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Which low to earth its drooping head declines,
All smear'd and sully'd by a vernal show'r.
Oh, the hard bosoms of despotic pow'r!

All, all, but she, the author of his shame,

All, all, but she, regret this mournful hour:

Yet hence the youth, and hence the flow'r, shall claim, If so I deem aright, transcending worth and fame.

Behind some door, in melancholy thought,
Mindless of food, he, dreary caitiff! pines;
Ne for his fellow's joyaunce careth aught,
But to the wind all merriment resigns;
And deems it shame, if he to peace inclines;
And many a sullen look askance is sent,
Which for his dame's annoyance he designs;
And still the more to pleasure him she 's bent,
The more doth he, perverse, her haviour past resent.

Ah, me how much I fear lest pride it be!
But if that pride it be, which thus inspires,
Beware, ye dames, with nice discernment see
Ye quench not too the sparks of nobler fires:
Ah! better far than all the muse's lyres,
All coward arts, is valour's gen'rous heat;
The firm fixt breast which fit and right requires,
Like Vernon's patriot soul; more justly great
Than craft that pimps for ill, or flow'ry false deceit.

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Yet, nursed with skill, what dazzling fruits appear! Ev'n now sagacious foresight points to show

A little bench of heedless bishops here,

And there a chancellor in embryo,

Or bard sublime, if bard may e'er be so,

As Milton, Shakspere, names that ne'er shall die!
Though now he crawl along the ground so low,
Nor weeting how the muse should soar on high,
Wisheth, poor starv'ling elf! his paper kite may fly.

And this perhaps, who, censuring the design,
Low lays the house which that of cards doth build,

Shall Dennis be! if rigid fate incline,
And many an epic to his rage shall yield;
And many a poet quit th' Aonian field;
And, sour'd by age, profound he shall appear,
As he who now with 'sdainful fury thrill'd,
Surveys mine work; and levels many a sneer,

And furls his wrinkly front, and cries, "What stuff is here?"

But now Dan Phoebus gains the middle sky,
And liberty unbars her prison-door;
And like a rushing torrent out they fly,
And now the grassy cirque han cover'd o'er
With boist 'rous revel-rout and wild uproar;
A thousand ways in wanton rings they run,
Heav'n shield their short-lived pastimes, I implore!
For well may freedom, erst so dearly won,
Appear to British elf more gladsome than the sun.

Enjoy, poor imps! enjoy your sportive trade,
And chase gay flies, and cull the fairest flow'rs;
For when my bones in grass-green sods are laid;
For never may ye taste more careless hours
In knightly castles, or in ladies' bow'rs.
Oh, vain to seek delight in earthly thing!
But most in courts where proud ambition tow'rs;
Deluded wight! who weens fair peace can spring
Beneath the pompous dome of kesar or of king.
See in each sprite some various bent appear!
These rudely carol most incondite lay;
Those, saunt'ring on the green, with jocund leer
Salute the stranger passing on his way;
Some builden fragile tenements of clay;

Some to the standing lake their courses bend,
With pebbles smooth at duck and drake to play;
Thilk to the huxter's sav'ry cottage tend,

In pastry kings and queens th' allotted mite to spend.

Here, as each season yields a different store,
Each season's stores in order rangèd been;

Apples with cabbage-net y-cover'd o'er,
Galling full sore th' unmoney'd wight, are seen;
And goose-b'rie clad in liv'ry red or green;
And here of lovely dye, the cath'rine pear,
Fine pear! as lovely for thy juice, I ween.
Oh, may no wight e'er pennyless come there,
Lest smit with ardent love he pine with hopeless care!
See! cherries here, ere cherries yet abound,
With thread so white in tempting posies tied,
Scatt'ring like blooming maid their glances round,
With pamper'd look draw little eyes aside;
And must be bought, though penury betide.
The plum all azure, and the nut all brown,
And here each season do those cakes abide,
Whose honour'd names th' inventive city own,
Rend'ring through Britain's isle Salopia's praises known.
Admir'd Salopia! that with venial pride

Eyes her bright form in Severn's ambient wave,
Famed for her loyal cares in perils try'd,

Her daughters lovely, and her striplings brave:
Ah! midst the rest, may flowers adorn his grave,
Whose art did first these dulcet cates display!
A motive fair to learning's imps he gave,
Who cheerless o'er her darkling region stray;
Till reason's morn arise, and light them on their way.

