Chaucer or Spenser, or bid Beaumont lye
A little further, to make thee a roome:
Thou art a Moniment, without a tombe,
And art alive still, while thy Booke doth live,
And we have wits to read, and praise to give.
That I not mixe thee so, my braine excuses,-
I meane with great, but disproportion'd Muses;
For if I thought my judgement were of yeeres,
I should commit thee surely with thy peeres,
And tell, how farre thou didst our Lily out-shine,
Or sporting Kid, or Marlowe's mighty line.

And though thou hadst small Latine, and lesse Greeke,
From thence to honour thee, I would not seeke
For names; but call forth thund'ring Æschilus,
Euripides, and Sophocles to us,

Paccuvius, Accius, him of Cordova dead,
To life againe, to heare thy Buskin tread
And shake a Stage: Or, when thy Sockes were on,
Leave thee alone for the comparison

Of all that insolent Greece or haughtie Rome
Sent forth, or since did from their ashes come.
Triumph, my Britaine! thou hast one to showe,
To whom all Scenes of Europe homage owe.
He was not of an age, but for all time!
And all the Muses still were in their prime,
When, like Apollo, he came forth to warme
Our eares, or like a Mercury to charme!
Nature her-selfe was proud of his designes,
And joy'd to weare the dressing of his lines!
Which were so richly spun, and woven so fit,
As, since, she will vouchsafe no other Wit.
The merry Greeke, tart Aristophanes,
Neat Terence, witty Plautus, now not please;

Thy unmolested peace, unsharèd cave,
Possess as lord, not tenant, of thy grave;
That unto us and others it may be
Honour hereafter to be laid by thee."

But antiquated and deserted lye,

As they were not of Natures family.

Yet must I not give Nature all; thy Art,
My gentle Shakespeare, must enjoy a part:
For though the Poets matter, Nature be,
His Art doth give the fashion. And, that he,
Who casts to write a living line, must sweat
(Such as thine are) and strike the second heat
Upon the Muses anvile: turne the same,
(And himselfe with it) that he thinkes to frame;
Or, for the lawrell, he may gaine a scorne,-
For a good Poet's made, as well as borne.

And such wert thou. Looke how the father's face
Lives in his issue, even so the race

Of Shakespeares minde and manners brightly shines
In his well-torned and true-filed lines:

In each of which, he seemes to shake a Lance,

As brandish't at the eyes of Ignorance.

Sweet Swan of Avon! what a sight it were

To see thee in our waters yet appeare,

And make those flights upon the bankes of Thames,
That so did take Eliza and our James!

But stay, I see thee in the Hemisphere

Advanc'd, and made a Constellation there!

Shine forth, thou Starre of Poets, and with rage

Or influence, chide or cheere the drooping Stage;

Which, since thy flight fró hence, hath mourn'd like night,
And despaires day, but for thy Volumes light.

* Jonson retired from the profession of a playwright after having challenged a place among the dramatists of Britain by the publication of his works in 1616the very year of Shakespere's death, and of Beaumont's too. Philip Massinger, the scholar of Shakespere, was working his way up into repute in the "Globe" and the "Blackfriars "-where it is probable his play, "Cardenes, or a Very Woman," written at the request of the Earl of Pembroke, was performed in 1613-shortly after Shakespere's retirement. John Webster was also a claimant for the honour of being a disciple of Avon's bard, and was one of the authors attached to the "Globe," and his Majesty's servants. Thomas Heywood, one of the most prolific composers of the day; Fletcher, the most taking popular writer of the time; Chap

man, the learned and judicious; Rowley, Field, Ford, &c., were at this time (1623) all engaged in bringing the grand epochs of history, or the splendid outgrowths of imagination, into visible being on the stage. Yet, having only exempted himself by implication, he here asserts that, since Shakespere's death, the drooping stage "Hath mourned like night,

And despaires day, but for thy Volumes light."

Having already told how far Shakespere did

"Our Lily out-shine,

Or sporting Kid, or Marlowe's mighty line,"

it is plain that he asserts dramatic supremacy for Shakespere-unless there should happen to be a mental reservation of that honour to himself. Observe, also, that though represented by Drummond as saying, in 1618," Shakespere wanted art," he in this poem says,—

"Yet must I not give Nature all; thy Art,

My gentle Shakespeare, must enjoy a part,

*

For a good Poet's made, as well as borne,

And such wert thou."

And so distinctly shows that he thought of Shakespere as a studious thinker, and

an industrious reviser of "his well-torned and true filed lines."

THE ART OF REASONING: a Popular Exposition of the Principles of Logic, Inductive and Deductive; with an Introductory Outline of the History of Logic, and an Appendix on recent Logical Developments, with Notes. By SAMUEL NEIL. Crown 8vo., 4s. 6d. cloth.

After an introduction containing a sketch of the history of logic, including an account of the labours of the principal schoolmen and improvers of the art of reasoning, the treatise divides itself into the four usual parts of logic-perceptivity, judgment, ratiocination, and method. Among the subjects most copiously treated are the nature and kinds of evidence; the uses of syllogisms, which are illustrated by familiar examples in each figure and mood; the various classes of fallacies; and the science of method.

THE ELEMENTS OF RHETORIC: a Manual of the Laws of Taste, including the Theory and Practice of Composition. By SAMUEL NEIL. Crown 8vo., 4s. 6d. cloth.

THE design of this treatise is to popularize the study of rhetoric, by uniting strict, philosophical accuracy of thought with a familiar mode of exposition.

After defining the province of rhetoric, and explaining its utility, the author proceeds to investigate the origin of language, and of the various parts of speech, including the philosophy of general grammar. The history and structure of the English language occupies a separate section, in which are explained the modifications it has undergone by the influences of the distinct races who have successively inhabited the island. The subject of style is copiously dwelt on, and the component qualities of a good style are severally analyzed and illustrated, and rules and aphorisms respecting diction are deduced. The work proceeds to treat on the imaginative faculties, comprehending the sources of poetic taste, and the logic, science, and characteristics of poetry and poetical language. This is followed by a chapter on the emotions, another on literary æsthetics, and by several chapters on figurative expressions. The sources of the ludicrous, of wit and humour, are then traced.

The subject of method, in written compositions, and in orations adapted to the senate, the bar, the pulpit, and the platform, are next considered. Rhetorical is distinguished from logical method, and the partitions of oral and written discourses are laid down.

Throughout this work, which embraces a great variety of topics, summaries of the principles are added in the form of axioms at the close of each subject. Several analytical or synoptical tables are given; for example, of the passions, the figures of speech, the principles of proof, the appetites, desires, affections, and passions, &c.

HANDBOOK OF MODERN HISTORY. 5s.

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES, from the Reformation to the Indian War. 5s.

SYNOPSIS OF BRITISH HISTORY. 28.

CYCLOPEDIA OF HISTORY (M'Burney and Neil). 10s. 6d.
BRITISH HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY (Bryce and Neil). 5s.
THE YOUNG DEBATER (6th edition). 1s.

COMPOSITION AND ELOCUTION (5th edition). 1s.

London: J. & W. RIDER, Printers, 14, Bartholomew Close, E.C.