ODE. Calling Lucasta from her retirement. From the dire monument of thy black room, Sacred Lucasta, like the powerful ray Arise, and climb our whitest highest hill, Behold how lightning like a taper flies Threat'ning and boist'rous tempests gently bow, No show'rs but 'twixt your lids, nor gelid snow, But what your whiter chaster breast doth owe, Whilst winds in chains colder your sorrow's blow. Shrill trumpets now do only sound to eat, All things, Lucasta, but Lucasta call, Awake from the dead vault in which you dwell, See! she obeys!—by all obeyed thus, Lovers and angels, though in heaven they show, To comprehend this little Ode justly, the unhappy state of the country when it was written, must be borne in mind ;-the theatre pf civil war and overrun by contending armies, and armed parties, who were frequently influenced by the desire of pillage and spoil, to attack private houses, and distress the helpless inhabitants.No caution was a complete security, and no retreat, however obscure and remote, a protection from insult and outrage. Female Glory. 'Mongst the world's wonders, there doth yet remain Chaste as th' Arabian bird, who all the air denies, She's constant, gen'rous, fix'd, she's calm, she is the all SIR CHARLES SEDLEY. BORN 1639.-DIED 1701. "As he lived in the most glorious reign of wit and mirth, so he was one of the glories of it. He was a man of the first class of wit and gallantry; his friendship was courted by every body, and nobody went out of his company but was pleased and improved. Time added but very little to nature; he was every thing that an English gentleman should be." (W. AYLOFFE.*). Sir Charles Sedley was the son of Sir John Sedley Baronet, of Aylesford in Kent,-grandson of Sir William Sedley, founder of the lecture on natural philosophy that bears his name, at the university of Oxford, and his mother was the daughter of Sir Henry Saville, the learned Provost of Eton.-SirCharles Sedley received a learned education, and was. a gentleman commoner of Wadham College, Oxford, but left the University without a degree. During the usurpation of Cromwell he lived in retirement, his disposition not being sufficiently in unison with that of the party then in power. Upon the restoration of the royal family, he immediately attached himself to the dissolute court of Charles Captain W. Ayloffe was the first editor of Sir Charles Sedley's works, and from the preface to his edition the passage inserted above is taken. He calls himself a relation, but in what degree of affinity we know not. the Second, which he helped to enliven by his wit and gaiety, and disgrace by his dissipation. A drunken frolic in which he was engaged with a party of noblemen and men of fashion, in the year 1663, roused the indignation of the populace, and produced a riot, for which he suffered with the others, a prosecution in the Court of King's Bench, and was sentenced to pay a fine of £500. This served to rouse him from a long course of extravagance and debauchery; he procured a seat in parliament, and became an active member, and a frequent speaker. In the following reign of James the Second, he was also in parliament, and opposed himself with manly firmness to the arbitrary measures of that infatuated monarch. From this period Sir Charles Sedley made ample amends for the dissipation of his youth, by his public conduct as a member of the legislature, which was highly patriotic and independent. He exerted all his influence in promoting the revolution of 1688, and when he was taxed with ingratitude for having deserted a king who had been liberal of his favours to him and to his family, who had honoured his daughter with his affection, and elevated her to the rank of a countess, he replied with his usual felicity of wit,-"I hate ingratitude, and therefore as the king has made my daughter a countess, I will endeavour to make his daughter a queen." In the reign of William and Mary, Sir Charles Sedley also continued in parliament, and seems to have been what is now called an opposition member. The following selection from his printed speeches, exhibit him to advantage as a patriot, |