high estimate on them.

The establishment of a Magazine called the Monthly Preceptor,
which proposed prize themes for young persons, afforded Kirke
White an opportunity of trying his literary powers. In a letter
written in June, 1800, to his brother, speaking of that work he
says, "I am noticed as worthy of commendation, and as affording
an encouraging prospect of future excellence. You will laugh. I
have also turned poet, and have translated an Ode of Horace into
English verse." His productions gained him several of the prizes;
and he soon afterwards became a contributor to the Monthly Mirror,
his compositions in which attracted the attention of Mr. Hill, the
proprietor of the work, and of Mr. Capel Lofft, a gentleman who
distinguished himself by his patronage of Bloomfield.

Though on entering an attorney's office the bar was the object of
his hopes, a constitutional deafness soon convinced him that he
was not adapted for the duties of an advocate; and his thoughts,
from conscientious motives, became directed to the Church.

When about fifteen, his mind was agitated by doubt and anxiety on
the most important of all subjects; and the chaos of opinions
which extensive and miscellaneous reading so often produces on
ardent and imaginative temperaments, is well described in his
little poem entitled, "My own Character," wherein he represents
himself as a prey to the most opposite impressions, and as being
in a miserable state of incertitude:

"First I premise it's my honest conviction,
That my breast is the chaos of all contradiction,