England, with all thy faults, I love thee still.

And make the sorrows of mankind their sport.
But war's a game, which, were their subjects wise,
Kings would not play at.

He is the freeman whom the truth makes free.

Be pleased to buy me a glazier's diamond pencil. I have glazed the two panes designed to receive my pine plants; but I cannot mend the kitchen windows till, by the help of that implement, I can reduce the glass to its proper dimensions. If I were a plumber, I should be a complete glazier; and possibly the happy time may come when I shall be seen trudging away to the neighboring towns with a shelf of glass hanging at my back. If government should impose another tax upon that commodity, I hardly know a business in which a gentleman might more successfully employ himself. A Chinese, of ten times my fortune, would avail himself of such an opportunity without scruple; and why should not I, who want money as much as any Mandarin in China? Rousseau would have been charmed to have seen me so occupied, and would have exclaimed with rapture, "that he had found the Emilius who (he supposed) had subsisted only in his own idea." I would recommend it to you to follow my example. You will presently qualify yourself for the task, and may not only amuse yourself at home, but even exercise your skill in mending the church windows; which, as it would save money to the parish, would conduce, together with your other ministerial accomplishments, to make you extremely popular in the place.

I have eight pair of tame pigeons. When I first enter the garden in

the morning, I find them perched upon a wall, waiting for their breakfast; for I feed them always upon the gravel walk. If your wish should be accomplished, and you should find yourself furnished with the wings of a dove, I shall undoubtedly find you amongst them. Only be so good, if that should be the case, to announce yourself by some means or other. For I imagine your crop will require something better than tares to fill it.

Your mother and I last week made a trip in a post-chaise to Gayhurst, the seat of Mr. Wright, about four miles off. He understood that I did not much affect strange faces, and sent over his servant on purpose to inform me that he was going into Leicestershire, and that if I chose to see the gardens, I might gratify myself without danger of seeing the proprietor. I accepted the invitation, and was delighted with all I found there. The situation is happy, the gardens elegantly disposed, the hothouse in the most flourishing state, and the orange-trees the most captivating creatures of the kind I ever saw. A man, in short, had need have the talents of Cox or Langford, the auctioneers, to do the whole scene justice.

September 21, 1779.

Our love attends you all.

Yours.

AN EPISTLE IN RHYME.

To the REV. JOHN NEWTON.

My very Dear Friend:

I am going to send, what when you have read, you may scratch your head, and say, I suppose, there's nobody knows, whether what I have got be verse or not.

The news at Oney is little or noney, but such as it is, I send it, viz.:

Page and his wife, that made such a strife, we met them twain in Dog-lane; we gave them the wall, and that was all. For Mr. Scott, we have seen him not, except as he pass'd, in a wonderful haste, to see a friend in Silver End. Mrs. Jones proposes, ere July closes, that she and her sister, and her Jones mister, and we that are here, our course shall steer, to dine in the Spinney;* but for a guinea, if the weather should hold, so hot and so cold, we had better by far, stay where we are. For the grass there grows, while nobody mows (which is very wrong), so rank and long, that so to speak, 't is at least a week, if it happens to rain, ere it dries again.

* A grove, belonging to Mrs. Throckmorton, of Weston, and about a mile from Olney.

I have writ Charity, not for popularity, but as well as I could, in hopes to do good; and if the Reviewer should say, "To be sure, the gentleman's Muse wears Methodist shoes; you may know by her pace, and talk about grace, that she and her bard have little regard, for the taste and fashions, and ruling passions, and hoidening play, of the modern day; and though she assume a borrowed plume, and here and there wear a tittering air, 't is only her plan, to catch if she can, the giddy and gay, as they go that way, by a production on a new construction. She has baited her trap in hopes to snap all that may come, with a sugar-plum."

His opinion in this, will not be amiss; 't is what I intend, my principal end; and if I succeed, and folks should read, till a few are brought to a serious thought, I shall think I am paid, for all I have said and all I have done, though I have run, many a time, after a rhyme, as far as from hence, to the end of my sense, and by hook or crook, write another book, if I live and am here another year. I have heard before, of a room with a floor, laid upon springs, and such-like things, with so much art, in every part, that when you went in, you was forced to begin a minuet pace, with an air and a grace, swimming about, now in and now out, with a deal of state, in a figure of eight, without pipe or string, or any such thing; and now I have writ, in a rhyming fit, what will make you dance, and as you advance, will keep you still, though against your will, dancing away, alert and gay, till you come to an end of what I have penn'd; which that you may do, ere madam and you are quite worn out with jigging about, I take my leave, and here you receive a bow profound, down to the ground, from your humble me,* July 12, 1781.

W. C.

SYLLABUS.

The eighteenth century may be divided into three periods, represented by Pope, Johnson, and Burns.

Burns, by his spontaneous song, inaugurated a new order of poetry,—the natural school.

Burns, like Chaucer, was intensely human.

His chief poems are, The Cotter's Saturday Night, Tam O'Shanter, Holy Willie's Prayer, Address to the Deil, Address to a Mountain Daisy, To a

*Cowper, in one of his letters, complained to Mr. Newton of the wanderings of his mind; his friend acknowledged a similar weakness. "Yes," replied the poet; "but you have always a serious thought standing at the door, like a justice of the peace, with the riot-act in his hand, ready to disperse the mob."

Mouse, To the Toothache; his heroic poem, Bannockburn, and A Man's u Man.

Among his best songs are those addressed to Highland Mary, Bonny Doon, Sweet Afton, My Heart's in the Highlands.

Auld Lang Syne and Comin' thro' the Rye are adaptations of old Scotch songs.

Burns was born at Ayr, in Ayrshire, and died at Dumfries, at the age of thirty-six.

Cowper, like Burns, was natural and simple in his style.

Both were unconscious of the great benefit they were rendering literature.

In character, no greater contrasts could be given.

Cowper was fond of quiet scenes and quiet life.

He was refined in every sentiment and expression.

Cowper's chief poems are The Task, John Gilpin, etc. His Letters afford

the happiest illustrations of the use of good English.

Mrs. Unwin was Cowper's honored friend and care-taker.

Cowper died in 1800.

SCOTT,

CHAPTER XI. (

THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.

r

THE AGE OF SCOTT AND BYRON.

1800-1832.

R

EVOLUTIONS marked the close of the last century,revolutions in government, in society, and in literature, and the spirit of progress it awakened gathered new strength as the nineteenth century dawned. The American and French revolutions had kindled a love of liberty that not even the Reign of Terror could extinguish. Napoleon Bonaparte, from his First Consulship, in 1799, to his final overthrow, in 1815, was the one central figure engaging the attention of the world. His triumphs ended at Waterloo, and England was left secure in her ancient prowess. But other troubles ensued. The wars with America and France had left the kingdom burdened with an enormous debt and with heavy taxations. New inventions in machinery, it is true, had given a new impulse to manufactures, and, by dignifying labor, was breaking down the barriers of caste; but the product of English industry overstocked and flooded the markets of the world. The supply so greatly exceeded the demand that the manufactories and mills were brought to a sudden stand-still, and the working-classes reduced to want and suffering. The heavy wars had raised the price of breadstuffs, and the landholders in Parliament kept the prices up to starvation-point by refusing to admit into the kingdom the products of other countries. Opposition and riots grew common in the manufacturing districts.