But when earth's common Light shines to our eyes
Thou so retir'st thyself, that thy disdain

All revelation unto man denies.

But there is another sonnet by Blanco White-he only wrote two-written some years before his Night and Death, the last three lines of which clearly foreshadow the subsequent composition, and which, as it has not been printed in any previous selection of sonnets, is here given :

ON HEARING MYSELF FOR THE FIRST TIME
CALLED AN OLD MAN. Æt. 50.

Ages have rolled within my breast, though yet
Not nigh the bourn to fleeting man assigned:
Yes: old-alas! how spent the struggling mind
Which at the noon of life is fain to set!

My dawn and evening have so closely met
That men the shades of night begin to find
Darkening my brow; and heedless, not unkind,
Let the sad warning drop without regret.
Gone Youth! had I thus missed thee, nor a hope
Were left of thy return beyond the tomb,

I could curse life :-But glorious is the scope
Of an immortal soul!-O Death! thy gloom,
Short, and already tinged with coming light,
Is to the Christian but a summer's night!

Page 98. Horace Smith's sonnets appear to have been

overlooked :-the first eight lines of this, on A Piping Faun, have somewhat of the pleasing melody of Mr. Andrew Lang's Bion, which is given at page 35 of English Sonnets by Living Writers.

Page 109. Rev. Charles Strong was a friend of Dean Alford, and they were both Fellows of Wadham College, Oxford. The "Athenæum," in 1838, observes "Mr. (now Archbishop) Trench, if we recollect right, was highly praised by that modern guardian of sonnets, Christopher North, for his exquisite performance on the fourteenstringed lute. To us, he seems to linger behind others of his compeers; we need but name one, Mr. Strong, who far excels him."

Much as we admire these richly-coloured compositions by Charles Strong, we are not inclined to concur with the above criticism, for why compare Old Crome with Tintoretto, or Marcus Aurelius with Mr. Ruskin?

Page 124. The sonnets of Thomas Doubleday were published anonymously in 1818, and were honoured with an entire article in Blackwood's "Edinburgh Magazine,” in 1822. The writer of the paper remarks :—“We have no hesitation in saying that, next to Wordsworth and

Bowles, this anonymous poet, for he is a poet, is the best writer of sonnets in our day." And this was written the year after the death of Keats!

Page 125. Ozymandias is the one sonnet by Shelley which has won for itself a niche beside such masterpieces as Milton's Massacre in Piedmont, Keats' Chapman's Homer, and Blanco White's Night and Death; and yet there is another sonnet by Shelley which is but little inferior to it, namely, that beginning, "Ye hasten to the dead! What seek ye there?"

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Page 130. Dean Milman, the illustrious author of the 'History of the Jews," and "History of Christianity,' was the son of Sir Francis Milman, Bart., and was born in London in 1791. He was educated at Eton, and Brasenose College, Oxford, and obtained the Newdigate Prize in 1812, the subject of the poem being the Apollo Relvidere. His tragedy of Fazio was produced at Drury Lane on February 5, 1818, and afterwards in America, the acting of Miss Fanny Kemble contributing to its success. Other plays and poems followed this in rapid succession, but it is as a historian, and as a good, wise, and much beloved man, rather than as a poet, that Milman will descend

to posterity.

He belonged to the Broad or liberal section

of the Church, and ranks with Archbishop Whately, F. D. Maurice, Charles Kingsley, and the late Dean Stanley as leaders of that school.

Page 160. The sonnets of Hood scarcely appear to have received the recognition that they deserve. They have a strength of thought, and clearness of expression that should insure them a higher rank than they have yet been permitted to take. That on page 160 is indeed almost unequalled for solemn, tender pathos.

Page 169. Time and Twilight. This sonnet is, we believe, highly esteemed by the Laureate. Perhaps of all his brother's sonnets The Quiet Tide near Ardrossan, and The Lattice at Sunrise, will be most admired by cultured judges, but amongst ordinary readers Letty's Globe will probably be the favourite.

Charles Turner's compositions are marked by a pleasant simplicity and beauty, and no one can deny either their originality, or the poetic genius with which they are inspired. But, as an old writer quaintly observes, "a good piece, the painters say, must have good muscling, as well as colouring and drapery," and there is, perhaps,

just a slight defect in this respect in some of his poems, though not in those quoted in this volume. The defect becomes more apparent if they are compared with sonnets like those by Mr. D. G. Rossetti, but it is only fair to add that even the sonnets of Shakespeare or Milton seem to lose somewhat of their grandeur when compared with Mr. Rossetti's Refusal of Aid between Nations, or his noble sonnet entitled The Sun's Shame.

Page 190. The author of this sonnet, The British Oak, -which Southey pronounced to be one of the best in the language-was born in humble life, and is, perhaps, not unworthy to be ranked with such poets as Clare and Bloomfield. The late Mr. Lower, in his Worthies of Sussex, stated, somewhat extravagantly, that The Oak had rarely been excelled in the whole round of English poetry. It is, however, chiefly remarkable as being the composition of a poor labouring man. We have to thank the Rev. Thomas Agar Holland, who was personally acquainted with the author, for kindly calling our attention to it.

Page 202. Solitude. This sonnet, quoted in the 66 Athenæum " for 1842, has not been included in pre