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of an antiquary's cabinet, is grieved that the curtain be drawn, and to give place to new pilgrims? And when the Lord of this universe hath showed us the amazing wonders of his various frame, should we take it to heart, when he thinketh time, to dislodge? This is his unalterable and inevitable decree: as we had no part of our will in our entrance into this life, we should not presume to any in our leaving it, but soberly learn to will that which he wills, whose very will giveth being to all that it wills; and reverencing the orderer, not repine at the order and laws, which all-where and always are so perfectly established, that who would essay to correct and amend any of them, he should either make them worse, or desire things beyond the level of possibility.

REMARKS ON THE STYLE OF THIS PERIOD.

The poetry of Queen Elizabeth's reign, and the prose of that of her successor, were much disfigured through the operation of a strong propensity, on the part of the authors, to false wit; a propensity, as Sir Walter Scott explains it, to substitute strange and unexpected connections of sound, or of idea, for real humour, and even for the effusions of the stronger passions. It seems likely,' he adds, that this fashion arose at court; a sphere in which its denizens never think they move with due lustre, until they have adopted a form of expression, as well as a system of manners, different from that which is proper to mankind at large. In Elizabeth's reign, the court language was for some time formed on the plan of one Lyly, a pedantic courtier, who wrote a book entitled "Euphues and his England, or the Anatomy of Wit;" which quality he makes to consist in the indulgence of every monstrous and overstrained conceit that can be engendered by a strong memory and a heated brain, applied to the absurd purpose of hatching unnatural conceits.* It appears that this fantastical person had a considerable share in determining the false taste of his age, which soon became so general, that the tares which sprung from it are to be found even among the choicest of the wheat. * These outrages upon language were committed without regard to time and place. They were held good arguments at the bar, though Bacon sat on the woolsack; and eloquence irresistible by the most hardened sinner, when King or Corbet were in the pulpit. Where grave and learned professions set the example, the poets, it will readily be believed, ran headlong into an error, for which they could plead such respectable example. The affectation "of the word" and "of the letter" (for alliteration was almost as fashionable as punning) seemed in some degree to bring back English composition to the barbarous rules of the ancient Anglo-Saxons, the merit of whose poems consisted, not in the ideas, but in the quaint arrangement of the words, and the regular recurrence of some favourite sound or letter.'

*For an account of Lyly as a dramatic poet, see p. 166.

+ 'Witness a sermon preached at St Mary's before the university of Oxford. It is true the preacher was a layman, and harangued in a gold chain, and girt with a sword, as high sheriff of the county; but his eloquence was highly applauded by the learned body whom he addressed, although it would have startled a modern audience at least as much as the dress of the orator. "Arriving," said he, "at the Mount of St Mary's, in the stony stage where I now stand, I have brought you some fine biscuits, baked in the oven of charity, carefully conserved for the chickens of the church, the sparrows of the spirit, and the sweet swallows of salvation." "Which way of preaching," says Anthony Wood, the reporter of the homily, "was then mostly in fashion, and commended by the generality of scholars."'—Athenæ Oxon. vol. i. p. 183.

During the reigns of Elizabeth, James, and Charles, literary language received large accessions of Greek and Latin, and also of the modern French have given from Overbury and Fuller may serve to illustrate the remarks quoted above. In our opinion, Sir Walter Scott has considerably exaggerated the faults of Lyly's Euphues,' which, however, are certainly of the kind described. Let us take, for example, two passages at random, the first on vigour of mind, and the second on grief for the death of a daughter:[Prerequisites of Mental Vigour.]

