tions and first, of those advantages and benefits a man gaines by living in the country. 2 "A man in the country is retired out of the crowd and noise of factions and emulations, dependencies, and neck-breaking of one another, which court and town do too often yeeld; and though a man in his owne inclination be free from and not busie, yet if present, can hardly be a neuter; or if he be one, will yet scarcely be thought so, and suspected of either side for affection to the other. Next, he is free from those tempestuous winds of businesses and multiplicitie of vexations, wherewith many have beene tossed: the calme of the country being void of those stormes and troubled waves that commonly accompanie a towne or court life, where mens desires and ambitions so abound, that they bee alwayes in hopes and projections wherein many times they doe so outstraine and overgraspe, that in reaching too high, they over-reach themselves; in seeking a new fortune, lose their old; and so convert their substance into pretensions, their certainty into nothing. Againe, no man can expect to live in the same or equall reputation out of the country and his owne dwelling. In towne or court, he is (at it were) in a throng, wanting elbow roome; there be so many his equals and superiors, above him • Our admirable Cowper, in his poem on Retirement, has a passage much in unison with this metaphor: "The tide of life, swift always in its course, May run in cities with a brisker force, both in place and merit, that he is reckoned for number not weight: one of the troope, rather for shew than use. Moreover, a man that lives in the country is more out of the way and lesse obvious to the malice and envie of busie and ravenous men; such as build up their owne fortunes upon others decayes; curious inquisitors into mens lives, and false interpreters of their actions. And lastly, this kinde of life gives a man more free houres for reading, writing, and meditation, then the publike towne-livers can possibly allow themselves: their time in the country being nei ther taken away, nor distracted, as unavoidably in towne it must often be, both by severall occasions to which their owne wils invite them, and also by often bestowing themselves and tyme upon others, out of affection and respect; which accidents of divertion doe more rarely happen in the country, men being there more free masters both of their houres and disposing of them then they can be in the other place. Many more advantages might be found; but it sufficeth me if I have said enough, though not all.”] MARY, COUNTESS OF PEMBROKE, THE celebrated sister of sir Philip Sidney, wrote "Poems and Translations in Verse of several Psalms," said to be preserved in the library at Wilton3. "A Discourse of Life and Death. Written in French by Phil. Mornay. Done in English by the Countesse of Pembroke." Dated the 13th of May 1590, at Wilton*. Printed at London, for W. Ponsonby, 1600. 12mo. "The Tragedie of Antonie; done into English by the Countesse of Pembroke 5." [To whom he dedicated that popular romance entitled, "The Countesse of Pembroke's Arcadia, first printed in 1590."] Ballard, p. 260. ⚫ [Gabriel Harvey stiles this "Divine Discourse of Life and Death, a restorative electuary of gems; the author of whom," he adds, "I do not expressly name, not because I do not honour her with my heart, but because I would not dishonour her with my pen, whom I admire, and cannot blason enough." Letter of notable Contents, &c. 1593.] ' [Dated at Ramsbury, 26 Nov. 1590. Printed by P. S. for W. Ponsonby, 1595, 16mo.] |