comprehended clearly its causes and aims as almost identical with those of America. Had Burke so understood it, he would beyond a doubt have arrayed himself on the side of the people.

Burke and America. - Burke's conduct regarding America must ever be the brightest chapter in his life. The fact that the main basis of his appeal for the colonies was not legal right, but expediency, does not in the least dim its lustre. In the speech On Conciliation he eloquently set forth why the American colonists were jealous of their rights as Englishmen; why, in the light of similar cases, they naturally expected conciliation; and why, in the very nature of the case, they must triumph. In addition to his speeches on America, Burke dealt with the subject in one notable document, Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol (1777), the constituency which he was representing in Parliament. Here, without the heat of debate, and with a careful marshalling of facts and reasoning, he reaches the conclusion as to the war with America, that "its continuance, or its ending in any way but that of an honourable and liberal accommodation," are the greatest evils which can befall us."

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A Great Intellect. Just as it was Burke's intellect that impressed those who knew him in the flesh, so it is with those who know him only in the printed page. Perhaps the highest compliment ever paid him is one often quoted from the pen of John Morley. Speaking of the three pieces on the American Revolution (speeches On Taxation and On Conciliation, and Letter to the Sheriffs) Morley says: "It is no exaggeration to say that they compose the most perfect manual in our literature, or in any literature, for one who approaches the study of public questions, whether for knowledge or for practice."

has been noted, that of James Thomson. Toward the end of his London period Collins took lodgings in Richmond, and became intimate with Thomson, upon whose death he wrote the fine ode, beginning

In 1749 the poet inherited a comfortable fortune from an uncle, and in the same year returned to his native town to live. Not long afterwards he became the victim of melancholia, which developed into insanity, necessitating his confinement for a time and bringing about his death in Chichester in his thirty-eighth year.

In Spirit a Romanticist.

The volume of Collins's poetry is small, less than 2000 lines; and even this small product is not uniformly excellent. Five poems belong almost in the first rank: How Sleep the Brave, Ode to Evening, The Passions, On the Death of Thomson, and An Ode on the Popular Superstitions of the Highlands of Scotland. The mere titles indicate his lack of sympathy with the poetic standards of his day. His importance in the Romantic movement arises from his interest in natural scenes and in subjects remote in place or time, and from the subjective character of his whole product.

THOMAS GRAY, 1716-1771

Gray's life was almost as uneventful as was Collins's. He was a lonely scholar; and from 1734 till his death, with the exception of two years spent on the Continent and two years in London while studying manuscripts in the British Museum, he lived a recluse in Cambridge.

Basis of Gray's Popular Fame. - Although he was born in London and spent most of his life in the university town,