in the habit of holding conversations for the benefit of those who liked to hear him talk on political, social and literary topics; but his choicest thoughts were not lost even if they were not expressed in writing, for by his conversations he no doubt shaped the future of many young persons who hung upon his words. Of Coleridge's writings The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is considered his best poem, and Aids to Reflection is a good specimen of his prose. Coleridge died July 25, 1834, at the home of Dr. Gilman, who had so kindly sheltered him during the last nineteen years of the poet's life. EXTRACTS. He prayeth best who loveth best The Ancient Mariner. Alas! they had been friends in youth: But whispering tongues can poison truth, And life is thorny, and youth is vain; Doth work like madness in the brain. Christabel. Earth, with her thousand voices, praises God. Hymn in the Vale of Chamouni. A mother is a mother still, The holiest thing alive. The Three Graces. Greatness and goodness are not means, but ends. The great good man? three treasures-love, and light, And three firm friends, more sure than day and night- Often do the spirits Of great events stride on before the events, Reproof. The Death of Wallenstein. ROBERT SOUTHEY. 1774-1843. ROBERT SOUTHEY, born at Bristol, August 12, 1774, has already been mentioned as one of the Lake Poets. Of his early boyhood we know very little, but when he was fourteen years of age he was sent to Westminster school, where it was the custom to give the boys severe floggings as a part of the discipline. After Southey had been at Westminster four years he wrote an article denouncing this custom of flogging, and inserted it in a paper published by some of the boys. He was expelled for this offence, and in the following year he entered the University of Oxford. Southey began a literary life soon after he left the university, and he wrote in all one hundred and nine volumes, both prose and poetry. The Cataract of Lodore is a specimen of his power of rhyming. Among his prose works, his biographies are the best. In the following extract from one of his letters we can see how he passed his time: "Three pages of history after breakfast; then to transcribe and copy for the press, or to make any selections and biographies, or what else suits my humor, till dinner-time. From dinnertime to tea I read, write letters, see the newspaper, and very often indulge in a siesta. After tea I go to poetry, and correct and rewrite and copy till I am tired, and then turn to anything else till supper. And this is my life." Southey became poet-laureate in the year 1813, and held the position to the time of his death, March 21, 1843. EXTRACTS. How beautiful is night! A dewy freshness fills the silent air; No mist obscures, nor cloud nor speck nor stain In full-orbed glory yonder moon divine The desert-circle spreads Like the round ocean, girdled with the sky. My days among the Dead are passed; Around me I behold, Where'er these casual eyes are cast, The mighty minds of old: My never-failing friends are they, Thalaba. Occasional Pieces JOHN KEATS. 1795-1821. JOHN KEATS was born in London, October 29, 1795. lle was apprenticed to a surgeon when he was only fifteen years old, but even at this early age he showed considerable poetic talent, and when he was but twentytwo his longest poem, Endymion, was published. This poem was very harshly criticised in The Quarterly Review, and Keats, who had inherited consump‐ tion, soon after went into a decline. He traveled to Rome for his health, but he died soon after reaching that city, and was there buried, in the Protestant cemetery. It is thought by some writers that his death, which occurred on the 23d of February, 1821, was hastened somewhat by the unkind criticism which was passed on Endymion. EXTRACTS. A thing of beauty is a joy for ever: Endymion. The poetry of earth is never dead. On the Grasshopper and Cricket. Philosophy will clip an angel's wings. Lamia. PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY. 1792-1822. PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY was born in Sussex, August 4, 1792. His parents were both wealthy and aristo cratic, tracing their ancestry as far back as the descendants of William of Normandy. Shelley was sent to Oxford to the university before he was seventeen. He was inclined to be studious, but he pursued a very irregular course of study, and when he was nineteen he was expelled from the university for writing a pamphlet advocating infidel doctrines. His family felt very much disgraced by his expulsion, and when, a short time afterward, he eloped with a pretty girl who was much beneath him in social standing, his friends were still more exasperated with him, and they cut him off from his allowance of money and from all association with them. It was at this time that Shelley went to live in the Lake region of England, but he did not remain long. He and his wife separated, and she afterward committed suicide by drowning. He then married a Miss Godwin and went to live in Italy, spending most of his time in Rome. During his life in Italy he became very intimate with Byron, who was then living there. Shelley was passionately fond of boating and sailing, and to his love for this exercise he owed his death; for on the 8th of July, 1822, when he was out on the Bay of Spezzia, returning from Leghorn, his boat capsized and he was drowned. According to the quarantine laws then in existence, his body had to be burned, and Byron had the ashes placed in the Protestant cemetery at Rome. Among Shelley's best-known poems are Prometheus Unbound, The Cenci, The Spirit of Solitude, The Skylark, The Cloud, The Sensitive Plant, etc. |