reached a point at which the road into two just outside the west village one fork of the passing into the latter place the other stretching on to east having come some a pair of blue eyes of the distance by the they now found that the was only a little in advance of them i fancy it has turned off to east can you see i cannot you must be mistaken knight and entered the village a bar of fiery light lay across the road proceeding from the door of a in which were heard blowing and a hammer ringing the rain had increased and they mechanically turned for shelter towards the warm and scene at their heels came another man without overcoat or umbrella and with a parcel under his arm a wet evening he said to the two friends and passed by them they stood in the outer but the man went in to the fire the smith ceased his blowing and began talking to the man who had entered i have walked all the way from said the latter was obliged to come to night you know he held the parcel which was a flat one towards the to learn if the rain had penetrated it resting it on the he supported it with one hand wiping his face with the handkerchief he held in the other i suppose you know what i ve got here he observed to the smith no i don t said the smith pausing again on his as the rain s not over i ll show you said the bearer he laid the thin and broad which had acute angles in different directions flat upon the and the smith blew up the fire to give him more light first after the a sheet of brown paper was removed this was laid flat then he unfolded a piece of this also he spread flat on the paper the third covering was a of paper which a pair of blue eyes was spread out in its turn the was revealed and he held it up for the smith s inspection oh i see said the smith with a interest and drawing close poor young lady ah terrible melancholy thing so soon too knight and turned their heads and looked and what s that continued the smith that s the beautifully finished isn t it ah that cost some money c tis as fine a bit of metal work as ever i see that tis it came from the same people as the coffin you know but was not ready soon enough to be sent round to the house in london yesterday i ve got to fix it on this very night the carefully packed articles were a coffin plate and knight and came forward the s man on seeing them look for the inscription turned it round towards them and each read almost at one moment by the ruddy light of the coals of they read it and read it and read it again and knight as if animated by one soul then put his hand upon knight s arm and they retired from the yellow glow further further till the chill darkness enclosed them round and the quiet sky asserted its presence overhead as a dim grey sheet of blank monotony c where shall we go said i don t know a long silence ensued married said a pair of blue eyes then in a thin whisper as if he feared to let the assertion loose on the world false whispered knight and dead denied us both i hate false i hate it knight made no answer nothing was heard by them now save the slow of time by their beating the soft touch of the rain upon their clothes and the low of the blacksmith s hard by c shall we follow any further said no let us leave her alone she is beyond our love and let her be beyond our reproach since we	45
don t know half the reasons that made her do as she did how can we say even now that she was not pure and true in heart knight s voice had now become mild and gentle as a child s he went on can we call her ambitious no circumstance has as usual overpowered her purposes fragile and delicate as she liable to be in a moment by the coarse elements of accident i know that s it don t you it may be it must be let us go on they began to bend their steps towards castle whither they had sent their bags from they wandered on in silence for many minutes then paused and lightly put his hand within knight s arm i wonder how she came to die he said in a broken whisper shall we return and learn a little more they turned back again and entering a second time came to a door which was standing open it was that of an inn called the welcome home and the house appeared to have been recently repaired and entirely the name too was not that of the same landlord as formerly but martin s knight and smith entered the inn was quite a pair of blue eyes silent and they followed the passage till they reached the kitchen where a huge fire was burning which roared up the chimney and sent over the floor ceiling and newly walls a glare so intense as to make the candle quite a secondary light a woman in a white apron and black gown was standing there alone behind a deal table first and knight afterwards recognized her as unity who had been parlour maid at the and young lady s maid at the unity said softly don t you know me she looked a moment and her face cleared up mr smith ay that it is she said and that s mr knight i beg you to sit down perhaps you know that since i saw you last i have married martin how long have you been married about five months we were married the same day that my dear miss became lady tears appeared in unity s eyes and filled them and fell down her cheek in spite of efforts to the contrary the pain of the two men in resolutely themselves when thus to admit relief of the same kind was distressing they both turned their backs and walked a few steps away then unity said will you go into the parlour gentlemen let us stay here with her knight whispered and turning said no we will sit here we want to rest and dry ourselves here for a time if you please that evening the friends sat with their hostess beside the large fire knight in the recess formed by the chimney breast where he was in shade and by showing a little confidence they won hers and she told them what they had stayed to hear the latter history of poor a pair of blue eyes one day after you mr knight left us for the last time she was missed from the and her father went after her and brought her home ill where she went to i never knew but she was very for weeks afterwards and she said to me that she didn t care what became of her and she wished she could die when she was better i said she would live to be married yet and she said then yes i ll do anything for the benefit of my family so as to turn my useless life to some practical account well it began like this about lord her the first lady had died and he was in great trouble because the little girls were left after a while they used to come and see her in their little black for they liked her as well or better than their own mother that s true they used to call her little mamma these children made her a shade but she was not the girl she had been i could see that and she grew thinner a good deal well my lord got to ask the oftener and oftener to dinner nobody else of his acquaintance and at last the s family were backwards and forwards at all hours of the day well people say that the little girls asked their father to let miss come and live with them and that he said perhaps he would if they were good children however the time went on and one day i said miss you don t look so well as you used to and though nobody else seems to notice it i do she laughed a little and said i shall live to be married yet as you told me shall you miss i am glad to hear that i said c whom do you think i am going to be married to she said again mr knight i suppose said i oh she cried and turned off so white and afore i could get to her she had sunk down like a heap of clothes and fainted away well then she came to a pair of eyes herself after a time and said unity now well go on with our conversation better not to day miss i said yes we will she said whom do you think i am going to be married to i don t know i said this time guess she said t my lord is it says i yes tis says she in a sick wild way but he don t come much i said ah you don t know she said and told me twas going to be in october after that she up a bit whether twas with the thought of getting away from home	45
er pope mark extract from the essay on criticism the of the lock ii ft ii iii extract from the book viii to the memory of an unfortunate lady from the on man book i book iv moral essays to dr from the first of the second book of to x extract from the to the from the book iv conclusion of the w extract from the to miss to miss in her mother s arms a thomas w extract from a night piece on death a hymn to contentment the john gay extract from the shepherd s week a ballad i the hare with many friends black eyed thomas iv to the earl of on the death of mr contents vii iv from the gentle shepherd and and through the wood an thou were my ain thing james x w from the seasons a snow scene from winter the sheep washing from summer the coming of the rain from spring storm in harvest from autumn to her i love from the castle of book i john george extract from the art of preserving health book iii book iv taste an to a yoimg critic william w extract from the chase book i book ii a green from the on s apology for the john b ao hill from the book i robert george from the grave self murder x the edward young george day the old from satire v on women from night thoughts from night i the death of friends from night iii from night iv the stream of life from night v viii contents page john i i w b the careless content on the origin of evil richard r and from book ix ballad of admiral s ghost samuel johnson w j reasons for leaving london from london from the vanity of human wishes the rise and fall of the true objects of desire spoken at the opening of the lane theatre to the comedy of a word to the wise john charles the dean of westminster charles christmas hymn hymn christ the refuge of the soul christ our example jacob catholic love john an hymn for seriousness william george and sympathy from the pastoral ballad the dying kid much taste and small estate from the progress of taste william z x z to liberty to evening the passions on the death of mr an on the popular of the of scotland in contents ix thomas gray on the spring on a distant prospect of college x hymn to the progress of the bard written in a country churchyard on the death of mr richard west sketch of his own character on lord holland s seat at william the editor the an mark e extract from the pleasures of imagination on the winter for a smart the editor from a song to david william e extract from the iii e extract from the deserted village on woman thomas the editor a extract from the triumph of extract from the first of april written in a blank leaf of s to the river charles je description of his muse from the prophecy of famine characters of actors from the description of johnson from the ghost charles the first fix m james george extract from the book i thomas w an excellent ballad of charity the first x contents the third s marriage song from a the of w s feast s from i william the editor a the past and future of poetry from table talk grace and the world from hope from conversation characters and sketches an afternoon call from retirement and retirement the retired what to read a comparison the an from the task relish of fair i crazy the england a the post the fireside in winter snow early love of the country and of poetry meditation in winter the poet in the woods an to joseph hill esq to the rev mr a on the loss of the royal george on a hare on the death of mrs s the acquiescence of pure love on the receipt of my mother s picture the field to mary a the scotch minor song writers century pro w john logic o george alexander there s luck about the house ca the pagan the flowers of the forest jane contents xi page john for lack of gold adam cope adam robert dr the days extract from water to the robert burns dr service mary my o green grow the a	45
with some and dignity s is pure though not vigorous his treatment of the heroic in its and careful selection of epithet marks the period of transition between the large and flowing style of and the compressed energy of pope w j joseph the blessings of liberty from the letter from italy oh liberty thou goddess bright of bliss and with delight eternal pleasures in thy presence reign and smiling plenty leads thy wanton train d of her load grows more light and poverty looks cheerful in thy sight thou st the gloomy face of nature gay st beauty to the sun and pleasure to the day thee goddess thee s isle how has she oft exhausted all her stores how oft in fields of death thy presence sought nor thinks the mighty prize too dearly bought i on foreign mountains may the sun the s soft and mellow it to wine with groves adorn a distant soil and the fat olive swell with floods of oil we envy not the warmer that lies in ten degrees of more indulgent skies nor at the of our n though o er our heads the frozen shine tis liberty that crowns s isle and makes her barren rocks and her bleak mountains smile others with tow ring piles may please the sight and in their proud delight a touch to the stretch d give or teach their animated rocks to live britain s care to watch o er europe s fate and hold in balance each state b the english poets to threaten bold kings with war and answer her afflicted neighbours pray r the and d up by fierce bless the wise conduct of her pious arms soon as her appear their terrors cease and all the northern world lies hush d in peace at from the campaign behold in awful march and dread array the long extended shape their way i death in approaching terrible an anxious horror to the hearts yet do their beating breasts demand the strife and thirst of glory the love of life no vulgar fears can british minds control heat of revenge and noble pride of soul overlook the foe d by his post lessen his numbers and contract his host though and floods possessed the middle space that they would have feared to pass nor nor floods can stop s bands when her proud foe ranged on their borders stands but o my muse what numbers wilt thou find to sing the furious troops in battle join d i hear the drum s tumultuous sound the victor s shouts and dying groans confound the dreadful burst of cannon the skies and all the thunder of the battle rise then great s mighty soul was d that in the shock of charging hosts d amidst confusion horror and despair d all the dreadful scenes of war in peaceful thought the field of death surveyed to fainting sent the aid joseph d to engage and taught the doubtful battle where to rage so when an angel by divine command with rising shakes a guilty land such as of late o er pale past calm and serene he drives the furious blast and d th almighty s orders to perform rides in the and the storm william william was bom at in in he died in his principal works are a defence of the fair sex and poems the praise of first recommended to the public a poet who has since his death been solely by the praise of pope the lines of the latter written in are familiar to most readers but may be quoted here to him the wit of greece and rome was known and every author s merits but his own such late was the muse s judge and friend who justly knew to blame or to commend to mild but zealous to desert the head and the heart the qualities which pope attributes to the person of are found in his writings which have certainly been neglected the of the restoration he alone among the writers of his age understood the passion of love in an honourable and sense however was almost the only person who perceived the o s verse and certainly was alone in his very remarkable defence of the fair sex in which the young poet in an age given up to selfish gallantry recommended the honourable equality of the sexes and the views now understood as the extension of women s rights he possessed little but much sweetness in the use of the heroic measure and a certain delicate insight into emotion his poem entitled jealousy cannot be quoted here but it is by far the most powerful of his productions and a true picture of a heart tossed in an agony of jealousy and love in studying the william of pope the influence of upon the style of the younger and greater man should not be overlooked and there will be found in such as this in verse through distant times they come preserved like bees within an tomb which pope did not disdain to re work on his own into brighter shapes it should be noted that is the author of the only written in english between milton s in and s about a w the english poets to his book go little book and to the world impart the faithful image of an heart those who love s dear pains have known may in my fatal stories read their own those who have lived from all its free may find the thing they never felt from me perhaps advised avoid the gilded bait and warned by my example my fate while with calm joy safe landed on the coast i view the waves on which i once was love is a of suspicions quarrels wars then peace again o would it not be best to chase the fatal passion from our breast but	45
since so few can live from passion free happy the man and only happy he who with such lucky stars begins his love that his cool judgment does his choice approve ill passions quickly wear away what s built upon esteem can ne er decay what has this death that s worth our care after a life of pain and sorrow past after hopes and dire despair death only gives us quiet at the last how strangely are our love and hate freedom we seek and yet from freedom flee those tyrant sins that chain us fast and death that only sets us free tis not a foolish fear of future pains why should they fear who keep their souls from that makes me dread thy terrors death to see not the loss of riches or of fame or the vain toys the vulgar pleasures name tis nothing but the losing thee william the despairing lover distracted with care for the fair since nothing could move her poor her lover in despair no longer to nor bear so much anguish but mad with his love to a precipice goes where a leap from above would finish his woes when in rage he came there beholding how steep the sides did appear and the bottom how deep his projecting and sadly reflecting that a lover forsaken a new love may get but a neck when once broken can never be set and that he could die whenever he would whereas he could live but as long as he could how grievous the torment might grow he scorned to endeavour to finish it so but bold at thoughts of the pain he calmly returned to his cottage again william william was bom in his first comedy t he old bachelor was acted in in and appeared two others double dealer and love for love these were followed in y c tragedy of the mourning bride his last and best comedy the way of the world conspicuous for its all conquering character of so admirably interpreted by the beautiful mrs was produced in after this he practically retired from literature his works which include a volume of miscellaneous poems were published in he died in the poetical remains of especially when considered in connection with those remarkable dramatic works which achieved for him so swift and splendid a reputation have but a slender claim to vitality his brilliant and audacious muse seems to have required the glitter of the foot lights and the artificial atmosphere of the stage as conditions of success in the study he is as a rule either trivial or conventional a translation of the third book of s art of love has the merit of being still but his and such as that to the king on the taking of and the mourning muse of can now only detain those who are curious in the class of poetry which under the patronage of the opening of the lines on mrs hunt singing has a and delicate movement let all be hushed each motion cease be every loud tumultuous thought at peace and every gasp of breath be calm as in the arms of death and thou most most uneasy part thou restless wanderer my heart william ii be still gently ah gently leave thou busy idle thing to heave stir not a pulse and let my blood that turbulent flood be softly staid let me be all but my attention dead go rest unnecessary springs of life leave your toil and strife for i would hear her voice and try if it be possible to die this is beautifully and said the second is not so good and in the third the charm is altogether by the absurd appearance of silence draped in a melancholy thought and seated upon an ancient sigh an intrusion from which the reader barely in time to recognise a strange and we think hitherto unnoticed anticipation of the last lines of famous mast in the concluding of the whole wishing for ever in that state to lie for ever to be dying so yet never die in his songs and minor pieces is more successful though he never reaches the level of his contemporary prior which we quote sets a tune which has often since been heard in familiar verse and the little song false though she be to me and love has almost a note of genuine regret i a the english poets fair is gone astray pursue and seek her every lover i ll tell the signs by which you may the wandering discover and at once her air both studied though both seem neglected careless she is with artful care affecting to seem unaffected with skill her eyes dart every glance yet change so soon you d ne er suspect em for she d persuade they wound by chance though certain aim and art direct em she likes herself yet others hates for that which in herself she and while she laughs at them forgets she is the thing that she song false though she be to me and love i ne er pursue revenge for still the i approve though i her change in hours of bliss we oft have met they could not always last and though the present i regret i m grateful for the past sir samuel samuel was bom at in about the year he was at the accession of george i and died on is e appeared in and quickly ran through numerous the short poem on came out in and in a translation of s in which s were completed by a great number of hands he himself the book and parts of others is mainly interesting at the present day because he was the first writer who took the as had fashioned it from s hands and displayed it in the form it maintained throughout the century	45
in some respects it may be said that no advance in this peculiar model was ever made on the its best lines are equal to any of pope s in mere fashion and in it appear clearly enough the inherent defects of the form when once s energy divine and his cunning of what looked like had been lost or rejected the monotony the and the other defects side by side with the polish and which are its great merits except for its which not only long preceded pope but also anticipated s happiest effort by some years the is not now an interesting poem the dispute on which it is based is long forgotten its mock heroic plan looks to our eyes and the machinery and have lost all the charm that they may at one time have had but as a must always deserve a place in the story of english literature and his other minor works display the same faculty but at their date it was already common enough we therefore here give from the only reminding the reader that the poem gives a account of the opposition made by some and to the plan of giving advice and medicine to the poor we may add that our form part of the descriptions and added by the author in the edition of george the english poets from the dr flies to consult fortune at the wondering sage his airy flight and the chill of night he views the tracts where to settle seasons here and above the bleak still forbid the seas the stormy the weeping the shining with strains more heaven s glittering now than hell s before glad in the sky and each fair of the on breezes borne with blushing lips breathes out the each flower in dew their short d empire and with her d sleeps as through the gloom the cuts his way imperfect objects tell the doubtful day dim he majestic rise and bend beneath the burden of the skies his towering brows aloft no know whilst lightning flies and thunder rolls below distant from hence beyond a waste of plains proud his giant brother with breathing fire his nostrils glow as from his sides he shakes the snow around this prince from watery beds his subject islands raise their heads the waves so gently wash each rising hill the land seems floating and the ocean still eternal spring with smiling here the mild air and crowns the youthful year from crystal rocks transparent flow the ever breathes and blow sir samuel the vine her swelling clusters bears the hind the mellow olive cheers blossoms and fruit at once the shows and as she pays still she owes the orange to her sun her pride and her fragrant apples with his rays no e er the peaceful sky the springs but murmur and the winds but sigh the on gliding rivers float and die on every note where her and from his purple wings whilst birds from and groves chant their glad and d loves mild seasons rising hills and silent cool silver and groves with shrubs in pomp appear and scent with of sweets the year these happy where endless pleasures wait are by the fortunate on high where no hoarse winds nor clouds resort the d goddess keeps her partial court upon a wheel of she sits gives and and smiles and by fits in this still around her lie and schemes of a in this hand the bears in th other a prophetic and fortune speaks tis i that give so mighty is my power faith to the jew complexion to the i am the wretch s wish the s pretence the s ease the s providence sir scrape once a smiling slave looks lofty now and grave settles purchases and has each hour caps from the rich and curses from the poor the english poets that at table d of late drinks rich himself and eats in plate has in store and owns the which he d before souls heavenly bom my defy the brave is to himself a deity though s gone some soil remains where fortune is the slave and merit the his thames his the his yet for future sway designed shall for a a greater find thus in proud triumph rode she lost a hero and she found a god prior prior was born in near in he was educated at westminster under dr and at st john s college cambridge where he took his b a degree in in the following year he published in connection with charles afterwards earl of a of s hind and under the title of the hind and the d to the story of the country mouse and the city mouse in he published a volume of poems and another with additions in he died in dan prior next d by every muse so sings gay in that welcome to pope after his labours of the and indeed not every muse but all the world seem to have looked kindly on the fortunate young whom the noble had taken from the tavern to be sue a secretary of a secretary of state a of trade and a member of parliament and to crown all an among the to that stately v of by which its author happy man cleared some are numbered most of the illustrious names of the age from to beau to say nothing of lively maids of honour like the hon i mrs mary and like his right reverence of and maids of honour would we imagine be somewhat embarrassed now a days by much of the verse which the tall volume contains but readers under were either not or they confined themselves to the poem of solomon on the vanity the world which its latter pages when one looks to the general character of prior s writings it is hard to	45
understand how he could ever have this work yet he not only wrote it but he hoped to live by vol iii c the english poets it and grew when pope declined to praise it as a indeed poor solomon in rhyme was much too grave to be sublime exclaimed its disappointed author in his last published piece of i conversation another long poem the of the fine old ballad of the not maid to which he gave the title of henry and although it contains the oft quoted and mis quoted fine by degrees and beautifully less is almost equally nor are the official performances of prior the and the rest always excepting the clever upon s sur la de likely to attract the modem reader his and personal note is to be found in one only of his longer pieces and in his tales songs and familiar verses this long poem is written in and while the author lay in prison under suspicion of high treason it is a and delightfully dialogue between mat prior and dick his friend mr upon the various speculations of philosophers as to the relations of the soul and the body and full of fine and fitful fresh plan there is little or none but the turns of the humour the reader from page to page with all the fascination of a will o the we suspect however that in spite of its many good things is more quoted than read with prior s minor pieces the case is different in these he all the verbal fitness and artful ease of such as and martial with both of whom he has considerable but his continental residence had also made him familiar with their and added a french grace and lightness to his already muse in his treatment of love and women he thoroughly follows his masters however ardent his adoration of the other sex is always conventional while his appreciation of their is keen even to malice he seldom or never writes of them with real respect and deep feeling what interests him most it is clear is not the tender passion in its more refined conditions but those pretty and accidents at which they say dame laughs t ma w prior that is to say his favourite poetical attitude is rather cynical than enthusiastic rather material than ideal now and then as in the verses to a child of quality years old he can assume a playful gravity which is altogether charming but it is in such pieces as the merchant to secure his treasure a better answer a that he shines most as a tale he comes near to la for ease of narrative and careless finish although his like those of his model are generally more witty than delicate in his and pieces like the secretary and a he is delightful as an he is in english but however much one might attempt to define the work of prior there would always be a something left a something that the whole and yet the critic who falls back upon the old devices for describing the his is the nameless charm of s that fugitive je ne of gaiety of wit of grace of audacity it is impossible to say what which analysis as the principle of life escapes the in the present case it lifts its possessor above any other writer of familiar verse but it is a something to which we cannot give a name unless indeed we take refuge in and say that it is prior c ao the english poets the secretary at the in the year while with labour due pleasure i mix and in one day for the business of six in a little dutch chaise on a saturday night on my left hand my a on my right no to compose and no post boy to move that on sunday may hinder the softness of love for her neither visits nor parties at tea nor the long cant of a dull this night and the next shall be hers shall be mine to good or ill fortune the third we resign thus the world and superior to fate i drive on my car in state so with through rode men thought her and him a new god but why should i stories of where people knew love and were partial to verse since none can with justice my pleasures oppose in holland half drowned in interest and prose by greece and past ages what need i be tried when the and the present are both on my side and is it enough for the joys of the day to think what or would say when good and his as they gaze on my triumph do freely allow that search all the province you ll find no man is so blessed as the is ma prior to a child of quality five years old lords knights and the numerous band that wear the fair miss mary s were summoned by her high command to show their passions by their letters my pen among the rest i took lest those bright eyes that cannot read should dart their fires and look the power they have to be obeyed nor quality nor reputation forbid me yet my flame to tell dear years old my passion and i may write till she can spell for while she makes her silk worms beds with all the tender things i swear whilst all the house my passion reads in papers round her baby s hair she may receive and own my flame for though the should know u she ll pass for a most virtuous dame and i for an unhappy poet then too alas when she shall tear the lines some younger rival sends she ll give me leave to write i fear and we shall still continue friends for as our	45
different ages move tis so ordained would fate but mend it that i shall be past making love when she begins to comprehend it the english poets a in vain you tell your parting lover you wish fair winds may him oven alas what winds can happy prove that bear me far from what i love alas what dangers on the main can equal those that i sustain from vows and cold disdain be gentle and in pity choose to wish the wildest loose that thrown again upon the coast where first my heart was lost i may once more repeat my pain once more in dying notes complain of vows and cold disdain to a she refusing to continue a dispute with me and leaving me in the argument spare generous victor spare the slave who did unequal war pursue that more than triumph he might have in being overcome by you in the dispute whatever i said my heart was by my tongue and in my looks you might have read how much i argued on your side you far from danger as from fear might have sustained an open fight for seldom your opinions your eyes are always in the right a a w prior why fair one would you not rely on reason s force with beauty s joined could i their deny i must at once be deaf and blind alas not hoping to subdue i only to the fight to keep the foe in view was all the glory i desired but she er of victory sure the wreath too long delayed and armed with more immediate power calls cruel silence to her aid deeper to wound she the fight she drops her arms to gain the field her conquest by her flight and triumphs when she seems to yield so when the turned his and from the hostile camp withdrew with cruel skill the backward reed he sent and as he fled he an the merchant to secure his treasure it in a borrowed name serves to grace my measure but is my real flame my verse my darling upon s toilet lay when noted her desire that i should sing that i should play my i tune my voice i raise but with my numbers mix my sighs and whilst i sing s praise i fix my soul on s eyes the english poets fair blushed frowned i sung and gazed i played and trembled and to the loves around remarked how ill we all mistaken as noon one summer s day stood bathing in a river a shooting went that way new strung his bow new filled his quiver with skill he chose his dart with all his might his bow he drew swift to his parent s heart the too well guided arrow flew i faint i i die the goddess cried cruel could st thou find none other to wreck thy on like thou hast slain thy mother poor sobbing scarce could speak indeed mamma i did not know ye alas how easy my mistake took you for your likeness a better answer dear how is that pretty face thy cheek all on fire and thy hair all pr quit this caprice and as old says let us e en talk a little like folks of this world how can st thou presume thou hast leave to destroy the beauties which but lent to thy keeping those looks were designed to inspire love and joy more ordinary eyes may serve people for weeping i e than the answer to jealous which usually it prior as to be vexed at a trifle or two that i writ your judgment at once and my passion you wrong you take that for fact which will scarce be found wit od s life must one swear to the truth of a song what i speak my fair and what i write the difference there is nature and art i court others in verse but i love thee in prose and they have my but thou hast my heart the god of us verse men you know child the sun how after his journeys he sets up his rest if at morning o er earth tis his fancy to run at night he on his s breast so when i am wearied with wandering all day to thee my delight in the evening i come no matter what beauties i saw in my way they were but my visits but thou art my home then finish dear this pastoral war and let us like and ag ee for thou art a girl as much brighter than her as he was a poet than me a dear thomas did st thou never pop thy head into a tin man s shop there thomas did st thou never see tis but by way of a spend his little rage in jumping round a rolling cage the cage as either side turned up striking a ring of bells a top moved in the pleased with the the foolish creature thinks he but here or there turn wood or wire he never gets two inches higher the i poets so it with those merry blades that it under shades in noble songs and lofty they tread on stars and talk with gods still dancing in an airy round still pleased with their own verses sound brought back how fast er they go always always low to john i owed great obligation but john unhappily thought fit to publish it to all the nation sure john and i are more than quit another yes every poet is a fool by demonstration ned can show it happy could ned s rule prove every fool to be a poet for my own tomb stone to me twas given to die to thee tis given to live alas one moment sets us even mark how impartial is the will of heaven	45
lady of was bom about i o at the residence of her father sir william she married fourth earl of who survived her ax years she died on the th of august leaving no issue her works consist of the a the and a tragedy in that invaluable essay which to his in he says that excepting the reverie of lady and a passage or two in the forest of pope the poetry of the period intervening between the publication of the paradise lost and the seasons does not contain a single new image of external nature this remark although rather acute than exact since the poet forgets both gay and did eminent service in restoring to the list of english poets a name entirely and forgotten since s mention of lady the one piece that he has been often in of verse but it cannot be said that any further effort has been made to investigate the claims of the neglected her poems have never been or described and we believe that our present selection will reveal to almost all our readers a writer positively unknown to them yet she was a of singular originality and excellence her lines to the have qualities which were scarcely approached in her own age and would do credit to the best while her and more pieces have a strength and accomplishment of style which make the least interesting of them worth reading lady was one of the last writers of the school of her display that species of writing in the a the english poets final dissolution out of which it was by gray and such a poem as her all is vanity full as it is of ingenious thought and studded with noble and harmonious lines fails to impress the attention as a composition her to the from which pope borrowed his famous pain is still more loose and in structure on the other hand her less ambitious studies have a singular perfection of form and of manner she lights upon the right epithet and it with precision and gives a brilliant turn even to a by some bright and natural touch her reverie is worthy of s it is simply as the creation of a friend of prior and of pope and some of the especially those which describe the horse and the cries of the birds are worthy of the of nature in a age in light verse lady took prior as a model and succeeded her reply to pope s complimentary verses to her under the name of deserves higher praise from her age to this lady has received nothing but neglect from the english public her disregarded her writings as she herself and in there were still existing two of her poems in ms which no one had taken the trouble to print to the public of the century her delicate observation of nature seemed less important than the of mrs or the of if those poems to which reference has been made are still in the possession of her family it is highly desirable that they should be given to the world w lady to the exert thy voice sweet of spring this moment is thy time to sing this moment i attend to praise and set my numbers to thy lays free as thine shall be my song as thy music short or long poets wild as thou were bom pleasing best when when to please is least designed soothing but their cares to rest cares do still their thoughts and still the unhappy poet s breast like thine when best he sings is placed against a thorn she begins i let all be still muse thy promise now fulfil sweet oh sweet still sweeter yet can thy words such accents fit thou melt a sense that shall retain still some spirit of the brain till with sounds like those it join not be then change thy note let division shake thy throat hark division now she tries yet as far the muse cease then cease thy tune wilt thou sing till june till thy business all lies waste and the time of building s past thus we poets that have speech unlike what thy forests teach if a vein be shown that s to our own reform or preach what we cannot reach the english poets the tree fair tree for thy delightful shade tis just that some return be made sure some return is due from me to thy cool shadows and to thee when thou to birds dost shelter give thou music dost from them receive if travellers beneath thee stay till storms have themselves away that time in thee they spend and thy protecting power commend the shepherd here from freed tunes to thy dancing leaves his reed whilst his loved in thanks her on thy boughs shall i then only silent be and no return be made by me no let this wish upon me wait and still to flourish be thy fate to future ages thou stand untouched by the rash workman s hand till that large stock of sap is spent which gives thy summer s ornament till the fierce winds that vainly strive to shock thy greatness whilst alive shall on thy lifeless hour attend prevent the axe and grace thy end their scattered strength together call and to the clouds proclaim thy fall who then their evening may spare when thou no longer art their care but shalt like ancient heroes burn and some bright hearth be made thy urn lady a reverie in such a night when every louder wind is to its distant safe confined and only gentle his wings and lonely still waking sings or from some tree framed for the owl s delight she clear the wanderer right in such a night when passing clouds give place or veil the heaven s mysterious face when in some river	45
with green the waving moon and trembling leaves are seen when grass now bears itself upright and makes cool banks to pleasing rest invite whence spring the and the rose and where the sleepy sheltered grows whilst now a paler hue the takes yet still with red the dusky where scattered but in twilight fine trivial beauties watch their hour to shine while stands the test of every light in perfect charms and perfect beauty bright when which declined day through temperate air stray when darkened groves their shadows wear and falling waters we distinctly hear when through the gloom more venerable shows some ancient fabric awful in repose while hills their looks conceal and swelling up the when the horse now as his pasture leads comes slowly the adjoining whose stealing pace and lengthened shade we fear till tom up in his teeth we hear when sheep at large pursue their food and re the the english poets when cry beneath the village walls and to her straggling brood the calls their short lived the creatures keep which but whilst tyrant man doth sleep when a content the spirit feels and no fierce light whilst it but silent urge the mind to seek something too high for to speak till the free soul to a charmed finding the elements of rage o er all below a solemn quiet grown joys in the inferior world and thinks it like her own in such a night let me abroad remain till morning breaks and all s confused again our cares our toils our are renewed our pleasures seldom reached again pursued from an to the the mortal part we blame of our depressed and ponderous frame which till the first degrading sin let thee its dull attendant in still with the other did nor the active soul disposed to fly and range the of its native sky nor whilst in his own heaven he dwelt whilst man his paradise possessed his fertile garden in the fragrant east and all united felt no arm d sweets until thy reign could shock the sense or in the face a flushed colour place but now a the feeble brain we faint beneath the pain till some offensive scent thy powers and pleasure we resign for short and ease lady in answer to mr pope with so genteel an air the contest i give o er yet alexander have a care and shock the sex no more we rule the world our life s whole race men but assume that right first slaves to every tempting face then to our spite you of one sure have read who would like you have writ had he in london town been bred and polished too his wit but he poor soul thought all was well and great should be his fame when he had left his wife in hell and birds and beasts could tame yet venturing then with the women to incense of those times soon punished his offence and as the rolled his skull and harp with blood they as the waves grew full still the flood but you our follies gently treat and spin so fine the thread you need not fear his awkward fate the lock won t cost the head our admiration you command for all that s gone before what next we look for at your hand can only raise it more yet soothe the ladies i advise as me too pride has wrought we re bom to wit but to be wise by taught vol iii i swift swift was bom in s court on the th of november belonging to a family and directly descended from a in one of whose younger sons the poet s father married a lady he was of english blood a child left in circumstances he was sent to school at and then to college by the charity of his uncle who died in swift seems to have neglected the studies requisite to his degree and having been plucked at his first examination only obtained it on a second trial on the outbreak of the war he fled to england and found his way from on foot to his mother s residence she obtained for him the patronage of sir william temple to whose wife she was related and he remained at park for eleven years in the capacity of secretary to that accomplished at a salary of a year this residence interrupted by a short absence during which he held an irish country living in the of brought him into the frequent society of johnson an of the same house and daughter of sir william s steward in swift went to oxford and was admitted there to a master s degree on occasion of this visit he produced his first verses an indifferent rendering of ii followed a little later by his a more substantial result of his studies in his master s library was the battle of the books in he took s and in priest s orders ere his death in sir william had from the king a promise of promotion for his a promise afterwards forgotten in swift accompanied lord to ireland as and obtained the living of in the county of at an income of a year which by the addition of the of was increased to into the of party he first came before the public as a champion of the in his entitled a discourse on the and of and rome in appeared the tale of a tub perhaps the of works and in the papers the under the signature of in with a change of opinion quickened by at patronage deferred swift passed to the side of the and became their most effective champion his conduct q the swift brought about in the peace of and the gratitude of and procured for him the of st s	45
his cousin swift of the classic efforts of the latter and published in probably written about ten years earlier may be taken as a type no selection from his verses would be esteemed satisfactory that did not exhibit a of this once celebrated production but apart from the tragic interest of the personal warning it it is as m says a in which the author s tear his greek the same critic justly remarks that swift wore his like a wig that his pleading before is like a legal and that he habitually turns his classic wine to the other writers of the time had turned it into milk and water but prior and the rest had a grace to which swift was a stranger their laughter is genuine though light his was and his is rarely pleasant and he is never at heart more gloomy than when he affects to be gay most of his occasional verses written at intervals from till are either compliments or veiled many of which like the that the otherwise exquisite pages of have all the with only half the wit of martial his the english poets addresses to women are as might be expected singularly unfortunate he says truly of himself that he could praise esteem approve but understood not what it was to love he can never get out of his pulpit and while his as he lectures them as school girls his verses to whom he came as near to loving as was for him possible and whose death certainly hastened his mental ruin are as as those to with whose affections he merely swift s tendency to dwell on the and even the facts of life in his prose is in those to in which he on a lady s with the eye of a surgeon fresh from a room or an hospital his society verses are like those of a man writing with his feet for he delights to on what others caress often he seems among singing birds a over of swift s graver pieces the on poetry has the fatal of suggesting a comparison with the in confession vivid and though it be the author appears occasionally to intrude on the gardens of prior and gay had he been an artist in verse he might have written something in english more like the sixth satire of than ever succeeded in doing but swift despised art he rode rough shod on his through bad double rhyme and halting to his end war with the cold steel of prose was his business his poems are the mere side lights and of a man too grim to join heartily in any game only here and there among them as in the strange of pathos and humour on his own death there is a flash from the eyes which good and good friend said were as the heavens a touch of the hand that was never weary of giving gifts to the poor and blows to the powerful a reflection of the universal and who has a claim to our forbearance in that he detested as johnson and as detested cowardice and cant j than swift a description of the morning written in april and first printed in the now hardly here and there a coach appearing show d the ruddy mom s approach the slip shod from his master s door had the dirt and sprinkled round the floor now had whirl d her with airs prepared to the entry and the stairs the youth with began to trace the s edge where wheels had worn the place the small coal man was heard with deep till drown d in notes of chimney sweep at his s gate began to meet and had scream d through half the street the now his flock returning sees duly let out a nights to steal for the watchful take their silent stands and with in their hands book iv ix addressed to king virtue conceal d within our breast is at best but never shall the muse endure to let your virtues lie obscure or suffer envy to conceal your labours for the public within your breast all wisdom lies either to govern or advise the english poets your steady soul preserves her frame in good and evil times the same pale and lurking fraud stand in your sacred presence awed your hand alone from gold which the world in chains him for a happy man i own whose fortune is not overgrown and happy he who wisely to use the that heaven or if it please the powers divine can suffer want and not the man who to into the arms of death would run that man is ready to defend with life his country or his friend s occasioned by news from ireland is now our royal care we lately fix d our there how near was she to be undone till pious love inspired her son what cannot our do as poet and as too let his success our subjects sway our to obey and follow where he leads the way then study to correct your taste nor beaten paths be longer traced no shall be begun with rising or with setting sun and let the secret head of be ever banish d from your isle when wretched lovers live on i beg you the spare than swift and when you d make a hero forget he s like a no son of mine shall dare to say d in the day or ever name the way you all agree i make no doubt s mantle is worn out the bird of jove shall toil no more to teach the humble to your tragic heroes shall not nor use poetic cant simplicity alone can grace the manners of the rural race and be your guides to true simplicity when s soul shall take its flight though poets have the	45
