plain to his Royal Highness the Duke of Clarence; a situation generally considered introductory to ecclesiastical promotion..

It is well known that preferment does not always follow the paths of literature. Persons who spend their days in mental pursuits are removed from those opportunities of which the active and the busy are ever ready to avail themselves; but in such contests success is often the result of a painful assiduity, of many repulses, and of frequent disappointment. There are persevering minds equal to constant solicitation; but the poet thus describes the quiescent mind:

"Untutor❜d he to fawn or seek for pow'r

"By doctrines fashion'd to the varying hour."

Mr. Bidlake has discharged the obligations of parental care in a manner that entitles him to much commendation, and affords an exemplary instance of filial affection. It happened that his father, who was a reputable jeweller at Plymouth, failed in his business, at an advanced period of life, and was reduced to a state of irretrievable embarrassment. The support of both parents devolved in consequence on the son; and though it may be easily supposed his resources were not calculated to sustain such a pressure, he performed this pious task with chearfulness for several years. Even the produce of a small employment, obtained by the father some time after this event, was generously devoted by the son to the further comfort of his parents. On the father's de

cease,

cease, this supply of course failed. The death of his mother was sudden, and happened while his poem of the Sea was preparing for the press. To this the author pathetically alludes in the following lines:

"Of all the dangers of the stormy main,

While thus the Muse had sung, and deem'd herself
Secure, and sought to deck her sea-beat grot,
In hope to soothe maternal age, and cheer
The eve of life, came treach'rous Death, and aim'd
A sudden blow; and fix'd an arrow in

This sadd'ning breast, that long will rankle there:
For, with that sudden blow a parent fell.
Scarce had the gloomy tyrant ceas'd to wound,
And scarce had Time with lenient hand applied
His balm to woe, when thus a second fell.
O! say, ye truly feeling! ye, who boast
The fond delights of kind parental love,
And pay the debt of filial gratitude,
And call your duty all your daily joy;

O, say what pangs must rend this aching heart!
Peace to your shades, ye venerable names!
Ye, who with care sustain'd my infant years,

And still pursu'd with fondest wishes all

My paths! Yet one, one joy is mine: more high
Than rich inheritance, that all your cares

Were not forgot-and were, perhaps, repaid."

Though highly susceptible of domestic happiness, Mr. Bidlake has never yet married. His amusements are various, and indicate the man of taste. Several pictures in his possession of favourite scenes near Plymouth, evince talents which, if assiduously cultivated, would entitle him to considerable eminence. The colouring and characteristic excellence of these pictures declare the artist to be intimately

conversant

conversant with the sublime objects of his imitation. Botany, natural and experimental philosophy, and sometimes the varied tones of an excellent organ, on which Mr. Bidlake performs occasionally, relieve the languid intervals of literary abstraction. These clegant pursuits, however, have not rendered him unsocial; and though no one, perhaps, sacrifices less time to what is fashionably termed "the world," yet many of his evenings are spent in the society of a few friends of congenial minds, with whom the topics of the day, or subjects connected with literature and the arts, are discussed; and not unfrequently, biographical anecdotes, illustrative of singular habits and characteristic traits, which Mr. Bidlake relates with much humour, furnish subject of amusement and speculation.

But his chief pleasure arises from that enthusiastic admiration of the wonders of creation, which is the prominent feature of his mind. No one can possess a more ardent love of rural pleasures; many of his leisure hours are therefore devoted to excursions in the country; which, in the neighbourhood of Plymouth, is beautifully diversified and picturesque. These excursions are always performed on foot, and with a few select companions, with whom he may enjoy the freedom of unreserved communication and enquiry, and soften for a while in the tranquillity of rural scenes, the recollection of those fatal dissensions which the wickedness and folly of mankind are perpetually exciting. Perhaps in that fervour of mental delight, which the beauty and beneficence of

Nature

Nature inspire, Utopian projects of human emancipation from degradation and error may at times brighten the perspective of existing misery, and

rouze

"The latent throb for virtue and for fame."

The book of nature has been Mr. Bidlake's chief study. Hence those liberal sentiments, those comprehensive views; hence also that happy combination of poetic and picturesque imagery, so conspicuous in his works.

In the perusal of his sermons the bigot and the sectary will be perhaps equally disappointed: but to the sincere lover of God and of mankind, to the man whose understanding has not been bewildered in the labyrinth of controversy, and whose heart has resisted the poison of those who, in order to erect their perishable structures, destroy every thing that can dignify or soften humanity; to all, in short, who believe that religion consists in the exercise of piety and virtue, independent of all artificial distinctions, they will prove a source of consolation and improvement. Religion here assumes her most fascinating dress, and her language is in unison with the dictates of reason and nature. His poetry is remarkable for tenderness of sentiment and chaste imagery, and his similes always appropriate and generally beautiful, have been justly admired. His subjects are mostly of the pensive kind, which, while they soften the heart, render it at the same time more susceptible of those moral and social virtues, the

promotion

promotion of which is the great object of all his works.

Although the short sketch here presented of a man who all his life long has " kept the noiseless tenor of his way," might at the first view seem of little consequence in a book of " Public Characters; a moment's reflection will demonstrate to every feeling mind, that, as a life past in the unostentatious display and exercise of piety and virtue is of great honour and utility, so is the transmitting such an example to posterity an encouragement to the present dwellers upon earth to " go and do likewise."

LORD LOUGHBOROUGH.

ALEXANDER WEDDERBURNE was the son of an eminent Judge in the Court of Session. He was born in 1733, and received his education at Edinburgh. At the University he so distinguished himself for genius and erudition, that he attracted the attention of a set of literary gentlemen, most of whom were ten years older than himself, and was admitted into a society which they had formed. The other members were Messrs. William Robertson, Adam Fergusson, Hugh Blair, John Home, and Alexander Carlyle. Young Mr. Wedderburne, in the company of these able men, very much increased his literary attainments. Accustomed to generalization and philosophy, to a cute discrimination and logical discussion, he greatly facilitated the acquirement of

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