The Canadian Elocutionist

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Art thou sensible that this senate, now thoroughly informed, comprehend the
full extent of thy guilt? Point me out the senator ignorant of thy
practices, during the last and the proceeding night: of the place where you
met, the company you summoned, and the crime you concerted. The senate is
conscious, the consul is witness to this: yet mean and degenerate--the
traitor lives! Lives! did I say? He mixes with the senate; he shares in our
counsels; with a steady eye he surveys us; he anticipates his guilt; he
enjoys his murderous thoughts, and coolly marks us out for bloodshed. Yet
we, boldly passive in our country's cause, think we act like Romans if we
can escape his frantic rage.

Long since, O Catiline! ought the consul to have doomed thy life a forfeit
to thy country; and to have directed upon thy own head the mischief thou
hast long been meditating for ours. Could the noble Scipio, when sovereign
pontiff, as a private Roman kill Tiberius Gracchus for a slight
encroachment upon the rights of this country; and shall we, her consuls,
with persevering patience endure Catiline, whose ambition is to desolate a
devoted world with fire and sword?

There was--there was a time, when such was the spirit of Rome, that the
resentment of her magnanimous sons more sternly crushed the Roman traitor,
than the most inveterate enemy. Strong and weighty, O Catiline! is the
decree of the senate we can now produce against you; neither wisdom is
wanting in this state, nor authority in this assembly; but we, the consuls,
we are defective in our duty.

_Cicero._

* * * * *

THE INEXPERIENCED SPEAKER.

The awkward, untried speaker rises now,
And to the audience makes a jerking bow.
He staggers--almost falls--stares--strokes his chin--
Clears out his throat, and.. ventures to begin.
"Sir, I am.. sensible"--(some titter near him)--
"I am, sir, sensible"--"Hear! hear!" (they cheer him).
Now bolder grown--for praise mistaking pother--
He pumps first one arm up, and then the other.
"I am, sir, sensible--I am indeed--
That,.. though--I should--want--words--I must proceed
And.. for the first time in my life, I think--
I think--that--no great--orator--should--shrink--
And therefore,--Mr. Speaker,--I, for one--
Will.. speak out freely.--Sir, I've not yet done.
Sir, in the name of those enlightened men
Who sent me here to.. speak for them--why, then..
To do my duty--as I said before--
To my constituency--I'll ... say no more."

* * * * *

SKETCHES OF AUTHORS.

ADDISON, JOSEPH, born May 1st, 1672, at Milston, Wiltshire, son of the Rev.
Lancelot Addison, was educated at the Charterhouse and at Magdalen College,
Oxford. He was destined for the church, but turned his attention to
political life, and became eventually a member of parliament, and in 1717,
one of the principal Secretaries of State. He first rose into public
notice, through his poem on the battle of Blenheim, written in 1704, and
entitled, _The Campaign_. He was chief contributor to _The
Spectator_. His tragedy of _Cato_, produced in 1713, achieved a
great popularity, which, however, has not been permanent. He died on June
17th, 1719. As an observer of life, of manners, of all shades of human
character, he stands in the first class.

ALDRICH, THOMAS BAILEY, an American poet, born at Portsmouth, New
Hampshire, 1836. He has been an industrious worker on the newspaper press,
and is the author of Baby Bell, a beautiful poem of child-death. He has
published his collected poems under the title of _Cloth of Gold_, and
of _Flower and Thorn_. He is also a prose writer of considerable note,
having an exquisite humour. His published novels are _Prudence
Palfrey_, _The Queen of Sheba_, _The Still-water Tragedy_,
etc.

AYTOUN, WILLIAM EDMONDSTOUNE, an eminent critic and poet, born in
Fifeshire, Scotland, in 1813. He studied law, and was appointed Professor
of Rhetoric in Edinburgh University in 1845, and was closely connected with
_Blackwood's Magazine_ for many years. He was a poet of the highest
order, and his _Execution of Montrose_, and the _Burial March of
Dundee_, are two noble historical ballads. He was author of the
celebrated _Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers_, _Bon Gaultier
Ballads_, _Firmilian_, _a Spasmodic Tragedy_, _Bothwell_,
_Poland, and other Poems_, _The Life and Times of Richard Coeur de
Lion_, etc. Died August 4th, 1865.