second sight they shall not see a trail of light nor shall the upwards rise nor a new star adorn the skies for who can hope to place one there as glorious as s hair yet if his name you d and must him to the skies without a star this may be done so d his if s happy reign you praise pray not a word of days nor let my show their skill in lines from s hill for know i cannot bear to hear the of deep yet clear er my is address d against the i protest when poets in youthful strains no to hold the reins referring to some verses in which swift had described lord under the form of the english poets when you describe a lovely girl no lips of coral teeth of pearl shall ne er mistake another however for his mother nor shall his at random fly from magazine in s eye with woman i am d which only pleased in for foreign aid what need they whom fate has amply at home heaven with hand has form d a model for your land whom jove with every grace the glory of the race now destined by the powers divine the blessing of another line then would you paint a dame whom you d to endless fame not s nor borrow from the blue eyed maid nor need you on the graces call take qualities from from and in a glad hour s aid produced on earth a wondrous maid on whom the queen of love was bent to try a new experiment she threw her law books on the shelf and thus with herself since men they ne er can find those beauties in a female mind which raise a flame that will endure for ever and pure a lady whom swift had praised as a happy composition of innocence breeding wit c the of daughter to the first earl of swift if tis with reason they complain this infant shall restore my reign ill search where every virtue dwells from courts down to what talk or write these will i gather and unite and represent them to mankind collected in that infant s mind this said she in heaven s high a of flowers in thrice three times refined in s rays then calls the graces to her aid and thrice the maid from whence the tender skin a sweetness above all from whence a cleanliness remains incapable of outward from whence that decency of mind so lovely in the female kind where not one careless thought less modest than the speech of where never blush was call d in aid that virtue in a maid a virtue but at second hand they blush because they understand the graces next would act their part and show d but little of their art their work was half already done the child with native beauty shone the outward form no help required each breathing on her thrice inspired that gentle engaging air which in old times d the fair and said be the name by which thou shalt be known to fame by the gods d her name on earth shall not be told the english poets the beasts confession when beasts could speak the learned say they still can do so every day it seems they had religion then as much as now we find in men it happened when a plague broke out which therefore made them more devout the king of brutes to make it plain of i only mean by gave command that every subject in the land should to the priest confess their sins and thus the pious wolf begins good father i must own with shame that often i have been to blame i must confess on friday last wretch that i was i broke my fast but i defy the tongue to prove i did my neighbour wrong or ever went to seek my food by or thirst of blood the ass approaching next confess d that in his heart he loved a jest a wag he was he needs must own and could not let a alone sometimes his friend he would not spare and might perhaps be too severe but yet the worst that could be said he was a wit both bom and bred and if it be a sin and shame nature alone must bear the blame one fault he has is sorry for t his ears are half a foot too short which could he to the standard bring he d show his face before the king than s then for his voice there s none that he s the of brutes the swine with heart allow d his shape and beauty made him proud in diet was perhaps too nice but was ne er his vice in every turn of life content and meekly took what fortune sent inquire through all the parish round a better neighbour ne er was found his vigilance might some tis true he hated like the began his chatter how evil tongues his life much of the world complained who said his gravity was d indeed the of his morals engaged him in a hundred quarrels he saw and he was grieved to see t his zeal was sometimes he found his virtues too severe for our times to bear yet such a age might well excuse a s rage the goat advanced with decent pace and first excused his youthful face forgiveness d that he appeared twas nature s fault without a beard tis true he was not much inclined to fondness for the female kind not as his enemies object from chance or natural defect not by his constitution but through a pious resolution for he had made a holy vow of as do now which he resolved to keep for ever hence and strictly too as doth his reverence	45
the english poets apply the tale and you shall find how just it suits with human kind some faults we own but can you guess why virtue s carried to excess wherewith our vanity us though neither foe nor friend allows us the lawyer you may rely on t he never squeezed a and this he makes his constant rule for which his brethren call him fool his conscience always was so nice he freely gave the poor advice by which he lost he may affirm a hundred last term while others of the learned robe would break the patience of a job no at the bar could match his diligence and quick ne er kept a cause he well may boast above a term or two at most the who seeks a place without success thus tells his case why should he longer the matter he failed because he could not flatter he had not d to turn his coat nor for a party give his vote his crime he quickly understood too zealous for the nation s good he found the ministers resent it yet could not for his heart repent it the vows he cannot though it would raise him to the lawn he passed his hours among his books you find it in his meagre looks he might if he were worldly wise get and spare his eyes but owns he had a stubborn spirit that made him trust alone to merit swift would rise by merit to promotion alas a mere notion the doctor if you will believe him confessed a sin and god forgive him up at midnight ran to save a blind old beggar from the grave but see how satan his he quite forgot to say his prayers he cannot help it for his heart sometimes to act the parson s part from the bible many a sentence that moves his to repentance and when his do no good their minds with heavenly food at which however well intended he hears the clergy are offended and grown so bold behind his back to call him and in his own church he keeps a seat says grace before and after meat and calls without affecting airs his household twice a day to prayers he shops and hates to the sick with he to make his art a trade nor my lady s favourite maid old nurse would never hire to recommend him to the squire which others whom he will not name have often practised to their shame the tells you with a sneer his fault is to be too sincere and having no sinister ends is apt to his friends the nation s good his master s glory without regard to or tory were all the schemes he had in view yet he was by few the english poets though some had spread a thousand lies twas he defeated the twas known though he had borne that standing troops were his aversion his practice was in every station to serve the king and please the nation though hard to find in every case the man to fill a place his promises he ne er forgot but took on the spot his enemies for want of charity said he affected popularity tis true the people understood that all he did was for their good their kind affections he has tried no love is lost on either side he came to court with fortune clear which now he runs out every year must at the rate that he goes on inevitably be undone o if his majesty would please to give him but a writ of ease would grant him license to retire as it has long been his desire by fair accounts it would be found he s poorer by ten thousand pound he owns and hopes it is no sin he ne er was partial to his kin he thought it base for men in stations to crowd the court with their relations his country was his dearest mother and every virtuous man his brother through modesty or awkward shame for which he owns himself to blame he found the wisest man he could without respect to friends or blood nor ever acts on private views when he has liberty to choose swift the swore he hated play except to pass an hour away and well he might for to his cost by want of skill he always lost he heard there was a club of who had contrived a thousand could change the stock or a die and thus deceive the eye nor wonder how his fortune sunk his brothers him when he s drunk i own the moral not exact besides the tale is false in fact and so absurd that could i raise up from fields i i would accuse him to his face for the four foot race creatures of every kind but ours well comprehend their natural powers while we whom reason ought to sway mistake our talents every day the ass was never known so stupid to act the part of tray or nor leaps upon his master s lap there to be and fed with as would the world persuade he better understands his trade nor comes er his lady but carries loads and on our author s meaning i presume is a creature et wherein the design d a compliment on human kind for here he owns that now and then beasts may into men vol lit the english poets the day of judgment first printed in a letter from lord to with a whirl of thought oppressed i sunk from reverie to rest a horrid vision seized my head i saw the graves give up their dead jove arm d with terrors bursts the skies and thunder and lightning flies amazed confused its fate unknown the world stands trembling at his throne while each pale sinner hung his head jove nodding shook	45
the city of london his father was a linen who having a modest retired to the country to live upon it pope s youth was spent at in the skirts of forest pope was brought up a catholic his father though the son of a clergyman of the established church having become a convert to during a residence on the continent on the death of his father pope who had largely increased his inheritance by the profits of his translation of established himself at here he resided till his death in i himself in writing in his grounds of five acres and in intercourse with most of the wits and other famous men and women of his time among whom gay swift and lord were his especial pope was and sickly from childhood and his constant ill health made his temper and irritable notwithstanding these defects of character he secured the warm attachment of his friends said of him that he never knew a man who had so tender a heart for his particular friends after spending a fortnight at said of him he is as good a companion as a poet and what is more appears to be as good a man pope s principal works are published in essay on criticism of the lock translation s edition of translation s ist form to the earl of on the use of riches a essay on man part i sat a i to lord to altered and enlarged his works were collected by his literary bishop and published in volumes in pope is not only the foremost literary figure of his age but the representative man of a system or style of writing which for a hundred years before and after him pervaded english poetry the english poets the writers in this style are sometimes spoken of as the school of pope but the title is a a school along with other schools from which it is distinguished by some special characteristics all the schools taken together bearing the common and more general stamp of their age during the period now under review which extends speaking roughly from the restoration to the french revolution the whole of english literary effort but especially poetical effort has one aim and is governed by one principle this is the desire to attain perfection of form a sense of the beauty of literary composition as such it was the rise within the language of that idea which the latin language as written and spoken in the century had produced the revived literature of the pope himself sat and p in describing this manner spoke of it as french and attributed it to the imitation of french fashions introduced into england at the restoration we conquered france but felt our captive s charms her arts victorious triumph d o er our arms britain to soft less a foe wit grew polite and numbers d to flow de works vol upon the of this explanation of a revolution in literary taste certainly the court of louis xiv exercised a great influence in all matters of taste but this influence of fashion ceased when the of france was broken by the war of the spanish succession while the direction which had been impressed upon english poetry continued to it till towards the close of the century a better for the period of our literature which extends from the restoration to the french revolution is the classical period and this is not to be taken to mean that english writers now the greek and latin writers or formed themselves upon classical models as the of the and english writers had begun to perceive that there was such an art as the art of writing that it was not enough to put down words upon paper anyhow provided they conveyed your meaning they found sounds were capable of and that pleasure could be given by the arrangement of words as well as instruction conveyed by their import the public ear was touched by this new harmony and alexander pope began to demand its satisfaction and from that moment the rude of the older time seemed to it as the of savages a poem was no longer to be a story told with picturesque but was to be a composition in and keeping a thought or a feeling was not to be out in the first that came but was to be by reflection and reduced to its simplest expression neatness finish all qualities hitherto unheard of in english had to be studied it was found to be possible to please by your manner as well as by your matter and having been shown to be possible it became necessary no writer who neglected the graces of style could gain acceptance by the public this of the public ear required on the part of writers greatly increased labour it was no longer possible to take a sheet of paper and write out your thoughts as fast as the pen would move the mob of gentlemen who wrote with ease were in the race it was evident that under the new standard thus set up the prize would be to him who should be willing to take most trouble about his style pope was willing as a boy he took as his life s lesson the advice given him by knowing who used to tell him there was one way left of for though we had several great poets we never had any one great poet that was correct and desired me to make that my study and aim de s meaning has been at the pains to show that pope s verses abound in the language he says does not the idea it simply suggests or hints it that conveyance by suggestion instead of a perfect and is just what pope aimed at and what though he may not have chosen the very best word	45
for what he meant pope at once took the lead in the race of writers because he took more pains than they he day and night to form himself for his purpose that of becoming a writer of finished verse to improve his mind to his view of the world to store up knowledge these were things unknown to him any ideas any thoughts such as custom chance society or may suggest are good enough but each idea must be turned over till it has been reduced to its and most expression if this definition of the literary aim which all writing during the years which followed be just it follows from it that the period would be more favourable to prose than to the english poets poetry what in fact came to pass was that a compromise was effected between and the leading writers adopted as the most telling form of utterance without it is by courtesy that the of this century from to are poets seeing that the literature they have us that element f inspired feeling which is present in the of the but if these are not poets in the noblest sense of the term it does not follow that what they produced is destitute of value in the romantic reaction at the beginning of this century the of century poetry was part of the creed sheer was then admired while labour was as the of an and artificial school the judgment of a period of criticism can now do justice to the writers of our classical period what they had not got we know well enough they wanted inspiration lofty sentiment the heroic soul devotion the inner eye of faith above all love and they could not mean greatly but such meaning as they had they to express in the most and pointed form which our language is capable of if not poets they were they showed that a can do the work of a page and a single line produce effects which in the infancy of writing would require sentences of these masters of literary craft pope is the most in two directions in that of and pointing his meaning and in that of drawing the utmost harmony of sound out of the pope carried far beyond the point at which it was when he took it up historical are yet the between what did for the latin as he received it from and pope s the ten syllable which he found as left it is sufficiently close to be of use in us to pope s merit because after pope his trick of became common property and every had his tune by heart we are apt to overlook the merit of the first invention but force and musical are not the sole elements of pope s reputation the matter which he worked up into his verse has a permanent value and is indeed one of the most precious which the century has us and here we must distinguish between pope when he attempts general and pope when he draws that which alexander pope he knew the social life of his own day when in the he writes of natural beauty in the essay on criticism he lays down the rules of writing in the essay on man he he does not rise above the herd of writers except in so far as his skill of language is more accomplished than theirs the of the lock and the have a little more interest because they treat of contemporary manners but even in these poems because the incidents are trivial and the personages contemptible pope is not more than pretty in the of the lock and forcible where force is in the it is where he comes to describe the one thing he knew and about which he felt sympathy and the court and town of his time in the moral essays and the and that pope found the proper material on which to lay out his elaborate and even in these capital works we must distinguish between pope s general and his particular portraits where he or general principles he is superficial and as the for example in the splendid lines on the duke of ess we must separate the childish theory of the ruling passion from the telling of on which follows under that or again we might instance his to p sparkling with lines of wit and sense and yet offering as our literary history the grotesque theory that the french style which came in with the restoration was a consequence of the conquest of france in the century in short pope wherever he from what was immediately close to him the manners passions prejudices sentiments of his own day has only such merit little enough which wit from truth can have he is at his best only where the and subtle of his are employed to some transient phase of contemporary feeling pope has small knowledge of books though he was as sir w says a curious reader he read for style not for facts of history of science of nature of anything except the town he knows nothing he just shares the ordinary prejudices of the ordinary wit of his day he was a tory catholic like any other tory catholic of george day his sentiments reflect the social medium in which he lived the complex web of society with its shades its minute personal and o the english poets is the world in which pope lived and moved and which he has drawn in a few vivid lines with the and intensity of which there is nothing in our literature that can compare s portraits in his gallery of characters are more complete and and infinitely more candid but they do not flash the personage or the situation upon the imagination and fix it in the memory as one of pope s	45
lines does like all the greatest poets pope is individual and local he can paint with his full power only what he sees when he attempts abstract truth general past history his want of knowledge makes itself felt in feeble and distorted views the first production of pope to appear in print was his published when the author was twenty one but written some years earlier as the work of a youth of seventeen they are a marvellous feat of melodious in any other respect they are only worthy of mention as already the false taste which pope never got rid of when he attempted any other theme than manners of this false taste his is an elaborate specimen this poem is an of s fourth to christ upon the lines of the latin poet the images supplied by the of the ingenuity with which the double imitation is carried through is only surpassed by the mastery shown over the melody of the and the exhibition of a complete poetical these brilliant qualities carried by storm the admiration of pope s and continued to command the homage of the century down to johnson language experience enforced by the and example of makes our age too keenly feel that the pathos and of the hebrew prophet are destroyed by the artificial with which pope has them pope s reads to us like a sickly in which all the majesty of the original is dissipated becomes sheep are the care the call to to arise and shine is turned into an to her tow ry head the fir tree and box tree of are the fir and box in his translation of the the child shall play on the hole of the and the child shall put his hand on the den pope makes the a and the a snake they have both scales of a green lustre and a tongue and with this last the smiling infant shall alexander pope i play the says shall lie down with the kid and the young lion and the together and a little child shall lead them pope could not leave this exquisite picture and with him boys in bands the tiger lead the alternative is an example of the justice of de s observation that the of pope s age was the of the opera theatre the essay on criticism in ii this is a poem of which the remote is s and the immediate s it from these models in its subject which is the art of criticism to dr johnson this production appeared to display such extent of comprehension such of distinction such acquaintance with mankind and such knowledge both of ancient and modem learning as are not often attained by the age and the longest experience this verdict of johnson may be to show the great advance which criticism has made in england in the course of a century we should now say that the of pope s essay are conventional the ordinary rules of composition which may be found in all school and which are taught to boys as part of their the essay says de ms a mere hke a table of the most with which criticism has its rat traps it required very little reading of the french to find the which pope has here strung together but he has dressed them so neatly and turned them out with such sparkle and point that these have acquired a weight not their own and they as among us in virtue of their form rather than their truth they his own line what oft was thought but ne er so well expressed pope told that he had gone through all the best critics and le but whatever trouble he took in collecting what to say his main effort is expended upon how to say it the essay on criticism in those striking which have lodged in all our memories and given their last and abiding shape to which have been in substance since literature began a good example of this art is supplied by the which has just been quoted from true wit is nature to advantage dressed what oft was thought but ne er so well expressed the english poets which is pope s compressed form of the following prose of est ce ce n est point se le les pens e n a ni c est au pens e qui a d k le et un s le d un bon n est bon en ce il chose et il la d re fine et but though the essay with sparkle and point and memorable lines it is very far from being composed throughout of nothing but such besides the general fault which all pope s longer efforts of want of texture and of argument the essay on criticism offers too many weak lines obscure expressions and monotonous of such as no piece of pope s composition is entirely free from abound in the essay one instance of this is the want of variety in his there are twelve to wit and ten to sense unhappy wit like most mistaken things not for that envy which it brings mistaken things here means things taken by others which is not the natural sense of the words and stands for but sense survived when merry were passed it requires explanation that were passed here means had passed away critics form short ideas and offend in arts as most in manners from a love to parts in this one are three expressions short ideas offend in arts and love to parts the meaning of which has to be guessed or gathered from the it is not apparent on the face of the words used in some of poetry expression is not a fault in an chorus it is of the essence of the charm that the revelations should be in clouds but pope s verse like french prose	45
is constructed on the principle of being immediately intelligible the moment it is not so its is gone alexander pope the of the lock is a mock heroic poem the style of which was suggested to pope by s pope followed his model in his work an poem the epithet employed by in the edition of his it was founded upon an incident which had caused great commotion in the circle of catholic families in which pope though not himself a member of it had friends lord in a moment of youthful had cut off a lock of hair from miss s head a liberty which was keenly resented and had caused a violent quarrel between the families mr a squire nephew to the mr john who had been secretary to mary james queen suggested to pope to write a poem which by treating the incident might induce the offended family to take a more view of what they regarded as an outrage this was the motive of the first of the poem as it was printed in s in two and no more than lines this first sketch was written off in a fortnight but its author pleased with the success of his it afterwards and enlarged it especially by the introduction of what he calls the machinery or the agency of supernatural beings of the fairy species whom he calls it is universally admitted that the later additions and this invention especially are great improvements thus forming an exception to the rule that a poet should never or a piece which he has turned out well in the first instance the heroine of the poem is miss the baron is lord is mrs sir is mrs s brother sir george brown of pope obtained permission to the poem to miss but notwithstanding that he takes care to tell her that her in nothing but in beauty the lady was more offended than flattered by the representation given of her sir george brown was indignant at being made to talk nothing but nonsense in bringing about its professed aim the reconciliation of the two families the poem was entirely unsuccessful but with the public it was otherwise on its first publication pronounced it a delicious little thing criticism the most hostile to pope of which there has been abundance in the modem reaction against his influence has agreed to spare the it his best poem de who never pope when he is weak goes beyond the english poets and declares it the most exquisite monument of playful fancy that universal literature offers the of the lock writes ms the most exquisite specimen of work ever invented it is made of and silver the most glittering appearance is given to everything to and patches airs languid airs breathe around the atmosphere is with affectation a toilet is described with the solemnity of an altar raised to the goddess of vanity and the history of a silver is given with all the pomp of no pains are spared no profusion of ornament no splendour of poetic to set off the meanest things it is the triumph of the of and folly it is the perfection of the mock heroic and professor thinks there can be little to say about a poem so exquisite in its peculiar style of art as to make the task of searching for faults almost hopeless that of beauties simply impertinent such warmth of as this is at least testimony to the admiration which the skill of the poet can still excite in the reader but it is criticism which touches the rather than the work pope s execution is so clever as always to charm us even when his subject is most devoid of interest the secret of the peculiar fascination of the of the lock lies i believe not merely in the art and management but in the fact that here for the first time pope is writing of that which he knew of the life he saw and the people he lived with for forest though he lived in it he had no eyes but a drawing room a and a these were the objects which had struck his young fancy when he emerged from the s villa and he had studied them about these things he can be real and truthful when he writes of and he is making believe he is an actor trying to think himself into his part only in his and and in the characters of his essays will he again succeed in upon congenial matter on which to lay out his extraordinary power of nor is the reflection of social life and manners which the offers confined to superficial forms only the most intimate sentiments of the time find their representation here as an instance we may point to the mean estimation of women contempt veiled under the show of deference a mockery of chivalry its form without its spirit this is the attitude assumed towards women by the poet in this piece the world of fashion is displayed alexander pope in its most gorgeous and attractive hues and everywhere the is visible beneath the outward splendour the beauty of the details of her toilet her troops of admirers are all set forth with grace and fascination and all bear the impress of vanity and vexation nothing can exceed the art with which the satire is blended with the pomp mocking without disturbing the the double vein is kept up with sustained skill in the picture of the outward charms and the inward of women with varying from every part they shift die moving of their heart this is the tone throughout their hearts are they reverse the relative importance of things the little with them is great and the great little el win this feeling towards women is not the poet s here he is but the representative of his age the degradation of woman	45
times during these ten years the most celebrated of these poems are the four addressed to lord and known by the title of the essay on man it is a or poem not on man as the title bears but a e or f the english poets of the ways of providence the view attempted to be presented is that of the end of the universe is the general good of the whole it was impossible to this without admitting partial evil man is not the end of creation but only one in a scale of beings it is his pride which leads him to complain when he finds that everything has not been ordered for his benefit the reasoning of the essay on man is feeble the philosophy either or inconsistent or obscure but the less the value of the argument the more is our admiration excited by the literary skill and brilliant execution displayed in the management the particular illustrations the and side lights always sparkle with wit and are sometimes warm with feeling when the main is and whilst pope frequently his skill in refuse he is really most sensitive to the noblest sentiments of his and when he has good materials to work upon his verse with unusual points to the never elated while one man s oppressed never dejected whilst another s blessed as the most complete and lofty expression of moral temper existing in english words if the essay on man were shivered into fragments it would not lose its value for it is precisely its details which constitute its moral as well as literary beauties a w ward the moral essays from which our next specimen is taken consist of five composed at different times and placed in the works under a common title of these the same may be said as of the essay on man that the doctrine is not worthy of the exquisite our extract is from the first and the celebrated character of philip lord a piece of which ranks with those of the of lord and the death bed of duke of they are of english cut with such sharp outlines and such vigour of hand that they have lost none of their freshness by lapse of time when the poet one of these figures his the surprises of his the sustained and multiplied the texture of each line the incessant from the play of his eloquence directed and concentrated continually upon one point from these things the memory receives an impression which it never loses alexander pope pope s peculiar powers found their most perfect development in the pieces which in the collected works are entitled and of casually suggested by in the course of conversation and calling themselves an imitation these and are the most original of pope s writings and the most natural and spontaneous of his genius these pieces nine in number including a and two form a total of some lines and were the product of the four years and therefore of pope s period between his and year the ferocity of pope s and the malice of his are here subdued and though the horse laugh of the old time breaks out every now and then yet on the whole the finer play of sarcasm and witty has taken the place of hard names and the to dr or to the may be out as pope s most characteristic piece we give it entire in our it contains the two famous portraits that of lord and that of the for such it is on lord cannot be excused even by the of political party this accomplished nobleman was vice in the court of george ii a position easy enough to a mere but which was sure to mark out a man of parts and wit such as lord as the object of hatred to the tory and opposition even as art pope must be considered in this sketch to have failed from his canvas with odious and disgusting images yet it is impossible not to admire however we may condemn the art by which acknowledged wit beauty and gentle manners the queen s favour and even a diet are into the most odious defects and the satire on in a more refined style but not less unjust in fact had been written twenty years before during s lifetime pope regarded the piece with the affection with which an author regards the product of much time and labour and he had meditated each in this finished for years having printed it separately in he now finally adapted it into this to the only the real name but not concealing it under the thin disguise of the art of these malignant lines is much greater than that of those on lord pope here not only any images which were in themselves offensive but allows his victim many virtues and accomplishments mark the english poets from the essay on criticism some to conceit alone their taste confine and glittering thoughts struck out at ev ry line d with a work where nothing s just or fit one glaring chaos and wild heap of wit poets like painters thus to trace the naked nature and the living grace with gold and jewels cover ev ry part and hide with ornaments their want of art true wit is nature to advantage dress d what oft was thought but ne er so well expressed something whose truth convinced at sight we find that gives us back the image of our mind as shades more sweetly recommend the light so modest sets wit for works may have more wit than does em good as bodies perish through excess of blood others for language all their care express and value books as women men for dress their praise is still the style is excellent the sense they humbly take upon content words are like leaves and where they most	45
abound much fruit of sense beneath is rarely found false eloquence like the glass its gaudy colours on ev ry place the face of nature we no more survey all alike without distinction gay but true expression like th sun and whatever it shines upon it all objects but it none expression is the dress of thought and still appears more decent as more suitable a vile conceit in words expressed is like a in purple dressed alexander pope for with different subjects sort as with country town and court some by old words to fame have made pretence in phrase mere in their sense such in so strange a style th d and make the d smile unlucky as in the play these sparks with awkward vanity display what the fine gentleman wore yesterday and but so ancient wits at best as our in their in words as fashions the same rule will hold alike fantastic if too new or old be not the first by whom the new are try d nor yet the last to lay the old aside but most by numbers judge a poet s song and smooth or rough with them is right or wrong in the bright muse tho thousand charms her voice is all these fools admire who haunt but to please their ear not mend their minds as some to church repair not for the doctrine but the music there these equal alone require tho oft the car the open tire while their feeble aid do join and ten low words oft creep in one dull line while they ring round the same with sure returns of still expected where er you find the western breeze in the next line it whispers through the trees if crystal streams with pleasing murmurs creep the reader s threaten d not in vain with sleep then at the last and only with some thing they call a thought a needless ends the song that like a wounded snake its slow length along leave such to tune their own dull and know what s smooth or slow the english poets and praise the easy vigour of a line where s strength and s sweetness join true ease in writing comes from art not chance as those move easiest who have d to dance tis not enough no gives offence the sound must seem an echo to the sense soft is the strain when gently blows and the smooth stream in numbers flows but when loud lash the sounding shore the hoarse rough verse should like the torrent roar when some rock s vast weight to throw the line too labours and the words move slow not so when swift the plain flies o er th corn and along the main hear how vary d lays surprise and bid alternate passions fall and rise while at each change the son of jove now burns with glory and then with love now his fierce eyes with sparkling fury glow now sighs steal out and tears begin to flow and like turns of nature found and the world s victor stood d by sound i the power of music all our hearts allow and what was is now avoid extremes and the fault of such who still are d too little or too much at ev ry trifle scorn to take offence that always shows great pride or little sense those heads as are not sure the best which all and nothing can yet let not each gay turn thy rapture move for fools admire but men of sense approve as things seem large which we through mists is ever apt to some foreign writers some our own despise the only or the prize thus wit like faith by each man is d to one small and all are damn d beside alexander pope they seek the blessing to confine and force that sun but on a part to shine which not alone the southern wit but spirits in cold northern which from the first has shone on ages past the present and shall warm the last tho each may feel and and see now clearer and now darker days regard not then if wit be old or new but blame the false and value still the true some ne er advance a judgment of their own but catch the spreading notion of the town they reason and conclude by precedent and own stale nonsense which they ne er invent some judge of author s names not works and then nor praise nor blame the writings but the men of all this herd the worst is he that in proud with quality a constant critic at the great man s board to fetch and carry nonsense for my lord what stuff this would be in some d or me but let a lord once own the happy lines how the wit i how the before his sacred name flies ev ry fault and each exalted with thought the of the lock il not with more glories in th ethereal plain the sun first rises o er the main than issuing forth the rival of his beams d on the bosom of the silver thames fair and well youths around her shone but every eye was fix d on her alone the english poets on her white breast a sparkling cross she wore which jews might kiss and her lively looks a mind disclose quick as her eyes and as d as those to none to all she smiles extends oft she but never once bright as the sun her eyes the strike and like the sun they shine on all alike yet graceful ease and sweetness void of pride might hide her faults if had faults to hide if to her share some female errors fall look on her face and you ll forget em all this to the destruction of mankind nourished two locks which graceful hung	45
behind in equal curls and well to deck with shining the smooth iv ry neck love in these his slave and mighty hearts are held in slender chains with hairy we the birds betray slight lines of hair surprise the prey fair man s imperial race and beauty draws us with a single hair th advent baron the bright locks d he saw he wish d and to the prize d d to win he the way by force to or by fraud betray for when success a lover s toil few ask if fraud or force attain d his ends for this ere rose he had d n and ev ry r d but chiefly love to love an altar built of twelve vast neatly gilt there lay three half a pair of gloves and all the of his former loves with tender he lights the and breathes three sighs to raise the fire then prostrate falls and with ardent eyes soon to obtain and long possess the prize alexander pope the powers gave ear and granted half his prayer the rest the winds dispersed in empty air but now secure the painted vessel the sun beams trembling on the floating tides while melting music upon the sky and soften d sounds along the waters die smooth flow the waves the gently play and all the world was gay all but the with careful thoughts th impending woe sat heavy on his breast he summons straight his of air the round the sails repair soft o er the whispers breathe that seemed but to the train beneath some to the sun their insect wings on the breeze or sink in clouds of gold transparent forms too fine for mortal sight th ir bodies half dissolved in light loose to the wind their airy garments flew thin glittering of the dew in the richest of the skies where light in ever mingling while every beam new transient colours colours that change er they wave their wings amid the circle on the gilded mast superior by the head was d his purple op to the sun he d his and thus begun ye and to your chief give ear and hear ye know the and various tasks d by laws eternal to th kind some in the fields of purest play and and in the blaze of day some g the course of ring on high or roll the through the boundless sky some less d beneath the moon s pale light pursue the stars that shoot the night the english poets or the mists in air below or dip their in the painted bow or fierce on the wintry main or o er the the kindly rain others on earth o er human race watch all their ways and all their actions guide of these the chief the care of nations own and guard with arms divine the british throne our province is to tend the fair not a less pleasing tho less glorious care to save the powder from too rude a gale nor let th imprisoned to draw fresh colours from the flowers to steal from ere they drop in showers a brighter wash to curl their waving hairs assist their and inspire their airs nay oft in dreams invention we bestow to change a or add a this day black threat the brightest fair that e er deserved a watchful spirit s care some dire disaster or by force or flight but what or where the have in night whether the shall break s law or some frail china jar receive a flaw or stain her honour or her new forget her pray rs or miss a or lose her heart or at a ball or whether heaven has doom d that shock must fall haste then ye spirits to your charge repair the ring fan be s care the drops to thee we and let the watch be thine do thou tend her lock himself shall be the guard of shock to fifty chosen of special note we trust th important charge the oft have we known that seven fold fence to fail tho stiff with and arm d with ribs of whale alexander pope form a strong line about the silver bound and guard the wide around whatever spirit careless of his charge his post or leaves the fair at large shall feel sharp vengeance soon o his sins be stop d in or with pins or d in lakes of bitter lie or d whole ages in a s eye and shall his flight restrain while d he beats his silken wings in vain or with power shrink his thin essence like a flower or as fix d the wretch shall feel the giddy motion of the whirling mill in of burning shall glow and tremble at the sea that below he spoke the spirits from the sails descend some in around the extend some the of her hair some hang upon the of her ear with beating hearts the dire event they wait anxious and trembling for the birth of fate iii close by those for ever crown d with flowers where thames with pride his rising towers there stands a structure of majestic frame which from the neighbouring takes its name here britain s oft the fall of foreign and of at home here thou great whom three obey dost sometimes counsel take and sometimes tea hither the heroes and the resort to taste awhile the pleasures of a court in various talk th instructive hours they past who gave the ball or paid the visit last one speaks the glory of the british queen and one describes a charming indian screen the english poets a third motions looks and eyes at ev ry word a reputation dies snuff or the fan supply each pause of chat with singing laughing and all that meanwhile declining from the noon of	45
wreaths of triumph now my temples the victor cried the glorious prize is mine i while fish in streams or birds delight in air or in a coach and six the british fair as long as shall be read or the small pillow grace a lady s bed vou o the english poets while visits shall be paid on solemn days when wax lights in bright order blaze while take treats or give long my honour name and praise shall live what time would spare from steel receives its date and monuments like men submit to fate steel could the labour of the gods destroy and strike to dust th imperial tow rs of steel could the works of mortal pride confound and arches to the ground what wonder then fair thy hairs should feel the ring force of steel from the book viii the troops sat in order round and beaming fires all the ground as when the moon lamp of night o er heaven s clear her sacred light when not a breath the deep serene and not a o the solemn scene around her throne the vivid roll and stars d the glowing pole o er the dark trees a shed and tip with silver every mountain s head then shine the the rocks in prospect rise a flood of glory bursts from all the skies the conscious rejoicing in the sight eye the blue vault and bless the useful light so many flames before proud blaze and glimmering with their rays the long reflections of the distant fires gleam on the walls and tremble on the a thousand piles the dusky horrors and shoot a shady lustre o er the field full fifty guards each flaming pile attend whose d arms by fits thick flashes send loud the o er their heaps of corn and ardent warriors wait the rising alexander pope to the memory of an unfortunate lady what ghost along the moon light my steps and points to yonder tis she but why that bleeding bosom d why dimly the visionary sword oh ever ever friendly tell is it in heaven a crime to love too well to bear too tender or too firm a heart to act a lover s or a roman s part is there no bright in the sky for those who greatly think or bravely die why bade ye else ye rs her soul above the vulgar flight of low desire ambition first sprung from your the glorious fault of angels and of gods thence to their images on earth it flows and in the breasts of kings and heroes most souls tis true but peep out once an age dull sullen prisoners in the body s cage dim lights of life that bum a length of years useless unseen as lamps in like eastern kings a lazy state they keep and close d to their own palace sleep from these perhaps ere nature bade her die fate snatch d her early to the pitying sky as into the air the purer spirits flow and separate from their kindred below so flew the soul to its congenial place nor left one virtue to redeem her race but thou false guardian of a charge too good thou mean of thy brother s blood see on these lips the trembling these cheeks now fading at the blast of death cold is that breast which warm d the world before and those love darting eyes must roll no more g the english poets thus if eternal justice rules the ball thus shall your wives and thus your children fall on all the line a sudden vengeance waits and frequent shall your gates there passengers shall stand and pointing say while the long all the way lo these were they whose souls the steel d and d with hearts how to yield thus pass the proud away the gaze of fools and of a day so perish all whose breast ne er learned to glow for others good or melt at others woe what can oh ever d shade thy fate and thy rites no friend s complaint no kind domestic tear d thy pale ghost or d thy mournful by foreign hands thy dying eyes were d by foreign hands thy decent limbs composed by foreign hands thy humble grave adorn d by strangers honoured and by strangers mourn what tho no friends in weeds appear grieve for an hour perhaps then mourn a year and bear about the mockery of woe to midnight dances and the public show what tho no weeping loves thy ashes grace nor polish d marble thy face what tho no sacred earth allow thee room nor d be d o er thy tomb yet shall thy grave with rising flowers be and the green turf lie lightly on thy breast there shall the mom her earliest tears bestow there the first roses of thy year shall blow while angels with their silver wings o the ground now sacred by thy relics made so peaceful rests without a stone a name what once had beauty titles wealth and fame how d how honour d once thee not to whom related or by whom alexander pope a heap of dust alone remains of thee tis all thou art and all the proud shall be poets themselves must fall like those they sung deaf the d ear and mute the tongue ev n he whose soul now in mournful lays shall shortly want the generous tear he pays then from his closing eyes thy form shall part and the last pang shall tear thee from his heart life s idle business at one gasp be o er the muse forgot and thou d no more from the essay on man book i heaven from all creatures hides the book of fate all but the page prescribed their present state from brutes what men from men what spirits know	45
