ter, and educated at Magdalen
College, Oxford, entered into holy orders (1711), and was appointed
lecturer of moral philosophy. 'Of his poems,' writes Dr. Johnson, 'many
are of that irregular kind which, when he formed his poetical character,
was supposed to be Pindaric.' Pindarics were indeed the bane of the age.
Every minor poet, no matter however feeble his poetical wings might be,
endeavoured to fly with Pindar. Like Gay, Yalden tried his skill as a
writer of fables.

NOTE.

_Mrs. Veal's Ghost_ (see pp. 186-187). A curious discovery, made
by Mr. G. A. Aitken (see _Nineteenth Century_, January, 1895),
makes it certain, he thinks, that 'the whole narrative is
literally true.' He even hopes that the receipt for scouring
Mrs. Veal's gown may some day be found. Mr. Aitken seems to
infer that Defoe's other tales will also turn out to be true
histories, but Defoe avers, with all the seriousness he expends
on Mrs. Veal, that he witnessed the great Plague of London,
which it is needless to say he did not.

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.

=1667.= =Swift born.=
=1672.= =Steele born.=
=1672.= =Addison born.=
1674. Milton died.
=1688.= =Gay born.=
=1688.= =Pope born.=
1688. Bunyan died.
1690. Locke's _Essay Concerning Human Understanding_.
1694. Voltaire born.
1699. Racine died.
=1700.= =Thomson born.=
=1700.= =Dryden died.=
1700. Fenelon's _Telemaque_.
1703. John Wesley born.
1704. Locke died.
=1704.= =Addison's= _Campaign_.
=1704.= =Swift's= _Tale of a Tub_ and _Battle of the Books_.
1707. Fielding born.
1709. Johnson born.
=1709.= =Pope's= _Pastorals_.
=1709-1711.= _The Tatler._
=1710.= =Berkeley's= _Principles of Human Knowledge_.
=1711.= =Pope's= _Essay on Criticism_.
1711-1712,} _The Spectator._
and 1714. }
1711. Hume born.
=1712.= =Pope's= _Rape of the Lock_.
1712. Rousseau born.
=1713.= =Addison's= _Cato_.
1713. Sterne born.
=1714.= =Mandeville's= _Fable of the Bees_.
=1715.= =Gay's= _Trivia_.
=1715-1720.= =Pope's= _Translation of Homer's Iliad_.
1715. Wycherley died.
=1718.= =Prior's= _Poems on Several Occasions_ =(folio)=.
=1719-1720.= =Defoe's= _Robinson Crusoe_ =(first part)=.
=1719.= =Addison died.=
=1721.= =Prior died.=
1721.