Fifty years hence and who will hear of Henry? Wooed the stern infant to the arms of sleep. following passage gave me pleasure The "Ode addressed to the Earl of Carlisle" seems to me to be in nothing superior to newspaper or magazine poetry. Such lines as these, "But human vows, how frail they be! summer." Oh! none: another busy brood of beings As sinks a stranger in the crowded streets A few enquiries, and the crowds close in The man of future times will careless trad stone: Nor will the sound, familiar to their ears The earth without a vestige! are puerile and can claim no lenity on the score of youth. Candour, however, seems to demand that no These are thoughts that are famicensure which is passed upon this liar to every aspiring mind, while yet in the outset of its career; they are posthumous poetry should be transferred to Henry. Were the loose and propel its energies to erect an emthe thoughts that stimulate its activity, papers of any literary man, the effusions of momentary inclination to pire in the memory of its fellow man. write, afterwards thrown aside, un- In the "Ode to Genius," I met read perhaps, and uncorrected, to be with an accumulation of unmeaning given to the world by the officious epithets which would lead me to refer friendship of an editor, we should its production to a very early period. perceive the vast difference there is The maturity of intellect which probetween what an author writes and duced Clifton Grove and the Dance of what he publishes. With this se- the Consumptives, could not pen any curity for the fame of Henry, I shall thing so trivial as the following: animadvert the more freely upon Butah! a few there be whom griefs devour, those productions which Mr. Southey And weeping woe, and disappointment has deemed it prudent to commit to posterity. keen, Repining penury, and sorrow sour And self-cousuming spleen. And these are genius favorites: these * Much may be forgiven to a youthful poet when he speaks of his first patron, and therefore I can pardon Henry when he talks of Capel Lofft's "beautiful and interesting preface to To realms where fancy's golden orbits roļļ. N. Bloomfield's poems. If any And fat stupidity shakes his jolly sides, thing beautiful have yet fallen from And while the cup of affluence he quaffs the pen of that gentleman, I am With bee-eyed wisdom, &c. ashamed of my ignorance. I have read all that he has written about the Bloomfields, and have sometimes for Henry's genius would have been smiled at his flippancy, but never more entire, had many of these postmet with any thing to raise my ad- humous pieces been committed to the miration. I cannot but think our reverence flames. The lines" written in the prospect No charm of science, no luxury of of Death," are equal to Henry's hap mental enjoyment, has power to abpiest flights. They are tender, deli- stract us long from the consciousness cate, and melancholy. They have of corporeal suffering. Henry's frethat plaintive morality which the con- quent recurrence to the fatal disease templation of their subject rarely fails that finally removed him from among to produce in sensi le minds. The the sons of men, proves that be This is a direct plagiarism from the following beautiful lines in Milton's Lycidas: "He must not float upon his watery bier thought often and painfully upon its progress and who can read his pensive, melancholy strains upon the subject, and not breath a sigh for the youthful martyr that bowed to its canker'd fang? At p. 96 of the second volume there is a fragment upon Consumption, of which I could pass over numerous small pieces wish the last seven lines away, for that cannot offer any room for rethey deteriorate what is good without mark. Many of them have a certain them and at p. 110 there is the fol- degree of appropriate merit; and lowing sonnet on the same subject: Gently, most gently, on thy victim's head, Consumption, lay thine hand! Let me decay, : Like the expiring lamp, unseen, away, O! let the aerial music round my bed, Ere I depart upon my journey drear; others are quite without any thing The autumn leaf is sere and dead This at the same time furnishes a I have now come to "Time," a favourable specimen of Henry's son- poem, which, though only a fragnet writing; a species of composition ment, is yet of considerable length. under which the genius of Milton Mr. Southey says "this poem was himself sunk. The English language begun either during the publication is essentially incapable of appearing of Clifton Grove or shortly aftereither graceful or dignified in the wards. Henry never laid aside the shackles of a sonnet; and those who intention of completing it, and some have laboured most to assert its fit- of the detached parts were among his ness, have only written themselves latest productions." into obscurity. In this poem, therefore inequalities The lines on the death of Nelson of execution may be expected. It are not composed with that vigour and exhibits more power of mind than that reach of fancy and language which Clifton Grove, but less vigour of I should have expected from Henry's fancy; its morality is enforced in advancing years. The introduction language closely imitated from Young. of the word ditty in the second line. It is such a sort of ethical rhapsody is ignoble and unsuitable. It would as might be discontinued and rebe appropriate in a pastoral elegy sumed through any period of time, which bewails the fate of some Cory- and in any mood, without detriment don or Delia, but is quite unfit to to the