BEECHER, HENRY WARD, a celebrated author and divine, born at Litchfield,
Connecticut, on the 24th of January, 1813. He studied at Amherst College,
where he graduated in 1834. In 1847, he became pastor of Plymouth Church
(Congregational), Brooklyn. He is one of the most popular writers, and most
successful lecturers of the day in the United States. He has published,
_Lectures to Young Men, Life Thoughts_, a novel entitled
_Norwood_, etc.

BRONTE, CHARLOTTE (Currer Bell). A popular English novelist, born at
Thornton, Yorkshire, April 21st, 1816, was a daughter of the Rev. Patrick
Bronte. In 1846, in conjunction with her sisters--Anne and Emily--
published a small volume of poems. It was as a writer of fiction, however,
that Charlotte achieved her great success, and in 1848, her novel of
_Jane Eyre_, obtained great popularity, and brought the talented
author well merited fame. She afterwards published _Shirley_ and
_Villette_, both very successful works. In June, 1854, she married the
Rev. Arthur B. Nicholls, but after a brief taste of domestic happiness, she
died at Haworth, March 31st, 1855. _The Professor_, her first
production (written in 1846), was published in 1856, after her death.

BROWNING, ELIZABETH BARRETT, one of the most gifted female poets that have
ever lived, the daughter of Mr. Barrett, an opulent London merchant, born
near Ledbury, Herefordshire, about 1807. She began to write verse when only
ten years of age, and gave early proofs of great poetical genius. At the
age of seventeen, she published _An Essay on Mind, with other Poems_,
and her reputation was widely extended by _The Seraphim and other
Poems_, published in 1838. In 1846, she was married to Robert Browning,
the poet, and they lived for many years in Italy. In 1851, she published
_Casa Guidi Windows_, the impressions of the writer upon events in
Tuscany, and in 1856, appeared _Aurora Leigh_, a poem, or novel in
verse, which is greatly admired. "The poetical reputation of Mrs.
Browning," says the _North British Review_ (February, 1857), "has been
growing slowly, until it has reached a height which has never before been
attained by any modern poetess." She died at Florence, June 29th, 1861.

BROWNING, ROBERT, a distinguished English poet, born at Camberwell, London,
in 1812. He was educated at the University of London, and in 1836 published
his first poem, _Paracelsus_, which attracted much attention by its
originality. He has been a voluminous writer, and of all his works,
_Pippa Passes_, and _The Blot in the Scutcheon_, are perhaps the
best. The _Ring and the Book_ appeared in 1868. He is considered by
some critics as one of the greatest English poets of his time, but is not
very popular.

BRYANT, WILLIAM CULLEN, an American poet, born at Cummington,
Massachusetts, November 3rd, 1794. At the age of ten years he made very
creditable translations from the Latin poets, which were printed, and at
thirteen he wrote _The Embargo_, a political satire which was never
surpassed by any poet of that age. He wrote _Thanatopsis_ when but
little more than eighteen, and it is by many considered as his finest poem.
In 1826 he became one of the editors of the _Evening Post_, which he
continued to edit until his death. He published a complete collection of
his poems in 1832, and in 1864. Among his prose works are, _Letters of a
Traveller_, and in 1869 he published a translation of Homer's
_Iliad_, which is an excellent work. Washington Irving says of Bryant:
"That his close observation of the phenomena of nature, and the graphic
felicity of his details, prevent his descriptions from becoming
commonplace." He died June 12th, 1878.