or who could suffer being here below the lamb thy riot to to day had he thy reason would he and play d to the last he crops the flow ry food and the hand just raised to shed his blood oh blindness to the future kindly n that each may fill the circle marked by o who sees with equal eye as god of all a hero perish or a fall or systems into ruin d and now a burst and now a world hope humbly then with trembling wait the great teacher death and god what future bliss he gives not thee to know but gives that hope to be thy blessing now hope springs eternal in the human breast man never is but always to be the soul uneasy and confined from home rests and in a life to come the english poets lo the poor indian whose d mind sees god in or hears him in the wind his soul proud science never taught to stray far as the walk or way yet simple nature to his hope has n behind the cloud hill an some safer world in depth of woods d some happier island in the ry waste where slaves once their native land behold no torment no christians thirst for gold to be contents his natural desire he asks no angel s wing no s fire but thinks admitted to that equal sky his faithful dog shall bear him company go wiser thou and in thy scale of sense weigh thy opinion against providence call what thou such say here he gives too little there too much destroy all creatures for thy sport or gust yet cry if man s unhappy god s unjust if man alone not n s high care alone made perfect here immortal there snatch from his hand the balance and the rod his justice be the god of god in pride in reasoning pride our error lies all quit their sphere and rush into the skies pride still is at the men would be angels angels would be gods to be gods if angels fell to be angels men rebel and who but wishes to the laws of order sins against th eternal cause ask for what end the bodies shine earth for whose use pride answers tis for mine for me kind nature wakes her genial each and out ev ry flow r annual for me the the rose renew the and the dew alexander pope for me the mine a thousand treasures brings for me health from a thousand springs seas roll to me to light me rise my foot stool earth my the skies but not nature from this gracious end from burning when livid deaths descend when swallow or when sweep towns to one grave whole nations to the deep no tis replied the first almighty cause acts not by partial but by general laws th exceptions few some change since all began and what created perfect why then man if the great end be human happiness then nature and can man do less as much that end a constant course requires of show rs and sun shine as of man s desires as much eternal springs and skies as men for ever rate calm and wise if or break not heaven s design why then a or a who knows but he whose hand the light forms who old ocean and who wings the storms fierce ambition in a caesar s mind or turns young loose to mankind from pride from pride our very springs account for moral as for things why charge we n in those in these in both to reason right is to submit better for us perhaps it might appear were there all harmony all virtue here that never air or ocean felt the wind that never passion d the mind but all by strife and passions are the elements of life the gen order since the whole began is kept in nature and is kept in man what would this man now upward will he and little less than angels would be more the english poets now looking downwards just as d appears to want the strength of the fur of bears made for his use all creatures if he call say what their use had he the rs of all nature to these without profusion kind the proper organs proper powers d each seeming want of course here with degrees of swiftness there of force all in exact proportion to the state nothing to add and nothing to each beast each insect happy in its own is n unkind to man and man alone shall he alone whom rational we call be d with nothing if not bless d with all the bliss of man could pride that blessing find is not to act or think beyond mankind no rs of body or of soul to share but what his nature and his state can bear why has not man a eye for this plain reason man is not a fly say what the use were finer n t inspect a not comprehend the n or touch if alive all o er to smart and at every pore or quick darting through the brain die of a rose in pain if nature thunder d in his op ears and d him with the music of the how would he wish that n had left him still the ring and the who finds not providence all good and wise alike in what it gives and what far as creation s ample range extends the scale of mental rs mark how it to man s imperial race from the green in the peopled grass what modes of sight each wide extreme the s dim curtain and the s beam alexander pope of smell the headlong between and hound sagacious on the green of hearing from the life that	45
fills the flood to that which through the wood the spider s touch how exquisitely fine feels at each thread and lives along the line in the nice bee what sense so true from poisonous the healing dew how instinct in the swine d half elephant with thine i that and reason what a nice barrier for ever separate yet for ever near remembrance and reflection how allied what thin sense from thought divide and middle natures how they long to join yet never pass th line without this just could they be subjected these to those or all to thee the rs of all d by thee alone is not thy reason all these rs in one see through this air this ocean and this earth all matter quick and bursting into birth above how high life may go around how wide how deep extend below vast chain of being i which from god began natures ethereal human angel man beast bird fish insect what no eye can see no glass can reach from infinite to thee from thee to nothing on superior rs were we to press inferior might on ours or in the full creation leave a void where one step broken the great scale s destroyed from nature s chain whatever link you strike tenth or ten breaks the chain alike and if each system in roll alike essential to th amazing whole the least confusion but in one not all that system only but the whole must fall the english poets let earth d from her fly and stars run lawless through the sky let ruling angels from their be d being on being wreck d and world on world heaven s whole foundations to their centre nod and nature to the throne of god all this dread order break for whom for thee vile worm i oh madness pride what if the foot d the dust to tread or hand to toil d to be the head what if the head the eye or ear d to serve mere engines to the ruling mind just as absurd for any part to claim to be another in this gen frame just as absurd to mourn the tasks or pains the great directing mind of all all are but parts of one whole whose body nature is and god the soul that d through all and yet in all the same great in the earth as in the ethereal frame in the sun in the breeze in the stars and blossoms in the trees lives through all life extends through all extent breathes in our soul our mortal part as full as perfect in a hair as heart as full as perfect in vile man that as the that and to him no high no low no great no small he fills he bounds and equals all cease then nor order name our proper bliss depends on what we blame know thy own point this kind this due degree of blindness weakness heaven on thee submit in this or any other sphere secure to be as as thou bear safe in the hand of one or in the or the mortal hour alexander pope all nature is but art unknown to thee all chance direction which thou not see all discord harmony not understood all partial evil universal good and spite of pride in reason s spite one truth is clear whatever is is right book iv oh blind to truth and god s whole scheme below who fancy bliss to vice to virtue woe who sees and follows that great scheme the best best knows the blessing and will most be but fools the good alone unhappy call for ills or accidents that chance to all see dies the virtuous and the just i see prostrate on the dust see amid the martial strife was this their virtue or contempt of life say was it virtue more tho heaven ne er gave lamented sunk thee to the grave tell me if virtue made the son why full of days and honour lives the why drew good bishop purer breath when nature d and each gale was death or why so long in life if long can be lent heaven a parent to the poor and me what makes all physical or moral ill there nature and here will god sends not ill if rightly understood or partial ill is universal good or change admits or nature lets it fall short and but rare till man improved it all we just as wisely might of heaven complain that was destroyed by as that the virtuous son is ill at ease when his father gave the dire disease think we like some weak prince th eternal cause prone for his rites to reverse his laws the english poets shall burning if a sage requires forget to thunder and recall her fires on air or sea new motions be oh i to relieve thy breast when the loose mountain from on high shall cease if you go by or some old temple nodding to its fall for head reserve the hanging wall but still this world so fitted for the contents us not a better shall we have a kingdom of the just then let it be but first consider how those just agree the good must merit god s peculiar care but who but god can tell us who they are one thinks on heaven s own spirit fell another him instrument of hell if feel heaven s blessing or its rod this cries there is and that there is no god what one part will the rest nor with one system can they all be the very best will incline and what rewards your virtue punish mine whatever is is right this world tis true was made for caesar but for too and which more who chain d his country	45
say or he whose virtue sigh d to lose a day but sometimes virtue while vice is fed what then is the reward of virtue bread that vice may merit tis the price of toil the deserves it when he the soil the deserves it when he the main where folly fights for kings or for gain the good man may be weak be indolent nor is his claim to plenty but content but grant him riches your demand is o er no shall the good want health the good want power add health and power and ev ry earthly thing why bounded power why private why no king alexander pope nay why external for internal n why is not man a god and earth a heaven who ask and reason thus will scarce conceive god gives enough while he has more to give immense the power immense were the demand say at what part of nature will they stand what nothing earthly gives or can destroy the soul s calm sunshine and the heart felt joy is virtue s prize a better would you fix then give humility a coach and six justice a s sword or truth a gown or public spirit its great cure a crown weak foolish man will heaven reward us there with the same mad mortals wish for here the boy and man an individual makes yet sigh st thou now for apples and for cakes go like the indian in another life expect thy dog thy bottle and thy wife as well as dream such trifles are assigned as toys and for a god like mind rewards that either would to virtue bring no joy or be destructive of the thing how oft by these at sixty are undone the virtues of a saint at twenty one to whom can riches give or trust content or pleasure but the good and just judges and have been bought for gold esteem and love were never to be sold oh fool to think god hates the worthy mind the lover and the love of human kind whose life is and whose conscience clear because he wants a thousand pounds a year honour and shame from no condition rise act well your part there all the honour lies fortune in men has some small made one in rags one in the apron d and the parson gown d the and the monarch crown d the english poets what differ more you cry than crown and i ll tell you friend a wise man and a fool you find if once the monarch acts the or like the parson will be drunk worth makes the man and want of it the fellow the rest is all but leather or stuck o er with titles and hung round with strings that thou may st be by kings or of kings boast the pure blood of an illustrious race in quiet flow from to but by your father s worth if yours you rate count me those only who were good and great go if your ancient but blood has q through ever since the flood go and pretend your family is young nor own your fathers have been fools so long what can or slaves or alas not all the blood of all the look next on greatness say where greatness lies where but among the heroes and the wise heroes are much the same the point s agreed from s madman to the the whole strange purpose of their lives to find or make an enemy of all mankind not one looks backward onward still he goes yet ne er looks forward further than his nose no less alike the and wise all sly slow things with eyes men in their loose hours they take not thai themselves are wise but others weak but grant that those can conquer these can cheat tis phrase absurd to call a villain great who is wise or madly brave is but the more a fool the more a who noble ends by noble means or failing smiles in exile or in chains like good let him reign or like that man is great indeed alexander pope what s fame a fancied life in other s breath a thing beyond us ev n before our death just what you hear you have and what s unknown the same my lord if s or your own all that we feel of it begins and ends in the small circle of our foes or friends to all beside as much an empty shade an living as a caesar dead alike or when or where they shone or shine or on the or on the a wit s a feather and a chief a rod an honest man s the noblest work of god fame but from death a villain s name can save as justice tears his body from the grave when what t oblivion better were resign d is hung on high to poison half mankind all fame is foreign but of true desert plays round the head but comes not to the heart one self hour whole years of stupid and of loud and more true joy d feels than with a at his heels in parts superior what advantage lies tell for you can what is it to be wise tis but to know how little can be known to see all others faults and feel our own condemn d in business or in arts to without a second or without a judge truths would you teach or save a sinking land all fear none aid you and few understand painful yourself to view above life s weakness and its comforts too bring then these blessings to a strict account make fair see to what they mount how much of other each is sure to cost how each for other oft is wholly lost how inconsistent greater goods with these	45
high desert his hand d his heart his comprehensive head all interests weigh d all europe yet britain not betray d he thanks you not his pride is in fame and judgment at a bet what made say or more sage a warrior a a d prince a leaden saint a tremble at a star the throne a keep a genius quit through piety and d through wit europe a woman child or rule and just her wisest monarch made a fool h loo the english poets know god and nature only are the same in man the judgment shoots at flying game a bird of passage gone as soon as found now in the moon perhaps now under ground in vain the sage with eye would from th apparent what conclude the why infer the motive from the deed and show that what we d was what we meant to da behold if fortune or a mistress some plunge in business others their crowns to ease the soul of one oppressive weight this an empire that a state the same complexion has charles to the philip to the field not always actions show the man we find who does a kindness is not therefore kind perhaps prosperity d his breast perhaps the wind just shifted from the east not therefore humble he who seeks retreat pride guides his steps and bids him the great who bravely is not therefore brave he a death bed like the meanest slave who reasons wisely is not therefore wise his pride in reasoning not in acting lies but grant that actions best discover man take the most strong and sort them as you can the few that glare each character must mark you balance not the many in the dark what will you do with such as suppress them or them policy must then at once the character to save the plain rough hero turn a alas in truth the man but changed his mind perhaps was sick in love or had not din d ask why from britain caesar would retreat caesar himself might whisper he was beat why risk the world s great empire for a caesar perhaps might answer he was drunk alexander pope loi but sage tis your task to prove one action conduct one heroic love tis from high life high characters are drawn a saint in is twice a saint in lawn a judge is just a lor still a learn d a bishop what you will wise if a minister but if a king more wise more d more just more ev ry thing court virtues bear like gems the highest rate bom where heaven s influence scarce can penetrate in life s low the soil the virtues like they please as beauties here as wonders strike though the same sun with au rays blush in the rose and in the diamond blaze we prize the stronger effort of his r and justly set the above the flower tis education forms the common mind just as the is bent the tree s d and rough your first son is a squire the next a meek and much a liar tom a soldier open bold and brave will a ner an exceeding is he a then he s fond of power a sly a sour a smart free all things in an hour ask men s opinions now shall tell how trade and the world goes well strike off his by the setting sun and britain if not europe is undone that gay free a fine once what turns him now a stupid silent some god or spirit he has lately found or d to meet a minister that frown d judge we by nature habit can interest o or policy take place by actions those uncertainty by passions these hides opinions they still take a wider range find if you can in what you cannot change the english poets manners with fortunes turn with with books and principles with times search then the ruling passion there alone the wild are constant and the cunning known the fool consistent and the false sincere priests princes women no here this clue once found all the rest the prospect and stands the scorn and wonder of our days whose ruling passion was the lust of praise bom with whatever could win it from the wise women and fools must like him or he dies tho ring hung on all he spoke the club must hail him master of the joke shall parts so various aim at nothing new he ll shine a and a too then turns and his god with the same spirit that he drinks and enough if all around him but admire and now the and now the thus with each gift of nature and of art and wanting nothing but an honest heart grown all to all from no one vice and most contemptible to contempt his passion still to general praise his life to it a thousand ways a constant which no friend has made an angel tongue which no man can persuade a fool with more of wit than half mankind too rash for thought for action too d a tyrant to the wife his heart a rebel to the very king he loves he dies sad outcast of each church and state and harder still yet not great ask you why broke ev ry twas all for fear the should call him fool nature well known no remain are regular and plain alexander pope to dr p shut shut the door good john fatigued i said tie up the say i m sick i m dead the dog star nay tis past a doubt all or is let out fire in each eye and papers in each hand they and round the land what walks can guard me or what shades can hide they pierce my through my they glide by land	45
head nor know if be alive or dead why am i ask d what next shall see the light heavens was i born for nothing but to write has life no joys for me or to be grave have i no friend to serve no soul to save i found him close with swift indeed no doubt cries something will come out tis all in vain deny it as i will no such a genius never can lie still and then for mine mistakes the first sir will or makes poor i and can i choose but smile when every knows me by my style be the verse how well er it flow that to make one worthy man my foe give virtue scandal innocence a fear or from the soft ey d virgin steal a tear but he who hurts a harmless neighbour s peace worth or beauty in distress who loves a lie lame helps about who writes a or who copies out that whose pride affects a patron s name yet absent wounds an author s honest fame who can your merit approve and show the sense of it without the love who has the vanity to call you friend yet wants the honour d to defend who tells er you think er you say and if he lie not must at least betray who to the dean and silver bell can swear and sees at what was never there alexander pope lit who reads but with a lust to make satire a and fiction lie a lash like mine no honest man shall dread but all such in his stead let tremble a what that thing of silk that mere white of ass s milk satire or sense alas can feel who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel p yet let me this with gilded wings this painted child of dirt that and whose the witty and the fair yet wit ne er tastes and beauty ne er so well bred delight in of the game they dare not bite eternal smiles his betray as shallow streams run all the way whether in he speaks and as the breathes the or at the ear of eve familiar half half himself abroad in or politics or tales or lies or spite or or or his wit all see saw between that and this now high now low now master up now miss and he himself one vile thing that acting either part the trifling head or the heart at the toilet at the board now a lady and now a lord eve s temper thus the have a s face a all the rest beauty that you parts that none will trust wit that can creep and pride that the dust not fortune s nor fashion s fool not s madman nor ambition s tool not proud nor be one poet s praise that if he d he d by manly ways that flattery ev n to kings he held a shame and thought a lie in verse or prose the same ii a the english poets that not in fancy s he wander d long but stoop d to truth and his song that not for fame but virtue s better end he stood the furious foe the timid friend the critic half wit the hit or fearing to be hit laughed at the loss of friends he never had the dull the proud the wicked and the mad the distant threats of vengeance on his head the blow the tear he never shed the tale revived the lie so oft th and not his own the morals blackened when the writings the person and the d shape abuse on all he d or d him spread a friend in exile or a father dead the whisper that to greatness still too near perhaps yet on his sovereign s ear welcome for thee fair virtue i all the past for thee fair virtue welcome ev n the last a but why insult the poor the great p a s a to me in ev ry stale alike my scorn if he succeed or fail at court or in a jail a or a peer knight of the post corrupt or of the if on a or near a throne he gain his prince s ear or lose his own yet soft by nature more a than wit can tell you how this man was bit this dreaded will confess foe to his pride but friend to his distress so humble he has knock d at s door has drunk with nay has d for full ten years did he once reply three thousand went down on s lie to please his mistress one d his life he lash d him not but let her be his wife alexander pope let charge low on his and write whatever he pleased except his will let the two of town and court abuse his father mother body soul and muse yet why that father held it for a rule it was a sin to call our neighbour fool that harmless mother thought no wife a hear this and spare his family james names and memorable long if there be force in virtue or in song of gentle blood part shed in honour s cause while yet in britain honour had applause each parent sprung a what fortune pray p their own and better got than s from the throne bom to no pride no strife nor marrying discord in a noble wife stranger to civil and religious rage the good man walk d through his age no courts he saw no suits would ever try nor d an oath nor a lie d he knew no s subtle art no language but the language of the heart by nature honest by experience wise healthy by and by exercise his life tho long to	45
sickness past unknown his death was instant and without a groan o grant me thus to live and thus to die who sprung from kings shall know less joy than i o friend may each domestic bliss be thine be no melancholy mine me let the tender office long engage to rock the cradle of age with arts extend a mother s breath make languor smile and smooth the bed of death explore the thought explain the asking eye and keep awhile one parent from the sky on cares like these if length of days attend may heaven to bless those days preserve my friend vol iii i it tm poets preserve him social cheerful and serene and just as rich as when he d a queen a whether that blessing be denied or n thus far was right the rest belongs to n from the first of the second book of to while you great patron of mankind sustain the balanced world and open all the main your country chief in arms abroad defend at home with morals arts and laws how shall the muse from such a monarch steal an hour and not the public edward and henry now the boast of fame and virtuous alfred a more sacred name after a life of generous toils d the d or property secured ambition mighty cities storm d or laws established and the world d their long glories with a sigh to find th unwilling gratitude of base mankind i all human virtue to its latest breath finds envy never conquered but by death the great every labour past had still this monster to subdue at last sure fate of all beneath whose rising ray each star of merit away oppressed we feel the beam directly beat those of glory please not till they set to thee the world its present homage pays the harvest early but mature the praise great friend of liberty in kings a name above all greek above all roman fame whose word is truth as sacred and d as heaven s own from heard alexander pope h wonder of kings like whom to mortal eyes none e er has risen and none e er shall rise just in one instance be it yet your people sir are partial in the rest foes to all living worth except your own and for folly dead and gone authors like grow dear as they grow old it is the we value not the gold s worst is d by and heads of houses quote one likes no language but the queen a will fight for christ s of the green and each true is to ben so civil he the met him at the devil tho justly greece her eldest sons why should not we be wiser than our in ev ry public virtue we we build we paint we sing we dance as well and learned to our art must stoop could she behold us tumbling through a if time improve our wit as well as wine say at what age a poet grows divine shall we or shall we not account him so who died perhaps a hundred years ago end all dispute and fix the year precise when british begin t who lasts a century can have no flaw i hold that wit a classic good in law suppose he wants a year will you compound and shall we deem him ancient right and sound or damn to all eternity at once at ninety nine a modem and a we shall not quarrel for a year or two by courtesy of england he may do then by the rule that made the horse tail bare i pluck out year by year as hair by hair and melt down like a heap of snow while you to measure merits look in the english poets and authors by the year bestow a only on a shakespeare whom you and ev ry play house bill style the divine the what you will for gain not glory wing d his flight and grew immortal in his own despite ben old and poor as little seem d to heed the life to come in ev ry poet s creed who now reads if he pleases yet his moral pleases not his pointed wit forgot his nay art but still i love the language of his heart yet surely surely these were famous men i what boy but hears the sayings of old ben in all where critics bear a part not one but and talks of s art of shakespeare s nature and of s wit how s judgment check d what writ how well hasty was slow but for the passions southern sure and these only these support the crowded stage from eldest hey wood down to age all this may be the people s voice is odd it is and it is not the voice of god to if it give the and yet deny the careless husband praise or say our fathers never broke a rule why then i say the public is a fool but let them own that greater faults than we they had and greater virtues i u agree himself affects the and s verse ill on roman feet milton s strong now not heaven can bound now serpent like in prose he sweeps the ground in angel and join and god the father turns a school divine not that i d the beauties from his book like with his desperate hook alexander pope or damn ail shakespeare like th fool at court who hates what er he read at school but for the wits of either charles s days the mob of gentlemen who wrote with ease and a hundred more like twinkling stars the o er one that solitary shines in the dry desert of a thousand lines or lengthened thought that through many a page has whole poems for	45
an age i lose my patience and i own it too when works are not as bad but new while if our elders break all reason s laws these fools demand not pardon but applause on s bank where flowers eternal blow if i but ask if any weed can grow one tragic sentence if i dare which s grave action dignified or well mouth d with emphasis tho but perhaps a muster roll of names how will our fathers rise up in a rage and swear all shame is lost in george s age you d think no fools disgraced the former reign did not some grave examples yet remain who scorn a lad should teach his father skill and having once been wrong will be so still he who to seem more deep than you or i old or s prophecy mistake him not he not and to the sons the had ancient times to what then was new what had been ancient or what remain d so worthy to be read by learned critics of the mighty dead in days of ease when now the weary sword was d and luxury with charles restored in every taste of foreign courts improved a by the king s d and d il the english poets then grew proud in t s glory rose as britain s fell the soldier breathed the of france and ev ry writ romance then marble soften d into life grew warm and yielding metal flowed to human form on animated te stole the sleepy eye that spoke the melting soul no wonder then when all was love and sport the willing were d at court on each string they taught the note to or tremble through an s throat but britain as a child at play now calls in princes and now turns away now now tory what we d we hate now all for pleasure now for church and state now for and now for laws effects unhappy from a noble cause time was a sober englishman would knock his servants up and rise by five o clock instruct his family in every rule and send his wife to church his son to school to worship like his fathers was his care to teach their virtues to his heir to prove that luxury could never hold and place on good security his gold now times are d and one poetic has d the court and city poor and rich sons and all will wear the our wives read milton and our daughters plays to theatres and to throng and all our grace at table is a song i who so oft the lie not s self e er tells more than i when sick of muse or follies we and promise our best friends to rhyme no more we wake next morning in a raging fit and call for pen and ink to show our wit alexander pope i he d a who up shop ward tried on and the poor his drop ev n s doctors travel first to france nor dare to practise till they ve d to dance who a bridge that never drove a pile should venture all the world would smile but those who cannot write and those who can all rhyme and and to a man yet sir reflect the mischief is not great these never hurt the church or state sometimes the folly benefits mankind and rarely the mind allow him but his of a pen he ne er or plots like other men flight of or he never mind and knows no losses while the muse is kind to cheat a friend or ward he leaves to peter the good man heaps up nothing but mere his garden and his book in quiet and then a perfect in his diet of little use the man you may suppose who says in verse what others say in prose yet let me show a poet s of some weight and tho no soldier useful to the state what will a child learn sooner than a song what better teach a foreigner the tongue what s long or short each accent where to place and speak in public with some sort of grace i scarce can think him such a worthless thing unless he praise some monster of a king or virtue or religion turn to sport to please a or court unhappy in all charles s days only and in our own excuse some no page than remains he from the taste our youth and sets the passions on the side of truth the english poets the soft bosom with the art and each human virtue in the heart let ireland tell how wit her cause her trade supported and supplied her laws and leave on swift this grateful verse d the rights a court d a poet d behold the hand that wrought a nation s cure stretch d to relieve the idiot and the poor proud vice to brand or injured worth adorn and stretch the ray to ages yet not but there are who merit other palms and glad the heart with the boys and girls whom charity your help in these pathetic strains how could devotion touch the country unless the gods bestow d a proper muse verse cheers their leisure verse their work verse for peace or sings down pope and the d preacher to potent strain and feels that grace his prayer in vain the blessing through all the laboring throng and heaven is won by violence of song our rural ancestors with little patient of labour when the end was rest d the day that d their annual grain with and and a thankful strain the joy their wives their sons and servants share ease of their toil and partners of their care the laugh the jest attendants on the bowl smoothed every brow and open d	45
every soul with growing years the pleasing grew and alternate innocently flew but times corrupt and nature ill d produced the point that left a sting behind till friend with friend and families at strife triumphant malice d through private life who felt the wrong or fear d it took th alarm to law and justice lent her arm alexander pope far at length by wholesome dread of bound the poets d to please and not to wound most d to flattery s side but some more nice preserved the freedom and the vice hence satire rose that just the medium hit and with morals what it hurts with wit we conquered france but felt our captive s charms her arts victorious o er our arms britain to soft less a foe wit grew polite and numbers d to flow was smooth but taught to join the varying verse the full line the long majestic march and energy tho still some traces of our rustic vein and foot verse remain d and will remain late very late grew our care when the d nation breath d from civil war exact and s noble are show d us that france had something to admire not but the tragic spirit was our own and full in shakespeare fair in shone but fail d to polish or and shakespeare scarce d a line ev n copious wanted or forgot the last and greatest art the art to blot some doubt if equal pains or equal fire the humble muse of comedy require but in known images of life i guess the labour greater as th indulgence less observe how seldom ev n the best succeed tell me if s fools are fools indeed what low dialogue has writ i how van wants grace who never wanted wit the stage how loosely does tread who fairly puts all characters to bed and idle how he breaks the laws to make poor eat with vast applause but fill their purse our poet s work is done alike to them by pathos or by the english poets o you whom vanity s light bark on fame s mad voyage by the wind of praise with what a shifting gale your course you for ever sunk too low or bom too who for glory finds but short repose a breath him or a breath farewell the stage if just as the play the silly bard grows fat or falls away there still remains to a wit the many headed monster of the pit a senseless worthless and crowd who to disturb their mighty proud their sticks before ten lines are spoke call for the farce the bear or the black joke what dear delight to farce affords ever the taste of but now of lords taste that eternal wanderer which flies from heads to ears and now from ears to eyes the play stands still damn action and discourse back fly the scenes and enter foot and horse on in long order drawn gold and lawn the champion too and to complete the jest old edward s beams on s breast with laughter sure had died had he beheld an audience so wide let bear or elephant be e er so white the people sure the people are the sight ah poet stretch thy lungs and roar that bear or elephant shall heed thee more while all its throats the gallery extends and all the thunder of the pit loud as the wolves on stormy steep howl to the of the northern deep such is the shout the long note at s high or s or when from court a birthday suit bestow d sinks the lost actor in the load alexander pope enters hark the universal peal but has he spoken not a syllable what shook the stage and made the people stare s long wig d gown and chair from the to the fr not twice a you appear in print and when it comes the court see nothing in t you grow correct that once with rapture writ and are besides too moral for a wit decay of parts alas we all must feel why now this moment don t i see you steal tis all from long before ye said call d him and a tory and taught his in much better to laugh at fools who put their trust in peter but sir was delicate was nice he lash d no sort of vice would say sir d the crown blunt could do business h knew the town in touch the of the sex in reverend note some small and own the did a thing who our ears and sent them to the king his sly polite style could please at court and make smile an artful manager that crept between his friend and shame and was a kind of screen but faith your very friends will soon be sore there arc who wish you d jest no more and where s the glory be only thought that great men never offer d you a go see sir robert p see sir robert and never laugh for all my life to come seen him i have but in his happier hour fi english poets of social pleasure ill d for power seen him d with the tribe smile without art and win without a bribe would he oblige me let me only find he does not think me what he thinks mankind come come at all i laugh he laughs no doubt the only is i dare laugh out f why yes with scripture still you may be free a horse laugh if you please at honesty a joke on or some odd old who never d his principle or wig a is a fool in ev ry age whom all lord allow the stage these nothing hurts they keep their fashion still and wear	45
their strange old virtue as they will if any ask you who s the man so near his prince that writes in verse and has his ear why answer and i ll engage the worthy youth shall ne er be in a rage but were his verses vile his whisper base you d quickly find him in lord s case hurt not honest but well may put some in a fury laugh then at any but at fools or foes these you but anger and you mend not those laugh at your friends and if your friends are sore so much the better you may laugh the more to vice and folly to confine the jest sets half the world god knows against the rest did not the sneer of more impartial men at sense and virtue balance all again judicious wits spread wide the ridicule and comfort and fool p dear sir forgive the prejudice of youth adieu distinction satire warmth and truth i come harmless characters that no one hit come s s wit the honey dropping from s tongue the flow rs of and the flow of y ng alexander pope the gracious dew of pulpit eloquence and all the well cream of sense that first was h s f s next and then the s te s and then h s once again o come that easy style so latin yet so english all the while as tho the pride of and bland all boys may read and girls may understand then might i sing without the least offence and all i sung should be the nation s sense or teach the melancholy muse to mourn hang the sad verse on s urn and hail her passage to the of rest all parts performed and all her children so satire is no more i feel it die no more innocent than i and let a god s name ev ry fool and be d through life and flattered in his grave f why so if satire knows its time and place you still may lash the greatest in disgrace for merit will by turns them all would you know when exactly when they fall but let all satire in all changes spare s k and grave de re silent and soft as saints remove to n all ties dissolved and ev ry sin n these may some gentle wing receive and place for ever near a king there where no passion pride or shame transport with the sweet of a court there where no father s brother s friend s disgrace once break their rest or stir them from their place but past the sense of human miseries all tears are d for ever from all eyes no cheek is known to blush no heart to throb save when they lose a question or a job the english poets from the book iv oh cried the goddess for some reign t some gentle james to bless the land again to stick the doctor s chair into the throne give law to words or war with words alone and courts with greek and latin rule and turn the council to a grammar school for sure if sees a grateful day tis in the shade of arbitrary sway o if my sons may learn one earthly thing teach but that one sufficient for a king that which my priests and mine alone which as it dies or lives we fall or reign may you my and i preach it long the right divine of kings to govern wrong prompt at the call around the goddess roll broad hats and and caps a thick and more thick the black extends a hundred head of s friends nor thou wanting to the day tho christ church long kept away each stubborn as a rock each fierce still came whip and spur and dash d through thin and thick on german and dutch as many quit the streams that ring fall to lull the sons of margaret and hall where late wont to sport in troubled waters but now sleeps in port before them march d that awful d was his front with many a deep remark his hat which never veil d to human pride with reverence took and laid aside low bow d the rest he did but nod so upright please both man and god mistress dismiss that from your throne is yet unknown alexander pope h thy mighty whose pains made dull and milton s strains turn what they will to verse their toil is vain critics like me shall make it prose again roman and greek know your better author of something yet more great than letter while towering o er your like stands our and them all tis true on words is still our whole debate dispute of me or te of or a to sound or sink in o or a or give up to c or k let affect to speak as spoke and never but like joke from me what may deny or shall supply for phrase in let them seek i in for greek in ancient sense if any needs will deal be sure i give them fragments not a meal what or d before or d by blind old o er and o er the critic eye that of wit sees hairs and bit by bit how parts relate to parts or they to whole the body s harmony the beaming soul are things which shall see when man s whole frame is obvious to a conclusion of the more she had spoke but d all nature what mortal can resist the of gods churches and instantly it reach d st james s first for leaden g preach d then catch d the schools the hall scarce kept awake the gap d but could not speak the	45
english poets lost was the nation s sense nor could be found while the long solemn went round wide and more wide it spread o er all the realm ev n nodded at the the mild o er each committee crept d in each office slept and armies d out the campaign and d for orders on the main o muse relate for you can tell alone wits have short memories and none relate who first who last resign d to rest whose heads she partly whose completely what charms could what ambition lull the quiet and entrance the dull till drown d was sense and shame and right and wrong o sing and hush the nations with thy song in in vain the all hour falls the muse the r she comes she comes the throne behold of night and of chaos old before her fancy s gilded clouds decay and all its varying die away wit shoots in vain its momentary fires the drops and in a flash as one by one at dread s strain the sick stars fade off th ethereal plain as eyes by d one by one to everlasting rest thus at her felt approach and secret might art after art goes out and all is night see truth to her old fled mountains of heap d o er her head philosophy that lean d on heaven before to her second cause and is no more of defence and calls for aid on sense see mystery to fly alexander pope in vain they gaze turn giddy and die religion blushing her sacred fires and unawares morality for public flame nor private dares to shine nor human spark is left nor glimpse divine lo thy dread empire chaos is d light dies before thy word thy hand great lets the curtain fall and universal darkness all vol in k was born in in and died in his at on the i th of june were published in the reputation of has undergone some curious his to the earl of which pronounced as fine a piece as we ever had and fine seems to us as and as as its theme the distressed mother in which he made speak with the voice of no longer holds a place even in memory on the tragic stage his of once thought so brilliant and so affecting seems to modem readers mean nor is criticism any longer concerned to decide whether the of or of pope are the more but while all these works on which his contemporary reputation was founded are forgotten his to private persons and in particular to children which won him ridicule from his own age and from henry the immortal name of have a simplicity of and a genuine play of fancy which are now recognised as rare gifts in the artificial school of in which he was trained is moreover to be praised not in these only but in his poems generally for an affectionate observation of natural beauty w from the to miss by the next returning spring when again the sing when again the play pretty i full of may when the meadows next are sweet white and green and the year in fresh attire every gay desire blooming on shalt thou appear more inviting than the year fairer sight than orchard shows which beside a river blows yet another spring i see and a brighter bloom in thee and another round of time still thy prime and beneath the skies yet a more shall rise ere thy beauties show in each finished feature glow ere in smiles and in disdain thou thy maiden reign absolute to save or kill fond at thy will then the waist with a span of beauty and the swell of either breast and the wide high chest and the neck so white and round little neck with bound and the store of charms that shine above in divine crowded in a narrow space to complete the desperate face k the english poets those powers and more shall youths these and more in lays many an aching heart shall praise to miss in her mother s arms blossom infant fair of a happy pair every mom and every night their delight sleeping waking still at ease pleasing without skill to please little gossip and hale many a broken tale singing many a song lavish of a heedless tongue simple maiden void of art out the very heart yet abandoned to thy will yet imagining no ill yet too innocent to blush like the in the bush to the mother s note her slender throat forth thy pretty joys wanton in the change of toys like the green in may flitting to each spray wearied then and glad of rest like the in the nest this thy present happy lot this in time will be forgot other pleasures other cares ever busy time and thou shalt in thy daughter sec this picture once resembled thee thomas thomas was bom in in and was buried at on the th of october x his were first collected after his death by pope in contemplating the of poetical history we sometimes meet with a figure whose torch was well charged with the of genius and ready to be but whom accidental circumstances removed from the line of light so long and so far that its destiny was never properly fulfilled such a figure is who having spent his youth as a thoroughly insignificant amateur in verse was roused during the last five years of his life under the influence of pope a much younger man than he to strike a few magnificent on the of a true poet the last three pieces in the edition of s poems show us what he might have been had he lived in london instead of ireland had he been bom in instead of and had he understood at once the imperative bent	45
the sun that walks his airy way to light the world and give the day the english poets the moon that shines with borrow d light the stars that the gloomy night the seas that roll d waves the wood that its shady leaves the field whose ears conceal the grain the yellow treasure of the plain all of these and all i see should be sung and sung by me they speak their maker as they can but want and ask the tongue of man go search among your idle dreams your busy or your vain extremes and find a life of equal bliss or own the next begun in this the far in a wild unknown to public view from youth to age a reverend grew the moss his bed the cave his humble cell his food the fruits his drink the crystal well remote from man with god he passed the days prayer all his business all his pleasure praise a life so sacred such serene repose seem d heaven itself till one suggestion rose that vice should triumph virtue vice obey this sprung some doubt of providence s sway his hopes no more a certain prospect boast and all the of his soul is lost so when a smooth expanse receives calm nature s image on its watery breast down bend the banks the trees depending grow and skies beneath with answering colours glow but if a stone the gentle scene divide swift circles curl on every side thomas and glimmering fragments of a broken sun banks trees and skies in thick disorder run to clear this doubt to know the world by sight to find if books or report it right for yet by alone the world he knew whose feet came wandering o er the nightly dew he his cell the pilgrim he bore and fix d the in his hat before then with the sun a rising journey went to think and watching each event the mom was wasted in the grass and long and was the wild to pass but when the southern sun had warm d the day a youth came o er a crossing way his decent his complexion fair and soft in graceful d his hair then near approaching father hail he cried and hail my son the reverend replied words d words from question answer flow d and talk of various kind deceived the road till each with other d and loth to part while in their age they differ join in heart thus stands an aged elm in ivy bound thus youthful ivy an elm around now sunk the sun the closing hour of day came onward o er with sober gray nature in silence bid the world repose when near the road a stately palace rose there by the moon through ranks of trees they pass crown d their sloping sides of grass it d the noble master of the dome still made his house the wandering stranger s home yet still the kindness from a thirst of praise d the vain flourish of expensive ease the pair arrive the servants wait their lord receives them at the gate the table groans with costly piles of food and all is more than good r the english poets then led to rest the day s long toil they drown deep sunk in sleep and silk and heaps of down at length tis mom and at the dawn of day along the wide the play fresh o er the gay the breezes creep and shake the neighbouring wood to banish sleep up rise the guests obedient to the call an early banquet deck d the splendid hall rich wine a golden d which the kind master d the guests to taste then d and thankful from the porch they go and but the landlord none had cause of woe his cup was vanish d for in secret guise the younger guest d the glittering prize as one who a serpent in his way glistening and in the summer ray disorder d stops to the danger near then walks with on and looks with fear so seem d the when far upon the road the shining spoil his partner show d he d with silence walk d with trembling heart and much he wish d but not ask to part murmuring he lifts his eyes and thinks it hard that generous actions meet a base reward while thus they pass the sun his glory the changing skies hang out their clouds a sound in air d approaching rain and beasts to covert across the plain d by the signs the wandering pair retreat to seek for shelter at a neighbouring seat twas built with on a rising ground and strong and large and d around its owner s temper and severe unkind and d a desert there as near the s heavy doors they drew fierce rising with sudden fury blew the lightning mix d with showers began and o er their heads loud rolling ran thomas par i here long they knock but knock or call in vain driven by the wind and battered by the rain at length some pity warm d the master s breast twas then his threshold first received a guest slow creaking turns the door with jealous care and half he in the shivering pair one lights the naked walls and nature s through their limbs bread of the sort with eager wine each hardly granted d them both to dine and when the tempest first appeared to cease a ready warning bid them part in peace with still remark the pondering view d in one so rich a life so poor and rude and why should such within himself he cried lock the lost wealth a thousand want beside but what new marks of wonder soon took place in every settling feature of his face when from his the young companion bore	45
