He seed his castle all in a blaze

Sae far as he could see.

125 Then sair, O sair his mind misgave,
And all his heart was wae ;
"Put on, put on, my wighty men,
So fast as ye can gae.

130

"Put on, put on, my wighty men,

So fast as ye can drie ;

For he that is hindmost of the throng,
Sall neir get guid o' me."

Then some they rade, and some they rin,
Fu' fast out ower the bent!

135 But eir the foremost could get up,
Baith lady and babes were brent.

CHAPTER III.

THE NEW PHILOSOPHY AND PROSE LITERATURE IN THE REIGNS OF ELIZABETH AND JAMES I.

42. Sir Philip Sidney. 1554-1586. (History, p. 56.)
From the DEFENCE OF POESY.

IN PRAISE OF POETRY.

Sith, then, poetry is of all human learning the most ancient, and of most fatherly antiquity, as from whence other learnings have taken their beginnings; ;- - Sith it is so universal that no learned nation doth despise it, no barbarous nation is without it; - Sith both Roman and Greek gave such divine names unto it, the one of prophesying, the other of making;2 and that, indeed, that name of making is fit for it, considering that whereas all other arts retain themselves within their subject, and receive, as it were, their being from it, the poet, only, bringeth his own stuff, and doth not learn a conceit3 out of the matter, but maketh matter for a conceit ;— Sith, neither his description nor end containing any evil, the thing described cannot be evil;-Sith his effects be so good as to teach goodness and delight the learners of it ;—Sith therein (namely, in moral doctrine, the chief of all knowledge) he doth not only far pass the historian, but, for instructing, is well nigh comparable to

of the word for prophet and poet (vates). and the strict meaning of the GK. TOηTýs, maker. These same circumstances have formed the substance of many an eloquent passage in the works of great writers since. See Carlyle's third lecture on Heroes and Hero-worship.

3. Conceit, conception, that which is conceived. Shakespeare uses the word continually in this sense; and even Tennyson, in his Morte d' Arthur, has"So spake he, clouded in his own conceit."

the philosopher, and for moving, leaveth him behind;-Sith the Holy Scripture (wherein there is no uncleanness) hath whole parts in it poetical, and that even our Saviour Christ vouchsafed to use the flowers of it;-Sith all its kinds are not only in their united forms, but in their severed dissections fully commendable :-I think -(and think I think rightly)—the laurel crown appointed for triumphant captains, doth worthily, of all other learnings, honor the poet's triumph.

4. Uncleanness, moral impurity. Clene in M. E. (O. E. clane) was often applied to the Virgin Mary. She is the "clene moder" of the Vision of Piers Plough

man.

5. Vouchsafed: vouchsafe is to vouch a person or thing safe, or to guarantee the safety of a person or thing; then to concede, grant.

43. Sir Walter Raleigh. 1552-1618. (History, p. 95.) On the language of the six great Elizabethan writers Dr. Johnson has the following comprehensive eulogy :-"If the language of theology were extracted from Hooker and the translation of the Bible; the terms of natural knowledge from Bacon; the phrases of policy, war, and navigation from Raleigh; the dialect of poetry and fiction from Spenser and Sidney; and the diction of common life from Shakespeare, few ideas would be lost to mankind for want of English words in which they might be expressed." Preface to Dictionary.

From the HISTORY OF THE WORLD.

THE FOLLY OF AMBITION, AND POWER OF DEATH.

If we seek a reason of the succession and continuance of bound. less ambition in mortal men, we may add, that the kings and princes of the world have always laid before them the actions, but not the ends of those great ones which preceded them. They are always transported with the glory of the one, but they never mind the misery of the other, till they find the experience in themselves. They neglect the advice of God while they enjoy life, or hope it, but they follow the counsel of death upon his first approach. It is he that puts into man all the wisdom of the world without speaking a word, which God, with all the words of his law, promises, or threats, doth not infuse. Death, which hateth and destroyeth man, is believed; God, which hath made him and loves him, is always