BURNS, ROBERT, the national poet of Scotland, was the son of a small
farmer, and was born near the town of Ayr, on January, 25th, 1759. His
early life was spent in farming, but he was about emigrating to the West
Indies, when the publication of a volume of his poems, in 1786, which were
very favourably received, determined him on remaining in his native land,
and he proceeded to Edinburgh, where he made the acquaintance of the
distinguished men of letters of that famous city. His reception was
triumphant, and a new edition of his poems was issued, by which he realised
more than L500. In 1788 he was married to Miss Jean Armour (Bonnie Jean),
and soon after obtained a place in the excise, and in 1791 he removed to
Dumfries, where he spent the remainder of his life. He died on July 21st,
1796. Nature had made Burns the greatest among lyric poets; the most
striking characteristics of his poetry are simplicity and intensity, in
which qualities he is scarcely, if at all, inferior to any of the greatest
poets that have ever lived. "No poet except Shakespeare," says Sir Walter
Scott, "ever possessed the power of exciting the most varied and discordant
emotions with such rapid transitions."

BYROM, DR. JOHN, an English poet, born at Kersal, near Manchester, in 1691.
He contributed several pieces to the _Spectator_, of which the
beautiful pastoral of _Colin and Phoebe_, in No. 603, is the most
noted. He invented a system of shorthand, which is still known by his name.
Died at Manchester in 1763.

BYRON, GEORGE GORDON NOEL (Lord), an English poet and dramatist of rare
genius, was born in London, January 22nd, 1788. He was educated partly at
Harrow, and in 1805 proceeded to Trinity College, Cambridge. While at
College he published, in 1807, his _Hours of Idleness_, a volume of
juvenile poems, which was severely criticised in the _Edinburgh
Review_. Two years later he published his reply, _English Bards_
and _Scotch Reviewers_, a satire which obtained immediate celebrity.
In 1812 he gave the world the fruits of his travels on the continent, in
the first two Cantos of _Childe Harold's Pilgrimage_. The success of
this was so extraordinary that, as he tells us, "he awoke one morning and
found himself famous." He then took his seat in the House of Lords, but
soon lost his interest in politics. In 1813 he published _The Giaour_,
and _The Bride of Abydos_, and in 1814, _The Corsair_. In
January, 1815, he married Anne Isabella Milbank, only daughter of Sir Ralph
Milbank, but the marriage was an unhappy one, and she returned to her
father's in the January of 1816. In April, 1816, Byron left his country
with the avowed intention of never seeing it again, and during his absence
he published, in rapid succession, the remaining cantos of _Childe
Harold_, _Mazeppa_, _Manfred_, _Cain_,
_Sardanapalus_, _Marino Faliero_, _The Two Foscari_,
_Werner_, and _Don Juan_, besides many other smaller poems.
During his residence on the Continent, his sympathies for Grecian liberty
became strongly excited, and he resolved to devote all his energies to the
cause, and left Italy in the summer of 1823. He arrived in Missolonghi on
January 10th, 1824. On February 15th he was seized with a convulsive fit,
which rendered him senseless for some time. On April 9th he got wet, took
cold and a fever, on the 11th he grew worse, and on the 19th he died,
inflammation of the brain having set in. Among the most remarkable
characteristics of Byron's poetry, two are deserving of particular notice.
The first is his power of expressing intense emotion, especially when it is
associated with the darker passions of the soul. "Never had any writer,"
says Macaulay, "so vast a command of the whole eloquence of scorn,
misanthropy and despair.... From maniac laughter to piercing lamentation,
there is not a single note of human anguish of which he was not master."

CAMPBELL, THOMAS, an eminent British poet, born at Glasgow in 1777. In 1799
he published _The Pleasures of Hope_, of which the success has perhaps
had no parallel in English literature. He visited the continent in 1800 and
witnessed the battle of Hohen-linden, which furnished the subject of one of
his most exquisite lyrics. _Gertrude of Wyoming_, published in 1809,
is one of his finest poems. He wrote several spirited odes, etc., and other
literary work, has placed his fame on an enduring basis. He died at
Boulogne, in 1844, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.