There are three things which cause perfection in a mannature, reason, use. Reason I call discipline: use, exercise: if any one of these branches want, certainly the tree of virtue must needs wither; for nature without discipline is of small force, and discipline without nature more feeble: if exercise or study be void of any of these, it availeth nothing. For as in tilling of the ground in husbandry there is first chosen a fertile soil, then a cunning sower, then good seed, even so must we compare nature to the fat earth, the expert husbandman to the schoolmaster, the faculties and sciences to the pure seeds. If this order had not been in our predecessors, Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, and whosoever was renowned in Greece for the glory of wisdom, they had never been eternised for wise men, neither canonised, as it were, for saints, among those that study sciences. It is therefore a most evident sign of God's singular favour towards him, that he is endued with all these qualities, without the which man is most miserable. But if there be any one that thinketh wit not necessary to the obtaining of wisdom, after he hath gotten the way to virtue, and industry, and exercise, he is a heretic, in my opinion, touching the true faith in learning; for if nature play not her part, in vain is labour; and, as it is said before, if study be not employed, in vain is nature: sloth turneth the edge of wit, study sharpeneth the mind; a thing, be it never so easy, is hard to the idle; a thing, be it never so hard, is easy to wit well employed. And most plainly we may see in many things the efficacy of industry and labour. The little drops of rain pierce the hard marble; iron, with often handling, is worn to nothing. Besides this, industry showeth herself in other things: the fertile soil, if it be never tilled, doth wax barren, and that which is most noble by nature is made most vile by negligence. What tree, if it be not topped, beareth any fruit? What vine, if it be not pruned, bringeth forth grapes? Is not the strength of the body turned to weakness with too much delicacy? Were not Milo his arms brawnfallen for want of wrestling? Moreover, by labour the fierce unicorn is tamed, the wildest falcon is reclaimed, the greatest bulwark is sacked. It was well answered of that man of Thessaly, who being demanded who among the Thessalians were reputed most vile,Those,' he said, 'that live at quiet and ease, never giving themselves to martial affairs.' But why

should one use many words in a thing already proved? It is custom, use, and exercise, that brings a young man to virtue, and virtue to his perfection.

[A Father's Grief for the Death of his Daughter.]

Thou weepest for the death of thy daughter, and I laugh at

the folly of the father; for greater vanity is there in the mind of the mourner, than bitterness in the death of the deceased.

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But she was amiable'-but yet sinful: but she was young, and might have lived'-but she was mortal, and must have died. Ay, but her youth made thee often merry'-Ay, but thine age should once make thee wise. Ay, but her green years were unfit for death'-Ay, but thy hoary hairs should despise life. Knowest thou not, Eubulus, that life is the gift of God, death is the due of nature; as we receive the one as a benefit, so must we abide the other of necessity. Wise men have found that by learning, which old men should know by experience, that in life there is nothing sweet, in death nothing sour. The philosophers accounted it the chiefest felicity never to be born; the second, soon to die. And what hath death in it so hard, that we should take it so heavily? Is it strange to see that cut off which, by nature, is made to be cut off? or that melted which is fit to be melted? or that burnt which is apt to be burnt? or man to pass that is born to perish? But thou grantest that she should have died, and yet art thou sorrowful because she is dead. Is the death the better if it be the longer? No, truly. For as neither he that singeth most, or prayeth

+ Scott's Life of Dryden, section i.-The extracts which we longest, or ruleth the stern oftenest, but he that doth it best,

and Italian. The prevalence of Greek and Roman learning was the chief cause of the introduction of so many words from those languages. Vain of their new scholarship, the learned writers delighted in parading Greek and Latin words, and even whole sentences; so that some specimens of the composition of that time seem to be a mixture of various tongues. Bacon, Burton, and Browne, were among those who most frequently adopted long passages from Latin authors; and of Ben Jonson it is remarked by Dryden, that he did a little too much to Romanise our tongue, leaving the words which he translated almost as much Latin as he found them.' It would appear that the rage, as it may be called, for originality, which marked this period, was one of the causes of this change in our language. Many think,' says Dr Heylin in 1658, 'that they can never speak elegantly, nor write significantly, except they do it in a language of their own devising; as if they were ashamed of their mother tongue, and thought it not sufficiently curious to express their fancies. By means whereof, more French and Latin words have gained ground upon us since the middle of Queen Elizabeth's reign, than were admitted by our ancestors (whether we look upon them as the British or Saxon race), not only since the Norman, but the Roman conquest.' And Sir Thomas Browne about the same time observes, that if elegancy still proceedeth, and English pens maintain that stream we have of late observed to flow from many, we shall, within few years, be fain to learn Latin to understand English, and a work will prove of equal facility in either.' great an extent was Latin thus naturalised among English authors, that Milton at length, in his prose works, and also partly in his poetry, introduced the idiom or peculiar construction of that language; which, however, was not destined to take a permanent hold of English literature; for we find immediately after, that the writings of Clarendon, Dryden, and Barrow, were not affected by it.

