Account of the Life of Henry Kirke White.

BY ROBERT SOUTHEY.

Not alone by the Muses,

But by the Virtues loved, his soul in its youthful aspirings
Sought the Holy Hill, and his thirst was for Siloah's waters.
Vision of Judgment.

No marble marks thy couch of lowly sleep,
But living statues there are seen to weep.
Affliction's semblance bends not o'er thy tomb,
Affliction's self deplores thy youthful doom!

BYRON.

It fell to my lot to publish, with the assistance of her voice before she could rouse him." When of my friend Mr. Cottle, the first collected edition he was about seven, he would creep unperceived of the works of Chatterton, in whose history I felt into the kitchen, to teach the servant to read and a more than ordinary interest, as being a native write; and he continued this for some time before of the same city, familiar from my childhood with it was discovered that he had been thus laudably those great objects of art and nature by which he employed. He wrote a tale of a Swiss emigrant, had been so deeply impressed, and devoted from which was probably his first composition, and my childhood with equal ardor to the same pur-gave it to this servant, being ashamed to show it suits. It is now my fortune to lay before the world to his mother. The consciousness of genius is some account of one whose early death is not less always at first accompanied with this diffidence ; to be lamented, as a loss to English literature, and it is a sacred, solitary feeling. And perhaps, no forwhose virtues were as admirable as his genius. ward child, however extraordinary the promise of In the present instance there is nothing to be re- his childhood, ever produced anything truly great. corded, but what is honorable to himself and to the age in which he lived; little to be regretted, but that one so ripe for heaven should so soon have been removed from the world.

HENRY KIRKE WHITE, the second son of John and Mary White, was born in Nottingham, March 21st, 1785. His father was a butcher; his mother, whose maiden name was Neville, is of respectable Staffordshire family.

When Henry was about six, he was placed under the Rev. John Blanchard, who kept, at that time, the best school in Nottingham. Here he learnt writing, arithmetic, and French. When he was about eleven, he one day wrote a separate theme for every boy in his class, which consisted of about twelve or fourteen. The master said he had never known them write so well upon any subject before, and could not refrain from exFrom the years of three till five, Henry learnt to pressing his astonishment at the excellence of read at the school of Mrs. Garrington; whose name, Henry's. It was considered as a great thing for unimportant as it may appear, is mentioned be- him to be at so good a school, yet there were some cause she had the good sense to perceive his extra- circumstances which rendered it less advantageordinary capacity, and spoke of what it promised ous to him than it might have been. Mrs. White with confidence. She was an excellent woman, and had not yet overcome her husband's intention of he describes her with affection in his poem upon breeding him up to his own business; and by an Childhood. At a very early age his love of read-arrangement which took up too much of his time, ing was decidedly manifested; it was a passion to and would have crushed his spirit, if that "mountwhich everything else gave way. “I could fancy," ing spirit" could have been crushed, one whole says his eldest sister, "I see him in his little chair, day in the week, and his leisure hours on the with a large book upon his knee, and my mo- others, were employed in carrying the butcher's ther calling, 'Henry, my love, come to dinner;' basket. Some differences at length arose between which was repeated so often without being re- his father and Mr. Blanchard, in consequence of garded, that she was obliged to change the tone which Henry was removed.

Oh, far away I then would rove, One of the ushers, when he came to receive the To some secluded bushy grove, money due for tuition, took the opportunity of There hop and sing with careless glee, informing Mrs. White what an incorrigible son Hop and sing at liberty; she had, and that it was impossible to make the And till death should stop my lays, Far from men would spend my days. lad do anything. This information made his friends very uneasy: they were dispirited about About this time his mother was induced, by the him; and had they relied wholly upon this report, advice of several friends, to open a Ladies' Boardthe stupidity or malice of this man would have ing and Day School in Nottingham, her eldest blasted Henry's progress for ever. He was, how-daughter having previously been a teacher in one ever, placed under the care of a Mr. Shipley, who for some time. In this she succeeded beyond her soon discovered that he was a boy of quick per- most sanguine expectations, and Henry's home. ception, and very admirable talents; and came comforts were thus materially increased, though with joy, like a good man, to relieve the anxiety it was still out of the power of his family to give and painful suspicions of his family. him that education and direction in life which his talents deserved and required.