CARY, ALICE, an American author, born near Cincinnati, Ohio, about 1822.
She first attracted attention by her contributions to the _National
Era_, under the name of Patty Lee; she afterwards published several
volumes of poems and other works, including _Hagar_, _Hollywood_,
etc. Her sketches of Western Life, entitled _Clovernook_, have
obtained extensive popularity. She died, February 12th, 1871.

CARY, PHOEBE, a sister of Alice, has also contributed to periodical
literature and in 1854 published a volume entitled _Poems and
Parodies_. She died July 31st, 1871.

COLERIDGE, SAMUEL TAYLOR, an eminent English poet and critic, born at
Ottery St. Mary, Devonshire, October 21st, 1772. In 1796, he published a
small volume of poems and in 1797, in conjunction with Mr. Wordsworth, he
formed the plan of the Lyrical Ballads, for which he wrote the _Ancient
Mariner_. In 1800 he removed to Keswick, where he resided in company
with Wordsworth and Southey, the three friends receiving the appellation of
the Lake Poets. He wrote several excellent works, of which
_Christabel_ is the best. He led a somewhat wandering life and died on
July 25th, 1834. As a poet, he was one of the most imaginative of modern
times, and as a critic his merits were of the highest order.

COLLINS, WILLIAM, an eminent English lyric poet, born at Chichester, in
1720. He was a friend of Dr. Johnson, who speaks well of him. His best
known work is his excellent ode on, _The Passions_, which did not
receive the fame its merits deserve. Before his death, which occurred in
1756, he was for some time an inmate of a lunatic asylum.

COWPER, WILLIAM, a celebrated English poet, originally intended for a
lawyer, and appointed as Clerk of the Journals in the House of Lords at the
age of 31 years, but his constitutional timidity prevented him from
accepting it. He had to be placed in a lunatic asylum for some time. He was
born at Berkhampstead in 1731. In 1767 he took up his abode at Olney, in
Buckinghamshire, where he devoted himself to poetry, and in 1782 published
a volume of poems, which did not excite much attention, but a second
volume, published in 1785, stamped his reputation as a true poet. His
_Task, Sofa, John Gilpin_, are works of enduring excellence. In 1794
his intellect again gave way, from which he never recovered, and he died at
Dereham, in Norfolk, April 25th, 1800.

CROLY, REV. GEORGE, a popular poet, born in Dublin in 1780. He was for many
years rector of St. Stephen's, Wallbrook, London, and was eminent as a
pulpit orator. His principal works are: _The Angel of the World_; a
tragedy, entitled _Cataline_, _Salathiel,_ etc. He died November
24th, 1860.

DICKENS, CHARLES, one of the most successful of modern novelists, was born
at Landport, Portsmouth, February 7th, 1812. Intended for the law, he
became a most successful reporter for the newspapers, and was employed on
the _Morning Chronicle_, in which paper first appeared the famous
_Sketches by Boz_, his first work. The _Pickwick Papers_ which
followed, placed him at once in the foremost rank of popular writers of
fiction. His novels are so well known that any list of their titles is
superfluous. In 1850 he commenced the publication of _Household
Words_, which he carried on until 1859 when he established _All the
Year Round_, with which he was connected until his death, which occurred
very suddenly at his residence. Gad's Hill, Kent, on June 9th, 1870. He
left his latest work, _The Mystery of Edwid Drood_, unfinished, and it
remains a fragment. It was not merely as a humorist, though that was his
great distinguishing characteristic, that Dickens obtained such unexampled
popularity. Be was a public instructor, a reformer and moralist. Whatever
was good and amiable, bright and joyous in our nature, he loved, supported
and augmented by his writings; whatever was false, hypocritical and
vicious, he held up to ridicule, scorn and contempt.

