HOW SOON Our new-born light And this, how soon, to gray-hair'd night! Hieroglyphic ix. In all the notices I have seen of Quarles, he is said to have remained in Ireland until the breaking out of the rebellion in 1641, and then to have fled for safety to England. The following extract from the Journals of the Court of Aldermen, kindly furnished to me by the City Remembrancer, will correct this mistake. "February 4, 1639. Item―This day, at the request of the Right Honourable the Earl of Dorset, signified unto this Court by his letter, This Court is pleased to retain and admit Francis Quarles to be the Cities Chronologer; to have, hold, and enjoy the same place with a fee of one hundred nobles* per annum, during the pleasure of this Court, and this payment to begin from Xmas last." The office of Chronologer has been long abolished, and its duties are now very imperfectly understood, but they chiefly consisted in providing pageants for the Lord Mayor at stated periods; and in the Records of the City of London is an entry which states that Quarles' predecessor was reprimanded for having omitted to prepare the necessary show. The salary amounted to 33l. 6s. 8d., a considerable sum nearly two hundred years ago. Quarles held this situation until his death, and "would have given that City," says his wife, "(and the world,) a testimony that he was their faithful servant therein; if it had pleased God to bless him with life to perfect what he had begun." What this work was, is not known; no other mention of him occurs in the minute-books. * A noble was six shillings and eight-pence. His new preferment did not make him idle. The Enchiridion, a collection of brief essays and aphorisms, came out in 1641. "If this little piece," observes Mr. Headley, "had been written at Athens or Rome, its author would have been classed among the wise men of his country." It is divided into two books; the first, being political, is inscribed to the young Prince Charles, and the second to the "fair branch of growing honour and virtue, Mrs. Elizabeth Usher," only daughter of the Archbishop. Usher was at this time in England with his family, and the terms in which Quarles alludes to him, show that their intimacy still continued. "SWEET LADY, "I present your fair hands with this my Enchiridion, to begin a new decade of a blest account. If it add nothing to your well-instructed knowledge, it may bring somewhat to your welldisposed remembrance; if either I have my end and you my endeavour. The service which I owe, and the affections which I bear your most incomparable parents, challenge the utmost of my ability; wherein if I could light you but the least step towards the happiness you aim at, how happy should I be! Go forward in the way which you have chosen : wherein, if my hand cannot lead you, my heart shall follow you; and where the weakness of my power shows defect, there the vigour of my will shall make supply, "Who am covetous of your happiness, "FRA. QUARLES." A very few extracts will explain the merits of this volume: its great defect arises from the frequent use of antithesis, a fault, however, almost compensated by the vigour, the eloquence, and the piety of the sentiments. He had not been a guest at the Archbishop's table, and his companion in the study, without gathering something from his stores of learning and wisdom. Dr. Dibdin traces a resemblance between the Enchiridion and the Essays of Sir William Cornwallis, the younger, the first edition of which appeared in 1601-2; but I think there is much more diffuseness about Cornwallis; he has the eccentricity of Quarles without his power. The following specimens will, it is hoped, lead the reader to the work itself: SELF-KNOWLEDGE. As thou art a moral man, esteem thyself not as thou art, but as thou art esteemed; as thou art a Christian, esteem thyself as thou art, not as thou art esteemed; thy price in both rises and falls as the market goes. The market of a moral man is wild opinion. The market of a Christian is a good conscience. ON DEATH. If thou expect Death as a friend, prepare to entertain it; if thou expect Death as an enemy, prepare to overcome it. Death has no advantage but when it comes a stranger. THE POWER OF CONSCIENCE, In the commission of evil, fear no man so much as thyself; another is but one witness against thee; thou art a thousand : another thou may'st avoid, but thyself thou canst not. Wickedness is its own punishment. ON DRESS. In thy apparel avoid singularity, profuseness, and gaudiness. Be not too early in the fashion, nor too late. Decency is the half way between affectation and neglect. The body is the shell of the soul; apparel is the husk of that shell. The husk often tells you what the kernel is. The political horizon had long been lowering, and Quarles, who foresaw many of the calamities which soon after fell upon the country, put forth a few "Thoughts upon Peace and War," full of mild wisdom and Christian patriotism. The "bleeding nation" was constantly at his heart, "His love to his king and country," says his widow, "in these late unhappy times of distraction, was manifest, in that he used his pen, and poured out his continual prayers and tears, to quench this miserable fire of dissension, while too many others added daily fuel to it." Some of these earnest supplications are contained in the Prayers and Meditations. "Bless this kingdom, O God," he exclaimed; "establish it in piety, honour, peace, and plenty; forgive all her crying sins, and remove thy judgments far from her. * * Direct thy church in doctrine and discipline, and let all her enemies be converted or confounded." But the torch of discord burned with too fierce a flame to be extinguished by one weak hand. Those wild and lawless passions, which gave occasion to the afflicted Dr. Hammond to call his native land, 66 a whole Afric of monsters, a desert of wilder men," were every day more fearfully developed. The "dove-like spirit" wandered in vain over the waste of waters, for it found not one oliveleaf to carry back "in token that men were content to hear of peace, and to be friends with God*." The humble home of the poet did not escape the general ruin. The publication of the Royal Convert, and his visit to the King at Oxford, attracted the angry notice of the dominant party, who availed themselves of their power to injure him in his estates. Winstanley says, that he was plundered of his books and some rare manuscripts, which he intended for the press. A severer trial soon followed. A petition "full of unjust aspersions was preferred against him by eight men (whereof he knew not any two, nor they him, save only by sight), and the first news of it struck him so to the heart, that he never recovered, but said plainly it would be his death+." Of the nature of this fatal petition, we are ignorant; but it evidently had reference to his religious belief. The closing scenes of his life cannot be more interestingly described than in * See Dr. Hammond's Sermon on Jeremiah, chapter xxxi., 18, edition 1649. + Memoir by his widow, p. 15. the words of his affectionate wife, who dwells with fervent love upon the "blessed end of her dear husband," which was every way answerable to his godly life, or rather (indeed) surpassed it. For as gold is purified by the fire, so were all his Christian virtues more refined and remarkable during the time of his sickness. His patience was wonderful, insomuch that he would confess no pain, even then when all his friends perceived his disease to be mortal; but still rendered thanks to God for his especial love to him, in taking him into his own hands to chastise, while others were exposed to the fury of their enemies, the power of pistols, and the trampling of horses. "He expressed great sorrow for his sins, and when it was told him that his friends conceived he did thereby much harm to himself, he answered, 'They were not his friends that would not give him leave to be penitent.' "His exhortations to his friends that came to visit him were most divine; wishing them to have a care of the expense of their time, and every day to call themselves to an account, that so when they came to their bed of sickness, they might lie upon it with a rejoicing heart. And, doubtless, such an one was his; insomuch that he thanked God that whereas he might justly have expected that his conscience should look him in the face like a lion, it rather looked upon him like a lamb; and that God had forgiven him his sins, and that night sealed him his pardon, and many other heavenly expressions to the like effect. I might here add, what blessed advice he gave to me in particular, still to trust in God, whose promise is to provide for the widow and the fatherless, &c. But this is already imprinted on my heart, and, therefore, I shall not need here again to insert it." His charity in freely forgiving his greatest enemies, was equally Christian-like; and when he heard that the individual, whose vindictive conduct towards him had |