memory of an elderly dame, now many years at rest, with her spectacles on her nose, her cat at her feet, her well-worn tause in her hand, and this universal apology for her continual flagellations upon her lips, the logic of which, however, her pupils were never able exactly to comprehend, "If ye are no in a fault just now, ye 're sure soon to be 't!" And we are certain that if all who have had similar experience were piling each a stone on two cairns erected to the two ingenious authors who have expressed and represented this common phase of human life, they would soon out-tower the Pyramids. Shenstone's "Schoolmistress" has not indeed the point and condensation of Goldsmith's "Schoolmaster," but its spirit is the same; and there is besides about it a certain soft, warm, slumberous charm, as if reflected from the good dame's kitchen fire. The very stanza seems murmuring in its sleep. After all, Shenstone, although possessed of great accomplishments, much true talent, and a distinct although narrow vein of poetic genius, has done little. His life was uneasy, uncertain, and in a great degree useless. He never understood, and therefore never did his work, as a man. He first found, and then forgot and abandoned the sole path as a poet which his genius was qualified profitably to pursue. Yet his memory shall always survive, as the sweet singer of the two simple strains we have been just panegyrizing. And then there is, as aforesaid, his great-little work,-the Leasowes; but, alas! of it, only the ruins remain-and while they preserve the recollection, they also preach the lesson of the weakness of this honest but indolent man-this true but selfstunted Poet. I. He arrives at his retirement in the country, and takes XIV. Declining an invitation to visit foreign countries, he XV. In memory of a private family in Worcestershire XVI. He suggests the advantage of birth to a person of 1143 XIX. Written in spring, 1743 XX. He compares his humble fortune with the distress of 46 1746 XXI. Taking a view of the country from his retirement, he is led to meditate on the character of the ancient Bri- XXIII. Reflections suggested by his situation XXIV. He takes occasion, from the fate of Eleanor of Bretagne, to suggest the imperfect pleasures of a solitary life. XXV. To Delia, with some flowers; complaining how much his benevolence suffers on account of his humble |