To so

In looking back upon the style of the writers of whose works we have given an account in the present section, it will be perceived that no standard and regular form of composition had as yet been recognised. Each author,' says Dr Drake, arrogated to himself the right of innovation, and their respective works may be considered as experiments how far their peculiar and often very adverse styles were calculated to improve their native tongue. That they have completely failed to fix a standard for its structure, cannot be a subject of regret to any man who has impartially weighed the merits and defects of their diction. A want of neatness, precision, and simplicity, is usually observable in their periods, which are either eminently enervated and loose, or deserveth greatest praise: so he, not that hath most years, but many virtues, nor he that hath grayest hairs, but greatest goodness, liveth longest. The chief beauty of life consisteth not in the numbering of many days, but in the using of virtuous doings. Amongst plants, those be best esteemed that in shortest time bring forth much fruit.

The following sentence affords a sample of Lyly's most affected

manner in the Euphues':

When parents have more care how to leave their children wealthy than wise, and are more desirous to have them maintain the name than the nature of a gentleman; when they put gold into the hands of youth, where they should put a rod under their girdle; when, instead of awe, they make them past grace, and leave them rich executors of goods, and poor executors of godliness; then it is no marvel that the son, being

left rich by his father, will become retchless in his own will.

The Euphues consists of two publications-one entitled 'Euphues, the Anatomy of Wit,' 1580; and the other, Euphues and his England,' 1581.

pedantic, implicated, and obscure. Nothing can be more incompact and nerveless than the style of Sidney; nothing more harsh and quaint, from an affectation of foreign and technical terms, than the diction of Browne. If we allow to Hooker and Milton occasional majesty and strength, and sometimes a peculiar felicity of expression, it must yet be admitted, that though using pure English words, the elaboration and inversion of their periods are such as to create, in the mere English reader, no small difficulty in the comprehension of their meaning; a fault, surely, of the most serious nature, and ever productive of aversion and fatigue. To Raleigh, Bacon, and Burton, we are indebted for a style which, though never rivalling the sublime energy and force occasionally discoverable in the prose of Milton, makes a nearer approach to the just idiom of our tongue than any other which their age afforded. It is to the Restoration, however, that we must look for that period when our language, with few exceptions, assumed a facility and clearness, a fluency and grace, hitherto strangers to its structure.' *

ORIGIN OF NEWSPAPERS.

Before concluding the present section, it may be proper to notice the rise of a very important branch We allude to NEWSPAPERS, of modern literature. which, at least in a printed form, had their origin in England. Among the ancient Romans, reports (called Acta Diurna) of what was done in the senate were frequently published. This practice seems to have existed before the time of Julius Cæsar, who, when consul, gave orders that it should be attended to. The publication was, however, prohibited by AugusActa Diurna,' containing more general intelligence of passing events, appear to have been common both during the republic and under the emperors; of one of these, the following specimen is given by Petronius :—

tus.

On the 26th of July, 30 boys and 40 girls were born at Trimalchi's estate at Cuma.

At the same time a slave was put to death for uttering disrespectful words against his lord.

The same day a fire broke out in Pompey's gardens, which began in the night, in the steward's apartment. In modern times, nothing similar appears to have been known before the middle of the sixteenth century. The Venetian government were, in the year 1563, during a war with the Turks, in the habit of communicating to the public, by means of written sheets, the military and commercial information received. These sheets were read in a particular place to those desirous to learn the news, who paid for this privilege a coin called gazetta—a name which, by degrees, was transferred to the newspaper itself in Italy and France, and passed over into England. The Venetian government eventually gave these announcements in a regular manner once amonth; but they were too jealous to allow them to be printed. Only a few copies were transmitted to various places, and read to those who paid to hear. Thirty volumes of these manuscript newspapers exist in the Magliabechian library at Florence.

