obtained a fellowship, and in 1757 was appointed pression and general interest, but some of his longer Professor of Poetry. He was also curate of Wood- pieces, by their martial spirit and Gothic fancy, are stock, and rector of Kiddington, a small living near calculated to awaken a stirring and romantic enthuOxford. The even tenor of his life was only varied siasm. Hazlitt considered some of his sonnets the by his occasional publications, one of which was an finest in the language, and they seem to have caught elaborate Essay on Spenser's Faery Queen. He also the fancy of Coleridge and Bowles. The following edited the minor poems of Milton, an edition which are picturesque and graceful :Leigh Hunt says is a wilderness of sweets, and is the only one in which a true lover of the original can Written in a Blank Leaf of Dugdale's Monasticon. pardon an exuberance of annotation. Some of the Deem not devoid of elegance the sage, notes are highly poetical, while others display War- By Fancy's genuine feelings unbeguiled ton's taste for antiquities, for architecture, superstition, and his intimate acquaintance with the old of painful pedantry, the poring child, Elizabethan writers. A still more important work, who turns of these proud domes the historic page, the History of English Poetry, forms the basis of his Now sunk by Time, and Henry's fiercer rage. reputation. In this history Warton poured out in On his lone hours ? Ingenious views engage

Think'st thou the warbling muses never smiled profusion the treasures of a full mind. His antiqua- His thoughts on themes unclassic falsely styled, rian lore, his love of antique manners, and his chi- Intent. While cloistered piety displays valrous feelings, found appropriate exercise in tracing Her mouldering roll, the piercing eye explores the stream of our poetry from its first fountain- New manners, and the

pomp of elder days, springs, down to the luxuriant reign of Elizabeth, Whence culls the pensive bard his pictured stores. which he justly styled “the most poetical age of our Not rough nor barren are the winding ways annals. Pope and Gray had planned schemes of a Of hoar antiquity, but strewn with flowers. history of English poetry, in which the authors were to be arranged according to their style and merits. Warton adopted the chronological arrangement, as

On Revisiting the River Loddon. giving freer exertion for research, and as enabling Ah! what a weary race my feet have run him to exhibit, without transposition, the gradual Since first I trod thy banks with alders crowned, improvements of our poetry, and the progression of And thought my way was all through fairy ground, our language. The untiring industry and learning Beneath the azure sky and golden sunof the poet-historian accumulated a mass of ma- When first my muse to lisp her notes begun! terials equally valuable and curious. His work is a While pensive memory traces back the round vast store-house of facts connected with our early Which fills the varied interval between; literature, and if he sometimes wanders from his Much pleasure, more of sorrow marks the scene. subject, or overlays it with extraneous details, it Sweet native stream ! those skies and suns so pure, should be remembered, as his latest editor, Mr Price, No more return to cheer my evening road! remarks, that new matter was constantly arising, Yet still one joy remains, that not obscure and that Warton was the first adventurer in the Nor useless, all my vacant days have flowed extensive region through which he journied, and into From youth's gay dawn to manhood's prime mature, which the usual pioneers of literature had scarcely Nor with the muse's laurel unbestowed. penetrated.' It is to be regretted that Warton's plan excluded the drama, which forms so rich a

On Sir Joshua Reimolds's Painted Window at Oxford. source of our early imaginative literature; but this defect has been partly supplied by Mr Collier's | Ye brawny Prophets, that in robes so rich, Annals of the Stage. On the death of Whitehead in At distance due, possess the crisped niche ; 1785, Warto was appointed poet-laureate. His Ye rows of Patriarchs that, sublimely reared, learning gave dignity to an office usually held in Diffuse a proud primeval length of beard : small esteem, and which in our day has been wisely Ye Saints, who, clad in crimson's bright array, converted into a sinecure. The same year he was More pride than humble poverty display: made Camden Professor of History. While pursu- Ye Virgins meek, that wear the palmy crown ing his antiquarian and literary researches, Warton Of patient faith, and yet so fiercely frown: was attacked with gout, and his enfeebled health Ye Angels, that from clouds of gold recline, yielded to a stroke of paralysis in 1790. Notwith- But boast no semblance to a race divine: standing the classic stiffness of his poetry, and his Ye tragic Tales of legendary lore, full-blown academical honours, Warton appears to That draw devotion's ready tear no more ; have been an easy companionable man, who de- Ye Martyrdoms of unenlightened days, lighted to unbend in common society, and especially Ye Miracles that now no wonder raise; with boys. “During his visits to his brother, Dr Shapes, that with one broad glare the gazer strike, J. Warton (master of Winchester school), the reve- Kings, bishops, nuns, apostles, all alike! rend professor became an associate and confidant in Ye Colours, that the unwary sight amaze, all the sports of the schoolboys. When engaged And only dazzle in the noontide blaze ! with them in some culinary occupation, and when No more the sacred window's round disgrace, alarmed by the sudden approach of the master, he But yield to Grecian groups the shining space. has been known to hide himself in a dark corner of Lo! from the canvass Beauty shifts her throne; the kitchen; and has been dragged from thence by Lo! Picture's powers a new formation own! the doctor, who had taken him for some great boy. Behold, she prints upon the crystal plain, He also used to help the boys in their exercises, With her own energy, the expressive stain ! generally putting in as many faults as would dis- The mighty Master spreads his mimic toil guise the assistance."

