. To everybody Blacklock endeared himself; for he was a very good man, though a very poor poet. Young men he drew from obscurity, educated, and started in life, who never forgot the unhumorous, guileless man, who knew nothing of the world except its goodness. With a temper which nothing could ruffle, he worked with his boarders over Greek and Latin, and entered into all their entertainments with childlike pleasure, while the keenest pleasure of his boarders was to do kindly services for him. In his placid home there would meet at breakfast or in the evening all who had any pretence to wit and culture. There were heard the chatter of Mrs. Cockburn, the lively tongue of the Duchess of Gordon, with the voices of Adam Ferguson, Lord Monboddo, Dr. Robertson, as they sat at tea; while the boarders handed scones and cookies to the company, and listened eagerly as great men and bright women discussed and jested, making the little room noisy with their talk and merry with their laughter.-GRAHAM, HENRY GREY, 1901, Scottish Men of Letters in the Eighteenth Century, pp. 139, 145.

GENERAL

The 104th Psalm is esteemed one of the most sublime in the whole book, [A New Version of the Psalms of David]. There have not been less than forty different Versions, and Paraphrases of this Psalm, by poets of very considerable eminence, who seem to have vied with one another for the superiority. Of all these attempts, if we may trust our own judgment, none have succeeded so happily as Mr. Blacklock, a young gentleman now resident at Dumfries in Scotland. This Paraphrase is the more extraordinary, as the author of it has been blind from his cradle, and now labours under that calamity; it carries in it such elevated strains of poetry, such picturesque descriptions, and such a mellifluent flow of numbers, that we are persuaded the reader cannot be displeased at finding it inserted here. -CIBBER, THEOPHILUS, 1753, Lives of the Poets, vol. IV, p. 63.

Few men blessed with the most perfect sight can describe visual objects with more spirit and justness than this blind. man.-BURKE, EDMUND, 1757, A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful.

He [Dr. Johnson] talked of Mr. Blacklock's poetry, so far as it was descriptive of visible objects; and observed that, “as its authour had the misfortune to be blind, we may be absolutely sure that such passages are combinations of what he has remembered of the works of other writers who could see. That foolish fellow,Spence, has laboured to explain philosophically how Blacklock may have done, by means of his own faculties, what it is impossible he should do. The solution, as I have given it, is plain. Suppose, I know a man to be so lame that he is absolutely incapable to move himself, and I find him in a different room from that in which I left him; shall I puzzle myself with idle conjectures, that perhaps his nerves have by some unknown change all at once become effective? No, Sir, it is clear how he got into a different room: he was carried.". JOHNSON, SAMUEL, 1763, Life by Boswell, ed. Hill, vol. I, p. 539.

As an author, under disadvantages which seem unsurmountable to nature, Blacklock has eminently distinguished himself. Though blind from his infancy, the impulse of curiosity and the vigorous exertion of his talents conducted him to uncommon knowledge. He acquired tongues and arts by the ear, in many of which he excelled. There was no science with which he was not acquainted; he was familiar with the learned languages, and he knew with accuracy those of modern Europe that are the most cultivated. Among philosophers he has attained a conspicuous rank. As a poet,

though not of the highest rank, he is entitled to a rank not inferior to Addison, Parnell, and Shenstone.--ANDERSON, ROBERT, 1799, The Works of the British Poets, vol. XI.

His verses are extraordinary for a man blind from his infancy; but Mr. Henry Mackenzie, in his elegant biographical account of him, has certainly over-rated his genius; and when Mr. Spence, of Oxford, submitted Blacklock's descriptive powers as a problem for metaphysicians to resolve, he attributed to his writings a degree of descriptive strength which they do not possess. Denina carried exaggeration to the utmost when he declared that Blacklock would seem a fable to posterity, as he had been a prodigy to his contemporaries. It is no doubt curious that his

memory should have retained so many forms of expression for things which he had never seen; but those who have conversed with intelligent persons who have been blind from their infancy, must have often remarked in them a familiarity of language respecting the objects of vision which, though not easy to be accounted for, will be found sufficiently common to make the rhymes of Blacklock appear far short of marvelous. Blacklock on more than one occasion, betrays something like marks of blindness.-CAMPBELL, THOMAS, 1819, Specimens of the British Poets.

