than a nominal catholic, Moore took considerable interest in theological questions, and this lively book displays not only humour but learning, for which he was partly indebted to his freethinking neighbour in Wiltshire, Dr. Brabant.
Moore's next and last work brought him money, but little else save trouble and mortification. It reflects credit upon his patriotism that he should have undertaken 'The History of Ireland' for Lardner's 'Cabinet Cyclopædia ; ' but the task was not only beyond his powers, but entirely out of his line. Moore depended even more than most writers upon subject; he was absolutely nothing without a theme to attract and dazzle, and no entertainment can be extracted from the confused annals of Ireland prior to the sixteenth century. He had himself sorely misconceived the conditions of his undertaking. The book, which was to have been completed in one volume, required four, the last of which did not appear until 1846, and the exhausted author fairly broke down under the effort to write the preface, which he was compelled to leave to the publisher (see Bates, Maclise Portrait Gallery, p. 123). The intervening years, though barren of any but domestic events, had been in this respect most unhappy, and only cheered by the bestowal in 1835 of a literary pension of 300l. through the interest of Lord John Russell, to which a civil list pension of 100l. was added in 1850. Most fortunate in his wife, Moore was most unfortunate in his children. He lost two daughters in infancy ; in 1829 his most beloved child, Anastasia, died of consumption ; his second son, John Russell, who had obtained a cadetship in the East India Company's service, died in 1842 of disease contracted from the climate of India ; the eldest, Thomas Lansdowne Parr, a wild but gifted youth, after causing his parents great trouble and expense by his extravagance, disposed of the army commission which had been obtained for him, and eventually died in Algeria as an officer of the French foreign legion, March 1846. Moore had not only previously lost his parents, but also his sisters, and was absolutely bereaved of all his kindred. These trials, most terrible to his affectionate nature, combined with the crushing weight of his Irish history and the general consciousness of failing powers to reduce him to a condition little better than imbecility, though occasionally relieved by flashes which showed that, though the exercise of the mental powers was impeded, the powers themselves were not destroyed. In December 1849 he talked not only freely, but most agreeably, to Lord John Russell and Lord Lansdowne ; but the same evening he was seized with a fit, after which his memory almost entirely failed him. He died 25 Feb. 1852, and was interred at Bromham, a neighbouring village about four miles from Devizes. A window in his honour was placed in the church there by public subscription. His civil list pension, was continued to his widow, and for her benefit the 3,000l. paid by Longmans for the copyright of his 'Memoirs, Journals, and Correspondence' was invested in the purchase of an annuity ; she died at Sloperton Cottage on 4 Sept. 1865 (Gent. Mag. 1865, ii. 531).
Moore's position as a poet cannot be considered high in comparison with that of his great contemporaries. Nevertheless, alone among modern poets, he united the arts of poetry and music in the same person, and revived the traditions of the minstrel and the troubadour of the middle ages. This affords a sufficient answer to most of the objections which have been urged against his 'Irish Melodies' and similar pieces, except those of occasional false taste and false glitter, against which no defence is possible. They have been said to be of little value divorced from their music; but, replies Professor Minto, they were never intended to be divorced from their music. On the same ground, deep thought would have been out of place. Moore's position as the national lyrist of Ireland is in some respects anomalous: endowed with the Celtic temperament in a high degree, he was entirely devoid of the peculiar magic, as Matthew Arnold describes it, which is the most infallible characteristic of Celtic genius. Apart from the conceits of his early lyrics, his is in an eminent degree the poetry of good sense; his highest flights are carefully calculated, he makes the best use of his material, and never surprises by any incommunicable beauty, or anything savouring in the remotest degree of preternatural inspiration. After the song, his most congenial sphere is the satiric epigram, where his supremacy is unquestionable. Everywhere else he appears as the poet of his day, adapting consummate talents to the description of composition most in vogue, as he might with equal success have adapted them to almost any other. He would have been a conspicuous figure in almost any age of poetry except a dramatic age, and many who have since depreciated him would find, were he their contemporary, that he greatly surpassed them in their own styles. Such ability is, of course, essentially second-rate.
As a man, Moore is entitled to very high praise. He was not only amiable, generous, and affectionate, but high-minded and inde-
