DEFENCE OF THE CLASSICS.

55

pure taste, but of all praiseworthy industry. It would, if acted upon, (as Harold, by his mention of the Continental practice of using inferior writers in the business of tuition, would seem to recommend,) destroy the great source of intellectual vigour of our countrymen. The labour of acquiring the learned languages, salutary as that labour is to the whole understanding, is acknowledged to be considerable: and if it is not to be cheered by the delightful inspirations of ancient genius; if the digger in the mine of philology is not to be enlivened by the accompanying song of classical poets; there is no other digger, or hedger, or ditcher, who is denied so natural and necessary a recreation

Solatur carmine fossor opus

"Many a would-be genius will hereafter eagerly shelter himself under the authority of Harold, and pronounce it a proof of original fancy, and strong ungovernable powers of mind, to be unable to submit to the drudgery of penetrating into the sense of Horace; and the simple and appropriate panegyric of Pope will lose all its veracity, as far as the reader is concerned

"Horace still charms with graceful negligence," &c.]

56

RECOLLECTIONS.

"It is probable, that among the occasions which Harold commemorates so gratefully and so honourably, both to himself and to his preceptor Dr. Drury,occasions on which that preceptor gave his pupil good advice, that there was no failure of encomium upon Horace, nor any want of encouragement to study his useful and animating pages. Ille se profecisse sciet, cui Horatius valde placebit,' may be said perhaps as truly of this as of any author of antiquity. When will men of real genius feel their responsibility, and weigh what they are doing, when about to set a licentious example? Exemplar VITIIS imitabile,' should be their constant motto and monitor."

Previous to leaving Harrow, it will be no more than justice to the youthful genius and feelings of its noble Poet, to quote a few lines from one of his earliest pieces, entitled, "Childish Recollections," but which most readers of sensibility will regard with concern, as the promising shoots of a fancy that has since suffered much by luxuriance.

"Yet why should I alone with such delight
Retrace the circuit of my former flight?

Is there no cause beyond the common claim,
Endear'd to all, in childhood's very name?

REMOVAL TO CAMBRIDGE.

Ah! sure some stronger impulse vibrates here,
Which, whispers Friendship, will be doubly dear
To ote who thus with kindred hearts must roam,
And seek abroad the love denied at home:
Those hearts, dear Ida,* have I found in thee-
A home, a world, a Paradise to me.

Stern Death forbade my orphan youth to share
The tender guidance of a father's care;
Can rank, or e'en a guardian's name, supply
The love which glistens in a father's eye?
For this can wealth or title's sound alone,
Made, by a parent's early loss, my own?
What brother springs a brother's love to seek?
What sister's gentle kiss has press'd my cheek?
For me how dull the vacant moments rise,

To no fond bosom link'd by kindred ties."

57

At the age of little more than sixteen, the author of these verses removed to the University of Cambridge, where he became a student of Trinity College.

Of the pursuits which occupied his time during the short period of his continuance in this venerable seat of learning not much can be said; since it appears that he despised academical honours, and treated with contempt the peculiar studies by which alone

* Harrow.

58

SATIRE ON THE UNIVERSITY.

they could be procured. The same indolence that characterized him at school, distinguished him in college; but though he paid little attention to the classics, and had an abhorrence for mathematics, he read the English poets with avidity, and exercised his genius in writing verses, chiefly of an amatory description. His turn for satire also at this period appears in the sketches which he has drawn of a collegiate life, and of the labours of the candidate for public prizes. But however excusable these light productions may be, no palliative can be found for the author, who after leaving the university could vent his spleen against her in these venemous lines:

"Oh! dark asylum of a Vandal race,

At once the boast of learning, and disgrace.'

As an illustration of this foul aspersion, a passage from Gibbon is quoted where the historian says, that

into Cambridgeshire the emperor Probus transported a considerable body of Vandals :”—after giving which notable extract the satirist observes, that "there is no reason to doubt the truth of this assertion; for the breed is still in high perfection."

SATIRE ON THE UNIVERSITY.

59

There are four other lines in the same poem, which betray a malignity of mind, that is difficult to account for, but on the ground of its having been excited by resentment of coercion inflicted or distinctions withheld:

"Ye, who in Granta's honours would surpass,
Must mount her Pegasus, a full-grown ass ;

A foal well worthy of her ancient dam,
Whose Helicon is duller than her Cam."

Instances of similar calumny upon a University, by one of its members, are of rare occurrence; for in general men, however irregular their conduct may have been, feel interested in the glory of the seminary where they were bred.

Milton, it is true, who had been subjected to the severity of academic discipline, complained in some Latin verses, that the banks of the Cam were unpropitious to Phoebus; but this querulousness arose from a hatred of the government, and not a dislike to the studies, of the University.

Gibbon, in the Memoirs of his own life, has done