e case is the same in France. The blood of beings
of that order can seldom be traced far down, even in the female line.
With the exception of Surrey and Spenser, we are not aware of any great
English author of at all remote date, from whose body any living person
claims to be descended. There is no real English poet prior to the middle
of the eighteenth century; and we believe no great author of any sort,
except Clarendon and Shaftesbury, of whose blood we have any inheritance
amongst us. Chaucer's only son died childless; Shakspeare's line expired
in his daughter's only daughter. None of the other dramatists of that
age left any progeny; nor Raleigh, nor Bacon, nor Cowley, nor Butler.
The grand-daughter of Milton was the last of his blood. Newton, Locke,
Pope, Swift, Arbuthnot, Hume, Gibbon, Cowper, Gray, Walpole, Cavendish
(and we might greatly extend the list), never married. Neither
Bolingbroke, nor Addison, nor Warburton, nor Johnson, nor Burke,
transmitted their blood. One of the arguments against a _perpetuity_
in literary property is, that it would be founding another _noblesse_.
Neither jealous aristocracy nor envious Jacobinism need be under such
alarm. When a human race has produced its 'bright, consummate flower'
in this kind, it seems commonly to be near its end."

* * * * *

THE BLUE-STOCKING CLUB.

Towards the close of the last century, there met at Mrs. Montague's a
literary assembly, called "The Blue-Stocking Club," in consequence of
one of the most admired of the members, Mr. Benjamin Stillingfleet,
always wearing _blue stockings_. The appellation soon became general as
a name for pedantic or ridiculous literary ladies. Hannah More wrote a
volume in verse, entitled _The Bas Bleu: or Conversation_. It proceeds
on the mistake of a foreigner, who, hearing of the Blue-Stocking Club,
translated it literally _Bas Bleu_. Johnson styled this poem "a great
performance." The following couplets have been quoted, and remembered,
as terse and pointed:--

"In men this blunder still you find,
All think their little set mankind."

"Small habits well pursued betimes,
May reach the dignity of crimes."

* * * * *

DR. JOHNSON AND HANNAH MORE

When Hannah More came to London in 1773, or 1774, she was domesticated
with Garrick, and was received with favour by Johnson, Reynolds, and
Burke. Her sister has thus described her first interview with