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Alfred Tennyson: 1810

From Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington.'

Who is he that cometh, like an honoured guest,

With banner and with music, with soldier and with priest, With a nation weeping, and breaking on my rest?

Mighty seaman, this is he

Was great by land as thou by sea.

Thine island loves thee well, thou famous man,

The greatest sailor since our world began.

Now, to the roll of muffled drums,

To thee the greatest soldier comes;

For this is he

Was great by land as thou by sea;
His martial wisdom kept us free;
O warrior-seaman, this is he,
This is England's greatest son,
Worthy of our gorgeous rites,
And worthy to be laid by thee;
He that gained a hundred fights,
And never lost an English gun;
He that in his earlier day
Against the myriads of Assaye
Clashed with his fiery few and won:
And underneath another sun
Made the soldier, led him on,
And ever great and greater grew,
Beating from the wasted vines

All their marshals' bandit swarms
Back to France with countless blows;
Till their host of eagles flew

Past the Pyrenean pines,
Followed up in valley and glen

With blare of bugle, clamour of men,
Roll of cannon and clash of arms,
And England pouring on her foes.
Such a war had such a close.
He withdrew to brief repose.
Again their ravening eagle rose

In anger, wheeled on Europe-shadowing wings,

And barking for the thrones of kings,

Till one that sought but Duty's iron crown

On that loud Sabbath shook the spoiler down;
A day of onsets of despair!

Dashed on every rocky square

Their surging charges foamed themselves away;
Last, the Prussian trumpet blew;

Through the long-tormented air

Heaven flashed a sudden jubilant ray,

And down we swept and charged and overthrew.

So great a soldier taught us there,

What long-enduring hearts could do

In that world's-earthquake, Waterloo !
Mighty seaman, tender and true,

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**The extracts from Tennyson are inserted by permission of the publishers, Messrs A. Strahan & Co., London.

SELECTIONS FROM THE PROSE-WRITERS.

CHRONOLOGICALLY ARRANGED.

Richard Hooker: 1553-1600.

Angels.-From The Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity.

BUT now that we may lift up our eyes (as it were) from the footstool to the throne of God, and leaving these natural, consider a little the state of heavenly and divine creatures: touching Angels, which are spirits immaterial and intellectual, the glorious inhabitants of those sacred palaces, where nothing but light and blessed immortality, no shadow of matter for tears, discontentments, griefs, and uncomfortable passions to work upon, but all joy, tranquillity, and peace, even for ever and ever doth dwell: as in number and order they are huge, mighty, and royal armies, so likewise in perfection of obedience unto that law, which the Highest, whom they adore, love, and imitate, hath imposed upon them, such observants they are thereof, that our Saviour himself being to set down the perfect idea of that which we are to pray and wish for on earth, did not teach to pray or wish for more than only that here it might be with us, as with them it is in heaven. God which moveth mere natural agents as an efficient only, doth otherwise move intellectual creatures, and especially His holy angels: for beholding the face of God, in admiration of so great excellency they all adore Him; and being rapt with the love of His beauty, they cleave inseparably for ever unto Him. Desire to resemble Him in goodness maketh them unweariable and even insatiable in their longing to do by all means all manner good unto all the creatures of God, but especially unto the children of men: in the countenance of whose nature, looking downward, they behold themselves beneath themselves; even as upward, in God, beneath whom themselves are, they see that character which is nowhere but in themselves and us resembled. Thus far even the Painims1

1 'Pagans, the heathen.'

have approached; thus far they have seen into the doings of the angels of God; Orpheus confessing, that the fiery throne of God is attended on by those most industrious angels, careful how all things are performed amongst men;1 and the Mirror 2 of human wisdom plainly teaching, that God moveth angels, even as that thing doth stir man's heart, which is thereunto presented amiable. Angelical actions may therefore be reduced unto these three general kinds: first, most delectable love arising from the visible apprehension of the purity, glory, and beauty of God, invisible saving only unto spirits that are pure: secondly, adoration grounded upon the evidence of the greatness of God, on whom they see how all things depend; thirdly, imitation, bred by the presence of his exemplary goodness, who ceaseth not before them daily to fill heaven and earth with the rich treasures of most free and undeserved grace.

