part, or any competition on that of others, he was called, by the united voice of the university, to fill the divinity chair, and in this very important situation he passed the residue of his life, a period of twenty-nine years, delivering lectures regularly twice a week in every term ; in the course of which he went through the two Epistles to the Romans and Colossians, in order to set at rest the numerous heresies and controversies which had arisen from a mistaken interpretation of them.

The success which had attended his efforts in this arduous attempt at Cambridge, led to his appointment in 1689, as one of the commissioners for the comprehension, as it was termed, or the union of churchmen and dissenters under one form of public worship, but not entertaining any expectation that such a plan could be carried into effect, he declined taking his place at the board.

Blessed with an uncommon share of health and strength, he continued to discharge all the duties of his office, even to his eighty-fourth year, with an unbroken spirit; but, relying too much, at length, on the vigour of his constitu

tion, he exerted himself with such energy in preaching in his turn before the university on the 5th of November 1699, as to bring on, after the service of the day was concluded, symptoms of alarming debility. These ushered in at night a high fever, which being followed in a few days by an attack of the gout in his stomach, he expired on the 23d of the same month.

"Thus," says the friendly memorialist of his life, with whose summary of his character I cannot do better than close this brief sketch; "thus, after a life full of as much virtue and reputation as ever fell to the share of one man, died the great and excellent Professor BEAUMONT; regretted by all good men, and the whole university; but most of all by the members of that society over which he had so long, and so worthily presided; who lost in him the guide of their lives, the director of their studies, the witness and encourager of their virtues.

"He was religious without bigotry, devout without superstition, learned without pedantry, judicious without censoriousness, eloquent without vanity, charitable without ostentation, generous without profusion, friendly without dis

simulation, courteous without flattery, prudent without cunning, and humble without meanness. In short, whoever shall hereafter deserve the reputation of having filled with credit the several stations which he so eminently adorned, will have reason to believe full justice done to his character, if for learning, piety, judgment, humanity, and good breeding, it may be thought worthy to be compared with that of Dr. BEAU

Of the numerous works of Dr. Beaumont, with the exception of his "Observations upon the Apology of Dr. Henry More,” none have issued from the press but his Psyche, and his Minor Poems; an injunction having been found in his will against the publication of his critical and polemical writings.

Psyche, as we have already related, was written during the author's residence at Hadleigh in 1647, and published in 1648, in twenty cantos;

* Highly-coloured as this character of our author may be deemed, it seems to be borne out by the opinion of his contemporaries; for in his epitaph in the antichapel at Peter-house he is styled "Poeta, Orator, Theologus præstanti simus ; quovis nomine Hæreticorum Malleus, et Veritatis Vindex."

and a second edition with the poet's last corrections, and augmented by him to twenty-four cantos, appeared in 1702, under the superintendence of his son, the Rev. Charles Beaumont.

This bulky folio, the laudable design of which "is to recommend the practice of piety and morality, by describing the most remarkable passages of our Saviour's life, and by painting particular virtues and vices in their proper colours," has now, notwithstanding the admiration which it once excited, dropped into entire oblivion; a fate which, though the most deplorable that can happen to a poet, cannot, in this instance, I apprehend, when the work is viewed as a whole, be pronounced altogether undeserved.

Dr. Beaumont, in fact, brought to his undertaking a large share of learning, and an inexhaustible fund of wit and fancy; but, unhappily, very little either of judgment or of taste to regulate and controul them. The result, therefore, has been, that whilst the former is too often obtrusive and misplaced, the latter is licentious and extravagant to a degree of which there are not many examples even in the records of poetry,

Nor is the general tenor of his language frequently less exceptionable, than the forced imagery and concetti of which it is so often the vehicle; for its quaintness and familiarity are, not seldom, such as to throw upon what was intended to be grave, or awful, or majestic, a truly ludicrous and fantastic air.

With defects such as these, it was totally impossible that a theme so hallowed and sublime as our author had chosen, could be successfully treated; and, in fact, throughout the whole poem, the dignity and simplicity of the scriptural record are, in almost every instance, violated. Yet with this great general failure, there are nevertheless dispersed through the volume many phrases, lines, and short passages of considerable beauty, and which, therefore, are entitled to a rescue from the utter and merited neglect into which the vast body of the poem has fallen.

A work, indeed, so circumstanced as the Psyche of Beaumont has been for more than a century, must have furnished to the curious enquirer into scarce and forgotten poetry, many a tempting opportunity for selection and transplantation; and accordingly it is recorded of