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likelier thereby to fall into the contempt, than rise up to the estimation of most people. As far as my memory can return back into my past life, before I knew or was capable of guessing what the world, or glories, or business of it were, the natural affections of my soul gave a secret bent of aversion from them, as some plants are said to turn away from others, by an antipathy imperceptible to themselves, and inscrutable to man's understanding. Even when I was a very young boy at school, instead of running about on holydays, and playing with my fellows, I was wont to steal from them, and walk into the fields, either alone with a book, or with some one companion, if I could find any of the same temper. I was then, too, so much an enemy to constraint, that my masters could never prevail on me, by any persuasions or encouragements, to learn, without book, the common rules of grammar, in which they dispensed with me alone, because they found I made a shift to do the usual exercise out of my own reading and observation. That I was then of the same mind that I am now (which, I confess, I wonder at myself), may appear at the latter end of an ode which I made when I was but thirteen years old, and which was then printed, with many other verses. The beginning of it is boyish; but of this part which I here set down (if a very little were corrected), I should hardly now be much ashamed.

This only grant me, that my means may lie
Too low for envy, for contempt too high.
Some honour I would have,
Not from great deeds, but good alone;
Th' unknown are better than ill-known.
Rumour can ope the grave:

Acquaintance I would have; but when 't depends
Not on the number, but the choice of friends.

Books should, not business, entertain the light,
And sleep, as undisturb'd as death, the night.
My house a cottage, more

Than palace, and should fitting be

For all my use, no luxury.

My garden painted o'er

With Nature's hand, not Art's; and pleasures yield,
Horace might envy in his Sabine field.

Thus would I double my life's fading space,
For he that runs it well, twice runs his race.
And in this true delight,

These unbought sports, that happy state,
I would not fear nor wish my fate,
But boldly say each night,

To-morrow let my sun his beams display,

Or in clouds hide them; I have liv'd to-day.

You may see by it I was even then acquainted with the poets (for the conclusion is taken out of Horace); and perhaps it was the immature and immoderate love of them which stamped first, or rather engraved, the characters in me. They were like letters cut in the bark of a young tree, which, with the tree, still grow proportionably. But how this love came to be produced in me so early, is a hard question: I believe I can tell the particular little chance that filled my head first with such chimes of verse, as have never since left ringing there: for I remember when I began to read, and take some pleasure in it, there was wont to lie in my mother's parlour (I know not by what accident, for she herself never in her life read any book but of devotion); but there was wont to lie Spenser's works; this I happened to fall upon,

and was infinitely delighted with the stories of the knights, and giants, and monsters, and brave houses, which I found everywhere there (though my understanding had little to do with all this); and by degrees, with the tinkling of the rhyme, and dance of the numbers; so that I think I had read him all over before I was twelve years old. With these affections of mind, and my heart wholly set upon letters, I went to the university; but was soon torn from thence by that public violent storm, which would suffer nothing to stand where it did, but rooted up every plant, even from the princely cedars, to me, the hyssop. Yet I had as good fortune as could have befallen me in such a tempest; for I was cast by it into the family of one of the best persons, and into the court of one of the best princesses in the world. Now, though I was here engaged in ways most contrary to the original design of my life; that is, into much company, and no small business, and into a daily sight of greatness, both militant and triumphant (for that was the state then of the English and the French courts); yet all this was so far from altering my opinion, that it only added the confirmation of reason to that which was before but natural inclination. I saw plainly all the paint of that kind of life, the nearer I came to it; and that beauty which I did not fall in love with, when, for aught I knew, it was real, was not like to bewitch or entice me when I saw it was adulterate. I met with several great persons, whom I liked very well, but could not perceive that any part of their greatness was to be liked or desired, no more than I would be glad or content to be in a storm, though I saw many ships which rid safely and bravely in it. A storm would not agree with my stomach, if it did with my courage; though I was in a crowd of as good company as could be found anywhere, though I was in business of great and honourable trust, though I eat at the best table, and enjoyed the best conveniences for present subsistence that ought to be desired by a man of my condition, in banishment and public distresses; yet I could not abstain from renewing my old school-boy's wish in a copy of verses to the same effect:

Well, then, I now do plainly see

This busy world and I shall ne'er agree, &c.

And I never then proposed to myself any other advantage from his majesty's happy restoration, but the getting into some moderately convenient retreat in the country, which I thought in that case I might easily have compassed, as well as some others, who, with no greater probabilities or pretences, have arrived to extraordinary fortunes. But I had before written a shrewd prophecy against myself, and I think Apollo inspired me in the truth, though not in the elegance of it:

Thou neither great at court, nor in the war,

Nor at the Exchange shall be, nor at the wrangling bar;
Content thyself with the small barren praise

Which thy neglected verse does raise, &c.

However, by the failing of the forces which I had expected, I did not quit the design which I had resolved on; I cast myself into it a corpus perditum, without making capitulations, or taking counsel of fortune. But God laughs at man, who says to his soul, Take thy ease: I met presently not only with many little incumbrances and impediments, but with so much sickness (a new misfortune to me) as would have spoiled the happiness of an emperor as well as mine. Yet I do neither repent nor alter my course; Non ego perfidum dixi sacramentum. Nothing shall separate me from a mistress which I have loved so long, and have now at last married; though she neither has brought me a rich portion, nor lived yet so quietly with me as I hoped from her.

1 I have not falsely sworn.

Nec vos, dulcissima mundi

Nomina, vos musæ, libertas, otia, libri,

Hortique, sylvæque, animâ remanente relinquam.

