LIFE OF 



ver medal for a translation from Horace ; and the fol« 

 lowing year a pair of twelve inch globes, for an ima- 

 ginary tour from London to Edinburgh. He determined 

 upon trying for this prize one evening when at tea with 

 his family, and at supper he read to them his perform- 

 ance, to which seven pages were granted in the maga- 

 zine, though they had limited the allowance of room to 

 three. Shortly afterwards he won several books for ex- 

 ercises on different subjects. Such honours were of great 

 importance to him ; they were testimonies of his ability, 

 which could not be suspected of partiality, and they pre- 

 pared his father to regard with less reluctance that chaniie 

 in his views and wishes which afterwards took place. 



He now became a correspondent in the Monthly Mir- 

 ror, a magazine whichfirst set the example of typographi- 

 cal neatness in periodical publications, which has given 

 the world a good series of portraits, and which deserves 

 praise also on other accounts, having among its contribu- 

 tors some persons of extensive eruditionand acknowledged 

 talents. Magazines are of great service to those who are 

 learning to write ; they are fishing-boats, which the buc- 

 caneers of literature do not condescend to sink, burn, and 

 destroy : young poets may safely try their strength in 

 them ; and that they should try their strength before the 

 public, without danger of any shame from failure, is highly 

 desirable. Henry's rapid improvement was now as re- 

 markable as his unwearied industry. The pieces which 

 had been rewarded in the Juvenile Preceptor, might have 

 been rivalled by many boys ; but what he produced a year 

 afterwards, few men could equal. Those which appeared 

 in the Monthly Mirror attracted some notice, and intro- 

 duced him to the acquaintance of Mr Capel Lofft, and of 

 Mr Hill, the proprietor of the work, a gentleman who is 

 himself a lover of English literature, and who has pro- 

 bably the most copious collection of English poetry in ex- 

 istence. Their encouragement induced him, about the 

 close of the year 1802, to prepare a little volume of poems 

 for the press. It was his hope that this publication might, 

 either by the success of its sale, or the notice which it 

 might excite, enable him to prosecute his studies at col- I 



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