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hanging gardens of Babylon, who was so accomplished in the arts of the world, had such an insight of life and was so disillusioned in respect to the world as the author of this poem undoubtedly was.

But the most liberal translation of "The Rubaiyat" gives the same impression of Omar, and there is no question that FitzGerald put in memorable verse what Omar had thought and written centuries and centuries ago. It only shows that man in that narrow Persian world of the twelfth century was precisely the same as he is in the wider world of the nineteenth century. The Persian singer of wine and love and philosophy was an occidental as well as an oriental, and spoke to the universal heart of man. With the same serenity of mind that Solomon exhibited, Omar looks upon the problems of life and death, sees that they are insoluble and proposes to make the best of it.

And fear not lest Existence, closing your

Account, and mine, should know the like no more:
The Eternal Saki from that Bowl has poured
Millions of Bubbles like us, and will pour.

Readers of Tennyson's memoirs, and of Mrs Ritchie's biography of her father, are familiar with the name of Edward FitzGerald. He was at

Cambridge University with Tennyson and Thackeray, and remained their lifelong friend and correspondent. "Old Fitz," as he was affectionately called by his intimate friends, was by nature and habit a recluse, and only at rare intervals mingled in society or visited his acquaintances in London. And yet he kept a keen eye upon the literary progress of his friends, and his letters to Thackerary and Tennyson show what a kindly pride he took in their successes and growing fame.

The greater part of his life was spent at his home in the English village of Woodbridge, where he lived among his books. One singular episode in his career was his marriage. He was the friend of the Quaker poet, Bernard Barton, who had been Charles Lamb's friend. When Mr. Barton died he left Fitz Gerald the executor of his estate and the guardian of his daughter Lucy. The estate proved inadequate, and FitzGerald, not knowing what else to do, chivalrously offered his hand to his ward, which was accepted. It proved an uncongenial match, and in a short time husband and wife separated, never again to meet. FitzGerald was too much of a solitary, and too fond of his books, to have a wife. Needless to

say that he provided for all her wants. vived him many years.

She sur

He does not seem to have done much original work, unless, indeed, his translation of Omar's splendid poem may be called original. He translated the Agamemnon of Aeschylus and some of the plays of Calderon, but nothing else that he did has had the fame of "The Rubaiyat."

RICHARD MONCKTON MILNES.

(1809-1885.)

RICHARD MONCKTON MILNES-called by his familiars "Dicky Milnes," and known in his later life as Lord Houghton, was a man well worth knowing when he lived, and whose biography by T. Wemyss Reid is one of the most delightful of books. Poet, politician, and man of the world, he knew everybody and everybody knew him. He was at home in every capital of Europe and America and in a long lifetime he made many friends and not a single enemy. He possessed the friendship of Carlyle, Thackeray, Tennyson, Gladstone, Browning, Macaulay, Sydney Smith, Walter Savage Landor, Frederick Maurice, Fanny Kemble, and a hundred others of like eminence. He had the sunniest of natures and even Carlyle, who really liked him, could find nothing unpleasant to say about him.

He was born in 1809 in Yorkshire, where his

father had large estates, and was educated at Cambridge. At the university he had for friends and classmates, Tennyson, Bulwer, Thackeray, Spedding, Trench, Brookfield, Edward FitzGerald and others, and all these were his lifelong friends. He inherited great wealth and was for many years a member of parliament. Later he was raised to the peerage as Lord Houghton. He died in 1885 at the age of seventy-six.

Walter Savage Landor thought Milnes was the greatest poet then living in England, but this was before Tennyson and Browning had made their way. Great poet he was not, but he was a charming lyrist, whose verses had considerable vogue, and some of them are still remembered. His first book was "Memorials of a Tour in Greece," printed in 1834, and this was followed by "Memorials and Historical Poems," and "Poems of Many Years," in 1838, and "Poetry for the People" in 1840. Two of his most famous poems are "The Brookside" and

"Strangers Yet," both of which have been set to music and long been favorites. The latter has always been and always will be greatly admired.

Strangers yet!

After strife of common ends,

After title of old friends,

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