While at Eton, he started "The Etonian," and was one of the chief contributors to "Knight's Quarterly Magazine." His poems, which have been recently published in a collected form, are some of the most remarkable which have appeared in modern times.

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many volumes of sermons, and memoirs on matters pertaining to ancient history. Owing to his eminent talents as a preacher, he was appointed, by Lord Palmerston, Dean of Canterbury, in 1857.

COVENTRY PATMORE.

Coventry Patmore, an English poet, was born at Woodford, in Essex, 23rd July, 1823. His father was in his day a well-known literary celebrity, and in 1846 Mr. Coventry Patmore became an Assistant Librarian to the British Museum, which office he continues to hold. He has published three volumes, of which the second, the "Angel in the House," is a poem of undoubted merit; but the third, "Faithful for ever," has been severely criticised. He is understood to be a contributor to the "Edinburgh Review."

ALEXANDER SMITH.

Alexander Smith, a poet, was born on 31st of December, 1830, at Kilmarnock, Ayrshire. His early intention was to qualify himself for the ministry, but circumstances of various kinds prevented him from entering on the preparatory studies. While following the business of a lace-pattern designer in Glasgow, he began to write verses, and sent some extracts from his first sustained poem to the Rev. George Gilfillan, of Dundee, then understood to be one of the writers for the "Critic," who inserted them in that journal. His "Life Drama" was afterwards published, and, although severely criticised, was admitted on all hands to contain lines of the highest poetical merit. In 1854 Mr. Smith was elected to the secretaryship of the Edinburgh University. His "Life Drama" and "City Poems" are his principal works.

THE VERY REV. HENRY ALFORD, D.D.

The Very Rev. Henry Alford, D.D., Dean of Canterbury, a poet and Biblical critic, was born in London in 1810, and educated at Ilminster Grammar School, and Trinity College, Cambridge. He has published several poetic productions, which have been well received, has held several University appointments, and various preferments in the Church. His editions of the Greek New Testament have been carefully prepared. He is also the author of several papers, contributed to serials and other periodical publications, and his work entitled The Poets of Greece exhibits an intimate and correct knowledge of the language. He has published

ARCHBISHOP TRENCH.

Archbishop Trench, a scholar, poet, and divine, was born at Dublin in September, 1807, and graduated at Cambridge in 1829, after which he spent some years in travelling abroad. While holding the incumbency of Cardridge, Hants, he published, in 1838, two volumes of poems. These, having been well received by the public, were followed by "Genoveva," "Elegiac Poems," which also elicited favourable notices. In 1811 he became Curate to the present Bishop of Oxford, at Alverstoke, and afterwards Rector of Itchinstoke. He was also Hulsean Lecturer at Cambridge, and in 1847 he was appointed to the important office of Theological Professor in King's College, London. On the death of Dr. Buckland, which caused a vacancy in the Deanery of Westminster, he was nominated to that office, since which he has been preferred to the Archbishopric of Dublin. His sermons are considered eloquent and impressive. Those preached at the special services for the working classes, delivered at Westminster Abbey, have been attended by very crowded congregations. He has published several works on theological subjects; among these are "Notes on the Parables," "Notes on the Miracles," "The Sermon on the Mount," &c.; and his lectures on the " English Language' and on the "Study of Words" have had a large circulation.

GERALD MASSEY.

Gerald Massey, an English poet, was born May, 1828, near Tring, in Herts. His parents were so steeped in poverty that the children received scarcely any education. When only eight years old, Gerald was sent to work in a neighbouring silk mill; but the mill being burned down, the boy took to straw plaiting. He had learned to read at a penny school; and, when fifteen, went up to London as an errand boy, and spent all his spare time in reading and writing. When out of a situation, he has gone without a meal to purchase a book. His first appearance in print was in a provincial paper; he published a small collection of his verses in his native town, and during the political excitement of 1848 edited a cheap paper called the "Spirit of Freedom." His writing was so bold and vigorous, that his political manifestations cost him five situations in eleven months. He was a warm advocate of the co-operative system,

and thus was introduced to the Rev. Charles Kingsley and others who were promoting that movement. Still continuing to write, his name began to be known; and in 1853 "Christabel" took the public completely by surprise. Five editions of the work were published in two years; his pecuniary circumstances improved in proportion to his fame as a poet; and in 1855 he removed to Edinburgh, where in 1856 he issued " Craigcrook Castle," in his own estimation his best work. A collected edition of his poems has lately been published.

