LEIGH HUNT (1784-1859) EIGH HUNT was a genius when he wrote "Abou Ben Adhem" if never before or afterwards, but he was always a man of talent and an agreeable writer both of prose and verse. His Italian Poets," while not profoundly critical, is very useful as an introduction to the best Italian literature, and the brief essays of his "Table-Talk" are in every respect so commendable that all sorts and conditions of readers thank him for the prudent foresight which led him to report in writing what he might have said orally at table had he had a Boswell to slip behind the door and make memoranda of it for posterity. He was born at Southgate, England, October 19th, 1784, and he lived to the ripe age of seventy-five, dying August 28th, 1859. The chief incident of his life was his two-years' imprisonment for writing disrespectfully of the Prince Regent in the Examiner, but the "exquisite taste" in which he furnished his cell did not tend to establish his position as a martyr. He was the associate of two generations of famous literary men. Byron patronized him, and he wrote "Recollections of Byron," which was received with marked disfavor by the poet's friends and without indorsement by his enemies. He wrote several plays and novels, but his best work was done as a poet and essayist. B "THE WITTIEST OF ENGLISH POETS» UTLER is the wittiest of English poets, and at the same time he is one of the most learned, and, what is more, one of the wisest. His "Hudibras," though naturally the most popular of his works from its size, subject, and witty excess, was an accident of birth and party compared with his "Miscellaneous Poems"; yet both abound in thoughts as great and deep as the surface is sparkling; and his genius altogether, having the additional recommendation of verse, might have given him a fame greater than Rabelais, had his animal spirits been equal to the rest of his qualifications for a universalist. At the same time, though not |