the fine arts, possesses, in spite of its numerous defects both in point of taste and philosophy, infinite merits, and will ever be regarded as a literary wonder by those who know how small a portion of his time it was possible for the author to allot to the composition of it, amidst the imperious and multifarious duties of a most active and useful life.-STEWART, DUGALD, 1815-21, First Preliminary Dissertation to Encyclopædia Britannica.

His works are generally all an awkward compound of ingenuity and absurdity, and in this volume ["Essays on the Principles of Morality"] the latter quality, it appears to me, considerably preponderates. It is metaphysical-upon Belief, Identity, Necessity, etc. I devoutly wish that no friend of mine may ever come to study it, unless he wish to learn,

"To weave fine cobwebs, fit for skull That's empty, when the moon is full." -CARLYLE, THOMAS, 1815, Letter, Aug. 22; Life by Conway, p. 162.

His diction is tolerably copious, and his turns of expression often have something of the crisp ingenuity of Hume's, but his sentences are not very skilfully put together; his style wants flow. Curiously enough, his analysis of the mechanical artifices of sentence-making is one of the most substantial parts of his "Elements;"

it supplied both Campbell and Blair with all that they have to say on sentencemechanism, and contains some ingenuities that they did not see fit to adopt.MINTO, WILLIAM, 1872-80, Manual of English Prose Literature, p. 475.

In the present day, if Lord Kames is read at all, it is for his ingenious and acute speculation into the sources of æsthetic pleasure.-GOSSE, EDMUND, 1888, A History of Eighteenth Century Literature, p. 281.

writer, with a considerable knowledge of Kames was an ingenious and voluminous law and a great taste for metaphysics. His style, however, is crabbed and wanting in variety, while his learning is frequently superficial and inaccurate.BARKER, G. F. RUSSELL, 1891, Dictionary of National Biography, vol. XXVII, p. 232.

Lord Kames was a man whose words have been voiceless to any generation beyond his own. Even by his own friends his speculations can hardly have carried real weight, however indulgently they were treated as the efforts-earnest enough in their way—of an acute and ingenious, but ill-trained and ill-balanced intellect. CRAIK, SIR HENRY, 1901, A Century of Scottish History, vol. II, p. 194.

PERSONAL

The accounts of his private circumstances, in that kingdom, are given rather confusedly by his biographers; but it appears, upon the whole, that they were unfortunate. He supported an brother in his house, with a family as numerous as his own; and ruined himself

only

by his generosity. At last the loss of his wife, after a union of fifty years, the death of many of his children, and his other misfortunes, overwhelmed his intellect. Of this imbecility there were indeed. some manifestations in the latest productions of his pen.-CAMPBELL, THOMAS, 1819, Specimens of the British Poets.

The pupil of Swift and Pope; the friend of Lyttelton and Chatham; the darling of the Prince of Wales; beau, swordsman, wit, poet, courtier, the minion once of fortune, yet unspoilt by all her caresses, he had long been known to Irishmen only as the saintly recluse of Longfield. KINGSLEY, CHARLES, 1859, The Fool of Quality, Preface.

A pure and noble-minded Christian gentleman, he lived in the world but not of it. Surrounded by its attractions, versed in its accomplishments, his heart was ever most faithful to his divine Master. It is almost hard to realise, knowing what court and city manners were in the reigns of the first two Georges, that he could have preserved his life so untainted and true. ABBEY, CHARLES J., 1887, The English Church and Its Bishops, 1700-1800, vol. I, p. 299.

A visitor to Brooke in 1775 described him as "dressed in a long blue cloak, with a wig that fell down his shoulders. He was a little man, neat as wax-work, with an oval face, ruddy complexion, and large eyes full of fire." Brooke sank into a state of mental depression on the deaths of his wife and of his children, of whom the sole survivor (out of a family of twenty-two) was his daughter Charlotte, who devoted herself entirely to him. Disease and grief rendered him at times incapable of mental or physical exertion. -GILBERT, J. T., 1886, Dictionary of National Biography, vol. VI, p. 426.

