The son of an apothecary, he was born in Hatton Garden, London, educated at a Moravian school in Germany, and at King's College London, and after practicing medicine and keeping schools at various places, went in 1850 to London, and adopted literature as his profession. He wrote in periodicals (including Household Words and All the Year Round for Charles Dickens), and from 1859–1864 edited the Examiner. From 1865–89 he was Professor of English Literature at University College. He was the author of various biographies, including Lives of Bernard Palissy, Cornelius Agrippa, Girolamo Cardano and Clement Marot. He also wrote introductions to two books written by John Locke -- the 1884 edition of "Two treatises on civil government", and the 1889 edition of "Of civil government and toleration". His principal work, however, was English Writers (10 volumes 1864-94), coming down to Shakespeare. His First Sketch of English Literature—the study for the larger work—had reached at his death a circulation of 34,000 copies. This article incorporates public domain text from: Cousin, John William (1910). A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London, J. M. Dent & sons; New York, E. P. Dutton.