And so verse issued in a cataract
Whence prose, before and after, unperturbed
Was wont to wend its way. Concede the
fact

That here a poet was who always could-
Never before did-never after would-
Achieve the feat: how were such fact ex-
plained?

-BROWNING, ROBERT, 1887, Parleyings with Certain People of Importance in Their Day, pp. 61, 62.

Its power of metre and imaginative presentation of thoughts and things, and its mingling of sweet and grand religious poetry ought to make it better known. -BROOKE, STOPFORD A., 1896, English Literature, p. 221.

It is hardly disputable that the "Song to David" supplies a very remarkable link between the age of Dryden and the dawn of a new era with Blake; and it combines to a rare degree the vigour and impressive diction of the one with the spirituality of the other. There are few episodes in our literary history more striking than that of "Kit Smart," the wretched bookseller's hack, with his mind thrown off its balance by poverty and drink, rising at the moment of his direst distress to the utterance of a strain of purest poetry.SECCOMBE, THOMAS, 1897, Dictionary of National Biography, vol. LII, p. 388.

GENERAL

As a poet his genius has never been questioned by those who censure his carelessness, and commiserated an unhappy vacillation of his mind. He is sometimes not only greatly irregular, but irregularly great. His errors are those of a bold and daring spirit, which bravely hazards what a vulgar mind could never suggest. Shakspeare and Milton are sometimes wild and irregular; but it seems as if originality alone could try experiments. Accuracy is timid and seeks for authority. Fowls of feeble wing seldom quit the ground, though at full liberty, while the eagle unrestrained soars into unknown regions. -ANDERSON, ROBERT, 1799, ed., The British Poets.

Far from other fate was thine, unhappy Kit,
Luckless adventurer in the trade of wit.
A bitter cup was offer'd to thy lip,
Drugg'd with the wants and woes of author-
ship.

Untimely thrust upon this mortal stage,
No childish pastime could thy thoughts en-
gage.

Books were thy playmates. In a happy dream Thy hours unmark'd would glide along the

stream

Of fancies numberless, and sweet, and fair;
Link'd like the notes of some voluptuous air,
For ever varying as the hues that deck
With changeful loveliness the ring-dove's
neck.

Still rising, flitting, melting, blending,
For ever passing, and yet never ending.
Sweet life were this, if life might pass away
Like the soft numbers of a warbled lay;
Were man not doom'd to carefulness and toil,
A magic lamp with unconsuming oil.
Truth is a lesson of another school,
And duty sways us with a stricter rule.
The stream of life awhile that smoothest
flows,

'Ere long is hurried down the steep of woes, Or, lost in swamps of penury and shame Leaves the foul vapour of a tainted name. -COLERIDGE, HARTLEY, 1849, Sketches of English Poets, Poems, vol. II, p. 308.

The author of "David," under happier circumstances, might have conferred additional poetic lustre, even upon the college of Spenser.-BIRRELL, AUGUSTINE, 1887, Obiter Dicta, Second Series, p. 280.

No one can afford to be entirely indifferent to the author of verses which one of the greatest of modern writers has declared to be unequalled of their kind between Milton and Keats. . . . Save for one single lyric, that glows with all the flush and bloom of Eden, Smart would take but a poor place on the English Parnassus. His odes and ballads, his psalms and satires, his masques and his georgics, are not bad, but they are mediocre.-GOSSE, EDMUND, 1891, Gossip in a Library, pp. 185, 195.

Johnson defended him half-jocularly, but the piece of Smart's work which was least likely to appeal to Johnson is that which has secured him his vogue of late years. This is the now famous "Song to David," to which the praise given to it in Mr. Ward's "Poets," and Mr. Browning's allotment to the author of a place in the "Parleying with Certain People of Importance," have given a notoriety certainly not attained by the rest of Smart's work,

familiar as, for a century or so, it ought to have been by its inclusion in Chalmers, where the "Song" is not. Smart, as there presented, is very much like other people of his time, giving some decent

hackwork, a good deal of intentionally serious matter of no value, and a few light pieces of distinct merit.-SAINTSBURY, GEORGE, 1898, A Short History of English Literature, p. 582.

