They have the merit of a traditional piety, which, to our mind, if uttered at all, had been less objectionable in the retired closet of a diary, and in the sober raiment of prose. They do not clutch hold of the memory with the drowning pertinacity of Watts; neither have they the interest of his occasional simple, lucky beauty.LOWELL, JAMES RUSSELL, 1845, Edgar Allan Poe, Graham's Magazine, Feb.

The torch of his inspiration was certainly kindled at the inner shrine; but it was darkly destined that his fair dawn was to have no meridian, and with a heart full of youthful promise and of lofty aspirations-devoted to the noblest and purest objects of humanity-he died while. his feet were yet on the threshold of manhood. Three, at least, of the great magnates of literature lamented his fate, and were loud in his praises. On examining his posthumous papers, Coleridge and Southey alike expressed their astonishment at so much genius united to so much industry; and Byron, in a truculent satire, wherein almost nobody was spared, truthstricken, suspended the lash, to scatter flowers liberally on his early grave.-MOIR, DAVID MACBETH, 1850-51, Sketches of the Poetical Literature of the Past Half Century.

In coming to the consideration of his works and genius, it is extremely difficult, so to speak, to insulate ourselves from all considerations connected with his lovely character, his brief laborious life, and his premature end. That he was a man of high talents, of powers of fancy and eloquence of a rare order, as well as indomitable energy, and great assimilative and acquisite capacity, must be conceded by all.

But there are not a few who deny him the possession of original genius, and who even in the uniform good taste and good sense which he discovered at so early an age find an argument in favour of their hypothesis. GILFILLAN, GEORGE, 1856, ed., The Poetical Works of Henry Kirke White and James Grahame, p. xix.

A protégé of Simeon, who fell a victim to over study, whose memory Byron embalmed in some beautiful lines, whose death Southey deemed a loss to our literature-hymns, sonnets, and lyric pieces, written before he had reached his twentieth year, all distinguished by plaintive tenderness and pleasing fancy, though without

the certain indications of great genius which we have in the equally early writings of Cowley or of Chatterton.-ANGUS, JOSEPH, 1865, The Handbook of English Literature, p. 269.

He wrote a number of sonnets, nearly all of which were composed while he was a hopeless consumptive. With one or two exceptions, they are pitched in a plaintive minor key; and although they are too uniformly sad to be thoroughly enjoyable, they are so gracefully poetic, and there is so little of selfish or morbid repining in them, that their soft murmurs awaken pleasant emotions, even while they touch our sympathies and suffuse our eyes with tender sorrow.-DESHLER, CHARLES D., 1879, Afternoons With the Poets, p. 233.

The lad, in every way lacking pith and substance, and ripening prematurely in a heated atmosphere, drooped and died. -DOWDEN, EDWARD, 1880, Southey (English Men of Letters), p. 124.

His splendid poem, the "Star of Bethlehem," is destined to live in the memories and hearts of all lovers of sacred song.SAUNDERS, FREDERICK, 1885, Evenings with the Sacred Poets, p. 388.

Both withdrew from a profession that was distasteful to them; both loved unhappily the lady being, curiously enough, in each case named Fanny; both had the foreknowledge of their approaching death, and both suffered in consequence from a penetrating melancholy, amounting at times to a refined despair, the outcome of baffled hopes and thwarted ambition. Both died young. The trumpeter of their fame had his clarion already at his lips, but hurrying death stopped their ears, so that they did not hear the blast. It would seem as if their lives and memories had been handed on together, as if our knowledge of the one is not complete without a knowledge of the other. knowledge of the other. Keats seems to have taken up the thread of Kirke White's inspiration, or to have woven it into the fabric of his own genius; he seems unconsciously to have become the sequel, the completion, the consummation of White. He did not so much eclipse, as pass into, comprehend, and, as it were re-issue him. Much of Keats's verse seems an echo, a remembrance of Henry's, but a remembrance that is given with a more satisfying expression, a more artistic utterance... White, like Keats, is peculiarly the child

