imaginative poems; while, in his serious works, there is a melancholy tenderness that reveals how true the poet's words were in his own case

"There's not a string attuned to mirth
But has its chord in melancholy."

FROM "MISS KILMANSEGG."

"What different lots our stars accord!
This babe to be hailed and woo'd as a lord,
And that to be shunned like a leper:
One to the world's wine, honey, and corn,
Another, like Colchester, native born,
To its vinegar only and pepper.

"And the other sex-the tender, the fair-
What wide reverses of Fate are there!

Whilst Margaret, charmed by the Bulbul rare,
In a garden of Gul reposes;

Poor Peggy hawks nosegays from street to street
Till-think of that, who find life so sweet!-
She hates the smell of roses.'

FROM AN "ODE TO THE MOON."
"O thou art beautiful, howe'er it be!
Huntress, or Dian, or whatever named-
And he the veriest Pagan who first framed
A silver idol, and ne'er worshipped thee;
It is too late, or thou should'st have
Too late now for the old Ephesian vows,
And not divine the crescent on thy brows;
Yet, call thee nothing but the mere mild moon,
Behind those chestnut boughs,

my

knee

Casting their dappled shadows at my feet;
I will be grateful for that simple boon,
In many a thoughtful verse and anthem sweet,
And bless thy dainty face whene'er we meet."

THE DEATH BED.

"We watched her breathing through the night,
Her breathing soft and low,

As in her breast the wave of life
Kept heaving to and fro.

"So silently we seemed to speak,

So slowly moved about,

As we had lent her half our powers
To eke her living out.

OTHER POETS.

"Our very hopes belied our fears,
Our fears our hopes belied-

We thought her dying when she slept,
And sleeping when she died.

"For when the morn came dim and sad,
And chill with early showers,
Her quiet eyelids closed-she had
Another morn than ours.' ""

187

Other Poets. LORD MACAULAY, the historian, excelled also as a poet, his Lays of Ancient Rome being remarkable for their energetic and chivalrous character, and for a musical versification almost peculiar to themselves. DR. CHARLES MACKAY is chiefly notable for his lyrical poems, some of his songs, such as Cheer, Boys, Cheer, and There's a Good Time Coming, Boys, being highly popular both in this country and in America. DAVID MACBETH MOIR, who usually signed himself Delta, wrote numerous poetical pieces of considerable merit, but he will be best remembered by his very humorous Scotch story, entitled The Autobiography of Mansie Wauch, a tailor of Dalkeith. SYDNEY DOBBELL, the author of Balder; PHILIP JAMES BAILEY, the author of Festus; ALEXANDER SMITH, the author of A Life Drama, &c.; and GERALD MASSEY, the author of the Ballad of Babe Christabel; are among the more noteworthy of the minor poets. Their works, characterized as they often are by lofty imagination and a fiery energy of expression, are either overloaded with ornament or spoiled by irregularity or want of harmony in their versification. The name of ALGERNON SWINBURNE has been recently added to the list of poets. His poems

are usually of a feverish and unhealthy character. They exhibit, doubtless, true poetic talent, and latterly they have manifested a better spirit and a nobler style.

DEATH OF MAMILIUS AND FLIGHT OF HIS CHARGER.

(From the Battle of Lake Regillus.)

"Mamilius spied Herminius,

And dashed across the way.

'Herminius! I have sought thee
Through many a bloody day.
One of us two, Herminius,
Shall never more go home.
I will lay on for Tusculum,
And lay thou on for Rome.'

"All round them paused the battle,
While met in mortal fray,
The Roman and the Tusculan,
The horses black and gray.
Herminius smote Mamilius

Through breast-plate and through breast,
And fast flowed out the purple blood
Over the purple vest.

Mamilius smote Herminius

Through head-piece and through head; And side by side those chiefs of pride Together fell down dead.

"Fast, fast, with heels wild spurning,
The dark gray charger fled:

He burst through ranks of fighting men,
He sprang o'er heaps of dead.
His bridle far out-streaming,

His flanks all blood and foam,
He sought the southern mountains,
The mountains of his home.
The pass was steep and rugged,

The wolves they howled and whined;
But he ran like a whirlwind up the pass,
And he left the wolves behind.