CHARLES MACKAY.

Charles Mackay, a poet and journalist, was born at Perth, in 1814. He is a descendant of an honourable Highland family, the Mackays of Strathnever. Having received the rudiments of his education in London, he was in 1827 sent to a school at Brussels, and he remained in Belgium and Germany for some years. On his return to this country he abandoned his intention of entering the East India Service, for which he had been originally intended by his uncle, General Mackay, and devoted himself to literature. In 1835, after the publication of a small volume of poems which attracted the notice of Mr. John Black, he became connected with the "Morning Chronicle." While employed in his arduous studies as sub-editor of a daily paper, Mr. Mackay published two poetical works, "The Hope of the World," and "The Salamandrine," a third edition of which, illustrated by Gilbert, appeared in 1856; within the same period he published three works in prose, viz., "The Thames and its Tributaries," "Popular Delusions," and "Longbeard, Lord of London, a Romance." In 1844 he removed from London to Glasgow, to succeed the late Mr. Weir as editor of the "Argus," then a leading liberal journal in the West of Scotland. During his residence in Scotland he produced "The Legends of the Isles, and other Poems," "A Series of Twelve Letters to Lord Morpeth on the Education of the People," and a volume entitled The Scenery and Poetry of the English Lakes: a Summer Ramble." He also published "Voices from the Crowd," which contained the spirit-stirring song "The Good Time Coming." It was while Mr. Mackay remained in Scotland that he received from the University of Glasgow the honorary degree of LL.D. In 1847 he returned to the metropolis, where he succeeded to the political editorship of the "Illustrated London News." He published, in 1848, his "Town Lyrics;' in 1850, "Egeria, or the Spirit of Nature; and other Poems," to which was prefixed "An Inquiry into the alleged Anti-poetical Tendencies of the present Age." In 1851 he edited for the Percy Society, with Notes and an Introduction, an important antiquarian

work, entitled "A Collection of Songs and Ballads relative to the London 'Prentices and Trades, and to the Affairs of London generally, during the Fourteenth, Fifteenth, and Sixteenth Centuries." He also edited "A Book of English Songs," and "A Book of Scottish Songs, with Notes and Observations." In 1856 Dr. Mackay published the "Lump of Gold," and in the following year "Under Green Leaves," two poetical works abounding with verses of the utmost melody, rich with the choicest English epithets and phrases. After the publication of these works Dr. Mackay made a tour to America, where he delivered lectures upon "Poetry and Song," receiving everywhere a cordial and enthusiastic reception; his poetry and songs, owing perhaps to the higher standard of education in the Northern States, being well known and appreciated among our Transatlantic cousins. After his return to this country he published his "Life and Liberty in America," which is characterized in the Athenæum as a bright, fresh, and hopeful book; worthy of an author whose songs are oftenest heard on the Atlantic. He also edited a Christmas book, entitled "The Home Affections' as portrayed by the Poets." Dr. Mackay lately published a narrative poem, entitled "A Man's Heart," and has just edited "A Collection of the Jacobite Ballads of Scotland." He has been actively engaged in journalism, and was connected with the

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London Review." Like all the great songwriters, Dr. Mackay is a musician, and the composer of all the melodies published with many of his songs. He possesses in a high degree the rare faculty of a true lyric poet, that of working his words and music up into harmony and unison with the feelings they

express.

MATTHEW ARNOLD.

"He was the eldest son of Dr. Arnold, the well-known and highly-esteemed Master of Rugby School, and was born at Laleham, 1822. He won the Newdegate prize for English verse at Oxford in 1843, and became a fellow of Oriel College in 1845. He was elected Professor of Poetry at Oxford in 1857. He has taken an active part in the promotion of middle-class education, and has contributed largely to the periodical literature of the day." -Beeton's "Dict. Univ. Biog."

WILLIAM COX BENNETT.

