20 CRITICAL NOTICES OF 



the simple and easy flow of its language, which show its author to 

 have been a perfect master of versification. Our space will not per- 

 mit us to do more than give the conclusion : 



" O ignorant poor man !. what dost thou bear, 



Lock'd up within the casket of thy breast? 

 What jewels and what riches hast thou there ? 

 What heavenly treasure in so weak a chest ? 



Look in thy soul, and thou shalt beauties find, 

 Like those which drown'd Narcissus in the flood : 



Honour and pleasure both are in thy mind, 

 And all that in the world is counted good. 



Think of her worth, and think that God did mean 

 This worthy mind should worthy things embrace : 



Blot not her beauties with thy thoughts unclean, 

 Nor her dishonour with thy passions base. 



Kill not her quickening power with surfetings ; 



Mar not her sense with sensuality ; 

 Cast not away her wit on idle things ; 



Make not her free-will slave to vanity. 



And when thou think'st of her eternity, 



Think not that death against her nature is : 



Think it a birth ; and when thou go'st to die, 

 Sing like a swan, as if thou went'st to bliss. 



And if thou, like a child, didst fear before, 



Being in the dark, where thou didst nothing see : 



Now, I have brought thee torch-light, fear no more ; 

 Now, when thou diest, thou canst not hood-winked be. 



And thou, my soul, which turns with curious eye 

 To view the beams of thine own form divine, 



Know that thou canst know nothing perfectly, 

 While thou art clouded with this flesh of mine. 



Cast down thyself, and only strive to raise 

 The glory of thy Maker's sacred name : 



Use all thy powers, that blessed power to praise, 

 Which gives thee power to be, and use the same." 



This poem is not the only legacy bequeathed to us by Sir John 

 Davies : he wrote twenty-four hymns, in acrostic verse, in honour of 

 Queen Elizabeth. They are lavish of praise, but exceedingly in- 

 genious, and rise immeasurably above similar conceits of his day, 

 when such things were in repute. His ' Orchestra," or " A Poem 

 on Dancing," again amply redeems his genius and poetic powers. 

 Under the fable of a dialogue between Penelope and one of her 

 wooers, he gives us an account of the antiquity and excellence of 

 dancing; and there is an abundance of splendid imagery and classi- 

 cal illustration in it. 