While his schoolmasters were complaining that they could make nothing of him, he discovered It was now determined to breed him up to the what Nature had made him, and wrote satires hosiery trade, the staple manufacture of his native upon them. These pieces were never shown to place; and at the age of fourteen he was placed any, except his most particular friends, who say in a stocking-loom, with the view, at some future that they were pointed and severe. They are enumerated in the table of contents to one of his period, of getting a situation in a hosier's warehouse. During the time that he was thus employmanuscript volumes, under the title of SchoolLampoons; but, as was to be expected, he had ed, he might be said to be truly unhappy; he went to his work with evident reluctance, and could cut the leaves out and destroyed them. not refrain from sometimes hinting his extreme aversion to it; but the circumstances of his family obliged them to turn a deaf ear.1 His mother,

One of his poems, written at this time, and under these feelings, is preserved:

ON BEING CONFINED TO SCHOOL ONE PLEASANT however, secretly felt that he was worthy of better

MORNING IN SPRING.

WRITTEN AT THE AGE OF THIRTEEN.

The morning sun's enchanting rays
Now call forth every songster's praise;
Now the lark, with upward flight,
Gayly ushers in the light:
While, wildly warbling from each tree,
The birds sing songs to Liberty.

But for me no songster sings,

For me no joyous lark up-springs;
For I, confined in gloomy school,
Must own the pedant's iron rule,

And, far from sylvan shades and bowers,
In durance vile must pass the hours;
There con the scholiast's dreary lines,
Where no bright ray of genius shines,
And close to rugged learning cling,
While laughs around the jocund spring.

How gladly would my soul forego
All that arithmeticians know,
Or stiff grammarians quaintly teach,
Or all that industry can reach,
To taste each morn of all the joys
That with the laughing sun arise;
And unconstrain'd to rove along
The bushy brakes and glens among;
And woo the muse's gentle power,
In unfrequented rural bower!

But, ah! such heaven-approaching joys
Will never greet my longing eyes;
Still will they cheat in vision fine,
Yet never but in fancy shine.

Oh, that I were the little wren
That shrilly chirps from yonder glen!

1 His temper and tone of mind at this period, when he was in his fourteenth year, are displayed in this extract from an Address to Contemplation.

Thee do I own, the prompter of my joys,
The soother of my cares, inspiring peace;
And I will ne'er forsake thee.-Men may rave,
And blame and censure me, that I don't tie
My ev'ry thought down to the desk, and spend
The morning of my life in adding figures
With accurate monotony; that so
The good things of the world may be my lot,
And I may taste the blessedness of wealth:
But, oh! I was not made for money-getting;
For me no much-respected plume awaits,
Nor civic honor, envied.-For as still
I tried to cast with school dexterity
The interesting sums, my vagrant thoughts
Would quick revert to many a woodland haunt,
Which fond remembrance cherish'd, and the pen
Dropt from my senseless fingers as I pictured,
In my mind's eye, how on the shores of Trent
I erewhile wander'd with my early friends
In social intercourse. And then I'd think
How contrary pursuits had thrown us wide,
One from the other, scatter'd o'er the globe;
They were set down with sober steadiness,
Each to his occupation. I alone,

A wayward youth, misled by Fancy's vagaries,
Remain'd unsettled, insecure, and veering
With ev'ry wind to ev'ry point o' th' compass.
Yes, in the counting-house I could indulge
In fits of close abstraction: yea, amid
The busy, bustling crowds could meditate,
And send my thoughts ten thousand leagues away
Beyond the Atlantic, resting on my friend.
Aye, Contemplation, ev'n in earliest youth