subject. As there is no narraconvey an idea of a funeral dirge to tive, there can be no tear of contuthe memory of a departed hero. In sion: paragraphs are distinct from this piece also, I find a line so palpa- each other, and require not to be bly borrowed from Milton, that I harmonized with preceding or subwonder Mr. Southey allowed it to sequent ones. This kind of writing pass without being narked as a quotation: "he must not, shall not sink Without the meed of some melodious teur.” is well adapted for the excursions of a young mind: it leaves the thought free, by not distracting the attention; and if there be much power of re flection, it is not easy to say where merit. Without, however, specify. such a poem would terminate; for ing them individually, I shall transwho can limit the combinations of cribe one, which is at least equal to intellect? any other. winds, The proemial lines of this frag- "God of the universe-almighty onement are constrained and inelegant. Thou who dost walk upon the winged There is more difficulty than is commonly suspected in detailing with Or with the storm, thy rugged charioteer, simplicity and elegance what are to Swift and impetuous as the northem blast, be the chief topics of a poem: Mil- Ridest from pole to pole:-thou who dost ton himself failed in this. Viewing this production as a posthumous one, I find in it many things which Henry's judgment and taste would have amended, in a revision: such are the following. "Chaos's sluggish sentry." 4 Mild as the murmurs of the moonlight wave." "I feel the freshening breeze of stillness blow." This is as bad as the "horrid still ness" of Dryden "invading the ear." "Of endless glory and perennial bays." hold The forked lightnings in thine awful grasp, wrath Goes down towards erring man,—I would To thee my parting pean; for of thee, kneel Trembling before the footstool of thy state, Here is surely a futile iteration; Rise, son of Salem, rise, and join the strain, "Where are the heroes of the ages past? The Roman Caesars and the Grecian chiefs, &c." And hallelujah, for the lord is great man: Yea, compass'd round with countless worlds, has thought Of we * poor worms that batten in the dews Of morn, and perish ere the noonday sun. It cannot be denied that there is Vigour and comprehension in this extract; and, that it is at least such as only a very highly endowed mind could produce, at such an immaturity of age." His idea of death, as a state of oblivion till the last day, is a poetical, but not a philosophical one. Young The next and last poetical producthought differently and as Henry tion in this volume is the "Christiad," was much versed in theological of which I know not how to speak writings, it is the more remarkable with tenderness to Henry's memory, that he should adopt such an opinion, and with just regard to truth. Mr. Speaking of the Almighty, whom Southey says "there is great power he would supplicate for mercy towards in the execution of this fragment:" those who have erred, he says, but I sought in vain for it. I could "Yea, I would bid thee pity them.”. view it in no other light than an unThis is impiety; and such impiety Paradise Regain'd into a Spenserian successful attempt to put Milton's as seems inconsistent with those re- stanza: and how such a project is ligious sentiments which Henry so warmly entertained. This should be us, the objective or There are, in this fragment, many accusative case governed by the preposi passages which possess unequivocal tion of. to say, "Jove himself might quake at such a fall!"-But enough: I know of no benefit that protracted censure could produce. I agree with Mr. Southey that the two last stanzas are affecting, because there Henry mournfully relapses into himself again: but for the rest, I wish it had had never been printed. likely to succeed, the reader need not these extracts, for the whole appears be informed by me. There is a te- to me a tissue of absurdity. In the. merity too in the attempt, which xxi stanza Satan is ridiculously made could have been justified only by success: for who can hope to rival Milton? Yet, in this fragment, we have Satan convoking an infernal assembly, haranguing them, and an endeavour to discriminate these evil agents by an appropriation of language and manner: but to me, the whole appeared so unequal, so ludicrous, that I wondered at the indis- I observe particularly in these postcretion of Mr. Southey in permitting humous productions of Henry a liit to disfigure these posthumous vo- centious use of words unauthorised lumes. It is scarcely better in some by any English writer; such as hectic, parts than a travestie of Milton: but for the patient afflicted: enchasten'd, that my assertion may not appear un- encheers, solium, spanglets, imsupported by proof, I will adduce a mantled, querimonious, jingly, &c. few of those passages that excited this Of these, the greater part are extractidea in my mind. Let my readers ed from the Christiad:" and had recollect the opening of the se- he lived, his increasing good taste cond book of Paradise Lost, High and judgment would have deterred on a royal seat, &c." and then read him from such wanton infraction the following with what gravity they upon the stability of our language. can. High on a solium of the solid wave, frost He stood in solemn silence:-now keen thoughts engrave Dark figures on his front; and, tempest tost, mute: So, ere the tempest on Malacca's coast Satan then informs them that he has failed in his endeavours to tempt our Saviour, and