172.-QUEEN CHRISTINA OF SWEDEN.

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RANKE.

[LEOPOLD RANKE is the author of the History of the Popes of Rome during the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries.' This work was translated from the German by Mrs. Austin, in 1840. It is truly observed by the translator, that the subject of the book" is not so much the history of the Popes as a history of the great struggle between Catholicism and Protestantism." The extract which we give presents a curious picture of the unlooked-for conquest by Catholicism, of Queen

Christina of Sweden, the daughter of Gustavus Adolphus, the great champion of Protestantism.]

After the death of Gustavus Adolphus, it was a question for a moment agitated in Sweden, (as it had been in 1619 in Austria, in 1640 in Portugal, and in many other countries at that time,) whether the nation should not emancipate itself from the kingly power and constitute itself as a republic.

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This scheme was indeed rejected; the daughter of the deceased, king received the accustomed homage; but as she was a child of six years old, and as there was no one of the royal line who could seize the reins of government, the supreme power naturally fell into the hands of a few. The anti-monarchical tendencies of that time found an applauding echo in Sweden; even the conduct of the long parliament in England excited sympathy, and still more the movements of the Fronde in France, inasmuch as they were more decidedly aristocratic. I distinctly perceive," said Christina herself in the senate, that people wish that Sweden were an elective monarchy or an aristocracy." But this young princess was little disposed to allow the regal power to decline in her hands; she girded herself up to be a queen in the fullest sense of the word. From the moment that she entered upon the government, in the year 1644, she devoted herself to business with admirable zeal. She was never known to miss a meeting of the senate, and we find her attending the sittings, even when suffering under fever, or obliged to be let blood. She prepared herself carefully by reading through state papers many sheets in length, and making the contents her own; at night before going to rest, in a morning early at waking, she meditated on the points demanding consideration. She had the art of stating questions with great ability and clearness, and of concealing her own inclinations; after hearing every member, she pronounced her opinion, which always appeared well founded, and was almost invariably adopted. The foreign ambassadors were astonished at the power she had acquired over the senate, though it was insufficient to satisfy her own love of dominion. In an event of such universal and historical importance as the conclusion of the peace of Westphalia, she had a large personal share. The officers of the army, even one of her delegates to congress, were not in favour of it; and there were in Sweden people who did not approve the concessions which had been

made to the Catholics, especially in the hereditary dominions of Austria: but Christina did not choose to make any more appeals to fortune; never had Sweden been so glorious, or so powerful; and the queen's ambition was satisfied by the consciousness that she was the bulwark of the established state of things, that it was she who maintained the peace of Christendom.

But not only did Christina vigorously repress all attempts on the part of the aristocracy to obtain the supreme power; she would not even suffer them to flatter themselves with any hopes of obtaining their object in future. Young as she was, she very soon brought forward a proposition for the appointment of her cousin, the count palatine Charles Gustavus, as her successor, a station which she believed to be far above that prince's highest aspirations. She carried through this measure single-handed; against the will of the senate, which would not even take it into consideration; against the will of the estates, which only consented to it out of deference to her; in short, it was entirely her thought, and she executed it in spite of all difficulties and all opposition. The succession was irrevocably settled.

It is doubly remarkable that ardour for business was accompanied in the youthful queen with a passion for study. Even in her childish years she had no greater pleasure than her lessons. One cause of this studious disposition was, perhaps, the melancholy of her mother, who gave herself up entirely to grief for the loss of her husband. Christina daily looked forward with impatience to the hour which was to liberate her from the gloomy chambers of mourning. But she was also gifted by nature with extraordinary talents, especially for languages; she relates that she learned most of those she knew without a teacher, which is the more remarkable, since in some of them she attained to all the facility and mastery of a native. As she grew up, her enthusiastic taste for literature increased. It was the epoch in which learning gradually shook off the fetters of theological controversy, in which reputations rose above the narrow judgments of a party, and claimed universal recognition. Christina was ambitious of drawing around her celebrated men, and of profiting by their instructions. First came a few German philologists and historians; for example, Freinsheim, at whose request she remitted to his native city, Ulm, the greater part of the contributions imposed on it for the support of the war: then followed Netherlanders; Isaac Vossius brought into vogue the study of

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