mest welcome at an inn.'

Unhappily this final verse, which Johnson is said to have repeated 'with
great emotion,' has lost its application. The modern traveller, instead
of being warmly welcomed at an inn, loses his identity and becomes a
number.

[Sidenote: Mark Akenside (1721-1770).]

Akenside, who was born at Newcastle, 1721, received his education in
Edinburgh, where he was sent to prepare for the ministry among the
Dissenters. He, however, changed his mind, became a medical student, and
finally, though much disliked for his manners, gained reputation as a
physician in London. He is stated to have been excessively stiff and
formal, and a frigid stiffness marks the _Pleasures of Imagination_
(1744), a remarkable work considering the writer's age, since it is
without the faults of youth. The poem is founded on Addison's _Essays_
on the subject in the _Spectator_, and the poet also owes a considerable
debt to Shaftesbury. Akenside's blank verse has the merits of dignity
and strength. But the work is as cold as the author's manners were said
to be, and in spite of what may be called poetical power, as distinct
from a high order of inspiration, the poem leaves the reader unmoved.
Pope, who saw it in MS., said that Akenside was 'no everyday writer,'
which is a just criticism. The _Pleasures of Imagination_ has the merits
of careful workmanship and of some originality, but the interest which
it at one time excited is not likely to be revived. In 1757 Akenside
re-wrote the poem, and I believe that no critic, with the exception of
Hazlitt, regards the second attempt as an improvement on the first. His
skill in the use of classical imagery is seen to advantage in the _Hymn
to the Naiads_ (1746), and he deserves praise, too, for his
inscriptions, which are distinguished for conciseness and vigour of
style. The poet, it may be added, wrote a great number of odes that lack
all, or nearly all, the qualities which should distinguish lyrical
poetry. Not a spark of the divine fire warms or illuminates these
reputable verses, but the author states that his chief aim was to be
correct, and in that he has succeeded.

[Sidenote: David Mallet (1700-1765).]

David Mallet, a friend or acquaintance of Thomson, was contemptible as a
man and comparatively insignificant as a poet. He did a large amount of
dirty work, and appears to have made a good income by it. The base
character of the man was known to Bolingbroke, of whose basest purp