SUPPLEMENTARY AUTHORS OF THE SEVENTH DECADE; EMBRACING THE MOST PROMINENT WRITERS LIVING IN 1860. Albert, Francis - Augustus - Charles - Emmanuel (1819-1861), Prince of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, and consort of Queen Victoria, to whom he was married February 10, 1840. Since the death of this truly illustrious prince, there have been published-The Principal Speeches and Addresses of His Royal Highness the Prince-Consort, and Prince Albert's Golden Precepts. These works are beautifully illustrative of his noble character. Placed, by marriage, in a position of peculiar delicacy, with no direct power, and yet with influence unbounded, he so conducted himself at all times and upon all occasions, public and private, as to elicit the warmest approbation from the best and wisest men in the kingdom, and to gain the hearts of all, from the prime minister to the humblest subject. Ainsworth, William Francis (born 1807), distinguished as a traveller. Researches in Assyria, Babylonia, and Chaldæa, 1838; Travels in Asia Minor, &c., 1842; Travels in the Track of the Ten Thousand Greeks,— the result of two journeys, spread over a period of seven years. Ainsworth, William Harrison (born at Manchester, 1805), a novelist. Sir John Chiverton, 1826; Rookwood, 1834; followed in successive years by Jack Sheppard, The Tower of London, Windsor Castle, &c. His works, popular at the time with certain classes, have sunk into oblivion. Mr. Ainsworth is now proprietor of the New Monthly Magazine and Bentley's Miscellany. Aird, Thomas, is a Scotch poet, born in 1802, and was for nearly thirty years editor of the Dumfries Herald, and an occasional contributor to Blackwood's Magazine. Few, if any, living poets of Scotland rank higher; though this is but comparative praise. His works are-Old Bachelor in the Old Scottish Village; Religious Characteristics, &c. In 1852 he edited, with much taste and discrimination, an edition of the select poems of David Macbeth Moir, with an admirable life. The following, which is worthy of being preserved, is from his poem entitled Alexander, Cecil Frances, sacred poet and hymn-writer,-one of the most beautiful of the present century. She was born in Ireland, and her maiden name was Humphreys, under which her works first appeared. Verses for Holy Seasons, 1846. In 1856 she was married to Rev. William Alexander, rector in Strabane, Ulster. Legend of the Golden Prayer, 1859. That grand hymn, The Burial of Moses, beginning,— "By Nebo's lonely mountain," which in an English publication was credited to our poet Whittier,' is Mrs. Alexander's. Alford, Henry, D.D., Dean of Canterbury, poet and biblical critic, was born in London in 1810. His chief works are-Poems and Poetical Frag ments, 1831; The School of the Heart, 1835; Hulsean Lectures, 1841 Poetical Works, 2 volumes, 1845; The New Testament for English Readers, with a critical and explanatory commentary, 2 volumes, 1863-65; and A Plea for the Queen's English. The object of the last work is to expose the present tendency to "slipshod" writing,-to incorrectness in expression and syntax in our current English literature. Unhappily, the dean himself, in this very work, has committed many mistakes, and is guilty of numerous infelicities of style, which have been cleverly exposed, with no little wit and sarcasm, by G. Washington Moon, in his essay entitled The Dean's English. I regret that duty obliges me to add that the dean's book is marred by some mean, unworthy, and unjust flings against my country. His latest work (1866) is, How to Study the New Testament. Allingham, William, an Irish song-writer. Poems, 1850; Day and Night Songs, 1854; The Music-Master, 1855. Some of his songs are said to be popular in Ireland, though little known here. The Ballad-Book, a selection of the choicest British ballads, 1865. Arnold, Edwin (born 1831), a recent poet and essayist of considerable merit. Griselda, a drama; Poems, Narrative and Lyrical; The Euterpe of Herodotus, a metrical translation, with notes, &c. Arnold, Thomas. A Manual of English Literature, London, 1862; an excellent survey of