but whose name can only perish with his language. The events of his life are variously stated; and all that can be said with certainty is, that he was poor. The first part of Hudibras was printed in 1663, and no poem was ever more popular, especially with the prevailing party in church and state. It was brought to the notice of the court by that patron of polite literature the Earl of Dorset. Its remarkable passages were got by heart, and served as common-places for quotation, and the king himself was perpetually answering his courtiers out of Hudibras. Hudibras is one of the most original works in its style and manner that was ever written. Its leading purpose is to throw ridicule upon the religious and political principles of the Puritans, as they appeared after the civil war which overthrew church and state in the reign of Charles I. This is effected by means of the characters of a fanatical knight and his squire, obviously the Don Quixote and Sancho of the piece, who are engaged in a variety of comic adventures, and hold still more comic dialogues. There are three parts of the poem, but it is left unfinished as to the story; its great end, however, of giving vent to inexhaustible wit, keen satire, and learning of the most uncommon and recondite kind, is fully answered; and the reader, who is perpetually amused in the progress, cares little for the catastrophe of the work. The diction and versification are often coarse and neg.. ligent; yet, on the whole, they are such as add to the humorous effect; and few will probably agree in opinion with Dryden, that the heroic style and measure would better have suited the author's purpose. The frequent double rhymes, though often very imperfect, give a sort of comic tone to the whole, and sometimes really improve the wit by coercively bringing together the most incongruous ideas. But besides his powers of diverting, by odd and whimsical notions and associations, Butler had much solid knowledge of human life. "He had watched," says Dr. Johnson, "with great diligence the operations of human nature, and traced the effects of opinion, humour, interest, and passion. From such remarks proceeded that great number of sententious distichs which have passed into conversation, and are added as proverbial axioms to the general stock of practical knowledge." 1. What celebrated humorous poem did Butler write? 2. When was the first part of Hudibras printed? 3. How is the object of fastening ridicule on the Puritans effected in the poem ? 4. What says Dr. Johnson of the author and his work? LESSON CCLXVIII. SEPTEMBER THE TWENTY-FIFTH. Weep for the Brave. WEEP for the brave who are sleeping, The turf where the fresh flowers bloom! The spear and the banner are broken, The steed by his master lies idle, The armour is dimm'd in its brightness; He smiled upon death-he was thinking On his bosom the cross was reposing, The cross and a tress of brown hair; And he dreamt that to Heaven he was flying. 4 THE BENEVOLENT AND HOSPITABLE RECTOR. 375 Weep for the brave who are sleeping, Weep for the cloven crest; Weep for bright eyes which are weeping, LESSON CCLXIX. SEPTEMBER THE TWENTY-SIXTH. The benevolent and hospitable Rector. In the reigns of Mary and Elizabeth the rector of Houghton-le-Spring, in the county of Durham, was the Rev. Bernard Gilpin. At his first undertaking the care of a parish, he laid it down as a maxim, to do all the good in his power, and to gain the affections of his parishioners: to succeed in this, he used no servile compliances; but his behaviour was free without levity, obliging without meanness, and insinuating without art. He condescended to the weak, bore with the passionate, and complied with the scrupulous and in a truly apostolic manner became all things to all men.' 66 To his humanity and courtesy he added an unwearied application to the instruction of those under his care; and with unceasing assiduity he employed himself in admonishing the vicious, and encouraging the well intended; so that in a few years he made a greater change in his neighbourhood than could have been imagined. His hospitable manner of living was the admiration of the whole country. He used in his family, every fortnight, forty bushels of corn, twenty bushels of malt, and a whole ox, besides a proportionable quantity of other kinds of provisions. Strangers and travellers found a cheerful reception, and even their beasts had such care taken of them, that it was humorously said, "if a horse was turned loose in any part of the country, it would immediately make its way to the rector of Houghton's." Every Sunday, from Michaelmas till Easter, was a sort of a public day with him. During this season he expected to see all his parishioners and their families. For their reception he had three tables well covered; the first was for gentlemen, the second for husbandmen and farmers, and the third