ROBERT SOUTHEY, LL. D., poet laureate, was born at Bristol, August 12th, 1774. His father was a linen draper in Wine-street, and when six years old he was sent to school to a Baptist minister, by name Foote. His tuition was then continued in the country at Newport St. Loe, where his master was a gentleman named Flower, but, according to his own account, he got but little scholarship at this academy. The acquisition of such lore was reserved for the great public school at Westminster, where he was sent by one of his uncles-a brother of his mother-Mr. Hill, in 1788. He remained there till 1792, when he was removed to Oxford, and studied for a couple of years at Baliol College, with the design of entering the church. But that scheme was entirely frustrated by Southey's opinions: the plan of life chalked out for him became altogether distasteful.

On closing his academical career at Oxford, in 1794, he commenced life as an author. In that year he published, in conjunction with his friend Lovell, his first volume of poems-the two youthful bards assuming the romantic and arcadian nomenclatures of Moschus and Bion. About that time he took part with Lovell and Coleridge in the famous Pantisocracy scheme, to which all the eager contributors brought golden theories, but so little of more tangible coin, that the Utopian project was necessarily relinquished.

In the November of the following year, in 1795, he changed his state and became a married man. His wife was a Miss Pricker, of Bristol-her other sister was the wife of Coleridge.

While on his way to Lisbon, to spend his honey-nicon abroad, in the winter of the same year, his poem of "Joan of Arc" was published. In the following summer he returned to Bristol, and in the subsequent year removed to London and entered Gray's Inn. He passed part of the years 1800-1, in Portugal, and was a short time resident in Ireland.

After having resided a short time at Westbury, near Bristol, he went to Keswick in 1801, on a visit to Mr. Coleridge, and returned in 1803, to take up his residence at Greta Hall, where he afterwards lived, beloved and respected by all who knew him.

The fertility of Southey's mind can only be estimated by glancing at a list of his works. It is possible he might have reached a still higher pinnacle of fame had he devoted a large portion of his time to improving and revising, instead of producing new works.

Of prose works we have "Letters from Spain and Portugal, and Travels in those Countries;" being an account of his residence therein. "Chronicle of the Cid;" a compilation from several Spanish works, 1 vol. 4to. "Amadis of Gaul;" a translation. "History of Brazil;" 3 vols. 4to. "History of the Peninsular War;" 3 vols. 4to. "Life of Nelson," 2 vols. 12mo. "Ommiana," 2 vols. 12mo. "Letters of Don Manuel Espriella, from England to Spain," 3 vols. 12mo. "An account of the Madras System of Education, founded by Dr. Andrew Bell," 1 vol. 12mo. "Life of John Wesley," 2 vols. 8vo. "Vindicit Ecclesia Anglicana," 1 vol. 8vo. "Life of John Bunyan;" in Murray's 8vo. edition. "Life of Cowper." "Lives of the Admirals;" in Lardner's Cyclopædia. "Book of the Church," 2 vols.

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This list as to minor works is necessarily very imperfect. In early life he contributed to the " Edinburgh Annual Register," and the "Quarterly Review" has been indebted to him for a constant succession of articles from its first establishment till he ceased to write. A selection from these papers was published by him in two small volumes under the title of "Essays, Moral and Political." The last collected edition of his poems consists of two closely printed volumes with copious notes. The most important of his poetical works are "Joan of Arc," "Thalaba," Madoc," "The Curse of Kehama,” and “Roderic, the Last of the Goths." Many of those minor poems, which are familiar to every one, are exquisitively beautiful; of the "Devil's Walk,” so much praised by some of his detractors so long as they considered it from the pen of Porson, he seems to have been by no means vain; and most likely it might still have been attributed to the Professor, had Coleridge not set the matter at rest by announcing it as the joint production of himself and Southey, one morning at the breakfast-table. Wat Tyler" is included in the last edition as a juvenile poem. where he mildly answers the sneers at his change of political opinions, by saying that he is not more ashamed of having been a republican in early youth than he is of having been once a boy. The duties of poet-laureate, as fulfilled by Dr. Southey, render the appointment one which any man of independent feeling may accept. He has abolished that servile practice of bedaubing princes, year after year, with the fulsome flattery of birth-day odes, which caused Sir Walter Scott to decline the offer, and seems to have circumscribed his task to chronicling such national events as seemed worthy of his pen, in the way and at the time best suited to himself. The marriage of the Princess Charlotte presented a fair opportunity for the adulation of a court poet. Yet in the lay of the laureate we find him assuming the character of a monitor; pointing out the duties of princes, and what a nation expect of them.

