is not only a proof of its value, but confers a boon on many readers, within whose reach it is permanently brought. Such a biography ought not to pass off in the rapid circulation of book societies; for an occasional recurrence to it will tend to fertilise the mind of attentive and reflecting readers. The Poetical Remains of William Sidney Walker, formerly Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. Edited, with a Memoir of the Author, by the Rev. G. Moultrie, A.M.-This volume, though small in size and little attractive to common readers, cannot be passed over by us without the notice, due to the genius and learning of the unhappy subject of it. Those who knew the deceased will be gratified and pleased with so judicious and kind a record of their lost friend; and those who did not, will be struck by a singular and remarkable portrait, the attraction of which will not be soon or easily removed from their mind. William Sidney Walker was born at Pembroke, in South Wales, 4 Dec. 1795, and named after his godfather Sir W. Sidney Smith. He was descended by his grandmother from the old Milners of the North, and therefore from the historian of the Church. He was born almost blind, but was so far restored to sight by Mr. Ware, that a dim speck in each eye alone remained. His father died in 1811. Sidney was placed first at Doncaster School, then at Forest Hill, and lastly at Eton. To defray the expenses of the education of her son his mother received a few young ladies to educate. Sidney distinguished himself at Eton by exemplary conduct and high classical attainments, obtained many prizes, and two scholarships, before he went to Cambridge, where he soon became eminent, being a Trinity Scholar, then gaining the Porson Prize, then a Craven Scholar, and, lastly, a Fellow of Trinity College. His application and memory were extraordinary; he could repeat every line of Homer by rote; and, induced by a jocular remark of Sir James Macintosh, he turned a page of the Court Guide into Greek verse. This is the light side of the picture; but the shadows lie very darkly over the other. The many peculiarities of his person, manners, and dress, excited the ridicule of the boys at Eton, and there was nothing conciliatory in his conduct towards them. This ended in a regular and permanent system of unrelenting persecution, and the conclusion to which his attached and friendly editor arrives is, that "from his peculiarities he was entirely unfit to associate with schoolboys in general. Hence he amused himself (for some sunshine was left amid the storms) by writing satires, epigrams, and other light effusions, and, lastly, by an epic poem called Gustavus Vasa, the four first books of which were published by subscription in 1813, when he was seventeen years old. While at Trinity College he attached himselfto Mr. Simeon's section of the Church of England; but this was only for a time, and was succeeded by a kind of scepticism, which accompanied him through the remainder of his life. The account which his biographer gives of his state of mind, his views, hopes, and his desires, after he had honourably obtained his fellowship, and of their incompatibility with the desirable situation afforded by that (to him) safe refuge and harbour from all the disquiets of life, is full of painful interest; indeed, he seemed under the influence of an evil fate, and from the time this most desirable fellowship was obtained, he had no distinct object or occupation in life, he chose no profession, he engaged in no regular course of study, and he was only engaged in petty and trivial employments. "He will live all his life (said one who knew him well) a bookseller's drudge, and at last be run over and killed by a hackney coach, while passing from one shop to another." After a few years, to the astonishment of his friends, he was found to be hopelessly and deeply in debt; and what makes the matter more extraordinary, this is supposed to be incurred, to a considerable extent, for female swindlers, who obtained an extraordinary influence over him. In 1814 he stood unsuccessfully for the Greek Professorship. In 1829, from some scruples concerning the doctrine of eternal punishment, which his friends could not remove, he resigned his fellowship, as it could not, according to the rules of the college, be held for any longer time by a layman. With this resignation, as is remarked, "he unhesitatingly resigned hope of future independence, and almost all provision even for present subsistence." In 1830 his pecuniary embarrassments were fearfully great and pressing; he owed £300 to Cambridge tradesmen, without any means of paying them; and he informs his friend Mr. Praed that he has experienced a slight disorder of the faculties. By this generous and kind friend he was instantly relieved, his debts were paid, 521. a year was secured to him for life, to which Trinity College added 207. more. On