Through the soft ways of heav'n, and air, and sea,

Which open all their pores to thee,

Like a clear river thou dost glide,

And with thy living stream through the close channels slide.

Cowley was well versed in the poetry and philosophy of the ancients, and has scattered classical allusions and expressions throughout his works with a profuse hand. If he had neither the calm dignity of the Grecian, nor the power or polish of the Roman authors, he occasionally carried their spirit into his productions; and even in his least sustained and most labored poems, there is evidence

of a chaste imagination educated after pure models, but deficient in that lore which is to be drawn from the of real and active life.

survey

SIR WILLIAM WALLER was related to Hampden and Cromwell, and played a conspicuous part in the political drama of the stormy period in which he lived. He was a man of brilliant and lively accomplishments, with an easy flow of wit at his command, and those engaging manners which purchase a ready popularity. In parliament his speeches were elegant and happy, and remarkable both for their eloquence and moderation. Such a character was at best but an uncertain ally of the stern and enthusiastic beings with whom by circumstance he was united. He deprecated the ultra views of the Independents, and was the champion of the Presbyterian party; was even concerned in unsuccessful measures for the restoration of the King, but vindicated the influence and the cause of the Protector during the Commonwealth. He was however among the first to greet the new Monarch on his return to England, and abandon those principles which before he had successfully advocated.

Waller's poetry is celebrated for its fluency and melody. He wrote at his leisure, as his fancy dictated, and threw off his lines with the negligent ease of one to whom literature was but an amusement. His stanzas have not the appearance of being studied; they are gracefully modulated, and the ideas they contain flung together

without an attempt to elaborate or make the most of them. He was not a poet of high imagination, he did not attempt any of the more difficult branches of the art, but courted the inspiration of the humbler muses. He excels in tender complimentary lyrics, which, if they want the freshness of nature, are generally glittering, happy, and fanciful. His stanzas 'To a Lady singing a Song of his composing' contain the same fine image which Byron in his English Bards and Scotch Reviewers has enlarged and applied to the fate of Kirke White.*

Chloris! yourself you so excel,

When you vouchsafe to breathe my thought,
That, like a spirit, with this spell

Of my own teaching, I am caught.

That eagle's fate and mine are one,

Which, on the shaft that made him die,

Espied a feather of his own,

Wherewith he wont to soar so high.

Had Echo, with so sweet a grace,

Narcissus' loud complaints returned,

Not for reflection of his face,

But of his voice, the boy had burned.

I pass over, amongst his addresses to political characters, the panegyric to my Lord Protector on the present greatness and joint interest of his Highness and the nation,' but will quote a few of his lines on the death of Cromwell:

*The simile was borrowed by Waller himself from the Greek.

H

We must resign! Heav'n his great soul does claim
In storms, as loud as his immortal fame:

His dying groans, his last breath shakes our isle,

And trees uncut fall for his funeral pile;

About his palace their broad roots are tost
Into the air.-So Romulus was lost!

*

The ocean, which so long our hopes confin'd,
Could give no limits to his vaster mind.

*

Ungrateful then! if we no tears allow

To him that gave us peace and empire too.
Princes that fear'd him grieve, concern'd to see
No pitch of glory from the grave is free.

After the Restoration, Waller was equally ready with verses To the King upon His Majesty's happy Return.' Charles the Second however remarked that they were very inferior to those upon the death of the Protector; and Waller's reply at once shewed the superiority of his wit to his principle: "Poets, Sir," he replied, "succeed better in fiction than in truth."

SIR JOHN DENHAM's popular work is Cooper's Hill, the most polished and classical specimen of descriptive poetry which then existed. Pope calls him the lofty,' 'the majestic Denham;' and his verses have all that terseness and elegance of expression which distinguish the best of Pope's-that beautiful ease yet conciseness, that high temper and refinement, which make them resemble those curious remains of mosaic work, where the hardest and the brightest of gems and marbles are carved and inlaid into one compact and solid figure by the

Such is his description of

cunning hand of the artificer.

the Thames, as true as it is popular.

Thames! the most lov'd of all the Ocean's sons,

By his old sire, to his embraces runs,
Hasting to pay his tribute to the sea,

Like mortal life to meet eternity; x

Though with those streams he no resemblance hold,
Whose foam is amber, and their gravel gold:
His genuine and less guilty wealth t' explore,
Search not his bottom, but survey his shore,
O'er which he kindly spreads his spacious wing,
And hatches plenty for th' ensuing spring;

Nor then destroys it with too fond a stay,

Like mothers which their infants overlay ;

Nor with a sudden and impetuous wave,

Like profuse kings, resumes the wealth he gave.

No unexpected inundations spoil

The mower's hopes, nor mock the ploughman's toil;

But godlike his unwearied bounty flows;

First loves to do, then loves the good he does.

Nor are his blessings to his banks confin'd,
But free and common as the sea or wind;
When he, to boast or to disperse his stores,
Full of the tributes of his grateful shores,
Visits the world, and in his flying tow'rs

Brings home to us, and makes both Indies ours;
Finds wealth where 'tis, bestows it where it wants,

Cities in deserts, woods in cities plants.

So that to us no thing, no place is strange,

While his fair bosom is the world's exchange.

O could I flow like thee! and make thy stream

My great example, as it is my theme;

Though deep yet clear, though gentle yet not dull;
Strong without rage, without o'erflowing full.

Denham was a true royalist, and wrote many political pasquinades for his party, which are curious relics of the