in England. Bürger and his fellow-poets of the "Hainbund," who were all young men with a confused hatred of tyrants and great affection for the full moon, took to writing more ballads after the old pattern, as illustrated by Percy's "Reliques" and explained by Herder, and soon Herder established the new lines in which German thought was destined to run, substituting the intelligent study of the past for the faithful following of academic rules. PERRY, THOMAS SERGEANT, 1883, English Literature in the Eighteenth Century, pp. 422, 423.

In undertaking the supervision of a new edition of the 'Reliques of Ancient English Poetry," I felt that no safer or better guidance could be followed than that of Bishop Percy himself; and as he always strove, in the several editions published by himself, to embody therein the sum of the knowledge of his times, so I, following at a distance, have endeavoured, by gathering from many quarters particulars published since his death, to make his book still more worthy of the great reputation it has acquired.-WHEATLEY, HENRY B., 1891, ed. Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, Preface, vol. I, p. ix.

It was an epoch-making book, and is usually spoken of as one of the chief causes of the great re-awakening in English poetry. But the course of our studies in the ballad revival proves that Percy's book was fully as much a result as it was a cause of the Romantic movement. PHELPS, WILLIAM LYON, 1893, The Beginnings of the English Romantic Movement, p. 129.

Percy was a critic of admirable poetical taste and literary skill, but he was not altogether proof against the temptations to which these qualities exposed him. In the collection of ballads which he "edited" from the MS. in his possession, he did not scruple to alter and supplement the original text whenever he thought that by so doing he could improve the general effect. By these practices he roused the wrath of an able and relentless antagonist.-COURTHOPE, W. J., 1895, A History of English Poetry, vol. I, p. 428.

Percy not only rescued, himself, a number of ballads from forgetfulness; what was equally important, his book prompted others to hunt out and publish similar relics before it was too late. It was the

occasion of collections like Herd's (1769), Scott's (1802-03), and Motherwell's (1827), and many more, resting on purer texts and edited on more scrupulous principles than his own. Furthermore, his ballads helped to bring about a reform in literary taste and to inspire men of original genius. Wordsworth, Coleridge, Southey, Scott, all acknowledged the greatest obligations to them. Wordsworth said that English poetry had been "absolutely redeemed" by them. "I do not think there is a writer in verse of the present day who would not be proud to acknowledge his obligations to the 'Reliques.' I know that it is so with my friends; and for myself, I am happy in this occasion to make a public avowal of my own." Without the "Reliques," "The Ancient Mariner," "The Lady of the Lake," "La Belle Dame sans Merci, sans Merci," "Stratton Water, "and"The Haystack in the Floods" might never have been. Perhaps even the "Lyrical Ballads" might never have been, or might have been something quite unlike what they are.-BEERS, HENRY A., 1898, A History of English Romanticism in the Eighteenth Century, p. 299.

GENERAL

Dr. Percy was so abashed by the ridicule flung upon his labours from the ignorance and insensibility of the persons with whom he lived, that, though while he was writing under a mask he had not wanted resolution to follow his genius into the regions of true simplicity and genuine pathos (as is evinced by the exquisite ballad of "Sir Cauline," and by many other pieces), yet when he appeared in his own person and character as a poetical writer, he adopted, as in the tale of the "Hermit of Warkworth," a diction scarcely in any one of its features distinguishable from the vague, the glossy, and unfeeling language of his day. I mention this remarkable fact with regret, esteeming the genius of Dr. Percy in this kind of writing superior to that of any other man by whom in modern times it has been cultivated.WORDSWORTH, WILLIAM, 1815, Poems, Essay Supplementary to the Preface.

Percy was not, perhaps, a man of much originality of genius, or great strength, or richness of mind. Johnson was probably right when he said, "He runs about with little weight upon his mind." Yet he was unquestionably endowed with certain rare

The remembrance of his large, expressive features when he climbed the hill, and of his organ-like voice in praising God, is yet fresh, and ever pleasing in my miud. But it is rendered a sad recollection from contrasting his then energy with the faltering and fallen man which he afterwards became.-CAMPBELL, THOMAS, 1812, Life and Letters, ed., Beattie, vol. 1, ch. xxv.