this wide field. Mr. Arnold was Professor of English Literature in the Catholic University of Ireland. Aytoun, William Edmonstoune, born in Edinburgh in 1813. In 1840 he was admitted to the Scottish bar, and in 1845 was appointed Professor of Rhetoric and Belles-Lettres in the University of Edinburgh, which chair he held till his death, August 4, 1865. He was one of the chief contributors to Blackwood's Magazine. His fame rests chiefly upon his spirit-stirring Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers, the twelfth edition of which was published in 1859. His other chief works are- -Bothwell, a Poem, 1 This reminds me that that grand piece on Milton's blindness, beginning, "I am old and blind," by our own Mrs. Howell (written when she was Elizabeth Lloyd), was published in London, in an edition of Milton's poetry, as a long-lost piece of the great poet's, recovered! Could a finer tribute be paid to its worth? 2 The Rev. John Hulse, of Elworth, Chester, who died childless in the latter part of the last century, left the bulk of his property to St. John's College, Cambridge, to found the Hulsean Professorship of Divinity, &c. The duty of the lecturer or preacher is to preach not less than four nor more than six sermons in the course of the year upon Christian Doc trine. 8 In this work the dean gives numerous amusing examples of careless writing; among which is an advertisement from the London Times, reading thus:-"A Bachelor of Arts, now holding a sole charge, will be disengaged on the 17th of September. He is an extempore preacher of the doctrines of Grace, in all their sanctifying influence, and now seeks another." According to the construction of the language used, the advertiser wants another "doctrine" or another “sanctifying influence: whereas he means, probably, that he wants another "sole charge.” 4 It would be well for the dean, in the next edition of this work, to inform us how, ir judging of nations, he expounds #povoverai Kaλa, in the latter clause of Romans xii. 17. a vindication of the character of Queen Mary; Fermilian, a Spasmodic Tragedy; and the Ballads of Scotland. In conjunction with Theodore Martin (q. v.), he wrote Ballads by Bon Gaultier; and a volume of admirable translations of the Poems and Ballads of Goethe. In 1853 he delivered a course of lectures in London on Poetry and Dramatic Literature. Bailey, Philip James (born in Nottingham, in 1816), a philosophical poet of considerable distinction. Festus, by which he is most known, was begun before he had reached his twentieth year, and published in 1839. It was received with great applause at first; but, unequal, incongruous, and mystical, it soon passed into neglect, notwithstanding its occasional beauties. It was followed by The Angel World, and other Poems, 1850; The Mystic, and other Poems, 1855; and The Age, a Colloquial Satire, in 1858. Bain, Professor Alexander, of Aberdeen (born 1818), author of The Senses and the Intellect, and The Emotions of the Will. He also contributed the articles on Logic and Mental Philosophy to Chambers's Cyclopædia. Ballantyne, James (born 1808), a Scotch poet, known as much, perhaps, for his skill in the revived art of glass-painting as for his Scottish Songs. The Gaberlunzies' Wallet, a tale, was published in 1843. In 1856 a collective edition of his poetical works was published. Bayne, Peter, is the author of two very valuable volumes, entitled Essays in Biography and Criticism. The subjects are as follows:-First Series: I. De Quincey; II. Tennyson; III. Mrs. Browning; IV. Recent British Art; V. Ruskin; VI. Hugh Miller; VII. The Modern Novelists,—Bulwer, Dickens, Thackeray; VIII. Currer Bell and her Sisters. Second Series: I. Charles Kingsley; II. Macaulay; III. Alison the historian; IV. S. T. Coleridge; V. Wellington; VI. Buonaparte; VII. Plato; VIII. Characteristics of Christian Civilization; IX. The Modern University; X. The Pulpit and the Press; XI. Testimony of the Rocks.2 Bennett, William C., a lyrical poet, who published, in 1859, Songs by a Song-Writer; and in 1860, Poems. Miss Mitford has characterized him as "a charming