Whose rosie and virmilion hue
Betray the blushing thoughts in you:
Whose fragrant amoratick breath
Would revive dying saints from death,
Whose syren-like harmonious air
Speaks musick and enchants the ear;
Who would not hang? and fixed there
Wish he might know no other sphere?
Oh for a charm to make the sun
Drunk, and forget his motion!
Oh that some palsie or lame gout
Would cramp old time's diseased foot!
Or that I might or mould or clip
His speedy wings, whilst on her lip
I quench my thirsty appetite
With the life honey dwels on it!

Nothing can be more low or ludicrous than the most of the occasions which Heath thought worthy of being celebrated in song, provided they happened to his mistress. Clarastella could not lose her "black fan," get a cold, or get dust in her eye, but Mr. Heath was straight at her feet with a copy of verses in his hand. When we think of the nature of the subjects which he chose, we cease to wonder so much that many of them should be vilely handled, as that they should be selected, and being selected that any thing good could ever be written about them. It is easy to believe that the man who could chuse the most trivial accidents and the most low and familiar occurrences for his themes, would treat them in a corresponding style. But we cannot help both being surprised and lamenting to see ingenuity of thought, liveliness of fancy, and richness of expression wasted upon them.-And yet this is the case in some of the poems before us. It is the case in one which we will venture to extract, which "builds the lofty rhyme" on no less a groundwork than the bite of an insect, which the quick-eyed lover espied on the fair hand of his mistress.

"Behold how like a lovely fragrant rose

Midst a fair lillie bed,

Or set in pearl, like a bright rubie, shows
This little spot of red!

Art could not die a crimson half so good
As this was made by th' tincture of her bloud.

The cunning leech knew that the richest bloud
In azure veins did lie;

Choosing the young soft tender flesh for food,
Resolv'd thus to feed high;

Thus being nectar-fill'd and swell'd with pride,
He thinks he's now to you by bloud alli'd.

O how I envy thee, smal creature, and
Ev'n wish thy shape on me,

That so I might but kisse that sacred hand, &c."

From the occasional poems which follow Clarastella, we shall make only one and that the last of our extracts, which shews our author had some talents for humour.-It is called A sudden Phansie at Midnight, and is as follows, excepting the two last lines, which add nothing to, but easily might take away from, the pleasure of the reader.

"How ist we are thus melancholie? what
Are our rich ferkins out? or rather that
Which did inspire them, the immortal wine,
That did create us, like itself, divine?
Or are we Nectar-sated to the hight?
Or do we droop under the aged night?
If so: wee'l vote it ne'r to be eleven
Rather than thus to part at six and seven:
Moult then thy speedy wings, old Time! and be
As slow-pac't as becomes thy age! that we
May chirp awhile, and when we take our ease,
Then flie and post as nimbly as you please!
Play the good fellow with us, and sit down
Awhile, that we may drink the t' other round!
I'l promise here is none shal thee misuse,
Or pluck thee by the foretop in abuse.
Time saies he wil nor can he stay, 'cause he
Thinks him too grave for your young companie.

It makes no matter

-Sirs,

How say you yet to th' tother subsidie ?

Yes, yes: and let our Ganymede nimbly flie
And fil us of the same poetick sherrie
Ben Jonson us'd to quaffe to make him merrie.
Such as would make the grey-beard botles talk
Had they but tongues, or had they legs, to walk:

Such as would make Apollo smile, or wu'd

Draw all the sisters to our brotherhood.

And though the bald fool staies not, let him know
Wee'l sit and drink as fast as he shal go."

After the occasional poems, follows a crowd of worthless Elegies and Epigrams, in the rear of which again come Satyrs as worthless as their companions.

Our readers will now be able to judge of Robert Heath at his best. Of the inferior part of this volume it is useless to take up our time and space in giving any specimens. Suffice it to say, that the bad is very bad indeed. The total absence of what is called taste in our poet is very remarkable. The unconscious manner in which he slides from the really beautiful to what is disgusting or ridiculous, prevents us from giving what might be made the most favorable view of his talents. Perhaps some of his most sparkling sentiments and expressions may yet sleep in the little volume which we have just closed: but, if they do, they are so intertwined and united with the worthless matter, that we found it impossible to separate them, or in such small and crumbling fragments only as to render them unfit for introduction here. Though it cannot be said that Heath soars very high, yet his course is unequal. His versification is one while harmonious in the extreme, at another as rugged-his language is sometimes rich, forcible, and copious; at another, flimsy, poor, and bald. He, at one time, discloses glimpses of fancy, feeling, and sentiment, and in the next page goes grovelling on in the dark, as if a ray of light or reason had never by any chance fallen on his path. He may be compared to that species of wine which when brisk is an elegant beverage, but which, when flat and stale, of which there is more than an equal chance, loses all its inspiriting qualities, becomes disgusting to the palate, and excites surprise that in any state it could be thought delightful. Of the history or circumstances of Robert Heath we know nothing, save that Esquire is tagged to his name, and that he says of himself,

"No peasant bloud doth stein or chil my veins."

