Greek and Latin, he also made considerable progress at this time in Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese. Chymistry, electricity, astronomy, all shared largely in his attention. While pursuing these severer studies, he contrived to accomplish himself to a considerable extent in drawing and music; and he found an occasional amusement in practical mechanics, in which he showed much ingenuity and neatness of hand. Another accomplishment which he wished to acquire was the art of extempore speaking; and with this view he got himself elected a member of a debating society which then existed at Nottingham. Here he very soon distanced all his competitors.

But this was not the only mode in which he had already begun to seek distinction. So early as the first year after his emancipation from the stockingloom, he had sent a translation from Horace to a periodical work then existing, called the "Monthly Preceptor," the proprietors of which were in the habit of offering prizes for the best contributions on subjects which they proposed; and a silver medal had been awarded to him for his performance. This honour seems to have kindled his literary ambition to greater fervour than ever. He began to sigh for the advantages of a University education. After having thus frequently tried his powers in the "Preceptor," he became a correspondent to another magazine called the "Monthly Mirror." Some of the essays which he sent to this publication were of distinguished merit, and attracted considerable no tice. Among other persons whose attention they excited, was Mr. Capel Lofft, whose patronage of Bloomfield we recorded a few pages back; and the encouragement of this gentleman, whose exertions had recently been so fortunate in the case of another poet, determined Henry to commit a volume of his verses to the press. This was about the close of the year 1802.

The volume made its appearance in the end of 1803 or beginning of 1804. It was published by subscription, and dedicated, by permission, to the Duchess of Devonshire. What pecuniary return it brought the author is not stated; but the sale probably did not do a great deal more than defray the expenses of the publication. Although favourably noticed in several of the periodical works of the day, it was made the subject of a very harsh article in the "Monthly Review." This so stung the sensibility of the young poet, that he sent a remonstrance to the editors, which produced from them, in their next number, an expression of their regret that Mr. White should have been so much hurt by the severity of their criticism; but no acknowledgment was made of the poetical merit of the publication they had condemned. This treatment distressed Henry exceedingly. In one of his letters he says, "This Review goes before me wherever I turn my steps; it haunts me incessantly; and I am persuaded it is an instrument in the hands of Satan to drive me to distraction. I must leave Nottingham." Fortunately, however, the poems had fallen into the hands of Mr. Southey, who, bringing to their perusal both a better judgment and a kinder heart than the writer in the Monthly Review, considered them "to discover strong marks of genius." On afterward seeing the Review, this gentleman's indignation was so strongly excited by what he deemed its cruelty and injustice, that he immediately wrote to Henry a letter of encouragement and advice, with an offer to do anything in his power to forward his views. This generous and seasonable interference contributed greatly to heal the poet's wounded feelings, and enabled him in a short time to forget the sneers of his anonymous critic.

No prospect, however, had yet opened of his desire of going to the university being gratified, while the desire itself was every day growing stronger.

The reading of some religious works about this time had made a great impression upon him, and his feelings had become ardently devotional. He determined to give up his life to the preaching of Christianity. His friends exerted themselves in vain to shake his resolution; he had made up his mind, if he could not obtain admission at Oxford or Cambridge, to join some dissenting communion, and to endeavour to find the means of pursuing his studies at an academy or at one of the Scottish universities. But we must refer to Mr. Southey's interesting narrative of the life of White for a detail of the alternating hopes and disappointments by which both his mind and frame were racked, before he at last secured the object of his fond ambition. At one time he had given up all hopes of ever being able to escape from his present profession; and the view which he took of the line of conduct which it became him to pursue in these circumstances, is in the highest degree creditable to his sense of propriety and duty. "All my hopes," says he, in a letter to his mother, "of getting to the university are now blasted; in preparing myself for it I have lost time in my profession; I have much ground to get up, and, as I am determined not to be a mediocre attorney, I must endeavour to recover what I have lost." He immediately set about a course of more severe application than ever, allowing himself rarely more than two or three hours of sleep during the night, and often never going to bed at all. This excessive application after some time brought on an alarming illness, from which his friends thought that he never entirely recovered.

But at last, through the influence of the Reverend Mr. Simeon, of King's College, Cambridge, to whom he had been recommended, a sizarship was procured for him at St. John's. His mother, who had for some years kept a boarding-school, and his elder brother, engaged each to allow him fifteen or twenty

pounds yearly; and Mr. Simeon generously undertook to afford him thirty pounds more, with the aid of a friend, who is stated to have been Mr. Wilberforce, a name made venerable by a life spent in doing good. Accordingly, in October, 1804, he quitted his employers at Nottingham, who had most kindly agreed to give him up the remainder of his time, although his services were every day becoming more valuable to them. He did not, however, immediately proceed to Cambridge, but, by Mr. Simeon's advice, placed himself for the first year in the house of the Rev. Mr. Grainger, of Winteringham, in Lincolnshire. While residing with this gentleman, he applied himself to classical learning with an ardour to which everything gave way, devoting often fourteen hours a day to hard study; and though his unremitting toils soon laid him once more on a sick bed, convalescence came only to send him back to his books with as much zeal as ever. When he went to Cambridge, to use Mr. Southey's words, "the seeds of death were in him, and the place to which he had so long looked on with hope, served unhappily as a hothouse to ripen them."

The exertions of this extraordinary young man at the university were such as might have been expected from his previous career. A scholarship having become vacant during his first term, he was advised to offer himself a competitor for it; but after having studied for this purpose with his usual immoderate application till within a fortnight of the close of the term, he found himself so ill that he was obliged to decline coming forward. To add to his misfortune, he had now the general college examination before him; and, although far from well, he was urged, if it was at all possible, to persevere in preparing himself for this occasion. He followed this counsel, and having, by the aid of strong medicines, been enabled to hold out during the six days of the examination, he was at its close declared

the first man of his year. Immediately after this he went to London, with the view of benefiting his health by a temporary relaxation from study. But he did not make much progress in recovering his strength during this short excursion. Still, when he returned to Cambridge, his application continued unabated. It is mentioned as an instance of the manner in which he used to turn every moment to account-in his own phrase, to coin time-that he committed to memory a whole tragedy of Euripides during his walks At the end of this term he was again pronounced first man, and also one of the three best theme-writers. By exhibitions, too, which were procured for him, he was now enabled to live without the assistance of his friends. At the end of the term, a tutor in mathematics for the long vacation was provided for him by his college; but this unfortunately only induced him to continue his studies at a time when relaxation was become absolutely necessary to preserve his life. Finding himself very ill, he again proceeded to London, where, however, as before, he got no better. He returned to the university worn out both in body and in mind, and, after a short attack of delirium, died on Sunday, the 19th of October, 1806.

A monument has been erected to the memory of Kirke White in the Church of All Saints, Cambridge, at the expense of Mr. Boott, a native of the United States of America. This gentleman, on visiting Cambridge, was disappointed in finding no tablet recording the talents and virtues of the young poet, and he resolved to do what England had left undone. This circumstance is highly creditable to the American character; and is one among many evidences of the triumph of right feelings over those mutual jealousies which have too often separated nations sharing the same blood and speaking the same language.

We shall conclude this chapter by the mention