But if of baser metal be his mind, In base revenge there is no honor won. We say our hearts are great and cannot yield; Truth's school for certain doth this same allow, A noble heart doth teach a virtuous scorn, To scorn to lie, to scorn to do a wrong. To scorn to bear an injury in mind, To scorn a free-born heart slave-like to bind. But if for wrongs we needs revenge must have, And let our hate prevail against our mind? Had Mariam scorn'd to leave a due unpaid, She would to Herod then have paid her love; Is virtuous pride. Had Mariam thus been proud, We know but little of the personal history of Samuel Daniel. He was the son of a music master, and was born near Taunton, in Somersetshire, in 1562. In 1579 he entered Oxford, and left it at the end of three years without taking his degree. Towards the close of his life he retired to a farm in his native county, and died in 1619. His most elaborate work is "The History of the Civil Wars between the Houses of York and Lancaster," which is rather an uninteresting work, for the reason that you see in it more of the correctness of the annalist than the fancy of the poet. Sound morality, prudential wisdom, and occasional touches of the pathetic, delivered in a style of great perspicuity, will be recognised throughout his work; but neither warmth, passion, nor sublimity, nor the most distant trace of enthusiasm, can be found to animate the mass. some of his minor poems, especially his moral epistles, have great merit, abounding in original thought, expressed in clear, simple, and vigorous language. A very discriminating and candid critic says, "We find both in lis poetry and prose such a legitimate and rational flow of language, as ap proaches nearer the style of the eighteenth than the sixteenth century. and But of which, we may safely assert, that it will never become obsolete. He cer tainly was the Atticus of his day." EQUANIMITY. He that of such a height hath built his mind, Where greatness stands upon as feeble feet He looks upon the mightiest monarchs' wars Who puts it in all colors, all attires, To serve his ends, and make his courses hold. And whilst distraught ambition compasses, And bears no venture in impiety. Thus, madam, fares that man, that hath prepared A rest for his desires; and sees all things Beneath him; and hath learn'd this book of man, The best of glory with her sufferings: By whom, I see, you labor all you can To plant your heart; and set your thoughts as near Epistle to the Countess of Camberians. 1 Read-notices of Daniel in Headley's “Beauties of Ancient English Poetry;" in the Retrospective Review viii. 22: and in Drake s Shakspeare, 1. 611. RICHARD THE SECOND, The Morning before his Murder in Pomfret Castle. Or whether nature else hath conference The morning of that day which was his last, Out at a little grate his eyes he cast Upon those bordering hills and open plain, The more his own, and grieves his soul the more, O happy man, saith he, that lo I see, Nor change his state with him that sceptre wields. Thou sitt'st at home safe by thy quiet fire, For pity must have part-envy not all. Thrice happy you that look as from the shore, No interest, no occasion to deplore Other men's travels, while yourselves sit free. How much doth your sweet rest make us the more Whose blinded greatness, ever in turmoil, Still seeking happy life, makes life a toil. Third Book of the Civil War GILES FLETCHER. 1588-1623 THIS truly pleasing Christian poet, the brother of Phineas Fletcher, who, m the words of old Antony Wood, "was equally beloved of the Muses and Graces," was born 1588. But very little is known of his life. He has, however. immortalized his name by that beautiful poem entitled, "Christ's Victory and Triumph in Heaven and Earth over and after Death :" a poem which displays great sweetness, united to harmony of numbers. Headley styles i rich and picturesque," and Campbell says, that "inferior as he is to Spen ser and Milton, he might be figured, in his happiest moments, as a link of connection in our poetry between those congenial spirits, for he reminds us of both, and evidently gave hints to the latter, in a poem on the same subject with Paradise Regained." REDEMPTION. When I remember Christ our burden bears, I look for joy, but find a sea of tears; I look that we should live, and find Him die; Thus what I look, I cannot find so well; Or, rather, what I find I cannot tell; These banks so narrow are, those streams so highly swell A tree was first the instrument of strife, Though ill that trunk and this fair body suit; That death to Him, this life to us doth give: Sweet Eden was the arbor of delight, Yet in his honey-flowers our poison blew; A man was first the author of our fall, 1 Specimens, vol. il. p. 306. A garden was the place we perish'd all, Is now by one Man caught, beguiled with his own guile. All for Himself, Himself dissolved found, FRANCIS BACON. 1561-1626. Him for the studious shade Kind nature form'd, deep, comprehensive, clear, Plato, the Stagyrite, and Tully join'd, The great deliverer he! who, from the gloom Of cloister'd monks and jargon-teaching schools, Held in the magic chain of words and forms, THOMSON. FRANCIS BACON, Viscount of St. Albans, and lord high chancellor of Eng land, was born in London, January 22, 1561. He was the son of Sir Nicholas Bacon lord keeper of the great seal. He entered Cambridge at the early age of thirteen, and after spending four years there, where he was distinguished for his zealous application to study, and for the extraordinary maturity of his understanding, he went abroad and travelled in France. But his father dying suddenly in 1579, and leaving but very little property, he hastily returned to England, and prosecuted the study of the law. He did not, however, neglect philosophy, for not far from this period he planned his great work, The Instauration of the Sciences." In 1590 he obtained the post of counser extraordinary to the queen, and three years after he had a seat in parliament from Middlesex. On the accession of James I. new honors awaited him. He was knighted in 1603. In 1607 he married Alice, daughter of Benedict Barnham, Esq., alderman of London, by whom he had a considerable fortune, but nʊ children. In subsequent years he obtained successively the offices of king's counsel, solicitor general, and attorney general. In 1617 the king presented the great seal to him; in 1618 he obtained the title of lord high chancellor of England, and about six months after the title of Baron of Verulam, which title gave place in the following year to that of Viscount of St. Albans. But a 'killing frost" was soon to nip these buds of honor: his fall and disgrace 1 This is a town in Hertfordshire, famous for the two battles fought in 1455 and 146', between the two rival houses of York and Lancaster. It was anciently called Verulam, whence Bacon's subsequent title of honor, Baron Verulam. |