SOME Reigns of George IV.William IV. Queen Victoria OME of the great names which illustrated the former period, and have made it famous, continued after 1830 to grace our literature. Scott, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Campbell, Moore, the creative masters of the last generation, still remained, but their strength was spent, their honours won, and it may be long ere the world see again such a cluster of eminent poetical contemporaries. Other names, however, were brightening the horizon. Macaulay, Carlyle, and Tennyson appeared, and we had vast activity in every department of our national literature, while in some there was unquestioned pre-eminence. This has been seen in the revival of speculative philosophy, corresponding with the diffusion of physical sciencein the study of nature, its laws and resources; and in the rich abundance of our prose fiction, which is wholly without a parallel in ancient or modern times. The novel has, indeed, become a necessity in our social life-a great institution. It no longer deals with heroic events and perilous adventuresthe romance of history or chivalry. But it finds nourishment and vigour in the daily walks and common scenes of life-in the development of character, intellect, and passion, the struggles, follies, and varieties of ordinary existence. Even poetry reflects the contemplative and inquiring spirit of the age. In history and biography, the two grand sources of our literary distinction in this latter half of the nineteenth century, the same tendencies prevail-a desire to know all and investigate all. Every source of information is sought after-every leading fact, principle, or doctrine in taste, criticism, and ethics is subjected to scrutiny and analysis; while literary journals and cheap editions, multiplied by the aid of steam, pour forth boundless supplies. To note all these in our remaining space would be impossible; many works well deserving of study we can barely glance at, and many must be omitted. In the delicate and somewhat invidious task of dealing with living authors, we shall seek rather to afford information and awaken interest than to pronounce judgments; and we must trust largely to the candour and indulgence of our readers. POETS. The chief representative poet of the period is Alfred Tennyson, who, on the death of Wordsworth, by universal acclaim succeeded to the laurel, Greener from the brows and who has, like his predecessor, slowly won his way to fame. But, before noticing the laureate, several other names claim attention. HARTLEY, DERWENT, AND SARA COLERIDGE. The children of Samuel Taylor Coleridge all inherited his love of literature, and the eldest possessed no small portion of kindred poetical born at Clevedon, near Bristol. His precocious genius. HARTLEY COLERIDGE (1796-1849) was fancy and sensibility attracted Wordsworth, who addressed some lines to the child, then only six years of age, expressive of his anxiety and fears for his future lot. The lines were prophetic. competed for a fellowship at Oriel College, Oxford, After a desultory, irregular education, Hartley and gained it with high distinction; but at the close of the probationary year, he was judged to have forfeited it on the ground mainly of intem perance. London, but was unsuccessful. The cause of his He then attempted a literary life in failure,' says his brother, 'lay in himself, not in any want of literary power, of which he had always a ready command, and which he could have made to assume the most popular forms; but he had lost the power of will. His steadiness of purpose was gone, and the motives which he had for exertion, Hartley next tried a school at Ambleside, but his imperative as they appeared, were without force.' scholars soon fell off, and at length he trusted solely to his pen. He contributed to Blackwood's lisher Biographia Borealis, or Lives of DistinMagazine, and in 1832 wrote for a Leeds pubguished Northmen. In 1833 appeared Poems, vol. i. (no second volume was published), and in 1834, Lives of Northern Worthies. The latter years of Hartley Coleridge were spent in the Lake Country at Grasmere, and afterwards on the banks admiration, and pity; for with all his irregularities of Rydal Water. He was regarded with love, he preserved a childlike purity and simplicity of character, and 'with hair white as snow,' he had, as one of his friends remarked, 'a heart as green as May.' The works of Hartley Coleridge have been republished and edited by his brother-the Poems, with a Memoir, two volumes, 1851; Essays and Marginalia (miscellaneous essays and criticism), two volumes, 1851; and Lives of Northern Worthies, three volumes, 1852. The poetry of Hartley Coleridge is of the school of Wordsworth unequal in execution, for hasty and spontaneous production was the habit of the poet, but at least a tithe of his verse merits preservation, and some of his sonnets are exquisite. His prose works are characterised by a vein of original thought and reflection, and by great clearness and beauty of style. His Lives of Northern Worthies form one of the most agreeable of modern books, intro- ! ducing the reader to soldiers, scholars, poets, and statesmen. The REV. DERwent ColeriDGE (born at Keswick in 1800) is Principal of St Mark's College, Chelsea, and a prebendary of St Paul's. He has published a series of Sermons, 1839, but is chiefly known as author of the Memoir of his brother Hartley, and editor and annotator of some of his father's writings. SARA COLERIDGE (1803-1852) was born at Greta Hall, near Keswick, and is commemorated in Wordsworth's poem of The Triad. In respect of learning and philosophical studies, she might have challenged comparison with any of the erudite ladies of the Elizabethan period; while, in taste and fancy, she well supported the poetical honours of her family. The works of Sara Coleridge are-Phantasmion, a fairy tale, 1837, and Pretty Lessons for Good Children. She translated, from the Latin, Martin Dobrizhoffer's Account of the Abipones, three volumes, 1822, and enriched her father's works with valuable notes and illustrations. This accomplished lady was married to her cousin, HENRY NELSON COLERIDGE (18001843), who was author of a lively narrative, Six Months in the West Indies in 1825; of an Introduction to the Study of the Greek Classic Poets, 1830; and editor of the Literary Remains and of many of the writings of his uncle, Samuel Taylor Coleridge. In 1873 was published Memoir and Letters of Sara Coleridge, edited by her daughter, a work in two volumes, containing much interesting information relative to the Lake Poets, besides displaying the virtues and acquirements of the deceased authoress. Some one said of Sara Coleridge: Her father had looked down into her eyes, and left in them the light of his own.' Sonnets by Hartley Coleridge. What was 't awakened first the untried ear To Shakspeare. The soul of man is larger than the sky, The seeds and pregnant forms in essence lie, To know thyself, and in thyself to be Whate'er love, hate, ambition, destiny, Or the firm fatal purpose of the heart Can make of man. Yet thou wert still the same, Serene of thought, unhurt by thy own flame. Address to Certain Gold-fishes. Restless forms of living light Was the sun himself your sire? Or of the shade of golden flowers, And yet, since on this hapless earth Is but the task of weary pain, An endless labour, dull and vain ; And while your forms are gaily shining, Nay-but still I fain would dream That ye are happy as ye seem! We add a few sentences of Hartley Coleridge's graceful and striking prose: History and Biography. The In history, all that belongs to the individual is exhibited in subordinate relation to the commonwealth; in biography, the acts and accidents of the commonwealth are considered in their relation to the individual, as influences by which his character is formed or modified-as circumstances amid which he is placed-as the sphere in which he moves-or the materials he works with. man with his works, his words, his affections, his fortunes, is the end and aim of all. He does not, indeed, as in a panegyric, stand alone like a statue; but like the central figure of a picture, around which others are grouped in due subordination and perspective, the general circumstances of his times forming the back and fore ground. In history, the man, like the earth on the Copernican hypothesis, is part of a system; in biography, he is, like the earth in the ancient cosmogony, the centre and final cause of the system. |