and Dr. Donne there had been a great friendship, was at this very time difcarded the court (I fhall forbear his name unless I had a fairer occafion), and juftly committed to prifon, which begot many rumours in the common people, who in this nation think they are not wife unless they be bufy about what they understand not, and especially about religion.

The King received this news with fo much difcontent and reftlefsnefs, that he would not fuffer the fun to fet and leave him under this doubt, but fent for Dr. Donne, and required his answer to the accufation, which was fo clear and fatisfactory, that the King faid "He was right glad he refted no longer "under the fufpicion." When the King had faid this, Dr. Donne kneeled down and thanked his Majefty, and protefted his answer was faithful and free from all collufion, and therefore "defired that he might not rife, till, as in like cafes he always had "from God, fo he might have from his Majefty fome afsurance "that he ftood clear and fair in his opinion." At which the King raised him from his knees with his own hands, and "protested he believed him, and that he knew he was an honeft man, and doubted not but that he loved him truly." And having thus difmifsed him, he called fome Lords of his Council into his chamber, and said with much earnestnefs "My Doctor is an "honeft man; and, my Lords, I was never better satisfied with an answer than he hath now made me; and I always rejoice " when I think that by my means he became a divine."

He was made Dean in the fiftieth year of his age, and in his fifty-fourth year a dangerous fickness feized him, which inclined him to a confumption. But God, as Job thankfully acknowledged, preferved his fpirit, and kept his intellectuals as clear and perfect as when that sickness firft feized his body; but it continued long and threatened him with death, which he dreaded not.

In this distemper of body, his dear friend, Dr. Henry King (then chief Refidentiary of that church, and late Bishop of Chichefter), a man generally known by the clergy of this nation, and as generally noted for his obliging nature, vifited him daily, and obferving that his fickness rendered his recovery doubtful, he chofe a feasonable time to speak to him to this purpose:

"Mr. Dean, I am by your favour no ftranger to your temporal estate, and you are no ftranger to the offer lately made us, for the renewing a leafe of the beft prebends corps belong❝ing to our church, and you know it was denied, for that our tenant being very rich offered to fine at fo low a rate as held "not proportion with his advantages; but I will either raise "him to an higher fum, or procure that the other refidentiaries "fhall join to accept of what was offered: One of these I can "and will by your favour do without delay, and without any "trouble either to your body or mind; I beseech you to "accept of my offer, for I know it will be a confiderable addi"tion to your present estate, which I know needs it."

To this, after a short pause, and raising himself upon his bed, he made this reply:

My moft dear friend, I moft humbly thank you for your "many favours, and this in particular; but in my prefent con"dition I fhall not accept of your proposal, for doubtless there "is fuch a fin as facrilege; if there were not, it could not have "a name in fcripture: And the primitive clergy were watchful against all appearances of that evil; and indeed then all Chriftians looked upon it with horror and deteftation, judging it to be even an open defiance of the power and providence of Al"mighty God, and a fad prefage of declining religion. But instead "of fuch Chriftians, who had felected times fet apart to faft and ἐσ pray to God for a pious clergy which they then did obey, 66 our times abound with men that are bufy and litigious about "trifles and church-ceremonies, and yet fo far from fcrupling

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facrilege, that they make not so much as a query what it is: "But, I thank God I have; and, dare not now upon my fick "bed, when Almighty God hath made me useless to the fervice "of the church, make any advantages out of it. But if he "fhall again restore me to fuch a degree of health as again to "ferve at his altar, I fhall then gladly take the reward which "the bountiful benefactors of this church have defigned me; "for God knows my children and relations will need it; in "which number my mother (whose credulity and charity has "contracted a very plentiful to a very narrow estate) must not "be forgotten: But, Doctor King, if I recover not, that little "worldly eftate that I fhall leave behind me (that very little "when divided into eight parts) muft, if you deny me not fo cha"ritable a favour, fall into your hands as my most faithful friend "and executor, of whofe care and juftice I make no more "doubt than of God's blessing on that which I have confcien"tioufly collected for them, but it shall not be augmented on "" my fick-bed; and this I declare to be my unalterable refo

❝lution."

