poetical efforts, Mr. D'Israeli in 1791 published the first volume of his Curiosities of Literature;' a second was added in 1792, and a third in 1817. A second series in three volumes was published in 1823. During the progress of this magnum opus of the author, he issued essays on Anecdotes,' on the Manners and Genius of the Literary Character,' a volume of Miscellanies or Literary Recreations,' and Beveral volumes of novels and romances long since forgotten. At length, in 1812, he struck into his natural vein with 'Calamities of Authors,' 'Quarrels of Authors,' 1814; the Literary and Political Character of James I.,' 1816; Commentaries on the Life and Reign of Charles I.,' 1828-31; 'Eliot, Hampden, and Pym,' 1832, &c. Though labouring under partial blindness, Mr. D'Israeli in 1841 issued three volumes entitled The Amenities of Literature,' consisting, like the 'Curiosities' and 'Miscellanies,' of detached papers and dissertations on literary and historical subjects, written in a pleasant philosophical style, which presents the fruits of antiquarian research and study-not, however, always well digested or accurately stated— without their dryness and general want of connection. Few authors have traversed so many fields of literature, and gleaned such a variety of curious and interesting particulars. After a long life spent in literary research and composition, Mr. D'Israeli died at his seat of Brandenham House, Bucks, in 1848, aged eighty-two. In the following year a new edition-the fourteenth-of the Curiosities of Literature' was published, accompanied with a memoir from the pen of his son, the Right Hon. Benjamin Disraeli, who has since published a collected edition of his father's works in seven handsome portable volumes. The family of D'Israeli settled in England in 1748. The father of Isaac was an Italian descendant of one of the Hebrew families whom the Inquisition forced to emigrate from the Spanish peninsula at the end of the fifteenth century, and who found a refuge in the Venitian republic. His ancestors,' says Mr. Benjamin Disraeli, had dropped their Gothic surname on their settlement in the Terra Firma, and, grateful to the God of Jacob who had sustained them through unprecedented trials, and guarded_them through unheard of perils, they assumed the name of Disraeli [more correctly D'Israeli, for so it was written down to the time of its present political owner] a name never borne before or since by any other family, in order that their race might be for ever recog nised.' This seems a poetical genealogy. Benjamin D'Israeli, the first English settler of the race, entered into business in London, made a fortune while still in middle life, and retired to Enfield, where he died in 1817, at the age of ninety. Isaac, his son, was wholly devoted to literature. His parents considered him moonstruck, but after various efforts to make him a man of business, they acquiesced in his determination to become a man of letters. He wrote a poem against Wolcot, a satire 'On the Abuse of Satire,' and then entered on that course of antiquarian literary research which

has made his name known to the world. His fortune was sufficient for his wants, his literary reputation was considerable, and he possessed a happy equanimity of character. His feelings,' says his son, though always amiable, were not painfully deep, and amid joy or sorrow, the philosophic vein was ever evident.' His thoughts all centred in his library! The Curiosities of Literature' still maintain their place. Some errors-chiefly in boasted discoveries and second-hand quotations-have been pointed out by Mr. Bolton Corney, in his amusing and sarcastic volume of Illustrations' (1838), but the labours of D'Israeli are not likely to be soon superseded. He was not the first in the field. 'Among my earliest literary friends,' he says, 'two distinguished themselves by their anecdotical literature; James Petit Andrews, by his "Anecdotes Ancient and Modern," and William Seward, by his Anecdotes of Distinguished Persons.' These volumes were favourably received, and to such a degree, that a wit of that day, and who is still (1839) a wit as well as a poet, considered that we were far gone in our "anecdotage." ** D'Israeli's work, The Literary Character, or the History of Men of Genius drawn from their own Feelings and Confessions,' is his ablest production. It was a favourite with Byron- often a consolation, and always a pleasure.'

REV. CALEB C. COLTON.

An excellent collection of apophthegms and moral reflections was published in 1820, under the title of Lacon, or Many Things in Few Words; addressed to those who think.' Six editions of the work were disposed of within a twelvemonth, and the author in 1822 added a second volume to the collection. The history of the author of Lacon' conveys a moral more striking than any of his maxims. The REV. CALEB C. COLTON was vicar of Kew and Petersham; gambling and extravagance forced him to leave England, and he resided some time in America and in Paris. In the French capital he is said to have been so successful as a gamester that in two years he realised £25,000. He committed suicide at Fontainebleau in 1832. We subjoin a few of the reflections from Lacon.'

True Genius always united to Reason.

