EIGHTH PERIOD -(1830-1876.) REIGNS OF GEORGE IV. WILLIAM IV. AND QUEEN VICTORIA. Some of the great names which illustrated the former period, and have made it famous, continued after 1830 to grace our literature. Scott, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Campbell, Moore, the creative masters of the last generation, still remained, but their strength was spent, their honours won, and it may be long ere the world see again such a cluster of eminent poetical contemporaries. Other names, however, were brightening the horizon. Macaulay, Carlyle, and Tennyson appeared, and we had vast activity in every department of our national literature, while in some there was unquestioned pre-eminence. This has been seen in the revival of speculative philosophy, corresponding with the diffusion of physical science-in the study of nature, its laws and resources; and in the rich abundance of our prose fiction, which is wholly without a parallel in ancient or modern times. The novel has, indeed, become a necessity in our social life -a great institution. It no longer deals with heroic events and perilous adventures-the romance of history or chivalry. But it finds nourishment and vigour in the daily walks and common scenes of life-in the development of character, intellect, and passion, the struggles, follies, and varieties of ordinary existence. Even poetry reflects the contemplative and inquiring spirit of the age. In history and biography, the two grand sources of our literary distinction in this latter half of the nineteenth century, the same tendencies prevail -a desire to know all and investigate all. Every source of infor mation is sought after-every leading fact, principle, or doctrine in taste, criticism, and ethics is subjected to scrutiny and analysis; while literary journals and cheap editions, multiplied by the aid of steam, pour forth boundless supplies. To note all these in our re maining space would be impossible; many works well deserving of study we can barely glance at, and many must be omitted. In the delicate and somewhat invidious task of dealing with living authors, we shall seek rather to afford information and awaken interest than to pronounce judgments; and we must trust largely to the candour and indulgence of our readers. (88) POETS. The chief representative poet of the period is Alfred Tennyson, who, on the death of Wordsworth, by universal acclaim succeeded to the laurel, Greener from the brows Of him who uttered nothing base, and who has, like his predecessor, slowly won his way to fame. But, before noticing the laureate, several other names claim attention. HARTLEY, DERWENT, AND SARA COLERIDGE. The children of Samuel Taylor Coleridge all inherited his love of literature, and the eldest possessed no small portion of kindred poetical genius. HARTLEY COLERIDGE (1796-1849) was born at Clevedon, near Bristol. His precocious fancy and sensibility attracted Wordsworth, who addressed some lines to the child, then only six years of age, expressive of his anxiety and fears for his future lot. The lines were prophetic. After a desultory, irregular education, Hartley competed for a fellowship at Oriel College, Oxford, and gained it with high distinction; but at the close of the probationary year, he was judged to have forfeited it on the ground mainly of intemperance. He then attempted a literary life in London, but was unsuccessful. The cause of his failure,' says his brother, 'lay in himself, not in any want of literary power, of which he had always a ready command, and which he could have made to assume the most popular form; but he had lost the power of will. His steadiness of purpose was gone, and the motives which he had for exertion, imperative as they appeared, were without force.' Hartley next tried a school at Ambleside, but his scholars soon fell off, and at length he trusted solely to his pen. He contributed to Blackwood's Magazine,' and in 1832 wrote for a Leeds publisher Biographia Borealis, or Lives of Distinguished Northmen.' In 1833 appeared Poems,' vol. i. (no second volume was published), and in 1834, 'Lives of Northern Worthies.' The latter years of Hartley Coleridge were spent in the Lake country at Grasmere, and afterwards on the banks of Rydal Water. He was regarded with love, admiration, and pity; for with all his irregularities he preserved a childlike purity and simplicity of character, and with hair white as snow,' he had, as one of his friends remarked, 'a heart as green as May.' The works of Hartley Coleridge have been republished and edited by his brother-the Poems,' with a Memoir, two volumes, 1851; Essays and Marginalia' (miscellaneous essays and criticisms), two volumes, 1851; and Lives of Northern Worthies,' three volumes, 1852. The poetry of Hartley Coleridge is of the school of Wordsworth-unequal in execution, for hasty and spontaneous production was the habit of the poet, but at least a tithe of his verse merits preservation, and some of his sonnets are exquisite. His prose works . are characterised by a vein of original thought and reflection, and by great clearness and beauty of style. His Lives of Northern Worthies' form one of the most agreeable of modern books, introducing the reader to soldiers, scholars, poets, and statesme.. The REV. DERWENT COLERIDGE (Dorn at Keswick in 1800) is Principal of St. Mark's College, Chelsea, and a prebendary of St. Paul's He has published a series of Sermons, 1839, but is chiefly known as author of the Memoir of his brother Hartley, and editor and aunotator of some of his father's writings. SARA COLERIDGE (1803-1852) was born at Greta Hall, near Keswick, and is commemorated in Wordsworth's poem of The Triad.' In respect of learning and philosophical studies, she might have chal lenged comparison with any of the erudite ladies of the Elizabethan period; while in taste and fancy, she well supported the poetical honours of her family. The works of Sarah Coleridge are- Phantas mion,' a fairy tale, 1837, and 'Pretty Lessons for Good Children.' She translated, from the Latin, Martin Dobrizhoffer's Account of the Abipones,' three volumes, 1822, and enriched her father's works with valuable notes and illustrations. This accomplished lady was married to her cousin, HENRY NELSON COLERIDGE (1800-1843), who was author of a lively narrative, 'Six Months in the West Indies in 1825;' of an Introduction to the study of the Greek Classic Poets,' 1830; and editor of the Literary Remains' and of many of the writings of his uncle, Samuel Taylor Coleridge. In 1873 was published 'Memoir and Letters of Sara Coleridge, edited by her daughter, a work in