"LESS HARD 'TIS NOT TO ERR OURSELVES, THAN KNOW IF OUR FOREFATHERS ERRED OR NO."-COWLEY

PURE IS THE FLAME OF FRIENDSHIP, AND DIVINE,

PART II.

M

A KING'S GARDEN.

ETHINKS I see great Diocletian* walk

In the Salonian garden's noble shade,
Which by his own imperial hands was made;
I see him smile, methinks, as he does talk
With the ambassadors, who come in vain
To entice him to a throne again.

"If I, my friends," said he, "should to you show
All the delights which in these gardens grow,
'Tis likelier much that you should with me stay,
Than 'tis that you should carry me away:
And trust me not, my friends, if every day
I walk not here with more delight
Than ever, after the most happy fight,
In triumph to the Capitol I rode,

To thank the gods, and to be thought myself a god."

[ABRAHAM COWLEY, born in London in 1618, died at Chertsey in 1667. Those who read him "must be contented to admire rather than to be pleased." He overloads his poems with conceits, which we may praise for their ingenuity, but feel in their abundance to be wearisome. His principal works are a sacred poem, "The Davideis," his "Books of Plants," Anacreontics," and " Elegiac Poems. The foregoing extract is from "The Garden."]

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* The Emperor Diocletian abdicated sovereignty on the 1st of May 305, and retired to his birth-place in Dalmatia, where he spent the remainder of his life in the cultivation of his garden, refusing all solicitations to resume imperial honours. He died at Salona about 312-313.

LIKE THAT WHICH IN HEAVEN'S SUN DOES SHINE."-COWLEY.

"POETS BY DEATH ARE CONQUERED, BUT THE WIT OF POETS TRIUMPH OVER IT."-ABRAHAM COWLEY.

"SOME HONOUR I WOULD HAVE-NOT FROM GREAT DEEDS, BUT GOOD ALONE."-ABRAHAM COWLEY.

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THIS ONLY GRANT ME, THAT MY MEANS MAY LIE

THE GRASSHOPPER.

ON DELAYS.

JEGIN, be bold, and venture to be wise;

B

He who defers this work from day to day,

Does on a river's bank expecting stay,

Till the whole stream which stopped him should be gone,
That runs, and as it runs, for ever will run on.

[ABRAHAM COWLEY. From the Latin.]

"WIT'S LIKE A LUXURIANT VINE, UNLESS TO VIRTUE'S PROP IT JOIN."-ABRAHAM COWLEY.

THE GRASSHOPPER.

APPY insect! what can be
In happiness compared to thee?

Fed with nourishment divine,
The dewy morning's gentle wine!
Nature waits upon thee still,
And thy verdant cup does fill;
'Tis filled wherever thou dost tread,
Nature's self's thy Ganymede.

Thou dost drink, and dance, and sing,
Happier than the happiest king!

All the fields which thou dost see,
All the plants belong to thee,
All that summer hours produce,
Fertile made with early juice:
Man for thee does sow and plough;

Farmer he and landlord thou!
Thou dost innocently joy,
Nor does thy luxury destroy.
The shepherd gladly heareth thee,

More harmonious than he.

Thee, country minds with gladness hear,
Prophet of the ripened year:

TOO LOW FOR ENVY; FOR CONTEMPT, TOO HIGH."-COWLEY.

"HE THAT RUNS IT WELL, TWICE RUNS HIS RACE."-COWLEY.

THE SONG OF THE EMIGRANTS IN BERMUDA.

Thee Phoebus loves and does inspire;

Phoebus is himself thy sire.

To thee, of all things upon earth,
Life is no longer than thy mirth.

Happy insect! happy thou,

Dost neither age nor winter know:
But when thou'st drunk, and danced, and sung
Thy fill, the flowery leaves among

(Voluptuous and wise withal,
Epicurean animal),

Sated with the summer feast
Thou retir'st to endless rest.

[ABRAHAM COWLEY.]

"THE CHIEFEST JOYS GLIDE WITH THE SWIFTEST STREAM, AND ALL OUR GREATEST PLEASURE'S BUT A DREAM."-COWLEY.

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"HOPE OF ALL ILLS THAT MEN ENDURE, THE ONLY CHEAP AND UNIVERSAL CURE."-ABRAHAM COWLEY.

The Bermuda Islands, discovered by Bermudez, a Spaniard, in 1527,
are situated between the Gulf of Mexico and the North Atlantic Ocean, in
lat. 32° 20' N. They number five hundred, but are mostly rocks.
†These emigrants are supposed to have quitted England to avoid perse-
cution on account of their religious faith.

"TH' UNKNOWN ARF BETTER THAN ILL KNOWN."-COWLEY.

"AS FREE AS NATURE FIRST MADE MAN, ERE THE BASE LAWS OF SERVITUDE BEGAN."-DRYDEN.

HE IS THE FREEMAN WHOM THE TRUTH MAKES FREE."-COWPER.

THE SONG OF THE EMIGRANTS IN BERMUDA.

He gave us this eternal spring
Which here enamels everything,
And sends the fowls to us in care
On daily visits through the air.
He hangs in shades the orange bright

Like golden lamps in a green night,
And does in the pomegranates close
Jewels more rich than Ormus* shows:
He makes the figs our mouths to meet,
And throws the melons at our feet;
But apples, plants of such a price,
No tree could ever bear them twice.

With cedars chosen by his hand
From Lebanon he stores the land;
And makes the hollow seas that roar
Proclaim the ambergris on shore.
He cast (of which we rather boast)
The Gospel's pearl upon our coast;
And in these rocks for us did frame
A temple where to sound His name.
Oh, let our voice His praise exalt
Till it arrive at heaven's vault,
Which then perhaps rebounding, may
Echo beyond the Mexique bay!"

Thus sung they in the English boat,
A holy and a cheerful note:
And all the way, to guide their chime,
With falling oars they kept the time.

[ANDREW MARVELL, poet and statesman, remarkable for his integrity, manliness, and high sense of honour, born 1620, died 1678.]

* Ormus, in the Persian Gulf, famous for its pearls.

THE CAUSE OF FREEDOM IS THE CAUSE OF GOD."-W. L. BOWLES.

"WHERE RELIGION DOES WITH VIRTUE SHINE, IT MAKES A HERO LIKE AN Angel shine."-WALLER.