The first part of this little volume is inscribed to Lady Anne Cottington; the second to William, Bishop of London, with the date of 1658, which is probably the real date of what is called the seventh edition. Wood speaks of the first edition as published in 1631, and the fifth in 1640. The book, however, is not of frequent occurrence. Its author was educated in Merchant Taylors' school, and became a commoner of Magdalen Hal!, Oxford, in 1621, where he took a degree, and went into orders. He afterwards was celebrated as a preacher, and rose to be dean of Chichester and bishop of Peterborough. He died on the ninth of March, 1678. Wood notices another of his productions entitled "Dayly Thoughts; or a Miscellany of Meditations, holy and human." 1651, third edition. This was probably of the same nature with the present, which is more calculated for the closet of a divine than the shelf of an antiquary. The writer truly terms it, in his dedication, "a rhapsody of resolves and observations:" his manner may be shewn by two short exfracts. "If an asse do but speak once in a world, as Balaam's did; if a beast have any part of a man in him, we wonder, and justly: but let a man have every part of a beast; go upon all fours, and wallow with the drunkard, or lose his speech together with his legs; 'tis nere talked of. It is the property of a man to speak, as of a beast not to speak: why do we wonder to hear a beast speak, and not wonder to hear a man not able to speak? "This life is a race, and we do not live, but travell : but we have another race besides this, of our soul as well as of our body. Since both must be run, and the one will not tarry for the other, I will try which can run fastest: if I have finished my life and not my course, I have made more haste than good speed." A neat engraved title, by Glover, is prefixed, with verses by H. M. possibly Henry More the platonist. T. P. ART. XVI. Hora Subseciva. Observations and Discourses. London: Printed for Edward Blount, and are to be sold at his shop in Paul's Churchyard, at the signe of the Black Beare. 1620. Sm. 8vo. PP. 542. I mention this here merely for the sake of juxta-position. The author of it is supposed to have been GREY BRYDGES LORD CHANDOS, who died Aug, 20, 1621, and from his magnificent style of life was called King of Cotswould, the name of hills in Gloucestershire, in the neighbourhood of his seat of Sudeley Castle. A full account, and long extracts from this book have been lately given in Memoirs of King James's Peers, p. 384, et seq.-and in Park's edition of Lord Orford's Royal and Noble Authors, II. 184. Aur. XVII. Halelujah: or Britans Second Remembrancer, bringing to remembrance (in praisefull and pænitentiall Hymns, Spirituall Songs, and Morall Odes) Meditations advancing the glory of God, God, in the practise of pietie and vertue: and applyed to easie Tunes, to be sung in Families, &c. Composed in a three fold volume by George Wither. The first contains Hymns occasionall: the second, Hymns temporary: the third, Hymns personall. That all persons, according to their degrees and qualities, may at all times, and upon all eminent occasions, be remembred to praise God; and to be mindfull of their duties. "One woe is past; the second, passing on; London: Printed by J. L. for Andrew Hebb, at the Bell in Pauls Church-yard, 1641. 12mo. pp. 487, beside prefixes and table of contents. Few books, of a cotemporary date, can more readily be procured than Wither's first Remembrancer, in 1628; few, it is believed, can be more difficult of attainment than this his second Remembrancer, licensed in 1640. Herbert had a copy among his bibliographical rarities, which went to Mr. Alexander Dalrymple, who has said "there are some things interspersed in it, no where, perhaps, to be surpassed."* The copy now used, was derived from the duplicates of the Ashridge library, which were sold at King's auction-room in August 1800. It appears to have belonged to John, second Earl of Bridgewater, so amiably recorded in CENSURA, (Vol. II. p. 26c,) for undeviating affection to the memory of his angelic wife; † and it is * See Extracts from Wither's Juvenilia, 1785, p. 15. + Birkenhead, the wit and loyalist, wrote an anniversary poem on the Nuptials of John, Earl of Bridgewater, 22 July, 1652. Vide Athenæ, II. 640. very very remarkable, that at p. 404, the leaf is folded down, and several alterations are made in a hand-writing of his time, with an obvious view of rendering the following pious meditation more conformable to personal feelings, sentiments, and resolutions. Presuming that these manuscript corrections were made by Lord Bridgewater, (for I do not trace them on any other page of the book,) it cannot be otherwise than interesting to see them subjoined. I therefore insert these additions between brackets:-where him is printed in italics, her seems to have been intended for its substitute. PART 3. HYMN XXVII. "For a Widower, or a Widow, deprived of a loving yoke-fellow. "That such as be deprived of their most deare companions, may not be swallowed up in excessive griefe, and so forget their Christian hopes and duties; this Hymn teacheth a moderate expressing of their naturall passions, and remembers them of things not to be forgotten in their sorrow. Sing this as I loved thee once." "How neer me came the hand of Death, When, at my side, he struck my dear! [life!] And took away the precious breath Which quick'ned my beloved peer! [wife!] How helplesse am I thereby made! By day, how griev'd! by night, how sad! Alas! how am I left alone! The The voice which I did more esteem All earthlie comforts vanish thus: A thankfull use of what we had. 1, therefore, do not so bemoan (Though these beseeming tears I drop) The losse of my beloved one, As they that are depriv'd of hope: Lord! keep me faithfull to the trust Yet neither life nor death should end The being of a faithfull friend. Those |