The night also expired,

Then comes the morning bright,

Which is so much desired

By all that love the light.
This may learn

Them that mourn,

To put their grief to flight: The Spring succeedeth Winter, And day must follow night.

He therefore that sustaineth
Affliction or distress,

Which every member paineth,
And findeth no release :

Let such therefore despair not,
But on firm hope depend,
Whose griefs immortal are not,
And therefore must have end.
They that faint

With complaint

Therefore are to blame :

They add to their afflictions,

And amplify the same.

For if they could with patience
Awhile possess the mind,
By inward consolations
They might refreshing find,
To sweeten all their crosses,
That little time they 'dure:
So might they gain by losses,
And sharp would sweet procure.
But if the mind

Be inclin'd

To unquietness,

invite to future selection. For the present, I conclude with a few lines from the fifth Meditation.

"Such is the force of each created thing,
That it no solid happiness can bring,

Which to our minds may give contentment sound;
For like as Noah's dove no succour found,
Till she return'd to him that sent her out,

Just so, the soul in vain may seek about
For rest or satisfaction any where,

Save in His presence who hath sent her here.
Yea, though all earthly glories should unite
Their pomp and splendour, to give such delight;
Yet could they no more sound contentment bring,
Than star-light can make grass or flowers spring."

Vicissitudo Rerum. An elegiacall Poeme, of the interchangeable courses and varietie of things in this world. The first part.

Omnia tempora producuntur, mutantur, el consumuntur.

Imprinted at London by Simon Stafford, dwelling on Adling hill, neere Carter lane. 1600.

4to. 23 leaves.

THIS poem had a new title in 1601, when it was called "The Storehouse of Varieties." JOHN NORDEN, its author, is described by Wood* to have become a Commoner of Hart-hall in the year 1564, where he

* V. Athen. Oxon. i. 450.

took his degrees in Arts, and completed that of Master in 1573. But though he conjectured him to have been the author of various publications in the time of Elizabeth and James, yet he did not find that he entitled himself either a Master of Arts, or a Minister. His studies were patronized by the celebrated Lord Burleigh, and his son the Earl of Salisbury. But the present production is thus inscribed:

"To the right honorable Sir William Howard, Knight, the Lord Howard of Effingham, sonne and heyre apparent to the right honorable Earle of Nottingham, lord high admirall of England.

"Minerva, fained goddesse of best skill,

Seem'd friendles to my sad and feeble Muse;
The Sisters nine barr'd me Parnassus hill,
Mount Helicon,-where praised poets use.

Therefore (my Lord) my pen deserves no praise,
But pardon. Honor pardons weake essayes.

The Change of Things in slender verse I sing;
A weighty subject, common yet to all;
From lowest creature to the loftiest thing,

Nature her workes doth tosse like tennis-ball:
Now rayz'd by force, then down again by poyze,
Rising, ne falling, she showes not by noyze.

But when sterne Time eche thing created sees,
She fawnes awhile, and tenters it on pride;
And soone she frownes, and then forthwith decrees
To pull it downe, and lay that thing aside:
Yet, as a mother, she againe doth beare
Some new and that awhile she doth upreare.

Thus Time, by turnes, turnes all things out of date,
And will prevaile, till she herselfe have end:
For sure things' changes prove time terminate,
And time's exchanges doth her time portend.
This time, once gone, a timelesse time shall bee;
Till then, in things a changing state we see.

This mooves my Muse, erst silent, now to sing,
Though slenderly, the swift exchange of things:
And this to you (my Lord) I fearfull bring,

Wishing that time, that plants and pulls down kings,
Would daigne long time to her,* that still is one,
By whome we here enjoy true Helicon.

At your Honor's command,

Jo. NORDEN."

A metrical preface concludes with the following

lines.

As by this first part these are partly seene;

The second showes the alterations,

That in the world by course of time have beene

In men and cities, kings and nations."

No appearance of the second part, here mentioned, occurs in the copy before me, which extends to 157 stanzas: many of these are geological, and more are geographical. I subjoin a short specimen, that bears an historical allusion to England and Ireland.

"The Scithians did will and use to ride;

1

They grew so excellent, they gained fame;

VOL. IM.

Probably Q. Elizabeth.

+ Meaning the varieties of Time and Things.