Nor by me e'er shall you,

You of all names the sweetest and the best,
You muses, books, and liberty, and rest;
You gardens, fields, and woods forsaken be,
As long as life itself forsakes not me.

From Cowley, who has occupied our attention longer than we had designed, we pass to notice very briefly, Thomas Stanley, the Duchess of Newcastle, Katherine Philips, and Charles Cotton; and shall then close our present remarks with the justly celebrated John Dryden.

THOMAS STANLEY, the learned editor of Eschylus, was the son of Sir Thomas Stanley, knight, of Camberlow-Green, in Hertfordshire, and was born in 1625. In the fourteenth year of his age he entered Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, and soon distinguished himself as a linguist and philosopher. Having successfully pursued his studies at Cambridge, and taken his degrees, he afterward became incorporated into the university of Oxford, and thence passed to the continent, making the tour of France, Italy, and Spain, and remaining in each of these countries a sufficient length of time to perfect himself in its language. On his return to England he entered the Middle Temple as a student of law, and while residing there, married the daughter of Sir James Engan, of Flower, in the county of Northampton. He did not, however, suffer this change in his condition to interfere, in the least degree, with his application to study, but persevered with such untiring industry, that, while yet a comparatively young man, he became one of the most accomplished scholars of the age.

Stanley's first serious literary performance was a History of Philosophy, 'containing the lives, opinions, actions, and discourses of the philosophers of every sect.' This work being very popular, passed through four editions in English in comparatively rapid succession, and was then translated into the Latin tongue, and published at Leipsic in 1711. The account of the Oriental learning and philosophy with which it concludes, is both curious and interesting, and has often received the commendation of learned foreigners. He next published his Eschylus, the text of which he restored, and illustrated it with so much learning as to excite the admiration of all who are able to appreciate the labor he bestowed upon it. The remainder of his life was chiefly spent in editing other Greek poets, among whom were Sophocles, and Euripides; and his death occurred in 1678.

The greater number of the original poems of Stanley were written while he was at the university; and they are remarkable for richness of style, of thought, and of expression, though somewhat tinctured with the conceits of the age. The following are among the happiest of his effusions :--

THE TOMB.

When, cruel fair one, I am slain
By thy disdain,

And, as a trophy of thy scorn,

To some old tomb am borne,

Thy fetters must their power bequeath
To those of Death;

Nor can thy flame immortal burn,
Like monumental fires within an urn:

Thus freed from thy proud empire, I shall prove There is more liberty in Death than Love.

And when forsaken lovers come

To see my tomb,

Take heed thou mix not with the crowd,
And (as a victor) proud,

To view the spoils thy beauty made,
Press near my shade,

Lest thy too cruel breath or name
Should fan my ashes back into a flame,
And thou, devour'd by this revengeful fire,
His sacrifice, who died as thine, expire.

But if cold earth, or marble, must
Conceal my dust,

Whilst hid in some dark ruins, I,
Dumb and forgotten, lie,

The pride of all thy victory

Will sleep with me;

And they who should attest thy glory,

Will, or forget, or not believe this story.

Then to increase thy triumph, let me rest,

Since by thine eye slain, buried in thy breast.

THE LOSS.

Yet ere I go,

Disdainful Beauty, thou shalt be

So wretched as to know

What joys thou fling'st away with me.

A faith so bright,

As Time or Fortune could not rust;
So firm, that lovers might

Have read thy story in my dust,

And crown'd thy name

With laurel verdant as thy youth,

Whilst the shrill voice of Fame

Spread wide thy beauty and my truth.

This thou hast lost,

For all true lovers, when they find

That my just aims were crost,
Will speak thee lighter than the wind.

And none will lay

Any oblation on thy shrine,

But such as would betray

Thy faith to faiths as false as thine.

Yet, if thou choose

On such thy freedom to bestow,

Affection may excuse,

For love from sympathy doth flow.

MARGARET, Duchess of Newcastle, was the daughter of Sir Charles Lucas, and was born about 1622. She early evinced a fondness for literary pursuits, and was educated with the greatest care. Having been appointed one of the maids of honor to Henrietta Maria, consort of Charles the First, she accompanied the queen to France, and at Paris married the Marquis of Newcastle, in 1645. The marquis, soon after their marriage, took up his residence at Antwerp, and there his lady wrote and published, in 1653, a volume entitled Poems and Fancies. The marquis assisted her in her compositions, and so indefatigable were the noble pair, that they filled nearly twelve volumes folio, with plays, poems, orations and philosophical discourses. On the restoration of Charles the Second, the marquis and his lady returned to England, and lived in domestic happiness and devoted loyalty until her death, which occurred in 1673.

As a poetess, the Duchess possessed invention, knowledge, and imagination, but wanted energy and taste. The Pastime and Recreation of the Queen of Fairies in Fairy Land, is her most popular work. The following description of the elvish queen is extremely fine:

She on a dewy leaf doth bathe,

And as she sits, the leaf doth wave;
There like a new-fallen flake of snow,
Doth her white limbs in beauty show.
Her garments fair her maids put on,
Made of the pure light from the sun.

Mirth and Melancholy are also very fancifully personified. The former wooS the poetess to dwell with her, promising sport and pleasure, and drawing the following gloomy but forcible and poetical sketch of her rival Melancholy :

Her voice is low, and gives a hollow sound;
She hates the light, and is in darkness found;
Or sits with blinking lamps, or tapers small,
Which various shadows make against the wall.

She loves naught else but noise which discord makes,
As croaking frogs whose dwelling is in lakes;
The raven's hoarse, the mandrake's hollow groan,
And shrieking owls which fly i' the night alone;
The tolling bell, which for the dead rings out;
A mill, where rushing waters run about;

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