422

things: to her he spoke more openly; he could and to his ardent mind no obstacles were too not bear, he said, the thought of spending seven discouraging. He received some instruction in years of his life in shining and folding up stock- the first rudiments of this language from a person ings; he wanted something to occupy his brain, and who then resided at Nottingham under a feigned he should be wretched if he continued longer at name, but was soon obliged to leave it, to elude this trade, or indeed in anything except one of the search of government, who were then seeking the learned professions. These frequent com- to secure him. Henry discovered him to be Mr. plaints, after a year's application, or rather mis- Cormick, from a print affixed to a continuation application (as his brother says), at the loom, of Hume and Smollett, and published, with their convinced her that he had a mind destined for histories, by Cooke. He is, I believe, the same nobler pursuits. person who wrote a life of Burke. If he received To one so situated, and with nothing but his any other assistance it was very trifling; yet, in own talents and exertions to depend upon, the the course of ten months, he enabled himself to Law seemed to be the only practicable line. His read Horace with tolerable facility, and had made affectionate and excellent mother made every pos- some progress in Greek, which indeed he began sible effort to effect his wishes, his father being first. He used to exercise himself in declining very averse to the plan; and at length, after the Greek nouns and verbs as he was going to overcoming a variety of obstacles, he was fixed and from the office, so valuable was time become in the office of Messrs. Coldham and Enfield, at- to him. From this time he contracted a habit of torneys and town-clerks of Nottingham. As no employing his mind in study during his walks, premium could be given with him, he was engaged which he continued to the end of his life. to serve two years before he was articled: so that, though he entered this office when he was fifteen, he was not articled till the commencement of the year 1802.

On his thus entering the Law, it was recommended to him by his employers, that he should endeavor to obtain some knowledge of Latin. He had now only the little time which an attorney's office, in very extensive practice, afforded; but great things may be done in "those hours of leisure which even the busiest may create,"

I woo'd thy heavenly influence! I would walk
A weary way when all my toils were done,
To lay myself at night in some lone wood,
And hear the sweet song of the nightingale.
Oh, those were times of happiness, and still
To memory doubly dear! for growing years
Had not then taught me man was made to mourn,
And a short hour of solitary pleasure,
Stolen from sleep, was ample recompense
For all the hateful bustles of the day.

My op'ning mind was ductile then, and plastic,
And soon the marks of care were worn away,
While I was sway'd by every novel impulse,
Yielding to all the fancies of the hour.

But it has now assumed its character;
Mark'd by strong lineaments, its haughty tone,
Like the firm oak, would sooner break than bend.
Yet still, Oh Contemplation! I do love

To indulge thy solemn musings; still the same
With thee alone I know to melt and weep,
In thee alone delighting. Why along
The dusky track of commerce should I toil,
When, with an easy competence content,
I can alone be happy? where, with thee,
I may enjoy the loveliness of Nature,
And loose the wings of Fancy!--Thus alone
Can I partake of happiness on earth;
And to be happy here is man's chief end,
For to be happy he must needs be good.

1 Turner's Preface to the History of the Anglo-Saxons.

He now became almost estranged from his family; even at his meals he would be reading, and his evenings were entirely devoted to intellectual improvement. He had a little room given him, which was called his study; and here his milk supper was taken up to him; for, to avoid any loss of time, he refused to sup with his family, though earnestly entreated so to do, as his mother already began to dread the effects of this severe and unremitting application. The Law was his first pursuit, to which his papers show he had applied himself with such industry, as to make it wonderful that he could have found time, busied as his days were, for anything else. Greek and Latin were the next objects: at the same time he made himself a tolerable Italian scholar, and acquired some knowledge both of the Spanish and Portuguese. His medical friends say that the knowledge he had obtained of chemistry was very respectable. Astronomy and electricity were among his studies. Some attention he paid to drawing, in which it is probable he would have excelled. He was passionately fond of music, and could play very pleasingly by ear on the piano-forte, composing the bass to the air he was playing; but this propensity he checked, lest it might interfere with more important objects. He had a turn for mechanics; and all the fittings-up of his study were the work of his own hands.

