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honest, upright, independent character, which he took from his native Nithsdale.

Nor can we omit, from our list of modern poets, the names of the two noble brothers, John and Alexander Bethune, justly memorable among the lowly-born poets of Scotland. These two brothers will ever be associated with the gifted Ayrshire peasant, though their poetic genius was no borrowed light, but original, and inspired from nature, like his own. Along with Byron, in like manner, we are accustomed, in some degree, to associate the names of Shelley and Keats; and also, though for different reasons, of Kirke White and Moore. One of the latter owes not a little of his fame to his having been commemorated in the first really vigorous poem of Byron-his "English Bards and Scotch Reviewers"-and to his having had, as his generous biographer, the poet Southey. The other survived to become the biographer of the author of "Childe Harold," whom he had known as a friend in earlier life.

PERCY BYSHE SHELLEY,

BORN, 1792; DIED, 1822,

WAS the son of Sir Timothy Shelley, of Castle Goring, Essex. Under unwise training, and the influence of the system of our public schools and colleges, which seems so peculiarly unsuited for wisely fostering genius, this gifted poet went astray into the most crude and extravagant opinions on religion and social government in all its relations. Yet his natural disposition appears to have been most gentle and loveable, and, under wiser training,

might have produced the best fruits. Instead of this, he was expelled from college, cast off from his family, and the whole course of his life forced in unnatural antagonism with society. He withdrew to Switzerland in search of health, and there he for the first time met with his brother poet, Byron. Notwithstanding the licentiousness of his views in regard to nearly all moral, political, and social systems, Shelley was a man of singularly pure moral life; and his biography, written by his widow-the gifted daughter of Godwin and Mary Wolstoncraftshows a peculiarly gentle and affectionate nature, accompanied with great generosity and forbearance for others. No sadder picture, indeed, of a fine genius, marred by the uncongenial effects of an unwise educational system, could be produced, among all the biographies of great poets. He was drowned in the Gulf of Spezzia, by the upsetting of his pleasure-boat, when he had only reached his thirtieth year.

His poetic genius was extremely prolific, and his poems abound in great beauties, though strangely mingled with the idealism of his sceptical philosophy, and also with an illustrative imagery, frequently derived from the most loathsome ideas which nature can present.

JOHN KEATS.

BORN, 1796; DIED, 1820.

THIS youthful poet was the son of a livery-stable keeper in London. He was studying with a view to following the medical profession, when, as is believed, the harsh notice of his fine poem "Endymion," so preyed upon his

acutely sensitive mind, as to have led to the disease of which he died. In the hopes of averting the progress of consumption, he was recommended to try a warm climate, and he accordingly repaired to Rome, where he died in the arms of a young artist, Mr. Severn, whose generous and devoted friendship had nearly sacrificed his own life in his assiduous care of his dying friend. Keats was only twenty-four when he died, adding another to the many examples of high poetic promise thus cut off when their genius "just waved its joyous wing." Beautiful as his poems are, they can be regarded only as the early indications of genius, which, had it reached maturity, might have rivalled the greatest poets of the age.

The phalanx of literary genius in our own day has been strengthened by not a few distinguished female names, and among these the poets take a prominent place, including Joanna Baillie, Felicia Hemans, L. E. Landon, Caroline Bowles, Elizabeth Barrett, and other well-known names. Some of these are still, happily, among our living poets. From among them all, we may select, as the most widely popular both in this country and America,

FELICIA HEMANS.

BORN, 1793; LIED, 1835.

HER maiden name was Felicia Dorothea Browne, the daughter of an Irish merchant, who resided at Liverpool at the time of her birth. Her childhood and youth, as well as most of the later years of her life were spent in Wales. At the age of eighteen she married Captain Hemans, but the union proved an unhappy one. About six years afterwards, her husband retired to Italy for his

health, and without any formal separation, they never again met. Thenceforth she contrived to maintain herself, and to educate her family almost solely by the fruits of her pen; and to this harsh stimulus is to be ascribed the production of many pieces of inferior merit, which have detracted from her fame. Delicacy of feeling, and a refined though sad tone of devotional feeling run through her writings. They are eminently pure and feminine in character; and have acquired a popularity which have led to many imitators. The most successful of these is the American poetess, Maria Sigourney; but, as in all other cases of literary imitation, none of them have equalled the original. Mrs. Hemans' remains lies interred in St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, where she died in 1835, while on a visit to her brother, Major Browne.

LIVING POETS.

THE closing years of the eighteenth century gave birth to a succession of men of genius, some of whom still linger among us. Every year, our obituaries record the death of some among these illustrious and gifted poets and scholars who have long won our admiration and influenced our taste. Yet still we number among our contemporaries such distinguished survivors of a former generation as SAMUEL ROGERS, JOHN WILSON, HENRY HART MILMAN, and JAMES MONTGOMERY, all of whom have contributed to the high character of the poetic literature of the age, and helped to influence the styles of younger poets.

ROGERS, the author of "The Pleasures of Memory," and of "Italy," as well as of many beautiful minor poems, has

enjoyed the luxuries and privileges of life, as a wealthy banker, and has added to his just reputation as a poet, by the character of a liberal and enlightened patron of art, and a most generous encourager of genius and worth in every form.

JOHN WILSON, the author of the "Isle of Palms," was born at Paisley in 1789, and now, after long and honourably filling the chair of Moral Philosophy in the University of Edinburgh, he has resigned it, to retire into private life, and spend his remaining days in the enjoyment of that country life which he has so often delighted to picture. His genius and worth have been honourably recognised and rewarded by a pension of £300 from the crown.

MILMAN, the author of "The Martyr of Antioch," now fills the distinguished ecclesiastical appointment of Dean of St. Paul's Cathedral; while JAMES MONTGOMERY-an Ayrshire poet by birth, though the son of English Moravians who settled there only for a brief period — the author of "The Pelican Islands," and many other beautiful and highly popular poems, still lives at Sheffield, where he has spent the greater part of his life, honourably supporting himself by literary labour.

JOANNA BAILLIE, one of the most vigorous of female poets, had long ceased to contribute to our poetic literature; but in her retirement, in the neighbourhood of London, her society was anxiously courted by most of the distinguished literary men of the age, and her correspondence has produced many interesting memorials of her great contemporaries. One after another of these survivors of a former age are disappearing from among us, and she, too, has gone

"Into the land of the great Departed."

It is not necessary to attempt a biographical sketch of

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