philosophies of Descartes and Wolff. Nay, it is, in my opinion, the only metaphysic that may be successfully opposed to materialism, for it alone takes into consideration the partial truth of its objections. It overcomes the dualism of substances, and thus satisfies the most fundamental demand of the philosophical spirit,—the demand for unity. In this respect it has all the advantages of radical materialism without being hampered by its difficulties. It greatly resembles the system of Leibniz, but excels it in clearness, consistency, boldness, and decision. Leibniz's opinLeibniz's opinions on matter, space, and time are undecided, conciliatory, and even obscure. Berkeley shows no sign of hesitation. An earnest and profoundly honest thinker, he tells us, in a straightforward manner, that the existence of matter is an illusion; that time is nothing, abstracted from the succession of ideas in our minds; that space cannot exist without the mind; that minds alone exist; and that these perceive ideas either by themselves or through the action of the all-powerful Spirit on which they depend. He is both a thorough-going theologian and a philosopher; his interests are both scientific and religious, and he attacks materialism not only as a theoretical error but as the source of the most serious heresies. WEBER, ALFRED, 1892-96, History of Philosophy, tr. Thilly, pp. 397, 398.

handed on to him from the theologians of another day; in his lucid clearness he added a new element, in which he was akin to the more scientific thought of his own age; and in the richness of his imagination, in the perfection of his philosophic style, he attains to that uniqueness which is the chief attribute of genius.—CRAIK, HENRY, 1895, ed., English Prose, Introduction, vol. IV, p. 5.

In all philosophical writing there is a certain antinomy. By so much as it is popular, figurative, literary, imaginative, it seems to lack philosophical precision; by so much as it is technical, austere, unliterary, and what has been called "jargonish," it loses humanity and general appeal. If the golden mean was ever hit between these extremes it seems to have been hit in the style of Berkeley. Take the most popular expositions of it as in "Alciphron" and "Siris," the less popular as in the "Theory of Visions, "Hylas and Philonous," compare them together, note their excellencies, and if any can be detected allow for their de

or

fects, and such a philosophical medium as nowhere else exists will, I believe, be found. A crystalline clearness, a golden eloquence, a supreme urbanity, a mixture. of fancy and logic which is nowhere else. for sentiment and unction which exists discernible except in Plato, an allowance side by side with a readiness to play the game of sheer rough-and-tumble argument. at any moment and with any adversary; a preciseness of phrase which is never dull or dry; a felicity of ornament and illustration which never condescends to the merely popular or trivial, and is never used to cloak controversial feebleness; an incapacity of petulance, and an omnipresence of good breeding-these are the characteristics of the style of Berkeley. SAINTSBURY, GEORGE, 1895, English Prose, ed. Craik, vol. IV, p. 27.

PERSONAL

Hamilton's mind is pictured in his verses. They are the easy and careless effusions of an elegant and a chastened taste; and the sentiments they convey are the genuine feelings of a tender and susceptible heart, which perpetually owned the dominion of some favourite mistress, but whose passion generally evaporated in song, and made no serious or permanent impression.-TYTLER, ALEXANDER FRASER (LORD WOODHOUSELEE), 1807, Memoirs of the Life and Writings of the Hon. Henry Home of Kames, bk. i, ch. iii.

The praise of elegance is all that can be given to his verses. In case any reader should be immoderately touched with sympathy for his love sufferings, it is proper to inform him, that Hamilton was thought by the fair ones of his day to be a very inconstant swain. A Scotch lady, whom he teased with his addresses, applied to Home, the author of Douglas, for advice how to get rid of them. Home advised her to affect to favour his assiduities. She did so, and they were immediately withdrawn.-CAMPBELL, THOMAS, 1819, Specimens of the British Poets.

THE BRAES OF YARROW

Amid the generally vague verbiage of his descriptions, one effort of his genius

stands out in vividness of human colouring, in depth and simplicity of feeling, and even to some extent in powerful and characteristic touches of scenery. This is a poem which owes its inspiration to the Yarrow. In fact it was suggested by the older poem of "The Dowie Dens." It breathes the soul of the place, and it is so permeated by the spirit of its history and traditions that, when all the other writings of the author shall have fallen into oblivion, there will still be a nook in

memory and a place in men's hearts for "The Braes of Yarrow."-VEITCH, JOHN, 1878, The History and Poetry of the Scottish Border, p. 452.

The secret of the enduring popularity of this ballad is its somewhat feminine sentiment and the sweetness of fancy it displays. That which delighted Wordsworth was the note of sincerity in reference to nature, a note rare enough then in England, but common to all the Scotch poets of the time. The poem is marred by that want of force which proved to be

Hamilton's defect in all he ever wrote.WALKER, HUGH, 1893, Three Centuries of Scottish Literature, vol. II, p. 51.

It stands out, one of the few genuine inheritors of the spirit of ancient folksong. -EYRE-TODD, GEORGE, 1896, Scottish Poetry of the Eighteenth Century, vol. I, p. 125.

