esting tales,
among which are _The Village on the Cliff_ and _The Story of Elizabeth_.

CHAPTER XLI.

THE LATER WRITERS.

Charles Lamb. Thomas Hood. Thomas de Quincey. Other Novelists. Writers
on Science and Philosophy.

CHARLES LAMB.--This distinguished writer, although not a novelist like
Dickens and Thackeray, in the sense of having produced extensive works of
fiction, was, like them, a humorist and a satirist, and has left
miscellaneous works of rare merit. He was born in London, and was the son
of a servant to one of the Benches of the Inner Temple; he was educated at
Christ's Hospital, where he became the warm friend of Coleridge. In 1792
he received an appointment as clerk in the South Sea House, which he
retained until 1825, when, owing to the distinction he had obtained in the
world of letters, he was permitted to retire with a pension of L450. He
describes his feelings on this happy release from business, in his essay
on _The Superannuated Man_. He was an eccentric man, a serio-comic
character, whose sad life is singularly contrasted with his irrepressible
humor. His sister, whom he has so tenderly described as Bridget Elia, in a
fit of insanity killed their mother with a carving-knife, and Lamb devoted
himself to her care.

He was a poet, and left quaint and beautiful album verses and minor
pieces. As a dramatist, he is known by his tragedy _John Woodvil_, and the
farce _Mr. H----_, neither of which was a success. But he has given us in
his _Specimens of Old English Dramatists_ the result of great reading and
rare criticism.

But it is chiefly as a writer of essays and short stories that he is
distinguished. The _Essays of Elia_, in their vein, mark an era in the
literature; they are light, racy, seemingly dashed off, but really full of
his reading of the older English authors. Indeed, he is so quaint in
thought and style, that he seems an anachronism--a writer of the
Elizabethan period returned to life in this century. He bubbles over with
puns, jests, and repartees; and although not popular in the sense of
reaching the multitude, he is the friend and companion of congenial
readers. Among his essays, we may mention the stories of _Rosamund Gray_
and _Old Blind Margaret_. _Dream Children_ and _The Child Angel_ are those
of greatest power; but every one he has written is charming. His sly hits
at existing abuses are designed to laugh them away. He was the favorite of
his literary circle,