which, although excellent, were not as good as the first.  She led an almost menial life, as one of the ladies in waiting upon Queen Charlotte; but the genuine fame achieved by her writings in some degree relieved the sense of thraldom, from which she happily escaped with a pension.  The novels of Madame D’Arblay are the intermediate step between the novels of Richardson, Fielding, and Smollett, and the Waverly novels of Walter Scott.  They are entirely free from any taint of immorality; and they were among the first feminine efforts that were received with enthusiasm:  thus it is that, without being of the first order of merit, they mark a distinct era in English letters.

Edmund Burke, 1730-1797:  he was born in Dublin, and educated at Trinity College.  He studied law, but soon found his proper sphere in public life.  He had brilliant literary gifts; but his fame is more that of a statesman and an orator, than an author.  Prominent in parliament, he took noble ground in favor of American liberty in our contest with the mother country, and uttered speeches which have remained as models of forensic eloquence.  His greatest oratorical efforts were his famous speeches as one of the committee of impeachment in the case of Warren Hastings, Governor-General of India.  Whatever may be thought of Hastings and his administration, the famous trial has given to English oratory some of its noblest specimens; and the people of England learned more of their empire in India from the learned, brilliant, and exhaustive speeches of Burke, than they could have learned in any other way.  The greatest of his written works is:  Reflections on the Revolution in France, written to warn England to avoid the causes of such colossal evil.  In 1756 he had published his Inquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful.  This has been variously criticized; and, although written with vigor of thought and brilliancy of style, has now taken its place among the speculations of theory, and not as establishing permanent canons of aesthetical science.  His work entitled The Vindication of Natural Society, by a late noble writer, is a successful attempt to overthrow the infidel system of Lord Bolingbroke, by applying it to civil society, and thus showing that it proved too much—­“that if the abuses of or evils sometimes connected with religion invalidate its authority, then every institution, however beneficial, must be abandoned.”  Burke’s style is peculiar, and, in another writer, would be considered pompous and pedantic; but it so expresses the grandeur and dignity of the man, that it escapes this criticism.  His learning, his private worth, his high aims and incorruptible faith in public station, the dignity of his statesmanship, and the power of his oratory, constitute Mr. Burke as one of the noblest characters of any English period; and, although his literary reputation is not equal to his political fame, his accomplishments in the field of letters are worthy of admiration and honorable mention.