of Akenside, and the singular patronage by which he was distinguished, he never arrived at any very considerable popularity in his profession. It has been said, that he had a kind of haughtiness or ostentation in his manners, little calculated to ingratiate him with his brethren of the faculty, or to render him generally acceptable.

In Dr. Akenside's poems, and in the notes annexed thereto, we may discover his extensive acquaintance with ancient literature, and his attachment to the cause of civil and religious liberty. His politics were thought to incline to Republicanism, but no evidence to this effect is to be deduced from his poems; and his theology has been stated to have verged towards Deism : and yet, in his Ode to Hoadly, Bishop of Bangor, and to the Author of the "Memoirs of the House of Brandenburgh," he has testified his regard for pure Christianity, and his dislike to the attempts of freeing men from the salutary restraints of religion.

The following extract from the first of these Odes, may gratify the reader.

To Him, the Teacher bless'd,

Who sent religion from the palmy field

By Jordan, like the morn to cheer—the west,

And lifted up the veil which heav'n from earth conceal'd,

To Hoadly, thus his mandate he address'd:

'Go, then, and rescue my dishonour'd law

From hands rapacious and from tongues impure:
Let not my peaceful name be made a lure,
Fell Persecution's mortal snares to aid:
Let not my words be impious chains, to draw
The free-born soul, in more than brutal awe,
To faith without assent, allegiance unrepaid.””

POETICAL RECOLLECTIONS CONNECTED WITH

VARIOUS PARTS OF THE METROPOLIS.

"ONE of the best secrets of enjoyment, is the art of cultivating pleasant associations. It is an art that of necessity increases with the stock of our knowledge: and though, in acquiring our knowledge, we must encounter disagreeable associations also, yet, if we secure a reasonable quantity of health by the way, these will be far less in number than the agreeable ones; for, unless the circumstances which gave rise to the associations press upon us, it is only from want of health that the power of throwing off these burdensome images becomes suspended.

"And the beauty of this art is, that it does not insist upon pleasant materials to work on:

nor, indeed, does health. Health will give us a vague sense of delight, in the midst of objects that would teaze and oppress us during sickness. But healthy association peoples this vague sense with agreeable images. It will relieve us, even when a painful sympathy with the distresses of others becomes a part of the very health of our minds. For instance, we can never go through St. Giles's, but the sense of the extravagant inequalities in human condition presses more forcibly upon us: but some pleasant images are at hand, even there, to refresh it. They do not displace the others, so as to injure the sense of public duty which they excite; they only serve to keep our spirits fresh for their task, and hinder them from running into desperation or hopelessness. In St. Giles's Church lie Chapman, the earliest and best translator of Homer;' and Andrew Marvell, the wit, poet, and patriot, whose poverty Charles the Second could not bribe. We are as sure to think of these two men, and of all the good and pleasure they have done to the world, as of the less happy objects about us. So much for St. Giles's, whose very name is a nuisance with some.

It is dangerous to speak disrespectfully of

old districts. Who would suppose that the Borough was the most classical ground in the metropolis? And yet it is undoubtedly so. The Globe Theatre was there, of which Shakspeare himself was a proprietor, and for which he wrote his plays. Globe Lane, in which it stood, is still extant, we believe, under that name. It is probable that he lived near it: it is certain that he must have been much there. It is also certain that, on the Borough side of the river, then and still called the Bank side, in the same lodging, having the same wardrobe, and some say, with other participations more remarkable, lived Beaumont and Fletcher. In the Borough also, at St. Saviour's, lie Fletcher and Massinger in one grave. In the same Church, under a monument and effigy, lies Chaucer's contemporary, Gower; and from an inn in the Borough, the existence of which is still boasted, and the site pointed out by a picture and inscription, Chaucer sets out his pilgrims and himself on their famous road to Canterbury.

"To return over the water, who would expect any thing poetical from East Smithfield? Yet there was born the most poetical even of poets, Spenser. Pope was born within the sound of

Bow bell, in a street no less anti-poetical than Lombard Street. So was Gray, in Cornhill. So was Milton, in Bread Street, Cheapside. The presence of the same great poet and patriot has given happy memories to many parts of the metropolis. He lived in St. Bride's Churchyard, Fleet Street; in Aldersgate Street, in Jewin Street, in Barbican, in Bartholomew Close; in Holborn, looking back to Lincoln'sInn-Fields; in Holborn, near Red Lion Square; in Scotland Yard; in a house looking to St. James's Park, now belonging to an eminent writer on legislation, and lately occupied by a celebrated critic and metaphysician; and he died in the Artillery Walk, Bunhill Fields; and was buried in St. Giles's, Cripplegate.

"Ben Jonson, who was born in Hartshorn Lane, near Charing Cross,' was at one time 'master' of a theatre in Barbican.* He appears also to have visited a tavern called the Sun and Moon, in Aldersgate Street; and is known to have frequented, with Beaumont and others, the famous one called the Mermaid, which was in

* This is at least questionable. ED.