Tall, solemn, large-featured, and very dark, he was not unlike one of the independent preachers of the commonwealth. He is styled "sepulchral Grahame" by Byron. Neither the bar, at which he practised a few years, nor Whig principles, in the promotion of which he was most ardent (but with which he meant only the general principles of liberty), were the right vocation of a pensive nature, whose delight was in religion and poetry. . . . With the softest of human hearts, his indignation knew no bounds when it was roused by what he held to be oppression, especially of animals or the poor, both of whom he took under his special protection. He and a beggar seemed always to be old friends. The merit of his verse consists in its expressing the feelings of his own heart. It all breathes a quiet, musing benevolence, and a sympathy with the happiness of every living creature. Contention, whether at the bar or in the church, had no charms for one to whom a Scotch tune was a pleasure for a winter evening, and who could pass the whole summer days in cultivating the personal acquaintance of birds in their own haunts, and to whom nothing was a luxury that excluded the etherial calm of indolence. Yet his virtue was by no means passive. He was roused into a new nature by abhorrence of cruelty, and could submit to anything in the cause of duty -COCKBURN, HENRY THOMAS LORD, 1852, Life of Lord Jeffrey.

GENERAL

We have a new poet come forth amongst us-James Graham, author of a poem called the "Sabbath," which I admire very much.-SCOTT, SIR WALTER, 1805, To Miss Seward, March 21; Life by Lockhart,ch, xiii.

The greater part of it ["The Sabbath"] is written in a heavy and inelegant manner. The diction throughout is tainted. with vulgarity, and there is no selection of words, images, or sentiments, to conciliate the favour of the fastidious reader.

The author has evidently some talents for poetical compositions, and is never absolutely absurd, tedious, or silly; but he has no delicacy of taste or imagination; he does not seem to feel the force of the sanction against poetical mediocrity, and his ear appears to have no perception of the finer harmony of versification. If he be a young man, we think there are considerable hopes of him: but if this be the production of maturer talents, we cannot in our conscience exhort him to continue to the service of the muses. It

contains a good deal of doctrine and argumentation, indeed, both in the text and in the notes; but nothing that is not either very trite or very shallow and extravagant. The whole publication, indeed, though not entitled to stand in the first rank of poetical excellence, is respectably executed, and may be considered as very creditable, either to a beginner, or to one who does not look upon poetry as his primary vocation.JEFFREY, FRANCIS LORD, 1805, The Sabbath, Edinburgh Review, vol. 5, pp. 441, 442. Sweet are thy Sabbath lays, my gentle Grahame,

Pure as thy mind, and spotless as thy fame!

GRANT, ANNE, 1808, Inscribed in "The Sabbath," Memoir and Correspondence, ed. Grant, vol. 1, p. 137.

Moravians, rise! bestow some meet reward
On dull devotion-Lo! the Sabbath bard,
Sepulchral Grahame, pours his notes sublime,
In mangled prose, nor e'en aspires to rhyme,
Breaks into blank the Gospel of St. Luke,
And boldly pilfers from the Pentateuch;
And, undisturb'd by conscientious qualms,
Perverts the Prophets and purloins the
Psalms.

-BYRON, LORD, 1809, English Bards and
Scotch Reviewers.

While the criticasters of his own country were pronouncing sentence of condemnation upon it, for its pious dulness and inanity, the "Sabbath" had found its. way from one end of Great Britain to the other; it was in the mouths of the young, and in the hearts of the aged.-SOUTHEY, ROBERT, 1810, Grahame's British Georgics, Quarterly Review, vol. 3, p. 457.

Profaning the best name of poesy.
With loftier aspirations, and an aim
More worthy man's immortal nature, Thou
That holiest spirit that still loves to dwell
In the upright heart and pure, at noon of night
Didst fervently invoke, and, led by her
Above the Aonian mount, sent from the stars
Of heaven such soul-subduing melody
As Bethlehem-shepherds heard when Christ
was born.

-WILSON, JOHN, 1811, Lines Sacred to the Memory of the Rev. James Grahame.

His taste was singular, and his manner correspondent. The general tenor of his style is homely, and frequently so prosaic that its peculiar graces appear in their full lustre from the contrast of meanness that surrounds them. His readers may be few; but whoever does read him will probably be oftener surprised into admiration, than in the perusal of any one of his contemporaries. The most lively, the most lovely sketches of natural scenery, of minute imagery, and of exquisite incident, unexpectedly developed, occur in his compositions, with ever-varying, yet ever-assimilating features. - MONTGOMERY, JAMES, 1833, Lectures on General Literature, Poetry, etc., p. 159

The blank verse of Grahame has some resemblance in structure to that of Cowper and of Wordsworth; but as an artist, he was much inferior to and wants the correctness of either. Whether this arose from deficiency of ear-which could not well be, as he is said to have sung the ballads and songs of our native land mellifluously, and with a touching tenderness--or from some preconceived conviction of its effect in preventing monotony, we have ever, here and there, a line that halts, or that grates prosaically on the ear, like an instrument out of tune. His pages are never lighted up with wit or humour; and it has been objected to him, that he is too uniformly tender or solemn. -MOIR, D. M., 1850-51, Sketches of the Political Literature of the Past Half-Century, p. 26. It ["British Georgics"] does not exhibit. any particular system of husbandry; it amuses rather than instructs, and recommends the study of the science rather than teaching of it. The work embraces. a mixed description, and is lavish on rural modes and manners; the poetry is both lame and tame, and never rises beyond a feebleness of conception, and a descriptive halt. The portion of practical knowledge

is very minute, with incidental notes of new introductions.- DONALDSON, JOHN, 1854, Agricultural Biography.

