principal writers of heroic verse among the Greeks. On the perusal of their works for this purpose, he perceived that, in the accomplishment of it, much expence of time and labour might be spared by the previous establishment of some clear and definite laws, derived from the common usage of the poets, if such laws existed. By an attention to these, occasional errors and deviations, necessarily incident to writings of this high antiquity, might probably be corrected.

It is likely that the learned world would have been favoured, had Mr. Wakefield's life been prolonged, with a new and improved edition of this pamphlet. He has left behind him an interleaved copy, with many insertions evidently intended for this purpose.

At the end of this work, he announces his intention of shortly publishing a treatise, which might be considered as supplementary, on the use of the digamma in the prosody of Homer. This, though he had made material corrections on the subject, he did not live to complete.

The interest with which Mr. Wakefield regarded the situation of his fellow-prisoners, and his desire to alleviate their sufferings, we have had occasion to mention more than once. In his correspondence with his intimate friends

he frequently related any little incidents that affected them, in a manner, which proved how much

"Their welfare pleas'd him, and their cares distrest.” b

This sufficiently appears from the following passage in a letter to his daughter about

this period:

"Occasionally some events occur here which give us great pleasure. S

Q

and

the shoemaker, were set at liberty four or five days ago; and it is not possible for any one, who has not experienced something of similar suffering, to form any conception of their happiness in a deliverance from imprisonment.

came to see

"I remember when me at Hackney a day or two after his discharge from a two years' confinement in Clerkenwell Bastile, he spoke of his feelings as not to be described. He seemed lost in the world: his head was giddy by the immensity of the scenery around him, and he almost doubted, whether he was not too much bewildered to find his way back to town.

told me, that the mutineers in the Bastile, who were more closely shut up than the rest, seemed like men bereaved of their

Goldsmith.

senses; and the evil of a close exclusion from the world is such, as leads every one confined here for any length of time, even two years, to prefer hanging to such a sentence.

These facts lead me to wonder that Kosciusko, La Fayette, and others, if their seclusion were as strict and gloomy as general rumour leads us to suppose, should have come out with the preservation of their senses.

who confidently

"H and Mexpected their liberation at the same time with S and Q, have incurred a most cruel disappointment; and begin to lose all hopes of a speedy deliverance from the remainder of their term. M- was ready

to sink under his misfortune. It is now more than a twelvemonth since Mr.

promised

his exertions in their favour; and his failure can be ascribed to nothing but a supineness and indifference, which is barbarous beyond his suspicions: because no state can possibly be imagined more miserable to these men than a perpetual hope of deliverance at any uncertain time; and they have often said, at a time when they might expect their release daily, that they should prefer a knowledge of the day, if even at a year's distance, to that state of anxiety, which, at the worst, could not contemplate a longer confinement than a year.

Indeed the encreasing impatience of the prisoners, in proportion to the diminution of their term, is remarkable; and F - informs me of his peculiar restlessness and fretfulness towards the termination of his period."

At the close of the letter, alluding to his own situation, he adds,-" For myself, my spirits were never better, and they will continue so if your mother continues as cheerful as she has appeared since the conclusion of our uncertainty about my lodging; but my appetite for study has entirely left me within this fortnight, and when it will return is very uncertain; partly from want of more books, and partly from want of recreation abroad. This not only gives me uneasiness, as making the lapse of time more tedious, but deprives me of the satisfaction which would arise from a retrospect of a more profitable transition of it."

CHAP. XII.

Mr. Wakefield's Letters to his Daughter-Attendance on four condemned Criminals-Letters from the Rev. Dr. Parr and the Rev. Dr. Geddes-His Release from the Gaol,

1801,

IN the spring of the year 1801, a more striking opportunity, than had yet occurred, presented itself of evincing the strength of Mr. Wakefield's sympathy with the distresses of those immediately around him. This circumstance forms the principal subject of the following letter to his daughter;

MY DEAR GIRL,

Dorchester Gaol, March 17, 1801.

IT so happens that I am preparing to write a few lines to you upon your birth-day; which by an unusual occurrence was present to my recollection more punctually than to your mother's. We hope many a repetition of this anniversary to your life in health and peace; and that the next return of it may be celebrated with domestic congratulations un