No More Learning

Beyond all this, we may find another reason why God hath
scattered up and down several degrees of pleasure and pain in all
the things that environ and affect us, and blended them together
in almost all that our thoughts and senses have to do with; that
we, finding imperfection, dissatisfaction, and want of complete
happiness in all the enjoyments which the creatures can afford
us, might be led to seek it in the enjoyment of Him "with whom
there is fullness of joy, and at whose right hand there are pleas-
ures for evermore. "


## p. 9109 (#113) ###########################################

JOHN LOCKE
9109
INJUDICIOUS HASTE IN STUDY
From the Essay Concerning Human Understanding'
-
THE
HE eagerness and bent of the mind after knowledge,
if not warily regulated, is often a hindrance to it. It still
presses into further discoveries and new objects, and catches
at the variety of knowledge; and therefore often stays not long
enough on what is before it, to look into it as it should, for haste
to pursue what is yet out of sight. He that rides post through
a country may be able, from the transient view, to tell in general
how the parts lie; and may be able to give some loose descrip-
tion of here a mountain and there a plain, here a morass and
there a river, woodland in one part and savannahs in another.
Such superficial ideas and observations as these he may collect in
galloping over it: but the more useful observations of the soil,
plants, animals, and inhabitants, with their several sorts and prop-
erties, must necessarily escape him; and it is seldom men ever
discover the rich mines without some digging. Nature commonly
lodges her treasures and jewels in rocky ground. If the matter
be knotty, and the sense lies deep, the mind must stop and buckle
to it, and stick upon it with labor and thought and close contem-
plation, and not leave it until it has mastered the difficulty and
got possession of truth. But here care must be taken to avoid
the other extreme: a man must not stick at every useless nicety,
and expect mysteries of science in every trivial question or
scruple that he may raise. He that will stand to pick up and
examine every pebble that comes in his way, is as unlikely to
return enriched and laden with jewels, as the other that traveled
full speed. Truths are not the better nor the worse for their
obviousness or difficulty, but their value is to be measured by their
usefulness and tendency. Insignificant observations should not
take up any of our minutes; and those that enlarge our view,
and give light towards further and useful discoveries, should not
be neglected, though they stop our course and spend some of our
time in a fixed attention.
There is another haste that does often, and will, mislead the
mind, if it be left to itself and its own conduct. The under-
standing is naturally forward, not only to learn its knowledge by
variety, which makes it skip over one to get speedily to another
part of knowledge,— but also eager to enlarge its views by run-
ning too fast into general observations and conclusions, without a


## p. 9110 (#114) ###########################################

9110
JOHN LOCKE
due examination of particulars enough thereon to found those
general axioms. This seems to enlarge their stock, but it is of
fancies, not realities; such theories, built upon narrow founda-
tions, stand but weakly, and if they fall not themselves, are at
least very hardly to be supported against the assaults of opposi
tion. And thus men, being too hasty to erect to themselves
general notions and ill-grounded theories, find themselves de-
ceived in their stock of knowledge, when they come to examine
their hastily assumed maxims themselves or to have them at-
tacked by others. General observations, drawn from particulars,
are the jewels of knowledge, comprehending great store in a
little room; but they are therefore to be made with the greater
care and caution, lest if we take counterfeit for true, our loss
and shame will be the greater when our stock comes to a severe
scrutiny. One or two particulars may suggest hints of inquiry,
and they do well who take those hints; but if they turn them
into conclusions, and make them presently general rules, they are
forward indeed, but it is only to impose on themselves by propo-
sitions assumed for truths without sufficient warrant. To make
such observations is, as has been already remarked, to make the
head a magazine of materials which can hardly be called knowl-
edge, or at least it is but like a collection of lumber not reduced
to use or order; and he that makes everything an observation
has the same useless plenty, and much more falsehood mixed
with it. The extremes on both sides are to be avoided; and he
will be able to give the best account his studies who keeps his
understanding in the right mean between them.


## p. 9111 (#115) ###########################################

9111
FREDERICK LOCKER-LAMPSON
(1821-1895)
BY ELIZABETH STODDARD
O BETTER biography
Frederick Locker can be given than
that by himself in 'My Confidences,' published since his
death by his son-in-law, Augustine Birrell. When Mr.
Locker begins them, he laments that he had not kept a journal, as it
might have been of some interest; but it was now too late. He
certainly describes the man he was,- — a somewhat whimsical, modest
person of culture.
Born of a distinguished naval family, twice married to women of
rank and wealth, a man of society as well as of letters, he steered
his bark in and out of the inlets of life, and skirted the borders of
its placid lakes and verdant shores without attempting to sail in
stormy seas. Thus he lived and died a prosperous, amiable gentle-
man.
"I am well content," he writes, "to range with humble livers,
provided I am allowed my share of humble memories. " With an
agreeable inconsistency, he records the annals of the Locker family.
His great-great-grandfathers were barristers, and clerks in city com-
panies; one of them, John Locker, a member of the Society of
Antiquaries, is referred to by Johnson in his Life of Addison,' as
eminent for "curiosity and literature. " The grandfather of Frede-
rick Locker, William Locker, after fifty years of active service in the
navy, was retired. When he commanded the 'Lowestoffe,' a youth
of eighteen, one Horatio Nelson, was his second lieutenant; Cuthbert,
afterwards Lord Collingwood, serving under him in the same vessel.
In 1792 William Locker hoisted his flag as commodore at the shore;
his health failing, he was appointed lieutenant-governor of Green-
wich Hospital, where he died in 1800, and was followed to the grave
by his friend Lord Nelson.
Frederick Locker's father, Edward Hawke Locker, was the young-
est son of William Locker. He left Eton to become a clerk in the
Navy Office, and not long afterwards was appointed civil commissioner
of Greenwich Hospital. He was also one of the founders and a pro-
moter of the Royal Naval Gallery. According to Lockhart, among
the distinguished friends of Edward Hawke Locker "Scott was an old


