all your sins unrepented of-for how can repentance possibly consist with such a resolution—before the tribunal-seat of God, to expect your final sentence; utterly depriving yourself of all the blessed means which God has contrived for thy salvation, and putting thyself in such an estate that it shall not be in God's power almost to do thee any good. Pardon, I beseech you, my earnestness, almost intemperateness, seeing that it hath proceeded from so just, so warrantable a ground; and since it is in your power to give rules of honor and reputation to the whole kingdom, do not you teach others to be ashamed of this inseparable badge of your religion—charity and forgiving of offences. Give men leave to be Christians without danger or dishonor; or, if religion will not work with you, yet let the laws of that state wherein you live, the earnest desires and care of your righteous prince, prevail with you. WILLIAM HABINGTON. 1605--1654. In the life of this author, there are few incidents. His mother is said to have been the writer of the letter which averted the execution of the Gunpowder Plot. "The life of the poet seems to have glided quietly away, cheered by the society and affection of his Castara. He had no stormy passions to agitate him, and no unruly imagination to control or subdue. His poetry is of the same unruffled description· placid, tender, and often elegant — but studded with conceits, to show his wit and fancy." EPISTLE TO A FRIEND. I HATE the country's dirt and manners, yet Soon as they happen, and by rote can tell And on each action comment, with more skill O busy folly! Why do I my brain Or quick designs of France? Why not repair And, by the aid of reason, so control And foreign plots. Do but in thy own shade The world to his great Master, and you'll find Of th' country dead our thoughts, nor busy care The mother of Waller was a sister of John Hampden. The poet, in his infancy, was left heir to an estate of £3,000 per annum. At the age of eighteen, he entered Parliament, and wrote his first poem. He married a rich heiress, who died the same year, and he immediately made suit to Lady Dorothea, daughter of the Earl of Leicester, his Sacharissa, to whom he dedicated the greater part of his poetry. She, however, bestowed her hand on another. When far advanced in years, one day asked him when he would again write such verses upon her. "When you are as young, madam, and as handsome, as you then were," replied he. The rank of one of the first refiners of poetical diction is claimed for him, and he has been styled the "Maker and model of melodious verse," though not with strict justice, it is now thought. TO HIS SACHARISSA. WHILE in this park I sing, the listening deer When to the beeches I report my flame, They bow their heads, as if they felt the same; More deaf than trees, and prouder than the heaven! * Sir Philip Sidney. she One so destructive. To no human stock Of such stern beauty, placed those healing springs,* I might, like Orpheus, with my numerous moan The memory of what augments my woes, This last complaint the indulgent ears did pierce Of just Apollo, president of verse; Highly concernéd that the muse should bring And from the winds and tempests does expect OLD AGE AND DEATH. The seas are quiet when the winds give o'er ; *Tunbridge Wells. Clouds of affection from our younger eyes The soul's dark cottage, battered and decayed, As they draw near to their eternal home. Milton was educated with great care, and was designed for the church; but did not enter the ministry, because unwilling to submit to the religious restrictions of the times. For five years after leaving the university, he remained at the house of his father, studying classical literature; and during this time he wrote Comus and Lycidas, and also, it is supposed by many, L'Allegro and Il Penseroso. He then travelled, for more than a year, in France and Italy, where the study of the works of art are supposed to have suggested the grace and beauty of some of his poetical creations in Paradise Lost. His first wife, the daughter of a high Cavalier, left him, in one month after marriage, on account of his studious habits, and the seclusion in which he lived. But, on her returning, repentant, he received her with generosity. He married twice, afterwards. He lost the last remains of eyesight in writing his Defensio Populi, and the immortal Paradise Lost was begun after he was entirely blind. But poverty never entered his dwelling, which was lighted by visions of Paradise, and his mind was bright and calm to the last. He left three daughters of his first marriage; all of whom lived apart from him some years before his death, and of whom he complained that they were undutiful and unkind. Milton was at one time Latin secretary to the Council of State, with a salary of £300 per annum. Of his prose writings it has been said, "They abound with passages compared with which the finest declamations of Burke sink into insignificance." He wrote against the established church, and was stern and inflexible in principle, in regard to both church and state. SONNET ON HIS OWN BLINDNESS. WHEN I consider how my life is spent, Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide, Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent To serve therewith my Maker, and present |