"Tis a low chant, according well As homeward from some grave beloved we turn, Most welcome to the chastened ear Of her whom Heaven is teaching now to mourn. O cheerful tender strain! the heart And tracing through the cloud th' eternal Cause. As o'er the Church the gathering twilight falls: If chance the golden hours be nigh, By youthful Hope seen beaming round her walls. Forced from his showy paradise, His thoughts to Heaven the steadier rise; There seek his answer when the world reproves: If only he be faithful found, When from the east th' eternal morning moves. The REV. JOHN KEBLE (1792-1866), author of "The Christian Year,' was the son of a country clergyman, vicar of Coln-St-Aldwinds, Gloucestershire. At the early age of fifteen he was elected a scholar of Corpus Christi, Oxford, and having distinguished himself both in classics and mathematics was in 1811 elected to a Fellowship at Oriel. He was for some years tutor and examiner at Oxford, but afterwards lived with his father, and assisted him as curate. The publication of 'The Christian Year,' and the marvellous success of the work, brought its author prominently before the public, and in 1833 he was appointed professor of poetry at Oxford. About the same time the Tractarian movement began, having originated in a sermon on national apostacy, preached by Keble in 1833; Newman became leader of the party, and after he had gone over to the Church of Rome, Keble was chief adviser and counsellor. He also wrote some of the more important Tracts, inculcating, as has been said, deep submission to authority, implicit reverence for Catholic tradition, firm belief in the divine prerogatives of the priesthood, the reai nature of the sacraments, and the danger of independent speculation.' Such principles, fettering the understanding, are never likely It shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark.-Zecha riah, xiv. 6. to be popular, but they were held by Keble with saint-like sincerity and simplicity of character. In 1835, the poetical divine became vicar of Hursley, near Winchester. In 1846, he published a second volume of poems, Lyra Innocentium,' and he was author of a 'Life of Wilson, Bishop of Sodor and Man,' and editor of an edition of 'Hooker's Works.' The poetry of Keble is characterized by great delicacy and purity both of thought and expression. It is occasionally prosaic and feeble, but always wears a sort of apostolic air, and wins its way to the heart. NOEL THOMAS CARRINGTON, A Devonshire poet, MR. CARRINGTON (1777-1830), has celebrated some of the scenery and traditions of his native district in pleasing His works have been collected into two volumes, and consist of The Banks of Tamar,' 1820; Dartmoor' (his best poem), 1826; 'My Native Village;' and miscellaneous pieces. verse. The Pixies of Devon. The age of pixies, like that of chivalry, is gone. There is, perhaps, at present, scarcely a house which they are reputed to visit. Even the fields and lanes which they formerly frequented seem to be nearly forsaken. Their music is rarely heard; and they appear to have forgotten to attend their ancient midnight dance.-DREW'S Cornwall. They are flown. Beautiful fictions of our father's, wove In Superstition's web when Time was young, And night is strangely mute! the hymnings high- Heard ravished oft, are flown! Oh, ye have lost, Mountains and moors, and meads, the radiant throngs The air, the fields, with beauty and with joy Intense; with a rich mystery that awed The mind, and flung around a thousand hearths The very streams Brightened with visitings of these so sweet From the charmed waters, which still brighter grew Scarce bore the unearthly glory. Where they tred, And fragrance, as of amaranthine bowers, Floated upon the breeze. And mortal eyes And, unreproved, upon their ravishing forms And by gifted eyes were seen The sunbeam, and now rode upon the gale The seasons came The shower or sunbeam fell or glanced as pleased Some poet-translators of this period merit honourable mention. ARCHDEACON WRANGHAM. The REV. FRANCIS WRANGHAM (1769-1843), rector of Hunmanby, Yorkshire, and archdeacon of Chester, in 1795 wrote a prize poem on the Restoration of the Jews,' and translations in verse. He was the author of four Seaton prize-poems on sacred subjects, several sermons, an edition of Langhorne's Plutarch, and dissertations on the British empire in the East, on the translation of the Scriptures into the oriental languages, &c. His occasional translations from the Greek and Latin, and his macaronic verses, or sportive classical effusions among his friends, were marked by fine taste and felicitous adaptation. He continued his favourite studies to the close of his long life, and was the ornament and delight of the society in which he moved. HENRY FRANCIS CARY. The REV. HENRY FRANCIS Cary (1772-1844), by his translation of Dante, has earned a high and lasting reputation. He was early distinguished as a classical scholar at Christ's Church, Oxford, and was familiar with almost the whole range of Italian, French, and English literature. In 1805 he published the 'Inferno' of Dante in blank verse, and an entire translation of the Divina Commedia,' in the same measure, in 1814. He afterwards translated the Birds' of Aristophanes, and the 'Odes' of Pindar, and wrote short memoirs in continuation of Johnson's 'Lives of the Poets,' which, with lives of the early French poets, appeared anonymously in the 'London Magazine.' For some years Mr. Cary held the office of assistant-librarian in the British Museum, and enjoyed a pension of £200 per annum. A Memoir of this amiable scholar was written by his son, the Rev. H. Cary, and published in 1847. First brought into notice by the prompt and strenuous exertions of Coleridge, Mr. Cary's version of the Florentine poet passed through four editions during the life of the translator. We subjoin a specimen. Francesca of Rimini. In the second circle of hell, Dante, in his vision,' witnesses the punishment of carnal sinners, who are tossed about ceaselessly in the dark air by furious winds. Amongst these he meets with Francesca of Rimini, who, with her lover Paolo, was put to death. The father of the unfortunate lady was the friend and protector of Dante. 6 I began: Bard! willingly I would address those two together coming. And firm, to their sweet nest returning home, O gracious creature, and benign! who goest Of whatsoe'er to hear or to discourse 3 The place to which murderers are doomed. And held them there so long, that the bard cried: But tell me; in the time of your sweet sighs, All trembling kissed. The book and writer both Ugolini and his Sons in the Tower of Famine. During the contests between the Guelph and the Ghibellines, in 1289, Count Ugolini with two of his sons and two grandsons, were confined by Archbishop Ruggieri in a tower; the tower was locked, and the key thrown into the Arno, and all food was withheld from them. In a few days, they died of hunger. Dante describes the future punishment of Ugolini and the cardinal as being peut in one hollow of the ice.' The awful deaths in the tower are thus related by the ghost of the count. A small grate Within that mew, which for my sake the name Of famine bears, where others yet must pine, The one, methought, as master of the sport, Seemed tired and lagging, and methought I saw The sharp tusks gore their sides. When I awoke, 1 One of the knights of the Round Table, and the lover of Ginevra, or Guinever, celebrated in romance. 2 A fine representation of this scene in marble formed part of the Manchester Exhibition of 1857. It was from the collection of the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone, and was ex ecuted by Mr. A. Munro, sculptor, a young artist cut off prematurely by death in 1871, |