The great examples of Bacon, of Milton, of Newton, of Locke, and of others, happen to be directly against the popular inference, that a certain wildness of eccentricity and thoughtlessness of conduct are the necessary accompaniments of talent, and the sure indications of genius. Because some have united these extravagances

Those works are now rarely met with. The Anecdotes of JAMES PETIT ANDREWS (1737-1757) were published in (17-9-30). he wrote also a Continua son of Henry's HiRtory of England and other historical and antiquarian works -WILLIAM SEWARD (1747-179) published his Anecdotes of some Distinguskei Persons, in two volumes, in 1794. He added three more volumes, and afterwards another work of the same kind. Biographia, two volumes. 179). Mr. Seward was the son of a wealthy brewer, partner in the firm of Calvert & Co. Notices of him will be found in Boswell's Life of Johnson,

with great demonstrations of talent, as a Rousseau, a Chatterton, a Savage, a Burns, or a Byron, others, finding it less difficult to be eccentric than to be brilliant, have therefore adopted the one, in the hope that the world would give them credit for the other. But the greatest genius is never so great as when it is chastised and subduel by the highest reason; it is from such a combination, like that of Bucephalus reined in by Alexander, that the most powerful efforts have been produced. And be it remenibered, that minds of the very highest order, who have given an unrestrained course to their caprice, or to their passions, would have been so much higher, by subduing them; and that, so far from presuming that the world would give them credit for talent, on the score of their aberrations and their extravagances, all that they dared hope or expect has been. that the world would pardon and overlook those extravagances, on account of the various and manifold proofs they were constantly exhibiting of superior acquirement and inspiration. We might also add, that the good effects of talent are universal, the evil of its blemishes confined. The light and heat of the sun benefit all, and are by all enjoyed; the spots on his surface are discoverable only to the few. But the lower order of aspirers to fame and talent have pursued a very different course; instead of exhibiting talent in the hope that the world would forgive their eccentricities, they have exhibited only their eccentricities in the hope that the world would give them credit for talent.

Error only to be Combated by Argument.

We should justly ridicule a general, who, just before an action, should suddenly disarm his men, and putting into the hands of all of them a Bible, should order them, thus equipped, to march against the enemy. Here we plainly see the folly of calling in the Bible to support the sword; but is it not as great a folly to call in the sword to rupport the Bib'e'? Our Saviour divided force from reason, and let no man presume to join what God hath put asunder. When we combat error with any other weapon than argument, we err more than those whom we attack.

Mystery and Intrigue.

There are minds so habituated to intrigue and mystery in themselves, and ro prone to expect it from others, that they will never accept of a plain reason for a plain fact, if it be possible to devise canses for it that are obscure, far-fetched, and usually not worth the carriage. Like the miser of Berkshire, who would ruin a good horse to escape a turnpike, so these gentlemen ride their high-bred theories to death, in order to come at truth, through by-paths, lanes, and alleys; while she herself is jogging quietly along, upon the high and beaten road of common-sense. The consequence is, that those who take this mode of arriving at truth, are sometimes before her, and rometimes behind her, but very seldom with her. Thus the great statesman who relates the conspiracy against Dória, pauses to deliberate upon, and minutely to scrutinise into divers and sundry errors committed, and opportunities neglected, whereby he would wish to account for the total failure of that spirited enterprise. But the plain fact was, that the scheme had been so well planned and digested, that it was victorious in every point of its operation, both on the sea and on the shore, in the harbour of Genoa no less than in the city, until that most unlucky accident befell the Count de Fiesque, who was the very life and soul of the conspiracy. In stepping from one galley to another, the plank on which he stool upset, and he fell into the ses. His armour happened to be very heavy-the night to be very dark-the water to be very deep-and the bottom to be very muddy. And it is another plain fact, that water. in all such cases, happens to make no distinction whatever between a conqueror and a cat.

Magnanimity in Humble Life.

In the obscurity of retirement, amid the squalid poverty and revolting privations of a cottage, it has often been my lot to witness scenes of magnanimity and self-denial, as much beyond belief as the practice of the great; a heroism borrowing no support either from the gaze of the many or the admiration of the few, yet flourishing amidst ruins, and on the confines of the grave; a spectacle as stupendous in the

moral world as the falls of the Missouri in the natural; and, like that mighty cataract, doomed to display its grandeur only where there are no eyes to appreciate its magnificence.

Avarice.