The series of conjectures by which Mr. Spence has endeavoured to account for this poet's capability of producing animated descriptions of external nature, can scarcely be regarded as altogether satisfactory; when such a faculty is displayed by a poet blind from his infancy, it is chiefly to be referred to his accurate recollection of the descriptive language employed by other poets; but what notions he himself attaches to words expressive of the visible qualities of objects, it might be extremely difficult for a blind poet to explain. IRVING, DAVID, 1861, The History of Scotish Poetry, ed. Carlyle, p. 189.

We read all concerning him with strong interest except his poetry, for this is generally tame, languid, and commonplace.CHAMBERS, ROBERT, 1876, Cyclopædia of English Literature, ed. Carruthers.

In the short memoir which we have of him, written by Mackenzie, there are a great many special quotations made, and lines selected, to show that, notwithstanding his blindness, he was capable of describing nature. This, of course, must have been simply in imitation of the lavish colours, the purple evenings and rosy mornings of the poets: but there is a pathetic correctness in his enumeration of the yellow crocuses and purple hyacinths, which touches the heart.- OLIPHANT, MARGARET O. W., 1882, Literary History of England in the End of the Eighteenth Century and Beginning of the Nineteenth Century, vol. 1, p. 149.

Blacklock's poems are mere echoes of the poetical language of his time, and show little more than a facility for stringing together rhymes. He would, we are told, dictate thirty or forty verses as fast as they could be written down. Whilst doing so he acquired a trick of nervous vibration of his body which became habitual. By Hume's advice Blacklock abandoned a project of lecturing on oratory, and studied divinity.-STEPHEN, LESLIE, 1886, Dictionary of National Biography, vol. v, p. 128.

He has in truth little claim to remembrance except such as can be founded upon a pathetic story and an amiable and virtuous character. -WALKER, HUGH, 1893, Three Centuries of Scottish Literature, vol. II, p. 101.

PERSONAL

At this shop I met Mr. Francis Hopkinson, late a mandamus councillor of New Jersey, now a member of the Continental Congress, who, it seems, is a native of Philadelphia,

was liberally educated, and is a painter and a poet. I have a curiosity to penetrate a little deeper into the bosom of this curious gentleman, and

may possibly give you some more particulars concerning him. He is one of your pretty, little, curious, ingenious men. His head is not bigger than a large apple, less than our friend Pemberton, or Doctor Simon Tufts. I have not met with anything in natural history more amusing and entertaining than his personal appearance, yet he is genteel and well bred,

and is very social.-ADAMS, JOHN, 1776, Letters Addressed to His Wife, August.

Sir: I have the pleasure to inclose to you a commission as judge of the United States for the District of Pennsylvania, to which office I have nominated, and, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, have appointed you. In my nomination of Persons to fill offices in the Judicial Department, I have been guided by the importance of the object---considering it as of the first magnitude, and as the Pillar upon which our political fabric must rest. I have endeavoured to bring into the high offices of its administration such characters as will give stability and dignity to our National Government, and I persuade myself they will discover a due desire to promote the happiness of our Country by a ready acceptance of their several appointments. The laws which have passed, relative to your office, accompany the commission. I am, Sir, with very great esteem, Your most obedient Servant.-WASHINGTON, GEORGE, 1789, Letter to Francis Hopkinson, Sept. 30.

He was the author of several fugitive pieces, which were very popular in their day. His well known ballad, called "The Battle of the Kegs," gives evidence of a rich and exhaustless fund of humor, and will probably last the wear of centuries. He excelled in music, and had some knowledge of painting. His library was extensive, and his stock of knowledge constantly accumulating. In stature, Mr. Hopkinson was below the common size. His countenance was animated, his speech fluent; and motions were unusually rapid. Few men were kinder in their dispositions, or more benevolent in their lives. LINCOLN, ROBERT W., 1833, Lives of the Presidents of the United States with Biographical Notices of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence, p. 383.