and richly-gifted poet.”3 Blackie, John Stuart (born in Aberdeen, 1809), Professor of Greek in the University of Edinburgh. In 1834 he gave an English translation of Goethe's Faust; in 1850, the lyrical dramas of Eschylus, in two volumes, admirably done. In 1850 appeared Lays and Lyrics of Ancient Greece, with other Poems; and in 1860, Lyrical Poems. Professor Blackie has also written for the Foreign Quarterly Review, the Westminster, Blackwood, and Tait, and contributed the articles "Eschylus" and "Homer" to the Encyclopædia Britannica. He is considered as one of the most accomplished scholars of Great Britain. Borrow, George (born 1803, near Norwich). 1841, Zincali, or an Account of the Gypsies in Spain, of whom he calculates there are forty thousand; also the Bible in Spain, 1843,- -a book of deep interest, being an account of journeys, adventures, and imprisonment while travelling in that country as the agent of the Bible Society. He has also written Lavengro, -the Scholar, the Gypsy, the Priest, 1851; and Romany Rye, a sequel to 1 Its object has been said to be "to describe the history of a divinely-instructed mind, soaring upwards to communion with the Universal Life."" 2 Very neat editions of these works have been published by Gould & Lincoln, Boston. 3 See chapter xxxiv. of that very interesting work. Recollections of a Literary Life, by Mary Russell Mitford. Specimens of his poetry can be seen in STODDARD'S Later Poets. 4 See some specimens in the Compendium of Classical Literature. this. His last work is Wild Wales, 1863, designed as a sort of counterpart to the Bible in Spain, Bosworth, Dr. Joseph (born 1790), Professor of Anglo-Saxon in Oxford, and distinguished as a philologist, has done more than any other man to revive Anglo-Saxon studies in England. Elements of Anglo-Saron Grammar, 1823; A Dictionary of the Anglo-Saxon Language, 1838; The Origin of Danish Literature, 1842; Origin of the English, Germanic, and Scandinavian Languages and Nations, 1846. His last work (1865) is, The Gospels in Gothic of A. D. 360, and in Anglo-Saxon of 995, in Parallel Columns, with Wycliffe's Version of 1389, and Tyndale's of 1526, in 1 volume royal Svo, -a very valuable addition to biblical and philological libraries. Bowring, Sir John (born at Exeter, 1792), a translator, colonial governor, &c. In 1823 appeared Specimens of the Russian Poets; in 1827, Specimens of the Polish Poets, &c. He wrote many valuable papers for the govern ment Blue Books, and, after receiving many honorable public trusts, was in 1853 appointed Governor of Hong Kong. In 1857 appeared his Kingdom and People of Siam, 2 volumes. Sir John has also written a few beautiful sacred lyrics; such as, "How sweetly flow'd the gospel's sound!" In the Fortnightly Review of November 15, 1865, is a fine paper by him on Lord Palmerston. Boyd, Rev. Andrew Kennedy Hutchinson, a clergyman of the Church of Scotland, born 1825. First known by papers in Fraser's Magazine, signed A. K. H. B. These have been reprinted under the titles of Recreations of a Country Parson, Leisure Hours in Town, Graver Thoughts of a Country Parson, The Common-Place Philosopher in Town and Country, Autumn Holidays of a Country Parson. All his works, though not remarkable for vigor of style or depth of thought, are very pleasant and profitable reading.1 Bradbury, S. H., a poet who, under the pen-name of "Quallon," has written some very musical lyrics, found in a volume entitled Leoline, and Lyrics of Life, London, 1860. Brewster, Sir David (born 1781, in Jedburgh, Scotland), a distinguished astronomer and natural philosopher. A treatise on that philosophical toy (which he invented), the Kaleidoscope, 1816; editor of the Edinburgh Encyclopædia for twenty years; Euler's Lectures and Life, 1823; a Treatise on Optics, 1831; The Martyrs of Science (lives of Galileo, Tycho Brahe, and Kepler); More Worlds than One, 1854,-endeavoring to show that other planets, and even the sun, may be inhabited; The Life of Newton, first published in 1828, and greatly enlarged in 1855. He has been an important contributor to the Edinburgh and North