But I forgive thee, two things kept thee from it,
First such a friend to gaze on, next a comet;
Which comet we discern, though not so true
As you at Sion, as long tayl'd as you;
We know already how will stand the case,
With Barnavelt" of universal grace,

13 The compass of a note is too confined for an account of this great negociator and general, who fell by the jealousy of the Prince of Orange the 13th March 1619. He was born at Amersfort, in the province of Utrecht, was five times employed as ambassador to England and France, and had long the command of the armies of the United Provinces. De Thou says, “que c'étoit un homme très accrédité par les charges qu'il avoit remplies, et par sa grande expérience dans les affaires :"-And Moreri concludes an account of his character, and his death, which he met with an undaunted spirit, in the following words: "Barneveldt, ayant été pris, eut la tête tranchée à l'age de 72 ans, sous prétexte d'avoir voulu livrer le pays aux Espagnols, quoiqu'il le niat constamment, et qu'en effet on n'en ait trouvé aucune preuve dans ses papiers. Son crime étoit d'avoir refusé d'entrer dans le complot, à la faveur du quel le prince Maurice vouloit a ce qu'on dit se rendre maître des Pays Bas, et d'avoir défendu la liberté de sa patrie avec trop de zèle." Tom. ii. p. 78.

Though Spain deserve the whole star, if the fall
Be true of Lerma duke and cardinal 14:

Marry, in France we fear no blood, but wine;
Less danger's in her sword, than in her vinc.
And thus we leave the blazers coming over,
For our portents are wise, and end at Dover :
And though we use no forward censuring,
Nor send our learned proctors to the king,
Yet every morning when the star doth rise,
There is no black for three hours in our eyes;
But like a Puritan dreamer, towards this light
All eyes turn upward, all are zeal and white:

14 No minister ever exerted his power with less tyranny and more benignity than the favourite of Philip the Third: he fell "from his high estate" by the intrigues of his son, and an ungrateful monk whom he had raised to be confessor to the king, and who abandoned the friend that had elevated him as soon as the smiles of sovereignty were transferred to another. On the 4th of October 1618, he retired to his paternal estate from the capricious favour of the court, where he passed the remainder of his days in peace and privacy.

More it is doubtful that this prodigy
Will turn ten schools to one astronomy:
And the analysis we justly fear,

Since every art doth seek for rescue there;
Physicians, lawyers, glovers on the stall,
The shopkeepers speak mathematics all;
And though men read no gospels in these signes,
Yet all professions are become divines;

All weapons from the bodkin to the pike,
The masons rule and taylors yard alike
Take altitudes, and th' early fidling knaves

On fluits and hoboyes made them Jacobs-staves;

Lastly of fingers, glasses we contrive,

And every fist is made a prospective:

Burton to Gunter cants, and Burton hears

From Gunter, and th' exchange both tongue and

ears

15 William Burton is said, by Antony à Wood, to have been a pretender to astronomy, of which he published an Ephemeris in 1655.—Edmund Gunter, a mathematician of greater eminence, was astronomical professor of Gresham

By carriage: thus doth mired Guy complain,

His waggon in their letters bears Charles-Wain, Charles-Wain, to which they say the tayl will reach;

And at this distance they both hear and teach. for the peace of God and men, advise

Now,

. (Thou that hast where-withal to make us wise)
Thine own rich studies, and deep Harriots mine16,
In which there is no dross, but all refine :
O tell us what to trust to, lest we wax
All stiff and stupid with his parallax:

College, and eminent for his skill in the sciences: his publications were popular in his day. He died in Gresham College, 1626.

16 Thomas Hariot, styled by Camden "Mathematicus Insignis," was a pensioner and companion of sir Walter Raleigh in his voyage to Virginia (1584), of which upon his return he published an account. He was held in high estimation by the earl of Northumberland, sir Thomas Aylesbury, and others, for his mathematical knowledge, but, like his patron, Raleigh, was a deist in religion.Ob. 1621. See Wood's Athenæ, vol. i. p. 460. ed. 1721.

Say, shall the old philosophy be true?
Or doth he ride above the moon, think you?
Is he a meteor forced by the sun?

Or a first body from creation?

Hath the same star been object of the wonder Of our forefathers? Shall the same come under The sentence of our nephews ? Write and send, Or else this star a quarrel doth portend.