Page:Notable South Australians.djvu/116

 then went to Houghton, and continued to follow educational work there for some years, combining therewith the role of an earnest preacher. On leaving the school, he accepted the position of local Postmaster and Registrar, and held it till about twelve months ago, when illness necessitated his giving his duties up. He will be long remembered as a staunch believer in religious tracts, and he always kept a bundle ready for delivery to passengers by each coach, and is thought in this way to have circulated thousands. With all his eccentricity he was universally liked, and died "full of years and honors," at the age of 79, in May, 1885.

John Howell, J.P. AZLITT describes poetry as "The high-wrought enthusiasm of fancy and feeling." He says, "Whenever there is a sense of beauty, or power, or harmony, as in the motion of a wave of the sea, in the growth of the flower that spreads its sweet leaves to the air and dedicates its beauty to the sun, there is poetry in its birth," The subject of this memoir is one who evidently feels this; whose thoughts and sympathies are in unison with nature, and who is fully alive to all that is beautiful and wonderful in its domain. John Howell is a true poet, in the fullest acceptation of the term. He does not merely jingle rhymes together without due consideration as to their meaning; and we recall many pleasant moments afforded in perusing his latest contribution to South Australian literature: "Rose Leaves from an Australian Garden," a work which commends itself to all lovers of poetry. Want of space alone prevents making copious extracts, but we can at least give the following without wearying our readers. In "The Pilgrim of Venus" the poet has risen above the earth, into the fathomless expanse of stars, and in one of those mysterious worlds meets with quite a galaxy of bards, among whom are Chaucer, Shake-