A man of leaves, a reasonable tree? Proclaimed trees almighty: gods of wood, Of stocks and stones, with crowns of laurel stood, Templed, and fed by fathers with their children's blood. "The sparkling fanes, that burn in beaten gold, Yet these are all their gods, to whom they vie "The fire, the wind, the sea, the Sun, and Moon, Of the world's city, in their heavenly bowers; And, lest their pleasant gods should want delight, And but in Heav'n proud Juno's peacocks3 scorn to light. "The senseless earth, the serpent, dog, and cat; And drunk with the vine's purple blood; and then Because he only yet remain'd to be Worse than the worst of men; they flee from thee, And wear his altar-stones out with their pliant knee. "All that he speaks (and all he speaks are lies) Inspirits earth: he Heav'n's all-seeing eye, He Earth's great prophet, he, whom rest doth fly, That on salt billows doth, as pillows, sleeping lie." 1 Deified their ancestor. 2 Venus; the foam-born, so called from the fabie that she rose from the sea near the island of Cythera. 3 The peacock was the bird of Juno; the eagle, of Jove; the dove, of Venus. Some of the Christian fathers supposed that the answers of the Greek oracles were given by evil spirits; Rollin assents to this idea. Rollin's Ancient History, Introduction. 5 Rising; Lat. orior. Apollo (represented here as Satan) was the deity of Medicine, of Augury, and of the Sun: his name has the same etymology as Apollyon: idols in scripture are often termed devils. Lev. xvii. 7. Ps. cvi. 37. See Milton, Par. Lost, i. 374, et seq.-" Pillows ;" compare Milton, Nativity Hymn, 231. "But let him in his cabin restless rest, The dungeon of dark flames, and freezing fire,1 Or who, or against whom, or why, or where, Then should my speech their sands of sins to mountains rear. "Were not the Heav'ns pure, in whose courts I sue, "The judge might partial be, and over-pray'd ;2 But now no star can shine, no hope be got. "What should I tell how barren Earth has grown, Long might he look, and look, and long in vain And beat the woods, to find the poor oak's hungry grain. "The swelling sea seethes in his angry waves, Coz'ning the greedy sea, pris'ning their nimble prey. "Would not the air be fill'd with streams of death, 1 Compare Milton :-" The parching air burns frore."-Par. Lost, ii. 595. Supply they. Did not thy winds fan, with their panting breath, Did'st not thou lead it wand'ring from his way, To give men drink, and make his waters stray, To fresh the flow'ry meadows, through whose fields they play? "Who makes the sources of the silver fountains "Were he not wilder than the savage beast, If reason would not, sense would soon reprove him, To see cold floods, wild beasts, dull stocks, hard stones out-love him. "Under the weight of sin the earth did fall, The five proud kings, that for their idols fought, The Sun itself stood still to fight it out, And fire from Heav'n flew down, when sin to Heav'n did shout." "Should any to himself for safety fly? A Siren, sweet to death? upon his friends?- "His strength ?-but dust: his pleasure?-cause of pain : His hope?-false courtier: youth or beauty ?-brittle: 1 i. e. of sea-weed. 2 Compare Job xxxviii. et seq. Unintelligent like a beast. Aweful, reverential; full 5"Dathan." Numb. xvi. 27-33. "Stony shower."-Josh. x. 11. Josh. x. 11, 13. "Fire came down."-2 Kings xviii. 26-40. of the fear of God. "Sun stood still " See note 1, p. 154. Entreaty ?-fond: repentance ?—late and vain : Hell's force?-in vain her furies Hell shall gather: "His life?-that brings him to his end, and leaves him: His goods?-what good in that, that so deceives him? Honour, great worth ?-ah! little worth they be "The sea to drink him quick ?-that casts his dead: Along their oily threads: his mind pursues him : "What need I urge, what they must needs confess, She ended, and the heav'nly hierarchies, And every one shakes his ydreaded spear, And the Almighty's self, as he would tear The Earth, and her firm basis quite in sunder, Flam'd all in just revenge, and mighty thunder: Heav'n stole itself from Earth by clouds that moisten'd under. 1 If not a misprint for imbanded, it will mean sworded:-"The sworded seraphim."— Milton, Nativity Hymn. 66 WILLIAM DRUMMOND. (1585-1649.) "DRUMMOND, the first Scotch poet who wrote well in English, was born at Hawthornden" (Southey), near Edinburgh. His father, Sir John Drummond, held a situation about the person of James VI. The poet in his youth studied law, but relinquishing that profession, he retired to a life of ease and literature on his delightful" patrimonial estate. His happiness was suddenly interrupted by the death of a lady to whom he was betrothed; he spent several years in seeking by travel a refuge from his sorrow. He married late in life Elizabeth Logan, attracted to her, it is said, by her resemblance to his first love. His connection with Ben Jonson has been alluded to in p. 139. He was warmly attached to Charles I.: grief for the king's death, it is alleged, shortened his life. Drummond's works consist of sonnets, madrigals, and religious and occasional poems; among the latter is the ludicrous Latin doggrel "Polemo-Middinia." His sonnets are estimated by Hazlitt as the finest in the language, and approaching nearest to the Italian model. Drummond's fancy is luxuriant, but tinctured with frigid conceits. His versification is flowing and harmonious. Even Ben Jonson's arrogance condescended to "envy" the author of "The Forth feasting." He is the writer of a forgotten history of the Jameses. FROM THE SONNETS. SPRING. Sweet Spring, thou com'st with all thy goodly train, The sad memorials only of my pain Do with thee come, which turn my sweets to sours. Delicious, lusty, amiable, fair; But she whose breath embalm'd thy wholesome air Is gone; nor gold, nor gems can her restore. 66 Sweet bird, that sing'st away the early hours 1 Compare Michael Bruce's Ode on Spring |