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For his blest mother was a virgin too.

1660, he was made Earl of Orrery, sworn into Man ne'er could feign, what his strange birth prov'd the privy-council, appointed one of the lordsjustices as well as president of Munster. In 1662, when the Duke of Ormond was made lord-lieutenant, Broghill retired to his presidency, where, by virtue of his office, he heard and decided cases in a court called the Residency Court. In this capacity he acquired such a reputation that after the fall of Clarendon he was offered the seals, but declined the post in consequence of the gout which afflicted him.

After this Orrery mixed little more in politics, but left sword and council-board for the desk and pen. During the years that intervened until his death he produced several poems and plays. In his poems, which are somewhat artificial, he displays moral elevation of mind. In his plays, which were very successful, he often uses his wit, like too many of the writers of the Restoration, in the adornment of unsavoury subjects. They are not, however, wholly devoid of scenes of a higher kind, and are marked by vigour and force.

Of his works the chief are: A Poem on His Majesty's Happy Restoration; A Poem on the Death of Cowley; The History of Henry V., a tragedy, 1668; Mustapha, a tragedy, 1667-68; The Black Prince, a tragedy, 1672; Triphon, a tragedy, 1672; Parthenissa, a romance, 1665; A Dream, full of bold advice to the king; A Treatise on the Art of War; Poems on the Fasts and Festivals of the Church. After his death the following additional works were published:-Mr. Anthony, a comedy, 1692; Guzuron, a comedy, 1693; Herod the Great, a tragedy, 1694; Altemira, a tragedy, placed on the stage in 1702; State Letters, 1742.

Roger Boyle died 16th October, 1679, leaving behind him a reputation as a wit, a soldier, a statesman, and a man of letters-the last title being the one of which he was most proud.]

ON CHRISTMAS DAY.

Hail, glorious day which miracles adorn,
Since 'twas on thee eternity was born!
Hail, glorious day, on which mankind did view
The Saviour of the old world and the new!
Hail, glorious day, which deifies man's race,
Birth-day of Jesus, and through him, of grace!
In thy blest light the world at once did see
Proofs of his Godhead and humanity.
To prove him man, he did from woman come,
To prove him God, 'twas from a virgin's womb.

While as a child He in the manger cryes,
Angels proclaim his Godhead from the skyes;
He to so vile a cradle did submit,
That we, through faith in him, on thrones might sit.
Oh prodigie of mercy, which did make
The God of gods our human nature take!
And through our vaile of flesh, his glory shine,
That we thereby might share in the divine.

Hail, glorious virgin, whose tryumphant womb
Blesses all ages past and all to come!
Thou more than heal'st the sin by Adam's wife,
She brought in death, but thou brought'st endless

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Yet I with joy would this oppression bear
Were I the only guiltless you pursue.

Herod. That name of all belongs the least to
you.

To thee whose lust has to my queen confest
The secret I intrusted to thy breast:
Which she of all the world should not have known;
Traytor, in vain thou wilt thy guilt disown,
My sister who reveal'd will prove thy sin.
Heavens! how I fear'd that it had been the queen!
[Sohemus lifts up his hands and eyes.
Herod. His lifting up to heaven his hands and
eyes

Does evidence his crime, by his surprise.
This storm which thou hast rais'd dost thou not

dread?

Look on me-look-have I not stared thee dead?

1 From the tragedy of Herod the Great.

And, by these signs, knew the Messiah dy'd;

Sohemus. Looks cannot make one of my courage Hell's sad inhabitants for anger cry'd, fall. Herod. What my looks cannot do, my dagger Th' insatiate grave, which the last day does dread, shall!

[Herod stabs Sohemus thrice, who falls. Sohemus. By my compliance I thy throne have built,

My death's the justice due to that base guilt,
Which by my hand I had atoned on thee,
Had not thy bloody hand prevented me.
Thunder, the sword of heaven, does sure design
That death for thee which it deny'd to mine.
Tyrant, receive this truth from my last breath,
If man has an existence after death,

My ghost shall haunt thee out in every place,
My gaping wounds shall stare thee in the face;
Till thou thy life a burden shall esteem,
Great as thy subjects found it was to them!

[Sohemus dies.

Herod. Would every foe of mine all hope had lost But that of frighting me with his sad ghost. Guards, to his grave bear that perfidious man, There let him tell my secrets-if he can.

ON THE DAY OF THE CRUCIFIXION.

Wonderful day; that title's due to thee, Above all days, which have been, or shall be. The day, when order out of chaos broke; The day, when God our human nature took; The day, when Christ ascended from the tomb; The day, when all the world must hear their doom: Though these four days, we justly great ones call, Yet when, alas, compar'd to thee, are small!

