the recognition, of more potent spirits, and the intimate association of his name with that of greater men. He has, however, one peculiar distinction, that of exemplifying beyond almost any other poet what a moderate poetical endowment can effect when prompted by ardent ambition and guided by refined taste. Among the countless examples of splendid gifts marred or wasted, it is pleasing to find one of mediocrity elevated to something like distinction by fastidious care and severe toil. It must also be allowed that his inspiration was genuine as far as it went, and that it emanated from a store of sweetness and tenderness actually existing in the poet's nature. This is proved by the great superiority of ‘Human Life’ to ‘The Pleasures of Memory.’ The latter, composed at a period of life when the author had really little to remember, necessarily, in spite of occasional beauties, appears thin and conventional. The former, written after half a century's experience of life, is instinct with the wisdom of one who has learned and reflected, and the pathos of one who has felt and suffered.
Rogers's own portrait, after a drawing by Sir Thomas Lawrence, is prefixed to several editions of his works. It exhibits no trace of the ‘wrinkles that would puzzle Cocker.’ There was also an oil-painting by Lawrence of the poet and one by Hoppner (æt. 46). The bust by Dantan suggests a likeness to the senile visage of Voltaire. The sketch by Maclise, though described by Goethe as a ‘ghastly caricature,’ was regarded by many of the poet's friends as a faithful likeness.
[Rogers pervades the literary atmosphere of the first half of the nineteenth century; its memoirs, journals, and correspondence teem with allusions to him. Moore's Diary is probably the most important source of this nature, but there is hardly any book of the class relating to this period from which some information cannot be gained. The most important part of it, however, is gathered up in The Early Life of Samuel Rogers (1887) and Rogers and his Contemporaries (1889), both by P. W. Clayden, two excellent works. See also Mr. Clayden's Memoir of Samuel Sharpe, Rogers's nephew. A very satisfactory abridged memoir by this nephew is prefixed to the edition of Rogers's Poems published in 1860. His recollections of the conversation of others, published after his death by another nephew, William Sharpe, in 1856, supply reminiscences of Fox, Burke, Porson, Grattan, Talleyrand, Scott, Erskine, Grenville, and Wellington. Rogers's table-talk, edited by Alexander Dyce in 1860, though not directly concerned with himself, preserves much of Burke's, Fox's, and Horne Tooke's conversation. Of the numerous notices in periodicals, the more important are that by Abraham Hayward in the Edinburgh Review for July 1856, and that by Lady Eastlake in the Quarterly for October 1888. The most elaborate criticism upon him as a poet is perhaps that in the National Review by William Caldwell Roscoe, reprinted in his essays, acute but somewhat too depreciatory. See also Saintsbury's History of the English Literature of the Nineteenth Century, and The Maclise Portrait Gallery, ed. Bates, pp. 13 sq.]
ROGERS, THOMAS (d. 1616), protestant divine, was a student of Christ Church, Oxford, in 1571, and graduated B.A. 7 July 1573, and M.A. 6 July 1576 (Clark, Oxford Reg.) He was subsequently (11 Dec. 1581) rector of Horningsheath or Horringer, Suffolk. Browne's statement (Congregationalism in Surrey, p. 50) that he suffered suspension along with Dr. Bound in 1583 seems to be due to a confusion with Richard Rogers (1550–1618?) [q. v.] Rogers was the great opponent of Bound in the sabbatarian controversy (Cox, Literature of the Sabbath Question, i. 146, 149, 212; Fuller, Church History, v. 81, 215; Strype, Grindal, p. 453). His numerous religious publications were held in high esteem among adherents of his own views in his own and later times. Rogers became chaplain to Bancroft, and aided him in his literary work. He died at Horningsheath in 1616. He was buried in the chancel of his church there, 22 Feb. 1615–6.
Rogers's chief works were two volumes on the English creed, respectively entitled ‘The English Creed, wherein is contained in Tables an Exposition on the Articles which every Man is to Subscribe unto,’ London, 1579 and 1585, and ‘The English Creede, consenting with the True, Auncient, Catholique and Apostolique Church,’ London, pt. i. 1585, fol., pt. ii. 1587, fol., and 1607, 4to. This latter subsequently appeared in another form as an exposition of the Thirty-nine Articles, entitled ‘The Faith, Doctrine, and Religion professed and protected in the Realm of England and Dominions of the same, expressed in Thirty-nine Articles,’ Cambridge, 1607 4to; London, 1621 4to, 1629 4to, 1633 4to, 1658 4to, 1661 4to; Cambridge, 1691 4to; abstracts are dated 1658 4to, 1776 8vo. This book, which was praised by Toplady, Bickersteth, and other evangelical divines, was reprinted in 1854 by the Parker Society (cf. Wood, Athenæ Oxon. ii. 163). Almost equally popular were Rogers's translation of ‘The Imitation of Christ’ (London, 1580, 12mo; often reprinted till 1639) and his ‘Of the Ende of this World and the Second
