An English divine, poet, and historian, was born at Kirkby Stephen, in Westmoreland, in 1735. He published several popular pieces, particularly a poem, entitled “Genius and Valor,” and having therein defended Scotland from the scurrility thrown out by Churchill in his “Prophecy of Famine,” he was complimented with the degree of D.D. by the university of Edinburgh. In 1770 in conjunction with his brother, he published a translation of Plutarch, which is still a very popular work: in 1777 he was presented to a prebendal stall in the cathedral of Wells, and died in 1779.

Personal

  He died in the flower of his prime, when the promises of his youth were on the verge of their full accomplishment. That such a man should take pains to put out the lamp that lights up the chamber of speculation and thought within him, is as lamentable as it is censurable; and little more can be said for him but that his guilt and folly appear harmless in comparison with the malignity of those of our day who abuse the arts of composition and the power of song, to spread a moral blight around them.

General

  It is but a cheerless task of criticism, to pass with a cold look and irreverent step, over the literary memories of men, who, though they may rank low in the roll of absolute genius, have yet possessed refinement, information, and powers of amusement, above the level of their species, and such as would interest and attach us in private life. Of this description was Langhorne; an elegant scholar, and an amiable man. He gave delight to thousands, from the press and the pulpit; and had sufficient attraction, in his day, to sustain his spirit and credit as a writer, in the face of even Churchill’s envenomed satire. Yet, as a prose writer, it is impossible to deny that his rapidity was the effect of lightness more than vigour; and, as a poet, there is no ascribing to him either fervour or simplicity. His Muse is elegantly languid. She is a fine lady, whose complexion is rather indebted to art than to the healthful bloom of nature. It would be unfair not to except from this observation several plain and manly sentiments, which are expressed in his poem “On the Enlargement of the Mind,” and some passages in his “Country Justice,” which are written with genuine feeling.

  There is a period in youth when the mere power of numbers has a more strong effect on ear and imagination than in afterlife. At this season of immature taste, the author was greatly delighted with the poems of Mickle and Langhorne.

  His [Scott’s] youthful admiration of Langhorne has been rendered memorable by his own record of his first and only interview with his great predecessor, Robert Burns.

  Langhorne, an amiable man, and highly popular as well as warmly beloved in his day, survives now in memory chiefly through his Plutarch’s Lives, and through a few lines in his “Country Justice,” which are immortalised by the well-known story of Scott’s interview with Burns. Campbell puts in a plea besides for his “Owen of Carron,” but the plea, being founded on early reading, is partial, and has not been responded to by the public.

  The only poem of Langhorne’s which has a cast of originality is his “Country Justice.” Here he seems to have anticipated Crabbe in painting the rural life of England in true colours. His picture of the gipsies, and his sketches of venal clerks and rapacious overseers, are genuine likenesses. He has not the raciness or the distinctness of Crabbe, but is equally faithful, and as sincerely a friend to humanity. He pleads warmly for the poor vagrant tribe.

  Langhorne was a popular writer in his day, but his sentimental tales and his pretty verses have long ceased to please, and he is now best remembered as the joint translator of “Plutarch’s Lives.”

  That he had a tender feeling towards animals is shown by his poems on birds and by his protest against the cruelty of confining birds in cages. The most striking characteristic of Langhorne’s poems is his direct expression of the excellence of the gift that nature’s hand bestows…. Langhorne’s perception of the power of nature over man, and his passionate sense of personal indebtedness to nature are the keynotes of his work. In a narrow way and with feeble speech he shows a mental and spiritual experience of the same type as that which Wordsworth records of his own youth. His motive in writing “an unaffected wish to promote the love of nature and the interests of humanity,” is likewise Wordsworthian.

  Langhorne at least sometimes has a melancholy clangour of verse too rare in his century.