side or over the tranquil fields, while the young ploughman "walked in glory and in joy, following his plough along the mountain-side;" but they were equal rebels to the world, and all its conventional ways. . . . Cowper is placed beside Burns in the bead-roll, because, so distant as they were from each other, they both helped-or, rather, they wrought between them-the permanent enfranchisement of poetry, her right to see things as they were, and to express herself as she pleased, in whatsoever manner liked her, reserving her power to touch the innermost soul, whether she went back to lift the mantle of Milton, or picked up a homely medium of utterance on the roadside. No harp, no lute was longer necessary. We got rid of the antique attendance of "the muse." A new life and a new freedom came into the language, and the bondage of Pope, and precedent, and the best models was loosed from the soul. Burns died in 1796, Cowper not till 1800. It would be hard to say which life was most tried, most unfortunate, most sad. Had either man-he who stormed his life out in mid-career, or he who drank out all the dregs of mournful age-known how to rule his own spirit, how different might have been the record! But Cowper had the excuse of mental disease, whereas no apology can be made for Burns, except that which pity makes for the victim of a defective will in all circumstances. This fatal deficiency equalizes all human qualities, and makes the man of genius, alas! only a little more luckless, not better, than the veriest fool. BOOKS OF REFERENCE. Biographies of Burns: By Dr. Cur- | Essays: By Thomas Carlyle, Professor Taine, Charles Kingsley, Hugh Miller, and Macaulay. S. A. Brooke's “Theology in the Eng- Mrs. Oliphant's “Literary History of John Wilson, Lord Jeffrey, H. A. | Cunningham's "Land of Burns." WILLIAM WORDSWORTH (1770-1850). PORTRAITS OF WORDSWORTH. Of the twenty-seven or more portraits of Wordsworth, that by Mr. Inman has perhaps met with most approba tion. It was painted in 1844, at Rydal Mount, for Professor Reed of Philadelphia, and when completed was pronounced by the poet himself to be his best likeness-an opinion seconded by Mrs. Wordsworth, who, in the same year, wrote to the Professor: "I can have no hesitation in saying that, in my opinion, and, what is of more value, to my feelings, Mr. Inman's portrait of my husband is the best likeness that has been taken of him. And I am happy on this occasion to congratulate you and Mrs. Reed upon the possession of so valuable a treasure; at the same time I must express the obligation I feel to the painter for having produced so faithful a record. To this testimony I may add that my daughter and her younger brother are as much satisfied with the portrait of their father as I am." America is also the fortunate possessor of another likeness of this great poet-a crayon sketch-which Mary Russell Mitford obtained for her friend, the late James T. Fields, of Boston. But undoubtedly the face of Wordsworth is most widely known through the various likenesses by the eminent artist, Mr. Haydon. He has represented the poet climbing Helvellyn-an impressive picture, with its rocky background; while his delineation of him in the character of an apostle attending his Master, in his picture of Christ's Entry into Jerusalem, is well known. The portrait for St. John's College, Cambridge-the poet's alma mater-was painted by Pickersgill, and seems to have ranked next to that of Inman in Wordsworth's estimation. A bust was also executed by Chantrey. De Quincey considered the best likeness of him to be the portrait of Milton, prefixed to Richardson's "Paradise Lost." DE QUINCEY'S FULL-LENGTH PORTRAITURE. Wordsworth was, upon the whole, not a well-made man. His legs were pointedly condemned by all the female connoisseurs in legs that ever I heard lecture upon that topic; not that they were bad in any way which would force itself upon your notice--there was no absolute deformity about them, and undoubtedly they had been serviceable legs beyond the average standard of human requisition; for I calculate, upon good data, that with these identical legs Wordsworth must have traversed a distance of one hundred and seventy-five to one hundred and eighty thousand English miles a mode of exertion which, to him, stood in the stead of wine, spirits, and all other stimulants whatsoever to the animal spirits; to which he has been indebted for a life of unclouded happiness, and we for much of what is most excellent in his writings. But, useful as they have proved themselves, the Wordsworthian legs were certainly not ornamental; and it was really a pity, as I agreed with a lady in thinking, that he had not another pair for evening-dress parties, when no boots lend their friendly aid to mask our imperfections from the eyes of female rigorists— the elegantes formarum spectatrices. A sculptor would certainly have disapproved of their contour. But the worst part of Wordsworth's person was the bust; there was a narrowness and a droop about the shoulders which became striking, and had an effect of meanness when brought into close juxtaposition with a figure of a most statuesque order.... But the total effect of, Wordsworth's person was always worst in a state of motion; for, according to the remark I have heard from many country people, "he walked like a cade"-a cade being some sort of insect which advances by an oblique motion. Meantime his |