boyhood: His estimable parents. Early dissipations. In Necessity and Obedience a man should find his highest Freedom (290).-Religious quarrels and scepticisms. Faithlessness: Exile and blackest desperation. Invited to Edinburgh: A Napoleon among the crowned sovereigns of Literature. Sir Walter Scott's reminiscence of an interview with Burns. Burns's calm manly bearing amongst the Edinburgh aristocracy. His bitter feeling of his own indigence. By the great he is treated in the customary fashion; and each party goes his several way (296).—What Burns was next to do, or to avoid : His Excise-and-Farm scheme not an unreasonable one: no failure of external means, but of internal, that overtook Burns. Good beginnings. Patrons of genius and picturesque tourists: Their moral rottenness, by which he became infected, gradually eat out the heart of his life. Meteors of French Politics rise before him, but they are not his stars. Calumny is busy with him. The little-great folk of Dumfries: Burns's desolation. In his destitution and degradation one act of self-devotedness is still open to him: Not as a hired soldier, but as a patriot would he strive for the glory of his country. The crisis of his life: Death (301).—Little effectual help could perhaps have been rendered to Burns: Patronage twice cursed: Many a poet has been poorer, none prouder And yet much might have been done to have made his humble atmosphere more genial. Little Babylons and Babylonians: Let us go and do otherwise. The market-price of Wisdom. Not in the power of any mere external circumstances to ruin the mind of The errors of Burns to be mourned over, rather than blamed. The great want of his life was the great want of his age, a true faith in Religion and a singleness and unselfishness of aim (307).-Poetry, as Burns could and ought to have followed it, is but another form of Wisdom, of Religion. For his culture as a Poet, poverty and much suffering for a season were absolutely advantageous. To divide his hours between poetry and rich men's banquets an ill-starred attempt. Byron, rich in worldly means and honours, no whit happier than Burns in his poverty and worldly degradation: They had a message from on High to deliver, which could leave them no rest while it remained unaccomplished. Death and the rest of the grave: A stern moral, twice told us in our own time. The world habitually unjust in its judgments of such men. With men of right feeling anywhere, there will be no need to plead for Burns : In pitying admiration he lies enshrined in all our hearts (312).

a man.

THE LIFE OF HEYNE

Professor Heeren's biographical and general literary abilities. Stinted rub-a-dub style of thinking and writing: Rhetorical flourishes: Truthfulness and trustworthiness (p. 319).-Some account of Heyne's early

years, given in his own words. Honesty, industry and almost destitution of his parents. Petty tyranny and rapacity: A juvenile would-be Brutus. Early schooling: hardships and helps: A quick scholar. His account of his boyhood rather barren and intolerant. Extraordinary school proficiency. A small degree of self-confidence awakened in him: General discontent: Becomes a private tutor (322).—At Leipzig University: ill-clothed, destitute of Books, with five shillings in his purse : He picked up what scraps of learning he could lay hold of: Ernesti the only teacher from whom he derived any benefit. Heyne's best teacher, himself: Without any clear aim, he set his heart on attaining knowledge, and no promise or threat could turn him back. Occasionally gets employment in giving private lessons: Chooses the profession of law. Some Latin verses attract the notice of Count Brühl. Ministerial smiles and empty promises. Again helps himself by private teaching : A hard bed: Boiled pease-cods not unfrequently his only meal: A poor appointment (328).—His edition of Tibullus. His day of difficulty far from past. Some consequences of the Seven-Years War: Literary struggles. Accepts a tutorship in the family of Herr von Schönberg. Theresa Weiss: Her earnest intelligence, and good-heartedness: Friendship ripening into passion: Mutual confidence. Bombardment of Dresden: Flight and helpless destitution. Theresa's extreme illness: She renounces the Catholic, and publicly embraces the Protestant Faith: Marriage: a bold step, but a right one. Domestic difficulties and hardships Theresa's prompt courage (333).-Dawning of better days: appointed Professor of Eloquence at Göttingen. His long life henceforth quietly and actively fruitful. His literary and other labours. Death of his noble-hearted Wife: Grounds of Consolation. His friends provide him with a new Bride: She proved an excellent wife to him. State of education in Germany. Heyne's successful labours for the Göttingen University. He lived till he had completed all his undertakings; and died softly and gently in his eighty-third year (341).-His intellectual character. Founded a new epoch in classical study. A show of dulness and hardness in him, not intrinsically belonging to him: A kindly old man, whom the Germans have some reason to be proud of. Another proof that man is not the product of his circumstances, but that, in a far higher degree, the circumstances are the product of the man (350).

GERMAN PLAYWRIGHTS

Comparative estimation of the playwright, millwright, and cartwright. England not so successful in the first species of carpentry as in the other two. The Playwrights of Germany a strong triumphant body: Interest in the Drama taking the place of interest in Politics. The world of