PERSONAL

He is described as a very absent, eccentric person, who wore as many clothes as tradition assigns to the grave digger in "Hamlet" on the stage, and who used to lie in bed with two dozen pair of blankets above him! David Hume gives a humorous description of the circumstances under which Wilkie carried on his Homeric studies. The Scottish farmers near Edinburgh are very much infested, he says with wood-pigeons. "And Wilkie's father planted him often as a scarecrow (an office for which he is well qualified) in the midst of his fields of wheat. He carried out his Homer with him, together with a table, and pen and ink, and a great rusty gun. He composed and wrote two or three lines, till a flock of pigeons settled in a field, then rose up, ran towards them, and fired at them; returned again to his former station, and added a rhyme or two more, till he met with a fresh interruption." -CHAMBERS, ROBERT, 1876, Cyclopædia of English Literature, ed. Carruthers.

Regarded by his college friends as the ablest of the distinguished students of his day, Wilkie continued to impress later contemporaries by his originality, remarkable attainments, and conversational power, and to shock them by his eccentricity and slovenly habits.-BAYNE, THOMAS, 1900, Dictionary of National Biography, vol. LXI, p. 258.

EPIGONIAD

1757

"The Epigoniad," seems to be one of those new old performances; a work that

would no more have pleased a peripatetic of the academic grove, than it will captivate the unlettered subscriber to one of our circulating libraries.- GOLDSMITH, OLIVER, 1757, The Epigoniad, Monthly Review, vol. 17, p. 228.

The execution of the "Epigoniad" is better than the design, the poetry superior to the fable, and the colouring of the particular parts more excellent than the general plan of the whole. Of all the great epic poems which have been the admiration of mankind, the "Jerusalem" of Tasso alone would make a tolerable novel, if reduced to prose, and related without that splendour of versification and imagery by which it is supported; yet, in the opinion of many able judges, the "Jerusalem" is the least perfect of all these productions; chiefly because it has least nature and simplicity in the sentiments, and is most liable to the objection of affectation and conceit. The story of a poem, whatever may be imagined, is the least essential part of it: the force of versification, the vivacity of the images, the justness of the descriptions, the natural play of the passions, are the chief circumstances which distinguish the great poet from the prosaic novelist, and give him so high a rank among the heroes in literature: and I will venture to affirm, that all these advantages are to be found in an eminent degree in the "Epigoniad." -HUME, DAVID, 1759, Critical Review, April.

There is nothing more wonderful in this admirable poem than the intimate acquaintance it displays, not only with human

nature, but with the turn of manner of thinking of the ancients, their history, opinions, manners, and customs. There are few books that contain more learning than the "Epigoniad." To the reader acquainted with remote antiquity it yields high entertainment; and we are so far from thinking that an acquaintance with Homer hinders men from reading this poem, that we are of opinion it is chiefly by such as are conversant in the writings of that poet that the "Epigoniad" is or will be read. And as the manners therein described are not founded on any circumstances that are temporary and fugacious, but arise from the original frame and constitution of human nature, and are consequently the same in all nations and periods of the world, it is probable, if the English language shall not undergo very material and sudden changes, that the epic poem of Wilkie will be read and admired when others that are in greater vogue in the present day shall be overlooked and forgotten.-ANDERSON, ROBERT, 1799, ed., The British Poets.

The "Epigoniad" of Wilkie is the bold attempt of an energetic mind to try its powers in the most arduous path of poetry, the Epic; without that correctness of judgment, and previous discipline in the practice of harmonious numbers, which can alone ensure success in an age of polish and refinement. It has accordingly been measured by that standard of criticism, which the most unqualified judges can easily apply,—a comparison with the most perfect productions of its kind; and its palpable defects have involved in an indiscriminate condemnation its less obvious, but real merits.-TYTLER, ALEXANDER FRASER, 1806-14, Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Henry Home of Kames, vol. 1, p. 246.

