His enthusiasm for literature and his respect for authors were such that he wished to call upon Dr. Johnson, who was then an old man, and at the height of his reputation. Accordingly he and his friend William Maltby entered Bolt Court, Fleet Street, for that purpose. One of them had his hand upon the great man's knocker. But their courage failed them, and the young admirers of literary genius returned home without venturing to ask for an interview. Dr. Johnson died in 1785.

In 1786 Mr. Rogers printed his first volume of poetry, entitled "An Ode to Superstition, with some other Poems." The other poems were—“ To a Lady on the Death of her Lover," "The Sailor," "A Sketch of the Alps at Daybreak," and "A Wish." In the Ode the powers and evils of Superstition are pointed out calmly and philosophically. The examples are all drawn from distant lands or bygone times. The Poet only hints at the intolerance of his own day, when he adds at the close his hope for the future, and his belief that Reason will at last triumph over the rack and wheel of her old enemy:

"Canst thou, with all thy terrors crowned,

Hope to obscure that latent spark,
Destined to shine when suns are dark?"

Truth will at last give us the blessings of piety and peace:

"Her touch unlocks the day-spring from above,

And lo! it visits man with gleams of light and love."

He had written other verses before these, but he did not think them good enough to be made public. This small volume he published without his name, from a natural doubt whether it would be favourably received: the longer poem, the Ode, would be put in comparison with those of Collins and Gray. But his fears were groundless. His poems were at once noticed with praise in the Monthly Review; he had no further anxiety about their fate, and he owned himself the author among his literary friends. The Critic begins: "In these pieces we perceive the hand of an able master;" and adds, "He has exhibited the striking historical facts with the fire and energy proper to Lyric poetry ;" and "The rest of the pieces have the same character of chaste and classical elegance." Such praise was most encouraging and most useful to a young author in his twenty-third year. He did not know who wrote the review, nor was he known to the writer. But he afterwards learnt that it was Dr. Enfield who had held out the helping hand to his little volume; and fifty years later he had the pleasure of hearing from Mrs. Kinder, Dr. Enfield's daughter, the manner in which the admiring critic read the Ode to his family.

In 1788 his brother Thomas died. Thomas was eighteen months older than himself. They were daily companions both at home and in the banking-house, where they were in partnership with Mr. Welch and their

too much engaged in politics; and in 1789 he made a visit to Scotland. He travelled on horseback, with a boy behind him on a second horse. At Edinburgh, by the help of letters from Dr. Kippis, he became acquainted with Dr. Robertson, the historian; with Mr. Mackenzie, the author of "The Man of Feeling ;" and with Mr. Adam Smith, the author of “The Wealth of Nations." He met in company Dr. Black, the chemist, and Playfair, the mathematician. He heard Dr. Blair and Dr. Robertson preach. At Edinburgh also he made acquaintance with Dr. Johnson's friend, Mrs. Piozzi, who was there with her husband and younger daughters. But in after years, when looking back upon this visit to Scotland, Mr. Rogers hardly thought with more pleasure of seeing these men of literary eminence, than with regret that there was one whom he did not see. Robert Burns had already published the best of his poems; but so little were they then thought of, that our traveller, though asking advice from his Edinburgh friends as to his future route, was never told to call upon the author of the "Cotter's Saturday Night." Burns was driven by his follies and by neglect to become an officer in the Excise in the very year that Mr. Rogers, with whom poetry was the uppermost thought in his mind, was asking to be introduced to the literary men of Scotland.

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The political hopes and fears of the nation were at this time raised to the highest pitch by what was going forward in Paris. The French Revolution had begun the many, rising against the tyranny of the Government and the nobles, had broken their chains, but had not yet run into such excesses as to alarm the friends of liberty in England. The Bastille had been taken by the mob. The king had surrendered his unlimited power after the massacre of his Swiss guards at Versailles, and had been brought to Paris almost a prisoner. Hereditary titles had been abolished, and a new constitution had been proclaimed. The English Tories were frightened, lest the revolutionary spirit should spread to England; while the friends of Reform gained courage, and thought that it was then the time to get many abuses and corruptions removed from our constitution. The Dissenters took the side of hope; and Dr. Price, in his "Discourse on the Love of our Country," congratulated his hearers on the prospect of an improvement in human affairs, when the dominion of kings and priests would give way to the dominion of laws and conscience. Burke, on the side of the king, had published his "Reflections on the French Revolution,” and Paine, on the side of the people, his "Rights of Man." Mr. Rogers felt warmly with the Whigs and Dissenters; and in January 1791, he made a short visit to Paris, led by his wish to witness a great nation's first steps in the path of freedom, after it had been enchained for so many generations. At Amiens he was not able to hear mass in the cathedral, as the chapels had been sealed up, and were to remain so till the priests had taken the civic oath. The Church roperty had been seized by the State; and the priests were the