university, Goldsmith made the tour of Europe on foot, finding his support in the hospitality of the peasants, who, in their turn, danced around his flute. The record of this tour survives in his poem, The Traveller, of which the first sketch was made in Switzerland. The rest of Goldsmith's history is the history of his works, interspersed with innumerable little troubles into which he was brought by an indefensible recklessness, and as often by his generosity. He was the favourite of all the wits of the day; who, while they valued his good-heartedness, laughed at his simplicity: and his death was deplored by Johnson, Reynolds, and Burke, as a domestic calamity. It took place A.D. 1774. The works of Goldsmith are probably, in their own style, the most accomplished which the age produced. His Vicar of Wakefield has a perfection which belongs to few prose narratives in the language; and his two comedies, while rich in genial humour, are wholly free from the corruptions by which the comic drama has too commonly been stained. His poetry is admirable for its grace and felicity of expression, as well as for its purity and refinement of sentiment. It was formed, as to its versification, on the model which, from the time of Pope, had become a tradition; but in its tenderness, serene pathos, and sympathy with nature and man, it opened out a richer vein of poetry, and one which has been further worked in our day by Rogers and others. THE VILLAGE SCHOOLMASTER. Beside yon straggling fence that skirts the way, While words of learned length and thundering sound THE VILLAGE INN. Near yonder thorn that lifts its head on high, The parlour splendours of that festive place; Vain transitory splendour! could not all No more the farmer's news, the barber's tale, 154 LOGAN. JOHN LOGAN was the son of a farmer in Mid-Lothian. He became a clergyman in the Scottish Kirk, and subsequently delivered lectures on history in Edinburgh. His "Ode to the Cuckoo" excited the admiration of Edmund Burke; and for pathos and appreciation of nature had, indeed, few competitors amid the productions of the age. Logan was born A.D. 1748, and died A.D. 1788. ODE TO THE CUCKOO0. Hail, beauteous stranger of the grove! Now Heaven repairs thy rural seat, What time the daisy decks the green, Delightful visitant! with thee The schoolboy, wandering through the wood To pull the primrose gay, Starts, thy curious voice to hear,* And imitates thy lay. What time the pea puts on the bloom, Thou fliest thy vocal vale, An annual guest in other lands, Another Spring to hail. Sweet bird! thy bower is ever green, Thy sky is ever clear; Thou hast no sorrow in thy song, No winter in thy year! *This line was probably altered by Logan as defective in quantity. "Curious may be a Scotticism, but it is felicitous. It marks the unusual resemblance of the note of the cuckoo, to the human voice the cause of the start and imitation which follow. Whereas the 'new voice of spring' is not true; for many voices in spring precede that of the cuckoo, and it is not peculiar or striking, nor does it connect either with the start or imitation."-Note by Lord Mackenzie. Behold, sad emblem of thy state, Nipt by the year the forest fades ; The leaves toss to and fro, and streak The Winter past, reviving flowers The woods shall hear the voice of Spring, And flourish green again. But man departs this earthly scene, Ah, never to return! No second Spring shall e'er revive * The ashes of the urn. The mighty flood that rolls along In torrents to the main, Its waters lost can ne'er recall The days, the years, the ages, dark Can never, never be redeemed So man departs the living scene, The voice of morning ne'er shall break Where are our fathers? Whither gone "The patriarchs, prophets, princes, kings, Gone to the resting-place of man, THOMSON. JAMES THOMSON, one of the greatest among the Scotch poets, was born at Ednam, in Roxburghshire, A.D. 1700. Through the care of his father, the Presbyterian minister of Ednam, and several of his clerical friends, the education of the youth was well attended to. He was sent to the University of Edinburgh. His poem of "Winter" was published A.D. 1726, and gained for him almost immediately the applause of his fellow-countrymen. In company with the Honourable Mr. Charles Talbot, whom he attended as tutor, Thomson visited most of the European countries; but the death of his pupil, and of Lord Talbot, reduced the poet again to a state of dependence, in which he passed the rest of his life, except the last two years of it, when, through the friendship of Lord Lyttelton, he was appointed surveyor-general of the Leeward Islands. His writings brought him some profit, and he enjoyed a pension from the Prince of Wales. He died of a fever A.D. 1748. No works contributed more than those of Thomson to withdraw the public taste from the artificial, and bring it back to the true model of all genuine art,-nature. The pictures of nature in Thomson's "Seasons" are admirably truthful, and possess a glowing richness. It may be said, however, on the other hand, that they are sensuous, and, like the landscapes of Rubens, present us rather with "the fat of the land" than with that representation of nature, at once true and ideal, which belongs to the highest order of poetry. His "Castle of Indolence" is a work of a larger imagination and more masterly handling than his "Seasons," and makes us lament the time which he wasted on dramas that presented no true field for his genius. In it we trace the influence of Spenser. The harmony of its versification is such as would in itself have proved that the poet was |