rather rapid than diffuse; rather bright than profound. He caught the peculiarities of different characters with wonderful quickness, and described them with matchless humour: he excelled in original and lively sallies of imagination; yet his wit was free from malevolence, for he was perfectly good-natured, and his ridicule was as often turned upon himself as it was levelled against others.

The writer of this narrative recollects but one instance of his anger. His resentment was roused by an unfounded insinuation, that he preferred the company of some of his acquaintance of another college, because they were of superior rank to his friends at Trinity. This gust of his passion was violent though short. Such a noble mind as his could recognize no predilection for associates, but that which depended upon merit alone.

He was high spirited without arrogance, and elevated without pride. Nothing could be more abhorrent from his disposition than the cringing of. the sycophant, or the abject servilities of the flatterer. Although he had smarted under the discipline of his old master, he recounted many instances of his kindness, and he would not have paid the compliment of a Dedication of his Poems, even to Dr. Parr himself, had he not regarded him as a person of transcendent worth: to such worth alone he made his obeisance; and when Headley offered the incense of his praise, it was the sacrifice made by genius upon the altar of gratitude.

When suffering the attacks of indisposition, he showed great firmness of mind, and cheerfulness of

temper. There was indeed a buoyancy in his disposition, that elevated him above the weight of his malady, and which seldom failed to display itself in the most agreeable manner, on the appearance of any one of his friends, who might truly exclaim in the words of his favourite poet Shirley

............ I often saw

A smile shoot graceful upward from his eyes,
As if they had gain'd a victory over grief.-

It would be difficult to find a person actuated by keener sensibility: his mind was accordingly the genial soil in which friendship took a rapid and a deep root, and soon bore the most delicious fruits. His heart beat with all the tenderness, and his actions displayed all the energetic charities of a son, a brother, a husband, and a friend.

When his life was verging towards its close, and the fire of his imagination began to be damped by his sufferings, his sympathies continued to be ardent and energetic; the kindness of his friends was still his predominant and favourite topic of conversation, and he only ceased to recount the instances of their attachment when he ceased to breathe.

Considered as a Poet, he displayed some of the mature fruits, as well as the tender blossoms of genius. His verses were for the most part pleasing, elegant, spirited, and nervous, but generally of a pensive cast: his strains were those of the plaintive nightingale, rather than of the cheerful lark: his poetry was the exact picture of his mind, the image of his genuine feelings; it arose naturally out of the

different situations of his life: he was born and occasionally resided near the sea: he delighted, therefore, to describe those scenes, amid which, in his days of health, he had taken delight to ramble;

"On those lov'd shores, where Yare with ceaseless sweep Joins the dark bosom of the fearful deep *."

He was a great admirer of good pictures-his taste as a connoisseur suggested to him the following appropriate description, and his gallantry prompted him to convert it into a high and very elegant compliment to a lady.

"Slaves to the laws of taste, let some admire
Paulo's bold stroke, or vivid Titian's fire;
With critic skill, and just precision, trace
Poussin's learn'd air, or soft Corregio's grace.
In mute amaze let others trembling stand,
And feel the dark sublime of Rosa's hand;
Be mine the task their varied styles to view,
And mark their blended beauties met in yout."

He disdained to be a competitor for fame with those whose merit consisted merely in writing sonorous and empty verses; but the excellence he aimed at, and that which he attained, consisted in the display of vivid images and vigorous expressions, faithful delineations of nature, and rich melody of versification. The following specimens may serve to confirm these remarks, and it will not be easy to find two poems of the kind superior to them in point of sweetness and tenderness. The former has much of the manner of Shakspeare, the latter of Pope.

Verses to Myra, vol. ii. p. 204.

+ Verses to Myra, vol. ii. p. 204.

TO PHILOMEL.

A FRAGMENT.

No noise I heard, but all was still as death,
Save that at times a distant dying note
Of spirit unseen, or Heaven's minstrelsy,
Would indistinctly meet my ravished ear;
Such as was never heard from harp or lute,
Or waked into a voice by human hand,
Ah, Philomel, the strain was thine!-

POEMS, vol. ii. p. 182.

THE BEGGAR'S DOG.

YE pamper'd favourites of base mankind,
Whether with riches poor, or learning blind,
From your distracted views oh pause awhile,
And hear a brother's tale without a smile;
And let contrition note how much is due
To all the generous cares I owe to you.
Whilst fatt'ning pomp secure in cumb'rous state,
His scanty crumbs withheld, and barr'd his gate,
Nor sullen deign'd with scorn's averted eye
The cheaper tribute of a selfish sigh,
The neediest suppliant of sorrow's train

For bread I hungering sought, and sought in vain ;
Each petty solace thus by you denied,
With sleepless watch Fidelio supplied:

When Winter wet with rain my trembling beard,
My falling tear he felt, my groan he heard,
When my grey locks at night the wild wind rent,
Like withered moss upon a monument,

What could he more? against the pitiless storm
He lent his little aid to keep me warm;
Even now as parting with his latest breath,
He feels the thrilling grasp of coming death,
With all that fond fidelity of face,

That marks the features of his honest race,
His half uplifted eye in vain he moves,
And gasps to lick the helpless hand he loves.-
POEMS vol. ii. p. 186.

With respect to his proficiency as a scholar, it would be unjust to his reputation not to remark, that he was particularly well acquainted with the Greek tragedians, and was skilled in Latin composition. He often conversed on the pathos of Euripides, the simple energy of the Greek epigrammatists, the copiousness of Cicero, and the fire of Lucan, with the accuracy of one who well understood their phraseology, and highly relished their original beauties: he has enriched his works with critical and illustrative remarks drawn from these and other classical sources.

Of few scholars could it be more truly saidNihil legebat, quod non excerpebat. He reaped the produce of many fields, but conveyed few weeds, mixed with (corn, into his granary: his commonplace book, which was always at hand, attested at once the extent of his researches, and the judicious nature of his extracts from every book he read.

He

As the Author of the "Select Beauties of ancient English Poetry, with Remarks," he has given proofs of great diligence and critical skill. performed in this work more than he promised; for he included under the unostentatious and general term Remarks, a Preface, Introduction, Biographical Sketches, Notes, and a Supplement. The rigid critic may complain that this work bears marks of negligence and precipitation-but the same severity would induce him to censure a beautiful face for its freckles, or a diamond for a slight flaw. Such a critic would be uncandid and unjust not to allow, that Headley has executed much more in point of