seems to have been one of the earliest of what may be termed landscape poets. "Grongar Hill" may fairly challenge comparison with many more famous pictures. His chief poem, "The Fleece," was founded upon a prosaic subject; since Jason's adventure wool has hardly been a theme for serious verse. The other is Dr. John Langhorne, in whose poem, "The Country Justice," occur these lines of pity for a female vagrant:—

"Cold on Canadian hills or Minden's plain,
Perhaps that parent mourned her soldier slain,
Bent o'er her babe, her eye dissolved in dew;
The big drops, mingling with the milk he drew,
Gave the sad presage of his future years,

The child of misery, baptized in tears."

Sir Walter Scott has mentioned that when a lad of fifteen he saw Burns shedding tears over a picture that represented this scene.

For further illustrations the reader must be referred to the appended list, and to the ampler materials in the body of the collection.

V. FROM Wordsworth TO TENNYSON.

As we approach nearer to our own day, the number of authors demanding our attention seems to increase. It is no longer a rare accomplishment to write with a certain degree of correctness and elegance. The subjects in which the reading world takes an interest have multiplied, until now every art and science has its own literature and school of criticism. No one can now say with Lord Bacon, "I have taken all knowledge to be my province;" the literary world, like a scientific convention, is divided into "sections," and happy is he who is familiar with any considerable part of the field of modern thought. Compare the London of Addison's time with the London of to-day. The Spectator's daily essay was almost the only intellectual entertainment for all educated people; a glance into the monthly summary of books and other publications in Mr. Murray's "Academy" will show how vast and varied is that entertainment now. And this leads us to remark that mere style is no longer the only criterion in determining the rank to be given a work considered as a part of our literature. The most perfect description of an engine or of a chemical process would be excluded by the nature of the subject, unless it were written by a poet or by a man of great imaginative power, and so lifted out of the class of merely technical treatises. The same would be true of any special essay upon a theological or philosophical topic. So, without using the term "literature" as precisely equivalent to belles-lettres, we must recognize in it a limitation to moral and beautiful ideas and suggestions a limitation not capable of definite boundaries, but easily felt by all persons of taste. This thought will serve to explain the omission of such learned and powerful writers as Sir William Hamilton, John Locke, Herbert Spencer, Mill, and Darwin.

There is room for a few comments only upon the authors in the following list.

In fiction we should mention the brilliant Eastern romance, "Anastasius," by Thomas Hope, and the equally interesting stories of Persian life by James Morier. Probably a more accurate knowledge

"Hadji Baba

of Persian character and manners can be gained from " than from any other accessible source. The novels of Miss Jane Austen had a great and deserved popularity; and though younger readers consider them a trifle dull, they are still read with delight by those persons of maturer years who are not infected by the prevailing hurry of our times. The establishment of the leading reviews was a great event, and did much to put criticism upon a higher base, and to give form and weight to the best thought upon current literary topics. A few poets deserve honorable mention. The graceful and tender verses of Mrs. Hemans; the stirring ballads of Lockhart; the natural feeling of Motherwell; the rollicking songs of Maginn, first and greatest of "Bohemians;" the funeral drum-beat of Wolfe, immortal from his one poem; and the striking picture of the desert by Pringle,

all have strong claims upon us, and would be considered as worthy of a place with the best, if a single volume could contain them all. We can point, too, to Grote, the historian of Greece; to Hugh Miller, most enthusiastic and individual of geologists; to the learned and able philologist, Dean Trench; to the historical studies of Dr. Arnold, the great master of Rugby; to the powerful sermons of Dr. Chalmers, the metaphysics of Hamilton, the wit of Jerrold, and the drolleries of à Becket.