The cricket on its bank is dumb; The taller grass upon the hill, And spider's threads are standing still; Are steadfast, and as heavy seem As stones beneath them in the stream. Hawkweed and groundsel's fanny downs, Not one light thing is floating there, The restless heat seems twittering by. Noon swoons beneath the heat it made, And checkered field and grassy plain THE THRUSH'S NEST. Within a thick and spreading hawthorn bush With joy—and oft an unintruding guest, I watched her secret toils from day to day How true she warped the moss to make her nest, And modelled it within with wood and clay. And by-and-by, like heath-bells gilt with dew, There lay her shining eggs as bright as flowers, Ink-spotted over, shells of green and blue And there I witnessed, in the summer hours, A brood of nature's minstrels chirp and fly, Glad as the sunshine and the laughing sky. CLARENDON (EDWARD HYDE), EARL OF, an English statesman and historian, born in 1608, died in 1674. Being the third son of a wealthy father, he was destined for the Church, and at the age of thirteen was sent to Magdalen College, Oxford, to study for the clerical profession. But the death of his two elder brothers left him, at the age of sixteen, the heir of the family estates; and it was thought that the bar was for him a more befitting profession than the pulpit. He went up to London, and entered the Middle Temple as a student of law. He became intimate with Ben Jonson, Waller, Carew, Selden, Chillingworth, Hales, and the other literary celebrities of the day. He took a high place in his profession, and at thirty was among the leading members of the bar. In 1640 he entered Parliament, siding mainly with the reforming party, and vigorously opposing the arbitrary measures of the crown. But when the disputes between King and Parliament came to the point of open war, Hyde embraced the Royal cause, and was one of the ablest supporters of Charles I., by whom he was made Chancellor of the Exchequer. The Royal cause was definitively lost by the defeat at Naseby (June 14, 1645). Hyde not long after took up his residence in Jersey, where he resided nearly two years, studying the Psalms and writing the early chapters of his History of the Rebellion. In the Spring of 1648 he drew up an answer to the ordinance which had been issued by Parliament, declar ing the King guilty of the civil war, and forbidding all future addresses to him. Charles I. having been executed, and his son, Charles II. having nominally acceded to the throne, Hyde joined him on the Continent, and became his chief adviser, drawing up all the State papers, and conducting the voluminous correspondence with the English Royalists; and in 1658 the dignity of Lord Chancellor was conferred upon him by the as yet crownless and landless King. He himself was in the meantime often reduced to the sorest pecuniary straits. In 1652 he writes: "I have neither clothes nor fire to preserve me from the sharpness of the season;" and not long after, "I have not had a livre of my own for the last three months." His Charles was at length restored to his kingdom in May, 1660. Hyde accompanied him to England, and took his seat as Speaker of the House of Lords. At the coronation in June, 1660, he was created Earl of Clarendon, and received a royal gift of £20,000. consequence was not a little increased by the fact that, not long before, his daughter, Anne Hyde, had been married to the King's brother, the Duke of York, afterwards King James II.; and it came to be looked upon as not unlikely that their children might sit upon the British throne. This possibility was in time realized; for James II. was deposed, and his two daughters, Mary and Anne, came in succession to be Queens-regnant of Great Britain. Clarendon retained his position as Lord Chancellor for six years, until 1667. He soon became unpopular both with the people on account of his haughty demeanor, and with the Court on account of his determined opposition to the prevailing extravagance and dissoluteness. At the royal command he resigned the Chancellorship. He was im peached by the House of Commons for high treason. The House of Lords refused to accept the charge as presented; but it was evident to Clarendon that his ruin was inevitable. In November, 1667, he left the kingdom, never to return; having in the meanwhile addressed to the House of Lords a vindication of his conduct. The House of Commons declared this Vindication to be seditious, and ordered it to be burned by the hangman. A bill of attainder was brought in against him, which was rejected by the Lords; but an act was finally passed condemning him to perpetual banishment unless he should appear for trial within six weeks. He took up his abode at Rouen in France, where he died, having in vain addressed an appeal to Charles II. that he might be allowed to end his days in his native land. His remains were, however, brought to England, and interred in Westminster Abbey. The closing years of Clarendon's life were devoted to writing various works, among which were numerous Essays, a Survey of Hobbes's Leviathan, and an Autobiography; but mainly to the completion of his History of the Rebellion, which had been commenced nearly twenty years before. He directed that this History should not be published until all of those who had been prominent actors in the matter were dead. It was not, indeed, published until 1702; and then many alterations and omissions were made by Bishop Spratt and Dean Aldrich, who had undertaken to edit the manuscript. This edition was several times reprinted; and it was not till 1826 that a wholly authentic edition was printed at Oxford. Clarendon's History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars, notwithstanding numerous defects, is yet one of the most important contributions to English history. Several portions-such as the account of the Reception of the Liturgy at Edinburgh in 1637, the Execution of Montrose in 1650, and the Escape of Charles II. after the Battle of Worcester, in 1650, are admirably written. But the most striking passages are the delineations of leading actors in the great drama, although these not unfrequently are strongly colored by the political and personal feelings of the author. THE CHARACTER OF CHARLES I. It will not be unnecessary to add a short character of his person, that posterity may know the incstimable loss which the nation underwent in being deprived of a prince whose example would have had a greater influence upon the manners and piety of the nation than the most strict laws can have. He was, if ever any, the most worthy of the title of an honest man; so great a lover of justice that no temptation could dispose him to a wrongful action, except that it was so disguised to him that he believed it to be just. He had a tenderness and compassion of nature which restrained him from ever doing a hard-hearted thing; and therefore he was so apt to grant pardon to malefactors, that the judges of the land represented to him the damage and insecurity to the public that flowed from such his indulgence; and then he restrained himself from pardoning either murders or highway robberies, and quickly discerned the fruits of his severity by a wonderful reformation of those enormities. He was very punctual and regular in his devotions; he was never known to enter upon his recreations or sports, though never so early in the morning, before he had been at public prayers ; so that on hunting-days, his chaplains were bound to a very early attendance. He was likewise very strict in observing the hours of his private cabinet devotions; and was so severe an exacter of gravity and reverence in all mention of religion, that ho |