volumes, and the whole history of the work. Thence we learn that Mr. Sandover had purchased his treasure at a sale of furniture and books held at Plymouth, when he was on a visit to England in 1866. From these precious volumes the poems were reprinted in several editions, the best of which is that published by Chatto and Windus in 1878, under the editorship of Mr. Richard Herne Shepherd.

In endeavouring to ascertain which of these poems are Charles Lamb's and which are Mary's, we are helped by Charles's remark in a letter to Mr. Manning: "Mine are but one third in quantity of the whole.” We know that Charles republished three of these poems in his works, and he has also republished two of his sister's, viz., “David in the Cave of Adullam," and "The Two Boys." His testimony establishes the fact that it was his sister who wrote "The First Tooth." Further than this evidence goes, we have only our own judgment to rely upon in ascertaining what poems Charles wrote, and what Mary wrote. Looseness of construction and cockney rhymes may be taken as almost conclusive indications that certain of the poems, such as "The Duty of a Brother," The Rook and the Sparrows," and "Incorrect Speaking," are Mary's work. There is a natural temptation on the other hand to look upon any peculiarly graceful touches in the remaining poems as indicating the authorship of Charles. But it would be unjust to take away all the good things from the credit of his sister, especially as Lamb so markedly expressed his opinion that the balance of good in the whole book was hers. I have exercised my discretion as best I could in selecting the following poems as probably Mary's :—

THE NEW-BORN INFANT.

WHETHER beneath sweet beds of roses

As foolish little Ann supposes,

The spirit of a babe reposes

Before it to the body come;

Or, as philosophy more wise

Thinks it descendeth from the skies,

We know the babe's now in the room.

And that is all which is quite clear,
Even to philosophy, my dear.

The God that made us can alone
Reveal from whence a spirit's brought
Into young life, to light, and thought;
And this the wisest man must own.

We'll now talk of the babe's surprise,
When first he opens his new eyes,

And first receives delicious food.

Before the age of six or seven,
To mortal children is not given

Much reason, else I think he would

(And very naturally) wonder
What happy star he was born under,
That he should be the only care
Of the dear, sweet, food-giving lady,
Who fondly calls him her own baby,
Her darling hope, her infant heir.

FEIGNED COURAGE.

HORATIO, of ideal courage vain,
Was flourishing in air his father's cane,
And, as the fumes of valour swelled his pate,
Now thought himself this hero, and now that;
"And now," he cried, "I will Achilles be;
My sword I brandish, see, the Trojans flee.
Now I'll be Hector when his angry blade

A lane through heaps of slaughtered Grecians made !
And now by deeds still braver I'll convince,

I am no less than Edward the Black Prince.
Give way, ye coward French!

As thus he spoke,

And aimed in fancy a sufficient stroke

To fix the fate of Cressy or Poictiers

(The nurse relates the hero's fate with tears);

He struck his milk-white hand against a nail,
Sees his own blood, and feels his courage fail.
Ah! where is now that boasted valour flown,
That in the tented field so late was shown!
Achilles weeps, great Hector hangs his head,
And the Black Prince goes whimpering to bed.

PARENTAL RECOLLECTIONS.

A CHILD'S a plaything for an hour:
It's pretty tricks we try
For that, or for a longer space;
Then tire and lay it by.

But I knew one that to itself

All seasons would control;

That would have mocked the sense of pain

Out of a grieved soul.

Thou struggler into loving arms,

Young climber up of knees,
When I forget thy thousand ways,

Then life and all shall cease.

This chapter should not end without allusion to one or more writers whose epoch these pages have almost left behind. Hannah More (1745-1833) was thought a poetess by some of her own time. Her first work was a pastoral drama, entitled, "The Search after Happiness" (1773); her "Sacred Dramas" (with "Sensibility,") appeared in 1782; and her other poetical efforts are The Inflexible Captive" (1774), "Percy" (1777), "The Fatal Falsehood" (1779), "Florie" (1786), "The Bas Bleu" (1786), "The Feast of Freedom" (1827), and the "Sir Eldred of the Bower," to which some lines of Garrick's allude in terms of unstinted praise. The life of this estimable lady can hardly be given here; for, in spite of our ancestors' opinions, it

would be a very hard task to prove Hannah More possessed of any poetical talent at all. Her verses, entitled “The Two Weavers," are still occasionally quoted, but her best poem may be said to be the well-known couplet

"In men this blunder still you find,

All think their little set mankind."

Mary Robinson, better known as Perdita (1758-1800), published a pleasant volume of poems that sweeten her memory somewhat. These appeared in 1775.

Mrs. Mary Tighe (1773-1810) is still held in esteem for her poem entitled Psyche (privately printed in 1805).

Helen Maria Williams (1780-1823) published two volumes of poems (1786 and 1823) which Wordsworth liked. He particularly admired her

SONNET TO HOPE.

O EVER skilled to wear the form we love!
To bid the shapes of fear and grief depart;
Come, gentle Hope! with one gay smile remove
The lasting sadness of an aching heart.
Thy voice, benign enchantress! let me hear;
Say that for me some pleasures yet shall bloom,
That fancy's radiance, friendship's precious tear,
Shall soften, or shall chase, misfortune's gloom.
But come not glowing in the dazzling ray
Which once with dear illusions charmed my eye;
O, strew no more, sweet flatterer! on my way
The flowers I fondly thought too bright to die :
Visions less fair will soothe my pensive breast,
That asks not happiness, but longs for rest.

CHAPTER V.

SCOTTISH POETESSES: LADY GRISELL BAILLIE-MRS.

COCK

BURN-MISS JANE ELLIOT-LADY ANNE BARNARD—THE
BARONESS NAIRNE-MISS JOANNA BAILLIE.

E

VERY country has its renascences, and the two periods of rejuvenation which occur in the history of Scotland are, first of all of course, the time of the Reformation, which was literary, be it marked, before it was theological; and secondly, what may be called the golden age of Edinburgh. This golden age extended through the latter part of the 18th century, into the first quarter of the 19th. The men who adorned it might be compared with the French Encyclopædists. In point of philosophy and wit they could almost hold their own with Voltaire and his French contemporaries, and half a dozen of them at least have produced more lasting work than that of any half dozen of the Encyclopædists. It was during this golden age that Dugald Stewart explored metaphysics and ethics; Adam Smith developed the doctrine of free-trade; Hume exercised the function of the historian; Smollett, all but a Londoner by adoption, tickled the world into laughter with his novels; Scott made the past a pageantry; and Burns sang with that simple genius which all the culture in the world has never been able to rival. These were the greatest minds of the literary movement in Scotland; but for one of these geniuses there were ten writers of the second rank, who were bringing honour to their country by writings which have been stamped in literature as productions of lasting merit. Adam Ferguson, the student of Roman antiquities; Robertson, the historian