this income he subsisted till his death. During the last sixteen years of his life he occupied garrets, or some such miserable rooms, in some court in the neighbourhood of St. James's, with occasional visits to his friends. We must, however, draw to a close this singularly painful history, yet not without once more quoting a passage from the Life, without which we should leave an imperfect impression on the reader of the whole of Sidney Walker's character. "He now began to be sensitively conscious of the singularity of his appearance, and, imagining that all eyes were fixed upon him whenever he went abroad, he would confine himself to his solitary room for weeks together. His sense of hearing became so morbidly acute that even in the country, and much more in London, he was fain to stop his ears with cotton, and, finding that insufficient, even with kneaded crumbs of bread. On a particular occasion he called upon a medical friend at ten in the morning with a complaint that his head had been crushed flat with the wheel of a waggon. Yet amidst these hallucinations his intellect still retained all its original vigour and acuteness, and he was pursuing studies and producing works from which he anticipated, and his friends may be allowed to anticipate on his behalf, the eventual reputation of a Herman or a Porson in English literature." In 1846 he was found suffering under an attack of the stone, which became incurable, and he died at his lodgings in St. James's Place, in the autumn of that year, his last days being solaced by the kindness and sympathy of Mr. Derwent Coleridge, his friend of five-and-twenty years, whose interesting record of those few last days of life close the narrative. All we now have room for is a specimen or two from the poetry of the volume, which fully supports the character given by the Editor of the talents of his friend, whatever may be its effect upon the general mind of the public.* STANZAS. This poem was written simultaneously Of other days, I wander free, *We must add that voluminous notes on Shakspere by Sidney Walker, are in the hands of Mr. W. N. Lettsom, and a large mass of miscellaneous criticism is waiting for an editor. Its starry dome, mysterious, vast, Satiates my soul's capacious eye. I hear the deep, the sea-like roar Of human ages billowing on, No living voice, no breeze, no oar, One awful sound is heard alone. I feel the secret, wondrous tie Of fellowship with ages fled; Warm as with man, but pure and high, As with the sacred, changeless dead. Whate'er they felt, whate'er they wrought Appear, sublim'd from earthly stains; What transient was is lost to thought, What cannot die alone remains. What are our woes? the pain, the fear That gloom the world, of time and change? No low-born thought can enter here, No hope that has a bounded range. Thou good unseen! thou endless end! Last goal of hope, last bourn of love! To thee these sleepless yearnings tend, These views beyond, these flights above. Past time, past space, the spirit flings Its giant arms in search of thee; It will not rest in bounded things, Its freedom is infinity. HOW CAN I SING? How can I sing? all power, all good, Sit cowering o'er the embers drear, A light to guide-a warmth to cheer. Oh! when shall care and strife be o'er, And torn affection cease to smart? And peace and love return once more To cheer a sad and restless heart? The lamp of hope is quench'd in night, And dull is friendship's soul-bright eye, And quenched the hearth of home delight, And mute the voice of phantasy. I seek for comfort all in vain, And breathe on pleasure's wither'd leaf. Will not depart at my command. Then ask me not, sweet friend, to wake The harp so dear to thee of yore; Wait till the clouds of sorrow break, And I can hope and love once more. When pain has done its part assign'd, And its first notes be pour'd for thee. We thought of giving a specimen from the few Latin poems, which are classical and elegant; though in the Alcaic Ode which closes the volume-"Qualem in profundi gurgitibus Maris"-a severe critic might find some laws of metre not strictly complied with. Yet perhaps our readers generally will be more pleased with the beginning of the thirteenth Iliad, translated in Walter Scott's ballad and romance style of execution. I. From Ida's peak high Jove beheld The fortune of the fight; He marked where by the ocean flood Achaia's stalwart might. He saw, and turned his sun-bright eyes Where Thrace's snow-capped mountains rise Above her pastures fair; Where Mysians, fear'd in battle fray, With far-famed Hippemolgians stray,— A race remote from care. Unstain'd by fraud, unstain'd by blood, The milk of mares their simple food,Thither his sight the god inclines, Nor turns to view the shifting lines Commix'd in fight afar; He deem'd not, he, that heavenly right II. Not so the monarch of the deep; III. Down the steep mountain slope he sped, IV. He enters; to