## p. 9112 (#116) ###########################################

9112
FREDERICK LOCKER-LAMPSON
and dear friend. " In May 1814 Mr. Locker was charged with a mis-
sion to Elba, where Napoleon had just arrived from Fréjus after his
abdication; an account of which the commissioner published in The
Plain Englishman, a periodical which he conducted in association
with Charles Knight:-
"Napoleon," he wrote, "takes much snuff; he is short and fat; his head
handsome, though too large for his body; his smile is pleasing, but his laugh
is singularly discordant, almost a neigh; his hand is white and delicate, and
his limbs have that roundness which does not become a man and a soldier;
but like all men of eminent ability, his manner was plain and unaffected. "
Frederick Locker's mother was the daughter of the well-known
vicar of Epsom, Jonathan Boucher, who passed much of his youth in
America, and there formed a friendship with George Washington, a
friendship broken by political differences. The letters of Washington
to his grandfather, Mr. Frederick Locker lent to Thackeray when he
was writing Henry Esmond. ' Of his mother, the poet writes that she
was "exceedingly handsome, but timid and anxious, pious, and deeply
read in Graham's 'Domestic Medicine. '» For all this, she was as
merry as a grig—while plying us with tracts, and hanging texts
over our bed-heads. For years the question worked on a perforated
card in colored worsteds, 'Do you ever pray? ' was present to me.
Finally she came to the belief that every soul would be saved; even
Lord Hertford, the typical wicked nobleman of her time. " Edward
Hawke Locker, writes his son, was an able upright man, in a way
strait-laced and circumspect; so prejudiced in regard to the early
fashion of his period that he could not be persuaded to surrender his
queue, till some other Locker came behind his chair at dinner and
cut it off. He did things foreign to his character; and Mr. Birrell,
in an editorial note, remarks that the traits described in the Johns
and Williams were as noticeable in Frederick.
Frederick Locker was born in Greenwich Hospital in 1821. In his
father's apartment the boy grew up among delightful surroundings,
books and choice pictures. He never forgot the endearing sentiment
of those early days. It was a Philistine age; but he speaks of the
excellent taste in the paintings and furnishing of the apartments.
"The picture by Hogarth of David Garrick and his wife was so life-
like that we children were afraid of it, and persuaded their father to
sell it to George IV. "
The tale of Frederick Locker's school days is dismal. He went
through six schools in his seven years of pupildom. At the age of
eight his father writes to Mrs. Locker, when the lad was at a school
in Clapham, that "for all the teacher's pains, Fred remains as idle
as ever. " The child's memory of that teacher was that "she had all


## p. 9113 (#117) ###########################################

FREDERICK LOCKER-LAMPSON
9113
the qualities of a kitchen poker, except its occasional warmth. " After
the desultory and unsatisfactory schooling,-especially at one school
where the teacher, a clergyman, thrashed him with the buckle ends
of his own braces,- his father began to despair of him. What was
the use of his being good at fives and tolerably so at cricket, if he
spelt abominably and could not construe a line of Latin? The par-
ents abandoned their aspiration for church or bar, and with some
difficulty obtained for the boy a place as clerk in a colonial broker's
counting-house, where he was to learn the business without pay. He
turned out as incapable and inefficient at commerce as at everything
else; developing, however, a turn for quizzing his masters and supe-
riors, while giving a good deal of his time to the cut of his trousers.
He named his wit at this period, empty, "a sneeze of the mind. "
In spite of the duties given him at this place, he learned nothing.
His much-tried father was advised to remove him. This was done;
but when his prospects were at the darkest, he proved that "there
is a budding morrow in midnight. " One memorable day, by the
kindness of his father's friend Lord Haddington, he was transferred
to the Admiralty as a junior in the private office. About this time
the verse faculty sprouted. He remained in this place some years;
but losing his health, was given leave of absence, and fled to the
Continent, where he found his first happiness. At Paris he met
Lady Charlotte Bruce, Lord Elgin's daughter, and was struck with her
many charms. She returned to England; a correspondence took
place; he followed her home, proposed to her, and was married in
1850. While she lived he moved in brilliant society,- at home, in
Rome, and in Paris. The marriage was a happy one. The Queen
had a warm regard for Charlotte, rejoiced in her humor, honored her
by giving her her books, and commended her to those select courts
which she decreed in the earlier days of her widowhood. "I have
never," says Locker, "felt much at my ease with royalty, and I
never shall. " He speaks with enthusiasm of the prize-fight between
Tom Sayers and Heenan; of the strange tremor which ran through
him when the men stood up and shook hands; and of the marvelous
qualities Sayers showed on that day,- of temper, judgment, and
staying power.
The Admiralty was not a genial soil for poetry, yet he planted
the laurel there. He contributed to Blackwood's, the Cornhill, and
the Times, in prose and verse. In 1859 he published what he called
certain sparrow-flights of song,-'London Lyrics,'-bearing in mind
"the narrowness of the scope of his little pipe. " When Thackeray
encouraged him, he speaks of the fine rapture, the flood of an author's
ecstasy which never rises to high-water mark but once.
This was
when Thackeray had sent him the proof of his 'Verses on a Human