A poem of great merit, not only as possessing much of the spirit and manner of Homer but also a manly and vigorous style of poetry, rarely

found in modern compositions of the kind. MACKENZIE, HENRY, 1822, Life of John

Home.

It is now no longer read, and is fast being consigned to oblivion.-BALDWIN, JAMES, 1882, English Literature and Literary Criticism, Poetry, p. 287.

"The Epigoniad" is moderately good; but it requires more than moderate merit to induce men to read an epic in nine books. It was doubtless Pope's Homer which inspired Wilkie with the ambition to write a classical epic; but a translation of Homer, and a translation by Pope, was a very different thing from an orginal poem on a subject of ancient legend by William Wilkie. There are numerous faults in Wilkie's composition -glaring Scotticisms, bad rhymes, incapacity to attain that neatness and point without which the heroic couplet is indefensible. Worse than all is the absence of any great original ideas.-WALKER, HUGH, 1893, Three Centuries of Scottish Literature, vol. II, pp. 102, 104.

The "Epigoniad," Wilkie's chief work, an ambitious epic in nine books descriptive of the siege of Thebes, appeared in 1757. Its inspiration was obviously owed to Pope's translation of the Iliad and Odyssey, and it has many shortcomings not to be found in its model-Scotticisms, false rhymes and rhythm, and even flaws of language. Many passages, however, are conceived in singularly happy vein, and the story is vigorous and crisp.EYRE-TODD, GEORGE, 1896, Scottish Poetry of the Eighteenth Century, vol. 1, p. 160.

Wilkie has no genuine right to be called "the Scottish Homer," but as a mere achievement in verse his "epic" is creditable; it has a fair measure of fluency, its imagery is apt and strong, and it is brightened by occasional felicities of phrase, descriptive epithet, and antithetical delineation.-BAYNE, THOMAS, 1900, Dictionary of National Biography, vol. LXI, p. 259.

JOURNAL

A perfect gem! His is a schöne Seele, (beautiful soul). An illiterate tailor, he writes in a style of the most exquisite purity and grace. His moral qualities are transferred to his writings. Had he not

been so very humble, he would have written a still better book; for, fearing to indulge in vanity, he conceals the events in which he was a great actor. His religion His religion is love. His whole existence and all his passions were love! If one could venture to impute to his creed, and not to his personal character, the delightful frame of mind which he exhibited, one could not hesitate to be a convert. His Christianity His Christianity is most inviting,-it is fascinating.-ROBINSON, HENRY CRABB, 1824, Diary, Jan, 22.

Its author was a tailor, living in a small village of New Jersey; and of tailoring he rejected all the more lucrative branches. He chiefly occupied himself with the smallest class of business by which, even in those economical days, a support could be won. Living before the commencement of any distinctively American literature, he expressed his thoughts in the English of the common schools. And yet these thoughts have won the attention and admiration of scholars and literary men, for they show, in humblest language, the desire of a conscience to be at peace with its Maker even in the smallest details of daily life. No mirror ever reflected more faithfully the lineaments of him who looked upon it, than does this "Journal" give back the moral likeness of its author.

HOOPER, WILLIAM R., 1871, John Woolman, Appleton's Journal, vol. 6, p. 606.

It is certain, therefore, that, considering the transformations among the Quakers themselves, the New Jersey preacher would be sadly out of place if he stepped down from his niche in their pantheon

into their meeting-houses and homes at the present day. St. Simeon Stylites at the Fifth Avenue Hotel would hardly appear more anachronistic. Doubtless, the suggested contrasts between our age and his, joined to Woolman's childlike simplicity and naïveté, his often inconsequential discourse, and his half-pitiful, halfamusing bodily afflictions, were what made his Journal favorite reading with Charles Lamb. And if we do not misjudge, they strike a responsive chord in Mr. Whittier's humor (a greater possession than the world gives him credit for); and he takes up the book, not always that he may deepen his moral sense and renew his standard of duty-what every one may do who reads his "Journal" devoutlybut as one, not a Quaker, would open "Don Quixote" or "The Merry Wives of Windsor."- GARRISON, W. P., 1871, Woolman's Journal, The Nation, vol. 13, p. 45.

