CONTEMPORANEOUS WRITERS.

1. POETS.

Rev. George Crabbe (1754-1832).-Called by Byron " Na ture's sternest painter, yet the best." Encouraged in his early efforts by Burke, by whose advice he became a clergyman. He was a graphic, matter-of-fact poet. Author of The Library, The Village, The Parish Register, etc.

Samuel Rogers (1763–1855).—A poet and banker. Always a warm and benevolent friend to struggling merit. Author of The Pleasures of Memory, Columbus, Italy, etc.

James Hogg (1770-1835).—Known as "the Ettrick Shepherd." A Scotch poet of romantic and legendary character. Author of Queen's Wake, The Pilgrims of the Sun, and some novels.

James Montgomery (1771-1854). — A journalist and poet. Born in Ayrshire, Scotland. Author of Greenland, The Pelican Island, The World before the Flood, and many other poems. Was for many years editor of the Sheffield Iris.

Thomas Campbell (1777-1844).-Distinguished both as a poet and as a prose-writer. Editor of the New Monthly Magazine for ten years. Author of Pleasures of Hope, Gertrude of Wyoming, Hohenlinden, Lord Ullin's Daughter, Ye Mariners of England, Lochiel's Warning, etc.

Felicia Hemans (1793-1835).—Felicia Browne was the daughter of a merchant. Married Captain Hemans. Began her literary career at fifteen. Author of The Forest Sanctuary and many shorter poems, as The Graves of a Household, Casabianca, The Voice of Spring, Landing of the Pilgrims, etc. Author of a tragedy also, The Vespers of Palermo.

Reginald Heber (1783–1826).—Known also as Bishop Heber. Educated at Oxford. Was bishop of Calcutta. Author of From Greenland's Icy Mountains and many other beautiful hymns.

Henry Kirke White (1785-1806).—The son of a butcher. His chief poem is called Clifton. Died from over-work at the age of twenty-one.

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822).-A brilliant lyric poet. Was a baronet's son. Wrote two novels while yet a schoolboy.

Was expelled from Oxford for atheism. Author of Queen Mab, Alastor, Prometheus Unbound, The Cenci, The Skylark, The Cloud, The Sensitive Plant, etc. Was drowned in the Bay of Spezzia, Italy.

John Keats (1795-1821).—A highly imaginative poet. Died at the age of twenty-four. His chief poems are Endymion, Hyperion, The Eve of St. Agnes, Ode on a Grecian Urn, Ode to a Nightingale.

Bryan Waller Procter (1790-1874).-Known also as "Barry Cornwall." Educated at Harrow. A schoolfellow of Byron. Became a barrister-at-law. Was both a lyric and a dramatic poet. Author of A Sicilian Story, The Flood of Thessaly, Mirandola, etc.

Robert Pollok (1799-1827).—Was a theological student. Author of The Course of Time, once a very popular sacred epic.

Thomas Hood (1798–1845).—The son of a London bookseller. A great wit and humorist. His best poems are Eugene Aram's Dream, The Song of a Shirt, The Bridge of Sighs, Plea of the Midsummer Fairies.

2. DRAMATISTS.

Joanna Baillie (1762–1851)—A writer of many dramas, also of Scottish songs. The only one of her many plays which was put on the stage is De Montfort.

Wrote

James Sheridan Knowles (1784-1862).—A distinguished dramatist. The son of an English teacher of elocution. plays when but twelve years old. Was also an actor. Became a teacher of elocution and grammar. His chief dramas are Virginius, William Tell, The Hunchback, The Wife, The Beggar of Bethnal Green, etc.

1. Historians:

3. PROSE-WRITERS.

John Lingard (1771-1851).—Author of History of England. Was a Roman Catholic priest. Author also of The Antiquities of the Anglo-Saxon Church.

Henry Hallam (1778-1859).-Educated at Eton and Oxford. One of the most correct of historians. Author of View of Europe during the Middle Ages, The Constitutional History of England, and An Introduction to the Literature of Europe.

2. Novelists:

Frances Burney, COUNTESS D'ARBLAY (1752–1340).—Daughter of Dr. Burney. Her best novel is Evalina. Wrote also Cecilia. Married Count d'Arblay, a French refugee.

Maria Edgeworth (1767-1849).-Was taught chiefly by her father, who was the author of several works on education and engineering. Her chief works are Castle Rackrent, Belinda, Popular Tales, Tales of a Fashionable Life, and The Parent's Assistant.

John Galt (1779-1839).-A Scotch novelist. Was a student of law, a writer for the stage, a merchant, and, lastly, a novelist. Wrote Ayrshire Legatees, The Annals of a Parish, The Last of the Lairds, etc.

Jane Austen (1775-1817).-A clergyman's daughter. Wrote Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Sense and Sensibility, etc.

Frances Trollope (1778-1863).—The daughter of an English clergyman. Began her career as a writer in 1832 with a satire entitled The Domestic Manners of the Americans. Wrote The Vicar of Wrexhall, The Widow Barnaby, The Ward of Thorpe Combe, etc.

