abroad so many impertinent and ridiculous fables among the Christians. It was the Spirit of God which caused him to tempt them by so many dangerous images, and the representations of so many criminal passions. It was the Spirit of God which inspired him to write a romance, which, in no other respect, differs from the rest of those sorts of performances than in its being more extravagant.”

CAPTAIN RICHARD LOVELACE.

THIS celebrated song-writer, who has been emphatically styled "The Cavalier Poet," from the loyal character of most of his compositions, and from his sufferings in the cause of the wretched Charles, was, in his time, according to Wood," accounted the most amiable and beautiful person that eye ever beheld; a person, also, of innate modesty, virtue, and courtly deportment; which made him then, but especially after, when he retired to the great city, much adored and admired by the female sex."

He early became a courtier and a soldier, and accompanied the King on his Scotch expedition; but, on his return to England, being

deputed by his native county, Kent, to present a petition to the House of Commons for the restoration of the King to his [supposed] rights, he was imprisoned in the Gate-house, from which he was, at length, released, on giving bail to the amount of £40,000. He afterwards went into the service of the French King; but coming home in 1648, he was a second time committed to prison.

Here his profusion, in support of the cause to which he had devoted himself, was SO unbounded, that when he was set at liberty, says Wood, "having consumed all his estate, he grew very melancholy, (which, at length, brought him into a consumption); became very poor in body and purse; was the object of charity; went in ragged clothes (whereas, when he was in his glory, he wore long cloth of gold and silver); and mostly lodged in obscure and dirty places, more befitting the worst of beggars than poorest of servants.

"He died, in a very mean lodging, in Gunpowder Alley, near Shoe Lane, in 1658.”

His elegant" Song to Althea, from Prison," is so well known, that we should almost apo

logize for the insertion of any portion of it; but the last stanza is so exquisitely beautiful, that we must give it a place.

PARINI.

It is with a feeling of sincere respect and admiration for his character, that we prepare to make our readers acquainted with the virtues, talents, and misfortunes of Parini, the friend of Ugo Foscolo, and the bold assertor of the dearest interests of society. That he effected his object by somewhat daring and unpleasant means, drawing upon himself the personal threats and enmity of the patrician classes, by satirizing, with happy humour, the follies of his age, occasionally ennobling his indignant strains with the loftiest sentiments, must entitle him only to our further admiration and regard. What is still better, and of more rare occurrence, he made his life throughout the moral of his song.

Parini, the son of a poor peasant, was born on the shores of Lake Pusiano, about seven leagues from Milan. The docility and liveliness of his disposition attracted the notice of the monks of his diocese, who selected him from a number of boys, of the same low station, to receive such instructions as were necessary to

fit him for the duties of a curate to some

wealthy ecclesiastic.

The sole education he ever received was thus provided by a religious community. This, however, he soon extended to objects of classical attainment; but applying too intensely to his studies, and naturally of a delicate frame, he was, in his nineteenth year, attacked by paralysis, which left him a cripple for life, and incapacitated him for the functions of his clerical employers. He could then no longer look forward even to the pittance of a poor curacy, and was thus early taught the first and bitter lesson of disappointment. Retreating

from the seminary, he now beheld himself deprived of the common advantages of nature, and cast upon the wide world; even medical assistance failed to relieve him, and never afterwards was he able to walk without support. Besides the necessity of maintaining himself, thus suddenly urged upon him, his mother, the only relation left him, was living in extreme poverty. In this distressing situation, he first resolved to turn his attention to literary labours; and on composing some pieces which he quickly