deferred. "I have considered," saith Solomon, "all the works that are under the sun, and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit;" but who believes it, till death tells it us? It was death, which, opening the conscience of Charles V.,1 made him enjoin his son Philip to restore Navarre, and King Francis I.2 of France to command that justice should be done upon the murderers of the protestants in Merindol and Cabrieres, which till then he neglected. It is therefore death alone that can suddenly make man to know himself. He tells the proud and insolent that they are but abjects, and humbles them at the instant, makes them cry, complain, and repent, yea, even to hate their forepassed happiness. He takes the account of the rich, and proves him a beggar, a naked beggar, which hath interest in nothing but in the gravel that fills his mouth. He holds a glass before the eyes of the most beautiful, and makes them see therein their deformity and rottenness, and they acknowledge it.

O eloquent, just, and mighty death! whom none could advise, thou hast persuaded; what none could advise, thou hast persuaded; what none hath dared, thou hast done; and whom all the world hath flattered, thou only hast cast out of the world and despised; thou hast drawn together all the far-stretched greatness, all the pride, cruelty, and ambition of man, and covered it all over with these two narrow words, hic jacet!

1. King of Spain from 1516, and Emperor from 1519, until his abdication in

1556.

2. King of France from 1515 to 1547.

44. Richard Hooker. 1553-1598. (History, p. 96.)

From the ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.

THE NECESSITY AND MAJESTY OF LAW.

The stateliness of houses, the goodliness of trees, when we behold them, delighteth the eye; but that foundation which beareth up the one, that root which ministereth unto the other nourishment and life, is in the bosom of the earth concealed; and if there be occasion at any time to search into it, such labour is then more necessary than pleasant, both to them which undertake it, and for

1. Which, now commonly regarded as nenter, is properly a compound relative, and may be used after any kind of an

tecedent. It is O. E. hwyle, Goth. hvêleiks, what-like; just as such is 0. E. svilk, Goth. svaleiks, so-like.

the lookers on. In like manner, the use and benefit of good laws all that live under them may enjoy with delight and comfort," albeit the grounds and first original causes from whence they have sprung be unknown, as to the greatest part of men they are.

Since the time that God did first proclaim the edicts of his law upon the world, heaven and earth 3 have hearkened unto his voice, and their labor hath been to do his will. He made a law for the rain; he gave his decree unto the sea, that the waters should not pass his commandment. Now, if nature should intermit her course, and leave altogether, though it were for a while, the observation of her own laws; if those principal and mother elements of the world, whereof all things in this lower world are made, should lose the qualities which now they have; if the frame of that heavenly arch erected over our heads should loosen and dissolve itself; if celestial spheres should forget their wonted motions, and by irregular volubility turn themselves any way as it might happen; if the prince of the lights of heaven, which now, as a giant, doth run his unwearied course, should, as it were, through a languishing faintness, begin to stand and to rest himself; if the moon should wander from her beaten way, the times and seasons of the year blend themselves by disordered and confused mixture, the winds breathe out their last gasp, the clouds yield no rain, the earth be defected of + heavenly influence, the fruits of the earth pine away, as children at the withered breasts of their mother, no longer able to yield them relief; what would become of man himself, whom these things do now all serve? See we not plainly, that obedience of creatures 5 unto the law of nature is the stay of the whole world?

Of Law there can be no less acknowledged, than that her seat is the bosom of God; her voice the harmony of the world. All things in heaven and earth do her homage; the very least as

2. Comfort: the first meaning of this word was strength, fr. Fr. comforter, L. L. confortare (con, fortis). "To comfort the king's enemies" meant "to give them support."

3. Heaven and earth: Heaven, O. E. heofon, meant originally a roof or covering, from heben, to heave; and earth (Goth. airtha), according to Max Müller, must once have signified ploughed land, coming from the same root (Ar) as the

verb ear, to till; as in

"To ear the land that hath some hope to grow."-Rich. II. iii. 2.

4. Be defected of, fail utterly in, fr. Lat. deficio.

5. Creatures. This word is here used in its original sense of things that are created, whether animate or inanimate. Lat. creatura. "Who worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator."-Romans i. 25.

...