## p. 9114 (#118) ###########################################

FREDERICK LOCKER-LAMPSON
9114
Skull, to be published in the Cornhill. In 1874 he married as his
second wife the only daughter of Sir Curtis Lampson, whose name
he adopted. In 1879 he published an olio of prose and verse, with
the title of 'Patchwork,' revealing himself as the poet of society
singing out the hearts of polite London folk to their faces. The
work he is best known by is 'Lyra Elegantiarum'; an anthology of
airy graceful verse, which has exhausted the field where he gathered
his gleanings.
Up to the event of Mr. Locker's first marriage, the 'Confidences'
observe a sequence more or less historical. The story then breaks
off abruptly, and a series of essays follow, on the incidents of his
life, portraits of authors, and criticisms on their books. In his clos-
ing paragraph in 'My Confidences' he asks his readers to think kindly
of Pierrot. They will regard him also with gratitude and affection.
The evening of his days was passed at Rowfant, where he died in
May 1895.
The verse of Frederick Locker-Lampson is of the kind which the
French call vers de société, and which may be seen in all its English
varieties in his Lyra Elegantiarum. ' He belongs to the seventeenth-
century school of light and airy singers; of which Carew, Suckling,
Lovelace, Herrick, and Sedley were masters, and which in the days
of Queen Anne was conducted by such modish, jaunty ushers as
Pope and Prior. But he belongs to it in its nineteenth-century con-
ditions, which, in common with Hood, Praed, and Thackeray, he has
bettered and enlarged with his finer taste, purer sentiment, and more
genuine human feeling. His 'London Lyrics' are the perfection of
humorous-pathetic poetry.
Elizabeth Stoddard
THE SKELETON IN THE CUPBOARD
THE
HE characters of great and small
Come ready-made, we can't bespeak one;
Their sides are many, too- and all
(Except ourselves) have got a weak one.
Some sanguine people love for life;
Some love their hobby till it flings them;
And many love a pretty wife
For love of the éclat she brings them!


## p. 9115 (#119) ###########################################

FREDERICK LOCKER-LAMPSON
9115
We all have secrets: you have one
Which may not be your charming spouse's;
We all lock up a skeleton
In some grim chamber of our houses;
Familiars who exhaust their days
And nights in probing where our smart is,
And who, excepting spiteful ways,
Are quiet, confidential "parties. "
We hug the phantom we detest,
We rarely let it cross our portals:
It is a most exacting guest,-
Now are we not afflicted mortals?
Your neighbor Gay, that joyous wight,-
As Dives rich, and bold as Hector,-
Poor Gay steals twenty times a night,
On shaking knees, to see his spectre.
-
Old Dives fears a pauper fate,
And hoarding is his thriving passion;
Some piteous souls anticipate
A waistcoat straiter than the fashion.
She, childless, pines. -that lonely wife,-
And hidden tears are bitter shedding;
And he may tremble all his life,
And die but not of that he's dreading.
―
Ah me, the World! how fast it spins!
The beldams shriek, the caldron bubbles;
They dance, and stir it for our sins,
And we must drain it for our troubles.
We toil, we groan, - the cry for love
Mounts upward from this seething city;
And yet I know we have above
A Father, infinite in pity.
When Beauty smiles, when sorrow weeps,
When sunbeams play, when shadows darken,
One inmate of our dwelling keeps
A ghastly carnival - but hearken!
How dry the rattle of those bones! -
The sound was not to make you start meant -
Stand by your humble servant owns
The Tenant of this Dark Apartment.


## p. 9116 (#120) ###########################################

9116
FREDERICK LOCKER-LAMPSON
MY NEIGHBOR ROSE
TH
HOUGH slender walls our hearths divide,
No word has passed from either side.
Your days, red-lettered all, must glide
Unvexed by labor:
I've seen you weep, and could have wept;
I've heard you sing, and may have slept;
Sometimes I hear your chimneys swept,
My charming neighbor!
Your pets are mine. Pray what may ail
The pup, once eloquent of tail?
I wonder why your nightingale
Is mute at sunset!
Your puss, demure and pensive, seems
Too fat to mouse. She much esteems
Yon sunny wall-and sleeps and dreams
Of mice she once ate.
Our tastes agree.
I doat upon
Frail jars, turquoise and celadon,
The 'Wedding March' of Mendelssohn,
And Penseroso. '
When sorely tempted to purloin
Your pietà of Marc Antoine,
Fair Virtue doth fair play enjoin,
Fair Virtuoso!
At times an Ariel, cruel-kind,
Will kiss my lips, and stir your blind,
And whisper low, "She hides behind:
Thou art not lonely. "
The tricksy sprite did erst assist
At hushed Verona's moonlight tryst;
Sweet Capulet! thou wert not kissed
By light winds only.
I miss the simple days of yore,
When two long braids of hair you wore,
And chat botté was wondered o'er
In corner cosy.
But gaze not back for tales like those:
'Tis all in order, I suppose;
The Bud is now a blooming Rose,-
A rosy posy!


