THE CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL. A blest conversion and a strange By powerful grace called back was he. When from thy truth we go astray, Which proves the sensual eyesight blind; And as thy blessed servant Paul, In painful preaching of thy name; The start of them in faith may win- MEDITATION IN PRISON. Now that my body, dead alive, Bereaved of comfort, lies in thrall, So shall we both, through outward woe, For as that food my flesh I give Doth keep in me this mortal breath; So souls on meditation live, And shun thereby immortal death: Than when thou find'st me most opprest. First think, my soul, if I have foes Thou should'st by much more careful be, Muse how the damned in flames that glow Thou seest there's given so great might Thus think: if mortal frowns strike fear, By my late hopes, that now are crost, And make the freedom I have lost These iron chains, the bolts of steel, There think betwixt my heart and thee, K Thus if thou do, though closed here, FRANCIS QUARLES, the son of James Quarles, Purveyor of the Navy to Queen Elizabeth, was born in 1592, at Stewards, in Romford Town Ward, Essex. From a school in the neighbourhood, at which he distinguished himself by his talent and assiduity, he was sent to Christ's College, Cambridge, where, in 1608, he took his bachelor's degree. He afterwards studied at Lincoln's Inn, not so much with a view to practise at the bar, as with the benevolent idea of turning his legal knowledge to account in the stifling of suits and the adjustment of differences amongst his friends and neighbours. For a period probably of about four years he filled the office of cup-bearer to Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia, the amiable and accomplished daughter of James I. In 1621, near the commencement of a protracted stay in Ireland, he published his "Argalus and Parthenia," having previously written the "Feast of Worms; or, the History of Jonah," which, from his calling it his "Morning Muse," it has been inferred was his earliest production. His other principal poems are his 'Quintessence of 66 99 66 Meditation;" "Job Militant;" "The History of Queen Esther;" "Sion's Elegies," a paraphrase of Jeremiah; "The School of the Heart;" Hieroglyphics of the Life of Man ;" and " "Divine Emblems." The " Emblems," from which two of the following extracts are taken, were first published about the year 1635, and were addressed to his "beloved friend, Edward Benlowes." In 1641, he published his " Enchiridion," a collection of short essays on miscellaneous subjects. Quarles was sometime secretary to the pious and learned Archbishop Usher; and on the 4th of February, 1639, was appointed chronologer to the City of London, which situation he held till his death in 1644. We quote the following from Mr. Headley, who published, in 1787, "Select Beauties of Ancient English Poetry, with Remarks, etc.," and who is the same genial and in the main, judicious critic, from whom we before adopted a somewhat lengthy estimate of the "Purple Island" of Phineas Fletcher. "It is the fate of many to receive from posterity that commendation which, though deserved, they missed of during their lives; others, on the contrary, take their full complement of praise from their contemporaries, and gain nothing from their successors; a double payment is rarely the lot of any one. In every nation few indeed are they who, allied, as it were, to immortality, can boast of a reputation sufficiently bulky and well-founded, to catch and to detain the eye of each succeeding generation as it rises. The revolutions of opinions, gradual improvements, and new discoveries, will shake, if not demolish, the fairest fabrics of the human intellect. Fame, like virtue, is seldom stationary; if it ceases to advance, it inevitably goes backward, and speedy are the steps of its receding when compared with those of its advances. Writers who do not belong to the first class, yet are of distinguished merit, should rest content with the scanty praise of the few for the present, and trust with confidence to posterity. He who writes well leaves a ктμa ès deɩ behind him the partial and veering gales of favour, though silent perhaps for one century, are sure to rise in the next. Truth, however tardy, is infallibly progressive, and with her walks Justice. Let this console deserted genius; those honours which, through envy or accident, are withheld in one age, are sure to be repaid with interest by taste and gratitude in another. These reflections were more immediately suggested by the memory of Quarles, which has been branded with more than common abuse, and who seems often to have been censured merely from the want of being read. If his poetry failed to gain him friends and readers, his piety should at least have secured him peace and goodwill. He too often, no doubt, mistook the enthusiasm of devotion for the inspiration of fancy; to mix the waters of Jordan and Helicon in the same cup was reserved for the hand of Milton, and for him, and him only, to find the bays of Mount Olivet equally verdant with those of Parnassus. Yet, as the effusions of a real poetical mind, however thwarted by untowardness of subject, will be seldom rendered totally abortive, we find in Quarles original imagery, striking sentiment, fertility of expression, and happy combinations, together with a compression of style that merits the observation of the writers of verse His 'Enchiridion,' consisting of select brief observations, moral and poetical, deserves republication, together with the best parts of his other works. Had this little piece been written at Athens or at Rome, its author would have been classed with the wise men of the century." |