Francis Bacon: 1561-1626.

Of Studies. From his ' Essays.'

Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. Their chief use for delight is in privateness and retiring; for ornament, is in discourse; and for ability, is in the judgment and disposition of business; for expert men can execute, and perhaps judge of particulars, one by one; but the general counsels, and the plots and marshalling of affairs, come best from those that are learned. To spend too much time in studies, is sloth; to use them too much for ornament, is affectation; to make judgment wholly by their rules, is the humour of a scholar; they perfect nature, and are perfected by experience-for natural abilities are like natural plants, that need pruning by study; and studies themselves do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience. Crafty men contemn studies, simple men admire them, and wise men use them; for they teach not their own use; but that is a wisdom without them, and above them, won by observation. Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted, nor to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider. Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed. and some few to be chewed and digested: that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention. Some books also may be read by deputy, and extracts made of them by others; but that would be only in the less important arguments, and the meaner sort of

1 A quotation from a series of poems under the name of Orpheus, but which are believed to be, for the most part, forgeries written at Alexandria in the first centuries after Christ. 2'Aristotle,' a Greek philosopher (384-322 B.C.), the reference being to a passage of his metaphysics, made use of by Thomas Aquinas, an Italian theologian (1224-1274).

books; else distilled books are, like common distilled waters, flashy things. Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man; and, therefore, if a man write little, he had need have a great memory; if he confer little, he had need have a present wit; and if he read little, he had need have much cunning, to seem to know that he doth not. Histories make men wise; poets, witty; the mathematics, subtle; natural philosophy, deep; moral, grave; logic and rhetoric, able to contend: 'Studies influence the manners;' nay, there is no stand or impediment in the wit, but may be wrought out by fit studies like as diseases of the body may have appropriate exercises-bowling is good for the stone and reins, shooting for the lungs and breast, gentle walking for the stomach, riding for the head, and the like; so, if a man's wit be wandering, let him study the mathematics, for in demonstrations, if his wit be called away never so little, he must begin again; if his wit be not apt to distinguish or find differences, let him study the schoolmen, for they are hair-splitters; if he be not apt to beat over matters, and to call upon one thing to prove and illustrate another, let him study the lawyers' cases-so every defect of the mind may have a special receipt.

Jeremy Taylor: 1613-1667.

Prayer.-From 'Golden Grove Sermons.

Prayer is an action of likeness to the Holy Ghost, the spirit of gentleness and dove-like simplicity; an imitation of the holy Jesus, whose spirit is meek, up to the greatness of the biggest example, and a conformity to God, whose anger is always just, and marches slowly, and is without transportation, and often hindered, and never hasty, and is full of mercy; prayer is the peace of our spirit, the stillness of our thoughts, the evenness of recollection, the seat of meditation, the rest of our cares, and the calm of our tempest; prayer is the issue of a quiet mind, of untroubled thoughts; it is the daughter of charity, and the sister of meekness; and he that prays to God with an angry, that is, with a troubled and discomposed spirit, is like him that retires into a battle to meditate, and sets up his closet in the out-quarters of an army, and chooses a frontier garrison to be wise in. Anger is a perfect alienation of the mind from prayer, and therefore is contrary to that attention which presents our prayers in a right line to God. For so have I seen a lark rising from his bed of grass, and soaring upwards, singing as he rises, and hopes to get to heaven, and climb above the clouds; but the poor bird was beaten back with the loud sighings of an eastern wind, and his motion made irregular and inconstant, descending more at every breath of the tempest than it could recover by the libration and frequent weighing of his wings; till the little creature

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