that cup the generous landlord own d before and paid with the precious bowl the kindness of this soul but now the clouds in airy tumult the sun emerging an sky a green the smelling leaves display and glittering as they tremble cheer the day the weather courts them from their poor retreat and the glad master the weary gate while hence they walk the pilgrim s bosom wrought with all the travel of uncertain thought his partner s acts without their cause appear twas there a vice and seem d a madness here that and pitying this he goes lost and confounded with the various shows now night s dim shades again involve the sky again the want a place to lie again they search and find a lodging nigh the soil d around the mansion neat and neither poorly low nor idly great sharp the english poets it seem d to speak its master s turn of mind content and not for praise but virtue kind hither the turn with weary feet then bless the mansion and the master g their greeting fair bestow d with modest guise the courteous master hears and thus replies without a vain without a heart to him who gives us all i yield a part from him you come for him accept it here a frank and sober more than costly cheer he spoke and bid the welcome table spread then talk d of virtue till the time of bed when the grave household round his hall repair warn d by a bell and close the hours with prayer at length the world renewed by calm repose was strong for toil the arose before the part the younger crept near the d cradle where an infant slept and d his neck the landlord s little pride o strange return i grew black and gasp d and died horror of horrors what i his only son how look d our when the fact was done not hell though hell s black jaws in part and breathe blue fire could more assault his heart d and struck with silence at the deed he flies but trembling fails to fly with speed his steps the youth the country lay d with roads a servant show d the way a river cross d the path the passage o er was nice to find the servant trod before long arms of oaks an open bridge supplied and deep the waves beneath the bending glide the youth who seem d to watch a time to sin approach d the careless guide and thrust him in plunging he falls and rising lifts his head then flashing turns and sinks among the dead wild sparkling rage the father s eyes he bursts the bands of fear and madly cries detested wretch but scarce his speech began thomas par when the strange partner seem d no longer man his youthful face grew more serenely sweet his robe d white and flow d upon his feet fair rounds of radiant points invest his hair celestial breathe through air and wings whose colours glitter d on the day wide at his back their gradual display the form ethereal bursts upon his sight and moves in all the majesty of light though loud at first the pilgrim s passion grew sudden he d and not what to do surprise in secret chains his words and in a calm his settling temper ends but silence here the angel broke the voice of music d as he spoke thy prayer thy praise thy life to vice unknown in sweet memorial rise before the throne these charms success in our bright region find and force an angel down to calm mind for this i the sky nay cease to thy fellow servant i then know the truth of government divine and let these scruples be no longer thine the maker justly claims that world he made in this the right of providence is laid its sacred majesty through all depends on using second means to work his ends tis thus withdrawn in state from human eye the power his attributes on high your actions uses nor your will and bids the doubting sons of men be still what strange events can strike with more surprise than those which lately struck thy wondering eyes yet taught by these confess th almighty just and where you can t learn to trust the great vain man who far d on costly food whose life was too luxurious to be good who made his ivory stands with shine and d his guests to morning draughts of wine the english poets has with the cup the custom lost and still he but with less of cost the mean suspicious wretch whose bolted door ne er d in duty to the wandering poor with him i left the cup to teach his mind that heaven can bless if mortals will be kind conscious of wanting worth he views the bowl and feels compassion touch his grateful soul thus artists melt the sullen ore of lead with coals of fire upon its head in the kind warmth the metal to glow and loose from the silver runs below long had our pious friend in virtue trod but now the child half d his heart from god child of his age for him he d in pain and d back his steps to earth to what had this run but god to save the father took the son to all but thee in fits he seem d to go and twas my to deal the blow the poor fond parent in the dust now owns in tears the punishment was just but how had all his fortune felt a had that false servant sped in safety back this night his heaps he meant to steal and what a fund of charity would fail i thus heaven thy mind this trial o er depart	45
in peace resign and sin no more on sounding here the youth withdrew the sage stood wondering as the flew thus look d when to mount on high his master took the chariot of the sky the fiery pomp ascending left the view the prophet d and wish d to follow too the bending here a prayer begun i as in heaven on earth thy will be done then gladly turning sought his ancient place and passed a life of piety and peace j john gay john gay was born at in fairly educated he began life in london as a silk but soon that occupation for literature his first poem was rural sports a inscribed to mr pope in the following year he produced the shepherd s a set of six his principal remaining works are the farce of the what d ye call it the mock heroic poem of or the art of walking the streets of and the famous b s opera his ts on several occasions including the pastoral tragedy of were published in he was also concerned in and bore the blame of the unlucky comedy of hours after marriage to which pope and had largely contributed he died in london in december gay appears to have been one of those easy tempered indolent good creatures whose lot in this world would probably be either pitiful or tragic if a beneficent fate did not provide them with charitable friends who watch over them with almost parental solicitude pope swift seem to have cherished a genuine affection for him and in later life the duke and of received him into their house and took care both of the helpless poet and his money his first poem rural sports though it contains some happy descriptive passages is of the order of performance its however procured him the friendship of pope the shepherd s week his next effort was in fact suggested by pope who fresh from his covert attack in the guardian monday april on the sham pastoral of foresaw what powerful assistance gay s observant humour and knowledge of the country would furnish to his cause the rustic life was to be depicted with the gilt off and the right simple after the true ancient guise vol iii the english poets of thou wilt not find my says the author s upon but the tying up the or if the are astray driving them to their my shepherd none other but what are the growth of our own fields he not under shades but under a hedge nor doth he defend his flocks from wolves because there are none like s novel of joseph the execution of the week was far superior to its object of mere ridicule in spite of their barbarous and gay s abound with interesting folk lore and closely studied rural pictures we see the country girl burning nuts to find her sweet heart or presenting the with a knife with a on it or playing hot or listening to of and patient there are also sly strokes of kindly satire as when the are represented the grave of against the of the parson s horse and cow which have the right of in the churchyard or when that in consideration of the liberal sermon fee spoke the hour glass in her praise quite out these little touches and there are a hundred more make us sure that we are reading no mere but that the country life of that age of queen anne which her poet declares to be the only golden age is truly and faithfully brought before us the shepherd s week was followed by for which the preface tells us the author received several hints from swift with whose city shower it has it is a lively and description of the london streets and has an as well as a poetical value the farce of the what it contains the musical ballad twas when the seas were roaring which we quote gay s only other important work for the beggar s opera does not come within our limits is the which in he prepared for the of the young duke of as a he is easy and and his work is distinguished by good humour and but he fails to reach the happy and the supreme art of la the hare and many friends is a fair of his manner and it is of additional interest as being in some measure a personal utterance though the records of his life show that in spite of his disappointments of court favour he seldom gay failed in finding a or a to soothe his wounded feelings moreover the profits from his works which enabled him in spite of losses to die worth could not have been the are gay s most extensive effort his remaining works consist of own tales and miscellaneous pieces the are and familiar one of them a from greece addressed to pope on his having finished his translation of the has an unexpected vivacity and movement it is in an earlier than or and the poet s to greet him after his six years toil prior few of the illustrious names of the age are absent nor are the other sex what lady s that to whom he gently who knows not her ah i those are s how art thou honoured numbered with her friends i for she the good and wise the sweet near her side now to my heart the glance of flies now fair of face i mark full well with thee youth s youngest daughter sweet as to gay s town they are neither better nor worse than lady mary s own and probably had a like origin ridicule of his tales have the but not the grace of prior s of his songs and that of sweet william s to black eyed is too	45
well known to need description and too great a favourite to be omitted from any and and the are other examples of that singing faculty which gay possessed in so marked a degree and which contributed so triumphantly to the success of the beggar s opera l the english poets from the shepherd s week ah thou leave thy sweetheart true what i have done for thee will ly do w ill she thy linen wash or and knit thee gloves made of her own spun will she with s hand provide thy meat and every sunday thy which o er thy spreading wide in service time drew iy s eyes aside if in the soil you guide the crooked share your early breakfast is my constant care and when with even hand you the grain fright the from off the plain in days when i my heard with beer i to the barn repaired lost in the music of the whirling to gaze on thee left the smoking in harvest when the sun was mounted high my bottle did thy supply er you followed with the and have full oft been sun burnt for thy sake when in the gathering showers were seen i the last with on the green and when at eve returning with thy car awaiting heard the bells from far straight on the fire the pot i placed to warm thy i burnt my hands for haste when hungry thou staring like an the luncheon from the loaf with bread i well thy mess ah love me more or love thy less gay a ballad from the what d ye call it twas when the seas were roaring with hollow of wind a lay all on a rock wide o er the rolling she cast a wistful look her head was crowned with that tremble o er the brook twelve months are gone and over and nine long tedious days why thou lover why thou trust the seas cease cease thou cruel ocean and let my lover rest ah what s thy troubled motion to that within my breast the merchant robbed of pleasure sees in despair but what s the loss of treasure to losing of my dear should you some coast be laid on where gold and diamonds grow you d find a richer maiden but none that loves you so how can they say that nature has nothing made in vain why then beneath the water should hideous rocks remain i the english poets no eyes the rocks discover that beneath the deep to wreck the wandering lover and leave the maid to weep all melancholy lying thus she for her dear repaid each blast with sighing each with a tear when o er the white wave stooping his floating corpse she then like a lily drooping she bowed her head and died the hare with many friends friendship like love is but a name unless to one you the flame the child whom many fathers share hath seldom known a father s care thus in friendship who depend on many rarely find a friend a hare who in a civil way complied with everything like gay was known by all the train who haunt the wood or the plain her care was never to offend and every creature was her friend as forth she went at early dawn to taste the dew lawn behind she hears the hunter s cries and from the deep mouthed thunder flies she starts she stops she for breath she hears the near advance of death she to the hound and measures back her round i john gay till fainting in the public way half dead with fear she gasping what transport in her bosom grew when first the horse appeared in view let me says she your back ascend and owe my safety to a friend you know my feet betray my flight to friendship every burden s light the horse replied poor honest it my heart to see thee thus be comforted relief is near for ail your friends are in the rear she next the stately bull implored and thus replied the mighty lord since every beast alive can tell that i sincerely wish you well i may without offence pretend to take the freedom of a friend love calls me hence a favourite cow expects me near yon and when a lady s in the case you know all other things give place to leave you thus might seem unkind but see the goat is just behind the goat remarked her pulse was high her languid head her heavy eye my back says he may do you harm the sheep s at hand and wool is warm the sheep was feeble and complained his sides a load of wool sustained said he was slow confessed his fears for hounds eat sheep as well as she now the trotting calf addressed to save from death a friend distressed shall i says he of tender age in this important care engage older and passed you by how strong are those how weak am the english poets should i presume to bear you hence those friends of mine may take offence excuse me then you know my heart but dearest friends alas must part how shall we all lament adieu for see the hounds are just in view black eyed all in the downs the fleet was the waving in the wind when black eyed came aboard oh where shall i my true love find tell me ye jovial sailors tell me true if my sweet william sails among the crew william who high upon the yard rocked with the to and fro soon as her well known voice he heard he sighed and cast his eyes below the cord swiftly through his glowing hands and quick as lightning on the deck he stands so the sweet lark high poised in air close	45
tell how michael and the fell or mixed with to glow in hymns of love not ill below or dost thou warn poor mortals left behind a task well suited to thy gentle mind oh if sometimes thy form descend to me thy aid thou guardian genius lend when rage me or when fear when pain or when pleasure charms in silent purer thoughts impart and turn from ill a frail and feeble heart lead through the paths thy virtue before till bliss shall join nor death can part us more that awful form which so ye heavens decree must still be loved and still by me the english poets in nightly visions seldom fails to rise or d by fancy meets my waking eyes if business calls or crowded courts invite th seems to strike my sight if in the stage seek to soothe my care i meet his soul which breathes in there if pensive to the rural shades i his shape me in the lonely grove twas there of just and good he reasoned strong cleared some great truth or raised some serious song there patient showed us the wise course to steer a candid and a friend severe there taught is how to live and oh i too high the price for knowledge taught us how to die was bom in in his father was the manager of lord s lead mines but his great grandfather was younger son of a of and nephew of of and he took pride in his descent from this ancient stock he was as a boy to a wig maker but passed from writing poetry and poetical into being a his earliest efforts were among his in ms and sold by himself to the public in penny broad sheets in he published an edition of on the green with a second of his own composition and soon after another edition with a third new in he published a collection of songs in a collection of his own poems in in his and tales and his tale of three in his fair assembly in a poem on health in the same year miscellaneous entitled the table y and tlie and in the work with which chiefly his fame is associated the gentle shepherd he died in had an influence upon the growth of the peasant poetry of scotland which must be taken account of quite apart from the qualities of his own song and perhaps a better title to remembrance he did not create the movement which reached its full volume and intensity in the poetry of burns but it was concentrated in him for a generation and passed on with a mighty impulse it must always be work at the of things but if one were asked to name the great work of the scotch poetry of the century one would have little hesitation in upon s choice collection of songs ancient and modem himself tells us that his inspiration or at least his ambition to write came from this source it was to the scotch poetry of the l o the english poets century what was to the english poetry of the sixteenth only much more powerful in its influence owing to the fact tha fewer influences were at work in the field carried out on a larger scale and with more abundant resources the plan adopted by this collecting and ancient poems and getting ingenious friends to assist him in the production of modem poems his shop at the sign of the in the high street of thus became the of a school in which he was the acknowledged master and the productions of this school written in the dialect of a among whom it was a disgrace not to be able to read and coming home to their business and were popular as no literature had ever been before it was not without some reason that austere lamented the flight of from the land before s muse the gentle shepherd with its pagan summons to lads and to the in its prime found its way into the cottages though as forbidden fruit wherever the authority of the was respected almost as freely as the bible to get a correct conception of the general character of s poems we must look at the audience for whom they were written they were read by by and but they had first passed under the critical eyes of a more circle it may seem a to call s poems de yet such in effect they were though the society for which they were written had not much of the culture which we now associate with the name was a soul he has been called a and he and his friends had formed themselves into an easy club in imitation of the famous literary clubs of the london coffee houses it was for this society that he began to write verses for a knot of young lawyers doctors and who had a liking for literature and who read the spectator pope and the poets of the restoration and met of an evening to sup crack jokes and exchange literary essays and small talk s poems of this atmosphere through the medium of the easy club with such as it could not fail j receive from the vigorous individuality of the members the spirit of the restoration passed to do battle among the scotch with the austere spirit of the the rugged passion and rude pathos the intense sympathy with the joys and sorrows of a hard existence a k which found voice among a people awakened to the charm of song did not come from renowned the who was the of the easy club broad fun sly touches of satire at the expense of local fashions and local characters compliments to beauties humorous descriptions of local life were the subjects with which sought the applause of his boon companions and	45
appealed with success to a wider public the o mill and bell and mary gray are examples of the light in which the genial mirth loving poet was at his ease when he tried serious he soon got beyond his depth farewell to is the only serious of his that has kept its hold and even that is not without traces of of sentiment such as the departing warrior s explanation that he not because he is going to battle but because he is leaving his sweetheart these tears that i shed they are a for my dear and no for the dangers attending on the humorous that was s true familiar must have guided his pen when he wrote these lines the lover s agonies were not within reach of his art although he could paint the lover s delights with genuine rapture his gay science was up in the lines then i ll draw cuts and take my fate and be wi contented it is as a painter of manners with keen sly humorous observation and not as a that deserves to be remembered we can well understand s admiration for him his on and lucky wood and his anticipation of the road to ruin in the three were after s own heart but the life that he painted in the scotch capital as he saw it with his twinkling eye broad sense of fun and humour was too coarse to have much interest for any but his own time in a happy hour for his memory he conceived the idea of describing the life which he had known in his youth in the country from writing pastoral after the manner of such as that in which pope and as sandy and are made to lament the death of in broad scotch he took to making real scotch and discuss in verse their loves and all the concerns of their daily life in the gentle shepherd brought back real pastoral poetry to vol iii m i a the english poets literature the scotch critics of the last century delighted in comparing s with the of the italian masters and giving him the palm over these but the kind of composition is so different that a fair basis of comparison can hardly be said to exist the gentle shepherd must be judged on its merits as a picture of real rustic life its fidelity to nature is by the welcome it received from the people whose life it described and who saw themselves reflected there as they wished that others should see them the of their struggle for existence forgotten and all their simple joys gathered up in the poet s imagination william from tu gentle shepherd and but is the of a o er your heads ill chance should draw there little love or cheer can come and a your may die the may bear away the your dainty of hay the thick wreaths of or may your and may rot your a your butter and cheese but or the day of payment breaks and with brow the seeks in his rent tis no to your merchant s to the bent his honour want he your gear driven house and hold where will ye steer dear be wise and lead a single life it s to be a married wife may ill luck that silly she has fears for that was never me let and strive to do their best s required let heaven make out the rest i ve heard my honest uncle often say that lads should a for wives that s virtuous pray for the man could never get a well d room unless his wife let wherefore shall be wanting on my part to gather wealth to raise my shepherd s heart er he wins i guide my care and win the at market or fair for clean cheap and sufficient a flock of cheese butter and some shall be sold to pay the his due poverty cheerful ragged empty cattle river off joke m the english poets a behind s our ain thus without fear with love and we the will steer and when my in and gear grow hell bless the day he me for his wife but what if some young on the green with cheek and een should your think his half worn and her ken d kisses hardly worth a of that dear to be free there s some men in love than we nor is the great when nature kind has them with of mind they ll reason calmly and with kindness smile when our short passions our peace they slight their at tis ten to their wives are to blame then employ with pleasure a my art to keep him and secure his heart at e en when he comes weary the hill i have a things made ready to his will in winter when he toils wind and rain a and a clean hearth and soon as he by his and the pots be ready to take clean i ll spread upon his board and serve him with the best we can afford good humour and white shall be guards to my face to keep his love for me a dish of married love right soon grows and down to as grow but well grow together and ne er find the loss of youth where love grows on the mind and their make sure a firmer tie than aught in love the like of us can spy plenty wonder mates linen caps v see yon elms that grow up side by side suppose them some years bridegroom and bride nearer and nearer year they ve till wide their spreading branches are increased and in their mixture now are fully this the other the blast that in return it the as stand single a state liked	45
to call the of the tempest growling fell yet the least entrance found they none at all whence sweeter grew our sleep secure in hall and hither sent his kindest dreams raising a world of and grace o er which were shadowy cast that played in waving lights from place to place and shed a smile on nature s face not s pencil e er could so array so with clouds the pure ethereal space ne could it e er such melting forms display as loose on beds all lay l l no fair illusions artful no my muse will not attempt your fairy land she has no colours that like you can glow to catch your vivid scenes too gross her hand but sure it is was ne er a band than these same angel seeming who thus in dreams soft and bland poured all the heaven upon our nights and them oft besides with more refined delights to number up the thousands dwelling here an useless were and an endless task from kings and those who at the appear to brown in summer who yea many a man i could whose desk and table make a solemn show with ty d and suits of fools that ask for place or laid in decent row but these i by with nameless numbers of all the gentle tenants of the place there was a man of special grave remark a certain tender gloom his face pensive not sad in thought involved not dark as this man could sing as morning lark and teach the noblest morals of the heart but these his talents were of the fine stores he nothing would impart which or boon nature gave or nature painting art to shades he ran where the brook with sleep inviting sound or when dan to slope his wheels began amid the he him on the ground where the wild and are found there would he linger till the latest ray of light fate trembling on the s bound then homeward the twilight shadows stray and slow so had he passed many a day william s r the english poets yet not in thoughtless slumber were they past for oft the heavenly fire that lay conceal d beneath the sleeping embers mounted fast and all its native light anew revealed oft as he traversed the field and marked the clouds that drove before the wind ten thousand glorious systems would he build ten thousand great ideas fill d his mind but with the clouds they fled and left no trace behind with him was sometimes join d in silent walk profoundly silent for they never spoke one still who quite detested talk oft stung by at once away he broke to groves of pine and broad oak there thrill d he wandered all alone and on himself his pensive fury ne ever uttered word save when first shone the glittering star of eve thank heaven i the day is done probably tlie poet john john was bom in about the year and died in london in his poetical works which here alone concern us were the economy of love the art of preserving health and some slight pieces published in volumes of later is beyond all doubt the most remarkable poet of the school of it would appear that the style in his case was not the result merely of imitation of the author of the seasons but came from a similar cause the study at once of the queen anne men and of older writers both shakespeare and were sufficiently attractive to when he was quite a boy to induce him to imitate them and though the show more zeal than appreciation they have some merit the economy of from which no can here be given contains many stately verses and some which exhibit considerable novelty of structure on the whole s and language are the of that style such as the ridiculous which calls a cold bath a and so forth are present in large measure but the merits of abundant fancy of surprising range of illustration and of a certain grace which is not are present likewise it would be difficult to find a more subject for poetry than the art of preserving health yet in treating it has managed to produce many passages which lovers and students of blank verse cannot afford to disdain his vigour is and his skill is by no means of an every day order the poem however is not merely by the of its subject but by the of a large mass of unnecessary and now which could at no time have added to its the english poets attractions and which now make parts of it nearly here and there too we are offended by the defect which shares with swift and with the tendency to indulge in merely details on the whole however the merits of the art of preserving health far its defects it may indeed be urged by a advocate that it is but a left handed compliment to say that a man has done better than could be expected a task which as sense and taste should have shown him ought not to have been attempted at all but must always have with competent judges the praise which belongs to an author who has a distinct and peculiar grasp of a great poetical form his verse is on the whole very inferior to his blank the are frequently careless and the poet s ear does not seem to have taught him how to with the proper variety and of his satire however if a little conventional is sometimes vigorous and a specimen of the poem entitled taste is therefore given here george john from the art of preserving health book iii the body by the the or frost except by habits foreign to its turn unwise you its forming power rude at the first the winter	45
you less by long acquaintance study then your sky form to its manners your frame and learn to suffer what you cannot against the of a damp cold n to their bodies some frequent the and where i praise their heart a frame so not the cough nor those that breathe the or fell the nerves so tempered never quit their tone no haunt such hardy breasts but all things have their bounds and he who makes by daily use the kindest essential to his health should never mix with human kind nor art nor trade pursue he not the safe of life without some shock ill fitted he to want the known or bear unusual things besides the powerful of pain since pain in spite of all our care will come should never with your prosperous days of health grow too familiar for by frequent use the strongest lose their healing power and even the theirs to kill book iv how to live happiest how avoid the pains the disappointments and of those who would in pleasure all their hours employ the english poets the here of a divine old man i could tho old he still retained his manly sense and energy of mind virtuous and wise he was but not severe he still remembered that he once was young his easy presence checked no decent joy him even the admired for he a graceful when he pleased put on and laughing could instruct much had he read much more had seen he studied from the life and in th original mankind in the woes and of life he pitied man and much he pitied those whom smiling fate has cursed with means to their days in quest of joy our aim is happiness tis yours tis mine he said tis the pursuit of all that live yet few attain it if twas e er attained but they the wander from the mark who the paths of joy seek this goddess that from stage to stage us still but as we pursue for not to name the pains that pleasure brings to itself fate that we gay should ever and were the more kind our narrow luxuries would soon grow stale were these nature would grow sick and with pleasure complain that all is vanity and life a let nature rest be busy for yourself and for your friend be busy even in vain rather than her who never no banquet e er who never toils or watches never sleeps let nature rest and when the taste of joy grows keen indulge but tis not for mortals always to be but him the least the dull or painful hours john of life whom sober sense and virtue this we tread virtue and sense i mean not to virtue and sense are one and trust me still a heart the head virtue for mere good nature is a fool is sense and spirit with humanity tis sometimes angry and its frown tis even but in vengeance just fain would laugh at it some great ones dare but at his heart the most son of fortune its name and awful charms to noblest uses this wealth this is the solid pomp of prosperous days the peace and shelter of and if you for glory build your fame on this foundation which the secret shock of envy and all time the gaudy of fortune only strikes the vulgar eye the of the wise the praise that s worth ambition is attained by sense alone and dignity of mind virtue the strength and beauty of the soul is the best gift of heaven a happiness that even above the smiles and of fate great nature s a wealth that ne er nor can be d from taste an to a young critic read boldly and each modern e en each ancient muse with all the comic salt and tragic rage the great genius of our stage boast of our island pride of had faults to which the boxes are not blind his are to every gossip known yet milton s not shock the town the english poets ne er be the of names however high for some good parts some each elegant spectator you admire but must you therefore swear by s fire for the court and oft a clumsy jest disgraced the muse that wrought the but to the faith i am not clear for all the smooth round type of that ev ry work which lasts in prose or song two thousand years deserves to last so long for not to mention some eternal blades known only now in shades those sacred groves where spirits stray and in word hunting waste the day whom none but curious critics do read s praises if you can ah who but feels the sweet smart while soft his tender heart with him the loves and melt in tears but not a word of some you grow so and so devilish dry you call next not i some find him tedious others think him lame but if he his subject is to blame rough weary roads barren he tried yet still he with true roman pride sometimes a gorgeous rapid bright he streams the philosophic night find you in no he dared to tell us sometimes and but for such a critic s hardy skill might slumber still william william was bom in in he was educated at and became a fellow of new college oxford in he inherited the seat of his ancestors where he spent the remainder of his life as a gentleman late in life he began to write and published the two springs occasional the chase he died july a and was buried at near in was a handsome noisy squire a fellow six feet high a hard rider a crack shot no more characteristic specimen of the sporting country gentleman pure and simple could be	45
imagined or one less likely to into a poet it was in fact not until fast living had begun to break down his constitution that he took to literature as a consolation one of his earliest exercises was an addressed to who had bought a property in and so had become s neighbour this poem is neatly and and contains the well known compliment which pleased dr johnson so much when panting virtue her last efforts made you brought your to the virgin s aid was the of but he enjoyed at the same time the friendship of pope a correspondence with tells us more about his person than we should otherwise have known and an to james the respect with which he learned to contemplate his own literary judgment a friendship with the boyish was the last event of a career that ended very in pain financial ruin and his life is a singular of the pagan ideal i the english poets of the time it is curious to find a boisterous squire of the coarse type that painted in the next generation assuming the airs of a and a wit and striking the fashionable attitude in top boots and a hunting belt who was a well read man took the of as his model when he produced his best poem the chase like the latin poet he moral with practical information about the training and the points of hounds this which is in four books in its first part the origin of hunting the economy of the physical and moral accomplishments of hounds and the choosing of a good or bad day the second book which possesses more natural language and a finer literary quality than the others with directions for hare hunting and with a moral reproof of tyranny in the third book hunting is treated from an and an while the fourth with the breeding of hounds their diseases and the diseases they cause such as it will hardly be guessed from such a sketch of the contents that the chase is a remarkably and interesting poem it is composed in blank verse that is rarely and not very often flat and the zeal and science of the author give a certain vitality to his descriptions which the reader s attention people that have a practical knowledge of the matters described confess that thoroughly understood what he was talking about and that in his easy chair before the fire he plied his function of the no less admirably than he had done in the saddle in his youth the success of the chase induced him when he was quite an old man to sing of fishing and of the green but on these subjects he was less interesting than on hunting his a sort of mock heroic poem on rural games written in of the splendid shilling of john was intended to be and only succeeded in being ridiculous less foolish but somewhat and easy were his in the manner of prior posterity in short has refused to regard in any other light than as the broken down squire warming himself with a of ale in his chimney comer and the magnificent mr in the mysteries of and points w william from the chase book i ye vigorous youths by smiling fortune with large hereditary wealth heaped copious by your wise forefathers care hear and attend while i the means reveal t enjoy those pleasures for the weak too strong too costly for the poor to rein the swift stretching o er the plain to cheer the pack opening in of harmonious joy but breathing death what tho the severe of brazen time and slow disease creeping ev ry vein and nerve my shattered frame still fixed as a mountain ash that the of angry jove tho yet still can my soul in fancy s mirror view deeds glorious once recall the joyous scene in all its o er the full bowl my triumphs past urge others on with hand and voice and point the winding way pleased with that social sweet the poor s sole delight first let the be the s care upon some little eminence erect and to the ruddy dawn its courts on either hand wide op to receive the sun s all cheering beams when mild he shines and the mountain tops for much the pack roused from their dark delight to stretch and in his ray warned by the streaming light and merry lark forth rush the jolly with throats they loud and in grand chorus joined salute the new bom day the english poets book ii here on this spot where nature kind with double blessings crowns the farmer s hopes where flowers spring and the rank affords the ring a rich throw off thy ready pack see where they spread and range and dash the ring dew if some hound with his voice the recent trail the tribe attend his call then with one mutual cry the welcome news confirm and echoing hills repeat the pleasing tale see how they thread the and up yon drive along but quick they back and wisely check their eager haste then o er the ground how leisurely they work and many a pause th harmonious concert breaks till more assured with joy the low valleys ring what artful their way ah there she lies how close she she doubts if now she lives she as she sits with horror seized the withered grass that around her head of the same hue almost deceived my sight had not her eyes with life full beaming her vain betrayed at distance draw thy pack let all be hushed no loud no frantic joy be heard lest the wild hound run o er the plain nor hear thy voice now gently put her off see how direct to her known muse she flies i here bring but without hurry all thy jolly hounds and	45
calmly lay them in how low they stoop and seem to plough the ground i then all at once with greedy nostrils snuff the steam that their fluttering hearts as winds let loose from the dark of the god they burst away and sweep the lawn william hope gives them wings while she s on by fear the rings men dogs hills rocks and woods in the full concert join now my brave youths stripped for the give all your souls to joy see how their than the mountain more fleet the carpet thick clouds they breathe their shining hoofs scarce print the grass with fired they strain to lead the field top the barred gate o er the deep ditch bound and brush the hedge the bend o er their arched necks with steady hands by turns indulge their speed or moderate their rage where are their sorrows disappointments wrongs sickness cares all all are gone and with the panting winds far behind vol iii green green was bom in he came of a family held a post in the custom house and died a bachelor at a lodging in s head court street in his first poem the was published in his chief work appeared in in it was published in a volume with some additional pieces and a preface by dr to most people the name of green if it suggests anything suggests a line in his longest poem the familiar fling but a stone the giant dies which occurs in his general plea for physical exercise it would almost appear as if the first of this happily exhausted by the effort had rested from further for it is not often that one hears reference made to any other part of the poem and yet th is full of things if not quite as good and marked in all cases by distinct originality and a fresh and mode of utterance now it is a clever as when are spoken of as those who in rhyme and like blind flies en with their wings for want of eyes now a picture such as this of the divine in whose gay red face we read good living more than grace now a perfectly poetic line like brown fields their keep or lastly such a pleasantly ingenious passage as that in which tbe green effect of blue eyes on the old is compared to the miracle of st shine but on age yon melt its snow again fires long glow and charmed by of eyes blood long miracle and fairly done by heads which are adored while on but to would be practically to the entire poem which is not long green suffered really or from the fashionable century disorder which pope has so well described in the of the lock and in this piece as he calls it he sets forth the various which he employed to his enemy taken altogether his constitute a code of philosophy not unlike that in more than one of the of to observe the religion of the body to cultivate cheerfulness and calm to keep a middle course and possess his soul in quiet content as regards the future to what heaven such are the chief features of his plan but in developing his principles he takes occasion to deal many a side long stroke at imperfect humanity and not always at those things only which are opposed to his theory of conduct female education law religious reform speculation place hunting poetry ambition all these are briefly touched and seldom left by some quivering shaft of ridicule towards the end of the poem comes an ideal picture of rural retirement which may be compared with the joint version by pope and swift of s sixth satire in the second book and the whole with the writers views upon immortality and a summary of his practice regarded as a whole we can recall few poems which contain so much compact expression and witty illustration the author was evidently shrewd and observant and unusually gifted in the detection of grotesque aspects and remote he must have been more than fairly read and although at the outset of his task he appears to he must have been familiar with classical school helps i want to climb on high where all the ancient treasures lie and there unseen commit a on wealth in greek left the english poets witness for instance the line see better things and do the worst although for this and other examples he may have gone no farther than that century of ready made learning the of the spectator in his verse notwithstanding that he occasionally makes use of such hideous as and his is fresh and exact and remarkably free from the of contemporary poetic of green s remaining pieces the and the lines on apology for the are the most both of these are by the same qualities which are exhibited in ttie the is a humorous little picture of the different professors of religion ma green from the to cure the mind s wrong bias some recommend the green some walks all exercise fling but a stone the giant dies laugh and be well have been extreme good doctors for the and if the humour hit has away the fit since mirth is good in this behalf at some particulars let us laugh brisk fools cursed with half sense that their who in rhyme and like blind flies with their wings for want of eyes poor authors a calf deep that make us laugh a strict saying grace a preaching for a place folks things prophetic to dispense making the past the future tense the of a priest fine on deceased green s rage great on his stage a starving to be rich the prior of s dying speech a widow s state two jews the h new composed by experiments on ears who ceaseless the	45
superb muscle of the eye a s april weather face a mayor behind his the english poets and in military are sovereign for the case in view in rainy days keep double guard or will surely be too hard which like those fish by sailors met fly highest while their wings are wet in such dull weather so unfit to enterprise a work of wit when clouds one yard of sky that s fit for deny i dress my face with looks and tedious hours with books but if dull the head that memory minds not what is read i sit in window dry as ark and on the drowning world remark or to some coffee house i stray for news the of a day and from the gather that politics go by the weather then seek good humoured tavern claims and play at cards but for small sums or with the merry fellows and laugh aloud with them that laugh or drink a serious cup with souls took their freedom up and let my mind by talk in garden walk who thought it heaven to be serene pain hell and now if consider friend what i avoid to gain my end i never am at meeting seen meeting that region of the the broken heart the busy the inward call on depend green law breaking of the peace to which is disease a scarce known well by ih who law fortunes tell i nor let it breed within anxiety and that the law grown a forest where the and the vex where its twelve every day are changing still the public way yet if we miss our path and we grievous and tire and tear their skin and then get out where they went in i rail not with mock grace at folks because they are in place nor d to praise with pen serve the ear of men but to avoid religious the laws are my which in my doubting mind create to church and state i go to my plan to with the and think it right in common sense both for diversion and defence schemes are none of mine to mend the world s a vast design like theirs who m little boat to pull to them the ship afloat while to defeat their end at once both wind and stream contend success is seldom seen and zeal when baffled turns to happy the man who innocent not at ills he can t prevent the english poets his does with the glide not puffing pulled against the tide he by the crowd sees life s rowed and when he can t prevent foul play the folly of the by these reflections i each hasty promise made in zeal when gospel say we re bound our great light to display and indian darkness drive away yet none but drunken send and scoundrel link boys for that end when they cry up this holy war which every christian should be for yet such as owe the law their ears we find employ d as this view my forward zeal so in vain they hold the money box at such a conduct which by vicious means such virtuous ends i laugh off and keep my pence from indian innocence you friend like me the trade of rhyme avoid elaborate waste of time nor are content to be undone to pass for crazy son poems the hop grounds of the brain afford the most uncertain gain and never tempt the wise with so many to a prize i only transient visits pay meeting the in my way scarce known to the fastidious nor skill d to call them by their names nor can their in these days your profit warrant or your praise on poems by their writ critics as sworn sit and mere in a on gems and painting set a price these artists for our lays invent cramped rules and with strait stays striving free nature s shape to hit sense before they fit forced by soft violence of prayer the goddess my care i feel the deity inspire and thus she models my desire two hundred pounds half yearly paid securely made a farm some twenty miles from town small tight and my own two maids that never saw the town a serving man not quite a a boy to help to tread the and drive while t other holds the plough a chief of temper formed to please fit to converse and keep the keys and better to preserve the peace by the name of niece with of a size to think their master very wise may n it s all i wish for send one genial room to treat a friend where decent cup board little plate display benevolence not state and may my humble dwelling stand upon some chosen spot of land a pond before full to the brim where cows may cool and may swim behind a green like velvet neat soft to the eye and to the feet the english poets where plants in evening fair breathe all around air from foe to kitchen ground by a slope with bushes crowned fit dwelling for the throng who pay their quit rents with a song with opening views of hill and which sense and fancy too where the half which vision bounds like and woods to the breeze thick of embodied trees from hills through plains in dusk array extended far the day thus sheltered free from care and strife may i enjoy a calm through life see safe in low degree as men at land see storms at sea and laugh at miserable not kind so much as to themselves cursed with such souls of base as can possess but not enjoy the pleasure to impart by of the heart who wealth hard earned by guilty cares	45
