Page images
PDF
EPUB

that was chiefly meant, which by the ancient sages was thus parabled: that Love, if he be not twin born, yet hath a brother wondrous like him, called Anteros; whom while he seeks all about, his chance is to meet with many false and feigning desires, that wander singly up and down in his likeness; by them in their borrowed garb, Love, though not wholly blind, as poets wrong him, yet having but one eye, as being born an archer aiming, and that eye not the quickest in this dark region here below, which is not Love's proper sphere, partly out of the simplicity and credulity which is native to him, often deceived, embraces and consorts him with these obvious and suborned striplings, as if they were his mother's own sons; for so he thinks them, while they subtilly keep themselves most on his blind side. But after a while, as his manner is, when soaring up into the high tower of his apogæum, above the shadow of the earth, he darts out the direct rays of his then most piercing eyesight upon the impostures, and trim disguises, that were used with him, and discerns that this is not his genuine brother as he imagined he has no longer the power to hold fellowship with such a personated mate; for straight his arrows lose their golden heads, and shed their purple feathers, his silken braids un

BB

twine, and slip their knots, and that original and fiery virtue given him by fate, all on a sudden goes out, and leaves him undeified and despoiled of all his force; till finding Anteros at last, he kindles and repairs the almost faded ammunition of his deity by the reflection of a coequal and homogeneal fire. This is a deep and serious verity, shewing us that love in marriage cannot live nor subsist unless it be mutual; and where love cannot be, there can be left of wedlock nothing but the empty husk of an outside matrimony, as undelightful and unpleasing to God as any other kind of hypocrisy.

GOVERNMENT.

I cannot better liken the state and person of a king than to that mighty Nazarite Sampson; who being disciplined from his birth in the precepts and practice of temperance and sobriety, without the strong drink of injurious and excessive desires, grows up to a noble strength and perfection with those his illustrious and sunny locks and laws, waving and curling about his godlike shoulders. And while he keeps them about him undeminished and unshorn, he may with the jaw bone of an ass, that is, with the word of his meanest officer, suppress and put to

confusion thousands of those that rise against

his just power.

THE POET'S MORNING.

My morning haunts are, where they should be, at home; not sleeping, or concocting the surfeits of an irregular feast, but up and stirring; in

* Dr. Symmons, in his Life of Milton, says,—Abstinence in diet was one of Milton's favorite virtues; which he practised invariably through life, and availed himself of every opportunity to recommend in his writings.

O madness! to think use of strongest wines
And strongest drinks our chief support of health,
When God, with these forbidden, made choice to rear
His mighty champion, strong above compare,
Whose drink was only from the liquid brook.

SAMSON AGONISTES.

When the Angel of the Lord appeared unto the wife of Manoah, and promised that she who was now childless, should bear a son, he gave to her this strong injunction, "Now therefore beware, I pray thee, drink not wine, nor strong drink." And when Manoah besought the heavenly messenger that he would vouchsafe to shew him "how to order the child," the angel of the Lord answered, " of all that I have said to the woman let her beware."

"She may not eat of any thing that cometh of the vine, nor drink wine, nor strong drink."

And the woman bare a son, and called his name Samson, and the child grew and the Lord blessed him.-Judges, 13.

winter, often ere the sound of any bell awake men to labour or to devotion; in summer, as oft with the bird that first rises, or not much tardier, to read good authors, or cause them to be read till the attention be weary, or memory have its full freight.

PARADISE LOST.

A WORK not to be raised from the heat of youth or the vapors of wine, like that which flows from the pen of some vulgar amorist, nor to be obtained by the invocation of Dame Memory and her Syren daughters, but by devout prayer to that eternal spirit, who can enrich with all utterance and knowledge, and sends out his seraphim, with the hallowed fire of his altar to touch and purify the lips of whom he pleases.*

* And chiefly thou O spirit that dost prefer

Before all temples, the upright heart and pure,
Instruct me-what in me is dark

Illumine, what low, raise and support.-MILTON.

Father of light and life! thou good supreme,
O teach me what is good! teach me thyself;
Save me from folly, vanity, and vice,

From every low pursuit! and feed my soul,
With knowledge, conscious peace, and virtue pure,
Sacred, substantial, never fading bliss.-THOMSON.

Section X.

LORD BACON.

MEN have entered into a desire of learning and knowledge sometimes upon a natural curiosity and inquisitive appetite; sometimes to entertain their minds with variety and delight; sometimes for ornament and reputation; and sometimes to enable them to victory of wit and contradiction; and most times for lucre and profession; and seldom sincerely to give a true account of their gift of reason to the benefit and use of man. As if there were sought in knowledge a couch whereupon to rest a searching and restless spirit; or a terrace for a wandering and variable mind to walk up and down with a fair prospect; or a tower of state for a proud mind to raise itself upon; or a fort or commanding ground for strife and contention or a shop for profit or sale; and not a rich storehouse for the glory of the Creator, and the relief of man's estate.

Advancement of Learning.

« PreviousContinue »