Through many a startled hamlet,
Thundered his flying feet;

He rushed through the gate of Tusculum,
He rushed up the long white street;
He rushed by tower and temple,
And paused not from his race,

Till he stood before his master's door
In the stately market place.
And straightway round him gathered
A pale and trembling crowd,

And when they knew him, cries of rage
Brake forth, and wailing loud.
And women rent their tresses,
For their great prince's fall;

And old men girt on their old swords,

And went to man the wall."

Macaulay's Lays of Ancient Roma

WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY.

DRAMATISTS.

189

The play writers of this age are neither very numerous nor very great. BULWER LYTTON produced Richelieu and The Lady of Lyons, two of the most popular of modern stage plays. JUDGE TALFOURD wrote classical dramas, the best being that named Ion. DOUGLAS JERROLD contributed two comedies, Time Works Wonders and Black-eyed Susan, both of which are great favourites; and SIR HENRY TAYLOR is the author of Philip van Artevelde, a dramatic poem.

CHAPTER XVII.

PROSE LITERATURE-FROM 1830 TILL THE

PRESENT DAY.

NOVELISTS.-Thackeray-Dickens-Lytton-Eliot-Other

No

velists. HISTORIANS.-Alison-Macaulay-Froude-Grote
-Other Historians. BIOGRAPHERS.-Lockhart-Forster-
Smiles-Lewes-Other Biographers. WRITERS ON RELIGI-
OUS SUBJECTS. PHILOSOPHERS.-Hamilton-Mill-Other
Philosophers. MISCELLANEOUS WRITERS. Carlyle - De
Quincey-Jerrold-Helps-Other Miscellaneous Writers.

SCIENTIFIC WRITERS.-Miller-Darwin-Tyndall-Huxley
-Other Miscellaneous Writers. WRITERS ON ART.-Rus-
kin-Mrs. Jameson. WRITERS ON TRAVEL.-Layard-
Livingstone-Other Travellers.

IN prose literature no former period has been so productive as the age in which we live. Novels are in rich abundance. Historians, biographers, critics, and essayists have added valuable information to our previous knowledge, or provided for us a store of useful and pleasant reading. In the department of philosophy and science, the authors have been exceedingly numerous and important, and from day to day the newspaper press teems with a literature peculiar to itself, a literature containing much that is highly instructive, although scarcely of a kind that will endure.

NOVELISTS.

WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY (b. 1811, d. 1863), was born at Calcutta his father being then in the service

of the East India Company. At the age of seven he was sent to England, and received his early training at the famous Charter House School. He next went to Cambridge, but did not wait to take his degree, for he had made up his mind to become an artist. Being possessed of an ample fortune, he now proceeded to the Continent and spent some time in travel. On his return to England, various losses compelled him to turn his attention to literature as a means of support, and he contributed many humorous tales and sketches, signing himself sometimes "Michael Angelo Titmarsh," and sometimes "George Fitzboodle, Esq." When Punch was started in 1841, Thackeray became one of its staff of writers, and under the name of "The Fat Contributor," wrote Jeames's Diary, and other papers of a satirical character. Hitherto, however, he had been merely regarded as a clever writer of magazine articles, and it was not till his first novel, Vanity Fair, began to make its appearance in monthly parts, that the greatness of his genius was seen and acknowledged. Pendennis came next, and then in 1851 he turned public lecturer, choosing for his subject the English Humorists of the Eighteenth Century. These lectures enjoyed great popularity in London, and were afterwards re-delivered in Scotland and in America. His next novels were Esmond and The Newcomes, and on the completion of these he delivered a second set of lectures, the subject on this occasion being The Four Georges. On his return from America, whither he had gone to deliver them, he wrote the Virginians, and (while editor of the Cornhill Magazine) Lovel the Widower and the Adventures of Philip. This distinguished novelist died suddenly at the close of the year 1863.

Vanity Fair, which was illustrated by Thackeray himself, gives an account of two women-the one, Becky Sharp, clever, pushing, and unscrupulous; the other, Amelia Sedley, a well-meaning, virtuous creature, but brainless and insipid.

The History of Pendennis is that of a young scapegrace. He falls in love with an actress, who jilts him; gets into