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are led and governed by it." These admirable qualities
may be exemplified even in the brief extracts permitted by
the necessary
limits of these observations. He shows the
inability of the human faculties to comprehend the scheme
of God's government, in this manner :—

O could we see how cause from cause doth spring!
How mutually they linked and folded are!
And hear how oft one disagreeing string,

The harmony doth rather make than mar!
And view at once, how death by sin is brought;
And how from death, a better life doth rise!
How this God's justice and his mercy taught!
We this decree would praise as right and wise.
But we that measure times by first and last,
The sight of things successively do take,
When God on all at once his view doth cast
And of all times doth but one instant make.

All in himself as in a glass he sees,

For from him, by him, through him, all things be;
His sight is not discursive, by degrees;

But seeing the whole, each single part doth see.

His similes are admirably selected, and are not only recommended by analogy, but novelty:

THE NECESSITY OF DIVINE ASSISTANCE TO THE SOUL.
But as the sharpest eye discerneth nought,
Except the sun-beams in the air do shine:
So the best soul with her reflecting thought,
Sees not herself without some light divine.

THE UNION OF THE SOUL WITH THE BODY.

But as the fair and cheerful morning light

Doth here and there her silver beams impart,

And in an instant doth herself unite,

To the transparent air, in all and ev'ry part:

So doth the piercing soul the body fill,

Being all in all, and all in part diffused;
Indivisible, incorruptible still;

Nor forced, encountered, troubled, or confused.

E

THE SENSE OF FEELING ILLUSTRATED.
Much like a subtle spider, which doth sit
In middle of her web, which spreadeth wide;
If ought do touch the utmost thread of it,
She feels it instantly on ev'ry side*.

SENSITIVE MEMORY.

Here sense's apprehension end doth take;
As when a stone is into water cast,
One circle doth another circle make,

Till the last circle touch the bank at last.

INNATE IDEAS IN THE SOUL.

And though these sparks were almost quenched with sin,
Yet they whom that Just One has justified,
Have them increased with heavenly light within,

And, like the widow's oil, still multiplied.

THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL SHOWN FROM THE UN

SATISFYING NATURE OF ALL EARTHLY ENJOYMENTS.

At first her mother-earth she holdeth dear,

And doth embrace the world, and worldly things;
She flies close by the ground, and hovers here,
And mounts not up with her celestial wings:
Yet under heaven she cannot light on ought
That with her heav'nly nature doth agree;
She cannot rest, she cannot fix her thought,
She cannot in this world contented be.
For who did ever yet, in honour, wealth,

Or pleasure of the sense, contentment find?
Whoever ceased to wish, when he had health?
Or having wisdom, was not vexed in mind?
Then as a bee, which among weeds doth fall,
Which seem sweet flowers, with lustre fresh and gay,
She lights on that, and this, and tasteth all;

But, pleased with none, doth rise and soar away.

Although the Immortality of the Soul is properly a philosophical poem, it is essentially a religious poem also.

* Condensed by Pope into a famous couplet:

The spider's touch, how exquisitely fine,

Feels at each thread, and lives along the line.-Essay on Man.

It has nothing of Lucretius, but the majesty. The dependence of man upon a merciful and omnipotent Creator, and the purification of the heart by the influence of the Divine Spirit, are constantly and eloquently enforced :

This lamp through all the regions of my brain,
Doth spread such blessed beams of grace;
As now methinks I do distinguish plain
Each subtle line of her immortal face.

And he winds up the whole argument with an appeal to the heart, full of calm wisdom and earnest devotion :

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O ignorant poor man! what dost thou bear,
Locked up within the casket of thy breast?
What jewels, and what riches hast thou there?
What heavenly treasure in so weak a chest?
Look in thy soul, and thou shalt beauties find,
Like those which drowned Narcissus in the flood;
Honour and pleasure both are in thy mind,

And all that in the world is counted good.

Think of her worth, and think that God did mean,
This worthy mind should worthy things embrace;
Blot not her beauties with thy thoughts unclean,
Nor her dishonour with thy passion base.
Kill not her quick'ning power with surfeitings;
Mar not her sense with sensuality:
Cast not her wit away on idle things:

Make not her free-will slave to vanity.

And if thou, like a child, didst fear before,

Being in the dark, where thou didst nothing see;
Now I have brought thee torchlight, fear no more;
Now when thou dy'st, thou canst not hood-winked be.
And thou, my soul, which turn'st with curious eye,
To view the beams of thine own form divine,
Know, that thou canst know nothing perfectly,
While thou art clouded with this flesh of mine.
Cast down thyself, and only strive to raise

The glory of thy Maker's sacred name;
Use all thy powers, that blessed power to praise,
Which gives thee power to be, and use the same.

52

GEORGE SANDYS.

GEORGE SANDYS, the seventh and youngest son of Edwin Sandys, Archbishop of York, was born at Bishopsthorp, in 1577; and, in December, 1589, being eleven years old, he was matriculated in the University of Oxford, as a member of St. Mary Hall; but Wood supposes him to have studied at Corpus Christi College. He does not appear to have taken a degree. In the autumn of 1610, he set out on his travels, during which he visited the most interesting cities of Europe, and extended his researches into Egypt and the Holy Land. He seems, also, to have been one of the early residents in Virginia; for Drayton speaks of him as Treasurer to the English Company there.

After an absence of more than two years, he returned to England, and composed the history of his wanderings, which issued from the Press in 1615. No personal narrative ever impressed the reader with a livelier sensation of respect for the writer. The brief preface is singularly simple and eloquent, and the opening picture of the disordered condition of France, though consisting only of a few strokes, is very striking. "I began," he says, "my journey through France, hard upon the time when that execrable murder was committed upon the person of Henry the Fourth, by an obscure varlet, even in the streets of his principal city by day, and then when royalty attended; to show that there is none so contemptible, that contemneth his own life, but is the master of another man's. Triumphs were interrupted by funerals, and men's minds did labour with fearful expectations. The princes of the blood discontented, the nobles factious; those of the

religion daily threatened, and nightly fearing a massacre. Meanwhile, a number of soldiers are drawn, by small numbers, into the city, to confront all outrages."

His journal commences at Venice. The veracity of his information, the diligence of his inquiries, and the accuracy of his descriptions, render him one of the most agreeable and instructive of English travellers; and it may be remarked, that Addison, in his Italian tour, took Sandys for his model. Recent investigations have confirmed his statements. The account of Constantinople, where he resided four months, in the house of the English ambassador, Sir Thomas Glover, is minute and entertaining. But his visit to the Holy Land possesses the most absorbing interest. As a specimen of his style, I may quote the narrative of his journey from Gaza to Jerusalem.

"Now the caravan did again divide; the Moors keeping in the way that leadeth to Damascus. Here we should have paid two dollars a-piece for our heads to a Sheik of the Arabs; but the Zanziack of Gaza had sent unto him that it should be remitted. He came into our tent, and greedily fed upon such viands as we had set before him. A man of tall stature, clothed in a Gambalock of scarlet, buttoned under the chin, with a top of gold. He had not the patience to expect a present, but demanded one. We gave him a piece of sugar, and a pair of shoes, which he earnestly inquired for, and cheerfully accepted.

"On the two-and-twentieth of March, with the rising sun, we departed from Gaza. A small remainder of that great caravan; the Nostrains (so name they the Christians of the East) that ride upon mules and asses being gone before; amongst whom were two Armenian bishops, who footed it most of the way; but when (alighting themselves) they were mounted by some of their nation.

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