tempt, the work, as Wither subsequently understood, produced a most beneficial change in the feelings and life of the individual.

The poet's devoted attachment to his own wife may bave suggested the sentiments of the poem for Anniversary Marriage Days:

Lord, living here are we

As fast united yet,

As when our bands and hearts by Thee

Together first were knit.

And in a thankful song

Now sing we will Thy praise,
For that Thou dost as well prolong
Our loving, as our days.

The frowardness that springs
From our corrupted kind,
Or from those troublous outward things,
Which may distract the mind;
Permit not Thou, O Lord,
Our constant love to shake;

Or to disturb our true accord,

Or make our hearts to ache.

The 37th Hymn, part 3-"For a Widower, or a Widow, deprived of a loving yoke-fellow," deserves to be quoted entire. The simple pathos of this stanza will be felt by every heart:

The voice which I did more esteem
Than music in her sweetest key:
Those eyes which unto me did seem
More comfortable than the day:
Those now by me, as they have boen,
Shall never more be heard or seen :
But what I once enjoyed in them,
Shall seem hereafter as a dream.

"For an Anniversary Funeral Day," and "An Occasional Hymn when we first awake in the Morning," are also very graceful and pleasing compositions. Pope, it is not improbable, had the following verses from the Sunday Hymn in his recollection when he composed his Universal Prayer :

Discretion grant me so to know

What Sabbath-rites Thou dost require,
And grace my duty so to do,

That I may keep Thy law entire.
Not doing what should not be done,

Nor ought omitting fit to do.

With the Haleluiah, the poetical life of Wither may be considered to have terminated. He ceased to gaze "on such sights as youthful poets dream," and his remaining years were worn out in petulant complaints, in penury, and in sorrow. He continued, indeed, to pour out his rhymes upon every occasion with a fertility age could not exhaust, and a perseverance no peril could restrain; but the sweetness of his Shepherd's Pipe was lost for ever. Poetry fled from the discordant din of politics and fanaticism to "pitch her tent" in some more peaceful spot; and if she ever revisited the scenes she had left, it was under a cloud, pervious only to the eyes of her few remaining followers. Gladly would I pass over this dreary period of our poet's history; a period of surpassing grief and agony to many, of turbulence and disquiet to all. But it was Wither's evil fortune to be actively engaged in the earlier part of the civil war, and the biographer is obliged to follow him through the sad narrative of that stormy epoch.

Dr. Heylin, in his History of the Presbyterians, tells a story of Wither's conduct at this time, so indicative of

profane and sacrilegious impiety, that I confess myself unable to give it credit. Heylin says, "that Martin, then member for Berks, having commanded the Subdean of Westminster to bring him to the place where the Regalia were kept, made himself master of the spoil; and, having forced open a great iron chest, took out the crown, the robes, the swords, and sceptre, belonging anciently to King Edward the Confessor, and used by all our kings at their inaugurations, with a scorn greater than his lusts and the rest of his vices, he openly declares that there would be no further use of these toys and trifles, and in the folly of that humour invests George Withers (an old Puritan Satyrist) in the royal habiliments, who, being thus crowned and royally arrayed (as right well became him),,first marched about the room with a stately garb, and afterwards, with a thousand apish and ridiculous actions, exposed these sacred ornaments to contempt and laughter. Had the Abuse been Stript and Whipt, as it should have been, the foolish fellow might have passed for a prophet, though he could not be reckoned for a poet*."

Heylin, though an upright and bold-spirited man, was a most intemperate and prejudiced writer. Educated under a zealous Puritan, Mr. Neubury, he was, nevertheless, a most intolerant enemy of the sect. The History of the Presbyterians, it should also be remembered, was written under circumstances tending to deepen every feeling of animosity. The destruction of his incomparable library, the loss of his preferment, and the untimely death of his friend and patron, Archbishop Laud, were sufficient to arouse all the bitterness of his nature. It is not impossible that during Heylin's resi

• Hist. of Presb. p. 452., ed. 1672.

dence at his living at Arlesford, which was almost immediately adjoining the birth-place of Wither, some cause of dissension might have arisen between the poet and himself.

The acquaintance of the profligate Harry Martin, as he was usually called, could confer no honour upon any man; yet even in his case, the injustice of party-spirit may have blinded the observer's eyes to the good qualities he really possessed. His character, as drawn by Aubrey, who says that he was "not at all covetous, humble, and always ready in the house to take the part of the oppressed," cannot be reconciled with the monsterform under which he is generally portrayed.

Upon the first breaking out of the war, Wither is said, by Anthony Wood, to have sold his estate, and raised a regiment for the service of the Parliament. This account, which has been adopted by all subsequent writers, even including Brydges and Park, is at variance with the truth. Wither was rarely withheld from an expression of his own deserts and sacrifices, and he says, in the Field Musings, when speaking of the cause of the Parliament,

According to my fortune and my place,

I therefore further'd it.

And again in the same page,

Where I then lived, I was the first of those

Who did contribute to my country's aid.-P. 5.

If he had sold his estate, he would have taken care to inform the public of the circumstance.

Having been appointed commander of the troop raised in his neighbourhood, Wither's first employment was to march into Kent, in "order to secure the malignants

there from attempting any thing against the State." These are the words of a very violent and scurrilous pamphlet, in which the poet's military and private character is attacked with a bitterness of hostility sufficient to invalidate the writer's claim to truth or correctness. Wither's quarters were at Maidstone, and that he discharged his new duties with no small activity is proved by the following resolution from the Journal of the House of Commons, January 5, 1642. "Whereas the county of Kent hath advanced several sums of money upon the propositions, which they have sent to the Treasurers in Guildhall, London, and have this day also delivered in plate amounting to good value to the Treasurers aforesaid. It is this day ordered by the Commons House of Parliament, that three hundred and twenty-eight pounds six shillings be forthwith imprest by the said treasurers to the Committees of Kent, or any two of them, towards the payment of the arrears due to Captain Withers his troop, now residing in that county."

During his sojourn in Kent, according to the libellous pamphleteer already noticed, Wither did not forget his farm in Surrey, and selected for his own use some "brave horses" from the property of the Royalists. This accusa. tion is in some measure corroborated by the testimony of another writer, professing to entertain an exalted opinion of the poet's "spiritual irradiations," but at the same time charging him with having executed some things in the county of Kent" beyond the sense" of the sentiments expressed in Britain's Remembrancer. In those days of mental fever, the best men must have frequently erred; and the stubborn, though honest poet, was not likely to be more immaculate than his companions.