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ZIMRI.

(Absalom and Achitophel.)

Some of their chiefs were princes in the land;
In the first rank of these did Zimri stand;
A man so various, that he seem'd to be
Not one, but all mankind's epitome:
Stiff in opinions, always in the wrong;
Was everything by starts, and nothing long :
But, in the course of one revolving moon,
Was chymist, fiddler, statesman, and buffoon;

Bless'd madman, who could every hour employ,
With something new to wish, or to enjoy!
Railing and praising were his usual themes;
And both, to show his judgment, in extremes:
So over-violent, or over-civil,

That every man with him was God or Devil.
In squandering wealth was his peculiar art;
Nothing went unrewarded but desert.

Beggar'd by fools, whom still he found too late;
He had his jest, and they had his estate.
He laugh'd himself from court, then sought relief
By forming parties, but could ne'er be chief:
For, spite of him, the weight of business fell
On Absalom and wise Achitophel:

Thus, wicked but in will, of means bereft,
He left no faction, but of that was left.

RELIGIO LAICI; OR, A LAYMAN'S FAITH.

What then remains, but, waiving each extreme,

The tides of ignorance and pride to stem?

Neither so rich a treasure to forego,

Nor proudly seek beyond our power to know:
Faith is not built on disquisitions vain;

The things we must believe are few and plain :
But since men will believe more than they need,
And every man will make himself a creed,
In doubtful questions 'tis the safest way
To learn what unsuspected ancients say:
For 'tis not likely we should higher soar

In search of heaven, than all the Church before:
Nor can we be deceiv'd, unless we see
The Scripture and the Fathers disagree.
If after all they stand suspected still,

(For no man's faith depends upon his will ;)
'Tis some relief, that points not clearly known,
Without much hazard may be let alone :
And after hearing what our Church can say,
If still our reason runs another way,
That private reason 'tis more just to curb,
Than by disputes the public peace disturb.
For points obscure are of small use to learn:
But common quiet is mankind's concern.

MACFLECKNOE.

(l. 1-30.)

All human things are subject to decay,
And when fate summons, monarchs must obey.
This Flecknoe found, who, like Augustus, young
Was called to empire, and had govern'd long;
In prose and verse, was own'd, without dispute,
Through all the realms of Nonsense, absolute.
This aged prince, now flourishing in peace,
And bless'd with issue of a large increase;
Worn out with business, did at length debate
To settle the succession of the state:
And, pondering which of all his sons was fit
To reign, and wage immortal war with wit,
Cried, ""Tis resolv'd; for Nature pleads, that he
Should only rule, who most resembles me.

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Shadwell alone my perfect image bears,
Mature in dullness from his tender years:
Shadwell alone, of all my sons, is he,
Who stands confirm'd in full stupidity.
The rest to some faint meaning make pretence,
But Shadwell never deviates into sense.
Some beams of wit on other souls may fall,
Strike through, and make a lucid interval;
But Shadwell's genuine night admits no ray,
His rising fogs prevail upon the day.
Besides, his goodly fabric fills the eye,

And seems design'd for thoughtless majesty:
Thoughtless as monarch oaks, that shade the plain,
And, spread in solemn state, supinely reign.
Heywood and Shirley were but types of thee,
Thou last great prophet of tautology.

SHAKESPEARE.

To begin then with Shakespeare. He was the man, who of all modern, and perhaps ancient poets, had the largest and most comprehensive soul. All the images of nature were still present to him, and he drew them not recklessly but luckily: when he 5 describes anything you more than see it, you feel it too. Those who accuse him to have wanted learning, give him the greater commendation: he was naturally learned; he needed not the spectacles of books to read nature; he looked inwards and found her there. I cannot say he is everywhere alike; were he so 10 I should do him injury to compare him with the greatest of mankind. He is many times flat, insipid; his comic wit degenerates into clenches, his serious swelling into bombast. But he is always great when some great occasion is presented to him: no man can say he ever had a fit subject for his wit, and did not 15 then raise himself as high above the rest of poets,

Quantum lenta solent inter viburna cupressi.

The consideration of this made Mr. Hales of Eton say, that there was no subject of which any poet ever writ, but he could produce it much better done in Shakespeare; and however others are now generally preferred before him, yet the age wherein he 20 lived, which had contemporaries with him, Fletcher and Jonson, never equalled them to him in their esteem: and in the last king's court, when Ben's reputation was at highest, Sir John Suckling, and with him the greater part of the courtiers, set our Shakespeare far above him.

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DANIEL DEFOE.

5 men.

FROM MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER.

We encamped about Nuremburg, the middle of June. The army, after so many detachments, was not above nineteen thousand men. The imperial army, joined with the Bavarian, were not so numerous as was reported, but were really sixty thousand The king, not strong enough to fight, yet, as he used to say, was strong enough not to be forced to fight, formed his camp so under the cannon of Nuremburg, that there was no besieging the town, but they must besiege him too; and he fortified his camp in so formidable a manner that Wallenstein 10 never durst attack him. On the 30th of June Wallenstein's troops appeared, and on the 5th of July encamped close by the king, and posted themselves, not on the Bavarian side, but between the king and his own friends of Schwaben and Frankendal, in order to intercept his provisions, and, as they thought, 15 to starve him out of his camp.

Here they lay to see, as it were, who could subsist longest. The king was strong in horse, for we had full eight thousand horse and dragoons in the army, and this gave us great advantage in the several skirmishes we had with the enemy. The enemy 20 had possession of the whole country, and had taken effectual care to furnish their army with provisions; they placed their guards in such excellent order, to secure their convoys, that their wagons went from stage to stage as quiet as in a time of peace, and were relieved every five miles by parties constantly 25 posted on the road. And thus the imperial general sat down by us, not doubting but he should force the king either to fight his way through on very disadvantageous terms, or to rise, for want