Beside those features of his personal character already mentioned, one occurs, and exceedingly prominent, his loyalty. This feeling grew out of his natural reverence for authority and superiors. He was also a zealous churchman for the same reason, and warmly opposed the covenant-and for this he suffered considerably in his temporal affairs, as well as in the trials to which his mild temper was subjected. A fast friend to royalty and the church, circumstances, as well as his natural bent, led him to embrace that particular side. His mother was the niece of Archbishop Cranmer, and his wife the sister of Bishop Ken, who has written some fine hymns, and whom James II. reckoned the first among the Protestant preachers of his time.

The divines of that day, with whom Walton was intimately associated, greatly influenced his mind and character, and may be said, by their works and conversation, to have formed his mind and leading opinions-Donne, Herbert, Sanderson, Fuller, Ken, King, Usher, Chillingworth, and three poets, at that period the natural defenders of monarchy and nobility, Drayton, Shirley, the dramatist, and Chalkhill.

From the multitude of eulogiums and affectionate allusions to Walton, living, and his memory after death, we have selected the following nervous lines of Flatman, a forgotten poet, who has shown genius in two or three short pieces.

Happy old man! whose worth all mankind knows,
Except himself; who charitably shows,

The ready road to virtue and to praise,

The road to many long and happy days,

The noble acts of generous piety,

And how to compass true felicity.
Hence did he learn the art of living well;
The bright Thealma was his oracle :
Inspired by her he knows no anxious cares,
Through near a century of pleasant years;
Easy he lives, and cheerful shall he die,
Well spoken of by late posterity.

How correctly the poet has prophesied, the readers and admirers of Walton at the present day may answer. The name occurs but once beside in our literature, and then in a work of fiction, the enchanting volume of Mackenzie ; and apart from the melancholy sentiment and pathetic sweetness of that character, it is a magic name, consecrated to the respect of all scholars, and the love of all good men throughout the world.

XIV.

ELIJAH FENTON.

IN a former article, on Religious Biography, the very imperfect list of English biographies that rank as classic productions in that department of writing there inserted, includes the lives of Milton and Waller, by Fenton, an author so estimable as a man, and affording so agreeable an instance of one class of writers, that, although little known himself, and author of no very important efforts, we are inclined to pause at his name, and sketch his personal and literary character. Fenton was emphatically a man of letters, a title of dubious meaning, and that ought to have a settled character. In its most enlarged sense, it may convey the idea of a general scholar and miscellaneous author, as the term lawyer, in this country, includes every department in the profession, uniting the contrary pursuits of barrister, special pleader, conveyancer, and equity draughtsman, which in England are separately followed as distinct professions. Or it may be taken in the sense of D'Israeli, as that body of readers and students standing between the great body of authors and the larger body of mere readers; aiding the first as critics, or by counsel and research, or else acting the part of interpreters or commentators for the last. The very highest order of

genius are above this class, and also the first class, of men of talent. A poet almost inspired, yet comparatively unlettered, as Burns or Elliott, is not called a man of letters, since not a book-man or scholar. Yet he may be much superior to the mere scholar. Neither is the true man of letters purely a student, but also an author. He is not often a voluminous author, unless he is poor, for the delicacy of his taste will curb the facility of production, and give the last finish to his style. If obliged to live by his pen, he will write much, but miscellaneously, as Hazlitt and Hunt. It is not likely he will ever attempt a long work, for, if blessed with a competence, he will be too indolent, and, if pressed to write often, he cannot write at length. There are, then, two distinct divisions of the class. Gray and Warton, and, we may add, Fenton, were representatives of the first, and the miscellaneous authors, by profession, of the present and past age, of the last, as Goldsmith, Johnson, Cumberland, Southey, the regular reviewers and critics, and the ablest modern lecturers, Guizot, Cousin, Carlyle, etc. Fenton, though poor, was almost always attached to some great man or wealthy patron, who was glad to exchange a moderate pension for the pleasure of his society and conversation, and, at least for the latter part of his life, though his circumstances were narrow, yet he was placed above want and the importunate calls of necessity. He could write or read, as he pleased, and he cared to do little else. "He is," says Pope,* "a right honest man and a good scholar: he sits within and does nothing but read and compose." This is the true picture. Mere amateurs of authorship, petty

* Spence.

(occasional) scribblers, or deliverers of an annual address or a quarterly lecture; collectors of rare rhymes, they have not the taste to read or capacity to comprehend; gentlemanly, fashionable smatterers of learning; rich patrons, may call themselves " literary characters," or "men of letters," but it is not their proper designation; they are more worthily styled pretenders, shallow coxcombs, arrogant fools. We have met with more than one character of this sort. They are generally on lecture committees, or appointed as corresponding secretaries to literary societies. They haunt public libraries and reading-rooms. Their names are in all the newspapers. These are pretenders, with full pockets. A more unfortunate pretender, is a poor author-one destitute in a pecuniary view, who takes up the trade of authorship without the means or abilities to carry it on. Such a person might as well profess alchemy as literature. We are willing to take the experience of the best judges, when we conclude that a good scholar and able writer, if not unfortunate in other respects, must eventually succeed in obtaining a respectable livelihood, as well as the lawyer or physician, above whom he unquestionably ranks. For he works with the finest tools, on the most exalted and purifying materials. Never let him forget the sentence of a master of authorship.* "Such a superiority do the pursuits of literature possess above every other occupation, that even he who attains but a mediocrity in them, merits the pre-eminence above those that excel the most in the common and vulgar professions." Of the gentility of literature, as a pursuit (not to say of its noble aristocracy), a paper might be written, demonstrat

* Hume.