.** If there was little dignity in More wide, nor only blends the breathing oil; this, there was something better—a kindliness of dis- But calls the lineaments of life complete position and freshness of feeling which all would From genial alchymy's creative heat; wish to retain.

Obedient forms to the bright fusion gives, The poetry of Warton is deficient in natural ex

While in the warm enamel Nature lives.

Reynolds, 'tis thine, from the broad window's height, * Vide Campbell's Specimens, second edition, p. 020. To add new lustre to religious light:

100

To Gothic churches, vaults, and tombs,

Edinburgh, this benevolent gentleman took their Where each sad night some virgin comes, blind author to the Scottish metropolis, where he With throbbing breast, and faded cheek, was enrolled as a student of divinity. In 1746 he Her promised bridegroom's urn to seek;

published a volume of his poems, which was reprinted Or to some abbey's mouldering towers,

with additions in 1754 and 1756. He was licensed Where to avoid cold winter's showers,

a preacher of the gospel in 1759, and three years The naked beggar shivering lies,

afterwards, married the daughter of Mr Johnston, a Whilst whistling tempests round her rise, surgeon in Dumfries. At the same time, through And trembles lest the tottering wall

the patronage of the Earl of Selkirk, Blacklock Should on her sleeping infants fall.

was appointed minister of Kirkcudbright. The Now let us louder strike the lyre,

parishioners, however, were opposed both to church For my heart glows with martial fire;

patronage in the abstract, and to this exercise of it I feel, I feel, with sudden heat,

in favour of a blind man, and the poet relinquished My big tumultuous bosom beat!

the appointment on receiving in lieu of it a modeThe trumpet's clangours pierce mine ear, rate annuity. He now resided in Edinburgh, and A thousand widows' shrieks I hear;

took boarders into his house. His family was a “Give me another horse,' I cry,

scene of peace and happiness. To his literary purLo! the base Gallic squadrons fly.

suits Blacklock added a taste for music, and played Whence is this rage? What spirit, say,

on the flute and flageolet. Latterly, he suffered To battle hurries me away?

from depression of spirits, and supposed that his 'Tis Fancy, in her fiery car,

imaginative powers were failing him; yet the geneTransports me to the thickest war,

rous ardour he evinced in 1786, in the case of Burns, There whirls me o'er the hills of slain,

shows no diminution of sensibility or taste in the Where Tumult and Destruction reign;

appreciation of genius. In one of his later poems, Where, mad with pain, the wounded steed

the blind bard thus pathetically alludes to the supTramples the dying and the dead;

posed decay of his faculties :Where giant Terror stalks around, With sullen joy surveys the ground,

Excursive on the gentle gales of spring, And, pointing to the ensanguined field,

He roved, whilst favour imped his timid wing. Shakes his dreadful Gorgon shield !

Exhausted genius now no more inspires, 0! guide me from this horrid scene

But mourns abortive hopes and faded fires ; To high-arched walks and alleys green,

The short-lived wreath, which once his temples graced, Which lovely Laura seeks, to shun

Fades at the sickly breath of squeamish taste; The fervours of the mid-day sun !

