nects extensive views of the happiness and interests of society, with pictures of life that touch the heart by their familiarity. His language is certainly simple, though it is not cast in a rugged or careless mould. He is no disciple of the gaunt and famished school of simplicity. Deliberately as he wrote, he cannot be accused of wanting natural and idiomatic expression; but still it is select and refined expression. He uses the ornaments which must always distinguish true poetry from prose; and when he adopts colloquial plainness, it is with the utmost care and skill, to avoid a vulgar humility. There is more of this sustained simplicity, of this chaste economy and choice of words, in Goldsmith, than in any modern poet, or perhaps than would be attainable or desirable as a standard for every writer of rhyme. In extensive narrative poems such a style would be toc difficult. There is a noble propriety even in the careless strength of great poems as in the roughness of castle walls; and, generally speaking, where there is a long course of story, or observation of life to be perused, such exquisite touches as those of Goldsmith would be too costly materials for sustaining it. The tendency towards abstracted observation in his poetry agrees peculiarly with the compendious form of expression which he studied; whilst the homefelt joys, on which his fancy loved to repose, required at once the chastest and sweetest colours of language to make them harmonize with the dignity of a philosophical poem. His whole manner has a still depth of feeling and reflection, which gives back the image of nature unruffled and minutely. He has no redundant thoughts, or false transports; but seems, on every occasion, to have weighed the impulse to which he surrendered himself. Whatever ardour or casual facilities he may have thus sacrificed, he gained a high degree of purity and self-possession. His chaste pathos makes him an insinuating moralist, and throws a charm of Claude-like softness over his descriptions of homely objects, that would seem only fit to be the subjects of Dutch painting. But his quiet enthusiasm leads the affections to humble things without a vulgar association; and he inspires us with a fondness to trace the simplest recollections of Auburn, till we count the furniture of its ale-house, and listen to the ' varnished clock that clicked behind the door."" Some writers have attempted to trace a strong resemblance between the style of Addison and that of Goldsmith, especially in their productions of a humorous character. The parallel drawn by Prior is pleasingly and correctly executed:-"Goldsmith, as well as Addison, is distinguished more by humour than by wit, though this quality is frequent in both; and by a suavity of manner that aims to correct our follies through the medium of gentle raillery or persuasion, rather than by satire authoritative or admonitive. They seem like men speaking to men as their equals; neither assuming the lash of the satirist, nor the dictatorial superiority of the philosopher; and this forms one of the reasons why both have secured so strong a hold upon popular favour. If either writer were the subject of strong passions, we should not be led to suspect it by any thing discoverable in their writings; we find nothing of bitterness, of sarcastic animadversion, no invective, no exaggeration of fact, and in their fictions, no overstraining of character. All is equable, smooth, and natural, with an air of good nature and moderation that wins upon the reader; both teach the purest morality in the most engaging manner. Between two such writers it may be difficult to decide which shall have the stronger claim upon our gratitude and esteem; both have laboured for the correction of our follies, for the inculcation of the best principles, and by the literary as well as moral excellence of their writings, have thrown no common brilliancy over the popular literature of their country." The foregoing abstract of Goldsmith's life was written and printed, when his "Life and Adventures," by John Foster, of the Middle Temple, made its appearance. This gentleman has already distinguished himself in the field of biographical literature by his valuable memoirs of Hampden, and other eminent characters who lived at the period of the Commonwealth. Notwithstanding the solid merit of Prior's narrative, Foster's interesting work is entitled to the praise of being a spirited and triumphant vindication of Goldsmith's character from the misrepresentation of assailants, who were unable to appreciate the many sterling excellences of his character, and unwilling to make a charitable allowance for his failings. WILLIAM COWPER. I know how ill my harp, of artless string, To hours thy page has brighten'd, would entwine Genius and feelings like thy own must claim, Bernard Barton. THE limits allotted to the biographical sketches in this work, will not admit of so lengthened an account of Cowper's life as its extreme interest and variety would require. It