of which we may safely assert, that it will never become obsolete. He certainly was the Atticus of his day." 1 EQUANIMITY. He that of such a height hath built his mind, And with how free an eye doth he look down Upon those lower regions of turmoil? He looks upon the mightiest monarchs' wars He sees the face of right t' appear as manifold As are the passions of uncertain man; And whilst distraught ambition compasses, Thus, madam, fares that man, that hath prepared To plant your heart; and set your thoughts as near Epistle to the Countess of Cumberland. 1 Read-notices of Daniel in Headley's "Beauties of Ancient English Poetry;" in the Retrospective Review, viii. 227; and in Drake's Shakspeare, 1. 611. RICHARD THE SECOND, The Morning before his Murder in Pomfret Castle. However, so it is, the now sad king, The morning of that day which was his last, O happy man, saith he, that lo I see, Thou sitt'st at home safe by thy quiet fire, Thrice happy you that look as from the shore, Whose blinded greatness, ever in turmoil, Third Book of the Civil Wars. GILES FLETCHER. 1588-1623 THIS truly pleasing Christian poet, the brother of Phineas Fletcher, who, in the words of old Antony Wood, "was equally beloved of the Muses and Graces," was born 1588. But very little is known of his life. He has, however, immortalized his name by that beautiful poem entitled, "Christ's Victory and Triumph in Heaven and Earth over and after Death:" a poem which displays great sweetness, united to harmony of numbers. Headley styles it "rich and picturesque," and Campbell1 says, that "inferior as he is to Spenser and Milton, he might be figured, in his happiest moments, as a link of connection in our poetry between those congenial spirits, for he reminds us of both, and evidently gave hints to the latter, in a poem on the same subject with Paradise Regained." REDEMPTION. When I remember Christ our burden bears, I look for glory, but find misery; I look for joy, but find a sea of tears; I look that we should live, and find Him die; Thus what I look, I cannot find so well; These banks so narrow are, those streams so highly swell. Christ suffers, and in this his tears begin; Suffers for us and our joy springs in this; Out of the grave doth by the Godhead rise; Where Eve to sin her soul did prostitute; Ah! cursed tree, and yet O blessed fruit! Sweet Eden was the arbor of delight, Yet in his honey-flowers our poison blew; So we from sweetest flowers could suck our bane, A man was first the author of our fall, 1 Specimens, vol. ii. p. 506. A garden was the place we perish'd all, Hath found a way himself for to beguile: The dewy night had with her frosty shade Of heaven and earth, and God and man forlore, FRANCIS BACON. 1561-1626. Him for the studious shade Kind nature form'd, deep, comprehensive, clear, Plato, the Stagyrite, and Tully join'd, The great deliverer he! who, from the gloom THOMSON. FRANCIS BACON, Viscount of St. Albans, and lord high chancellor of England, was born in London, January 22, 1561. He was the son of Sir Nicholas Bacon, lord keeper of the great seal. He entered Cambridge at the early age of thirteen, and after spending four years there, where he was distinguished for his zealous application to study, and for the extraordinary maturity of his understanding, he went abroad and travelled in France. But his father dying suddenly in 1579, and leaving but very little property, he hastily returned to England, and prosecuted the study of the law. He did not, however, neglect philosophy, for not far from this period he planned his great work, "The Instauration of the Sciences." In 1590 he obtained the post of counsel extraordinary to the queen, and three years after he had a seat in parliament from Middlesex. On the accession of James I. new honors awaited him. He was knighted in 1603. In 1607 he married Alice, daughter of Benedict Barnham, Esq., alderman of London, by whom he had a considerable fortune, but no children. In subsequent years he obtained successively the offices of king's counsel, solicitor general, and attorney general. In 1617 the king presented the great seal to him; in 1618 he obtained the title of lord high chancellor of England, and about six months after the title of Baron of Verulam, which title gave place in the following year to that of Viscount of St. Albans. But a "killing frost" was soon to nip these buds of honor: his fall and disgrace were at hand. In 1621 a parliamentary inquiry was instituted into his conduct as judge, which ended in his condemnation and disgrace, for having received numerous presents or bribes from parties whose cases were brought before him for decision. He fully confessed to the twenty-three articles of fraud, deceit, mal-practice, and corruption which were laid to his charge; and when waited on by a committee of the House of Lords, appointed to inquire whether the confession was subscribed by himself, he answered, " It is my hand, my act, my heart: I beseech your lordships to be merciful to a broken reed." He was fined £40,000; sent prisoner to the Tower; and declared incapable of any office or employment in the state. After a short confinement he was released, and in 1625 obtained a full pardon. He died on the 9th of April, 1626. 1 This is a town in Hertfordshire, famous for the two battles fought in 1455 and 1461, between the two rival houses of York and Lancaster. It was anciently called Verulam, whence Bacon's subse quent title of honor, Baron Verulam. The following are the most important works of this wonderful man: 1. His "Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral." They were published in 1596, so that Shakspeare, who lived twenty years after, and during which time wrote his best plays, had the benefit of their perusal: and what delight and what profit must such a genius as his have derived from them; for no book contains a greater fund of useful knowledge, or displays a more intimate acquaintance with human life and manners. "It may be read," says the great Scotch philosopher, Dugald Stewart, "from beginning to end in a few hours, and yet, after the twentieth perusal, one seldom fails to remark in it something overlooked before." 2. "The Proficience and Advancement of Learning." This forms the first part of his great work afterwards published under the title of Instauratio Scientiarum, "The Reform in the Study of the Sciences." It is divided into two books: the first chiefly considers the objections to learning, and points out the many impediments to its progress: the second, the distribution of knowledge, which he divides into three parts. "The parts of human learning," says he, "have reference to the three parts of man's understanding, which is the seat of learning: History to his Memory, Poesy to his Imagination, and Philosophy to his Reason." He gives also a full genealogical table of know. ledge, agreeably to this distribution. This is a work of vast learning. 3. His celebrated treatise "Of the Wisdom and Learning of the Ancients." The object of this is to show that all the allegories and fables of antiquity have some concealed meaning, which had never been sufficiently explained. In the interpretation of these ancient mysteries, he has displayed his remarkable sagacity and penetration, besides interspersing throughout various important observations on collateral subjects. 4. The Novum Organum, or "New Instrument," or "Method of Studying the Sciences." This is the great work which has immortalized his name, and placed him at the head of the philosophic world. The great Greek philosopher Aristotle called his philosophical work the "Organum." The "Method" which he adopted in scientific inquiries was rather to frame systems and lay down principles, and then to seek or make things conform thereto. But Lord Bacon, in his "New Method," insists upon the duty of carefully ascertaining facts in the first place, and then reasoning upon them towards conclusions. "Man," he says, "who is the servant and interpreter of nature, can act and understand no further than he has, either in operation or in contemplation, observed of the method and order of nature." And again, "Men have sought to make a world from their own conceptions, and to draw from their own minds all the materials which they employed: but if, instead of doing so, they had consulted experience and observation, they would have had facts |