It is a mournful reflection that the poet's laurel is often steeped in tears, and that it acquires its richest bloom upon his grave. And yet if a great poet could anticipate his future fame, and enjoy its full influence and maturity in his life-time, his lot would. perhaps be too dazzling for humanity to bear. If the mighty Milton could revisit the scenes of his earthly pilgrimage, glorified by his halo of eternal fame, he would be almost worshipped as a god. Mankind would prostrate themselves at his feet.

There is something so ethereal in the associations connected with poetic fame, that a personal intercourse with the bard himself is usually attended with surprise and disappointment. We forget the vast difference between mind and matter-the jewel and the casket. The mortal frame seems to dwarf the spirit. We see the soul dimly through so gross a medium. Authors, unlike other objects, grow larger as they recede into the distance; and their knowledge of human nature ought to suggest to them the imprudence of too near an approach to the common crowd. Their books are far more imposing than their persons. Fame is a complete abstraction, and even great men should remember the vulgar proverb, that familiarity breeds contempt.' We ordinarily observe, that if an author be more loved in his private circle than by the world, he is also less admired. The friends and associates of a man of genius are generally amongst the last to discover his intellectual greatness, and are usually surprised at his influence with the public, which they attribute to some unaccountable delusion. In private life the poet is not always poetical, nor the philosopher wise. In fact, the intense excitement of their intellectual habits renders them proportionably nerveless and relaxed in their domestic and social hours. They appear to a manifest disadvantage in society, because, while others abandon their whole being to more transient interests and less refined enjoyments, and concentrating such energies as they may possess upon the things about them, appear keen and animated, the man of

genius, wearied perhaps by the secret toil of thought, cannot wholly disengage his mind from the higher aspirations which still haunt and agitate it like a remembered dream. He is compelled from the fear of ridicule or misapprehension to check the natural workings of his mind, to avoid his dearest and most familiar topics, and to assume an air of interest in matters respecting which he is in reality indifferent. As in society he acts an uncongenial part, he is awkward and restrained, and cannot be expected to exhibit the same ease and vivacity as those who riot in their own proper element, and give expression to the genuine dictates of their hearts. It is only when men of genius meet with kindred spirits-when mind meets mind in sparkling collision, that their vast superiority to the crowd becomes marked and obvious.

The conversation of literary men, though it may turn on their favorite subjects, is not exclusive or professional. It usually involves the universal interests of humanity; and all intelligent persons, of whatever class, who have studied external nature, or the human heart, or have indulged in contemplations upon the mysteries of our being, may listen to literary men with sympathy and delight. They are not only accustomed to give a higher tone to their conversation, and to choose topics of more general interest than are introduced into ordinary society, but their habit of composition facilitates the perspicuous arrangement and expression of their ideas, and guards them from the ambiguity and the want of method which in the case of less practised thinkers often destroy the effect of the most important communications. In addition to this logical order of ideas and transparency of diction, which are characteristic of literary conversation, it is usually impregnated with a spirit and fervour that would seem utterly inconsistent with the frigidity of common intercourse. They who have once been accustomed to

"Such celestial colloquies sublime"

find it impossible to reconcile themselves to the vulgar truisms and smooth inanities of fashionable talkers, amongst whom a new thought or a pleasant paradox is as startling as a rocket, and interrupts their general harmony and their placid self-satisfaction. Literary men, therefore, are not fitted for society, nor society for them. Both parties are rendered uneasy by the connection, and the more the former confine themselves to the company of their own class, the better for themselves and for the world. The disrespect which so often attends the personal presence of an author may interfere with the influence of his works. His associates rarely look upon his published labours with that reverence which they excite in strangers.