## p. 9117 (#121) ###########################################

FREDERICK LOCKER-LAMPSON
9117
Indeed, farewell to bygone years:
How wonderful the change appears,—
For curates now and cavaliers
In turn perplex you;
The last are birds of feather gay,
Who swear the first are birds of prey:
I'd scare them all, had I my way,
But that might vex you.
At times I've envied, it is true,
That joyous hero, twenty-two,
Who sent bouquets and billets-doux,
And wore a sabre.
The rogue! how tenderly he wound
His arm round one who never frowned:
He loves you well. Now, is he bound
To love my neighbor?
The bells are ringing. As is meet,
White favors fascinate the street;
Sweet faces greet me, rueful-sweet,
'Twixt tears and laughter;
They crowd the door to see her go:
The bliss of one brings many woe,—
Oh! kiss the bride, and I will throw
The old shoe after.
What change in one short afternoon,-
My charming neighbor gone,- so soon!
Is yon pale orb her honey-moon
Slow rising hither?
O lady, wan and marvelous,
How often have we communed thus;
Sweet memories shall dwell with us.
And joy go with her!
-


## p. 9118 (#122) ###########################################

9118
FREDERICK LOCKER-LAMPSON
THE ROSE AND THE RING
CHRISTMAS 1854, AND CHRISTMAS 1863
(W. M. T. )
SHE
HE smiles but her heart is in sable,
And sad as her Christmas is chill:
She reads, and her book is the fable
He penned for her while she was ill.
It is nine years ago since he wrought it
Where reedy old Tiber is king;
And chapter by chapter he brought it-
And read her the Rose and the Ring.
And when it was printed, and gaining
Renown with all lovers of glee,
He sent her this copy containing
His comical little croquis;
A sketch of a rather droll couple-
---
She's pretty-he's quite t'other thing!
He begs (with a spine vastly supple)
She will study the Rose and the Ring.
It pleased the kind Wizard to send her
The last and the best of his toys:
His heart had a sentiment tender
For innocent women and boys;
And though he was great as a scorner,
The guileless were safe from his sting:
How sad is past mirth to the mourner! -
A tear on the Rose and the Ring!
She reads-I may vainly endeavor
Her mirth-chequered grief to pursue:
For she hears she has lost and for ever-
-
A Heart that was known by so few:
But I wish on the shrine of his glory
One fair little blossom to fling;
And you see there's a nice little story
Attached to the Rose and the Ring!


## p. 9119 (#123) ###########################################

FREDERICK LOCKER-LAMPSON
9119
THE WIDOW'S MITE
HE Widow had but only one,-
A puny and decrepit son;
Yet day and night,
Though fretful oft, and weak, and small,
A loving child, he was her all-
The Widow's Mite.
THE
---
-
The Widow's might; - yes! so sustained,
She battled onward, nor complained
When friends were fewer;
And cheerful at her daily care,
A little crutch upon the stair
Was music to her.
I saw her then, - and now I see,
Though cheerful and resigned, still she
Has sorrowed much:
She has - He gave it tenderly -
Much faith; and, carefully laid by,
A little crutch.
Τ
TO MY GRANDMOTHER
SUGGESTED BY A PICTURE BY MR. ROMNEY
HIS relative of mine-
Was she seventy-and-nine
When she died?
By the canvas may be seen
How she looked at seventeen,-
As a bride.
Beneath a summer tree
As she sits, her revery
Has a charm;
-
Her ringlets are in taste, -
What an arm! and what a waist
For an arm!
In bridal coronet,
Lace, ribbons, and coquette
Falbala;


## p. 9120 (#124) ###########################################

FREDERICK LOCKER-LAMPSON
9120
Were Romney's limning true,
What a lucky dog were you,
Grandpapa!
Her lips are sweet as love,—
They are parting! Do they move?
Are they dumb? –
Her eyes are blue, and beam
Beseechingly, and seem
"Come. "
To say,
What funny fancy slips
From between these cherry lips?
Whisper me,
Sweet deity in paint,
What canon says I mayn't
Marry thee?
That good-for-nothing Time.
Has a confidence sublime!
When I first
Saw this lady, in my youth,
Her winters had, forsooth,
Done their worst.
Her locks (as white as snow)
Once shamed the swarthy crow.
By-and-by,
That fowl's avenging sprite
Set his cloven foot for spite
In her eye.
Her rounded form was lean,
And her silk was bombazine:-
Well I wot,
With her needles would she sit,
And for hours would she knit,-
Would she not?
Ah, perishable clay!
Her charms had dropped away
One by one.
But if she heaved a sigh
With a burthen, it was.
Will be done. "
« Thy


## p. 9121 (#125) ###########################################

FREDERICK LOCKER-LAMPSON
9121
XVI-571
D
In travail, as in tears,
With the fardel of her years
Overprest,-
In mercy was she borne
Where the weary ones and worn
Are at rest.
I'm fain to meet you there; -
If as witching as you were,
Grandmamma!
This nether world agrees
That the better it must please
Grandpapa.
ADVICE TO A POET
EAR Poet, never rhyme at all:-
But if you must, don't tell your neighbors;
Or five in six, who cannot scrawl,
Will dub you donkey for your labors.
This epithet may seem unjust
To you or any verse-begetter:
Oh, must we own I fear we must! .
That nine in ten deserve no better.
---
Then let them bray with leathern lungs,
And match you with the beast that grazes;
Or wag their heads, and hold their tongues,
Or damn you with the faintest praises.
Be patient, you will get your due
Of honors, or humiliations;
So look for sympathy-but do
Not look to find it from relations.
―――――
When strangers first approved my books,
My kindred marveled what the praise meant,
They now wear more respectful looks,
But can't get over their amazement.
Indeed, they've power to wound, beyond
That wielded by the fiercest hater;
For all the time they are so fond-
Which makes the aggravation greater.
Most warblers now but half express
The threadbare thoughts they feebly utter:


