od comic work,
and found that while the former were neglected the latter was eagerly
welcomed. It was settled that, in his own pathetic pun, he was to be "a
lively Hood for a livelihood" thenceforward. It is difficult to say
whether English literature lost or gained, except from one very
practical point of view; for Hood did manage to live after a fashion by
his fun as he certainly could not have lived by his poetry. He had,
however, a bare pittance, much bad health, and some extremely bad luck,
which for a time made him, through no fault of his own, an exile. His
last five years were again spent in England, and in comparative, though
very comparative, prosperity; for he was editor first of the _New
Monthly Magazine_, then of a magazine of his own, _Hood's Monthly_, and
not long before his death he received from Sir Robert Peel a civil list
pension of L100 a year. The death was due to consumption, inherited and
long valiantly struggled with.

The still shorter life of Winthrop Mackworth Praed, on the other hand,
was passed under sufficiently favourable stars. He was born in 1802, and
his father, Serjeant Praed, possessed property, practice at the bar, and
official position. Praed was sent to Eton, where he became a pillar of
the famous school magazine _The Etonian_, and thence to Trinity College,
Cambridge, where he did extremely well, made the acquaintance of
Macaulay, and wrote in _Knight's Quarterly_. After a short interval of
tutoring and reading for the bar he entered Parliament in 1830, and
remained in it for the rest of his life, which closed on 15th July 1839.
He had latterly been secretary to the Board of Control, and it was
thought that, had he lived, he might have made a considerable political
reputation both as speaker and administrator.

The almost unchequered sunshine of one of these careers and the little
sun and much shadow of the other have left traces--natural though less
than might be supposed--of difference between the produce of the two
men; but perhaps the difference is less striking than the resemblance.
That Hood--obliged to write for bread, and outliving Praed by something
like a decade at the two ends--wrote a great deal more than Praed did is
of little consequence, for the more leisurely writer is as unequal as
the duty labourer. Hood had the deeper and stronger genius: of this
there is no doubt, and the advantage more than made up for Praed's
advantages in scholarship and in social standing