acher at once, and Zany of thy age![44]

It will surprise when I declare that this buffoon was an indefatigable
student, a proficient in all the learned languages, an elegant poet,
and, withal, a wit of no inferior class. It remains to discover why
"the Preacher" became "the Zany."

Henley was of St. John's College, Cambridge, and was distinguished for
the ardour and pertinacity of his studies; he gave evident marks of
genius. There is a letter of his to the "Spectator," signed _Peter de
Quir_, which abounds with local wit and quaint humour.[45] He had not
attained his twenty-second year when he published a poem, entitled
"Esther, Queen of Persia,"[46] written amid graver studies; for three
years after, Henley, being M.A., published his "Complete Linguist,"
consisting of grammars of ten languages.

The poem itself must not be passed by in silent notice. It is preceded
by a learned preface, in which the poet discovers his intimate
knowledge of oriental studies, with some etymologies from the Persic,
the Hebrew, and the Greek, concerning the name and person of
Ahasuerus, whom he makes to be Xerxes. The close of this preface gives
another unexpected feature in the character of him who, the poet tells
us, was "embrowned with _native_ bronze"--an unaffected modesty!
Henley, alluding to a Greek paraphrase of Barnes, censures his faults
with acrimony, and even apologises for them, by thus gracefully
closing the preface: "These can only be alleviated by one plea, the
youth of the author, which is a circumstance I hope the candid will
consider in favour of the present writer!"

The poem is not destitute of imagination and harmony.

The pomp of the feast of Ahasuerus has all the luxuriance of Asiatic
splendour; and the circumstances are selected with some fancy.

The higher guests approach a room of state,
Where tissued couches all around were set
Labour'd with art; o'er ivory tables thrown,
Embroider'd carpets fell in folds adown.
The bowers and gardens of the court were near,
And open lights indulged the breathing air.

Pillars of marble bore a silken sky,
While cords of purple and fine linen tie
In silver rings, the azure canopy.
Distinct with diamond stars the blue was seen,
And earth and seas were feign'd in emerald green;
A globe of gold, ray'd with a pointed crown,
Form'd in the midst almost a real sun.

Nor is Henley less skilful in the elegance of his sentiments, and in
his develo