he fees what we wildly do and tamely fuffer? What have we of nobility among us but the name, the luxury, and the vices of it? As for our minifters, what have they, or indeed defire they, of their calling but the tythes? How do thefe horrid prevaricators fearch for diftinations to piece contrary oaths? How do they rake fcriptures for flatteries, and impudently apply them to his monftrous highnefs? What is the city but a great tame beaft, who eats and carries, and cares not who rides it? What is the thing called a parliament but a mock, compofed of a people who are only fuffered to fit there because they are known to have no virtue, after the exclufion of all others who were fufpected to have any? What are they but pimps of tyranny, who are only employed to draw in the people to prostitute their liberty? What will not the army fight for?-what will they not fight againft? What are they but janiffaries, flaves themfelves, and making all others fo? What are the people in general but knaves, fools, and principled for eafe, vice, and flavery? This is our temper; this tyranny hath brought us to already, and if it continues, the little virtue which is yet left to ftock the nation muft extinguish, and then his highness has completed his work of reformation; and the truth is,`till then his highnefs cannot be fecure. He muft not endure virtue, for that will not endure him." We infert this extract, because few of our readers, we believe, can have had an opportunity of perufing the pamphlet itself. The age of which we are treating afforded a noble fubject for hiftory; and there never was an age of which the political tranfactions are better known. The hiftory of lord Clarendon will be read by every perfon who wishes to acquire a profound knowledge of the character, politics, habits, and fentiments of thefe times; and, on the whole, it is not unfairly characterized by Mr. Hume." His ftyle," fays that author, "is prolix and redundant, and fuffocates us by the length of its periods: but it discovers imagination and fentiment, and pleafes us at the fame time that we disapprove of it. He is more partial in appearance than in reality: for he feems perpetually anxious to apologife for the king; but his apologies are often well-grounded. He is lefs partial in his relation of facts, than in his account of characters: he was too honeft a man to falfify the former; his affections were eafily capable, unknown to himself, of difguifing the latter. An air of probity and goodnefs runs through the whole work; as thefe qualities did in reality embellish the whole life of the author. He died in 1674, aged 66.” The memoirs of that plain and unaffected patriot, Edmund Ludlow, are not lefs interesting and entertaining than lord Clarendon's Hiftory; and thefe, as well as Whitlocke's Memorials and Thurloe's State Papers, will enable the reader to correct thofe miftakes into which Clarendon may have fallen, either from the want of adequate information, or through partiality to his friends. The commonwealth of England was not deftitute of able lawyers; and to the names of thofe noticed in our preceding volume, we may add thofe of ferjeant Maynard and fecretary Thurloe, whofe valuable collection of State Papers is mentioned in the preceding paragraph. The most famous mathematician of the age was Wallis, Savilian profeffor of aftronomy at Oxford. He had a long controverfy on mathematical fubjects with the celebrated Hobbes; but the genius of the latter was too much distracted with a variety of fciences to be able to maintain a conteft with a man, who, like Wallis, had devoted himself almost entirely to one. Dr. Seth Ward, who was flightly mentioned in our laft volume, flourished alfo at this period as a mathematical writer and teacher; and this and every other branch of philofophy was diligently cultivated by Wilkins, whom we had formerly occation to introduce in his profeffional character as a divine. Bishop Wilkins may be confidered as the father and founder of the royal fociety; for at his houfe commenced thofe philofophical conferences which terminated in the incorporation of that 1796. C learned learned body. But of this fubject it is our intention to treat more at large in our fucceeding volume. The fpirit and fanaticism of the times was fo hostile to the fine arts, that we have little to fay of the productions of the English nation at this period, either in painting, ftatuary, or architecture. The incomparable Inigo Jones died in 1657; and the merits of Wren were yet unknown in that line for which nature had deftined him, though he was chofen profeffor of aftronomy in Gresham college, in the fame year in which his great predeceffor Inigo Jones terminated his mortal career. It is fomewhat extraordinary, that an age fo unfavourable to the fine arts in general fhould have produced fome of the moft eminent of our pocts. To fpeak of Milton in terms adequate to his commendation, would require talents in fome measure congenial to his own— "Ingenium cui fit, cui mens divinior, atque os Whatever