At a very early age, indeed soon after he was taken from school, Henry was ambitious of being admitted a member of a Literary Society then existing in Nottingham, but was objected to on ac. count of his youth. After repeated attempts and repeated failures, he succeeded in his wish, through the exertions of some of his friends, and was elected. There were six Professors in this Society;

and, upon the first vacancy, he was appointed to stimulants to the heart, instead of "feeding it the chair of Literature. It may well appear with food convenient for it ;" and the effect of strange that a society, in so large a town as Not- such stimulants is to dwarf the human mind, as tingham, instituted for the purpose of acquiring lap-dogs are said to be stopt in their growth by and diffusing knowledge, and respectable enough being dosed with gin. Thus forced, it becomes to be provided with a good philosophical ap- like the sapling which shoots up when it should paratus, should have chosen a boy, in the fifteenth be striking its roots far and deep, and which thereyear of his age, to deliver lectures to them upon fore never attains to more than a sapling's size. general literature. The first subject upon which To Henry, however, the opportunity of distin he held forth was Genius. Having taken a day to guishing himself, even in the Juvenile Library, consider the subject, he spoke upon it extempore, was useful; if he had acted with a man's foresight, and harangued for two hours and three quarters: he could not have done more wisely than by aim. yet, instead of being wearied, his hearers passed ing at every distinction within his little sphere. a unanimous resolution, "That the most sincere At the age of fifteen, he gained a silver medal for thanks be given to the Professor for his most in- a translation from Horace; and the following year structive and entertaining lecture; at the same a pair of twelve-inch globes, for an imaginary time assuring him that the Society never had the Tour from London to Edinburgh. He determined pleasure of hearing a better lecture delivered from upon trying for this prize one evening when at tea that chair which he so much honored:" and with his family, and at supper he read to them his they then elected him one of their committee. performance, to which seven pages were granted There are certain courts at Nottingham, in which in the magazine, though they had limited the it is necessary for an attorney to plead; and he allowance of room to three. Shortly afterwards wished to qualify himself for a speaker as well as he won several books for exercises on different a sound lawyer. subjects. Such honors were of great importance With the profession in which he was placed he to him; they were testimonies of his ability, which was well pleased, and suffered no pursuit, nu- could not be suspected of partiality, and they merous as his pursuits were, to interfere in the prepared his father to regard with less reluctance slightest degree with its duties. Yet he soon that change in his views and wishes which afterbegan to have higher aspirations, and to cast a wards took place. It appears by a letter written wistful eye toward the Universities, with little soon after he had completed his fifteenth year, hope of ever attaining their important advantages, that many of his pieces in prose and verse, under yet probably not without some, however faint. feigned signatures, had gained admission in the There was at this time a magazine in publication, various magazines of the day, more particularly called the Monthly Preceptor, which proposed in the Monthly Magazine and the Monthly Visitor: prizethemes for boys and girls to write upon; and "In prosaic composition," he says, “I never had which was encouraged by many schoolmasters, one article refused: in poetic, many."-"I am some of whom, for their own credit, and that of conscious," he observes, at this time, to his brothe important institutions in which they were ther, "that if I chose I could produce poems placed, ought to have known better than to en- infinitely superior to any you have yet seen of courage it. But in schools, and in all practical mine; but I am so indolent, and at the same time systems of education, emulation is made the main- so much engaged, that I cannot give the time and spring, as if there were not enough of the leaven attention necessary for the formation of correct of disquietude in our natures, without inocu- and accurate pieces." Less time and attention lating it with this dilutement-this vaccine virus are necessary for correcting prose, and this may of envy. True it is, that we need encourage- be one reason why, contrary to the usual process, ment in youth; that though our vices spring up a greater prematurity is discernable in his prose and thrive in shade and darkness, like poisonous than in his metrical compositions. "The reason," fungi, our better powers require light and air; he says, "of the number of erasures and correc. and that praise is the sunshine, without which tions in my letter is, that it contains a rough trangenius will wither, fade, and die; or rather in script of the state of my mind, without my having search of which, like a plant that is debarred from made any sketch on another paper. When I sit it, will push forth in contortions and deformity. down to write, ideas crowd into my mind too fast But such practices as that of writing for public for utterance upon paper. Some of them I think prizes, of publicly declaiming, and of enacting too precious to be lost, and for fear their impres plays before the neighboring gentry, teach boys sion should be effaced, I write as rapidly as posto look for applause instead of being satisfied with sible. This accounts for my bad writing." approbation, and foster in them that vanity which He now became a correspondent in the Monthly needs no such cherishing. This is administering Mirror, a magazine which first set the example of