12 Doubtless, this could not be, but that she turns Bodies to spirits, by sublimation strange; As fire converts to fire the things it burns: As we our meats into our nature change. 13 From their gross matter she abstracts the forms, 14 This doth she, when, from things particular, She doth abstract the universal kinds, Which bodiless and immaterial are, And can be only lodged within our minds. 15 And thus from divers accidents and acts, 16 Again; how can she several bodies know, If in herself a body's form she bear? How can a mirror sundry faces show, If from all shapes and forms it be not clear? 17 Nor could we by our eyes all colours learn, 18 Nor can a man of passions judge aright, 19 If, lastly, this quick power a body were, 20 Her nimble body yet in time must move, In point of time, which thought cannot divide· 21 She's sent as soon to China as to Spain; And thence returns as soon as she is sent: She measures with one time, and with one pain, An ell of silk, and heaven's wide-spreading tent. 22 As then the soul a substance hath alone, 23 Since body and soul have such diversities, Well might we muse how first their match began ; But that we learn, that He that spread the skies, And fix'd the earth, first form'd the soul in man. 24 This true Prometheus first made man of earth, 25 And as Minerva is in fables said, From Jove, without a mother, to proceed; So our true Jove, without a mother's aid, Doth daily millions of Minervas breed. GILES FLETCHER. GILES FLETCHER was the younger brother of Phineas, and died twenty-three years before him. He was a cousin of Fletcher the dramatist, and the son of Dr Giles Fletcher, who was employed in many important missions in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and, among others, negotiated a commercial treaty with Russia greatly in the favour of his own country. Giles is supposed to have been born in 1588. He studied at Cambridge; published his noble poem, 'Christ's Victory and Triumph,' in 1610, when he was twenty-three years of age; was appointed to the living of Alderston, in Suffolk, where he died, in 1623, at the early age of thirty-five, 'equally loved,' says old Wood, 'of the Muses and the Graces.' The poem, in four cantos, entitled 'Christ's Victory and Triumph,' is one of almost Miltonic magnificence. With a wing as easy as it is strong, he soars to heaven, and fills the austere mouth of Justice and the golden lips of Mercy with language worthy of both. He then stoops down on the Wilderness of the Temptation, and paints the Saviour and Satan in colours admirably contrasted, and which in their brightness and blackness can never decay. Nor does he fear, in fine, to pierce the gloom of Calvary, and to mingle his note with the harps of angels, saluting the Redeemer, as He sprang from the grave, with the song, 'He is risen, He is risen-and shall die no more.' The style is steeped in Spenserequally mellifluous, figurative, and majestic. In allegory the author of the Fairy Queen' is hardly superior, and in the enthusiasm of devotion Fletcher surpasses him far. From the great light, thus early kindled and early quenched, Milton did not disdain to draw with his 'golden urn.' 'Paradise Regained' owes much more than the suggestion of its subject to 'Christ's Victory;' and is it too much to say that, had Fletcher lived, he might have shone in the same constellation with the bard of the 'Paradise Lost?' The plan of our Specimens' permits only a few extracts. Let those who wish more, along with a lengthened and glowing tribute to the author's genius, consult Blackwood for November 1835. The reading of f a single sentence will convince them that the author of the paper was Christopher North. THE NATIVITY. I. Who can forget, never to be forgot, The time, that all the world in slumber lies: On earth? was never sight of pareil fame: II. A child he was, and had not learned to speak, That with one hand the vaults of heaven could shake, III. And yet but newly he was infanted, And yet already he was sought to die; The tyrant's sword with blood is all defiled, Cries, O thou cruel king, and O my sweetest child! IV. Egypt his nurse became, where Nilus springs, The hasty harvest in his bosom brings; So fast the Cynthian mountains poured their snow, When once they felt the sun so near them glow, That Nilus Egypt lost, and to a sea did grow. V. The angels carolled loud their song of peace, That springs for joy over the strawy tent, Where gold, to make their prince a crown, they all present. VI. Young John, glad child, before he could be born, And Simeon fast his dying notes doth ply. Oh, how the blessed souls about him trace! Sing, Simeon, sing; sing, Simeon, sing apace. VII. With that the mighty thunder dropt away For pardon, and for pity, it had known, That should have been for sacred vengeance thrown: Their former rage, and all to mercy bowed, Their broken weapons at her feet they gladly strowed. |