of this century, though he died on its very threshold. There is in both cases the same self-destroying heart and brainconsuming passion for the unattainable." Henry possessed the genuine fin-de-siècle temperament, without being in any sense a sickly, sentimental, self-absorbed nineteenth century poseur. Like Tasso, he battled with his agony. His pain struck music from him; and until death seized him, his brave, high-minded courage enabled him to conceal the "torture of his despair." Nearly a hundred years have passed since he died, and while the name of Keats is upon many lips, the world only occasionally hears of Henry. But his genius cannot perish, and from time to time there will be breathed upon the air an echo of what he himself calls his "faint, neglected song."-LAW, ALICE, 1894, A Forerunner of Keats, Westminster Review, vol. 142, p. 291.

Any one who will now study Kirke White's poems in themselves, as literature, without prejudice, must inevitably come to the conclusion that they are worthless, and disfigured by every fault that can be laid to the charge of poetry. They are not even promising. They are tedious, grotesque, inharmonious, dull. And yet they have a place in the Aldine. edition of British poets. -BENSON, ARTHUR CHRISTOPHER, 1896, Essays, p. 180.

He was a poetaster, and nothing more. The "genius" attributed to him in Byron's well-known and noble though rather rhetorical lines may be discovered on an average in about half a dozen poets during any two or three years of any tolerable poetic period. His best things are imitaHis best things are imitations of Cowper in his sacred mood, such as the familiar "Star of Bethlehem," and even these are generally spoilt by some feebleness or false note. At his worst he is not far from Della Crusca.-SAINTSBURY, GEORGE, 1896, A History of Nineteenth Century Literature, p. 108.

"Oft in Sorrow, Oft in Woe."-Kirke White's marching song of the Christian Life has no such lilting tune attached to it as "Onward Christian Soldiers," but being older it has probably helped more souls than its recent rival.-STEAD, W. T., 1897, Hymns that Have Helped, p. 169. Few men have owed more in the way of reputation to their misfortunes than Kirke White. His continual struggles against

adverse circumstances in the pursuit of knowledge, together with the amiability of his disposition and the piety of his life, secured for him many friends, who, in their admiration for his character, discovered evidence of Genius in his verse which those uninfluenced by his personality are unable to detect. It would of course be absurd to look for maturity in the work of a youth of twenty years, but Genius could scarcely have written as much as this youth wrote without betraying itself, however crudely, in some thought or phrase of obvious originality or latent power. Kirk White's poems display no such evidence as we expect to find in the work of Genius, however young. He lacked originality and imagination; and while unable to invent new forms of beauty, showed no freshness in his views. of old forms of truth. He had ambition, but he had nothing to say, nor was there anything felicitous in his manner of saying nothing. Among the "Fragments," gathered from the backs of old mathematical papers, there are one or two which are calculated to excite expectation, but it may be doubted whether he would ever have justified the claims made on his behalf even if Time had dealt more gently with him. . . . Of Kirk White's shorter poems his lines "To Love" have been perhaps most frequently quoted, though they can scarcely be said to rise above the level of valentine verse.-MILES, ALFRED H., 1897, The Poets and the Poetry of the Century; Sacred, Moral and Religious Verse, pp. 81, 83.

Southey's charitable judgment, which Byron echoed, has not stood the test of time. White's verse shows every mark of immaturity. In thought and expression it lacks vigour and originality. A promise of weirdness in an early and prophetic lyric, "A Dance of Consumptives" (from an unfinished "Eccentric Drama") was not fulfilled in his later compositions. The metrical dexterity which is shown in the addition to Waller's "Go, lovely Rose," is not beyond a mediocre capacity. Such popularity as White's work has enjoyed is to be attributed to the pathetic brevity of his career and to the fervour of the evangelical piety which inspired the greater part of his writings in both verse and prose.-LEE, SIDNEY, 1900, Dictionary of National Biography, vol. LXI, p. 50.