GENERAL

The chief beauty of these "Elegies" certainly consists in their being written by a man who intimately felt the subject; for they are more the language of the heart than of the head. They have warmth, but little poetry, and Mr. Hamilton seems to have been one of those poets, who are made so by love, not by nature. CIBBER, THEOPHILUS, 1753, Lives of the Poets, vol. v, p. 308.

Johnson, upon repeated occasions, while I was at Ashbourne, talked slightingly of Hamilton. He said there was no power of thinking in his verses; nothing that strikes one; nothing better than what you generally find in magazines; and that the highest praise they deserved was, that they were very well for a gentleman to hand about among his friends. -Boswell, JAMES, 1777, Life of Johnson, ed. Hill, vol. III, p. 170.

cess.

He

As a first adventurer in English literature, rejecting altogether the scholastic school of poetry, Mr. Hamilton must be allowed to have obtained no ordinary sucIn his language he shows nearly all the purity of a native; his diction is various and powerful, and his versification but rarely tainted with provincial errors. delights indeed in a class of words, which though not rejected by the best English writers, have a certain insipidity which only a refined English ear, perhaps, can perceive; such as beauteous, dubious, duteous, and even melancholious! The same peculiarity may be remarked of most of the early Scottish writers in the English language. CHAMBERS, ROBERT, 1832-3555, A Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen, ed. Thomson, vol. III, p. 10.

His first and best strains were dedicated to the lyric muse; and the most attractive feature of his poetry is its pure English style, accompanied with a somewhat ornate poetical diction. He possessed more fancy than feeling, and in this respect his amatory songs resemble those of the poets of Charles the Second's court.

-MILLS, ABRAHAM, 1851, The Literature and the Literary Men of Great Britain and Ireland, vol. II, p. 319.

Besides conventional lyrics of comparatively small account, Hamilton wrote various notable poems. In "ContemplaIn "Contemplation, or the Triumph of Love," warmly praised in the "Lounger," by Professor Richardson and Henry Mackenzie, there is much ingenuity of reflection and illustration, in rhymed octosyllabics evincing structural skill and dexterity. The translations from Greek and Latin poetsnotably those from Horace-display both scholarship and metrical grace. "The Parting of Hector and Andromache," from the first Iliad, has the distinction of being the earliest Homeric translation into English blank verse. The "Episode of the Thistle," ingeniously explaining the remote origin of the Scottish national emblem the armed warrior with his host of spears" is not without a measure of epic force and dignity. The winter piece in the third of four odes, besides its intrinsic merits, probably inspired the

opening passage of the first introduction in "Marmion." But the prominent and thoroughly individual feature of the poem is what Wordsworth, in that heading to "Yarrow Unvisited," calls "the exquisite ballad of Hamilton." Scott, in his introductory remarks to the "Dowie Dens of Yarrow" (Border Ministrelsy, iii. 145), says: "It will be, with many readers, the greatest recommendation of these verses, that they are supposed to have suggested to Mr. Hamilton of Bangour the modern ballad beginning,

Busk ye, busk ye my bonny, bonny bride." If for this poem alone, Hamilton will not be forgotten.-BAYNE, THOMAS, 1890, Dictionary of National Biography, edited by Leslie Stephen and Sidney Lee, vol. XXIV, p. 222.

Hamilton seems to have had a great deal of force and passion which he deliberately repressed perhaps thinking the age would not stand it--perhaps himself ashamed of it.-PHELPS, WILLIAM LYON, 1893, The Beginnings of the English Romantic Movement, p. 35.

PERSONAL

About thirty-two years of age, of a middle stature, a raw-boned man, goes a little stooping, a sallow complexion, with a full grey or blue eye, his eyelids fair, inclining to red, and commonly wears a light-coloured peruke.-PROCLAMATION IN GAZETTE, 1722, Aug. 15.

Carte possessed a strong constitution, capable of incessant labor. He often wrote from early morning until night, taking only a cup of tea in the interval. Then he would eat heartily and enjoy his late dinner. He was gay and jovial, careless in his dress and appearance. In his writings there is little to be praised except their laborious accuracy, and the chief value of his collections and history consists in their having prepared the way

for the more gifted Hume.-LAWRENCE EUGENE, 1855, The Lives of the British Historians, vol. 1, p. 326.

GENERAL

Any

Your history ["Duke of Ormonde"] is in great esteem here. All sides seem to like it. The dean of St. Patrick's (Swift) honours you with his approbation. name after his could not add to your satisfaction. But I may say, the worthy and the wise are with you to a man, and you have me into the bargain.---BOYLE, JOHN (LORD ORRERY), 1736? Letter to Carte.

Carte's "Life of the Duke of Ormonde" is considered as a book of authority; but it is ill written. The matter is diffused in too many words; there is no animation, no compression, no vigour. Two good