the car he reins manes A stream of glory cast; And, swifter than the blast, Nor round the axle press; And their great lord confess. Such are some of the few relics, now collected by the hand of friendship, of a most accomplished mind, which, under milder fate, might have given to the world the richest fruits of its knowledge, learning, and genius. Yet even this little volume is sufficient to give measure of better and greater things, that might have been, and, alas! which are not. To the Editor, who has so faithfully gathered up the scattered relics of his departed friend, and presented us with a memoir showing at once the judgment of a scholar and the feelings of a friend, our thanks are justly due. The Monthly Volume, No. 56. Good Health. 18mo. pp. 192.-The contents of this volume exceed its pretensions. The entire title will best indicate them. "Good Health: the possibility, duty, and means, of obtaining and keeping it." Pythagoras, or whoever was the author of the "Golden Verses" which go by his name, inculcates the same lesson: Corporis interea nunquam contemne salutem. (Grotius' translation, 1. 32.) And Heeren admits it as a fact, that he prescribed "a certain manner of life, which was distinguished by a most cleanly but not luxurious clothing, a regular diet," &c. (Political History of Greece, p. 245.) We have no doubt that this attention to health was one of the causes of the eminence to which his followers attained. And if we now meet sometimes with exceptions, they ought to be regarded as such, and not as models, which is one of the worst delusions in bodily ethics. The author of this little volume, who evidently understands the subject well, says, "These pages are intended to furnish individuals with practical suggestions." (p. 58.) The medicina mentis has not been omitted, but treated as an important part of the subject. When so much information on a topic which is necessary to all is comprised in so small a space, neglect becomes doubly blameable. This volume is neither intended to supersede the physician, nor to make persons alarmists, but to promote such a care of one's health as it is in the power of every body to observe. It would be an appropriate present for persons emigrating, or entering on any course of life in which the preservation of health becomes peculiarly necessary. Walks after Wild Flowers; or, the Botany of the Bohereens. By Richard Dowden (Richard). 12mo.-The paren thesis after the author's name implies, as we presume, the signature under which portions of this volume have already appeared in The Cork Magazine and in The Advocate, a Dublin journal. The Bohereens are the green lanes in the neighbour hood of "the beautiful city of Cork,""roadlets 99 as the word may be translated, which give shelter to plants, and kindly invite the botanical visitor who seeks their intimacy. The little handbook they have suggested is filled with much pleasant gossip about the beauties and virtues of wild plants, forming a tissue of strange (and often apocryphal) etymologies, quaint moralisms, poetical quotations, and all sorts of heterogeneous allusions, amusing withal, but compounded, perhaps, with too much recondite learning for "promiscuous" readers. We give by way of specimen what the author terms his "spicy" derivation of Mustard:"Mustum ardens is 'burning hot vinegar.' There was always in the world's surgical practice some method of counter-irritation; St. John Long's proceedings were not an original idolatry, but an aggravated revival of ancient practices, for we find that there was an old cure made with boiling vinegar, or wine-for both were called must and adding to these the powder of sinapis made the mustum ardens. It was applied as a cataplasm when boiling hot, and it was often a cure, no doubt; but at times its only effect was to poor wretches.' This eschariotic was, in a milder form, diverted from the outside to the inside of the body, and was taken by flapdragon-drinkers, and other fireeaters, as a dram; of course the vinegar decreased and the wine and ardent spirits increased, in this mustum ardens. At length, however, it settled down into our table mustard, and was eaten, as Tusser tells us, with everything: "Brawn, pudding, and souse, scaud And good mustard with all." To this day some housekeepers make their mustard with vinegar; and the common dressing for cold and watery salads-the salso-acid of old cookery-is mustard, salt, and vinegar." 