Grafton, and on receiving which he had relinquished his original trade. He now found his musical turn a resource and realized a small income by manufacturing Æolian harps. But his health gradually grew so much worse, that he was at last obliged to leave London altogether, upon which he retired to Shefford in Bedfordshire. Here he remained till his death, on the 19th of August, 1823, in the fifty-eighth year of his age.

Although he was an extraordinary instance of what the force of native talent will sometimes accomplish where education has been nearly altogether withheld, yet Bloomfield gave plentiful evidence, especially in his first production, of the disadvantages under whica he laboured from the want of early cultivation. A better education in his youth would have saved his homely genius from being misled into affectations uncongenial to its true spirit; and his want of a competent director in his studies exposed his taste to be corrupted by bad examples. It is probably, indeed, a mistake to suppose that the circumstance of an individual having been what is called selftaught is generally favourable to the originality of his literary productions. There is more reason for suspecting, that even those self-taught writers who have displayed most of this highest element of power would have exhibited it in still greater abundance if they had enjoyed, in addition to their rare gifts of nature, the advantages of a regular education. It is certain, at any rate, that the literary performances of men who have been their own teachers have not, except in a few extraordinary cases, been in any degree peculiarly distinguished by this quality. Of the numerous tribe of self-taught verse-makers, especially, the great majority have been the merest imitators. A fair specimen of this race, the individuals of which, although they sometimes excite a temporary attention, generally drop very speedily into oblivion, we have in a writer named STEPHEN DUCK, who flourished in the early part of the last century. Duck was born about the year 1700, at the village of Charlton, in Wiltshire. He was at school for a short time in his boyhood, when he learned a little reading, writing, and

arithmetic. When about fourteen, however, he was sent to work as an agricultural labourer; and, being employed for several years in the lowest rural occupations, without ever opening a book, he soon forgot what little learning he had ever possessed. Still, as he used afterwards to tell, even at this time his thoughts were often engaged on subjects very foreign to his daily employments. At last he began to read a little, and this gradually inspired him with a desire to recover his lost knowledge, scanty as it had been. At this time he was about twenty-four years of age, with a wife and family to support; and, being engaged in hard work all day, he had but very little time for study. He was also without books, and had no money to buy any. Yet such was his ardour to obtain the means of instructing himself, that for some time, whenever he had an hour's release from his regular employment, he devoted it to extra work; and in this way he saved money enough to purchase, first, a treatise on vulgar fractions, then one on decimal fractions, and lastly, one on land-surveying. All these works he made himself master of, by studying them during the night, when everybody about him was asleep. Soon after this, he became intimately acquainted with a person in the same condition of life as himself, but who had passed some years in service in London, whence he had brought down a few dozens of books with him to the country. Of these some were treatises on arithmetic; among the others were the Bible, Paradise Lost, the Spectator, Seneca's Morals, Telemachus, an English Dictionary and Grammar, Ovid, Josephus, seven plays by Shakspere, and a few more by other writers; Dryden's Virgil, Hudibras, and the works of Waller and Prior. Duck had, it seems, been always fond of poetry and music; though hitherto the best specimens of either which he had had an opportu nity of enjoying had been only a few rustic ballads. But his perusal of some of the above works inspired him with new enthusiasm, and in no long time he began to attempt writing verses himself. The first poetical work by which he was greatly struck, was Paradise Lost. Yet he read it through twice or thrice, with the aid of his

dictionary, before he understood it. The new beauties he was continually discovering, however, made all this labour delightful. He studied the book, we are told, as a student of Greek or Latin would do one of the ancient classics, and making all the while as much use of his dictionary and grammar as if it had been written in a foreign language. These literary labours were still generally pursued during the night. Sometimes, however, he used to take a volume with him in his pocket when he went out to his daily work in the fields; and, if by working with more activity than usual he could get through what he had to do in less than the usual time, he would devote the few precious moments he had gained to the perusal of his book.

Even while at work he often employed himself in composing verses. It was some time before he thought of committing any of his compositions to paper; but at last he was induced to address a letter in verse to a gentleman, who, having heard of his acquirements, had sought him out, and made his acquaintance; and this effusion having been shewn to several other persons, was generally regarded as a very surprising performance for one in his circumstances. Some clergymen, in particular, to whom it was submitted, were so much pleased with it, that they rewarded the author with a small gratuity. From this time his talents began to be generally talked of; and,. encouraged by the praise he received, he did not suffer his poetical faculty to lie dormant. The consequence was, that in a short time he had accumulated a respectable store of verse. It seems to have been not long before the year 1730, that Duck attracted the notice of the Rev. Mr. Spence, already mentioned as the patron of Robert Hill, the learned tailor, and the blind poet Blacklock. Spence, who did himself great credit by the interest he took in these cases of indigent merit, immediately conceived the idea of bringing the claims of his protégé before the public in the most effective manner, through the press; and, accordingly, as many of his poems were collected as formed a quarto volume, which made its appearance in that year. Besides the general

reputation which the author acquired by this publication, it procured for him the particular favour and patronage of Queen Caroline, who immediately settled upon him a pension of thirty pounds a-year. In 1733 he was made one of the Yeomen of the Guard. He now applied himself to the study of the Latin language—in which having made some progress, he was admitted into holy orders. On this the queen appointed him, in the first instance, keeper of her library at Richmond, and in a short time after he was preferred to the living of Byfleet, in Surrey. Meanwhile, a second edition of his poems had appeared in 1736, to which we find the names of the queen and other members of the royal family prefixed as subscribers. Duck became much beloved and respected by the people of Byfleet in his capacity of pastor, and lived there happily for many years. But the termination of his history is very melancholy. He at last fell into low spirits, and drowned himself in the Thames, near Reading, in the year 1756. His poems have now long been forgotten. They had little merit, except considerable smoothness of versification, which even in those days the example of Pope had rendered a common quality.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

H. K. White; Hawkesworth; Goldsmith; Mendelsohn.

IN selecting our examples from the class at present under review of those who, in the midst of unfavourable circumstances, have distinguished themselves by their ardour in the pursuit of knowledge, there is one name not to be omitted, that of the gifted and amiable HENRY KIRKE WHITE. As it is probable, however, that most of our readers are acquainted with the narrative of his life which has been so delightfully written by Southey,