UNIVERSAL BEAUTY

1735

Having paid another visit to London, he renewed his acquaintance with Pope; and, with his encouragement, published his poem, entitled, "Universal Beauty.' This poem forms a curious, but unacknowledged prototype of Darwin's "Botanic Garden." It has a resemblance to that work, in manner, in scientific spirit, and in volant geographical allusion, too striking to be supposed accidental; although Darwin has gone beyond his original, in prominent and ostentatious imagery.—CAMPBELL, THOMAS, 1819, Specimens of the British Poets.

A brilliant but obscure metaphysical and scientific poem, entitled "Universal Beauty," was published in no less than six anonymous folio instalments in the course of 1735, and is now very rarely

met with complete. It was from the pen of an Irish squire, Henry Brooke (17031783), long afterwards author of an unimportant sentimental novel, "The Fool of Quality." His poem deserves attention. It is written in very musical couplets, with, however, too frequent indulgence in the alexandrine. It is manifestly inspired by the optimistic philosophy of Shaftsbury. Brooke never fulfilled the promise of this remarkable first poem.-GOSSE, EDMUND, 1888, A History of Eighteenth Century Literature, pp. 218, 219.

Worth notice, though it has been too highly praised.-SAINTSBURY, GEORGE, 1898, A Short History of English Literature, p. 610.

THE FOOL OF QUALITY

1766

But the greatest excellence of all is that it continually strikes at the heart. It perpetually aims at inspiring and increasing every right affection; at the instilling gratitude to God and benevolence to man. And it does this not by dull, dry, tedious precepts, but by the liveliest examples that can be imagined; by setting before your eyes one of the most beautiful pictures that ever was drawn in the world. The strokes of this are so delicately fine, the touches so easy, natural and affecting, that I know not who could survey it with tearless eyes, unless he had a heart of stone. I recommend it, therefore, to all those who are already, or desire to be, lovers of God and man.WESLEY, JOHN, 1780, ed., History of Earl of Moreland, Preface.

That best of religious romances, the "Fool of Quality." The piety there is at once most deep and most benign. There is much, indeed of elegant mysticism, but all evidently most heartfelt and sincere. The yearnings of the soul after universal good and intimate communion with the divine nature were never more nobly shown. The author is most prodigal of his intellectual wealth, "his bounty is as boundless as the sea, his love as deep." He gives to his chief characters riches endless as the spiritual stores of his own heart. It is, indeed, only the last which gives value to the first in his writings. It is easy to endow men with millions on paper, and to make them willing to scatter them among the wretched; but it is the corresponding bounty and exuberance

of the author's soul, which here makes. the money sterling, and the charity divine. The hero of this romance always appears to our imagination like a radiant vision. encircled with celestial glories. The stories introduced in it are delightful exceptions to the usual rule by which such incidental tales are properly regarded as impertinent intrusions.-TALFOURD, THOMAS NOON, 1842, On British Novels and Romances, Critical and Miscellaneous Writings, p. 16.

There is full and conscious consistency in Mr. Brooke's method, whether or not there be dramatic unity in his plot. By that time also one may hope the earnest reader will have begun to guess at the causes which have made this book forgotten for a while; and perhaps to find them not in its defects but in its excellencies; in its deep and grand ethics, in its broad and genial humanity, in the divine value which it attaches to the relations of husband and wife, father and child; and to the utter absence both of that sentimentalism and that superstition which have been alternately debauching of late years the minds of the young. And if he shall have arrived at this discovery, he will be able possibly to regard at least with patience those who are rash enough to affirm that they have learnt from this book more which is pure, sacred, and eternal, than from any which has been published since Spenser's "Fairy Queen. -KINGSLEY, CHARLES, 1859, ed. The Fool of Quality, Preface.

A book I remember as among my father's loves-one of the few novels in our old library at Stockbridge. How well do I remember the five duodecimo volumes, in their dark leather bindings. The favourite books of that time stand around the chambers of memory, each a shrine. In this there is much wit and pathos, nature and wisdom (nature is wisdom when it is evolved from the human heart and from life). The style seems to me admirable-something in the fashion of the quaint old coats of our grandfathers, fashioned for ease and use, and of the best broadcloth garnished with velvet. It seems to me an admirable book might be made out of it for children, and I have a great mind to try my hand at it. It might, perhaps, flatter a little too much the dynasties of the present day, the

young usurpers of their father's thrones. -SEDGWICK, CATHARINE M., 1860, Life and Letters, p. 379.