Illustrative of the Rambler, Adventurer and Idler, vol. II, p. 74.

Miss Fanshawe says, in one of her letters to me, written soon after the death of this venerated person, that she appears to her to have been half an angel and half a sage; differing from most of her sex, in having laid down a plan in the outset of life to which she adhered steadily to the end; writing Greek in the face of the world without compunction, never losing a friend, and never making an enemy.-Grant, Anne, 1830, Letters, Nov. 13; Memoir and Correspondence, ed. Grant, vol. III, p. 165.

We were startled at reading somewhere the other day that, in her youth, she had not only the wisdom of a Pallas, but the look of a Hebe. Healthy no doubt she was, and possessed of a fine constitution. She was probably also handsome; but Hebe and a hook nose are in our minds impossible associations. HUNT, LEIGH, 1847, British Poetesses; Men, Women and Books, vol. II, p. 119.

Her regular rule was, when in health, to read two chapters in the Bible before breakfast; a sermon, some Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, and after breakfast something in every language with which she was acquainted; thus never allowing herself to forget what she had once attained. These

occupations were of course varied according to circumstances, and when she took exercise before breakfast her course of reading was necessarily deferred till later in the day. Her constitution must have. been strong to have enabled her to take the very long walks to which she accustomed herself; but she suffered greatly from headaches, not improbably arising from her over-exertion of body and mind in early youth, and the not allowing herself sufficient repose to recruit her over

worked strength. At one time of her life she was wont to sit up very late, and as she soon became drowsy, and would sleep soundly in her chair, many were the expedients she adopted to keep herself awake, such as pouring cold water down her dress, tying a wet bandage round her head, &c. She was a great snuff-taker, though she endeavoured to break herself of the habit to please her father. She suffered so much, however, in the attempt, that he kindly withdrew his prohibition. -HALE, SARAH JOSEPHA, 1852, Woman's Record, p. 244.

Genial, happy, old lady! We believe her when she declared that she had never regretted not having looked for interest in married life. We love her sapient sayings, and gentle, holy memory. We reverence her as the very pattern of a highminded, active, and more than contented Old Maid.-THOMSON, KATHERINE (GRACE WHARTON), 1861, Mrs. Elizabeth Carter and Miss Talbot, Celebrated Friendships, vol. II, p. 170.

After the third edition of her poems, Mistress Carter wrote no more for the press; but she appears to have taken much delight in the productions of contemporary genius, and it is interesting to find that she lived to welcome and applaud "The Lay of the Last Minstrel." How amazed would she and many others of her time have been to behold the slight esteem in which it is the present fashion to hold that glorious "Lay!" And perchance, modest as she was, it would also have surprised not a little the translator of "Epictetus, " and the greatest female scholar of her period, could she know that her very name, as well as the records of her triumphs, is almost unknown to a generation which has scarce patience for its own pedants, and cares less than nothing for the pedants of former days.-WALFORD, L. B., 1891, A Learned Lady; Elizabeth Carter, Blackwood's Magazine, vol. 149, p. 519.

She was more remarkable for her linguistic acquirements than for original work, and is said to have known not only Greek and Latin, but Hebrew, French, Italian, Spanish and German as well. With all these accomplishments she retained to the last a fund of delightful modesty and good sense, and bore with dignified equanimity the unpleasant notoriety that her learning sometimes brought

her. THOMSON, CLARA LINKLATER, 1900, Samuel Richardson, A Biographical and Critical Study, p. 113.

GENERAL

The judgments of this most excellent woman appears to have been at once original, candid and sound. They are expressed in language perspicuous, strong, and elegant; and are the result of a mind acting on the most mature deliberation, and enlightened by the nicest powers of distinction. A mind more clear,

more extensive, and better regulated than Mrs. Carter's does not occur in the annals of genius and learning.-BRYDGES, SIR SAMUEL EGERTON, 1808, Censura Literaria, vol. VIII, p. 197.

