Her lot is on you,-to be found untired, And, oh! to love through all things, therefore pray! And take the thought of this calm vesper-time, With its low murmuring sounds and silvery light, The unbroken heart's first fragrance unto Heaven. On Sunday, April 26, she dictated to her brother the following Sunday Sonnet, -the last strains of the Sweet Singer: "How many blessed groups this hour are bending, * * * Through England's primrose meadow-paths, their way NATHAN DRAKE, 1766–1836. DR. NATHAN DRAKE, the distinguished essayist, was born in the city of York, on the 15th of January, 1766, and, after completing his collegiate and professional education at the University of Edinburgh, finally settled at Hadleigh, in the county of Suffolk, in 1792, where he practised as a physician for forty-four years. In 1807 he married Miss Rose, of Brenttenham, in Suffolk, by whom he had several children, three of whom died young. He himself departed this life on the 7th of June, 1836, in his seventy-first year. As a medical practitioner, Dr. Drake was deservedly respected and esteemed by his professional brethren for his courtesy and skill, and yet more endeared to all whom he attended, by the urbanity of his manners and the unaffected kindness of his heart. "It may be said of him," remarks a contemporary,1 "with perfect truth, that in a professional and literary career of near half a century, amid all the turmoils of mere party strife and contentious rivalry, he so pursued the even tenor of his way as never to have lost, by estrangement, a single friend, or made one enemy." But it is with the literary character of Dr. Drake that we have mainly to do in this work; and I must say that, were I called to name the writer in the lighter 1 Gentleman's Magazine for August, 1836, p. 216. walks of English literature who, by his essays and ingenious illustrations of our standard authors, is most calculated to refine the taste and to excite an ardent thirst for reading and literary pursuits, I think it would be Dr. Nathan Drake. His Literary Hours, in three volumes, contains a series of most instructive papers upon various authors and subjects of a literary character; while his Essays on the Tatler, Guardian, Spectator, Rambler, and Idler, embody a mass of interesting and valuable information such as can nowhere else, to my knowledge, be found in our language. Another of his valuable works is entitled Shakspeare and his Times: this includes a biography of the poet, criticisms on his genius, a new chronology of his plays, and throws much light upon the manners, customs, amusements, superstitions, poetry, and elegant literature of that age. His Winter Nights, in two volumes, Evenings in Autumn, two volumes, and Mornings in Spring, two volumes, contain essays of a miscellaneous character,-critical, narrative, biographical, and descriptive. They are pleasing and elegant in their style, and evince great delicacy and discrimination of taste, unvarying kindness of heart, and purity of moral feeling. In all his criticisms he seemed to look chiefly at what was beautiful or pleasing, deeming it quite as much the province of the critic to hold up the beauties of an author for imitation and admiration, as to detect his faults and expose them for censure. Indeed, both as an author and as a man, Dr. Drake was kindness, courtesy, and candor personified; and no one can read his eminently instructive writings without feeling that they are the productions of a mind pure, benevolent, and well stored, and distinguished for its refined and delicate taste.2 THE MORAL AND LITERARY CHARACTER OF ADDISON'S WRITINGS. The great object which Addison ever steadily held in view, and to which his style, his criticism, his humor and imagination are alike subservient, was the increase of religious, moral, and social virtue. Perhaps to the writings of no individual, of any age or nation, if we except the result of inspiration, have morality and rational piety been more indebted than to those which form the periodical labors of our author. * * * On education and the domestic virtues, and on the duties incumbent on father, husband, wife, and child, the precepts of our author are numerous, just, and cogent, and delivered in that sweet, insinuating style and manner which have rendered him beyond comparison the most useful moralist this country ever possessed. The imagery by which he indicates the effect and force of education is singularly happy and appropriate; the hint is taken from Aristotle, who affirms that in a block of marble 1 Since writing the above, I have been pleased to have my opinion confirmed by a fine scholar and an interesting writer. Says Gillies, in his Literary Veteran, "In 1803 I got a bright new book, fresh from the press in those days, on which I still reflect with pleasure, namely, Drake's Literary Hours. It became my favorite companion for years after | ward, and it was this work, more than all others, which at that early age fixed my af fections on literary pursuits." 2"We have been surprised and mortified to notice the shameful ignorance prevailing in America respecting the publications of this eminent writer."-Allibone's Critical Diction ary. the statue which the sculptor ultimately produces is merely concealed, and that the effect of his art is only to remove the surrounding matter which hides the beauteous figure from the view. "What sculpture is to a block of marble," says Addison, "education is to a human soul. We see it sometimes only begun to be chipped; sometimes rough-hewn, and but just sketched into a human figure; sometimes we see the man appearing distinctly in all his limbs and features; sometimes we find the figure wrought up to a great elegancy; but seldom meet with any to which the hand of a Phidias or Praxiteles could not give several nice touches and finishings." * * * "The Addison well knew that the best ingredients in the cup of human life were regulated desires and subdued expectations; and that he would be little liable to disappointment, and most able to bear up under affliction, who looked forward not to this, but to a future life for what is usually called happiness. utmost we can hope for in this world," he observes, "is contentment; if we aim at any thing higher, we shall meet with nothing but grief and disappointment. A man should direct all his studies and endeavors at making himself easy now and happy hereafter:" a truth which cannot be too strongly or frequently impressed upon the mind, and to which, in addition to what I have already said upon the same subject, in my observations on Steele, I am now willing to add the authority and experience of Addison. The piety of Addison is founded on a clear and rational view of the attributes of the Deity and of the doctrines of Christianity; and in the Spectator more especially he has seized every opportunity of supporting and illustrating the great and momentous truths of natural and revealed religion. His essays on "the Supreme Being," on the "Omnipresence of the Deity," and on the "Immortality of the Soul," exhibit the power and goodness of the Creator in a manner at once sublime and philosophic. I consider, indeed, the paper on "Omnipresence and Omniscience" as one of the most perfect, impressive, and instructive pieces of composition that ever flowed from the pen of an uninspired moralist. Of the literary character of Addison, the preceding essays have attempted to delineate the leading features, and will, it is probable, impress upon the mind of the reader a very high idea of 1 Spectator, No. 215. Ibid., No. 111. 