Even in these days, Francis Hopkinson would have been regarded as a man of quite unusual cultivation, having in reality many solid as well as shining accomplishments. He was a distinguished practitioner of the law; he became an eminent judge; he was a statesman trained by much study and experience; he was a mathematician, a chemist, a physicist, a mechanician, an inventor, a musician and a composer of music, a man of literary knowledge and practice, a writer of airy

and dainty songs, a clever artist with pencil and brush, and a humorist of unmistakable power. For us Americans, the name of Francis Hopkinson lives-if indeed it does live-chiefly on account of its presence in the august roll-call of the signers of the Declaration of Independence; and through all the strenuous years which preceded and followed that great avowal, this man served the cause therein. set forth, not only as a patriot of austere principle, as principle, as a statesman of genuine. sagacity, as a citizen of high civic courage, but as a wit and a satirist, -the edge of his sarcasm cutting into the enemy as keenly as any sword, and the ruddy glow of his mirth kindling good cheer over all the land on many a grim day when good cheer was a hard thing to be had on his side of the fight.-TYLER, MOSES COIT, 1897, The Literary History of the American Revolution, 1763-1783, vol. I, p. 163.

GENERAL

A poet, a wit, a patriot, a chemist, a mathematician, and a judge of the admirality; his character was composed of a happy union of qualities and endowments commonly supposed to be discordant; and, with the humour of Swift and Rabelais, he was always found on the side of virtue and social order. - WHARTON, THOMAS I., 1825, Notes on the Provincial Literature of Pennsylvania.

Great as Judge Hopkinson's reputation was as an advocate while at the bar, and distinguished as he was for learning, judgment, and integrity when upon the bench, he was, perhaps, more celebrated as a man of letters, of general knowledge, of fine taste, but, above all, for his then unrivaled powers of wit and satire. Dr. Rush, after speaking of his varied attainments, says: "But his forte was humour and satire, in both of which he was not surpassed by Lucian, Swift, or Rabelais. These extraordinary powers were consecrated to the advancement of the interests of patriotism, virtue, and science." This praise may be too strong; and yet we hardly know where to find papers of more exquisite humour than among the writings of Francis Hopkinson. His paper on the "Ambiguity of the English Language,' to show the ridiculous mistakes that often occur from words of similar sounds, used the one for the other: on "White-Washing" on "A Typographical Method of

Conducting a Quarrel," which made friends of two fierce newspaper combatants; "The New Roof," an allegory in favor of the Federal Constitution; the "Specimen of a Collegiate Examination, to turn certain branches, and the modes of studying them, into ridicule; and "The Battle of the Kegs," are all pieces which, while they are fully equal to any of Swift's writings for wit, have nothing at all in them of Swift's vulgarity.-CLEVELAND, CHARLES D., 1859, A Compendium of American Literature, p. 60.

His pen was not distinguished for depth, but there was a genuine humor in his productions, which made him widely popular. A majority of his poetical effusions were of an ephemeral nature, and were forgotten, in a degree, with the occasion which called them forth; yet a few have been preserved, among which may be mentioned "The Battle of the Kegs," a ballad, or sort of epic, of inimitable humor. -LOSSING, BENSON J., 1870, Lives of the Signers of the Declaration of American Independence, p. 86, note.

All through the war Hopkinson's fertile brain was busy devising arguments in prose and verse to strengthen and cheer the hearts of his countrymen, and by the able discharge of his duties in the administration of naval affairs and as treasurer of loans he rendered special service to the good cause.-HILDEBURN, CHARLES R., 1878, Francis Hopkinson, The Pennsylvania Magazine, vol. II, p. 320.

Francis Hopkinson was another of the writers who served the popular cause by

seizing every occasion to make the British pretensions to rule ridiculous as well as hateful. His "Battle of the Kegs" probably laughed a thousand men into the Republican ranks. WHIPPLE, EDWIN PERCY, 1886, American Literature and Other Papers, ed. Whittier, p. 23.

Hopkinson has some title to rank as one of the earliest American humorists. Without the keen wit of "McFingal" some of his "Miscellaneous Essays and Occasional Writings" published in 1792, have more geniality and heartiness than Trumbull's satire. His "Letter on Whitewashing" is a bit of domestic humor that foretokens the Danbury News man, and his "Modern Learning," 1784, a burlesque on college examinations, in which a saltbox is described from the point of view of metaphysics, logic, natural philosophy, mathematics, anatomy, surgery and chemistry, long kept its place in school readers and other collections.-BEERS, HENRY A., 1887, An Outline Sketch of American Literature, p. 74.

The ballad was immensely popular; perhaps more so than any ballad of Revolutionary times; and I can well remember how (after the first quarter of this century had passed) patriotic schoolboys used to love to reel off, in brilliant recitation, that story of the trick of the Yankees upon the obtuse Britishers. But Hopkinson wrote much better things; he was master of a quiet satire and of a dry humor. MITCHELL, DONALD G., 1897, American Lands and Letters, The Mayflower to Rip-Van-Winkle, p. 121.