has been written, at different times, by various biographers, but by none with more feeling, and with a more discriminating perception of his merits, than by the late Robert Southey. He has designated Cowper, the "poet of the affections; the most popular poet of his generation; and the best of English letter writers." He was born on the 26th of November, 1731, at Great Berkhampstead, in Hertfordshire. His father was the Rev. John Cowper, D.D., and was rector of the parish. His grandfather, Spenser Cowper, was one of the judges of the Court of Common Pleas, and a younger brother to the first Earl Cowper, who held the high office of Lord Chancellor. His mother could boast *Most of my readers will recollect the application of this epithet to his country, by Cowper, in one of the most patriotic passages of his truly English poetry. of a lofty lineage, having been allied to some of the most exalted families in England. Cowper was of a delicate constitution and nervous temperament from his birth. His early education was received in his native town. He had the misfortune to lose his mother when he was about six years old. His attachment to her was remembered by him long after she had been removed by death; and he never ceased to mourn for her loss. One of the most charming poems he ever wrote was in commemoration of her virtues. Her affectionate love for him is frequently referred to in his works, and also his recollection of her funeral, to which he adverts in his touching and beautiful verses on receiving her picture-verses which every one who knows any thing of his poetry, has read with deep emotion. Alluding to his mother's funeral, he pathetically observes: I heard the bell toll on thy burial day, I saw the hearse that bore thee slow away; He spent the first two years after her decease at a preparatory academy, where he suffered severely from the tyranny and cruelty of one of his school-fellows. Cowper was naturally of so timid and sensitive a nature, that, unlike other boys, he submitted to repeated indignities, and made no effort at resistance, though he suffered more keenly than others who were better fitted to combat with early trials. His persecutor was, however, at length punished by expulsion, and the unhappy victim of his barbarity also left the school. In reference to the harsh treatment received from this unfeeling lad, by Cowper, he relates an anecdote, which shows the strong religious feelings with which his mind was imbued, even at that early period of his life:-" One day, as I was sitting alone on a bench in the school, melancholy, and almost ready to weep at the recollection of what I had already suffered, and expecting, at the same time, my tormentor every moment, these words of the Psalmist came into my mind-'I will not be afraid of what man can do unto me.' I applied this to my own case, with a degree of trust and confidence in God, that would have been no disgrace to a much more experienced Christian. Instantly I perceived in myself a briskness of spirits, and a cheerfulness which I had never before experienced; and took several paces up and down the room with joyful alacrity.” Here From the age of eight to nine, he was placed under the care of an eminent oculist, with whom he lived for two years, on account of specks that appeared on both his eyes. In the beginning of his eleventh year, he was entered as a scholar at Westminster school. he passed his time more agreeably than at his previous seminary, and became acquainted with his poetical friends, Churchhill, Colman, the dramatist, and Richard Cumberland;—with Thurlow, afterwards Lord Chancellor, and with the celebrated Warren Hastings, whose proceedings occupy so large a space in the history of British India. Cowper made his first attempt at metre, while at Westminster, by translating one of the elegies of Tibullus, which was lost. The subject, however, of his earliest poetical effusion which has been preserved, is a meditation “On finding the Heel of an old Shoe;" which was written, Southey says, "at Bath, in 1748; he was then in his seventeenth year; and the diction and versification were such, that no one would suppose it to have been a juvenile production." Soon after leaving Westminster school, where he stayed till he was eighteen, he was apprenticed to a solicitor, in London, for three years; but he paid no attention whatever to the study of the law, preferring the cultivation of classical and general literature, and the enjoyment of convivial intercourse with the members of a society which he designates the "Nonsense Club." It is not true, however, as has been sometimes stated, that Cowper gave himself up, at this period of his life, to complete indolence. He was assiduous in the cultivation of classical and general literature. He states, as a proof of his industry, that he read with great attention Pope's translation of the "Iliad," and compared it with the original. He made himself conversant with French and Italian literature; assisted in the translation of |