About the same time, offices were established in France, at the suggestion of the father of the celebrated Montaigne, for making the wants of individuals known to each other. The advertisements received at these offices were sometimes pasted on walls in public places, in order to attract more attention, and were thence called affiches. This led in time to a systematic and periodical publication of advertisements in sheets; and these sheets were

* Essays Illustrative of the Tatler, &c. vol. i. p. 38.

termed affiches, in consequence of their contents having been originally fixed up as placards.

minated by the different parties into which the state was divided. Nearly a score are said to have been started in 1643, when the war was at its height. Peter Heylin, in the preface to his 'Cosmography,' mentions that the affairs of each town or war were better presented in the weekly newsbooks.' Accordingly, we find some papers entitled News from Hull, Truths from York, Warranted Tidings from Ireland, and Special Passages from other places. As the contest proceeded, the impatience of the public for early intelligence led to the shortening of the intervals of publication, and papers began to be distributed twice or thrice in every week. Among these were The French Intelligencer, The Dutch Spy, The Irish Mercury, The Scots Dove, The Parliament Kite, and The Secret Owl. There were likewise weekly papers of a humorous character, such as Mercurius Acheronticus, or News from Hell; Mercurius Democritus, bringing wonderful news from the world in the moon; The Laughing Mercury, with perfect news from the antipodes; and Mercurius Mastix, faithfully lashing all Scouts, Mercuries, Posts, Spies, and other intelligencers. On one side was The Weekly Discoverer, and on the other The Weekly Discoverer Stripped Naked. So important an auxiliary was the press considered, that each of the rival armies carried a printer along with it.

It was during the civil war that newspapers first acquired that political importance which they have 'After inquiring in various countries,' says Mr ever since retained. Whole flights of 'Diurnals' and George Chalmers, for the origin of newspapers, I'Mercuries,' in small quarto, then began to be dissehad the satisfaction to find what I sought for in England. It may gratify our national pride to be told, that mankind are indebted to the wisdom of Elizabeth, and the prudence of Burleigh, for the first newspaper. The epoch of the Spanish Armada is also the epoch of a genuine newspaper. In the British Museum there are several newspapers, which had been printed while the Spanish fleet was in the English channel, during the year 1588. It was a wise policy to prevent, during the moment of general anxiety, the danger of false reports, by publishing real information. And the earliest newspaper is entitled The English Mercurie, which, by authority, was "imprinted at London, by Christopher Barker, her highness's printer, 1588." Burleigh's newspapers were all Extraordinary Gazettes, which were published from time to time, as that profound statesman wished either to inform or terrify the people. The Mercuries were probably first printed in April 1588, when the Armada approached the shores of England. After the Spanish ships had been dispersed by a wonderful exertion of prudence and spirit, these extraordinary gazettes very seldom appeared. The Mercurie, No. 54, which is dated on Monday, November the 24th, 1588, informed the public that the solemn thanksgiving for the successes which had been obtained against the Spanish Armada was this day strictly observed. This number contains also an article of news from Madrid, which speaks of putting the queen to death, and of the instruments of torture that were on board the Spanish fleet. We may suppose that such paragraphs were designed by the policy of Burleigh, who understood all the artifices of printing, to excite the terrors of the English people, to point their resentment against Spain, and to inflame their love for Elizabeth.' It is almost a pity to mar the effect of this passage by adding, that doubts are entertained of the genuineness of The English Mercurie.' Of the three numbers preserved, two are printed in modern type, and no originals are known; while the third is in manuscript of the eighteenth century, altered and interpolated with changes in old language such as only an author would make.'*

The first newspaper ever printed in Scotland was issued under the auspices of a party of Cromwell's troops at Leith, who caused their attendant printer to furnish impressions of a London Diurnal for their information and amusement. It bore the title of Mercurius Politicus, and the first number of the Scotch reprint appeared on the 26th of October, 1653. In November of the following year, the establishment was transferred to Edinburgh, where this reprinting system was continued till the 11th of April, 1660. About nine months afterwards was established the Mercurius Caledonius, of which the ten numbers published contain some curious traits of the extravagant feeling of joy occasioned by the Restoration, along with much that must be set down as only the product of a very poor wit trying to say clever and amusing things.* It was succeeded by The Kingdom's Intelligencer, the duration of which is said to have been at least seven years. After this, the Scotch had only reprints of the English newspapers till 1699, when The Edinburgh Gazette was