Avarice begets more vices than Priam did children, and, like Driam, survives them all. It starves its keeper to surfeit those who wish him dead; and makes him submit to more mortifications to lose heaven than the martyr und rgoes to gain it. Avarice is a passion fuil of paradox, a madness tall of method; for although the miser is most mercenary of all beings, yet he serves the worst inaster more faithfully than some Christians do the best, and will take nothing for it. He falls down and worships the god of this world. but will have neither its pomps, its vanities, nor its pleasures for his trouble. He begins to accumulate treasure as a mean to happiness, and by a common but morbid association, he continues to accumulate it as an end. He lives poor, to die rich, and is the mere jailer of his house, and the turnkey of his wealth. Impoverished by his gold, he slaves harder to imprison it in his chest, than his brother-slave to liberate it from the mine. The avarice of the miser may be termed the grand sepulchre of all his other passions as they successively decay. But, unlike other tombs, it is enlarged by repletion, and strengthened by age. This latter paradox, so peculiar to this passion, must be ascribed to that love of power so inseparable from the human mind. There are three kinds of power-wealth, strength, and talent; but as old age always weakens, often destroys the two latter, the aged are induced to cling with the greater avidity to the former. And the attachment of the aged to wealth must be a growing and a progressive attachment, since such are not slow in discovering that those same ruthless years which detract so sensibly from the strength of their bodies and of their minds, serve only to augment and to consolidate the strength of their purse.

JOHN NICHOLS-ARTHUR YOUNG.

One of the most industrious of literary collectors and editors was JOHN NICHOLS (1745-1826), who for nearly half a century conducted the Gentleman's Magazine.' Mr. Nichols was early put apprentice to WILLIAM BOWYER, an eminent London printer (1699-1778), who, with scholarship that reflected honour on himself and his craft, edited an edition of the New Testament, with notes, and was author of several philological tracts. On the death of Bowyer, Mr. Nichols carried on the printing business-in which he had previously been a partner-and became associated with David Henry, the brother-inlaw of Cave, the original proprietor of the Gentleman's Magazine.' Henry died in 1792, and the whole labours of the magazine and business devolved on Mr. Nichols, whose industry was never relaxed. The most important of his numerous labours are his Anecdotes, Literary and Biographical, of William Bowyer,' 1782; The History and Antiquities of Leicester,' 1795-1811; Literary Anecdctes of the Eighteenth Century,' eight volumes, 1812-14; and Illustrations of the Literature of the Eighteenth Century '-supplementary to the 'Anecdotes'-three volumes octavo. Additions have from time to time been made to these works by Mr. Nichol's son and successor, so that the 'Anecdotes' form nine large volumes, and the Illustrations' eight volumes, the seventeenth-completing the series-having been issued in 1859. Mr. Nichols edited the correspondence of Atterbury and Steele, Fuller's 'Worthies,' Swift's works, &c., and compiled accounts

of the Royal Progresses and Processions of Queen Elizabeth and James I.' each in three volumes quarto.

ARTHUR YOUNG (1741-1820) was eminent for his writings and services in the promotion of agriculture. He was one of the first who succeeded in elevating this great national interest to the dignity of a science, and rendering it popular among the higher classes of the country. He was for many years an unsuccessful theorist and experimenter on a small paternal estate in Suffolk to which he succeeded, but the knowledge thus acquired he turned to good account. In 1770 he commenced a periodical, entitled 'The Farmer's Calendar; and he afterwards edited another periodical, The Annals of Agriculture,' to which King George III. was an occasional contributoz. A list of his published letters, pamphlets, &c. on subjects of rural economy, would fill two of our pages; but the most important of Young's works are a Tour in Ireland,' 1776-79, and Travels in France,' 1787-89. These journeys were undertaken by the recommendation and assistance of government, with a view of ascertaining the cultivation, wealth, resources, and prosperity of Ireland and France. He was author also of surveys of the counties of Suffolk, Norfolk, Lincoln, Hertford, Essex and Oxford; with reports on waste lands, inclosures, &c. The French Revolution alarmed Young with respect to its probable effects on the English lower classes, and he wrote several warning treatises and political tracts. Sir John Sinclair-another devoted and patriotic agriculturist-having prevailed on Pitt to establish a Board of Agriculture, Arthur Young was appointed its secretary, with a salary of £400 per annum, and he was indefatigable in his exertions to carry out the views of the association. To the end of his long life, even after he was afflicted with blindness, the attention of Mr. Young was devoted to pursuits of practical utility. Some of his theories as to the system of large farms-for which he was a strenuous advocate-and other branches of agricultural labour, may be questioned; but he was a valuable pioneer, who cleared the way for many improvements since accomplished.

SIR JOHN CARR.

A series of light descriptive and gossiping tours, by SIR JOHN CARR (1772-1832), made considerable noise in their day. The first and best was 'The Stranger in France,' 1803. This was followed by Travels Round the Baltic,' 1804-5; The Stranger in Ireland,' 1806; Tour through Holland,' 1807; Caledonian Sketches,' 1809; Travels in Spain,' 1811. Sir John was also author of some indifferent poems and dramas. This indefatigable tourist had been an attorney in Dorsetshire, but the success of his first work on France induced him to continue a series of similar publications. In Ireland he was knighted by the Lord-lieutenant (the Duke of Bedford), and his Irish