ut' which we may safely asseri, that it will never become obsolete. He cer rainly was the Atticus of his day.”ı EQUANIMITY. And with how free an eye doth be look down He looks upon the mightiest monarchs' wars Where evermore the fortune that prevails He sees the face of right i' appear as manifold And whilst distraught ambition compasses, Thus, madam, fares that man, that hath prepared Epistle to the Countess of Cumberland 1 Road- notices of Daniel in Headley's “ Beauties of Ancient English Poetry ;" in the Retmspectivo Roviow, riii. 297, and in Drake's Shakspeare, i. 611. RICHARD THE SECOND, Third Book of the Civil War GILES FLETCHER. 1588_1623 Tais truly pleasing Christian poet, the brother of Phineas Fletcher, who, w the words of old Antony Wool, “ was equally beloved of the Muses and Graces," was born 1588. But very little is known of his life. He has, however, immortalized his name by that beautiful poem entitled, “Christ's Victory and Triumph in Heaven and Earth over and after Death :" a poem which displays great sweetness, united to harmony of numbers. Headley styles it “rich and picturesque," and Campbell' says, that “inferior as he is to Spenser and Milton, he might be figured, in his happiest moments, as a link of connection in our poetry between those congenial spirits, for he reminds us of both, and evidently gave hints to the latter, in a poem on the same subject with Paradise Regained.” REDEMPTION. When I remember Christ our burden bears, I look for glory, but find misery; I look that we should live, and find Him die; I look for angels' songs, and hear Him cry: Suffers for us and our joy springs in this; Suffers to rise--and here his Godhead is; For man, that could not by himself have ris', Where Eve to sin her soul did prostitute; Though ill that trunk and this fair body suit; Ah! cursed tree, and yet O blessed fruit! Yet in his honey-flowers our poison blew; Where Christ a health of poison for us drew, Yet all our honey in that poison grew : A Man is now the author of our rise; 1 Specimens, vol. I. p. 306. A garden was the place we perish'd all, A garden is the place He pays our price: And the old serpent, with a new device, Immantled all the world, and the stiff ground All for Himself, Himself dissolved found, Sweat without heat, and bled without a wound; FRANCIS BACON. 1561-1626. Him for the studious shade Thorson. FRANCIS Bacon, Viscount of St. Albans," and lord high chancellor of England, was born in London, January 22, 1561. He was the son of Sir Nicholas Bacon, lord keeper of the great seal. He entered Cambridge at the early age of thirteen, and after spending four years there, where he was distinguished for his zealous application to study, and for the extraordinary maturity of his understanding, he went abroad and travelled in France. But his father dying suddenly in 1579, and leaving but very little property, he hastily returned to Engiand, and prosecuted the study of the law. He did not, however, neglect pbilosophy, for not far from this period he planned his great work, “The Instauration of the Sciences." In 1590 he obtained the post of counsel extraordinary to the queen, and three years after he had a seat in parliament from Middlesex, On the accession of James I. new honors awaited him. He was knighted in 1603. In 1607 he married Alice, daughter of Benedict Barnham, Ex, alderman of London, by whom he had a considerable fortune, but no children. In subsequent years he obtained successively the offices of king's ransel, solicitor general, and attorney general. In 1617 the king presented the great seal to him; in 1618 he obtained the title of lord high chancellor of England, and about six months after the title of Baron of Verulam, which title gare place in the following year to that of Viscount of St. Albans. But a "killing frost” was soon to nip these buds of honor: his fall and disgrace were at hand. In 1621 a parliamentary inquiry was instituted into his con. duct as judge, which ended in his condemnation and disgrace, for having received numerous presents or bribes from parties whose cases were brought before him for decision. He fully confessed to the twenty-three articles of traud, deceit, mal-practice, and corruption which were laid to his charge; and when waited on by a committee of the House of Loi is, appointed to inquire whether the confession was subscribed by himself, he answered, “ It is my hand, my act, my heart: I beseech your lordships to be merciful 10 a broken reed.” He was fined £40,000; sent prisoner to the Tower; and declared incapable of any office or employment in the state. After a sliort con. finement he was released, and in 1625 obtained a full pardon. He died on the 9th of April, 1626. 1 This is a town in Hertfordabire, famous for the two battles fought in 1455 and 1461, between the tun rival hanses of York and Lancaster. It was anciently called Verulam, whonce Bacon's subseÇzat title of honor, Baror Verulam. The following are the most important works of this wonderful man: 1. His « Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral.” They were published in 1596, so that Shakspeare, who lived twenty years after, and during which time wrote his best plays, had the benefit of their perusal: and what delight and what profit must such a genius as his have derived from them; for no book contains a greater fund of useful knowledge, or displays a more intimate ac. quaintance with human life and manners. " It may be read," says the great Scotch philosopher, Dugalil Stewart, “ from beginning to end in a few hours, and yet, after the twentieth perusal, one seldom fails to remark in it something overlooked before." 2. “ The Proficience and Advancement of Learning.” This forms the first part of his great work afterwards published under the title of Instaurario Scientiarum, " The Reform in the Study of the Sciences.” It is divided into two books: the first chiefly considers the objections to learning, and points ont the many impediments to its progress: the second, the distribution of know. ledge, which he divides into three parts. “The parts of human learning," says he, “liave reference to the three parts of man's understanding, which is che seat of learning: History to his Memory, Poesy to his Imagination, and Philosophy to his Reason." He gives also a full genealogical table of knowledge, agreeably to this distribution. This is a work of vast learning. 3. His celebrated treatise “Of the Wisdom and Learning of the Ancients." The object of this is to show that all the allegories and fables of antiquity have some concealed meaning, which had never been sufficiently explained. In the interpretation of these ancient mysteries, he has displayed his remarkable sagacity and penetration, besides interspersing throughout various important observations on collateral subjects. 4. The Novum Organum, or “ New Instrument,” or “Method of Studying the Sciences.” This is the great work which has immortalized his name, and placed him at the head of the philosophic world. The grcat Greek philoso pher Aristotle called his philosophical work the “Organum.” The “Methoil". which he adopted in scientific inquiries was rather to frame systems and lay down principles, and then to seek or make things conform thereto. But Lord Bacon, in his - New Method," insists upon the duty of carefully ascertaining facts in the first place, and then reasoning upon them towards conclusiolis. • Man," he says, “who is the servant and interpreter of nature, can act and anderstand no further than he has, either in opera:ion or in contemplation, observed of the method and order of nature.” And again, “ Men have sought to make a world from their own conceptions, and to draw from their own minds all the materials which they employed: but if, instead of doing so, they had consulted experience and observation, they would have had tacts |