*For example-' March 1, 1661. A report from London of a new gallows, the supporters to be of stones, and beautified with statues of the three Grand Traitors, Cromwell, Bradshaw,

brave retinues of their relations; when, during the Captivity

In the reign of James I., packets of news were occasionally published in the shape of small quarto pamphlets. These were entitled Newes from Italy, Hungary, &c., as they happened to refer to the transactions of those respective countries, and gene-established. rally purported to be translations from the Low Dutch. In the year 1622, when the thirty years' war, and the exploits of Gustavus Adolphus, excited curiosity, these occasional pamphlets were converted into a regular weekly publication, entitled and Ireton.' As our old laws are renewed, so likewise are our The Certain Newes of this Present Week, edited by good honest customs; for nobility in streets are known by Nathaniel Butter, and which may be deemed the [the Commonwealth], a lord was scarcely to be distinguished first journal of the kind in England. Other weekly from a commoner. Nay, the old hospitality returns; for that papers speedily followed; and the avidity with which laudable custom of suppers, which was covenanted out with such publications were sought after by the people, raisins and roasted cheese, is again in fashion; and where may be inferred from the complaint of Burton, in his before a peevish nurse would have been seen tripping up stairs Anatomy of Melancholy,' that if any read now-a- and down stairs with a posset for the lord or the lady, you days, it is a play-book, or a pamphlet of newes.' shall now see sturdy jackmen groaning with the weight of Lord Clarendon mentions, in illustration of the dis-surloins of beef, and chargers loaden with wild fowl and capon.' regard of Scottish affairs in England during the early part of Charles I.'s reign, that when the whole nation was solicitous to know what passed weekly in Germany and Poland, and all other parts of Europe, no man ever inquired what was doing in Scotland, nor had that kingdom a place or mention in one page of any gazette.'

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* Penny Cyclopædia, xvi. 193.

On the day of the king's coronation- But of all our bontadoes and capriccios, that of the immortal Janet Geddes, princess of the Tron adventurers [herb-women], was the most pleasant; for she was not only content to assemble all her creels, baskets, but even her weather chair of state where she used to dispense creepies, furms, and other ingredients that composed her shop, justice to her lang-kale vassals, [which] were all very orderly burnt, she herself countenancing the action with a high-flown spirit and vermilion majesty.

Fourth Period.

THE COMMONWEALTH AND REIGNS OF CHARLES II. AND JAMES II. [1649 TO 1689.]

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POETS.

HE forty years comprehended in this period produced some great names;

In the department of divinity, Jeremy Taylor, Barrow, and Tillotson, laid the sure foundations of Protestantism, and the best defences of revealed religion. In speculative philosophy, we have the illustrious name of Locke; in history and polite literature, Clarendon, Burnet, and Temple. In this period, too, Bunyan composed his inimitable religious allegory, but, considering and gave the first conspicuous example of native the mighty force of mind and powers of imagination rising sucevents which cessful over all the obstructions caused by a low then agitated station in life, and a miserably defective education. the country, and The world has never been, for any length of time, must have in- without some great men to guide and illuminate the fluenced the onward course of society; and, happily, some of them national feel- were found at this period to serve as beacons to ings-such as their contemporaries and to all future ages.

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the abolition of the ancient monarchy of England, and the establishment of

ABRAHAM COWLEY.

