istory of the
Peninsular War_. A little work called _The Doctor_ has been greatly liked
in America.

Southey wrote innumerable reviews and magazine articles; and, indeed,
tried his pen at every sort of literary work. His diction--in prose, at
least--is almost perfect, and his poetical style not unpleasing. His
industry, his learning, and his care in production must be acknowledged;
but his poems are very little read, and, in spite of his own prophecies,
are doomed to the shelf rather than retained upon the table. Like
Wordsworth, he was one of the most egotistical of men; he had no greater
admirer than Robert Southey; and had his exertions not been equal to his
self-laudation, he would have been intolerable.

The most singular instance of perverted taste and unmerited eulogy is to
be found in his _Vision of Judgment_, which, as poet-laureate, he produced
to the memory of George the Third. The severest criticism upon it is Lord
Byron's _Vision of Judgment_--reckless, but clever and trenchant. The
consistency and industry of Southey's life caused him to be appointed
poet-laureate upon the death of Pye; and in 1835, having declined a
baronetcy, he received an annual pension of L300. Having lost his first
wife in 1837, he married Miss Bowles, the poetess, in 1839; but soon after
his mind began to fail, and he had reached a state of imbecility which
ended in death on the 21st of March, 1843. In 1837, at the age of
sixty-three, he collected and edited his complete poetical works, with
copious and valuable historical notes.

HISTORICAL VALUE.--It is easy to see in what manner Southey, as a literary
man, has reflected the spirit of the age. Politically, he exhibits
partisanship from Radical to Tory, which may be clearly discerned by
comparing his _Wat Tyler_ with his _Vision of Judgment_ and his _Odes_. As
to literary and poetic canons, his varied metre, and his stories in the
style of Wordsworth, show that he had abandoned all former schools. In his
histories and biographies he is professedly historical; and in his epics
he shows that greater range of learned investigation which is so
characteristic of that age. The _Curse of Kehama_ and _Thalaba_ would have
been impossible in a former age. He himself objected to be ranked with the
Lakers; but Wordsworth, Southey, and Coleridge have too much in common,
notwithstanding much individual difference, not to be classed together as
innovators and asserters, whether we call them L