British Reviews. Brooks, Charles Shirley (born 1815), a lawyer by profession,-a dramatist, novelist, and journalist in practice. His plays are-Our New Governess, Honors and Riches, &c.; his novels,-The Gordian Knot, Aspen Court, &c. He was connected with the Morning Chronicle, and is a regular contributor to Punch. Brough, Robert B. (born 1828), London; author of several dramatic pieces; also of What to Eat, Drink, and Avoid; Medea (a burlesque), &c. 1 Very beautiful editions of his works have been published by Ticknor & Fields, Boston, who may be considered as his American publishers exclusively. Browne, Frances (born 1816), "the blind poetess of Ulster," who lost her eyesight from small-pox when only eighteen months old. But the poetic spirit was in her; and she early wrote small pieces for the Irish Penny Journal and the Athenæum. In 1844 she published The Star of Atteghei, and other Poems; and in 1847, Lyrics and Miscellaneous Poems. Buchanan, Robert, a recent poet, of considerable power and elegance of versification. Undertones; and Idyls and Legends of Inverburn.1 These justify our expectations of still greater things. Buckle, Henry Thomas (1822-1862), wrote History of Civilization in England, the first volume of which appeared in 1857, and the second in 1861. It is a work of great pretension, of considerable learning, and of some accomplishment; but in tracing the progress of mankind he attributes all changes to material causes, overlooking the teachings of inspiration in the Old Testament, and the precepts and example of Christ and His apostles in the New,-the very things that have done most to ameliorate the condition of mankind. This, to use the common illustration, is the play of "Hamlet" with the character of Hamlet omitted. Burton, John Hill (born 1809, at Aberdeen), a Scottish advocate. Political and Social Economy, 1849; History of Scotland, 1853; also, Life and Correspondence of David Hume; Lives of Lord Lovat and Duncan Forbes of Culloden; Narratives from Criminal Trials in Scotland. wrote the articles "Parliament" and "Prison Discipline" for the Encyclopædia Britannica. He Cairnes, J. E., Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Economy, Queen's College, Belfast. Lectures on Political Economy, 1857; The Slave-Power, its Character, Career, and Probable Designs, 1862. This work does the professor immortal honor, not only for its great ability, but for its being so far ahead of the sentiments of the great mass of the literary men of his country, in its earnest sympathies with our government in its efforts to crush the slaveholders' rebellion, 1861-1865. Campbell, Right Hon. Lord John (1779-1861), son of a Scottish minister: originally a reporter for the Morning Chronicle; called to the bar in 1806; M. P. for Stafford, 1830; in 1834, Attorney-General; in 1841, Lord Chancellor of Ireland; in 1850, Chief-Justice of England; and in 1859, Lord Chancellor. The Lives of the Lord Chancellors, &c., from the Earliest Times to the Reign of George IV., 1845-47, in 7 volumes; Lives of the Chief-Justices of England, 1849, 2 volumes: both works of great value. Candlish, Robert S., D.D. (born 1807), a Scottish minister, and, after Dr. Chalmers's death, leader of the "Free Church." His works on Genesis, on Scripture Characters, on the Atonement, on the Resurrection, and on Maurice's Theological Essays, are most known, and are highly prized. Carleton, William (born 1798), an Irish novelist. His chief works are-Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry; Fardarougha the Miser; Valentine McClutchy; Willy Reilly; The Fawn of Spring Vale; The Clarionet, and other Tales, 3 volumes; The Misfortunes of Barney Branagan. Carpenter, William Benjamin, son of Dr. Lant Carpenter (born 1813), a distinguished physiologist. Principles of General and Comparative Physiology; Principles of Human Physiology, Vegetable Physiology, and Botany, Zoology, and Instinct in Animals; Popular Cyclopedia of Natural 1 Messrs. Roberts, of Boston, have published (1866) a beautiful edition of his poems. Sce, also, extracts in STODDARD'S Later Poets. 2 See page 297. |