DRYDEN, JOHN, a celebrated English poet, born at Aldwinckle,
Northamptonshire, August 9th, 1631. He was educated at Trinity College,
Cambridge, where he received his degree of M.A. He removed to London in
1657, and wrote many plays, and on the death of Sir William Davenport he
was made poet laureate. On the accession of James II. Dryden became a Roman
Catholic and endeavoured to defend his new faith at the expense of the old
one, in a poem entitled The Hind and the Panther. At the Revolution he lost
his post, and in 1697 his translation of _Virgil_ appeared, which, of
itself alone is sufficient to immortalize his name. His ode, _Alexander's
Feast_, is esteemed by some critics as the finest in the English
language. He died May 1st, 1700.

GOLDSMITH, OLIVER, one of the most distinguished ornaments of English
literature, born at Pallas, Ireland, in 1728. He studied at Trinity
College, Dublin and afterward at Edinburgh. He traveled over Europe, on
foot, and returned to England in 1756, and settled in London. It was not
until 1764 that he emerged from obscurity by the publication of his poem
entitled _The Traveller_. In the following year appeared his beautiful
novel of the _Vicar of Wakefield_. In 1770 he published _The
Deserted Village_, a poem, which in point of description and pathos, is
beyond all praise. As a dramatist he was very successful and he produced
many prose works. He died in London on the 4th of April, 1774.

GRAY, THOMAS, an English poet of great merit, born in London in 1716. He
was educated at Eton and Cambridge and in 1738 entered the Inner Temple,
but never engaged much in the study of the law. In 1742 he took up his
residence in Cambridge, where, in 1768, he became professor of modern
history. The odes of Gray are of uncommon merit, and his _Elegy in a
Country Churchyard_ has long been considered as one of the finest poems
in the English language. He died in July, 1771. He occupied a very high
rank in English literature, not only as a poet, but as an accomplished
prose writer.

HALLECK, FITZ-GREENE, an American poet, born at Guildford, Conn., July 8th,
1790. He became a clerk in the office of J. J. Astor, and employed his
leisure moments in the service of the Muses. In 1819, in conjunction with
his friend, Joseph R. Drake, he wrote the celebrated _Croaker Papers_,
a series of satirical poems which brought him into public notice. On his
martial poem, _Marco Bozzaris_, published in 1827, his fame
principally rests, although he has written other pieces of great merit. He
died November 19th, 1867.

HARTE, FRANCIS BRET, a native of Albany, N.Y., has written short stories
and sketches of Californian life, and several poems in dialect, of which
_The Heathen Chinee_, is the most celebrated. He possesses great wit
and pathos, and has been very successful in novel writing, and also in
writing for the stage.

HEMANS, FELICIA DOROTHEA, an excellent English poet, born at Liverpool,
September 25th, 1794, was the daughter of a merchant named Browne. Her
first volume of poems was published in 1808. In 1812 she married Capt.
Hemans, but the marriage was a very unhappy one and they separated in 1818.
She is the most touching and accomplished writer of occasional verse that
our literature has yet to boast of. "Religious truth, moral purity and
intellectual beauty, ever meet together in her poetry." She died in Dublin,
in 1835.

HOLMES, OLIVER WENDELL, M.D., a distinguished American poet, author and
wit, was born at Cambridge, Mass., August 29th, 1809. He studied law, but
soon left it for medicine, and took his degree of M.D. in 1836. In 1847, he
was appointed Professor of Anatomy and Physiology in Harvard University. He
early began writing poetry, publishing a collected edition of his poems in
1836. He is a genuine poet, and as a song writer, has few if any superiors
in America, excelling in the playful vein. He is best known by his series
of excellent papers, contributed to the _Atlantic Monthly_, under the
title of _The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table_, published in 1857-8;
_The Professor at the Breakfast Table_ and the _Poet at the
Breakfast Table_. He has also written some successful novels, one of
which, _The Guardian Angel_, is one of the best American novels yet
produced. He has also written able works on subjects connected with his
profession.