The reply to this was only a promife to obferve his request. Within a few days his diftempers abated, and as his ftrength increased, fo did his thankfulness to Almighty God, teftified in his moft excellent Book of Devotions, which he published

This book is dedicated "To the moft excellent Prince, Prince Charles." The two following extracts from this work will give a fufficient fpecimen of the manner in which it is written.

"THE PATIENT TAKES HIS BED.

"THIRD MEDITATION.

"We attribute but one priviledge and advantage to man's body above "other moving creatures, that he is not, as others, groveling, but of an "erect, of an upright form, naturally built and difpofed to the contemplation of heaven. Indeed it is a thankeful form, and recompenfes that "soule which gives it, with carrying that soule, fo many foot higher to

"wards

at his recovery; in which the reader may fee the moft fecret thoughts that then pofsefsed his foul paraphrafed and made

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"wards heaven; other creatures look to the earth; and even that is no "unfit object, no unfit contemplation for man; for thither he must come; but because man is not to ftay there as other creatures are, man "in his natural form is carried to the contemplation of that place, which " is his home, heaven. This is man's prerogative; but what ftate hath he "in this dignity? A fever can fillip him downe; a fever can depofe him; "a fever can bring that head, which yesterday carried a crowne of gold, "five foot towards a crowne of glory, as low as his own foot to-day. When "God came to breathe into man the breath of life, he found him flat upon "the ground; when he comes to withdraw that breath from him againe, "he prepares him to it by laying him flat upon his bed. Scarce any pri"fon fo clofe, that affords not the prifoner two or three fteps. The "Anchorites that barqu'd themselves up in hollow trees, and immured "themselves in hollow walls; that perverfe man that barrell'd himself "in a tubbe, all could ftand or fit, and enjoy fome change of potture. "A ficke-bed is a grave, and all that the patient fayes there is but va"rying his epitaph. Every night's bed is a type of the grave: At night we tell our fervants at what houre we will rife, here we cannot tell "ourselves at what day, what week, what month. There the head lies as low as the foot; the head of the people as low as they whom thofe "feete trod upon: And that hand, that figned pardon, is too weake to begge his own, if he might have it for lifting up that hand: Strange "fetters to the feete, firange manacles to the hands, when the feete and "hands are bound fo much the fafter, by how much the coardes are "flacker; foe much the lefse able to do their offices, by how much more the finewes and ligaments are the loofer. In the grave I may "speak through the flones in the voice of my friends, and in the ac"cents of thofe words which their love may afford my memory. Heere "I am mine own ghost, and rather affright my beholders than inftruct "them: they conceive the worst of me now, and yet feare worfe; they "give me for dead now and yet wonder how I do when wake at midnight, and aske how I doe to-morrow. Miferable and (though com"mon to all) inhumane posture, where I muft practife my lying in the grave by lying fill, and not practise my resurrection by riding any " inore."

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"The bell rings out and tells me in him that I am dead. This soule, "this bell tells mee, is gone out: Whither? who fhall tell mee that? I "know not who it is; much lefse what he was; the condition of the man, and the courfe of his life, which fhould tell mee whither he is gone, I know not. I was not there in his sicknesse, nor at his death; "I law not his way, nor his end, nor can afke them who did, thereby to "conclude or argue whither he is gone. But yet I have one nearer mee "than all thefe; mine own charity: I afke that; and that tells me 'He is gone to everlasting rest, and joy, and glory.' I owe him a good opinion; "it is but thankful charity in mee, because I received benefit and in"struction from him when his bell tolled: And I, being made the fitter to pray by that difpofition wherein I was affifted by his occafion, did pray for him; and I pray not without faith; fo I doe charitably, to Į "do faithfully beleeve that that soule is gone to everlating rest, and "joy, and glory."

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public; a book that may not unfitly be called a Sacred Picture of Spiritual Ecstafies, occafioned and appliable to the emergencies of that ficknefs; which book, being a compofition of me. ditations, difquifitions, and prayers, he writ on his fick-bed; herein intimating the holy Patriarchs, who were wont to build their altars in that place where they had received their blefsings.

This fickness brought him fo near to the gates of death, and he faw the grave fo ready to devour him, that he would often fay his recovery was fupernatural: But that God that then reftored his health continued it to him till the fifty-ninth year of his life, and then in Auguft, 1630, being with his eldest daughter, Mrs. Harvy, at Abury Hatch in Efsex, he there fell into a fever, which, with the help of his conftant infirmity (vapours from the fpleen), haftened him into fo vifible a confumption, that his beholders might fay, as St. Paul of himself, "He dies daily ;" and he might fay with Job, "My welfare "passeth away as a cloud, the days of my affliction have taken "hold of me, and weary nights are appointed for me."