"He was born at Greenwich in 1820, and, as a modern English song-writer, his poems of childhood and other home subjects have deservedly attained celebrity. His first volume of 'Poems' was published 1847; ' War Songs, 1857; 'Queen Eleanor's Vengeance and other Poems,' 1858; 'Songs by a Song

writer,' and 'Baby May and other Poems on Infants,' both in 1859. His verses have a large number of readers as well in America as in England, and he is now a contributor to the Weekly Dispatch newspaper."-Beeton's "Dict. Univ. Biog."

ROBERT BROWNING.

"Robert Browning is one of the most distinguished of modern English poets. He was born near London in 1812. In 1836 he published 'Paracelsus,' which was favourably received; and in 1837 produced 'Strafford,' a tragedy, in which Mr. Macready, the actor, personated the hero. His other works are Sordello,'' Pippa Passes,' 'The Blot in the Scutcheon,'' King Victor and King Charles,' 'Dramatic Lyrics,' Return of the Druses,' 'Colombe's Birth-day,' 'Dramatic Romances,' &c. Of all his writings, perhaps his 'Pippa Passes' and 'The Blot in the Scutcheon' are the best. His latest work, The Ring and the Book,' appeared in 1868."-Beeton's "Dict. Univ. Biog."

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Criticising the "Ring and the Book," the Athenæum, in one of its numbers published in 1869, on the publication of the last volume, thus spoke of it :

"At last, the opus magnum of our generation lies before the world-the 'ring is rounded'; and we are left in doubt which to admire most, the supremely precious gold of the material or the wondrous beauty of the workmanship. The fascination of the work is still so strong upon us, our eyes are still so spellbound by the immortal features of Pompilia (which shine through the troubled mists of the story with almost insufferable beauty), that we feel it difficult to write calmly and without exaggeration; yet we must record at once our conviction, not merely that The Ring and the Book' is beyond all parallel the supremest poetical achievement of our time, but that it is the most precious and profound spiritual treasure that England has produced since the days of Shakspeare. Its intellectual greatness is as nothing compared with Its transcendent spiritual teaching. Day after day it grows into the soul of the reader, until all the outlines of thought are brightened and every mystery of the world becomes more and more softened into human emotion. Once and for ever must critics dismiss the old stale charge that Browning is a mere intellectual giant, difficult of comprehension, hard of assimilation. This great book is difficult of comprehension, is Lard of assimilation; not because it is obscure- every fibre of the thought is clear as day; not because it is intellectual, and it is intellectual in the highest sense, but because the capacity to comprehend such a book must be spiri ual; because, although a child's brain might grasp the general features of the pictur, only a purified

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nature could absorb and feel its profoundest meanings. The man who tosses it aside because it is difficult' is simply adopting a subterfuge to hide his moral littleness, not his mental incapacity. It would be unsafe to predict anything concerning a production so many-sided; but we quite believe that its true public lies outside the literary circle, that men of inferior capacity will grow by the aid of it, and that feeble women, once fairly initiated into the mystery, will cling to it as a succour passing all succour save that which is purely religious. Is it not here that we find the supremacy of Shakspeare's greatness? Shaks peare, so far as we have been able to observe, places the basis of his strange power on his appeal to the draff of humanity. He is the delight of men and women by no means brilliant, by no means subtle; while he holds with equal sway the sympathies of the most endowed. A small intellect may reach to the heart of Shakspearean power; not so a small nature. The key to the mystery is spiritual. Since Shakspeare we have had many poetspoets, we mean, offering a distinct addition to the fabric of human thought and language. We have had Milton, with his stately and crystal speech, his special disposition to spiritualize polemics, his profound and silent contemplation of heavenly processions. We have had Dryden, with his nervous filterings of English diction; and we have had the so-called Puritan singers, with their sweetly English fancies touched with formal charity, like wild flowers sprinkled with holy water. In latter days, we have been wealthy indeed. Wordsworth has consecrated Nature, given the hills a new silence, shown in simple lines the solemnity of deep woods and the sweetness of running brooks. Keats and Shelley caught up the solemn consecration, and uttered it with a human passion and an ecstatic emotion that were themselves a revelation. Byron has made his Epimethean and somewhat discordant moan. Numberless minor men, moreover, have brightened old outlines of thought and made clear what before was dim with the mystery of the original prophet. In our own time, Carlyle -a poet in his savage way-has driven some new and splendid truths (and as many errors) into the heart of the people. But it is doubtful, very doubtful, if any of the writers we have named-still less any of the writers we have not named-stands on so distinct and perfect a ground of vantage as to be al together safe as a human guide and helper. The student of Wordsworth, for example, is in danger of being hopelessly narrowed and dwarfed, unless he turns elsewhere for qualities quite un-Wordsworthian; and the same is true of the students of Milton and of Shelley. Of Shakspeare alone (but perhaps, to a certain extent, of Burns) would it be safe to say, 'Communion with his soul is ample in itself; his thought must freshen, can