Grahame's genius was limited in its range but within that range was exquisitely true and beautiful. He had no dramatic power, has written no lyrics of merit, and his vein of thought is far from profound. He has been called the Cowper of Scotland, and resembles him in tenderness of feeling, truth of natural description, and ardent piety, but is vastly inferior in strength of mind, force and continuity of style, and, whatever he might do in private, has in his poetry given no evidence of possessing a particle of Cowper's refined and inimitable humour.-GILFILLAN, GEORGE, 1856, ed., The Poetical Works of Henry Kirke White and James Grahame.

We may add, before we leave these northern scenes, to which for a time the high flood of intellectual activity seemed to have been transferred, the gentle name of James Grahame, the author of the "Sabbath. He was not a great poet, nor is that a great poem, but it is very national, and full of a tender sweetnessand echo of Cowper on Scottish soil. Grahame came to light among the early band of the Edinburgh Reviewers, a spectator and sympathiser, if no moreadding a mild enthusiasm for the work of his stronger and more daring friends to his own gentle faculty. . . . His poems are full of the atmosphere of a pure and retired existence, with something, however, that reminds the reader more of a Scottish manse than an English parsonage; and he was always intensely national. -OLIPHANT, MARGARET O. W., 1882, The Literary History of England XVIIIthXIXth Century, vol. II, pp. 169, 170.

When married, Grahame discovered that his wife thought but meanly of his poetry, and this, no doubt, was his main reason for publishing "The Sabbath" anonymously in 1804. It charmed him to find Mrs. Grahame in raptures over the descriptive. beauty, the vivid historical illustrations, the moving, sentimental pictures, and the deep religious earnestness of a poem that is Scottish to the core; and he then avowed the authorship. Three new editions were called for in a year, and to these Grahame added descriptive and thoughtful"Sabbath Walks."-BAYNE, THOMAS, 1890, Dictionary of National Biography, vol. XXII, p.366.

569

PERSONAL

There is abundance of proof that Mr. Horne was now considered an admirable preacher, and that his eloquence only wanted cultivation to place him among the most successful of our English divines. But it was in orthodox and doctrinal discourses that he chiefly excelled, and he is accordingly reported to have distinguished himself greatly by his exhortations before confirmation, on which occasion, by mingling sound argument with kind and affectionate persuasion, he never failed to make a suitable impression on all who heard him. In short, he might not only have been greatly respected as a popular pastor, but was still in a fair way to become one of the pillars of the Anglican church, when a memorable event occurred in the political world, and proved an insurmountable, though not, perhaps, an unexpected obstacle to his future preferment. STEPHENS, ALEXANDER, 1813, Memoirs of John Horne Tooke.

It would be but impertinent, however, to effect to call such a character as that of John Horne Tooke to account for this or the other particular culpability. It would be something like attempting to criticize the transactions of a pagan temple, and excepting to one rite as ungraceful, perhaps, and to another practice as irreverent; like as if the substance of the service were of a quality to deserve that its particular parts should be corrected. His whole moral constitution was unsound, from the exclusion . . . of all respect to a future account, to be given

to the Supreme Governor. Towards the conclusion of his life, he made calm and frequent references to his death, but not a word is here recorded expressive of anticipations beyond it.-FOSTER, John, 1813, Horne Tooke, Critical Essags, ed. Ryland, vol. II, p. 191.

Mr. Horne Tooke was one of those who may be considered as connecting links between a former period and the existing generation. His education and accomplishments, nay, his political opinions, were of the last age; his mind, and the tone of his feeling were modern. There was a hard, dry materialism in the very texture of his understanding, varnished over by the external refinement of the old school. Mr. Tooke had great scope of attainments, and great versatility of pursuits; but the same shrewdness, quickness, cool selfpossession, the same literalness of perception, the absence of passion and enthusiasm, characterised nearly all he did, said or wrote. He was without a rival (almost) in private conversation, an expert public speaker, a keen politician, a firstrate grammarian, and the finest gentleman (to say the least) of his own party. He had no imagination (or he would not have scorned it!)-no delicacy of taste, no rooted prejudices or strong attachments: his intellect was like a bow of polished steel, from which he shot sharp-pointed poisoned arrows at his friends in private, at his enemies in public. His mind (so to speak) had no religion in it, and very little even of the moral qualities of genius; but he was a man of the world, a scholar