## p. 9122 (#126) ###########################################

9122
FREDERICK LOCKER-LAMPSON
If they attempted naught - or less! —
They would not sink, and gasp, and flutter.
Fly low, my friend; then mount, and win
The niche for which the town's contesting:
And never mind your kith and kin
But never give them cause for jesting.
--
A bard on entering the lists
Should form his plan; and having conned it,
Should know wherein his strength consists,
And never, never go beyond it.
Great Dryden all pretense discards;
Does Cowper ever strain his tether?
And Praed (Watteau of English Bards) -
How well he keeps his team together!
Hold Pegasus in hand-control
A vein for ornament ensnaring;
Simplicity is still the soul
Of all that Time deems worth the sparing.
Long lays are not a lively sport;
Reduce your own to half a quarter:
Unless your public thinks them short,
Posterity will cut them shorter.
I look on bards who whine for praise
With feelings of profoundest pity:
They hunger for the poet's bays,
And swear one's spiteful when one's witty.
The critic's lot is passing hard:
Between ourselves, I think reviewers,
When called to truss a crowing bard,
Should not be sparing of the skewers.
We all the foolish and the wise—
Regard our verse with fascination,
Through asinine paternal eyes,
And hues of Fancy's own creation;
Then pray, sir, pray, excuse a queer
And sadly self-deluded rhymer,
Who thinks his beer (the smallest beer! )
Has all the gust of alt hochheimer.
Dear Bard, the Muse is such a minx,
So tricksy, it were wrong to let her


## p. 9123 (#127) ###########################################

FREDERICK LOCKER-LAMPSON
9123
Rest satisfied with what she thinks
Is perfect: try and teach her better.
And if you only use, perchance,
One half the pains to learn that we, sir,
Still use to hide our ignorance ·
-
How very clever you will be, sir!
THE JESTER'S PLEA
[These verses were published in a volume by several hands, issued for the
benefit of the starving Lancashire weavers during the American Civil
War. ]
HE World! Was jester ever in
A viler than the present?
Yet if it ugly be-as sin,
It almost is-as pleasant!
It is a merry world (pro tem. );
And some are gay, and therefore
It pleases them- but some condemn
The fun they do not care for.
THE
It is an ugly world. Offend
Good people-how they wrangle!
The manners that they never mend!
The characters they mangle!
They eat, and drink, and scheme, and plod,
And go to church on Sunday;
And many are afraid of God-
And more of Mrs. Grundy.
The time for Pen and Sword was when
"My ladye fayre" for pity
Could tend her wounded knight, and then
Grow tender at his ditty!
Some ladies now make pretty songs,
And some make pretty nurses;
Some men are good for righting wrongs
And some for writing verses.
I wish We better understood
The tax that poets levy!
I know the Muse is very good-
I think she's rather heavy.


## p. 9124 (#128) ###########################################

9124
FREDERICK LOCKER-LAMPSON
She now compounds for winning ways
By morals of the sternest:
Methinks the lays of nowadays
Are painfully in earnest.
When Wisdom halts, I humbly try
To make the most of Folly;
If Pallas be unwilling, I
Prefer to flirt with Polly:
To quit the goddess for the maid
Seems low in lofty musers;
But Pallas is a haughty jade —
And beggars can't be choosers.
I do not wish to see the slaves
Of party, stirring passion;
Or psalms quite superseding staves,
Or piety "the fashion. "
I bless the hearts where pity glows,
Who, here together banded,
Are holding out a hand to those
That wait so empty-handed!
A righteous work! - My Masters, may
A Jester by confession,
Scarce noticed join, half sad, half gay,
The close of your procession?
The motley here seems out of place
With graver robes to mingle;
But if one tear bedews his face,
Forgive the bells their jingle.


## p. 9125 (#129) ###########################################

9125
JOHN GIBSON LOCKHART
(1794-1854)
HE poet and essayist John Gibson Lockhart is a striking ex-
ample of the class of men of no mean literary attainments
whose names have been overshadowed by being connected
with one greater than themselves. He is generally remembered as
the biographer and son-in-law of Walter Scott. He is less often named
as the admirable translator of the 'Spanish Ballads,' and still more
seldom spoken of as the scholarly editor
of the Quarterly Review. Yet he was one
of the most brilliant and most versatile of
the lesser men of English literature.
JOHN G. LOCKHART
Lockhart was born in the manse of Cam-
busnethan in Lanarkshire, where his father
was then a minister of the gospel. Two
years later the preacher was transferred to
Glasgow, and here presently the boy entered
the High School, and in time the Glasgow
College. He was remarkably clever,-en-
dowed with such unusual powers of concen-
tration and memory that study seemed no
effort; and he seemed to idle through his
class hours, chiefly employed in drawing car-
icatures of the instructors. He entered Balliol College, Oxford, when
just past fourteen; an unusually early age even for those days. He
was well equipped in languages, ancient and modern, and had a store
of curious information picked up in voracious reading; but he cared
little for mathematics, excellence in which was greatly insisted upon.
He continued caricaturing his tutors, and playing other harmless jokes
upon them; for he had an irrepressibly frolicsome turn of mind, and
was unconsciously developing his vein of satire and sarcasm. But he
was proud and reserved, and of a constitutional shyness that remained
with him all his life.