untouched to may i with look by and wearing virtue s livery smile prone the distressed to relieve and little forgive with income not in fortune s and skill to make a busy hour with to town life to amuse to purchase books and hear the news to see old friends brush off the vn and taste at coming down by sickness rage and slowly in age green ao when fate extends its gathering fall off like fruit grown fully ripe quit a worn being without pain perhaps to blossom soon again thus thus i steer my bark and sail on even with gentle gale at i make my reason sit my crew of passions all submit if dark and prove some nights philosophy puts forth her lights experience holds the cautious glass to the as i pass and frequent throws the wary lead to see what dangers may be hid and once in seven years i m seen at bath or to though pleased to see the play i mind my compass and my way with store sufficient for relief and wisely still prepared to nor wanting the bowl of cloudy weather in the soul i make may n send such wind and weather to the end neither nor over blown life s voyage to the world unknown on s apology for the these sheets doctrines yield where revelation is reveal d soul from literal feeding bred systems to the head they and yield a diet thin that turns to gospel within english poets truth may here be seen extracted from the parts in these is how men obtain what of poets to scripture dress is brought and speech apparel to the thought they hiss from instinct at red coats and war whose work is cutting throats forbid and press the law of love breathing the spirit of the dove doctrines they as by the priest and throw down where we pay for stuff which never the way and a tax reduce and frank the gospel for our use they standing armies break but the useful make since all may preach and pray taught by these rules as well as they rules which when truths themselves reveal bid us to follow what we feel well natured happy shade forgive t like you i think but cannot live thy scheme requires the world s contempt that from dependence life and constitution d so strong this world s worst climate cannot not such my lot not fortune s i live by pulling off the hat compelled by station every hour to bow to images of power and in life s busy scenes see better things and do the worst eloquent want whose reasons sway and make ten thousand truths give way green while i your scheme with pleasure trace draws near and me in the face consider well your state she cries like others kneel that you may rise hold doctrines by no scruples vexed to which is nor madly prove where all depends upon your friends see how you like my face such you must wear if out of place cracked is your brain to turn without one out at use they who have lands and safe with faith so founded on a rock may give a rich invention ease and scripture how they please the honoured prophet that of old used n s high counsels to did more than angels greet the that brought him bread and meat john born at s or died hill was published ruins the subject of the sir cannot be made poetical how can a man write of and so in his way of prompt pronounced johnson the yet whose poetical aims were sufficiently remote from the common had declared that he would his opinion of the taste by the fate of s if that were ill received he should not think it any longer reasonable to expect fame from excellence gray ventured to brave the elegant disdain of by that mr has more of poetry in his imagination than almost any of our number and one in our own century of genius than gray looking back from his to his brother poet among the hills has left his protest against the injustice of hasty fame in her neglect of yet pure and powerful minds hearts meek and still a grateful few shall love thy modest lay long as the shepherd s flock shall stray o er naked s wide waste long as the shall pipe on hill the power of hills was not on johnson fleet street with its roar had more music for his ear than the of a or the tender of the mother and the country walk appeared in poetical of the year the same year saw the john tion of s winter it was the year in which pope was imagining his goddess of as she surveyed through fog her long succession of street children from remote scotland and from southern wales came a gift to english poetry which neither street nor could bestow while pope a in and was doing to death by exquisite the hosts of his own position threatened unawares that poetry of external nature which was to for a season the general heart from such poetry as his was already by the youthful singers of winter and of hill had been for a time pupil to the painter and master and pupil may have laid down their now and again to con over some passage of milton whom they both knew well and honoured in s love of landscape there is something of the painter s feeling he loves a wide prospect by stream and wood backed by blue solemnly vast the effect is heightened if the landscape include the ragged walls of some crumbling castle or some peasant s smoky nest leaning against its tree there remains but to add a human figure or two an old man white bearded in weed ragged	45
and brown leaning on his in the little garden or a in the willow shade who with the angle in his hand the to land the poetry of ruins was not reserved for the romantic second half of the century it is who describes the plain of spread like n f boundless round where solitary grey with moss ruin of ages and johnson could not withhold his admiration from some lines conceived among rome s the pilgrim oft at dead of night mid his hears aghast the voice of time towers tumbling all down dash d rattling around loud thundering to the moon the english poets but as even these lines show is not a painter who would words to be the medium of his art he is a poet he has a heart that an eye that loves his landscape is full of living change of tender incident of the melody of breeze and bird and stream here under glossy the rabbit turns the dust here the new dropped lamb tottering with weakness by his mother s side feels the fresh world about him here the returning at eve to his little smiling cottage warm meets his rosy children at the door their and his honest wife with good brown cake and bacon intent to cheer his hunger after labour hard loves solitary musing on some gentle and sometimes on the gains of a private life remote from men grass and flowers quiet but it is one of his distinctions that he never really opposed nature and human society as poets of s part of the century were wont to oppose them and he not only pays homage to trade in the way of easy but really receives of poetic excitement from the life of man in commerce its force its its its variety tis art and toil he give nature value could he choose his lot it would be on some waste far from a lord s d neighbourhood yet he would not be for he loves his toiling fellow men and if the soil were coarse and it should be so only till forced to flourish and subdued by me the farmer still collecting his scattered under the harvest moon the strong armed rustic plunging in the flood an the on the dusty road beside his nodding the maiden at her humming wheel delight s imagination no more than do the near the glaring mass their heavy down by turns the in hand at whose rises and like before the eyes of the keen eyed his the bending porter on the wharf where crowd thick the poet s ancestors as he is pleased to record in verse were john d yer who flying from the rage of superstition brought the loom to that soft tract of deep land by green hills by ocean s murmur d from them he obtained a goodly his love of freedom and his love of industry he honoured traffic the friend to wedded love he honoured england for her independence and her mighty toil america for her vast possibilities of well being he pleaded against the horrors of the slave trade he the favour of no lord and in an age of city poets he found his inspiration on the and by the stream edward en vol l the english poets hill silent with curious eye who the purple evening lie on the mountain s lonely van beyond the noise of busy man painting fair the form of things while the yellow sings or the charms the forest with her tale come with all thy various hues come and aid thy sister muse now while riding high gives lustre to the land and hill my song draw the bright and strong in whose sweetly musing quiet dwells in whose silent shade for the modest made so oft i have the evening still at the fountain of a upon a bed with my hand beneath my head while strayed my eyes o er tow s flood over and over wood from house to house from hill to hill till contemplation had her about his sides i wind and leave his and behind and groves and where i lay and shooting beams of day wide and wider the as circles on a smooth canal john an the mountains round unhappy sooner or later of all height withdraw their from the skies and lessen as the others rise still the prospect wider adds a thousand woods and still it still and sinks the newly risen hill now i gain the mountain s brow what a lies below no clouds no v ours but the gay the open scene does the face of nature show in all the hues of heaven s bow t and swelling to embrace the light around beneath the sight old castles on the arise proudly towering in the skies rushing from the woods the seem from hence ascending fires half his beams a sheds on the yellow mountain heads the of the flocks and on the broken rocks below me trees rise beautiful in various the gloomy pine the blue the yellow the the slender fir that grows the sturdy oak with broad spread boughs and beyond the purple grove haunt of queen of love gaudy as the opening dawn lies a long and level lawn on which a dark hill steep and high holds and charms the wandering eye deep are his feet in s flood his sides are cloth d with waving wood p a the english poets and ancient towers crown his brow that cast an look below whose ragged walls the ivy and with her arms from keeps so both a safety from the wind on mutual dependence find tis now the s bleak abode tis now th apartment of the and there the fox securely and there the poisonous conceal d in ruins moss and weeds while ever and anon there falls huge heaps	45
respecting the chances of which professional judgment has been hopelessly out it acquired popularity almost as soon as it was published and retained it for at least a century indeed its date is not yet gone by in certain circles long after its author s death it obtained an additional and probably a lasting hold on a new kind of taste by the fact of s it the artist s designs indeed were as he expresses it in the beautiful to queen rather visions that his soul had seen than representations of anything directly contained in s verse but that verse itself is by no means to be despised its only fault is the use and abuse of the syllable the quality of s blank verse is in every respect rather upon dramatic than upon purely poetical and he shows little trace of imitation either of milton or of his contemporary whether his contrary to the wont of scotch at that time had really been much directed to the drama i cannot say but the perusal of his poem certainly suggests such a conclusion not merely the just mentioned but the generally and tone i the english poets helping to produce the impression the matter of the poem is good general plan it has none but in so short a composition a general plan is hardly wanted it with forcible and original ideas expressed in vigorous and nor is it likely nowadays that this will strike readers as it struck the delicate critics of the century as being vulgar vigorous single lines are numerous and it is at least as much a tribute to the vigour of the poem as to its popularity that many of its phrases have worked their way into current nor is it difficult to produce sustained passages the effect of which is only by the ugly fault already noticed the poem naturally comparison with the night thoughts in depth of meaning it is probably the inferior of young s work but its is very much in its favour as also is the absence of which it if we except a little stock satire about the of the grave c the wonder is however not that has sometimes fallen into the use of the cut and dried but that he has so often avoided it to have written a poem of seven or eight hundred lines on such a subject which after the lapse of nearly a century and a half can be read with pleasure and even some admiration is something perhaps it is something by no means it is due beyond all doubt to the fact that had the specially poetic faculty of sa old things in a new way there is almost always something novel in his dressing up of his images and a suggestive in their expression it is sufficient to read the last four lines of the poem to perceive this george robert from tht grave self murder self murder name it not our s that makes her the reproach of neighbouring states shall nature from her earliest dictate self preservation fall by her own act forbid it heaven let not upon disgust the hand be o er with blood of its own lord dreadful attempt just from self slaughter in a rage to rush into the presence of our judge as if we him to do his worst and mattered not his wrath unheard of must be reserved for these these herd together the common their society and look upon themselves as less foul our time is fix d and all our days are numbered how long how short we know not this we know duty requires we calmly wait the summons nor dare to stir till heaven shall give permission like that must keep their destined stand and wait the appointed hour till they re relieved those only are the brave that keep their ground and keep it to the last to run away is but a coward s trick to run away from this world s ills that at the very worst will soon blow o er thinking to mend ourselves by boldly venturing on a unknown and plunging headlong in the dark tis mad no half so desperate as this on this side and on that men see their friends drop off like leaves in autumn yet out the english poets into fantastic schemes which the long in the world s hale and days could scarce have leisure for fools that we are never to think of death and of ourselves at the same time as if to learn to die were no concern of ours oh more than for creatures of a day in mood to on eternity s dread brink when for aught we know the very first shall sweep us think we or think we not time on with a stream yet more soft than e er did midnight thief that his hand under the s pillow and carries off his prize what is this world what but a spacious burial field with death s spoils the spoils of animals savage and tame and full of de d men s bones the very turf on which we tread once lived and we that live must lend our to cover our own offspring in their turns they too must cover tis here all meet the shivering and men of all who never met before and of all the jew the the christian here the proud prince and favourite yet his sovereign s keeper and the people s are huddled out of sight here lie abashed the great of the earth and celebrated masters of the balance deep read in and of courts now vain their treaty skill death to treat here the slave down his burden from his shoulders and when the stem tyrant with all his guards and tools of power about him is meditating new unheard of	45
hardships his short arm and quick as thought escapes where vex not and the weary rest robert the nor shall it hope in vain the time draws on when not a single spot of burial earth whether on land or in the spacious sea but must give back its long committed trust and faithfully shall these make up the full account not the least or of the whole tale each soul shall have a body ready furnished and each shall have his own hence ye profane ask not how this can be sure the same power that reared the piece at first and took it down can the loose scattered parts and put them as they were almighty god has done much more nor is his arm with length of days and what he can he will his stands bound to see it done when the dread trumpet sounds the dust not to the call wake and every joint possess its proper place with a new elegance of form unknown to its first state nor shall the conscious soul mistake its partner but amidst the crowd its other half into its arms rush with all the impatience of a man that s new come home who having long been absent with haste runs over ev ry different room in pain to see the whole thrice happy meeting i nor time nor death shall part them ever more tis but a night a long and night we make the grave our bed and then are gone thus at the shut of even the weary bird leaves the wide air and in some lonely down and till the dawn of day then his well wings and bears away edward young the of the night thoughts was born at in in and died m the of april the last day was published in and was soon followed by the of religion young s unlucky tendency to flattery and early showed itself in many small pieces to persons of rank which cannot be said to have been regularly published until long afterwards in his first tragedy was performed and in the same year the letter to on the death of and the of the book of job appeared the revenge followed in the the universal passion made their appearance during the course of and the following three years in they were published meanwhile the accession of george ii had been hailed with the so called to ocean e the brothers a tragedy pretty nearly with this in appeared the and two to pope some more followed the first night thought was published in the last in of young s remaining works resignation which appeared three years before his death need alone be mentioned except young is probably the most unequal of english poets the difference between his best work and his worst is so great as to be almost unintelligible and it is fair to him to say that he seems to have been aware of this when his collected poems were a large were by his express direction left out publication however as it has been well observed in one sense an sin and in young it is necessary to take the and the into consideration as well as the night thoughts and the last day of the class represented by first named works it may be said that hardly any worse poetry has ever been written there is scarcely a of the so called which does not read like an edward young able and the author seems by his to have had no ear at all and his gross and flattery is of this latter peculiarity indeed even his best work contains but too many instances the fine passage soon to be quoted from the last day is by the in the midst of it of a clumsy and foolish on queen anne which any one but an century divine would have felt to be not only in bad taste but hopelessly to the case the depths to which young sinks at his worst are however by the heights at which at his best he arrives if poetry and poets could be judged by single lines there are few save the highest who could safely challenge comparison with young he had an astonishing of thought of a certain kind and a corresponding richness of expression nor were his powers confined as it has been asserted to the production of gloomy lie stands pre eminent among artists of blank verse and a critic might well have asked him as asked where he got his style from the earlier century is indeed remarkable for its mould of blank verse considering that though young was a much older man than he did not produce his great work until many years after the appearance of winter it may be that the seasons exercised some influence over him but the influence was scarcely that of imitation the different uses to which the two instruments were put may perhaps in some measure account for the difference of their sound both have in common the tendency to language and to which the had made popular both use and indeed abuse the effect of strongly contrasted lights and shades but young probably owing to his dramatic studies is much more than not a few passages in the night thoughts especially that remark able one in the third night about dying friends where the confusion of does not obscure the grandeur of the verse are of the finest tragic mould it was inevitable that in the hands of a man of such taste as young this tragic quality should often into mere the indeed which is so characteristic of him exists even in detached passages of very small extent so that it is difficult if not impossible to select any in which the taste shall not be offended the night thoughts has accordingly long ceased to be the popular book it	45
once was as a poet of moral ideas however young will always deserve attention the english poets of the excellence of his the famous passage on j which as it is is so decidedly his that it cannot he left out in any selection from his works is in its way not to be surpassed and its excellence fully accounts for the popularity of young in a century such as the which whatever its practice might be was in theory nothing if not this popularity as is pretty generally known spread to france where young long had many fervent admirers though he is probably to a great extent with the bad of england for s remarkable illustrations also add considerable interest of the accidental kind to the book those of the minor poems which deserve notice at all are not in characteristics to the night thoughts the have almost as great though scarcely so original a merit as these latter and both in the last day and the job fine and striking passages abound george edward from the last day book i sooner or later in some future date a dreadful secret in the book of fate this hour for aught all human wisdom knows or when ten thousand more have rose when scenes are changed on this revolving earth old fall and give new birth while other rule in other lands and if man s sin not other while the still busy world is treading o er the paths they trod five thousand years before thoughtless as those who now life s run of earth dissolved or an extinguished sun ye worlds awake awake ye rulers of the nation hear and shake thick clouds of darkness shall arise on day in sudden night all earth s lay impetuous winds the scatter d forests eternal mountains like their bend the valleys the troubled ocean roar and break the bondage of his shore a sanguine stain the silver moon o darkness the of the sun from inmost heaven incessant roll and the strong echo bound from pole to pole the old pf rom t v on but adoration give me something more cries on the borders of so silent as the foot of time hence we mistake our autumn for our prime vol hi q the english poets tis greatly wise to know before we re told the melancholy news that we grow old carries in her face to each public place o how your beating breast a mistress who looks through spectacles to see your charms while rival round and with his the marks the ground intent not on her own but others doom she plans new and the tomb in vain the cock has summoned away she walks at noon and the bloom of day gay rainbow her mellow charms and of but herself is old her locks assume a grace and art has her deep face her strange demand no mortal can approve we ll ask her blessing but can t ask her love she indeed a lady may decline all ladies but herself at ninety nine from thi complaint night l by nature s law what may be may be now there s no in human hours in human hearts what bolder thought can rise than man s presumption on to morrow s dawn where is to morrow in another world for numbers this is certain the reverse is sure to none and yet on this perhaps this infamous for lies as on a rock of we build our mountain hopes spin out eternal schemes as we the fatal sisters could out spin and big with life s not e en had his young l nor had he cause a warning was denied how many fall as sudden not as safe as sudden though for years d home of human ills the last extreme beware beware a slow sudden death how dreadful that deliberate surprise be wise to day tis madness to next day the fatal precedent will plead thus on till wisdom is push d out of life is the thief of time year after year it till all are fled and to the of a moment leaves the vast concerns of an eternal scene if not so frequent would not this be strange that tis so frequent this is stranger still of man s miraculous mistakes this bears the palm that all men are about to for ever on the brink of being bom all pay themselves the compliment to think they one day shall not and their pride on this takes up ready praise at least their own their future selves how excellent that life they ne er will lead time d in their own hands is folly s that d in fate s to wisdom they the thing they can t but purpose they tis not in folly not to scorn a fool and scarce in human wisdom to do more all promise is poor man and that through every stage when young indeed in full content we sometimes nobly rest for ourselves and only wish as sons our fathers were more at thirty man himself a fool knows it at forty and his plan at fifty his infamous delay his prudent purpose to resolve in all the of thought and re then dies the same q the english poets the death of friends from night iii our dying friends come o er us like a cloud to damp our and that glare of life which often blinds the wise our dying friends are to smooth our rugged pass to death to break those bars of terror and nature throws cross our way and thus to make welcome as safe our port from every each friend by fate snatched from us is a pluck d from the wing of human vanity which makes us stoop from our heights and damp d with omen of our own on drooping of ambition lower d just	45
own amusement and his friends and published but a little of the much that he produced a the english poets it is evident that he had read prior though not to the best advantage it is evident too that he had read not only pope but the poets as well and the poem of careless content here given is so good an imitation that it has been supposed to be a genuine production his chief quality is one of ease and in combination with a certain cheerful of thought and the amiable good sense that is the most striking element in his intellectual composition it is to be found here and there in all he did unhappily for him and for us it appears to have been as hard for him to correct as it was easy to write too often do his verses sound to modern the art of english poetry i find at present your mind too often do they set modem fingers to shape and improve them it follows that he is seen to most advantage when upon of his he is at his and most careful it is not without reason therefore that he is generally known but as the author of the sly and amiable of alike on king and that is the man s highest point as an artist it is at once his happiest and most complete utterance and the body of his verse will be searched in vain for such another proof of merit and accomplishment w john the two foot companions once in deep discourse tom says the one let s go and a horse steal says the other in a huge surprise he that says i m a thief i say he lies well well replies his friend no such i i did but ask ye if you won t you won t so they on till in another strain the moved to honest tom again suppose says he for supposition s sake tis but a supposition that i make suppose that we should y m a horse i say tom by the way that s not so bad as downright i own but yet better let alone it something pitiful and low shall we go a horse you say why no i no and tell no lie honesty s the best policy say ii struck with such vast integrity quite dumb his comrade paused at last says he come come thou art an honest fellow i agree honest and poor alas that should not be and dry into the bargain and no drink shall we go a horse tom what dost think how clear are things when liquor s in the case tom answers quick with grace yes yes yes let s with all my heart i see no harm in for my part hard is the case now i look sharp into t that honesty should i th dirt the english poets so many empty horses round about that honesty should wear its out besides shall honesty be choked with thirst were it my lord mayor s horse i d it first i and by the bye my lad no there is the best that ever wore a bit not far from hence i take ye his friend is not yon stable tom our journey s end good wits will jump both meant the very the top o the country both for shape and breed so to t they went and with a round his neck they him off the ground right and wrong how many gently will neither steal nor but will be careless content i am content i do not care wag as it will the world for me when fuss and fret was all my fare it got no ground that i could see so when away my caring went i counted cost and was content with more of thanks and less of thought i strive to make my matters meet to seek what ancient sought and food in sour and sweet to take what passes in good part and keep the from the heart with good and gently humoured hearts i choose to chat where er i come er the subject be that starts but if i get among the i hold my tongue to tell the and keep my breath to cool my john for chance or change of peace or pain for fortune s favour or her frown for lack or for loss or gain i never nor up nor down but swing what way the ship shall swim or tack about with equal trim i suit not where i shall not speed nor trace the turn of every tide if simple sense will not succeed i make no bustling but abide for shining wealth or woe i force no friend i fear no foe of and downs of ins and of they ve i th wrong and we re i th right i the and the and wishing well to every whatever turn the matter takes i deem it all but ducks and with whom i feast i do not nor if the folks should me if welcome be withdrawn i cook no kind of a complaint with none disposed to i like them best who best like me not that i rate myself the rule how all my should behave but fame shall find me no man s fool nor to a set of men a slave i love a friendship free and frank but hate to hang upon a the english poets fond of a true and tie i never loose where er i link though if a business by i talk just as i think my word my work my heart my hand still on a side together stand if names or notions make a noise whatever hap the question hath the point i and read and	45
write but without wrath for should i bum or break my brains pray who will pay me for my pains i love my neighbour as myself like him too by his leave nor to his pleasure power or came i to as i conceive dame nature doubtless has designed a man the monarch of his mind now taste and try this temper mood it and brood it in your breast or if ye for worldly that man does right to mar his rest let me be and i am content i do not care on the origin or evil evil if rightly understood is but the skeleton of good of its flesh and blood while it remains without divorce within its hidden secret source it is the good s own strength and force john ti j as bone has the supporting share in human form fair although an evil when laid bare as light and air are fed by fire a shining good while all but separate dark raging ire as hope and love arise from faith which then admits no ill nor hath but if alone it would be wrath or any instance thought upon in which the evil can be none till unity of good is gone so by abuse of thought and skill the greatest good to wit free will becomes the origin of ill thus when rebellious angels fell the very heaven where good ones dwell became the spirits hell seeking against eternal right a force without a love and light they found and felt its evil might thus adam biting at their bait of good and evil when he ate died to his first thrice happy state fell to the evils of this ball which in harmonious union all were paradise before his fall and when the life of christ in men its faded image then will all be paradise again the english poets in truths that nobody can miss it is the that makes the q ns in such as lie more deeply hid it is the that makes the god bless the king i mean the faith s god bless no harm in blessing the but who is or who is king god bless us all i that s quite another thing richard richard the son of a london merchant was bom m in a house near cannon street city he was not at either university but through s with the history of ancient greece made himself a competent greek scholar he entered into business and was much esteemed and trusted by the london merchants in he was elected m p for his chief poems were enlarged in london f or the progress of commerce i admiral s in the same year and the published in he died in was a man of considerable powers but he was stronger on the side of politics and practical life than in the field of literature in his poems the of party warfare is more conspicuous than the inspiration of genius his best known poem was based it is true on his reading of and but in reality it is the utterance of one who wished to stir his fellow citizens to an anti patriotic policy so far as the form is concerned it may be called a blank verse echo of pope s version of the influence of which may continually be traced and under the inspiration of this model the few simple chapters of his authority into the dimensions of an by various characters love affairs and thrilling remarks that the want of of progress is the chief fault in the poem it does not seem dear that this censure is just the action moves on swiftly enough and is sufficiently varied by epoch making or incidents the personages introduced are not or long they have only the fault of being dull the reader does not much care what they do nor what becomes of them a sort of glossy is the the english poets general characteristic of the poem which accordingly is not without striking passages but the lack of human interest the total effect was nearer the mark when after observing that does not make his pictures grotesque by introducing modem and details he added but his purity is cold his heroes are like outlines of faces with no distinct or minute in agreement with this line of criticism describes as cold and bald stately rather than strong in its best parts and in general rather stiff than stately the which writing about affected made him often pile a number of short abrupt sentences one upon the others hence the and of which thus we read in book xii n living embers these are cast so wills the then four troops are form d by led by by the last himself the word is given they seize the burning the conclusion where after performing impossible of and slaughter dies without a word rather of exhaustion than of wounds an uninteresting which knew well and must have noted how wonderfully effective are the last words of and ought to have avoided of the a to with its thirty books it is enough to say that it is simply it appears to be a with new incidents and scenery of the story of the war from to the opposition to sir robert found in an enthusiastic ally one of his chief objects in writing london is said to have been to the public mind against spain a power to which was held to have in the same year after the news came of s success at wrote the spirited ballad of s ghost rather perhaps with the design of than the political aim interests us ho more but the music and swing of the verse perhaps also the naval cast of the and the will keep this ballad popular with englishmen for many a year	45
died on the th of johnson may be said to occupy the central place in that highly characteristic school of poetry which was originated by pope and completed by the essence of pope s is personal satire it is true that he specially himself on being the champion of virtue and the great of moral truth but the virtue which he had invariably before his imagination was his own and throughout his of morality is always exalted in the person of the poet and always seems to be by the wicked of his private enemies in consequence of their intense personality pope s poems fail in point of poetical design in the essay on man the subject matter is s rather than pope s and the conduct of the argument is confused while in the moral essays and what really pleases is the beauty of detail the the brilliant images and above all the of particular characters the great beauty of s poems on the other the english poets hand lies in the of their design the relation of the means to the end and of the parts to the whole he hardly at all on personal interest for his effects but he is perhaps the most of all poets from the extraordinary art which he possesses of simple and universal feelings in behalf of the moral principle which he seeks to establish oi i i r d n jl johnson in his own style many of the opposite exhibited by his and his friend it was impossible that the bias of his strong character should be altogether concealed in his verse and london in particular appears to have been largely inspired by personal motives like those which suggested to pope his of but the different genius of the two poets is seen in the selection of their respective pope was struck by the many superficial points of resemblance between himself and the lively and seized eagerly on the opportunity of presenting his own virtues and to the public under a transparent veil of imitation johnson on the contrary who as an unknown writer could not hope to interest the public in his personal concerns chose a general theme and the whose of roman offered in many respects an apt parallel to the manners of his own age london is marked by genuine public spirit at the same time we see quite as much of the man as of the in the poet s characteristic allusions to the of poverty his to the and his dislike of foreigners the story that was meant for savage and that the occasion of the poem was the departure of the latter from london after his trial is by dates but we may be sure that the poem gives us a real representation of johnson s feelings as a struggling author and a political the vanity of human wishes marks a calmer and more prosperous epoch in the poet s life and its philosophical spirit is an anticipation of s traveller johnson was now relieved from the immediate pressure of want and in his second imitation he takes a wider survey of mankind he all personal satire and the illustrations of his argument from distant times the style of this poem is also completely different from that of london in the latter he is ardent animated and while in the vanity of human wishes he speaks with the gravity of a making his periods swelling and his verses against each samuel other and pope himself in the of his language nevertheless the whole spirit of the composition though an imitation is highly characteristic of the man we see in it the melancholy gloom that darkened all his view of human existence while at the same time the noble lines of the conclusion recall the language of those touching fragments of prayer which discovered among his papers and has preserved in his life his are of the highest excellence indeed it may be confidently affirmed that he is the best writer of in the language no man was ever so well qualified to strike that just mean between and authority which such addresses to the public require his sound critical power and elevated feeling are well in the spoken at the opening of lane theatre and there is true greatness of spirit in his to in which he claims the liberality of the audience for milton s as a for the injustice shown by the nation to the genius of the poet himself his admirable independence of character is perhaps even better seen in the to a word to the wise a play which at its first exhibition was damned in consequence of political prejudices against the author but was revived after his death nothing can be better than the dignity with which johnson in this address while the authority of the audience indirectly them for their previous disregard of the laws of humanity by which all their ought to be determined w j the english poets reasons for leaving london from london a transient calm the happy scenes bestow and for a moment lull the sense of woe at length with contemptuous frown indignant eyes the neighboring town since worth he cries in these days wants even the cheap reward of empty praise in those cursed walls devote to vice and gain since science toils in vain since hope but to double my distress and every moment leaves my little less while yet my steady steps no staff and life still vigorous in my veins grant me kind heaven to find some happier place where honesty and sense are no disgrace some pleasing bank where play some peaceful with nature s paintings gay where once the d found repose and safe in poverty defied his foes some secret cell ye powers indulgent give let live here for has learned to live here let those reign whom can to vote a black a white explain	45
their country s dear bought rights away and plead for in the face of day with taint our poisoned youth and lend a lie the confidence of truth ah what it that from slavery far i drew the breath of life in english air was early taught a s right to prize and the tale of henry s if the conqueror receives the chain and flattery when arms are vain samuel by numbers here from shame or censure free all crimes are safe but hated poverty this only this the rigid law this only this the muse the sober at a d cloak wakes from his dream and labours for a joke with air the silken gaze and turn the varied a thousand ways of all the that the distressed sure the most bitter is a scornful jest fate never wounds more deep the generous heart than when a s insult points the dart has heaven reserved in pity to the poor no waste or shore no secret island in the boundless main no peaceful desert yet by spain quick let us rise the happy seats explore and bear oppression s insolence no more this mournful truth is everywhere confessed slow rises worth by poverty depressed but here more slow where all are slaves to gold where looks are and smiles are sold where won by by implored the groom the of his lord the rise and fall of from the vanity of human us in full flown dignity see stand law in his voice and fortune in his hand to him the church the realm their powers through him the rays of shine turned by his nod the stream of honour flows his smile alone security still to new heights his restless wishes tower claim leads to claim and power advances power till conquest ceased to please and rights submitted left him none to seize the english poets at length his sovereign the train of state mark the keen glance and watch the sign to hate where er he turns he meets a stranger s eye his scorn him and his followers fly now drops at once the pride of awful state the golden the glittering plate the palace the luxurious board the army and the lord with age with cares with oppressed he seeks the refuge of rest grief disease remembered folly and his last sighs reproach the faith of kings speak thou whose thoughts at humble peace shall s wealth with s end be thine or st thou now with safer pride content the wisest justice on the banks of for why did near the of fate on weak foundations raise the enormous weight why but to sink beneath misfortune s blow with louder ruin to the below the true objects of desire from tht vanity of human where then shall hope and fear their objects find must dull suspense corrupt the mind must helpless man in ignorance roll down the torrent of his fate must no dislike alarm no wishes rise no cries the of the skies cease yet remain which heaven may hear nor deem religion vain still raise for good the voice but leave to heaven the measure and the choice safe in his power whose eyes discern afar the secret of a prayer samuel johnson his aid in his rest secure whatever he gives he gives the best yet when the sense of sacred presence fires and strong devotion to the skies pour forth thy for a mind obedient passions and a will resigned for love which scarce man can fill for patience sovereign o er ill for faith that panting for a happier seat counts death kind nature s signal of retreat these goods for man the laws of heaven these goods he who the power to gain with these celestial wisdom the mind and makes the happiness she does not find spoken at the opening of the lane theatre when learning s triumph o er her barbarous foes first reared the stage immortal shakespeare rose each change of many colour d life he drew exhausted worlds and then imagined new existence saw him her bounded reign and panting time toiled after him in vain his powerful strokes truth impressed and passion the breast then came instructed from the school to please in method and invent by rule his patience and laborious art by regular approach assailed the heart cold approbation gave the lingering for those who not censure scarce could praise a mortal bom he met the general doom but left like egypt s kings a lasting tomb the wits of charles found easier ways to fame nor wished for s art or shakespeare s flame the english poets themselves they studied as they felt they writ was plot was wit vice always found a sympathetic friend they pleased their age and did not aim to mend yet like these to lasting praise and proudly hoped to in future days their cause was general their were strong their slaves were willing and their reign was long till shame regained the post that sense betrayed and virtue called oblivion to her aid then crushed by rules and weakened as refined for years the power of tragedy declined from bard to bard the caution crept till roared whilst passion slept yet still did virtue the stage to tread philosophy remained though nature fled but forced at length her ancient reign to quit she saw great lay the ghost of wit folly hailed the joyful day and and song confirmed her sway but who the coming changes can and mark the future periods of the stage perhaps if skill could distant times explore new new yet remain in store perhaps where has and hamlet died on flying cars new may ride perhaps for who can guess th effects of chance here hunt may box or may dance hard is his lot	45
that here by fortune d must watch the wild of taste with ev of caprice must play and chase the new blown of the day ah let not censure term our fate our choice the stage but echoes back the public voice the drama s laws the drama s give for we that live to please must please to live then prompt no more the follies you as doom their tools of guilt to die samuel johnson tis yours this night to bid the reign commence of rescued nature and sense to chase the charms of sound the pomp of show for useful mirth and woe bid virtue form the rising age and truth her radiance from the stage to the comedy of a word to the wise this night presents a play which public rage or right or wrong once from the stage from zeal or malice now no more we dread for english vengeance wars not with the dead a generous foe regards with pitying eye the man whom fate has laid where all must lie to wit from its author s dust be kind ye judges or at least be just for no renewed th grave s shade let one great payment every claim and him who cannot hurt allow to please to please by scenes unconscious of offence by harmless merriment or useful sense where aught of bright or fair the piece approve it only tis too late to praise if want of skill or want of care appear forbear to hiss the poet cannot hear by all like him must praise and blame be found at best a fleeting gleam or empty sound yet then shall calm reflection bless the night when liberal pity dignified delight when pleasure fir d her torch at virtue s flame and mirth was with an name john and charles john founder of the people called was the second son of samuel of he was bom june educated at the and oxford he was elected fellow of college in and some brief intervals remained till when having been ordained by then bishop of oxford afterwards of he laid the first foundations of the society which from the rigid and almost rules adopted by its members was called in he went to at the of general governor of that colony to preach to the indians this mission for personal reasons was a comparative failure he returned to england in and there found that his former friend and george had embarked on the course of preaching in which john though with considerable difference of character and opinions joined him and this from henceforth became the purpose of his life a career of incessant activity in which preaching writing and played almost equal parts occupied the remainder of his long career which closed on march a he had as expresses it a genius for and he united with it a breadth of sympathy and a of judgment which although occasionally betrayed into gave him a conspicuous place amongst the teachers of the century his life is best told in a literary point of view by and with the utmost detail of admiring yet truthful by dr charles john younger brother was bom he was educated at westminster school and christ church oxford and shared his brother s career in oxford and in he was more of a scholar and poet than of a preacher and his with the church of england was exposed to a less severe strain than that of john he died in it was a fine conception which prompted john to the task of creating for his followers not merely an john and charles society a code of laws and a rule of life but also a poetical literature which should fulfil their religious aspirations the thought was no doubt inspired by two motives one expressed by a famous the other by himself of is reported to have said give others the making of a nation s laws if only you give to me the making of a nation s and john from another point of view added to this sense of the importance of popular poetry the feeling that it ought to be rescued from the exclusive possession of the world why should the devil have all the best tunes the poetical works of john and charles extend through ten volumes lately with scrupulous care by dr g such a demand as the thus imposed on their own powers was too extensive even for a great poet to have met but in this case the difficulty was partly by the nature of the subject partly by their own the question why poetry as applied to sacred subjects has not had a greater success has been often a distinguished critic of our times in his chair is reported one day to have held out in one hand the golden treasury of english collected by francis and in the other the book of praise collected from all english by lord and to have asked why is it that the golden treasury contains almost nothing that is bad and why is it that the book of praise contains almost nothing that is good the complaint does not apply exclusively to the hymns of churches dean in his latin christianity has observed that the fame of the latin hymns of the church rests chiefly on six or seven well known examples take away the dies the the the the sion and there remains very little that from a literary point of view deserves any attention in the numerous hymns which have lately been translated into english from the latin in lord s edition of the roman it is that whilst in those which are rendered into english by cardinal there is a distinct poetical glow and artistic finish all the rest are in the uniform style which is unfortunately familiar to english in the vast mass	45