Mary Russell Mitford (1786-1855).—Daughter of Dr. Mitford, whom she supported in later life by the earnings of her pen. Author of Our Village, Belford Regis, Stories of American Life, etc.

Frederick Marryat (1792-1848).-A captain in the Royal Navy. His best novels are pictures of English sailor-life. Author of Peter Simple, Jacob Faithful, Midshipman Easy, Newton Forster, etc.

Wrote

Mrs. Amelia Opie (1769-1853).-Wife of the painter Opie. Author of a number of novels of a domestic character. Father and Daughter, Tales of the Heart, Temper, etc.

3. Esayists and Critics:

William Cobbett (1762-1835).—At first a field-laborer, then a soldier. Became a member of Parliament. His chief works are Rural Rides, Cottage Economy, and some works on America.

William Hazlitt (1778–1830).—Originally a painter, but chose literature as his profession. Was a critic of great brilliancy and refinement. Wrote Life of Napoleon, Characters of Shakespeare's Plays, Table Talk, Lectures on the English Poets.

Sir James Mackintosh (1765–1832).—An historian, a critic, and a statesman. A brilliant writer of essays on political and historical subjects. Much of his writing was done for cyclopædias.

Sydney Smith (1771-1845).—A brilliant wit. Was a tutor in Edinburgh, then a London preacher, then a rector in Yorkshire, and lastly a canon of St. Paul's. The first editor and one of the founders of the Edinburgh Review, of which he wrote the chief literary criticisms. Became afterward a Scottish judge, and remained on the bench almost to the time of his death.

Robert Southey (1774-1843).-A laborious and industrious writer of both prose and poetry. Was known as one of the Lake School of poets. Became poet-laureate in 1813. His best prose works are Life of Nelson, A History of Brazil, Life of Couper, Life of Chatterton, Life of Wesley, Life of H. Kirke White. His best poem is The Curse of Kehama.

Prof. John Wilson (1785-1854).—Educated at Oxford. Became Professor of Moral Philosophy at Edinburgh. Was both a poet and an essayist. Known as "Christopher North" in Blackwood's Magazine. Author of Noctes Ambrosianæ and Lights and Shadows of Scottish Life.

Thomas de Quincey (1785-1859).-Educated at Eton and Oxford. A very eloquent writer. Author of The Confessions of an Opium-Eater, Suspira de Profundis, and many valuable essays.

Charles Lamb (1775–1834).—A schoolfellow of Coleridge. Wrote a number of graceful essays for the London Magazine entitled Essays by Elia, on which his chief fame rests.

J. G. Lockhart (1794-1854).—Son-in-law of Sir Walter Scott. For a time editor of the London Quarterly Review. Wrote Life of Scott.

Walter Savage Landor (1775–1864).—A writer of both prose and poetry. Author of Imaginary Conversations and a number of poems.

Leigh Hunt (1784–1859).—Wrote both prose and poetry. His style was both picturesque and graceful. His chief poems are The Story of Rimini, The Palfrey, and A Legend of Florence. His prose consists of essays, sketches, and memoirs.

Isaac Disraeli (1766-1848).—Author of The Curiosities of Literature, The Amenities of Literature, Calamities and Quarrels of Authors, and other works of a similar character.

Horne Tooke (1736–1812).—Son of a London poulterer. Was tried for high treason in 1794. Author of Epea Pteroenta; or, The Diversions of Purley.

Lord Brougham (1779-1868).-A great scholar, statesman, orator, and writer. Author of Observations on Light, Statesmen of the Reign of George III., England under the House of Lancaster, etc.

4. Scientific Writers :

Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832).-A prominent writer on political science. The son of a London solicitor. Spent most of his life in writing on law and politics.

Dugald Stewart (1753-1828).-Born in Edinburgh. Became Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of Edinburgh. Author of The Philosophy of the Human Mind, A View of the Active and Moral Powers of Man, and Outlines of Moral Philosophy.

Sir Humphry Davy (1778–1829).—Was a distinguished chemist. Inventor of the safety-lamp. Wrote many articles for the Royal Society. Author also of Salmonia; or, Days of Fly-Fishing, Consolations in Travel, etc.

Sir John Herschel (1792-1871).-An eminent scientific man. Educated at Cambridge. Author of A Treatise on Sound, Discourse on Natural Philosophy, Outlines of Astronomy.

5. Theologians:

Adam Clarke (1760-1832.)-A renowned Oriental scholar and biblical critic and commentator. His chief works are A Commentary on the Bible and a Bibliographical Dictionary.

Robert Hall (1761-1831).-A distinguished Baptist preacher. His chief literary works are An Apology for the Freedom of the Press and a Sermon on Modern Infidelity.

Dr. Thomas Chalmers (1780-1847).-The ablest and most distinguished Scottish divine of his period. Became Professor of Moral Philosophy in the United College, and then Professor of Divinity in the University of Edinburgh. Author of Natural Theology, Evidences of Christianity, Moral Philosophy, Astronomical Discourses, etc.