SWINBURNE'S BOYISH DAYS.
Swinburne, though a republican in sentiment, belongs to one of the oldest Roman Catholic families of Northumberland, and comes from ancestors who have followed the Percy in plate armor against the fierce barons of the House of Douglas. I am sorry to say, however, that the poet does not look like a man who would wear a steel jerkin and hang a battle-axe at his saddle bow. He has long curling hair, a pair of weird fascinating eyes, a loose and slender frame, and a face which does not impress one favorably at first. Take him altogether he seems like a man who might like to recline on a bed of roses, with an Amphora of Falernian by his couch, and half a dozen Syrian damsels to wait on him and hand him flowing bumpers of golden wine.
His boyish days were spent at Eton, and here he was noticed only for his utter dislike to athletic sports, including the darling amusement of every Etonian—I mean the cricket field. He was finished at Oxford, but did not receive his degree from Alma Mater. From the University he went to Florence, and there he contracted a warm friendship for that great gothic and rough-angled character, Walter Savage Landor, which was ardently reciprocated by the latter. Returning to England in 1861 he published the "Queen Mother," and "Rosamond," neither of which attracted much attention. His first great and decided success was in that classic poem "Atalanta in Calydon," published in 1864, when Swinburne had attained his twenty-first year. This poem took the cultivated minds of England by storm, and was followed by "Chastelard," "Poems and Ballads," "Laus Veneris," and a biography of "William Blake," the painter, in quick succession. Since then his copy-rights have amounted to £27,000, so rapid has been the sale of his books. This moneyed success does not, however, prevent the poet from being afflicted with a very penurious spirit, and it is said that he is in the habit of giving waiters and servants sixpences for the pleasure of taking the gifts back.
JOHN STUART MILL.
The greatest publicist in England, at this juncture, and the man whose views demand most attention from press and people, after Carlyle, is John Stuart Mill, the eminent writer on Political Economy, who was formerly a clerk in the India House, like Charles Lamb, as his father had been before him. Mr. Mill is now sixty-six years of age, and has lately taken up the cudgel for the Woman's Suffrage party, in England, along with Miss Harriet Martineau, after having exhausted Utilitarianism, Political Economy, Parliamentary Reform, Logical Systems, Auguste Comte, Positivism, Philosophy, and other light and airy subjects. Yet all his great powers of thought did not prevent him from being badly beaten by a Mr. Smith, a news agent, for the representation of the Borough of Westminster, in the late parliamentary elections. Mr. Mill has a grand broad forehead, a pair of deep steadfast eyes, a firm mouth, and is of studious habits. Like all students his oratory in Parliament, when first elected, was more ornate and logical than impressive or forcible. His English is vigorous and sterling, and it must be said of this venerable old man, that his whole life has been devoted to an idea.
JOHN STUART MILL—POLITICAL ECONOMIST.
The very opposite of John Stuart Mill is Benjamin F. Disraeli, who was born in Bradenham, Buckinghamshire, Dec. 21, 1805. It is more than positive that Mr. Disraeli has never sacrificed any thing for an idea. Mr. Isaac Disraeli, his father, was a Christian, and an author, who had written the "Curiosities of Literature," and the "Amenities of Literature," the latter being a book in which the misfortunes and failings of authors occupy a large space. The grandfather of the great politician was a Jew of the Jews, I believe, and he who is now leader of the Conservative party in the House of Commons, and who was Lord Chancellor of England, has ever had a deep feeling for and faith in Judaism, although he has been for many years the Champion of the Anglican Church. At twenty years of age, Disraeli, who was then as fond of velvet shooting jackets and jewelry as he is now in his old age, or as Dickens was in his prime, began to write novels, and from 1825 to 1881 he had written "Vivian Grey," "The Young Duke," "Henrietta Temple," "Contarini Fleming," "Venetia," "Alroy," and "Coningsby."