pasteboard, and the world of fact. The study of German Literature, like all other earthly undertakings, has its negative as well as its positive side. The German Parnassus. Ill-fated Kotzebue, lifted up by the hollow balloon of popular applause. Melancholy end of all wind-bags (p. 355).-Grillparzer, Klingemann, and Müllner may stand as representatives of the Playwrights of Germany. Grillparzer, not without reluctance, named under the head of Playwrights: Might have done good service in some prose or small-poem department. Tricks of the trade: The public a dim-eyed animal, gullible to almost all lengths. Of Grillparzer's peculiar knacks, not very much to be said: His worst Play, the Ahnfrau; a deep tragedy of the Castle-Spectre sort. König Ottokars Glück und Ende, a much more innocent piece, full of action, though without any discernible coherence. Agglomeration is not creation, and avails little in Literature. King Ottokar's soliloquy in the last of his fields. A charitable hope for better things (361).—Dr. Klingemann one of the most indisputable Playwrights now extant. His materials chiefly rosin, oil-paper, vizards, scarlet drapery and gunpowder. The compound nowise unpleasant: If any man wish to amuse himself irrationally, here is ware for his money. Ahasuer, the Wandering Jew. Faust, and his melodramatic contract with the Devil: A few scenes, showing how Faust was carried off in thunder, lightning and blue fire. Dr. Klingemann, a bold perpendicular Playwright, entirely contented with himself and his handicraft (369).-Dr. Müllner supreme over all Playwrights: Might have made a very pretty Lawyer, but to set up for a Poet a different enterprise. Ever tempting us with some hope that here is a touch of Poetry; and ever disappointing us with an expanse of pure Prose (378).— Müllner's one receipt for play-making borrowed from Zacharias Werner: A pettifogging sheriff's-officer principle of Fate, the raw material of his whole tragedy-goods. The Greek idea of Fate, a lofty and consistent hypothesis. Dr. Müllner's Fate-tenet totally incredible even to himself: A mere craftsman's trick. His abilities and performances as a journalist : German editorial squabbles. The duty of Foreign Reviewers twofold: What to be welcomed; and what to be rejected: Let every one be active for himself (384).

VOLTAIRE

Resistless and boundless power of true Literature. Every Life a wellspring, whose stream flows onward to Eternity. Present aspect of a man often strangely contrasted with his future influence: Moses; Mahomet; the early Christians; Tamerlane and Faust of Mentz. How noiseless is Thought! (p. 396).-Voltaire's European reputation. The biography of such a man cannot be unimportant. Differences of opinion: Necessity for mutual tolerance. Voltaire's character: Adroitness, and multifarious

success: Keen sense of rectitude; and fellow-feeling for human suffering (400).-Not a 'great character'; essentially a Mocker. Ridicule not the test of truth. The glory of knowing and believing, all but a stranger to him; only with that of questioning and qualifying is he familiar. His tragi-comical explosions, more like a bundle of rockets than a volcano. Character of the age into which he was cast. What is implied by a Lover of Wisdom. Voltaire loved Truth, but chiefly of the triumphant sort. His love of fame: 'Necessity' of lying: Can either fly or crawl, as the occasion demands (411).-His view of the world a cool, gently scornful, altogether prosaic one. His last ill-omened visit to Frederick the Great. His women, an embittered and embittering set of wantons from the earliest to the last: Widow Denis; the Marquise du Châtelet. The greatest of all Persifleurs (426).—His last and most striking appearance in society: The loudest and showiest homage ever paid to Literature. The last scene of all (436).—Intellectual gifts: His power of rapid, perspicuous Arrangement: His Wit, a mere logical pleasantry; scarcely a twinkling of Humour in the whole of his numberless sallies. Poetry of the toilette: Criticisms of Shakspeare,-Voltaire, and Frederick the Great: Let justice be shown even to French poetry (444).-Voltaire chiefly conspicuous as a vehement opponent of the Christian Faith: Shallowness of his deepest insight: The Worship of Sorrow, godlike Doctrine of Humility, all unknown to him. The Christian Religion itself can never die. Voltaire's whole character plain enough: A light, careless, courteous Man of the World: His chief merits belong to Nature and himself; his chief faults are of his time and country. The strange ungodly Age of Louis xv.: Honour; Enlightened Self-interest; Force of Public Opinion. Novalis, on the worthlessness and worth of French Philosophy. The death-stab to modern Superstition. The burning of a little straw may hide the Stars; but they are still there, and will again be seen (455).

APPENDIX I

FRACTIONS

No. 1. TRAGEDY OF THE NIGHT-MOTH

Waking sympathies between Moths and Bookworms. The fount of Life, and abyss of Danger: A tiny tragedy, Mystic resemblances. What gained we, little moth? (p. 469).

No. 2. CUI BONO

What is Hope? What is Life? What is Man? (p. 470).

No. 3. FOUR FABLES

1. A Radical Reform successfully accomplished. II. March of Intellect, and general scientific achievements of the utilitarian Squirt. III. Before we try to force Providence to an alternative,' it were wise to consider what the alternative might be. IV. The richer a nature, the harder and slower its development (p. 471).

No. 4. THE SOWER'S SONG

Earth's bounteous coöperation with the labours of her children (p. 472). No. 5. ADIEU

The past may be forever present; and the saddest tears must fall (p. 473).

No. 6. THE BEETLE

A new claimant for Public Sympathy, and the benefits of the PoorLaws. The chief of wonders common to the lowliest Beetle and the loftiest Peer (p. 474).

No. 7. TODAY

Each New Day a new glimpse into Eternity; and a new offer of eternal possibilities (p. 475).

No. 8. FORTUNA

The weariest heart may find something to be thankful for; and only a dastard can really come to evil. The journey of life (p. 475).

APPENDIX II
No. 1

RICHTER'S REVIEW OF MADAME DE STAEL'S 'ALLEMAGNE'

To review a Revieweress of two literary Nations no easy task. Madame de Staël's peculiar advantages and fitness in everything but a comprehension of her subject: Her French intellect and German heart. Parisian refinement: Classical indifference to the household-stuff' of Religion, and to mere Work-people. How she bleaches and clear-starches the Rainbow; and even makes a polished gentleman of the German Hercules. German dingy impracticability, notwithstanding: Mere Nightingales, compared with Peacocks. Poor naked unfallen Eves and Graces; how shall they be presented at our Parisian Court! (p. 476).-Value and deep human interest of national peculiarities. We cannot wholly see our