let me take of thee spring thou up within my heart rise to all eternity the english poets christ our example lamb of god i look to thee thou shalt my example be thou art gentle meek and mild thou once a little child f n i would be as thou art give me thy obedient heart t thou art pitiful and kind let me have thy loving mind meek and lowly may i be thou ar all humility let me to my bow subject to thy parents thou let me above all fulfil god my heavenly father s will never his good spirit grieve only to his glory live thou live to god alone thou never seek thine own thou never please god was all thy happiness loving gentle lamb in thy gracious hands i am make me what thou art live within my heart i shall then forth thy praise serve thee all my happy days then ihe world shall always see christ the holy child in me john and charles come o thou traveller unknown whom still i hold but cannot see my company before is gone and i am left alone with thee with thee all night i mean to stay and till the break of day i need not tell thee who i am my misery or sin declare hast called me by my name look on thy hands and read it there but who i ask thee who art thou tell me thy name and tell me now in v n thou to get free i never will my hold art thou the man that died for me the secret of thy love i will not let thee go till i thy name thy nature know wilt thou not yet to me reveal thy new unutterable name tell me i still thee tell to know it now resolved i am i will not let thee go till i thy name thy nature know tis all in vain to hold thy tongue or touch the hollow of my though every be out of my arms thou shalt not fly i will not let thee go till i thy name thy nature know the english poets what though my shrinking flesh complain and murmur to contend so long i rise superior to my pain when i am weak then i am strong and when my all of strength shall fail i shall with the god man prevail my strength is gone my nature dies i sink beneath thy hand faint to revive and fall to rise i fall and yet by faith i stand i stand and will not let thee go till thy name thy nature know yield to me now for i am weak but confident in self despair speak to my heart in blessings speak be conquered by my instant prayer speak or thou never hence shalt move and tell me if thy name is love tis love tis love i thou for me i hear thy whisper in my heart t the morning breaks the shadows flee pure universal love thou to me to all thy move thy nature and thy name is love my prayer hath power with god the grace unspeakable i now receive through faith i see thee face to face i see thee face to face and live in vain i have not wept and strove thy nature and thy name is love i know thee who thou art the feeble sinner s friend nor wilt thou with the night depart but stay and love me to the end john and charles thy never remove thy nature and thy name is love the sun of on me hath rose with healing in his wings withered my nature s strength from thee my soul its life and brings my help is all laid up above thy nature and thy name is love contented now upon my i halt till life s short journey end all helplessness all weakness i on thee alone for strength depend nor have i power from thee to move thy nature and thy name is love lame as i am i take the prey hell earth and sin with ease o i leap for joy pursue my way and as a bounding fly home through all eternity to prove thy nature and thy name is love catholic love weary of all strife these notions forms and modes and names to thee the way the truth the life whose love my simple heart taught at last i fly with thee and thine to live and die forth from the midst of brought parties and i cast behind enlarged my heart and free my thought where er the latent truth i find the latent truth with joy to own and bow to s name alone the english poets by thine almighty grace i taste my glorious liberty with open arms the world embrace but to those who to thee but only in thy saints delight who walk with god in purest white one with the little flock i rest the members sound who hold the head the chosen few with pardon and by the spirit led into the mind that was in thee into the depths of deity my brethren friends and these who do my heavenly father s will who aim at perfect and all thy counsels to fulfil to be whatever thou art and love their god with all their heart for these er in flesh where er dispersed o er earth abroad unbounded love i find and constant as the life of god fountain of life from thence it sprung as pure as even and as strong joined to the hidden church unknown in this sure bond of safe i dwell alone and glory in the grace to me to each given to all thy saints in earth and heaven and charles john an hymn for seriousness thou god of glorious majesty to thee	45
against myself to thee a worm of earth i cry an half awakened child of man an heir of endless bliss or pain a sinner bom to die lo on a narrow neck of land two unbounded seas i stand secure insensible a point of life a moment s space me to that heavenly place or me up in hell o god mine inmost soul convert and deeply on my thoughtful heart eternal things impress give me to feel their solemn weight and tremble on the brink of fate and wake to before me place in dread array the pomp of that tremendous day when thou with clouds shalt come to judge the nations at thy bar and tell me lord shall i be there to meet a joyful doom said to have been suggested by a rocky at the land s end in the english poets be this my one great business here with serious industry and fear my future bliss to thine utmost counsel to fulfil and suffer all thy righteous will and to the end endure then then my soul receive transported from the to live and reign with thee above where faith is sweetly lost in sight and hope in full supreme delight and everlasting william was born at the near in he died at the same place in in while still at college oxford he published some miscellaneous poems the judgment of appeared in the next year his works prose and verse were published in the year after his death is our principal master of what may perhaps be called the artificial natural style in poetry and the somewhat lasting hold which some at least of his poems have taken on the popular ear is the best testimony that can be produced to his merit it is very hard to shape any critical likely to pass muster nowadays and yet capable of saving the bulk of his verse but the first and second of his pastoral always fix themselves in the memory of those who possessing that faculty are set in childhood to the not very grateful task of learning them and on re reading them years after they do not wholly lose their charm the reader may be tempted rather to smile than to the especially the charming passage here as usually given has something of the same grace so has the dying kid while the poem on st s day would perhaps be the best of s works but for some of expression which ten minutes study would have corrected it is difficult to believe that ever gave much study to his work or that he possessed any critical faculty his though not always devoid of music are but dreary stuff and his more ambitious poems still his attempts at the style of prior and gay are for the most part yet when all this is discarded my banks they are furnished with bees and a few other such things to the memory and assert that their author after all was a poet in the mixture of grace and pathos with a certain with much that is artificial and with not a little that is downright foolish comes nearer to than to any other english author his tenderness the english ts his knowledge of human nature and his literary power are ot course far inferior to s yet if inferior in degree he is nevertheless not wholly in kind the really affecting on is an instance of the genuine feeling which in an age when such feeling was not common he possessed nor are other instances of the same kind hard to be found in him as concerns the formal part of poetry his management of the is unquestionably his chief merit in the he is and dates fortunately prevent the charge that if the castle of had not been written neither would the his are much more original the is so associated with sing song and that poems written in it are exposed to a heavy disadvantage yet in the first two pastoral at any rate this disadvantage is not much felt taught the to a greater poet than himself and these two between them have written almost everything that is worth reading in it if we put and out of the question perhaps the history of his at the has mixed itself up too thoroughly with s work and has soiled his harmless with memories of the tumble down huts the broken benches the statues and all the rest of the finery which in our climate is associated more or less with this style of and of which almost everybody has seen examples but it really seems that he had as his well meaning french asserted a mind natural even though the rural which he laid must have far less of nature than of art the and the pipe and the kid of which johnson speaks so contemptuously are somehow or other less distasteful in than in any other poet for in the first place one cannot help remembering that the man did as few men have done try to turn his life in accordance with his verse and into the likeness of the secondly there is an about him which and he was not a great poet perhaps indeed he was a very small one but he was a poet somehow and he wore his with a sufficient difference from other poets to deserve that his name should live long in the history of english verse george william suffering and sympathy from the o scene when from a nook obscure his little sister doth his peril see all playful as she she grows she finds full soon her spirits flee she a prayer to set him free nor gentle pardon could this dame deny if gentle pardon could with agree to her sad grief that in either eye and her so that all for pity she could no longer can	45
she now her shrieks command and hardly she through awful fear to forth and with hand to stay harsh justice in its mid career on thee she calls on thee her parent dear ah too remote to ward the shameful blow she sees no kind domestic near and soon a flood of tears begins to flow and gives a loose at last to woe but ah what pen his piteous plight may trace or what device his loud explain the form uncouth of his disguised face the pallid hue that his looks the shower that does his cheek when he in abject wise the dame ne aught of sweet to gain or when from high she well her aim and through the his cries each falling stroke proclaim iii the english poets pastoral ballad since vouchsafed me a look i never once of my vine may i lose both my pipe and my if i knew of a kid that was mine i i every hour that went by beyond all that had d me before but now they are past and i sigh and i grieve that i them no more but why do i in vain why wander thus here oh why did i come from the plain where i fed on the smiles of my dear they tell me my favourite maid the pride of that valley is flown alas where with her i have strayed i could wander with pleasure alone when forced the fair to forego what anguish i felt at my heart yet i thought but it might not be so with pain that she saw me depart she gazed as i slowly withdrew my path i could hardly discern so sweetly she bade me adieu i thought that she bade me return pilgrim that journeys all day to visit some far distant shrine if he bear but a away is happy nor heard to thus widely removed from the fair where my vows my devotion i owe soft hope is the i bear and my solace wherever i william the dying kid a tear my s eye to think yon playful kid must die from crystal spring and must in his prime of life in circles round she saw him wheel and and bound from rock to rock pursue his way and on the fearful margin play pleased on his various to dwell she saw him climb my rustic cell then eye my with and seem all at the sight she tells with what delight he stood to trace his features in the flood then aloof with quaint and then drew near again to gaze she tells me how with eager speed he flew to hear my reed and how with critic face profound and steadfast ear devoured the sound his every light as r deserves the gentle s care and tears her tender eye to think the playful kid must die but knows my wise how soon this era flies while violence and craft succeed unfair design and deed t tj the english poets soon would the vine his wounds and yield her purple gifts no more oh soon from every grove were s name and s love no more those might see where first he fondly gazed on thee no more those beds of find which for thy charming brows he each passion soon would tear his bosom now so void of care and when they left his vein what but age remain then mourn not the of fate that gave his life so short a date and i will join thy tenderest sighs to think that youth so swiftly flies much taste and small estate from tht of see yonder hill so green so round its brow with crowned well become thy gentle care to raise a dome to there d would the thy zeal survey and in their arms repay such a shade and such a nook in such a near such a brook from such a rocky fragment springing that chose to sing in there let an altar wrought with art engage thy patron s heart how charming there to muse and beneath his bust of breathing marble with laurel wreath and that crown a poet s vast desire william then near it the cell where music s charming maids may dwell prone to indulge thy tender passion and make thee many an deep in the grove s obscure retreat be placed s sacred seat there let her awful rise for wisdom flies from vulgar eyes there her calm shalt thou hear distinctly strike thy listening ear and who would the pleasing labour to have for his neighbour but did the haunt his cell or in his dome did dwell did in his counsels share the god reward his prayer or did his zeal engage the fair when all the shone complete not much convenient wondrous neat adorned with painting planting and the fair guests alone were wanting ah me twas s own confession came poverty and took possession william was bom at on day i ai it b believed that he went for a time to the school of that city and in he entered college then under dr before he left school he had written the which in their later are called oriental and he had printed a so called in the gentleman s in he entered as of queen s college oxford there being no at new college and next year he obtained a at the were published in a next year came the to sir t and in he seems to have left oxford for london where he found a true friend in johnson his which he once meant to have published with those of his old joseph appeared alone in after this he went to live at where he saw much of and others of that company in he wrote the on the death of and	45
the on the popular of the soon afterwards he was attacked by the brain disease from which with certain intervals of partial recovery he suffered for the rest of his life his last years were spent at under the care of his sister mrs he died in it should be that the variations in the different of poems are very numerous in the reaction against that sweeping violence of with which the school of poets and critics usually as but actually founded at midnight by william and fortified at sunrise by william was wont for some half a century to the poetry and criticism of the century preceding the name which of all properly belonging to that period has the most and solid claim to the especial and essential praise that a poet from among other men of genius has hardly yet taken by general consent the place which is unquestionably its due even in his own age it was the foolish and fashion to couple the name of with that of gray as though they were poets of the same order or kind as an poet holds for all ages to come his and sovereign station as a poet he is simply unworthy to sit at the feet of whether it may not be a greater thing than ever was done by the greater to have written a poem of such high perfection and such universal appeal to the tenderest and the noblest depths of human feeling as gray s is of course another and a wholly question but it is not a question which admits of debate at all among men qualified to speak on such matters that as a poet gray was not worthy to the of his shoes the and which the always elaborate and sometimes notes of gray were all but impossible to the finer touch of his in the little book of which dropped a still born immortal from the press and was finally burnt up even to the last copy by the hands of its author in a fever fit of angry despair there was hardly a single false note and there were not many less than sweet or strong there was above all things a purity of music a of style to which i know of no parallel in english verse from the death of to the birth of william here in the twilight which followed on the splendid sunset of pope was at last a poet who was content to sing out what he had in him to sing and not to say without a glimpse of wit or a of eloquence these two valuable and admirable had for generations been regarded not as but as indispensable to poetic genius nothing so clearly shows how much finer a sense of poetry than is usually attributed to him lay latent when by theories or in the deliberate judgment of dr johnson as his recognition in of the eminent and exquisite faculty which he rightly refused to recognise in gray the strong and heavy handed preacher of the vanity of human wishes had an ear fine enough at least to distinguish the born poet from him who had been made one though self made his recognition of had been ready and generous in his youth it was faithful and consistent in his old age and in both seasons he stood then almost as he stands now alone in the insight of his perception and the courage of his loyalty for it needed some courage as well as some of mind and of instinct to acknowledge as well as to appreciate a quality of merit far more alien than was the quality of gray s best work from the merit of pope and his scholars among o the english poets whose ranks the critic himself stood so high as an poet strange as the may sound it must yet once again be repeated that the first indispensable faculty of a singer is ability to sing there was but one man in the time of who had in him a note of pure song a pulse of music irresistible and and that he was that man he could not open his lips without giving positive and instant poetry was his by to the very of his it was never more than a gift the muse gave birth to she did but give to gray in s verse again there is a and power of sweet human emotion which lay for the most part quite out of our poet s way his range of flight was perhaps the but assuredly the highest of his generation he could not be taught singing like a but he struck straight upward for the sun like a lark again he had an and eye for landscape a purity fidelity and simple seeming of tone until the more fiery but not more luminous advent of among all english poets he has it seems to me the to our great contemporary school of french landscape painters on canvas might have signed his to evening might have given us some of his graver studies and left them as he did no whit the less sweet for their softly austere and simply tender gravity his magnificent so after bis death by the most impudent on record has much in it of and something also of when the simple genius of that star crossed was content with such noble and use of freedom as he displayed in a picture of fell and in the hollow of a which was once exhibited in london here and here only for vigour of grasp and reach of himself was if not h e too is a visible power duly and tenderly subdued into of command upon human emotion and homely sympathy less intimate than in and less profound than in but none the less actual and vivid which we hardly find elsewhere in this perfect painter of	45
of strength and grace with many a rude repeated stroke and many a barbarous yell to thousand fragments broke yet even where er the least appeared the admiring world thy hand still midst the scattered states around some of her strength were found the english poets they saw by what escaped the storm how wondrous rose her perfect form how in the great the whole each mighty master poured his soul for sunny seat of art beneath her vines preserved a part till they whom science loved to name o who could fear it her flame and lo an laid in jealous s olive shade see small the theme though least not last in thy esteem strike louder strike the strings to those whose merchant sons were kings to him who with pride in his green haired bride hail port of glory wealth and pleasure ne er let me change this measure nor e er her former pride relate to sad s bleeding state ah no more pleased thy haunts i seek on wild s mountains bleak where when the favoured of thy choice the daring heard thy voice forth from his roused in dread the eagle northward fled or dwell in will owed more near with those to whom thy is dear those whom the rod of bruised whose crown a british queen refused the magic works thou feel st the strains one name alone remains the perfect spell shall then avail adored by britain hail beyond the measure vast of thought the works the time has wrought i the william the tis held of antique story saw britain linked to his now adverse strand no sea between nor cliff sublime and he passed with feet through all our land to the blown then they say the wild waves found another way where his mountains till all the west at once rise a wide wild storm even nature s self withering her giant sons with strange uncouth surprise this earth so firm and wide by winds and inward labours torn in dread was pushed aside and down the borne and see like gems her laughing train the little on every side once hid from those who search the main where thousand shapes abide and who the tide for thee heaven has each bestowed a fair attendant on her sovereign pride to thee this divorce she owed for thou hast made her thy loved thy last second then too tis said an pile midst the green of our isle thy shrine in some religious wood o soul goddess stood there oft the painted native s feet were wont thy form celestial meet though now with hopeless toil we trace time s backward rolls to find its place whether the fiery d or roman s self o the or in what heaven left age it fell hard for modem song to tell the english poets yet still if truth those beams which guide at once and charm the muse beyond yon clouds that lie the light embroidered sky amidst the bright plains the model still remains there happier than in islands or by spring or the chiefs who fill our s story in warlike weeds retired in glory hear their sing their triumphs to the immortal string how may the poet now what never tongue or numbers told how learn delighted and amazed what hands unknown that fabric raised even now before his favoured eyes in pride it seems to rise yet s graceful orders join majestic through the mixed design the secret knew to choose each sphere found of richest hues whatever heaven s purer mould contains when nearer its veins there on the walls the s sight may ever hang with fresh delight and with some prophetic rage read s fame through every age ye forms divine ye band that near her inmost altar stand now soothe her to her train s social form to gain whose can steep even anger s eyes in sleep before whose breathing bosom s rage drops his steel and storms grow calm her let our and welcome to britain s shore william our youths of the fair play with the of her hair till in one loud sound the nations shout to her around o how art thou thou lady thou shalt rule the west in the beginning of the year how sleep the brave who sink to rest by all their country s wishes blessed when spring with fingers cold returns to deck their mould she there shall dress a sweeter sod than fancy s feet have ever trod by fairy hands their is rung by forms unseen their is sung there honour comes a pilgrim grey to bless the turf that their clay and freedom shall awhile repair to dwell a weeping there to evening if aught of stop or pastoral song may hope eve to soothe thy modest ear like thy own solemn springs thy springs and dying o reserved while now the bright haired sun sits in yon western tent whose cloudy skirts with ethereal o his bed the english poets now air is hushed save where the weak eyed bat with short shrill shriek by on wing or where the winds his small but sullen horn as oft he rises midst the twilight path against the pilgrim borne in heedless hum now teach me maid composed to breathe some softened strain whose numbers stealing through thy darkening may not with its stillness suit as musing slow i hail thy genial loved return for when thy folding star arising shows his at his warning lamp the fragrant hours and who slept in flowers the day and many a who her brows with and sheds the dew and still the pensive pleasures sweet prepare thy shadowy car then lead calm where some lake cheers the lone heath or some time pile or grey reflect its last cool gleam but when chill winds or driving rain forbid my willing feet	45
be mine the hut that from the mountain s side views and swelling floods and brown and dim discovered and hears their simple bell and marks o er all thy fingers draw the gradual dusky veil william while spring shall pour his showers as oft he wont and thy breathing eve while summer loves to sport beneath thy lingering light while sallow autumn fills thy lap with leaves or winter yelling through the air thy shrinking train and rudely thy robes so long sure found beneath the shed shall fancy friendship science rose health thy influence own and hymn thy favourite name the passions when music heavenly maid was young while yet in early greece she sung the passions oft to hear her shell thronged around her magic cell trembling raging fainting beyond the muse s painting by turns they felt the glowing mind disturbed delighted raised refined till once tis said when all were fired filled with fury inspired from the supporting round they snatched her instruments of sound and as they oft had heard apart sweet lessons of her art each for madness ruled the hour would prove his own expressive power first fear his hand its skill to try amid the bewildered laid and back he knew not why even at the sound himself had made vol ill u the ea poets j i next anger rushed his eyes on fire in owned his secret in one rude clash he struck the and swept with hurried hand the strings with measures wan despair low sullen sounds his grief a solemn strange and mingled air twas sad by fits by starts twas wild but thou o hope with eyes so fair what was thy delightful measure still it whispered promised pleasure and bade the lovely scenes at distance hail still would her touch the strain and from the rocks the woods the she called on echo still through all the song and where her sweetest theme she chose a soft voice was heard at every close and hope enchanted smiled and waved her golden hair and longer had she sung but with a frown revenge impatient rose he threw his blood stained sword in thunder down and with a withering look the war trumpet took and blew a blast so loud and dread were ne er prophetic sounds so full of woe and ever and anon he beat the drum with furious heat and though sometimes each dreary pause between dejected pity at his side her soul voice applied yet still he kept his wild mien while each strained ball of sight seemed bursting from his head thy numbers jealousy to naught were fixed sad proof of thy state of the song was mixed and now it love now called on hate william with eyes as one inspired pale melancholy sat retired and from her wild seat in notes by distance made more sweet poured through the mellow horn her pensive soul and dashing soft from rocks around joined the sound through and the mingled measure stole or o er some haunted stream with fond delay round an holy calm love of peace and lonely musing in hollow murmurs died away but o how altered was its tone when cheerfulness a of hue her bow across her shoulder flung her with morning dew blew an inspiring air that and thicket the hunter s call to and known the oak crowned sisters and their eyed queen and boys were seen peeping from forth their green brown exercise rejoiced to hear and sport up and seized his spear last came joy s trial he with crown advancing first to the lively pipe his hand but soon he saw the brisk awakening whose sweet voice he loved the best they would have thought who heard the strain they saw in her native maids amidst the sounding shades to some dancing while as his flying fingers kissed the strings love framed with mirth a gay fantastic round loose were her seen her and he amidst his play as if he would the charming air repay shook thousand from his wings u the english poets o music sphere descended maid friend of pleasure wisdom s aid why goddess why to us denied lay st thou thy ancient aside as in that loved bower you learned an all commanding power thy soul o can well recall what then it heard where is thy native simple heart devote to virtue fancy art arise as in that elder time warm energetic sublime thy wonders in that age fill thy sister s page tis said and i believe the tale thy reed could more prevail had more of strength rage than all which charms this age e en all at once together found s mingled world of sound o bid our vain cease revive the just designs of greece return in all thy simple state confirm the tales her sons relate on the death of mr in yonder grave a lies where slowly winds the stealing wave the year s best sweets shall rise to deck its poet s grave in yon deep bed of whispering his airy harp shall now be laid that he whose heart in sorrow may love through life the soothing shade the scene of the following is supposed to lie on the thames near william i ii i r m then maids and youths shall linger here and while its sounds at distance swell shall sadly seem in pity s ear to hear the pilgrim s remembrance oft shall haunt the shore when thames in summer wreaths is and oft the dashing oar to bid his gentle spirit rest i and oft as ease and health retire to lawn or forest deep the friend shall view yon spire and mid the varied landscape weep but thou who own st that bed ah what will every avail or tears	45
which love and pity shed that mourn beneath the gliding sail yet lives there one whose heedless eye shall scorn thy pale shrine glimmering near with him sweet bard may fancy die and joy desert the blooming year but thou stream whose sullen tide no crowned sisters now attend now me from the green hill s side whose cold turf hides the buried friend i and see the fairy valleys fade night has veiled the solemn yet once again dear parted shade meek nature s child again adieu the genial assigned to bless thy life shall mourn thy early doom their and shepherd girls shall dress with simple hands thy rural tomb church in which was buried english poets long long thy stone and pointed clay shall melt the musing s eyes o and wild woods shall he say in yonder grave your lies an on the popular of the of scotland inscribed to mr home author of l home thou return st from thames whose long have seen thee lingering with a fond delay mid those soft friends whose hearts some future day shall melt perhaps to hear thy tragic song go not of that cordial youth whom long thou st by s side together let us wish him lasting truth and joy with his destined bride go nor regardless while these numbers boast my short lived bliss forget my social name but think far off how on the southern coast i met thy friendship with an equal flame fresh to that soil thou turn st whose every shall prompt the poet and his song demand to thee thy copious subjects ne er shall fail thou need st but take thy pencil to thy hand and paint what all believe who own thy genial land the text here given is that in which this was first printed in the transactions of the royal society of of the passages within some were supplied in that version to fill up by dr and some are from the later mr john who introduced home to william ii there must thou wake thy tis fancy s land to which thou set st thy feet where still tis said the fairy people meet beneath each shade on or hill there each trim that the store to the tribes their bowl by night they it round the cottage door while airy notes there every herd by sad experience knows how winged with fate their shot arrows fly when the sick her summer food or stretched on earth the heart lie such airy beings awe the nor thou though learned his thoughts neglect let thy sweet muse the rural faith sustain these are the of simple sure effect that add new to her boundless reign and fill with double force her heart commanding strain iii ev n yet preserved how often may st thou where to the pole the mountains run taught by the father to his listening son strange lays whose power had charmed a s ear at every pause before thy mind old shall seem to rise around with uncouth in many coloured their hair with boughs fantastic crowned whether thou bid st the well taught hind repeat the that some brave when every shrieking maid her bosom beat and with his scented grave or whether sitting in the shepherd s thou hear st some sounding tale of war s when at the s call with fire and steel the sturdy poured forth their bony and hostile brothers met to prove each other s arms a hut among the mountains the english poets i iv tis thine to sing how hideous in sky s lone isle the gifted lodged in the wintry cave with fate s fell spear or in the depth of s dark forest dwells how they whose sight such dreary dreams with their own vision oft astonished when o er the watery or moss they see the gliding ghosts troop or if in sports or on the green their piercing glance some fated youth who now perhaps in vigour seen and rosy health shall soon lamented die for them the forms of air obey their bidding heed and at their repair they know what spirit the day and heartless oft like moody madness stare to see the phantom train their secret work prepare v and half of vi are missing in the ms what though far off from some dark his glimmering cheer the sight yet turn ye turn your steps aside nor trust the guidance of that light for watchful lurking mid the reed at those hours the monster lies and oft to hear the passing and frequent round him rolls his sullen eyes if chance his savage wrath may some weak wretch surprise i vii i ah o er all indeed whom late bewildered in the dark far from his flocks and smoking hamlet then to that sad spot his fate shall lead on him enraged the in angry mood shall never look with pity s kind concern but instant furious raise the flood o er its drowned banks forbidding all return inserted from the later william or if he his wished escape to some dim hill that seems near to his faint eye the grim and shape in all its terrors clad shall wild appear meantime the watery shall round him rise poured sudden forth from every swelling source what now but tears and hopeless sighs his fear shook limbs have lost their force and down the waves he a pale and breathless viii for him in vain his anxious wife shall wait or wander forth to meet him on his way for him in vain at to fall of the day his shall linger at the gate ah ne er shall he return alone if night her travelled limbs in broken steep with drooping his mournful shall visit sad perchance her silent sleep then he perhaps with moist and watery hand shall fondly seem to press	45
her shuddering cheek and with his blue face before her stand aad shivering cold these piteous accents speak pursue dear wife thy daily toils pursue at dawn or dusk industrious as before nor e er of me one helpless thought renew while i lie on the shore drown d by the s wrath nor e er shall aid thee more v ix unbounded is thy range with varied style thy muse may like those tribes which spring from their rude rocks extend her wing round the moist of each cold isle to that pile which still its ruin shows in whose small a folk is found whose bones the with his and them wondering from the ground the chapel of st the english poets or thither where beneath the west the mighty kings of three fair are laid once foes perhaps together now they rest no slaves them and no wars yet frequent now at midnight s solemn hour the their yawning and forth the stalk with sovereign power in robes and with gold and on their twilight council hold but o o er all forget not s race on whose bleak rocks which brave the wasting tides fair nature s daughter virtue yet go just as they their manners trace then to my ear some gentle song of those whose lives are yet sincere and plain their bounded walks the rugged cliffs along and all their prospect but the wintry main with at the needful time they drain the spring or hunger along the atlantic rock climb and of its eggs the s nest thus in innocence they live and happy with that fare which toil and danger give hard is their shallow soil and bleak and bare nor ever bee was heard to murmur there i xl nor need st thou blush that such false engage thy gentle mind of fairer stores for not alone they touch the village breast but filled in elder time the historic page there shakespeare s self with every crowned flew to those fairy his fancy in musing hour his sisters found and with their terrors the magic scene inserted from the later william from them he sung when mid his bold design before the afflicted and aghast the shadowy kings of s fated line through the dark cave in passed proceed nor quit the tales which simply told could once so well my answering bosom pierce proceed in sounds and colours bold the native legends of thy land to such thy and suit thy powerful verse xii in scenes like these which daring to depart from sober truth are still to nature true and call forth fresh delight to fancy s view the heroic muse employed her s art how have i trembled when at s stroke its blood the gaping poured when each live plant with mortal accents spoke and the wild blast the vanished sword how have i sat when the pensive wind to hear his harp by british strung prevailing poet whose mind believed the magic wonders which he sung hence at each sound imagination hence at each picture vivid life starts here hence his warm lay with sweetness flows melting it flows pure numerous strong and clear and the impassioned heart and wins the harmonious ear xiii all hail ye scenes that o er my soul prevail ye spacious and lakes which far away are by smooth filled or pastoral or don s romantic springs at distance hail the time shall come when i perhaps may tread your lowly o with spreading or o er your stretching by fancy led or o er your mountains creep in awful gloom inserted from the later the english poets then will i dress once more the faded bower where sat in s classic shade or crop from each flower and mourn on s banks where s laid meantime ye powers that on the plains which bore the cordial youth on s plains attend where er he dwell on hill or lowly to him i lose your kind protection lend and touched with love like mine preserve my absent friend in to fair s grassy tomb soft maids and village shall bring each opening sweet of earliest bloom and rifle all the breathing spring no wailing ghost shall dare appear to vex with shrieks this quiet grove but shepherd lads assembled here and melting own their love no withered witch shall here be seen no lead their nightly crew the female shall haunt the green and dress thy g ave with dew the oft at evening hours shall kindly lend his little aid with moss and gathered flowers to deck the ground where thou art laid inserted from the later william i when howling winds and beating rain in shake the cell or midst the chase on every plain the tender thought on thee shall dwell each lonely scene shall thee restore for thee the tear be duly shed beloved till life can charm no more and mourned till pity s self be dead thomas gray thomas gray was bom in london on the th of december his father is described as a citizen and money we should say nowadays he was on the stock exchange he appears to have been a selfish extravagant and violent man mr gray s uncle on the mother s side was one of the assistant masters at and at under his care gray was brought up at he formed a friendship with and with richard west whose father was lord of ireland at cambridge gray did not read and took no degree he occupied himself with classical literature history and modem languages several of his and latin poems date from this time he intended to read law but a few months after his leaving cambridge invited him to be his companion on a tour through france and italy the friends visited paris and rome and remained abroad together more	45
than two years gray saw and noted much on this journey were produced the best of his latin poems however the son of the prime minister and rich gave himself airs a difference arose which made gray separate from him and return alone to england he was reconciled with a year or two later but meanwhile his father died in his mother went to live at near and gray with a narrow income of his own gave up the law and settled himself in at cambridge in he lost his friend west the to the spring was written just before west s death the on the prospect of the hymn to and the written in a country churchyard were written not long after the first of gray s poems which appeared in print was the on the prospect of published in by in little notice sa rs was taken of it the was handed about in manuscript before its publication in it was popular instantly and made gray s reputation in gray lost his mother to whom he owed everything and whom he loved in the progress was finished and the bard begun the post of poet was offered to gray in and declined by him he applied to lord in thomas gray for the of modem history at cambridge but in vain six years afterwards the again became vacant and the duke of gave it to gray without his applying for it the year afterwards the duke of was elected of the university and gray composed for his the well known for music it was the last of his works he talked of giving lectures as professor of history but his health was bad and his spirits were low gray was the most temperate of men but he was full of hereditary travelling amused and revived him he had made with much enjoyment journeys to scotland wales and the english lakes and in the last year of his life he entertained a project of visiting but he was too to make the attempt and he remained at cambridge on the th of july while at dinner in the college hall he was seized with illness came on and on the th of july at the age of fifty four gray died he was never married james brown master of hall at cambridge gray s friend and in a letter written a fortnight after gray s death to another of his friends dr of old park has the following passage everything is now dark and melancholy in mr gray s room not a trace of him remains there it looks as if it had been for some time and the room for another the thoughts i have of him will last and will be useful to me the few years i can expect to live he never spoke out but i believe from some little expressions i now remember to have dropped from him that for some time past he thought himself nearer his end than those about him apprehended he never spoke out in these four words is contained the whole history of gray both as a man and as a poet the words fell naturally and as it were by chance from their writer s pen but let us dwell upon and press into their meaning for in following it we shall come to understand gray he was in his fifty fifth year when he died and he lived in ease and leisure yet a few pages hold ail his poetry he never spoke out in poetry still the reputation which he has achieved by his few pages is extremely high true johnson speaks of him with coldness and gray disliked johnson and refused to make his acquaintance one might fancy that johnson wrote with some irritation from this cause but johnson was not by nature fitted to do justice to gray and to his poetry this by itself is a sufficient explanation of the of his criticism of gray the english poets we may add a further explanation of them which is supplied by mr s papers when johnson was his life of gray says mr i gave him several anecdotes but he was very anxious as soon as possible to get to the end of his labours johnson was not naturally in sympathy with gray whose life he had to write and when he wrote it he was in a hurry besides he did gray injustice but even johnson s authority failed to make injustice in this case prevail lord calls the life of gray the worst of johnson s lives and it had found many before gray s poetical reputation grew and flourished in spite of it the poet his first in his equalled him with britain has known says a s fire in milton s strains a s rapture in the of gray the immense of pope and of his style of had at first prevented the frank reception of gray by the readers of poetry the pleased it could not but please but gray s poetry on the whole astonished his at first more than it pleased them it was so so unlike the sort of poetry in it made its way however after his death with the public as well as with the few and gray s second remarks that the works which were either neglected or by their have now raised gray and to the rank of our two greatest poets their reputation was established at any rate and stood extremely high even if they were not read johnson s of gray was called and severely blamed at the end of the century writing to sir william says of all the english poets of this age mr gray is most admired and i think with justice writes i h ve been reading gray s works and think him the only poet since shakespeare entitled to the character of sublime	45
no other way of learning things his simple curiosity his religious were much like those of the old when you have as to get to the end of him there is waits to take you up and will set you down at philip de but previous to all these you should have read and those judgments with their true and clear ring the high quality of gray s mind his power to command and use his learning but gray was a poet let us hear him on a poet on shakespeare we must place ourselves in the full midst of the century and of its criticism gray s friend west had praised for using in his the language of the times and that of the purest sort and he had added i will not decide what style is fit for our english stage but i should rather choose one that bordered upon than upon shakespeare gray replies as to matter of style i have this to say the language of the age is never the language of poetry except among the french whose verse where the thought does not support it in nothing from prose our poetry on the contrary has a language peculiar to itself to which almost every one that has written has added something in truth shakespeare s language is one of his principal beauties and he has no less advantage over your and in this than in those other great you mention every word in him is a picture pray put me the following lines into the tongue of our modern but i that am not shaped for tricks nor made to court an looking glass and what follows to me they appear and if this be the case our language is greatly it is impossible for a poet to lay down the rules of his own art with more insight and certainty yet at that moment in england there was perhaps not one other man besides gray capable of writing the passage just quoted gray s quality of mind then we see his quality of soul will no less bear inspection his reserve his delicacy his for many of the persons and things surrounding him in the cambridge of that day this silly dirty place as he calls it have produced x o the english poets an impression of gray as being a man fastidious but we have already had that grave testimony to him from the master of hall the thoughts i have of him will last and will be useful to me the few years i can expect to live and here is another to the same effect from a younger man from gray s friend you know he writes to his mother from abroad when he heard of gray s death that i considered mr gray as a second parent that i thought only of him built all my happiness on him talked of him for ever wished him with me whenever i partook of any pleasure and flew to him for refuge whenever i felt any uneasiness to whom now shall i talk of all i have seen here who will teach me to read to think to feel i protest to you that whatever i did or thought had a reference to him if i met with any i comforted myself that i had a treasure at home if all the world had despised and hated me i should have thought myself perfectly in his friendship there only one loss more if i lose you i am left alone in the world at present i feel that i have lost half of myself such as these are not called forth by a fastidious they are not called forth even by mere qualities of mind they are called forth by qualities of soul and of gray s high qualities of soul of his his excellent seriousness we may gather abundant proof from his letters writing to who had just lost his father he says i have seen the scene you describe and know how dreadful it is i know too i am the better for it we are all idle and thoughtless things and have no sense no use in the world any longer than that sad impression lasts the deeper it is engraved the better and again on a like occasion to another friend he who best knows our nature for he made us what we are by such us from our wandering thoughts and idle merriment from the insolence of youth and prosperity to serious to our duty and to himself nor need we hasten to get rid of these impressions time by appointment of the same power will cure the smart and in some hearts soon blot out all the traces of sorrow but such as preserve them longest for it is partly left in our own power do perhaps best in the will of the and once more to in the very hour of his wife s death gray was not sure whether or not his letter would reach before the end thomas gray the worst be not yet past you will neglect and pardon me but if the last struggle be over if the poor object of your long anxieties be no longer sensible to your kindness or to her own sufferings allow me at least in idea for what could do were present more than this to sit by you in silence and pity from my heart not her who is at rest but you who lose her may he who made us the master of our pleasures and of our pains support you adieu seriousness character was the foundation of things with him where this was lacking he was always severe whatever might be offered to him in its stead s literary genius charmed him but the faults of s nature he felt so strongly	45
that when his young friend was going abroad in just before gray s death he said to him i have one thing to beg of you which you must not refuse answered you know you have only to command what is it do not go to see said gray and then added no one knows the mischief that man will do promised compliance with gray s but what he asked could a visit from me signify every tribute to such a man gray answered he admired admired him even too much had too much felt his influence as a poet he told that if there was any excellence in his own numbers he had learned it wholly from that great poet and writing to afterwards he to whom he thought did not honour enough as a poet remember he writes and be blind to all his faults yes his faults as a poet but on the man nevertheless his sentence is stern speaking of the poet he writes to was as disgraceful to the office from his character as the poorest could have been from his verses even where crying were absent the want of weight and of character in a man deprived him in gray s judgment of serious significance he says of is not that and good humour which his admirers in him owing to this that he has continued all his days an infant but one that has unhappily been taught to read and write v and with all this seriousness a pathetic sentiment and an element likewise of and charming humour at by the on an autumn evening he has the accent of the or of or in the evening walked down alone to the lake by the side of crow park after sunset and saw the solemn colouring of light draw on the last gleam the english poets of sunshine fading away on the hill tops the deep serene of the waters and the long shadows of the mountains thrown across them till they nearly touched the shore at distance heard the murmur of many water falls not audible in the day time wished for the moon but she was dark to me and hid in her vacant of his humour and his delightful letters are full his humour appears in his poetry too and is by no means to be passed over there said that gray never wrote anything easily but things of humour humour was his natural and original turn knowledge penetration seriousness sentiment humour gray had them all he had the and for the office of poet but very soon in his life appear traces of something something of spirits failing and health not sound and the evil with years he writes to west in low ts are ray and faithful companions they get up with me go to bed with me make journeys and returns as i do nay and pay visits and will even affect to be force a feeble laugh with me but most commonly we sit alone together and are the prettiest company in the world the tone is playful gray was not yet twenty one mine he tells west four or five years later mine you are to know is a white melancholy or rather for the most part which though it seldom laughs or dances nor ever to what one calls joy or pleasure yet is a good easy sort of a state but he adds in this same letter but there is another sort black indeed which i have now and then felt that has something in it like s rule of faith est for it believes nay is sure of everything that is unlikely so it be but frightful and on the other hand and its eyes to the most possible hopes and everything that is from this the lord deliver us for none but he and weather can do it six or seven years pass and we find him writing to from cambridge thus the spirit of the spirit of this place begins to possess even me that have so long against it yet has it not so prevailed but that i feel that discontent with myself that that ever it in its time will settle my conscience time will reconcile my languid companion to me we shall smoke we shall we shall thomas gray together we shall have our little jokes like other people and our long stories brandy will finish what port began and a month after the time you will see in some comer of a london evening post yesterday died the rev mr john gray senior fellow of hall a companion and well respected by all who knew him the humorous advertisement ends in the original letter with a touch which i must not quote is it or is it melancholy which here at any rate this entry in his six years later is black enough er a in et fire and in he writes to to be employed is to be happy this principle of mine and i am convinced of its truth has as usual no influence on my practice i am alone and to the last degree yet do nothing indeed i have one excuse my health which you have so kindly after is not extraordinary it is no great malady but several little ones that seem no good to me from thence to the end his languor and depression though still often relieved by occupation and travel keep gaining on him at last the depression became constant became mechanical travel i must he writes to dr or cease to exist till this year i hardly knew what mechanical low spirits were but now i even tremble at an east wind two months afterwards he died what wonder that with this cloud throughout the whole term of his manhood brooding over him and weighing him down gray finely endowed though	45
