And does in the pomegranates close
Jewels more rich than Ormus shews.
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 Mexic 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.

Henry Vaughan.

AUTHOR of a number of poems, chiefly devotional.

Born 1621.

Died 1695.

He was intended for

the bar, but in consequence of the civil wars he returned to his native place, Newton in Brecknock, where he followed the profession of physician, and where he died in 1695.

EARLY RISING AND PRAYER.

WHEN first thy eyes unveil, give thy soul leave
To do the like; our bodies but forerun

The spirit's duty: true hearts spread and heave
Unto their God, as flowers do to the sun :

Give him thy first thoughts then, so shalt thou keep
Him company all day, and in him sleep.

Yet never sleep the sun up; prayer should
Dawn with the day: there are set awful hours
"Twixt heaven and us; the manna was not good
After sun-rising; far day sullies flowers:

Rise to prevent the sun; sleep doth sins glut,
And heaven's gate opens when the world's is shut.
Walk with thy fellow-creatures; note the hush
And whisperings amongst them. Not a spring
Or leaf but hath his morning-hymn; each bush
And oak doth know I AM. Canst thou not sing!
O leave thy cares and follies! Go this way,
And thou art sure to prosper all the day.
Serve God before the world; let him not go
Until thou hast a blessing; then resign
The whole unto him, and remember who
Prevailed by wrestling ere the sun did shine;
Pour oil upon the stones, weep for thy sin,
Then journey on, and have an eye to heav'n.
Mornings are mysteries; the first, the world's youth,
Man's resurrection, and the future's bud,
Shroud in their births; the crown of life, light, truth,
Is styled their star; the stone and hidden food :
Three blessings wait upon them, one of which
Should move-they make us holy, happy, rich.
When the world's up, and every swarm abroad,
Keep well thy temper, mix not with each clay;
Despatch necessities; life hath a load

Which must be carried on, and safely may;
Yet keep those cares without thee; let the heart
Be God's alone, and choose the better part.

THE NATIVITY.

AWAKE, glad heart! get up, and sing!
It is the birth-day of thy King;
Awake! awake!

The sun doth shake

Light from his locks, and all the way,
Breathing perfumes, doth spice the day.

Awake! awake! hark, how th' wood rings;
Winds whisper, and the busy springs
A concert make!

Awake! awake!

Man is their high-priest, and should rise
To offer up the sacrifice.

I would I were some bird or star,
Flutt'ring in woods, or lifted far
Above this inn

And road of sin!

Then either star or bird should be
Shining, or singing still to thee.

I would I had in my best part
Fit rooms for thee! or that my heart
Were so clean as

Thy manger was!

But I am all filth and obscene;

Yet, if thou wilt, thou canst make clean.
Sweet Jesu! will then; let no more
This leper haunt and soil thy door;
Cure him, ease him,

O release him!

And let once more, by mystic birth,
The Lord of life be born in earth.

John Dryden.

Born 1631.

Died 1701,

His contemporaries having left his life unwritten, nothing now can be known of this great poet beyond what uncertain tradition has supplied. John Dryden was born at Aldwinkle, near Oundle, in Northamptonshire. He was of good family, his grandfather being a baronet. He was first sent to Westminster School, and afterwards to Cambridge. His college life gave few indications of his future greatness, and it was not till 1658, when in his twenty-seventh year, that he became a public candidate for fame. He then wrote heroic stanzas on the death of Cromwell. Shortly after appeared his first play; but it was so much condemned that he was compelled to recall it, and endeavour to make it more in accordance with public taste. In 1663 he married a daughter of the Earl of Berkshire, but the match added neither to his wealth nor happiness. In 1666 he published a long poem, "Annus Mirabilis," an account of the events of 1666, which is esteemed one of his most elaborate works. He was now so much talked of that he succeeded Davenant as poet-laureate and royal historiographer, for each of which posts he received £100 a year. About 1673 Dryden had his complacency put to a severe test by the publication of a play by Elkanah Settle, which became very successful on the stage, and which threatened the supremacy of Dryden. Dryden could not repress his temper, and wrote such a criticism of the play as could only be the result of malignant jealousy. From this time play after play issued from Dryden's prolific pen and were generally well received. He did not enjoy his reputation unmolested, however: the two most distinguished wits