After graduation, he went to the Continent on money advanced by
Blackwood for a prospective translation of Friedrich Schlegel's 'Lect-
ures on the Study of History,' his first essay in authorship,-which
however did not appear until some years later. He visited Goethe at
Weimar, and went through France and the Netherlands studying art


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9126
JOHN GIBSON LOCKHART
Returning to Edinburgh, he read law, and was
and architecture.
called to bar in 1816. But he soon joined the staff of Black-
wood's Magazine, contributing literary papers and exercising his un-
rivaled powers of satire in political and critical essays. Here also
he printed a number of the 'Spanish Ballads. ' About this time he
became acquainted with Walter Scott, who took a great fancy to
the handsome, scholarly, witty young fellow, and accepted him as a
son-in-law in 1820. In the cottage which he fitted up for the young
couple on his own estate, they lived for some years in an ideal family
relation.
Having made himself a famous name for caustic wit and luminous
exposition, the brilliant critic of Blackwood was invited to take charge
of the (Tory) London Quarterly, from which "Anti-Jacobin" Gifford
was about to retire. He seems to have had, like Jeffrey, some doubts
as to whether well-paid editorship was an office quite becoming a
gentleman. But at Scott's advice he accepted the post, for which he
was admirably fitted. A born critic, his wide scholarship, his sane,
unbiased judgment, and his decided literary and political views, gave
great weight to his opinions. Aside from his editorial duties he con-
tributed many papers to the magazine. He is credited with having
written in his twenty-eight years of editorship no fewer than one hun-
dred carefully finished articles, besides scores of less elaborate papers.
His was the celebrated review on Tennyson's volume of 1832, which
began with a sarcastic pretense of retracting the Quarterly's adverse
judgment of Keats (plainly intimating that the writer still thought the
public admiration was the real mistake), and went on to say that here
at least was a case where it would never be necessary to retract any-
thing! The new mistake was fully as bad as the old; but it by no
means follows that the reviewer was altogether wrong in either case.
There were weak spots in the early work of both poets; and their
most individual note-a luxurious lingering over sensuous imagery,
and sometimes almost effeminate dalliance with verbal prettiness—
was precisely what most revolted the balladist, whose preference was
for rough and vigorous manliness of style.
Busy as he was, Lockhart managed to find time for contributions
to Blackwood's and to Fraser's. In 1843 he was appointed to the
auditorship of the Duchy of Lancaster, his only political preferment,
which he resigned in 1853 to spend that winter in Rome. Like Sir
Walter, however, he returned home to die. At Abbotsford, November
25th, 1854, he passed away, in the arms of his only surviving daughter,
Mrs. Hope-Scott, to whose son descended the title and estate of his
great-grandfather.
Lockhart was a brilliant talker and a delightful companion among
a few friends. In larger assemblies his shyness made him appear


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JOHN GIBSON LOCKHART
9127
haughty and reserved. He had not the gift of attracting the good-
will of strangers, and this debarred him from success as a public
speaker. His caustic pen, and his delicate position as responsible
editor of a great magazine, made him many enemies, both among
persons whose opinions he criticized and contributors whose articles
he blue-penciled. He was a man of most affectionate nature, not
expansive but deep, with almost a woman's love for children and
compassion for suffering. His life, outwardly uneventful, was sad-
dened by family bereavements: the death in 1831 of his eldest and
favorite son,—the Hugh Littlejohn of the Tales of a Grandfather,'
-the death of his beloved wife in 1837, and the waywardness of his
second son, who also died before him.
Lockhart's writings have never been collected, nor have all his
review articles been identified. In 1819 was published 'Peter's Let-
ters to his Kinsfolk,' purporting to be written by a Welsh dentist, one
"Dr. Peter Morris, the Odontist," on a visit to Edinburgh,— a mock-
ing satire on the society of the Scotch capital. It originated from an
ostensible "review," by Lockhart in Blackwood's, of this (then non-
existent) book, with copious "extracts. " There were so many calls
for the book in consequence that Lockhart wrote it,- probably with
some help from John Wilson,-incorporating the "extracts," and Black-
wood published it as a "second edition. " The first would surpass
all bibliophilic treasures in existence. He tried his hand at novel-
writing, producing within the next five years Valerius: A Roman
Story,' of the time of the Emperor Trajan; 'Adam Blair,' a tale of
great power, involving the moral downfall of a Scotch minister; 'Regi-
nald Dalton,' a story of undergraduate life at Oxford; and Matthew
Wald. ' These stories, though scholarly and well written, lack vital
interest. Lockhart had not the novelist's gift of projecting himself
into his characters and making them alive to the reader, and he
wisely desisted from further efforts. He was a perfect biographer,
for the same reason that he was a foremost critic. In 1829 he opened
Murray's Family Library' with a 'Life of Napoleon,' which however
is little more than a clever abridgment of Scott's Life of the Emperor.
His 'Life of Burns' is a most charming piece of work, which renders
all other biographies of the Scotch singer superfluous. The Life of
Theodore Hook,' within a smaller compass, is adequate to its pur-
pose; but his most enduring work is the Life of Scott. ' He was
well fitted to undertake that task by his long and loving friendship,
which yet did not cloud his judgment. He sets his hero before
the reader as a living being, great-hearted, generous, full of life and
energy. The self-effacement of the biographer is remarkable; he
never dogmatizes, but gives an entirely objective picture. The task
was a delicate one for a son-in-law to undertake, but it was executed