The Premier, Sir Robert Peel, when last in office, showed his regard and estimation of his talents by offering him a baronetcy, which was, however, declined. Shortly afterwards he was granted a pension of £300 per annum, in addition to his other emoluments. He was married early in life to Miss Edith Fricker, of Bristol, who died at Keswick in 1837, and afterwards to Miss Caroline Bowles, who can have enjoyed the delight of being the companion to such a mind but for a short time, as Dr. Southey had been for years in a state of perfect unconsciousness; his mind had been overworked, and the distress occasioned by the protracted illness of his first wife, to whom he was most fondly attached, laid the foundation of that mental decay which gradually reduced him to a state of helplessness. If we consider his private virtues as a

husband, a father, and a friend; his eminent talents as a poet, a historian, and a biographer, we must feel that it may be long ere we look upon his like again.

He died on Tuesday the 21st of March, at Greta Hall, and was interred on the Friday following in the same grave with his Edith, in the beautiful and romantic churchyard of Keswick. A limited number of personal friends were invited to the funeral, but it was numerously attended by the uninvited of all classes in testimony of their regard and respect. A monument is now erected to his memory in Westminster Abbey.

The following is a description of Southey's personal appearance, as given in a light mood by himself, and styled

ROBERT THE RHYMER'S TRUE AND PARTICULAR ACCOUNT OF HIMSELF.
ROBERT the Rhymer, who lives at the lakes,
Describes himself thus, to prevent mistakes;
Or rather, perhaps, be it said, to correct them,

There being plenty about for those who collect them.

He is lean of body and lank of limb,

The man must walk fast who would overtake him.
His eyes are not yet much the worse for the wear,
And Time has not thinn'd or straightened his hair,
Nothwithstanding that he is more than half way
On the road from grizzle to gray,

He hath a long nose with a bending ridge,

It might be worthy of notice on Strasburg bridge
He sings like a lark at morn when he arises,
And when even comes, he nightingaleizes;

Warbling house notes wild from throat and gizzard,
Which reach from A to G, and from G to Izzard.
His voice is as good as when he was young,

And he has teeth enough left to keep in his tongue.
A man he is by nature merry,

Somewhat Tom-foolish, and convivial, very,

Who has gone through the world, not mindful of pelf,
Upon easy terms, thank Heaven, with himself,
Along bypaths, and in pleasant ways,

Caring as little for censure as praise;

Having some friends who he loves dearly,

And no lack of foes whom he laughs at sincerely.
And never for great or for little things
Has he fretted himself to fiddle-strings.
He might have made them by such folly
Most musical, most melancholy.

Sic cecinit Robertus, anno ætatis suæ 55.

ADAM CLARKE.

DR. ADAM CLARKE, one of the most prominent, learned and distinguished members of the Wesleyan Methodist connection in England, was born at Moybeg, an obscure hamlet in Londonderry, Ireland, about the year 1760. His ancestors were originally from England, from whence they emigrated to Ireland. He is best known abroad by his valuable Commentary on the Bible, which has had a very extensive circulation in the religious world. The following notices of his life are abridged from the Quarterly Review: the phraseology in the extracts being retained.

I have taken from the Originals
Adam Carte

Fac-simile of Adam Clarke's Hand-writing.

His father was a school-master of a superior order, and Adam, if we understand the narrative right, was one of his scholars; a lad of hardy habits, and as yet unapt to learn. Whatever was his want of capacity to acquire knowledge, his feelings were quick and tender; and one day, as he and a little school-fellow were seated on a bank together, the children fell into serious conversation on futurity-"O Addy, Addy," said his companion, "what a dreadful thing is eternity; and O, how dreadful to be put into hell-fire, and to be burnt for ever!" and thereupon they wept bitterly, begged God to forgive them their sins, which were chiefly those of disobedience to their parents, and made to each other strong promises of amendment. His mother, who came to the knowledge of this incident, pondered it in heart with a mother's satisfaction; his father, who seems to have been an austere, ill-judging man, had no opinion of pious resolutions in children; and Adam was old enough to find discouragement in this indifference, and to feel that smoking flax had been quenched.