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never cramp, is ever many-sided and full of the free air of the world.' This, then, is supremely significant, that Shakspeare- unlike the Greek dramatists, unlike the Biblical poets, unlike all English singers save Chaucer only had no special teaching whatever was too human for special teaching. touched all the chords of human life; and life, so far from containing any universal lesson, is only a special teaching for each individual -a sibylline riddle, by which each man may educate himself after his own fashion."

JOHN KEBLE, M.A.

He

"John Keble, M.A., a highly popular writer of sacred poetry, for many years vicar of Hursley, in Hampshire. Soon after taking his B.A. degree he was chosen fellow of Oriel College, Oxford; and from 1831 to 1841 was professor of poetry at his university. His chief works are the 'Christian Year,' of which thousands of copies have been sold, and 'Lyra Innocentium.' Born 1792; died 1856." -Beeton's "Dict. Univ. Biog."

HON. CAROLINE ELIZABETH SARAH

NORTON.

"This modern English poetess was one of the three daughters of Thomas Sheridan, son of the celebrated Richard Brinsley Sheridan. She was born in 1808. Her father dying while she was still very young, her care devolved upon her mother, who gave her a high education. At the age of nineteen she became the wife of the Hon. George Chapple Norton, the barrister and police-magistrate, a union which proved an unhappy one. In 1829 she commenced her career of authorship by publishing anonymously the Sorrows of Rosalie,' a tale, and other poems. In the following year she achieved the greatest success as a poetess, with the production of her Undying One,' and other poems, which the Quarterly Review declared to be worthy of Lord Byron. The 'Child of the Islands,' 'Aunt Carry's Ballads for Children,' and 'Stuart of Dunleath,' a novel, were her subsequent works. In 1854 her warm sympathies with the social wrongs of her sex found expression in a work entitled 'English Laws for Women in the 19th Century.' This work was privately printed; but a very large circulation was obtained for a later effort of the same character, which was named 'A Letter to the Queen on Lord Chancellor Cranworth's Marriage and Divorce Bill.' In 1862 she published a poem entitled 'The Lady of Garaye,' which met with considerable public favour."Beeton's "Dict. Univ. Biog."

ALEXANDER SMITH. "Alexander Smith, a modern Scotch poet, was born in 1830, and died Jan. 5, 1867. He was intended for the ministry; but circumstances having conspired to prevent his entering upon the necessary course of study, he was put to the business of a lace-designer in Glasgow ; while following which, he devoted his leisure to the composition of verses. Having forwarded some extracts from his 'Life Drama' to the Rev. George Gilfillan, of Dundee, that gentleman was so highly pleased with the youthful poet's effusions as to obtain a place for them in the columns of the Critic. He subsequently produced City Poems' and 'Edwin of Deira," and three volumes of prose, entitled 'Dreamthorp,' 'A Summer in Skye,' and Alfred Hagart's Household'; he also edited an edition of the works of Burns. In 1854 he was appointed secretary to the Edinburgh University."- Beeton's "Dict. Univ. Biog."

RICHARD CHENEVIX TRENCH, D.D.

"The present Archbishop of Dublin is best known as a modern English philologer. He was born in 1807, and after completing his studies at the University of Cambridge, entered into orders, and became a country curate. His earliest efforts in literature were as a poet, in imitation of the chaste style of Wordsworth. After obtaining some preferment in the Church, he became in 1846 a select preacher at the University of Cambridge, and in 1856, after the death of Dr. Buckland, was appointed Dean of Westminster. In 1864 he succeeded Dr. Whately as Archbishop of Dublin. His most important works were, 'Notes on the Miracles,' Proverbs and their Lessons,' 'Synonyms of the New Testament,' and The Study of Words.'"-Beeton's 'Dict. Univ. Biog."

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ERNEST JONES.