for day labourers. This piece of hospitality he never omitted, even when losses or scarcity of pro vision made its continuance rather difficult. Even when he was absent from home, no alteration was made in his family expenses: the poor were fed as usual, and his neighbours entertained. Lord Burleigh, the lord treasurer, being sent by Queen Elizabeth to transact some affairs in Scotland, when he came in Gilpin's neighbourhood, struck with the universal praises which filled every mouth, he could not resist his inclination to see a man so truly respectable; and although his lordship came on him unawares, yet he received his noble guest with such true politeness, and treated him and his retinue in so affluent and generous a manner, that the treasurer would often afterwards say, "he could hardly have expected more at Lambeth." At his departure, embracing his generous host, he told him "he had heard great things in his commendation, but he had seen what far exceeded all he had heard:" and when he had got to the top of a hill, which is about a mile from Houghton, he turned his horse to take one more view of the place, and broke out into this exclamation, "There is enjoyment of life indeed; who can blame that man for not accepting a bishopric? What doth he want to make him greater, or happier, or more useful to mankind?" Mr. Gilpin's whole life was a series of pious, generous, and charitable acts; yet he was not possessed of a plurality of rich benefices; but he exercised a noble hospitality, and an apparently boundless liberality, with a living of four hundred pounds a year, which he refused to exchange for the bishopric of Carlisle, and other valuable preferments that were at different times offered him. www 1. Who was the rector of Houghton in the reign of Elizabeth? 2. Describe his hospitable style of living. 3. What bishopric did he refuse to exchange his living for? LESSON CCLXX. SEPTEMBER THE TWENTY-SEVENTH, James Brindley. DIED on this day, in 1772, James Brindley, an ingenious mechanic and conductor of inland navigation. He was born at Tunstead, in Wormhill parish, Derbyshire, and early displayed astonishing powers in mechanics. After being engaged as a millwright in Cheshire and Staffordshire, he was called to direct and complete the vast plans which the Duke of Bridgewater had conceived, in the conveying of a canal over the Mersey and the Bollan, by means of elevated aqueducts and subterraneous perforations. Every obstacle was surmounted by the genius of the architect and the opulence of his employer; and new triumphs were prepared for boldness of mechanism and undaunted ingenuity in the completion of the grand trunk navigation, which, in uniting the Trent and the Mersey, extended 93 miles, and which had, at Harecastle Hill, a tunnel of 2880 yards long, more than 70 yards below the surface of the earth, and in some places more than 200. Whilst he was carrying on his operations, strangers from all parts came to see them; and, about the same time, a letter appeared in one of the newspapers, in which the following passage occurs: "Gentlemen come to view our eighth wonder of the world, the subterranean navigation which is cutting by the great Mr. Brindley, who handles rocks as easily as you would plum-pies, and makes the four elements subservient to his will. He is as plain a looking man as one of the boors of the Peak, or one of his own carters; but when he speaks, all ears listen, and every mind is filled with wonder at the things he pronounces to be practicable." As Brindley's education had been neglected, his calculations were seldom committed to paper. When immersed in meditation, he often remained two or three days in bed, and when he had unravelled the difficulties of his plan, he rose, and hastened to execute, without any model or sketch but the strong suggestion of his head. He was simple in his manners; and though sensible of his abilities, he never betrayed insolent superiority. To his friends he was communicative, and he wisely showed that the best purposes of creation are answered by giving encouragement and developing the native instincts and properties of the mind. His end was probably hastened by the intenseness of his application, which produced a hectic fever, and gradually wasted the powers of his life. His other more remarkable works were, the canal which joined the navigation of Bristol with that of Liverpool, by the union of the grand trunk near Haywood, in Staffordshire, to the Severn near Bewley; his plan to clear the Liverpool Docks from mud; an engine to raise water, &c. His attachment to inland navigation was such, that when asked the use of rivers, in the House of Commons, he bluntly replied, "to feed navigable canals.” 1. What ingenious mechanic expired on this day, in 1772? 2. What vast plans was he called to direct and complete ? 3. What did he when immersed in meditation? |