LEIGH HUNT was a genius when he wrote “Abou Ben Adhem” if never before or afterwards, but he was always a man of talent and an agreeable writer both of prose and verse. His “Italian Poets,” while not profoundly critical, is very useful as an introduction to the best Italian literature, and the brief essays of his “Table-Talk” are in every respect so commendable that all sorts and conditions of readers thank him for the prudent foresight which led him to report in writing what he might have said orally at table had he had a Boswell to slip behind the door and make memoranda of it for posterity. He was born at Southgate, England, October 19th, 1784, and he lived to the ripe age of seventy-five, dying August 28th, 1859. The chief incident of his life was his two-years’ imprisonment for writing disrespectfully of the Prince Regent in the Examiner, but the “exquisite taste” in which he furnished his cell did not tend to establish his position as a martyr. He was the associate of two generations of famous literary men. Byron patronized him, and he wrote “Recollections of Byron,” which was received with marked disfavor by the poet’s friends and without indorsement by his enemies. He wrote several plays and novels, but his best work was done as a poet and essayist.