were partners with their father in the bank, and the nearness of their ages had made them companions in other pursuits besides their daily business duties. In the poem he was then writing, Samuel thus speaks of his brother's death: "Oh thou! with whom my heart was wont to share, The humble walks of happiness below: This event deprived his father of his chief adviser, and consequently threw increased responsibility on Samuel. His eldest brother, Daniel, was at Lincoln's Inn, and the youngest, Henry, was still at school; and he therefore assumed a more important position in his own family, at the same time that literary aspirations led him to seek the acquaintance and gain the respect of a wider circle. His first literary friends were such as his father's religious and political opinions gave him an opportunity of knowing. Dr. Price and Dr. Towers, who preached at the chapel on Newington Green, were amongst them, and also Dr. Andrew Kippis, one of the tutors at New College, Hackney. He also became acquainted with Mrs. Barbauld by sending her a "Pleasures of Memory," part ii. copy of his "Ode to Superstition." The following letter, dated from Hampstead, where she and her husband resided before coming to Newington Green, was written soon after the friendship commenced: "To Mr. Samuel Rogers, Jun. "DEAR SIR,-We are obliged to you for much elegant amusement through the books, which we safely received, and which we shall beg leave to keep a little longer. Your visit was so short, that we wish to think of anything which may induce you to make a longer, and as we are to have an assembly at the Long Room, on Monday next, the 22nd, which they say will be a pretty good one, I take the liberty to ask whether it will be agreeable to you to be of our party, and in that case we have a bed at your service. I could, I am sure, have my petition supported by a round robin of the young ladies of Hampstead, which would act like a spell to oblige your attendance; but not being willing to make use of such compulsory methods, I will only say how much pleasure it will give, Sir, your obliged and obedient servant, "A. L. BARBAULD."' Whether the invitation was accepted we know not, but Rogers certainly used to attend the Hampstead assemblies, which were frequented by a great deal of good company, and in after life he used to recall how he had "danced four or five minuets in one evening." 2 In the following year, 1789, he considerably enlarged his literary acquaintance by a visit to Edinburgh. The journey, which was the longest he had yet taken, was performed on horseback, with one servant. Many eminent men then resided in the Scotch metropolis: Adam Smith, Robertson the historian, Henry Mackenzie (author of "The Man From "Memoir of Mrs. Barbauld." By A. L. Le Breton. * "Table-Talk," p. 102. 66 of Feeling" and other tales at that time popular), Dr. Blair, &c. To some of these he carried letters of introduction from Dr. Kippis and Dr. Price; and all, especially Robertson, received him kindly. With Mackenzie he made an agreement to correspond, and letters passed between them for several years afterwards. He also formed an acquaintance with Mr. and Mrs. Piozzi, who were living at the hotel at which he stayed. They called upon me on learning from the landlord who I was, and that Adam Smith, Robertson, and Mackenzie had left cards for me. I was afterwards very intimate with the Piozzis, and visited them often at Streatham. The world was most unjust in blaming Mrs. Thrale for marrying Piozzi; he was a very handsome, gentlemanly, and amiable person, and made her a very good husband.”1 But it was not his good fortune to meet with the greatest Scotch poet then living. Robert Burns had already published his first volume; but notwithstanding the temporary enthusiasm which it had excited, his fame was so far from established that, though Rogers was making a tour under the advice of his Edinburgh friends, and passed within thirty miles of Dumfries, where Burns was living, he was not told to call upon him. He never ceased to regret this omission. Two years after this visit, England, like the rest of Europe, was plunged into excitement by the outbreak of the French Revolution. The Bastille had fallen, and Louis XVI. was a prisoner in his own capital. Parties in England were keenly sympathizing with a struggle which, so far, had not foreshadowed the ghastly drama into which it was afterwards merged; and the Dissenters were 1 "Table-Talk," p. 45. naturally allied with that party which looked with hope rather than fear to what seemed to indicate the speedy regeneration of a great nation. With these views Rogers in the month of January, 1791, made a short journey to Paris in the company of his friend Boddington. They received a general invitation from Lafayette, and at his table met several distinguished men, who afterwards came to an untimely end.1 But in spite of some uneasiness and a foreboding of the impending excesses which began to make themselves felt amongst those to whom they had introductions, Rogers did not yet discern cause for alarm, and in letters home expressed his pleasure at observing "so many thousands beating as it were with one pulse in the cause of liberty and their country, and crowding every public walk to speak openly those noble sentiments which before they hardly dared to think of."2 He did not remain long, and had time only to take a hasty view of the magnificent collection of pictures in the Palais Royal, which belonged to the ill-fated father of Louis-Philippe. He had hitherto given little attention to the subject of the fine arts, of which he afterwards became a liberal patron; but only a few weeks before his departure for Paris he had heard Sir Joshua Reynolds deliver his last lecture in the Royal Academy,3 and from this period probably may be dated the commencement of his art cultivation. In any case it is not to be doubted that when a few years afterwards the Orleans Collection was brought to England, and sold by his relative, Peter Coxe, the auctioneer, he had not only a better opportunity of viewing it, but also increased knowledge to enable him to appreciate it. 166 2 Table-Talk," p. 41. "Memoir," by S. Sharpe, p. xxvii. 3 66 In the next year, 1792, he published “ The Pleasures of Memory." The two parts appeared together, and the poem at once achieved success. However it may be estimated now, when new schools of poetry have effected a revolution in taste and the most material changes in criticism, it must be allowed that at the time when it appeared, success was not unmerited. Amongst all contemporary English poets, Cowper alone had acquired a reputation so well deserved, and no other had successfully vied with Goldsmith in the popularity which more than twenty years before he had so speedily gained. Goldsmith, and not Gray, had this time been Rogers' model, and with good effect. 66 The placid strain of liberal and yet moral thought, dictated by humane and sympathetic feelings, and expressed in carefully written verse, was more than enough to give " The Pleasures of Memory a high rank in the class of ethical idylls amongst which" The Traveller" and "Deserted Village" have still so wide a popularity. Rogers was proud that his work should be ranked with these, and records his pleasure on hearing that Este (a reader at Whitehall well known in his time) had spoken of him as a child of Goldsmith."1 66 Other praise was not wanting. “The Monthly Review criticized the book favourably, saying that "correctness of thought, delicacy of sentiment, variety of imagery, and harmony of versification are the characteristics which distinguish this beautiful poem in a degree that cannot fail to ensure its success." ."2 It was also commended privately by Hayley, author of "The Triumphs of Temper," &c., as the gratified writer was informed by Cadell, 1 "Table-Talk," p. 58. 2" Memoir," by S. Sharpe, p. xxviii. |