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 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 (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

* Spence.

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, demonstrating conclusively its generous scope and noble elevation; but we believe we have pursued the subject sufficiently for the present.

His

Of the works of Fenton, a brief criticism may serve. prose is sweet and elegant: his poetry pleasing, but verging towards feebleness. In the high sense, he was no poet, but only an agreeable versifier. His lives are agreeable abridgments of what a common writer would have swelled into books of twelve times the size; but as a miscellaneous scholar, and chiefly a classical scholar, was he reputed to rank high. He translated for Pope the first, fourth, nineteenth, and twentieth books of the Odyssey; and so smoothly, that they are not generally distinguished from those of Pope's translation.—He was often engaged as private tutor—for a time he was secretary to the Earl of Orrery, in Flanders, and tutor to his son, who ever afterwards mentioned him with esteem and tenderness. He was at one time assistant in a school, and afterwards kept a school for himself. Bolingbroke persuaded him to give this up, for more honorable employment (as it was thought), and court favor. Pope stood by

* Hume.

him under all circumstances, and procured him an enviable situation as instructor and companion to Secretary Craggs, who died too soon for the successful prosecution of the scheme. With Southerne, the dramatic poet, Fenton preserved a close intimacy. At his house he wrote his tragedy of Mariamne, which brought its author one thousand pounds. The widow of Sir William Trumbull, at Pope's recommendation (who loved to make his friends happy), invited Fenton to educate her son, whom he accompanied to Cambridge. Fenton died at the seat of this excellent woman, in the capacity of auditor of her accounts-a species of gentlemansteward and agent. Pope wrote his epitaph, a monument of his taste and affection.

The personal character of Fenton was delightful-a temper sweet, yet not insipid; a judgment manly and liberal; a taste refined, but not fastidious; a talent for conversation, lively, entertaining and instructive; integrity of the purest dye; the gentlest consideration ;-these were the peculiar characteristics of one of the noblest of human creatures. "None knew him but to praise." His merits have softened the severity of Johnson, and disarmed the satire of Pope. For the brevity of his life, Johnson apologizes; he says, "it is not the effect of indifference or negligence." Fenton was a non-jurer, and hence 66 a commoner of Nature ;"* but, though friendless and poor (in his early career), his biographer adds, "he kept his name unsullied, and never suffered himself to be reduced, like too many of the same sect, to mean arts and dishonorable shifts. Whoever mentioned Fenton, mentioned him with honor." In the lives of Milton and Waller, Johnson refers with respect and eulogy to our author; and in the life of Pope he repeats his former praises-"The character of Fenton.

* Johnson.

was so amiable, that I cannot forbear to wish for some poet or biographer to display it more fully for the advantage of posterity. If he did not stand in the first rank of genius, he may claim a place in the second; and, whatever criticism may object to his writings, censure could find very little to blame in his life." No man may, with truth, assail Johnson for want of heart; he had, in fact, a truly humane disposition. Eulogy of a man from whom he could expect nothing if living, and to whom, dead, he owed no debt of gratitude, bespeaks a generous nature. The only defect in Fenton (a most venial fault in him, though not in others) was a physical indolence, the effect of constitutional debility. He was tall and corpulent, sluggish, a late riser, and took little exercise. An attendant, where he once lodged, used to say he would "lie a-bed and be fed with a spoon." Pope said he died of indolence; but his distemper was the fruit of physical indolence the gout. A story is told much to his credit, that we ought not to omit repeating:-"At an entertainment, made for the family by his elder brother, he observed that one of his sisters, who had married unfortunately, was absent; and found, upon inquiry, that distress had made her thought unworthy of invitation. As she was at no great distance, he refused to sit at the table till she was called, and when she had taken her place was careful to show her particular attention."

Such was Elijah Fenton, a man who exhibited, in a private scene, and on a limited stage, the virtues of the philosopher and of the Christian hero; evincing, in his patient forbearance, his firm integrity and honorable poverty, a resolution and high tone of principle, that more ennobles human nature than the dazzling victories and gaudy triumphs of the conqueror. This excellent man had the tastes, the habits, the