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a piece of divinity in us, something that was before the heavens and owes no homage to the sun. Nature tells me I am the image of God as well as Scripture. He that understands not this much, hath not his introduction or first lesson, and hath yet to begin the alphabet of

men.

"But the iniquity of oblivion blindly scattereth her poppy, and deals with the memory of men without distinction to merit of perpetuity. Who can but pity the founder of the pyramids? Erostratus lives that burnt the Temple of Diana; he is almost lost that built it. Time hath spared the epitaph of Adrian's horse; confounded that of himself. In vain we compute our felicities by the advantage of our good names, since bad have equal durations; and Thersites is like to live as long as Agamemnon. Who knows whether the best of men be known, or whether there be not more remarkable persons forgot than any that stand remembered in the known account of time? Without the favour of the everlasting register, the first man had been as unknown as the last, and Methuselah's long life had been his only chronicle.

“Oblivion is not to be hired. The greater part must be content to be as though they had not been; to be found in the register of God, not in the record of men. Twenty-seven names make up the first story, and the recorded names ever since contain not one living century. The number of the dead long exceedeth all that shall live. The night of time far exceedeth the day, and who knows when was the Equinox? Every hour adds unto that current arithmetic, which scarce stands one moment. And since death must be the Lucina of life, and even pagans could doubt whether thus to live were to die; since our longest sun sets at right declensions, and makes but winter arches, and therefore it cannot be long before we lie down in darkness, and have our light in ashes; since the brother of death daily haunts us with dying mementos, and time, that grows old itself, bids us to hope no long duration, diuturnity is a dream and folly of expectation." Urn Burial.

"Thus there are two books from whence I collect my divinity: besides that written one of God, another of his servant nature, that universal and public manuscript that lies expansed unto the eyes of all; those that never saw him in the one have discovered him in the other. This was the Scripture and Theology of the heathens; the natural motion of the Sun made them more admire him than its

supernatural station did the children of Israel; the ordinary effect of nature wrought more admiration in them than in the other all his miracles surely the heathens knew better how to join and read these mystical letters than we Christians, who cast a more careless eye on those common hieroglyphics and disdain to suck divinity from the flowers of nature. Nor do I so forget God as to adore the name of nature; which I define not, with the schools, to be the principle of motion and rest, but that straight and regular line, that settled and constant course the wisdom of God hath ordained the actions of his creatures according to their several kinds.” — Religio Medici.

Izaak Walton was born at Stafford and followed the business of a linendraper in London. When the civil

Izaak
Walton,

war broke out he retired from business and bought some land near his birthplace and 1593-1683. went to live there, but, as Anthony Wood says, he spent most of his time in "the families of the eminent clergymen of England by whom he was much beloved." The first edition of the "Compleat Angler" came out in 1653, but the author continued to add to it in a leisurely way, so that the last edition in 1676 is nearly twice as long as the first one was. Between 1640 and 1678 he wrote the lives of Dr. John Donne, Sir Henry Wotton, Richard Hooker, George Herbert, and Bishop Sanderson, all of them men of characters somewhat akin to his own. The "Compleat Angler" will always remain an English classic and a delightful book because it is pervaded by the simple unostentatious piety and unaffected kindliness of the author. It is full of the spirit of rural England in the old days. It is but a short and scrappy book, but one or two passages are of singular beauty, and a quiet charm hangs over all of it which is perhaps greater in an old edition than in one of the modern, artistic, illustrated ones. Walton represents one of the most attractive types of writers, simple-minded

optimists who are unaffectedly fond of the country and capable of making an idyllic picture of life, and are not disquieted by personal ambitions nor uneasy because of the imperfections of the world and the insolubility of the "great problems." His kindliness embraces all living things, and he seems to have found his own place in life very satisfactory. His book reflects his nature, and is attractive not only for the quaintness of its style, but also for its genuine qualities. None other gives a pleasanter picture of life in the seventeenth century.

Characteris

tics of the

Literature of the Puritan Period.

As the mood of the Elizabethan period declined, intellect and fancy took the place of creative imagination. The great revolution was religious as well as political, and a large part of the writings is controversial or dogmatic and in consequence falls outside the catalogue of pure literature, and yet it is the expression of the dominant thought of the age. Emerson calls Jeremy Taylor "the Shakespeare of divines," but neither he nor the other great prose artist, Sir Thomas Browne, is strictly representative. The period was an episode in English constitutional history, and its literature is transitional between the exuberance of the former age and the elegant, temperate refinement of the eighteenth century. It was followed by a period of reaction and license. Milton is the great literary figure of the Revolution, but even he is a partisan. Sermons and theological writings are the most characteristic product of the times and, as said before, for the most part are not literature in the true sense.

QUESTIONS

In "Lycidas" can any general plan be found in the succession of the rhymes and the metrical scheme?

Compare Milton's treatment of grief and lamentation in the "Lycidas" with Shelley's in his "Adonais."

What other elegies or threnodies in our literature may be classed with the two just mentioned?

Analyze the first pamphlet on "Divorce" with reference to (a) erroneous assumption of principles or premises, and (b) strong phras ing and eloquence.

What fundamentally common principle have Milton's "Areopagitica" and Jeremy Taylor's "Liberty of Prophesying "?

What were the distinguishing characteristics of the group called by Dr. Johnson the "Metaphysical Poets"?

Point out some special facts and incidents showing how, during the Puritan period, all secular and intellectual pursuits were largely subjected to religious fanaticism.

LITERARY REFERENCES

ARNOLD, M. Milton. (In his Essays in Criticism, 2d ser.)
FROUDE, J. A. Life of John Bunyan. (E. M. L.)

GARNETT, R. Life of Milton. (G. W. S.)

MACAULAY, T. B. Essay on Milton.

MASTERMAN, J. H. B. Age of Milton.

PATTISON, M. Life of Milton. (E. M. L.)

TAINE, H. A.

History of English Literature, bk. ii, c. 5–6.

WARD, A. W.

History of English Dramatic Literature, v. 2.

For careful and authoritative articles on Andrew Marvel, Abraham Cowley, Izaak Walton, George Wither, Edmund Waller, consult the "Dictionary of National Biography." Ed. Stephen and Lee.

JOHNSON'S LIT. — 15

CHAPTER VI

THE PERIOD OF THE RESTORATION (1660 to 1702)

Historical References

MACAULAY, T. B. History of England, c. 1–5.

GREEN, J. R. Short History of the English People, c. 9.

GNEIST, R. The English Parliament, c. 5-6.

MACKINTOSH, Sir J. History of the Revolution of 1688.

AIRY, O. English Restoration and Louis XIV., 1648-1678. (Epochs of Modern History.)

JUSSERAND, J. J. A French Ambassador at the Court of Charles the Second. 1892.

AFTER the death of Oliver Cromwell, it soon became evident that the old order must be reinstated. Charles II.

Historical
Sketch.

was restored to the throne of England in 1660. The rights of the subject were secured and the powers of the monarch were limited by the recognition of many of the constitutional changes inaugurated under the "Long Parliament." Episcopacy was reestablished, and many of the leading Puritans joined their brethren who had fled to New England early in the century. The rigid social system of the Puritans was abolished, but unfortunately many of the Puritan virtues, temperance, manliness, and devotion to formal duty, also suffered temporary eclipse. The king was one half French in blood, his mother being a daughter of the great Henry IV., his exile was passed in France, and he had learned to regulate his life by the worst French standards. The morals of the

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