in his castle, has taken up her abode, "for better for worse," with the artificer and the husbandman, not restricting herself, to be sure, to such society, but including them in her wide province, and watching over them with affectionate care. The poor man, upright, sincere, earnest, with deep enthusiasm and vigorous self-relience, he is the hero of our time. The old-fashioned heroes of war and slaughter, one foot on land and one on sea, we are apt to consider with pity for their Quixotism and contempt for their absurd pretensions, at the same time that we are captivated by their brilliant accomplishments, and charmed by their humanity and knighlty grace. The struggle of life, the war with circumstances, that is the great battle to be fought, and one in which different qualities are required from those that bear away the palm in the warfare of blood and the contest for dominion and power. For hypocrititical professions of gallantry, the modern poet sings the real happiness of domestic love. The wife has supplanted the mistress, as a social tie; and marriage has put an end to the frivolities of idle gallantry, in the so-called age of chivalry. We say so called, because we conceive true chivalry repudiates most of the current vices which were cloaked beneath the broad mantle of its name; and because we apprehend a true and accomplished knight to be the ideal of glorious manhood, and far beyond what that character was supposed to represent in the persons of the Templar and the knights of the Hospital. Tournaments are long gone by, the duel is fast becoming extinct, and the contest of rivalry is, now-a-days, limited to a contest of worth and spirit, not a trial of martial skill or physical prowess. A single illustration will express our meaning, and mark distinctly the characteristics of the past and the present; then they had the trial by battle, now we have the trial by jury.

The necessity and dignity of labor, of endurance; the native nobility of an honest and brave heart; the futility of all conventional distinctions of rank and wealth, when opposed to the innate claims of genius and virtue; the brotherhood and equality of men,-not necessarily a social uniformity, independent of character and education, but the equality of civil rights and political advantages, for even actual blood brethren are not necessary equals, in aught beside the accident of their birth; the cultivation of manly liberality, of charity, in all its forms; of generosity, in not trenching upon the exactions of intelligent prudence and clear justice; an honorable poverty and a contented spirit, the richest of gifts these are the favorite topics of the Poet of the People. To attain this title, the poet must be master of his age, its wants and privileges, the traits of his countrymen, and the general aspect of society. Possessed of this knowledge, with a full heart, a firm hand, the “vision and the faculty divine,” the rich resources of his art, and the aims and aspirations of humanity for his theme, what lessons can the poet not read the world-in what stirring tones will he not plead for his fellow-men! How indignantly may he not repel the scorn cast upon them, how vehemently upbraid their oppressors, how manfully exhort and how wisely persuade! Of all men, he is their dearest friend and strongest champion. No statesman, no patron, no general can effect a tithe of what he may accomplish; for give a man heart, and true counsel, and warm sympathy, and you give him what kings have never been able to purchase or capitalists to monopolize.

The vocation of such a writer is almost on an equality with the highest office that can be imposed on humanity, and his labors should be met by gratitude and love. The greatest bards of all time would not frown upon the humble attempts

of the homeliest rhymer, so his verses had a life of their own, and an independent origin. It is not essential that the Poet for the People should be one of themselves; but that fact would certainly add weight to his teaching, and lend an energy to his appeals. The personal character and private life of such a man should be stainless; his life one of labor and honorable exertion; his benevolence bounded only by his means, which would be something more than merely pecuniary donatives, not neglecting those. With a pen informed by experience, and exercised on the immortal themes. of the poet and the philanthropist, with hope in his heart and love on his tongue, with the fire, the fervor, the frankness of genius, such we would gladly hail, the Poet of the People and the Poet of the Poor.

XXIII.

ESTHETICAL FRAGMENTS.

MODELS.

I CAN recollect scarcely a single instance, in which great authors have written after models-where they have not imitated writers much inferior to themselves. In the history, also, of almost every man of genius, some inferior person is to be found, to whom the great man once looked up, and from whom he gained something. Thus, Burns imitated Ferguson; and Cowper, Vincent Bourne. Hudibras was

modelled on a very trivial production of the same class, and. Coleridge, at one period, almost adored Hartley. Burke expressed great indebtedness to an obscure clergyman, of the name (I think,) of Mudge; and Johnson has left an affecting retrospect of his gratitude for Gilbert Walmsley.

The greatest minds disdain not help from any source, and the most original writers are the greatest borrowers.

Some of our finest writers, among others, Pope and Goldsmith, openly professed imitation, and prided themselves on their skill in copying.

All of Washington's eulogists have been equally successful with all of his painters. None have failed to hit the marked traits of his character, as well as of his countenance. This, of itself, proves the harmonious beauty of his character.

To misrepresent a man's story, or repeat a tale differently from the way in which it was related, is the next crime to forgery, and may be still more injurious.

Belsham has neatly defined character to be 'the sum total of affections and habits.'

WIT AND HUMOR.

The distinctions between wit and humor are, that wit is intellectual; humor, sensuous; wit is artificial; humor, natural; that is, wit is employed on artificial objects—the follies of fashion; humor represents real farcical objects, and the traits of less refined society than the world of fashion.

mors.

A humorist is not, necessarily, a man of humor, but of huHe cannot describe, or point out humorous peculiarities in others; but affords, in himself, a subject for the comic painter.

Wit is the scholar's quality, and partly acquired; humor is the quality of genius, and cannot be derived.

Wit is perceptive; humor, reflective. Learning assists wit; but rather impedes humor. The best instances of learned wit are, Rabelais, Butler, Swift; of learned humor, Sterne and Lamb. The finest humorous writers are Cervantes, Sterne, Smollett, Goldsmith, and Washington Irving.

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Humor is, in part, constitutional--a matter of temperament; wit, rarely so. There is saturnine, gay, delicate, and powerful humor. It ranges from a subtle association to broad burlesque. Wit is exceedingly versatile and multiform' in its modes, but of one texture-always intellectual. A satiric poet is a wit; a humorist writes mock-heroic. Wit is bitter; humor, good-natured. Saturnine humor and sarcastic wit are very opposite. The first is melancholy, concealing tenderness; the last is brilliancy, pointing malice.

In description, humor appeals to the eye; wit, to the mind. The finest humorous writers have generally been poor talkers, because humor requires a fulness of development and detail too complicated and extended for conversation.

Wit, merely glancing at a topic, is, for that reason, admirably adapted to animated colloquy. There is a marked difference between the styles of humorous and witty writers. Humorous writers are more fluent and melodious; witty authors are generally short and pointed.

Humorous thoughts glide into the mind, are sympathetic; witty ideas, like cold abstractions, dazzle, but never charm. Wit and fancy, humor and imagination, are correlative.