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9128
JOHN GIBSON LOCKHART
1
I
I
to perfection. Next to Boswell's 'Johnson' the book is the best
biography in the language. By his translations of the Spanish Bal-
lads,' Lockhart showed himself a vigorous poet with great command
over English ballad metres. They are Englished with great force and
spirit; and while closely following the Spanish, yet read like original
poems.
THE LAST DAYS OF SIR WALTER SCOTT
From the Life of Scott'
THE
HE last jotting of Sir Walter's Diary-perhaps the last speci-
men of his handwriting-records his starting from Naples
on the 16th of April. After the 11th of May the story can
hardly be told too briefly.
The irritation of impatience, which had for a moment been
suspended by the aspect and society of Rome, returned the
moment he found himself on the road, and seemed to increase
hourly. His companions could with difficulty prevail on him to
see even the Falls of Terni, or the church of Santa Croce at
Florence. On the 17th, a cold and dreary day, they passed the
Apennines, and dined on the top of the mountains. The snow
and the pines recalled Scotland, and he expressed pleasure at the
sight of them. That night they reached Bologna, and he would
see none of the interesting objects therein; and next day, hurry-
ing in like manner through Ferrara, he proceeded as far as Mon-
selice. On the 19th he arrived at Venice, and he remained there
till the 23d; but showed no curiosity about anything except the
Bridge of Sighs and the adjoining dungeons,-down into which
he would scramble, though the exertion was exceedingly painful
to him. On the other historical features of that place- one so
sure in other days to have inexhaustible attractions for him — he
would not even look; and it was the same with all that he came
within reach of - even with the fondly anticipated chapel at Inns-
pruck as they proceeded through the Tyrol, and so onwards,
by Munich, Ulm, and Heidelberg, to Frankfort. Here (June 5th)
he entered a bookseller's shop; and the people seeing an English
party, brought out among the first things a lithographed print of
Abbotsford. He said, "I know that already, sir," and hastened
back to the inn without being recognized. Though in some parts
of the journey they had very severe weather, he repeatedly
wished to travel all the night as well as all the day; and the
-


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JOHN GIBSON LOCKHART
9129
symptoms of an approaching fit were so obvious that he was
more than once bled, ere they reached Mayence, by the hand of
his affectionate domestic.
In this town they embarked on the 8th of June in the Rhine
steamboat; and while they descended the famous river through
its most picturesque region, he seemed to enjoy, though he said.
nothing, the perhaps unrivaled scenery it presented to him. His
eyes were fixed on the successive crags and castles and ruined
monasteries, each of which had been celebrated in some German
ballad familiar to his ear, and all of them blended in the immor-
tal panorama of 'Childe Harold. ' But so soon as he resumed
his carriage at Cologne, and nothing but flat shores, and here
and there a grove of poplars and a village spire, were offered to
the vision, the weight of misery sunk down again upon him.
was near Nimeguen, on the evening of the 9th, that he sustained
another serious attack of apoplexy, combined with paralysis.
Nicolson's lancet restored, after the lapse of some minutes, the
signs of animation; but this was the crowning blow. Next day
he insisted on resuming his journey, and on the 11th was lifted
from the carriage into a steamboat at Rotterdam.
He reached London about six o'clock on the evening of
Wednesday, the 13th of June. Owing to the unexpected rapidity
of the journey, his eldest daughter had had no notice when to
expect him; and fearful of finding her either out of town, or
unprepared to receive him and his attendants under her roof,
Charles Scott drove to the St. James's Hotel in Jermyn Street,
and established his quarters there before he set out in quest of
his sister and myself. When we reached the hotel, he recognized
us with every mark of tenderness, but signified that he was
totally exhausted; so no attempt was made to remove him fur-
ther, and he was put to bed immediately. Dr. Ferguson saw
him the same night, and next day Sir Henry Halford and Dr.
Holland saw him also; and during the next three weeks the two
former visited him daily, while Ferguson was scarcely absent
from his pillow. The Major was soon on the spot. To his
children, all assembled once more about him, he repeatedly gave
his blessing in a very solemn manner, as if expecting immediate
death; but he was never in a condition for conversation, and sunk
either into sleep or delirious stupor upon the slightest effort.
Mrs. Thomas Scott came to town as soon as she heard of
his arrival, and remained to help us. She was more than once


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9130
JOHN GIBSON LOCKHART
recognized and thanked. Mr. Cadell too arrived from Edinburgh
to render any assistance in his power. I think Sir Walter saw
no other of his friends except Mr. John Richardson, and him
only once. As usual, he woke up at the sound of a familiar
voice and made an attempt to put forth his hand; but it dropped
powerless, and he said with a smile, "Excuse my hand. " Rich-
ardson made a struggle to suppress his emotion, and after a mo-
ment got out something about Abbotsford and the woods, which
he had happened to see shortly before. The eye brightened, and
he said, "How does Kirklands get on? " Mr. Richardson had
lately purchased the estate so called on the Teviot, and Sir Wal-
ter had left him busied with plans of building. His friend told
him that his new house was begun, and that the Marquis of
Lothian had very kindly lent him one of his own, meantime, in
its vicinity. "Ay, Lord Lothian is a good man," said Sir Walter:
"he is a
man from whom one may receive a favor, and that's
saying a good deal for any man. in these days. " The stupor
then sank back upon him, and Richardson never heard his voice
again. This state of things continued till the beginning of July.
During these melancholy weeks great interest and sympa-
thy were manifested. Allan Cunningham mentions that, walking
home late one night, he found several workingmen standing to-
gether at the corner of Jermyn Street; and one of them asked
him, as if there was but one death-bed in London, "Do you
know, sir, if this is the street where he is lying? " The inquiries
both at the hotel and at my house were incessant; and I think
there was hardly a member of the royal family who did not send
every day. The newspapers teemed with paragraphs about Sir
Walter: and one of these, it appears, threw out a suggestion
that his travels had exhausted his pecuniary resources; and that
if he were capable of reflection at all, cares of that sort might
probably harass his pillow. This paragraph came from a very
ill-informed but I daresay a well-meaning quarter. It caught the
attention of some members of the then Government; and in con-
sequence I received a private communication to the effect that
if the case were as stated, Sir Walter's family had only to say
what sum would relieve him from embarrassment, and it would
be immediately advanced by the Treasury. The then Paymaster
of the Forces, Lord John Russell, had the delicacy to convey this
message through a lady with whose friendship he knew us to
be honored. We expressed our grateful sense of his politeness