PERSONAL

I would behave to a nobleman as I should expect he would behave to me, were I a nobleman and he Sam. Johnson. Sir, there is one Mrs. Macaulay in this

town, a great republican. One day when I was at her house, I put on a very grave countenance, and said to her, "Madam, I am now become a convert to your way of thinking. I am convinced that all mankind

are upon an equal footing; and to give you an unquestionable proof, Madam, that I am in earnest, here is a very sensible, civil, well-behaved fellow-citizen, your footman; I desire that he may be allowed to sit down and dine with us." I thus, Sir, shewed her the absurdity of the leveling doctrine. She has never liked me since.-JOHNSON, SAMUEL, 1763, Life by Boswell, ed. Hill, vol. 1, p. 518.

Was much pleased with her good sense and liberal turn of mind.-QUINCY, JR., JOSIAH, 1774, Memoirs, p. 243.

HISTORY OF ENGLAND

To Mrs. Macaulay I did give a letter, but am ashamed of it, as she ought to be of her foolish and absurd "Summary," which is a wretched compilation from magazines, full of gross mistakes, and confounding all characters, leveling all for no end or purpose, but to support so silly an hypothesis, as that no king can be a good king, because he is a king. She defends James II. for the nonsensical pleasure of abusing King William, and has no more idea of general merit than Sir John Dalrymple. In short, whom does she approve but herself and her idolater that dirty disappointed hunter of a mitre, Dr. Wilson, and Alderman Heathcote, a paltry worthless Jacobite, whom I remember, and her own grandfather Sawbridge, who, she has been told, was a mighty worthy man though dipped in the infamous job of the South Sea? In short I ran through the book, had forgotten it, and only recollect it now to answer your question.-WALPOLE, HORACE, 1778, To Rev. William Mason, March 16; Letters, ed. Cunningham, vol. VII, p. 42.

The very word respect brings Mrs. Macaulay to my remembrance. The woman of the greatest abilities, undoubtedly, that this country has ever produced. -And yet this woman has been suffered to die without sufficient respect being paid to her memory. Posterity, however, will be more just; and remember that Catherine Macaulay was an example of intellectual acquirements supposed to be incompatible with the weakness of her sex. In her style of writing, indeed, no sex appears, for it is like the sense it conveys, strong and clear. I will not call her's a masculine understanding, because I admit not of such an arrogant assump

tion of reason; but I contend that it was a sound one, and that her judgment, the matured fruit of profound thinking, was a proof that a woman can acquire judgment, in the full extent of the word. Possessing more penetration than sagacity, more understanding than fancy, she writes with sober energy and argumentative closeness; yet sympathy and benevolence give an interest to her sentiments, and that vital heat to arguments, which forces the reader to weigh them.-WOLLSTONECRAFT, MARY (NEE GODWIN), 1792, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, p. 235.

Combining Roman admiration with English faction, she violated truth in her English characters, and exaggerated romance in her Roman.-DISRAELI, ISAAC, 1795, On the Literary Character.

Strafford's Letters furnished materials to Harris and Macaulay; but the first is little read at present, and the second not at all.-HALLAM, HENRY, 1827-46, The Constitutional History of England.

When any doubt is entertained of the character of Charles, Mrs. Macaulay may be referred to; and a charge against him, if it can possibly be made out, will assuredly be found, and supported with all the references that the most animated dil

igence can supply. -SMYTH, WILLIAM, 1840, Lectures on Modern History, Lecture xvi.

Catherine, though now forgotten by an ungrateful public, made quite as much noise in her day as Thomas does in ours. -CROKER, J. WILSON, 1849, Mr. Macaulay's History of England, Quarterly Review, vol. 84, p. 561.

Mrs. Macaulay, as an historian, is placed by Horace Walpole, very nearly on a level with Robertson, and far beyond the partial and unreliable Hume. She was certainly a woman of remarkable intelligence; enthusiastic, well read, laborious, and sincere in her passion for freedom. In her own age she found many admirers. . . . Her numerous works show the ardor with which she pursued her literary labors. She wrote a History of England from the reign of James I. to the Accession, in which she supports her liberal views by a violent attack upon the Stuarts. With no delicacy of taste or novelty of manner, this work could only