poet begins by enumerating the virtues and talent of his hero; then adds: Such is the man whom we require, the same Whose valour is the only art they know, Fruitless wish! Life, in the midst of his country's woes, became the lot of this friend to the muses. His grief betrayed itself in the carelessness of his attire. On the morning of the first battle of Naseby, his intention of dying was guessed by his change of habit; he arrayed himself as if for a day of rejoicing, and asked for clean linen, saying with a smile, "I do not wish my body to be buried in soiled garments. I foresee great misfortunes, but I shall be out of them before the day is over." Placing himself in the front rank of Lord Byron's regiment, a ball, winged by that liberty which he adored, enfranchised him from the oaths of honour to which he was a slave. There remain some speeches and verses by Falkland, Secretary of State to Charles I. he aided Clarendon to revise the Royal Proclama : tions, and Chillingworth in his History of Protestantism. The Bible, partly translated in the reign of Henry VIII., was re-translated under James I. by forty seven scholars. This last translation is a masterpiece. The authors of that immense undertaking did for the English language what Luther did for the German, and the writers of Louis the Thirteenth's time for French. They established the language. POLITICAL WRITINGS UNDER CHARLES 1. AND To look for literature in times of commotion, is to ask shelter in the peaceful valleys which poets place on the sea-shore; but were we led by some good Genius to these retreats, other spirits would thrust us into the midst of the tempest and the waves. Politics ascend the tripod, transformed into a Sibyl. Pamphlets, libels and satirical poems abound; impregnated with hate, and written in the blood of factions. The civil wars of England gave birth to deplorable productions. to One of those fanatics whom Butler held up ridicule, exclaims, in " An alarm to all Flesh," Howle, howle, bawl and roar, ye lustful, cursing, swearing, drunken, lewd, superstitious, devilish, sensual, earthly inhabitants of the whole earth! Bow, bow, you most surly trees, and lofty oaks! ye tall cedars and low shrubs, cry out aloud! hear, hear, ye proud waves, and boisterous seas! also, listen ye uncircumcised, stiff necked, and mad-raging bubbles, who even hate to be reformed." The poets equalled the orators. Dear friend, J. C., with true unfeigned love dear friend, a member jointly knit To all in Christ, in heavenly places sit, For truly, friend, I dearly love, and own Cromwell scarcely rose above this style of eloquence, as we may judge by his obscure speeches and rambling letters. His poetry lay in facts and in his sword. He was a poet while gazing on Charles I. in his coffin. His muse was the female, who, by his own account, appeared to him in his childhood, and promised him royalty. THE ABBÉ DE LAMENNAIS. THE French Revolution has also produced writers who have beheld Liberty in Religion; but here our superiority is manifest. It is in the fields of the cross that the Abbé de Lamennais has acquired so tender an interest for human nature, for the poor and suffering industrious classes of society; it was in wandering with Christ upon the highways and beholding the little ones assembled at the feet of the Saviour of the world that he has found again the poetry of the Gospel. Might we not call the following picture a detached parable from the sermon on the Mount? "It was a wintry night; the wind blew, the snow whitened the roofs; Beneath one of these roofs in a small room were seated at work a woman with silvery hair, and a young girl : "And from time to time, the old woman |