HOOD, THOMAS, a famous poet, humorist and popular author, born in London in
1798. He was the son of a bookseller, served an apprenticeship as an
engraver, but soon betook himself to literature. In 1821 he was sub-editor
of the _London Magazine_. His novels and tales were less successful than
his humorous works. Among his most popular poems are:--_The Song of the
Shirt, The Bridge of Sighs_ and the _Dream of Eugene Aram_. In the
latter years of his life--which was one of prolonged suffering--he was
editor of _The New Monthly Magazine_. As a punster he is unrivalled,
and some of his serious poems are exquisitely tender and pathetic. In all
his works a rich current of genial humour runs, and his pleasant wit, ripe
observation and sound sense have made him an ornament to English
literature. He died March 3rd, 1845.

HUNT, J. H. LEIGH, a popular English poet, born at Southgate, near London
October 19th, 1784. He early turned his attention to literature, and
obtained a clerkship in the War Office, which he resigned in 1808, to
occupy the joint editorship (along with his brother John) of the
_Examiner_. Their boldness in conducting this paper led to their being
imprisoned for two years and fined L500 each, for some strictures on the
Prince Regent which appeared in its columns. He was a copious writer and
his productions occupy a wide range. _Rimini_, written while in
prison, is one of his best poems. Prof. Wilson styles Hunt "as the most
vivid of poets and the most cordial of critics." He died August 28th, 1859.

INGELOW, JEAN, a native of Ipswich, Suffolk, born about 1826, is the author
of several volumes of poems, the first of which ran through 14 editions in
five years. She wrote _A Story of Doom_ and other poems, published in
1867, _Mopsa the Fairy_ in 1869, and several prose stories, etc.

IRVING, WASHINGTON, a distinguished American author and humorist, born in
New York City, April 3rd, 1783. He studied law and was admitted to the bar,
but soon abandoned the legal profession for literature. In 1809 he
published his Knickerbockers History of New York, a humorous work which was
very successful. His works, are very numerous, including the famous
_Sketch Book, The Alhambra, Conquest of Granada, Life of Columbus, Life
of Washington_, etc., etc. For easy elegance of style, Irving has no
superior, perhaps no equal, among the prose writers of America. If
Hawthorne excels him in variety, in earnestness and in force, he is,
perhaps, inferior to Irving in facility and grace, while he can make no
claim to that genial, lambent humour which beams in almost every page of
Geoffrey Cravon. He died November 28th, 1859.

LAMB, CHARLES, a distinguished essayist and humorist, born in London, Feby.
18th, 1775, and educated at Christ's Hospital. In 1792 he became a clerk in
the India House, a post he retained for 33 years. He was a genial and
captivating essayist and his fame mainly rests on his delightful _Essays
of Elia_, which were first printed in the _London Magazine_. His
complete works include two volumes of verse, the _Essays of Elia,
Specimens of the English Dramatic Poets_, etc., etc. For quaint, genial
and unconventional humour, Lamb has, perhaps, never been excelled. He died
December 27th, 1834.

LONGFELLOW, HENRY WADSWORTH, the most popular and artistic of all American
poets, was born in Portland, Maine, Feby. 27th, 1807. He graduated at
Bowdoin College in 1825, and one year afterwards was offered the
professorship of Modern Languages at that Institution, which he occupied
until 1835, when he accepted that of professor of Modern Languages at
Harvard, which he continued to hold until 1854, when he resigned the chair.
His poetical works are well known and are very numerous, the most noted of
his longer pieces being _Evangeline, The Golden Legend, Hiawatha,
Courtship of Miles Standish_, etc. All his poetical works are
distinguished by grace and beauty, warmed by a greater human sympathy than
is displayed in the writings of the majority of eminent poets. He relies
chiefly for his success on a simple and direct appeal to those sentiments
which are common to all mankind, to persons of every rank and of every
clime. He wrote only three prose works, _Outre-Mer, Hyperion and
Kavanagh_, and a few dramas, all of which deserve to rank with the best
American productions. _Evangeline_ is considered "to be the most
perfect specimen of the rhythm and melody of the English hexameter." He
died at Cambridge, Mass., March 24th 1882.

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