But here there is no light, Save what from heaven is with the breezes blowr Through verdurous blooms and winding mossy ways. I cannot see what flowers are at my feet, Nor what soft incense hangs upon the boughs, The coming musk-rose, full of dewy wine, The murmurous haunt of flies on summer eves. Darkling I listen; and for many a time I have been half in love with easeful Death, Now more than ever seems it rich to die, Still wouldst thou sing, and I have ears in vain,- Thou wast not born for death, immortal bird! The same that ofttimes hath Charm'd magic casements, opening on the foam Forlorn! the very word is like a bell To toll me back from thee to my sole self! Was it a vision, or a waking dream? PERMANENCE OF BEAUTY1 A thing of beauty is a joy forever; Pass into nothingness, but still will keep A bower quiet for us, and a sleep Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing. Therefore on every morrow are we wreathing 1 The Opening of Endymion. A flowery band to bind us to the earth, Of all the unhealthy and o'erdarken'd ways Haunt us till they become a cheering light SATURN AND THEA,1 Deep in the shady sadness of a vale Far sunken from the healthy breath of morn, Spreading a shade: the Naiad 'mid her reeds Along the margin sand large footmarks went It seemed no force could wake him from his place; 1 What easy, finished, statuesque beauty picture of Saturn and Thea!"-CHAMBERS'S and classic expression are displayed in this Cyc. Eng. Lit. With reverence, though to one who knew it not. By her in stature the tall Amazon Had stood a pigmy's height: she would have ta'en Achilles by the hair, and bent his neck, Or with a finger stayed Ixion's wheel. Her face was large as that of Memphian sphynx, When sages looked to Egypt for their lore. As if the vanward clouds of evil days Leaning with parted lips, some words she spake Some mourning words, which in our feeble tongue I cannot say, 'Oh, wherefore sleepest thou?' Knows thee not thus afflicted for a god; As when, upon a tranced summer-night, VICESIMUS KNOX, 1752–1821. VICESIMUS KNOX, son of the Rev. Vicesimus Knox, was born on the 8th of December, 1752. After completing the usual course of preparatory study, he entered St. John's College, Oxford. While here, and before he took his bachelor's degree, he wrote and published anonymously many of those Essays which have chiefly contributed to his fame. They were very much admired, and a second edition was soon called for, which was greatly enlarged and to which he prefixed his name, under the title of Essays, Moral and Literary. These essays are written in a forcible and elegant style, formed on the purest classical models, and contain very valuable directions for the cultivation of the understanding, and the conduct of life; and what recommends them still more is the rich fund of classical and miscellaneous entertainment they afford.1 From college, after having regularly taken the degrees of bachelor and master of arts, Mr. Knox was elected, in 1778, to succeed his father as headmaster of Tunbridge School. He held this post of honor and usefulness for thirty-three years, or till 1811, when he in turn was succeeded by his son. His next publication was a work entitled Liberal Education, or a Practical Treatise on the Methods of acquiring Useful and Polite Learning. This was well received, was soon republished in our country, and was translated into the French. In 1788 he published a series of miscellaneous papers, under the title of Winter Evenings, which, though not equal, on the whole, to the Essays, abound in fine writing and excellent moral instruction. After The Winter Evenings appeared Letters to a Young Nobleman; Christian Philosophy, in two vols.; Considerations on the Lord's Supper, in one vol.; and a pamphlet On the National Importance of Classical Education. He also published, for the use of his school, expurgated editions of Horace and Juvenal, and that series of selections from the works of the best English authors, well known as Elegant Extracts and Elegant Epistles. After a life of great usefulness and industry, he died at Tunbridge, on the 6th of September, 1821. His literary reputation was deservedly great; but, what is still better, his whole character was a model of Christian virtue, and all his works are calculated to improve the heart as well as inform the mind. ON THE PERIODICAL ESSAYISTS. I am not in the number of those politicians who estimate national good merely by extent of territory, richness of revenue, and commercial importance. I rather think that pure religion, good morals, fine taste, solid literature, and all those things which, while they contribute to elevate human nature, contribute 1 Few publications have been more popular, and more deservedly so, than these instructive Essays, which have passed through Exteen editions. The subjects on which Dr. Knox has expatiated in these volumes are Bumerous and well chosen, and they uniformly possess a direct tendency either to improve the head or amend the heart. To per sons of every description, but especially to young persons, the essays of our author are invaluable: their first praise is, that they recommend, in a most fascinating manner, all that is good and great; and, secondly, they are in a high degree calculated to form the taste and excite a spirit of literary enthusiasm."-DRAKE'S Essays, vol. v. 365. also to render private life dignified and comfortable, constitute that true national good to which politics, war, and commerce are but subordinate and instrumental. Indeed, one cannot always say so much in their praise; for, after all the noise which they make in the world, they are often injurious to every thing for which society appears, in the eye of reason, to have been originally instituted. Under this conviction, I cannot help thinking that such writers as an Addison and a Steele have caused a greater degree of national good than a Marlborough and a Walpole. They have successfully recommended such qualities as adorn human nature, and such as tend also, in their direct consequences, to give grandeur and stability to empire. For, in truth, it is personal merit and private virtue which can alone preserve a free country in a prosperous state and indeed render its prosperity desirable. How are men really the better for national prosperity when, as a nation grows rich, its morals are corrupted, mutual confidence lost, and debauchery and excess of all kinds pursued with such general and unceasing ardor as seduces the mind to a state of abject slavery and impotence? If I am born in a country where my mind and body are almost sure to be corrupted by the influence of universal example, and my soul deadened in all its nobler energies, what avails it that the country extends its dominion beyond the Atlantic and the Ganges? It had been better for me that I had not been born, than born in such a country. Moralists, therefore, who have the art to convey their instruction successfully, are the most valuable patriots and the truest benefactors to their country. And among these I place in the highest rank, because of the more extensive diffusion of their labors, the successful writers of periodical lucubrations. Among these, the Tatler is the first in the order of time who will claim attention. For those which preceded were entirely political and controversial, and soon sunk into oblivion when the violence of party which produced them had subsided. But the general purpose of the Tatler, as Steele himself declares, was to expose the false arts of life, to pull off the disguises of cunning, vanity, and ostentation, and to recommend a general simplicity in our dress, discourse, and behavior. The general state of conversation and of literary improvement among those who called themselves gentlemen, at the time in which the Tatler was written, was low and contemptible. The men who, from their rank, fortune, and appearance, claimed the title of gentlemen, affected a contempt for learning, and seemed to consider ignorance as a mark of gentility. The Tatler gradually opened their understandings, and furnished matter for improving conversation. |