Begat these lines; but true respective * love, Nor think these rhymes scum'd from the froth of wit, Even then I wrote these lines, which shall bewray ✰ For this is all the certainty I find No power can alter a resolved mind.” The entire poem is constructed in the same stanza, and divided into four portions, which bear these appropriate mottos. "Artes irritamenta malorum. Juris injuria. Bellum perniciosissimum. Omnis est misera servitus." Each portion contains 18 stanzas, and three additional ones close the whole, which the poet styles his "Resolution." The following selections will indicate the divisions of subject whence they are taken. "Farewell, uncertain ART! whose que pest skill Begets dissentions and ambiguous strife, When, like a windy bladder, thou dost fill The brain with groundless hopes and shades of life; i. e. respectful, considerate, cautionary. With deliberation. Betray, disclose, discover. When When thou dost set the word against the word, Thou lend'st the guileful orator his skill To plead 'gainst innocence, and to defend The guilty cause; thou turn'st the upright will To favour falsehood, and dost backward bend The most resolved judgment; arming fools With dangerous weapons and sharp-edged tools. Thou art like gold, gotten with care and thought Then brought to bribe the judge against the truth; Or like a sword with all our substance bought To kill a friend :-O thing of woe and ruth!— Who with this gold th' oppressed doth defend? Or who doth use this sword to save his friend? Thou art not much unlike the fowler's glass, Above her head, and she unwares be took. Thou'rt a companion for all company, A garment made for every man to wear, A golden coffer, wherein dirt doth lie, A hackney horse, all sorts of men to bear; What art thou not?-faith, thou art nought at all, For he that knows thee best, knows nought at all. O LAW! thou cobweb wherein little flies Are daily caught, whilst greater break away: Thon dear experience, which so many buys. With loss of tin e, wealth, friends, and long delay; Thou endless labyrinth of care and sorrow, Near hand to-day and far remov'd to-morrow. Thou Thou sweet revenge of craven-hearted hinds, Nor harbour kindness in their currish minds, Thou nurse of discord, instrument of hatred, Why should we not be good, without thy aid? Of punishment? not of reproach and shame? But man should bear a free unforced spirit, Let men, like men, love virtue and embrace her, O why should men in envy, pride, and hate, O bloody WAR! to th' unexperienc'd sweet; And quiet states with civil broi's dost vex; That sayst-" all things are just thou dost with might:" But to th' unable-" there remains no right-" That That, like a wilful woman, run'st astray, In causeless enmity and deadly feud; Having for thy director, all the way, That many-headed beast-the multitude; Who, without all respect of wrong or right, Will do as others do, or flee or fight. Thou art the instrument of stern revenge, But as our private doctors, physic-learn'd, So these sword-Paracelsians get such power, That oft they 'stroy when they should cure the state; And with confusion all things do devour, Making well-peopled kingdoms desolate: Much like a sprite, rais'd up by Art's deep skill, Even as we see, in marches and in fens, The careful husband, thinking to destroy The fruitless sedge, wherein the adder dens, Sets fire upon some part, with which to toy The northern wind begins, and burneth down, Spite of all help, the next abutting town: Se So WAR, once set afloat, adds strength to strength, Virtue, the state, and statesman's self to wound; Turns back, and doth his master's bowels tear." The remaining portion of this poem "on Service" is so very excellent, that I propose to transcribe the whole, for insertion in a future Number. T. P. ART. XI. Phylomythie, or Philomythologie: wherein Outlandish Birds, Beasts, and Fishes, are taught to speake true English plainely. By Tho. Scott, Gent. Philomethus est aliquo modo philosophus: fabula enim exmiris constituitur. The Second Edition much inlarged. London, for Francis Constable, at the White Lyon in Paule's Church-yard. 1622. An earlier edition of this book was published in 1616, and a later in 1640. "A Præmonition to the intelligent reader" follows the title: and on the next leaf Sarcasmos Mundo, or the Frontispiece explained;" which frontispiece is very neatly engraved by R. Elstracke; and comprizes birds, beasts, and fishes, in different compartments, surmounted by two figures surveying the opposite sides of a sphere, intended, it seems, to designate Æsop and a fictitious American philosopher. Yet the Grangerians choose to consider the former |