BURKE'S STUDENT-LIFE.

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BURKE'S STUDENT-LIFE—ARTHUR MURPHY-BURKE'S ASSOCIATION WITH LITERATURE HIS EARLY SUCCESS AS A WRITER-MISS WOFFINGTON"THE VINDICATION OF NATURAL SOCIETY" - THE " ESSAY ON THE SUBLIME AND BEAUTIFUL" — SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS, DR. JOHNSON, MACKLIN GLASGOW-AMERICA.

ACCORDING to the earnest desire of his father, and pursuant also to his own purpose at the time, Burke forthwith made preparations to become a barrister, and commenced the study of the law. But the narrow and tedious path which leads to legal display and forensic triumph soon became far too confined and lengthy for a mind already at the goal of so much knowledge, and conscious of powers that would brook no delay, and must be at once in action. The ripe fruit of the man's genius was ready to be plucked, and might possibly have withered under prolonged cultivation. Law he read, it is true, and as with all other information within his reach, he quickly grasped its theory and principles, mastering the science so as to effectively serve his purpose upon some important occasions in his subsequent career. Burke, in one of his letters, makes the following apt remark as to forensic study: "The law," he writes,

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causes no difficulty to those who readily understand it, and to those who never will understand it; and for all between these extremes, God knows, they have a hard task of it." From the exclusive drudgery customarily imposed on the law-student, Burke fled to the common and dangerous, but in his case very fortunate refuge, literature. Yet even here, though his talents speedily placed him high among authors, it would seem that he took to writing merely as the readiest means to the great end foreshadowed, though still scarcely distinct, to his aspiring vision.

Another motive for Burke's early truancy towards the law may be ascribed to his acquaintance with a fellow-student and fellow-countryman, some few years his senior, who, like himself, was paying court to the Muses within the atmosphere of the forum. This was Arthur Murphy, a name eminent in dramatic and other

branches of English literature. Arthur Murphy was the author of an able standard translation of Tacitus, which, by the way, he

ARTHUR MURPHY, ESQ.

dedicated to Edmund Burke: he also wrote many charming dramas; some of them remain in vogue even to this day. His Way to keep Him is a chef-d'œuvre. Murphy's life was indeed varied. Educated for a merchant, he relinquished the toils of traffic for

BURKE AND ARTHUR MURPHY.

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literature; he not only wrote for the stage, but he acted upon it, and successfully too. He was popular at Covent Garden theatre in some tragic characters, such as that of Othello. He was afterwards called to the bar in 1762, and went the Norfolk circuit. He died at Knightsbridge in 1805, a retired commissioner of bankrupts, with a pension of 2007. a year.

Murphy was both a wit and a gentleman; he was the friend of Dr. Johnson, and was intimate with all the leading men of the day. He was, when Burke first met him, editing the well-known Gray's Inn Journal. The discovery of such an associate proved invaluable to Burke; it opened to him the very society and resources he sought. Murphy found no less pleasure in knowing Burke. The introduction thus took place: Mr. Thomas Kelly, a common friend of both, and Burke's bondsman at the Temple, said one day to Murphy, "You should, sir, know our countryman Burke; a strangely clever fellow, I assure you;" and he then launched out into much more praise about him. "Bring us together," was Murphy's reply; and Kelly made a party soon after at his chambers, where the young gentlemen met each other. Mr. Murphy was filled with astonishment, not only at the brilliancy and force of his new acquaintance's genius, but at the extent and variety of the literary attainments of a man little more than twenty years of age. From that day he and Burke were friends through life.

Of Mr. Burke's pecuniary means at this period conflicting accounts have been given. Some assert that he continually received large supplies from his family, and that he was extremely well off. Others say that it was not so, and that he was driven to his pen for a livelihood. The truth most probably lies between. Burke's father, a flourishing attorney in easy circumstances, made his son unquestionably a fair allowance, such as suited the wants and ways of a law-student; but Burke, be it observed, sought from the beginning a higher and more prominent position. To extravagance, in the sense of money thrown away upon debauchery and dissipation, Burke was ever a stranger; but he was neverthe

less a man of fashion, making his way into associations and company of wealth and distinction. This, as every one knows, could not be done without extra expense; and to a father annoyed, as was the fact, by his son's evident distaste for his profession, it would have been vain for Burke to look for more than his student allowance. Under these circumstances he adopted the all-honourable course of relieving the lightness of his purse by the powers of his brain. He began regularly to write for daily, weekly, and monthly publications. To these he contributed essays on various subjects of general literature, and particularly politics. His compositions united already information, reasoning, and invention much beyond his ordinary contemporaries, though the profits came in but slowly, and public distinction had not yet arrived.

At this period, Burke was in the habit, either alone or with some agreeable friend, of travelling about England and sojourning at different country places, for the benefit of his still delicate health and weak constitution.

One giant attraction would now draw the youthful genius from his desk, his journeys, and even from the intellectual tables of his friends. It was Burke's frequent and favourite custom to go alone to the House of Commons; to there ensconce himself in the gallery, and to sit for hours, his attention absorbed, and his mind enrapt in the scene beneath him: "Some of these men," he remarked to a friend, “talk like Demosthenes and Cicero, and I feel when I am listening to them as if I were in Athens or Rome." Soon these nightly visits became his passion; a strange fascination drew him again and again to the same place. No doubt the magic of his own master spirit was upon him, and the spell was working. He might be compared to the young eagle accustoming its eye to the sun before it soared aloft: but with him events had yet to occur prior to the full flight of his ambition. While the House of Commons was but his place of recreation, literature continued to be his chief employment.

Among Burke's earliest effusions some were in verse; these