12mo. Crusius' Homeric Lexicon. This is a republication of an American translation of the original German work. As an account of the Homeric vocabulary, it does not add much to what English scholars and schoolboys were already possessed of in the Dictionary of Passow, as edited and enlarged by Messrs. Liddell and Scott. In some respects it is, however, more complete, especially in the explanations of mythological and geogra phical names. Students of the present day have a great advantage in having at hand such assistances to the comprehension of ancient authors in the shape of dictionaries of antiquities, critical manuals, and lexicons, as enable an ordinary scholar of moderate power of imagination to reanimate for himself the heroic time in a way of which even men of genius of a previous generation had no idea. We have here, in a form scarcely larger than that. of the pocket dictionaries so essential to the students of modern languages, a lexicon which purports to give a complete critical account of every word used in the Iliad, Odyssey, and Homeric Hymns. As far as a cursory observation will enable us to determine, the lexicographer seems to have fulfilled his purpose of combining in a small compass, by the aid of a neat print and a concise style, everything necessary for understanding the language of his author. Thorpe-a quiet English town, and English life therein. By William Mountford. No ordinary book,-but one of considerable power of thought couched in very expressive language. The characters are not uniformly well drawn, and the narrative, slight as it is, wants the charm of perfect simplicity in the telling, but it is on the whole Mr. Mountford's best written and most suggestive book and this is saying much. Sickness-its Trials and Blessings. Rivington, 3rd edition.-Among what are called " practical "" books how few are there so pathetically practical as this! It is true that not merely the healthy but even they who have had experience of much bodily weakness and infirmity, will not infallibly appreciate or understand it, for it requires the discipline of a long loneliness, the quietude of a spirit which has passed through many forms of suffering, to take in its varied counsels, and feel its sympathetic power, and adopt its humbling yet comforting views. It is, in short, the touching confession of a scholar who has only learned slowly-as all must learn whose knowledge is worth the having-lessons of love and gratitude due SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES. Nov. 25. In consequence of the funeral of the Duke of Wellington being solemnized on the 18th November, the day fixed for the commencement of the session of this Society, the first meeting did not take place until the 25th, when Lord Viscount Mahon, the President, occupied the chair. William Henry Cooke, esq. barristerat-law, of the Inner Temple, was elected a Fellow. The evening was devoted to the discussion of a proposal to reverse the decision of the 27th May last, whereby the annual subscription to the Society was reduced to two guineas and the entrance fee to five, and to return to the former payment of four guineas annually with an admission fee of eight. The motion to this effect was proposed by Mr. Deputy Lott, and se. conded by Mr. Gould; whereupon an amendment was moved by Mr. Drake, and seconded by Mr. Tite, declaring that, in the opinion of this meeting, the reversal of alterations which had been recently agreed to, before their effect had been practically tested, was inexpedient, and would tend to lessen that influence which the Society, as the only chartered "body of Antiquaries in the kingdom, has the power of exerting, and which it ought to exercise, in the prosecution of the study of Antiquities." The discussion which followed, and the result of the ballot (whereby the amendment was carried by a majority of 51 to 39) have already been noticed in our December number, p. 607. Dec. 2. Sir R. H. Inglis, Bart. V.P. J. H. Parker, esq. F.S.A. exhibited a brass coffer, supposed to be of the 15th century, which had been found by the Rev. F. Bagot, on the mantel-piece of a farm-house in Somersetshire. It is engraved with inscriptions, but they are apparently merely a portion of the ornament, and without meaning. Mr. Cole exhibited a steel box of the cinque-cento period, said to have belonged to Francis I. A portrait of Napoleon in enamel has been inserted in the lid. Sir Thomas Phillipps, Bart. exhibited a fine manuscript, in vellum, of the sixth century, containing the Minor Councils of France. Mr. Ouvry exhibited a miniature, attributed to Cooper, and said to represent the Duke of Richmond, natural son of Charles II. J. Payne Collier, esq. V. P. made a communication relative to the family of Lucy, of Charlecote, near Stratford-upon-Avon. It referred to three points.-1. That Sir Thomas Lucy had deer in his park at Charlecote (denied by Malone) which Shakspeare might have been concerned in stealing. This fact was proved by an original letter from the steward of the estate. 2. That the Shakspeares of Rowington, near Stratford-upon-Avon, were very unruly, and had had violent disputes with the vicar and parishioners, for which they were prosecuted on two occasions. 3. That shortly before 1600 William Shakspeare sold a small part of his patrimonial property in Henley street,-a fact not hitherto known, and of importance in re |