A more horribly dull and tedious book it was never my misfortune to read; and as a fiction, or a story, or a work of art, it is beneath criticism. I willingly rank myself among the average readers as regards my estimate of the book, and can only wonder at Mr. Kingsley having taken the trouble to republish it, and still more at the praise which he lavishes upon it. It is made up of dull sermons and dull disquisitions on morality and the British Constitution, with an absurd attempt at a story, in which it is impossible to take interest, running through it. -FORSYTH, WILLIAM, 1871, The Novels and Novelists of the Eighteenth Century, pp. 168, 169.

Brooke's intellectual genealogy seems to be traceable to Behmen on the one hand and to Rousseau on the other; whilst a curious strain of Irish eccentricity runs through the whole, tempered by touches of the grace and tenderness of his greater countryman Goldsmith. The book resembles in some respects the friend of our infancy, "Sanford and Merton," though in that excellent performance the Rousseau element is not tempered by any theological admixture. Such performances indicate a current of vague feeling in search of some mode of utterance less constrained than that sanctioned by the practice of the Pope school, but equally ready to flow along the channels marked by Wesley or by Rousseau.-STEPHEN, LESLIE, 1876, History of English Thought in the Eighteenth Century, vol. II, p. 439.

His "Earl of Moreland," or "Fool of Quality," in five volumes, is over-long and over-exuberant, not in length only, but in fancy and expression. But it is full of noble thoughts-for which the education of an ideal nobleman gives ample scopein morals, politics, and theology.-ABBEY, CHARLES J., 1887, The English Church and Its Bishops, 1700-1800, vol. I, p. 300.

The author has so many interests, such width of mind, so keen a desire to further a vast variety of political and social reforms, that his story is completely overlaid by moral digressions; he is so occupied in works of public benevolence that he starves his child.-RALEIGH, WALTER, 1894, The English Novel, p. 213.

PERSONAL

The Honorable James Otis having by advise of his physician, retired into the country for the recovery of his health; Voted, That the thanks of the town be given to the Honorable James Otis for the great and important services, which, as a representative in the General Assembly through a course of years, he has rendered to this town and province; particularly for his undaunted exertions in the common cause of the colonies, from the beginning of the present glorious struggle for the rights of the British constitution. At the same time, the town cannot but express their ardent wishes for the recovery of his health, and the continuance of those public services, that must long be remembered with gratitude, and distinguish his name among the patriots of America.-Resolu tions at Town Meeting, Boston, 1770, May 8.

Otis was flame of fire!-with a promptitude of classical allusion, a depth of research, a rapid summary of historical events and dates, a profusion of legal authorities, a prophetic glance of his eye into futurity, and a torrent of impetuous eloquence, he hurried away every thing before him. American independence was then and there [1761] born. . . Every man of a crowded audience appeared to me to go away, an I did, ready to take of arms against writs of assistance. .. Mr. Otis . . breathed into this nation the breath of life.-ADAMS, JOHN, 1817, Letters.

Six weeks exactly after his return, on Friday afternoon the 23d day of May 1783, a heavy cloud suddenly arose, and a greater part of the family were collected in one of the rooms to wait till the shower should have past. Otis, with his cane in one hand, stood against the post of the door which opened from this apartment into the front. entry. He was in the act of telling the

assembled group a story, when an explosion took place which seemed to shake the solid earth, and he fell without a struggle, or a word, instantaneously dead, into the arms of Mr. Osgood, who, seeing him falling, sprang forward to receive him. This flash of lightning was the first that came from the cloud, and was not followed by any others that were remarkable. There were seven or eight persons in the room, but no other was injured. No mark of any kind could be found on Otis, nor was there the slightest change or convulsion in his features. It is a singular coincidence, that he often expressed a wish for such a fate. He told his sister, Mrs. Warren, after his reason was impaired, "my dear sister, I hope when God Almighty in his righteous providence shall take me out of time into eternity, that it will be by a flash of lightning," and this idea he often repeated.-TUDOR, WILLIAM, 1823, The Life of James Otis, p. 485.