Reader, this ficknefs continued long, not only weakening. but wearying him fo much, that my defire is he may now take fome reft; and that before I fpeak of his death, thou wilt not think it an impertinent digrefsion to look back with me upon fome observations of his life; which, whilft a gentle flumber gives reft to his fpirits, may, I hope, not unfitly exercife thy confideration.

His marriage was the remarkable error of his life; an error, which though he had a wit able and very apt to maintain paradoxes, yet he was very far from justifying it; and though his wife's competent years, and other reafons might be justly urged to moderate fevere cenfures, yet he would occafionally condemn himself for it. And doubtlefs it had been attended with an heavy repentance, if God had not bleft them with fo mutual and cordial affections, as in the midst of their fufferings made their bread of forrow tafte more pleasantly than the banquets of dull and low-fpirited people.

The recreations of his youth were poetry", in which he was fo happy as if Nature and all her varieties had been made only

Dr. Donne, in 1626, was named in a commifsion with Archbishop Abbot, feveral Bishops, Doctors in Divinity, and Doctors in Civil Law, to hear the cafe between Dr. Kinefley, Archdeacon of Canterbury, and the Rev. Mr. George Huntley, who had refufed to preach a vifitation fermon, at the command of the Archdeacon. "The Cafe of a Rector," &c. p. 10.

h Whatever praife may be due to the poems of Dr. Donne, they are certainly deficient in the beauties of verification. To remedy this defect, his Satires have been translated into English verse, by Mr. Pope. His Latin Epigrams are tranflated by Dr. Jalper Mayne, who edited

them

to exercife his fharp wit and high fancy; and in thofe pieces which were facetioufly compofed and carelessly fcattered (most of them being written before the twentieth year of his age), it may appear by his choice metaphors, that both Nature and all the Arts joined to affift him with their utmost skill.

It is a truth, that in his penitential years, viewing fome of those pieces that had been loofely (God knows too loofely) fcattered in his youth, he wished they had been abortive, or fo fhort lived, that his own eyes had witnefsed their funerals: But though he was no friend to them, he was not fo fallen out with heavenly poetry as to forsake that, no not in his declining age, witnessed then by many divine fonnets, and other high, holy, and harmonious compofures; yea, even on his former fick-bed he wrote this heavenly hymn, exprefsing the great joy that then possessed his foul in the afsurance of God's favour to him when he composed it.

AN HYMN

TO GOD THE FATHER.

WILT thou forgive that fin where I begun,

Which was my fin, though it were done before?
Wilt thou forgive that fin through which I run,
And do run ftill though fill I do deplore?
When thou haft done thou haft not done,
For I have more.

them in 1652, with the title of "A Sheaf of Mifcellany Epigrams." Mr. Hume (Hist. of England, vol. VI. p. 132.) has observed, that in Donne's fatires, and indeed in all his poetical compofitions, there appear fome flashes of wit and ingenuity, but that these are totally fuffocated and buried by the harfheft and most uncouth exprefsion which is any where to be met with. On Donne and his poetry fee fome interefiing remarks in Dr. Warton's Efsay on the Genius and Writings of Pope," vol. II. p. 353. It has been humouroudly remarked, that verfes ought to run like Ovid's, or walk like Virgil's, and not to ftand still like Dr. Donne's. Yet Ben Jonfon, in an epigram to Donne, calls him "The delight of Phoebus and each Mufe:" and that he could make foft and smooth verfes, appears from the following little poem:

"Come live with me, and be my love,

"And we will fome new pleafures prove,

Of golden fands, and cryftal brooks,

"With filken lines and filver hooks.
"There will the river whisp'ring run," &c.

This compofition is not, furely, embellished with poetical beauties. The reader who is defirous of forming a juft opinion of the merit of metaphyfical poets, among whom Dr. Donne is to be ranked in the firft clafs, will confult Dr. Johnfon's remarks in his Life of Mr. Cowley. "We can have little inducement to perufe the works of men, who in

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