Among his essays, we may mention the stories of _Rosamund Gray_
and _Old Blind Margaret_. _Dream Children_ and _The Child Angel_ are those
of greatest power; but every one he has written is charming. His sly hits
at existing abuses are designed to laugh them away. He was the favorite of
his literary circle, and as a talker had no superior. After a life of
care, not unmingled with pleasures, he died in 1834. Lamb's letters are
racy, witty, idiomatic, and unlabored; and, as most of them are to
colleagues in literature and on subjects of social and literary interest,
they are important aids in studying the history of his period.
THOMAS HOOD.--The greatest humorist, the best punster, and the ablest
satirist of his age, Hood attacked the social evils around him with such
skill and power that he stands forth as a philanthropist. He was born in
London in 1798, and, after a limited education, he began to learn the art
of engraving; but his pen was more powerful than his burin. He soon began
to contribute to the _London Magazine_ his _Whims and Oddities_; and, in
irregular verse, satirized the would-be great men of the time, and the
eccentric legislation they proposed in Parliament.
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