Whose fate thou may'st with unconcern'd thoughts read, And so compare the living with the dead!

Proceed, brave soul, nor since the wicked rage Of profane hands, and a destroying age

Threatens to ruin what antiquity

To us has left, let thy pen idle be :

"Tis true, we of thy learned diligence

Have had a taste, * which only wak'd our sense;
We do a fuller meal expect from thee:
Thou must not only whet, but satisfy
Our craving appetites,-do thyself right,
Do us, the future times, more largely write,
Nor to one Town confine thy streighter care;
Thy hand more ample ruins must repair:
Lo! the whole kingdom calls thee,-in time save
Its falling monuments; them from the grave
Rescue, that thy worth with the age's crimes
May be compared by the succeeding times.

CANTERBURY, Sept. 30th, 1656.

In eundem distichon.

Te somno, Somnere, premi cui dicere fas est
Testatur doctus te vigilare liber!

A manuscript poem by this author exists in the Library of Canterbury Cathedral to which it was presented by Thomas Parke, Esq. in 1802. It is a thin folio containing upwards of a hundred closely written pages entitled "Fasti Cantuarienses" and comprising in

* The Antiquities of Canterbury.

English hexameter, a general history of the Cathedral, including a detailed account of the introduction of Christianity into Britain by the mission of Augustin. The various parts of the building are described in succession together with the monuments of the dead, and some notices of illustrious men who have been interred in the church, or connected with it in their lives. Besides a preface of some length in which he states his motives for the undertaking, and professes himself with great propriety, desirous to be considered 'rather as an antiquary and an historian than as a poet, the author has inserted several notes "chronological, classical and historical," and a dedication to Archbishop Sheldon, in whose primacy the work was composed about 1672.

Whether this work was intended for publication, or not does not appear. What the author proposed to do, he certainly has effected in a respectable, and sometimes in an amusing manner. Annexed to the manuscript is a small quarto entitled "a Panegyric to his sacred majesty upon the conclusion of the auspicious marriage between the two crowns of England and Portugal." Besides the translation from Virgil which we have noticed, he also appears to have published" Eneas his Errors" 8vo. 1661 To these employments of his muse he alludes in the opening paragraph of his manuscript poem:

Now thou, Great God !-who to no place art tied
Nor dost in temples made by hands abide ;-
Yet temples for thy worship dost require,
As thy terrestrial mansions,-me inspire;
Whilst I on holy ground do tread; the shoes
Of my once prophane muse let me unloose,

That she, whilst I thy temple's beauties shew,-
May, Moses like, before thee bare-foot go.

Perhaps the following specimen of the composition of this poem I will be sufficient for the satisfaction of our readers.

Having the shrine survey'd, we now proceed,
A statue kneeling I survey, and read
Engraven on the marble Wotton's name,
Wotton a person of no vulgar fame :

Who when thy monks the old possessors, were
Forc'd to resign, rule, as first Dean, did bear
Over this church, in York's cathedral he
At the same time, with the same dignity
Was graced, a great civilian,

A great divine, a canonist, a man
As well for action as for study made;
Of men as well as books he knowledge had,
In both was exquisitely learned; hence
To high employments by his gracious prince
He was called forth; ten times ambassador
He lived abroad; at home a councellor
To four of England's Monarchs; and design'd
For higher place but he that weight resign'd.

And though it be the dryest common place
If virtue be not join'd, from high-born race
Or long continued ancestors to raise
Fame to the man whom we intend to praise;
Yet since in Wotton both concur, we'll see
Him in his great illustrious pedigree.

Kent, who of worthies not unfruitful art,
Hast, as his native soil, in him a part:.

Boughton, both to that living name a seat,
And to the dead their fatal last retreat,

For here the Wottons first took breath and liv'd,
Here they lie buried when of life depriv'd.

Of them, what a succession did I find

In thy church, neighbouring to their seat, enshrined. Nor, since on earth in vain we do aspire

To an eternity, let us admire

That Wotton is extinct; that that great name
Now only lives in a well purchas'd fame;
Yet not so lost but that it doth survive
In other names, and in the female live :
Like streams which in a long continued course
Loose the first names of their original source,
Yet the same fountain doth those streams maintain,
And they do the same waters still remain.

[Lib. 5. p. 90.]

The notes are omitted, as the substance of them has been given before in the account of Sir Henry Wotton.

RICHARD LOVELACE.

BORN 1618.-Died 1654.

Whose hand so rudely grasps the steely brand,
Whose hund so gently melts the lady's hand.

Him valiant'st men and fairest nymphs approve,
His book in them finds judgment, with these love.
(ANDREW MARVEL.)

Thy youth an abstract of the world's best parts,
Inur'd to arms, and exercised in arts;
These parts, so rarely met, made up in thee
What man should in his full perfection be;
In fortune humble, constant in mischance
Expert in both, and both serv'd to advance
Thy name by various trials of thy spirit,
And give the testimony of thy merit;
Valiant to envy of the best of men,
And learned to an undisputed pen,
Good as the best in both, and great, but yet
No dangerous courage, nor offensive wit :
These ever served the one for to defend,
The other nobly to advance thy friend.

(CHARLES COTTON,)

Elegy on the death of Lovelace.

For the few particulars that have descended to us respecting this gallant cavalier and accomplished man, we are indebted to the industry of Anthony Wood. Biography is a science of modern times, and was in a great measure unknown in the early period of our literature, and the memory of Lovelace has suffered in common with that of some of the most illustrious names that adorn our annals.