Whilst darker days his fainting flames immure The pangs of absence, O! remove,

In cheerless gloom and winter premature. For thou canst place me near my love,

He died on the 7th of July 1791, at the age of Canst fold in visionary bliss,

seventy. Besides his poems, Blacklock wrote some And let me think I steal a kiss.

sermons and theological treatises, an article on When young-eyed Spring profusely throws Blindness for the Encyclopædia Britannica (which From her green lap the pink and rose;

is ingenious and elegant), and two dissertations When the soft turtle of the dale

entitled Paraclesis ; or Consolations Deduced from To Summer tells her tender tale:

Natural and Revealed Religion, one of them original, When Autumn cooling caverns seeks,

and the other translated from a work ascribed to And stains with wine his jolly cheeks;

Cicero. When Winter, like poor pilgrim old,

Apart from the circumstances under which they Shakes his silver beard with cold;

were produced, the poems of Blacklock offer little At every season let my ear

or temptation to criticism. He has no new Thy solemn whispers, Fancy, hear.

imagery, no commanding power of sentiment, reflection, or imagination. Still he was a fluent and

correct versifier, and his familiarity with the visible A blind descriptive poet seems such an anomaly objects of nature--with trees, streams, the rocks

, in nature, that the case of Dr Blacklock has engaged and sky, and even with different orders of flowers the attention of the learned and curious in no ordi- and plants—is a wonderful phenomenon in one blind nary degree. We read all concerning him with touch; but this could only apply to objects at hand,

from infancy. He could distinguish colours by strong interest, except his poetry, for this is generally not to the features of a landscape, or to the appeartame, languid, and commonplace. He was an amiable and excellent man, of warm and generous variation in the seasons, all of which he has de

ances of storm or sunshine, sunrise or sunset, or the sensibilities, eager for knowledge, and proud to communicate it. Thomas BLACKLOCK was the son scribed. Images of this kind he had at will. Thus,

he exclaimsof a Cumberland bricklayer, who had settled in the town of Annan, Dumfriesshire. When about six Ye vales, which to the raptured eye months old, the child was totally deprived of sight Disclosed the flowery pride of May; by the small-pox; but his worthy father, assisted Ye circling hills, whose summits high by his neighbours, amused his solitary boyhood by Blushed with the morning's earliest ray. reading to him; and before he had reached the age of Or he paints flowers with artist-like precisiontwenty, he was familiar with Spenser, Milton, Pope, and Addison. He was enthusiastically fond of poetry,

Let long-lived pansies here their scents bestow, particularly of the works of Thomson and Allan

The violet languish, and the roses glow ; Ramsay. From these he must, in a great degree, have In yellow glory let the crocus shine, derived his images and impressions of nature and

Narcissus here his love-sick head recline: natural objects; but in after-life the classic poets

Here hyacinths in purple sweetness rise, were added to his store of intellectual enjoyment.

And tulips tinged with beauty's fairest dyes. His father was accidentally killed when the poet In a man to whom all external phenomena were, and was about the age of nineteen; but some of his at- had ever been, one universal blank,' this union of tempts at verse having been seen by Dr Stevenson, | taste and memory was certainly remarkable. Poeti

room

THOMAS BLACKLOCK.

cal feeling he must have inherited from nature, which led him to take pleasure even from his in

The Portrait. fancy in descriptive poetry; and the language, expressions, and pictures thus imprinted on his mind Leau are my cheeks, and hollow are my eyes :

Straight is my person, but of little size; by habitual acquaintance with the best authors, and My youthful down is, like my talents, rare; in literary conversation, seem to have risen sponta- Politely distant stands each single hair. neously in the moment of composition.

My voice too rough to charm a lady's ear;

So smooth, a child may listen without fear;
Terrors of a Guilty Conscience.

Not formed in cadence soft and warbling lays,

To soothe the fair through pleasure's wanton ways.
Cursed with unnumbered groundless fears, My form so fine, so regular, so new,
How pale yon shivering wretch appears ! My port so manly, and so fresh my hue;
For him the daylight shines in vain,

Oft, as I meet the crowd, they, laughing, say,
For him the fields no joys contain ;

See, see Memento Mori cross the way.'
Nature's whole charms to him are lost,

The ravished Proserpine at last, we know,
No more the woods their music boast;

Grew fondly jealous of her sable beau ;
No more the meads their vernal bloom,

But, thanks to Nature ! none from me need fly,
No more the gales their rich perfume:

One heart the devil could wound--so cannot I.
Impending mists deform the sky,

Yet though my person fearless may be seen,
And beauty withers in his eye.