2 Ibid., No. 163. 8 Ibid., No. 531. 6 See Compendium of English Literature, p. 361. 4 Ibid., No. 565. its excellence and utility. To him, in the first place, may we ascribe the formation of a style truly classical and pure, whose simplicity and grace have not yet been surpassed, and which, presenting a model of unprecedented elegance, laid the foundation for a general and increasing attention to the beauty and harmony of composition. His critical powers were admirably adapted to awaken and inform the public mind; to teach the general principles by which excellence may be attained; and, above all, to infuse a relish for the noblest productions of taste and genius. In humor, no man in this country, save Shakspeare, has excelled him he possessed the faculty of an almost intuitive discrimination of what was ludicrous and characteristic in each individual, and, at the same time, the most happy facility in so tinting and grouping his paintings, that, while he never overstepped the modesty of nature, the result was alike rich in comic effect, in warmth of coloring, and in originality of design. Though his poetry, it must be confessed, is not remarkable for the energies of fancy, the tales, visions, and allegories dispersed through his periodical writings make abundant recompense for the defect, and very amply prove that, in the conception and execution of these exquisite pieces, no talent of the genuine bard, except that of versification, lay dormant or unemployed. It is, however, the appropriate, the transcendent, praise of Addison that he steadily and uniformly, and in a manner peculiarly his own, exerted these great qualities in teaching and disseminating a love for morality and religion. He it was who, following the example of the divine Socrates, first stripped philosophy in this island of her scholastic garb, and bade her, clothed in the robes of elegant simplicity, allure and charm the multitude. He saw his countrymen become better as they became wiser; he saw them, through his instructions, feel and own the beauty of holiness and virtue; and for this, we may affirm, posterity, however distant or refined, shall revere and bless his memory. CHARACTER OF DR. JOHNSON. Let us now recapitulate the various channels into which the efforts of Dr. Johnson were directed. As a Poet he cannot claim a station in the first rank. He is a disciple of Pope; all that strong sentiment, in nervous language and harmonious metre, can effect, he possesses in a high degree. We may further affirm that his "London," his "Vanity of Human Wishes," his "Prologue on the Opening of Drury-Lane Theatre," and his "Stanzas on the Death of Levett," will never die. To excellence as a Bibliographer he had many pretensions: strength of memory, an insatiable love of books, and a most extra ordinary facility in acquiring an intimacy with their contents. What he has produced in this department is not of much extent, but it is well performed. His merits as a Biographer are so prominent as to be beyond all dispute. His Lives of Savage, of Cowley, of Dryden, and of Pope are masterpieces, which, in many respects, can fear no rivalry. An intimate acquaintance with the human heart, and the most skilful introduction of moral and monitory precept, combine to render many of his productions under this head unspeakably valuable to the dearest interests of mankind. It must not be concealed, however, that they are occasionally deformed by his prejudices, his aversions, and his constitutional gloom. In his character as an Essayist, though essentially different in mode from, he ranks next in value to, Addison. He lashes the vices rather than ridicules the follies of mankind; and his wit and humor are by no means so delicate and finely shaded as those of his predecessor. In force, in dignity, in splendor of eloquence, in correctness of style, melody of cadence, and rotundity of period, in precision of argument and perspicuity of inference, he is much superior to the author of the Spectator; but, on the other hand, he must yield the palm in ease and sweetness, in simplicity and vivacity. The three great faults, indeed, of Johnson as an essayist are, a style too uniformly labored and majestic for the purposes of a popular essay, a want of variety in the choice of subjects, and, in his survey of human life, a tone too gloomy and austere, too querulous and desponding. The Rambler is, however, notwithstanding these defects, a work that, in vigor of execution and comprehensiveness of utility, will not easily be paralleled; it is, in fact, a vast treasury of moral precept and ethic instruction. The reputation of Johnson as a Philologer appears to be somewhat on the decline. The attention which has been lately paid to lexicography has laid open many omissions and defects in his Dictionary; but it should be considered that a work of this kind must necessarily be defective; and that with our author rests the sole merit of having chalked out a plan which, if not filled up by his own execution, must, there is every reason to think, be closely followed by his emulators, to attain the perfection at which he aimed.1 1 Dr. Drake does not here, I think, do full Justice to Dr. Johnson as a Lexicographer. We must bear in mind that his great work was the first of the kind that deserved to be called a Dictionary of the English Language, and that all succeeding philologists have, more or less, built upon him as a foundation. I have the first edition of his Dictionary, 1755, two volumes, folio, and I never consult it without being amazed at the gigantic labors, | wonderful learning, and extended research of the author. True, he has allowed his prejudices to tincture a few of his definitions, while others are so scholastic as to be really of little practical utility. As an instance of this, I may give his definition of Net-work: 66 Any thing reticulated or decussated, at equal distances, with interstices between the intersections." As an instance of the former, take Oats: “A grain, which in England is generally |