Sublimest danger, over which none weeps - you As if the worst could happen were to rest And more puissant. For the wicked there Are winged like angels. Every knife that strikes A spiritual life. The beautiful seems right Though armed against St. Michael. Many a crown From their calm locks, and, undiscomfited, Look steadfast truths against Time's changing mask. In order to light men a moment's space. But stay! who judges, who distinguishes, 'Twixt Saul and Nahash justly, at first sight, And leaves King Saul precisely at the sin, To serve King David? Who discerns at once The sound of the trumpets when the trumpets blow For Alaric as well as Charlemagne ? Who judges wizards, and can tell true seers From conjurors? The child there? Would you leave That child to wander in a battle-field, And push his innocent smile against the guns? Or even in a catacomb, his torch Grown ragged in the fluttering air, and all Not a child. I read books bad and good, some bad and some good Which make you laugh that any one should weep The world of books is still the world I write; Still brought me nearer to the central truth. I thought so. All this anguish in the thick The cygnet finds the water; but the man Attesting the hereafter. Let who says, Books, books, books! I had found the secret of a garret-room Piled high with cases in my father's name; Piled high, packed large, where, creeping in and out Among the giant fossils of my past, Like some small, nimble mouse between the ribs At last, because the time was ripe, I chanced upon the poets. As the earth Plunges in fury when the internal fires Have reached and pricked her heart, and throwing flat And towers of observation, clears herself To elemental freedom; thus my soul, At Poetry's divine first finger-touch, Let go conventions, and sprang up surprised, OTHER MODERN ENGLISH POETS AND DRAMATISTS. ROBERT SOUTHEY.-1774-1843. Poet-laureate from 1813 to 1843. A writer of great industry. His prose is superior to his poetry, which is of the lake school mainly, and not of the highest order. PRINCIPAL PRODUCTIONS. "Madoc;" "The Curse of Kehama;" "Thalaba, the Destroyer;" "Joan of Arc;" "All for Love;""The Pilgrim of Compostella;" "Life of Nelson;” “A History of Brazil; "Lives of Wesley, Chatterton, White, and Cowper;" "Lives of the British Admirals;"" Colloquies on Society." The ، ܪ SHERIDAN KNOWLES.-1784-1862. One of the most successful of modern dramatists. His best known plays are "Caius Gracchus," "Virginius,' "William Tell," "The Beggar of Bethnal Green, "The Hunchback, Wife, a Tale of Mantua," and "Love." Besides these, he wrote several other popular plays and other works. WILLIAM E. AYTOUN.-1813, Edinburgh. "Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers;" 46 Bothwell;' ""Firmilian;" and, with Theodore Martin, "Ballads by Bon Gaultier." PHILIP JAMES BAILEY.. 1816. Author of "Festus," a work of remarkable power, "The Angel World," "The Mystic," "The Age, a Colloquial Satire." CAROLINE ANNE SOUTHEY.-1787-1854. Authoress of the beautiful tales, "The Young Gray Head," "The Murder Glen," "Walter and William," and "The Evening Walk;" also "Ellen Fitzarthur," "Birthday and other Poems," "Solitary Hours," and other pieces of prose and poetry of much merit. MARTIN FARQUHAR TUPPER.-1810. "Proverbial Philosophy;" “An Author's Mind;" "The Crock of Gold." ELIZA COOK. pieces. - 1817. "The Old Arm - Chair," and many other popular ་་ 'Rhymes and Recollections." 99 66 BRYAN WALTER PROCTER (better known as "BARRY CORNWALL ").— 1790. "Marcian Colonna; ""Flood of Thessaly;' "Dramatic Scenes; "" Mirandola; " 66 The Sea;' "The Sequestration of a Bereaved Lover; " " A Pauper's Funeral; "A Petition to Time;' "A Prayer in Sickness; ""The Stormy Petrel." HENRY HART MILMAN.