This was
Esther Johnson, the daughter of Temple's housekeeper, and surmised, at a
later day, to be the natural daughter of Temple himself. When the young
secretary first met her, she was fourteen years of age, very clever and
beautiful; and they fell in love with each other.
We cannot dwell at length upon the events of his life. His versatile pen
was prolific of poetry, sentimental and satirical; of political allegories
of great potency, of fiction erected of impossible materials, and yet so
creating and peopling a world of fancy as to illude the reader into
temporary belief in its truth.
POEMS.--His poems are rather sententious than harmonious. His power,
however, was great; he managed verse as an engine, and had an entire
mastery over rhyme, which masters so many would-be poets. His _Odes_ are
classically constructed, but massive and cumbrous. His satirical poems are
eminently historical, ranging over and attacking almost every topic,
political, religious, and social. Among the most characteristic of his
miscellaneous verses are _Epigrams and Epistles, Clever Tom Pinch Going to
be Hanged, Advice to Grub Street Writers, Helter-Skelter, The Puppet
Show_, and similar odd pieces, frequently scurrilous, bitter, and lewd in
expression.
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