For 'twas not strange, that both the heav'ns and earth

From God's all-powerful word receiv'd their birth:
Nor, when nought else heaven's justice could atone,
The God of nature put our nature on:
Nor that he should, in whose hand only lies
Th' issues of life and death, from death arise:
Nor that one general assize should be,
To hear from God's own mouth his just decree.
These but the actings of a God display,
But that God suffer'd, on this signal day;
Which miracle amazement did infuse
In heaven, earth, hell, and all but in the Jews,
In whose obdurate souls such rancour dwelt,
As all the world, but they, compunction felt.
The sun from his bright globe his lustre strips,
And with his Maker suffers an eclipse.

Thinking it now was come, releas'd her dead!

Prodigious day; on which ev'n God did pray To God, to take the bitter cup away! A day in which philosophy descry'd That nature or the God of nature dy'd. A day in which mortality may cry, Death, thou art swallowed up in victory!

Oh may this day be in all hearts engrav'd; This day in which God dy'd and man was sav'd!

FROM THE POEM ON THE DEATH OF COWLEY.

Oh how severely man is used by Fate! The covetous toil long for an estate; And having got more than their life can spend, They may bequeath it to a son or friend: But learning, in which none can have a share, Unless they climb to it by time and care, Learning, the truest wealth which men can have, Does, with his body, perish in his grave. To tenements of clay it is confin'd, Though 'tis the noblest purchase of the Mind: Oh! why can we thus leave our friends possest Of all our acquisitions but the best?

Still when we study Cowley, we lament, That to the world he was no longer lent; Who, like a lightning, to our eyes was shown, So bright he shin'd, and was so quickly gone. Sure he rejoic'd to see his flame expire, Since he himself could not have raised it higher; For when wise poets can no higher fly, They would, like saints, in their perfection die. Though beauty some affection in him bred, Yet only sacred learning he would wed; By which th' illustrious offspring of his brain Shall over wit's great empire ever reign: His works shall live, when pyramids of pride Shrink to such ashes as they long did hide.

THE DEATH OF ZANGER,1

[Solyman has caused Mustapha, his son and heir, to be slain for a crime of which he believes him guilty, and while gazing on the dead body, Zanger, another son, enters and declares

The moon did hide her face, though filled with his dead brother's innocence.]

light,

Seeing the sun at noon create a night.
The sacred temple at the dread event
Of this great day her vaile for sorrow rent.
The earth, which does insensible appear,
Yet at this prodigie did shake with fear;

Solyman. Oh heaven! my guilt now makes it an offence,

To hear untimely of his innocence . . .

1 From last act of Mustapha, a tragedy.

Those who to death have made me send my son
Shall instantly in torture meet their own.
Let wisdom check your sorrow, and prepare
To be this day proclaim'd my empire's heir.

Zanger. Ah! sir, religiously to me he swore,
That, if the Turkish crown he ever wore,
He to our bloody law an end would give,
And I should safely in his bosom live.
Myself I then by sacred promise ty'd,
Not to outlive the day in which he dy'd.
And as I know he nobly did design
To keep his vow, so I remember mine.

[Turns to MUSTAPHA. 'Twas only love had strength enough t' invade That mutual friendship which we sacred made: But now o'er love I have the conquest got; Though love divided us, yet death shall not! [Stabs himself and falls at MUSTAPHA's feet. Solyman. Hold, Zanger, hold!

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And where he took delight to live-he dies.

[ZANGER dies.

Solyman. Fame in her temple will adorn thy shrine;

No Roman glory ever equall'd thine.
Zanger, in height of youth, for friendship's sake,
Did rather die, than proffer'd empire take.
I would die too, but by revenge am stay'd,
Due for you both; you shall be doubly paid.
My viziers shall be first your sacrifice,
Nor is she safe who in my bosom lies.

[Turns to MUSTAPHA.
Oh Mustapha! the worthy may in thee
The dang'rous state even of great virtue see.
Thine was to all the height and compass grown,
That virtue e'er could reach to get renown;
And the reward of it pernicious prov'd;
For I did punish thee for being lov'd.
Thy mother was the first that e'er possess'd,
By conquest, the dominion of my breast:
And had thy mind been blotted, and as black
As virtue could paint vice, yet for her sake,
(The brightest beauty, and the softest wife)
I might, alas! at least have sav'd thy life.

Zanger. Low at your feet, dear friend, your But O! I mourn too long, for while I stay
To count thy wrongs, I thy revenge delay! [Exit.

brother lies,

WILLIAM MOLYNEUX.

BORN 1656- DIED 1698.