-1791-1868. "Fazio;" "Samor;""The Fall of Jeru""The Martyr of Antioch; salem; History of Latin Christianity." JOHN CLARE. — 1793. "Poems of Rural Life;' ""The Village Minstrel." HARTLEY COLERIDGE. - 1796-1849. "Lives of Northern Worthies;' First Sound to the Human Ear;" "Night;" "A Vision;""; DERWENT COLERIDGE. 1800. 'Memoir of Hartley Coleridge." SARA COLERIDGE.-1803-1852. "Phantasmion." 99 66 "The 'Sunday;' Prayer." THOMAS HAYNES BAYLEY.- 1797-1839. "The Soldier's Tear;" "I'd be a Butterfly;"" The First Gray Hair;" "I Never was a Favorite; ""Why don't the Men propose?" ALARIC ALEXANDER WATTS.-1799. "Scottish Minstrelsy;" "Jeanie Mor "Poetical Sketches; " "Lyrics of the Heart;""Death of the Firstborn;' ""To a Child blowing Bubbles; ""My Own Fireside;""The Gray Hair." THOMAS KIBBble Hervey.—1804-1859. Editor of "The Athenæum;" "Australia; ""Modern Sculpture; ""England's Helicon." THOMAS RAGG. - 1808. "The Deity;" ""Martyr of Verulum;""Heber." RICHARD MONCKTON MILNES. - 1809. "Poems of Many Years;' ""PalmLeaves;' "Life of Keats; "Youth and Manhood; " Labor; "Rich and Poor." CHARLES MACKAY. - 1812. "Voices from the Crowd;" "Town Lyrics;" Ægeria; ""The Salamandrine;"" The Watcher on the Tower;' "The Good Time Coming;' "The Three Preachers; ' " "What might be Done." 1814-1837. "Thoughts of Heaven;""Death." FRANCES BROWN.-1816. "The Star of Atteghei;' ""Vision of Schwartz;" "Lyrics." MATTHEW ARNOLD. -1822. Etna." "The Strayed Reveler;" ": COVENTRY PATMORE.-1823. "Tamerton Church-Tower;" "The Angel in the House." DRAMATISTS. Sir THOMAS NOON TALFOURD. 1795-1854. "Ion;" "The Athenian Captive;""Glencoe, or the Fate of the Macdonalds;" "The Castilian;""Life of Charles Lamb." HENRY TAYLOR. -"Philip Van Artevelde; ""Edwin the Fair;' "The Eve of the Conquest;' Notes from Life, and Notes from Books." THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES. · 1803-1849. "The Bride's Tragedy." RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. -Died 1851. "Evadne; ""The Apostate." GILBERT ABBOTT À BECKETT. 1810-1856. Many plays; also "Comic Black""Comic Histories of England and Rome." stone; TOM TAYLOR. - 1817. Many comedies and farces; "Contributions to Punch;" "Memorials of Haydon." 1825. "Heart of the World;""Patrician's Daughter." 1828. "What to Eat, Drink, and Avoid;""Medea." SHIRLEY BROOKS. -"Our Governess;' "The Creole." WILKIE COLLINS. "The Frozen Deep." MARK LEMON. - Late editor of "Punch." Author of innumerable farces, &c. HENRY MAYHEW. - "The Wandering Minstrel." JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY. BORN 1814, Dorchester, Mass. This distinguished historian, author of "The Rise of the Dutch Republic," and "The United Netherlands," is now (1870) minister at the court of St. James. WILLIAM OF ORANGE. THE life and labors of Orange had established the emancipated commonwealth upon a secure foundation; but his death rendered the union of all the Netherlands into one republic hopeless. The efforts of the malcontent nobles, the religious discord, the consummate ability (both political and military) of Parma, - all combined with the lamentable loss of William the Silent to separate for ever the southern and Catholic provinces from the northern confederacy. So long as the prince remained alive, he was the father of the whole country; the Netherlands, saving only the two Walloon provinces, constituting a whole. Notwithstanding the spirit of faction and the blight of the long civil war, there was at least one country, or the hope of a country, one strong heart, one guiding head, for the patriotic party throughout the land. Philip and Granvelle were right in their estimate of the advantage to be derived from the prince's death; in |