Where shall I sojourn? what kind sea will hide What if my feet should take their hasty flight, 'Tis vain to flee; till gentle Mercy show THE WORLD. She's empty: hark! she sounds: there's nothing there But noise to fill thy ear; Thy vain inquiry can at length but find A blast of murmuring wind: It is a cask that seems as full as fair, Fond youth, go build thy hopes on better grounds; Her joys upon this world, but feeds on empty sounds. She's empty: hark! she sounds: there's nothing in't; Shall sooner melt, and hardest raunce1 shall first Ere this false world shall still thy stormy breast Thou mayst as well expect meridian light From shades of black-mouth'd night, As in this empty world to find a full delight. She's empty: hark! she sounds: 'tis void and vast; Of flatuous honor should perchance be there, 1 A dry crust. It is but wind, and blows but where it list, And vanisheth like mist. Poor honor earth can give! What generous mind Her heaven-bred soul, a slave to serve a blast of wind? The painted film but of a stronger bubble, It is a world whose work and recreation A lag, repair'd with vice-complexion'd paint, It is a saint, a fiend; worse fiend when most a saint. But grief and sickness, and large bills of sorrow, Or, what are men but puffs of dying breath, Fond youth, O build thy hopes on surer grounds Trust not this hollow world; she's empty: hark! she sounds MERCY TEMPERING JUSTICE. Had not the milder hand of Mercy broke Hath earth a wound too hard for heaven to heal? Though in his day Quarles was mostly known as a poet, he was also the author of a few prose works, the principal of which is the "Enchiridion,' containing Institutions divine, contemplative, practical, moral, ethical, economical, political." Of this, Headley remarks, "had this little piece been written at Athens or Rome, its author would have been classed with the wise men of his country." The following are some specimens of it: If thou be ambitious of honor, and yet fearful of the canker of honor, envy, so behave thyself, that opinion may be satisfied in this, that thou seekest merit, and not fame; and that thou attributest thy preferment rather to Providence than thy own virtue. Honor is a due debt to the deserver; and who ever envied the 1 Compounded of tv (ex), “in,” and xp (cheir), "the hand:"-something held "in the hand," a "manual.' Read an article on this treatise in the Retrospective Review, ix. 258. payment of a debt? A just advancement is a providential act; and who ever envied the act of Providence? If evil men speak good, or good men evil, of thy conversation, examine all thy actions, and suspect thyself. But if evil men speak evil of thee, hold it as thy honor; and, by way of thankfulness, love them; but upon condition that they continue to hate thee. To tremble at the sight of thy sin, makes thy faith the less apt to tremble: the devils believe and tremble, because they tremble at what they believe; their belief brings trembling: thy trembling brings belief. If thou desire to be truly valiant, fear to do any injury: he that fears not to do evil, is always afraid to suffer evil; he that never fears, is desperate; and he that fears always, is a coward. He is the true valiant man, that dares nothing but what he may, and fears nothing but what he ought. If thou stand guilty of oppression, or wrongfully possest of another's right, see thou make restitution before thou givest an alms if otherwise, what art thou but a thief, and makest God thy receiver? When thou prayest for spiritual graces, let thy prayer be absolute; when for temporal blessings, add a clause of God's pleasure: in both, with faith and humiliation: so shalt thou, undoubtedly, receive what thou desirest, or more, or better. Never prayer rightly made, was made unheard; or heard, ungranted. Not to give to the poor, is to take from him. Not to feed the hungry, if thou hast it, is to the utmost of thy power to kill him. That, therefore, thou mayst avoid both sacrilege and murder, be charitable. Hath any wronged thee? Be bravely revenged: slight it, and the work's begun; forgive it, and 'tis finished: he is below himself that is not above an injury. Gaze not on beauty too much, lest it blast thee; nor too long, lest it blind thee; nor too near, lest it burn thee: if thou like it, it deceives thee; if thou love it, it disturbs thee; if thou lust after it, it destroys thee if virtue accompany it, it is the heart's paradise; if vice associate it, it is the soul's purgatory: it is the wise man's bonfire, and the fool's furnace. Use law and physic only for necessity; they that use them otherwise, abuse themselves into weak bodies and light purses: they are good remedies, bad businesses, and worse. recreations. If what thou hast received from God thou sharest to the poor, thou hast gained a blessing by the hand; if what thou hast taken from the poor, thou givest to God, thou hast purchased a curse into the bargain. He that puts to pious uses what he hath got by impious usury, robs the spittle1 to make an hospital; and the cry of the one will out-plead the prayers of the other. Give not thy tongue too great a liberty, lest it take thee prisoner. A word unspoken is, like the sword in the scabbard, thine; if vented, thy sword is in another's hand. If thou desire to be held wise, be so wise as to hold thy tongue. Wisdom without innocency is knavery; innocency without wisdom is foolery: be, therefore, as wise as serpents, and innocent as doves. The subtilty of the serpent instructs the innocency of the dove; the innocency of the dove corrects the subtilty of the serpent. What God hath joined together, let no man separate. WILLIAM DRUMMOND. 1585-1649. WILLIAM DRUMMOND, of Hawthornden, the first Scottish poet that wrote well in English, was born in 1585. "To the scholar and the wit he added every elegant attainment. After forming his taste at the University of Edinburgh, he enlarged his views by travelling and by a cultivation of the modern languages. At first he appears to have studied the law, but soon left it for more congenial pursuits. The character of his poetry is various, consisting of sonnets, epigrams, epitaphs, religious and other poems. His sonnets are the most beautiful, and some of them of the highest excellence. His greatest charm is, unaffected feeling, and unaffected language."2 His feelings were so intense on the side of the royalists, that the execution of Charles is said to have hastened his death, which took place at the close of the same year, December, 1649. The following are specimens of his sonnets3:— THE PRAISE OF A SOLITARY LIFE. Thrice happy he, who by some shady grove, Far from the clamorous world, doth live his own; But doth converse with that eternal Love. O how more sweet is bird's harmonious moan, Or the hoarse sobbings of the widow'd dove, Than those smooth whisperings near a prince's throne, O! how more sweet is zephyr's wholesome breath, 1 Thus term was originally applied to a lazar-house, or receptacle for persons affected with leprosy, but afterwards to an hospital of any kind. 2 See Retrospective Review, ix. 358. Drummond's sonnets, I tl ink, come as near as almost any others to the perfection of this kind of writing, which should embody a sentiment, and every shade of a sentiment, as it varies with time and place and humor, with the extragance or lightness of a momentary impression."—Hazlitt. ON SLEEP. Sleep, Silence' child, sweet father of soft rest, Since I am thine, O come, but with that face Or if, deaf god, thou do deny that grace, Come as thou wilt, and what thou wilt bequeath; I long to kiss the image of my death. The lady to whom he was engaged to be married was suddenly snatched away by death, and the sonnets which dwell on his own afflictions are as full of true feeling as poetic merit. ON SPRING. Sweet Spring, thou turn'st' with all thy goodly train, The clouds for joy in pearls weep down their showers. Do with thee turn, which turn my sweets in sours. But she whose breath embalm'd thy wholesome air When thine forgot lie closed in a tomb. What doth it serve to see sun's burning face? And all the glory of that starry place? What doth it serve earth's beauty to behold, The mountain's pride, the meadow's flowery grace; The sport of floods which would themselves embrace? The wanton merle, the nightingale's sad strains, TO HIS LUTE. My lute, be as thou wast, when thou didst grow 1 "Turn'st" is here used for "returnest." |