This is the reason why literature is so little regarded in our City of Palaces*." There is no such thing as fame in a small community. Men cannot easily imagine that those with whom they associate familiarly are much greater than themselves. When they see so much in the literary man that is common to all, and can only discover his superiority by an effort of abstraction, or by a reference to his writings, they soon cease to regard him with any peculiar interest. If they admire his works, it is usually with astonishment that any thing so remarkable should proceed from so ordinary a source; but generally speaking, as I have already observed, the disrespect to his person is transferred to his productions.

In a vast city like that of London, the humblest literary man may acquire more real fame, however limited, than can be obtained in Calcutta by the most successful author. In England, when a man's productions are once familiar to the public, there is a vague and undefinable magic in his name that renders him an object of interest to his fellow-men. His person is shrouded in impenetrable obscurity, and they only catch his voice from out

Calcutta.

the gloom. But in the metropolis of British India there is no public-no mystery-no fame ;-the poet seems as prosaic as the coarsest utilitarian, and the man of letters has no more influence than the merchant's clerk.

It is imagined by some, that the lover of fame is so voracious of praise, that he is indifferent to its quality. This is not the case. The smiles of vulgar patronage, or the blundering eulogies of ignorance, are always offensive and disgusting. "I love praise," says Cowper in one of his letters, "from the judicious, and those who have so much delicacy themselves as not to offend mine." The applause of men who are themselves eminent in literature often thrills an ambitious author with that inexpressible delight which can never be occasioned by the adulation of common minds. When Lord Byron's high opinion of Sheridan's powers was communicated to that wild but sensitive genius, he burst into a flood of tears. His joy overpowered him, and was far too intense to

find relief in words*.

They who analyze their own feelings and the feelings of others, soon discover, that with various modifications, that mysterious law of our nature, which urges us to look even beyond the grave and anticipate the future, operates alike on all men. The love of fame still haunts us to the last.

"E'en in our ashes live their wonted firest."

See Lord Byron's Journal, published in Moore's Life of the Noble Poet. "A power above us hath instincted in the minds of all men an ardent appetition of a lasting fame. Desire of glory is the last garment that even wise men lay aside."-Feltham's Resolves.

There is a good passage on this subject in Fitzosborne's Letters. "Can it be reasonable to extinguish a passion which nature has universally lighted up in the human breast, and which we constantly find to burn with most strength and brightness in the noblest bosoms? Accordingly Revelation is so far from endeavouring to eradicate the seed which nature has thus deeply planted, that she rather seems, on the contrary, to cherish and forward its growth. To be exalted with honour, and to be had in everlasting remembrance, are in the number of those encouragements which the Jewish dispensation offered to the virtuous."

There is scarcely a being in the world, however humble, who does not pant for some kind of notice from his fellow-men; and it is in proportion to the energy of his character and the power of his intellect, that a man is disposed to challenge attention by means more or less spiritual and refined. Some persons are contented with a reputation of which the nature and limits appear contemptible and narrow to more ardent minds, that would fain extend their influence over distant countries and through successive ages. But this thirst for sympathy, and applause, and power is so natural to all men, though infinitely varied in its intensity, that as utter annihilation is inconceivable by the human mind, they project their hopes of fame with their dearest human associations beyond their mortal life. It is not only a regard for the interest of survivors, which may cause us to be solicitous about our after-fame. Though a man were fully aware that he should not leave a single friend behind him who would be either injured or distressed by a cloud upon his memory, it would embitter his last hours if he thought that a stigma would attach to his name when he was no longer living to refute it. Yet the dull cold ear of death is no more sensible to the voice of censure than to the voice of praise.

This concern for our future reputation seems as instinctive as our hopes of a future existence, and a continued consciousness of earthly fame is not wholly inconsistent with our notions of happiness hereafter. A great author may perhaps be permitted, even in heaven, to rejoice in that "perpetuity of praise," which, as Milton proudly asserts, "God and good men have decreed as the reward of those whose published labours have benefitted mankind." He may possibly look back upon this mortal world with an affectionate greeting, and cherish a blameless exultation :—

"Because on earth his name

In Fame's eternal volume shines for aye !"