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JOHN GIBSON LOCKHART
9131
and of the liberality of the Government, and I now beg leave to
do so once more; but his Lordship was of course informed that
Sir Walter Scott was not situated as the journalist had repre-
sented.
·
On this his last journey Sir Walter was attended by his two
daughters, Mr. Cadell, and myself; and also by Dr. James Wat-
son, who (it being impossible for Dr. Ferguson to leave town at
that moment) kindly undertook to see him safe at Abbotsford.
We embarked in the James Watt steamboat, the master of which
(Captain John Jamieson), as well as the agent of the proprietors,
made every arrangement in their power for the convenience of
the invalid. The Captain gave up for Sir Walter's use his own
private cabin, which was a separate erection, a sort of cottage on
the deck: and he seemed unconscious, after being laid in bed
there, that any new removal had occurred. On arriving at New-
haven, late on the 9th, we found careful preparations made for
his landing by the manager of the Shipping Company (Mr. Ham-
ilton); and Sir Walter, prostrate in his carriage, was slung on
shore, and conveyed from thence to Douglas's Hotel in St. An-
drew's Square, in the same complete apparent unconsciousness.
Mrs. Douglas had in former days been the Duke of Buccleuch's
housekeeper at Bowhill, and she and her husband had also made
the most suitable provision. At a very early hour on the morn-
ing of Wednesday the 11th we again placed him in his carriage;
and he lay in the same torpid state during the first two stages.
on the road to Tweedside. But as we descended the vale of the
Gala he began to gaze about him, and by degrees it was obvious.
that he was recognizing the features of that familiar landscape.
Presently he murmured a name or two: "Gala Water, surely-
Buckholm - Torwoodlee. " As we rounded the hill at Ladhope,
and the outline of the Eildons burst on him, he became greatly
excited; and when, turning himself on the couch, his eye caught
at length his own towers at the distance of a mile, he sprang up
with a cry of delight. The river being in flood, we had to go
round a few miles by Melrose bridge; and during the time this
occupied, his woods and house being within prospect, it required
occasionally both Dr. Watson's strength and mine, in addition to
Nicolson's, to keep him in the carriage. After passing the bridge,
the road for a couple of miles loses sight of Abbotsford, and he
relapsed into his stupor; but on gaining the bank immediately
above it, his excitement became again ungovernable.
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JOHN GIBSON LOCKHART
Mr. Laidlaw was waiting at the porch, and assisted us in, lift-
ing him into the dining-room, where his bed had been prepared.
He sat bewildered for a few moments, and then resting his eye
on Laidlaw, said, "Ha! Willie Laidlaw! O man, how often have
I thought of you! " By this time his dogs had assembled about
his chair; they began to fawn upon him and lick his hands; and
he alternately sobbed and smiled over them until sleep oppressed
him.
Dr. Watson, having consulted on all things with Mr. Clark-
son and his father, resigned the patient to them and returned to
London. None of them could have any hope but that of sooth-
ing irritation. Recovery was no longer to be thought of; but
there might be euthanasia.
And yet something like a ray of hope did break in upon us
next morning. Sir Walter awoke perfectly conscious where he
was, and expressed an ardent wish to be carried out into his
garden. We procured a Bath-chair from Huntly-Burn; and Laid-
law and I wheeled him out before his door, and up and down
for some time on the turf, and among the rose beds then in full
bloom. The grandchildren admired the new vehicle, and would
be helping in their way to push it about. He sat in silence,
smiling placidly on them and the dogs their companions, and now
and then admiring the house, the screen of the garden, and the
flowers and trees. By-and-by he conversed a little, very com-
posedly, with us: said he was happy to be at home,- that he felt
better than he had ever done since he left it, and would perhaps
disappoint the doctors after all.
He then desired to be wheeled through his rooms, and we
moved him leisurely for an hour or more up and down the hall
and the great library. "I have seen much," he kept saying,
"but nothing like my ain house: give me one turn more! " He
was gentle as an infant, and allowed himself to be put to bed
again the moment we told him that we thought he had had
enough for one day.
Next morning he was still better; after again enjoying the
Bath-chair for perhaps a couple of hours out of doors, he desired
to be drawn into the library and placed by the central window,
that he might look down upon the Tweed. Here he expressed
a wish that I should read to him; and when I asked from what
book, he said, "Need you ask? —there is but one. " I chose the
fourteenth chapter of St. John's Gospel; he listened with mild


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