The circumstances of the family were strait, so much so, indeed, that his father and mother, with their first-born child, (Adam was their second,) had actually embarked for America, and were only prevailed upon to abandon their enterprise by the most earnest entreaties of their friends. Mr. Clarke, therefore, found it convenient to combine his school with a small farm; this he cultivated after the plan of Virgil's Georgics, a work of which he was a great admirer. Meanwhile, Adam and his brother were employed in the labor of husbandry, and in the studies of the school by turns: he whose duty it was to read the Georgics, communicating his lesson to him whose duty it was to apply them. The pence they thus gained were laid out in books-such nursery tales and wild romances as were wont to make up the youthful library before the march of knowledge had superseded them by treatises on political economy, and taught us to put away childish things ere yet we are men. The use of such books Adam Clarke defends, as creating an appetite for reading, the foundation of all knowledge; leading the mind to the contemplation of a spiritual world, such as it was; and, in some instances, as in the case of Robinson Crusoe, impressing the child with such a notion of the providence of God, as nothing was ever likely to efface afterwards.

Mention has already been made of Adam Clarke's mother. She was a Presbyterian of the old Puritan School-a person powerful in the Scriptures-and whenever she corrected her children, she gave chapter and verse for it. From her he received his early religious impressions. In the year. 1777, the Methodists first appeared in his neighborhood. Hitherto he had been in the habit of attending both church and meeting-house, the former chiefly, but with no great edification from either; indeed, the Presbyterian congregation here, as elsewhere, was fast drooping into Socianism. He was now led by curiosity to hear a sermon of the new preacher. Christ crucified, and redemption through his blood, was the burden of his sermon; and Mrs. Clarke,

who accompanied her son, and who was as yet his oracle in matters spiritual, pronounced rightly enough-"This is the doctrine of the Reformers." From that time the house of the Clarkes was open to such preachers as came to those parts, and young Adam was soon added to the number of the converts. It was still, however, some time before he had assurance of his salvation, a doctrine then strongly insisted upon by the Methodists, but "one morning," we quote his own account of an incident which he ever represented as the epoch of his life," in great distress of soul he went out to work in the field. He began, but could not proceed, so great was his spiritual anguish. He fell down on his knees on the earth and prayed, but seemed to be without power of faith. He arose, endeavored to work, but could not; even his physical strength appeared to have departed from him. He again endeavored to pray, but the gate of Heaven seemed barred against him. His faith in the atonement, so far as it concerned himself, was almost entirely gone; he could not believe that Jesus had died for him; the thickest darkness seemed to surround and gather on his soul. He fell flat on his face on the earth, and endeavored to pray, but still there was no answer; he arose, but he was so weak that he could scarcely stand. It is said the time of man's extremity is the time of God's opportunity. He now felt strongly in his soul, Pray to Christ; another word for, Come to the holiest through the blood of Jesus. He looked up confidently to the Savior of sinners, his agony subsided, his soul became calm; a glow of happpiness seemed to thrill through his whole frame; all guilt and condemnation were gone."

Adam Clarke continued to store his mind with such knowlege as a self-educated boy, of active parts, slender means, and few opportuni. ties, could command, grudging not a daily walk of many miles, early and late, in the depth of winter, to gain some acquaintance with Frenchnever having found, as he says, a royal road to any branch of learning. His parents now made another effort to fix him in an honest calling, and a linen merchant of Coleraine, a relation of his own, was the man chosen to take him apprentice. With him he remained a short time, but was never bound, satisfied with his situation chiefly as it gave him a more ready access to the ministry of the Methodists. At length, through the intervention of one of the preachers, he was recommended to the notice of John Wesley, who proposed to receive him at Kingwood School, an establishment of Wesley's own projecting, and originally intended for the sons of itinerant preachers. Accordingly he set sail for England.

We now come to some of those scenes of itinerancy on the several circuits to which he was appointed :-Bradford, Norwich, Cornwall, the Norman Isles, &c.-those picturesqued adventures, grotesque hardships, "moving accidents by flood and field," which gave to the early Methodist preacher something of the stirring character of a campaign, or the wildness of an expedition of knight-erranty, sublimed, however, by the dignity of the cause in which he was embarked-scenes and sufferings which altogether served to animate his spirit, brace his limbs, and lead him on to old age with eye undimmed and force unabated. This life of religious adventure had evidently great charms for Adam Clarke, so that after he had become himself Emeritus, he twice visited the Shetland Isles, (overlooked by Wesley,) where he had established, with incredible pains, a Methodist mission-erected numerous chapels-and maintained several preachers out of funds which his own personal influence enabled him to raise.

Adam now marries. Some of his love-letters are given, and are curious. Sir Henry Vane himself could not have made love in language more mystical. Miss Mary Cooke, the eldest daughter of Mr. Cooke, a clothier of Trowbridge, was the lady of his choice. "The connection," says the autobiographer, "was too good and holy not to be opposed."