A man who was courted and esteemed by Lord Lansdowne, Mr. Canning, Sir Robert Peel, Mr. Rogers, the Rev. Sydney Smith, Sir Walter Scott, and Lord Byron, must have had social as well as literary merits of no common order. 66 Moore's domestic life gave scope to the best parts of his character. His beautiful wife, faultless in conduct, a fond mother, a lively companion, devoted in her attachment, always ready-perhaps too ready, to sacrifice her own domestic enjoyments that he might be admired and known, was a treasure of inestimable value to his happiness. I have said that perhaps she was too ready to sacrifice herself, because it would have been better for Mr. Moore if he had not yielded so much to the attractions of society, however dazzling and however tempting. Yet those who imagine that he passed the greater part of his time in London are greatly in error. The London days are minutely recorded; the Sloperton months are passed over in a few lines. Except when he went to Bowood, or some other house in the neighbourhood, the words 'read and wrote' comprise the events of week after week of literary labour and domestic affection. "Those days of intellectual society, and patient labour, have alike passed away. The breakfasts with Rogers, the dinners at Holland House, the evenings when beautiful women and grave judges listened in rapture to his song, have passed away. The days when a canto of Childe Harold, the Excursion of Wordsworth, the Curse of Kehama of Southey, and the Lulla Rookh of Moore, burst in rapid succession upon the world are gone. But the world will not forget that brilliant period; and while poetry has charms for mankind, the Melodies of Moore will survive." As to his religion, "That God is Love," wrote Lord John Russell, was the summary of his belief; that a 66 man should love his neighbour as himself seems to have been the rule of his life." The Earl of Carlisle, when inaugurating the statue of the poet, bore testimony to his moral and social worth "in all the holy relations of life." Lord O'Hagan, on the same occasion said, "he was the idol of his household." And Dr. Parr, in bequeathing him a ring, put his opinion in this form, "To one who stands high in my estimation for original genius, for his exquisite sensibility, for his independent spirit, and incorruptible integrity." It is quite evident that all who knew him loved him; however, as Professor Morley observes, "He loved his mother and his wife, but dining out did not deepen his character." Much that was indelicate in his earlier writings, he lived to regret; and, as he advanced in life, he breathed a purer and serener atmosphere. Sydney Smith described Moore as "a gentleman of small stature, but full of genius, and a steady friend of all that is honourable and just." And Sir Walter Scott wrote, "It would be a delightful addition to life, if Thomas Moore had a cottage within two miles of me." Lord John Russell, who was his intimate and attached friend, closes the Memoirs, Journal and Correspondence of Thomas Moore, which he edited, with the following tribute:"Those who have enjoyed the brilliancy of his wit, and heard the enchantments of his song, will never forget the charms of his society. The world, so long as it can be moved by sympathy and exalted by fancy, will not willingly let die the tender strains, and the patriotic fires, of a true poet." Mrs. Hall, when she visited Mrs. Moore, about six months after the poet's death, specially noticed her kind ministrations to the poor villagers; her going upstairs and unlocking the library door to sweep and dust it her self, for she never invited or permitted any one to enter it; and how she watched over the "Tara ivy" on the poet's terrace walk, and the roses on which he had looked, or from which he had gathered a blossom! She was still the same good kindly soul who, in other years, had made a shift to do with one servant in order to enable Moore to assist his mother; and who had sold her jewels to pay the debts of her son who had died, so that no stain of dishonour might rest on his memory. After speaking of Mrs. Moore sitting for hours alone in the library, Mrs. Hall goes on to say, "It often seemed to me strange how the last great sorrow had tided over all others-all except one. The eldest son, Tom, was known to have died in Africa; they had received confirmatory letters and all his 'things' long ago, but she retained fragments of broken hope that he would yet return. One particular evening, we had been sitting still and silent a long time, when suddenly the garden gate was thrown open; her pale cheek flushed, she started up and looked out, then sank into a chair. "What was it, dear?' I inquired. You will think it a weakness,' she said, 'or perhaps insanity, but I have never quite believed in our son's death, and I seldom hear the garden gate opened at an unusual hour without a hope that it is my boy." What a touching picture! CHAPTER XV. MOORE'S POPULARITY-HIS CENTENARY-ORATION AND ODES ON THAT OCCASION. There are translations of the following verses, in various European languages, so admirably rendered that it would be hard for a person, who did not already know, to guess which version was the original: LITTLE MAN AND LITTLE SOUL. A BALLAD. There was a little Man, and he had a little Soul, To make up a little Speech, Just between little you and little I, I, I, Then said his little Soul, Peeping from her little hole, "I protest, little Man, you are stout, stout, stout, But if it's not uncivil, Pray tell me what the devil Must our little, little speech be about, bout, bout, The little Man look'd big With th' assistance of his wig, And he call'd his little Soul to order, order, order, (As she wasn't duke or eari) to reward her, ward her, ward her, As she wasn't duke or earl, to reward her. The little Man then spoke, "Little Soul, it is no joke, For as sure as J-cky F--11-r loves a sup, sup, sup, What I think of Church and Steeple, And my little patent plan to prop them up, up, up, Away then cheek by jowl, Little Man and little Soul Went and spoke their little speech to a tittle, tittle, tittle, That this priggish little pair Never yet in all their lives look'd so little, little, little, It may be noticed, that amongst the numerous testimonials to the merits of Lalla Rookh, there was one pridefully recorded by the author, that must have compensated him a thousand-fold for the coarse remark of Hazlitt, that Moore ought not to have published Lalla Rookh even for three thousand guineas. Its chief incidents were represented by tableaux vivans at the ChâteauRoyal, Berlin, in 1822, by the imperial and royal personages whose names appear in the following extract from a printed French programme of the entertainments : Arungzebed, le Grand Mogul, S. A. R. Le Prince Guillaume (Frère La Reine, son épouse, S. A. R. La Princesse Louise de Radzivil." Some portions of the scenery were magnificent, especially the gate of Eden, with its crystal bar, and occasional glimpses of splendour jetting through and falling upon the repentant Peri. At the close of the entertainments, |