The poetry of Mrs. Carter is such as might have been expected from the elegance of her classical learning, and the purity of her moral principles. Her language is clear and correct, her versification sweet and harmonious, while the sentiment is always dignified, or devotional, and even sometimes sublime. Of splendid imagination, of the creative powers which form the character of a first-rate poet, she has exhibited few proofs; yet are her productions far beyond mediocrity, and, though not breathing the fire and energy of exalted genius, will be ever highly valued by those to whom the union of taste, piety, and erudition, is dear.-DRAKE, NATHAN, 1810, Essays, Illustrative of the Rambler, Adventurer, and Idler, vol. II, p. 86.

I have the headache myself, caught perhaps by reading Mrs. Carter's letters, which tell of nothing else.-PIOZZI, HESTER LYNCH, 1817, To Sir James Fellowes, June 26; Autobiography, Letters and Literary Remains, ed. Hayward, p. 389.

This lady's poetical writings display but little imagination, and have none of those strong thoughts and sublime ideas which betoken lofty genius: but her verses exhibit great classical purity, and are remarkable for an unusual sweetness of versification. They embody, too, a cheerful serenity very highly calculated to improve the reader's mind; for although Miss Carter translated Epictetus, she by no means followed his philosophy.-RowTON, FREDERIC, 1848, The Female Poets of Great Britain, p. 178.

Her literary fame was chiefly founded upon her translation of Epictetus, and this one work sufficed, as it well may do, for a lifetime. For of all her other literary efforts, her translations from the French, and the Italian,-her contributions as "Eliza" to The Gentleman's Magazine, her odes and elegies, the fame thereof has long since been entombed with her bones. THOMSON, KATHERINE (GRACE WHARTON), 1848, The Literary Circles of the Last Century, Fraser's Magazine, vol. 37, p. 76.

The character of her poetry is such as might have been expected from the elegance of her classical learning, the purity of her moral principles, and her consistent piety. While, to high imagination, or to great creative power, she can lay no claim, her language is clear and correct, her versification sweet and harmonious, and her sentiments all that the moralist or the Christian could wish-pure, dignified, devotional, and sometimes rising to the sublime. CLEVELAND, CHARLES D., 1853, English Literature of the Nineteenth Cenlury, p. 59.

Her sound and comprehensive mind, highly cultured as it was, could produce nothing contemptible: but it wanted that essential qualification of the true poet, active originality, the power of conceiving, and of shaping new conceptions.-WILLIAMS, JANE, 1861, The Literary Women of England, p. 215.

Although superseded by later workers in the same field, Elizabeth Carter still holds an honourable place beside the Daciers, the Sarah Fieldings, and other women scholars, and will ever remain in our memories as the English translator of Epictetus. EDWARDS, M. BETHAM1880, Six Life Studies of Famous Women, p. 225.

Mrs. Carter was more celebrated for the solidity of her learning than for any brilliant intellectual qualities; and it is as a Greek scholar and translator of Epictetus that she is now best remembered. She used to relate with pleasure that Dr. Johnson had said, speaking of some celebrated scholar, that "he understood Greek better than any one he had ever known, except Elizabeth Carter." Her poems have ceased to be read and are not of very high order, the "Dialogue between the Body and the Mind" being perhaps the most successful. Her letters display considerable vigour of thought, and now and then a transient flash of humour. Though by no means a woman of the world, she possessed a large amount of good sense, and, though more learned than her fellows, was a thoroughly sociable and amiable woman. - BARKER, G. F. RUSSELL, 1887, Dictionary of National Biography, vol. IX, p. 196.

One of the most accomplished women of the century.-ABBEY, CHARLES J., 1887, The English Church and Its Bishops,17001800, vol. II, p. 49.