afterwards breaks forth into the following puerile strain of invective. What then! shall Satan's spirit crouch to fear! Shall he who shook the pillars of God's Drop from his unnerv'd arm the hostile me fain To tear the spanglets from yon gaudy plain And hurl them at their maker! Fix'd as fate I am his foe! Yea, though his pride should deign Of his prose compositions with which the second volume concludes, I cannot say much, either in praise or censure. They are creditable for his years, but they betray an immaturity of judgment; and in nothing greater than in the exuberant praises of the two Bloomfields. But here he might plead the infatuation of graver heads, who confounding what admired in is excellent with what is singular, tailor, such poetry as they would a shoemaker and a have read with scorn in the pages of a scholar. Ann Yearsley have had their day: But Stephen Duck and and why should not Robert and Nathaniel Bloomfield have theirs? In the Essay on Tragedy Henry makes a parade of learning without the possession of it. He talks familiarly of De Bos and Fontenelle, almore of them than what he obtained though it is evident he knew no from David Hume's essay on the same subject. His prose is stiff and inelegant; full of such phrases as whereby, and whereas: he seems not to have attained the art of modulating his periods. He succeeds best in narrative: the tale of Charles Wanley is pleas ingly told. I should suspect the vision, p. 228, to have a personal alI forbear to specify what is bad in lusion to something concerning him. To sooth mine ire with half his regal state, hate. self in those parts which relate to the will be received at the Literary Fund pert cit," and the reply of "Me- Office, the use of which has been lancholy." generously offered to the committee I have thus concluded my remarks for the purpose, and where the model upon this extraordinary youth, and of the intended monument may be if they have given as much pleasure viewed by the public. I am, Sir, to those who have read them, as they Yours, &c. &c. have to me in writing, my tiune has not been misemployed. I remain, &c. June 11th, W. MUDFORD. - On the proposed MONUMENT to LOCKE. AN ADMIRER OF LOCKE. London, June 10th, 1808. P.S. The committee have also signified that each subscriber is to have an elegant engraving of the monument, and that subscribers of five guineas shall be presented with a medal executed by the celebrated Mr. VITH what grateful emotions Bolton, of Soho, with the head of does the enlightened mind Locke, and on the reverse a reprecontemplate its vast obligations to the sentation of the monument; and those benefactors of mankind! To those of ten guineas, the same in silver. philosophers, scholars, and moralists, SIR, W WIVES. Sir, whose deep and laborious researches ACCOMPLISHED versus DOMESTIC have so largely contributed to our mental culture! What secret stores Sir, of knowledge have they not unfold- READ with some pleasure and ed! How many facilities of acquiring some astonishment a paper in wisdom and science have they not your last number on the comparative furnished! How have they enlarged merits of literary and domestic wives. the faculties of the human mind! Your correspondent seems a strenuGrateful for the labours of such ex- ous supporter of homely comforts, alted characters, nations have vied and would doubtless choose his wife, with each other in doing them honor. if he be not already married, by her What then is our surprise and re- skill in making apple-dumplings or gret, that the immortal John Locke, pickling young cucumbers. one of the greatest philosophers and there is a relative merit in every thing best of men, that this or any other which should never be overlooked; age or country ever produced, is, in and I was rather surprised at seeing the land of his fathers, neglected, D attempt to establish, as incontrounhonoured, and undistinguished, by vertible, the superiority of a domestic any monumental pile. But can his over a literary wife. While I write name or his worth be forgotten? this sentence, I feel the sort of senOr shall we be satisfied that the name sation which the expression, “liteof a Locke should only be embalmed rary wife," will excite in the bosoms in our grateful recollections? That of many of your readers: they, like he should have been neglected for D. will imagine to themselves a vain, more than a century, is at once mat- talkative woman, presuming upon a ter of regret and astonishment. To little superficial knowledge, perpe do justice to his exalted memory, and tually gabbling about what she does as a stimulus to others who labour in not understand, and neglecting what the mines of knowledge, and who she ought to understand. But there are anxious for human improvement, are coxcombs in both sexes: and a to redeem the honour of our country, literary coxcomb in either is detestaand to prove to an enlightened world ble. My business, however, is not our love of virtue, and sense of na- with the silly and impertinent pretional obligation, at length we resolve tender to unpossessed acquirements; to raise a monument to his fame. and I consider your correspondent as The committee for carrying into ef- having used an unfair mode of argufect the above dignified object, have, ment, when he attempts to designate through the channel of the newspa- literary accomplishments in such a pers, published their intentions. Sub- sneering manner. His aim, howscriptions of two guineas and upwards, ever, being to exalt a plain, goodly, |