All through the great struggle for independence, to which his eloquence had excited his countrymen, James Otis was like a blasted pine on the mountains-like a stranded wreck in the midst of the billows. It was just as the sunlight of peace burst upon his disenthralled country, that his spirit departed for the realm of unclouded intelligence. LOSSING, BENSON J., 1855-86, Eminent Americans, p. 163.

He was like the huge cannon on the man-of-war, in Victor Hugo's story, that had broken from its moorings in the storm, and became a terror to those whom it formerly defended. - HOSMER, JAMES KENDALL, 1885, Life of Samuel Adams, p. 355.

In his prime he was esteemed the chief orator of the Revolutionary movement. His fat figure was not ungraceful; his voice was strong and well modulated; his

plump face was courtly and handsome; his eye was piercing; and he was likened by the elder President Adams to a "flame of fire." He was neither consistent nor discreet, but the public, often inconsistent and indiscreet, is apt to favor a spokesman of similar temper. Like Charles Sumner, the great Boston orator of the later century, he was dictatorial and vain, and like Sumner, he was made more popular by an unjust personal assault which he suffered. His eccentricities and misfortunes actually increased his temporary influence, and the public reluctantly gave up his leadership, even when his insanity was manifest. RICHARDSON, CHARLES F., 1887, American Literature, 1607-1885, vol. 1, pp. 182, 183.

His five-hour speech against taxation without representation, delivered in the council chamber of the old town hall in Boston, was a masterly performance, making him famous as the bold and brilliant advocate of colonial rights. No summary or abstract of this speech can do justice to the whole, which can be estimated only by reading in its integrity. Even then how much is lost, as in the case of so many other great orators, in the lack of their presence and of the occasion which inspired them, and which they in turn made memorable.-SEARS, LORENZO, 1895, The History of Oratory, p. 310.

His eloquence was bold, witty, pungent, and practical. He communed with other minds, but more with his own. He was learned, and yet original, courteous in debate, and always treating the opinions of his adversaries with the respect they deserved; but he was bold and daring in his own investigations. He always listened to appeals which were conciliating, and motives that were just. In the presence, however, of arrogance and oppression, he was as firm as a rock.

Mr. Otis always forgot himself in the subject he discussed. He explored all the resources at his command, and was tireless in preparation. He appeared to be completely absorbed by his theme while. speaking, and thought as little of the skill he should display as an orator, as one fighting for his life thinks of the grace he shall exhibit in the flourish of his weapons. He was enthusiastic, sincere, forceful, natural, and spoke the language of a powerful mind under high but well-regulated

excitement.-HARDWICKE, HENRY, 1896, History of Oratory and Orators, pp. 336, 337.

GENERAL

Otis was not content with employing his eloquence alone, but he took up his pen also in defence of our rights; and if his pen was not equal to his tongue, it was sufficiently pointed and powerful to arouse his countrymen, and to excite the vengeance of those he called our oppressors. Otis affixed his name boldly to whatever he wrote; before this time, most political writings had come to the world anonymously. Others followed the example which Otis had set them, and wrote over their own names, when it was thought they could do more good by this course, than by taking an assumed name. was not only a patriot, but, what is more to my immediate purpose, he was a splendid scholar, and wrote several elementary works, and works of taste. - KNAPP, SAMUEL L., 1829, Lectures on American Literature, p. 90.

He

His abilities, perhaps, were overrated in the admiring judgment of his contemporaries. His style as a writer was copious and energetic; but it was careless, incorrect, and defective in taste and method. As a speaker, he was fluent, animated, coarse, and effective; his eloquence was better adapted to popular assemblies than to the graver occasions of legislative debate; and, in the halls of justice, we may suppose that it produced a greater effect on the jury than the judge. His voice and manner were very impressive, and seemed to force conviction upon his hearers, even when his arguments did not reach their judgment. The few fragments of his speeches, that were reported, and are now extant, give no idea of the enthusiasm that was created by their delivery. The elevation of his mind, and the known integrity of his purposes, enabled him to speak with decision and dignity, and commanded the respect as well as the admiration of his audience. His arguments were not comprehensive or varied; they related only to a few points in the subject, which they placed in a very clear and convincing light; but he had not the wide grasp of mind necessary for considering the affair as a whole, and examining it in all its aspects and relations. His eloquence showed but little imagination, yet,