But you, of learning and religion,
And virtue and fuh engredients, have made
A mithridate, whofe operation

Keeps off, or cures what can be done or faid.

Though the following lines of Donne, on the laft night of the year, have fomething in them too fcholaftick, they are not inelegant :

This twilight of two years, not paft nor next,

Some emblem is of me, or I of this,

Who, mere or like, of stuff and form perplext,
Whofe what and where in difputation is,
If i fhould call me any thing, fhould miss,
I fum the years and me, and find me not

Debtor to th' old, nor creditor to th' new.
That cannot fay, my thanks have forgot,

Nor truft I this with hopes; and yet fcarce true
This bravery is, fince thefe times fhew'd me you.

DONNE.

Yet more abftruse and profound is Donne's reflecupon Man as a Microcofm:

tion

If men be worlds, there is in every one

Something to answer in fome proportion;

All the world's riches and in good men, this
Virtue, our form's form, and our foul's foul, is.

OF thoughts fo far-fatched, as to be not only unexpected, but unnatural, all their books are full.

To a Lady, who wrote poefies for rings.

They, who above do various circles find,
Say, like a ring, th' equator Heaven does bind.
When Heaven thall be adorn'd by thee,
(Which then more Heaven than 'tis will be)

'Tis thou must write the poefy there,

For it wanteth one as yet,

Then the fun país through't twice a year,

The fun, which is esteem'd the god of wit.

COWLEY.

The difficulties which have been raised about iden tity in philosophy, are by Cowley with still more perplexity applied to Love:

Five years ago (says story) I lov'd you,

For which you call me moft inconftant now;
Pardon me, madam, you mistake the man;
For I am not the fame that I was then;
No flesh is now the fame 'twas then in me,
And that my mind is chang'd yourself may fee.
The fame thoughts to retain ftill, and intents,
Were more inconftant far: for accidents
Muft of all things moft ftrangely inconftant prove,
If from one fubject they t' another move;

My members then, the father members were
From whence thefe take their birth, which now are
here.

If then this body love what th' other did,

'Twere inceft, which by nature is forbid.

The love of different women is, in geographical poetry, compared to travels through different coun

tries:

Haft thou not found each woman's breast

(The land where thou haft travelled)

Either by favages poffeft,

Or wild, and uninhabited?

What joy could'st take, or what repose,
In countries fo unciviliz'd as those?

Luft,

Luft, the fcorching dog-ftar, here
Rages with immoderate heat;

Whilft Pride, the rugged Northern bear,
In others makes the cold too great.

And where thefe are temperate known,

The foil's all barren fand, or rocky ftone.

COWLEY:

A Lover, burnt up by his affection, is compared to

Egypt:

The fate of Egypt I sustain,

And never feel the dew of rain
From clouds which in the head appear;
But all my too much moisture owe
To overlowings of the heart below.

COWLEY.

The lover fuppofes his lady acquainted with the ancient laws of augury and rites of facrifice :

And yet this death of mine, I fear,
Will ominous to her appear:

When found in every other part,
Her facrifice is found without an heart.
For the laft tempeft of my death

Shall figh out that too, with my breath.

That the chaos was harmonifed, has been recited ofold; but whence the different founds arofe remained for a modern to discover:

Th' ungovern'd parts no correfpondence knew;
An artlefs war from thwarting motions grew;
Till they to number and fixt rules were brought.
Water and air he for the Tenor chofe,
Earth made the Bafe; the Treble, flame arose.

COWLEY.

The

The tears of lovers are always of great poetical account; but Donne has extended them into worlds. If the lines are not eafily understood, they may be read again.

f

On a round ball

A workman, that hath copies by, can lay
An Europe, Afric, and an Afia,

And quickly make that which was nothing all.
So doth each tear,

Which thee doth wear,

A globe, yea world, by that impreffion grow,
Till thy tears mixt with mine do overflow
This world, by waters fent from thee my heaven
diffolved fo.

On reading the following lines, the reader may perhaps cry out-Confufion worfe confounded.

Here lies a fhe fun, and a he moon here,

She gives the best light to his sphere,
Or each is both, and all, and fo

They unto one another nothing owe.

Though God be our true glass through which we fee
All, fince the being of all things is he,

Yet are the trunks, which do to us derive
Things in proportion fit, by perfpective
Deeds of good men; for by their living here,
Virtues, indeed remote, feem to be near.

Who

Who would imagine it poffible that in a very few lines fo many remote ideas could be brought together?

Since 'tis my doom, Love's undershrieve,
Why this reprieve?

Why doth my the advowson fly
Incumbency?

To fell thyfelf doft thou intend
By candles end,

And hold the contraft thus in doubt,
Life's taper out?

Think but how foon the market fails,
Your fex lives fafter than the males;

And if to measure age's span,

The fober Julian were th' account of man,

Whilft you live by the fleet Gregorian.

CLEIVELAND.

OF enormous and difgufting hyperboles, these

may be examples:

By every wind that comes this way,

Send me at least a figh or two,

Such and fo many I'll repay

As fhall themselves make winds to get to you.

In tears I'll waste these eyes,

By Love fo vainly fed;

So luft of old the Deluge punished.

All arm'd in brafs, the richest dress of war,
(A difinal glorious fight!) he fhone afar.
The fun himself started with fudden fright,
To fee his beams return fo difinal bright.

COWLEY.

COWLEY.

COWLEY.
An