HUGH ARTHUR CLOUGH was a man of genius who failed to achieve greatness only because he had not the strength of character to free himself intellectually from the clog imposed on his faculties of expression by the moral weaknesses of his generation. He lived at a time when the spirit of rapacity had begun to dominate the acquisitive classes in England to such an extent that their influence impaired the general sense of order and justice. The result in the nonacquisitive and literary classes was a loss of direction, a feeling of uncertainty, a disposition to stop on the road to high achievement, and re-examine the guidebook in a spirit of criticism and skepticism. Clough, born at Liverpool, January 1st, 1819, was a favorite pupil of Dr. Arnold, a man of “the most brilliant promise,” a poet of high possibilities, and a scholar of varied accomplishments. Longfellow and Matthew Arnold were his friends, and he wrote much both in prose and verse to justify their good opinion. His longest poem, the “Bothie of Tober-na-Vuolich,” is written in the German hexameter measure, which, unfortunately, is not adapted to the time and inflections of the English language; but in his prose he shows at its best the strength of what was really a fine and strong intellect. He goes to the very heart of his generation as with a knife thrust when he writes: “It is very fine—perhaps not very difficult—to do, every now and then, some noble or generous act. But what is wanted of us is to do no wrong ones! It may be, for instance, in many eyes, a laudable thing to amass a colossal fortune by acts not in all cases of quite unimpeachable integrity, and then to expend it in magnificent benevolence. But the really good thing is not to make the fortune. Thorough honesty and plain, undeviating integrity—these are our real needs; on these substructions only can the fabric of individual or national well-being safely be reared.” Clough died in 1861.