[William Molyneux, the first of the great trio, Molyneux, Swift, and Grattan, that commenced, continued, and brought to a perfect end the battle of the Irish parliament for independence, was born in Dublin on the 17th April, 1656. His father was a gentleman of good family and fortune, a master of the ordnance, an officer of the Irish exchequer, and a man of intellect and culture. His grandfather had been Ulster king-at-arms, and had used his pen in the production of a continuation of Hanmer's Chronicle. Owing to his tender health William Molyneux was educated at home by a tutor till he reached the age of nearly fifteen, when he was placed in the University of Dublin, under the care of Dr. Palliser, afterwards Archbishop of Cashel. Here he was distinguished, as a biographer says, "by the probity of his manners as well as by the strength of his parts; and having made a remarkable progress in academical learning, and especially in the new philosophy, as it was then called, he proceeded to his Bachelor of Arts degree." After taking

his degree, which he did in his nineteenth year, he was sent to London, where he entered the Middle Temple in June, 1675. At the Middle Temple he remained for three years engaged in the diligent study of the law, but not forgetting his beloved studies in the mathematical and physical sciences, which had received such a mighty impulse just then owing to the many discoveries and exertions of the members of the Royal Society.

In 1678 Molyneux returned to Ireland, where he soon after married Lucy, the daughter of Sir William Domville, attorney-general. As he possessed a private fortune, and being therefore under no necessity of earning a living, he continued his philosophical studies; and astronomy gaining a strong hold on his mind, he began in 1681 a correspondence with Flamstead, which was continued for many years with benefit to both. In 1683 he managed to bring about the establishment of a philosophical society in Dublin on the model of the Royal Society, and prevailing on Sir William Petty to become its first president,

he accepted the office of secretary. His labours | parliament, desiring to destroy the Irish woolin connection with this society soon made len manufactures, then in a most thriving Molyneux's learning and abilities well known. state, introduced prohibitory laws to prevent Being introduced to the Duke of Ormond, and their exportation. These enactments seemed after performing some literary labour for that to Molyneux not only cruel and unwise, but nobleman, he was appointed one of the two unjust and tyrannical, and he immediately set chief engineers and surveyors of crown build- himself to produce his Case of Ireland Stated ings and works. In 1685 he was elected a in Relation to its being bound by Acts of member of the Royal Society, and in the same Parliament made in England. This appeared year was sent to survey the fortresses on the in 1698 with a manly yet respectful dedication Flemish coast. While on the Continent he to William III., and is a work almost perfect travelled through Flanders and Holland, part of its kind. A biographer whom we have of Germany and France, and paid a visit to already quoted says that it contains "all, or the celebrated Cassini with letters of introduc- most, that can be said on the subject with tion from his friend Flamstead. great clearness and strength of reasoning."

On his return from abroad Molyneux published his first work of any importance, Sciothericum Telescopium, 1686, a description of a telescopic dial and its uses which he had invented. In 1687 Halley, with whom he had established a correspondence, sent him the proof-sheets of Newton's Principia as they were produced, and Molyneux, though struck with admiration and astonishment at the work, confessed himself, like many other astronomers of the time, unable to wholly understand it. In 1689, owing to the wars of William and James, he left Ireland and removed to Chester, where he busied himself in the preparation of a work which, under the revision of Halley, appeared in 1692 with the title of Dioptrica Nova: a Treatise of Dioptrics in Two Parts. During his residence in Chester, his son Samuel was born to him, and his wife died. As soon as tranquillity was restored in Ireland he returned thither, and in the year in which his Dioptrics was published, 1692, he was elected one of the members of parliament for the city of Dublin. This event, which seemed unimportant at the time, was the originating cause of the production of the great work by which the name of Molyneux will be for ever remembered in Ireland. In the parliament of 1695 he was chosen to represent the university, which he continued to do till his death, and a little later he was created Doctor of Laws. About this time also he was nominated one of the commissioners of forfeited estates, with a salary of £500 a year, but, as a biographer states, "looking upon it as an invidious office, and not being a lover of money, he declined it." In his place in the Irish parliament Molyneux now began to take notice of and study the fight for independence which that body had begun in 1690 by the rejection of a money bill which had not originated with themselves. In 1696 and 1697 the English

The work, which in size is little more than a pamphlet, created a great sensation in England. The English House of Commons, losing its head in a fit of irritation, declared, “that the book published by Mr. Molyneux was of dangerous tendency to the crown and people of England, by denying the authority of the king and parliament of England to bind the kingdom and people of Ireland, and the subordination and dependence that Ireland had, and ought to have, upon England, as being united and annexed to the imperial crown of England." An address was presented to William, who readily promised to enforce the laws binding the parliament of Ireland to dependence, and the book itself was committed to the hands of the common hangman, by whom it was glorified by being “burnt with fire." The reception his work met with caused little astonishment to Molyneux, who, in his preface, seemed to anticipate something like what occurred. "I have heard it said," he writes, "that perhaps I might run some hazard in attempting the argument; but I am not at all apprehensive of any such danger. We are in a miserable condition, indeed, if we may not be allowed to complain when we think we are hurt."

