Psyche, or Love's Mystery, displaying the Intercourse between Christ and the Soul," which was commenced in April 1647, and though, in its first edition, consisting of twenty long cantos, was completed before the 13th of March following, and published early in 1648. Nor was this production, extensive as it is, the only fruits of his retirement in Suffolk; numerous miscellaneous poems, both English and Latin, though not published until many years after his death, issued from his pen whilst lingering on the banks of the Brett, his native stream. Indeed nearly all his poetry appears to have been written between the years 1644 and 1653.

Scarcely had our author completed his Psyche, when he was induced to leave Hadleigh by an invitation from Dr. Wren, Bishop of Ely, to reside in his house as his domestic chaplain. This prelate, as visitor of Peterhouse, had long known and admired the worth and the talents of Mr. Beaumont, and had, as early as the year 1643, collated him to the rectory of Kelshall in Hertfordshire; to that of Elm with the chapel of Emneth in 1646, and to the seventh

canonry and prebend in the Cathedral church of Ely in 1647. But as these preferments, which occurred during the rebellion, would be considered as little more than nominal, the Bishop was anxious to give him an asylum in his own family; and so affectionately did he become attached to him, in consequence of this domiciliation, that in the year 1650 he bestowed upon him in marriage his step-daughter, Miss Brownrigg, a young lady of the most pleasing manners and amiable disposition, and who was possessed of a considerable estate together with, the manor of Tatingston in Suffolk; and with her at Tatingston-place, in the mutual endearments of domestic society, in the occasional exercise of his professional duties, and in the daily practice of every Christian charity, he passed the succeeding ten years, and, perhaps, the happiest period, of his life.

The Restoration, as might be imagined, almost instantly drew Mr. Beaumont forth from his retreat; and not only did he take immediate possession of the benefices to which he had been formerly presented by his great patron Bishop Wren, but he was also admitted into the first

list of his majesty's chaplains, and created D.D. by a royal mandamus in 1660.

In the ensuing year, at the particular request of Bishop Wren, who wished to have two persons whom he so highly valued, near him, our author and his lady were induced to remove to Ely, and took possession of the Prebendal house; but unfortunately the situation disagreed so much with Mrs. Beaumont, who was of a delicate constitution, and had a tendency to consumption in her frame, that when in April 1662, on the resignation of Dr. Pearson, master of Jesus' college, Cambridge, the Bishop had appointed Dr. Beaumont his successor, Mrs. Beaumont was become too weak to bear the fatigue of removal, and expired at Ely on the 31st of the following month, leaving a family of six very young children. This severe stroke, whilst it was borne by her sorrowing husband with the resignation of a Christian, was deeply and irreparably felt as a man; for he had lost one who had been his support under every distress, and who had never welcomed prosperity, but as he was a sharer with her in it.

With his little family he now removed to

Cambridge, where on the decease of Dr. Hale, master of Peterhouse, in 1663 he was presented by his kind patron to the headship of that college, a situation which of all others he had most desired, and in which, indeed, he acquired the love and veneration of all within the influence of his authority; for he lost no opportunity of rewarding merit, especially when labouring under the disadvantages of obscure birth or confined circumstances; and so revolting, in fact, to his benevolent heart was the spectacle of learning and piety suffering under the pressure of want or cold neglect, that whenever such an instance occurred in the society over which he presided, he immediately hastened to alleviate it, by admitting the person or persons so circumstanced into his family, under the denomination of his sizars, where, until they took their Bachelor's degree, he supplied them not only with the necessaries, but the comforts of life, allowing them free access to his library, and not seldom to the still greater benefits resulting from his conversation and advice.

Preferment still followed the footsteps of our learned divine. In the year of his admission to

the mastership of Peterhouse, he was instituted to the rectory of Feversham, near Cambridge; and in 1664 to that of Barley, in Hertfordshire, where he alternately resided, we are told, in the vacation months every summer, feeding the indigent, instructing the ignorant, and faithfully discharging all the offices of the pastoral charge."

The ensuing year saw him involved in a controversy with Dr. Henry More, who, having broached some doctrines in his "Mystery of Godliness," which our author deemed not only subversive of our excellent constitution, but injurious to the cause of Christianity, he privately communicated his objections to the Doctor, who thinking proper to reply through the medium of the press, compelled Dr. Beaumont to have recourse to the same public vehicle, and so effectually did he refute the positions of his antagonist, that he received the thanks of the university for his services in behalf of religion.

The reputation, indeed, of Dr. Beaumont, for the depth and soundness of his theological knowledge, had now become so great, that in the year 1670, without any solicitation on his