"Ernest Jones was educated in Germany, and having kept his terms as a law-student of the Middle Temple, was called to the bar in 1844. In the following year he joined the Chartist movement, and soon became one of the most conspicuous and active leaders of the party; remaining so until Chartism expired in 1858. During this period he edited the People's Paper and other Chartist periodicals. In 1848 he was tried for making a seditious speech, and condemned to two years' imprisonment. He stood for Halifax in 1847, and Nottingham in 1853 and 1857, without success. In January, 1869, when it was supposed that Mr. Hugh Birley would lose his seat for Manchester, through being a govern

ment contractor at the time of his election, Mr. Jones was chosen by ballot to fill the expected vacancy against Mr. Milner Gibson, but died a few days after. He was an honest politician, for he refused a large fortune rather than give up his principles. He wrote the 'Revolt of Hindostan,' 'The Battle Day,' and other poems. He was born about 1820." -Beeton's "Dict. Univ. Biog."

REV. CHARLES KINGSLEY. "The Rev. Charles Kingsley, a distinguished modern novelist and essayist. At fourteen years of age he became the pupil of the Rev. Derwent Coleridge, son of the poet : he afterwards went to Cambridge University, where he distinguished himself both in classics and mathematics. He was at first intended for the law, but the church was afterwards chosen. In 1842 he was appointed curate of Eversley, in Hampshire; two years later he succeeded to the same living. He married, about the same time, a daughter of Mr. Grenfell, who represented Truro and Great Marlow in Parliament for many years, and whose other daughter became the wife of the eminent historian Mr. J. A. Froude. His first acknowledged contributions to literature were a volume of Village Sermons,' and The Saint's Tragedy,' a drama in verse, published in 1848. 'Alton Locke, Tailor and Poet,' was his third essay, and, from its first appearance, it commanded the greatest attention. The bold and earnest views of its author-the Chartist clergyman,' as he was called-sank deeply into the public mind. This novel has been several times reprinted; its treatment of social and political questions remaining as fresh and valuable as when the book first came before the public, A second novel, Yeast, a Problem,' was first published in Fraser's Magazine,' and afterwards reprinted in 1851: this is a philosophical rather than a political novel. His subsequent works were Hypatia; or, New Foes with an old Face,' a beautiful descriptive fiction, illustrating the times of the early Christian church in the East; Westward Ho! or, the Voyages and Adventures of Sir Amyas Leigh

in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth!' and 'Two Years Ago.' These novels, by their great excellence, have placed their author among the foremost of recent writers. Mr. Kingsley also produced a volume for juvenile reading, called 'The Heroes,' in which the deeds of some great chiefs of the Grecian mythology are narrated in a captivating manner. Among the more important of his religious writings may be enumerated, The Message of the Church to Labouring Men,' 'Sermons on National Subjects, preached in a Village Church,' and 'Sermons for the Times;' all of these being inspired by a pure, generous, and enlightened Christian feeling. He expounded mental philosophy in his 'Phaeton; or, Loose Thoughts for Loose Thinkers,' and his 'Alexandria and her Schools;' while, for natural philosophy and the observation of nature, he contributed his Glaucus; or, the Wonders of the Shore.' He likewise wrote for Fraser's Magazine, the North British Review, and the Encyclopædia Britannica. His last works of importance are The Roman and the Teuton,' lectures delivered at Cambridge in 1864; and a novel entitled 'Heraward the Wake; or, the Last of the English.' A bold, independent, and earnest thinker, Mr. Kingsley, in every one of his popular and excellent work., contributed to elevating the tone of modern society, and to giving it a more enlarged and refined appreciation of the good, beautiful, and true, whether in art or nature. He succeeded Sir James Stephen as professor of modern history in the University of Cambridge, in 1859. Born at Holne Vicarage, Devonshire, 1819."-Beeton's "Dict. Univ. Biog."

HENRY KINGSLEY.

"Henry Kingsley, brother of the preceding, was educated at King's College, London, and at Oxford. In 1852 he went to Australia, from which he returned in 1858. He contributed to 'Fraser's' and Macmillan's' magazines; Ravenshoe,'' Geoffry Hamlyn,' and The Hillyars and the Burtons,' being the best known of his productions. Born 1830."Beeton's "Dict. Univ. Biog."