There is some danger in my graceful mien :
In hopes his terrors to elude,

For, as some vessel, tossed by wind and tide,
By day he mingles with the crowd,

Bounds o'er the waves, and rocks from side to side,
Yet finds his soul to fears a prey,

In just vibration thus I always move:
In busy crowds and open day.

This who can view and not be forced to love?
If night his lonely walks surprise,

Hail, charining self! by whose propitious aid
What horrid visions round him rise !

My form in all its glory stands displayed :
The blasted oak which meets his way,

Be present still ; with inspiration kind,
Shown by the meteor's sudden ray,

Let the same faithful colours paint the mind.
The midnight murderer's lone retreat

Like all mankind, with vanity I'm blessed,
Felt heaven's avengeful bolt of late;

Conscious of wit I never yet possessed.
The clashing chain, the groan profound,

To strong desires my heart an easy prey,
Loud from yon ruined tower resound;

Oft feels their force, but never owns their sway.
And now the spot he seems to tread,

This hour, perhaps, as death I hate my foe;
Where some self-slaughtered corse was laid;

The next I wonder why I should do so.
He feels fixed earth beneath him bend,

Though poor, the rich I view with careless eye;
Deep murmurs from her caves ascend ;

Scorn a vain oath, and hate a serious lie.
Till all his soul, by fancy swayed,

I ne'er for satire torture common sense ;
Sees livid phantoms crowd the shade.

Nor show my wit at God's nor man's expense.

Harmless I live, unknowing and unknown ;
Ode to Aurora on Melissa's Birthday.

Wish well to all, and yet do good to none.

Unmerited contempt I hate to bear; ['A compliment and tribute of affection to the tender assi- | Yet on my faults, like others, am severe. duity of an excellent wife, which I have not anywhere seen

Dishonest flames my bosom never fire ; more happily conceived or more elegantly expressed. —Henry The bad I pity, and the good admire: Mackenzie.]

Fond of the Muse, to her devote my days, Of time and nature eldest born,

And scribble, not for pudding, but for praise.
Emerge, thou rosy-fingered morn;
1 Emerge, in purest dress arrayed,

JAMES BEATTIE.
And chase from heaven night's envious shade,
That I once more may pleased survey,

JAMES BEATTIE was the son of a small farmer and And hail Melissa's natal day.

shopkeeper at Laurencekirk, county of Kincardine,

where he was born October 25, 1735. His father Of time and nature eldest born,

died while he was a child, but an elder brother, seeEmerge, thou rosy-fingered morn ;

ing signs of talent in the boy, assisted him in proIn order at the eastern gate

curing a good education; and in his fourteenth year The hours to draw thy chariot wait;

he obtained a bursary or exhibition (always indicatWhilst Zephyr on his balmy wings,

ing some proficiency in Latin) in Marischal college, Mild nature's fragrant tribute brings,

Aberdeen. His habits and views were scholastic, With odours sweet to strew thy way,

and four years afterwards, Beattie was appointed And grace the bland revolving day.

schoolmaster of the parish of Fordoun. He was now But, as thou lead'st the radiant sphere,

situated amidst interesting and romantic scenery, That gilds its birth and marks the year,

which increased his passion for nature and poetry.

The scenes which he afterwards delineated in his And as his stronger glories rise, Diffused around the expanded skies,

Minstrel were (as Mr Southey has justly remarked) Till clothed with beams serenely bright,

those in which he had grown up, and the feelings All heaven's vast concave flames with light ;

and aspirations therein expressed, were those of his

own boyhood and youth. He became a poet at ForSo when through life's protracted day,

doun; and, strange to say, his poetry, poor as it was, Melissa still pursues her way,

procured his appointment as usher of Aberdeen Her virtues with thy splendour vie,

grammar school, and subsequently that of professor Increasing to the mental eye ;

of natural philosophy in Marischal college. This Though less conspicuous, not less dear,

distinction he obtained in his twenty-fifth year. Long may they Bion's prospect cheer;

At the same time, he published in London a collecSo shall his heart no more repine,

tion of his poems, with some translations. One piece, Blessed with her rays, though robbed of thine. Retirement, displays poetical feeling and taste; but