lowed fire of his altar, to touch and purify the lips of whom he pleases. To this must be added industrious and select reading, steady observation, insight into all seemly and generous arts and affairs; till which in some measure be compassed, at mine own peril and cost, I refuse not to sustain this expectation from as many as are not loth to hazard so much credulity upon the best pledges that I can give them. Although it nothing content me to have disclosed thus much beforehand, but that I trust hereby to make it manifest with what small willingness I endure to interrupt the pursuit of no less hopes than these, and leave a calm and pleasing solitariness, fed with cheerful and confident thoughts, to embark in a troubled sea of noises and hoarse disputes; from beholding the bright countenance of truth in the quiet and still air of delightful studies, to come into the dim reflection of hollow antiquities sold by the seeming bulk, and there be fain to club quotations with men whose learning and belief lies in marginal stuffings; who when they have, like good sumpters, laid you down their horse-load of citations and fathers at your door, with a rhapsody of who and who were bishops here or there, you may take off their pack-saddles, their day's work is done, and episcopacy, as they think, stoutly vindicated. Let any gentle apprehension that can distinguish learned pains from unlearned drudgery, imagine what pleasure or profoundness can be in this, or what honor to deal against such adversaries. But were it the meanest under-service, if God, by his secretary, conscience, enjoin it, it were sad for me if I should draw back; for me especially, now when all men offer their aid to help, ease, and lighten the difficult labors of the church, to whose service, by the intentions of my parents and friends, I was destined of a child, and in mine own resolutions, till coming to some maturity of years, and perceiving what tyranny had invaded the church, that he who would take orders, must subscribe slave, and take an oath withal; which unless he took with a conscience that would retch, he must either strait perjure, or split his faith; I thought it better to prefer a blameless silence, before the sacred office of speaking, bought and begun with servitude and forswearing. Howsoever, thus churchouted by the prelates, hence may appear the right I have to med

dle in these matters; as before the necessity and constraint appeared.

335.-ENIGMAS.

I.

ALAS! for that forgotten day
When Chivalry was nourished,
When none but friars learned to pray,
And beef and beauty flourished!
And fraud in kings was held accurst,
And falsehood sin was reckoned,
And mighty chargers bore my First,
And fat monks wore my Second!

Oh, then I carried sword and shield,
And casque with flaunting feather,
And earned my spurs in battle field,
In winter and rough weather;
And polished many a sonnet up

To ladies' eyes and tresses,
And learned to drain my father's
And loose my falcon's jesses:

cup,

But dim is now my grandeur's gleam;
The mongrel mob grows prouder;
And everything is done by steam,

And men are killed by powder;

And now I feel my swift decay,
And give unheeded orders,
And rot in paltry state away,
With sheriffs and recorders.

II.

He talked of daggers and of darts,

Of passions and of pains,

W. M. PRAED.

Of weeping eyes and wounded hearts,
Of kisses and of chains;

He said, though Love was kin to Grief,
She was not born to grieve;
He said, though many rued belief,
She safely might believe.

But still the Lady shook her head,
And swore by yea and nay,
My Whole was all that he had said,
And all that he could say.

He said, my First, whose silent car
Was slowly wandering by,
Veiled in a vapor faint and far,

Through the unfathomed sky,
Was like the smile, whose rosy light
Across her young lips past,
Yet, oh! it was not half so bright,
It changed not half so fast.
But still the Lady shook her head,
And swore by yea and nay,
My Whole was all that he had said,
And all that he could say.

And then he set a cypress wreath
Upon his raven hair,

And drew his rapier from its sheath,
Which made the Lady stare,
And said, his life-blood's purple flow
My Second there should dim,
If she he served and worshipped so
Would weep one tear for him-
But still the Lady shook her head,
And swore by yea and nay;
My Whole was all that he had said,
And all that he could say.

III.

Uncouth was I of face and form,

But strong to blast and blight, By pestilence or thunderstorm, By famine or by fight;

Not a warrior went to the battle plain,
Not a pilot steered the ship,

That did not look in doubt and pain,
For an omen of havoc or hurricane,
To my dripping brow and lip.

Within my Second's dark recess
In silent pomp I dwelt;
Before the mouth in lowliness

My rude adorers knelt ;

And ever the shriek rang loud within,
And ever the red blood ran;

And amid the sin, and smoke, and din,
I sat with a changeless endless grin,
Forging my First for man.

My priests are rotting in their grave,
My shrine is silent now,
There is no victim in my cave,

No crown upon my brow;
Nothing is left but dust and clay

Of all that was divine;

My name and my memory pass away;—
And yet this bright and glorious day
Is called by mortals mine!

IV.

When Ralph by holy hands was tied
For life to blooming Cis,

Sir Thrifty too drove home his bride,
A fashionable Miss.

That day, my First, with jovial sound
Proclaim'd the happy tale,

And drunk was all the country round
With pleasure, or with ale.

Oh! why should Hymen ever blight
The roses Cupid wore?—
Or why should it be ever night
Where it was day before ?-

Or why should women have a tongue,
Or why should it be cursed,

In being, like my Second, long,
And louder than my First?

"You blackguard!" cries the rural wench;
My lady screams, "Ah, bête!"
And Lady Thrifty scolds in French,

And Cis in Billingsgate;

Till both their lords my Second try,

To end connubial strife,

Sir Thrifty hath the means to die,
And Ralph-to beat his wife!

V.

I graced Don Pedro's revelry,
All dressed in fire and feather,
When loveliness and chivalry
Were met to feast together;

He flung the slave who moved the lid
A purse of maravedis ;

And this that gallant Spaniard did
For me, and for the Ladies.

He vowed a vow, that noble knight,
Before he went to table,

To make his only sport the fight,
His only couch the stable,

Till he had dragg'd, as he was bid,

Five score of Turks to Cadiz ;And this that gallant Spaniard did For me, and for the Ladies.