Hope, like the1 glimmering taper's light,
Adorns and cheers the way;

And still, as darker grows the night,
Emits a brighter ray.

Goldsmith.

IV. LINES WRITTEN BY LORD BYRON IN HIS BIBLE.?

WITHIN this awful volume lies

The mystery of mysteries:
Happiest they of human race,

To whom their God has given grace
To read, to fear, to hope, to pray,
To lift the latch-to force the way;
But better had they ne'er been born
Who read to doubt, or read to scorn.

V. VIGOUR OF MIND.

Walter Scott.

THE wise and active conquer difficulties
By daring to attempt them: sloth and folly
Shiver and shrink at sight of toil and hazard,
And make the impossibility they fear.

VI. SKATING.

O'ER crackling ice, o'er gulfs profound,
With nimble glide the skaters play:

O'er treacherous pleasure's flowery ground,
Thus lightly skim and haste away.

Rowe.

Dr. Johnson.

VII. GUARD THE TONGUE.

Ir thou wishest to be wise,

Keep these words before thine eyes :-
What thou speak'st, and how, beware!
Of whom-to whom-when-and where.

66

(1) Like the, &c.-It is scarcely necessary to point out the singular beauty of this stanza," which," as Mr. Montgomery has remarked, like the taper itself, grows clearer and brighter the more it is contemplated."

(2) These lines may be found in one of Sir Walter Scott's tales; their application to a worthier subject is said to be originally due to Lord Byron, as above stated.

IX. CONQUER BY KINDNESS.

SAFER to reconcile a foe, than make

A conquest of him, for the conquest's sake;
This tames the power of doing present ill,
But that disarms him of the very will.

X. INNOCENCE.

WHAT stronger breast-plate than a heart untainted?
Thrice is he armed that hath his quarrel just:
And he but naked, though locked up in steel,
Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted.

Byrom.

Shakspere.

XI.

LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOUR.
From the German of Wernicke.

FRIEND, do not crouch to those above,
And do not tread on those below;
Love those, they're worthy of thy love;
Love these, and thou wilt make them so.

XIII. THE WORLD'S WEALTH.

THE swelling of an outward fortune can
Create a prosperous, not a happy man;
A peaceful Conscience is the true Content,
And Wealth is but her golden ornament.

Cowper.

Quarles.

XIV. CARPE DIEM.

From the Latin of Martial.

"TO-MORROW I will live," the fool doth say

To-day itself's too late : the wise lived yesterday.

Cowley.

THERE is a tide in the affairs of men,

Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;

Omitted, all the voyage of their life

Is bound in shallows and in miseries.

Bishop.

Shakspere.

WHAT is grandeur, what is power?
Heavier toil, superior pain.
What the bright reward we gain?
The grateful memory of the good.

Sweet is the breath of vernal shower,

The bee's collected treasures sweet,

Sweet Music's melting fall; but sweeter yet
The still small voice of Gratitude.

XIX. WISDOM AND KNOWLEDGE.

KNOWLEDGE descries alone; Wisdom applies;
That makes some fools, this maketh none but wise.
In my afflictions, Knowledge apprehends
Who is the author, what the cause, and ends:
It finds that Patience is my sad relief,

And that the hand that caused can cure my grief.
To rest contented here is but to bring
Clouds without rain, and heat without a spring;
But sacred Wisdom doth apply that good
Which simple Knowledge barely understood.
Wisdom concludes, and in conclusion proves,
That wheresoever God corrects, he loves.

Quarles.

XX. SIC VITA.

LIKE to the falling of a star,
Or as the flights of eagles are;
Or like the fresh spring's gaudy hue,
Or silver drops of morning dew;
Or like a wind that chafes the flood,
Or bubbles which on water stood:
Even such is man, whose borrowed light
Is straight called in, and paid to-night.
The wind blows out, the bubble dies;
The spring entombed in autumn lies;
The dew dries up, the star is shot;
The flight is past—and man forgot!

H. King.

END OF PART I.

STUDIES

IN

ENGLISH POETRY.

PART II.

Poems and Extracts Chronologically Arranged,

WITH

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL NOTICES.

CHAUCER.

PRINCIPAL EVENTS OF HIS LIFE.-Geoffrey Chaucer-the Father of English Poetry-was born in the year 1328, and died in 1400; so that his era comprehends the reigns of Edward III. and Richard II. It was the age of Gower and Wycliffe in England, of Dante (who died in 1321), Boccacio, and Petrarch in Italy, and of Froissart in France; but amongst these eminent names, that of Chaucer shines with no feeble lustre. He was

"Our morning-star of song, that led the way
To welcome the long-after coming beam

Of Spenser's light, and Shakspere's perfect day."

Chaucer was born in London, and learnedly educated at either Oxford or Cambridge, it is uncertain which, for both claim him; he may perhaps have passed from the one to the other. When rather more than thirty years of age, he appears in public life as a soldier, and moreover as a prisoner, during the invasion of France by Edward III. When he was liberated is not known; but we soon after find him honoured with the patronage and friendship of John of Gaunt, with whom he became subsequently more closely connected by the marriage of his wife's sister with that prince. In 1372 he visited Italy, as an envoy of the government; and during this journey he is thought to have formed an acquaintance