Before the great stir had subsided Molyneux journeyed into England to visit Locke, with whom he had kept up a most intimate correspondence for some time. This visit began in July, 1698, and lasted to September, and it was arranged that it should be repeated the next spring. But by the next spring the daisies were blooming unseen by the patriot philosopher. The fatigues of his journey brought on an attack of a disease from which he suffered (calculus), and after reaching Dublin his retchings broke a blood-vessel, and he died, after two days' illness, on the 11th of October, 1698. He was deeply lamented by all who

knew him, and all the more so because he died so young, when, in truth, a brilliant career seemed only just entered upon.

Locke was deeply grieved at Molyneux's death, and in a letter to our author's brother, Sir Thomas Molyneux, he says, "I have lost in your brother not only an ingenious and learned acquaintance, that all the world esteemed, but an intimate and sincere friend, whom I truly loved, and by whom I was truly loved; and what a loss that is those only can be sensible who know how valuable and how scarce a true friend is, and how far to be preferred to all other sorts of treasure." To another correspondent he says, "His worth and friendship to me made him an inestimable treasure. . . I should be glad if what I owed the father could enable me to do any service to the son. . . . They cannot do me a greater pleasure than to give me the opportunity to show that my friendship died not with him." Writing in his Conduct of the Understanding, and before his friendship could have biased his judgment, Locke also speaks of Molyneux as "that very ingenious and studious promoter of real knowledge."

In addition to the works we have named, Molyneux wrote a reply to one of Hobbes's works under the title of Metaphysical Meditations on God and Mind, and a considerable number of articles and papers which appeared in Philosophical Transactions and elsewhere.]

A NATION'S RIGHTS.
(FROM THE CASE OF IRELAND STATED.")

All men are by nature in a state of equality in respect of jurisdiction and dominion: this I take to be a principle in itself so evident that it stands in need of little proof. 'Tis not to be conceived that creatures of the same species and rank, promiscuously born to all the same advantages of nature, and the use of the same faculties, should be subordinate and subject one to another: these to this or that of the same kind. On this equality in nature is founded that right which all men claim, of being free from all subjection to positive laws, till by their own consent they give up their freedom, by entering into civil societies for the common benefit of all the members thereof. And on this consent depends the obligation of all humane laws, insomuch that without it, by the unanimous opinion of all jurists, no

sanctions are of any force. For this let us appeal, amongst many, only to the judicious Mr. Hooker.

No one or more men can by nature challenge any right, liberty, or freedom, or any ease in his property, estate, or conscience, which all other men have not an equally just claim to. Is England a free people? so ought France to be. Is Poland so? Turkey likewise, and all the eastern dominions, ought to be so. And the same runs throughout the whole race of mankind. Secondly, 'tis against the common laws of England, which are of force both in England and Ireland, by the original compact before hinted. It is declared by both houses of the parliament of England, 1 Jac. cap. i., That in the high court of parliament all the whole body of the realm, and every particular member thereof, either in person or by representation (upon their own free elections), are by the laws of this realm deemed to be personally present. Is this, then, the common law of England, and the birthright of every free-born English subject? And shall we of this kingdom be denied it, by having laws imposed on us, where we are neither personally nor representatively present? My Lord Coke in his fourth inst. cap. i. saith, that all the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and all the Commons of the whole realm ought ex debito justicia to be summoned to parliament, and none of them ought to be omitted. Hence it is called General Concilium in the Stat. of Westminst. i., and the Commune Concilium, because it is to comprehend all persons and estates in the whole kingdom. And this is the very reason given in the case of the merchants of Waterford foregoing, why statutes made in England should not bind them in Ireland, because they have no representatives in the parliament of England. My Lord Hobbart, in the case of Savage and Day, pronounced it for law, that whatever is against natural equity and reason, that act was void. Whether it be not against equity and reason, that a kingdom regulated within itself, and having its own parliament, should be bound without their consent by the parliament of another kingdom, I leave the reader to consider.

It is against the statute laws both of England and Ireland; this has been pretty fully discussed before; however, I shall here again take notice, that in the 10th of Henry the Fourth, it was enacted in Ireland that statutes made in England should not be of force in Ireland unless they were allowed and published

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