Mr. Ellis, in his Specimens, gives two short extracts from him, and we do think that he was not unworthy of the notice of Mr. Campbell, who has included in his British Poets many whose merits we cannot help thinking inferior to those of Robert Heath. It should not be forgotten that these poems were sent out into the world without the consent of the author, who probably was abroad at the time of their publication. This we learn from the address of the "Stationer to the reader," who

confesses the greatness of his presumption in having ventured to the press without the author's knowledge: " but," says he, "the gallantness and ingenuity of the gentleman is so eminent in every thing, that I could not imagine but that the meanest of his recreations (for such was this) might carry much in it worthy of public view: besides, the approbation of some friends hath heightened my desire of publishing it; who, upon their revising it, do assure me it is a sweet piece of excellent fancie and worthy to be called the author's own issue.'

The commendatory lines which follow, addressed "to my honoured friend Mr. R. H. on his rich Poems and Satyrs," by G. H., clearly shew that the author was then abroad, and that he was a person of honour and fortune.

"Thy dainties are for foreign palates, we

Are bless'd with scraps, that too, no thanks to thee, &c."

From some of his poems Heath appears to have been a cavalier, and after the execution of Charles probably found it convenient to travel.

ART. III. The Life_of_the_Right Honourable Francis North, Baron of Guilford, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal under King Charles II. and King James II.; wherein are inserted the Characters of Sir Matthew Hale, Sir George Jeffries, Sir Leoline Jenkins, Sidney Godolphin, and others, the most eminent Lawyers and Statesmen of that time. By the Hon. Roger North. London, 1742.

This old piece of legal biography, which has been lately republished, is one of the most delightful books in the world. Its charm does not consist in any marvellous incidents of Lord Guilford's life, or any peculiar interest attaching to his character, but in the unequalled naïveté of the writer-in the singular felicity with which he has thrown himself into his subject-and in his vivid delineations of all the great lawyers of his time. He was a younger brother of the Lord Keeper, to whose affection he was largely indebted, and from whom he appears to have been scarcely ever divided. His work, in nice minuteness of detail, and living picture of motive, almost equals the auto-biographies of Benvenuto Cellini, Rousseau, and Cibber. He seems to be almost as intensely conscious of all his brother's actions, and the movements of his mind, as they were of their own. All his

ideas of human greatness and excellence appear taken from the man whom he celebrates. There never was a more liberal or gentle penetration of the spirit. He was evidently the most human, the most kindly, and the most single-hearted, of flatterers. There is a beauty in his very cringing, beyond the independence of many. It is the most gentleman-like submission, the most graceful resignation of self, of which we have ever read. Hence there is nothing of the vanity of authorship -no attempt to display his own powers-throughout the work. He never comes forward in the first person, except as a witness. Indeed, he usually speaks of himself as of another, as though he had half lost his personal consciousness in the contemplation of his idol's virtues. The following passage, towards the conclusion, where he recounts the favours of Lord Guilford to a younger brother, and at last, in the fullness of his heart, discloses, by a little quotation, that he is speaking of himself-this sweet breaking from his usual modest narration into the only personal feeling he seems to have cherished-is beautifully characteristic of the spirit which he brought to his work.

"But I ought to come nearer home, and take an account of his benevolences to his paternal relations. His youngest brother (the honourable Roger North) was designed, by his father, for the civil law, as they call that professed at Doctors' Commons, upon a specious fancy to have a son of each faculty or employ used in England. But his lordship dissuaded him, and advised rather to have him put to the common law; for the other profession provided but for a few, and those not wonderful well; whereas the common law was more certain, and, in that way, he himself might bring him forwards, and assist him. And so it was determined. His lordship procured for him a petit chamber, which cost his father 607. and there he was settled with a very scanty allowance; to which his lordship made a timely addition of his own money: more than all this, he took him almost constantly out with him to company and entertainments, and always paid his scot; and, when he was attorney general, let him into partnership in one of the offices under him; and when his lordship was treasurer, and this brother called to the bar, a perquisite chamber, worth 1507. fell; and that he gave to his brother for a practising chamber, and took in lieu only that which he had used for his studies. When his lordship was chief justice, he gave him the countenance of practising under him at nisi prius; and all the while his lordship was an housekeeper, his brother and servant were of his family at all meals. When the Temple was burnt, he fitted up a little room and study in his chambers in Serjeant's Inn, for his brother to manage his small affairs of law in, and lodged him in his house till the Temple was built, and he might securely lodge there. And his lordship was pleased with a back door in his own study, by which he could go in and out to his brother, to discourse of incidents; which way of life delighted his lordship exceedingly. And, what was more extraordinary, he went with his lord