two volumes, containing much interesting information relative to the Lake Poets, besides displaying the virtues and acquirements of the deceased authoress. Some one said of Sara Coleridge: Her father had looked down into her eyes, end left in them the light of his own.' To know thyself, and in thyself to be Can make of man. Yet thou wert still Address to Certain Gold-fishes. Restless forms of living light Or pirate rover sent from Sallee; Was the sun himself your sire? Or of the shade of golden flowers,⚫ Seeming still to grow in size And yet, since on this hapless earth To drown the outcry of the heart; Your restless roving round and round An endless labour dull and vain; And while your forms are gaily shining, We add a few sentences of Hartley Coleridge's graceful and striking prose: History and Biography. In history, all that belongs to the individual is exhibited in subordinate relation to the commonwealth; in biography the acts and accidents of the commonwealth are considered in their relation to the individual, as influences by which his character is formed or modified-as circumstances amid which he is placed-as the sphere in which he moves-or the materials he works with. The man with his works, his words, his affections, his fortunes, is the end and aim of all. He does not, indeed, as in a panegyric, stand alone like a statue; but like the central figure of a picture, around which others are grouped in due subordination and perspective, the general circumstances of his times forming the back and foreground. In history, the man, like the earth on the Copernican hynothe-is, is part of a system; in biography, he is, like the earth in the ancient cosmogony, the centre and final cause of the system. The Opposing Armies on Marston Moor. Fifty thousand subjects of one king stood face to face on Marston Moor. The numbers on each side were not far unequal, but never were two hosts speaking one language of more dissimilar aspects. The Cavaliers, flushed with recent victory. id ntifving their quarrel with their honor and their love, their loose locks escaping beneath their plumed helmets, glittering in all the martial pride which makes the battle-day like a pageant or a festival, and prancing forth with all the grace of gentle love, as they would make a jest of death, while the spirit-rousing strains of the trumpets made their blood dance, and their steeds prick up their ears. The Roundheads, arranged in thick, dark masses, their steel caps and high-crowned hats drawn close over their brows. looking determination. expressing with furrowed foreheads and hard-closed lips the inly-working rage which was blown up to furnaceheat by the extempore effusions of their preachers, and found vent in the terrible denunciations of the Hebrew psalms a d prophecies. The arms of each party were adapted to the nature of their cour. ge; the swords, pikes, and pistols of the royalists, The light and bright, were suited for swift onset and ready use; while the ponderous baskethilted blades, long halberts, and heavy fire-arms of the parliamentarians were equally suited to resist a sharp attack, and to do execution upon a broken enemy. royalists regarded their adversaries with that scorn which the gay and high-born always feel or affect for the precise or sour-mannered: the soldiers of the Covenant looked on their enemies as the enemies of Israel, and considered themselves as the elect and chosen people-a creed which extinguished fear and remorse together. It would be hard to say whether there was more praying on one side or more swearing on the other or which to a truly Christian ear had been the most offensive. Yet both esteemed themselves the champions of the church; there was bravery and virtue in both; but with this high advantage on the parliamentary side-that while the aristocratic honour of the royalists could only inspire a certain number of gentlemen, and separated the patrician from the plebeian soldier, the religious zeal of the Puritans bound officer and man, general and pioneer together. in a fierce and resolute sympathy, and made equality itself an argument for subordination. The captain prayed at the head of his company, and the general's oration was a sermon. Discernment of Character. I know it well, Yet must I still distrust the elder brother; For while he talks-and much the flatterer talks- MASON'S "CARACTACUS." This is beautifully true to nature. Men are deceived in their judgments of others by a thousand causes-by their hopes, their ambition, their vanity, their antipathies, their likes and dislikes, their party feelings, tacir nationality, but, above all, by their presumptuous reliance on the ratiocinative understanding, their disregard to presentiments and unaccountable impressions, and their vain attempis to reduce everything to rule and measure. Women, on the other hand, if they be very women, are seldom deceived, except by love, compassion. or religious sympathy-by the latter too often deplorably; but then it is not because their better angel neglects to give warning, but because they are persuaded to make a merit of disregarding his admonitions. The craftiest fago cannot win the good opinion of a true woman, unless he approach her as a lover, an unfortunate, or a religious confidant. Be it, however, remembered that this superior discernment in character is merely a female instinct, arising from a more delicate sensibility, a finer tact, a clearer intuition, and a natural abhorrence of every appearance of evil. It is a sense which only belongs to the innocent, and is quite distinct from the tact of experience. If, therefore, ladies without experience attempt to judge, to draw conclusions from premises, and give a reason for their sentiments, there is nothing in their sex to preserve them from error. J. A. HERAUD-W. B. SCOTT JOHN ABRAHAM HERAUD-an author of curious and varied erudition, and long connected with periodical literature-has made two attempts at epic grandeur in his poems, The Descent into Hell,' 1830, and 'Judgment of the Flood,' 1834. He has also been a contributor to the unacted drama, having written several tragedies-Salavera,' 'The Two Brothers,' ' Videna,' &c. Mr. Heraud is, or rather was, in poetry what Martin was in art, a worshipper of the vast, the remote, and the terrible. His 'Descent' and Judgment' are remarkable poems 'psychological curiosities,' evincing a great amount of misplaced intellectual and poetic power. In 1871 Mr. Heraud published The Ingathering, a volume of poetry; and The War of Ideas,' a poem on the Franco-Prussian war. In 1838 WILLIAM BELL SCOTT, an artist and man of genius, pub |