he was richly stored with knowledge though he was yet produced so little found no full and sufficient utterance never as the master of hall said spoke cut he knew well enough himself how it was with him my is at best you know he writes to of so delicate a constitution and has such weak nerves as not to stir out of its chamber above three days in a year and to he says as to what you say to me that i ought to write more i will be candid and to you that till and upward whenever the humour takes me i will write because i like it and because i like myself better when i do so if i do not write much it is because i cannot how simply said and the english ts how truly also fain would a man like gray speak out if he could he likes himself better when he speaks out if he does not speak out it is because i cannot that who died in at the age of eighty seven having been younger and from his year to his than at any other time in his life paid a visit in his early days to cambridge and saw much of gray to whom he attached himself with devotion gray on his part was charmed with his young friend i never saw such a boy he writes our breed is not made on this model long afterwards published his reminiscences of gray i used to tell gray he says about my life and my native country but life was a sealed book to me he never would talk of himself never would allow me to speak to him of his poetry if i quoted lines of his to him he kept silence like an obstinate child i said to him sometimes will you have the goodness to give me an answer but not a word issued from his lips he never spoke out thinks that gray s life was poisoned by an sensibility was withered by his having never loved by his days being passed in the dismal of cambridge in the company of a set of whose existence no honest woman ever came to cheer who was much attracted and interested by gray doubts whether s explanation of him is the secret of gray s melancholy he finds rather in the of his poetic talent so distinguished so rare but so in the poet s despair at his own to explain gray we must do more than his as we must look further than to his at cambridge what caused his was it his ill health his hereditary certainly we will pay all respect to the powers of hereditary for us poor mortals but after pointing out that who was so productive was almost constantly ill adds the true remark that it is incredible how much the spirit can do in these cases to keep up the body pope s animation and activity through all the course of what he calls that long disease my life is an example presenting itself in gray s own country and time to confirm what here says what gave the power to gray s and ill health to induce his the reason the reason as i cannot but think it i have already given elsewhere gray a born poet fell upon an thomas gray age of prose he fell upon an age whose task was such as to call forth in general men s powers of understanding wit and cleverness rather than their deepest powers of mind and soul as regards literary production the task of the century in england was not the poetic interpretation of the world its task was to create a plain clear straightforward efficient prose poetry obeyed the bent of mind requisite for the due fulfilment of this task of the century it was intellectual ingenious not seeing things in their truth and beauty not gray with the qualities of mind and soul of a genuine poet was isolated in his century maintaining and them by lofty studies he yet could not fully and enjoy them the want of a genial atmosphere the failure of sympathy in his were too great born in the same year with milton gray would have been another man born in the same year with he would have been another man a man bom in could profit by the larger and more poetic scope of the english spirit in the age a man bom in could profit by that european of men s minds of which the great historical is the french revolution gray s alert and brilliant young friend who would explain the void in the life of gray by his having never loved himself loved married and had children yet at the age of fifty he was bidding fair to grow old dismal and like the rest of us when he was roused and made young again for some thirty years says m by the events of if gray like burns had been just thirty years old when the french revolution broke out he would have shown probably and animation in plenty when he did and endowed as he was he was a man born out of date a man whose full spiritual was impossible the same thing is to be said of his great contemporary butler the author of the in the sphere of religion which touches that of poetry butler was impelled by the of his nature to strive for a profound and adequate conception of religious things which was not pursued by his and which at that time arid in that atmosphere of mind was not fully hence in butler too a dissatisfaction a weariness as in gray great labour and weariness great disappointment pain and even vexation of mind a sort of spiritual east wind was at that time blowing neither butler nor gray could flower they	45
never spoke out the english poets gray s poetry was not only in quantity by reason of the age wherein he lived it suffered somewhat in quality also we have seen under what obligation to gray professed himself to be if there was any excellence in his numbers he had learned it wholly from that great poet it was not for nothing that he came when had lately as johnson says english poetry had found it brick and left it marble it was not for nothing that he came just when the english ear to quote johnson again had been accustomed to the of pope s numbers and the of poetry had grown more splendid of the of the movement and of and pope gray caught something caught too much we have little of gray s poetry and that little is not free from the faults of his age therefore it was important to go aid as we did to gray s life and letters to see his mind and soul there and to from thence that high estimate of his quality which his poetry indeed calls forth but does not establish so amply and irresistibly as one could desire for a just criticism it does however clearly establish it the difference between genuine poetry and the poetry of pope and all their school is briefly this their poetry is conceived and composed in their wits genuine poetry is conceived and composed in the soul the difference between the two kinds of poetry is immense they differ profoundly in their modes of language they differ profoundly in their modes of the poetic language of our century in general is the language of men their an the as said of language merely recalling the object as the common language of prose does and then dressing it out with a certain and brilliancy for the fancy and understanding this is called splendid the of the poetry of our century is likewise intellectual it proceeds by ingenious turns and this poetry is often eloquent and always in the hands of such masters as and pope clever but it does not take us much below the surface of things it does not give us the emotion of seeing things in their truth and beauty the language of genuine poetry on the other hand is the language of one with his eye on the object its is that of a thing which has been plunged in the poet s soul until it comes forth naturally and necessarily this sort of is infinitely thomas gray than the other and infinitely more satisfying the same thing is true of the genuine poetic language likewise but they are both of them also infinitely harder of they come only from those who as says live from a great depth of being gray who had praised his traveller and indeed in the poem on the alliance of education and government had given him hints which he used for it in let us take from himself a specimen of the poetic language of the century no cheerful murmurs in the gale there is exactly the poetic of our prose century and quite false place beside it a line of genuine poetry such as the in cradle of the rude imperious of shakespeare and all its instantly becomes apparent s poem on the death of mrs is says johnson undoubtedly the noblest that our language ever has produced in this vigorous performance has to say what is interesting enough that not only in poetry did mrs but she in painting also and thus he says it to the next realm she stretch d her sway for near adjoining a province and prey a chamber of was framed as will never want pretence when arm d to justify the offence and the whole in right of poetry she the intellectual ingenious superficial of poetry of this school could not be better illustrated place beside it s aa ax i o t rap li t a secure time fell to the lot neither of the son of nor of the these are said to have had of all mortals the supreme of happiness who heard the golden sing on the mountain the one heard them the other in seven there is the of genuine poetry and such poetry s the moment it is put near it i the english poets gray s production was scanty and scanty as we have seen it could not but be even what he produced is not always pure in true in still with whatever he is alone or almost alone for has something of the like merit in his age gray said himself that the style he aimed at was extreme of expression yet pure and musical compared not with the work of th great masters of the golden ages of poetry but with the poetry of his own in general gray s may be said to have reached in style the excellence at which he aimed while the also of such a piece as his progress of must be accounted not less noble and sound than its style thomas gray on the spring lo i where the rosy bosom d hours fair train appear disclose the long expecting flowers and wake the purple year the her throat to the s note the harmony of spring while whispering pleasure as they fly cool the clear blue sky their gathered fragrance fling where er the oak s thick branches stretch a broader shade where er the rude and moss grown o er the beside some water s brink with me the muse shall sit and think at ease in rustic state how vain the of the crowd how low how little are the proud how the great still is the toiling hand of care the panting herds repose yet hark how the peopled air the busy murmur the insect youth are on the wing	45
j eager to taste the spring and float amid the liquid noon some lightly o er the current some their gilded trim quick glancing to the sun i the english poets to contemplation s sober eye such is the race of man and they that creep and they that fly shall end where they began alike the busy and the gay but flutter life s little day in fortune s varying colours brushed by the hand of rough or chilled by age their airy dance they leave in dust to rest i hear in accents low the kind reply poor and what art thou a solitary fly thy joys no glittering female meets no hive hast thou of sweets no painted to display on hasty wings thy youth is flown thy sun is set thy spring is we while tis may on a distant prospect of college ye distant ye antique towers that crown the watery where grateful science still her henry s holy shade and ye that from the stately brow of s heights th expanse below of grove of lawn of survey whose turf whose shade whose flowers among the thames along his silver winding way ah happy hills ah pleasing shade ah fields beloved in vain where once my careless childhood strayed a stranger yet to pain i thomas gray i feel the that from ye blow a momentary bliss bestow as waving fresh their wing my weary soul they seem to soothe and of joy and youth to breathe a second spring say father thames for thou hast seen full many a race on thy green the paths of pleasure trace who foremost now delight to with arm thy wave the captive which what idle succeed to chase the rolling circle s speed or urge the flying ball while some on earnest business bent their murmuring labours graver hours that bring to liberty some bold disdain the limits of their little reign and unknown regions dare still as they run they look behind they hear a voice in every wind and snatch a fearful joy gay hope is theirs by fancy fed less pleasing when the tear forgot as soon as shed the sunshine of the breast theirs health of rosy hue wild wit invention ever new and lively cheer of vigour bom the thoughtless day the easy night the spirits pure the light that fly th approach of the english poets alas regardless of their doom the little victims play no sense have they of ills to come nor care beyond to day yet see how all around them wait the ministers of human fate and black misfortune s train ah show them where in stand to their prey the band ah tell them they are men these shall the fury passions tear the of the mind anger pallid fear and shame that behind or love shall waste their youth or jealousy with tooth that the secret heart and envy wan and faded care grim despair and sorrow s piercing dart ambition this shall tempt to rise then whirl the wretch from high to bitter scorn a sacrifice and grinning the of falsehood those shall try and hard altered eye that the tear it forced to flow and keen remorse with blood and moody madness laughing wild amid woe lo in the of years beneath a troop are seen the painful family of death more hideous than their queen this the joints this fires the veins that every strains thomas gray those in the deeper rage poverty to fill the band that the soul with icy hand and slow age to each his sufferings all are d alike to groan the tender for another s pain the for his own yet ah why should they know their fate since sorrow never comes too late and happiness too swiftly flies thought would destroy their paradise no more where ignorance is bliss is folly to be wise hymn to daughter of jove power thou of the human breast whose iron and hour the bad the best bound in thy chain the proud are taught to taste of pain and purple vainly groan with pangs before and alone when first thy to send on earth virtue his darling child designed to thee he gave the heavenly birth and bade to form her infant mind stem rugged nurse thy rigid lore with patience many a year she bore what sorrow was thou bad st her know and from her own she learned to melt at others woe vol iii y j the english poets scared at thy frown terrific fly self pleasing folly s idle brood wild laughter noise and thoughtless joy and leave us leisure to be good light they and with them go the summer friend the flattering foe by vain prosperity received to her they vow their truth and are again believed wisdom in garb arrayed in thought profound and melancholy silent maid with leaden eye that loves the ground still on thy solemn steps attend warm charity the general friend with justice to herself severe and pity dropping soft the sadly pleasing tear oh gently on thy s head dread goddess lay thy hand t not in thy terrors clad not with the band as by the thou art seen with thundering voice and threatening mien with screaming horror s funeral cry despair and fell disease and ghastly poverty thy form oh goddess wear thy influence impart thy philosophic train be there to soften not to wound my heart the generous spark extinct revive teach me to love and to forgive exact my own defects to what others are to feel and know myself a man thomas gray the progress op i i awake awake and give to rapture all thy trembling strings from s harmonious springs a thousand their progress take the laughing flowers that round them blow drink life and fragrance as they flow now the rich stream of music winds	45
eyes her ample page rich with the spoils of time did ne er chill repressed their noble rage and the genial current of the soul full many a of purest ray serene the dark of ocean bear full many a flower is bom to blush unseen and waste its sweetness on the desert air thomas gray some village that with breast the little tyrant of his fields some mute milton here may rest some of his country s blood the applause of listening to command the threats of pain and ruin to despise to scatter plenty o er a smiling land and read their history in a nation s eyes their lot forbade nor alone their growing virtues but their crimes confined forbade to slaughter to a throne and shut the gates of mercy on mankind the struggling pangs of conscious truth to hide to the of shame or heap the shrine of luxury and pride with incense kindled at the muse s flame far from the crowd s strife their sober wishes never learned to stray along the cool of life they kept the noiseless of their way yet ev n these bones from insult to protect some frail memorial stiu erected nigh with uncouth and die passing tribute of a sigh their name their years by the the place of fame and supply and many a holy text around she that teach the rustic to die for who to dumb forgetfulness a prey this pleasing anxious being e er resigned left the warm of the cheerful day nor cast one longing lingering look behind r english poets on some fond breast the parting soul some pious drops the closing eye requires e en from the tomb the voice of nature cries e en in our ashes live their fires for thee who of th dead dost in these lines their tale relate if chance by lonely contemplation led some kindred spirit shall thy fate some headed may say oft have we seen him at the peep of dawn brushing with hasty steps the away to meet the sun upon the lawn there at the foot of yonder nodding that its old fantastic roots so high his length at would he stretch and pore upon the brook that by hard by yon wood now smiling as in scorn muttering his fancies he would now drooping wan like one forlorn or with care or crossed in hopeless love one i missed him on the hill along the heath and near his favourite tree another came nor yet beside the nor up the lawn nor at the wood was he the next with due in sad array slow through the church way path we saw him borne approach and read for thou read the lay on the stone beneath yon aged thorn the here rests his head upon the lap of earth a youth to fortune and to fame unknown fair science frowned not on his humble birth and melancholy marked him for her own thomas gray large was his and his soul sincere heaven did a as largely send he gave to misery all he had a tear he gained from heaven twas all he wished a friend no farther seek his merits to disclose or draw his from their dread abode there they alike in trembling hope repose the bosom of his father and his god on the death of mr richard west in vain to me the smiling mornings shine and lifts his golden fire the birds in vain their join or cheerful fields resume their green attire these ears alas for other notes a different object do these eyes require my lonely anguish no heart but mine and in my breast the imperfect joys yet morning smiles the busy race to cheer and new bom pleasure brings to happier men the fields to all their tribute bear to warm their little loves the birds complain i fruitless mourn to him that cannot hear and weep the more because i weep in vain sketch op his own character too poor for a bribe and too proud to he had not the method of making a fortune could love and could hate so was thought somewhat odd no very great wit he believed in a god a post or a he did not desire but left church and state to charles and squire the english poets on lord holland s seat at old and abandoned by each friend here holland formed the pious resolution to a few years and strive to mend a broken character and constitution on this congenial spot he fixed his choice earl trembled for his neighbouring sand here sea scream and rejoice and though dread to land here reign the north and east no tree is heard to whisper bird to sing yet nature could not furnish out the feast art he new horrors still to brings here and arise and arches nodding to their fall es our eyes and desolation covers all ah said the sighing peer had been true nor s s s friendship vain far better scenes than these had our view and realized the beauties which we by the sword and by fire then had we seen proud london s hated walls would have in st peter s choir and and in st paul s william born at cambridge in educated at and at hall cambridge his poems were collected in and again in became poet in and died in in london william who must not be confused with his clever and paul the poet of the of succeeded in the when gray declined that doubtful honour he was the perpetual butt of the satire of who as says completely killed his poetical character indeed his poetry is for the most part tame and conventional enough yet here and there he from the of and becomes noticeable variety a tale for married people which is too long for quotation is	45
philosophic teacher or as he would perhaps have liked to be called bard and sage in the preceding age poetry and philosophy had stood apart aimed at pleasure at truth but now under happy freedom poetry might dare to over all the great affairs of the world and of human life it might approach philosophy and embrace it and from such an union surely the highest offspring of the spirit of man must arise nor would say was philosophy now the and of the essay on human understanding s pupil a man of moral temper and elegant culture who had drunk deep at the well heads of truth in ancient greece was the master both in politics and philosophy the darkness and tyranny had disappeared a happier period had dawned of liberty and light of and the characteristics of enthusiasm and taste of the true the beautiful and the good honour is due to for his homage to the mind and to things of the mind and it would be unjust to say that his enthusiasm was not sincere since however he lived as poet so much among ideas since apart from these ideas his poetry ceases to exist one cannot but ask were his ideas true were they the best ideas do they still survive and again did present his ideas in the best way in a way at once philosophical and poetic did he indeed effect the union of reason and imagination it must be answered that s theory as a whole will not bear investigation that some of his ideas are commonplace some fantastic his is that of s essays on the imagination his morals and are those of was inferior to not perhaps in power of analysis but in delicacy of perception in of feeling in good sense he was inferior to in the quality of his moral enthusiasm s fine illumination comes to us reflected from a surface somewhat hard and cold it is enthusiasm still but it is enthusiasm which cannot without for s moral elevation was self conscious a dignity of attitude assumed deliberately a constructed elevation his manner we are told was stiff and he was too and took a jest ve r ill he was deficient on the side of common human sympathy he lacked he felt himself to be a superior person and he was so in fact but he had the kind of superior that such persons are readily betrayed into his tone is too high pitched his ideas are too much in the air they do not themselves in the common heart in the common life of man still really lifts up his head and tries to breathe and if the doctrines of amiable the s view of life final causes the unity of goodness truth and beauty hardly seem to us to solve the of the world such had certainly an attraction for some of the finest minds of the first half of the century the author s aim says in introducing his chief poem was not so much to give formal or enter into the way of direct as by exhibiting the most engaging prospects of nature to and the imagination a noble aim but s theory and his descriptions somehow do not help each other as they ought it is possible to set forth abstract truth with so much clearness and such of form that its light may charm the eye as various colour charms truth again in a mind like s may itself in a of the imagination involuntarily and almost inevitably then the body and the soul of truth are indeed one living breathing but sets forth his truth in a series of illustrations the doctrine is a on which he hangs a picture and after you have admired he comes forward to tell you that the picture is less interesting than the the kind of truth which presents almost the to a style a theory of beauty and not beauty itself save as an illustration phrases about the sublime a definition of moral loveliness it were easier to write about and no on the attributes has ever won a lover for god s verse has been described as laborious in reality it on only too gallantly its periods are like those of a with full command of his subject and conscious of superiority to his hearers he does not brood or or he hence his frequent his address to the reader his lo and his behold it is not verse which or upon itself like a stream in some rocky when happy and loving most its own beauty s verse is the verse of his have been below their true worth they are not in the sense that s is they are not melodious cries but they have dignity of sentiment and that not feigned they present lofty thoughts in language of animated english poets seriousness and in well measured verse the hymn to the has delighted so many readers that the high rank generally assigned to it among s poems must be maintained but it has the faults of its author s longer work nothing that he has written is in style so pure and strong as the their narrow limits did not give time for the rise of excitement they have as is fitting a purity and the of the pleasures of imagination does not gain on the original poem fine of expression are struck away the philosophical analysis becomes more minute and and if we are spared the incredible of and and the dreary of the theory of ridicule there are added passages which make amends to the injured goddess of edward from the pleasures op imagination say why was man so eminently raised amid the vast creation why ordained through life and death to dart his piercing eye with thoughts beyond the limits of his frame but that the might send him forth in sight of	45
mortal and immortal powers as on a boundless theatre to run the great career of justice to his generous aim to all deeds to chase each partial purpose from his breast and through the mists of passion and of sense and through the tossing tide of chance and pain to hold his course while the voice of truth and virtue up the steep ascent of nature calls him to his high reward the smile of heaven else wherefore in mortal this hope that breathes from day to day things and possession wherefore the mind with such to embrace majestic forms impatient to be free the gross control of wilful might proud of the strong of her toils proud to be daring who but rather to heaven s broad fire his view than to the glimmering of a flame who that from heights his eye shoots round the wide horizon to survey or rolling his bright wave through mountains plains through black with shade and of sand will turn his gaze to mark the of a scanty murmurs at his feet the high born soul to rest her heaven wing the english poets beneath its native tired of earth and this scene she springs aloft through fields of air the flying storm rides on the lightning through the heavens or with and the northern blast sweeps the long track of day then high she the blue profound and hovering round the sun him pouring the stream of light his sway bend the reluctant to the fated rounds of time thence far she her swiftness up the long career of through its burning signs measures the wheel of nature and looks back on all the stars whose blended light as with a the now amazed she views the waste where happy spirits hold beyond this heaven their calm abode and fields of radiance whose light has travelled the profound six thousand years nor yet arrives in sight of mortal things even on the of the world she the eternal depth below till half down the headlong steep she soon overwhelmed and swallowed up in that immense of being there her hopes rest at the fated goal for from the birth of mortal man the maker said that not in humble nor in brief delight not in the fading echoes of renown power s purple robes nor pleasure s lap the soul should find enjoyment but from these turning to an equal good through all the ascent of things her view till every bound at length should disappear and infinite perfection close the scene mark on the winter i the radiant ruler of the year at length his wintry goal soon to reverse the long career and northward bend his steady reins now piercing half s height prone rush the fiery floods of light the mountain s silver stores while in some s horrid shade the panting indian hides his head and oft the approach of eve ii but lo on this deserted coast how pale the sun how thick the air his storms a sordid host lo winter the year the fields resign their latest bloom no more the breezes perfume no more the streams in music roll but fall dark or rains and while great nature around her the human hence the loud city s busy urge the warm bowl and splendid fire harmonious dances songs against the heaven meantime perhaps with tender fears some village dame the hears while round the hearth her children play at mom their father went abroad the moon is sunk and deep the road she sighs and wonders at his stay the poets iv but thou my awake arise and hail the sun s returning force even now he the northern skies and health and hope attend his course then louder howl the waste be earth with cold embraced yet gentle hours advance their wing and fancy mocking winter s might with flowers and and streaming light already decks the new born spring v fountain of the golden day could mortal vows promote thy speed how soon before thy ray should each damp how soon each hovering tempest fly whose stores for mischief arm the sky prompt on our heads to burst to the forest from the steep or thundering o er the deep to the merchant s hopes of gain i vi but let not man s unequal views presume o er nature and her laws tis his with grateful joy to use the indulgence of the cause secure that health and beauty springs through this majestic frame of things beyond what he can reach to know and that heaven s all will with good the of ill every state below vii how pleasing wears the wintry night spent with the old illustrious dead i while by the s trembling light seem those awful scenes to tread mark where chiefs or lie whose triumphs move before my eye in arms and antique pomp arrayed while now i taste the song now bend to s tongue through the olive shade viii but should some cheerful equal friend bid leave the page a while let mirth on wisdom then attend and social ease on learned toil then while at love s shrine each to the god of wine her name whom all his hopes obey what flattering dreams each bosom warm while absence every charm the slow returning may i ix may thou delight of heaven and earth when will thy genial star arise the which gives thee birth shall bring to my eyes within her haunt behold as in the happy garden old she moves like that fair thither ye silver sounding ye tender smiles ye desires fond hope and mutual faith repair x and if believing love can read his better in her eye then shall my fears o charming maid and every pain of absence die then shall my harp to thy true ear with sweeter sound the english poets pursue the	45
free song old shall listen to my tale and echo down the the liquid melody for a to me whom in their lays the call daughter of the neighbouring stream this cave belongs the fig tree and the vine which o er the rocky entrance downward shoot were placed by he with pale and purple the green before my threshold and my walls with covered here at noon by the murmur of my rising i slumber here my fruits i tend or from the flowers at break of day fresh and chase from all my bounds each thing or enter in o stranger nor bat nor here and if thy breast of thoughts approve thee not unwelcome shalt thou tread my quiet mansion chiefly if thy name wise and the immortal own smart smart was bom at in on april ii he was educated at school and at hall cambridge becoming a fellow in in he married and came to live in london where his careless habits soon brought him into grave difficulties he was for some time out of his mind and it was during his confinement in an interval of that the song to david was written in ne closed a life in which he had known all forms of disappointment and his poems were first collected in and a edition in two volumes was published in the song to david appeared in a separate in and was in by the rev r the editor of smart s poems makes an apology for the entire of the song to david some other pieces on the ground that they were written after the author s confinement and bear for the most part melancholy proofs of the recent of his mind such poems however he adds have been selected from his and inserted in the present work as were likely to be acceptable to the reader the volumes so introduced contain a curious assemblage of quite worthless verses prize poems birthday addresses of pope and gay and all else that might be expected from a and of that date two generations ago smart s name was familiar to from his translation of into prose a work about as worthy of immortality as were his verses it is only in our own day that attention has been recalled to the single poem by which he deserves to be not only remembered but remembered as a poet who for one short moment reached a height to which the muse of his epoch was wholly there is nothing like the song to david in the century there is nothing out of which it might seem the english poets to have been developed it is true that with great appearance of it is ill arranged and out of proportion its hundred weary the reader with their and with their piled up on a too obvious system but in spite of this touch of it is the work of a poet of a man so possessed with the beauty and of the and with the high romance of the s life that in the days of his madness the character of david has become a fixed idea with him to be embodied in words and dressed in the magic robe of verse when the dark hour has gone by there are few in our literary history more interesting than this of the wretched s hack with his mind thrown off its balance by drink and poverty rising at the instant of his deepest distress to a pitch of poetic performance by himself at all other times by all but one or two of his and so little appreciated by the public that when an edition of his writings was called for it was sent into the world with this omitted editor smart a song to david o thou that sit st upon a throne with harp of high majestic tone to praise the king of kings and voice of heaven ascending swell which while its deeper notes clear as a rings to bless each valley grove and coast and charm the to the post of gratitude in to keep the days on s mount and send the year to his account dances and with songs o servant of god s charge the minister of at large i which thou may st now receive from thy mansion hail and hear from eminence appear to this the wreath i great pious good and clean sublime serene strong constant pleasant bright of exceeding grace best man i the swiftness and the race the peril and the prize great from the lustre of his crown from samuel s horn and god s renown which is the peopled voice for all the host from rear to van applauded and embraced the the man of god s own choice vol in a a the english poets the word and up he rose the fight he o er his foes whom god s just laws and armed in gallant faith he took against the from the brook the weapons of the war pious magnificent and grand he the famous temple planned the in his soul foremost to give his lord his foremost to bless the welcome news and foremost to good from s genuine vein from god s best nature good in grain his aspect and his heart to pity to forgive to save witness s conscious cave and s dart clean if perpetual prayer be pure and love which could itself to and to fear clean in his gestures hands and feet to the the dance complete to play the sword and spear sublime invention ever young of vast conception towering tongue to god th eternal theme notes from yon caught of thought o er strains supreme on god to his and above the six the sabbath day he twas then his thoughts self conquest and heavenly melancholy to bless	45
and bear the rest smart serene to sow the seeds of peace remembering when he watched the how sweetly to further knowledge silence vice and plant perpetual paradise when god had the world strong in the lord who could defy satan and all his powers that lie in night and hell and horror and despair were as the lion and the bear to his might constant in love to god the truth age manhood infancy and to his friend constant beyond the verge of death and and his endless fame attend pleasant and various as the year man soul and angel without peer priest champion sage and boy in or in clad his pomp his piety was glad majestic was his joy wise in recovery from his fall whence rose his eminence o er all of all the most the light of in his ways wise are his prayer and praise and counsel to his child his muse bright angel of his verse gives for all the thorns that pierce for all the pangs that rage light still on the gloom the more than of his bloom th of his age a a the english poets he sung of god the mighty source of all things the force on which all strength depends from whose right arm beneath whose eyes all period power and enterprise and ends angels their and which to and fro with blessings speed or with their wait where michael with his millions bows where dwells the and his the and her mate of man the semblance and effect of god and love the saint elect for infinite applause to rule the land and broad to be laborious in his and heroes in his cause the the he made the glorious light the soothing shade grove and hill the abyss where secrecy remains in bliss and wisdom hides her skill trees plants and flowers of virtuous root yielding blossom yielding fruit choice and precious bless ye the in the and with the sweetness of the gale the thankful of e en every and wing which cheer the winter hail the spring that live in peace or prey they that make music or that mock the the brave domestic cock the swan and smart of every size and shape which nature frames of light escape devouring man to the shells are in the wealthy deep the upon the surface leap and love the glancing sun of beasts the task while the sleek roll and nor yet the shades arouse her cave the where o er the the mountain the and of their virtue and their price which hid in earth from man s device their of lustre the of the master s stamp the blazing like a lamp among the mines beneath o david highest on the list of on god s ways insist the genuine word repeat vain are the documents of men and vain the flourish of the pen that keeps the fool s conceit praise above all for praise heap up the measure load the and good to goodness add the generous soul her favour but the lord is great and glad b the poets for adoration all the ranks of angels yield eternal thanks and david in the midst with god s good poor which last and least in man s esteem thou to thy feast o blessed bridegroom for adoration seasons change and order truth and beauty range attract and fill the grass the and polished by the descending rich colour to the prime for adoration climb and fruit trees pledge their gems and with her gorgeous for her eggs her cunning nest and bell flowers bow their stems sweet is the dew that falls and drops upon the leafy sweet s fragrant air sweet is the lily s silver bell and sweet the smell that watch for early prayer sweet the young nurse with love intense which smiles o er sleeping innocence sweet when the lost arrive sweet the s beats while his vague mind s in quest of sweets the flowers to hive the humming bird smart sweeter in all the strains of love the language of thy dove to thy swelling sweeter with every grace the glory of thy gratitude unto the lord strong is the horse upon his speed strong in pursuit the rapid which makes at once his game strong the tall on the ground strong the turbulent profound shoots to his aim strong is the lion like a coal his like a s his chest against the foes strong the eagle on his sail strong against tide th enormous whale as he goes but stronger still in earth and air and in the sea the man of prayer and far beneath the tide and in the seat to faith assigned where ask is have where seek is find where knock is open wide the fleet before the gale the multitudes in mail arms and heads the garden s mild walk water meditated wild and all the beds the the sword fish the english poets the moon full on the lawn and when the veil s withdrawn the virgin to her the temple and filled when to the heaven of heavens they build their heart directed vows yea more than these the shepherd king upon his knees for his momentous trust with wish of infinite conceit for man beast mute the small and great and prostrate dust to dust precious the widow s and precious for extreme delight the from the precious the s blushing blaze and s imperial rays and pure pearl precious the tear and precious is the sigh sincere acceptable to god and precious are the winning flowers in s feast of bound on the sod more precious that part of david even the lord s own heart great beautiful and new in all things where it	45
could yet sustain this mortal blow but alas beneath superior woe for now strong nature s sympathetic chain at his yearning heart with powerful strain his faithful wife for ever doomed to mourn for him alas who never shall return to black s approach exposed with want and hardships enclosed his lovely daughter left without a friend her innocence to and defend by youth and set forth a prey to lawless guilt that to betray the english poets while these reflections rack his feeling mind who hung beside his grasp resigned and as the tumbling waters o er him rolled his outstretched arms the master s legs sad feels their dissolution near and in vain his limbs to clear for death bids every joint all faint to heaven he throws his dying eyes and oh protect my wife and child he cries the streams roll back the unfinished sound he and sinks amid the vast profound five only left of all the throng yet ride the mast which drives along with these still his hold and all of hostile waves o er the dire prospect as for life he he looks if poor yet ah wherefore trusting to unequal art thou from the wreck depart alas these rocks all human skill defy who strikes them once beyond relief must die and now sore wounded thou perhaps art on these or in some lost thus thought anxious gazing round in vain his eyes no more found the of destruction nigh and thick their mortal shafts fly when now a breaking with sway two next furious tears away hurled on the behold they gasp they and groaning cling upon the weed another bursts in boundless roar sinks and memory views no more ha total night and horror here my stunned ear to the tide it is their funeral and gliding near the of the dead appear i but lo emerging from the watery grave again they float incumbent on the wave william again the dismal prospect opens round the wreck the shore the dying and the drowned and see by repeated those two who scramble on the adjacent rocks their hold no longer can retain they sink overwhelmed and never rise again two with yet the mast that now above the reached the shore still trembling to descend they downward gaze with horror pale and with the floods the ground appears below and life s faint embers now glow awhile they wait the exhausted waves retreat then climb slow up the beach with hands and o heaven delivered by whose n hand still on destruction s brink they shuddering stand receive the languid incense they bestow that damp with death appears not yet to glow to thee each soul the warm pays with trembling of unequal praise in every heart dismay with wonder and hope the spark of life her magic powers their health till horror and despair are felt no more born at county of ireland on the loth of november died in his chambers in brick court london on the th of april the traveller was published in december the deserted village may the ballad the first appeared in the of the of written about was first published after its s death s last work was also of publication the poems of make but a small fragment of his work they are however more finely wrought and of a material than the rest i cannot afford to court the tail he said they would let me starve and so he turned to the task work on that task work a grace which was all his own and the ended he took his wages and was light of heart but poetry belonged to his higher self to his affections to his imagination could not have written the deserted village to the order of or and it is told nor is the story incredible that he went back with the note for one pounds in his pocket and insisted that his should not ruin himself by paying five shillings a the rustic maid poetry whom he loved was not quite still felt that the attachment was and she was none the less dear to his foolish heart on that account dear charming neglected and my shame in crowds my solitary pride thou source of all my bliss and all my woe that found st me poor at first and keep st me so his poems won for and fame yet he felt truly that his was not a poetic age the keenest and the most powerful of the time found their proper utterance in prose the high tragedy of that period is the and brightest study of the is tom jones johnson in his essays had dignified the minor morals of and breathed into them the spirit of a courageous melancholy by breadth of vision and of character was the political from a thing of party to a thing for mankind had shown how the facts of history may be disposed and their ragged edges smoothed away until a graceful narrative from the confusion was already projecting the lines of his roman road the centuries it was the age of prose the poets themselves had turned critics making but timid experiments in verse the more exquisite their culture the less was their poetic courage one or two indeed might appear more robust but by a well instructed eye their force was seen to be but as for the rest they handed their verses around in manuscript then perhaps contributed them to a poetical finally collected them in a tiny volume or a of ample margin whose genius late was in no hurry to be a poet and he looked carefully to make sure of himself and of his way with a happy instinct he discerned his own gift and it was his virtue amid all his wanderings and with all his seeming to be faithful to	45
that gift should he apply his humour to base uses and follow in the steps of affected no airs of dignity in what he wrote and did not fear that word of reproach in his day low but his gentle heart his kindly wisdom made it impossible for him to follow he did not the reputation of a literary bully his was no loud voice if he hated anything he hated the rage of party spirit but might he not accept gray as a master has left on record his estimate of gray and the words express a qualified enthusiasm a certain official admiration as critic but in truth to please him poetry should address the heart and he felt cold towards the fastidious flights of the bard and the progress of poetry he ventured to hint to gray the advice that used to give his scholars study the people had been popular pan himself was seen dancing to his melody the seeming obscurity the sudden the epithet of that mighty master had been caught by gray the the life the native energy of classical poetry he had not discovered and gray s what did they produce but things in writing which the poet sits down without any plan and heaps up splendid images without any selection last there was the essay or in verse should become the successor of highly esteemed the poem he on it as characteristic of england vol ill b b the english poets but at least let it be written in our old not in blank verse and as for the epithet the the unnatural construction let these be altogether why too should be an essential of poetry could not endure its disgusting solemnity of manner he loved innocent gaiety and found much wisdom in that agreeable trifling which often us into instruction with such views and at a time of life when all his powers were ripe and mellow published his traveller some fragments perhaps a first sketch of the poem had been sent from to his brother henry in the traveller as we know it is an attempt to unite the with the descriptive poem but does not begin with theory and proceed to illustrate his theory by a series of pictures he begins with a sigh for kindred and for home the poem is personal the reflections except perhaps the closing ones which came from johnson are such as naturally arose in his mind in the days of his wandering it would have been easy to have thrown the traveller into the form of an essay on the happiness of nations or the deserted village into that of an on the dangers of luxury and then the wanderer sounding his beside the might have risen to the stature of a philosophic spectator with a classical name sweet might have appeared as minor term of a concerned with the abuse of wealth chose a method more wholesome and sweet he had actually smiled at sight of the old of the province in their quaint french caps leading out the little boys and girls to foot it while he he had turned away disappointed from the peasant s door he had the keen air with the he had lazily stared from the path at the on his brown canal boat seeking neither wealth nor advancement nor learning by possessions of his own he had looked on all with a sympathetic eye an open heart an innocent delight in human gladness a kindly smile at human a sigh and a tear for human woe and from all he had gathered a store of wisdom of dear remembrance he needed only to select from his recollections whatever was most full of charm what was tenderest most pleasantly coloured and with these to mingle some natural thoughts some natural feelings surely an easy thing and yet none except bad the secret how to do this to unite such various elements into a delightful whole description reflection mirth sadness memory and love no one like could pass so from grave to gay still preserving the delicate harmony of tone no one like knew how to be at once natural and exquisite innocent and wise a man and still a child the and ease of his poetry are those of an accomplished his verse which flows towards the close of the period with such a gentle yet steady advance is not less than that of pope and conceived his verse more in than in his subdued brilliancy was perhaps harder to attain than the point and polish of the of the lock his words were each one delicately chosen his simple were sought s neighbour in the temple speaks of the doctor in writing poetry not from of fancy but from the time he took in pointing the sentiment and the in writing the deserted village the doctor as again tells us first a part of his design in prose in which he threw out his ideas as they occurred to him he then sat down carefully to them correct them and add such other ideas as he thought better fitted to the subject and if sometimes he would exceed his prose design by writing several verses these he would take singular pains afterwards to lest they should be found with his design when entered the doctor s chamber one morning with some read aloud to him the ten lines beginning dear lovely of innocence and ease seats of my youth when every sport could please come let me tell you this is no bad morning s work he said and now my dear boy if you are not better engaged i should be glad to enjoy a s holiday with you whether the traveller or the deserted village be the more admirable poem whether be an english village or the irish or both in one whether s political economy be solid or sentimental it is	45
