While in college, he associated with David Zamio, a native of Bagdad, and thus was led to acquire a knowledge of the Arabic language, in which he soon became a proficient. Losing his Fellowship by his marriage in 1793, he obtained church preferment, and was appointed Chancellor of Carlisle, as successor to Rev. Dr. William Paley. Two years later he was made Professor of the Arabic Language in Cambridge University. When Thomas Bruce, Earl of Elgin, was sent (1799) as Ambassador to the Porte, Prof. Carlyle accompanied the embassy, to explore the literary treasures in the public library of Constantinople. Thence he made excursions into the Archipelago, Greece, Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt. He returned, in 1801, through Italy and Germany, and was presented to the rectory of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. In the full maturity of his powers, and in the midst of his important literary pursuits, he was removed by death, April 12, 1804. "The urbanity of his manners, the cheerfulness of his social life, his great modesty, his active benevolence, and his sincere piety, as well as his great learning, procured for him the warm love and genuine respect of all who knew him, and rendered his death a public calamity.' Sir Samuel Egerton Brydges, who knew him in college, described him as "a tall, dark, thin man, of reserved manners, and recluse habits," and says that he was supposed to be "of a noble Scotch origin." He published (1792) "Rerum Egypticarum Annales (971-1453) Arab. et Lat." His "Translations of Select Pieces of Arabic Poetry" appeared in 1796. On his return from the East, he undertook the supervision of an edition of the Arabic Bible, which finally was issued in 1811. He had made extensive preparations to utilize his linguistic acquisitions while in the Orient, by the publication of a revised edition of the Greek Testament-a project that was cut off by his death. His "Poems, suggested by scenes in Asia Minor, Syria, and Greece," with miscellaneous pieces appended, appeared (1805) the year after his decease, edited by his sister, Susanna Maria. The hymn, "Lord! when we bend before thy throne," etc., appears in these miscellanies. The following three stanzas are from his hymn "On the Lord's Prayer": "Father of heaven, whose gracious hand "Great Lord! may all our wakened powers "Whate'er thy will, may we display Like raptured saints, and feel its joy.” ALICE AND PHOEBE CARY. 1824-1871. THE gifted sisters, Alice and Phoebe Cary, were natives of Hamilton Co., Ohio. Their father, Robert Cary (17871866), when a boy of fifteen years, had removed from Lyme, N. H., with his father, Christopher, to occupy a land grant, on a warrant given to Christopher as a Revolutionary soldier. The family were originally from Windham, Conn., and descendants of John Cary, a Plymouth Pilgrim of 1630. Robert Cary was a man of superior intelligence, of excellent moral character, fond of poetry and romance, and quite religiously inclined. He married, January 13, 1814, Elizabeth Jessup, "blue-eyed and beautiful"; "of superior intellect, and of good, well-ordered life"; "fond of history, politics, moral essays, biography," and polemic divinity. Six daughters and three sons were born to them, Alice being the fourth, and Phoebe the sixth child. They resided on a picturesque and fertile farm, in the broad and beautiful lap of the Miami Valley, about eight miles north of Cincinnati. Their home was, until 1832, a small un painted wooden building, one story and a half in height, facing the west, with a long porch across its north side, "Low, and little, and black, and old, With children many as it can hold." The new house, into which they moved in the autumn of 1832, was much more roomy and comfortable. Such was the "Clovernook," of which the sisters retained such a loving and fond remembrance. In this "sequestered vale" Alice Cary was born, April 26, 1820, and Phoebe, September 4, 1824. Their schooling was obtained in a low and plain one-story brick building, a mile and a quarter from home, reached always on foot. The literary treasures of their homestead were a Bible, Hymn-Book, "Lewis and Clark's Travels," "Pope's Essays," the "History of the Jews," and "Charlotte Temple." The parents had early become Universalists, and The Trumpet was a weekly visitor. Inheriting a poetic temperament, the two sisters took delight, from their childhood, in the rhyming art. Their poems were contributed, in the first instance, to Universalist periodicals, and Cincinnati journals; then to the Ladies' Repository, of Boston, and that of Cincinnati; afterwards to Graham's Magazine, New York, and the National Era, Washington, D. C. These productions were collected, and published, by Rev. Rufus W. Griswold, in 1850, at Philadelphia, with the title,-"Poems of Alice and Phobe Cary." In the summer of the same year, they visited the Eastern States, and met with a cordial reception, forming not a few valuable friendships. An affair of the heart had broken the health and spirits of Alice, and in November, 1850, she came to New York to make herself a new home, and enter upon her life-work. Phoebe, and a younger sister, Elmina, followed her, in April, 1851. They hired rooms in a quiet neighborhood (No. 75 W. 13th St.); and, five years afterwards, they took the cosey house, No. 52 E. 20th St., which they occupied to the end of their earthly pilgrimage. They soon sur rounded themselves with friends of a kindred spirit, and their humble home became the centre and loved resort of a literary coterie of singular worth. They managed, with strict economy, to sustain themselves by their pens, and to secure a competence. Phoebe Cary, in March, 1852, became a member of the Church of the Puritans, under the care of the Rev. George B. Cheever, D.D.; and, after the removal of that church to a remote neighborhood, she became an attendant of the Church of the Strangers, under the care of the Rev. Charles F. Deems, D.D. She is described (in the winter of 1853-4, her 30th year) as "still young and striking in her appearance, with keen, merry, black eyes, full of intelligence and spirit, a full, well-proportioned figure, and very characteristic in gesture, aspect, and dress." She was full of delicate wit and humor,-the life of every circle in which she mingled. "Some one remarked," says a friend, "her resemblance to Sappho, as she is known to us by the bust, and by descriptions; the olive-brown tint, the stature rather under-size, the low brow, etc." She published, in 1854, her "Poems and Parodies"; and, in 1868, her "Poems of Faith, Hope, and Love." In connection with her pastor, the Rev. Dr. Deems, she compiled, and published (1869), “Hymns for all Christians"; a Manual of Hymns, Spiritual Songs, and Lyrics, one hundred of each. Her sister, Alice, who for years had been declining in health, ceased from labor and from mortal life, February 12, 1871. Phoebe keenly felt the severing of the cords that bound her to her greatly endeared sister, but, for a season, bore up bravely under the affliction. It proved, however, too much for her. In the course of a few months, nature gave way, and she died, at Newport, R. I., July 31, 1871, in the forty-seventh year of her age. The sisters sleep, side by side, beneath the turf in Greenwood. To an inquiring friend, Phoebe Cary wrote, the year before her death, in respect to the hymn, by which she is everywhere known, "One sweetly solemn thought," etc., "The hymn was written eighteen years ago (1852), in your house. I composed it in the little back third-story bedroom, one Sunday morning, after coming from church." It was, doubtless, inspired by the morning sermon. As originally written, the measure was quite irregular, and the rhythm imperfect. Some slight alterations were needed to adapt it to a suitable metrical tune. The following stanzas are from one of her last poems, entitled, "Waiting the Change": "Though some, whose presence once Sweet comfort round me shed, "Thank God! for all my loved, Have safely reached the heavenly heights, Their joy by faith sublime;- EDWARD CASWALL. 1814-1878. EDWARD CASWALL is an "Oxford Pervert." His father, the Rev. R. C. Caswall, was the Vicar of West Lavington, Wiltshire, England, and previously Perpetual Curate of Yateley, Hampshire. His mother was a niece of the Rt. Rev. Thomas Burgess, D.D., Bishop of St. David, and afterwards of Salisbury. The father was a descendant of Sir George Caswall, Kt., who was compromised in the affairs |