of the nobility, Buckingham and Rochester, declared themselves his enemies, and in a play they introduced in 1671 gratified their utmost malice on the poet. In 1681 Dryden united politics with his poetry, and wrote a memorable satire called "Absalom and Achitophel," on the faction of which Shaftesbury and Monmouth were the heads. The reception this satire met with was extraordinary; the allusions were quite understood, and the attractions of wit, elegance, and harmony filled every mind with delight; the Duke of Monmouth was Absalom, the Earl of Shaftesbury was Achitophel, the Duke of Buckingham was Zimri. In another poem he lashes Settle under the name of Doeg. Dryden seems to have been a time-server; to please the bigoted James VII., and to obtain a continuance of his pension, which had been stopped, he became a Roman Catholic. The first public fruits of the change was the "Hind and Panther," an allegorical poem in which the main arguments of the Roman Church are fully stated; the poem is sharp and unsparing in its wit and satire. The Hind represents the Papacy, and the Panther the Church of England. The Revolution of 1688 deprived Dryden of his offices; and as notwithstanding all he had written he remained poor, necessity still urged him forward, and in his declining years he produced some of his noblest works. Among these may be mentioned his immortal Ode to St Cecilia, or Alexander's Feast, which has never been surpassed. It shed a lustre on the last days of the poet, who died in Gerard Street, on 1st May 1701. A subscription was made for a public funeral, and he was interred with great pomp in Westminster Abbey.

FROM "ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL."

CHARACTER OF SHAFTESBURY.

Or these the false Achitophel was first;
A name to all succeeding ages cursed:
For close designs, and crooked counsels fit;
Sagacious, bold, and turbulent of wit;
Restless, unfix'd in principles and place;
In power unpleased, impatient of disgrace:
A fiery soul, which, working out its way,
Fretted the pigmy-body to decay,

And o'er-inform'd the tenement of clay.
A daring pilot in extremity;

Pleased with the danger, when the waves went high
He sought the storms; but, for a calm unfit,
Would steer too nigh the sands to boast his wit.
Great wits are sure to madness near allied,
And thin partitions do their bounds divide;
Else why should he, with wealth and honour blest,
Refuse his age the needful hours of rest?
Punish a body which he could not please;
Bankrupt of life, yet prodigal of ease?
And all to leave what with his toil he won,
To that unfeather'd two-legg'd thing, a son;

Got, while his soul did huddled notions try;
And born a shapeless lump, like anarchy.
In friendship false, implacable in hate;
Resolved to ruin or to rule the state.
To compass this the triple bond he broke;
The pillars of the public safety shook;
And fitted Israel for a foreign yoke:

Then seized with fear, yet still affecting fame,
Usurp'd a patriot's all-atoning name.

So easy still it proves, in factious times,
With public zeal to cancel private crimes.
How safe is treason, and how sacred ill,
Where none can sin against the people's will!
Where crowds can wink, and no offence be known,
Since in another's guilt they find their own!
Yet fame deserved no enemy can grudge;
The statesman we abhor, but praise the judge.
In Israel's courts ne'er sat an Abethdin
With more discerning eyes, or hands more clean,
Unbribed, unsought, the wretched to redress;
Swift of despatch, and easy of access.

Oh! had he been content to serve the crown,
With virtues only proper to the gown;
Or had the rankness of the soil been freed
From cockle, that oppress'd the noble seed;
David for him his tuneful harp had strung,
And heaven had wanted one immortal song.
But wild Ambition loves to slide, not stand,
And Fortune's ice prefers to Virtue's land.
Achitophel, grown weary to possess
A lawful fame, and lazy happiness,
Disdain'd the golden fruit to gather free,
And lent the crowd his arm to shake the tree.
Now, manifest of crimes contrived long since,
He stood at bold defiance with his prince;
Held up the buckler of the people's cause
Against the crown, and skulk'd behind the laws.
The wish'd occasion of the plot he takes;
Some circumstances finds, but more he makes.
By buzzing emissaries fills the ears
Of listening crowds with jealousies and fears
Of arbitrary counsels brought to light,
And proves the king himself a Jebusite.

K