Paradise Lost' into the world. Cowley was born in

ABRAHAM COWLEY was perhaps the most popular English poet of his times. Waller stood next in the commonwealth-there was less change in the public estimation. Dryden had as yet done nothing taste and literature of the nation than might have to stamp his name, and Milton's minor poems had been anticipated. Authors were still a select class, not earned for him a national reputation: the same and literature, the delight of the learned and in-year that witnessed the death of Cowley ushered the genious, had not become food for the multitude. The chivalrous and romantic spirit which prevailed in the reign of Elizabeth, had even, before her death, begun to yield to more sober and practical views of human life and society: a spirit of inquiry was fast spreading among the people. The long period of peace under James, and the progress of commerce, gave scope to domestic improvement, and fostered the reasoning faculties and mechanical powers, rather than the imagination. The reign of Charles I., a prince of taste and accomplishments, partially revived the style of the Elizabethan era, but its lustre extended little beyond the court and the nobility. During the civil war and the protectorate, poetry and the drama were buried under the strife and anxiety of contending factions. Cromwell, with a just and generous spirit, boasted that he would make the name of an Englishman as great as ever that of a Roman had been. He realised his wish in the naval victories of Blake, and the unquestioned supremacy of England abroad; but neither the time nor inclination of the Protector permitted him to be a patron of literature. Charles II. was better fitted for such a task, by natural powers, birth, and education; but he had imbibed a false and perverted taste, which, added to his indolent and sensual disposition, was as injurious to art and literature as to the public morals. Poetry declined from the date of the Restoration, and was degraded from a high and noble art to a mere courtly amusement, or pander to immorality. The whole atmosphere of genius was not, however, tainted by this public degeneracy. Science was assiduously cultivated, and to this period belong some of the London in the year 1618, and was the posthumous proudest triumphs of English poetry, learning, and son of a respectable grocer. His mother had influence philosophy. Milton produced his long-cherished enough to procure admission for him as a king's epic, the greatest poem which our language can scholar at Westminster; and in his eighteenth year boast; Butler his inimitable burlesque of Hudibras; he was elected of Trinity college, Cambridge. Cowley and Dryden his matchless satire and versification.lisped in numbers;' he published a volume of poems

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Al

Cooley,

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in his thirteenth year. A copy of Spenser used to lie in his mother's parlour, with which he was infinitely delighted, and which helped to make him a poet. The intensity of his youthful ambition may be seen from the two first lines in his miscellaniesWhat shall I do to be for ever known, And make the age to come my own? Cowley, being a royalist, was ejected from Cambridge, and afterwards studied at Oxford. He went with the queen mother to France, where he remained twelve years. He was sent on various embassies, and deciphered the correspondence of Charles and his queen, which, for some years, took up all his days, and two or three nights every week. At last the Restoration came with all its hopes and fears. England looked for happy days, and loyalty for its reward, but in both cases the cup of joy was dashed with disappointment. Cowley expected to be made master of the Savoy, or to receive some other appointment, but his claims were overlooked. In his youth he had written an ode to Brutus, which was remembered to his disadvantage; and a dramatic production, the Cutter of Coleman Street, which Cowley brought out shortly after the Restoration, and in which the jollity and debauchery of the cavaliers are painted in strong colours, was misrepresented or misconstrued at court. It is certain that Cowley felt his disappointment keenly, and he resolved to retire into the country. He had only just passed his fortieth year, but the greater part of his time had been spent in incessant labour, amidst dangers and suspense. He always professed,' says Dr Sprat, his biographer, that he went out of the world as it was man's, into the same world as it was nature's and as it was God's. The whole compass of the creation, and all the wonderful effects of the divine wisdom, were the constant prospect of his senses and his thoughts. And, indeed, he entered with great advantage on the studies of nature, even as the first great men of antiquity did, who were generally both Cowley had obtained, poets and philosophers.' through Lord St Albans and the Duke of Buckingham, the lease of some lands belonging to the queen, worth about £300 per annum-a decent provision for his retirement. The poet finally settled at Chertsey, on the banks of the Thames, where his house still remains. Here he cultivated his fields, his garden, and his plants; he wrote of solitude and obscurity, of the perils of greatness, and the happiness of liberty. He renewed his acquaintance with the beloved poets of antiquity, whom he rivalled occasionally in ease and elegance, and in commemorating the charms of a country life; and he composed his fine prose discourses, so full of gentle thoughts and well-digested knowledge, heightened by a delightful bon-hommie and communicativeness worthy of Horace or Montaigne. The style of these discourses is pure, natural, and lively. Sprat mentions that Cowley excelled in letter-writing, and that he and Mr M. Clifford had a large collection of his letters, but they had decided that nothing of that kind should be published. This is much to be regretted. private letters of a distinguished author are generally read with as much interest as his works, and Cowper and others owe much of their fame to such confidential disclosures of their habits, opinions, and daily life. Cowley was not happy in his retirement. Solitude, that had so long wooed him to her arms, was a phantom that vanished in his embrace. He had attained the long-wished object of his studious youth and busy manhood; the woods and fields at length enclosed the 'melancholy Cowley' in their shades. But happiness was still distant. He had quitted the monster London; he had gone out from Sodom, but had not found the little Zoar of his

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