perhaps not necessary once more to discuss perhaps bordered on shakespeare s forest of and the doctrines concerning agricultural and commercial prosperity were suited to that neighbourhood it would be pleasant to hear and discuss them taking opposite sides certainly is english but certainly too the english poets kept school there and uncle or henry occupied the in whatever or county situated we know better than any other village its sweet confusion of rural sounds is in our ears we have seen its children hanging on the venerable preacher s gown we have played from the stem and trembled in his presence we know the of the ale house clock and have felt the old plain pathos of the s ballad and we grieve that is departed it may be a weak retreat into the age of sentiment and simplicity and perhaps we ought rather in the triumphs of modem and the progress of modem science still the flowers of an old garden smell sweet and the bush is white under which lovers whisper the ballad of and the of and mark the extremes of s somewhat limited range in verse any reader of the ballad who pleases may make a face along with of street at the of dr s and may seek elsewhere some liquor we feel differently for we have heard this ballad in the open air from mr s manly throat while in her new ribbons in the hay to us the love stranger is an century cousin and so perhaps a little of and those earlier bore themselves no doubt more gallantly with more of but none was more sweetly discovered than s pretty pilgrim by her blush and glance and rising breast in the of we have a miniature farce and good himself among the persons to be laughed at is the most mischievous and the most playful the and the of how much better we know because has shown him to us in his acting off the stage and do we as often think of in any attitude as in that of smiling non listener to the critical when they talked of their and stuff he shifted his trumpet and only took snuff would that portraits of johnson and had been added i edward from the deserted village sweet loveliest village of the plain where health and plenty cheered the where smiling spring its earliest visit paid and parting summer s lingering delayed dear lovely of innocence and ease seats of my youth when every sport could please how often have i o er thy green where humble happiness each scene how often have i paused on every charm the sheltered cot the cultivated farm the never failing brook the busy mill the decent church that the neighbouring hill the bush with seats beneath the shade for talking age and whispering lovers made how often have i the coming day when toil lent its turn to play and all the village train from labour free led up their sports beneath the spreading tree while many a in the shade the young as the old surveyed and many a o er the ground and of art and of strength went round and still as each repeated pleasure tired succeeding sports the band inspired the dancing pair that simply sought renown by holding out to tire each other down the of his face while secret laughter round the place the virgin s looks of love the matron s glance that would those looks these were thy charms sweet village sports like these with sweet succession taught even toil to please these round thy their cheerful influence shed these were thy charms but all these charms are fled the english poets sweet smiling village loveliest of the lawn thy sports are fled and all thy charms withdrawn amidst thy the tyrant s hand is seen and desolation all thy green one only master the whole domain and half a thy smiling plain no more thy brook the day but choked with works its way along thy a solitary guest the hollow sounding guards its nest amidst thy desert walks the flies and their echoes with cries sunk are thy in ruin all and the long grass o the wall and trembling shrinking from the s hand far far away thy children leave the land the land to hastening ills a prey where wealth and men decay princes and lords may flourish or may fade a breath can make them as a breath has made but a bold their country s pride when once destroyed can never be supplied a time there was ere england s began when every of ground maintained its man for him light labour spread her wholesome store just gave what life required but gave no more his best companions innocence and health and his best riches ignorance of wealth but times are altered trade s train the land and the along the lawn where scattered rose wealth and pomp repose and every want to allied and every pang that folly pays to pride those gentle hours that plenty bade to bloom those calm desires that asked but little room those sports that the peaceful scene lived in each look and brightened all the green these far departing seek a kinder shore and rural mirth and manners are no sweet parent of the hour thy forlorn confess the tyrant s power here as i take my solitary rounds amidst thy walks and ruined grounds and many a year elapsed return to view where once the cottage stood the grew remembrance wakes with all her busy train at my breast and turns the past to pain in all my wanderings round this world of care in all my and god has given my i still had hopes my latest hours to crown amidst these humble to lay me down to husband out life s at the close and keep	45
lifts its head on high where once the sign post caught the passing eye low lies that house where nut brown draughts inspired where grey beard mirth and smiling toil retired where village talked with looks profound and news much older than their ale went round imagination fondly to trace the parlour of that place the white washed wall the nicely floor the clock that behind the door the chest contrived a double debt to pay a bed by night a chest of drawers by day the pictures placed for ornament and use the twelve good rules the royal game of goose the hearth except when winter chilled the day with boughs and flowers and gay while broken tea cups wisely kept for show ranged o er the chimney in a row vain splendour could not all the tottering mansion from its fall obscure it sinks nor shall it more impart an hour s importance to the poor man s heart thither no more the peasant shall repair to sweet oblivion of his daily care no more the farmer s news the s tale no more the s ballad shall prevail no more the smith his dusky brow shall clear his ponderous strength and lean to hear the host himself no longer shall be found careful to see the bliss go round nor the maid half willing to be shall kiss the cup to pass it to the rest o the english poets from here lies our good whose genius was such we scarcely can praise it or blame it too much who bom for the universe his mind and to party gave up what was meant for mankind though with all learning yet straining his throat to persuade to lend him a vote who too deep for his hearers still went on and thought of convincing while they thought of dining though equal to all things for all things unfit too nice for a too proud for a wit for a too cool for a and too fond of the right to pursue the expedient in short twas his fate or in place sir to eat mutton cold and cut blocks with a here lies david describe me who can an of all that was pleasant in man as an actor confessed without rival to shine as a wit if not first in the very first line yet with talents like these and an excellent heart the man had his a to his art like an ill judging beauty his colours he spread and with his own natural red on the stage he was natural simple affecting twas only that when he was off he was acting with no reason on earth to go out of his way he turned and he varied full ten times a day though secure of our hearts yet sick if they were not his own by and trick he cast off his friends as a his pack for he knew when he pleased he could whistle them back of praise a mere he swallowed what came and the puff of a he it for fame till his relish grown almost to disease who the highest was to please mr t m p for afterwards lord but let us be candid and speak out our mind if applauded he paid them in kind ye ye and so grave what a commerce was yours while you got and you gave how did street re echo the shouts that you raised while he was be and you were but peace to his spirit wherever it flies to act as an angel and mix with the skies those poets who owe their best fame to his skill shall still be his go where he will old receive him with praise and with love and and be his above here is laid and to tell you my mind he has not left a wiser or better behind his pencil was striking and grand his manners were gentle and bland still bom to improve us in every part his pencil our faces his manners our heart to averse yet most when they judged without skill he was still hard of hearing when they talked of their and he shifted his trumpet and only took on woman when lovely woman to folly and finds too late that men betray what charm can soothe her melancholy what art can wash her guilt away the only art her guilt to cover to hide her shame from every eye to give repentance to her lover and his bosom is to die author of false delicacy sec died william of the morning chronicle died sir was deaf and used an ear trumpet thomas was bom in at of which town his father thomas professor of poetry at oxford from to was he was educated at first by his father and in became a member of college oxford of which society he became a fellow in he was professor of poetry from to and became poet on the death of in he died in his poems published separately from time to time were collected in i and again in two vo in thomas is in his poetry chiefly as was natural in so laborious a student of our early poetical literature the edition of his poems which was published by his admirer and his brother s devoted pupil richard offers a curious example of a poet killed with kindness for the apparatus of parallel passages from shakespeare milton and others is enough to ruin any little claim to originality which might have been put forward for him the pleasures of melancholy is a of and the the on the approach of summer is a mere echo of l again the influence of gray makes itself far too strongly felt in s poems and but there are reasons why his genial figure should not be altogether excluded from a representative english it	45
has often been said that his history of english poetry with s turned the course of our letters into a fresh channel but what is more noticeable here is that his own or much of it for he is not always free from the taint of instinctively with materials like those on which the older writers had drawn in reaction against the and critical temper of the earlier half of his century he is a student of nature he is even an in s sense he has two passions well expressed in the thomas two here given the passion for antiquity and the passion for nature for the library and for the field the forest green and gay the slope the hay and we may add for oxford his for forty seven years at whose service he was always ready to place his invention his humour and his gift of satire the real is to be looked for in the writings in which these passions find their vent in the history in the a form of composition which he revived among us and in the humorous pieces not in the quit rent which were wrung from him by the unhappy necessities of his editor the poets from the triumph of let boast the of her name each splendid fool ot fortune and of fame still of let her shine the queen parent of each bowing dean be hers each of the cheek each and sleek still let the of her hive on rich still let her slaves nor dare to know the from the peer no longer charmed by virtue s lofty song once heard sage milton s manly tones among where the with wave his groves of laurel ours my son to deal the sacred bay where honour calls and justice points the way to wear the well earned wreath that merit brings and snatch a gift beyond the reach of king and scorned by courts yon muse s bower still nor nor seeks the smile of power though vengeance watch my crystal spring though persecution wave her iron wing and o er yon temples as she flies these destined seats be mine cries fortune s fair smiles on still attend and as the of gracious heaven descend unseen in still but copious showers her stores on me spontaneous see science walks with recent crowned with fancy s strain my fairy shades my muse divine still keeps her state the mien erect and high majestic gait this poem was written when was an in answer to an by thomas green as of old each smiles and still the graces build my piles my in ancient glory rise and dare with pride to rush into the skies from the first of april scant along the land the beans their new born ranks the fresh turned soil with tender blades the shades the forest s edge half appears the hedge or to the distant eye weakly green its the swallow for a moment seen in haste the village green from the gray on feeble wing the screaming idly spring the butterfly gay painted soon awhile the noon and fondly its tender to and flattering skies with a transient frozen shower if a cloud should lower sailing o er the landscape dark mute on a sudden is the lark but when the sun again o er the pearl plain and from behind his watery veil looks through the thin descending hail she and to the sight the return of light and high her track mid the dim rainbow s scattered hues vol in c c the english poets where in venerable rows widely waving oaks the moat of yonder antique hall swarm the with call and to the toils of nature true wreath their nests anew musing through the park the lonely poet loves to mark how various in faint degrees tinge the tall groups of various trees while careless of the changing year the pine never towers distinguished from the rest and proudly her winter within some whispering isle where s low banks neglected smile and each trim meadow still the wintry torrent s beneath a willow long the seeks his nook and bursting through the that crowns the current s edge he from the wood the wild duck s early brood o er the broad downs a novel race the with faltering pace and with eager fill the that skirts the hill his free born vigour yet to man s yoke the forgets to play beneath the noon tide ray and stretched among the of a n s sloping side while fa i beneath where nature her boundless length of level thomas in loose taught to stray a thousand tumbling with silver veins the or pass through the sparkling grass yet in these rude midst her pensive solitude fancy with prophetic glance sees the months advance the field the forest green and gay the slope the hay sees the orchard blow the harvest wave the flow sees june his glossy robe of thousand hues o er all the globe sees grasp her crown of corn and plenty load her ample horn written in a blank leaf op s deem not devoid of elegance the sage by fancy s genuine feelings of painful the child who turns of these proud th historic page now sunk by time and henry s rage think st thou the never smiled on his lone hours views engage his thoughts on intent while piety her roll the piercing eye new manners and the pomp of elder days whence the pensive bard his pictured stores nor rough nor barren are the winding ways of antiquity but with flowers the english poets to the river ah what a weary race my feet have run since first i trod thy banks with crowned and thought my way was all through fairy ground beneath thy sky and golden sun where first my muse to her notes	45
begun while pensive memory traces back the round which fills the varied interval between much pleasure more of sorrow marks the scene sweet native stream those skies and so pure no more return to cheer my evening road yet still one joy remains that not obscure nor useless all my vacant days have flowed from youth s gay dawn to manhood s prime mature nor with the muse s laurel charles charles was born in westminster in and died at in a poor london who out his salary by teaching he made a hit by his a satire on contemporary actors in and during the brief of his life abandoned himself to literature and the of the smart of marks a low point in english taste it nearly secured him a poet s monument in westminster abbey and it actually secured a poet s rank for a without a spark of the poet s imagination of cold heart natural bad taste and very little knowledge of that narrow world which he so nothing in a gleam of genial feeling or the suspicion that he could take any pleasure in what or if we may believe his own account of himself nature had given him little enough beyond an ugly face a sour temperament and a bitter tongue yet he was not dissatisfied he was very willing to be taken for what he was and if he could not win liking and respect he was content to be feared in all this there must have been something of affectation yet it is only too clear that the coarse texture of his mind was to the and influences of his time what it most readily absorbed was that hatred of authority in general which keen saw widely spread in england long before it society in france and poverty obscurity and habits of monotonous toil sadly evinced by the industry with which he practised his new found trade had even in youth a sour nature and made him a at heart at all aristocracy social political and intellectual with vicious delight the of his times him with better reason but with all his of the english poets nature and originality few writers have less of the true spirit of either the nature which he really followed was the coarse and narrow nature within him and his originality consisted mainly in proportion and propriety his success was due to his capacity of and imitation he had studied and pope and learnt the trick of from butler and swift but the knowledge of man the power of the skilful play of jest and earnest which are the of true satire were denied to his whole stock in trade was his his bitterness of soul and his of rhyme and he cast over what he wrote something of the seriousness of his calling his address to truth suggests that he knew where his strength and his weakness lay but come not with that easy mien by which you won the lively dean nor yet assume that air which taught thee first to wear nor yet that arch face with which gave thee grace but come in sacred clad solemnly dull and truly sad far from thy matron train be idiot mirth and laughter vain t for wit and humour which pretend at once to please us and they are not for my present turn i t them remain in france with the t book ii the description of his muse with which the following selection is truthful enough the neglect of his style was no studied air but arose from natural from imperfect command over brain and pen and no doubt from to strike out lines which produced him half a crown a copy when the total of a sheet was made up the poverty of mind is curiously illustrated by the poem on the cock lane ghost a subject which might perhaps have supplied with materials for a hundred lines it out to over four thousand his field was limited to the narrow topics of the town and his ambition was to be the of its manners and the charles of its vices but he failed to become the or the of his age all interest in his writings has disappeared with their incidents and conditions and that which has him from oblivion is his boisterous energy his brazen his extraordinary command of common english and the sharp relief in which he stands out among the formal of his day and which perhaps him to be regarded as a of the better school of poetry which arose with and we know had a real admiration for him his earliest work the is his best because in it he most to good models his later works will serve the student as a rich mine of all sorts of errors in taste and judgment in proportion as he abandoned himself to his own guidance his work and the poverty of his thought appeared and in three years he had literally written himself out but in all that he wrote there is a certain fierce which wins attention and even sympathy for his brain and heart and this effect is heightened by the story of his life and death no writer requires to be read with more caution by those who seek in literature a reflection of history and politics the exaggerated of a want of political knowledge and judgment and it did not save him from being deceived by the gross of the king his of was part of the cant of the day but the idol of the mob was the object of his real sympathies and repaid him with patronage the pair were well matched and might be described as the of poetry e j cf the lines given on p the english poets description of his muse from the o me whom no muse of heavenly birth no judgment when rash genius fires who	45
boast no merit but mere of rhyme short of sense and satire out of time who cannot follow where trim fancy leads by streams o er flower who often but without success have prayed for apt s artful aid who would but cannot with a master s skill coin fine new which mean no ill me thus uncouth thus every way unfit for pacing and wit taste with contempt nor to place among the lowest of her favoured race characters of actors from the and here all serene in the same strains loves hates and triumphs and his easy vacant face proclaim d a heart which could not feel emotions nor impart with him came mighty on my life that hath a very pretty wife all over in plots famous grown he mouths a sentence as mouth a bone in characters of low and vulgar mould where nature s features we behold where destitute of every decent grace are in your face there with justice strict attention draws acts truly from himself and gains applause charles but when to please himself or charm his wife he aims at something in life when blindly nature s stubborn plan he the stage by way of gentleman the who no one touch of breeding knows looks like tom errand dressed in s clothes fond of his dress fond of his person grown laugh d at by all and to himself unknown from side to side he he smiles he and seems to wonder what s become of by turns transformed into all kind of shapes constant to none laughs cries and now in the centre now in van or rear the parson his strokes of humour and his burst of sport are all contained in this one word doth a man look or halt draw humour out of nature s fault with personal defects their mirth adorn and hang misfortunes out to public scorn ev n i whom nature cast in hideous mould whom having made she trembled to behold beneath the load of may groan and find that nature s errors are my own his eyes in gloomy taught to roll proclaimed the sullen habit of his soul heavy and he trod the stage too proud for tenderness too dull for rage e in fancied scenes as in life s real plan he could not for a moment sink the man in whatever cast his character was laid self still like oil upon the surface played nature in spite of all his skill crept in still twas the english poets description of johnson from the ghost insolent and loud vain idol of a crowd whose very name an awe whose every word is sense and law for what his greatness hath like laws of and of sacred through all the realm of wit must never of admit who cursing flattery is the tool of every flattering fool who wit with jealous eye and at another s praise who proudly d of learning s throne now all learning but his own who those common wares to trade in reasoning convincing and persuading but makes each sentence current pass with scoundrel ass for tis with him a certain rule that folly s proved when he calls fool who to increase his native strength draws words six jn length with which assisted with a frown by way of club he us down his comrades terrors to d horribly a ghastly smile features so horrid were it light would put the devil himself to flight charles the first from list whilst a woman s the church and out the state charles whilst in the state not more than women read high preached and turned his pious head to see with eyes forbid to hear a loyal nation s cries made to believe what can t a favourite do he heard a nation hearing one or two taught by state himself secure to think and out of danger e en on danger s brink whilst power was daily crumbling from his hand whilst murmurs ran through an insulted land as if to sanction n was bound he proudly sought the ruin which he found ht he unhappy harshly though that name on my ear i should have died with shame to see my king before his subjects stand and at their bar hold up his royal hand at their command to hear the monarch plead by their to see that monarch what though thy faults were many and were great what though they shook the basis of the state in secure thy person stood and sacred was the fountain of thy blood vile ministers who dared abuse their trust who dared a king to be unjust vengeance with justice with power made strong had nobly crushed the king could do no wrong yet grieve not charles nor thy hard fortunes blame they took thy life but they secured thy fame had st thou in peace and years resigned thy breath at nature s call had st thou lain down in death as in a sleep thy name by justice borne on the four winds had been in pieces torn pity the virtue of a generous soul sometimes the vice hath made thy memory whole misfortune gave what virtue could not give and bade the tyrant slain the martyr live james james was bom at in and died at in he published his first volume of poems in the judgment of paris in and some lines on the proposed monument to in the first part of the appeared in the second in is perhaps the most difficult poet of the century for a nineteenth century reader to his original poetical power was almost but he had a delicate and sensitive taste and was a student of the works of gray and on the one hand and of the which had just published on the other his earlier	45
poems are merely so many variations on the and the on the passions his of paris and his lines on are perhaps those of his works in which he was least indebted to others and they are almost worthless besides being at least the lines in the worst possible taste as for the it is certainly a most remarkable poem the author has shown his judgment in no argument to either book for in truth neither admits of one the poem has neither head nor tail and the central figure of the youthful is a mere on which to hang descriptive passages moral and of every kind the general effect the modem reader is exactly that of a sham ruin or a edifice of the period yet the poem was and long continued to be extremely popular and it gave the impulse in many cases to the production of much better work than itself in fact it exactly reflected the vague and ill instructed craving of the age for the dismissal of artificial poetry and for a return to nature and at the same time to the romantic style this fact must always give it an interest which its elegant its feeble and above all its extraordinary may on closer acquaintance fail to sustain would have been a poet if he could and his effort and gentle sensibility sometimes bring him within sight though at a long distance of the promised land but he never reaches it and his best work is only made up of reminiscences of others visits and of far off echoes of the heavenly music george james from the book i when the long sounding from afar loaded with loud lament the lonely gale young lighted by the evening star lingering and listening wandered down the there would he dream of graves and pale and ghosts that to the throng and drag a length of chain and wail till silenced by the owl s terrific song or blast that shrieks by fits the shuddering along or when the setting moon in crimson hung o er the dark and melancholy deep to haunted stream remote from man he where of their wont to keep and there let fancy at large till sleep a vision brought to his sight and first a wildly murmuring wind creep shrill to his ringing ear then bright with gleam the vault of night anon in view a s arch arose the trumpet bid the and forth an host of little warriors march grasping the diamond lance and of gold their look was gentle their bold and green their and green their silk attire and here and there right old the long wake the wire and some with mellow breath the martial pipe inspire with merriment and song and clear a troop of from advance the little warriors the and spear and loud strains provoke the dance they meet they dart away they wheel the english poets to right to left they the flying now bound aloft with vigorous spring then glance rapid along with many coloured rays of gems and gold the echoing forests blaze the dream is fled proud of day who d st the vision with thy shrill fell who oft hath away my fancied good and brought substantial ill o to thy cursed scream still let harmony aye shut her gentle ear thy mirth let jealous rivals insult thy crest and glossy tear and ever in thy dreams the fox appear forbear my muse let love thy line the spell thine not so for how should he at wicked chance who feels from every change amusement flow even now his eyes with smiles of rapture glow as on he through the scenes of where the fresh flowers in living lustre blow where thousand pearls the adorn a thousand notes of joy in every breeze are bom but who the of can tell the wild brook down the mountain side the herd the sheep fold s simple bell the pipe of early shepherd dim in the lone valley echoing far and wide the horn along the above the hollow murmur of the ocean tide the hum of bees the s lay of love and the full choir that wakes the universal grove james the cottage at early pilgrim bark crowned with her the sings the whistling and hark down the rough slope the ponderous rings through rustling com the hare astonished springs slow the village clock the drowsy hour the bursts away on wings deep the in bower and shrill lark clear from her tower o nature how in every charm supreme whose feast on ever new i o for the voice and fire of to sing thy glories with devotion due be the day i the crew from s and and held high converse with the few who to th heart and ear and eye teach beauty virtue truth and love and melody thomas was bom at on the of november a from to he produced a mass of poetry the more noticeable portions of it being the antique poems which were collected after his death by thomas in he died by his own hand in london on the th of august aged years and months has been neglected of late years but mr s version of the poems will very likely direct as much attention to them as can be afforded by an age embarrassed already by the wealth it has inherited and by the of its own poetic and if in the following i have not availed myself of mr s text but have rather chosen a text of my own it has been from no appreciation of the the industry and the learning apparent in every page of his edition but because he sometimes seems to miss that peculiar musical movement governing s ear which often renders it impossible to replace by any modem word whatsoever an or of his whether invented by himself or found	45
in or as he was by century movements yet showed at times an originality of ear that has never been appreciated as far as i know indeed his has never been perceived certainly it has never been touched upon by any of his critics from downwards yet it seems necessary to touch upon it here as the may seem or how can we the influence has had both as to spirit and as to form upon the revival in the present century of the romantic temper that temper without which english poetry can scarcely perhaps thomas hold a place at all when in a court of universal criticism this influence has worked through who partly it may be from s with was profoundly impressed both by the tragic pathos of s life and by the excellence actual as well as of his work and when we consider the influence himself had upon the english romantic movement generally and especially upon and and the enormous influence these latter have had upon subsequent poets it seems impossible to refuse to the place of the father of the new romantic school as to the romantic spirit it would be difficult to name any one of his in whom the high temper of romance has shown so intense a life and as to the romantic form it is matter of familiar knowledge for instance that the movement of which scott made such excellent use in the lay of the last and which borrowed from him was borrowed or rather stolen by scott from whose while still in manuscript was in the hearing of scott by s friend afterwards when vi is published in speaks of the dance with which he the lines as being founded on a new principle and he has been much praised and very justly for such effects as this and saw the lady s eye and nothing else saw she thereby save the of the shield of sir tall which in a old in the wall that this new principle was known to is seen in the following extract which has exactly the ring the ring which scott only half caught and which failed to really catch at all but when he hb next came in bold and brave the of a thought him a devil from hell s black den ne thinking that of could send so to the grave for his life to john he rendered his thanks descended from the king of the vol iii d d i the english poets with regard to with variations it may be said no doubt that some of the miracle plays such as the fall of man are composed in this movement as is also one of the months in s but the in these is like that of the border mostly the of while s knight like and like s king has several variations introduced as says of his own in correspondence with some transition in the nature of the or passion the new principle in short was s again in the mysterious of remote names a quite other than the pomp and which and milton so loved the world echoes seem to have been caught from such lines as these in s african from s cave to where the nations end the palaces on s coast where the war song of the s ghost like the loud echoes on s sea the circle the mysterious tree and turning to the question of s influence upon it is not only indirectly through that the rich mind of shows signs of having drunk at s fountain of romance there is a side of which knew and which did not it is difficult to express in words wherein lies the entirely spiritual between s ballad of charity and s eve of st yet i should be as to the insight of any critic who should fail to recognise that not only are the beggar and the depicted with the sympathy and melodious which is the great charm of the eve of st but the movement of the lines is often the same take for instance the description of s meagre wan which is in point of movement identical with s description of the withered dead more obvious perhaps yet not more essentially true is the likeness between the famous passage in s beginning for them the held his breath and went all naked to the hungry c thomas and these four lines in s and where the pale children of the feeble sun in search of gold through every climate run from burning heat to go and live in all of woe it was perfectly fit therefore that should his to the memory of thomas not that or stole from no two poets had less need to steal from any one but the whole history of poetry shows that poetic methods are a growth as well as an inspiration so indeed was in romance that except in the case of the african his imagination seems to be never really alive save when in the dramatic of the of and here we touch the very core and centre of s genius his artistic this is what i mean pope in numbers for the numbers came and the to solitude written at twelve shows how early may begin to stir the impulse the impulse to give voice to the emotions of the soul that is bom to express the young on a summer s day would lie down on the grass and gaze for hours at the church of st mary not in order to gather and for expression the personal emotions caused by the spectacle as the child or the child pope might have done but in order to the picturesque antique life he imagined to have once moved there and as language is but the ideal and form	45
in which a writer that which in the world around him is ideal and in numbers too not that his was less intense than theirs far from it such energy as his can only exist as the of that enormous which is at the heart of all production yet his dramatic instinct was stronger still here indeed is the of s work and if we will consider it of his life too as a youthful poet showing that of artistic self which is generally found to be with the eager energies of poetic youth as a that is to say of work purely artistic and in its highest reaches by the author of the poems if we leave out of consideration his acknowledged pieces however inferior to in point of sheer beauty stands alongside him in our literature and stands with him alone d d a the english poets in his childhood so occupied was s mind by the impression upon it of the external world through the senses that for a long time it refused to be distracted by the common processes of education up to about his seventh or eighth year he could not be taught his letters and even then this was effected through his delight in colour to use his mother s words he fell in love with the illuminated letters upon an old piece of french music and afterwards took to the picturesque characters of a black letter bible and so learned to read and this passion for art was universal in its scope poetry music painting and even from each and all of these he drew such delights as are of save by the truly artistic mind now with it was not till he came at the very last to write the eve of st and la dame that he produced anything so purely as s ballad of charity given on page of these yet here is the difficulty in s work the circumstances attending the production of such purely and poetry as the poems were so exceptional that unlike the poetry of unlike any other purely artistic poetry it must be read entirely in with the poet s life this indeed is as necessary in order to fully appreciate it as though the impulse had been that of pure personal emotion such as we get in s and in the more passionate of for with far more than with any other poet of the representative kind the question what was the nature of his artistic impulse is mixed up with the question what was the nature of the man do these poems show the power which only genius can give and if they do was s impulse to exercise that power the impulse of the dramatic poet having the yearning of the great to create a world or was it that of the other class of artists whose skill lies in those more of prose notes among whom would place him for neither the nor the of s character seem to see that between these two conclusions there is no middle one either was a bom having as useful additional poetry and dramatic imagination almost among his or he was a bom artist who before mature vision had come to show him the power and the thomas of moral conscience in art was so by the artistic conscience by the artist s yearning to represent that if perfect representation seemed to him to demand he needs must if the latter supposition is the true one it does not to be sure excuse the that shocked the author of tke castle of that work of origin and translation but it explains an apparent in nature it gives a kind of harmony to a character which has hitherto been considered so it nature of the of having endowed a man possessing the instincts of a common with human characteristics so noble and so precious as poetic genius lofty intelligence courage to do or die the pride that gives in to death but not to men joined to a depth of filial affection a loyalty to kindred such as within us the deepest emotion whenever we recall the name of the premature man who was also to the last the loving child who a few days before his death went out from his forlorn garret in street to spend in presents for his mother and sister those precious pence that would have saved him from famine and england from the loss of a son so noble and so gifted as he the outline of his story will show what i mean the child of a poor of cathedral whose family had been for a century and a half may be said to have succeeded to poverty by inheritance and to have been reared from his cradle beneath the shadow of that wing which is apt to cow genius if it does not silence it apt to that haughty independence and pride which mostly genius and of which had more than any poet in our literature or perhaps in any other yet if the cards of life were so far against him he was on the other hand by nature with her very gifts to a healthy and according to all accounts beautiful possessing indeed that quality of strangeness which bacon says is essential to the highest beauty were added a only less wonderful than the energy which accompanied it an intelligence which all the world including those who reject his claims to the highest poetical gifts have agreed to call prodigious it was this indeed which at first attracted attention to him and which has now caused the reaction against him art has nothing to do with but s has like everything else in with him been the english poets stood it did not develop itself in earliest childhood and when it	45
did show there was in it nothing one sided nothing as in the painful which in some children rather than it is important to bear this in mind in for assuredly it may be said of the human race more emphatically than of any other that any departure from the laws of growth of a species is not to be taken as a sign that the individual will exhibit at maturity any unusual amount or intensity of the qualities by which the species is if an oak should show a rapidity of growth equal to that of a we should not be driven to infer that the mature tree would show a firmer texture of wood than an ordinary oak or a greater power of producing how then can we expect to see other laws at work in man but that and masculine force of intellect which us in did not show itself till and might therefore have been for anything that experience teaches us to the contrary the first outburst of a unique energy that would have gone on developing and gathering strength with years at the age of five the attempt to teach him even his letters had failed and at six and a half his mother and sister still thought he was an absolute fool when dose upon his eighth year he was admitted to s blue coat school while absorbing as a water all the knowledge to be got there he ran through three and it was then that he began to show that passion for poetry and which soon began to his life the first form as far as is known taken by this passion was a strange one that of a played upon a of named for whom a false of great antiquity with a poem by one of the s ancestors the of the this proving a complete success though rewarded only with a crown piece was induced to try his hand at the same kind of work again and produced an imaginary account of the of bridge in the time of henry ii which deceived all the local this was followed by the of in by t for master which deceived to whom he sent it and finally a mass of antique poetry consisting of fragments and dramatic which under the thomas name of the poems gave rise after his death to almost as much angry discussion a the poetry itself some of this work was achieved at school but most of it after he had been removed from school to the office of a attorney a boyish resulted in his for london on the th of april and beginning life there as a literary adventurer on a capital of something under five pounds at a time when the struggle of london literary life was only less dire than it had been thirty years previously when even the figure of dr johnson was nearly he turned to every kind of literary work poems essays stories political articles and and even songs for the music gardens of the time at a few pence each in may and june he had articles in the s magazine the town and country magazine the london museum the political register the court and city magazine and even the gospel magazine among all the literary of his time there was none perhaps so as he yet all the while he cherished as fondly as ever those visions of the past that came to him from st mary as he lay dreaming on the grass at he was half starving when he wrote the ballad of charity which for reserved power and artistic completeness no youth l poet has ever approached nor did he attack london as other literary have done from the s shop alone his sagacity as a man of the world was as wonderful as his literary genius the country boy living on a crust in knew that to conquer london he must conquer the one or two at whose feet the great city was content to lie thousands of ambitious of that day have given much for an introduction to the potent lord mayor before had been in london two months he had achieved this and had so impressed the great man that s future seemed assured but before had time to hold out a hand to the young adventurer he suddenly died this blow seemed fatal to a poor boy with starvation even then staring him in the face but he fought bravely on and would have ended victorious but for his pride that which had been his strength was his weakness now he would not stoop to conquer and the time was come when it was necessary to stoop to live by literature then was almost an impossibility and he had determined to live by literature or die o the english poets with a pride for which no parallel can be found he had already quitted his friends in lest they should become too familiar with his straits and taken a garret at street where he produced a quantity of literary matter which under any circumstances would have been astonishing but which is incredible if his landlady s story is true that he was living sometimes on one loaf a week bought stale to make it last longer at last when starvation seemed inevitable he did make one frantic attempt to obtain the post of ship but this failing he refused to try the commercial world and steadily the gift of a penny or a meal from neighbours who tried in vain to help him he struggled with famine as long as it was possible and then on the evening of the th of august he retired to his garret locked himself in tore up all his and poisoned himself with it is not to make capital out of the painful interest to s life that i glance at it here on	45
his behalf assuredly the personal interest in a poet having such a story as his is what the critic has specially to guard against in trying to find his proper place in the of our poetic literature to the marvellous boy of that kind of interest which has been associated with his name for more than a century and at the same time to do justice to an intelligence which compared with s and a genius which inspired and with awe would require an study of that most chapter of literary history the chapter that with literary and my defence of him is simply this that if such a study were we should find that in matters of literary besides the impulse of the mere as appears to critics like besides the impulse of the instinct so strong in men of the ireland and type there is another impulse altogether the impulse of certain artistic natures to represent such as we see in sir walter scott when with the historical and such as we see in when struggling in his dark garret with famine and despair he turns from the hack work that at least might win him bread to write the ballad of charity the most purely artistic work perhaps of his time w thomas a an excellent ballad of charity in virgin the sun and hot upon the did cast his ray the apple from its green and the soft did bend the leafy spray the sang the day twas now the pride the manhood of the year and the ground was in its most the sun was gleaming in the mid of day dead still the air and the blue when from the sea in array a heap of clouds of sullen hue the which full fast unto the drew hiding at once the s face and the black tempest swelled and gathered up beneath an fast by a pathway side which did unto saint s lead a pilgrim moaning did abide poor in his view in his weed long breast full of the miseries of need where from the could the beggar fly he had no there nor any nigh look in his face his there how woe how withered dead i haste to thy church house accursed man haste to thy coffin thy sole bed i cold as the clay which will grow on thy head are charity and love among high the knights and live for pleasure and themselves used by as mantle a sleeping room io the english poets the gathered storm is ripe the big drops fall the meadows smoke and drink the rain the coming doth the cattle and the full flocks are driving o er the plain dashed from the clouds the waters again the the yellow flies and the hot fiery steam in the wide flame dies list now the thunder s rattling sound moves slowly on and then shakes the high spire and lost drown d still on the ear of terror hangs the winds are up the lofty elm tree again the and the thunder and the full clouds are burst at once in stormy showers his o er the watery plain the of saint s came his was with the rain his painted met with shame he backwards told his at the same the storm and he drew aside with the poor near to the to bide his cope was all of cloth so fine with a gold button fastened near his chin his was edged with golden and his peak d shoe a s might have been full well it showed he counted cost no sin the of the pleased his sight for the horse his head with roses here s text word is and his fly seems more appropriate flames noisy chatter ton is adopted as nearer in sound to his text word to signify cursing a loose white robe worn by priests being in in saw horse inscribed over a shop door outside which stood a wooden horse with ribbons thomas an sir priest the drooping pilgrim said let me wait within your door till the sun high above our head and the loud tempest of the air is o er helpless and old am i alas and poor no house nor friend nor money in my all that i call my own is this my silver replied the cease your din this is no season and prayers to give my porter never lets a beggar in none touch my ring who not in honour live and now the sun with the black clouds did strive and shot upon the ground his glaring ray the his and rode away once more the sky was black the thunder fast running o er the plain a priest was seen not full proud nor up in gold his cope and were grey and were clean a he was of order seen and from the pathway side then turned he where the poor beggar lay beneath the tree an sir priest the drooping pilgrim said for sweet saint mary and your order s sake i the then loosened his thread and did a of silver take the pilgrim did for gladness shake here take this silver it may ease thy care we are god s all of our own we bear but ah unhappy pilgrim learn of me scarce any give a to their lord here take my thou rt bare i see cross a short worn by of inferior class a begging the english poets tis thine the saints will give me my reward he left the pilgrim and his way virgin and holy saints who sit in or give the mighty will or give the good man power the first when england from her deadly wound from her neck did pluck the chain away her sons fall all	45

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