If we open the record at random we see a good man, living for God in the world, and ranging in his tender sympathies from little things to great.-RICHARDSON, CHARLES F., 1887, American Literature, 1607–1885, vol. 1, p. 151.

His journal is remarkable for its simple. and lucid style, as well as for its humanity.-HART, ALBERT BUSHNELL, 1896, ed., American History told by Contemporaries, vol. II, p. 302.

The purity of the gentle Quaker's soul has, as Whittier, his loving editor, says, entered into his language. The words are a transparent medium of spirit. Style and man are equally unconscious of themselves. Without art Woolman has attained, in his best passages, that beauty of simplicity, that absolute candor which is the goal of most studious art. As lucid as Franklin's "Autobiography," the "Journal" shines with a pearly lustre all

its own.-BATES, KATHARINE LEE, 1897, American Literature, p. 90.

As we study John Woolman along the pages upon which he has made record of his inmost nature, we shall be inclined to infer that the traits which made him the man he was, were these: first, a singularly vivid perception of the reality and worth of things spiritual; secondly, such a passion of desire for all that is like God, that whatsoever he met with in himself or

in others which was otherwise, grieved him with an ineffable sorrow; thirdly, love, taking every form of adoration for the Highest Love, and of sympathy and effort on behalf of all God's creatures, great and small; next, humility; next, directness, simplicity, sincerity; next, refinement. TYLER, MOSES COIT, 1897, The Literary History of the American Revolution, 1763–1783, vol. II, p. 342.

GENERAL

Get the writings of John Woolman by heart; and love the early Quakers. LAMB, CHARLES, 1821, A Quakers' Meeting.

Him, though we once possessed his works, it cannot be truly affirmed that we ever read. Try to read John we often did; but read John we did not. This, however, you say, might be our fault, and not John's. Very likely; and we have a notion that now, with our wiser thoughts, we should read John if he were here on this table. It is certain that he was a good man, and one of the earliest in America, if not in Christendom, who lifted up his hand to protest against the slave trade; but still we suspect that, had John been all that Coleridge represented, he would not have repelled us from reading his travels in the fearful way that he did. But again we beg pardon, and entreat the earth of Virginia to lie light upon the remains of John Woolman; for he was an Israelite indeed, in whom there was no guile.-DE QUINCEY, THOMAS, 1845-59, Coleridge

and Opium-Eating; Collected Writings, ed. Masson, vol. v, p. 196.

The larger portions of Woolman's writings are devoted to the subjects of slavery, uncompensated labor, and the excessive toil and suffering of the many to support the luxury of the few. The argument running through them is searching, and in its conclusions uncompromising, but a tender love for the wrong-doer as well as the sufferer underlies all. They aim to convince the judgment and reach the heart without awakening prejudice and passion. To the slaveholders of his time they must have seemed like the voice of conscience speaking to them in the cool of the day. One feels, in reading them, the tenderness and humility of a nature redeemed from all pride of opinion and self-righteousness, sinking itself out of sight, and intent only upon rendering smaller the sum of human sorrow and sin by drawing men nearer to God and to each other. The style is that of a man unlettered, but with natural refinement and delicate sense of fitness, the purity of whose heart enters into his language. There is no attempt at fine writing, not a word or phrase for effect; it is the simple unadorned diction of one to whom the temptations of the pen seems to have been wholly unknown.-WHITTIER, JOHN GREENLEAF, 1871, ed., The Journal of John Woolman, Introduction, p. 33.

The gentle hearted Quaker, like Izaak Walton, a tailor, and like him, also, a lover of man, animal and plant. Although he was an irrepressible reformer, his writings have none of the pride of opinion and self-righteousness which are the besetting sins of reformers. Catholic, humble, receptive, his words are a benediction. Such Charles Lamb, the purest and manliest of modern English writers, found them, and as such he praised them.MABIE, HAMILTON W., 1892, The Memorial Story of America, p. 585.