is great in conception, fublime in fancy, or exquifite in expreffion, is to be found in Paradife Loft. Yet we must reluctantly confefs with Dr. Johnson, that the perufal of this incomparable poem is " rather a duty than a pleasure." The fault is, however, more in the fubject than the writer. It is effentially deficient, as that great critic obferves, in "human intereft;" and the fenfible imagery under which the Supreme Being and the celeftial exiftences are delineated, feldom fails to difguft the ferious reader, while they afford a theme of ridicule to the sceptic or the libertine. It appears indeed a fubject with which the human imagination ought not to have fported; and " the confufion of fpirit and matter, which pervades the whole narration of the war of heaven, fills it with incongruity." It may be remarked, that the few texts of fcripture, on which that part of Milton's plot is founded, are evidently moft grofsly miftaken by him, and have been much more fatisfactorily explained by a learned author of the prefent age, in a moft ingenious " Differtation fertation on the Paffages in St. Peter and St. Jude concerning the Angel that finned *." Of Milton's leffer pieces, thofe which have moft de fervedly attracted attention, are the Mafque of Comus, and the Allegro and Penferofo. The firft of these is certainly deficient as a drama; but it abounds in beautiful fentiment, in luxuriant defcription, and the true fpirit of poetry. The two latter are unquestionably the moft perfect fpecimens of lyric poetry in the English language. Whatever commendation is due to Waller, is the very oppofite to that of Milton. He is neither entitled to the praife of fublime invention, nor of exuberant fancy; but he is to be admired for the purity of his tafte, and the harmony of his verfification. His fubjects are generally trifling; but he has the happy art of rendering even trifles interefting. His poetry was popular, becaufe his thoughts are familiar, and feldom beyond the range of common. life. It is a kind of colloquial poetry, in which that ingenuity which is moft pleafing in converfation is predo minant. It is related by Dr. Johnson, that Cowley's paffion for poetry was originally excited by Spencer's Fairy Queen, which lay in the window of his mother's apartments. "Such are the accidents," adds our biographer," which, fometimes remembered, fometimes forgotten, produce that particular defignation of mind, and propenfity to fome certain fcience or employment, which is commonly called genius." The propofition, however, is extremely ill fupported by the inftance; for certainly no man ever was more miftaken in the natural bent of his genius than Cowley. He was a man of fcience and a man of letters; he was even a man of wit; but he was not a poet. There is no fublimity in his conception, nor beauty in his expreffion; the glow of fancy, the expanfe of thought, the fervour of enthufiafm, are poorly compen * Printed, we believe, for Johnfon, in St. Paul's Church-yard. fated fated for by antithefis and conceit; and his verses are as deftitute of harmony as of fpirit. His Pindarics are without elevation, and his amatory poems without paffion. From this general cenfure we may except a few imitations of Anacreon, which are executed with fpirit; but to tranflate is not to invent; and in this kind of compofition there is more exercife for wit than for imagination; and pointed expreffion only is wanted, and not fublimity. Sir John Denham was flightly noticed in our laft volume; he was a poet during the life of his royal master Charles I. whom he faithfully ferved, and with whose family, at the expence of his fortune, he went into exile. "At the restoration, he obtained," fays Dr. Johnson, "what many miffed, the reward of his loyalty." Yet it is probable that he was more indebted for his promotion to his companionable qualities, and his agreeable manners, than for his attachment to monarchy. Denham is characterised by the great critic, whom we have just quoted, as "the author of a new fpecies of compofition, which may be termed local poetry," and it must be confeffed, that Cooper's Hill, though the firft attempt of the kind, ftill maintains its rank among many excellent pieces of the fame defcription; and the best proof of our author's tafte is, that he may be confidered as one of the first who refined and improved the poetry of Great Britain. His language is not obfolete, nor his verfification unharmonious even to modern ears. To this lift of poets we might add the incomparable Butler, the glory and difgrace of his time,-a man whose genius is not lefs aftonishing than the neglect which he experienced from a felfifh tyrant and a profligate court. As his great work did not, however, appear till a fucceeding period, we fhall not at prefent enter into any further confideration of his genius and character *. * Macaulay's Hiftory of England, Hume's Hiftory,- Biographia Britannica, Anthony Wood, Biographical Dictionary,-Johnton's Lives of the Poets, Clarendon,- Burnet,- Milton, &c. BRITISH |